This past week was a really active week for us, we were able to talk to a lot of people and get a lot of lessons. Since its getting warmer outside we've been walking around now. Monday night we walked around and talked to some people and almost got some new investigators... Almost.
Tuesday we had a really busy day. In the morning we walked around a little bit and talked to a few people and stopped by some potentials. The for the rest of the day, we had lessons back to back to back to back. We had a lesson with Bryan and it didn't go to well. We tried everything we could with the time we had to help him recognize the spirit, did not work. He also told us he meets with us because he has nothing better to do, I already knew he had nothing better to do but, he only meets with us so he has something to put on his schedule and someone to talk to. He also stopped keeping his commitments again so this week we're going to have a talk with him and see what happens
from there. We met with our French Canadian Hindu friend Mike too, he's hard to understand because he speaks broken English/Hindi but luckily we have a member from Fiji to speaks Hindi. We met with David and his mom Gloria and David rebuked his mom again haha. David is really smart and is progressing really well. He really wants to be a missionary. The only problem we have with him is his source of transportation... his mom who's scared to drive her car. David is golden, we have a lot of work to do with his mom. Tuesday night we finally met this guy who we've been trying to get a hold of forever. His name is Alfonz and he is really cool. He's read the Book of Mormon and know's its true and everything but the only thing that's holding him back is his italian catholic family... Mainly his wife. She says the Catholic Church is tradition. I think it is time to start a new tradition. We are meeting with them again tonight.
Wednesday was a slower day. We had a lesson with Herman but other than that we had a lot of people to stop by and check up on.
Thursday we had district meeting and planned for most of the day. We had dinner and a lesson with the Brownlow's in the evening and that went well. He's not to far away from getting the Melchizedek priesthood.
Friday went by fast and we had some good lessons too. Nothing to exciting happened in the morning, but in the afternoon we met with this guy Ted and his brother. I think I already told you guys about Ted. He's old, African American, and does something with schools. He's been all over the world. His brother Donald is a security guard and a "walking deacon" for some other church. We had a great discussion with him and his brother about the church. It was more of a Q&A. At the end of our discussion though we gave them their own copies of the Book of Mormon and they were excited to read it. We met with a less active member Andrew after that. He's interesting. We read from the Book of Mormon with him at first but somehow we ended up talking about his past activity in the church. Somewhere in there we helped him recognize the spirit, and the spirit hit him. He knows how important the church was in his life and he wants it to be part of his life again. After we met with him we went to a members home for dinner because they had a friend who agreed to meet us. The members are the Trommelens and their friend was going through a hard time with health, family, and marriage. We shared with them a video we found when we were planning for the lesson and it was perfect. That video started the perfect discussion and everyone was involved and the spirit drove the discussion. The Trommelens even gave their friend her own copy of the Book of Mormon with Sister Trommelen's testimony written in it and they also committed her to read a chapter. The only thing that could have made this lesson better was if their friend asked to be baptized before we left. It was a wonderful experience.
Saturday we spent most of the day doing service. We also went on exchange with the Spanish Elders in the afternoon to go teach David and Gloria. Mostly Gloria because she has a hard time with English. In the morning we did some yard work for an inactive/less active member. Then I went with Elder Morgan (Spanish Elder who was in Cole Jacobs MTC district) into his area and Elder Hopkins went with the other Spanish Elder, Elder Bair, to teach Gloria and David. Elder Morgan and I went to an appointment and had a good lesson. Thankfully the family we taught spoke english, but every now and then they would switch to spanish to mess with me. They were funny. But, the appointment with David and Gloria fell through for Elder Hopkins and Elder Bair haha. After we exchanged back we went and helped a family move. Later in the night we got a hold of two investigators, Ian and Adrienne. Ian is going through a hard time. It's been a while since we last saw him and I don't know if he want's to keep meeting with us. Adrianne is curious about the church, I think we'll keep seeing her for a while.
On Sunday after church we tried to stop by people but nobody was home because its Memorial Day weekend and we also attended a missionary fireside for President Corbit who just got called to be a mission president in the Dominican Republic. The fireside was really funny, President orbit is a cool guy. Today for Memorial Day, we went to a BBQ for less active and new members for lunch and it turned out really well. The only other thing we have today is our appointment with Alfonz tonight. Transfer calls were on friday and Elder Hopkins and I are both staying here for another transfer. I'm about ready for a new area though, however The Lord still has a work for me to do here.
Mission
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
May 19th - Week 30
I don't know what happened to this week, it went by so fast. It doesn't even seem like last week happened. Tuesday was a good day. In the morning we helped a member who desperately needed our assistance paint the inside of their house white. Their landlord decided he is going to sell the house and stop renting it so the members had to pick up and start moving pretty quickly. In the afternoon we contacted a less active couple who, for some reason or another, loves us and said they're going to try and have us over whenever they get the opportunity to. However, they're always working and never home... But, at least they love us.
Tuesday evening we met a cool guy that works with two of our members. He asked us for a copy of the Book of Mormon. He wasn't interested in the church though whatsoever, he was just interested in what the book contains. He wouldn't agree to let us meet with him, but at least he's reading. Tuesday night we had dinner with the Campoverde family.
Wednesday was a busy day, we had lessons lined up throughout the entire day. Two of our lessons held but for the other two that didn't we ended up finding someone to teach right after those appointments fell through. One of those lessons was with this Hindu French Canadian guy named Mike. He lives in a less active members old home. We found him as we were knocking on the door and he walked up to us and asked who we were looking for. When we told him who we were he took us inside his apartment and showed us his collection of pass along cards we've been leaving hahaha. He asked us for more, but we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon instead; in English. He said he has a hard time reading English so I asked him if he reads better French. I don't know if he completely understood me or not but he said yes. I think he was just agreeing with whatever I said because when we went back later in the week to drop off a French copy of the Book of Mormon he told us he can't read French but he is fluent in Hindi... So we'll be giving him a Hindu copy this week.
