Hello ya'll
This week was Alan's Baptism. It was the most crazy week, but at the same time the most spiritual week on my mission. We have been working with Heath and Hilary too trying to get them to see and recognize the light.
Transfers were on Wednesday and most companionships changed. Elder Davis got another boy, Elder Barney. Elder O'Niones got a new companion Elder Newsome. Perkins and I are still together. The Sisters got a whole new cast. Only one of the three stayed and only one came in. There are now only two of them. So with all the changes going around we get to learn about more people. I like change, it makes life interesting.
There have been a couple rain storms that have just come out of nowhere this week. We were teaching Heath when we heard this loud rumbling sound. We looked outside and it was pouring. There was so much water coming down it was intense. We went outside for a little bit to watch it. Just walking through it you would get soaked. You could jump in a pool and be more dry than you would walking through the rain.
Well we have continued to teach Heath and Hilary has finally found a break in her schedule to start meeting with us again. On Friday we had a lesson with her. The FSU Elders were there along with their investigator Katie. She is getting baptized on Nov. 14th. We asked Hilary what her concerns are about the church and about baptism. She had two big concerns. First was her family. She wasn't sure if she could leave her family. She loves coming to church, but she was raised Methodist. She thinks she would be leaving her family and all those who are in her church. Katie shared with her that those people will always be there for her. She will always have her family and her church. Hilary's other concern was the good feeling. Was it the people or the spirit. She's not sure if she's doing it for the right reason. Is it the people, the friends she's made, that are the real reason she's coming. Or is it the spirit and the good feeling that comes from the church, book of Mormon, etc. We discussed with her the spirit and the feelings that come from the spirit. Then Katie shared with Hilary her experience about prayer. How at first she did it just because she knew the Elders would ask her. Then one night she prayed and truly asked. She got down on her knees and asked with her whole heart. Then she received her answer. It was a good lesson. Hilary came to Alan's Baptism and to Church. We're meeting with her on Tuesday. That lesson was awesome, but that day was the Black Hole of my week. For some reason I could not feel the spirit at all. It was missing. I tried to teach Hilary but nothing was coming to mind. A complete stupor of thought. I've been having a hard time this weekend trying to figure out if it was because of something I did, or because it wasn't my turn to talk. That it was my turn to listen. I'm not sure which one it is yet.
The next day was great though. Alan's baptism. It seemed like the whole ward was there. Well almost. A couple flew out to Provo to watch BYU lose. ;) It was such a great experience. Alan came out of the water with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Then while he was getting dressed we had a testimony meeting. At the end we had Alan give his testimony. I can't tell you all the things he said, but the spirit that was there was amazing. Alan is the coolest kid ever!!
Ok, Friday and Saturday are over. Saturday was good, but it wasn't as good as Sunday. We have all our regular meetings, then sitting in Elders quorum Heath comes up to me and says, 'I have a story.' I got really excited and he told me. He had been invited to a party that he had been blowing off for some time. Finally he gave in and went to the party. It was at a ranch or farm and he was trying to scare a girl, when he tripped on a wire, fell, and bruised his knee and hand. He took that as advice to leave. He comes to find out that the kids who were there were drinking, smoking and all underage. He saw this as the Holy Ghost. Witnessing to him that he needed to leave before something happened. I thought this was the coolest story ever. I asked about how he felt and he said, 'We'll see if I get my answer today.' Well now I'm really excited. I taught Sunday school, I had thirty seconds to prepare because Mike Long did not show up or get a sub. Then we had sacrament meeting. Said hi to all the people I needed too and we went into a room to have a lesson with Heath. I asked him again. He went on about how he got his answer. It’s an amazing story. He came to Alan's baptism and while I was giving the talk on the Holy Ghost he felt like he wanted to yell out. The spirit was so strong he just wanted to yell. The next day in sacrament meeting he wasn't paying attention, neither was I, but he got a prompting to listen to the speaker. Well, at that exact time he listened the speaker was speaking on repentance. He felt that strengthened his answer as well. I know I'm missing a lot of details, but Heath is getting Baptized on Oct 24th. It’s been on crazy weekend. All the football teams lose, and all the spiritual highs come in. I love it, sorry to all the BYU fans. It was a good season.
;)ha-ha
I love you all and I'm praying for you too.
