Wednesday, February 22, 2012

aaaaayyyyyy (Italian new yorker :),

What a celestial weekend. Seeing Jason Rogerson being baptized was the only thing that could have topped his marriage to Tracy Sansone the day before. They have become close friends with me over the last three months.  On Sunday I was able to do the Confirmation for Jason. When I finished it seemed everyone was in tears. Those precious moments are the reasons I am here. I have been In front of hundreds of people confidently a lot of crazy things, including being in underwear at one point for a stage production. For some reason, the weight or I should say the reverence of ordinances like this, bring me more anxiety than all of that. :) I prayed that I would be calm and in tune with the spirit, and the words seemed to flow without hesitation. In heavy contrast to Sunday, on Monday we went to Pep Boys Auto for a simple oil change. Six hours later we finally drove away. Apparently there was some alignment issues or something. :( Yesterday was had an awesome service opportunity. We "sodded" a baseball field for the community! Our entire zone took the grass at the old Sixty Sixers field (local semi pro baseball team) and we brought it to a field at a park in San Bernardino, which was in really bad shape. Once that grass takes root it will look beautiful. while we were there a girl was crossing the street and she was hit by a car. She survived and we found out this morning that she is with her family now. She definitely had many missionaries saying prayers in there hearts for her throughout the day. I have a new companion! I can't forget to mention that. His name is Elder Hales and he is from Arizona. He has been out for three months, which means I am his "follow up trainer." That puts a lot of the load on me as far as keeping the work going is concerned, but I am ready for this.I hope to make this a chance to "yield much fruit" in this part of "The LordsVinyard." :) Elder Hales is different than any comp I have had. It will be a "growing" experience for sure. Dallon is home and It feels as though I have begun. :) just a year and half left and I'll get to see my cousin. Which is ironically the amount of time our ages differ. I wonder if this is what it was like waiting to get to earth in the pre-earth life when he left. :) Well, I could go on for much longer but I must say goodbye. Thank all of you for the never ending support I have received.






Monday, February 13, 2012

........ Sup..

So It's official. I have been a missionary for half a year!! I hit the six month mark! Now all I have to do it do what I just did three more times. If I could replicate my last six months a few times I will have had a very successful mission. Not more than twenty minutes ago I gave my last comp. Elder Brown a hug goodbye. In less that twenty four hours he will just be known as Ethan. :) there were a lot of great missionaries going home this transfer, including a roommate I had in Hesperia Elder McFarland. He has been one of my favorite missionaries I have met. So Elder Brown going home means that I will have a new victim. I will get my new companion tomorrow at about 9:30. The poor fellow has no Idea that he is being shipped to a snowy mountain to be alone with me for hours on end. :) I really hope we get along and I hope he is ready to work. We have some amazing things happening in our area at the time being. This Saturday We have a baptism! I am very excited for that. Tomorrow we will be putting together a program for it. His name is Jason Rogerson. He has been the most golden investigator I have taught thus far. He will be such a strong member in the church, which is something that is hard to say for a lot of people in the San B area. Along with that we have a few other investigators making some great progress, like quiting smoking for instance. Last week I mentioned that we started teaching a lady with a lot of big questions for us. We met with her twice and both times the lesson lasted more that two hours! Elder Brown said that she pushed him to the very edge of his gospel knowledge. She has a long way to go but I feel that she is a sincere seeker of truth. That being the case she will find out that these things are true by the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm alive, I'm happy, and I'm a Mormon.




Monday, February 6, 2012

HEY Y'ALL,

What a Heaven of a week! We had a great lesson with one of our investigators Alex Lundgren. He has had missionaries talking to him on and off for the last ten years! We decided it was time to get bold, so we read 2 Nephi 31 with him and he is currently praying to find out when to be baptized! Granted this exciting news is not yet set in stone, but it is more progress than we have seen with him since we have been here. In other missionary news we had a family of new investigators fall on our laps yesterday.  In ward council we were informed that a mother and her kids who have been attending Calvary Chapel and has apparently been to Bible College. She now wants to give the Mormons a try. :) She apparently used to go with her mom or something when she was young. We have an appointment with her tomorrow, and She has warned us that she has some big theological questions for us that she thinks we can't answer. I'm pretty sure we'll be fine answering her questions but just to be safe... pray for us. :)  This is my last week were I can use Elder Browns two years of experience in dealing with every missionary situation conceivable. :) I'll let you know how that goes. This month is going to be a good one. I'll have the chance to see baptisms and a lot of progress with others that we are teaching. This Running Springs place is growing on me. I hope my next comp doesn't make things go downhill. Well no funny stories to report this week. The work goes on. Thank you so much for the letters etc. I have a lot of people to reply and not much time, so bare with me.