February 27, 2017

Hey mom!

This week was a really good week. There was a lot of really good things that happened and I think the highlight was Elijah again. He seems to be the highlight every week but he was able to get a temple recommend this week as well as pass the sacrament and he even taught us the restoration. It was honestly unreal--he referenced the tree of life and even used 1 Nephi 8 out of memory to teach about the love of God, he turned on his computer and showed us a clip from 'Joseph Smith: The prophet of the restoration' the movie to help us understand his story more, and then talked to us about the importance of faith and feeling he spirit and he related it to gravity and how we know it is there and influencing us but we can't see it. We didn't give him any pointers he found it all on his own and put it together! Haha it was cool to see. He is a total champ. 

We give service once a week at this thrift shop and we have been working on this lady named Colette and she is sooo funny. She is so energetic, and she's like 60, and really interested in the church. We have to be really careful teaching her because it's in a place where we can't proselyte unless we are asked questions, but she ALWAYS asks questions so we can answer them and build on them and basically teach her lessons haha and this week she asked "So what do I need to do to become Mormon?" And we talked with her about the basics, and baptism and things like that, and she asked if she could come to church and what she needs to wear, etc. She's such a nice lady and is so charitable to the community and to see her as a member of the church would just be unreal, she has the potential to do so much good. The other day she was telling us that she ran into a man that was in a little bit of a problem, and as she chatted with him she found out his car payment was due and he couldn't pay it. So she asked how much the payment was and how much more he owed for the total cost and so he told her. She wrote out a check for the total cost of the car and payed it off right there! Haha she's very wealthy, too, and uses it in such a good way. It will be cool to see what will happen with her in a few weeks. 

We found another investigator named Cathy this week and she was super nice but you could tell she was a little reluctant to set up another appointment and as we talked she said she knew she needed a church to be a part of she just wants to make sure it's right and that she wants to investigate a little more before diving right in. And yes she used the word investigate haha. Elder Alarid and I both felt a prompting to turn her to the church websites. She then said "Oh yeah much better, I was just going to go to google!".......that would have been really bad haha we told her to avoid google for the obvious reasons of it not being very truthful and makes us look really bad. She said she would only look on the church websites so that was good! We will meet with her again on Wednesday.

That pretty much sums up the week. It was good! Went by quick. I love Vermont, the people here are so awesome. I feel like this transfer has really helped me see the importance of the reliance on the Lord and not my own power. I'm not the biggest fan of talking to people, I really don't like it actually haha I have fought the thought of "I'm being an inconvenience to this person by interrupting them" my whole mission. It doesn't really get easier as you go on haha but opening my mouth to everyone I see, has helped me first off gain confidence and faith in what I'm saying, and second has helped me see that no one would change their lives, or listen closely, when it's some weird teenager in church clothes talking about Christ. The Spirit helps these people accept the message and it's crazy to see how fast the Spirit can change someone and help them listen to the message. And I'm just blessed to be able to see it all haha. I love being a missionary it's a blast. But it doesn't require the church clothes or name tag to see the same results, everyone can be a missionary because it's not us that teaches it's the Spirit. It seems so obvious but easy to forget sometimes because we think it's us that would mess up what we are saying but if the Spirit is present it doesn't matter. 

I Love you guys have a good week!

February 21, 2017

Ok thanks mom! Well, since we have been talking about this the whole time (starting college in the Fall), I don't have time to send a big email haha. It was a needed chat though. 

To sum up the week Elijah our recent convert got the priesthood and I gave it to him which was scary because I have never done that before. But yeah--lots of exchanges and kind of a boring week, but I'll update a lot better next week! Love you! 

February 13, 2017

Hey, mom, yeah I got the package the night before the baptism! Perfect
timing. Thanks! And it sounds like you had fun on your trip!

So, yes, the baptism did happen! And it was super awesome. We really hit
crunch time with getting it all set up and everything planned and
finishing the lessons with him as well and it ended up working
perfectly. E-- was so excited. Something interesting about E--'s
story is that he really had to take a big leap of faith to be baptized
because his answer wasn't set on whether it was all true. He really
wanted it all to be true and believed that it was, but didn't get that
confirmation....at least that he recognized. So we got into the water
and you could tell he was just happy which was way cool, but
afterwards before we went into the chapel he told me his answer came
and he knew it was true. It was a cool experience to see how Heavenly
Father always gives us our answers but sometimes it takes a really big
step of faith. He was then confirmed the next day in church and is
doing great. We are going to start taking him to lessons as well to
get him in the swing of things. He's a funny guy, it's really been fun
to work with him. We didn't meet him very long ago but he is a totally
different person since we first met him.

That has honestly been the only thing that happened this week......my
companion was sick every day this week pretty much, so I have just been
waiting for Saturday and Sunday to come around for the baptism and
church. I've definitely had cabin fever, so I'm happy that he's doing
better now so we can get out and work. It doesn't make it any better
though that it snowed about 20+ inches--haha it's been crazy lately. Up
in northern Maine it's supposed to be 36+ inches so I'm grateful I'm
not there haha.

I promise I will have more to update you on next week. Hopefully there
will be no sickness. Love you guys have a good week!

February 6, 2017

Hey thanks for sending my stuff, I'll let you know next week when it comes in.

Wow let me tell ya, being a missionary in New England when the
Patriots are playing in the Super Bowl......makes for a pretty
interesting day. The city seems completely dead but then you look at
the homes and there are tons of cars in the driveways and TV's just
blasting the game. These people here wouldn't miss that game for
anything, I swear, haha--I knew pretty quick who won, too....when we were
shopping for food today almost everyone had Patriots stuff on so we
guessed they won haha New Englanders are crazy people. ;)

We had a good week this week, we met with E-- a lot and are still
preparing him for baptism. He's doing great, we are just making sure
everything is good. Because we met him only like 3 weeks ago and now
he's almost baptized.....pretty quick! So just making sure he knows
the importance of keeping covenants and stuff. But overall he is so
solid! I have loved teaching him. He is very understanding, he keeps
all of his commitments and comes to church every week. He even
participates in class and asks questions and makes comments ha and
they are all good ones too.

