I loved hearing what you thought about conference! It was amazing for sure. But ya, I really
enjoyed that one on the Patriarchal blessing and making sure that our lives are in harmony with the blessing promised to us in the blessing it made me want to be better at studying it and making sure I'm doing everything Heavenly Father wants from me. Elder Bednar's talk was pretty legit telling everyone why we do what we do. It's so true though cause once I felt the atonement in my life and when I focus on what the gospel has done for me in my life that's when I want to share it with everyone else and I think once we realize that nobody can take part of the Atonement without being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority and if we believe that its only in our church where you can find that then how more important it is for us to share that with everyone! But, sadly we didn't have anyone come and watch conference with us but I know we had a part member family that we are now starting to work with watch a session the dad is the only member and they have 5 kids! So we are excited to start working with them more and hopefully getting them to start coming to church. And with Syndi and Durran we have been communicating through text all week. She has been super busy with her work. Her husband does something with the military and he lives in Arizona and I'm pretty sure they are thinking of moving out there next year some time. But she still really wants to talk but doesn't get home till super late so hopefully we'll see them this week! I did get to see Tyrus on Monday! He came down but Anthony was sick so he couldn't come to lunch with us but he took us out to lunch so it was great to see him and get to catch up. He is still doing great and going to church and he is helping the misisonaries out a lot. I was super happy to hear that. And I heard back from Josh Johnson last week. He wrote me and said he is doing great as well and still preparing for his mission! So I'm happy to hear that they are still going strong. I guess the sisters in Carrollton have been killing it and they have baptized like 5 weeks in a row! I'm happy for my "home" ward! But for the rest of the week, it was pretty good just been hitting it strong with those bikes! We found quite a few new investigators this week and some seem very promising so we are excited to start teaching them. One of them was named Sherrell. She is kinda crazy but when we were talking to her about the church and what it does for us spiritually she started opening up to us about her past and how she needs to get a stronger relationship with God and actually do what he wants her to do and she had been holding grudges from some things about her daughter and what she had been doing. She hasn't seen or talked to her for 6 months but she said she was going to forgive her and put it behind her and move on and be happy just cause we stopped by and talked to her and prayed with her. So we were happy we made some what of a difference. Then the next day we got a call from her and she said you need to come over now so we headed over there and she was very happy cause that morning her daughter showed up at her door wanting to make things right and to strengthen there relationship! She said it was all because we came and prayed with her. That was our little miracle for the week. But my 2 favorite talks this week were probably Elder Packers and Elder Christofferson. Elder Packers with his pure testimony on the Savior and the atonement were so strong! And how we as individuals need to have a sure foundation of the gospel and gain our own witness of the truthfulness of this message and then we will make the unity strong. And Elder Christofferson talking about our agency and the importance of our choices. I just felt like the theme message of this conference was we need to focus on our own personal conversion and then we need to focus on the family and how important it is to have the priesthood keys restored back onto the earth and to have a Prophet. But I enjoyed it highly. Oh and I get to go to the temple tomorrow cause we are having zone training meeting and the crazy thing is President Harding is doing this new thing where the zone leaders go on week long exchanges with the district leaders and this week is my lucky week...so I'll be with Elder Urchanbrek the whole week! We'll see how that goes.
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| The new bike! |
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| Elder Anderson's new buddy |
This week was really good the exchange went well. It was different than what we were both used to so it was hard getting used to it but we got a lot of work done and saw some good things so overall it was good and we survived. He came to my area, so we got a lot of good things done and got one of our other investigators on date so we are excited about that. But nothing really crazy or new happened this week. Pretty same old same old stuff. Last night it was pretty crazy, we had a 2 pipes burst. One in our apartment and the other from the apartment above us and it was like 11:30 so luckily one of the maintenance guys lives below us so we ran and knocked on his door and the guy above us and our apartment got soaked there was water dripping out of lights and vents and the ceiling and we were filling up buckets and had towels going everywhere, hahah it was a blast!! Not really, but we are all alive and we got everything taken care of in about an hour so it was a late night for us last night but it was a fun way to finish the exchange. As for zone conference, it went great. I always love going to the temple with all the missionaries and getting to see everybody. And the cool thing is we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" while we were there so that was good. I thought they did a really good job and I think that will be a great missionary tool. But I don't have too much time this week to write cause we have a lot of things to get done before we exchange back but I love you and miss you so much and I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you next week.
