"Bits & Pieces" from May 2014

May 5, 2014.....

 Good news!! Me and Elder Jensen are staying together another transfer together in C-Town!!! I'm I guess if its working why split it up? We have some pretty solid people we are working with now that will be dunked this transfer so I'm excited. Our whole district is staying the same so we are all pumped for that!  And about the storm, it was a pretty good one we didn't see the sun for 3-4 days but once it came out it has stayed the past 2 days its been like 85... and its only getting hotter... ya the humidity has been kicking in full force! But ya the bike has been treating me very well I'm starting to finally slim down since I've been on it I've lost about 13 pounds so Im happy about that I need to cut some more fat then Ill be happy!  

But as for the work goes, it was a pretty slow week for us this week, not a lot happened. We had a lot of members busy or out of town so they couldn't come out with us so we had to cancel quite a few appointments but we still did a lot of good things and found a lot of people on our own efforts. And I don't know if you remember Tyrus Dorsey, but I've been working with him since I got here and have never gotten him to commit and we dropped him for about a month but this past week and a half have been meeting with him often. He's had a lot of stuff come up in his life lately that has changed a lot and we finally got him on date for the 24th!!! So that was our success for the week and he is committed.  He was saying at work he is already telling people he's mormon so that's great! But that's about it. 

The "Dynamic Duo"!!

May 19, 2014...

  It was an alright week for us this week. We had some really good things happen for us it was just really slow due to weather and lots of rain that hit us that made it difficult to get out without members. But it was good.  We worked a lot on Tyrus making sure he is ready for the 24th! and we think he is. We are having dinner with him in the Mounts house tonight so that should be great! and we got Donna and Nikko on date for the 31st which is amazing. We had an awesome lesson with them and taught the plan of salvation perfectly and answered a lot of her questions about it. So I was excited about that and then on Thursday I had the opportunity to interview the sisters in our wards investigator for baptism.  Her name is Glenda Davis or "Cricket" is her nickname.  She is awesome and so funny! And then she asked me to baptize her! So that is who I had the privilege of baptizing on Saturday.  It was amazing to get back into the water! Everything went well for that. Funny story about that, so Elder Jensen popped his tire about an hour before the baptism so we had to walk 30 min back to the house and then we realized the sisters didn't have a key to the font to fill it up so we had to be there asap! So in our suits and our bags, we sprinted a mile, suit and all:) haha we probably looked so weird but that's the fun part about being a missionary/  You can do whatever and not feel weird! So I can say that I've ran a mile in a suit;) But on Friday we got to go to Zone training meeting and go to the temple and this was one of the most spiritual times I've had in the temple, seeing my prayers be answered.  Elder Jensen and I went fasting for a certain member in our ward who.s had a lot of things happen to him the past weeks and then I went with a question I wanted answered and right when I got in the chapel waiting room  Isaid a prayer for an answer and I picked up the bible and opened it right up and the first page I turned to and verse I looked at was my answer! It was amazing! I think it was the first time Heavenly Father answered me so fast. Then after the temple, in the meetings we got a text from the member and our fast was answered!! It was amazing! The power of fasting is so real! That was the first time I've had a real experience and a testimony builder of fasting! So Friday was a very good day for me. But that was it for me.  This week should be amazing with Tyrus' baptism. Pray for him, that it will happen! 

 

Nothin' like a baptism!

 May 27, 2014....

Its finally done! They have been sealed for time and all eternity gosh that's crazy to think about. And I bet it was pretty hectic but it looked like a blast. I wish I could have been there but hey I was kind of there ( I'm not gonna lie I still look pretty dang good even on cardboard) haha I loved the pic with all the kids doing the Heisman. That one made my eyes a little watery but I'm glad to hear you like the text from Bro Mount.  I thought it would bring some comfort!  I was thinking a lot on my temple experience and I was amazed on how fast answers can really come and that was definitely a first for me.  It is so nice to put everything off to the side for these 2 years and not worry about the world and the news and sports (even though I think about sports often) Its nice to just give your all to the Lord for this short amount of time and I'm realizing how short it really is with only one more month to my year mark. Its incredible how fast the time goes by. But as for this week, it was 1000 degrees all week long, it sucked! And most the time we were walking cause we didn't want to go and get Elder Jensen's bike fixed, but we finally did. But it was hot! In regards to Tyrus, the reason why we had to move his date is because on Wedensday night he had some things come up with roommates and he was super stressed out so to calm himself down he drank a winecooler... ha so we rebuked him for that but he is still good and he is getting baptized this Saturday!! We have been seeing him everyday so he is doing good. Elder Jensen was actually super sick yesterday and we were inside all day and so Tyrus brought him medicine and brought us lunch and dinner! So, he is still doing great and he is excited for the baptism! Then some more good news, Darrell Smalls, who we thought was gonna be out of town for 2 more weeks came back this week! So we got to see him and finalize things and help him with his smoking .  We were with a member and the member gave him a blessing to help with it! So we moved his date up to June 7!!  Hopefully we'll be splashing for 2 weeks in a row which will be amazing! Donna and Nikko are doing great. We saw Nikko twice this week. Donna has been sick in bed all week so we couldn't see her and they didn't come to church on Sunday so we had to take them off date. But they are still doing good. Other than that it has just been a crazy week of me being sick with a cold for 3 days in the beginning of the week and having to work through that and then our big finding day was going to be yesterday but Elder Jensen looked like he was going to die! He's feeling a little better today so I got a lot of studying done yesterday and I got to write another poem. Ii think its pretty good! I'll send it in another email but it was a good week super hot but this week should be amazing just working hard and seeing results its amazing!

 

Give me this Mountain

 

 

Give me this Mountain

Said Caleb of Old,

giving all that he had to God,

and seeing what he would unfold.

In the world we are in

God will push us to be our best.

Knowing our true potential,

He's going to put us to the test.

We will have good times, of course

But on the days of hardships and trials we'll see,

He is making us into

The children of God we can be.

We may sometimes say...

"I can't do it", "I give up", " Its to hard",

"Its not worth it", "I quit".

