Chapter 84 - August 19, 2013

Dang.  So you have to teach Gospel Essentials?  Sounds fun ;) hahaha.  I honestly really like going to gospel essentials.  The class topics are always good ones and we usually have some good discussions.  I like that quote though.

Ya i got your box of junk this week.  Me and the other elders in the district have been enjoying some of those random toys.  They especially liked that red water ball toy.  I brought it the next day to district meeting and we kept throwing it around so much that it broke hahaha.  So they all told me to have you send more but i told them it was just a random free give away item from a convention you went to.  They were a bit sad hahaha.  And i know, i can't believe it either than im about to turn 21!  September 2nd baby!!!!!  And no we unfortunately won't be getting an all day p-day but my birthday still falls on normal p-day so i will get to celebrate it from 10-6 :).

So this week was unfortunately a little slower than usual again :(.  A lot of people went out of town to go on vacation or to go camping so pretty much no one was home for the entire weekend :\.  but i was able to find monopoly at a yard sale this week for a dollar! :) hahaha.  So me and Elder Farnsworth have been playing it pretty much every night.  That and Risk.  One awesome thing that happened this week though is we were able to give a blessing to a less-active family that we have been working with.  They are progressing really well right now and infact are working on their goal to go to the temple and get sealed as a family.  They are a really cool family but the wierd part is that both the mom and dad are younger than me hahaha.  So everytime i see the dad i think man, you are younger than me and are already married.  Unfair! hahaha

Well, that's all that really happened this week.  It's been rediculously hot lately and it sucks even more being in missionary clothes when it's hot hahaha.  I straight up can't wait for it to get colder again haha.  Peace out till next week!

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 83 - August 12, 2013

Wowwwwwww mom, someone is trunky ;).  It's ok, i won't lie i'm a little bit as well hahaha.  Getting that phone call about my departure date definitely didn't help hahaha.  But honestly, despite the excitement, it's also sad at the same time to think that my mission is coming to an end :(.  I am loving my mission so much and definitely don't want it to end because you get to have so many amazing experiences.  But at the same time i am ready to begin the next stage of my life.

So i guess that's one of the blessings that comes from serving a mission is that i haven't written any of the talks i have given. I have learned how to just go up there with a sheet of paper that has a few bullet points and just talk.  A mission has definitely helped me become a better speaker, i still don't like giving talks though hahaha.  There is something about getting up in front of hundreds of  people and talking that just isn't appealing, hahaha. 

So this week was actually a really good week for us :).  We were able to find 2 new people to start teaching and we also were able to commit 2 more people to baptism this week! :).  And by the end of the month we should have at least 2-4 more people committed to baptism! :).  Honestly, this week is what we needed to have because the previous few weeks were kinda a drag with having 4 of our investigators drop us and then just nothing going the way it should. 

Another awesome thing, one of the wards that we cover was having their ward party at the local park and they decided to do a waterslide party.  So while we were there the bishop came up to us and told us that we should go and slide down the slide.  And you know we didn't want to offend the bishop at all ;) so we haaaaad to go and slide down the waterslide hahaha.  It ended up being a good experience though because some of the youth weren't members so we were able to interact with them and get to know them and hopefully when we go and stop by their house this week we will now be able to teach them :).

Well, that's all for this week so i guess peace out till next week :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 82 - August 5, 2013

The first thing you notice about a picture would be that i need a haircut hahaha!  Don't worry, we tried last week but weren't able to get them so we are getting them this week.  But i am also glad that you noticed that i am defintely a lot more in shape and im not as chubby hahaha.  Being in a walking area has really kicked my butt into shape and i am now at 160 pounds haha.  So ya, that member gave us a TON a food so we were pretty excited about that :).  Unfortunately the crock pot has a crack down one side of it so we don't think it would keep in the juice if we were to use it but oh well.

So things were unfortunately still a little stressful and rough this week.  Definitely better than last week though :).  We were able to find a new person to start teaching and are going to have our first lesson with her.  It's this girl named addy and we found her just knocking on doors in our area.  When she answered the door she pretty much straight away told us that she wants to get baptized and when her mom came to the door she said she would talk to her daughter about it and we could call her in a few days.  Soooo we went back and visited her again about 2 days later and we find out that the mom gave her permission to start taking the missionary discussions and possibly get baptized! :).  So things are definitely starting to look up again.  And we also found out that one of the investigators that dropped us, he kinda had to do to some circumstances, we will be able to start teaching him again at the end of the month probably :).  

