Zak sent pictures!!! Here are a few:
Zak with his Companion - Elder Beck
"almost covered" cars! They did get plenty of snow!
QUESTIONS:
How was your Easter?
really, very good. The 3 hours of
church were made maybe my favorite church service ever. Really good Easter
talks/lessons. I'll talk more about the day after the questions
Did you have a dinner appointment?
yes. we do about 97% of the time,
especially holidays. we were invited to another as well that had 4 or 5
families going and the one we went to had about 5 or 6 different families there
too.
What did you eat?
food.
How was your church meeting?
it really stank. (just kidding)
What songs did you sing?
ummm I don't remember. To start the day
Elder Holt said he hopes we sing Christ the
Lord is Risen today, Alleluia (like you guys did) but we didn't. During the
combined 3rd hour we listened to a recording of someone singing "I Know My
Redeemer lives"
Did you ward do something different
because of the 5th Sunday?
yes, the 3rd hour was combined. Brother
Lyons, the sunday school president, gave a lesson on the Christlike Attributes
in PMG. Did an excellent job. used a few different pieces of media.
Would you be allowed to see a youtube
video of Chase while in the hospital asking the same questions repeatedly? I
could send you a link if yes.
probably not. I have used youtube to
watch a specific mormon message during a lesson before though and it went
really well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkKblIMfmjI
Not a question, but look for your
flashdrive in the mail this week!!
will do!
How is your retainer fitting?
fine. I'm slightly afraid it's been
bent a little since it's original creation though. my teeth still look straight
I remember to wear it most nights.
Also not a question, but your shoes,
(from your pictures) are SO shiny. Very nice!
after being a missionary for 5 or 6
months I realized I had never used my shoe shining kit, so I did it once. The
picture was probably taken after that. Sometimes P-day morning I think I should
do it again that day, but it hasn't happened again since.
Did investigators make it to church
today??
1 did. 1 was sick. 1's wife just had a
baby, also he'll probably go to the Spanish branch when he finally goes. 1
family didn't go, but after the big tearful, finally spill all the beans on
whats going on lesson we had yesterday, will surely being watching conference
next week. 1 might have been working. 2 have excuses that I would put under the
"far less than good" category.
A ton of less actives came though.
Hopefully we'll be able to build some momentum from it.
thoughts on the funny/good mail I got
this week:
the "do you feel stuck... Call the
mormon missionaries!" meme was very funny. Both Elder Holt and I enjoyed
it. It shouldn't be as controversial as the last one you sent me.
People of the LDS church rank either #3 or 4 (I don't remember) of
knowledge of other world religions Interestingly. the group of
"Atheists" ranks either #1 or #2. those are real stats, and will
become relevant and make sense in a second. Also we know there are a lot of
Atheists now in America
I think everyone has the basic deep
life questions (what happens after this life, what's the point, how can I
really be happy, etc) in them. Some people think about them more than others,
but everyone somewhere in life has a need to seek answers for them. Some people
see a lot of what they know must be false, so they become "atheist",
a lot of people look for a church that is "right for them". I'm not sure if most people who do that realize the churches they
join that believe the bible don't follow a lot of what it says. Having a lay
ministry keeping the law of chastity doing missionary work, etc ARE in the
bible; maybe people don't realize that, maybe they just would rather ignore it.
I grew up with the idea that there is a "true church"; that Christ's
gospel is prefect and universal. That makes perfect sense to me and anything i
feel is flawed. Most people do not have that idea, which is also how the idea
of the "right for me" church comes to be. What I've noticed the
"right for me" church usually consists of is the correct mix of
preaching the pleasing word (so as to keep things happy and easy) with the
right mix of teaching the commandments (so as to help everyone be "good
people", and thus "make it into heaven"). Also being close to
where you live helps something become the "right church".
2 last thoughts on the subject: I think
most everyone would agree the best way to find the "right church" and
the true and correct answers to life questions is to go to the source. To
follow the advice in James 1:5 and ask God. He knows better than we do or
anyone else, even the guy from church who's read the bible 14 times forward and
twice backward.
For me, in my life I've had
experiences, thoughts and feelings that I know have come from God. What he's
communicated to me is that the right church for me is Christ's church. I
believe that church is right for everyone. Maybe If I had more time I could
organize all that a little better and make it a little more coherent and less
wildly bold, but I do not.
Good
job to christopher in selling of the puppies! did Chancho pay for
herself/Gaston? make a profit yet? how long before there will be more puppies?
also good job fighting with a kite.
It's
interesting to hear about church in arcadia and how they're organizing things
slightly different. One thing I like about this ward is they always have a
someone from the primary walk up and read a scripture (only 1 time did it come
through tears) and always have a youth speaker. Also I like standing up for the
intermediate hymns. When we did not have one yesterday the chorister had us
stand up for the closing hymn. She had to gesture 2 or 3 times to make it
happen.
what
our Easter was like. usual wake up stuff. also we got call president about a
few things going on in our area. He mentioned he was already having a good
easter being with his family and having a good breakfast. I told him WE
considered Easter a religious holiday so WE were going to church! he laughed.
