April 20, 2009

I am doing great! I know you've heard by now, but I got transfered! I'm in the Olathe 1st ward with Elder Caceres. So I started this letter Monday night and now it's Friday night. We didn't have a P-day this week because we went to the temple last Friday and the rule is that we have to "make up" the time by working all of Monday. This week has been CRAZY BUSY! Let me tell you how crazy in brief... It's Friday night and we have 33!!! lessons already for this week... with 7 SET appointments for tomorrow! I have so much I want and need to tell you! I want you to know that I'm late on writing because I have zero time.... even to breathe! Haha! *breathe* Haha! I have a big long list of things to tell you the second I have time to write it! I promise!

April 13, 2009

Tuesday morning we went to the "Diana Rose Farmstead." It's a community farm/petting zoo. It's pretty awesome! Missionaries in the area have been volunteering there for the past couple of years. Last Tuesday was their first day open this season! Elder Murie and I worked in the "barn." There were 4 calves, one cow, and one pregnant heifer! I got to feed them and do all that fun stuff! They had a TON of a baby goats! They were cute! After we did the morning duties there really wasn't much to do! Haha! We got there at 8:30 and left at 12:30. There was a lot of standing around! Haha!

Wednesday's district meeting was about the phrase "I'll try..." or "I'm going to try..." as opposed to "I'll do" or "I'm going to do." It was very good and I learned a WHOLE lot from it! I have a goal to never have an "I'll try.." attitude, but an "I'll do" attitude. Yoda sums it up with "Do or do not. There is no try!" Having an "I'll try" attitude instead of a "I'll Do" is letting the devil deceive you. That's what I learned.

Wednesday night we went to Eric and Alyce's house to give Eric a blessing of comfort because of his brother. The bishop and brother Feaster came, too. It went really well! And Eric is coping fairly well! the lesson we had days before the accident really helped him and gave him a lot of comfort! Bishop Campbell gave the blessing. It was very good!

Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Mapa in my area. We had a good time! We taught Bill Kinsella that night. It went really fast, though. Friday, I went on exchanges with Elder Clayson in his area. I did a baptismal interview for an 11-year-old named Alec Green. He is super smart and knows his stuff! He was ready! The exchange went well! We didn't get a whole lot done, though. Their area is kinda slower than ours.

Saturday we were at the Capener's and I had him adjust my back and neck. That always feels good! Also that day we did a short presentation at a baptism for an 8 year old in the ward. That went well! There were some great treats after! Haha! This weekend was stake conference so we went to the Saturday night adult session. It was on Self-Reliance! It was really good! Bill Kinsella came to that and the Sunday Session! It was a broadcast from church headquarters. Pres. Monson, Elder Oaks and Snow, and Margaret LIfferth spoke. It was very good! Almost like another session of General Conference!

Well, today, Monday, we went golfing with some members from Mo-ville. I twas really fun! I didn't do all too bad! Haha! A few times I even hit it straight! Haha! Aren't you proud of me? Haha!

April 6, 2009

The work is going great! Time is going by so fast! It's all turning into one big blur! Well, let me tell you about this past week! We found 4 new investigators last week! That's pretty good! The first is named Alonzo Dial. He was married to a member until she died about 4 years ago. Back then he was taking the lessons and was about to join, then his wife suddenly died and he dropped off the map. But we're working on him again. I think he will be very promising. The next two are Frank and Jessi. An inactive member is living with them, Alex, who is frank's brother. Frank and Jessi are married with a super cute two-year-old, Martin! They are very interested in learning about the church! They are maybe in their late 20's early 30's. We taught them twice last week! The last one is Pepe. He is originally from spain, but speaks great english. He is also very interested in learning about the church! They are all very promising investigators! So I'm sorry if this letter isn't in chronological order. It's all a jumble to me! Some thing I know when and some things are just kinda thrown into the mix.

Tuesday night we taught Eric and Alyce a super fun lesson.. the law of Chastity! Yay... super fun... not!! Haha! I hate having to teach that to an unmarried couple! Blah! It was going good until we told them that Eric couldn't get baptized until they were married. That made Alyce cry... and here's why... Alyce's son, James, turns 8 in I believe June. Well, they wanted Eric to be baptized first, receive the priesthood, and baptize James. But they are planning on getting married towards the end of the year (well, at least Eric is planning that... Alyce doesn't know he is proposing soon) So the fact that Eric might not be able to baptize James made her cry a bit. But they understand and accept it. The lesson actually turned out really well because he asked questions about the temple and we talked all about that, the spirit world, proxy ordinances... all kinds of stuff about after death (which was extremely beneficial because of events that happened later in the week... I'll talk about that in a second)... okay, it's been a second, Hahaha! I'll tell you. Well, Friday night around midnight Eric's brother died in a motorcycle accident. He died instantly on impact. Eric was super sad about it. He went with his family for the weekend so he wasn't at conference. So yeah. That's what happened with them that week.