That's what Satan wants us to say!

If we put our trust in God

And we do all that he asks

He will show us the way!

You can do this! You can make it!

Never say never,

Keep moving forward,

Don't stop and don't quit!

With each mountain we have to climb,

We may never know the reason why

He only said,

It will all be worth it in the End.

I hope we can all say:

Give me the strength to fight,

Give me the wings to fly,

Help me know where I need to go,

Help me follow the truth and light.

I'm ready for the challenge,

I'm on the front lines of battle,

With faith in God, I will not fall.

So...

Give me this mountain.

"Bits & Pieces" from April 2014

April 7,  2014....

This week was really good  in spiritual way. Investigator wise it was kind of a slower week for us we didn't get to teach that many people cause it was spring break this week and a lot of people were gone but everybody is back now so it will be good this week.  Sadly,  we didn't have anybody come to conference.. It's okay, some did watch it online at home though which is just as good. We did have an investigator say he knows the church and Book of Mormon is true and he will be baptized. The bad part is he's in Philadelphia till the 18th so he will be dunked, just not for a few more weeks! But this week was good cause after hearing about Taleah I was super sad and I needed a lift. Then I got a text on Wednesday saying we were having a leadership mission council the next day and so that was just what I needed cause we got to go to the temple and I got to feel the peace I needed. And at mission council we talked all about faith and families and how we will be with our families forever and we need to find and baptized all these families but the message for me was just perfect! You can watch some videoes of us singing songs on facebook. I think President Harding put them on there. it was great and then for general conference to be this weekend as well was so awesome!! just a spiritual filled week!

 

Elder Hollands talk was soooo sick!!! He came out strong right from the get go talking about defending our faith no matter what!! But I think my favorite talk was by Bishop Gary E Stevenson about this life being our 4 minute race and however we perform here is gonna determine where we stand on the medal stand! go for gold!! and Presidnent Monson's on love was fantastic! But ya my second favorite was Dallin H Oaks talk on the priesthood!! He threw down like Bruce R McConkie would! It was so great!

 

But ya that was my week, not too crazy, kinda slow, but this week should be amazing we have a lot of great things planned and are gonna put some families on date to be baptized!!


April 14, 2014....

 

As for this week, it was an amazing one for sure!! Lots of crazy cool miracles that happened right to the last minute. So this week again we had some goals and summits we wanted to climb as a mission which was to get 10 member present lessons again and to also teach 10 pmg lessons to members! And I'm happy to say that my district accomplished it and as well as our whole zone!!  Its amaizng to see how much the Lord is blessing us for working hard and being obedient. We came down to crunch time so yesterday we needed to teach 4 more pmg lessons to members and 2 more member present lessons after church.. and we got all 4 of the pmg lessons done by 7pm and we got with our member at 730 and we only had an hour and a half to teach two people. We were driving around to see some potentials and formers and the Lord will always provide if we are working our hearts out and we found a former to teach and invite to baptism and that took us to 815 and then we drove across town and found a family outside playing some volleyball and it was just about to get dark so we ran over to them and taught the grandma of the family the whole restoration and it was funny cause she was super black and was into the speaking in tounges and so while we were preaching to her she was preaching to us then out of no where she just goes off for like 7 sec with blalifldviaifjaidfe hahah it was so funny but we got her to read the book of mormon! And we did it!!  When we finished that lesson it was 8:50pm!! right on time! So it was way cool. Then another one our miracles this week was that we tracted into this lady named Donna about 2 weeks ago and decided to go back on Tuesday and she was busy so the kid that was there came out and said "are you church people" and we said "yes".  So he said preach to me.. ha so we did:)  This kids name is Nikko. He's 11 and an amazing kid. It turns out that Donna is his grandma and when we were getting to know him he said "I've been through a lot in my life, more than what a lot of people have gone through. My mom died when I was 10 and my dad died when I was 11.... and now I'm livin here".  I almost broke down in tears. He said, "I really want a church to go to".  So we got to testify of the plan of salvation. but what was cool he said does your church do stuff fun? and we said well ofcourse kids your age have scouts and they go on  campouts and he just got so excited and really wanted to come. so we went back the next day with one of the scoutmasters and taught Donna and nikko the restoration and she said she was excited to read the book of mormon.  It was amazing to me that we were lead and guided to these 2, cause if there is anyone that needs the gospel its them.  I'm really excited for them! and yes Darrell is still on to be baptized when he gets back.  He should be back at the end of this week he's now like in the middle of the book of mormon! On Wednesday I get to go interview a couple for baptism so im excited for that! But that's what went down this week! We did have one of our investigators Mohamidoo Ahminoo come to church so that was good! But things are changing and its incredible to be a part of it!

 

A District Selfie!

 

April 21, 2014...

 

