June 15, 2009

We had a pretty good week! 30 lessons and 6 new investigators! Not too bad. Haha! So let's see what else exciting happened. For district meeting I taught how to reach 20 lessons through the ward's help. The other companionships are kinda struggling with lessons. I think it was a good meeting! After that I went on exchanges with Elder Allen in his area (he's the new elder). He's a good missionary. The area is pretty slow right now. Not much teaching going on. We tried contacting a lot of people with not much success. I've definitely been where he is in a tough area. I made sure to give him a lots of pointers and advice that would help him a bit.

Friday afternoon was the Farmstead as usual. Boy, was it busy! It's so funny! Whenever a member of the church goes to the Farmstead and then sees our name badges they always say something to let us know they are members. Like "Hey Elders!" The other main indicator that a person is a member (women especially) is their choice of clothes. Usually it is blaring hot and humid outside and they are wearing very modest clothing while most other women are... well, let's just say that their clothes would NOT cover garments. Haha! It's pretty bad out here in the summer! It's really sad... parent's let their little kids and young teenage daughters dress like skanks. Modest is Hottest... that's what I'm sticking to. Haha.

So Sunday morning we had a great lesson with Kristen. We first had a yummy breakfast with the Ponders and her. German pancakes, bacon, fruit... yum, yum! Then we taught her about the restoration. She said she prayed and I'm pretty sure she got an answer to if she should be baptized, but something is still holding her back. She's still hesitant about something. I don't know what it is. We are hoping to go to the Visitor's Center on Sunday. We'll see how that goes. Well, that's pretty much all the exciting news for this week. 

June 8, 2009

I've had a pretty good week! It went by super fast! We got 24 lessons this past week, so it's coming back up. It also helped that we got 6 new investigators, too! Our teaching pool is growing fast. A lot of the new investigators seem pretty promising as well! I'm excited! The work is going well here and we are staying super busy! I don't think I'll have a whole lot to update on for the week because I don't remember most of it. Haha!

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Independence visitor center with Marina and Mayra and Rosario. Marina is Rosario's sister and Mayra is Marina's daughter. They loved the VC! They cried when they watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was great!

Wednesday was zone conference. That was great as well. It's always a spiritual booster. They talked about a lot of different things. I don't think I could pick out one main theme. It was just very good. So, I cut my hair Monday morning because it was getting way too long. I've gotten a lot of compliments on my work! Haha! I haven't set photos in a while. I need to do that. I will do that! 

So this past Sunday night we had dinner at the Ponder's home. They are a very cool family here. Anyway, the daughter, Katie, has a friend whose name is Kristen. Kristen's mom is a member of the ward here that is just coming back from inactivity. Kristen is a non-member, but was taught by the missionaries about 2 years ago. She has kinda been going through a rebellious stage in life, but she was just accepted to BYU Idaho so she can be with her friend Katie. She has come to church many times and even girls' camp. So she knows a lot of people in the ward and knows a lot about the church. Since she's going to go to BYU-I she will have to make some changes in her life. So Sunday night Katie asked us how long we will be in this area for. We said at least another 4 weeks. (And because the Ponders like us so much) She said that we should have a goal to baptize Kristen before then! So I told her to set up a time that we could come teach her in their home. She told us she'd do that. So she calls us the next morning and told us that Kristen could come to dinner that night and was willing to be taught after! We cancelled our regular dinner that night so we could go teach Kristen. We went and it went really well! We committed her to pray about baptism. I think we'll baptize her! We are going back to the Ponder's Sunday morning before church for breakfast and another lesson! I'm excited!

So I think I know why I've been taking so long with the Spanish language . . . I remember my mom telling me that it took me a long time to speak English! I would just grunt and point at what I wanted instead of verbalize my thoughts. I wish I could just do that for the spanish language . . . *Grunt* *points at investigator* *points at baptismal font* *grunt grunt!* I'm sure that would work great! Haha! Anyway . . . the point is that I'm just slow at learning languages and I've accepted that. Although, I'm working harder than ever to improve my language skills! I was proud of myself yesterday! We were teaching a lesson in english and I couldn't think of a word so it took me a bit of thinking to get it, but when it came to my mind, it came as the spanish word instead of the english one. So I had to translate my vocabulary from spanish to english to talk! I think that's a good sign! Hahaha!

Well, I believe that's about it for this week. It took me until Wednesday night to finish this letter, and that's even with the time I took on Monday to write. Thank you for being so patient with my crazy busy schedule! It's Wednesday and we've already gotten 5 new investigators for the week! Haha!

June 1, 2009

Let me tell you about this past week. As you know, it was transfers week. You also know that I stayed! Elder Caceres stayed as well. We're pretty excited! At transfers 3 of my past companions went home! That's so weird! Elders Seethaler, Wuthrich, and Bartlett. Thursday night at the church there was a polynesian show put on by a hawaiian family that performs world-wide. It was way awesome! They did all kinds of dances. Including a native american hoop dance and flaming knife dance. Elder Caceres got most of the dances on video and I've gotten them from him now. They also brought people up from the audience onto the stage to teach them a hula dance from hawaii. It was a stake activity so it was packed in the gym. They all made a big fool of themselves! Haha! Oh... guess what else added to the fun and hilariousness of that part of the show....... I was one of the people up there making a fool of myself in front of the whole stake!! Hahahaha! They made some of the missionaries come up. My companion and I and Elder Graham and his new companion, Elder Allen. Remember that it was transfers that morning, so it was Elder Allen's first day in the area. Haha! Something else that's funny about Elder Allen having to get up and dance is the fact that it was also his first day IN THE MISSION FIELD! He's a brand new greenie! Hahaha! I'm sure he was thinking something like... "this isn't what I signed up for!" Haha! Nah.. he looked like he handled it well. Haha! We kept hearing comments about it for a few days. They told Elder Caceres how funny he looked and I was complimented on my dancing! Haha! And yes, I have a video of us hula dancing! :)

So.... just a little piece of interesting news... you know crazy Bill from OP? He's got a baptismal date for June 20th! Haha! That's pretty awesome! Haha