"Bits & Pieces" from April 2015

April 6, 2015.....
 

So I don't have too much time this week to write but I loved conference as well it was so sick! My favorite talk was probably Dale G Renlunds when he talked about how a saint is just a sinner who keeps on trying!! So sweet. and I loved the music analogy as well it made a lot of sense but what hit it home I feel like was Boyd K Packers, L Tom Perrys, and M Russell Ballards talks on the family and how important it really is. And how that needs to be our number 1 priority!! Which gave me some good revelation for when I come home:) but I also like Pres Uchtdorfs talk on grace. That has probably been the biggest testimony I have gained on my mission. The importance of grace and what it actually is. I had a cool experience, I had a question in my heart of what I could do for a couple of friends and I prayed in my head during the conference and then 2 minutes right after I prayed, Brent H Nielson talked about the prodigal son and how we can deal with those who are struggling to come back and what we can do. It was such a cool way to receive an answer! 

But the mission council trip was so awesome!! I wish I had more time to write about it. We hiked Kennesaw mountain where a lot of the civil war took place. At least two major battles, Pigeon Hill and Death Point at Chetham hill and we visited both places as well as the Marrietta Cemetary with all the graves. It was so cool and gave me a deeper appreciation of the land where I am serving as well as for America and what we had to go through to make it as it is today. How cool is it that Joseph Smith testified that the civil war would happen before it did!

April 13, 2015.....

That's awesome that y'all got to go up and be with Cassidy as she went through the temple, must have been a spiritual moment for sure to see another one of the cousins go through.

But my week this week was great. Elder Barnes is the new Companion!! He came out one transfer after me and he has been a ZL before so we have just hit the ground running and have connected really well. He is 23 and from Alpine as well! They stuck with me with 2 of them! But the crazy thing is they are actually from the same home ward and have known each other for 12 years.  So its fun hearing all the memories they have had together. Its just a small world. Nothing really crazy happened this week in the teaching game due to the fact we had a lot of meetings with all of our District Leaders and getting all the stuff out of the way at the beginning of the transfer so we are excited to kick it off this week! We did have some fun on Saturday doing a community service project cleaning up Conyers. The ward was assigned to clean up Old Town and we had a great time and found a lot of new people to teach from that. Ill forward some pictures and the big news of our week is they changed the bishopric in our ward!! It is now Bishop Nolden!!! We are so stoked! He is our favorite member in the ward and so focused on missionary work so its gonna change this area!

April 20, 2015....

Another glorious week here in the Conyers zone family!! I have already told you basically what happened but we just went crazy with being bold and inviting everyone we found to come closer to the Savior through baptism and we saw the results from it. Many people accepted and we went from 29 baptismal dates to 68!!! The next closest zone to that is 35! So we are so happy with what we are seeing and we are teaching way more people with members.  The zone averaged 13 member present lessons which is amazing. So that was really cool to see. It all really happened cause in our zone training meeting that we had we were planning on talking about how we need to be more bold but it was going to be in regards to the members, but a companionship brought an investigator who is getting baptized this week to the meeting and she stood and and said "Yall are selfish, you are not being bold enough with these people! You have no idea what you have!" it was AMAZING. The spirit jabbed all of us to the heart and we all committed to being more bold. and we are now seeing the results from it so it was really cool. 

But we taught a lot of great people this week and found a lot of new people. We are trying to rebuild our teaching pool cause we kind of baptized out of it. And one thing we have just implemented in the mission and I want to testify of the truthfulness of it is Singing!! We sing in every single lesson with a member or an investigator we use it as a finding tool and just sing with random people on the streets and they LOVE it!! It has helped so much and I think that is another reason for the success because what a great way to bring the spirit into an atmosphere than by singing one of Gods Hymns! So its pretty cool. I never thought in a million years that I would walk up to a stranger and ask if I could sing with them but I do it and I love doing it! 

