So this last Tuesday marked 6 months of my mission come and gone. Many
missionaries "celebrate" by burning a tie. My companion is pretty
annoyed that I didn't. First of all, he suggested that I just burn one
I don't like. I don't have a tie I don't like. Why would I have a tie
I dislike? Or spend money on one, just to burn it? It's stupid.
Secondly, president puts missionaries who do the burning thing in his
plane shaped trust box, pointed to Salt Lake City. Thirdly, why would
I celebrate six months? That is also stupid. Anyways, on to stuff that
actually happened.
So last week I said my district was all elders and that we stayed in
the old zone. Well, they actually messed up. I'm really in the new
zone and my district is all sisters. Such is life.
Monday 3/3- All of our evening appointments fell through, a common
motif for the rest of the week.
Tuesday- in the morning we taught Adrian about some of the "Do"
commandments. Prayer every day, read the scriptures, come to church,
etc. He is progressing really well! We also found out that one of the
wards recent converts was going to be in the area during the week, but
not on weekends. He's been having a real tough time lately, and was
glad to see us. Elder Justensen and him get along because they're both
welders. In the evening we met with a VERY sad less active, that just
needs to come to church. Once his wife gets over her walking pneumonia
we will be teaching them. We also caught up with Andre and Lina (who
marched DCI with the velvet knights back in '88 and saw the
championship performance of the scouts malagueña, she was also at
finals the next year when SCV won with phantom of the opera. She's
pretty cool) and taught them the restoration.
Wednesday- when Wednesday started, we had like 5 really solid
appointments. By noon on Wednesday, we had 5 cancelled appointments.
It was a total bummer. BUT. we did give Miguel (the recent convert
from yesterday) a blessing. I acted as voice, and still can't believe
I said some of what I said but hey, it's not me, it's the Spirit. It's
just kind of mind-boggling. But we will see. We also saw Efrain and
had a good lesson with him. He's cool.
Thursday- on Thursday we had zone meeting and really focused on the 8
fundamental lessons as we call them. (Our purpose, revelation through
prayer, reading the Book of Mormon, and church attendance, teach
people not lessons, how to begin teaching, role of the Holy Ghost on
conversion, and we invite they commit we follow up). It was good. Due
to illness we didn't do anything for the rest of the day. It makes me
sad when that happens.
Friday- we did our weekly planning and then we went to teach Andre
and Lina about the Book of Mormon. The way we teach it now is like so:
We read the first and last two paragraphs of the introduction and
commit them to read and prayer right there. Then we start reading the
Book of Mormon with them, starting at "the first book of Nephi, his
reign and ministry." We go through the first 12 verses with them,
continually testifying of the blessings and awesomeness of the book.
We tell them how they are like Nephi and Lehi, and promise them that
verse 12 is true. And almost everyone, Andre and Lina included, get to
the end of the lesson and say something like, "before I was kind eh
about reading, but now I am really excited!" It's pretty sweet. After
that lesson we taught Adrian at the church. It was cool, because the
stake relief society was setting up for some activity and when we got
there we found him (Adrian) already helping them get stuff set up.
They actually really needed the help though, so we helped them too. We
had a very intense, personal lesson with Adrian afterwards, the
details of which I cannot share. But know this, he is getting close to
baptism :)
Saturday- Met with Adrain, and had the same result as last night.
After helping cleanup the stake relief society activity (which appears
to have been a success), we rode around all day trying to find people
and met with little success. There just wasn't anybody around.
Sunday- Efrain was at church again, praise The Lord. Adrian didn't
make it though, he said he got suddenly sick. Andre and Lina were also
no shows. In the afternoon we tracked down Carolyn, whom we haven't
been able to teach for a while. We set up a tour with her for this
afternoon. That should be good.
That's it from my end, hope you guys are all doing well. The church is
truly gods kingdom on earth today!
Elder brett Whitney
