Alrighty ,well we had another exciting week here in Newnan. Of course Zone Conference was good, President and Sister Satterfield spoke to us and we had trainings from President and Sister Satterfield, the assistants and the zone leaders. Nothing new was talked about just getting us back to fundamentals, so it was ok, good to see a bunch of my buddies.
We had an appointment with a part member family afterwards and it was pretty sweet: So the 'C' family consists of the mom, dad, son(15yr old) who are all members, and the 2 girls (12 & 13) who are not members. Basically everyone but the dad is active in the church, the two girls have been wanting to be baptized for a while now but basically haven't been because the dad wants them to make sure they know what they're doing. They went to girls camp a couple of weeks ago and had a blast! The whole young women's group in our ward fasted for them that their dad's heart would be softened and that they would be able to be baptized. So we had dinner with the Cox's about 2 weeks ago and talked to them about taking the missionary lessons but their dad wasn't in the room and not much came of it until Thursday when we went over. We had a
good chat with the dad, he said that they could be baptized if they came to him and talked about baptism and what Christ means to them, so we didn't have a whole lot of commitment when we left but it was still really good. I was kind of worried because even though the dad is a member he is definitely not practicing and has some differing beliefs in doctrine, the big one being he has the "once saved always saved" idea and thinks baptism is important but not necessarily essential to salvation. So we didn't really know what to do next, because it pretty much felt like they'd be in limbo until the girls had their talk with the dad, and we had no idea when that would be happening. BUT Friday morning we get a call from one of the girls and she said that she talked to her dad and she could get baptized! We are super excited for them, I'm not 100% sure that he said yes to both of the girls, but for sure both will be able to take the lessons and once we teach them there will really be no reason at all that they shouldn't both be baptized at the same
time. When we reported what happened at PEC we got most of the room to cry. We definitely know that the ward has been working hard, especially with the young women, and that this is one super miracle for us here in Newnan! Our next step is to set a date for the baptism and crank out the lessons. So ya I'd say we have definitely been blessed.
We also had some random guy show up to church all on his own yesterday, and I think he had a pretty good time at church. I don't know if he is all there, he was super twitchy like he was on drugs or has been getting off drugs or something and it was pretty hard to understand him when he talked, but we have his contact info so we will hopefully get over to his place this week and teach him.
And, if that wasn't enough for us, we got a call from one of the priests in our ward and he wants us to come with him to give a Book of Mormon to his friend, which will be awesome because
that's like the only member referral we've gotten here in Newnan, and I think I could count on one had the number of referrals that I've received from members since I've been a missionary. So ya we' have definitely be
en super blessed.
Thanks for all of your prayers and everything y'all do, I definitely know it has been helping us! Well that's about it I suppose I'll talk to y'all later!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Baptism!
So stinkin' last week was probably the most amazing week of my mission, specifically Monday because I got to see S get Baptized! WOohoo! It was seriously one of the most spiritual experiences of my mish so far! Plus we got to go to chipotle for dinner that night so it was like icing on the cake, hahah just kidding, kind of. . . .
Well freak, that's awesome for Jacob and Justin, I got an email from jacob and I am definitely stoked for him! and for Justin and Jager, remind me where Jager is going? I feel soooo out of the loop! which is sometimes a good thing, but just promise me y'all will enjoy iron man 2 for me and let me watch it when I get home ;)
Well, We also had Interviews with our mish president on Tuesday, and then Zone conference Thursday, and we still managed to pull some really good numbers for our week. There were 11 less actives at church and 3 investigators, not too shabby! I really love my new area, I will be going on exchanges with the Zone leaders next tuesday, and I think it will be with Elder M who I served with for my first transfer in Griffin. Well I gotta go but I love y'all and I'll write ya next week!
Well freak, that's awesome for Jacob and Justin, I got an email from jacob and I am definitely stoked for him! and for Justin and Jager, remind me where Jager is going? I feel soooo out of the loop! which is sometimes a good thing, but just promise me y'all will enjoy iron man 2 for me and let me watch it when I get home ;)
Well, We also had Interviews with our mish president on Tuesday, and then Zone conference Thursday, and we still managed to pull some really good numbers for our week. There were 11 less actives at church and 3 investigators, not too shabby! I really love my new area, I will be going on exchanges with the Zone leaders next tuesday, and I think it will be with Elder M who I served with for my first transfer in Griffin. Well I gotta go but I love y'all and I'll write ya next week!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Excitement and Miracles
Well it was a pretty exciting week for us. we had quite a few miracles happen. First of all, I think I beat my old record of 12 new investigators, with being able to find 13 new investigators to teach!