We were supposed to meet with E-- and J-- and their family this
week but their daughter got in a car crash and it happened on the day
we were supposed to meet. She's ok though, no injuries, luckily. We
are meeting with them next Saturday and they said they would come to
church! So that would be cool.

We met with K--and K-- this week too. I think I have mentioned
them before, K-- is 17 and K-- is 19. They are step brother and
sister and their mom is a less active member. They are really solid
too, K-- takes notes when we teach her and is good at keeping
commitments and K-- is kinda just getting started. So we were
thinking of a way to get them to church this week and we found out
she had work but he was free, he was just looking for excuses
haha but we had this idea to ask him for a ride and he was like "yeah
I can do that" and so when he pulled up he was in shorts and crocks.
He was just planning on dropping us off haha so I asked him if he
would be cool sitting in the back with us and he can just stay for the
first hour and he said yes, so he stayed! We were pretty happy about
that.

We had zone conference this week too and it was really good, we had it
at the Joseph Smith Memorial and it's always an unreal experience to
be there, the Spirit there feels like it does in the temple to me, so I always love
going there, and especially love that I'm really close to it now. I am
really lucky to have the prophet's birthplace in my mission! It's the
best place ever.

Love you guys hope you have a good week! Go patriots! And Mom, feel better!

January 30, 2017

Wow it's weird to see a video from Jared of the house being empty, and
then the pictures from you of the new house with all our stuff in it!
Weird weird weird. I'm glad it's getting figured out though! It's
looking great.

Wow well this week was a good week. We had a meeting in Manchester for
the first couple days this week and it was fun to see all the buddies
and president and stuff. It's very different having to travel far for
these meetings because I was next door to the building for 6 months
but it was fun.

We have met with E-- the entire week haha he is a stud. He even
came to a ward activity this week. He has really been praying and
reading to find his answer that it's all true. He believes that it is,
but he does want a confirmation. We have been helping him see that the
goal in mind will help it come faster. He is preparing to be baptized
on February 11th but I feel like it might be a little longer.....but
we are hoping the 11th! He is so prepared. He's 19 years old and is
even talking about serving a mission haha he loves asking about all
that we do! I was definitely honored when he asked me to baptize him.
It will be my first one of actually getting in the water with the
investigator, so I'm a little nervous but really excited. Keep him in
your prayers so it works out!

J-- and E-- and their kids, the family we found last week, we
taught them yesterday again and talked about he plan of salvation. The
lesson went really well and E-- said "it's really cool how when you
guys come over everything you teach rings true to me" and we were
like......well yeah cause it is! Just kidding, we didn't say that, but I
feel like it's a common thing for investigators to say that. It just
needs to be brought to our remembrance again but it will always ring
true as long as we are actually searching for the truth or searching
for change.

We had a world conference again and it was great! Since I was in
Manchester close to President and the assistants, we were aware of the
changes that would happen with the change in schedule and key
indicators so we have been living it for about 2 months already and I
love it! And since I've lived it for a while, it's been nice to have
experience to help the other missionaries if they want pointers for
what works best, and concerns to be aware of. It was a really good
conference! Listening to the big leaders of the church always gets me
way excited--I love it.

We had a lot of time to find this week and clear our potentials in our
area book. A lot of them have no info and sometimes not full addresses
so it's been frustrating but we are still finding success through it,
and are helping the missionaries in the future haha (someone has to do
it so why not us). If a future missionary is reading this, please do
well with the area book on your mission. It saves a lot of time!

Other than that, not much to update on. Good week! Hopefully more to
come. Love you guys have a good week!

1. Flight group
2. Homies
3. MTC comp

January 23, 2017

Hey everyone!

Well Vermont is different from Manchester, that's for sure. Definitely
a bit of a transition but it's been a good week! I like Vermont a lot,
it's so pretty up here but man it's pretty cold haha.  My new companion
is Elder Alarid and he's from California. He is a convert to the
church, he was baptized when he was 18 and has a really amazing story
so it has definitely strengthened my testimony being with him.

We were able to find some good success this week, we found a family of
4 this week that is really cool and have even visited the Joseph Smith
memorial (perk of Vermont) so we taught them the restoration and why
we have a memorial for him in the first place, etc. It was really
cool! We found another guy named E-- and he is 19 and a total stud.
We found him on Thursday and taught him a couple lessons and he came
to church too. He is really chill and is a good guy. He already lived
the word of wisdom, has been looking for a church, and said he would
be baptized when he came to know it's true. It's been fun teaching
him, we will be seeing him on Wednesday again.

Vermont is very liberal and also NOT afraid to share their opinions.
We got yelled at quite a few times this week as we walked the streets
and it felt like Manchester a little, but these people here have
stronger intentions than just a few words hahaha it's made for a very
exciting week! I remember before my mission asking Nick Emery about
talking to people and rejection and he said "you just grow a shell"
and I was like-- ok? And it's so true-- haha it makes me sad to see
people that don't want to know more about God, but it doesn't effect
my day at all.  Now it just makes for a story in my journal or back
home.  And Heavenly Father blesses us for sure, I think that's why we
grow shells for rejection so I'm grateful for that.

We have a meeting in Manchester tomorrow so we are driving down
tonight and I'm excited about going back to my old area it will be
cool to see it again even though it's only been a week.

Have a good week! Sorry for the short email. And glad the move went
well by the way!! Love you!