Wednesday, November 23, 2016

November 21, 2016

Hey fam!

At the beginning of the week we picked up J-- as a new investigator,
the one with the brother who just passed away from his brain tumor.
He's such a champ, we taught him the plan of salvation and it went way
good. The pre-earth life made so much sense to him ha he definitely
expressed how much he liked it. J-- is about 25 years old and way
humble, I don't think I've taught a guy his age. It's interesting
because there is so much more in common teaching someone closer to
your age. I like it a lot haha. The best part of the lesson was he said
the closing prayer and dang it was so good. I feel like it's so easy
to get into the repetitious prayers but I feel like the best prayers
I've heard on my mission have come from converts or non-members. Not
that anyone is competing for the best prayer award haha but it pushed
me to try to have more of a conversation with God rather than just
share a list of what I'm grateful for and would like to be blessed
with.

We were able to meet with A-- too and had a couple good lessons with
her. We taught the word of wisdom and committed her to live it and she
said she would, so that is cool progression from her. We have tried to
follow up but she has been busy so we will meet tomorrow with her and
see how it's going.

We had a lot of administrative stuff this week, we had a zone
conference that we had to teach at and we also had stake conference.
We had a cool activity last night with one of the elders in our zone.
So to sum it up we have really tried to come up with ideas to get
creative for the holiday season. We have some cool ideas and have
already followed through with some of them! The Canterbury district
had a float in a parade and handed out Books of Mormon and pass along
cards. It was decorated like crazy with Christmas stuff and it went
really well! Also going back to the Elder's activity, he had a Zimbabwe
night. He lived in Zimbabwe until he was about 17 or 18 and talked
about what it was like and we ate their food and things like that.
It was way cool! Lots of ideas coming.

Well, sorry that this is short but I love you all! We have 2
appointments for dinner on Thanksgiving so we are well taken care of.
Have a good thanksgiving! My companion and I are having a contest to
see who can gain the most weight so if you want to join, feel free.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

November 14, 2016

Wow, this week was another really crazy week. So last week we found 5
new investigators and this week we found 7.  For Mexico, it's probably
average numbers but for New England, it's rare--haha we were definitely
blessed this week!

So last week we went on exchanges, my comp found a young family while
street contacting and they said we could come over.  So, on Monday we
went and taught them and their names are J-- and J-- and they are
awesome--their kids are insane, but it's a fun time teaching them.
J-- was working, so we tried to help J-- get to church but he was
embarrassed that he didn't have dress clothes, so Elder Holt and I gave
him some pants and shirts and shoes and tie to wear, and he still
didn't come! We were pretty disappointed but it's ok, he will come next
week.

I have talked about our investigator, A--, and how we are teaching
her, and she has a daughter named M-- and she told us this week she
was interested in learning, too, so we are now teaching them both. They
are awesome, we can't get them to come to church to save our lives so
please pray that they will come haha they did come to a baptism though
this weekend, so that was cool. A-- likes the thought of baptism, it
just comes down to keeping commitments ha we know she can do it--it
will just take some time.

So another cool thing that happened this week--we planned to see a
former, and she was a single lady in her 40's, sounded pretty cool, so
we went over to her place and knocked on her door and these 2 big
black guys open the door and they were like "Uhhhhh, can we help you?"
And we told them we were looking for an E-- and they were like
"She doesn't live here but come in" and we were like......alright! So
we went in and they are both so cool. W-- and A--. They both
said they have been looking for a church to go to and become a part of
and their minds were just blown we came at the time that we did. It
was really cool to see the way the Lord placed them in our path.
During the lesson their girlfriends came in and were interested as
well, so we taught them too. You just never know what's behind the
door! 

I feel like I have worked so hard in this area to find people and help
it get back on its feet because it was pretty bad when I got here.

It had been pretty discouraging because not a whole lot has happened
but it's good to see things starting to turn around. I don't like to
ask people for help, or I think I can do things on my own, but it's been
really humbling the past 2 or 3 weeks to realize once again that I
can't do anything on my own, especially missionary work. Relying on the
Lord is when we will find success in all phases of our lives, and I
always have to be reminded of that one haha cause it's easy for me to
forget. I'm glad I go through struggles that help me remember Him and
my reliance on Him. 


Helaman 12:3 has been one of my favorite
scriptures to share lately. I'm not sure if I told you about J-- our
potential who's brother had the brain tumor and died. So the
question why do bad things happen to good people has been on my mind
lately to help someone without the full gospel answer a question like
that. It's easy for us to answer because of the plan of salvation
being in our lives for so long, but for someone who doesn't know, it's a
touchy process--but I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and the
chance I get to share it almost daily.

Love you, fam, have a good week!




Saturday, November 12, 2016

November 7, 2016

Hey everyone!

This week was a waycool week! We saw a lot of miracles. 


We were able to find 5 new
investigators so I'll start with the first and go down: so A-- is
#1. We finished up our plans at around 8:15 on Tuesday night and so we
decided to just go street contacting And so when we hit the street and
went a certain direction I had a huge prompting to turn around, it
kind of freaked me out actually because I thought it was because we
were going to get mugged or something--lol I'm still the same when it
comes to getting freaked out easily but anyways we turned around and
walked for a little and then we ran into one of our potential
investigators and chatted for a little, and he had a friend with him
and we started chatting and he was going through a lot and said that
he really needed god so we talked with him for a while and taught him
about the Book of Mormon and church because he wanted to go and he was
just crying and crying. The little prompting we get sometimes feel
like they won't pan out, and to be honest I thought it was because we
were in danger like I said before but I think it was the language of
the Holy Ghost that put that in my head to turn me around to go find
A--. He is a way cool guy and we are excited to see how he turns
out.

