Hey everyone,
Hope things are going well for you. This past week was very good. We have a lot going on and taught a lot. Our investigators aren't progressing as well as we would like, but missionary work has been very enjoyable.
"Unfortunately we were not able to meet with a few of our investigators. Sis. M got sick last Sunday, and that's why they weren't at church last Sunday. We weren't able to meet with them this week because she was still sick. But we have an appointment for this week, so it should be good. He didn't come to church yesterday, I guess they got home really late from somewhere the night before. C never returned our phone calls, he's been pretty busy. We stopped by his house and spoke with his grandma, and were able to set an appointment for this week (finally). He wasn't at church either. We haven't been able to get up with B yet, and he wasn't at church either. We had an appointment to see C, but someone had had some vehicle trouble or something and he wasn't able to make it. We'll set another one with him though. L and C haven't returned our calls. We'll try getting up with them again this week, and if we can't then we're going to drop them.
S is doing very well. He's been making changes in his life. He's trying to quit smoking again. He told his girlfriend that he's not going to marry outside of his new faith, so if she wants to think about marrying him she's going to have to become a member too. He had some things going on, but he went to the Goldsboro 1st ward sacrament meeting. He's progressing well, I think he will be ready for his baptismal date on Sept. 4th.
Z is in a tough situation. We went over there and he told us about how he prayed and received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. He likes church and would go every week, but his family holds him back. In addition, his mother doesn't want to set a baptismal date because she doesn't think he's prepared. He wasn't at church again. He really is a smart kid, but he's just held back by others. It's hard to watch.
We had a good visit with E this week. We taught him about the Spirit World and the Resurrection. We also explained how to recognize an answer from the Holy Ghost. He told us that he was going to be out of town this weekend and wouldn't be at church. He's progressing pretty well, we have an appointment with him tonight where we'll try to feel out what his needs are a little better.
We had a really good lesson with Sis. M on Friday. We taught her about God as our loving Heavenly Father and about prayer. She committed to pray daily. She's not used to it at all, she grew up Orthodox and the only prayers she ever gave were recited. They were supposed to be at church but weren't! It was disappointing.
We also went and taught Sis. A. We mainly focused on how the gospel can bless families. She is pretty open and wants to be united on religion. She wasn't at church this week, but hopefully she will commit to come next week with her husband.
We also started teaching I, the brother of Bro. W. He is a very good man. He has come to recognize the vanity in churches and said that he would be baptized if he came to know that it was true. He wasn't at church either."
Holy smokes Dad, you will not believe what just happened. A member from Charlotte is visiting one of the members in our ward and he stopped in here at the Family History Library where I'm e-mailing. I had a very nice conversation with him. His name is Terry Cook, and he's Sherry Salisbury's cousin. He recognized me as your son, and said that I look just like you. He told me he sold you your first life insurance policy and that you should buy from him again. He asked me if you were still running the tire store. He is Corey Cook's uncle. He talked about how good of a kid Corey was, how he loved Washington, and how he had a drinking problem that held him back. He told me about how Corey loved the people - Spencer, Wes, Coach Riner, Bro. Edmonds, and others. He said that Corey had told them about me and how I was on Jeopardy. He was staying in a place called Clarkton when he died. He said that the missionaries had been to see his twin sister and his mother. He gave me their address and phone number. Maybe if I'm fortunate I can have the opportunity to see them sometime. He seemed like a really good guy, I'm glad I got to talk to him. Do we have any pictures with Corey in them? If there are any on the computer, that would be great if you could send me some.
Bro. Eppich broke his leg? Holy cow, that's pretty crazy. I hope he recovers quickly.
Say hi to Tyler. I hope he has a great senior year. I can't believe he's that old!
I can't believe Michael's going to be an elder and at school in a couple of weeks! Holy smokes, that's crazy.
Sis. Cotterell told us this week that a newspaper in Raleigh reported that this has been the hottest summer we've had in 67 years. Go figure. I haven't minded it too much actually. I guess I'm just weird. Last fall didn't do much for me, seemed like it was just a bunch of evergreen trees on the coast. Maybe I'll get to see more fall colors this autumn.
Well, that's about all I've got. I love you all very much and look forward to hearing from you again next week.
Love,
Elder Casper
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
A great (and hot) week
This week's been great, just like always!
