Week #82 - Quarrels of a Wildabeast!

Hey Everyone!

So the week was good and the work was not.

I think just about every appointment (there were many) that was scheduled for the Spanish elder didn't show except for two. Things went alright for english work. We've all had a good discussion on how we're going to improve things and I've been working a lot to come up with a stellar district meeting to hopefully get things going even faster. We have a few promising investigators right now, but we still need a whole lot more. We did receive an excellent referral from some members a few days ago for a husband and wife- the wife's father recently passed away. We contacted them and they agreed to meet with us in about a week (after all of the funeral things are taken care of). The husband was a really nice guy, so we're excited to see where it goes.

We had stake conference yesterday and Saturday and it was AWESOME. The talks were incredible and it was really cool to see everyone from Benicia again (Benicia's in our stake). It's crazy to think I haven't seen them in a year. That was the first time I ever really got to visit with members from an old area, so it was pants.

Welp, other than that, stuff's good. We're all committed to pick things up here in Sonoma, so we'll see what happens. Have a fantastic week and I hope to receive no fewer than 20-30 letters before Sunday.

The Gospel's true!
Elder B

Week #81 - Valentine-less

Hey Everyone!

It's been a great week in Sonoma. I hope everyone had a delightful Valentine's Day full of candies and awesome. Mine would not have been nearly as fantastic if I hadn't gotten a visit from the UPS man...who was kind enough to give me a bunch of delicious Mrs. Fields cookies. What a nice guy!

And, though I had no Valentine, I was at least assured that I was very loved by our vehicle coordinator. She has provided me with a brand new 2010 Chevy Colorado, which is MUCH nicer than the one I previously drove.

Speaking of trucks, however, I had an interesting experience with our old truck last week. We were out knocking doors, and for some reason I was getting way more irritated than usual with everyone's responses. It was hitting me especially hard how rude or childish all of these grown men and women felt they needed to be to us, especially when the majority claim to be Christian. It was really nothing out of the ordinary, and I still don't know why I was getting so upset, but we got to the last door. I knocked, the fifty year old lady came to the window (without opening the door) and said "Can I help you?" I start to say who we are/what we're doing, and she cuts me off: "BYE!" I was furious. I said "Thanks for your time- God Bless" however I'm not sure how pleasant or kind that one sounded. In fact, I'm pretty sure you couldn't hear much love in my tone of voice at all.

We walked back to the truck without saying anything, and I tried to turn it on. It wouldn't start. I tried again, still wouldn't. We had about ten minutes to get to dinner, so I decided we should say a prayer that it would. We did, tried again, still would not. I sat there for a second and started to feel a bit of peace, and knew that I just needed to read the scriptures. I told my companion that the car would start in time for dinner, but I was just going to read a little bit. I opened the Book of Mormon to the story of Sherem and Jacob. I read the chapter and just felt completely calmed down. Sherem was trying to tell Jacob (despite Jacob's undeniable witness) that everything he believed and taught was stupid, unreasonable and worthless. Jacob, however, knew that it was true. Sherem cause him to question himself or the worth of the Lord's work. Jacob knew what he knew, and the moral of the story is Jacob is a stud. So anyway, for some reason that chapter made me feel much better. I closed the book, turned the key, and the truck turned on. Heavenly Father must've noticed I could use a little breather as well as some humbling.

We picked up some really good new investigators this week and we now have a third member of the companionship.

Anyway, stuff's good aside from me rarely getting mail. I'd like to give a shoutout to my broseph Jonny. You my boy, J- Dawg. You my boy.

Much Love,
Elder B

Week #80 - Fish and Chips

Hey Everyone!

We had another good week this week. Sonoma's pretty awesome. President Bunker came and did interviews on Tuesday and then had a quick meeting with our zone where he explained how to do better contacting. It was pretty amazing how much better things went when we started doing what he told us to (ask people "questions of the soul"). He explained how too many of us were too set on becoming friends with people right off the bat or trying to not appear intimidating that we're losing the focus on what we're actually supposed to be doing. So, we talked about different questions to ask right up front to get people talking (have you ever received and answer to prayer? Do you study the Bible? Do you think God could call a prophet today? etc), and I'll admit I felt like it'd just be more awkward. However, it was amazing how many people actually started talking with us and listening to what we had to say. Even people who weren't interested actually stopped for a while and had a good conversation with us. Awesome.

Other than that, we set a baptismal date with an investigator we picked up named Thelma for February 20th. That may change, but we were pretty excited. We're praying it works out! We've also been have a lot more success recently with getting referrals through members which has been really cool. It's pretty neat when they start getting excited about the work and invite their friends over to learn more.

Welp, life is good. I forwarded an email I got from one of my investigators in Ukiah to the mom and the Chief- it was pretty cool. Anyway- the gospel's true and have a good week!

Elder B

Week #79 - Baxters Anonymous

Hi Everyone!
I'm way low on time, so here's a quick experience and then I'll finish things up:

Every night, Elder Bankhead and I have our walk through town where we try and talk to as many people as we can. We began noticing our lack of success, and so we started praying about what we could do to make them more effective. We decided that each night we would decide on a good gospel topic to discuss with each other to keep ourselves totally focused as we walked through town. To start out, we figured it'd be cool to share good spiritual experiences that we've had or other people we know have had. We had a pretty amazing discussion and we were both feeling really good- and we decided to take a few different turns that we don't normally take. Out walks this guy about our age dribbling a basketball- and he comes over to talk to us. We taught him basically the entire first lesson and he gave us his number and took ours. He was asking a ton of questions and it was AWESOME. About ten minutes later, we were about to end our walk but decided to go talk to a couple people we saw at a bus stop. One guy was really weird, and the other one was (again) a guy about our age. At first he wasn't too interested, then we mention "God's plan for us" and he was blown away. "You know God's plan for us?" We taught the entire plan of Salvation along with most of the first lesson as well, and bore testimony of how Christ brings us happiness and how we can draw strength from his atonement. He loved it, gave us his number, and wants us to teach him and his girfriend!
Long story short, the gospel is true.

Elder B