Email Dec 10 2012

Well my new companion is.............. Elder C! He was my roommate last year when I was companions with Elder H. It was crazy that we got put together and we are going to get a lot accomplished. At church yesterday we got a list from bishop that has the names of people who are single and between the ages of 18-30 and there are 900 names!! Some of them are on missions and some of them really are married but still that is going to be one heck of a list to try and contact! Our goal is to double sacrament meeting attendance! It shouldn’t be extremely hard since we average about 40 people. So we need like 40 names out of 900. Not bad at all. Our zone is still really awesome. We got some new greenies who seem like they are going to be really good workers. Not really too much happened this last week. We were trying to get things ready for the upcoming weeks and we helped in a Nativity that our stake put on and we had a booth with missionary stuff, mormon.org playing, and a table with a big sheet of paper across it that said "what does Christmas mean to you?" and people could write on it. That had the most success of anything we had but it was really really fun to be there and our investigator C came and we sat with him and had a good time. So we also taught R again and invited him to be baptized he said he doesn’t feel 100% ready yet but he had his friends there with him and they bore their testimonies and it was really powerful.  I talked to his friend M on Sunday and he said that R said he does want to get baptized but he wants to really know it’s true when he does so that "When people ask why he got baptized he would know what to say." He is really solid and we are planning on having a really good lesson with him this week. We found out W is going to be staying here over the break! Her family all got sick so she’s not going down to see them yet which gives us more time to teach her.   Her Boyfriend actually took her to church the week she was with him out at a Marine Ball which I thought was a cool thing for him to do.  She is super super awesome and I can totally see her being an awesome member of the church. Not really too much else right now. Just holding down the fort here in S B. Glad to hear you had such a good time in Disney world! Love you tons!

Email Dec 3 2012

Good to know that all the college stuff is taken care of. Well first off I guess I will write about transfers... I’m staying! But sadly Elder H is leaving. It wasn’t really unexpected though because he has been in this ward for 9 months. I’m very anxious to find out who my companion is. Usually there is just a small variety of choices for zone leaders but for some reason every zone leader companionship is changing except for 1 that means that I have 7 people who could possibly be my companion. Some are exciting and others not so much. Kind of anxious because I don’t like getting new companions (I can’t wait to get married and have the last companion forever ;) haha )

 We had a pretty good week. I went on exchanges with Elder M on Tuesday and we taught 3 lessons and got 1 new investigator who is super super solid! I’ve talked a little about him and this was the first time we got to teach him. On Sunday our investigator’s grabbed me and said. "Elder He's ready. Talk about it with him on Tuesday." So we are going to have a baptism in this ward before the year is done! The only one so far! He has already been coming to church for about 9 weeks so church is no problem we just have to teach him now and baptize him! Also on Tuesday we taught W and she said she had been thinking a lot about baptism and wants to get baptized when she gets back from winter break. I was a little worried about that but for the last week of her winter break she will be at her boyfriend’s home with his family and they are all members so she will have a lot of support from that! Things are rolling forward and hopefully will go faster and faster!

 We also got to have a cool experience this morning and go help our ward clean the temple! They do such a thorough job at it! It was really funny because the temple is locked and so we rang the bell for a worker to let us in and the man who let us in was Brother Garcia from Chaffey ward! That is where we had Thanksgiving dinner last year! I also saw Brother Nielsen, our ward mission leader in Big Bear! It was super cool to see them all and we got some good pictures outside the temple.

Email Nov 26 2012

I’m pretty excited for Christmas! Transfer calls are on Saturday and then after that I will know where I will be for Christmas! Hopefully still here! I can’t believe that Preston is home! That flew! How was his mission? Did he enjoy Japan? I think it would have been crazy to be out of the country but I’m glad that I’m here! Not really much happened this last week... so I don’t have much to write about. So I’m just going to write my paragraph for the ward news

I’ve now been out on my mission for 15 months and am loving every moment of it. I am one of the few missionaries who has been in each of the diverse areas. I’ve served in the city (the middle class, the high class, and now the lower class) I served in the High desert and also in the mountains and now I’m serving in a Young Single Adult ward. I guess all that is left is a Polynesian ward! It has been a great experience that I wouldn’t take back for the world. I would highly suggest that everyone who is able to serve a mission should because it will bless your life in so many ways! Love you all!

Well this last week wasn’t too bad.... haha pretty much EVERYTHING fell through. Probably one of the worst weeks I’ve had out here. Thanksgiving was even lame. The only fun part of Thanksgiving was the turkey bowl that morning. We played for about 3 hours then went home and cleaned up and relaxed and went to our dinner. Turns out we had some miscommunication and we were supposed to be there at 12 but we got there about 1:45 so most of the food was gone and what was left was cold. I get more full on my every day dinners than I did on Thanksgiving. After that we went by to see Elder U and his companion and then went to a member’s house that night about 6:30 for pie. That was all that happened on our Thanksgiving. I was feeling pretty homesick a lot of the day wishing I could be with the family.

 

On Tuesday we had exchanges and I went on bike with Elder A who has been out about 3 months. Everything fell through. We tracted a little bit of an apartment complex and had some decent success and I also learned how to bunny hop on a bike which was fun! Then we went to institute that night and had a really awesome lesson about how grateful we all are about the gospel. President Andrews who teaches used a comparison that I thought was really good about sharing the gospel. For the people who are afraid to share the gospel because they might offend their friend he said. "Would you be offended if I offered you a glass of Orange juice? Even if I didn’t want the Orange juice I still wouldn’t be offended that you offered it." I thought that was very well put and I’m probably going to start using that when people use that excuse.

Wednesday we did find a new person to teach and it went really well. She is the friend of one of our members and she was coming over to bake with the member and so we were also invited to share a message and to try their food they made! We taught the first half of the plan of salvation talking about pre earth life, the creation, Adam and Eve, and why we are here on Earth. She was paying really good attention and we were able to set up another appointment to finish the lesson the upcoming Wednesday.

Sunday we got some good news! A member has been bringing his friend to church and activities for the past month or so and he said that this last week he took him to the LA temple and they watched the Restoration movie and he really liked it and that he wants to meet with us and take the lessons!! We are teaching him tomorrow and he will hopefully get baptized very soon!

Well that is about all from the last week! Love you tons have a great week this week!!