Plus, we are getting very close to baptism with a couple of our investigators, namely 'SC'. He just turned 9 years old, and we've been teaching him for a couple of weeks now. he is one of the smartest kids I have ever met! It is amazing how much he understands what we teach him. His parents are both members, but neither have come to church for a really long time, despite the fact that theifamilies are active, or at least mostly active. I dont know what is holding them back, but SC's stepdad has been sitting in on the lessons and has been really helpful as we've been teaching SC, his mom on the otherhand generally hasnt been around, which is sad to see, but I think that if y'all could pray for that family it would help a lot. SC has told us that he wants to be baptized, and we committed their family to talk all together about it, so we'll see come Thursday when we go back.
Everything else has been going really well, we were very close to getting a lot of people out to church but SC was the only one that was able to make it because he came with his grandma who is very active in our ward. We were really hoping for a couple of others to make it, and called them right before church and they were excited to come, so then the meeting had started and they weren't there, so we called again and their family said they had left already but we didn't see them. So we were almost nervous that they might have gone to the church right next door to us, and after sacrament Elder O and I went next door to do some reconaissance to see if we could see them, and when we got there we were pretty much the only white people in that building.
They had their welcome where you go around and greet everybody and it felt like everyone was flocking to come say hello to us. We hid our tags on the inside of our jackets because we didn't want to cause contention or anything, but it was just kinda funny because everyone was coming up to us and welcoming us, which was pretty cool. But sadly we didnt find our investigators so we tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was pretty interesting to see just how inviting and aesthetically pleasing it was but it was just not the same spirit.
This upcomming week is starting to look really promising, we already have a lot of appointments with a lot of people and our dinner callendar is looking pretty good as well. We are super short on miles at the moment, so we will be doing a lot more walking until May comes, and possibly even some bike riding. So transfers are also next week, so y'all know how that is. With my history I'll probably be leaving seeing as how I've been in each of my areas for two transfers. I really hope I get to stay but ya never know. Also, We've heard from the mission that USPS is going to charge for mail to be forwarded and the mission doesnt have the money to cover that cost so mail will have to be sent to me directly otherwise I have to wait until transfers or interviews to receive anything that gets sent to the mission office. Soooo, I will let you know next week what my address will be for the next six weeks. Well, hope all is well, I'll talk to y'all soon!
Plus, we are getting very close to baptism with a couple of our investigators, namely 'SC'. He just turned 9 years old, and we've been teaching him for a couple of weeks now. he is one of the smartest kids I have ever met! It is amazing how much he understands what we teach him. His parents are both members, but neither have come to church for a really long time, despite the fact that theifamilies are active, or at least mostly active. I dont know what is holding them back, but SC's stepdad has been sitting in on the lessons and has been really helpful as we've been teaching SC, his mom on the otherhand generally hasnt been around, which is sad to see, but I think that if y'all could pray for that family it would help a lot. SC has told us that he wants to be baptized, and we committed their family to talk all together about it, so we'll see come Thursday when we go back.
Everything else has been going really well, we were very close to getting a lot of people out to church but SC was the only one that was able to make it because he came with his grandma who is very active in our ward. We were really hoping for a couple of others to make it, and called them right before church and they were excited to come, so then the meeting had started and they weren't there, so we called again and their family said they had left already but we didn't see them. So we were almost nervous that they might have gone to the church right next door to us, and after sacrament Elder O and I went next door to do some reconaissance to see if we could see them, and when we got there we were pretty much the only white people in that building.
They had their welcome where you go around and greet everybody and it felt like everyone was flocking to come say hello to us. We hid our tags on the inside of our jackets because we didn't want to cause contention or anything, but it was just kinda funny because everyone was coming up to us and welcoming us, which was pretty cool. But sadly we didnt find our investigators so we tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was pretty interesting to see just how inviting and aesthetically pleasing it was but it was just not the same spirit.
This upcomming week is starting to look really promising, we already have a lot of appointments with a lot of people and our dinner callendar is looking pretty good as well. We are super short on miles at the moment, so we will be doing a lot more walking until May comes, and possibly even some bike riding. So transfers are also next week, so y'all know how that is. With my history I'll probably be leaving seeing as how I've been in each of my areas for two transfers. I really hope I get to stay but ya never know. Also, We've heard from the mission that USPS is going to charge for mail to be forwarded and the mission doesnt have the money to cover that cost so mail will have to be sent to me directly otherwise I have to wait until transfers or interviews to receive anything that gets sent to the mission office. Soooo, I will let you know next week what my address will be for the next six weeks. Well, hope all is well, I'll talk to y'all soon!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Happy Easter!