"We got two new investigators this week, which hasn't happened for me in a little while. We taught both Z and C this week finally. Z's a pretty smart kid. His family wants him to be baptized, but also wants it to be his decision. His mother is inactive and grandma is semi-active at best, so that's an obstacle. We have a baptismal date set with him for August. We taught C, and he's a really good kid. He's turned out pretty well so far considering the circumstances he's been raised in. His grandparents and mother aren't interested in the gospel, but they're nice and they are supportive of him becoming a part of the church. He also has a baptismal date set in August. They both disappointed us by not coming to church though! We'll keep working with them and see what kept them from coming.
We had two nonmembers come to church that we were super excited to have there yesterday. The first was Sis. M. Sis. M is a really nice girl from Romania who's married to a returned missionary. She's been to church a few times but has never been taught the lessons. They only came to Gospel Principles class, but it was great to have her there. Later on we were in Elder's Quorum and Sis. Beck, our ward mission leader's wife, told us she needed us. A man had just came into the building and asked for some information about the church. My thoughts immediately turned to a similar situation that happened last week, when we ended up talking to a homeless man who wanted us to vouch for him to get money from another church. So we went and talked to this man, and fortunately it was a different person. This man knew a Mormon in Raleigh and wanted to learn about the church. We told him that another service started in an hour, and he actually went home, changed, came back, and went to sacrament meeting and Gospel Principles with us! I was blown away, something like this has never happened to me. I talked to S a little bit and got some of his background. He's of Jewish descent and used to be active in that religion, but he thinks that the Jewish religion today doesn't really go along with the Old Testament. He also said that the Jews await the coming of the Messiah to create the nation of Israel, but it already exists! He is golden. We have an appointment with him on Tuesday and I'm really excited!
We had two recent convert/less-active lessons this week. One was with Bro. W. We were able to get him a large-print triple combination so that he can start reading on his own. He's such a good man. We also taught Sis. N, a less-active member. She's been trying to quite smoking and come back to church. We had a good lesson with her about daily scripture reading and gave her a Book of Mormon to read. She made us some little desserts to eat after the lesson, which I thought was a nice little gesture. I could tell that she did that out of a spirit of service and love. I hope she continues to do well, she's had a very good spirit about her recently."
So to answer your question, the potentials we got up with were C and Z. And I'm really excited to teach Sam. And yes, it does feel like there's a lot of potential here. We did find out where the S's live and we're planning on going to see them this week. I'll report on what happens next week.
This past week has been ridiculously hot. Temperatures into the 100s, and the humidity makes it worse. But I do prefer the heat to biking around in the cold. Last winter was awful! I really don't sweat that much compared to a lot of other guys, so I'm ok with the heat.
There were a lot of things that happened this week. All of my weeks recently have been jam-packed. One of the members, Bro. Tew, took us out to lunch. It was very enjoyable, he's studied a lot on the Second Coming and I've learned a lot from him about it. I'll have to tell you more about later. On the 24th the two wards had a potluck dinner at the church, followed by a little program about the pioneers. It was pretty good, the pioneers in the Willie and Martin handcart companies sure went through a lot.
I got a nice e-mail from David. He told me that his MTC date has been moved up to August. He's going to be gone soon! Crazy! I finally wrote Andrew last week. Hopefully he can find the time to write me back, Elder Stewart told me that when he was an AP he rarely got a Preparation Day.
On Sundays, we are at church by 8 AM and don't leave until 4 PM. We don't have time for a lunch break, and we study and eat dinner right when we get home. Then we go do some work for a couple of hours, and that's our day. Super busy. Today, we are going to shoot some hoops for a little bit, shop, relax, wash the car, and do some deep cleaning. We have to get the apartment spic and span because we will be moving soon. And write a letter or two. It's just a nice day to relax and take it easy. Unfortunately, we don't meet with very many members here at all. We are very rarely invited to a home for dinner, and that's really the way that we get to know the members. We get 1 or 2 exchanges a week. Most of our time is spent doing finding through our own efforts. It hinders the work but we just try to do all that we can do and serve the ward.
Elder Tibbitts' diabetes doesn't really hinder him much. He has to check his blood all the time but it's become an art for him. He has a little pump with a catheter so that he can give himself insulin when he needs it. So it's all good.
