Week #57 - The Course of French History by Pierre Goubert

Hey Everyone!
Life is fantastic in Santa Rosa. Transfers are only two weeks away, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I could be out of here. It's weird to think it's already been a full summer. I was here when everyone was graduating or getting out of school and now they're all back. Outrageous. Time flies.

This week was way cool. We picked up a new investigator who's actually a referral from a member of another ward. She's basically just looking for the truth. She's of Native American descent also, so the Book of Mormon is something she's really interested in. It's been really interesting to talk with her- she sounds pretty promising. We set somewhat of a baptismal date with Sonja for September 13th. We'll see- we went over all of the interview questions and she's pretty ready. Her inactive husband came to church with her for the first time in many years yesterday too- so that was awesome to see. Missionaries have tried to work with her for years and it looks like she's finally ready. There are a ton of baptisms in the zone lined up for the 12th and 13th which is crazy awesome.

I was asked to sing Come Thou Fount in sacrament meeting yesterday- it went really well. It was kinda fun too because I don't think many people in the ward ever knew I sang at all. Sister Gamblin (the bishop's wife) played piano for me- she's way good.

Last Monday we went to the Charles Shultz museum in honor of the mom and it was pretty cool- we actually got a huge behind the scenes tour from the manager because Elder Hubbard met her on the plane coming out here. She told him that if he was ever in Santa Rosa to go there and ask for her and she'd get us all in free. So, she took us to all of the spots no one else got to go. Score! It was fun.

Anyway, that's about it for me. Things are great, the gospel's true, and have a good week!Elder B

Week #56 - Clippers and Flightplans

Hey everyone!
This week had a nice finish. It began as another struggle with lots of lesson cancellations and other stuff. Apparently, along with the calling of a missionary also comes the ability (and time) to find any genealogical information (i.e. Joseph Smith's great-great-great grandparents' names) total knowledge of California/U.S. Law- not only that, but great hookups, resources, and free attorneys. On Sunday a member told us that we need to figure out that genealogy for a friend of his by next week. After informing him that it wasn't going to happen, he replied "You'll figure it out." Our investigator James, for the past two months has been waiting on us to get all this legal information for marrying his girlfriend. He needed us to find attorneys in church to talk to who could give him all the answers to his questions. BUT: Prayer works. We knew James was just stalling because he knows his girlfriend (although they've lived together 20 years) doesn't want to marry him even if it's the least amount of "marriage" you can possibly have (confidential marriage) and he knows it'll come down to him having to move out. So, he's used this excuse of (in essence) telling us that the ball's in our court for about two months now. We've been praying constantly that somehow things would work out soon. Last Sunday, a high councilman was in PEC and heard our situation and said he had a client that James could talk to. He gave us all the information that week and got her to agree to a half an hour of a totally free question/answer session in this woman's office (she deals with all sorts of marriages and legal issues). That day, we called James and told him he needed to do it and call this woman. He told us yesterday that he couldn't sleep that whole night after we gave him the information and in the morning he knew that the reason was because he hadn't called yet and he was putting it off. He said the Holy Spirit told him in the morning to call, he did, and that day he went in and talked to her. He got all his answers, presented it to his girlfriend, and she still won't marry him. So, now he knows what has to happen and we'll see if he's willing.

Our president interviews were amazing this week. It made me feel a ton better about how the work's going in this area. Everything seemed as though it was at a hault for a while, but things really picked up towards the end of the week and President made me feel a whole lot more comfortable about not seeing progress at the moment.

Life is fantastic! The gospel's true, have a good week, and I love missionary work!
Elder B

Week #55 - Carpools and Telephone Wires

Hi everyone!

This week was quite the trial of our faith. One of our investigators had a baptismal date for August 22nd, and then Monday after church she called us and left a message saying it's not the church for her and we need to cancel her baptism (in so many words). So, that was a bit of a downer. We also had (what we thought to be) a pretty packed week full of appointments with new investigators that mostly ended up cancelling or being much less promising than we thought. Anyway, it made it a little difficult to stay positive and enthused, but I'm always up for a brand new week. I've got a good feeling about this one!