 My Easter was fantastic! We had a lot of great things happen yesterday! We were only able to have 1 investigator come. Things happened with the others that prevented them from coming but the sisters had 5 gators come! As for the ward, many people brought a lot of non member friends which was amazing cause our ward doesn't usually do that.  So we met some great people, some of which we will be teaching here shortly but during the day we got 6 member present lessons with investigators! That was amazing, then we went to Bishop Andersons house and had dinner with the sisters! Then we went to the Mounts house and had a second dinner and watched all the kids have an easter egg hunt so it was a blast! But the sacrament meeting was great, the speakers gave amazing talks and we sung with the ward choir so that was fun:) Sadly, I was not able to see Nikko this week but we did see his grandma! Nikko was at a cousins house when we saw her and she had read a few chapters and she said she liked it so far! We are going to teach them the POS this week and get them on date! We do have 2 people on date for the 17th of May!  Hopefully one of those that go through one is Evaline Boykin. The other is Richard Farley, a son of a member thats really less active. But something amazing that happened this week. throughout the mission we have been setting these weekly goals to help push ourselves and this week was to have each companionship to have 3 at church and as a mission to have 300. The most the mission has ever had is 200. But we as leaders really pushed everyone this week to get them to church and as a mission we got 302 investigators to church!!!! It's pretty cool to see how when you are exactly obedient and you work your butt off that you can accomplish the impossible! And our zone is killing it right now. We are doing great things.  The interviews I had this week were great. Their names were Jason and Rose Edwards and they got baptized on Saturday! That was good to see. I got to go on exchanges with the zone leaders this week and one of the Elders, Elder Erickson is my boy! I love that kid to death. He is so funny and he's been the one to really push me to my highest potential.  I was in his area this time in Kennesaw. I thought this was amazing, we went to see a less active couple that are trying to come back to the church. They've had a lot of issues with drugs but they are doing a lot better. But Bro Lawerence has a bunch of collectible things and because he loves us and we were making him have a good time he wanted to give us some things to remember him. He gave us like mint condition 2 dollar bills from 1963! But the coolest thing  he gave us were these half dollar coins. ( dad would love this coin)  its so sick! It is a rare specially made half dollar coin of stone mountain (which is a huge stone in georgia that has a carving in the side of it of the soldiers from the war) and its like the big site to see here.  On the front it has the soldiers and on the back it has an eagle and it says "memorial to the valor of the soldier of the south"!! We thought it was so sweet cause thats what we are the "Soldiers of the South"!! fighting this war. But the best part is this coin is from 1925!! I was very grateful of him and wish I could teach him more! But that was my week. I really tried to always think of the Savior this week and what he did for me and realize my faults that I have and to realize that without him I couldnt make it make and I am forever grateful for him and for what he did! I wish more people could try to think like that all the time, not just on Easter cause if we did this world would be such a better place! 

 

Easter Dinner

 

 

 

 

April 28, 2104....

  

I can't imagine living without this gospel. This week I have really tried to focus on whats most important and my personal conversion of the gospel and every time I come to the conclusion that the plan of salvation is the greatest thing in the world. The fact that we know where we can go, and that not only can I live with my family that I have now for forever but my future wife and kids. To know that I will be with them for time and all eternity is the greatest blessings and it always comes back to families and the importance of the family. That's why satan has been attacking the family unit to disrupt and change what God has intended for us. But there's my speal on that:) haha. This week was amazing! A lot of good things happened. Its crazy to look back just like 4 months ago and see the dramatic increase of success that we have been having and its all a direct result from being obedient and working as hard as we can! We taught a lot of lessons this week and to a lot of new people that we have been finding so that's been fun.  We have gotten a lot of members to come out with us. They are starting to catch the vision I think or they just feel bad for us that we are on bikes so they take us out anyways. Either one I'm fine with it:) So good news about Donna and Nikko.  We still havent been able to get them on date but we got Nikko to go to mutual on Wednesday and then on Friday the ward was having a ward campout and Nikko went to that with some members and had an awesome time. We got to go in the morning to the breakfast and stuff so that was fun.  Then we got them both to come to church on Sunday!! It was amazing to get them fellowshipped in so easily. I felt like we did nothing:) but we also had Darrell Smalls come for the second week in a row! And, hes halfway through the book of mormon!  He knows its true and after this last trip to Pennsylvania and back we will get him dunked! So we are excited about that:) But other than that its just been super hot and I've been getting my color back so thats been fun. Today I guess there is supposed to be a big storm that is going to hit Alabama and possibly Georgia so we'll see how that turns out I heard it hit Arkansas and did some damage so we'll just pray for the best!

 

Someone caught himself a snake!

 

 

 

 

"Bits & Pieces from March 2014.....

March 3, 2014...

"Satan is very good at what he does and he has the hearts of a lot of people here in Georgia confusing them with the cunning craftiness of man and all of these deceiving wolves in sheep's clothing and he is turning so many of the hearts of the simple to these perverse doctrines that are so wrong and then they are terribly blinded and don't want to open their eyes to see how there is so much more!! It's so sad sometimes cause you know these people would be so great for the church and it would bless their lives but they don't want to venture out from what they were raised in and they don't want to change and they are comfortable. And then you have to be supportive of their agency... it sucks. but you're right that God does know each one of his children and hopefully if not on this side then on the next they will have the chance to accept it there.

But God knows why he sent me here and I think I know as well. I have faced trials and tribulations through my life but usually never had to stand up for what I believed in because we were all of the same faith. Being out here has taught me for one, how to stand on my own two feet no matter the circumstance. Here I have the opportunity to say "I'm a MORMON and I'm proud of it" and I love sharing with people what we believe and why we believe it. Even though a lot of people here will start yellin and swearin and try to bible bash with you I know that its the true church. They try sooo hard to prove us wrong when NOBODY has been able to do it for 184 years and they can keep trying all they want but we know that Joseph Smith did restore this church through the power and authority of God and restored all the keys of the Priesthood. And we know that when all the world comes crashing down this church and the righteous that follow its teaching will stand tall and strong! And it's the greatest blessing ever. This week was pretty slow for us. It was hard to get in and teach people and nobody really wanted to talk with us.  We did find 3 new gators but it was a testimony builder to me that no matter the outcome of the situation or the week I know that what I am doing is right and no matter what my Heavenly Father loves me. And I'm so grateful for that knowledge! Being on a mission is so much fun. You get to experience so many different emotions and learn how to cope with them"

March 10, 2014...