It was really great to get that update. Good to see the pictures of baby Jett and hear about Easton and Everett. Easton sounds like a funny kid. If I was to give you any advice about sharing the gospel I would just say seek the guidance of the Spirit to tell you what to do. Bear testimony of the gospel when he asks questions, show him www.mormon.org, and if you feel prompted invite him to your home to meet with the missionaries. I agree that it can be a tricky business sharing the gospel with someone that you really want to accept it. Ultimately we just have to have faith and do all that we can do. "Boldness, but not overbearance", as the Book of Mormon says.
I am doing pretty well here. I'm enjoying the work very much, I've really learned a lot over the last couple of months. I've made a concerted effort to stay focused on the gospel, no matter what I'm doing. It's really paid off a lot and helped me out in a big way. You know how much I love the music that I listened to. It's been tough for me to give that up and not think about it or sing it to myself. But as I've pushed that out, things have been a lot better for me.
Well, I believe that's about all I've got. I love you all, and look forward to hearing from you next week.
Love,
Elder Casper
"We got two new investigators this week, which hasn't happened for me in a little while. We taught both Z and C this week finally. Z's a pretty smart kid. His family wants him to be baptized, but also wants it to be his decision. His mother is inactive and grandma is semi-active at best, so that's an obstacle. We have a baptismal date set with him for August. We taught C, and he's a really good kid. He's turned out pretty well so far considering the circumstances he's been raised in. His grandparents and mother aren't interested in the gospel, but they're nice and they are supportive of him becoming a part of the church. He also has a baptismal date set in August. They both disappointed us by not coming to church though! We'll keep working with them and see what kept them from coming.
We had two nonmembers come to church that we were super excited to have there yesterday. The first was Sis. M. Sis. M is a really nice girl from Romania who's married to a returned missionary. She's been to church a few times but has never been taught the lessons. They only came to Gospel Principles class, but it was great to have her there. Later on we were in Elder's Quorum and Sis. Beck, our ward mission leader's wife, told us she needed us. A man had just came into the building and asked for some information about the church. My thoughts immediately turned to a similar situation that happened last week, when we ended up talking to a homeless man who wanted us to vouch for him to get money from another church. So we went and talked to this man, and fortunately it was a different person. This man knew a Mormon in Raleigh and wanted to learn about the church. We told him that another service started in an hour, and he actually went home, changed, came back, and went to sacrament meeting and Gospel Principles with us! I was blown away, something like this has never happened to me. I talked to S a little bit and got some of his background. He's of Jewish descent and used to be active in that religion, but he thinks that the Jewish religion today doesn't really go along with the Old Testament. He also said that the Jews await the coming of the Messiah to create the nation of Israel, but it already exists! He is golden. We have an appointment with him on Tuesday and I'm really excited!
We had two recent convert/less-active lessons this week. One was with Bro. W. We were able to get him a large-print triple combination so that he can start reading on his own. He's such a good man. We also taught Sis. N, a less-active member. She's been trying to quite smoking and come back to church. We had a good lesson with her about daily scripture reading and gave her a Book of Mormon to read. She made us some little desserts to eat after the lesson, which I thought was a nice little gesture. I could tell that she did that out of a spirit of service and love. I hope she continues to do well, she's had a very good spirit about her recently."
So to answer your question, the potentials we got up with were C and Z. And I'm really excited to teach Sam. And yes, it does feel like there's a lot of potential here. We did find out where the S's live and we're planning on going to see them this week. I'll report on what happens next week.
This past week has been ridiculously hot. Temperatures into the 100s, and the humidity makes it worse. But I do prefer the heat to biking around in the cold. Last winter was awful! I really don't sweat that much compared to a lot of other guys, so I'm ok with the heat.
There were a lot of things that happened this week. All of my weeks recently have been jam-packed. One of the members, Bro. Tew, took us out to lunch. It was very enjoyable, he's studied a lot on the Second Coming and I've learned a lot from him about it. I'll have to tell you more about later. On the 24th the two wards had a potluck dinner at the church, followed by a little program about the pioneers. It was pretty good, the pioneers in the Willie and Martin handcart companies sure went through a lot.
I got a nice e-mail from David. He told me that his MTC date has been moved up to August. He's going to be gone soon! Crazy! I finally wrote Andrew last week. Hopefully he can find the time to write me back, Elder Stewart told me that when he was an AP he rarely got a Preparation Day.
