Transfer Week #13

This is now the beginning of the transfer week. But for some odd reason things have changed on how transfers will go this week. You noticed that this week I am emailing you on Monday which is supposed to be on Tuesday. However, they changed that because of the different schedule for transfer week. We now email on Monday and that is our P-day. Then on Tuesday it is our regular day where district meetings are held and regular proselyting hours are in play. Then on Wednesday, we wait around the afternoon time and we wait for a call from the Zone Leaders to see whether or not we get transferred. I do not like this new way because it doesn't give us enough time to say goodbye to everyone we want to in our ward. It is very short notice and it is something I am not used to.  

Anywho, this transfer is the transfer where my mission dad is going home. Pretty happy day for him I would say. He has been talking about it every time I see him when he comes to visit. For his coming home Present, I bought him some movies for him to watch when he gets home that he hasn't seen. I think he will really enjoy those when he gets home. I love my mission dad and I am happy to say that I am the missionary I am because of how he trained me and how he was around me. He was a very chill missionary who knew the emotional struggles of missionary work and knew how to deal with it. I would have probably gone home if he did not train me right which I believe he trained me right. He is awesome!

This week was the same old week as it was last time. More service and some lessons with Kade. Our lesson with Kade went pretty dang well...until the ending again. Not because people had a problem with the end point which was enduring to the end, but they started talking about other things that were not related to the lesson at all and it got so off track that they forgot what we were talking about at all. I believe Kade got the best of it though and he got what we were talking about, but the others not so much. We have a lesson with Kade again today and it is going to be on lesson 4 which is the commandments and the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. This is the lesson we  fear is going to conflict the others in believing. We hope that Kade's family will not have a problem with this point and be able to continue in the lessons. He does want to be baptized on the 7th of March and it seems like he is ready so far. I am a bit sad that I might not have the chance of seeing the baptism or be able to witness it. This happens every single time in my area and it really frustrates me that I can't be able to see the next step of the people I worked with and got so close to. I am sick and tired of it and I don't want it to happen now. This will make me super mad if I do get transferred this transfer and I won't be able to see Kades baptism.

This last week as well, we went on exchanges with eh AP's. Elder Kelly, who is English, came with us and we did our normal work as usual. Elder Kelly is a sweet kid and he has only been out for about a year. But he is old age wise. He is a convert and he knows much about the church. We met a couple lost sheep people and visited the people that Elder Kelly wanted to go see that he knew. It was a good exchange and me and Elder Wiser liked it very much.

We have also been teaching this member family who the mother of the family expressed that her faith was fading and she wanted to gain that testimony that she had back. So we have been teaching the missionary discussions with her and we believe we nailed down her concern. She doesn't understand the necessity or how to use the atonement. We gave her an invitation to read and pray about that certain subject. We just gave her the basic steps to know what the atonement is and how to gain access to it.

Also, two random individuals came to our church this Sunday just because they said that they were curious about our church. We showed them around and took them to Sunday school and the last hour classes. They told us that they were really happy throughout the meeting and liked it a lot. So much that they invited us to their church this Friday. So...we do plan on going, but we weren't planning on that invitation. But also, one of the individuals that showed up asked me what I was going to do after my mission. I told him I wanted to go into music or if that doesn't work computer stuff. The problem that I told him is that I don't know what the next step into music that I should take. He told me that he would email me a video that explains what I can do or classes I can take to get more into music. I gladly accepted this advice and hoping that this video that he shares will help me figure out what I want to do after my mission.

That exercising plan sounds great. Only one problem, I don't know exactly what my weight it now since I don't have a scale. But I will gladly accept that challenge and I will let you know what my weight is and what it will be in the future. Love you all and take care!

That Golden Week/Lessons every missionary thinks of before their mission

Hello one and all! Sorry for not emailing you on Monday. Apparently here in Canada it was a long weekend because of Family Day which is why the Libraries were closed so that is why we couldn't email. But I am here now and so now I can email you freely.

Oh boy, oh boy! Where do I begin with this week? Well remember last time I emailed you and I told you that more and more investigators are coming in. Well, that didn't stop! We got even more now and it is so much that sometimes I forget who we have for investigators. Isn't that crazy? Now I will tell you of the lessons that we had this week as well for we had plenty of them. Some very good, some bad.

First off, Kade. President Stephans finally came back from his trip and we could finally begin to teach Kade. We began teaching him actually on Sunday. We taught him basically around 2 which is like right after church. We taught at his grandmas house and all of Kades family came as promised. His Grandparents, his mom, and his stepdad. They are came to the lesson because they wanted to make sure Kade knew what he was doing and they could see what we were all about. The thing is that this first lesson was just...perfect. The spirit was super strong and everyone understood what we were talking about. The Spirit was also very strong when we recited the first vision. We invited all of the family that was there to start reading the Book of Mormon and pray while they read to see if it is true. All agreed surprisingly! And they set up another lesson with us on Monday which was yesterday. We taught about the Plan of Salvation then and it went pretty good until the end where people were questioning the different degrees of glory. We gave our back up for up and asked them to study for themselves of the plan of salvation and the pamphlet that we gave them. They agreed and so they have a little task for themselves before we come back this Saturday where we will teach the 3rd lesson. I for sure hope that they do this so that they can understand more of what we will teach next time.

We also had a lesson with a women named Saxon. Well...it wasn't really a lesson. It was more of a bible bash session that got us no where. She wants us to come back, but I don't want to come back because there is no point to. It would just be another bible bash session. We are hoping if we do meet her again, that she will agree with the lesson order and we can teach her those.