" this week for us was amazing! I guess that last week was just a trial of our faith to see if we would kick ourselves into gear and work harder than we have before! We had exchanges with the zone leaders on Friday and since we live so far away from them they both just come to our area and we do a blast and that's exactly what we needed. We killed it that day and found 9 new gators and put 3 of them on date!! Me and Elder Erickson found 8 of those and put 2 of them on date! So basically we had sooo much faith and found everybody. And then the rest of the week me and Elder J worked hard everyday and found 5 more gators and taught a butt load of people and we had an amazing week regarding those numbers! It was exhausting at times but when we are the most tired is when we are having the most fun.  Some of the lessons we were in I was fighting so hard to not fall asleep! Like I would sit on the floor so I didn't fall asleep! But it was such a blessing to find all these people cause that's what we have needed to do is to pick up our pool of people. and we're not done. We are expecting to do this every week! So one of these people that we found is a man named Bartow .This is when we were on exchanges but I have met Bartow before. He is a part member family, his wife has been a member for about 45 years now! They are about 70-75 and amazing. Sis Keaton fell and broke her hip 3 months ago and that's how I know them cause we went and gave her a blessing and Bartow actually broke his last July so they both are limping around but we decided just to go see them to see how she was doing and when we were there we got into a discussion with Bartow to see why he had never joined the church, because he also had 2 sons serve missions!!  He was giving reasons and one was that he didn't see any proof of the Book of Mormon anywhere from when they came over here to the Americas.  Elder Erickson, the smart elder that he is, brought up the Mayans and ancient ruins down in Mexico and Guatamala and all the finds that they have that help support the Book of Mormon and linking the Jaredites and Lehites to the ancient Mayans and the ancient indians and all the discoveries that they have found. So he got VERY INTERESTED and the elder said he had a talk that described it all and we would get it to him on Thursday BUT  we asked him if he came to know that the Book of Mormon was really the word of God and was true if he would be baptized on March 29th and he said yes!!!! It was insane! so we got the talk. Its by Melvin J Hunter and was given in 1954. It was amazing but we read it to him and he was so into it!  He is very excited to do more studying. He couldn't come to church cause he had plans to be in Alabama but he is going to a ward activity this week then he'll be at church on Sunday! We are going to dunk this man after all these years because of the MAYANS!! Who would have thought! haha and there are a lot of other cool things that happened but not enough time to write them all. And now to talk about Elder Cook! It was so amazing to be able to meet and listen to another Apostle! Elder Pieper from the 70 and Elder Parker an area 70 also came but they all had amazing talks and advice!! It was an answer to my prayers cause Elder Cook and Pieper both mainly talked about Agency and how we have to respect peoples choices but there are many things we can do to make sure that we help them make the right decisions! It was amazing and just an incredible week so I'm excited to keep it going. This week we have zone training meeting on Wednesday so I'm stoked to go to the temple again!"

Elder Quentin L Cook's visit

Favorite activity during Zone Conference!

March 17, 2014....

"It was another amazing week this week! It just goes to show that exact obedience and faith lead to miracles!! But we did see Satan play a role in a lot of our investigators yesterday! I'll tell more about it later. We had an elder in our zone share a story of his friend that died in the mission field about 2 weeks ago. He got hit by a car. It's so sad and it makes you realize how anything can happen at any second that can change your life forever!  We need to make sure we are living our lives to the fullest each and every day and to make sure we're living worthy to make it back to our Heavenly Father if any tragic accident occurs! But this week was awesome we got to go back and teach most of the people that we found which was sweet cause usually that doesn't happen. We had 8 member present lessons which is very high for this area and we are going to get even more this week! Bartow is doing great we taught him more about the Book of Mormon and talked about his baptism and who would baptize him and things like that so he is excited! He went to a high priest social that the ward had on Friday night. It was like a date night and they had a great time at that! But they were not able to make it to church cause it was raining really badly on Sunday and they didnt want to drive in it. They're 75 and both their hips were hurting...(satan) and then we taught a family of 5 that we found tracting last week and we went with a member and taught them the restoration and they loved it and were excited to come to church and they woke up Sunday morning and 2 of their kids were sick...(satan) We got a member referral for a man named Mahamodu Ahminu and he is so solid and super excited to learn more and he couldn't make it to church but is still excited to learn this week. That golden investigator that I talked about 3 weeks ago has been in Pennsylvania for 2 weeks but we got to see him again this week and it was an amazing lesson! It was at the church and we gave him a tour of it and committed him to a date to be dunked on April 12! But he couldn't come to church cause he was in South Carolina seeing his daughter...( not satan, good reason) but were excited for him. We got to show him the baptismal font and he got really excited! And with one of our investigators, Evaline Boykin, she is on date for the 29th of March and she really wants to be baptized. We are now just working with her and her boyfriend,  getting them married and getting the details for that! So hopefully we can get her married and baptized before the end of the month!! So lots of great things happening and I feel like there is not enough time in the world to do it all I love it!! We found 12 new gators this week so it was another awesome week of finding we know that because we have increased our faith and we are finding so many more people that all these other miracles are coming about!! I love this church and I know its true without a shadow of doubt and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else"

March 24, 2014....

"So once again it was an amazing week. I'll tell you what, if you're obedient and you learn how to really plan. miracles are like magnets! And yes, transfers are this week and the results are....... I'm staying!!! with elder J so I'm stoked. I asked President personally if we could stay together for at least another transfer so we can baptize these people so I'm happy! A lot of great things are happening. and I wish I was there to see all the mission calls. I can't believe its been more than a year since I've had my call. I mean in like 3 months I hit my year mark... sucks! I can't believe how fast its going.

This week was amazing. We worked very hard and found some amazing people. We as a mission have been doing these summits each week to help us clamp down and to push us and the first summit was to have every companionship have someone on date to be baptized or to double baptismal dates and as a mission hit 300 people on date, and we hit that!! We got 337!. The second week we wanted to have 300 people at church and we only got 150 but this past week got 190 investigators which is a huge jump! And this week we as a mission wanted every companionship to hit 10 member present lessons! Now that might not seem like a lot but to our mission, and most areas, that is very hard! We here usually average 5. so we had to work hard to make sure it happened and as a mission we wanted to get 1000 member present lessons! And we did it!! We got 10, and each in the district got 10!! And I was so proud of them for that cause its hard in our areas. And as a mission we got 1057!! We demolished our old high of 773!! So its amazing to see that if you have a high vision and you go for it, the Lord will bless you if you're obedient and just work your but off!! This week again we found a lot of new investigators! 15! And as a district they have caught the fire as well and total our district found 42 new gators!! Its amazing how we are finding so many families!! I'm just happy I get to be here and with Elder J for another transfer!!  But crazy cool miracle that happened last Sunday, our bishop called us and said a lady called him and said there was a baby that he wanted us to go give a blessing to but she was in Atlanta. So we got a hold of those elders and got them to do it. The lady that called was a member but the family of the baby is not. But after, we thought nothing of it and forgot about it. Now on Wednesday, we were out finding and we went to a street that I've been wanting to go to for about 3 weeks but we never could get there. But we were there this day and we went to the end of the street and the very first house we knocked on the lady answered the door and said "oh hi, are you the missionaries that went and prayed for my baby!!?" And we were like huh?? And then it finally clicked and we were shocked!! But we started freaking out and telling her the situation and that we had no idea where they lived and this was just coincidence!! But she said, "my husband will be home in an hour and I'm sure he'd love to talk with you too".  So we went back and taught this amazing family of 6 and just testified how this church is for them and its what they need, but the baby is doing a lot better I hear but we are going back tomorrow to teach them again. But its just amazing to see how the Lord puts people in our paths for the right reason and I was just amazed.  The next house we knocked on was a super 18 year less active who we didn't even have her records and hopefully we can bring her back into activity! But they're way to many stories to tell but don't worry mom I am writing them in my journal!:) But it was a great week and I just know its because of our obedience and by just hitting the pavement hard and knocking on a million doors!! Its all worth it!"