On Sundays, we are at church by 8 AM and don't leave until 4 PM. We don't have time for a lunch break, and we study and eat dinner right when we get home. Then we go do some work for a couple of hours, and that's our day. Super busy. Today, we are going to shoot some hoops for a little bit, shop, relax, wash the car, and do some deep cleaning. We have to get the apartment spic and span because we will be moving soon. And write a letter or two. It's just a nice day to relax and take it easy. Unfortunately, we don't meet with very many members here at all. We are very rarely invited to a home for dinner, and that's really the way that we get to know the members. We get 1 or 2 exchanges a week. Most of our time is spent doing finding through our own efforts. It hinders the work but we just try to do all that we can do and serve the ward.
Elder Tibbitts' diabetes doesn't really hinder him much. He has to check his blood all the time but it's become an art for him. He has a little pump with a catheter so that he can give himself insulin when he needs it. So it's all good.
It was really great to get that update. Good to see the pictures of baby Jett and hear about Easton and Everett. Easton sounds like a funny kid. If I was to give you any advice about sharing the gospel I would just say seek the guidance of the Spirit to tell you what to do. Bear testimony of the gospel when he asks questions, show him www.mormon.org, and if you feel prompted invite him to your home to meet with the missionaries. I agree that it can be a tricky business sharing the gospel with someone that you really want to accept it. Ultimately we just have to have faith and do all that we can do. "Boldness, but not overbearance", as the Book of Mormon says.
I am doing pretty well here. I'm enjoying the work very much, I've really learned a lot over the last couple of months. I've made a concerted effort to stay focused on the gospel, no matter what I'm doing. It's really paid off a lot and helped me out in a big way. You know how much I love the music that I listened to. It's been tough for me to give that up and not think about it or sing it to myself. But as I've pushed that out, things have been a lot better for me.
Well, I believe that's about all I've got. I love you all, and look forward to hearing from you next week.
Love,
Elder Casper
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Catching Up
June 21—
It's always good to hear from you. I'm excited for this letter this week.
"This week has been fun. We've been pretty busy. On Monday we taught M. He's a really good guy, but I'm not sure if he's going to progress. I don't believe the desire for him is there. We made Sis. M a reading chart and gave it to her. She started keeping that commitment yesterday. I hope that she will faithfully keep the commitment to read every day. If she does then I believe she will get baptized. Bro. W is as solid as ever. I'm worried for him though, because he doesn't have a friendshipper. He's a lot different than everyone else, and we have no idea who would be good for him. He hasn't read yet because of vision problems, but we blew up 3 Nephi 11 and have a large-print Book of Mormon on the way for him. His prayers have improved dramatically and he is always so glad when we come over and teach him. We moved his baptismal date back a couple of weeks to July 10 so that he can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We've also got a couple of really solid referrals that we're excited about. One of the kids in the N family has a friend named C. He's come to church with them a few times (I think, I've seen him there once for sure). He's 11, and he wants to take the lessons from us. He lives with his grandparents, hopefully they will be receptive to us too. Unfortunately the N’s are moving away, which takes away his friendshipper. We're excited to teach him. We also got a call from the assistants, who got us on the phone with Elder North. Elder North told us that there's a member in his branch/ward who has a referral named E for us. M, the member, is going to drive from Raleigh to be at the lesson with us. I talked with M on the phone, he told me she is really interested and wants to go to church. So we're really excited to teach her too. Definitely plenty to do here in Goldsboro 1st/2nd."
We had a zone conference this past week that was very good. Each mission has an AMA, the Area Medical Advisor, which is more or less the mission doctor… Our AMA is Dr. Liljenquist, who covers multiple missions. He has been home from his mission in Switzerland, German-speaking for I believe exactly 50 years. Isn't that where Grandpa served his mission? … He told us a few good things. He told us that Elder Scott talked about three types of people in the church: 1. people who have a testimony and are converted; 2. people who have a testimony but are not converted; 3. people who don't have a testimony and aren't converted. #1 people are the Elders Quorum president, Relief Society president, etc. #3 people aren't active. #2 people are the ones who present a problem for the church. They are active, married in the temple, have 2 to 3 kids, are poor home teachers, either don't accept or don't magnify callings, don't study, etc. Because they aren't converted and aren't obedient, they are vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Most missionaries enter as a #2, and the mission field is the perfect place to become converted. He also told us that we go on our missions to suffer. Sounds kind of weird, but it's true and gives you some perspective. If you're working hard, there is going to be some degree of suffering involved. The natural man doesn't like to study, eat healthy, go to bed early and wake up early, exercise, and so on because there is some degree of suffering involved. If you can "suffer well", then you can do what the Lord wants you to. Zone conference was also great. We practiced listening to people and letting the Spirit direct what we say. A lot of times when we talk to/teach people, we come up with what our response is going to be while they're talking instead of truly listening to what they say. We need to stop that! So I'm working on that.