I am just grateful that I have been able to serve the Lord for 2 years and have been able to at least bring one soul unto Christ. Myself. Its the greatest blessing ever and I will definitely cherish every minute I have left. Its amazing with all the work we've got going on I have no time to even think about home. It honestly feels like I'll never leave this place. I love it!

 

Always time for fun in a busy missionaries life

 

April 27, 2015.....

 

So crazy week this week, so much went on, but lets just say our zone is still killing it!!! There were 5 baptisms with many more to come but we had an average per companionship and we have 15 companionship with 4.3 people one date for baptism and 4.3 investigators at church!!! So sweet! That's unheard of. We had a lot of success in our own area with a lot of cool miracles. First off Sammi is doing great. She is still going strong and coming and doing family history work. The big news this week is David received the priesthood!! And his mom and uncle were there to support him! We are super stoked for him. He has totally changed. Then we had 7 of our investigators come to church!! It was crazy to make sure everybody was in the right place and having a good experience. We were pooped at the end of church but thats what its all about! And I forgot to mention that we got a new ward mission leader last week and it has been exactly what we needed to change this place around. He has previously been a bishop and knows how to do missionary work. He is amazing and he is constantly helping us and making sure everything is working smoothly. He really helped us out this week. So 2 of our progressing investigators, Monica and Eric need to get married before they get baptized. So we took the ward mission leader on a team up to teach the law of chastity with them and they are both young 19 and 21. And as we were teaching he  cued in and said we can get you married in 2 weeks if you would like to.  Ill set everything up and make sure it goes exactly how you want it and then you can get baptized!!!  Monica's jaw dropped and her eyes got super big and the first thing she said was "I dont know what Im going to wear??" hahaha so they have now met with the bishop and will be getting married on May 3rd at the church!!! We have all the members of the ward council helping and then in 2 weeks on the 16th they will get baptized!! Miracles! We are super happy. I've always wanted to marry someone and get them baptized and now its happening! All because our ward mission leader was bold with them! 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from March 2105.....

March 2, 2015.....

It was a great week this week, we got our new baby!! His name is Elder Shepherd and he is from Alpine Ut. He graduated in 2013 from Lone Peak. He is our age and he knows the Card family! He is awesome, great spirit about him. We all get along great and he is ready to work.  He has that greeny fire and isn't afraid to talk with anyone so its been fun to get back into the training mode. It's been quite a bit due to the fact of still being ZL's and having to train. We just hope we don't burn him out too fast! He has been pretty tired so it's been fun to mess with him!

But that's fun that y'all get to plan another wedding while I'm out here. It's sad that I won't be there but I wish the best for them. And I can't wait to watch all the old home videos when we were kids. It's crazy how fast time moves and you don't know what to do about it.

Anyways... this week was great even though it was slowed down tremendously due to the weather. They hyped everything up over here and they thought the whole city was going to freeze over so nobody wanted to meet with us so it was a little difficult but we still had a lot of good things and hopefully we are finally finished with the cold and start seeing some sunshine. But we had a pretty cool miracle this week. Robert and his Nephew David came to church this week. Robert has been coming for forever but this was Davids 2nd time and he has been progressing really fast. We are just working on the word of wisdom with him. But he leaned over to me and asked if he could get up and bear his testimony and so he went up and gave the most spiritual testimony of how meeting with us and all the church members he has met that we have brought over have changed his life and he told all the members that they were a pillar of light in this dark world we are living in! It was so awesome!! He is amazing. It was a great way to end the week!

oh and I have been still keeping up with my Jesus study as much as I can its going great I'm loving it. I'm really hoping I can finish it by the time I get home. But keep reading that book and let me know where you are next week! Love you and miss you and have a great week!

Welcome to the newby!

The Conyers Zone

 March 9, 2015....

That's awesome that you've read through chapter 3 and the book just gets better and better. Some of the stories and ideas that he shares are so inspiring and just makes you want to be a missionary for your whole life but that's the cool thing, we can!  And that's so cool about Mike and his family. I feel like I don't know too much about their family but tha'ts awesome that dad has been able to do missionary work with them and share his testimony and God works in mysterious ways so maybe all this stuff is happening for a reason for them to become humble and have an open heart about everything. 

