Week #68 - A Brief History of Time

Hey Everyone!

This has been the best week ever of my stay in Ukiah. Elder W. Craig Zwick from the Seventy came and did a conference with the mission in Santa Rosa and it was amazing. When I sat down for lunch, he came and sat in the seat RIGHT next to me with his wife, so that makes me way cool by association. We chatted it up and I gave him some tips on how he could better fulfill his calling (not) and he helped me out a bit too. It was pretty cool though- we had a good conversation.

I got to sing (for about the 10,000th time) Come Thou Fount at the conference- but it was definitely the best one yet. I had some help on that one. Every time I sing that I gain a deeper appreciation and love for the words. Elder Chaichana played piano for me and it just went really really well. After the conference, he had a short meeting with the zone leaders and that was really good too. He just told us how to include the ward more in our work and how to get them going.

Other than that, we had some intense miracles this week. We picked up an investigator who's the wife of a very less active member (only less active because his wife is against the church and makes him go to hers instead). She's a really cool person but just has her issues with the church that we starting resolving on Saturday. We started answering tons of questions she had and she was liking what she was hearing. Anyway, it was a pretty casual discussion, but we were VERY shocked to see her and her husband attend church the following day. It was the primary program, no less, which is probably the best sacrament meeting she could have attended for her first time. She loved it. We're teaching her again Wednesday, so hopefully things go well there!

There's a lot of potential stuff popping up and the members are really starting to cooperate more with the work which is excellent.

That's about all I've got for this week, but send me mail! Please and Thank you.

Life is good and the gospel's true!

Elder B

Week #67 - Go Yanks!

Happy 500 Days to myself! Yay me! I had no idea!

It was a great week this week- Ukiah is continuing to treat us well. We had some good lessons with a few of our investigators. An investigator came to church and and really enjoyed it. He's a really cool guy - he's 20 years old and he's got a nice lil' head on his shoulders.

We were asked to teach gospel doctrine on Sunday because it was all about "every member a missionary" which was awesome. The lesson went really really well and there was a lot of class participation. We committed them to be awesome instead of not awesome, and it was received pretty well. Also, a shoutout to the birthday boy, I used an experience Jonny told me about a few weeks ago when he was praying to recognize missionary opportunites in medschool and then ended up having two shortly after. The Lord will give them to us if we're sincere in the prayer. Booyah. Anyway, the attitude toward missionary work in the ward is starting to look up a lot.

I did not get one letter this entire week.

I've been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and I just started 3 Nephi. Samuel the Lamanite was right again with his prophesies of Christ's birth. The signs were all given just as he said. Take that, unbelievers. Also Captian Moroni still ended being amazing and the sons of Helaman were the bomb.

I got to accompany Sister Crawford (a Spanish sister missionary in the ward) on the piano for a song. As usual, I ended up messing up at the climax of the song (something about playing piano in church...) but I was just glad I wasn't the person most of the focus was on. Other than that, though, it went well.

This Thursday we're going to have Elder Zwick from the Seventy do a half-mission conference with us so we're all pretty excited about that. Also on Saturday Elder Berry and I did service for about five hours. She was very appreciative and she said we could start teaching her, so it totally worth it.

Welp, that's about it for the week. The gospel's true!

Elder B

Week #66 - Happy Prelated (opposite of belated) Birthday

Hey Everyone!

A very happy birthday wish to my favorite brother:

Jonathan, you have really impacted my life for each and every one of your years on this planet. If it wasn't for you, the hope of me being named Hordak would never would have been there. If it wasn't for you, I would have never learned how to get a worker in a furniture shop off my back when I'm playing on all of the couches and comfy chairs. If it wasn't for you, I never would have been properly taught how to apply make-up to a black eye. I will never forget you. Please, for me, have a happy birthday this year. You are the man.

I can't wait until Friday. I've told just about everyone in the mission that someone's going to be WAY cool in the family.

This week was crazy excellent. I'm healthy (with the exception of a very minor cough), I'm slowly regaining my favorite fourteen lost pounds, we picked up three new WAY solid investigators and had some awesome lessons with current ones, we have a much stronger zone this transfer with people who are actually willing to be obedient. Also I haven't asked, but judging how our first meeting went, I think they might even believe in prayer.

We've had a ton of baptismal dates come out of nowhere across the zone this last week which has been AWESOME. Miracles in the ol' Ukiah zone. Miracles. We had an incredible leadership council with President Bunker on Thursday that blew our minds as usual. It's always nice to see old mission friends- and the spirit at those meetings is amazing. They never cease to get us fired up for the transfer.

I'm working on finshing up my camera card. I still have to record a Halloween video. It's going to be awesome with a VERY spooky costume.

The conference cds have been GREAT. Thanks a ton. I listened to Elder Christofferson's talk again about covenants and I also reread his talk from this last conference about moral discipline. I'm thoroughly convinced that he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. His talks are some of my favorites. He's the bomb.

Life's great in Ukiah. I'm way glad I stayed up here. The gospel's true!

Elder B

Week #65 - Total Weight Loss for the Week - 14 pounds

Hey Everyone,

I didn't think last week could be topped, but the flu did it. So, work didn't really start up until about Friday. The rest of the week wasspent in my nice warm bed. So, not too much to update on this week other than it was way boring and a waste of time. I got a nice amount of mail though so that made life better.

