November 21, 2011

Well this week was another great week being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had a special visitor come to district meeting so that she could tell us about the nativity exhibit they are having at the stake center!!!!!!! she gave us a bunch of invitations to pass out to people and she told us all about it and it looks like it is going to be great!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wonder why we dont do that in newport, its a HUGE thing here in texas!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday we got to meet with John and he is doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We showed up at his house and he had a brand spanking new quad sitting on his table and i started freaking out because he bought his own quad and that is definitely a good sign!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he then told us that he had something really important to tell to us and guess what?!?!?!?!!? he told us that he wants to be a member of the church!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started freaking out and i think that i got a little too excited!!!!!!!!!! I am just so excited for john because we have been teaching him so much and he has been progressing so greatly and he finally decided that he wants to become a member!!!!!!!!!!!! then after that we met with Laura and she is doing just great also!!!!!!!!!! We gave her a triple combination because she really wanted to read from the doctrine and covenants and the pearl of great price and she loves them already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i also gave her a picture of Jesus Christs second coming and she hung it up right when you walk in the door to her apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for her to get baptized its just that she has a huge mega smoking problem!!!!!!!!!! She has been smoking for like 35 years or something!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have already tried to get her to quit twice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she doesnt have a car so she gives us all her cigarrettes and we throw them away and its basically impossible for her to buy anymore because she cant drive to the store!!!!!!!! so we went back to check on her the next day to see how she was doing and she opened the door and was like "elder tuma you are going to be mad at me" and i was like oh no laura what happened?!?!?!?!?!!?! she ended up finding cigarrette butts on the ground and smoking those in the morning,(barf in my mouth) her addiction is that bad!!!!!!!!!!!! i never realized that smoking can become such a bad addiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! her baptism date is set for the 18th so we need to get her to stop smoking by then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we met this lady named Christine and she is friends with Laura so we are gonna start teaching her also!!!!!!!! she definitely is ready for the gospel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So transfer calls were on saturday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im staying here in the melissa ward and farmersville branch and elder sullenberger is leaving, he is going to an area called sulphur springs!!!!!!!! Its going to be so mega different without him here, we were together for 4 months, usually missionaries dont stay together that long!!!!!!!!! but im still in my first area!!!!!!!!!!!! my new companion is going to be elder clark!!!!!!!!!!!! i havent met him before but ill meet him tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! no one else in my district really knows anything about him, im sure that he is going to be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yesterday was stake conference and we got a new stake president and then after that we went over to a bunch of families houses so that elder sullenberger could say goodbye to them, it was way sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my week was great and i just love the gospel so much!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit can really change peoples lives and it is just so great!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have an awesome thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know that I am definitely going to have a great thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! make sure you remember to thank Heavenly Father for everything that you have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gratitude unexpressed is ingratitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 14, 2011

Well this week was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had district meeting and then we all ate lunch at the church which was great!!!!!!!! its always a lot of fun when our district gets to eat lunch together and we get to talk all about our investigators!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after that it was time for exchanges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Mchardy got to come up to my area with me!!!!!!!!!!!! it was great and we got to come in contact with a lot of people!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Mchardy got to meet Laura!!!!!!!!!!!! She is one of my favorite investigators right now and she is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love her so much!!!!!!!!!!!! We found her because she was sitting on a chair outside of her apartment complex and she asked us if we gave out free food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we started talking to her about the church and she ended up wanting to learn more!!!!!!!!!!! She used to hate the church but we have been over there a few times now and she came to church yesterday and now she loves the church and she is getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she went around church yesterday and introduced herself to everyone, it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she just has a smoking problem but we can get rid of that!!!!!!!!!!!! she really wants to stop smoking which is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! her ex husband and her daughter are both members of the church but they are less active!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has changed so much since we started teaching her!!!!!!!!!!! I love how the gospel and the Spirit can really change peoples lives, i have already seen it happen so much since I have been here!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on friday I got to go down to Allen because Elder Sullenberger had to do a baptismal interview for some of the elders down there!!!!!!!!!! So elder calderwood and I got to spend the evening together!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to a park to go and contact people and it was great!!!!!!!!!! we ran into a group of like 30 high school kids and I wanted to go and talk to them but elder calderwood didnt!!!!!!!!!! I forced him to, so i lead the way and started talking to them!!!!!!!!!! they all had such great questions and they all wanted to learn more about the church!!!!!!!!! they were all really cool!!!!!!!!!! they remind me of the people in newport, they were wearing toms and vans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we ended up handing out a lot of pamphlets to all of them and it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never be scared to talk about the church with people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! share it with everyone that you come in contact with!!!!!!!!!! you never know who the Lord has prepared next to learn about the gospel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My week was pretty good and church was good yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love church because the spirit is there the entire time and its just so much fun to talk with all the members about how the week was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you are have an awesome week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! transfers are next week so we will see what is going to happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you can do all things through Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 7, 2011

