Sunday, May 23, 2010

New area--Goldsboro, NC

May 10—

It was great to talk to you yesterday! I will say that I do feel really, really good. Here's an excerpt from my LTP.

"This week was pretty good. It was great to have the "Doctrine of Christ" and kneeling in prayer with our investigators reinforced by that zone conference. We applied them to our work this week and set two additional baptismal dates. Bro. M, Bro. W, and Bro. R are all currently committed to be baptized. We are cautiously optimistic about them, and hope to see them repent, keep commitments, and get on the path that leads to eternal life. We spent some time finding and getting QGCs, we can improve on it though. This week we're going to have more of an emphasis on finding, we hope to ultimately average 70 QGCs a week. I, like Elder Rhodes, am starting to feel like a real missionary. I feel like I actually really can find, teach, and baptize. We are going to have miracles here in Goldsboro!!!"

So yeah, I am loving my new area and companion. I can really see the Lord blessing this area to be fruitful in the next little while.

Unfortunately, I doubt I will see Bro. Card. He lives in Greensboro, which is just outside of our mission. It was close though! Greensboro, Goldsboro, almost the same thing. There's also Hillsborough, Roxboro, Tarboro, Ashboro, and a few other -boros here in NC. Don't know why but I guess it works.

I don't really have a lot to say, seeing as I talked to you yesterday, but I do love you all. Elder Hafen [from St. George] and I will try not to mess up on anything we do [a reference to Will Matheson’s prayer], no guarantees though. Did you realize that the basketball team that makes the most mistakes in a game usually wins? The ones that try harder tend to make more mistakes. Mull that one over for a while.

I love you! Talk to you next week!

May 17—

"Right now we have 4 baptismal dates. They are with Bro. M, Bro. R, Bro. W, and Sis. M. Bro. M is pretty accepting, but he has some health challenges. He didn't come to church yesterday because he was in the hospital due to his asthma. Bro. R understands that his baptism wasn't valid and wants to get baptized, but I don't think he understands the commitment involved quite yet. So we're working on it, he did not come to church but hopefully he will be there next week. Sis. M was at church yesterday and stayed for the whole 3 hours even though she was feeling sick. She has been investigating the church for a long time. Bro. W was at church yesterday for the first time. It was all pretty new to him but I think he liked it. I'm pretty sure he will get baptized on the day that he has set. We've also been working with Bro. D. He's an active nonmember, he just needs to get baptized! He says he has a couple of issues with the Doctrine and Covenants and where God's God is, but I'm sure that's not what is really holding him back. We prayed with him, he didn't get an answer. Any suggestions? Anyways, we had a good week."

We've got a lot going on right now and we're staying pretty busy. Elder Hafen is a great companion, I've really enjoyed working with him and getting to know him thus far. It's been fun! I like the ward here. There is an Air Force Base in our area (Seymour Johnson AFB), so there's a lot of military. They're not as involved as we would like but we're working on it. Last night I was talking to someone in the Goldsboro 1st ward at a meeting - Bro. Rex Howard. His greenie area on his mission was covering Basin City, Connell, Columbia Basin, and Burbank. Crazy! He doesn't remember anybody from it though. He mentioned Brandon Mackay being about 5 years old when he was there. Oh yeah, he used to live in the 1st ward too, apparently. What a coincidence.

It's really sad to hear about Corey [Corey Cook, a kid who lived in Connell and played football with Will. We heard he was killed in some kind of an accident involving drinking]. Jarom sent me the address he had for him here in NC (in Hope Mills). When I was in Dunn we got to go on an exchange there and we tracked down the address. We stopped by there, and apparently the family he was living with had moved out a month or two before and he had gone with them. He said that they had moved to Elizabethtown, NC. So if there's a news article about it, it will probably be in either an Elizabethtown or a Lumberton newspaper. Sad, sad, sad.

I'm glad to hear you've had some good weeks selling, Dad. That would be awesome if Costco picked up the Tire Squire!

I'm coming to realize more and more the importance of diligence. If things need to be done, now is the time to do them. Sitting around being a lazy bum doesn't do anything for you, it just makes you fall behind in life. And I'm working on the exercise thing! I did exercise on Tuesday morning like I promised I would. We've got a pretty sweet deal here - there's a YMCA not too far away from where we live and we get in free because we're ministers. How cool is that!?

Well, that's about all I've got. I love you all and am really enjoying it here in Goldsboro. Until next week!

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