I'm sorry that I really don't have too much from this week because you are right, we had a lot of meetings this week so we didn't have that much time in our own area but the time that we did have was super effective. We got an investigator named Edward on date for March 28 and he is so smart. He has been studying religions for 10 years and has a photographic memory! So everything we leave with him he just soaks it all up. He came to church for the first time and loved it. And due to how smart he is after sacrament he came up to us and said how does the succession of the presidency in the church work?? haha I don't know how the man grasps all of the knowledge he does but he is super solid and we are excited for him. But mission council was great, its good to see all of the other zone leaders and yes its with the sister training leaders. Then the reason why it feels so close is because our last zone conference was super delayed due to all the weather. But it was good we combined with 2 other zones and did some great training. That was my week, nothing crazy, we are excited to have a normal week this week! 

March 16, 2015.....

MY WEEK THIS WEEK WAS SOOOOO CRAZY!! #MIRACLES 

About my week this week, let me tell you how amazing God is when he sends you someone who is so prepared and ready to listen to the message! Sammy Dunbar!! she is 60 and the sweetest Georgia Peach grandma you could ever ask for! She is amazing. She has been searching the past few years for churches everywhere to find somewhere where she can be comfortable. About 15 years ago she lived in Arizona and knew some mormons that she worked for and really loved them but never showed interest. So 2 weeks ago she had a strong impression to meet with the mormons and ask questions because she couldn't find any other church that fit her. So she left a note on our church door and one of the members called us and gave us her number we called her last Sunday and set up to meet with her on Monday. And here is where miracles happen. We teach her at the church with a member about the restoration, she agrees on everything we say and accepts a date to be baptized on March 28th!! Then we meet with her on Tuesday at the church and read 2 Nephi 31 and talk about the gospel of Christ. Then we meet on Wednesday, she reads the Plan of salvation pamphlet we gave her so she taught us the plan of salvation!!! Then she comes to our Ward Party on Friday and has an amazing time and connected really well with the relief society president and was telling everyone she is joining the church on March 28th! Then we teach her the word of wisdom on Saturday and she accepts it and is willing to drop everything! She comes to church on Sunday and loves it. We taught her last night in a members home about the Book of Mormon and tonight we are going to have a FHE in another members home!! Can you say MIRACLE!!! SHE IS AMAZING! we are so excited for her and we are grateful to just be here to help her on her journey. and we know its because we have been exactly obedient! 

So that has been my amazing story this week! Some other fun things, we went on exchanges with Elder Mcdonald-smith this week. He is from London and sat next to me on the plane coming here so it was great to be with him and we hit 23 member present lessons this week! And with Presidnent Harding we talked about finishing strong and making sure everything was in order in going home. But I did find out the exact release date for me, it will be June 3rd! so a little later than we thought but that's ok it gives me more time:)

A Southern St Patty's day

March 23, 2015.....

ahhhh i cant believe you already got the email from the mission office... it doesn't seem real! and surprisingly i just have no time to think about going home cause we have way to much stuff we have been juggling the past few weeks. So it has been really nice. But that's super cool y'all are gonna have a foreign exchange student at the house for a week. And that's awesome to hear about Obe! Tell him good luck for me.

This week has been Great!! Sammy Dunbar is amazing! We were able to teach her 5 days this past week and she came to both sessions of Stake Conference and she is just realizing she is the driest mormon ever! She is super excited to do family history work too so we are so excited for her and she is gonna be baptized on Saturday!! She is so awesome and we promised her we would come back here after our missions and go skydiving with her cause she has done 176 jumps!! crazy! And as well, our investigator David Jackson is preparing to be baptized this week. He is progressing very well and we are hoping we can get him in the water as well! This week we had Stake Conference and it was awesome cause we had Elder Zwick there and they had a special YSA fireside and we got David to come and he was able to meet and talk with Elder Zwick and we were able to meet him and have a good chat with him. He is a great man!  We have had just a lot of member support in teaching with us and letting us teach in their homes. We taught over 20 member present lessons again this week so it has been amazing and our zone right now is killing it. We are on track to baptize 10 people next week!! And just another cool side note, one of our investigators signed with a record label this week! So be looking out for him his name is Rusty, he is a country singer with a soul voice of a black man!

