Week 86

So this week has been great, we had a great zone conference and learned a lot of stuff. We have been doing the harvesting blessing and it invites the spirit so strongly and is a great feeling to bless their lives even if they are not interested in hearing the gospel. The one problem that we have been facing is that we are not getting many progressing investigators with it, we are doing a lot of the blessings but then we go back and they aren't interested or won't open the door so that has been discouraging but hopefully that will turn around this week. So at zone conference, we got the news that the church has changed the email policy and now missionaries can email anyone instead of just family and that we have 1 and a half hours to email so that was a big change, I'm glad that this rule just got changed because that would of been too distracting for me so that was a big change. Things are going well, time is just flying by and the weeks are like days. I got a bunch of stuff for departing missionaries in the mail last week so I've got to start doing all that stuff. We've been getting a lot of anti stuff recently which is weird, and the Jehovah's Witnesses have been flooding the city with their invitations to their celebration so I think that is making it more difficult on us. We have found a bunch of new people this week and a few less actives that were working on reactivating so we are defiantly busy. So this week we have district meeting and then going on an exchange so should be a pretty fun week.

Week 85

This past week has been great. We have found some really prepared people, on Monday night we knocked on some doors and we were welcomed in to leave a blessing on their home and the spirit was very strong. We then asked the 16 year old boy "if Jesus Christ were in this room right now, what one question would you ask him?" He then said he would ask where we came from, and we were a little stunned because it's as if he read Preach my Gospel or something. We then taught the Plan of Salvation and committed him to baptism for the 30th of this month. He had such great questions during the whole lesson and he said that it has cleared up a lot of things he was wondering about his whole life. We had so many great experiences this week, we gave over ten harvesting blessings and it is such a powerful tool, it is probably the most spiritual thing that has ever happened in their homes. We have been finding a lot of people through this, actually all of our investigators are from doing this as much as we can every day. Soon enough we will be so busy that we will be booked for every hour of the day. We are really seeing a lot of miracles in our area right now. A couple funny things happened this week, we were biking down a busy street and we went by an auto shop and I saw a Maserati so I told him to look and while he was looking back he nailed a telephone pole bad, it was so funny, was laughing for like 30 minutes. We also went to dinner that same day and while we were eating, Elder Keys stands up and runs to the bathroom and then we hear him puking for the next 10 minutes so that was interesting trying to eat while we could hear him puking. Also went on exchange with Elder Frost ( he is from the heaps ward) and that was so much fun. This upcoming week we have zone conference on Friday and then doing more exchanges this week. 

 

Thanks for all the emails! It was great to hear from everyone. I didn't realize that I was coming home during the ward conference, I feel bad that Pres. Halsey won't be able to speak, I could do 10-15 minutes so that he could have time to speak also. I like the idea of being able to do the report and do it with the ward council so I can still do that. That's fantastic about the youth temple trip, there are so many youth now, wasn't like that a couple years ago, sounds like we have a really good ward. Thanks for everything! I love you and miss you.

Week 84

So this has been a great past week. We have been able to go out and work every day and we have found a lot of new people to teach as we do three hours of knocking doors and talking to people in the streets. We have made ourselves quite busy the past couple days and we have found a lot of people that really need the gospel and are going through a really hard time. Elder Keys is my new companion and he is from Washington state and he is a really good missionary. He has been out about a year now and we've gotten along really well so I'm glad this is going to be a really good transfer. We are serving in a really ghetto area so most people are humble and willing to talk with us, we have been offering to have prayers with people and leave a blessing on their homes and it has been a really effective finding tool and a good way to bless people's lives. It softens people's hearts, there are many people who don't want to talk to us at first because they don't want to switch religions or not interested in our message but then we offer to have a prayer with them and they are receptive to that. We had a couple of investigators at church this past Sunday, I keep comparing everything to when I was in Exeter and we were getting 10 or so investigators to church and here we get less than half of that so I need to stop doing that because I feel disappointed every week. I can't think of anything else too exciting from this past week, we've just been doing a lot of finding. We are doing sports today, haven't played anything for a while so I feel out of shape.

Week 83

Well we got transfer calls on Saturday night and I am staying here in Poterville but Elder Mueller is leaving but that is what we expected to happen so no big surprise there. My new companion is Elder Keys and I don't know him but I've seen him before and I know he is a short red head with freckles but that's all I know. I've heard good things about him so I'm excited to be with him. This past week has been a little frustrating as Elder Mueller has been going to the doctors every other day and then for the past four days we haven't been out to work so the area is struggling right now which is going to make things hard on us the next couple weeks. I've been able to study a lot though and I didn't think I would be able to start and finish Jesus the Christ for the third time but with all this study time I might be able to. Did you hear about the fifty-eight new missions being created? One of them is the Bakersfield mission and they will be taking parts of the Fresno mission from it and Fresno missionaries will be taken out and put in that mission in June so I'm glad that I won't be there for that although that is very exciting. The three southern zones of the mission will be in the Bakersfield mission so over 80% of my mission will no longer be the Fresno mission. We had a good showing yesterday at church so that was promising news. Well this week we have transfers on Wednesday and I will let you know how my new companion is. So I got an interesting call yesterday, it was a member from the ward I served in up in Turlock and he called to offer me a job which was super random but he wants to hire me. He owns a marketing company that is throughout the whole valley so he asked for our home phone number so that when I get home he will call me about it, so might have a job after the semester or after I'm done with school. 