The Zone

They really do like each other

March 31, 2014....

" This week has been a wild one for sure! The work went great, it was a little slower but a lot of great things still happened. After this week we only have 2 people on date cause 2 of the people that were on date didn't come to church. But we did have the other two who are on date come and crazy story about that. While they were at church their car got towed away!!!! It was the weirdest thing cause after the 3 hours she was freaking out cause she thought it got stolen and she found out they did it cause they said she didn't make a payment, but she has the reciept that she did so it was wild and kinda funny. But it goes to show that even though we get them to church Satan is still gonna try and distract them from the spirit cause she said she loved the service then that kinda hurt everything but shes still good. Evaline Boykin, a lady we found last Christmas eve. and her boyfriend are the other ones on date. The bright family is great. We went and taught them with a member and turns out that the member knew his grandma because she was a member and the member actually taught the husband of the Bright family when he was younger!! Crazy, but they are awesome and we were supposed to see them last night again but they didn't make it back from the babies doctors appointment in time so we'll see them probably tomorrow.  But the BIG NEWS is the we got put on BIKES!!! In this huge area we got our cute bikes and just strolling on these Georgia hills and my legs are gonna get huge! On Wednesday, we got a call from the AP's saying that because of the influx of sister missionaries,  Pres. Harding doesn't want them on bikes so they took like 5 sets of elders cars and we were one of the lucky 5! So hopefully we can get the ward more involved now and get them coming out with us more. We've been averaging 20 or more miles a day for the past 3 days so its been a blast! My butt and my legs are super sore! But I'm losing weight so its good:) but I'm so stoked for conference!!!!! A missionary's favorite weekend!

Elders.....Lovin' their new bikes!

 

 

"Bits & Pieces" from February 2014

February 3........
"yes a lot of stuff happened this week it was just a crazy weird week that I felt like I never got a handle on and then all of a sudden it was Sunday. It went by so fast!! but it was a good week. Ya the snow was a blast. On Tuesday was the first day it came and when we found out we were at a place about 2 miles from our house and it took us about an hour and a half to get home! It was nuts! All the streets were parking lots and it was horrible and it was like that all across the state! Its because all of the businesses saw snow and told all their employees to go home at the same time! And then of course people here in Georgia don't know how to drive in it so a lot of cars were crashing and it was just a mess. I guess on 285 the highway that circles the city of Atlanta there was about 2000 cars stranded and people in there cars for about 2 days!! They had lots of people helping and stuff. It was just hard cause the next day on Wednesday everything was ice and no one here can drive on ice. But it was fun on Tuesday, we went to the Mounts and called some of our investigators and stuff then played with them in the snow. Then on Wednesday we worked pretty hard. I didn't want to stay in the apartment so we went and just walked everywhere to see if we could help anybody. We got to help a few cars get out of places but not to much missionary work came out of it. But it was fun, we walked to Walmart and then to two of our investigators houses. Overall I think we walked about 10 miles it was fun. But ya,  3 inches of snow here makes everybody go crazy! The sister missionaries in our ward were down in Carrollton cause we had our district meeting that day and they got stuck here. They live in Villa Rica which is about 14 miles north and the ZLs and I didnt want them to drive home so they were at a members house in Carrollton for 2 days! So it was lots of fun. But on Monday we actually had a member call us and said he had somebody he wanted us to teach and they would be playing ball that night at the church and it was cool cause there was like 20 young black guys in the church playing street ball it was way fun but this guys name is Lamont Johnson awesome guy he is probably 40 or so and very nice. Talked to him a little bit there, and invited him to church and he came so that was great and after we taught him about the book of mormon and he loved it and said if I believe in Jesus I should obviously believe in this and so hopefully he works out great. He has a wife and 3 kids! we had a good turn out to church we had 4 of our investigators come so that was really good Tyrus Matt and Evaline and about the baptism, Evaline was on date for the 1st but we found out she wasn't married to her boyfriend and so we had to drop the date and we are figuring things out with that. Thursday was a great day because I got to go up to Buchanan and interview one of their investigators to be baptized! A 10 yr old girl named Alexis! I love that part of being a district leader, going and getting to interview people is way fun! And on Saturday that one less active that we brought back, Melanie Parker, she invited us for dinner and we got to meet and talk with her mom and boyfriend who arent members so that was great, very nice people. And yesterday we went to our bishops house for lunch and we had an awesome meeting with our bishop and created a game plan on how we are going to get the work going here in Carrollton.

February 10.....