Thursday we had district meeting in the morning, had an appointment fall through in the afternoon, then had planning for the rest of the day before we went to a members house to have dinner and help them with a family mission plan.
Friday was a slower day. In the afternoon we tried to find people but we had two lessons in the evening. The first lesson was a lost cause, but the second went well. The first lesson we had was with Bryan and we tried everything we could think of to help this kid recognize the spirit. He was completely oblivious to everything, so that didn't work out so well. Our second lesson we had with DJ and his mom Gloria. He knows more than she does. We were teaching them the Ten Commandments and he just ended up teaching his mom while we observed. We taught them all to him first then he taught them to his mom because she didn't understand when we went through them the first time. It was funny too because as we were teaching these, he already knew most of them but his mom, Gloria, didn't know half of them. For example, when we taught the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath", We asked him to explain it to us in his own words and he basically said; "only worship God our Heavenly Father and don't worship materialistic things". When his mom heard what he said she was amazed and asked how he learned that (because she didn't know the second commandment) and he rebuked her and told her its because he reads and she doesn't hahahaha. It was really funny. But after we taught the commandments to DJ, he taught them to his mom.
Saturday morning the Bishops storehouse was a mad house. It was super busy. In the afternoon we tried to find more people to start teaching. Then Saturday evening we had the first session of stake conference. Best stake conference ever. Elder Lancing from the seventy spoke and gave a great talk and demonstration on family history. For his demonstration at the end of his talk he had a young woman from the congregation come up to the front. Then he had he invite her parents up, and had her pick people from the crowd to be her grandparents and great grandparents. Then elder lancing had president Anderson choose a missionary to be this girls "husband" then had her pick more people from the congregation to be her kids, grand kids and great grand kids. It was really cool and really funny.
Sunday morning stake conference was continued. There was a new member meeting in the morning and Elder Lancing talked about the 4 steps to answering people's questions about the church. Step 1, thank them for asking. Step 2, give a short simple answer. Step 3, bear a soft testimony. Step 4, ask them to go to you for any more questions. After the new member meeting there was another two hours of conference and there was a good handful of people that spoke on missionary work. Conference was great. After conference we had lunch at the Greer's home and brother Greer told us he could come out with us for the rest of the day. I felt bad though because we didn't have any lesson planned. We ended up taking him to give an emergency blessing and took him to visit some less active women in the ward. In the evening we had a meeting with our ward mission leader so we dropped him off before we went to that. So that pretty much sums up our week. We get transfer calls this Friday.
Tuesday evening we met a cool guy that works with two of our members. He asked us for a copy of the Book of Mormon. He wasn't interested in the church though whatsoever, he was just interested in what the book contains. He wouldn't agree to let us meet with him, but at least he's reading. Tuesday night we had dinner with the Campoverde family.
Wednesday was a busy day, we had lessons lined up throughout the entire day. Two of our lessons held but for the other two that didn't we ended up finding someone to teach right after those appointments fell through. One of those lessons was with this Hindu French Canadian guy named Mike. He lives in a less active members old home. We found him as we were knocking on the door and he walked up to us and asked who we were looking for. When we told him who we were he took us inside his apartment and showed us his collection of pass along cards we've been leaving hahaha. He asked us for more, but we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon instead; in English. He said he has a hard time reading English so I asked him if he reads better French. I don't know if he completely understood me or not but he said yes. I think he was just agreeing with whatever I said because when we went back later in the week to drop off a French copy of the Book of Mormon he told us he can't read French but he is fluent in Hindi... So we'll be giving him a Hindu copy this week.
Thursday we had district meeting in the morning, had an appointment fall through in the afternoon, then had planning for the rest of the day before we went to a members house to have dinner and help them with a family mission plan.
Friday was a slower day. In the afternoon we tried to find people but we had two lessons in the evening. The first lesson was a lost cause, but the second went well. The first lesson we had was with Bryan and we tried everything we could think of to help this kid recognize the spirit. He was completely oblivious to everything, so that didn't work out so well. Our second lesson we had with DJ and his mom Gloria. He knows more than she does. We were teaching them the Ten Commandments and he just ended up teaching his mom while we observed. We taught them all to him first then he taught them to his mom because she didn't understand when we went through them the first time. It was funny too because as we were teaching these, he already knew most of them but his mom, Gloria, didn't know half of them. For example, when we taught the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath", We asked him to explain it to us in his own words and he basically said; "only worship God our Heavenly Father and don't worship materialistic things". When his mom heard what he said she was amazed and asked how he learned that (because she didn't know the second commandment) and he rebuked her and told her its because he reads and she doesn't hahahaha. It was really funny. But after we taught the commandments to DJ, he taught them to his mom.
Saturday morning the Bishops storehouse was a mad house. It was super busy. In the afternoon we tried to find more people to start teaching. Then Saturday evening we had the first session of stake conference. Best stake conference ever. Elder Lancing from the seventy spoke and gave a great talk and demonstration on family history. For his demonstration at the end of his talk he had a young woman from the congregation come up to the front. Then he had he invite her parents up, and had her pick people from the crowd to be her grandparents and great grandparents. Then elder lancing had president Anderson choose a missionary to be this girls "husband" then had her pick more people from the congregation to be her kids, grand kids and great grand kids. It was really cool and really funny.
