SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Well this week was another awesome week out here in texas!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday there was a leadership meeting all day with President Durrant for all district leaders and zone leaders.  Since my companion is a district leader he had to go to that and i was supposed to spend the day with Elder Treasure and Elder Dunbar down in there area!!!!! But on monday night we got a text from the assistants that said that President Durrant wanted me at the leadership meeting, so i got to go to that on tuesday even though im not a district leader or zone leader!!!!!! it was a great experience and I learned so much and I took a TON of notes!!!!!!! after that we got to drive around in dallas for a little bit with the vehicle coordinator because elder pond had to get his car fixed and he was the one who was driving us back to our apartment!!!!!! On wednesday we had district meeting which is always good and then after that we had an appointment at this mans house named John Brown!!! He fed us lunch and he is interested in the church!!!!! His ex wife and daughters are members of the church and he wants to find out if the church is true and i am so stoked for him to get his answer that its true!!!!!!!!!! i love teaching people, it is seriously so great and i never want to stop being a missionary!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we were asked to help with an activity that the Activity Day Girls in the farmersville branch were doing!!!!!! There were over twenty, 8-12 year old girls running around screaming haha it was a lot of fun!!!!! They made us grilled cheese sandwiches and we talked about missionary work and then we taught them about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the church which was a lot of fun!!!!!!! There were even some non members there!!!!!! Then on Friday we had to go down to Dallas for the day because we had specialized training with President Durrant!!!!! I learned so much at that meeting and it was so great!!!!!!! And i got to see all my friends from the MTC which is always good and i got to see how they were doing in their areas!!!!!!!! On saturday night the air conditioning in our apartment broke which was horrible!!!!!!!!!! It is so hot and we are going over to the office today to get it fixed!!!!! Now i see why air conditioning is a necessity in texas!!!!!!!!!!!! In the melissa ward a guy just got his mission call and guess where he is going?!?!?!!? CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!!!!! i was so stoked!!!!!! he is going to the oakland california mission!!!!!!!! Last night was definitely a very very interesting experience!!!!!! as soon as we were done eating dinner, it started getting really windy and all these clouds started coming in!!!!! then it started thundering and lightning!!!!!! then it started to rain really bad and hail!!!!!!! we were driving and we couldnt see anything cause the storm was so bad!!!!!!! we had to stop over at our ward mission leaders house so we could wait out the storm!!!!!! That was most definitely the worst storm i have ever been in!!!!!! im not used to thunder and lightning and apparently it does it here all the time in the fall!!!!! at least the weather is cooling down which is good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shoutout to everyone back at BYU!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you guys are having a great time!!!!!!!!! i miss all of you and make sure you update me with what is going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok everyone, have a great week and always remember to keep Jesus Christ on your minds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Well this week was a very eventful week!!!!!!! On preparation day after we emailed we got to go and play volleyball with the district and some youth members and it was a TON of fun!!!!!!!! It was sand volleyball and it reminded me of the beach a lot!!!!!!! Then after dinner we went tracting in some apartments over by the Allen mall which was great and we got to talk to a lot of nice people who are interested in the church!!! This week was a week of many exchanges!!!!!! I didnt get to be with elder sullenberger that much!!!!! On tuesday and wednesday i was with elder dunbar and then on friday i was with elder hong!!!!! tuesday was great except i just kept stressing out because a lot of our appointments kept falling through but elder dunbar was doing good at keeping me calm!!!! elder dunbar is a very quiet kid but i got him to talk because im able to get anyone to talk, even if they are mega shy!!!!!!!!! elder dunbar and i had a great two days in my area and we worked so hard!!!!!!!!! i have a funny story that happened on tuesday: While we were tracting we knocked on this one ladys door and she answered the door and said that she wasnt interested in the church but she gave us some water bottles. ten minutes later we walked past her house so we could get to the other side of the street. she must have been watching for us through the window because as soon