January 13, 2014
 |
| Standing next to a giant mobile BBQ |
My companion and I
have had really, really busy weeks for the last three weeks or so. Unfortunately, it has inhibited the work a
bit. We've had tons of meetings and
stuff we've had to attend, so we haven't had as great of numbers or as much
time to visit our families and investigators.
Nevertheless, this week was still FANTASTIC.
I'll tell ya all about it!
On Tuesday, we did a
service project for a young dad in our ward.
This guy is awesome, absolutely awesome.
He's so missionary oriented and helps us ALL the time, so when he asked
us to help him fix up and clean his house, we were all over it - more than
happy to help! His wife was out of town,
so we helped clean things up as a surprise for her. We spent from about 10-1 cleaning out the
house and fixing things and taking out trash and vacuuming and organizing and
stuff. It was great. He is a super funny and cool guy. We were
blasting LDS music and cleaning the house – lots of fun. We had it looking great afterwards too, so it
was really cool. He took us out to Logan's
Roadhouse afterwards, and we all pigged out.
It was so cool.
Thursday was transfer
meeting. Luckily, my companion and I get
another transfer together - neither of us are being transferred. This is good, because we're killing it in our
area. The OTHER elder wright, though,
got transferred. So, on Thursday, we
spent all day moving his stuff and getting our new roommate, Elder Gray.
Elder Gray is very
softspoken, and my first impression of him was he was going to be nerdy. I’ve gotta stop judging people right away; I was
totally wrong...well he is softspoken, but man this kid is so sarcastic and
hilarious. He makes me laugh so hard
every day. And, on top of that, he's
super chill, and even more talented! He's
like a professional cello player. Even
though he doesn't have a cello with him, he can pick up ANY of our ukes and
play any song you ask him to - by ear.
Just give him like two minutes to figure it out, and he'll play you the
whole song. It's insane. He's so good,
so talented. He makes us all look like a
joke – the kid is awesome.
So here's the coolest
part of the whole week. Friday, we had
the most amazing {AMAZING} opportunity to meet with Elder David A. Bednar. IT. Was. Awesome. The entire mission drove in
to see him, and it was the single greatest thing that I’ve ever been a part of
in my entire life!
First, I’d like to
tell you all how worried I was about seeing Bednar in person. He has a pretty big reputation for being very
serious and like...rebuking people. I've
heard where Bednar was speaking, and how he would rebuke the ENTIRE
congregation for not being reverent enough, or from standing in the middle of
the hymn, or something like that. Plus,
he told the entire CHURCH in the last general conference to repent. So, I'm over here freaking out. I planned my outfit a week in advance so I
look as professional as I possibly can be!
Not looking flashy and not wearing flashy shoes or ties or belts or
doing my hair too flashy or anything. I
looked straight up like a businessman!
We got there an hour and a half early, so we could sit in the very front,
and we got great seats.
AND, let me tell
you...Elder David. A. Bednar is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than what the world thinks
he is! He is HILARIOUS. So funny. He made
us laugh the entire time. And, he's a
freaking genius! He's so smart, and by
far the greatest orator I've heard in my life.
He didn't even give us a talk; he got up there and just started asking
us questions and had us ask him questions and it was so awesome. He was demonstrating the perfect {PERFECT} way
to ask by faith and act by faith and teach, which is what he was teaching us
about. It wasn’t' even a talk,; it was a
conversation. And, he's just so funny
and nice and loving. It was awesome.
His wife spoke as
well, and she was just fantastic. It's crazy to see just how REAL the apostles
really are. They seem so serious, but man, he's just a normal guy. He told us
some very personal experiences and stories about their grandchildren. When sister Bednar was talking she started crying. He got up, stood
next to her, put his arm around her, and told her she could do it - and she
finished. It was incredible. The way he talked was so relaxed; he was
talking like any normal guy. Man, it was
such a great experience. I wish you guys
could've seen him. The spirit was so strong, AHHH.
So quick funny story:
On Sunday, there was a youth baptism.
Elder Wright and I were asked to fill the font after church. About 30 minutes after we started the water,
we notice it was barely filling – the drain must not be working! So I took off my socks and shoes and rolled up
my sleeves and pants and got in there. The
water was about to my knees. I tried to
fix the drain, but it was broken. We got
tons of paper towels and plastic bags and stuffed them in there and fixed
it. The whole time, the members (i
didn't know this at the time) were watching through the little doors. I got out all wet and went back into the room
where the baptism would be held and put my stuff back on. All the members were patting me on the back
and telling me thanks for doing it haha. Member trust, killed it!
Last night, we had
some pretty sweet experiences, as well. This Sunday we had like 5 or 6 less active
members AT CHURCH, and 3 investigators! How awesome is that? And they all loved it! It was great.
We also stopped by to
talk to “E,” whom I had met in my first week here. As we were walking to his apartment, we noticed
three hispanics talking in Spanish, as we walked by their apartments. Little did they know we can understand
Spanish. They were talking about the
"mormons" as we were walking by. So, after we were done chatting with “E”, we
grabbed some pamphlets out of the car, a Book of Mormon, and went back to talk
to those people. It was getting late at
this point (like 8:50), so we expected it to be real short. We end up meeting 3 adults that were super
super nice! The man had tons and tons of questions for us. The woman had a lot to say too. So I answered the man’s questions, while
Elder Wright answered the other women’s questions. The man was very interested He had all these questions and said he had
been searching for the truth for a long time.
I gave him a Book of Mormon and answered all the questions I felt
appropriate to answer. I tried to
incorporate what I learned from Bednar about us having our investigators learn
for THEMSELVES. I felt prompted to give
him 2 Nephi chapter 31 because he kept asking me about what we are supposed to
do here on earth. So, I gave him the doctrine
of Christ! It was interesting because
the pamphlet elder wright ended up giving to him, totally by random, was the
gospel of Christ. How awesome is that? He
said he was super interested and would read it.
Then he told us that “E”, the guy we were talking to earlier, was his SON,
and he thanked us profusely for being so nice to him!! We knew something was different about “E.” His
dad explained that “E” is slightly autistic.
It was just a really cool experience.
The dad kept telling me to come over any time we wanted. He committed to reading the chapter I gave
him and said he'd have lots of questions for me the next time we stopped by. IT
was great!
The whole time elder
wright was talking to the woman….. And, it turns out, this lady was a LESS
ACTIVE MEMBER of the church for like decades!
They had a super spiritual and
heartfelt conversation. She had
grandchildren who are on missions right now, and she straight up told us she
wanted the grandchild that lived with her to be baptized. Elder wright is very confident we can baptize
the grandchild and get her back to church, And, I feel really good about “E”
and his dad. We got like 3 lessons cranked
out in 30 minutes. It was
incredible! Experiences like that make
me SO glad that I’m out here on a mission!
Last little tidbit -
the “R” family. We recently asked them
if their son would be interested in being baptized, and he told us he wanted to
be baptized and take the lessons. So, I
think we're going to be baptizing him next Saturday. sweet! Then, “H” will be just a couple weeks after
that! woohoo!
I hope everything is
going well!
I love you all and
hope you have a great week!
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