Sunday morning stake conference was continued. There was a new member meeting in the morning and Elder Lancing talked about the 4 steps to answering people's questions about the church. Step 1, thank them for asking. Step 2, give a short simple answer. Step 3, bear a soft testimony. Step 4, ask them to go to you for any more questions. After the new member meeting there was another two hours of conference and there was a good handful of people that spoke on missionary work. Conference was great. After conference we had lunch at the Greer's home and brother Greer told us he could come out with us for the rest of the day. I felt bad though because we didn't have any lesson planned. We ended up taking him to give an emergency blessing and took him to visit some less active women in the ward. In the evening we had a meeting with our ward mission leader so we dropped him off before we went to that. So that pretty much sums up our week. We get transfer calls this Friday.
May 12th - Week 29
This week went by pretty fast. It felt like it wasn't a very eventful week but it was still a good week. Monday after P-day was over, we went to go contact this guy Casey we met the other week who told us to come back another day. So we go to see him and the first time we knock on the door, his wife answers and chews us out, and tells us he's not there. So we walk back to the car. When we got in the car and started to drive away we were prompted to go back, so we did. Now the second time we knock on the door Casey answered, and told us he had just pulled in the driveway on the phone and said to come back in 15 minutes. We didn't have anyone we could go see and be back in 15 minutes to talk to Casey so we walked through his neighborhood and just talked to everyone we saw on the street. We met some cool people, but nobody that would have us come over or give us contact information when we asked. But we ended up being late to go back to Casey's and when we walked up to his house he was waiting outside for us. We talked to him for a little while on his porch and had a good discussion with him, he knew a lot about the church. We bore testimony to him, taught him, gave him commitments and asked him good questions but when we asked if we could come back he said no... He did say he would try to come to stake conference though, but he wouldn't commit
to it. So Monday night, even though we didn't gain any new investigators, it was still a good night because we got to talk to a good handful of cool people and bare testimony to them about the
church. It was sad that none of these people wanted to change, but it wasn't disappointing because I know we tried our best to convince them that theres more than what they already have. We tried our best to help them feel the light of christ.
Tuesday we had Some good lessons. We had a lesson with Byran and we almost dropped him. We pretty much told him that we're going to stop coming if he's not sincere and doesn't keep his commitments. We explained to him our purpose as missionaries and taught him about obedience and baptism. It went well, he took this well too. We met with one of our new investigators, Nancy and her young son right after that. They are very Catholic. Nancy used to be married to a member but she's meeting with us so her son can choose for himself between Catholicism and the church. That appointment was interesting. Don't know how to explain meeting with them yet. Right after we met with Nancy and her son we had to drive to our next appointment with Gloria and her son David. David is committed to be baptized on June 15th. We just need to get Gloria to stop working on Sundays so they can both come to church.
Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Shumway, one of the zone leaders, I went into their area. Nothing interesting or cool happened during the exchange. We tried to contact some people, we had a member come out to a class with us but the class didn't have a good turn out, and then we checked on a less active family on our way home.
Thursday morning we woke up early so we could travel to Broomall and make it to Zone Conference on time. Zone conference was really good, I got a lot out of it. President had a great message he shared and the assistants put together an awesome slideshow. I took a lot of notes but my notebook isn't with me at the moment otherwise I would share some of the notes I took. Conference took up most of the day. On our way home we only had time to stop by a small group of people.
Since zone conference was on Thursday we had district meeting and weekly planning on Friday. In the middle of planning Bryan called us and asked if we are coming over to have a lesson with him. We said sure and went over to his place. When we got there, its like it finally clicked with him! He's learned a lot from us but just never expressed it to us before. He kept the commitments we left him and we decided to keep teaching him. He showed us this is something he really wants. It was a good lesson. After we met with him we finished our planning then went to contact some people.
Saturday was an off day. We had a good day, just nothing happened. The storehouse wasn't very busy in the morning. Then in the afternoon and evening we tried contacting and finding people but we had no success.
Sunday was a great day! Since Brother Brownlow has the priesthood now, I helped him pass the sacrament for his first time during church. After church we got invited over to a Herman's home for lunch and got invited to a Mother's Day dinner at a members home with the Masi clan. Lunch with Herman was gross and scary... that's all I'm going to say. He's single and has nobody to go to, both of his parents have passed away and he's an only child. He's been working really hard towards getting the priesthood. We're glad he invited us over, not for the food, but because we were able to have a lesson with him and help him stay motivated and resist the temptations he's facing. After being at Herman's place we went to the church and helped set up for a baptism and stayed for half of that, just to see the person get baptized. After that we went down the street to have the Mother's Day dinner with the Masi Clan. I don't know if I told you guys about the Masi Clan yet or but... Sister Masi is the "clan leader". Sister Masi has one son and five daughters. All her daughters are married and have kids and her son is in college. They all live in our ward and together they make up one huge clan. We had dinner with them and then I got to call home after that. It was awesome to be able to talk to my friends and family. I miss you guys a lot. Calling home was definitely my favorite part of the week.
to it. So Monday night, even though we didn't gain any new investigators, it was still a good night because we got to talk to a good handful of cool people and bare testimony to them about the
church. It was sad that none of these people wanted to change, but it wasn't disappointing because I know we tried our best to convince them that theres more than what they already have. We tried our best to help them feel the light of christ.
Tuesday we had Some good lessons. We had a lesson with Byran and we almost dropped him. We pretty much told him that we're going to stop coming if he's not sincere and doesn't keep his commitments. We explained to him our purpose as missionaries and taught him about obedience and baptism. It went well, he took this well too. We met with one of our new investigators, Nancy and her young son right after that. They are very Catholic. Nancy used to be married to a member but she's meeting with us so her son can choose for himself between Catholicism and the church. That appointment was interesting. Don't know how to explain meeting with them yet. Right after we met with Nancy and her son we had to drive to our next appointment with Gloria and her son David. David is committed to be baptized on June 15th. We just need to get Gloria to stop working on Sundays so they can both come to church.