It's always good to talk to him.
Church was more full than usual and very good.
We were given one jar of jellybeans and each given a Easter basket while at
there. Afterwards we went and visited some families who all live close together
and near the church.
First we went tot he Permenter family. We showed them
something president emailed to us a while ago we hadn't really used before. It
was a format for a fancy invitation to tell a friend you were speaking at
church. We re-formatted it a little bit and printed one sample one on card
stock paper. It looked really good. Sister Permenter said if a friends from
another church gave her one she would totally go and support/watch her give the
talk. None of them were giving a talk (or getting baptized, receiving
priesthood, etc) soon, but we talked about how every testimony meeting is a
great opportunity to assign yourself a chance to be up in front. We discussed
who they all thought they could invite to hear them bear testimony. There were
3 different people they brought up (all by the 2 young men in the home). They
seemed pretty excited about it and only slightly worried about it being awkward
or rejected (because they remember, every invite is a success!) They decided by
this sunday they'll have more personalized invites printed out, so then they'll
have a week to sue them to invite their people to hear them bear testimony.
Also they were thinking of a few other people in the ward who they want to ask
to bear testimony just to make sure it is a great meeting (and full of real
testimonies, not wonky stories).
Earlier in the weak another of the young men,
Parker, said during a dinner appointment he could think of at least 1 person he
would want to invite to hear him in this coming testimony meeting. We did not
get the chance to show him the fancy invite card to see if he would want to use
it. They said we could come back in a week to see how it was going.
After
our meeting with the Permenters we went to the Colemans. We had already had a
meeting similar to this about 2 weeks before at a dinner with them, but they
were more thinking about who they could invite to hear a boy in the family,
Carver, give his youth talk. We did not have the fancy invites back then. We
found out Carver, his older brother Nathan and his mom all had good experiences
inviting people, even though none of those people came. The daughter of the
family had a different neat missionary experience though and the dad was sick
and didn't go to weak most of the week before. We told them good job and then
discussed what they thought their next step was for sharing the gospel and told
them about how some other young men were going to use the coming testimony
meeting and also about our new cool invite cards. Nathan, the older brother,
really liked the testimony meeting idea (now being referred to as THE testimony
meeting or sometimes The Greatest Testimony Meeting Ever) and said he knew at
least 1 or 2 he could invite. Also they all thought the card stock invitations
were cool, but wouldn't fit into their current plans. Carver talked about a
friend he wanted to invite to mutual, the sister's plan was inviting the
neighbor to girls camp and Sister Coleman really wants to have the neighbors
over for dinner. Brother Coleman was the only person who got away without a
concrete plan, but did say he would be on the look out for something he thought
was a good idea to invite some people from work to. Possibly something they
could help do service at (which idea came from PEM, which he bought and is
reading. Also the idea of asking a few other members from the ward to bear
their testimony to make it a good one is from the PEM). Great meeting, and they
said we could have our next follow up in 2 weeks to see how it went and once
again figure out "what's next."
Both
of those meetings went pretty much ideal and the whole "what's next"
idea is what president Packard has really been pushing his whole time here.
Usually it would be what's next for their specific friends they've had good
experiences with in the past. Ideally the meetings would last about 20 minutes,
but with both those families there was a lot to talk about so they went longer,
plus they are families that don't at all mind.
Right now the tally for THE testimony meeting is 4 young men (Parker, 2
Permenter boys and Nathan Coleman) each inviting at least 1 person. It should
be great. We'll talk to more members, especially young men, about hopping on
the bandwagon. I'm a little bit surprised none of the YM's parents already
weren't inspired to jump on it. One cool thing about missionary work is that
success sells success so it can have a great snowball effect and the spirit of
it can spread around.
After
the Coleman's we went to the Reids. There we just talked about helping brother
Reid connect with a family he home teaches. succesfully under 20 minutes.
THen
we went to the Whitings (Relief society president and he is in the Elders
Quorum presidensy) to report on some people they asked us to help track down.
After
that we had that big, good and important investigator lesson I mentioned
earlier.
Then
we went to our Easter dinner which was very good for food (ham, super good
funeral potatoes, turkey, rolls, various desserts) and for coordinating a few
other things with the members there.
Very
Excellent way to spend Easter!
The
rest of the week was also good. I hope you enjoyed the thorough Easter day
report though. I exhort everyone to facebook post about the upcoming
general conference! you can use my facebook to link to it too!
Also if you want
I could email the format of the fancy smachey invitation we've been showing to
people if you want to see it (or use it!) (great for speaking, testimony
meetings, special music numbers, primary programs/singing time stuff, when you
are teaching in relief society or YM or gospel doctrine! or anything!) (or just
invite them to come without the card too!)
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