Dog Gone It!

April 15, 2016

Sorry there are no pictures of the baptism, the person that took all the pictures hasn't gotten back to us yet with them...

Week

•   Baptism 

•   The Gift of the Holy Ghost

•   The Adventures of Charismatic Kevin!

•   Hit a dog on a backroad

•   Reconnection With a lost family

•   Trust in many other people

So let's start with one of the greatest things that can happen for anyone. Kevin B.  was baptized!! And Dorthy W.  came an saw it.  She loved it and wants to be baptized herself (she said soon so we are thinking by June a the very latest). As Kevin was being lifted up out of the water he slipped and fell so his torso was grabbed and he was lifted out. It was one of those moments that seem to always happen when something of this magnitude happens. He was so happy both before and he was beaming afterwards. 

The next day (Sunday) when Kevin received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, He was super happy and said that he felt the greatest peace he had ever felt in his life. 

He needed a ride from church to his house so we gave him a ride and beforehand he was wondering if he could come out with us to teach people, of course we said yes and were super excited to have him help teach.

We went down to Gasburg to visit his family (grandma) because he wanted her to read the Book of Mormon and pray and ask for herself if it was true. Her grandma had one of the most unanswered questions for a religious individual. "Why are there so many churches if there is one God, one Savior, and should be one Gospel?" And Kevin explained her answer through his testimony of coming to know the Book of Mormon was true and asking God for Himself. As Kevin said "You will know with even greater knowledge, just as I came to know that This is the answer to that question granny". He then came with us to Daphne B.'s house and testified to her of the importance of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She had seen that it was important to him and was interested in asking for herself to find that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies, just as the Bible that Jesus is the Christ. Our final stop by was Dorthy W. that fine Sunday and I think we might have woken her up from a nap (around 5:15 in the evening) but as soon as she saw Kevin her eyes got really wide and she said "come in come in I have some questions for this young man about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. So Kevin helped answer them and talked about the bliss that he felt, like he never wanted to do something wrong again in his life.

Yes, even with all these amazing things that happen, we can still have unexpected accidental sad stories. I hit a dog on the way to church Sunday morning. We were able to get some help for it and as far as we know there were no broken bones, no  ajor hemorrhages and the only main injury we saw (to our amazement) was that she had a bloody paw and was in shock from a vehicle hitting her at 40miles an hour on a country backroad. I will be completely honest, my companion had more sympathy for the dog than I, however it did cross my mind what would happen if someone hit my dog, what would I want them to do? Truth of the matter is their dog is doing well and that's a relief.

We were able to reconnect a family I haven't talked to in about 7 weeks. Apparently the mom of the family is really stressed out with raising solo her five boys and when we talked with her at first she looked at us like she wanted to kill us, but as we asked how her kids were doing, she said "one sec, I'll be right out" and then came out and pretty much told us all the shenanigans going on since we last talked with her and she wanted a blessing to help with her trials. That was completely a miracle how that happened and I will explain why.

About 2 weeks prior ,as I was praying, that family came to my mind and when that happens I usually say to myself "hey God, can we visit them today?" And ya know what my answer was? It was No. A Very firm and distinctive No. What came right after was "write down on a sticky note to visit them on the week on the 11th through the 17th and I will prepare the mother for you to hear My word". So we did, we waited for 2 weeks and on that Friday, we went and saw her. Then this all happened... I don't know if that has ever happened before, but the story doesn't end there. As we were about to leave, we felt a distinct impression there was someone else we needed to talk to and as Elder Shupe confirmed that impression he was looking and saw a lady by her car and thought "maybe she is the one we need to talk to?" And right as he said that, the confirmation to him was when she dropped her stuff out of her car and we had the impression to help. Talked to her and it turns out she is not her Mother that wants her and her 3 children brought into church again because they had moved from North Carolina and needed a home.

Throughout this entire transfer I have had struggles with the issue of trusting God, but once I said to myself "I trust you" and followed what was given, I have seen the miracles of God be brought to pass.

Elder Day

Branch President and 3 Shorts

March 11, 2016

Dear Day Family,

>

> My name is Michael Tetto and I am the Branch President of the Lawrenceville Branch.  We have had Elder Day serving in our branch for a few months now and I just want to send you a message thanking you for his service, faithfulness and goodness.  He has proven to be a hard worker and is a wonderful blessing to us in the branch.  Thank you for lending us your son!