Wednesday I went on exchange with Elder Shumway, one of the zone leaders, I went into their area. Nothing interesting or cool happened during the exchange. We tried to contact some people, we had a member come out to a class with us but the class didn't have a good turn out, and then we checked on a less active family on our way home.
Thursday morning we woke up early so we could travel to Broomall and make it to Zone Conference on time. Zone conference was really good, I got a lot out of it. President had a great message he shared and the assistants put together an awesome slideshow. I took a lot of notes but my notebook isn't with me at the moment otherwise I would share some of the notes I took. Conference took up most of the day. On our way home we only had time to stop by a small group of people.
Since zone conference was on Thursday we had district meeting and weekly planning on Friday. In the middle of planning Bryan called us and asked if we are coming over to have a lesson with him. We said sure and went over to his place. When we got there, its like it finally clicked with him! He's learned a lot from us but just never expressed it to us before. He kept the commitments we left him and we decided to keep teaching him. He showed us this is something he really wants. It was a good lesson. After we met with him we finished our planning then went to contact some people.
Saturday was an off day. We had a good day, just nothing happened. The storehouse wasn't very busy in the morning. Then in the afternoon and evening we tried contacting and finding people but we had no success.
Sunday was a great day! Since Brother Brownlow has the priesthood now, I helped him pass the sacrament for his first time during church. After church we got invited over to a Herman's home for lunch and got invited to a Mother's Day dinner at a members home with the Masi clan. Lunch with Herman was gross and scary... that's all I'm going to say. He's single and has nobody to go to, both of his parents have passed away and he's an only child. He's been working really hard towards getting the priesthood. We're glad he invited us over, not for the food, but because we were able to have a lesson with him and help him stay motivated and resist the temptations he's facing. After being at Herman's place we went to the church and helped set up for a baptism and stayed for half of that, just to see the person get baptized. After that we went down the street to have the Mother's Day dinner with the Masi Clan. I don't know if I told you guys about the Masi Clan yet or but... Sister Masi is the "clan leader". Sister Masi has one son and five daughters. All her daughters are married and have kids and her son is in college. They all live in our ward and together they make up one huge clan. We had dinner with them and then I got to call home after that. It was awesome to be able to talk to my friends and family. I miss you guys a lot. Calling home was definitely my favorite part of the week.
May 5th - Week 28
This past week was pretty good, as the weather gets warmer the days get busier and more people are out. We weren't able to most of our investigators this week but because of the warmer weather there was more people outside for us to talk to.
Not much happened Tuesday, we had a lesson with Bryan but that's just about it. The lesson went well, we helped him figure out how he can keep the simple commitments we leave with him and we tried to carefully explain why he needs to keep these commitments but he's still having a hard time understanding... The rest of the day was spent contacting and finding people, and there wasn't much luck with that.
Wednesday was a busy day. We got a flood of referrals from out of nowhere that we could contact. It also poured rain all day so the referrals gave us something to do so we could stay out of the rain. In the morning we had a lesson with crazy Tom. We successfully taught him the second half of the restoration and got him to see the simplicity in it. Normally he would try and question everything thinking that there's some deep meaning behind it but he kept it simple for once. Later we stopped by a former investigator from previous missionaries and set up an appointment to start teaching her and her family again. Her name is Nancy and she's really cool. She said she loves having the missionaries over. We're excited to start seeing her and her family. We taught Herman again too like we do every Wednesday and he's working really hard to get the priesthood, he just keeps putting it off.
Thursday was a longer day. We had zone training in the morning then weekly planning took up most of the day. We had lunch with President Sikehema right after zone training and I traded ties with him. He signed his tie and gave it so me, pretty cool tie. Thursday night we had a cool experience. We went to go contact a referral for two brothers that live together named Lou and Andy and all we had was the street name and address number. When we searched it on the GPS only one result popped up in our area so we went. When we get there we knock on the door and this guy answers and says, "now is not a good time, come back Monday at 7". We said ok and then asked him, "are you Lou or Andy?" He said his name is Kasey. When we asked him if he knew a Lou or Andy he said no. Then as we were about to leave he asked us where the meeting house is located and said, see you Monday. I don't even know what to say about what happened with that, I'm still speechless about it. I still don't even know if that really happened or not, crazy.
Friday was a slow day. The only thing that happened Friday was that we picked up another former investigator from previous missionaries. She's an interesting Dominican woman, very emotional but she was very happy to see us.
Saturday was an awesome day! The bishops storehouse was pretty busy in the morning, then in the afternoon we had some pretty cool experiences. We had a lesson planned but when we showed up the guy wasn't there so we went to go talk to the next door neighbor that was outside and as soon as we step onto the street to start walking an expedition, the same one I use do drive, slams on the brakes and someone yells out the window, "YO! Mormons, I gots questions for y'all". We talked to this guy for a minute or two and we gave him all our information. He refused to give us any of his info but he told us he was going to call us and have us over. After that happened we had a great discussion with the neighbor we were going to see. His daughter was outside with him and told us that if her father wasn't with her the conversation never would have happened. They asked us to come back and do service for them, not missing out on that. On our way to a meeting we stopped by a less active woman and gave her some much needed relief. She was excited to see us. She's feeling a lot of pressure from her family because she's the only member and everyone else is trying to pull her away from the church. Then we had a great meeting with our ward mission leader about getting the ward more involved with family mission plans.