Elder Call
Elder Call
Off to the MTC
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Transfer Week
Hey Ya'll,
This week is transfers. Elder Perkins and I are staying here on TCC campus. All of the other companionships in the District are changing though. Two sister missionaries are leaving and one is coming from another area. I don't know the new sister, but apparently her and Sister Goodsell don't get along. I'm just glad I'm not District Leader. :)
I got Shannon’s letter and Hilary already read it and is planning on writing back. I got Whiting's letter and wrote back. I figured Doctor counted. :) I also got the package. It was so heavy! When I went to dump everything out the Tuna smashed my finger.
Well this week was fun. We met with a few of our investigators like Heath, but we couldn't meet with anyone else. Alan got sick and couldn't even go to school last week. We weren't able to meet with him. Hilary is still really busy with school and dance. Heath went to Panama City this weekend for Student Government. We saw each of them a little bit, but we weren't able to meet anyone solid. Alan is still getting baptized on Saturday. We set up everything and are ready to go. He is getting baptized right before the FSU vs BYU game. It will be a jam packed spiritual day. :D Elder Perkins is performing the baptism and I am performing the conformation on Sunday. I'm really excited for Alan. He is this big Teddy bear who completely embraced the gospel. It’s not the big changes that makes it amazing, it’s the little changes that he is making and the ability he is getting to be able to recognize the Lord in his life. He is the happiest person I know right now and I love it.
Heath told us that he is very interested in the church, to the point where baptism is almost always on his mind. However, he realizes he needs to make changes in his life and is doing it. He has made so many changes already in the last two weeks and the only answer he has for us is peace. He feels like he has found peace by searching through the Gospel. It’s a great blessing for him, because he is so tied up in politics. He loves watching and is all over student government. He is very liberal and talks a lot about government failures, but through the Gospel he was able to find peace in his life. It’s amazing.
Hilary is still doing well. She loved Shannon’s letter and has found time to meet with us now. She is comfortable with her schedule and came to church on Sunday again. She loves the gospel, but is afraid to dive in. It’s like a little kid at the edge of the pool not knowing if she wants to jump in. But like every parent of that kid they know that once in they will love it and never want to leave. Once Hilary jumps in she will love it and the blessings that come from it.
Football games on campus are really hard. We have no one to teach or to talk to. We can't go around interrupting tailgate parties or parties elsewhere. So we try to have our p-day on Saturdays and get as much done as possible. We then went over to Rich's house. He is a member here in Tallahassee. We were there for only an hour when it started to rain, hard. We got stuck there for a couple of hours. Too bad for us, the BYU game was on. ;)
I love you all and I'm always happy to get letters. I got grandma's too. Sounds like Megan is still loving Tennis. Shannon is still working hard in Dance. Kristen is still in school. ;)
I pray this week will be as good as last week.
Love Elder Call
This week is transfers. Elder Perkins and I are staying here on TCC campus. All of the other companionships in the District are changing though. Two sister missionaries are leaving and one is coming from another area. I don't know the new sister, but apparently her and Sister Goodsell don't get along. I'm just glad I'm not District Leader. :)
I got Shannon’s letter and Hilary already read it and is planning on writing back. I got Whiting's letter and wrote back. I figured Doctor counted. :) I also got the package. It was so heavy! When I went to dump everything out the Tuna smashed my finger.
Well this week was fun. We met with a few of our investigators like Heath, but we couldn't meet with anyone else. Alan got sick and couldn't even go to school last week. We weren't able to meet with him. Hilary is still really busy with school and dance. Heath went to Panama City this weekend for Student Government. We saw each of them a little bit, but we weren't able to meet anyone solid. Alan is still getting baptized on Saturday. We set up everything and are ready to go. He is getting baptized right before the FSU vs BYU game. It will be a jam packed spiritual day. :D Elder Perkins is performing the baptism and I am performing the conformation on Sunday. I'm really excited for Alan. He is this big Teddy bear who completely embraced the gospel. It’s not the big changes that makes it amazing, it’s the little changes that he is making and the ability he is getting to be able to recognize the Lord in his life. He is the happiest person I know right now and I love it.
Heath told us that he is very interested in the church, to the point where baptism is almost always on his mind. However, he realizes he needs to make changes in his life and is doing it. He has made so many changes already in the last two weeks and the only answer he has for us is peace. He feels like he has found peace by searching through the Gospel. It’s a great blessing for him, because he is so tied up in politics. He loves watching and is all over student government. He is very liberal and talks a lot about government failures, but through the Gospel he was able to find peace in his life. It’s amazing.
