Email Mar 17 2013

The big letter was to Lyndsi: 
We just barely started teaching a new person who is about your age. He is really awesome and he is probably going to get baptized! But I decided to send you the long email this week so let mom know so she can put it on my blog.

 So this week was really good. We had our zone meeting and it turned out good but we had to rush the last little bit of the training because of time. We trained on the Ward mission process and on talking to everybody and having a desire to do missionary work. I guess it went well because this last week all of our numbers went up a good bit. Our zone is doing better right now than they have in the last 2 years and we have one less companionship. We only have 14 missionaries here and our numbers have almost doubled since I got here. The funny thing is that I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything crazy or motivational I don’t think. The same thing happened in S B. when I got there the numbers went up. It’s nothing I’m doing though. Just have good missionaries in the zones.

 We spent a couple days just strictly trying to find more people because our teaching pool is quite low. We started teaching one of our members nephews and he wants to get baptized we just need to talk to his parents about it. We also have been trying this thing where we are going to meet all the members and get them working on missionary work. So we find an area that has a lot of members. We park our truck. And we try the active and less active members and between houses we knock on doors and talk to other people on the street. It hasn’t been super effective yet but we are out working the way that we have been told to work so I know the Lord will bless us.

 Oh also I just got off the phone with the N missionaries and W is getting baptized!! Yay!!! I’ve been waiting for this forever! I’m super excited for her! So now back to the email.

 We also had a ward party this week that was really simple and really fun. Everyone just brought some of their favorite games and some snack food and we played games and just got to have fun. I played a game called curses and throughout the game people curse each other with cards that say things you have to do for example, "talk with your teeth clenched" or "you cannot bend your elbows," and if you don’t do your curse and someone catches you and they call you out on it than you flip your curse card over. If you get caught 3 times you lose. haha it was a super funny game.

 Sunday was also a really good day! We had both wards and had some really good talks in each and then had a fireside that night about marriage/dating and what girls look for. We didn’t know that was what it was about before we went but oh well... haha so that was most of our week. Nothing extraordinary this week but I think this will be a great week this next week! I love you tons! Have an awesome week!

Email Mar 10 2013

Well this week was alright. We taught quite a few less actives and they went really well. Tuesday we had exchanges and I went into the Spanish ward. It was pretty fun and I was with a missionary from Mexico City. Luckily I can understand Spanish pretty well when I really try. I just can’t speak back to them in Spanish. It was neat being able to hear the conversion story of the missionary I was with. He hasn’t been a member for very long.

Wednesday we saw a couple of people and then got a call to come help do some service. We helped do some plumbing and electrical. So I now know how to do electrical. A little. haha I could probably do it if I had a little bit of help. Then we had FHE with the YSA branch and they did a carnival type activity which was pretty fun. Then we went to our ward and played indoor soccer with some non-members which was pretty fun. I don’t think they had much fun though haha. We are going to start having a lot of people coming which will be great.

Thursday we had ZLC which lasted from 11-5. After that we had an appointment with one of the less-actives we have been working with. He is doing awesome! He has been to church every week since we started teaching him and he is working on getting the priesthood.

Friday we had to take 2 missionaries to 2 different doctor’s appointments then drive to R to pick up another missionaries stuff she left in the back of a missionary car. By the time we finished that it was almost 3 so we went to try to see R. The guy I tracted into a while back to see how he is doing. We set up an appointment for Wednesday. Then we went home and Elder B had a headache so he went to sleep while I organized the area book.

Saturday we did weekly planning which took awhile and then helped someone move some boxes to a storage shed. After dinner we met with our ward mission leader and went over how we can change our ward council to be more beneficial and run the way that it is supposed to.

Sunday was really awesome. Sister Reeves, the 2nd counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency spoke in our ward! She spoke mainly to the youth about how they are the rising generation but it was neat to have her there. We only stayed at our ward until Sunday School was done then we went to our branch for branch council and met with the branch mission leader and then had church from 1-4 and linger longer from 4-5, then dinner from 5-6 and started working on our trainings after that.

Some things I have learned from being on my mission. There is a lot. haha

-Do all you can and the Lord does the rest.

-Miracles truly happen if you have the faith.

-When things happen, learn from it, don’t dwell on it and use it as an excuse.

-Charity is necessary to be a good leader

-I have a lot of weaknesses on my own but the spirit makes up for them as I teach.

-The atonement of Jesus Christ means EVERYTHING. It can be applied in any situation. We would have no hope without it. We would be miserable without it. There would be no purpose to life. The atonement is what makes us strong. It’s what carries us through our hard times and through our struggles. I don’t know where I would be without it.