The members are getting better and better at missionary work! We don't have to do the inviting usually. It is them who do it and it turns out great! I love it! We were helping move this family out of our ward and they were giving stuff to another person who was not a member. When we did move everything in to her home, the member that was with us extended the invitation for us to start teaching this woman and she accepted! That is amazing! Missionary work is not hard! Members just make it hard on their selves to do it so that they believe they can't do it and they complain to ward leaders and missionaries. To those kind of members I say to them 
to grow up and trust in the Lord more.

Now there being a DLB in the mission, I have many opportunities to see leaders of the mission like Zone Leaders and APs. However, I can see a bit of corruption in our leadership as a mission. Every Zone Leader doesn't give there honest opinion. When they do say something, they say whatever pleases President hoping that President will like them to be and AP. They are all power hungry and it is just terrible! I don't like it when leaders do this and it doesn't help me to trust them.

Well, I got to get going you guys. Got to start this 6 months of exercise so that I can be fit when I get home! Bye you guys! Love you!

Hello Ya'll! Almost 3/4 done with mission!

This week was mostly a service week and boy was there a lot of it. We did a lot of driving. Plus we were working with a lot of our investigators like Frank and Annie and Edward. Cade did get permission and we are going to start teaching him this Thursday. He seems very golden and he is ready to be baptized from the looks of it. Things are doing super well. The members are starting to trust us a lot and love us as missionaries which I think is very crucial to missionary work. If the members don't support you or don't like you, the transfer is going to be terrible. Good thing that the members can see that we have investigators. This sort of bothers me because I don't think member trust should just come when a investigators comes. I believe members should always help missionaries no matter what the missionaries have to teach. It will make the missionaries life so much easier and put them in a good mood to stay out on their mission. Lots of members thing it is just the missionary that influences himself to go home, but there are different factors that fit in there.

I do believe a mission is not for everyone. But still when people don't go on their missions or when they come home early, their families start freaking out. It is not the end of the world if someone doesn't go on a mission. I have seen what a blessing it is to go on a mission and yes that could be used to encourage people to go on missions, but let us not use shame or disappointment to motivate people to go on missions. Then they are going out for the wrong reasons.

This Valentines day is my 18th mission birthday. When it hits that means I have only 6 more months left on my mission. Things are going pretty dang fast and I am loving it. I will be home before you know it.

The reason I want to go to UVU is because of the friends I will have there and it just feels right. I don't want to live at home so I hope to find a place to live.

The Book of Mormon studying is going great! I love it! I am now remembering what happens at certain parts in the Book of Mormon. And when I re-read the Book of Mormon, I can just read my side notes and remember what I just read. It has helped me a lot!

Sorry for such a short letter this week. I promise for a longer one next week. More exciting things will happen next week and I will have plenty to talk about. Love you all!

Dinner with the missionaries

And they just keep coming...

Jeez! Can this area get any more investigators and work for less-actives? They seem to be coming in a snowball effect. More and more just keep coming and it is great in some ways, but in others it isn't because we just don't have time for all of them in one day. We got a guy name Edward from the Mandarian missionaries and from what Elder Wiser could tell me is that he is not too promising, but he still wants to learn. We did splits with the Mandarian missionaries so that is why Wiser knows more about it than I do. I went with Elder Olson to the Foot Hills Stake to help him interview this investigator down there with President because she did a couple of serious things that have to be brought up with President. I played with this little kid while they were interviewing this lady and we had fun playing a bit of soccer. I have kinda came to some conclusion. I am really good with relating to kids and gaining their trust. This is one of my strengths that I have realized. Once you gain the kids trust, the parents can see that their kids like the missionaries and like to get to know us too.

Anywho, this week was mostly less-active work and lost sheep. We are almost done with the list that the ward has given us. But the work won't stop there because the ward council keeps giving us names to go visit and get to know. I like it because every time we did this with other ward council, they didn't really give us any names and we had to do like a whole week of like tracting and finding and you guys already know my feelings on tracting and the such. If the ward and the missionaries work together, it work! But it takes trust so that is the price of that.

Frank and Annie are still progressing and we are meeting with them weekly still. Cade wants to wait till President Stephans comes back to start teaching him. We heard President Stephans will come back around the end of this week. We are waiting to hear from him to begin setting up plans to teach Cade.

Something I have been doing this past week is pretty interesting to me on how much it works. It has been a while since I have been reading the Book of Mormon because of my love of Christian books and that book that you guys sent at Christmas time for me. But I decided to try reading the Book of Mormon again, but I have a tough time remembering certain things that I read and what is on the page I just read. So what I did is get a new Book of Mormon for myself and what I have been doing is writing down by verses that stick out to me what kinda happens and what I learned from it. Now when I look back through the Book of Mormon, I know what I am reading and the background of it. It is also a good source for dinner messages. Call it notes on the side, but I call it my own commentary of the verses I highlight. I love doing it on my spare time.

We don't really keep tract of our proselyting hours. We just focus on how we can help the ward and what works best. I don't really like to keep tract. I mean sure, I can keep tract and I do write down our key indicators, but I don't like to base my work on numbers.

That is pretty cool that BYU Idaho school starts then. But I was kinda thinking I wanted to go to UVU. It just been on my mind.

Well, that is all I got to say for this week. Around next week it will be close to my 18th month mark. Love you all and take care!