Pretty Great!

October 24, 2016

This week was pretty great! The ward here is great and we have a couple of great investigators that are progressing well.

Monday night we had a really interesting experience. We took Denis out with us to go see some people. He is 16 and is a convert of about 2 years or so. Well the first person we went to see was a guy named Bobby. I talked to him once before Elder Larson got here and said he was pretty interested. Well we got there and he was inside so we were talking to his friend Richard who was outside. Richard was really great and just got over some hard things in his life and is even looking to get closer to God. Well then Bobby came outside. He was holding a beer and you could tell it wasn't his first one of the day. Let's just say it wasn't too fun.

The rest of the night we went and saw Paul our friend from Africa. He is amazing and loves Joseph Smith. We talked about the restoration and he had some really great questions about the plan of salvation as well.

Zone preparation Day 

Tuesday was sooo hot! Its October and it was like 85º! We did some service this morning mowing Kathy’s lawn which was great. Then we had a meeting with the Richmond stake president and the other zone leaders and sister training leaders in the stake. It was cool to see  how much a stake president wants to be apart of all of our investigators and missionary activities. 

This afternoon tracting we found Shareeve. At first he didn't look very interested and was kind of just sitting outside but once we started talking he got more into it. He was really hooked on prophets and had some crazy ideas about prophets telling us "Tupac was a modern prophet among others." We also saw Bruce, another one of our recent converts. He is on dialysis and was having a tough time but we had an awesome plan of salvation lesson with him and he is really gaining a deeper testimony of the gospel. We saw a couple people besides that and went out with Christian tonight but it wasn't that exciting. 

Wednesday morning was district meeting and on the way over there we stopped off at the hospital to give someone a blessing. District meeting was ok, we had some discussion about how we can work with the members in our areas and get them more active. Then we went on exchanges with the assistants, it was awesome! I went with Elder Kauer and we had a blast. Every time we talked with them for the past 3 months I would always ask when we were going to do an exchange and after 3+ months of asking they got it down! Elder Kauer said that they never made time for exchanges but it was worthwhile so he was very grateful for the accountability. 

Elder Kauer and I 

We were at VCU campus street contacting and had many miracles with teaching college students and one was able to make it to church! We talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy with an investigator that night and she said that "in order for me to like my roommates I am going to make them have a Sunday dinner with me" and we chuckled and talked about how we don't ever want to force people to do things, but making food and having a tradition of a roommate dinner on Sunday's is a wonderful idea.

Thursday we had studies and it was so good. Weekly planning was good, super long and I wasn't feeling well so we took it easy by only knocking doors for a few hours and checking up on people. 

That night we had a lesson with Shawnte again and talked about the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon. She is really interested in helping her family come closer to God and is wanting to recommit her self because she knows that God can help her in her life. It was a good lesson. 

Friday was long. We went and finished mowing Kathy’s lawn since we didn't get it all the way done. Then we went home and met brother Scott. He took us to have a lesson with Bruce again and it was great. We talked about the resurrection and how all of our bodies will be restored which made him really happy because he’s having some health struggles. 

 We saw Paul again and were able to talk to his friend Amaru who has been learning about the church with us lately. We taught him the restoration and he was really starting to get why we needed the priesthood back on the earth. So cool for a 13 year old kid. Then we took Norman to see Brother Elrod who is a less active member starting to come back. We talked about patriarchal blessings and how they are a map for our lives. We saw Kathy again and her friend Deb was there. We talked about how there is opposition in all things and how we need to love as Christ did. It was hard because Deb was really nice but she was kinda taking over the lesson so we didn't have tons of time to talk to Kathy but hopfelly she felt the spirit. 

Saturday was also a really packed day. We helped Brother Fox move some of his stuff this morning which was great. He’s just moving to a new house in the ward boundaries. 

We got a call around lunch from another set of elders who have an investigator who is in our area. He is here in a hospital and wanted us to go see him. That's kind of all the info we got. Well it took us like 30 min to find this guy and then we had to go into this kind of mental hospital place and had a lesson with Jose. He is awesome and really really smart. He’s been studying other religions and just found the missionaries and wants to be baptized. He is pretty much ready but just needs some fine-tuning. The main problem is he is in this hospital so he’s not sure when he can come to church. But he is awesome. 

Then we had a lesson with Jennifer cause she's been having a hard time. She has been seeing goes hand in her life though so much and he has been answering her prayers. We talked about how we can receive revelation from prayer, reading and fasting. Those all take faith and its hard but she said she is going to come to church tomorrow! It was great. 

Sunday was the primary program! We had Kathy come to church again and she loved it, we also had Brother Cranney come and stay the whole time and he was really into it. The sisters had some people there as well and the chapel was packed for the program. After church we took Norman and saw Lewis, one of our investigators. He is struggling to know what to put his faith in and how to follow Christ. So we talked a lot about that and how he can learn from the Book of Mormon. Then we went to an apartment complex and found that picture of those kids with the masks. Lol. 

Our evening was awesome; we went out with Brother Lunde and saw Jose again. We talked to him about repentance and the atonement. He was really receptive and is really smart.  Even though he has some problems to fix, I think he could be baptized soon. Then we went to see Jennifer and make sure she is good to come to dinner tomorrow with the Meads. It was a good lesson and we talked about the Book of Mormon as well. She is really gaining a testimony and its soo cool to see God act in her life. 

The end of our night was teaching Kathy the word of wisdom. She is already following it and agrees with it all so it was really easy to teach. She is progressing so well and is looking forward to being baptized 11/19! I know she can make it!. 

This is our Zone after Zone preparation day and Elder Kauer and I during our amazing exchange!