>

> With love,

>

> Pres. Tetto

March 14, 2015

Actually, another fun fact, I didn't tell my new companion that I had a heart disease until after our like 4th day and he got freaked out. But it was because I have already had so many people treat me differently because of it if they know that I have one before I talk with them and get to know them.

April 4^th 2016

So this week was crazy because I got sick for like three days

babies! Isn't that crazy! We still taught four new investigators

within those three days. Doing great and also cooking dogs (hotdog

that is). Dad and conference are pretty much what happened this week.

Found this in one of the investigators houses and they were gracious to have me take a photo of their magnificent picture of Jesus on the water. It's another picture black Jesus, these things are everywhere.

Elder Day

Trainer

March 7, 2016 

So the highlights of my week have basically been.... I will be in Lawrenceville for another 3 months training a missionary.... i don't really have much else to say about this week because my companion was sick and stuff along those lines... I am reading more of the life of Jesus Christ in the New Testament and have seen the example He sets is the perfect way of emulation for a mind of peace, one constantly led by faith and the spirit of God

Windsday's Frontal Assault

Leap Year Day February 29, 2016

• Windsday's frontal assault (see if you get the puns)
• Baptism
• Word of God XL
• Let's talk about it... Deep fried? how bout spiritual...

So this past week was spectacular in many senses of the word, why? well I am so glad you asked... I witnessed a TORNADO about a block away from where I was standing on Wednesday (now all thats left on my list of natural disasters to witness is a tsunami) and now look back on the first bulletpoint and chuckle to yourself. That's right, still got some puns to play on natural disasters, and just for the record, if I never witness a tsunami I will be completly fine for the rest of my life and the life to come.

(left to right: Elder Day, Elder Tanner Brother Turner Mary Luttrell). 

We had a baptism of Mary Luttrell, someone who we met through a member of the congregation a month prior and she was as prepared as I have ever seen an individual. I would recommend that all members ask their friends if they want their questions of the soul answered and to show them in small ways here and there that they are answered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness. Seeing someone's testimony develop has been one of the greatest blessings I have ever seen and now understand why the first prophet of these last days said that the most important work is to spread the gospel (Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976],113)

The word of God XL bullet point was for the large print copies of the Book of Mormon that Dot Wilson and Mami Wright wanted for their wise aged eyes not being able to fully see the smaller print of the copies we hand out to people. That is always awesome.

We have had some  phenomenal.... really really good deep fried food lately that consisted of deep fried cornbread and chili. 

 I had to prepare a talk for tomorrow and the topic was on Chapter 3 of preach my Gospel section 4 or 5 so I chose to study the topic of obedience, this was quite the ruckus because of the fact that right when I got up to speak, my mind went completely blank. So, I took a deep breath and said a quick prayer and then, I just started to speak. From what I know, everything turned out okay.

Ghetto at night...

• February 15, 2016 

• Baptismal interview
• Exchange 
• Ghetto finding some bros who knows
• Learning the will of God

Mary Luttrell is going to be baptized on the 28th of February because she passed her interview with flying colors! 

After which I went with the leader of multiple sets of districts (called a zone leader) to Lawrenceville where he and I taught a man who spoke broken English and mostly Spanish. I didn't understand most of the words that were said but hey, the gospel shall be preached to every tongue and every people. 

This is the Zone leaders we went an exchange with (left to right ) Elder Hansen, Elder Day, Elder Simpkins, Elder Tanner

From there we had dinner with the Kings and then went with brother King to see the family of 3 that is ready to be baptized on the 5th of March. I had a good experience on the exchange with Elder Hansen (no it is not my previous companion, this Elder Hansen is assigned as a Spanish speaking missionary).

Now, I'm glad you asked yourself "what the heck is Elder Day and his companion looking for people to teach in a ghetto apartment complex at 8pm where it's pitch black outside" and the truth is, that was not our original intention, we have 2 investigators in this apartment complex and the times they said to come back were late. So we came back but they weren't home so, when you are in a place with people, you talk to the people! We saw 2 kids (kids as in 2 bros who we found out graduated the same year I did) standing in an open hallway connecting 2 apartment doors and decided to talk with us (I actually yelled "yo, we talkin' bout Jesus and ya should hear this message. We coming up, sound good?") and they agreed. 