Happy Father's day, Dad! Wow, I can't believe that it's been a whole year since last Father's Day, when I spoke on faithful fathers. That was definitely a day filled with highs and lows. I can't say that I was too excited to leave on my mission at the time, but I knew what my duty was and if I wanted my life to go the way I wanted it to then it was something I had to do. I believe that this past year has been the most difficult year of my life, but it's been 100% worth it. If sacrifice is giving up something good for something better, then this past year has been my greatest sacrifice…
It seems that there are a multitude of people here that know Brandon Mackay. There's Bro. Howard of course. I told you about him before, his greenie area on his mission covered the Burbank, Columbia Basin, Connell, and Basin City wards (In about 1984, I believe). Last night we had dinner with the Storms family. Apparently Bro. Storms was his commanding officer when he first entered into the ROTC at BYU or something like that. The Storms are a great family, Bro. Storms is the second counselor in the bishopric (in the 2nd ward). I was tempted to tell them about the newspaper clippings prank (which I heard from Lance), but I decided it probably wasn't appropriate.
Oh and by the way, my companion is Elder Trent Tibbitts from Panaca, NV. I knew him for six weeks before he became my companion. It was a shock to find out we were together (he was in my district), but it's been great. He has Type I diabetes!…
And finally, it has been extremely hot and humid this past couple of weeks. I believe we're supposed to get into the 100s this week, which is going to be bad considering the humidity. It's a good thing I enjoy suffering now!
Whew, well this is the longest e-mail I have written in a long time. Don't expect too many more of these to be this long! I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week.
June 28--
Another week gone by. Thursday was the 24th, marking one year since I entered the MTC. Holy cow, I can't believe it's been that long. That's just nuts!
I've got a pretty long excerpt from my LTP this time, and it should answer some of your questions you had, Mom.
"We didn't teach a lot of lessons this week, but we had a lot happen. First, the bad things. M is no longer an investigator, he's just not willing to read and progress in the gospel right now even though he knows he needs to. We had an amazing miracle turn into a letdown with J. I was on exchange in Smithfield, and Elder Tibbitts and Elder Weichers stopped by her house. She'd committed to come to church last Sunday but didn't show, which was a disappointment. As it turns out, she was in Winston-Salem last Sunday and she went to an LDS church there for 5 hours. She loved it, she said everyone was wonderful and told her about how they used to be a Baptist/Presbyterian/etc. but had found the true church. We had a return appointment for the next day. Then she called during study and told us she couldn't see us anymore. She called her preacher last night and he told her that if she associated with the church anymore she would be kicked out of her church and wouldn't be a Sunday school teacher there anymore. It was really depressing for Elder Tibbitts (I never have actually met her). I still think there's a good chance that she'll come around though, I guess only time will tell. Sis. M is having her faith tested right now. We'll see if she's willing to make the gospel a priority in her life by doing the small things. I pray that she will exercise her agency in a righteous way. The next week or two will let us know. We should have had two new investigators this week that we weren't able to teach. We called S a couple of times to confirm the appointment with her and she never bothered to call us back. We'll stop by again and try to set up another appointment though. Then the appointment with E had to be cancelled. M, her friend who lives in Raleigh, called us and told us something had happened to her mother (I think he said that she was in the hospital or something). So the lesson with her is going to be delayed a couple of weeks. We're going to give M a call at the beginning of next week and try to set something up again.