Hilary is still doing well. She loved Shannon’s letter and has found time to meet with us now. She is comfortable with her schedule and came to church on Sunday again. She loves the gospel, but is afraid to dive in. It’s like a little kid at the edge of the pool not knowing if she wants to jump in. But like every parent of that kid they know that once in they will love it and never want to leave. Once Hilary jumps in she will love it and the blessings that come from it.
Football games on campus are really hard. We have no one to teach or to talk to. We can't go around interrupting tailgate parties or parties elsewhere. So we try to have our p-day on Saturdays and get as much done as possible. We then went over to Rich's house. He is a member here in Tallahassee. We were there for only an hour when it started to rain, hard. We got stuck there for a couple of hours. Too bad for us, the BYU game was on. ;)
I love you all and I'm always happy to get letters. I got grandma's too. Sounds like Megan is still loving Tennis. Shannon is still working hard in Dance. Kristen is still in school. ;)
I pray this week will be as good as last week.
Love Elder Call
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Football season is here!!!!
Hey,
Sorry this is a day late. Yesterday was crazy. Labor day, so all the Libraries were closed, and the FSU vs. Miami game in Tallahassee. Every parking lot, every parking garage, every field, every apartment complex and even the curbs were full of people. I think every person attending the game was at some kind of tailgate party. I've never seen so many tailgators'. It does not, however, make for good missionary work. Its really hard to find someone to talk to when their so into their beer, or their tv, or the up coming game. So...we just did what ever we wanted to yesterday.
This weekend was just as crazy. The singles ward put on a party. They called it the T-town Get Down. There were people from Panama City, Orlando, Tampa and other parts around Florida. It seems like a lot, but not everyone showed up. Most waited until the dance that night. We were invited to the festivities. All except the dance. We weren't allowed to do anything though. Except watch and eat. Its really tough to just sit there and watch your peers run down the hill and jump on a thirty foot long slip in slide covered in water and two bottles of dish soap. Instead we sat there and watched until we couldn't take it anymore. We went and did service instead.
That night was just as bad. There was a huge dance in the 'Tute' and we weren't invited. So what were we going to do all night? Its a Saturday night and the entire town is getting ready for the big game on Monday. This may seem surprising, but we went to Subway, got a drink, and what do you know!! The BYU vs. Oklahoma game is on. :) Its really hard to resist when your companion, the district leader, loves BYU football, no one wants to talk to you, and a big game is within your sight. Anyways, the game was awesome and Sam Bradford got owned!
So now onto more spiritual stuff. Allen is getting ready to be baptized. This kid is Amazing. His date is on Sept 19 and he has already purchased a 'Quad' and a Preach My Gospel. He wants to be able to convince his dad, a catholic Deacon, that this is the true church. Not only that, he wants to convince his friends too. He invited 5 people to the T-town Get Down and 3 of them came to church with us the next day. We met with one of them, Brandon, who is Allen’s best friend. He was sitting next to us during sacrament and just started to cry. After sacrament we went into a spare room and started to talk to him. I didn't have anything planned to say, but I knew that if I listened I didn't need to worry about it. He told us about his niece who died two months ago. How he felt it was his fault that he wasn't there for his brother. He told us how the Bishops testimony really touched him and he felt he needed a good cry. Well after hearing this I ran with it. We jumped right into the plan of salvation and how that Christ is the center of it. We told him about the spirit world and that through Christ all children can be saved. We showed him the Book of Mormon and that by reading it we can feel closer to our Father. The one Eternal Father up in Heaven. How the Book lets us become closer to Christ and helps us follow his teachings. To end our conversation we read 3 scriptures. 2 Nephi 25:23-26, Mosiah 3:17 and 3 Nephi 5:13. All relating to Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Prophets, the purpose of Christ and my own purpose. He felt good and ready to continue to learn more. He gave us a big hug and we gave him the contact information of the church in Gainesville.
Heath is our other investigator. He is amazing. He has started making changes in his life without us. He has recognized certain characteristics of members and missionaries and has started to mimic them. We have only had one lesson with him and he asked us if he could fast for Fast Sunday. He is progressing so fast and I hope it continues.
Hillary is alright. It seems like we're losing her. She didn't come to church this Sunday and we haven't been able to meet with her at all last week. The closest we come is a telephone call. It’s sad because she was so happy when she was in the ward.
Congrats to all of you girls on your accomplishments. I don't have time to single you out, but I'm proud of what you are doing. And I brag about you all the time.