A member of the Hickory Hills ward gave us an address of a new member in the ward that only speaks spanish. they asked me to go by and tell her about conference and the spanish ward of the stake. We went by one day that week and I was a little nervous because I haven't really used my spanish in a while but I actually id pretty well! I impressed myself! Haha! Wednesday was District meeting and I talked about finding. It went good. I'm assuming because everybody found new investigators that week! After district meeting we helped bro. shriner clean up the fallen branches from his yard. that went pretty fast.

Sometime during the week we went to Bro. Chambers house. Bro. Chambers is a fireman but he is also a licensed Massage Therapist and he has a massage room in his house. We went here to see if he could do anything about Elder Murie's headaches. (yes, he's still having them often) He gave Elder Murie a massage to help loosen up his muscles. His head ache was gone by the end of the massage. Then I got a massage for some muscles that have been bothering me. It felt very nice! Haha! I talked to Bro. Chambers a lot about being a massage therapist. That is something I've always wanted to do. Elder Murie's headache came back the next day, sadly. We are pretty sure it's chronic tension headaches. Poor guy!

Saturday was General Conference! Woot! It was so awesome! I love Conference! It's so uplifting and enlightening! I took a ton of notes! Bill came to the priesthood session and Bill, Jesse, Joyce, Lily, and the Bumatays came to the Sunday morning session. That was awesome! I really loved Elder Hale's talk about provident living! I saw ways I can improve myself. I get $150 a month and I always run out before the end of the month! That is a horrible habit to have! I am not going to be that way for the rest of my life... living paycheck to paycheck! So I will force myself into good habits while I'm on my mission so I'm not failing when it really matters! When I have others depending on me! So I'm putting myself on a budget for each month. At the beginning of the month I'm going to take out $15 signifying tithing (even though I don't pay tithing right now... it's the principle.) Then I take out another $15 signifying 10% of savings. My dad taught me "10% to the Lord, then 10% to myself in savings"... I'm going to start applying that now! Although, the money I save up on my mission that way will be given back to the mission when I'm done! Haha! But I will have learned an important life skill... saving! I've never been good at that! It's already been tough! I've already had to tell myself many times that I can't afford it! Haha! I love M. Russel Ballard's quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!" So true! Priesthood Session was awesome! President Packer had a funny saying... "young men speak of the future because they have no past, and old men speak of the past because they have no future." Haha! I love that old big-eared man! Haha! Pres. Monson said something Sunday morning that I really liked... "the future is as bright as your faith!" Amazing! I just really liked all the talks! I'll probably have more to say about them when the Ensign comes out with the talks! Between the Saturday morning and afternnoon sessions a member took us to Costco to get pizza! MMM! I love Costco pizza! I also got myself Milk, bagels, and nacho cheese from there! Yum! Haha! I haven't been to Costco in SO long! I love Costco! Haha!

Saturday night after priesthood session a lot of the men from OP1 went to Sherridan's Frozen Custard! We went as well! Bro. Laudi (who has a twin brother in Lee's Summit that was in my ward... I wrote a little about him a long time ago) said he would pay for us! He's way awesome! He is one of the few in Mo-ville that isn't going to Chiropractic College. Instead, he is going to dental school! Haha! While at Sherridan's I felt like I should ask him a question. I felt like asking him if he needed any patients to practice on. That's kinda a random question, so I hesitated until right before he left to go home. I asked and then he immediately got a big smile on his face and got excited then said, "Yes! I actually do! I have boards son and I haven't found any body ot test on! That would be GREAT if you two could do that!" Haha! So that worked out perfectly! Maybe the spirit told me to ask him that! So we are going to get our teeth worked on for free!

April 2, 2009

Well, let me tell you about my week. It wasn't all too eventful but I will try to spice it up as I move along. Ha ha! So I'm pretty sure I told you about Elder Murie spraining his ankle... no fun for him. He still got around pretty well, though, because brother Capener used this stuff called "knesio tape" or something like that. That stuff is amazing. I'm sure you will probably google it and find out more about it than me so I won't explain what it is or what it does. Ha ha!