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| A week of exchanges |
We had a really good week this week and had a lot of success finding new people and as well seeing a lot of our people that we have been teaching. One of those families being a part member family are doing really well and are progressing. A cool miracle was that one of our investigators; we gave her a Book of Mormon like 3 weeks ago and because she has been out of town we haven't been able to get in contact with her too much but we saw her this week and she had read all the way to 3 Nephi 18!! We were so shocked. And she loves the Book of Mormon, the only problem will be getting her away from her other church that she loves so much. Its a huge mega church in Atlanta... like 20,000 members.... nuts right?!? But now for the big news... I'm being transfered!!!! Who would have thought. I didn't think I was leaving. I figured Talbot would. I'm going to the heart of the city!! ATLANTA! I'm stoked. It will be so sick so I'll be on my bike and I'll have Marta(the bus) but it'll be way sick!! and I think I'll be in another 4 man too, which I have loved so I'm stoked for the new experience and the elder I'm going to is actually one of the ones that came in with Elder Hamilton from Sierra Leone! But I'm excited. I was shocked when I heard I was leaving cause I've only been here 2 transfers but I'm ready for another chapter of the mission.
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| The Fayetteville District |
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| Moving on...to new adventures
October 27, 2014....
The city is amazing! Its awesome! I love it here! But my week
has been pretty fun and different than what I'm used to. Every single
door that I have knocked into, they're black! Now I don't want to sound
racist but its amazing!! I love it. We stay on the west side of Atlanta
so I'm not right in mid town but we travel there often so I see it all
the time. My area is great. It has a good mixture of all the social
classes which is great! We have the low middle and upper. There are some
of the biggest houses here! But I have loved it. There is always someone
to talk to and that wants to hear the word. The trick here in the
ward is being able to find someone who is self seficiant and will stay
active. Because we could find, teach, and baptize all day long if we wanted
to but that has already happened and it has ruined the ward. By the way,
the ward is amazing! 70% black 30% white! And every time someone says
good morning over the pulpit everyone says it back and I hear fast and
testimony meeting is legit! But overall the ward has over 1000 members in it!!
and only 150 active... So there is a lot of work to be done here, we
just need to figure out where our priorities need to be and how to best
help the ward and our investigators. But the fun thing is that we white
washed into our area. Elder Lanier was serving in a different part of the
ward so we are both new to the area. Which I guess isn't new to me, I've
done it in every single one of my areas. But its such a good area. We are
on a car/ marta and bike share so one day we have the car and the other
we are on Marta with our bikes!
Elder Lanier is great. He
is from Mackay, Idaho and has been out for 1 year now. The other two in the apartment are Elder
Marriott form Arizona, he has been out 2 transfers ahead of me and Elder
Hansen from Idaho and he has been out just 1 transfer less than me and
they are pretty cool. Elder Hansen and I get along great. He is super
funny. But I love being in a 4 man, they're legit. This week the ward had its fall festival/trunk or treat which was fun. We had one investigator come to that but not church. I think the sickest part
of this ward is President Sullivan. He is the Stake President over
the Atlanta stake and his home ward is our ward. He is the one in
the movie "Meet the Mormons" as "the bishop" he is so cool! We got to
talk with him for a long time at the party as well at church so its cool
to be in the ward that was in the movie. So if you have seen it or you
go and see it that building is ours and where he lives is in my area! That will be fun to say after the mission. But I'm excited to
be here. It's gonna be a fun transfer. Oh and another cool thing we have 7
companionships in the ward!!! So there is plenty of work here to be
done!
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