That's great news about all the missionary work happening in the ward, no work more important than it so that's good your having success. President Gelwix always says that the most important person in missionary work is the Bishop and the two highest wards in our missions have the two best bishops he says, so no pressure or anything. That's good that I will be able to speak in Sacrament as I would like to and I'm not too worried about not going  to the high council but what does that normally include?. I love you guys and hope that you have a great week. 

Week 82

Sounds like things are going well back home and everyone is doing good. Had a pretty good week and was a lot of fun. Yesterday we had a tri-zone activity and we just played sports all afternoon and it was a beautiful day out for sports as it was in the 70's, that's the good thing about the winters out here, only about 2 months and sounds like your not in tshirt and shorts weather quite yet with the snow. Had a family home evening last night with a family in the ward and we played apples to apples, haven't played that one since I was home so forgot how to play. On Sunday we had a couple investigators at church so that was good but we can do so much better, we are reaching our potential. Church here starts at 1:00 and by the time church is done we got straight to dinner so doesn't give us much time to work on Sundays and no one likes meeting that late, hope I never have 1:00 church, your days are just shot. Our project this past week has been to contact every person on the ward list so we went to the zoning office and got this huge map of the east side of Poterville and we are marking where every person is and trying to make the ward list more organized as it is 6 pages of the abbreviated directory and about a page and a half is active so there is a lot of work to be done. My companion always seems to be struggling with something, if it's not his anxiety, it's a migraine, or his back or stomach and I really want to believe him but it's starting to get a little old. I keep telling him that if he doesn't get over it that he's going to be sent home. We get along, it's just hard to work with him. We have transfer calls on Saturday and then transfers on Wednesday so looking forward to that, I really am hoping for a good companion and someone that wants to work hard. I am pretty certain that I'll be staying and Elder Mueller will be going so this is probably my last area which I'm ok with. The work is slower than in previous areas but were working on improving that and our lessons have doubled so our teaching pool is increasing also. Well I love you all and thanks for your love and support.

Week 81

So another week has flown by, felt like I just emailed you guys yesterday. So we are starting to see a lot of success in our area, the area was getting 0 to 1 investigators at church and we had 4 yesterday and have a lot more for next week as we have found some solid investigators. I got three packages on Saturday, one from you guys and then one from the Desmarais family which was nice to get something from them, I didn't know Emily D. had another one. Thanks for the Valentines Day gift. I also got my Jesus the Christ which I used my American Express to buy it so just so your aware. My companion has been struggling recently and we are very concerned about him as he has had three anxiety attacks and is not mentally stable. He is going to Stockton which is 4 hours from here and outside of the mission to see someone to evaluate his mental health on Thursday. We get along well though, he just has flare ups of anger over little things and may be bi polar also so will good to get him checked up. It has been a good transfer and should be a good next two weeks of the transfer with some baptisms coming up. I'm doing really well right now, I got a little down a couple weeks ago because I have felt like I've been given a lot of difficult companions and I thought this transfer would be one with no set backs but difficult companions really make it tough but I am finally able to find success and be happy with myself even though it's not the ideal situation.

 I just checked my letter from President and he said that my release date is April 25 and that everything is set.  It became very real that I don't have long left after I read my email from President as everything is set in stone now and he is ordering my plane ticket which he will send to you so you will get there in a couple weeks. Thanks for booking the flight to school, I think that it's going to work perfectly leaving on Monday, gives a little extra time instead of leaving on Sunday. So will I be able to report to the High Council and also give a talk? Yea, quite a few people came up after I gave the talk and said it was good, so not too bad for not knowing and just getting up there. That is something the mission has really helped me at, being able to have no notice and give a talk without notes, I'm still not the best at public speaking but better than I was. Sounds like a lot of people went to the Ravens Homecoming and that it was a good time. Hope that you have a great week and look forward to hear from you next week. Love you and see you soon!

Week 80

Thanks for the letters! I'm so happy that the Ravens won! I can't believe they won the year that I'm not there but I will have to watch it once I get home. It sounds like it was a crazy game and that it was fun to watch. Everyone here is a 49'ers fan so I couldn't celebrate at all or else I would of got shot. We taught someone right after the game and she was a 49'ers fan and she was super bummed but she said that she wants to be baptized on February 23.  We had a great zone conference and we have started something called the harvesting blessing where we have to tract for three hours a day and instead of doing a normal door contact we offer to have a prayer with them and their family in their home and it has been a great tool. On Friday we gave the eulogy at a funeral and it was mostly non members so it turned out that a few of them wanted us to stop by so it actually was a good finding activity. 

I love you guys so much and look forward to hear from you next week. I can't believe that I will see you guys in less than three months!