Sunday after ward council we had fast and testimony meeting. One of the less active members we just met the other week, Britney, this was her first time coming to church in years and she got up and bore a really powerful testimony, it was sweet. Everyone was really excited to see her back at church too. Things are slowly starting to turn out well for her. After church we had lunch/dinner, linner, with the Brownlow's and tried to contact people the rest of the night. The only person we ended up making contact with was a less active member Andrew. When we saw Andrew, he introduced us to his girlfriend and she had a lot of interest in the church. She said she's going to come check it out and drag Andrew along with her, haha. All throughout this week I've seen how The Lord has a place and a time for everything. Most of the great things that happened this week only happened because we were in the right place at the right time. Having faith in The Lord also means having faith in his timing. Everything happens for a reason.
Not much happened Tuesday, we had a lesson with Bryan but that's just about it. The lesson went well, we helped him figure out how he can keep the simple commitments we leave with him and we tried to carefully explain why he needs to keep these commitments but he's still having a hard time understanding... The rest of the day was spent contacting and finding people, and there wasn't much luck with that.
Wednesday was a busy day. We got a flood of referrals from out of nowhere that we could contact. It also poured rain all day so the referrals gave us something to do so we could stay out of the rain. In the morning we had a lesson with crazy Tom. We successfully taught him the second half of the restoration and got him to see the simplicity in it. Normally he would try and question everything thinking that there's some deep meaning behind it but he kept it simple for once. Later we stopped by a former investigator from previous missionaries and set up an appointment to start teaching her and her family again. Her name is Nancy and she's really cool. She said she loves having the missionaries over. We're excited to start seeing her and her family. We taught Herman again too like we do every Wednesday and he's working really hard to get the priesthood, he just keeps putting it off.
Thursday was a longer day. We had zone training in the morning then weekly planning took up most of the day. We had lunch with President Sikehema right after zone training and I traded ties with him. He signed his tie and gave it so me, pretty cool tie. Thursday night we had a cool experience. We went to go contact a referral for two brothers that live together named Lou and Andy and all we had was the street name and address number. When we searched it on the GPS only one result popped up in our area so we went. When we get there we knock on the door and this guy answers and says, "now is not a good time, come back Monday at 7". We said ok and then asked him, "are you Lou or Andy?" He said his name is Kasey. When we asked him if he knew a Lou or Andy he said no. Then as we were about to leave he asked us where the meeting house is located and said, see you Monday. I don't even know what to say about what happened with that, I'm still speechless about it. I still don't even know if that really happened or not, crazy.
Friday was a slow day. The only thing that happened Friday was that we picked up another former investigator from previous missionaries. She's an interesting Dominican woman, very emotional but she was very happy to see us.
Saturday was an awesome day! The bishops storehouse was pretty busy in the morning, then in the afternoon we had some pretty cool experiences. We had a lesson planned but when we showed up the guy wasn't there so we went to go talk to the next door neighbor that was outside and as soon as we step onto the street to start walking an expedition, the same one I use do drive, slams on the brakes and someone yells out the window, "YO! Mormons, I gots questions for y'all". We talked to this guy for a minute or two and we gave him all our information. He refused to give us any of his info but he told us he was going to call us and have us over. After that happened we had a great discussion with the neighbor we were going to see. His daughter was outside with him and told us that if her father wasn't with her the conversation never would have happened. They asked us to come back and do service for them, not missing out on that. On our way to a meeting we stopped by a less active woman and gave her some much needed relief. She was excited to see us. She's feeling a lot of pressure from her family because she's the only member and everyone else is trying to pull her away from the church. Then we had a great meeting with our ward mission leader about getting the ward more involved with family mission plans.
Sunday after ward council we had fast and testimony meeting. One of the less active members we just met the other week, Britney, this was her first time coming to church in years and she got up and bore a really powerful testimony, it was sweet. Everyone was really excited to see her back at church too. Things are slowly starting to turn out well for her. After church we had lunch/dinner, linner, with the Brownlow's and tried to contact people the rest of the night. The only person we ended up making contact with was a less active member Andrew. When we saw Andrew, he introduced us to his girlfriend and she had a lot of interest in the church. She said she's going to come check it out and drag Andrew along with her, haha. All throughout this week I've seen how The Lord has a place and a time for everything. Most of the great things that happened this week only happened because we were in the right place at the right time. Having faith in The Lord also means having faith in his timing. Everything happens for a reason.
Missionary Barber Shop!
April 28th - Week 27
This past week has been a busy week, we had a lot going on. Tuesday we had some lessons that went pretty well. We read from the Book of Mormon with Bryan and taught him about why we read the scriptures but is was hard getting him to read. Working with Bryan has been interesting lately, He wants to meet with us and he's learning a lot from what we teach him and he goes to church but he hasn't been keep the commitments we leave with him. He knows he needs to, well at least we explained it to him and he said he understood, but he just hasn't been keeping his commitments. He also asks us very interesting questions. For example, on Friday he asked us how we became Jedi and he was completely serious. We don't know what to do with him yet. After we met with Bryan we went and taught David. David's a smart kid, he's very sophisticated. When we ask him questions he gives us really good answers in return. When we taught him the restoration he had some things confused or mixed up but as soon as we explained things to him he got it. He's learning really well. At the end of the day we went to dinner at the Campoverde's home and she invited her non-member brother in law over to eat with us. We ended up having a really good discussion about the church with him during dinner. He asked us a lot of questions about missionary work and the Book of Mormon. He was interested but when we ask him if he wanted to meet with us later but he told us he might just come back next time we're over for dinner. We're going to try and start teaching him.