Hola!
So who loved conferece? I did! It was really good, I think the general theme I got from it was self reliance in the home. The Sunday sessions had a lot to do with the Christ and His Atonement which was fitting for an Easter Sunday.
So who loved conferece? I did! It was really good, I think the general theme I got from it was self reliance in the home. The Sunday sessions had a lot to do with the Christ and His Atonement which was fitting for an Easter Sunday.
This week was fairly excellent for us here in the Brockett Ward. I think this was the most tiring week of my mission. I
have amped up my workouts lately, with running a mile or two almost every morning and trying to do some upper body circuits every other night before bed. This week we worked our bunns off and so I slacked a little when it came to running this week, but I am determined to lay down the law and go for a run at least 4 times a week. My companion isn' too much of a work out freak like I am trying to get myself back into from being a lazy bum, but he's willing to go running with me so
that's good.
have amped up my workouts lately, with running a mile or two almost every morning and trying to do some upper body circuits every other night before bed. This week we worked our bunns off and so I slacked a little when it came to running this week, but I am determined to lay down the law and go for a run at least 4 times a week. My companion isn' too much of a work out freak like I am trying to get myself back into from being a lazy bum, but he's willing to go running with me so
that's good.
We also had zone conference this week and it was really great. We have been issued the challenge to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover this transfer and it is pretty sweet! It is easy to get behind though! I'm about a day and a half off but I should be able to catch up pretty quickly. We were able to commit a new investigator we found this week to baptism so we are pretty excited to see how that goes. We've been trying to go through our roster and visit every person on there and build their trust and we went to the appartment of one family who had moved apparently without any notice to much of anyone, but we asked the new resident if she wanted to learn about the church and she accepted and if it be according to the will of the Lord she will be baptized. She is going through a lot in her life right now with family and other situations and we havent seen her since our first visit but she should be back this week so we'll see. On Friday we have a dinner appointment with a part memeber family. The husband, Brother H., is not a member but is really close to becoming one, or so we've felt. He's made tremendous amounts of progress over the past while from what we here. Elder C. of the Seventy is his home teacher and he said that he basically gave a soft commitment to baptism in one of his recent visists. When we saw brother H. last we had a really good lesson with him just trying to get him to recognize the spirit's influence in his life. We almost had him backed into a corner
where we could have potentially committed him to baptism if the spirit allowed, but then he pulled a fast one on us and asked if we were hungry and heated up some pizza for us. After leaving both Elder O. and I were somewhat perplexed becasue the last time we visited it seemed like he was one tought cookie but this time he really opened up and I think we might really work towards giving him a baptismal date when we go over this Friday. Well, we have interviews this Thursday and I'm kind of looking forward to that and almost not at the same time but I know it
will be really good, it always is.
where we could have potentially committed him to baptism if the spirit allowed, but then he pulled a fast one on us and asked if we were hungry and heated up some pizza for us. After leaving both Elder O. and I were somewhat perplexed becasue the last time we visited it seemed like he was one tought cookie but this time he really opened up and I think we might really work towards giving him a baptismal date when we go over this Friday. Well, we have interviews this Thursday and I'm kind of looking forward to that and almost not at the same time but I know it
will be really good, it always is.
I have not received any package yet but I would not be suprised to see one in a couple of days, if you have already sent it. I will definitely write a letter to Nanny and Papa this week. I need to do better on writing, I just get lazy and then distracted with other things and before I know it it;'s been a month or two since I've hand written anyone. I wish y'all a wonderful week and
can't wait to hear from ya next week!
can't wait to hear from ya next week!
-Alex
Monday, March 29, 2010
Brockett Update
Howdy y'all,So we had transfers this past week as I told you last time, and I am still in Brockett and am now serving with Elder O. Elder B. went to Smyrna, which is still in the ATL Stake but just on the West side, so he's not too far away. But, Elder O. is from L.A., he went to BUYI for a little while before he came out to the GAM, he's been in the mission field only one transfer ahead of me so he's at about 15 months right now. It is going to be a super good transfer, he likes to work hard and with the Brockett ward behind us we are going to continue to see miracles. This week we found 6 new investigators, had a handfull of lessons with less active and part member families and are going to have a super awesome week ahead of us. On this tuesday alone we have 5 appointments set, at least one team up for sure, and a possibility of having three team ups that day! So I'll have to let you know how that goes. Well I hope that everything is going great back home. I love y'all, miss y'all and will talk to y'all later!