"We had a good week with getting referrals and seeing them. We got a media referral and the reason he did it is one of his friends died and he felt he needed to get a relationship with God but we had an awesome first lesson with him and he said he'd get baptized!! And we had a lot of other good successes with at least seeing people this week. Nobody came to church... but that's okay. One of our gators, Tyrus had a lesson with some members and he said that he believes in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but he just doesn't want to give up drinking and smoking even though he doesn't do them a lot. He doesn;t think its bad so we are just working with getting him to realize if Joseph Smith was a prophet and told us to not do it that we shouldn't do it. And guess what I tried last night!.... chitlens!!! oh they were horrible.  They tasted just like they smelt. But they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. I had them boiled. But that's pretty much my week, nothing too crazy happened.  We did have a zone training meeting on Tuesday. You might have seen some pictures of that on Facebook. and on Thursday I had the opportunity to interview a family of 3 for baptism! They are in the Buchanan area! And everything was a success for the baptism and confirmation so that was great. But that was my week"

Elder Anderson's District

February 17......
"This week has been a roller coaster for sure. We had exchanges a day early because of the storm and my new companion is .... Elder Jensen! I'm so excited. I love Elder Jensen! He's so freakin funny. I knew him because he was an office elder before and I got to talk with him then but its been a fun week with him so far and we've been working hard to try to boost up our pool of investigators, but yes the storm was no fun. Ice was everywhere!!! and A LOT of trees were tumbling down and it would sound a shot gun went off. But it was fun, we had to stay in the apt all day on Wednsday and half the day on Thursday, but we didn't go without power. Our apt is very nice so it wasn't too bad. It sucked being cooped in there all day, but it was kind of nice to relax I needed it cause from about Tuesday night last week till yesterday I have been sick with a cold.... I hate being sick its no fun especially as a missionary but I didn't let it slow me down. We still did all the normal stuff we'd usually do.  S,o Elder Jensen has been out about 14 months! and we is just a funny kid he has the biggest sense of dry humor and I love it! You would think he is socially awkward but that's why I love him. He's open with me so its all good but he is real good at basketball. We played yesterday and had fun. But we did have a cool experience this week, we knocked on a lot of doors this week and didn't find to much success but we went into a coffee shop in the middle of Carrollton to get some hot cocoa and while we were drinking it Elder Jensen got a tap on a shoulder from this guy and he said can we hang out with you? haha so of course we said yes and him and his wife came and sat with us. They are a younger couple, mid 20s and they are the trendy hipster type. But so amazing and prepared. They were asking us a lot of questions. They knew we were mormons, but they wanted to know how our missionary work worked and what we believed and how we are different than everyone else.  We had an hour discussion with them then they invited us to a bible study that they have with a group of friends on Sunday night! So we went and studied Acts 8:1-8. Iit was very cool to see what other people do but they are excited to learn more. We are going to their house tomorrow to teach them so we are pumped about that. But it shows you how the Lord puts people in our paths even if we are not the ones to start the conversation."

Elders Anderson & Jensen

 

 

 

February 24...... 

"This week was good. We had a lot of lessons with our investigators and found some new ones as well, one of which is named Darrell and he was so prepared. He knows a lot about the church already and has been a few times but was very excited we knocked on the door and when we were teaching him he said out of any church in the world that is living the most Christlike, and seems the most true, its the LDS church! He accepted a date to be baptized on the 15th! so we are excited for him and as far as the couple we met last week we did go teach them again and it was a weird experience. Surprisingly they knew way too much about the church. About all of our deep doctrine and things like that and so we had a long conversation about it and how we've come to know its true obviously from the book of mormon and they are struggling with coming to get an answer from just praying. They like to have evidence and things like that and they feel like all the deep doctrine that comes from revelation doesn't agree with the bible. which it does, they are just blinded. But we are going to see them again either this week or next. But another one of our investigators has been doing  a lot of research on Joseph Smith and finding things on him and its super annoying when they do that and find some anti literature and get caught up on some stupid thing then they wont read the book of mormon until we resolve her concerns. She came at us with 16 pages of notes with dates, testimonies, books of things about Joseph Smith, but the good thing with her is she has felt the spirit when we have taught her and she wants the church to be true she just needs to stop doing her own research and finding crap on the internet and we have told her many times to stop. So its been a fun week with of a lot of anti stuff and many crazy conversations but it just strengthens my faith more when they happen cause there is nothing someone could ever say that would shake my faith! And its sad to see all these crazy things that people come up with. But it was a fun week,  and I'll definitely keep praying for you cause I still cant believe Kody is gonna be married soon but I love you so much and I  hope you have a great week!
 

"Bits & Pieces" from January 2014

January 6, 2014.....
 
"this week was a great week it was kind of hard to get into houses cause people are still out of town and ya we have the flu sickness here sooo many people are sick its crazy. but we did have some success this week . We didn't get to see Gabby cause she was out of town a lot. but we did see Travis Boykin with a member and that went very well. We read a chapter out of the book of Mormon 3 Nephi 11 and he loved it he is seeing a lot of changes in his life since we have met and hes loving it. We are gonna go to rehab with him on Tursdays to help him with that so we are excited about him and then we got a new investigator this week named Evaline Boykin. She is about 50 and the blackest lady ever. Shes so funny, but we had a great 1st lesson with her and committed her to be baptized on Feb. 1! oh and on the 3rd was my official 6 month mark so I had fun and got to burn a tie! We also have another investigator named Tyrus that's awesome. He is such a funny guy and he loves to feed us. which is also very bad. He fed us a huge southern meal on New Years Eve with everything southern you can think of,  fried chicken collard greens potatoes mac n cheese  dressing(stuffing) gravy biscuits cornbread black eyed peas lima beans!! It was crazy and everything was homemade and it was soooo good!! Gosh I felt like I gained 10 lbs though haha. Then I had the same kind of meal at a members house the next day cause I guess its a southern tradition to have collard greens black eyed peas and that stuff on new years. Oh and I do like collard greens! but only if they are cooked right cause I've had them 3 times this week and one time they were so nasty but, then on Saturday. Tyrus took us out to breakfast to Ryans which is just like golden corral and we ate there! ha its cause everybody knows him there he goes there all the time! Later that day he took us to one of his friends house cause he told us if we really want to see a true southern crazy house we had to meet these people and oh how right he was! haha I think these people were more southern than the duck dynasty people no joke their house was a disaster, So messy, trash everywhere in the yard and stuff and it was gross but that's not even the worst part this place was a zoo!! In there small house they have 12 dogs, 12 cats, 6 birds, 3 cows, 3-600 pound pigs outside! and a peacock and deer living in the basement!!!!!! It was insane hahahah It was so funny and they were sooooo redneck like you couldn't understand a word coming out of their mouth and just swearing all the time it was hilarious. I was loving my life. When we first got there they were like do you wanna see our guns and they took out their 12 gauge shotgun their  22-250's, double barrell shotguns there rifles and they were shooting them in the back yard, all of them!! hahah it was so awesome the double barrel was sick cause it was an older one and so loud but ya that was my adventerous Saturday! I bet you are loving this long letter right now, holy crap I feel like I've been writing forever.  Anyways so on Sunday we didn;t have any investigators there but the sisters had 2 there and they were both black ladies. but the cool thing was it being fast and testimony meeting they both got up and bore there testimonies!! it was so cool. So the first one was amazing cause shes a younger girl and has gone through a lot. She lost her baby and stuff and just said that Jesus has been protecting her and teaching her a lesson and then the second one is an older black lady and man was I having a blast when she was speaking!! it was like we were in a baptist church and she was just preaching away saying thank you Lord Jesus at the top of her lungs and praising Jesus and saying halealujah!! hahaha it was awesome she spoke for like 10 min  and the ward was loving it it was great. but that was my week!"