This is the car he investigator we have been teaching let us sit in and take pictures in

So we both gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and started talking and they had questions about the repentance process and how to not be a "once a week Christian" as how they put it. So we talked about reading the word of God and then two of their friends came up, said what up and knocked on a door that was blaring some loud rap music. Their knocking didn't to anything so I asked if I could try and they all looked at me with raised eyebrows and said sure. So I knocked as hard as I could 5 times and yelled at the door "open up" and the music immediately went off and all the 4 guys faces were priceless. A younger lady answered the door and said who knocked like that and everyone pointed to me and I smiled and waved and said hello, she asked who we were and we said we were missionaries and she asked " can I have one of your pamphlets or your book?" So we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she thanked us and shut the door. Well I burst out laughing and everyone else gave me a look saying " you wanna get yourself killed?" Well the two kids we originally talked to we set up another appointment with them giving an assignment to read and I challenged them to a beat box battle after church the next day. They accepted but didn't come to church :'( we'll see them Tuesday.

The experiences of learning the will of God were 3

1. God either withholds us from speaking or blesses us with the confidence to look without fear to make commitments and talk to people (both examples of this week's stories).
2. I have learned more and more that the Book of Mormon contains the answers of life's greatest questions of the soul, those that concern us the most and help us know how to grow closer to God and as we read it in conjunction with the bible, all of the knowledge we need to know to live with our Heavenly Father can be known.
3. In these months I have been away, I have seen the challenges of life through a different perspective, as a bystander. Sometimes the way we feel that God may be in our life when we don't recognize his hand in all things, and learning the importance of having a personal way of communication has helped me know the amount of love God has for each one of us. Our choices may prohibit some blessings we could or can still have, but that will never stop God from still trying to bless us as we follow the commandments he has given us and follow the example of his son Jesus Christ.

Thats all we got!

February 15, 2015

This week is pretty awesome. 

We had a lot of lessons, around 17 in total. 

We also have five individuals who are planning to be on date
and baptized in the coming weeks and it's going to be A blessing. A
huge blessing. 

Its been snowing and we have also had interviews with
our mission president. He is a good man.

Rimz

February 8, 2016 

Meeting and mini inter-district exchange 

District meeting

Evans in a rut

Find,teach, baptize, ball?

Church

Tuesday I had a meeting that was 2 hours away so we had a member drop us off at the halfway point because another set of elders also had to go. The meeting was a long 3 hours with no breaks... Gahhhhh!!!!! But I saw Elder Hudson (my friend's cousin), Elder Johnson (my previous companion) and Elder Wolfersberger (a missionary that was in the district I have been in the last 3 months but moved locations 2 weeks ago). Both my previous companion and Elder Wolfersberger I am hoping I can be companions with once more in my mission... Like really bad. Who knows what God has in store. I went on a mini exchange with Elder Hollman (another district leader) because we were waiting on the ride to get back to the midway point. He taught me a lot about the mindset is everything. 

There used to be 6 missionaries in our district but now there are only 4... But we met all 6 of us for the final time (because I felt they were snagged from right under me and I was sad to hear the 2 weren't in our district anymore). But we had some final goodbyes and I feel a lot better.

I basically pushed a minivan out of a 5" ditch in the middle of a rainstorm. We had the Evans minivan attached to a truck but the truck somehow couldn't do what was needed to be done so... I got in some mud while the wheels were spinning in circles and pushed with all my strength and the minivan lifted about 3" because of that. I asked my companion to help but I think because of the last time we tried it he got mud all over his shirt, tie and pants... He just wanted me to do it. He only had 1 spare to change into so it was smart on his thinking.

We found two people last week named Xavier and Justin and have been teaching them  pretty steadily. Xavier is going to be baptized on the third of March and Justin still has one or two questions to have an answer to that all it takes is taking more than 2minutes of reading the Book of Mormon. We also saw their Jr. college basketball game because the gym they played it at was right down the street from our house. They didn't recognize us because we had just come from a service project and were not in white shirt and tie... It cool to go and support them. They lost 68/80) but it was still cool to watch the mini dunkfest after the game was over.

We had an investigator at church!!! It was awesome. They loved it and are preparing for baptism on the 28th

we are trying to teach the man with the 32" Rimz... Remember him?