As for transfers, I'll be sticking around good ol' Ukiah for another six weeks. I'm pretty glad I'm not leaving. My companion will be staying too, so this will be the first companion I've had in 2009 for more than one transfer.

There are a lot of crazy things happening in the zone this transfer. There are three whitewashes AND Elder Bush, the first person I trained, will be training his first greenie this transfer in our zone, which means I will officially be a grandfather this week. I'm way excited to meet him. He'll be my favorite grandson I've ever had.

For Halloween I'll be carving a pumpkin today with my companion, and it's probably going to be just as cool as last year's (if not cooler).

Other than that, I'm still a missionary and the gospel's still true. Thanks for all of the support and have a good week!

Elder B

Week #64 - Professional Thug for Life

Hi Everyone!
Quite the week. You have no idea how long I've been planning this scheme to talk to Mom on her birthday. As expected, everything ran smoothly. I took one for the team when they drew blood from me twice (I was kinda hoping I'd dodge that when I went to the hospital) but it was every bit worth it to wish the mother a happy birthday. Looks like my position has again been reaffirmed as best child in the family. This might be another crazy week- so we'll see what happens. Thanks for all the prayers and what not- they're much appreciated. President Bunker called and asked how I felt about a transfer to Santa Rosa next transfer in case anything happened. I told him to talk to the Chief to see if it was necessary- but I've got a feeling it may end up happening either way. So, any mail that will get here after next Monday can be sent to the mission home just in case. Whatever transfer news we get this Sunday should be pretty exciting.

I wish I had some cool stories from this last week other than a couple of very flirtatious young nurses Wednesday night in the hospital. I'm getting more and more grateful I didn't have surgery there after seeing people's reactions when they heard I had to go in. I guess for a spiritual note, I've been reading a ton from the Book of Mormon and it's been crazy awesome. The more I read it the more I'm blown away and shocked that anyone could deny its truthfulness. Also on Sunday in Elders Quorum they talked all about the power and importance of priesthood blessings, and how no one should ever hesitate to ask/give them. At the end we all gave blessings to everyone in the group who wanted one (most did). It was way uplifting and pretty powerful.

That's about all I've got for the week. I hope all is well back home and have a fantastic week! The gospel's true.
Elder B

Week #63 - Happy Birthday to Mrs. The Mom

Happy Birthday Mom! I'm so excited it's finally the Mom's birthday again! I've been waiting an entire year.

This week was crazy busy. Unfortunately not much was due to actual work in our area, but it was still good. We had president's interviews which were awesome. President Bunker's pretty amazing. He's very helpful and very encouraging. We also had stake correlation yesterday with him and the Ukiah Stake Presidency. It sounds like things are going to improve a lot in the stake with the missionary work and combining the ward and missionary efforts more which will be great. It seems like every ward I've been in has had the same problem: they do great with the people who come to church every week and whatever else but don't really look at the people who aren't coming anymore or who might want to come (i.e. the wards will hold activities where there's not even an effort to invite less active members or non members, they just have active members sign up for the missionaries at dinner in relief society rather than at least trying to call a few less actives who would be willing to have us, etc). Someday.

Life's great in Ukiah. We baptized a ten year old boy Saturday and that went really well. There's always a great spirit at baptisms. I asked him how he felt afterwards and he said he felt "just really really happy." Thattakid. He's the bomb. We taught Sharon the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome- she's very ready...BUT...she just got really really sick so we haven't been able to see much of her which is too bad. Hopefully she recovers soon. She's in our prayers.

Other than that we've been trying to work with the members a little more and we've had some really good experiences.

Anyway, things are good. It's insane how fast this transfer's been. We're already in our second to last week. Time doesn't ever slow down in these parts. Crazy California.

The gospel's true!
Elder B

Week #62 - Jeffrey R. Holland is the Bomb!

Hey everyone!
This week was excellent on account of an incredible General Conference. Lots of amazing talks- and of course, Jeffery R. Holland's was nothing short of crazy fantastic amazingness. That was probably the most powerful witness of the Book of Mormon I've ever heard in my life. I wish I could show that to anyone who questions it or thinks it's any of the pathetic excuses he threw out. I don't know how anyone can watch those leaders speak and not know that they really are called of God and special witnesses of Christ. They are!!
(Here's the link: http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1117,00.html Then click on Sunday Afternoon Session - Jeffrey R. Holland. You can watch it or just listen to it.)

We picked up a pretty golden investigator this last week named Sharon. We tracted into her (how often does that actually happen?) and taught her a solid first lesson and she loved it- then asked if she could come to church. It was way cool. Miracles definitely happen. We've still got a ton of work to do in the area...lots of "rebuilding" and gaining trust...and helping the ward realize that missionary work is actually pretty important and worthwhile. We do have a baptism this Saturday though, so that will be great. Things are improving but still very weak in the ward. Hopefully Sharon works out and causes at least a little more excitement around here. I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but in zone conference our mission president encouraged us to start praying in every prayer to blessed with more frequent remembrances of the Savior throughout the day. It's been working wonders at keeping me more focused and helping me just feel a ton better during the week. If there's one thing I've gained a strengthened testimony of in the last few weeks it's the power of prayer. ...and the Book of Mormon. And lots of other stuff. But definitely prayer.

Life's good. The gospel's true. God's in the work. Capture the dream. The gospel's still true.
Much love!
Elder B