Now, some of the good things. For whatever reason, we've been getting more referrals than I've ever got my whole mission. And they seem like they're pretty solid, too. We're going to give C a call next week so that we can start teaching him (that's when he gets back from Maryland). We've had some decent missionary work lessons with members, where we've invited them to take part in the "Faith to Invite Plan" and focus on praying for missionary opportunities. Bishop Rouse gave us a call yesterday with another great referral. The grandmother of an unbaptized 12 year old named Z wants us to teach him the lessons and get him involved with the young men. We have a dinner/lesson appointment with them tonight, we're excited to meet him and teach him. Bro. W is just doing great. He has a really hard time reading because he has something wrong with his eye and because he's not the greatest reader in the first place, but when we explain the gospel to him in a way he understands he loves it. He's always so grateful for us to come over and teach him. He wants to share the gospel with his whole family. In fact, he brought his brother I to church yesterday, and we're going to start teaching him too. Yes! I believe the 2nd ward is going to start getting more involved with the missionary work. The leaders attended the stake missionary correlation meeting and came back with some things to work on. Smithfield is the only ward in the stake that has been doing the ward mission process, and they have had 8 convert baptisms this year (6 English and 2 Spanish). As it turns out, the leadership doesn't really understand what it is, so we're going to work with them to explain it and help them get it going. We're trying to get the exchange calendar back on track, and Bro. Beck (our WML) is working on getting a new teaching coordinator. We've also requested to have at least one exchange a week from somebody who's a member of the Air Force. I haven't been on base once during the two months I've been here, there's a bunch of less-active/part-member families that might just be needing the invitation back to church. So yeah, it's been a pretty good week and we're looking forward to an even better one this week."
So, some background on Sis. M and Bro. W. Sis. M is a black, single mom, maybe in her late 30's or early 40's (you can never tell with black people, they seem to age differently). She's been taught by missionaries a bunch and I think she believes the gospel is true, but she's never truly made the gospel a priority in her life. Bro. W is a black, older man, maybe in his late 50's or early 60's. He's one of the most humble men I have ever met. The missionaries knocked on his door 3 or 4 months ago, and that's how he was introduced to the gospel. He's not an educated man, he doesn't read very well and only went to high school, but he's a really good man. It's been amazing to watch him become a better person, his prayers are so different now than when they first started.
Two weeks of the transfer have gone by. I'm going to try and make a special effort this week to do the Lord's will and to make sure that my personal studies are bringing the Spirit into my life and putting off the natural man. It's easy to do good for the first couple of weeks in a transfer cycle, and then let yourself down as things become first comfortable and then casual. Elder Bednar told us that we should absolutely, categorically never be casual about anything that we do as missionaries.
I got an e-mail from David, he told me about his mission call… The New Mexico Farmington Mission is the right place for him, as we learned from Elder Rasband's talk this past general conference the call of a missionary is truly inspired of the Lord…
I'm sorry to hear about Chet Bauermeister. Kind of strange that you should mention that. This morning, for some unknown reason, Josh Isley popped into my head and I just wondered how he was doing. Really weird, I can guarantee that's the first time I've thought of him since I've been on my mission.
Thanks for sending the CD! It's great. And thanks for the pictures too!
So, I was on an exchange in Smithfield this week with Elder Morrell. His companion is Elder Weichers (who was in my district for six weeks when I was in Dunn). He came to Goldsboro. While he was here he looked through my pictures, and recognized a picture of Jessica. As it turns out, when he was at BYU-Idaho he was in Brittney's FHE group and knew Jessica. He told me some funny stories. Tell Brittney that T.J. says hi.
Well, that's about all I've got. I'm looking forward to biking around some more for another hot week. I love you all, and hope that you are all doing well. Until next week!
July 5—
This week has been pretty good. Not quite the week we were hoping for though. We've had some roadblocks with some of our potential investigators. The appointment with Z was cancelled because his grandmother was unexpectedly going out of town. She's going to be out of town for another couple of weeks, we have an appointment for Monday July 19th. We talked to M from Raleigh about his friend E, and he told us that her mother is hesitant for her to meet with us. He's going to call us back if the status on that changes though. We'll be giving C a call today, hopefully we can start teaching him this week. We weren't able to start teaching I either, he was going to be there for our appointment with Bro. W and for some reason he had to go to Raleigh instead. So, hopefully we'll be able to start teaching him soon. We didn't get any new investigators again this week. Not from a lack of effort though.
We also taught Sis. M and Bro. W this week. Those efforts went a little better. Sis. M is at least somewhat trying to read every day. She came to church yesterday, she was late but it was great to see her there. Bro. W was also at church, but he left after sacrament meeting because he had family from Florida in town. Bro. W is set to get baptized on Saturday, I'm excited for him. He's a really good man.
This week has been a little cooler, which is nice. I'm pretty much used to the heat by now anyways. This week is supposed to heat up again, so I'll get back to constantly sweating when we're out working. On Saturday night I got to see a few of the fireworks, they were shooting them off just down the street from where we live. They shot off some fireworks when I was in the MTC last year but I didn't see them (me and my companion decided to just go to bed). I'm glad you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend.
