Thursday, March 30, 2017

March 27, 2017

Hey fam!

Well this week was definitely one for the books. It was full of a lot
exchanges with missionaries in our zone because of some stuff that has
been going on so it's been just peachy! We have driven at least 500
miles this week, so I'm definitely sick of the car.

We were able to meet with our investigator T-- a couple times and we
had a really good lesson about the atonement. She kept saying "Wow, I
didn't know that!" Especially when we got to the Garden of Gethsemane.


She came to church, too, again and since her kids are so wild in church
she made them little kits so they can be distracted so she can listen
better--haha.  It was also ward conference so the stake presidency was
there and they spoke, and towards the end of the meeting the stake
president got up to speak and he talked a lot about Easter and the
love of Christ. Like right in the middle of his talk--at a really
deep part, one of T--'s daughters takes off towards the pulpit. We
were so nervous because she is not afraid to do anything. So she just
runs up there not saying a word and goes right up to the stake
president in his talk and she just reaches up to hand him a piece of
paper. He says thanks and then she just reverently walks back to her
seat! He opened the piece of paper and it was a drawing of a heart and
in the heart it said "I love you" and the stake president just started
to cry. He was in the middle of talking about the love Christ has for
us and after that he jumped into how much Christ loves children and it
was really cool. Definitely scary! But good outcome. Afterwards we
talked with the stake president and told him that was our
investigators daughter and he wrote it all down to share in another
talk. It was cool.

E-- is doing great.  He went to the family history center at our
church to get names to take to the temple in a couple weeks, he's
really excited! And so are we!

Well we didn't even proselyte that much in our area because of our
exchanges but it was still a good week and excited for the next one.
Sorry that my past few emails have been lame but I'm working on it!

Love you guys!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

March 20, 2017

Hey mom!

Wow sounds like a good week, I bet Dad's face was priceless when he got
up on that ladder. And spike ball? Dang, I love that game. When I was
in Manchester we played that a lot on p-days....so I'm coming for
them!

This week was a good week! Full of a lot of craziness but way good. We
had zone conference at the Joseph Smith Memorial and it was so good.
We have been doing lots of preparations for Easter and so we talked a
lot about that, and the new Easter video the church came out with is
super awesome. 


After the zone conference I went on exchange with one
of our Assistants, Elder Nelson, and it was so fun ha he's one of the
homies, and I got to go back to hometown Manchester. It was crazy
to proselyte there again, but so much fun. I got to go to dinner with
my last comp Elder Holt too since he's still there so it was a good
time. I definitely forgot how crazy that city is, though--haha. We ran
into a guy that knew the missionaries and to sum up the
conversation..."Hey Apostles! if you ain't been to jail you ain't a
true Christian! True story!" Good stuff good stuff.

Well we had a solid week of teaching, we found 3 new investigators on
Friday and it was so bizarre because they were all named
B--.......after we realized this we looked what was next on our
schedule and there was a potential family that we found a few days
before and they had 7 kids (so basically Mormon, already!) pretty cool, and then
we realized the dad's name was B--......he wasn't interested ( but
it's all good he was really nice and he gave us root beer. T-- came to
church again and had a blast, since we last met with her she had read
11 chapters in the Book of Mormon! She's doing very well, she has a
baptismal date for June 6 and is making her way for sure.

This week there was a crazy snow storm, we had 30 inches in a day.
When storms like that happen we can't drive our cars so we had to walk
a few miles into town and carried our shovels and for like 6 or 7
hours just visited investigators and shoveled random people. We
found this lady named Katie and she was shoveling and we chatted with
her for a while and said she would be interested in meeting with us.
So we stopped by and her husband and 2 kids were there
and they are soooo solid. It was unreal. The husband was one of the
more intimidating people I've seen but he was like the nicest guy
ever. We are excited to go back and teach them this week.

Good stuff up here in Vermont. I love it here, it's definitely an
adventure every day. But I'm just waiting for the spring weather like
you guys have in Utah!

PS mom I had interviews with President today and I talked with him
about the 27th of  August . He said he will let me know if it changes
but that should be the day.

Love you! Have a good week!




                                  
                                 Cam's good friends in Texas--Elder Okelberry and Elder Toolson.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

March 13, 2017

Hi, Mom! Sounds like a busy week!

We had quite the week too. It started with driving to Manchester for a
leadership meeting and we were there all day Tuesday and got back late
that night. Then I went on exchange to Littleton, NH and got back
Thursday afternoon, and then had to drive up to Burlington, Vermont for
a monthly meeting with the Stake President about the missionary work
in the zone......then my companion got sick. It was quite the week of
driving and then staying in the apartment with my companion since he
was sick. Fun fun fun. Sorry mom, I know you wanted a big email but
not a ton happened! 


The couple days we had to proselyte, though, we
were able to meet with T-- and set a baptismal date with her, and she
came to church again. She's doing well! Her kids are absolutely
hilarious, especially her 5 year old, A--. They love church so
that's a really good thing!

Have a good week! Enjoy the good weather in Utah.....it got to -27
this week and we found out it's supposed to snow 20 inches tomorrow
alone. Yay! I promise I will have more to update on next week, love
you guys!

Friday, March 10, 2017

March 6, 2017

Hello!

Wow that will be weird that you will be so close to me! At that point
though I will only have a few more months so you can wait;) even
though yes, it crossed my mind too haha I'm happy for Lindsey! Crazy
that she is graduating, good for her! And Dallin too, my vote is for
him to go to Arkansas.

Well this week was really great. I got a new companion and his name is
Elder Braley, he was my roommate in the MTC so it's been a good time!
He's a good missionary and it's been very fun. What made this week
truly fun was we found a new family that is so solid! J-- and S--
are the parents and they have a 13 year old named M--and a 12
year old named I--. We met with them 4 times this week and it's been
so cool to hear them talk about their interest in what we are sharing. For
example S-- works on Sunday but she said she will move her schedule
around so that she can come to church in the future. They have kept
all of their commitments so far, and are really excited for church.
The youth program here is very good too so the 12 and 13 year old will
be in good hands.  S-- actually works at McDonald's and she gave
us free meals today, so......that's always cool.

We also were able to bring a recently returned missionary in our
ward out to a lesson with our investigator, T--, and it was a very
spiritual lesson. We were talking with her about coming to church and
she expressed the concern that her 5 year old daughter with down
syndrome is very loud and outgoing and is concerned it would disrupt
the meeting and before we could say anything, the member we had with us, who
had been home from his mission for just a couple days, said that he
would love to take her for most of the meeting and play with her and
walk with her around the building so that T-- could focus on the
meeting and pay attention. He hadn't even been to the ward yet to say
hi to everyone but was willing to sacrifice sitting with his family
and friends to take her out in the hall so T-- could listen.  It was a
testimony builder to me of sacrifice for sure. And they had a
wonderful time and didn't want to leave, and are very excited to come
next week!  Everyone in the ward fell in love with A--, the 5
year old, so they are very excited for the little family.

We have a lot of meetings this next week and exchanges, etc but we are
still really excited for what these families have in store. E--
passed the sacrament again this week and he did very well, and he got
his certificate for the Aaronic priesthood as well so he had a good
week too.

Oh, also, we did a missionary mutual night and that was fun, we gave
them all an opportunity to teach. Good stuff.

Love you guys! Have a good week!