It has been so much fun though working our butts off everyday and being so pooped at the end of the day. It really shows if you work hard to the very end you will see miracles. and we have seen so many in our own area this week as well through the zone and its amazing!

 

 

March 30, 2015.....

 

CRAZIEST WEEK!! So much happened and I will try and fit it all in this email but I don't have too much time. First off that is so great that Jefferson got his mission call. I can't believe he is already going on a mission!! Time goes by way to fast when you're not home. and hopefully he gets to preach to all of our family!  And yes I'm soooo stoked for General Conference!! It doesn't feel like its already time to come. but I'm super stoked. Its weird to think that It'll be my last one and I will definitely cherish every minute and get as much revelation possible!

But the Big News is Sammy Dunbar and David Jackson are now members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints!!! Their baptism was so awesome we actually had 4 baptisms in the ward/  The sisters had 2 baptisms as well! And the one who baptized David was only baptized 2 months ago and got the priesthood 2 weeks ago!! it was so cool! David locked up like a board so it was kinda sketchy but he got him down first try and that's all that matters! haha Its been amazing to watch the growth of David quit all his addictions and change so fast and to see Sammy grasp on to all the doctrine so quick! There are prepared people everywhere! I also went on exchanges this with Elder Hope over in Snellville and that was a blast. He served in Carrollton after I did so we got to talk about everybody so it was a good time. We also put a new investigator on date to be baptized and he is BLIND! He is so funny and super prepared and has read the Book of Mormon before hebecame blind! But he said something super funny that I will use for the rest of my life, he said "all we gotta do is just hop on that Jesus Bus and ride it on back to Heaven!" so that's what I'm doin! Hopping on that Jesus Bus!! We also have a mission council lined up for this week. We are going to hike Kennesaw mountain and visit some historical civil war sites!! Its gonna be awesome! 

 

Baptism Day!

 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from February 2015

February 2, 2015......

It was a great week this week, so much went on. But to your surprise I did not watch the superbowl:) Ha I really didn't even think about it. I didn't even know who won until I read your letter but dad did just gave me the play by play on how the game ended which stinks for Seattle haha.  I haven't gotten the family history stuff yet, it will probably come today so I'll look out for it. They are having a black family history seminar close to here and I might try and sneak by and see whats up. But as for your member questions the ward here is great. It's pretty small activity wise. There is probably 150 to 175 that show up each week and of that we have like 5 families that are super solid on missionary work that help us out all the time. They do feed us which is great, we average like 5 meals a week. but ya we do have some great members here that help us out a lot. 

As far as the week! Man am I exhausted! It was an awesome week. Ringston is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! He was baptized by his friend and the greatest member we got, Bro. Baumgardner! The sisters in our ward had 2 more baptisms as well so the Conyers ward is just splash city!! I'll send the pics. And the meetings we had this week went great. The one on Tuesday was to help all of the district leaders be more effective in there planning so that was good. And ya Elder Pehrson did get moved up to AP so its fun having those 2 brethren at the top cause we get to work with them a lot. Then on Wednesday we had the privilege to go to the stake presidency meeting and sit and council with them on how the stake is doing and we are planning on a big meeting with all the ward mission leaders, the bishops, the high councilmen, and all the missionaries on how we can move the work forward better, so that was pretty cool. Then on Friday we had our mission council down in Fayetteville at the mission home and had some great discussion of new things we are going to install in the mission. So it's been a pretty crazy week still trying to meet with people and get that stuff down. But I have had a blast this week, It's moving fast, I cant believe we are in the 3rd week of the transfer already!

Baptism Day!

Work, Work, Work!

 February 9, 2015.....