Elder Farnsworth and i are really trying our best to be obedient and work hard so we can show our heavenly father we are here to work and he and trust us with people to teach :).  Continue to pray for us and i guess that's kinda all i have to report on about this last week.  So peace out till next week :).

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 81 - July 29, 2013

Sooo yaaa things have been a little stressful this week. But on the bright side one of our investigators we have been working with for a while now and have been trying to get to church (dad is less-active and hasn't come to church in like 4 years) finally came to church this week! :) And we were also able to finally get in the door of a family we met about a month ago who the wife said she would like to get reactive in the church again and the husband would like to look into the church and possibly get baptized! So while things are kinda starting to crumble a little we aren't letting it get us down because we know as long as we have faith things will work out :)

Well, hopefully i have more success stories to share next week :).  Love you and peace out till next week.

With Love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 80 - July 22, 2013

So this week was a good week for us :).  We were again able to teach 20 lessons this week, which makes that 3 weeks in a row now! woot!  Elder Farnsworth and I are trying to figure out now how we can increase our number of lessons taught a week because we can consistently get to 20.  More good news is that all 6 of the people that we are teaching right now that have baptismal dates are all progressing very well :).  The people i told you about last week, Megan and DJ, are super receptive to the gospel.  This last week we taught them about the Plan of Salvation and at the end of the lessons both knew from the spirit that the Plan of Salvation is true.  Our Heavenly father is really blessing us right now in our area. :)

Well, that's all i have to report on this week so peace out till next week :).  Ill make sure to send some pictures :)

Chapter 79 - July 15, 2013

So things are going awesome right now for me and Elder Farnsworth.  This last week we had a goal of trying to teach 25 lessons and unfortunately we didn't teach that many, but we did teach 20 lessons so we still were able to meet the mission standard of teaching 20 lessons a week :).  This week we also were able to invite 2 more people to be baptized and they accepted! :).   That now puts us up to 6 people that we are currently working with that are progressing towards getting baptized.  We would have 8 but one is kinda in jail for the next 3 weeks or so and the other one we just haven't been able to meet with recently to setup another baptismal date with.  

I would have to say i have 2 highlights that tie for the best highlight of the week.  The first one is that Brother and Sister Jose came down on friday and took me and my companion out to lunch!  Woot! :)  It was so awesome to see them again cause i seriously miss everyone back in Ririe so much.  The other highlight is one of the investigators we found.  We met with her and her husband this week and it's amazing to see how much our heavenly father has prepared her to meet with the missionaries and to accept the gospel.  A day after our first visit with her we get a text from her about how she has been reading the book of mormon and how everytime she picks it up and starts reading she gets goosebumps.  She says she has never felt the spirit so strong like this her entire life of reading the bible.  She knows already that the book of mormon is true and is amazed by how much it goes hand in hand with the bible :).  The other cool story we had with her this week is we went to go stop by on saturday to see how they were doing and to remind them about church and about after a few minutes of talking with them she asked if we could read scriptures with her and her husband.  So we started off with a prayer and began reading where she left off in the book of mormon and about after reading 3 pages or so she stops us and asks if we can say another prayer real quick that her and her husband will be able to retain everything that they have just read and that they will be able to understand/retain everything else they are about to read.  She is so amazing and prepared it's awesome.  I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and our Heavenly father for making this all possible and touching her life and testifying to her about the truthfulness of the book of mormon.  Well, that's all i got to say this week so peace out till next week :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 78 - July 8, 2013

Things went really well this week for us :).  Like really really well :).  This week we were able to...TEACH 21 lessons! XD.  We were so excited when we finished off the week having taught that many lessons.  This next week though we have a goal of teaching 25 lessons! XD we also found 3 new people to teach this week and they all accepted our invitation to be baptized :).  Heavenly father is definitely blessing us right now in our work :).  Transfer calls come this week and me and my companion, Elder Farnsworth, are really hoping to stay together another transfer.  He is probably one of the companions i have gotten along the best with :).  The 4th of july was alright.  I definitely enjoyed the fact that we got an all day p-day but we really couldn't figure out what to do hahaha.  We kinda just did random stuff throughout the day and then at night hung out at a members house :).

So ya that's another awesome thing about idaho is that your experience you had with fireworks on 4th of july happens here too hahaha.  Everyone goes and gets fireworks and lights them off in their backyards and what not :). 

  

I am glad everything is going well back at home.  love you all and peace out till next week :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->