Wednesday we tried to visit a lot of people in the afternoon. We stopped by that interesting less
active member again, Tom. The guy that thinks the second coming is going to happen soon. We told him to come to church last week and we explained to him why he needs to go, so we went to follow up on why he wasn't there and he shared some interesting stuff with us. We started talking to him about the priesthood and somehow he went off on this weird tangent about manna. We quickly learned he had switched manna and the priesthood, gotten the two confused with each other but when we tried to correct him he started to talk about "the kahuna". The kahuna is an evolution text book his wife reads, and its also anything and everything that doesn't pertain to religion, according to Tom. And his favorite thing to say is "babang". A good example of something Tom would say is, "Abinadi was able to protect himself because he has this manna which gave him power. Abinadi could have killed Noah just like that! Babang! See, I try and tell this stuff to my wife but she believes in this kahuna stuff you know, but there is even evidence of manna in the kahuna. Babang!" When he's not confused though he's actually really smart. We taught him and his kids for a few minutes after we got him to stop talking about he kahuna. After that we went and visited a former investigator we should be able to start teaching again. Her name is Nancy, she said she would love having us over. Later Wednesday evening we had a great lesson with Herman about the Priesthood. We got him really motivated to work towards getting that. We went to a baptismal service that night then helped out an army support make packages for the soldiers.
Thursday we had district meeting then planned for a while. After that we were supposed to have a lesson with a less active family but the mom decided not to tell us she had made other plans. As we were driving away from their apartments we saw one of her teenage sons, Anthony, playing basketball with is friend Jay. We stopped and talked with them for a little bit about coming to church, played basketball for a few minutes, and ended up talking to Jay about the Book of Mormon. He ended up being really interested in it and Anthony was answering all his Jay's questions and teaching him. It was a cool experience. Jay said he wanted to come to church with Anthony and his family but Anthony's mom decided she didn't want to go to church on Sunday.
Friday was a nice day, we spent the day trying to find new investigators and had some cool experiences. In the afternoon there was a family we've been trying to get a hold of who we went to go visit. They weren't home at the time we knocked on the door but when we got in the car, before we left, we felt like we should say a prayer to get in contact with them. As soon as we were done praying, the son in law of this family pulled in the driveway. We were only able to talk to him for a minute but we figured out when they're usually home. That was a miracle. Friday evening we were stopping by a potential investigator and when we ended up coming in contact with her 22 year old daughter Amy in stead of her. Amy was interested in learning more and agreed to have us come back later this week and meet with her and her mom. Saturday morning we had a busy day at the Bishops storehouse. We also had a great lesson with our new investigator Mary. We had the Spencer family come with us and Mary just really hit it off with them. It was awesome. We had a really really powerful lesson and Mary told us she's going to have us coma back as soon as she can. She's awesome.
Sunday we didn't have any non-members come to church but the recent concert we've been teaching received the priesthood. It was really cool to be there for that. After church we took the sacrament to s few people and tried to contact a referral. When we went to go see this referral, we knocked on his door and it turned out that the guy who answered the door, Erik, just moved in.
The person who the the referral was meant for just moved out, so that caught us off guard, but we just bore testimony to Erik and he said we could come back later this week. Then we spent Sunday night at a members house for dinner. This past week was a great week. Went by really fast too.
Wednesday we tried to visit a lot of people in the afternoon. We stopped by that interesting less
active member again, Tom. The guy that thinks the second coming is going to happen soon. We told him to come to church last week and we explained to him why he needs to go, so we went to follow up on why he wasn't there and he shared some interesting stuff with us. We started talking to him about the priesthood and somehow he went off on this weird tangent about manna. We quickly learned he had switched manna and the priesthood, gotten the two confused with each other but when we tried to correct him he started to talk about "the kahuna". The kahuna is an evolution text book his wife reads, and its also anything and everything that doesn't pertain to religion, according to Tom. And his favorite thing to say is "babang". A good example of something Tom would say is, "Abinadi was able to protect himself because he has this manna which gave him power. Abinadi could have killed Noah just like that! Babang! See, I try and tell this stuff to my wife but she believes in this kahuna stuff you know, but there is even evidence of manna in the kahuna. Babang!" When he's not confused though he's actually really smart. We taught him and his kids for a few minutes after we got him to stop talking about he kahuna. After that we went and visited a former investigator we should be able to start teaching again. Her name is Nancy, she said she would love having us over. Later Wednesday evening we had a great lesson with Herman about the Priesthood. We got him really motivated to work towards getting that. We went to a baptismal service that night then helped out an army support make packages for the soldiers.
Thursday we had district meeting then planned for a while. After that we were supposed to have a lesson with a less active family but the mom decided not to tell us she had made other plans. As we were driving away from their apartments we saw one of her teenage sons, Anthony, playing basketball with is friend Jay. We stopped and talked with them for a little bit about coming to church, played basketball for a few minutes, and ended up talking to Jay about the Book of Mormon. He ended up being really interested in it and Anthony was answering all his Jay's questions and teaching him. It was a cool experience. Jay said he wanted to come to church with Anthony and his family but Anthony's mom decided she didn't want to go to church on Sunday.
Friday was a nice day, we spent the day trying to find new investigators and had some cool experiences. In the afternoon there was a family we've been trying to get a hold of who we went to go visit. They weren't home at the time we knocked on the door but when we got in the car, before we left, we felt like we should say a prayer to get in contact with them. As soon as we were done praying, the son in law of this family pulled in the driveway. We were only able to talk to him for a minute but we figured out when they're usually home. That was a miracle. Friday evening we were stopping by a potential investigator and when we ended up coming in contact with her 22 year old daughter Amy in stead of her. Amy was interested in learning more and agreed to have us come back later this week and meet with her and her mom. Saturday morning we had a busy day at the Bishops storehouse. We also had a great lesson with our new investigator Mary. We had the Spencer family come with us and Mary just really hit it off with them. It was awesome. We had a really really powerful lesson and Mary told us she's going to have us coma back as soon as she can. She's awesome.