Tuesday we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Hutcheson in his area. He kinda has a lot of struggles and that day was especially bad so it was a little rough at first. Haha! We were biking and he didn't talk much at all. He progressively  got more mad as I tried to talk to him about some things. He wasn't angry "because of" me but since I was with him he was angry  "at" me. It was interesting! Haha. But eventually I just gave him some space and time to cool off and then he was fine after that and we had a good time. Haha! In the morning when he was having a hard time waking up I attacked him with a nerf gun. So I got him to exercise by him running and trying to get away from me. It was pretty hilarious! I had fun with it and it got him up. So it worked! Haha! 

Wednesday afternoon we went on another exchange with the zone leaders. I stayed in my area with Elder Stevens. He's from bluffdale, Utah. We have quite a bit in common. Graduated the same year. He worked at a movie theatre for a while (not megaplex, but cinemark) stuff like that. We had a pretty good exchange. We taught Bill Kinsella, an old feller that we've been teaching, and the Bumatay's, a couple that were less-active members but are starting to come back to church again. They are pretty cool!

Thursday we taught Jesse and Joyce and did our weekly planning. Friday morning we helped Jesse and Joyce move from one apartment building to a neighboring building. That wasn't too difficult at all. It only took 2 hours with 4 people. Haha. That's nothing at all! At 1:30 we went to interviews with President Van Komen. That went well! I have a feeling that I might be transfered to a spanish area because of the talk I had with President. We'll see what happens. I really hope to develop my spanish so I can be an effective spanish missionary. I also had district meeting at interviews. It was very short. I talked about self-evaluation and goal setting. It was alright. 

Friday after interviews I went on exchanges with Elder Pehrson in his area (yeah... I went on a lot of exchanges last week... it was pretty crazy). We didn't do a whole lot Friday night, but Saturday morning was quite an adventure! Let me tall you about that. So Elder Pehrson has bad knees and so Saturday morning he had an appointment with a member doctor that specializes in joints. That doctor lives in Olathe (Oh-lay-th-uh) Haha!. Well, Saturday morning we had a member ride so we could get there by 10:00. We were meeting him at his home. Note also that the weather on Saturday started out as rain... then progressed to freezing rain... then to a very heavy snow. Haha! We got to Olathe by 9:30 so we decided to go get some breakfast. McDonald's was the place of choice. haha. Well... 10:00 rolls around so we go to his house and knock on the door... and no answer! There was no one home! We waited for quite awhile thinking that maybe he was a little late or in the shower or something like that. By 10:15 we decided that we needed to call him. The only problem was that we didn't know his number. Haha! So we started a wild goose chase on the phone to get his number. After calling many numbers we got a hold of the Assistants to the President who gave us the number for the Olathe Zone leaders who then gave us Dr. Salin's (that's his name) number. So Elder Pehrson gave him a call and talked to him. Turns out that his wife signed them up for Saturday morning chapel cleaning and after that was a baptism for an 8 year old boy in the ward. He asked if we could come over to the church and then he would give us a ride so our member could go home so we agreed. His church building, however, was 30 minutes away, in Missouri! Haha! It's actually the same building I went to when I was serving in KC3. Luckily I knew how to get there. It was just past the state line. So we were dropped off there and just went in and watched the baptism. Haha! We got a few "who are you and why are you here" looks but that's alright! Haha! One person asked us if we were the new Elders in the ward! Haha! At this point we didn't know a single person in the building! After the service Bro and Sis Salin introduced themselves and then we were off in their car with them and their 3 kids. We had to drive back to their house so Bro. Salin could pick something up. They are a way cool family! Mid-30's I would guess. Very funny! At first sis. Salin tried to convince us that she was the doctor and bro. salin was the stay at home dad. she said she thought elder pehrson had a case of "Ligament Tendonitis" which doesn't even make sense! haha! Bro. Salin had to pick up his access card for his office and we dropped his family off at the same time and started toward his office (his 7-year-old son came with us, too). His office was on Nall and I-435, which is only about 2 miles from where I live with Bro. Shriner. Bro. Salin looked at Elder Pehrson's knees and told him what was wrong ( and no, it wasn't ligament tendonitis, hahaha!) He gave him some exercises to do and gave him some shots into his knees for the pain. He then took us to Chipotle for lunch. After that he took me to Bro. Shriner's house to switch back up. We didn't do much else after that because of the weather. Actually, I lied. We did a baptismal interview for a 19-year-old girl named Rashaunda Dodd. She was baptized Sunday in the singles ward. 

Just one more thing. Monday while we were playing basketball I fell and sprained my wrist! Haha! Don't worry, I'm doing alright. It's my right wrist so it doesn't really affect me too much. It should heal pretty fast. Well, that's about it for this week.