Kindness from Strangers

HELLO!


Well this week I'm going to try and make it the week where I write more than I have been.

Well It's been a great week. This most exciting thing that happened to us is that we finally have somebody that is solid on date. The one I wrote to you about last week, he fell off. He's been avoiding us. But it's all good he's not elect and there are other people prepared for us to teach. But the person that is on date now is somebody we've been working with for a few weeks. Her name is Jali. Her brother is a recent convert of a few months. His testimony is still on fire and his wife is amazing too. So we asked them last Sunday if we could do a FHE with them. But they couldn't do it on Monday, so we set up an appointment on Wednesday. It turned out that Mike (her brother) and Farrah (sister-in-law) planned out a FHE. Farrah gave the lesson and talked about baptism the whole time. Then she committed Jali to be baptized on the 27th. It was so amazing. Jali said yes. Then everybody in the room and shared something they liked about each person. The Spirit was so strong. There was a lot of crying and all that good stuff. So a few days passed and she talked to her parents about it Saturday night (they're Catholic) and they were telling her it was too fast and all that and she told them she knows it's true and bore her testimony to them. We're hoping that her younger brother Mike Kevin will get baptized on that day too. He needs his parents permission first though. So we'll see about that.

The work right now is going kind of slow. We have 4 or 5 investigators right now. 2 of which could be getting baptized pretty soon. And a few we might be dropping. But we have some appointments set up for tonight that might help us add some new investigators. We'll see. But things here in the zone are going alright. We got the numbers for the week called into us Sunday night and as a zone we only had 5 people on date and 15 progressing investigators. So Elder Widenhouse and I counseled and talked about what could be the cause of it. We came up with a list of all the reasons we've seen on our missions of why people and past zones haven't baptized. We were talking about them and one stood out to me. It was that the missionaries didn't feel needed or didn't feel their self-worth. So the training we had to do was on revelation through prayer. And it's the 4th or 5th time we've been trained on this topic. So we went over it quickly and then gave the missionaries 30 minutes to ponder. We gave them some note cards. On the cards we wrote for them to write 3 questions they have for God and 3 things they are passing through right now. And on another card we wrote a letter to them about the things we liked about each of them. And had them write what they were going to do for the zone daily to contribute to it and 1 thing they could do to realize their full potential as missionaries and people. We didn't know how it would go over. We thought some of them might think it was weird or not take it seriously. But afterwards we talked to some of them and they thanked us and one of the sisters said "It's like God told y'all that I needed that at this time." It was such a great feeling to know we received revelation.

Today we went to Kohl's because I had those 3 short sleeve shirts mom sent me, and I wanted to exchange them for long sleeve ones. Because after the mission I won't need short sleeved shirts. So I went to do an exchange and of course they couldn't give us an even exchange which I thought they would've given us as missionaries. But we were at the customer service desk and I figured I could exchange 2 of the short sleeved ones and get a long sleeved one and keep one of the short ones. So I was going to do that when they said they couldn't even exchange it. And the lady next to us wouldn't let me do that. So she was like "use this 30% off coupon, and I have this that you can use" and all this other stuff. Then the total came out to be around 20 dollars for the 3 shirts. And she gave me a 20 dollar bill and looked at my companion and asked if he was getting a shirt, and he said no. So she told him to go pick one out and gave him a 20. So we were surprised. Then after it was all said and done she pulled out two 5 dollar bills and told us to go buy lunch with it. So I ended up with 3 long sleeved shirts and a short sleeved one, and 5 dollars. It was so crazy and a little embarrassing. But oh well. It was good.

Well I think that's about all I have right now. I'm going to get off and let somebody else use the computer. They only allow us to have 6 people on the computers at a time.

No Snow Yet!

Well everything here is going well. The winter snow hasn't started yet. It's started a little bit, but not too much. Probably by next week it'll be covered in snow. Oh well.. There's not really too much to report on work wise. Actually we have an investigator on date. It's a former investigator that we found that has agreed to get baptized. He's a little shaky, but he should be good. We're helping him become more solid We went last night to go see "El Salvador del Mundo" with him and a less active family we are working with. It was really good. It's a play/ musical about Christ at the conference center. He's from Mexico. The less-active family is from Puerto Rico. They are a good family. Right now we are really working on finding more people to teach. Other than that it's good. We're going by two of our investigators that are pretty close to baptism as well. So The work is going a little slow. But it will improve, no doubt about that. Everything in the zone is going alright too. Missionaries are good so there aren't any big problems. Everything is good. Well I can't think of anything else to write really. It's kind of late. I'll make sure I write more next week.

Ward Council Training

Well Everything here is going well. I stayed in the area with Elder Widenhouse. So we're still zone leaders over Millcreek Zone. There weren't too many changes with companionships in the zone. The new AP is Elder Dominguez my old companion. So that'll be fun. So no big news with transfers.

The Halloween party went well. We went to a members house that was huge. They live by the Allisons, the Butler's cousins. We carved some pumpkins and then Elder Widenhouse and I came up with some questions for a newly-wed style game and jeopardy. It was pretty fun. I'll send some pictures next week. I forgot the camera. We had a ton of food too. So I'm scared I'm getting fat. Because everybody gives us candy, and junk food, and so it's tough. I'll just have to lose all the weight after the mission.