as we walked past her house she came running outside and told us that we believe catholics arnt going to heaven and "it says that in our book" and we kindly told her that we believe everyone has a chance to go to heaven!!! she started looking through the book of mormon for the verse but she couldnt find it and her hands were shaking because she was so nervous!!!! We just bore our testimony and then left. Then like an hour later she came driving down a street we were tracting on and she was in her car and she called us over!!!! she drove around in her car to look for us!!!!!!!!!!!! she had her book of mormon and read a verse to us in Moroni 8 that talks about how we shouldnt baptize babies and she interpreted that as catholics cant go to heaven!!!!!! its so funny to listen to things that people think of us and their interpretations of certain scriptures!!!!! Elder dunbar and i got to go and see connie and gary which was great!!!!! i love them so much!!!!! so far we have a baptismal date with connie for october 8!!!!! she just needs to quit smoking!!!! i got to give her a blessing yesterday!!!!!! Yesterday was a farewell for a guy in the branch so we both went to the farmersville branch yesterday and it was great!!!!!!! Tyler is going to be an awesome missionary and Sydney Australia better be prepared for him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then last night the zone leaders called and they were using my article from the new area for a spiritual thought with an active family and they called me because they wanted me to bear my testimony over the phone to the family while it was on speakerphone!!!!! i love bearing my testimony at every chance i get!!!!!! a testimony is such a powerful thing and it can be as simple as that you know that Jesus Christ is the savior.  If you say that to someone and the spirit is there, then you can increase someones faith SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this church and i absolutely LOVE being a missionary!!!!! i hope all of you have awesome weeks and remember to always smile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

Well this week was great!!!!! so many great miracles happened this week!!!!!!! on tuesday we were out knocking on doors which i love doing!!!!!! there was this street that i felt like we should tract on so we did and guess what happened?!?!!?!?!?!? we knocked on this door and this 19 year old guy answered and he was like oh hey guys!!!! so we thought that maybe he was a member and he was just here visiting!!!!!! but it turns out that he just moved here from idaho two weeks ago!!!!! and before he moved here to texas he was meeting with senior missionaries and they were talking to him about getting baptized!!!!!! he said that he has moved five times after he moved out of his parents house when he was 18 and all five of those times missionaries have shown up at his house within two weeks of him moving!!!!! so guess what, we showed up at his house two weeks after he got here!!!!! it is so cool how the spirit works, i love it!!!!!! we have been meeting with this couple, the guy is less active and the girl is not a member!!!! they were supposed to get married today but something came up so hopefully they are getting married next week!!!! then the girl is going to get baptized after they get married!!!!!! our investigator james who is 18 and has a baptismal date for the 24th is doing great!!!!!! we went on splits with the ward mission leader and another member because we had a bunch of appointments on wednesday night so the ward mission leader and i went to go teach james!!!! i taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and it went great!!!! he does have a smoking problem but tobacco doesnt even have a chance against the spirit!!!!!! so we are helping him give up smoking and he is doing so great!!!!!!!! connie and gary went through SO MANY trials this week but they are pulling through!!!!! i dont want to lose these investigators because i love them so much!!!!!! they still havent met elder sullenberger yet because every time i have been over to their house im on an exchange with another missionary in my district!!!! but connie calls me just about every single day and she is so great!!!! she thinks that elder seager is my companion!!!!!!! i cant wait for them to get baptized!!!!!!! after this week something good needs to happen for them because they went through so much this week and i know its because satan is trying to get them to fall!!!!! so yesterday we didnt get to go to church because elder sullenberger got sick so we had to stay home all day!!!!!!!!! in the morning i watched the testaments and then i basically studied from the bible and book of mormon all day which was great because i got SO MUCH studying done!!!!! all the missionaries in my district couldnt believe that i didnt slack off and that i studied all day!!!!! this week was great and it was a lot of fun and i learned a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its starting to cool down which is great!!!! this morning it was 75 and it felt so great outside!!!!!!!!!!!!