Week #87 - East or Something

Happy Easter and General Conference!

It's been a good week despite the ear infection I developed the night before our temple trip. It was a bit frustrating, but the temple was still a great experience. Other than that though things have been going really well. We had a great lesson with Lauren (she has a baptismal date for June 26th...) last Monday all about the Holy Ghost and preparing to receive it. She had some great questions and she's getting excited- in fact, she even spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday all about her conversion story. It's always a great thing to see investigators bear testimony of the gospel.

We picked up a new investigator this week who seems like a really good man. He's been Catholic all his life but kind of has his own beliefs. He's opening up a bit and feels that at the very least, Joseph Smith was an inspired man and did see what he claimed to have seen. Hopefully this week we can make the connection with him!

Last night we ate dinner at our ward mission leader's house and had a long talk about things we can do to get the fire going in the ward. I think we all left extremely excited for where things are headed. He's definitely doing whatever he can to get things moving- so we're trying to help wherever we can. He also has someone who's agreed to take the lessons with us in his home that we'll be teaching this week.

I did my district meeting on Tuesday about setting goals and doing everything you can to achieve them. It's kinda cool having a really young district and being able to tell them all of the things I wish I would have done better from the beginning. It's crazy how goal setting is such a commonly talked about topic and people have all of these insights on how we can do better with it, but people rarely actually do it. It went really well though and we've all committed to help each other daily with the stuff we're working on.

Other than that, life's good. I can't hear very well so that's kind of annoying, but the gospel's still true!

Much love,
Elder B

Week #86 - Well I love her...but I love to fish!

To Whom it May Concern:

We had another good week in Sonoma. Unfortunately a lot of appointments with our best investigators had to be post-poned, but we're looking forward to this week. We're meeting with a girl today who has a baptismal date for June 26th and we're pretty excited. We've both got a feeling that she'll be baptized sooner than June, so we'll see how today goes. This morning we planned out what we hope will be a very solid lesson all about the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday was a good day at church. We were asked to come into a primary class and tell all the children about being missionaries and how we prepared- and then for the young men we were "interviewed" in front of the class about our lives before the mission, how were got to this point, and what the mission has done for us. It went really well and it was a very cool experience to try and help them see the importance of preparing immediately. The less time I have left in the field, the more things I want to accomplish before I leave. My desire is quickly growing to tell every potential missionary everything I can that would prepare them better for serving...or at least help them understand how important it is to do so.

We were also asked to bear testimony in sacrament meeting about the Savior. I told the story of Cara and how she was the first person I ever taught in the mission field and the first person I baptized. It was amazing to see the change that occurred after four months of teaching a total skeptic when she finally read the Book of Mormon. When we finally got her to start reading it, she finished it in two days and was baptized a week later. The words of that book are the words of Christ- just as Nephi says- anyone who reads them will know that they are. I can't even explain the change that occurred in her- but it's amazing to see what the Savior can do for someone and how he can completely purify someone's heart. She went through the temple a few months ago which was great to hear about. Sounds like she remains a completely solid member of the church. I want to witness another conversion like that before my time here is over!

So life here is good. We had interviews with President on Tuesday- sounds like I'll probably stick around Sonoma for the rest of the mission, but we'll see. He promised me that if I make these last few months of my mission about someone else then the spirit will touch me in a way that I'll never forget for the rest of my life. It was a pretty intense promise.

The Gospel's True!
Elder B

Week #85 - Only Fifteen More P-days!

Hi Everyone!

The mission's still pretty awesome. Life's good. I never cease to be blown away by how much more helpful zone conferences are compared to when I first got in the mission. There were some really helpful classes and it was a nice reminder that although I may be nearing the end, I've still got plenty of things to work on and more success to see.

Elder B. and I have been blessed lately- even in tracting we've seen some great things happen. We've gotten some good contacts and actually got a referral at a door from someone we didn't know. We were able to talk to the referral and set up and appointment- he seems like a really nice man. We also got a new investigator last night named Doug who's a good friend of a girl in our ward. We got to teach him last night in her home and it went really well.

