Working Hard!

Great week for both boys!  Parker asked to have his email put on the blog.  It is austin.hemsley@myldsmail.net.  Ethan's is Ethan.Hemsley@myldsmail.net.

They would love to hear from you!

From Parker

There really is nothing like missionary work!  

"I testify of the renewing power of God's Love and the miracle of his grace.  His concern is for the faith at which you arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there."  - Elder Holland

Monday:  After emailing we went to walmart and go food and things like.  After that we had a Zone activity where we played games and contests with the zone.  We played ping pong and basketball as well.  It is sad, you know the other Elders are bad at basketball when I start wooping on them haha.  After that we went home and rested.  Cleaned our apartment.  Elder Goff was sick that day so after we got back he kindof just died on the couch.  We had a lesson planned for later that night, so I went with one of the Zl's Elder Chote, and Elder Gilliand stayed with Elder Goff.  We went and taught a lesson to one of Elder Chote's investigators and that was really good.  Just some guy who was attending ASU and wanted to learn more, he was super friendly and loved what we said.  Then we taught my investigator a lesson.  It was more of an FHE with a part member family.  We played scripture chase, and showed a mormon message.  Then I got to go with Elder Chote to a YSA FHE party.  Elder Chote is over young single adults.  It would be so fun to be a missionary over a ward like that.  Basically we got to mingle and eat, the only thing we didnt get to do is swim haha

Tuesday: Elder Goff was still sick so I went to district meeting with Elder Chote again while his companion stayed home.  Elder Gilliand has athletes foot so he takes all the rest he can get.  I got to be a temporary Zone Leader for the day, conduct and give announcements ahah.  I am sure some of the missionaries were like why the heck does he get a leadership calling so early haha.  After that we went to a different distirct meeting becasue Elder Goff didn't have his.  We then ate with some members and they were super nice.  Old people are the best type of people when it comes to feeding the missionaries.  They live for that kindof stuff haha.  Elder Goff finally had enough strength to get up and moving again.  While we were studying in the church we found this homeless guy's suit case.  We think we know who the guy is but for wrote a letter on his stuff saying it had to leave (it is now gone haha).  We taught a lesson with a less active named Dustin.  He is such a cool guy but struggles with a few things.  We took the Elders quorum President, President Hartmen, who is probably the most down to Earth person ever! He gave the best testimony on the planet and talked most of the time.  Elder Goff and I just sat there with our mouths open and were like yeah we planned that...

Wednesday: Was a pretty normal day.  We did however make a pretend shrine to one of the missionaries in the movie the Distict named Elder Morano.  Elder Goff thinks he is really prideful and doesnt like him.  So me, Elder Chote, and Elder Gilliand made a shrine and were like chanting his name saying "mo..mo...rano."  Elder Goff flipped and like destroyed it. I was dying laughing for the rest of lunch.  Elder Goof got a flat tire latter that day.  So our day consisted of going to walmart and fixing his bike.  We had to walk there and it was all the way in the other side of our area.  After that we did some more finding and gave a few lessons to some less active families.  We taught another lesson with an investigator named Jared.  He is so solid and is on date for baptism and practically can teach us this stuff haha.  

Thursday:  Another normal routine, in the morning.  Personal study is nice because it is time to yourself to study the scriptures and just kindof think.  We met with a guy named Victor.  He is this really old hispanic guy.  I shook his hand and his hand were the so ruff.  There was not a smooth part on them.  So I know this man has worked a hard life since he was very young.  He is retired now and was super nice.  His stories were really eye opening.  We then went back to the church to help with a blessing for one of the sisters.  I guess they had a bad experience for an investigator who was on date but ended up falling off because he had some serious anger issues.  We then went and taught a lesson to Rayden. He is a 10 year old who hasn't been baptized.  He was adorable and did a great job of answering questions.  It is tough to teach little kids because they lose focus so fast.  I think our next lesson is going to be scripture Jinga haha.  Then that night after we headed back home we all hid while Elder Chote was going to the bathroom, and when we popped out we beat him up and his just layed there most of the night ahah.  When I say beat up, its like fake beating up but it is still hilarious, so don't think all we did is beat each other up.  

