Chapter 95 - October 28, 2013

Sup :).  So things are going pretty well right now for us.  This week we were able to get in with this lady who the missionaries had been trying to get in with for awhile and she even accepted a baptismal date :).  We couldn't tell how excited she was for baptism but she really wanted us to come back and teach her again so hopefully things work out :).  We also went to the temple visitor center yesterday with a few of our investigators, the missionaries were putting on a fireside there, and it was a really good experience for them.  For the fireside the missionaries had a bishop speak all about his conversion story and how the gospel has blessed him in his own life.  The spirit was soooo strong there and hopefully it helped impact our investigators.  We had to split right after the fireside ended, the investigator we rode with had to leave to go to work, so we weren't able to talk to our other one that was there but hopefully she liked it :).  We currently have 6 people that we are teaching and they are all progressing pretty well.  Hoping to find even more to teach this week :).  Well, that's all that really happened this week so i guess ill end it here.  peace out till next week

Chapter 94 - October 22, 2013

We don't have any snow yet.  It has been a lot colder though lately (thank goodness hahaha).  I really couldn't stand the hot weather this summer (high 90s).  it honestly was even too hot for me in the high 70s hahaha.  Hot weather and missionary clothes don't go well together, especially when your clothes are all wool haha.  So to answer your questions, yes i have a car in this area :).  We drive a Toyota Corolla.  Not as cool as the Ford Fusions that are also in the mission but hey they are better than the Imprezas.  Hated driving the Impreza in Ririe because none of them came with aux ports hahaha.  They did handle very well in the snow though.  Yes, we are living with members.  The story with them is kinda cool.  Apparently before the missionaries moved in with them they were less-active and when the missionaries moved in with them they started coming back to church and are now active :).  So ya, you can tell Matt that great space between houses on the map of Rigby looks even more appealing in person hahaha :).  I seriously love it soooo much being back here in the country.  What's even funnier is it just so happens that i live literately like 5 miles down the road from the Jose's hahaha.  Not gonna lie, it's super hard to not go and visit them all the time hahaha.

Sooo yaaa, i wooould send you pictures today but i kinda don't have my camera :\.  I scratched the lens on my awhile back (not sure how i did it, just turned it on one day and all the sudden there was a scratch :\) and so this lady in our area told us she would take my companion's camera and mine in to get them looked at (his is broken too) cause she does photography for a living.  Soooo you probably won't get pictures till next week.

Things are going pretty well right now in our area.  We were able to find another person to start teaching this week and he even accepted the invitation to be baptized :).  And then yesterday we were able to teach this one lady for the first time and she also accept a baptismal invitation.  Unfortunately it doesn't count for us cause she actually lives in ammon (was up visiting her boyfriend) but oh well, those missionaries will be happy to find out that they are getting a free investigator hahaha.  Other than that though not much else happened this week.  I was sick for most of the week so it was a little slow :\.

Well, peace out till next week.

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 93 - October 14, 2013

That's cool that all the missionaries in the ward didn't get transfered.  In our mission it seems like the opposite happened.  A ton of missionaries who had only been in their area for one transfer or had only been with their comp for one transfer got transfered.  This transfer was one of the more unpredictable ones that's for sure.  So being in Rigby again is pretty legit.  For p-day i actually went and visited a few of the members in Ririe :).  Went and saw the Calls this morning and played some ping pong with him.  Then went and saw a family called the Bowers (they used to feed us every monday night after p-day for family home evening).  Then while we were in Idaho Falls shopping i went and saw Spencer (Johnson family.  The one who's son was in that picture with me at the temple) at work.  And then in a little bit i am gonna go visit the Jose's :).  I am actually a bit sick right now so i'm going to see them to get some meds hahaha :).  My area is pretty legit too.  First and main reason it is legit is....IT"S ALL COUNTRY!!!! hahahaha.  Man, that first day i got here and started driving on the country roads again felt sooooooo good hahaha.  The work is going well in our area as well.  Right now we have 2 baptismal dates and both are pretty solid (one for the 9th of november and the other for like the 21st of december, so i won't be here for the 2nd one but oh well).  Elder Sincere is also pretty cool.  He is also from California, Sacramento area, and looooooooooves soccer.  Like i can't put into words how much he loves soccer hahaha.  He always has to remind me when i ask him if he ever did something (like played this sport or a certain movie) that all he did was soccer hahaha.  I have seen him do a little foot tricks though and he is daaaang good.  Well, there wasn't really all that much that happened this last week (kinda only had like 4 days to make things happens hahaha) so i guess i'm gonna end this email here. 

Peace out till next week :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 92 - October 7, 2013

While I am happy that i am being transferred out of Poci,  I am sad that i will be leaving behind 6 solid investigators that all have baptismal dates and that i wont be able to see them get baptized :(.  But i am extremely excited to be going back up north, especially to somewhere so close to Ririe :).  And i am SUPER happy to be going back to the country hahaha.  Dang, so i forgot that the mission ruins the suprise by sending you an email of my leadership changes about me going to be a trainer.  I am going to be finishing up a greenie's training.  So in other words, i am doing the 2nd half of his training.  I think it's going to be awesome :).  Oh, i just realized i should probably tell you his name hahaha.  My new companion is going to be Elder Sincere.  All i heard about him is that he is from California.  Not sure what part but i guess i will find that out on wed :).  