We had quite the lesson with one of our investigators this last week. A woman in her mid-seventies- has been taught for quite a while. She knows it's all true and knows all about the church, but she will just not act on it. We've stressed time and time again how important it is that she act on her faith, and she's told us multiple times that this is what she wants to do. But, unfortunately, she uses sickness constantly as an excuse- and if it's not sickness, it's something else. So anyway, our last lesson with her was very straightforward and the spirit was extremely strong. We let her know that if she didn't come to church then we wouldn't be able to teach her anymore (she didn't come). It was a tough thing seeing someone so close be unwilling to do what she knew she had to. But if anything, we at least knew that we did all we could and she got the best chance we could give her.

Welp, stuff's good. Send me lots of mail and the gospel's true!

Elder B

Week #84 - Pants

Hey Everyone!

Things have gone well this week- we had some great things happen. The Relief Society President's daughter got her mission call to Colorado, so they're very excited to share the gospel. They've got three people that they plan on asking to let her daughter practice teaching the lessons to while we sit in and "critique" her as she does, so we're looking forward to that.
It was a little disappointing that a dinner/lesson that we had scheduled with a new investigator (from last week that we taught once with his family) was cancelled Saturday on account of his mom being very sick. Fortunately, we're good to go for Tuesday night instead- so it should be great. There's a lot of potential there- and there's some great member support for the whole family as well.

I've still been making the effort to see the Lord's hand in my life more frequently which has been awesome. It's been amazing to me to see the small things He does for me each day- and praying to recognize them more often has helped me out a ton. I try and write them down at the end of each day and I've been blown away at how big of a role He plays in my life.

I was asked to sing at zone conference tomorrow- President Bunker said he needed to hear me do Come Thou Fount one more time before I go home (but he said I don't need to do that one tomorrow- which means I have a whole selection of three other songs to choose from). I'm pretty excited- Elder C. will be there yet again to play piano for me, so it's always nice to reunite with my favorite Thai friend.

Life is still good here! Sonoma's a great area. The Gospel's true!

Send me mail,
Elder B

Week #83 - Play-Doughs Anonymous

Hey Everyone!

It's been a good week. A lot of great things happened- we got some promising member referrals and we picked up a very solid new investigator. We're pretty excited for this next transfer. Speaking of transfers, all of the information was given out yesterday. I'll be staying with Elder B. which I'm happy about.

Anyway, things are going well. On Friday my ears started ringing again, and Saturday we were at someone's house and on the news it was talking about a tsunami in Hawaii and a huge earthquake in Chile. Fortunately, the ear ringing wasn't nearly as bad as before and it seemed to be pretty calmed down by Saturday night. Sounds like things were pretty awful in Chile though. What's with all these crazy earthquakes?

This week I made a big part of my district meeting about "being believing" (inspired greatly by the Cealo's letter) and making ourselves more aware of the little blessings we receive. I also talked about the "cycle of faith" I read about in a talk by Elder Bednar a while back. He says how the cycle of faith is assurance, action, and evidence. We receive a confirmation that something is true, we act on it, and after we act we see more evidence which in turn gives us a stronger assurance, so we act more- etc. In one of the talks Cealo sent me Bruce C. Hafen talks about how we need to be believing when things happen for our good and always view it as a blessing from Heavenly Father, so we talked about how the "evidence" part of the cycle is often dependent on our willingness to believe it's a result of our action. Anyway, it's really been helping the days go better. Each day in my planner I'm trying to write all the small good things that happened or requests in prayers that were granted, and it's been amazing in helping me recognize the Lord's Hand in the work more often.

I hit my 20 month mark tomorrow. I realized that month markers don't really mean much anymore. Really the next milestone is home. Each time I hit a month now it's just another month, so I don't really feel as much need to have mini-celebrations. However, I do have some glow-sticks, so now that I think about it, it would be foolish of me not to celebrate anyway.

Welp, life is great. I like Sonoma and work is picking up. It'll be nice to get back to focusing on only English work and getting some more members involved now that we're back down to two elders.

The Gospel's true!

Elder B

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