Mom, I really like the idea of you sending me snippets of the notes you took on your mission. I would definitely enjoy and appreciate that. It's good to hear about MIchael going out with the missionaries. I can't believe he starts his mission papers in July, that's so crazy!
Here in Goldsboro, we write our letters at the Family History Center, which doesn't seem to close down for holidays. Hallelujah.
Well, this letter feels kind of lame, not as much stuff in it as I've had over the last couple of weeks! We've spent a lot of time finding and not a whole lot of time teaching. We're always trying to get the ward involved with missionary work but it's a struggle. I'm starting to hopefully enjoy finding a little more. I've been focusing on asking good questions so that we can get into a gospel conversation and so that I'm not a gospel salesman. It takes a little more effort but it's more rewarding. And of course we're always trying to follow the Spirit, no matter what we're doing (planning, teaching, finding, etc.).
I got to go to a pig pickin' again this week. That is some good eating! Eastern Carolina barbecue is a lot different than anything we have back West, it's polled pork with a vingar-based sauce. I didn't care for it much when I first had it but I love it now. North Carolina has definitely grown on me more in the last little while. It was hard at first. I'm still in the United States but it's so different than back West. But I'm growing to appreciate it more and more as time goes on.
I'm looking forward to this Preparation Day. In a few minutes, we're going to go play some frisbee golf (which I've never done before) with the Boneys, a really great family in the First ward. They used to live in Zebulon and remember Elder Robertson pretty well. I love spending time with members.
That's about all I've got. I love you all, keep up the good missionary efforts. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Casper
It's always good to hear from you. I'm excited for this letter this week.
"This week has been fun. We've been pretty busy. On Monday we taught M. He's a really good guy, but I'm not sure if he's going to progress. I don't believe the desire for him is there. We made Sis. M a reading chart and gave it to her. She started keeping that commitment yesterday. I hope that she will faithfully keep the commitment to read every day. If she does then I believe she will get baptized. Bro. W is as solid as ever. I'm worried for him though, because he doesn't have a friendshipper. He's a lot different than everyone else, and we have no idea who would be good for him. He hasn't read yet because of vision problems, but we blew up 3 Nephi 11 and have a large-print Book of Mormon on the way for him. His prayers have improved dramatically and he is always so glad when we come over and teach him. We moved his baptismal date back a couple of weeks to July 10 so that he can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We've also got a couple of really solid referrals that we're excited about. One of the kids in the N family has a friend named C. He's come to church with them a few times (I think, I've seen him there once for sure). He's 11, and he wants to take the lessons from us. He lives with his grandparents, hopefully they will be receptive to us too. Unfortunately the N’s are moving away, which takes away his friendshipper. We're excited to teach him. We also got a call from the assistants, who got us on the phone with Elder North. Elder North told us that there's a member in his branch/ward who has a referral named E for us. M, the member, is going to drive from Raleigh to be at the lesson with us. I talked with M on the phone, he told me she is really interested and wants to go to church. So we're really excited to teach her too. Definitely plenty to do here in Goldsboro 1st/2nd."
We had a zone conference this past week that was very good. Each mission has an AMA, the Area Medical Advisor, which is more or less the mission doctor… Our AMA is Dr. Liljenquist, who covers multiple missions. He has been home from his mission in Switzerland, German-speaking for I believe exactly 50 years. Isn't that where Grandpa served his mission? … He told us a few good things. He told us that Elder Scott talked about three types of people in the church: 1. people who have a testimony and are converted; 2. people who have a testimony but are not converted; 3. people who don't have a testimony and aren't converted. #1 people are the Elders Quorum president, Relief Society president, etc. #3 people aren't active. #2 people are the ones who present a problem for the church. They are active, married in the temple, have 2 to 3 kids, are poor home teachers, either don't accept or don't magnify callings, don't study, etc. Because they aren't converted and aren't obedient, they are vulnerable to the temptations of Satan. Most missionaries enter as a #2, and the mission field is the perfect place to become converted. He also told us that we go on our missions to suffer. Sounds kind of weird, but it's true and gives you some perspective. If you're working hard, there is going to be some degree of suffering involved. The natural man doesn't like to study, eat healthy, go to bed early and wake up early, exercise, and so on because there is some degree of suffering involved. If you can "suffer well", then you can do what the Lord wants you to. Zone conference was also great. We practiced listening to people and letting the Spirit direct what we say. A lot of times when we talk to/teach people, we come up with what our response is going to be while they're talking instead of truly listening to what they say. We need to stop that! So I'm working on that.