6 month celebration!

Welcome to the ZOO!

January 13, 2014.....

"not too much went on this week except for zone conference which is always good we had a lot of good workshops and stuff where we learned some great stuff and the temple of course is always amazing and whenever we get the opportunity to go its great that's one thing i hope I can maintain when I get home I would love to go to the temple at least once a week. But we'll see how that goes and speaking of temples how is doing dads side of the family work going?? But ya not to much happened this week. As far as Gabby goes no she didn't make it to church cause she had to take her son to the hospital cause he has the flu but on friday we had like a heart to heart with her and she just is ready and she told us that she needs to know for sure that this church is true and that it needs to resinate with her. She feels like its just to rote and robotic kind of and she's still having a hard time with Joseph Smith but she is still reading and we haven't and wont officially dropped her but we will be focusing our efforts more on other people. But one of our investigators Evaline Boykin a 50 yr old black lady who is on date for Feb. 1 came to church! So that was great she stayed for all 3 hours and she enjoyed it. she was tired afterward though haha it was funny but what was cool is Melanie Parker. that less active I told you about last week came to church again this week!! and a family named the Kincades came to church and we have been working with them since I got here and they haven't been to church in about 7 months and they came and like 6 other less actives came! it was awesome.  It was the biggest turnout I've seen on my mission we had 224 people in sacrament! It was awesome. So that was the best part of the week for me. but we are starting to get more and more trust in the ward and getting a lot more referrals from them which is great! It was a pretty slow week nobody really wanted to talk with us and we got shut down a lot but its all good being here in Georgia its getting fun to see who can get shut down the worst! haha It's sad but true but as far as mission wide we are progressing very well with finding and baptizing so its awesome to see and ya I think I will be that elder that goes to all the bad wards and tries to pick them back up. Things are starting to get better. as far as less actives. things are going great we are having quite a bit of success with that. We had about 7 less actives that we work with that came to church this week and the sisters had 5 but that has been one of our huge focuses here I have found so much joy in bringing people back into the fold. More than my investigators coming back to church its weird but great! And we found 3 super super lost sheep this week and they were all nice. One let come in and he made us pancakes and we talked for like an hour and a half and he was so cool but all of them kinda are set in there ways and don/t want to come back yet but they all said we could come back. but thats been my week."

January 20, 2014.... 

"It was a pretty slow week nobody really wanted to talk with us and we got shut down a lot but its all good being here in Georgia. Its getting fun to see who can get shut down the worst! haha its sad but true. But as far as mission wide we are progressing very well with finding and baptizing so its awesome to see and ya I think I will be that elder that goes to all the bad wards and tries to pick them back up. things are starting to get better, as far as less actives things are going great  We are having quite a bit of success with that. We had about 7 less actives that we work with that came to church this week and the sisters had 5 but that has been one of our huge focuses here.  I have found so much joy in bringing people back into the fold. More than my investigators coming back to church. Its weird but great! and we found 3 super super lost sheep this week and they were all nice one let come in and he made us pancakes and we talked for like an hour and a half and he was so cool but all of them kinda are set in there ways and dont want to come back yet but they all said we could come back. but thats been my week."

January 27, 2014....

yes its great to be accountable for things. This world would be a lot nicer if more people would try and be accountable for their actions to Heavenly Father. But I'm glad to hear everything is going good back home with jobs and stuff like that I never realized how much of a blessing it can be to go through hard times and being able to push through things and come out for the better! I think tha'ts why doctrine and covenants sections 121 and 122 is like my favorite passage of scripture! But a member in my last ward said a quote that I loved and I shared it with dad once but its " a set back is just a set up for a comeback!" I loved it. But this week was pretty good. It went by so fast I felt like I couldn't get a handle of it before it started. But it was good for some reason. I just feel like we have hit a wall and we're trying to push through it or climb over it right now, but its all good! I feel like I have learned and still learning so much. On wed we had a lady that wanted to sit down and ask us some questions. It turned out being like a 2 hour Q and A of her trying to ask all these questions and it was crazy cause I was just coming back with these answers that I didnt even knew that I had! And it was awesome to see the spirit work through me and answer the questions and for her to accept them all, then to accept to read the book of mormon! And on Sunday we had a big general stake conference. It involved all the stakes in Georgia, Florida and part of South Carolina and had a satelite broadcast and it was great! We got hear from Elder Gay and Elder Kipiskche from the 70, Sister Carole F McConkie and Russel M Nelson!! So that was awesome, the highlight of my week! But something cool just happend. A  lady came up to us and started talking to us saying she knew who we were and shes met with us before and she wants to talk to us after we are done emailing to talk about how we can help some people out that she knows! a pretty cool miracle I think! but thats what has happened this week!

"Bits & Pieces" from December 2013....

