So I'm gonna start out just by saying that this week was easily the best week that I've had in a few transfers. Tons of super cool stuff happened. And the best part is that so far we have improved every week since I've been here. I hope they continue that way. Anyways its been sweet. The whole ward is getting pumped up for this missionary Luau that the ward is going to have in July, and so far we have TONS of nonmembers who have RSVP'd. It is gonna be so sick. And there is quite the possibility that the Elders in the Stake will be doing the Haka haha. I'll be sure to send pictures of that one. Plus I might get the chance to sit in with Bro. Mata'ele's band that night to. Apparently they are pretty big in the Reggae/Islander music scene. They're called KonTiki. You should look em up! They'll be playing at the Luau!
It was super neat getting Parker's letter. It made me flash back to my MTC experience. I remember being in the TRC investigator appointment and bashing with the dude for like 20 minutes on the history of the Roman Catholic church hahahaha. Hoyt just kinda sat there. Good times. Its hard to believe that that was 16 months ago. It flies by that's for sure. It will for him too. He's already almost in the field! Man that will be cool to hear about haha.
So like i said, this week was sweeeet. Monday started off as a kinda run of the mill P-day, but we ended it early to help the Livingston's finish moving in. We even got two free desks out of it! That helped spice up our rather barren apartment. Then they took us out to dinner at Chile's. They're an interesting family. The dad is a self professed "heathen" . But hopefully as we continue to work with them, we'll get them out to church.
The rest of the evening was spent contacting members.
Tuesday was a good day. In the morning we had an appointment with a LA named Joe Chavez. REALLY rough around the edges type guy. Prison history, gang history, etc. But we had a really good lesson with him. His big problem is that his family all goes to another Non-denom church. But we talked about the Sacrament and its importance. He committed to come to church!
Then we went to President Toomb's final farewell. He's had a couple of goodbye things that he organized but this one was the last one. We all got individual pictures with him and everything. One of these days I'll bring my camera to the library and show you :P I always forget.
Got to see a bunch of missionaries from areas past again. Had a good time talking to Elder Timothy. His parents are getting divorced right now which totally sucks. We're great friends as long as we don't have to live with each other haha.
Ate dinner with the Aragon family. They were super cool, except for we caught them in the wake of one of their cars being stolen, with $5000 worth of tools in the trunk :P Thats gotta be tough. Plus their daughter got a ticket on her way home from work. Rough day.
Visited the Smith family AGAIN. I really wish the ward would take over teaching these people like they are supposed too. There really are other things we could do with that time. But its cool. They just talk a bunch and dont let us teach hardly at all :P But it was better than the last time where we spent 30 minutes trying to explain women and the priesthood.... -_-
Then we had correlation meeting. Nothing super interesting.
Wednesday was a GREAT day. We exchanged with the ZL's Tuesday night, so me and Elder Sarmiento stayed in our area. He is a great missionary. I've known him ever since East-Lake. We went to district meeting in the morning, and it went super well. The only problem that I keep seeing is that the Buckley Ward Sisters are really struggling with their ward. I totally know how it feels to be in a difficult ward, but its tough to help when the discouragement is so thick that you can cut it with a knife :P Optimism is the only way out of that pitfall, and you can be optimistic regardless of the ward you're in. But it was difficult to be optimistic in Southlands too. Fake it till you make it I guess :P
We had an appointment to tour the church building right after lunch with our investigator Darwin, and to my surprise he brought his wife and his daughter too! It was sweet. They are super prepared. The tour went well, and then the first lesson went well after that! They committed to be baptized if they could come to know the truth of everything, and Carmen (wife) chimed in right after with "i think I already know it is!" Great lesson. Then after that we visited with our other investigator Ernestine. She is so legit. The beginning of the lesson was a little iffy, but by the end we had set her with a baptismal date for July 29th! She seemed a little hesitant at first, but then she said "well, if this is the truth than it would probably be pretty important for me to join it ASAP." haha
She meets with Jehovah's Witnesses too, but you can tell that she REALLY appreciates the "You can know this for yourself through prayer" approach vs. the "This scripture proves that we're right" approach that they typically use. It was sweet.
Ate dinner with the Greenburg family, and then we had our lesson with the Lake family afterwards. Their daughter went to Girls Camp this week with the ward, and she came back with a testimony of the church! Plus Sister Lake is totally on board with joining, but Brother Lake is being really tough about it. Great guy, but he kinda treats us like we're trying to sell him something. And apparently he's the kind of guy that drives a hard bargain. I'm thinking we may take a brake from teaching them if we cant get them to progress soon. I think it would kill Elder Lee if we did though :P
Thursday was cool. We visited a bunch of former investigators down off of Colefax avenue. Thats the really inner-city part of our area. Got a few return appointments from that.
Then we ate lunch and had DLC's at the church. From what It sounds like, the Spanish ward around here is having a rough go with their ward.
But other than the struggles in the Buckley ward, our district is doing pretty good!
We had an appointment with Will Chavez again that afternoon. Finally met his wife and taught the both of them. She is way more open than the other Elders made her seem. They committed to come to church too!
Tried a few people in the Green valley area, and then we had dinner with the Detroye family. Great family, with a bunch of Pug puppies! Ahhhhh I died. John and Jennifer made a great choice of dog. We were going to have an appointment with another potential that evening, but he flaked, so we ended up going on a wild Goose chase with Brother Detroye. We got a call that one of the former's that Elder Lee had taught was in hospice and needed a blessing, so we got a ride and headed down to where we were told he was. Well we spent a lot of the night looking for an address that didn't exist and checking local hospice places. We finally found the one that he was going to, but he had called and decided to do in home care instead. Oyyyyyyy. That killed the night. But it was fun anyways haha.
Friday would have been spent planning had we not had tons of appointments that day. We tried to get started in the morning, only to be interrupted by moving our 1 o'clock appointment to 10:30. We taught Clint again. I really think we ought to drop him, but he said all the right things to make us have to come back. I just don't feel anything with him. Then after lunch we went to go visit another investigator named Ohitaka Gibbons. It was an okay lesson but honestly I don't see much happening with him either. Time will tell with him. Then we tried to plan that afternoon, but ultimately we had to go to dinner before we really got going. Ate with the Alanso family, a fairly recent convert family of about 5 years. They were super cool and really good cooks. They even brought some of their friends to hear us! We may start teaching them!
Then that evening we had an appointment with the Wilkes family. They were the typical crazy Mormon family who has no idea how to do missionary work :P haha
Saturday made up for most of our planning, and honestly nothing else happened other than a lesson with the Fifita family. They're sweeeet though. They were the ones that took me and Mahina out to dinner for his birthday.
Then Sunday was cool. We tried some former's in the morning since we didnt have meetings, and then Darwin and Carmen came to Church! Carmen totally felt the spirit when the young women got up and sang a song from girls camp. She was crying and everything. Great day at church.
Had an appointment with a potential who flaked afterwards, and then we ate dinner with the Mo'unga family.
.
Then by that evening we were out miles for the month, so we had to try and walk places. We dont even have enough miles for today haha. We're getting a ride from Strasbourg.
Anyways, really really great week. And we have an even better one planned for this week! Can't wait to tell you about it!
Luv
Elder Efan
No comments:
Post a Comment