Important things that have benefitted me

-I know the Gospel 1000 times better than I used to.

-I understand the importance of scripture study.

-I know how not to handle hard situations

-Christ-like attributes have all gone up.

-Being independent. (Not depending on family to live)

-Having powerful members to look up to.

Those are just a few of them but I know there are a lot more. That is a good question though and I will have to continue to think about it.

Hopefully you have a less crazy week! I love you!

Email Mar 3 2013

(This was in response to questions about training…)Well they do need new trainers but the thing is. The new missionaries coming out are all either Spanish or sisters. The amount of English Elders is staying the same so it’s not too much of a demand. But next transfer we are getting another Elder Graff! haha I don’t know what his name is or where he is from though but I just think it’s funny.

 I did have a couple cool stories this week.

 1st. We were playing basketball with some youth on Wednesday night after a meeting and I went up for a rebound and got hit in the back of the arm and dislocated my shoulder! Not very bad though and I just looked at it out of place and just pushed it back where it was supposed to be. We went to the chiropractor a few days later and he did a little adjusting and its feels a little better. Still pretty tender though.

2nd. Because of our lack of people to teach and me wanting to find a family to teach really bad I fasted to find a family. Well Sunday morning at 7 we had ward council where our bishop informed us of a family that lives in our area that was going to a ward in Rancho but is going to start coming to our ward. 6 people, non-members. Also a member of our ward who is one of my favorite people in the ward who I respect a ton. went to do his home teaching and one family had moved and so he talked to the new family that moved in and they don’t have a church yet so he invited him to ours and to play soccer with us on Wednesday nights and he said he would love to! They are a family of 7. haha the Lord works in mysterious ways :)

3rd. We went back to that family I tracted into and dropped off a Book of Mormon that we had one of our members write their testimony in and he said he is still interested and we are going back to hopefully teach him this week! Pray that his heart is softened!

4th. We got to go to the CES broadcast of David A Bednar’s talk and it was REALLY good. About submitting to God’s will and putting your trust in him through your trials. You should watch it if you get a chance.

 

Things are going alright still and hopefully picking up. I don’t have enough time left to waste any of it. I love you tons and look forward to hearing from you next week!

Email Feb 25 2013

YAY I was accepted! That’s awesome! haha I’m still going to USU though so go ahead and sign up for classes. This week has been kind of crazy. At transfer meeting we found out we are not only covering the MV ward but also the C YSA branch that covers only the stake. Soo we have a little extra work there. President doesn’t really want us to spend much of our time there though because he wants us to focus on the family ward so that’s what we are going to do. We went to sacrament at the YSA branch though yesterday and to a meeting before that. So we had our family ward meeting at 7, sacrament at 9, Sunday school at 10:15, YSA meeting at 11:00, Sacrament at 1, appointments at 3, and 4, dinner at 5, appointment at 6:30. It was a busy day but I felt like it was a blessing from the Lord. Other neat things from this week as you already heard. Our mission is getting split and they are creating a new mission! It’s really crazy!  The funny thing is that it’s changing on July 1. So I will have a new mission president and a new mission for the last 4 weeks of my mission haha kind of funny.

We also saw a few miracles this week such as we went to see a less active who someone in the bishopric told us to go see but he said not to tell him that he sent us. Well as soon as we got out of our truck he was standing in the front yard and asked if we were looking for him and invited us in. He was disfellowshipped many years ago and was kind of stubborn about coming back well he told us that he was ready. He has had a change of heart and is ready to be back. He said it kills him every time he does go to church and he can’t take the sacrament. That’s a good sign. So we are going to be working with him and re teaching him the lessons. He also came to church on Sunday! That was a nice surprise!

So we get to the S’s and they let us in and what do you know. Last time I challenged them to bring a friend to the next lesson and guess what! They did it! We taught a really good restoration lesson and the friend was asking awesome questions like "Well how are WE supposed to know what church is right," right before we talked about Joseph Smith. She was listening and being involved and it was just really awesome. She ended up as a new investigator and she promised to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She seems like she might be pretty solid too! So that was a really neat experience!

Also one last thing! There were 4 children being baptized on Saturday and Elder B and I were asked to do a little talk while the kids were getting changed. Well we got there and one of the kids who we had taught because his family was partially less active was getting baptized and he doesn’t have a father in the picture. Well turns out he wanted me to baptize him! So I had a baptism pretty randomly haha It went really well and had a good turnout. Anyways that’s about all for this week! I love you so much! Have a great week!