Sunday we didn't have any non-members come to church but the recent concert we've been teaching received the priesthood. It was really cool to be there for that. After church we took the sacrament to s few people and tried to contact a referral. When we went to go see this referral, we knocked on his door and it turned out that the guy who answered the door, Erik, just moved in.
The person who the the referral was meant for just moved out, so that caught us off guard, but we just bore testimony to Erik and he said we could come back later this week. Then we spent Sunday night at a members house for dinner. This past week was a great week. Went by really fast too.
April 21st - Week 26
This past week went by really fast for some reason or another. There was a lot of good things that happened this week. We saw a lot of people and had a handful of lessons. The weather has been all right but it's warming up, I really miss the California weather.
Tuesday we saw a lot of people. We found a really interesting less active member who is convinced the world will end/the second coming will happen sometime during his lifetime. He has a lot of money and his house is just as messy as the garage back home. This guy just buys whatever he wants, mainly survival gear, and throws it in his house. He's crazy. He doesn't know what to believe and what not to believe and he's just loosing it. He's a really funny guy though, he likes to make himself laugh... Interesting guy. Later, we finally had a lesson with this less active family that we've been trying to get a hold of forever. But sadly, I don't think they enjoy having us over yet. We also found this Italian guy named Alfonz who is a really cool guy. He's read the Book of Mormon and had the lessons before but doesn't want to change religion because "Catholicism is tradition in the family". He's the only one in the family who has listened to the missionaries in the past. I believe if we can get his wife to soften up, they'll be baptized. They have a lot of potential.
Wednesday we spent a good chunk of the evening with a new member, Herman. We had a lesson with him, then he wanted to come to our next appointment, so he came and took us out to dinner afterwords. That appointment he came to was with a part member family, Gloria and her teenage son, David. Since Gloria is a member we figured she knew a decent amount of doctrine and had taught some of it to her son but as we started the lesson we quickly realized neither of them know very much about the church at all. Even though Gloria is a member, we're treating them like investigators. It was a blessing to have Herman there because he helped out a lot in the lesson. We had to do a lot of adapting in that lesson and I'm very grateful for the guidance of the spirit because that lesson would have not gone well otherwise.
Thursday after district meeting and planning we had dinner and a lesson with another new member. He's on his way to getting the priesthood.
Friday was a busy day. In the morning we found a new investigator while trying to find a less active member. His name is David, he's a little shy. We had an appointment cancel us in the afternoon. We had a great lesson with Bryan in the evening. Every lesson we've had with Bryan, at the end, we've tried to teach him how he can know for himself that what were teaching is true. We teach it differently every time. I think he finally understands what he has to do now. That was an exciting moment.
Saturday we found another new investigator named Mary. She's met with missionaries before too, she likes the church. She's just busy all the time. Later in the day, the guy who we put the copy of the Book of Mormon on his porch a week or so ago, we met his teenage son. They seem really interested and open minded towards the church. The son said his dad has a super busy schedule though.
Sunday morning I opened up the package with the huge Easter basket in it. Thank you for that, it was awesome! I wore one of the ties you guys gave me the rest of the day. After church the Bishop gave us some tasks to complete for him, we did that. Then we had dinner at a members home. Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. We were in the car for a long time Sunday, I didn't like that. It's a huge blessing to have a car but it's kind of starting to make me a little lazy. Overall I did have a good Easter Sunday, thank you guys for the huge basket.
Tuesday we saw a lot of people. We found a really interesting less active member who is convinced the world will end/the second coming will happen sometime during his lifetime. He has a lot of money and his house is just as messy as the garage back home. This guy just buys whatever he wants, mainly survival gear, and throws it in his house. He's crazy. He doesn't know what to believe and what not to believe and he's just loosing it. He's a really funny guy though, he likes to make himself laugh... Interesting guy. Later, we finally had a lesson with this less active family that we've been trying to get a hold of forever. But sadly, I don't think they enjoy having us over yet. We also found this Italian guy named Alfonz who is a really cool guy. He's read the Book of Mormon and had the lessons before but doesn't want to change religion because "Catholicism is tradition in the family". He's the only one in the family who has listened to the missionaries in the past. I believe if we can get his wife to soften up, they'll be baptized. They have a lot of potential.
Wednesday we spent a good chunk of the evening with a new member, Herman. We had a lesson with him, then he wanted to come to our next appointment, so he came and took us out to dinner afterwords. That appointment he came to was with a part member family, Gloria and her teenage son, David. Since Gloria is a member we figured she knew a decent amount of doctrine and had taught some of it to her son but as we started the lesson we quickly realized neither of them know very much about the church at all. Even though Gloria is a member, we're treating them like investigators. It was a blessing to have Herman there because he helped out a lot in the lesson. We had to do a lot of adapting in that lesson and I'm very grateful for the guidance of the spirit because that lesson would have not gone well otherwise.
Thursday after district meeting and planning we had dinner and a lesson with another new member. He's on his way to getting the priesthood.
Friday was a busy day. In the morning we found a new investigator while trying to find a less active member. His name is David, he's a little shy. We had an appointment cancel us in the afternoon. We had a great lesson with Bryan in the evening. Every lesson we've had with Bryan, at the end, we've tried to teach him how he can know for himself that what were teaching is true. We teach it differently every time. I think he finally understands what he has to do now. That was an exciting moment.
Saturday we found another new investigator named Mary. She's met with missionaries before too, she likes the church. She's just busy all the time. Later in the day, the guy who we put the copy of the Book of Mormon on his porch a week or so ago, we met his teenage son. They seem really interested and open minded towards the church. The son said his dad has a super busy schedule though.