-Alex
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Ralph and Denton Bender
Hey sorry I missed y'all last week, we had a very interesting week with a couple of disappointments but it ended out alright so I really can't complain. I guess I'll go with the not so good news first.
We were really looking forward to a dinner appointment we had scheduled with a part member family because we got a tip from Elder Cornish of the 70, who is the home teacher for this family, that the husband was really coming around and felt like he might be ready for baptism. So we went there, us, and the Vietnamese elders who are good friends with this nonmember, or at least Elder L. is, considering Elder L. has been in this same area for the past 15 months. As we begin to eat my companion wasn't feeling to good and had to go lay on the couch. We finished dinner and were getting to the lesson/ spiritual thought and asking him questions trying to feel out if he would be interested in going through the lessons again, when my companion got up from the couch, walked into the kitchen and tossed all his cookies into the sink. It was pretty bad. I really didn't know what to do, but we got home pretty much as fast as we could. I felt pretty bad for him, especially after that sort of thing happened twice while I was in the Atlanta ward.
But ya we spent the next day or so recovering from that, and then Friday we had to drop our car off to the body shop for a fender bender that happened at the beginning of this transfer, and so we are on foot for this week until we get the car back. On the bright side we were able to get a lot of people to help sign up for team ups/splits so it is kind of a blessing in disguise. I think we have more team ups this week than we know how to handle. We really don't have many investigators right now, but we have been able to see a lot of success with less active members, in fact our two dinner appointments this week are with sisters who have recently been starting to come back to church, and I think we might even have an opportunity to teach some nonmember roommates at one of those appointments, which is going to be awesome! Well I love y'all and have a blessed week!
-Alex
We were really looking forward to a dinner appointment we had scheduled with a part member family because we got a tip from Elder Cornish of the 70, who is the home teacher for this family, that the husband was really coming around and felt like he might be ready for baptism. So we went there, us, and the Vietnamese elders who are good friends with this nonmember, or at least Elder L. is, considering Elder L. has been in this same area for the past 15 months. As we begin to eat my companion wasn't feeling to good and had to go lay on the couch. We finished dinner and were getting to the lesson/ spiritual thought and asking him questions trying to feel out if he would be interested in going through the lessons again, when my companion got up from the couch, walked into the kitchen and tossed all his cookies into the sink. It was pretty bad. I really didn't know what to do, but we got home pretty much as fast as we could. I felt pretty bad for him, especially after that sort of thing happened twice while I was in the Atlanta ward.
But ya we spent the next day or so recovering from that, and then Friday we had to drop our car off to the body shop for a fender bender that happened at the beginning of this transfer, and so we are on foot for this week until we get the car back. On the bright side we were able to get a lot of people to help sign up for team ups/splits so it is kind of a blessing in disguise. I think we have more team ups this week than we know how to handle. We really don't have many investigators right now, but we have been able to see a lot of success with less active members, in fact our two dinner appointments this week are with sisters who have recently been starting to come back to church, and I think we might even have an opportunity to teach some nonmember roommates at one of those appointments, which is going to be awesome! Well I love y'all and have a blessed week!
-Alex
Monday, February 22, 2010
Happy Valentine's day
Hey I got the Valentines package and it was Awesome! Thank you soooo much!
We had Zone conference this week and it was really good. It was pretty much all about extending commitments and following up, so it was really good. We have some really good things going on in the ward, we have a very missionary minded ward and a lot of member missionary work going on which is awesome! now we just have to get to the next level and help them turn their friends and aquaintences into investigators!
Actually, one member has already done exactly that and we were able to teach one of their nonmember friends at his home which was awesome! Their friend comes from a Catholic background and took several missionary lessons about a year ago but didn't really progress, but we'll see about this time around. He's kind of non-committal but he has huge support from other members which is awesome and we couldn't as for a better circumstances to teach him at. Well that's about it right now, sorry its short this week but I'll talk to y'all later!
We had Zone conference this week and it was really good. It was pretty much all about extending commitments and following up, so it was really good. We have some really good things going on in the ward, we have a very missionary minded ward and a lot of member missionary work going on which is awesome! now we just have to get to the next level and help them turn their friends and aquaintences into investigators!
Actually, one member has already done exactly that and we were able to teach one of their nonmember friends at his home which was awesome! Their friend comes from a Catholic background and took several missionary lessons about a year ago but didn't really progress, but we'll see about this time around. He's kind of non-committal but he has huge support from other members which is awesome and we couldn't as for a better circumstances to teach him at. Well that's about it right now, sorry its short this week but I'll talk to y'all later!
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