Happy New Year!!! 2015! Its
crazy I cant believe it. If there is one thing I will
take away from President Harding, its to ALWAYS have a positive attitude
about everything! Anything that is not faith filled, uplifting, or good
is from Satan and as easy as it comes into our minds it's just as easy to
cast it out and lift our thoughts to a higher plane of thinking. It
seems harder said than done. but its been cool to see since I've been out
here, that if any temptation or negative thought comes into my head
if I let it sit there then it gets more and more negative but if right
from the start I change that thought to a positive one and try to lift
my thoughts, the difference it makes is awesome. And he is the best
example, I swear that man is never negative or unhappy and will always
lift your spirit.
But
this week for us was pretty good we didn't get back with that family
cause they have been out of town but we should be seeing them tomorrow.
and as for the church attendance and most of our meetings with our
progressing investigators were shot down by the sick bug! But because of that we just hit the streets hard and found a
lot of new people to teach so that was good. We also had a new
missionary training which are always fun to go to. Then this week we
have zone conference and another trip to the temple which I am always
grateful for!
Some of my goals will go along with the mission and some goals that
President set out for us. Each missionary wants "15" in "15" so 15
converts in the year 2015! I got half the year but I know I can do it
with some faith. 10 baptisms 4 less actives returning and the big 1 is
going to be me! So that will be my big mission goal and hurrah before I
leave. and I set some other ones for coming home too. But the new year
is great for all of us to reflect and think of what and how we can
become better. I wish as a people we would do it more often than just the
new year. But I am excited for 2015 and what it will bring, enduring to
the end of the mission, returning home, football, school and many, many
more! I am excited!
 | |||||
| Hitting the Streets! |
January 12, 2015....
The work is going great here. We did have a cool miracle this past week when we have been trying to
teach this 16 year old kid and his family. We met him in the street, but
on friday night he texted us and said come pick me up for church on Sunday!! So he came and loved it and we should be teaching his family
this week. we also had 2 other people come this week so it was a really
good week for us in church attendance.
Zone
conference was awesome as usual and before President Harding had us
study our patriarchal blessings and try to receive some revelations
regarding questions to the work and our own personal questions. and I
don't know if its a gift of mine or what but it was the 3rd time that I
have had a scriptural revelation in the temple of where I just flip open
the page and look at a scripture and there is my answer. And this time
it led me to ponder a little more and to dig, but I found a chapter that
explains my patriarchal blessing in full and it was awesome! I love the
temple! It's the best place
But
as you probably already know I'm leaving the city! I am going o be a Zone Leader
somewhere! I'm pretty excited to just work my butt off for my last 3
transfers it will be fun. We are thinking I am going either to Conyers
or Powder Springs so I guess you will find out next week for sure!
 |
| P-day Rugby |
January 19, 2015.....
So you will be happy to see that this letter will be a super long email. I feel like I have so much too talk about and hopefully I remember
everything to put in the email. So
where do I start with the new transfer!! It's been crazy, I am now in
Conyers! My new companion is Elder Clayton. He is from Farmington and he
has been out the same amount I have been, most of his mission he has
been a spanish speaking missionary but they moved him to be a zone
leader 2 transfers ago. He is such a great missionary, very organized
and on point with everything and we get along great so its been fun to
learn a lot from him these past few days. Our zone consists of 17
companionships and 4 districts and we got to travel around to each
district leader and talk about the transfer and what we expect. But I
have just loved being able to serve and love and uplift all these
missionaries in the zone and try to create the high level of faith that
we need to accomplish what the Lord wants. Our zone is the top
performing right now and we are just focusing on how we can maintain and
increase and achieve greatness! But at least in our area we have SO
MANY families that we are working with that are progressing towards
baptism! We have 8 on date right now. Kevin is an awesome kid who is a
members boyfriend. He is 16 and is getting baptized this weekend! So
pray for him, then a family who have 2 little kids are
so prepared and love the book of mormon will be baptized on Feb 7! We have some others as well but this has been the first area I have
been able to come into that has some great things already prepared so
its been fun to be able to jump right in! Being a zone leader I really
feel has been a great call to repentance! It has been great to reflect
on these past months and see what I have needed to change and I feel
like it came and the right time to push me through these last months and
show me how much I can really accomplish.
I just want to testify of the power of being exactly obedient to the
gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot fail if we do so. If we can do all in
our power and run the faith cycle talked about in Alma 32, trust in the
lord with all our heart ( Prov. 3:5) and look unto the savior in every
thought we can achieve greatness!! It's amazing and I have seen it since I
have been here in just these 5 days! Its incredible!
Oh
and my last day in Atlanta, one of the members came and wanted the
missionaries to get the Thomas S. Monson award for scouting so you would
be proud of me cause I did it:) now I have a nice necklace:)
 |
| Receiving the Thomas S Monson Scouting award |
 |
| Elder Anderson and Elder Clayton |
January 26, 2015......
I think that's so awesome that
you have been able to see a spark with the family history work! It's nice
having something to drive you, but thanks for sharing your experience
with me I think that is so awesome. You gotta love the scriptures and
what an influence they can have in our lives and I just think its so
cool how we all can receive personal revelation cause that's what its all
about! I have been reflecting on that too for when the time comes
when I will leave this time out here, that if I can live my life worthily
of a temple recommend and be able to fulfill those covenants and
ordinances for my family then I will be successful and happy in this life
and in the life to come!
This week was probably the busiest week I have had on my mission. We
accomplished so much in the little time we had. We were running
constantly but I've never had so much fun! It's so cool to see how God can
just keep you going even when you don't think you have enough energy to
do something. We were able to connect with a lot of our investigators
except for one. We had 6 people at church on Sunday!! My new record! so
that was awesome. We had Ringston who is a friend of a member. He is from
Kosrae which is in the island in Micronesia he will be getting baptized
this week!! So we are excited for him. He is such a humble loving guy
that has been soaking up everything. And then we had a guy named Robert
and he brought 2 of his nephews and they have been taught for a lot of
months now we just have to get him living the word of wisdom and he'll
be baptized. And then we had my favorite family come. Rusty and Kashia and
they brought their 3 little boys but they are so awesome. It was their first time coming and they loved it! The ward
did such a great job fellowshipping them and loving them and I guess Kashia said in relief society that she was a future member! So we are
excited for them. Their date is for Feb 7! and whats cool is Rusty is a
country singer and putting together his first album. He is sooo good, has a
super deep soul country voice! It's cool to see how much these 2 have
embraced the gospel.
But
this week is gonna be even crazier! We have an all day leadership
meeting tomorrow when we are going to help the district leaders with a
bunch of new things that we are implementing and then we will be going
on exchanges on Wed. and then on Friday we have our mission council with
just the zone leaders and that's when we'll discuss the issues of the
mission as well as plan on what we will be teaching in our zone training
meetings which will be next week and then we will have our baptism on Saturday! I don't know when we will have time to breath! But our zone has
been incredible. We hit all time highs on the indicators this week so
its been real fun to see the success and the happiness of the
missionaries! As for p-days here in Conyers, we play ball like everywhere
else. I think today we are just gonna chill cause we are pretty
exhausted from last week. Thanks again for getting all of that
family history stuff done for me. I love you and miss you and I hope
you have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment