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--->

Chapter 87 - September 9, 2013

That's legit that you guys finally got the sister missionaries!  That's so wierd to think that there are 2 sets of missionaries for one ward though, compared to us where one set of missionaries usually covers anywhere from 5-18 wards hahaha.  And that's cool that you get to help out with the new member discussions.  And the way you said you are doing them, teaching one of the major 3 lessons with a few of the principles from lessons 5, is the best way to do them :).  On our mission it seems like, atleast in my case, the missionaries usually end up teaching the new member discussions.

 

Dang, Villi and Garrett are both leaving next week for the mtc?  That's so crazy to think about.....Wow it really is wierd to think that pretty much all the young men won't be there when i get back hahaha.  They will love their missions.  There honestly isn't a better time in one's life than some of the moments you get to have on a mission :)

 

So i guess to answer your question yes i got the package :).  Sorry i forgot to mention it last week.  Definitely enjoyed all the random stuff that was in it hahaha.  We have been having fun with those spiderman sticky balls.  The district also seems to like the stuff in my package as well hahaha :).

 

So some news is that we are going to be having a baptism on saturday! :). Her name is addy and we have been teaching her for a little while now. We are hoping that with addy getting baptized her mom will feel the holy ghost working within herself and want to start coming back to church :). Another good news is we will be having two more baptisms on september 28th! Things are going good right now in our area. We were supposed to get 2 more baptismal dates this last week but we unfortunately weren't able to meet with that family :(. But we are meeting with them this week so we should be able to invite them this week and one of them has already told us that she really wants to get baptized :). More good news is that we just got a referal today from our ward mission leader for this person that has been coming to church for the past 2 weeks or so. Apparently he wants to take the missionary discussions :).

 

Well, that's all that's happened this week.  Peace out till next week :).

 

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 86 - September 2, 2013 (BIRTHDAY!)

21! woooooot! :)

Dang, i can't believe that Haley is getting sushi thrown at her and she doesn't even like it :(.  She should send it to me :) hahaha.  Speaking of sushi, maybe i will go and get some sushi today for my birthday :).  So i was able to run into both sister flora and elder ashdown (i definitely called him landen when i saw him hahaha) at the transfer site on wed.  They both seem very excited to be here in idaho.  Sister Nielson doesn't come out till tomorrow so maybe i will see here at the zone conference tomorrow.  Will let you know next week if i see her.

So you definitely are going to have to consult with me about which classes you are signing me up for because i actually have been think about which ones i want to take when i get back and i have a few ideas.  ill put them in a different email.

Well, things are going great right now for us.  Unfortunately we weren't able to set baptismal dates with 2 of our investigators this week (the kid who just got permission to go live with his dad again).  We felt like we didn't watch to pressure him already on his first day back so we are gonna try and set one this week :).  But some more good news is that we were able to get back in with those 2 investigators that dropped us awhile back because they got into anti stuff! :)  The mom was even gonna come to church this week but when we stopped by sunday morning she had the stomach flu :(.  But the good thing is that we were able to get back in and that they even accept our challenge to start reading the book of mormon atleast every other night as a family and then pray together afterwards.  The other cool thing is that when i asked her if she still knew that the book of mormon is true, she told us that she has still been reading a little bit here and there and she still get's the same feeling from the holy ghost testifying to her that it's true! :)  So hopefully things will start to progress with them once again and i will have some more exciting news to tell you next week, like them coming to church or something :).

Well, i'll make sure to take some pictures today of me enjoying my 21st birthday!!! :)

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

Chapter 85 - August 26, 2013

WHADDUP! :)

So that's awesome that david got his firstie ring.  I won't lie though, my first thought when i saw those pictures of him was daaaang, he looks way more in shape than i do hahaha.  I gotta fix that ;). 

So Sarah Redman got baptized?  That's legit! 

We got transfer calls this week and i found out that i am going to be staying and that i am going to be getting a new companion, Elder Gonzales.  I have heard alot about him, one of the elders back in my district when i was in Ririe knew him before the mission and wouldn't stop telling us all about Elder Gonzales hahaha.  So he seems pretty cool and i am excited to become his companion.  And i am still a District leader so i guess it looks like i will probably die as a district leader here in Poci.  Things are going great right now in our area, we hope to be getting three baptismal dates this week!

Well, hope you have a great week and peace out till next week :).

With love,

Elder ---chis--->

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--->