December 2, 2013....
" This week has been a lot better. We got one of our investigators on date for December 14! her name is Gabby and shes been investigating since September. but shes awesome she is just trying to get a testimony of Joseph Smith right now. so hopefully things work out with her. and Thanksgiving was awesome we had dinner at the Mounts house and got stuffed they had so much food a lot of their family was there that's in the ward so it was good. I don't know if you got the pictures or not but bro Mount sent you and dad a pic of me eating! and then we went to another family for pie so it was great. I'm just trying to meet everyone in the war.  I'm excited though cause I got put into a district that was struggling somewhat. and its pretty small just us the Buchanan elders and the Carrollton sisters. Oh and a senior couple is in my district but that's it. So I'm just trying to get people excited about the work and last week we had 0 people on date for baptism and now we have 4!! Its awesome. The Carrollton sisters found a family of 3! and they are on date for the 29th. but something cool about one of the sisters, her name is sister Bui. She is the very first Vietnamese sister to serve in the United States. I thought that was pretty cool. her english is alright ha but shes already been out 17 month so she'll be home next transfer. and ya it was freezing last week ha we got a little snow which was cool but I bought the 2 sweaters and I have a jacket. so I've been fine staying warm. But here's the best news I saved it for last  DAVID SALAZAR GOT BAPTIZED!!!! and i got to go back to be there!!! it was so awesome and get this,  he got baptized on his birthday isn't that so cool. I'm so happy for him. Its amazing to see the change in him since, we first tracted into him. Going from not knowing if there was a God to now here him talk about wanting to serve a mission it is so cool! i was so happy that president let me go back for that. and I got to talk with Isiah (that little black kid) and he said he wants to get baptized soon too! but it was a great weekend to go back for that and his mom Carmen is close to getting baptized and how cool will it be when David baptizes his mom! so cool. Well I love you so much and I miss you lots I hope y'all have a great week!"

 

December 9,  2013.... 

"I love going to the temple so much! You get to just think about life and where things need to be and its good to be able to clear out all the bad in your mind and think of only the good that comes from living the gospel. I have been thinking about that a lot lately, the eternal perspective of things and when you look at things like that your mind and focus changes so much and I feel like it always goes back to the family. That is one of Heavenly Fathers greatest gifts to us is the family and I think I took advantage of that or just didn't realize the major importance of the family till I came on my mission. and I cant wait to start my own family and make sure I'm always living worthy of my priesthood. It sounds Mormony but its true. haha its weird to watch things come out of my head but its awesome and a great change. All the little things in life that we think matter so much don't matter at all when you look at them at an eternal perspective. But I want to thank you and dad so much for how you raised us. I know sometimes it might not have been the easiest and it seemed like you failed but you didn't. You did exactly what Joseph Smith said to do and its exactly how I hope I can teach my kids. "teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves." you taught me how I should live and you left it up to me and you know sometimes I screwed up more than probably should have. But I learned and I have grown through those mistakes and trials that I went through so thank you so much for not tying me on a leash and letting me govern myself cause I learned what I should and should not be doing. and obviously y'all did something right because you got me and Kody to come out on mission and change our lives even more. So, thank you. but this week was a good week went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders elder Schenk he's from Cali and is a convert of like 4 years and he's awesome he's so funny and a good friend of elder Romero so I already knew him but it was good to learn more from him and then I got to go to my first mission council which was great learned a lot there and it was good to be able to put my input on things! But we got 3 new investigators this week and we currently have 2 people on date Gabby Dominguez and Tim Jones so if you could pray for them that would be awesome! The ward is great we are finally getting them to open up to us and invite us into there homes so we can try to get referrals from them. so the work is moving along slowly but surely!"

December 16. 2013....

"Zone training meeting was really good it was more of a relaxed meeting because of Christmas time with a lot of singing and stuff so it was good and in the powder springs zone mine was on Friday if that helps for looking for pictures. But its fun being a leader at those meeting and to be involved more and help out President more. It puts more on your shoulders to make sure you're always doing the right thing and showing that bringing miracles is possible but its good cause it pushes me more. Gabby is doing great she is reading more and asking questions she couldn't come to church this week cause her whole family is sick. but shes progressing well and were starting to teach her daughter Maya as well shes 11. Tim has been caught up with work all week so we haven't been able to see him all week so hopefully we see him this week. and ya our ward is having their Christmas party on Wedensday!! We are excited for that. We also had some cool miracles this week we had a referral from the President of a branch in Buchanan and it turned out to be an amazing family! They have 2 girls one is 9 and the other 6 but they are amazing and open to learning more so we are excited for them there names are Ron and Jenna Jordan and the girls are Sydnie and Olivia. Also on Friday when we were trying to see someone else a guy yelled at us to come talk to them from across the street and he was just like I need y'alls help I can see your church people and I'm addicted to lots of drugs and alcohol and I know you can help me! It was amazing to be able to testify to him about the atonement and the church. His name is Travis Boykin. so overall it was a great week and we found 8 new investigators! But I love you and miss you and cant wait for Christmas!!"

December 30, 2013.....

" as for all the new investigators we were able to get a hold of most of them on the phone again but haven't been able to see any of them or really anybody this week because of the holidays and because of sickness pretty much everybody has been to busy to see us and they always say can we see you after the holidays... and there's been a flu that's been going around a lot here so a bunch of people are sick. so its been near impossible to get into houses but other than that its been great! Thursday was awesome because of the interviews. Everything went great with that. It was a family of 4, the dad George and his 3 kids Shyquay, Alasia, and Aquarius! It was awesome to here the changes George has made in his life and how excited and ready they all were to be baptized! and everything went great and smooth over the weekend and they were baptized and confirmed. But it was a great first experience. As for gabby, she is still set for the 18th! We are trying to find ways to involve her family more cause that's what she really wants. But she is progressing well. Shes out of town right now but will be back on Friday. But it has been an amazing month for the mission. We set a new record for baptisms in a month 68! We had 23 this week and 23 last week! which is incredible for this mission and we were 4 off from 500 for the whole year! which doubled the number of baptisms of 2012! so we are excited to see what 2014 has to bring.