So next one her name is T--. So I was on exchange with a new
missionary in my area and we went to visit some potentials and we went
and knocked on their door and said we could come back in 30-45 minutes
and so we went on our way back to the car to go contact some other
people and along the way we saw a lady on her porch and before we even
got to her she said "Ok you guys walk around every day dressed up like
that. What do you even do?" Good question! So we chatted and she ended
up telling us a lot about her life and the struggles she is going
through and one of them was same sex attraction. 


But as she continued
to talk, she told us that she knows the feelings she has are not ok and
which is why she's married and has 2 kids. She told us too that she
knows God didn't create us to be attracted to the same sex but it's
just a tendency she has to deal with and fight and not act on. We were
stunned because most people don't think that, but it was so cool to
see her recognize that before the full gospel has even been presented
to her. So we set up a return appointment and will meet with her soon.
Pretty cool experience. 


The next 3 investigators we found were the
potentials we stopped by before we met T--, the ones that told us
to come back in 45 min. So after we met with T--, we went over
there and they let us in and we shared a message and they had us bless
their food they were going to eat.....haha classic. And they are way
cool too. The wife just gave birth about 2 weeks ago, so they have a
good excuse for why they have been busy haha but yeah it was a good
week.

We have felt like we were so close to seeing good things and they are
really starting to come.  I know it won't ever be smooth sailing but
seeing the fruits of your labors even though it's not necessary is a
tender mercy for sure. New England is a fun place for missionary work,
it's really tough but there are always people that will accept the
gospel. Even in the Mormon capital Utah there are a lot of people. The
Provo mission is one of the highest baptizing missions in the entire
world so if that doesn't show it then I don't know what will-lol, so be
missionaries plz.

Thanks for everything you guys do for me and for the prayers. I love
you all! Have a good week!

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

October 31, 2016

Hey everybody!

Well, this week I promise I'll give more of an update than last week.
It's been way cold and rainy, it just brought back some good
memories from last winter....aka slipping on ice daily and not being
able to feel my face but also a lot of good memories haha.  I will
definitely miss the warm weather though. Even though the weather
wasn't the best we still had some cool things happen! Alright I don't
know how to explain this so bear with me cause it's going to sound
weird. But we found a new investigator at Buffalo Wild Wings. Let me
explain:

SO......because I'm a fast food veteran, and Buffalo Wild Wings is
only in like 2 places in the mission, we decided to go there for lunch
about a month ago. Our waiter was kinda curious about who we were and
what we did, so we chatted for a second and swapped numbers but we
couldn't get an appointment set up, so we tried setting something up.
He was working double shift the entire week so we asked him if he
would be working Thursday and if we could come in for lunch and he
said yes and to just request him as our waiter, so we did and he sat
down with us and we taught him the entire restoration. 


Every 5 or so minutes I would stop and say "Hey, do you need to 
go take care of anyone else right now, ya know like get them drinks?" 
And he would nod his head and then get up real quick, take care of 
business and then come back. It was absolutely bizarre but we just went 
with it. After we finished eating and talking, he walked out to the car with 
us and we gave him a Book of Mormon and our address to the church. We are
meeting with him tomorrow again! We are excited about him. He's a way
cool guy. Definitely won't be teaching in Buffalo Wild Wings again
though, it's WAY too loud haha but you gotta risk it to get the
biscuit sometimes.

We just finished a mini mission with one of the young men in the ward
and it was a cool experience. His name is Noah and he's a stud. When
we were knocking on doors we saw on our list a potential named José and
we stopped there and knocked and he came to the door smiling from ear
to ear. He said "hey you guys remembered me!" We chatted about him
meeting with missionaries in the past and his concerns now and he said
what's going on right now with his brother is causing him to struggle
with his faith. So we asked what was happening with his brother and he
said he has a brain tumor and is really struggling right now, and he
had a concern of why bad things happen to good people. Well......Mom,
you have a brain tumor! And so I talked about that and how I've asked
that same question to God. But I just bore testimony, as well, about how
what we share is more than just a comfort of knowing it's true, but
there is additional happiness that comes from living the gospel. 


So I told him how it's helped me and he was so shocked that I could relate
to him! Ha-- it was cool. He's a big basketball fan so we are taking the
last little bit of our p-day to play basketball with him and teach him
a lesson, and then we are meeting with him again tomorrow, as well. He
is WAY cool, no idea how he slipped out of the missionaries' hands when
he was found, but it's a blessing we found him again.

We once again had a couple days going up to Canterbury to help that
missionary that is struggling like I mentioned before. Oh by the way,
the new missionary that was just transferred to Canterbury is Elder
Ferrell! He's about 45 minutes away from me. It was pretty interesting
sitting in their living room chatting with Robby just like high
school. He's a good kid. Anyways, yeah, so we had to go up there and be
the Elder's companions while elder Ferrell and Elder Gasman went out to
teach. It was a long time sitting in that apartment but luckily they
had a putter and golf ball so I got pretty good at carpet putting.

It was a good week, no complaints for sure. I really like serving in
this area--it's way fun. Always something crazy happening here so it's
always exciting. My comp and I were talking and we both about fell out
of our chairs when we found out my comp has 4 transfers left and I
just have 6 after this one. It's crazy how fast time flies. There is
nothing like being a missionary. It's hard for sure but learning how
to fix my attitude has really helped me. I definitely owe that to some
of my companions and the Lord for helping me out, cause I'm not the
most patient person haha but attitude really is everything. When
you fix that, then missionary work is fun like it's meant to be!

Love you, fam--have a good week!


 A "mini-mission" with Elder Webb, Elder Holt and Noah Hughes