Sunday was an eventful day. We spent from 9 AM-4 PM teaching 4 different wards how to hold ward council and what tools they can use to share the gospel. It was interesting. So I'm becoming pretty good at speaking to large groups. And good at training on how to have a proper ward council to stake presidents and other ward council members. Then when we got done teaching we went out to the parking lot to leave and somebody had busted in a window on the car. Along with another member's car. So the member called the police and we spent an extra hour there cleaning up, talking to the police and all that good stuff. OH and Friday night/Saturday morning around 4 a.m. somebody broke into the chapel and lit 2 chapels on fire. It was pretty crazy. So they had to relocate church in those 2 buildings. Investigator wise we're still working with the same problem of investigators not feeling ready to be baptized. So that's a little tough We had an appointment with the family with two kids but they had to cancel it. So we're going to be meeting with them on Friday I believe. Well I got to get going.

Boo! Happy Halloween

So the mission tour with Elder Evans went well. He's in the 1st quorum of the 70. It was kind of long. But oh well. I learned some good stuff. 

Well like I said the mission tour went well. Then everything else is going well. We're really hoping to have a baptism this weekend. We have a few people that can be baptized. They just don't think that they're ready yet. So we're helping them with that. It's tough. We had a lesson a few nights ago with this family that we found while tracting. They seem pretty nice. They're a younger couple. They have 2 kids, a 10 year old and 7 year old. And they seem pretty interested. The husband said he's been distant from God and the wife is humble and willing to listen. We have an appointment with them tonight. I'm excited to see how it goes. I think that's about all that there is going on. Saturday we are going to be celebrating Halloween as a zone. We have some good activities planned. At least we think so. Hopefully they will too. We're going to have a pumpkin carving contest and a few other games. And Sunday we get to teach some American wards about the "ward council process." For 6 hours. Straight. It should be fun. I can't believe that it's already the end of the transfer. We have them on Wednesday. So I'll be writing y'all on Thursday next week. Well that's about it for now.  Have a Happy Halloween!

Surprise!

So we have leadership meeting tomorrow. So we are e-mailing and all that good stuff today. Well it's been a pretty good week. We had 7 people show up to church. When we got into the area we had 0. So that's been amazing. We've been blessed with some pretty solid investigators. 2 of the investigators have been going to church and have been taught by missionaries in Arizona. So that was cool. Then a lot of other ones are just coming out of nowhere. It's amazing.We are hoping to give some of them a baptismal date pretty soon. I talked to one on Sunday and she said that she had received her answer about the Book of Mormon. So she should be getting baptized pretty soon. Sunday we had a musical fireside and one of our investigators told us he wants to serve a mission. He's 12 years old. The time is going by so fast. I guess it's because we don't have any time of our own. But it's all good. I'm really tired right now and can't think of anything to say. We are having a mission tour next week with Elder Evans of the Quorum of the 70. Well I got to go and that's about all I can think of right now!

Amazing Week of Miracles

Everything here is going good. We've seen some amazing miracles lately. While we were contacting some former investigators we ran into a guy drinking a beer on the porch of his apartment. We asked him if he knew any people that spoke spanish around him. He told us that the people downstairs did. So we went down and knocked the door and they invited us in. The mom told us that she is waiting to get sworn in as a citizen so that she could get married. She then said that her mom came to Utah and got baptized and she remembers the peace in the home when missionaries came over. She wants this for her family so she asked if we could baptize her kids, then her and maybe her husband when they get married. So that was amazing. Then at church on Sunday one of the members came up to us and said "I have 4 friends that want to learn more about the church. They want to meet on Thursday." So that was pretty amazing. Then we got a call during the week about a guy who came to church that wants to learn more. And he came to church on Sunday! Then 2 of our other investigators are part of a part-member family. They've been going to church and they like it and all that. They came to church. It's amazing seeing all these miracles lately. As for the zone, a lot of investigators are falling off date or getting moved back So we're coming up with something to fix that. It's all going good though. No major problems within the zone which is always appreciated. Well I think that's about all going on.

Doing Double Duty for A While

Well General Conference was great. I loved all the talks.


Things here are going good. One of our district leaders has been having health problems pretty much his whole mission, and this was his last transfer. He decided to go home early. So now I'm going to be zone leader and district leader. So I get to do double duty. I'm not looking forward to it too much, but I guess I got to do it. Oh well. I don't have much to report about our area. We only have 4 investigators. 2 are a brother and sister whose brother and sister-in-law are members. So we're going to be teaching them. Hopefully they will get baptized pretty soon. Then last night we received 4 referrals from some members so that was good. We'll see what comes from that. Well the things in the zone are going alright Everybody is getting along for the most part. No big things going on. During our training on Monday President Winn showed up and so that was a good surprise. I think that the training went well. I wasn't too worried about it at least. I think that's about all I have to update about. I'm losing a lot of sleep because of doing things, but it's all good!