Friday: Was weekly planning but we had to update our Ipads to the new software.  And Elder Chote got back at me by making me in charge of that.  So I had to sit there and lead everyone through how to update and change the software that the church was instituting.  The only info i had was a Facebook document president Toone gave.  So needless to say getting the entire zone to do that took forever. So we had to do our planning after lunch.  We have a huge list of less actives that the stake president wants us to focus on, so we do a lot of finding.  Then that night we helped people move into there apartment.  We didn't even get a chance to change so we and to help move in proselyting clothes in the heat.  I was so sweaty.  Then we couldn't get a ride home with the Zl's so we had to bike home right after we had helped move someone who was in an apartment on the second floor.  Oh did I mention we had to help with the washer, dryer, and fridge?  ahhh

Saturday: We woke up bright and early only to help move another family! This family has two unbaptized boys, so we will be working with them in the future.  They are like 10 and 14.  that move was a little easier but still painful.  So after those two things I am still sore.  We went home showered ate. Then went to find a referral we had received.  She was an 80 something year old who is about to go through Chemotherapy.  We asked if we could come back another time and teach, but she is going to busy with that, so she said she would call.  We at least got to say a prayer for her at her door.  We were just biking by and we found an investigator named Chris.  He has been taught everything just has no faith and is unwilling to change anything in his life.  His wife is getting baptized in the spanish ward but he doesn't speak Spanish, so it is an interesting relationship.  I got the package from you guys and it has the awesome picture book! Saturday after we had to go in we had date night again.  The ZL's managed to pick up some cold stone for all of us and that night I had to narrate all the awesome pictures in that book. When I first looked through it, I was like tearing up haha.  But mom did you have to put that paper i wrote in the front? haha (btw where was that from?).  Made me realize how bad I am at spelling and grammer... 

Sunday: We went to church and luckly I didnt have to speak. After we went to teach jared again and like I said he is such an awesome guy! We headed back to the church and did some companionship study.  Then we caught another homeless guy chilling in the church for the air conditioning ahaha.  I felt bad but we had to lock up and obviously he has to leave...   Then we went to the mission president fireside.  You are only allowed to go if you bring an investigator, so we brought Jared.  It was such an awesome message.  It was about the Holy Ghost and President Toone talking to the investigators giving thanks and teaching them that they need to come to know for themselves. 

And that was my week! Every week is like of lifetime of work! Love Elder Hemsley #2

And from Ethan:

Hey Mum!  

Comparatively, this week was a lot less eventful or crazy than last week.  It was kind of a blessing, but at the same time it was a bit of a bummer.  I feel like I'm a pretty good missionary, but at the same time I realize how much better I could and should be.  Its really tough to judge where I'm at when I don't even trust my own judgements, but then its tough to base it off of what other people say haha.  I am just so obsessed with self improvement and development right now.  If this week had a theme, it would be that.  I even wrote about it in my actual journal (something I haven't done in over a year, since I've done the email journal thing).

I really enjoyed being Elder Lee's companion this transfer.  He was super patient with everything that went on, whether it be my own imperfections, or stuff that happened to us.  Super Christ-like guy.  Sorry to see him leave.  Now my new companion is Elder Borstra, from Ontario, Canada.  He is definitely a Canadian haha.  Pretty goofy, but we should get along pretty well. 

Anyways, I actually dont feel very good today.  I ate something recently that has been messing with me, so my email may be a tad short this week.  But here is the weekly rundown! 

Monday was an okay P-day.  We spent a lot of it learning the Haka for the Luau on Saturday.  Elder Tonga and Elder Talataina have been duking it out to see which one we'll do, Tongan or Samoan.  All this exposure to the polynesian culture has been pretty fun.  I catch myself saying a bunch of poly phrases every now and then haha.  Fakahaila is an especially funny one haha.  It means "i've got too much stuff on my mind."

Ate with the Neilsons that evening, and then we decided to drop by a less active, Jeremy Slowtalker.  He is Lacoda Native American.  Super cool guy.  Apparently we were an answer to his prayers, because just that morning he had prayed for a sign that God was mindful of him.  His family is part member, and because of that there has been a lot of tension in the family.  He wants to go to church, but his wife is hardcore catholic.  We shared a message on obedience bringing blessings, and then we gave him one.  It was pretty cool to be the answer to his prayers like that

Tuesday was cool.  We did some service in the morning, and then we visited Darwin and Carmen that afternoon.  That was one of three times that we saw them this week.  Pretty cool guys, but its been hard to nail them down to a baptismal date.  They are too much like friends! haha  They remind me a lot of Liz and Pauly, and they're the same age.  But the lessons are going well.  Its really hard to get out of there in an hour.  I've gotta find some way to balance the Missionary to Friend ratio.

We did some finding, and then we went to the Hess family for dinner.  They are so hilarious.  He is in the navy, and man is he a trip.  Super serious, stone-faced guy who does nothing but crack jokes haha.  They have a Ukelele, we sang an upbeat Uke version of True to the Faith that I arranged.  it was pretty fun.  I need to expand my repertoire of Uke hymns that I know haha.  There are a lot of people with them out here haha.  