Life is great here in Conyers!  And yes, this week finally felt like somewhat of a normal week considering all the days we have had. Some of the investigators we are working with, Robert and his 3 nephews, David, Chris, and Dorian,  we got them into a members home this week to have dinner and a lesson and it went very well. They are progressing and coming to church. Robert has been coming for a very long time, so hopefully we can get them all in the water but the ward loves them and they are doing great. Kevin  is our other big priority right now. Awesome kid who is 16 and a friend of a member family that has been coming for a few months. But he is such a sharp kid who understands everything and really wants to be baptized. He is just making sure he is doing it for himself and not for anyone else. He just doesn't want to be forced. So we are taking it a little slower with him. But he is great and the ward has really latched on to him. 

But things are going great. I love it here in Conyers.  The people are great.  We had dinners with one of the greatest families I've ever met on my mission and I hope I can always stay in contact with them, the Pierces. She cooks the best food I've ever had. She said for you to send your soda cracker pie recipe so she can make it for me cause I was bragging about it! So you should definitely do that. But we do have the big stake meeting this week with all the bishops, ward mission leaders, high council, stake presidency and president Harding so that'll be great and hopefully we will see a big shift in working more closely with the ward councils and missionary work to combine the members and missionaries!

February 16, 2015.....

   

Things went well this week, it was different cause we had so much going on that we didn't have time to work in our personal area much. That, and I've been dealing with a crappy head cold the past 3 days and its now just starting to leave so its been a "blast" dealing with that. But thanks for the package. I did get it and I loved the picture. That was super cool, it made me remember all the good times.  It's crazy how long I've been out and how far I've come its so cool. But the stake meeting went very good!! We had all the missionaries, the stake presidency, Pres. Harding, all the bishops, and all the ward mission leaders and talked about expectations and new things that the stake was implementing. It was basically a reproving with sharpness and love to do better! But it went very well and I'm glad all the planning for that is now done. Then we went on 2 exchanges this week.  I was down in Jonesboro on Tuesday with a greeny, Elder Clay from Idaho. That was a blast, we did a lot of great work down there. and then on Friday we did a blitz down in Jackson which is super country and I got to be on bike down there so it was good to do that again.  Other than the fact that it was below freezing.. (probably why I'm sick) but it was good they have been struggling a lot and we got to help them with a bunch of stuff.  

Overall it was a good week we are still working with a lot of the same people, nothing to new with them. We had 5 people come to church this week, a few part member families as well as Kevin. So we are excited for this week to be able to work more in our area and get things going. And last p-day was so sick. I'll send some of the pics of the cars. dad would have loved it. and today we are having a zone elders P-day so that should be fun just playing a bunch of different games!

P-day fun

 February 23, 2015.....

Have y'all had any missionary experiences or opportunities lately? I there is something I can testify of its the power of Member missionary work. It's so vital! I have learned the good way to do it and the bad way since I've been out here.  And I have also learned if you want to have the spirit more with you in your life all you need to do is share the Gospel. That is why us missionaries have it all the time is cause that is all we do 24/7.  But when we share the gospel it gives us the opportunity to bear our testimony of what we know to be true and as we do so we will fill the spirit testify through us to those that we are sharing it to. So I invite you to always be looking for the opportunity to bear your testimony and share the gospel. It might be hard in Utah but there are plenty of nonmembers there. Read the book 'The Power of the Everyday Missionary's". Its the best book ever, I love it! Its how we need to live our lives. That,s my testimony for the week.

This week went great. We got to teach a lot of lessons which was awesome!! We are working with the same people. Not to many people that are new just trying to help the ones we have progress. The sick bug got most of our people for church. But Elder Clayton and I got some exciting news today. We are staying together another transfer! Weird to think its already been a transfer... but we are getting a new greeny!! So we will be training as well! So I'm excited for that, to help push us even more. Pres. Harding has been doing that lately, having the zone leaders train as well. So it will be sweet. We are going to create a monster in the mission field! So that's the exciting news this week!