This week was the most amazing week until Sunday.
We
found 11 new investigators, more than we found all of last transfer
combined, and 7 of them had accepted a baptismal date for Sep 28. But 5 of them fell off date for various reasons last night which was way unfortunate...more on that in a bit.
Last week I said goodbye to Elder Harder. I was sad to see him go but I'm excited for what's ahead of him.
This
past week started off perfectly. I got bit by a pitbull. I was on
exchanges with Elder Mack (since his companion went home as well) and we
saw this guy that we decided we'd talk to. I should have taken more
notice of how the dog's leash was tied around the man's waist. Anyway,
we talked to him and I asked if I could pet his dog. "Make sure you're
sure of yourself!" Whatever that meant I walked toward the dog and all
the sudden in a thrash of teeth, blood, gore, and pain the pitbull was
dragging me behind it to what I thought was my sure death.
Ok, maybe it didn't happen like that but it did jump
up and grab my knee and bite my knee! I stepped backwards in shock and
the guy said, "well, you should have been more sure!" and then walked
away. KSJDFLAKJSDFAKSJDFKALSDFA. I could have gotten his dog taken away
if I wasn't so nice! Oh well.
We had an awesome experience finding a family to
teach this week. We OYM'd into a woman outside an apartment complex and
we talked with her a bit and had a nice conversation. We asked her if we
could return the next day at a certain time and she accepted! When we
went over we were surprised to see 7 people inside the house! We sat
down and had an awesome conversation with them and they all accepted a
baptismal invitation. They're doing really well and a wedding and a
baptism are in the mix for the future. A really faithful, open, and
genuine family.
That has been my goal in OYMs. I want to leave every
OYM having gained a new friend. I talked about that last week but
people need to see us as people not just, "HEY WE'RE THE MISSIONARIES
FROM THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO
HEAR MORE?" And then if the answer is no, "OK, DO YOU KNOW ANYONE..."
etc. There's so much more to these street contacts than that!
On Wednesday
I picked up my new companion! His name is Elder Gaspar and he was in
the Phoenix mission before! He's great and guess where he's from?
Stafford, VA! Small world! I've had two companions in a row from the
East Coast! His family is from Peru so he's 100% Peruvian blood and
fluent in both english and spanish. Obviously I'm supposed to learn
spanish or something since I've had three native speaker companions
which I've never heard of happening before. And he plays violin too! AND
HE HAS SEEN KUNG POW ENTERS THE FIST AS WELL! He's super humble and a
powerful missionary so we're going to have a lot of fun together.
Another small world story. For the Dewey family in
Washington...Renee Taylor, your babysitter, is in the Arizona Tempe
mission! I met her this past Wednesday. The one who babysat your kids? Craaazzzyyyy.
One of our recent converts is really struggling
right now. I don't want to go into too many details but the state has
picked her up to keep her safe from herself and they won't tell us where
she is. no one knows where she is and they won't let us contact her.
She needs the ward now more than ever and we can't do anything. Super
frustrating.
We're really excited for a different investigator
who has accepted a baptismal date for two weeks from now! She is so
prepared but her health problems are going to present a challenge. She
has had some amazing experiences getting her to where she is now and she
is more ready than ever!
It's hard to see people struggle. Whether it be
spiritual, financial, physical, whatever. And it is even worse when
people say, "they brought that on themselves, I'm not going to help."
This past week we got to spend some time with an amazing person who is
struggling with one of those three things. This person commented to us
about all the judgement he has received and how it is really making him
question things. Just be aware that little acts of kindness make a world
of a difference. Do something good for someone today. Help someone in
need. You never know who's hurting and you never will unless you try.
Oh my goodness this last week I saw a Fisker Karma!
If you don't know what it is then google it. It drove right through Mesa
(of course) and on probably to Scottsdale but it was
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
One of the stakes in our zone is tiny. Four square
miles by four square miles. An entire stake! They're on the Gilbert
side, quite a ways away, but we had an awesome meeting with the stake
presidency the other day. It is always really humbling and inspiring to
see these powerful men make time at 7am
to meet with us and listen to the work we're doing. This particular
stake president comes very prepared to these meetings, complete with an
agenda and both his counselors. The missionaries in that stake are
working very closely with their leadership and miracles are around the
corner.
And that's something that we're working on - a
smooth connection from the top down. Facebook is making that possible as
more and more stake presidents, counselors, and bishops get on
Facebook. It makes the connection and the correlation between all levels
seamless and easy.
We had our correlation meeting this week over Skype.
Information was shared via email and text and video conferencing
provided all other interaction needed. The wards and members are getting
really reallly excited about this new technology as are we.
We just need to help the mission be effective. Our
teaching opportunities almost trippled this past week because of an hour
a day on Facebook. We just had a conference call with President Toone
addressing some of his concerns and talking about some success we've had
as a companionship over Facebook.
This past week I committed someone to baptism over
Facebook. This person lives in Texas and I was able to teach her twice:
once with my first companion Tanner Sawyer and the second time,
yesterday, with Mark, my brother. She brought a lot of concerns up
yesterday and kind of fell away from the commitment she had made to
baptism but it was a special experience to be able to teach and testify
with both of them, especially considering I haven't even seen Mark in
three years and won't for one more. I'm in contact with the mission
president where the person we're teaching over Facebook lives and he is
super excited for this. Their mission isn't on Facebook until February.
Apparently President Toone brought this experience up at the conference
all the missionaries had in Texas this past weekend with Elder Neil L.
Anderson! Wooo!
It was also really cool this morning to see Tracy
Watson, the director of proselyting for the world (for the church)
comment and testify on my status in response to a nonmembers comment.
Everything is so connected! It's cool to have a connection to leadership
of the church through Facebook since we're testing out this new stuff.
Fun fun fun fun fun.
Thanks Eric, Will, Dallin (In France!), and Grandpa J for the letter this week!
Thank
you all for your support, for liking and sharing posts on Facebook, for
sharing your own testimonies on Facebook, for being great friends and
for being great family!
Con amor,
EJ
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