To Dad: The ward does take good care of us here! They like that we actually do work and they support us with it all. We are starting to get referrals and hoping they turn into some good converts! I’m just worried that I will get transferred out of here after only 6 weeks. Sounds like Michelle is doing really well! I can’t believe Brian graduated and that he is 25 now!! Woooaaah! Haha I keep forgetting that I’m 20 and keep telling people I’m 19. My comp catches it and then fixes the problem haha. I really enjoy my comp. We get along and we are doing work and not just sitting around all day. I love you tons!! Have an awesome awesome week!!
To Mom: Okay so I am finally able to email you! Monday was a crazy day that was really busy. Our zone activity was "the Olympics" and we had 7 teams of 3 and every team was a country. I was team captain so I got to choose our own country and we were Germany haha we then had a relay race, a water balloon toss, a wheelbarrow race, and 2 games of dodge ball. Germany tied for 1st place with 24 points... we tied with Scotland haha it was a lot of fun though. Then Tuesday we had a meeting down in Apple Valley that was from 10:30-1:30 then we went and ate lunch then went to pep boys which took from 3-8. Yeah they took FOREVER. And we just got new brake pads and an oil change. Super lame but it was alright. We walked over to a barber that gives missionaries free haircuts and got our hair cut. Then walked to Costco and ate dinner. Pretty boring day haha anyways now I’m going to talk about last week! It was a REALLY good week..
Tuesday- we went and taught a less active guy who is in his 20s and his non member wife who said she would be open to us teaching her. We had a pretty good lesson about the restoration but her kids were being loud. The Spirit was definitely still there and strong but it was a little distracting. They both paid really good attention and committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. When we asked what day would be good to come back Justin said "how about Thursday?" haha 2 lessons in a week? He seems really excited that his wife is taking the lessons and we are hoping that this will also get him more active.
We then had our first district meeting up here which went pretty well. I have a small district here of only 4 people. But they are all good missionaries so I like it. We talked about how each of our investigators is doing and gave each other ideas of what we can do better. We did some role plays to try and practice how we can approach different topics during a lesson. I also did a little training about gaining desire as missionaries. We talked about what it takes to become an Olympic athlete. Such as. You need to practice, have a desire, be committed, many athletes have a role model, they endure to the end, and based on how they do each of these and their commitment they will receive either a Gold, Silver, or Bronze. We then talked about how this applies to us as members and as missionaries. We have a role model who is Jesus Christ, we practice in life by repenting when we make mistakes, We Endure to the End of our mortal lives, but we need a desire. We then talked about ways to gain desire. For me personally it is the reward. I gain a desire to be good at sports or what not because I think of the gold medal or trophy I could get. Things like that. But it went really well.
After district meeting we went and contacted a guy that had apparently called bishop and wanted to know more about our church so we went over and he let us in and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. The only problem he has with our religion is that he likes to drink wine. That will pass over time though. He said we can come by again soon so we are actually going today! We are going to teach him the restoration this time. He is a really awesome and neat guy and he is super funny and would make a great member of the church. He told us that he was joking with his bible study group that by the end of the year "he would be a Mormon and a mason." hahahah He is a really funny guy.
We also had a lesson with a recent convert lady and her nonmember kids. She has 3 that are baptism age but the father won’t let them get baptized when they are as young as they are :P so we are going to just keep teaching and get them to have a solid testimony before they even get baptized. And that was pretty much the best parts of our day.
Wednesday- we had a really neat experience while tracting! We were just about done and were walking to the next house and the guy was on his porch cleaning his grill and looked up and said "Elders, come on up here out of the sun and talk to me." so I figured he was one of those "I’ve talked to missionaries, like them, but don’t want to hear the lessons or be a member of the church." So thinking that we just asked about his life and he asked about missions and where we had already been and everything. Then out of the blue he asked. "So what is your purpose?" We told him what we do and he asked what we believe so we got into Joseph Smiths story a little and he was very seriously thinking about it. Then we set up a time to come back and he said "do you have any reading material?" Thank goodness I had stuck ONE Book of Mormon in my bag. I gave it to him and we told him to read the intro and he promised he would! We are going back later this week! It was amazing! We were definitely led there!
Thursday- we went around to ward members and got things worked out for us to start a volleyball night once a week for the youth and their friends. We are starting it tomorrow night! But we had to go through a lot of people to get it figured out. For dinner we went to the ward mission leader’s house. The N’s. They are such an awesome family! They are working on adopting a 14 year old boy who has had a pretty bad growing up situation and we have been teaching him. He wants to join but they need legal guardinship over him first but he already wants to serve a mission. Anyways after dinner we read from the Book of Mormon with him and then he asked if we could go play soccer at the park. Our plans had fallen through that night so we went with him and M N who is 16. We had a really fun time together!
Friday- we had another lesson with D F from Tuesday. (They rescheduled to Friday) It. Was. Amazing. We taught her the doctrine of Christ from 2 Nephi 31 and talked about how important baptism by the priesthood was. Her kids were even quiet this time and the Spirit was really strong. I asked her how she was feeling and she said she felt peaceful and happy. We told her that was the spirit and we set a baptism date with her for October 13. She wants time to REALLY know it’s true and see how our church is because she has had some problems with other churches kicking her out because of her kids. So we invited her to church on Sunday. It was a great very spiritual lesson. ALSO I HIT 1 YEAR! doesn’t feel like it though.
Saturday- was a bummer day. haha
Sunday- church went really well and D F came but only for a little so we showed her the building and where her kids would go and told her a little about what happens where and everything. She promised that she would come for the full time next week! Other than that our Sunday was average. Cool story though we filled out a progress record which just goes through all the people we had taught in the last week and took it to Ward Council and the 1st counselor in the bishopric said that this was the first time in a LONG time that we had to use the back of the page. Also after church bishop pulled me aside and thanked me for how much work was going on right now and how appreciative the ward already was for the good work going on. It made me feel super good and I promised him we would be keeping it up and trying to do even better. It’s nice to have a supportive ward that likes us.
Anyways that is the week! I got an amazing letter from Sister Nielson and it was a copy of Darien’s letters so far and some pictures of him. It was great to see how good he is doing! I’m sending her a thank you letter but if you happen to see her tell her again how much I appreciated it. I love knowing what is going on with my friends! I love you tons!!!
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