Our zone conference this week, however, was incredible. Elder Shaw and I got to sing our famous "Nearer My God To Thee/Redeemer of Israel" on the guitar which has become much more perfected since we recorded it. It went really well. President never ceases to amaze me when he speaks. He knows his stuff. He taught us for three hours and he could have easily gone longer without anyone caring. My companion and I also had our stake correllation meeting with the stake presidency, high councilman, and President Bunker...and special guest, Elder Trythol (the area seventy out here). It was pretty intense. It turned out REALLY well and it looks like the missionary work will be focused on in the Santa Rosa Stake.

That's about it- the gospel's true and I'm low on time. Have a good week!
Elder B

Week #54 - He Gave Me An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

Hey everyone!
Before I say anything else, July 10th sounds like a fantastic date for the wedding. I really appreciate you including me and planning for me to be a part of it. You guys are great. I want to throw this out to the fam: Thanks a buttload.

This week was pretty incredible. We had some amazing experiences with finding and teaching. We set a baptismal date for our investigator for the 22nd of August and she's way excited about it. We also picked up a few really solid investigators. One is a woman who knows the Bible extremely well and has church with her children in her home because she said she can't find the true kingdom of God on earth. Basically everything that came out of her mouth was something we typically teach, and she also talked a lot about the gathering of Israel and how we need a leader that's actually called of God. It was pretty awesome. We're meeting with her on Thursday. Her condition was that she wanted to see how our church was doctrinally accurate. It was pretty nice to talk to her after talking to a guy who is "constantly taught by the Holy Spirit" and "knows what EVERYTHING in the entire Bible means." It's interesting: There was someone who obviously went to his "non-denominational" church and had his "non-bias" pastor tell him what to and what not to believe. This man had developed twisted views (and and in the process developed quite a bit of pride), and knows that no matter what, he's right. Then, the other woman we talked to who actually studied the Bible without outside influences, actually questioned parts that no one could answer, and is still open to more truth- has her views lining up almost to the T with our doctrine. We also taught to a group of three ladies- a mother and two twin daughters (in their forties or fifties). Elder Hubbard and I were a pretty big hit. They loved us. We taught them all about the spirit and the restoration and had a really good discussion.

We had quite the leadership council with President Bunker. The meeting started at 9 am and went until about 5. We were given lunch in the middle. It was pretty incredible though. I would have been fine staying longer. Lots of changes are being made in the mission and we're becoming MUCH more focused on our purpose and how we spend our time. Already we've noticed huge progress throughout the mission and much more excitement and dedication to the work. Things are definitely headed in a good direction. We had a good meeting with our zone the following day where we really stressed the importance of everyone being on board and being unified not because we do fun things together or talk a lot but because we had the exact same purpose. We talked about how the Godhead is unified because they have the exact same focus and purpose. It went really well.

Anyway, that's about it for me. Thanks for everything and have a good week!
The gospel's true.
Elder B

Week #53 - Drywall

Hey Everyone!
It's been quite the week this week- for the first time in the Brush Creek Santa Rosa ward history, we taught twenty lessons! Also we picked up five new investigators that are pretty awesome and all around it was a great week. We taught the Word of Wisdom to Patty Rueter (one of our top investigators) who immediately afterwards went to her cupboards and took out all the coffee and tea and threw it in the dumpster. Then she took a huge pitcher of tea from her refridgerator and dumped it out in the sink. She was really excited. That's probably the best reaction to a commandment I've seen out here.

Lots and lots of changes in the Santa Rosa zone/mission the transfer. Many zone leaders/district leaders were released, all but one companionship in our zone had at least one person leave, so things are pretty crazy. I'm WAY excited about our new zone- Elder Norton unfortunately got transferred, but it sounds like the new companion I'm getting is a stud (I'm staying in Brush Creek Ward). This will be his first transfer as a zone leader and it sounds like he should have been one a long time ago. There were four missionaries in this ward, but now it's just my new companion and me covering it- so our new area is huge and we'll be kept way busy. The district leaders this transfer are going to be awesome. Anyway, our incoming leadership is made up of total studs, so I'm way excited to work with them. It's going to be an awesome transfer! These past two have really helped me out a lot in just learning how to lead and helping me develop a better focus on areas I need to improve and how to improve them. I've got lots of stuff I'm pretty excited to talk about with the new zone.

Things are awesome, the gospel's true, and I didn't receive any mail this week.

Much love to errbody,
Elder B