Sunday morning I opened up the package with the huge Easter basket in it. Thank you for that, it was awesome! I wore one of the ties you guys gave me the rest of the day. After church the Bishop gave us some tasks to complete for him, we did that. Then we had dinner at a members home. Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. We were in the car for a long time Sunday, I didn't like that. It's a huge blessing to have a car but it's kind of starting to make me a little lazy. Overall I did have a good Easter Sunday, thank you guys for the huge basket.
April 14th - Week 25
This past week was a nice week, went by really fast too. The weather was great all this week, a perfect 80 to 85 degrees during the day. We're finally breaking away from this cold winter weather. All throughout this week we were pretty busy. On Tuesday we stopped by a lot of people and met some less active families to start teaching! Other than that nothing really exciting happened Tuesday. I'm super excited to start seeing these families though!
Wednesday was more of a calmer day. We went on exchange with the zone leaders, Elder Hopkins stayed in our area and I went into the zone leaders area with Elder Buford. During the exchange we taught a class of members and investigators about some attributes of Christ. Then we stopped by some really cool families. The zone leaders have cool people their working with in their area. Overall the exchange went really well, I liked being with Elder Buford for the day. He's a good example.
Thursday afternoon we ended the exchange right after district meeting then the zone had lunch with Stake President Via Sikahema. President Sikahema brought pizza for all the companionships. After lunch we weekly planned then walked around a part of our area where there's some members bunched closely together.
Friday was a warm day, but the work was a little slower Friday. We did have a lesson with Bryan and our member that came to the lesson with us took us out for dinner afterwards. However a lot of the people we stopped by weren't home either.
Saturday was more of an exciting day. We went and helped out at the bishops storehouse and it was really busy, they had a lot for us to do there. We were there until the early afternoon then tried to contact a list of people until the evening. As we went to go contact a potential investigator, we were walking around an apartment complex looking for his address and we came upon a baptist guy who mentioned he had seen missionaries before. As we were talking to him he told us he doesn't agree with the baptist religion, So we talked to him about what we believe. As we were talking to this guy, we taught him about everything. We talked to him about prophets, temples, baptism, the Book of Mormon, the restoration, the bible, Christ, the priesthood and lots of other stuff. However everything we talked to him about, he used his agency to completely disagree with what we were saying. But when we talked to him about his beliefs, he believed the same things we believe. It was frustrating. Eventually we kind of gave up talking to each other but I asked him if we could show him a conference video of the prophet on his computer right before we left. He agreed, and we got into his home. I pulled up the video for him and slyly placed a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet on his desk with a pass along card that had all our information on it. He told us he would watch the video after we left but we got out of there as fast as we could before he noticed the book. When we got out of the door we ran back to the car and got out of there so he couldn't give us the book back. It was exciting. Hopefully he calls us back, he was a cool guy but just didn't want to listen to us. And that's what we did Saturday. We were invited to a youth activity Saturday night for dinner but we couldn't be there for very long because we had an appointment with our ward mission leader.
Sunday, was a super busy day. We had meetings back to back to back all day yesterday. Ward council meeting, sacrament meeting, coordination meeting, meeting with a member, and other various throughout the day. Yesterday just went by really fast.
Today we had to take our car to the dealership for a factory recall. So while we were waiting around for our car to be inspected I went and checked out the dealership showroom! They had some nice Stingrays and Cameros there, so nice!
Wednesday was more of a calmer day. We went on exchange with the zone leaders, Elder Hopkins stayed in our area and I went into the zone leaders area with Elder Buford. During the exchange we taught a class of members and investigators about some attributes of Christ. Then we stopped by some really cool families. The zone leaders have cool people their working with in their area. Overall the exchange went really well, I liked being with Elder Buford for the day. He's a good example.
Thursday afternoon we ended the exchange right after district meeting then the zone had lunch with Stake President Via Sikahema. President Sikahema brought pizza for all the companionships. After lunch we weekly planned then walked around a part of our area where there's some members bunched closely together.
Friday was a warm day, but the work was a little slower Friday. We did have a lesson with Bryan and our member that came to the lesson with us took us out for dinner afterwards. However a lot of the people we stopped by weren't home either.
Saturday was more of an exciting day. We went and helped out at the bishops storehouse and it was really busy, they had a lot for us to do there. We were there until the early afternoon then tried to contact a list of people until the evening. As we went to go contact a potential investigator, we were walking around an apartment complex looking for his address and we came upon a baptist guy who mentioned he had seen missionaries before. As we were talking to him he told us he doesn't agree with the baptist religion, So we talked to him about what we believe. As we were talking to this guy, we taught him about everything. We talked to him about prophets, temples, baptism, the Book of Mormon, the restoration, the bible, Christ, the priesthood and lots of other stuff. However everything we talked to him about, he used his agency to completely disagree with what we were saying. But when we talked to him about his beliefs, he believed the same things we believe. It was frustrating. Eventually we kind of gave up talking to each other but I asked him if we could show him a conference video of the prophet on his computer right before we left. He agreed, and we got into his home. I pulled up the video for him and slyly placed a copy of the Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet on his desk with a pass along card that had all our information on it. He told us he would watch the video after we left but we got out of there as fast as we could before he noticed the book. When we got out of the door we ran back to the car and got out of there so he couldn't give us the book back. It was exciting. Hopefully he calls us back, he was a cool guy but just didn't want to listen to us. And that's what we did Saturday. We were invited to a youth activity Saturday night for dinner but we couldn't be there for very long because we had an appointment with our ward mission leader.
Sunday, was a super busy day. We had meetings back to back to back all day yesterday. Ward council meeting, sacrament meeting, coordination meeting, meeting with a member, and other various throughout the day. Yesterday just went by really fast.
Today we had to take our car to the dealership for a factory recall. So while we were waiting around for our car to be inspected I went and checked out the dealership showroom! They had some nice Stingrays and Cameros there, so nice!
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