This week was an awesome week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The highlight of my week was definitely the baptism on saturday night which i'll talk about later!!!!!!!!!! on tuesday I got work down in Allen with elder dunbar which was a ton of fun!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so great and we got to talk to a ton of great people!!!!!!!!! Allen is such a great city and I love it so much!!!!!!!!!! We were riding our bikes around the high school and some kids drove past us and yelled something at us and we were going to talk to them but they already drove away!!!!!!!!!! That night we got to go tracting in a neighborhood where the homes were HUGE and the people were very nice!!!!!!!!!! We got to talk to this catholic guy that was very nice and wanted to learn more about the church from us which was great!!!!!!!! Earlier that night Elder Dunbar and I got to be guest speakers at some primary party one of the allen wards were having!!!!!!!!! there were 30 nine and ten year old girls all asking us about missionary work and what we do everyday, some of their questions were HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a lot of them thought that we live in the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then the rest of the week was great!!!!!!! we are teaching this guy named zack and he is 17 years old!!!!!!! it is so great that he wants to learn more about the church!!!!!!!!!!! he was supposed to come to church yesterday and he didnt, but hopefully he will come this sunday!!!!!!!!! We also have this other really great investigator and her name is Laura!!!!!!!! She smokes a TON so every time we go in her apartment we come out smelling like cigarrettes and I always have to spray myself with febreeze!!!!!!!!! Her daughter is a member of the church but her daughter lives down in Wylie!!!!!!! Laura is so great and she has been learning the gospel very well!!!!!!!! She lives alone with her dog but her apartment is so decorated!!!!!!!!!!! She gave me a winter hat so my ears dont get cold and she gave me a bright orange and yellow safety vest so people can see me while we are riding our bikes!!!!!!!!! I am definitely not going to wear it but its funny that she gave those things to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she didnt come to church yesterday because she currently has red hair and she wants to dye it brown and she didnt want to go to church and have people see her with red hair and she is going to dye it brown this week so hopefully she is at church on sunday!!!!!!!!!! On saturday night we had williams baptism!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so great and he is definitely one of the best nine year olds ever!!!!!!!!!!!! While william was changing his clothes after the baptism part, all the missionaries came up front and sang Joseph Smiths First Prayer and then I recited his account of seeing the first vision!!!!!! it was so spiritual and it went great!!!!!!!!!! other than that we had a great week and I love every minute being a representative of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope that all of you have awesome weeks and remember that you can do all things through Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 31, 2011 ( Halloween )

Well this week was definitely a crazy and busy week with a TON of stuff happening!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we went on exchanges and Elder Calderwood came up to my area which was great!!!!!! We just went around princeton and went tracting and met a bunch of people!!!!!!!! We knocked on one houses door and as soon as i stopped knocking, this guy on the other side of the door started banging as hard as he could and started yelling not so Christlike phrases at us!!!!!!!! We just started laughing and put a card in the door and then we walked away and he came running outside because he thought we were going to try and mess with him but we didnt!!!!!!! Then that night we got to go and see Kailyn and she is still doing great and even better because she know has the gift of the Holy Ghost with her!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday we went and walked around East McKinney a little bit to go and contact some people in the streets!!!!!!!! We walked past a house and we heard barking and thats not always a good sign and we saw this HUGE snarling evil white dog jump over the gate and it came running after us and i started screaming at the top of my lungs and Elder Calderwood started sprinting so i started sprinting!!!!!!!! We lost the dog but the only bad part was that our car was parked right by the house with that dog and we had to get back down to Allen so we could exchange back!!!!!!! So we snuck down that street again and we were about 30 feet away from the car and we heard the barking and the dog came running back out so I jumped into the drivers seat and Elder Calderwood jumped into the back seat and the dog started ramming into the car so we drove away really fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am never going down that street again!!!!!!!!!!! Then on Thursday I got to go down to Allen again and do some work with Elder Mchardy and Elder Calderwood in their area!!!!!!!! It was great and we got to meet a ton of people and pass out a bunch of cards and teach lessons!!!!!!!!! Heres another story: We were riding our bikes past the highschool and it was around 3:30 and i love contacting high school age kids cause thats when I joined the church and some of them really want to learn more and a lot of them have mormon friends cause there are a ton of members in Allen!!!!!!! So we were riding our bikes past the high school and a car drove passed us and one of the kids yelled out the window "I love Satan" so as soon as he yelled that I got elder mchardy and elder calderwood to follow me and i followed that car and it stopped and i swerved up to the window and said "OH HEY!!!!! It sounds like you guys yelled out the window that you wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ" and all the kids in the car looked so stunned and they did not know what to say because they didnt expect me to come up to them!!!!!! So we gave them a card and left, it was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday we had interviews with president Durrant and that was great!!!!!!! I love him so much and I am so glad that he is my mission president, he is such a nice guy!!!!!!!! Then On saturday we got to meet with some more investigators and William is getting baptized next saturday!!!!!!! I am so stoked for him and he is doing so great!!!!!!! And on saturday night we got to go to the Melissa Ward Chili cook off and trunk or treat which was awesome and we had some investigators there!!!!!!!!!! The gospel is so great!!!!!!! I love sharing it and I love seeing the chages in peoples eyes when I tell them about the church because I can totally tell when someone is feeling the spirit!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday we had a total of nine investigators at church, numbers dont matter but its still so great that our investgators are making the right choices and have the desire to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!! This week was awesome and I hope all of you are doing great!!!!!!!!!!! Let Jesus Christ be your light for this halloween night and remember to always be an example!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!