Mom - Its so weird when a random ward member starts talking about Devon Renshaw. :) Kaylee made us the cookies and they were delicious. I think its funny you tried to send me salsa. haha. That’s a lot of money. Oh cool story. We just got so much meat!! A family was moving to Ohio and had to get rid of a few things. They got rid of all the food in their freezer. It turns out that there was about $300 worth of meat in there. We split up the food between 6 sets of missionaries!! So I'm loving life right now. :D
Love, Elder Call
Sorry this is a day late. Yesterday was crazy. Labor day, so all the Libraries were closed, and the FSU vs. Miami game in Tallahassee. Every parking lot, every parking garage, every field, every apartment complex and even the curbs were full of people. I think every person attending the game was at some kind of tailgate party. I've never seen so many tailgators'. It does not, however, make for good missionary work. Its really hard to find someone to talk to when their so into their beer, or their tv, or the up coming game. So...we just did what ever we wanted to yesterday.
This weekend was just as crazy. The singles ward put on a party. They called it the T-town Get Down. There were people from Panama City, Orlando, Tampa and other parts around Florida. It seems like a lot, but not everyone showed up. Most waited until the dance that night. We were invited to the festivities. All except the dance. We weren't allowed to do anything though. Except watch and eat. Its really tough to just sit there and watch your peers run down the hill and jump on a thirty foot long slip in slide covered in water and two bottles of dish soap. Instead we sat there and watched until we couldn't take it anymore. We went and did service instead.
That night was just as bad. There was a huge dance in the 'Tute' and we weren't invited. So what were we going to do all night? Its a Saturday night and the entire town is getting ready for the big game on Monday. This may seem surprising, but we went to Subway, got a drink, and what do you know!! The BYU vs. Oklahoma game is on. :) Its really hard to resist when your companion, the district leader, loves BYU football, no one wants to talk to you, and a big game is within your sight. Anyways, the game was awesome and Sam Bradford got owned!
So now onto more spiritual stuff. Allen is getting ready to be baptized. This kid is Amazing. His date is on Sept 19 and he has already purchased a 'Quad' and a Preach My Gospel. He wants to be able to convince his dad, a catholic Deacon, that this is the true church. Not only that, he wants to convince his friends too. He invited 5 people to the T-town Get Down and 3 of them came to church with us the next day. We met with one of them, Brandon, who is Allen’s best friend. He was sitting next to us during sacrament and just started to cry. After sacrament we went into a spare room and started to talk to him. I didn't have anything planned to say, but I knew that if I listened I didn't need to worry about it. He told us about his niece who died two months ago. How he felt it was his fault that he wasn't there for his brother. He told us how the Bishops testimony really touched him and he felt he needed a good cry. Well after hearing this I ran with it. We jumped right into the plan of salvation and how that Christ is the center of it. We told him about the spirit world and that through Christ all children can be saved. We showed him the Book of Mormon and that by reading it we can feel closer to our Father. The one Eternal Father up in Heaven. How the Book lets us become closer to Christ and helps us follow his teachings. To end our conversation we read 3 scriptures. 2 Nephi 25:23-26, Mosiah 3:17 and 3 Nephi 5:13. All relating to Jesus Christ. The purpose of the Prophets, the purpose of Christ and my own purpose. He felt good and ready to continue to learn more. He gave us a big hug and we gave him the contact information of the church in Gainesville.
Heath is our other investigator. He is amazing. He has started making changes in his life without us. He has recognized certain characteristics of members and missionaries and has started to mimic them. We have only had one lesson with him and he asked us if he could fast for Fast Sunday. He is progressing so fast and I hope it continues.
Hillary is alright. It seems like we're losing her. She didn't come to church this Sunday and we haven't been able to meet with her at all last week. The closest we come is a telephone call. It’s sad because she was so happy when she was in the ward.
Congrats to all of you girls on your accomplishments. I don't have time to single you out, but I'm proud of what you are doing. And I brag about you all the time.
Mom - Its so weird when a random ward member starts talking about Devon Renshaw. :) Kaylee made us the cookies and they were delicious. I think its funny you tried to send me salsa. haha. That’s a lot of money. Oh cool story. We just got so much meat!! A family was moving to Ohio and had to get rid of a few things. They got rid of all the food in their freezer. It turns out that there was about $300 worth of meat in there. We split up the food between 6 sets of missionaries!! So I'm loving life right now. :D
Love, Elder Call
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
