Received Wednesday, february 12, 2014

QUESTIONS:

do you know about Instagram?

I know a bit about it. kind of like a twitter type thing, but only pictures. 

Have you heard people talk about the Olympics?

a little. My friend Janna is upset at some anti-gay legislation I am unaware of. what's that about?

any news on ipads, or tablets?

no. They are still out there, but we don't know when or anything

How was your snow this week???

we got some. Got to do some shoveling for people, which always makes some good missionary opportunities.

Any issues with your driving?

nope

What are you doing for your p-day today?

dealing with stuff. So there might be a big snow storm tomorrow, so they moved transfer meeting from tomorrow morning to tonight. That squashed a lot of plans. A lot of people in our zone don't have cars so we're doing a lot of coordinating for that. Been making like 67 phone calls and 133 texts every 5 minutes, and we, with our minivan, will be giving rides too, so we'll be leaving to do that around 5'ish. also we shopped briefly, and are emailing and I think we'll go down to a chapel with a group of missionaries to do game type stuff.

Anything interesting happen at church for you this week?

We had an investigator come for the first time (just sacrament meeting) which was neat. I don't think anything else really jumped up.

Any FUN meeting coming up?

we had a FUN meeting yesterday, with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders. the mission numbers for new investigators and for % of baptismal dates dropping have been getting worse lately, so Most of the conversation/meeting was about what we need to do to fix things. It was more of a big counsel setting than training. We got some really good takeaways and thing we'll be doing with the zone, especially with our exchanges with missionaries and coordination with all our district leaders. At the end we read 2 Nephi 31 with President, which was great.

Do you wear a big coat to church, then hang it up when you get inside?

usually, yes.

Is the floor of your car dirty and wet from all the dirty snow you walk on?

basically, yes.
question from Griffin: what is YOUR favorite sport?

probably football! I think that is my best and my favorite sport to play. Basketball is great because it's much easier to organize and is also very fun (and you can do it when it's -literally- freezing cold outside). I don't get the chance to play much baseball. Dodge ball is also fun sporty activity. Tennis and other sports are also good with the right crowd. Soccer can defiantly be fun, but it isn't very high on the list compared to others. Volleyball is also great with the right group.
If I had to rank them I might say 1 Football 2 (tied) Basketball/Volleyball 4 Dodgeball 5 Everything Else

we've had a pretty good week. Both Elder Jones and I have been a bit sick with just a cold, so not a huge deal, at different times. Him first, now me still recovering. Shoveling snow was fun to do. We went to go help one member, and afterwards she had a neighbor shoveling we were able to help. Once she (the neighbor) was all shoveled we gave her a pass along card and (with the help iof the member) were able to invite her to check out mormon.org  and ask if she had any questions. Afterwards the member was very excited about that. As we were walking back to the car she was saying things like "that was our missionary moment!" she was very proud of herself and she shared it on sunday in the RS missionary moment at the beginning. I think what she got out of it was the best part of the whole thing. Sharing the gospel really is basically the most selfish (as in, greatly benefits your own self) thing to do.)

When I first got transferred here there was an investigator who had a baptismal date, but had just dropped contact with the missionaries. we've been trying to reach out to him a few times, and last week he said he wanted to get back into learning the gospel. We had a lesson with him last week (I was gone on exchanges though, but I heard it was good). It seemed like he matured somewhat (he's early 30's I think) and being totally away from the gospel helped him to realize what he was missing. He wants to get that eternal perspective back where you can see the things that really do, and really don't matter.

While I was on the exchange in the other elders area I also got to do a baptismal interview, which was cool. He was maybe a bit rushed towards baptism, but he seemed to understand and to be ready. He was baptized sunday. Often times when with people who are coming really close to making the covenant of baptism you can tell they are feeling so excited for the fresh start. There are a lot of really good chapters and verses about baptisim in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon, but I really like how in John chapter 3, Christ literally says we must be "born again" that initially confuses the person he's talking to (who says "can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?"). We can be spiritually born again, which is something we all do need.

Right before that exchange we did our zone meeting. I guess it went ok, but I felt like it could have been better. A big part of it was the need for us to be better at personal contacting wherever we go, like just opening our mouth and talking to the people around us. That's basically the staple of missionary work (from the very beginning and it will be forever) and President is pretty concerned we're neglecting it. Elder Ballard also said that directly to the missionaries in general conference. So right after the meeting I went on the exchange to a walking area, were I knew there'd be many people to talk to. I feel like it went decently well, I probably was able to bear a small testimony to about 15 people or so on our travels and have some ok conversations. if you don't invite someone they don't have any chance to say "yes". We did one kind of funny demonstration role play about that at our zone meeting. I was the missionary and someone else was the "non-member" walking past each other on the sidewalk and when we got to each other I very cheerfully said "Good morning!" and kept going. Afterwards we talked about what was the chance that person would accept the gospel. Of-course the answer is 0, they have no chance if you don't actually stop and talk to them. I'm not sure how much of our zone really latched on to the idea though. On the exchange my companion wasn't too keen on it. It can be hard.

This week looks like it should be good. we're doing a lot more exchanges and things, and we have a lot of lessons set up.

that's everything, got to go. Be good!