 

So i guess the awesome stories i have for you this week are about the 4 new baptismal dates we were able to set :).  One of them is with a mother and her daughter.  One of the members told us about how they had visited them and how they want to get baptized.  So we called them, setup a time with them to meet, and met this last week.  They are extremely solid.  pretty much once we got there they started asking us about when they could get baptized and how they are really looking forward to it!  The mom even told us how she went up to the bishop and asked him if she could get a calling in the ward because she felt it would help her be even more committed to this goal of being baptized. :)  

The other one is that investigator i told you about last week who showed up to church after us having lost contact with him.  We were able to meet with him this last week and when we invited him to be baptized he said he really feels like this is the next step he should take and that he knows that he will be able to overcome smoking problems and everything.  Things are great in this area right now.  Super sad to be leaving all these investigators behind but hey the lord has called me another way :)

 

Well, that's all i have to say this week.  Peace out till next week :)

 

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 90 - September 20, 2013

So this week was a good week.  We Just had 2 more baptisms this last saturday! And this last week we found 2 more people to start teaching who are all pretty solid. And on top of all that we still have 2 more baptisms lined up for october 26th :). It hasn't been easy though that's forsure. Satan has been hitting everyone one we are trying to teach sooooo hard, specifically with church. I swear, i have never had such a hard time trying to get people to church than now hahaha. But hey, heavenly father can help us overcome Satan any day, as long as we put our faith in him :).  We also had some more miracles on sunday :).  The first one that happened is one of our investigator families came to church this week and the dad, who is less-active, even stayed for all 3 hours which is probably the first time he done that in like 15 years. The other awesome thing that happened this week is we were sitting in the chapel waiting for our 9 o'clock church to start and all the sudden we see this member standing at the chapel doors waving at us to come over to him. So we get up and walk over to him and when we get out into the foyer we see one of our investigators that we have lost contact with for about the last month! :). We start talking to him and found out that he was coming to find out what time his ward was. So we told him that his ward started at 11 and he came back at 11 for his ward! :). Definitely having a lot of success right now :).

So transfer calls come this week and this one will determine where i am going to die in the mission.  Will let you know next week what's happening :).

Well, thanks for everything and peace out till next week :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

PS -- I am getting transferred to Rigby East Stake and I am going to be finishing up the training of a new missionary : )

Chapter 89 - September 23, 2013

So it's finally starting to cool down and feel like fall :).  I have come to the conclusion that i am not going to like how hot it will be in california when i come home hahahaha.  The heat sucks :).  And yes to answer your question i do miss being out in the country hahaha.  The city life (if that's what you call it here in poci since poci isn't really much of a city) just isn't as awesome hahaha.

So things are going pretty well for us right now.  We are currently having a baptism coming up this weekend and it's going to be awesome :).  Their names are megan and abby, megan is 12 and abby is 9, and the coolest part about them is by teaching them we also have been able to reactive their parents :).  We also just found out that there are a few people that would like to start taking the missionary discussions, so we are going to go and meet with them this week and hopefully start teaching them :).  Another thing that happend this week is i had the privilage of giving a blessing of comfort to the dad of a less-active family that we have been working with for awhile.  Honestly, it was probably the most i have ever felt the spirit working through me.  I could literately feel the spirit putting the words into my mouth of what i should say and i could feel his presence so strongly throughout my entire body.  The coolest part was the very next day the dad came up to me and told me how that blessing i gave him made him feel overwhelmed with a sense a peace and happiness and how he knows it's because of the blessing.  I love the priesthood and being able to bless other people's lives with it :).  

Well, those are pretty much the highlights of this week.  Could you get me Vili's email address?  I wanna send him an email now that he is at the mtc :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 88 - September 16, 2013

sooooooooo this is what happened this week. WE GOT A BAPTISM!!!!! :) hahaha. I don't know if i told you about the 9 year old girl named addy that we found but her baptism was such a wonderful thing. The spirit was super strong the entire time and it definitely was a miracle given to us from our heavenly father that she got baptized. So the story behind her is her mom grew up in the church but has gone super inactive and infact is kinda against the church now. So i guess a week before we knocked on addy's door she had gone to church with her grandpa (who is a member) and really enjoyed being there so she told her grandpa that she wanted to get baptized. And then that next week we show up at her door and the first response from her mom was "who sent you here? Did my dad send you here? or was it the visiting teachers?" We told her that we actually were just going through the neighborhood knocking on the doors trying to get to know everyone and from then on long story short the mom talked to addy about baptism and agreed to let her start taking the discussions and get baptized, which lead to her getting baptized on saturday! :) The coolest part was that everyone in their family that was at the baptism kept coming up to me and telling me how much of a miracle this was and that i was an answer to many of their prayers :). MISSIONARY WORK ROCKS! :) hahaha. Other news is you remember that family where the dad lost custody of his 2 sons? Well, one of them was finally given back to him a few weeks ago and we were able to get in and start teaching him once again and now him and his sister, who is 9, both have dates for october 26. We also have 2 more people that are going to be getting baptized not this saturday but the following saturday. :) 

Things are going pretty well in this area and we are still finding more and more people to teach :). It definitely sucks walking but it's gotten a lot cooler so it's not as bad anymore. Tell grandma and Grandpa i said hi :).  Oh and tell uncle Jim that he is a dork and that i said hi :) hahaha.

 

Peace out till next week :)

 

With love,

Elder ---chis--->