Then that evening, we went back over to the Martinez family's place to help answer more of Brother Martinez's questions.  He should really be an investigator, but he's not super interested in being preached to, but he has a ton of questions.  I know he feels the spirit when we come. 

One thing that has been bothering me lately is this scenario that has kept popping us.  There have been a few instances recently where I've testified that the person can know for themselves that this is true, and their response is basically that I'm not qualified to promise that to someone because I have such limited life experience.  They don't believe I could really know these things if its all I've ever known.  It happened with Brother Martinez, and it happened with Ohitaka a few weeks ago.  

Then that evening we had correlation meeting, where Bishop Whetten expressed how grateful he was that he they had such good missionaries in their ward.  It was a fulfilling thing to hear.

Wednesday was the day of cancellations.  We had the temple in the morning, which was cool, especially since the actor who played Joseph Smith in the Restoration movie played Peter.  He plays Peter in the Bible videos too!  Saw Sister Pitts at the Temple again as well.  I think I'm gonna write Annie once she leaves on her mission to Germany.  Shes pretty cool.  

We went on a blitz with the rest of the District to the Buckley ward.  Their Bishop told them to tract out an entire housing development, so they enlisted the help of everyone in the District haha.  We found some good people for them to teach, and then we got sucked in to what we thought was a potential investigator's house, but actually turned out to be a very long-winded less active couple haha.  That killed an hour.  Then we did some service, and tried by a few of the potentials that we had in the area that we were in, but no luck.  Ate dinner with the Ray family, which was cool except for they were pretty long winded too.  Some people need to know how to not talk every once in a while haha.  Then that evening we had an Appointment with the Armendariz family cancel, as well as our appointment with the Castillo family.  But me and Elder Lee had some good heart to hearts about improving, which was much needed. 

Thursday was Zone meeting, which was fun and really helpful.  I always learn something at  those if I let myself.  I've found that If someone extends advice or commitments to me that I don't want to do or even try, then chances are that its probably something that I need to hear haha

After the meeting we had an appointment with Marvin Burton.  He is just interested in the history of everything, so I dunno how much longer we will keep going over there.  He told us about the plane that got shot down over the Ukraine though.  Crazy stuff.  Then we went with Brother Mata'ele to visit some new unknown people in the ward.

Ate dinner at Chili's with Darwin and Carmen.  THEY ARE SO CLOSE.  It was a great dinner, but I got a little nervous at the way that we left it with them.  Darwin is just having trouble with making the commitment.  It'll happen though.  Then we visited the Salazar's with Brother Ray.  Great lesson.  I think she likes it more when we come over, and he is the member!  We're also inviting everyone to the Luau, which will be cool.  Its this Saturday.

Friday was planning, visiting the Juett family, getting called accidentally by Darwin's two year old daughter Addie (that was hilarious), and me spending the rest of the evening with an upset stomach.  I think it was what i ate at Chili's

Saturday was a good day.  Elder Lee got the call the night before that he was training, so we went to the meeting in the morning.  I was nervous that they were going to move me out after only one transfer, but that ended up not happening.  But he has to sweep an area AND train.  Thats tough haha.  He'll do good though.  We had to have our car estimated that morning because of all the hail damage as well.  The insurance adjusters must be having a heck of a time right now with all the hail.  All of the cars are dented, and all of the houses with cheap siding are peppered.

Visited the Kristjanson family that afternoon.  Nice old couple.  and then we had dinner with Traphena Lake and her family.  She agreed to be baptized on August 30!  it was sweeet.  She is so ready.  Then we went to the Baptism for Claudia, another one of the Sister's investigators, and afterwards we stayed for transfer doctrine, where we learned everyone's fate!  I was so happy I stayed.  I wanna end my mission here.

Sunday was cool too.  After studies and lunch we went to Ward council, and then to church.  Darwin and Carmen were the only ones who could come that day.  But it was still cool.  They were sad to see Elder Lee go.  But they may be moving to the Ward he is going to anyway!  and they Agreed to be baptized in mid August after they moved!  They are getting married too!  Such cool people.  

After church, we ate dinner with the Medan family, gave a blessing to a guy named Tim Pickens who's family is interested in being baptized, and stopped by all of the people that Elder Lee wanted to see before he left.  Mata'ele family, Fifita family, Darwin, etc.  We got home a little later than we should have just cause Polynesians never can let you leave in a timely manner haha. 

Well that was my week.  I gotta go early today since Elder Borstra needs to do some shopping..  Love you guys!  18 Weeks! 

Elder Efan