Happy Father's day, Dad! Wow, I can't believe that it's been a whole year since last Father's Day, when I spoke on faithful fathers. That was definitely a day filled with highs and lows. I can't say that I was too excited to leave on my mission at the time, but I knew what my duty was and if I wanted my life to go the way I wanted it to then it was something I had to do. I believe that this past year has been the most difficult year of my life, but it's been 100% worth it. If sacrifice is giving up something good for something better, then this past year has been my greatest sacrifice…
It seems that there are a multitude of people here that know Brandon Mackay. There's Bro. Howard of course. I told you about him before, his greenie area on his mission covered the Burbank, Columbia Basin, Connell, and Basin City wards (In about 1984, I believe). Last night we had dinner with the Storms family. Apparently Bro. Storms was his commanding officer when he first entered into the ROTC at BYU or something like that. The Storms are a great family, Bro. Storms is the second counselor in the bishopric (in the 2nd ward). I was tempted to tell them about the newspaper clippings prank (which I heard from Lance), but I decided it probably wasn't appropriate.
Oh and by the way, my companion is Elder Trent Tibbitts from Panaca, NV. I knew him for six weeks before he became my companion. It was a shock to find out we were together (he was in my district), but it's been great. He has Type I diabetes!…
And finally, it has been extremely hot and humid this past couple of weeks. I believe we're supposed to get into the 100s this week, which is going to be bad considering the humidity. It's a good thing I enjoy suffering now!
Whew, well this is the longest e-mail I have written in a long time. Don't expect too many more of these to be this long! I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week.
June 28--
Another week gone by. Thursday was the 24th, marking one year since I entered the MTC. Holy cow, I can't believe it's been that long. That's just nuts!
I've got a pretty long excerpt from my LTP this time, and it should answer some of your questions you had, Mom.
"We didn't teach a lot of lessons this week, but we had a lot happen. First, the bad things. M is no longer an investigator, he's just not willing to read and progress in the gospel right now even though he knows he needs to. We had an amazing miracle turn into a letdown with J. I was on exchange in Smithfield, and Elder Tibbitts and Elder Weichers stopped by her house. She'd committed to come to church last Sunday but didn't show, which was a disappointment. As it turns out, she was in Winston-Salem last Sunday and she went to an LDS church there for 5 hours. She loved it, she said everyone was wonderful and told her about how they used to be a Baptist/Presbyterian/etc. but had found the true church. We had a return appointment for the next day. Then she called during study and told us she couldn't see us anymore. She called her preacher last night and he told her that if she associated with the church anymore she would be kicked out of her church and wouldn't be a Sunday school teacher there anymore. It was really depressing for Elder Tibbitts (I never have actually met her). I still think there's a good chance that she'll come around though, I guess only time will tell. Sis. M is having her faith tested right now. We'll see if she's willing to make the gospel a priority in her life by doing the small things. I pray that she will exercise her agency in a righteous way. The next week or two will let us know. We should have had two new investigators this week that we weren't able to teach. We called S a couple of times to confirm the appointment with her and she never bothered to call us back. We'll stop by again and try to set up another appointment though. Then the appointment with E had to be cancelled. M, her friend who lives in Raleigh, called us and told us something had happened to her mother (I think he said that she was in the hospital or something). So the lesson with her is going to be delayed a couple of weeks. We're going to give M a call at the beginning of next week and try to set something up again.
Now, some of the good things. For whatever reason, we've been getting more referrals than I've ever got my whole mission. And they seem like they're pretty solid, too. We're going to give C a call next week so that we can start teaching him (that's when he gets back from Maryland). We've had some decent missionary work lessons with members, where we've invited them to take part in the "Faith to Invite Plan" and focus on praying for missionary opportunities. Bishop Rouse gave us a call yesterday with another great referral. The grandmother of an unbaptized 12 year old named Z wants us to teach him the lessons and get him involved with the young men. We have a dinner/lesson appointment with them tonight, we're excited to meet him and teach him. Bro. W is just doing great. He has a really hard time reading because he has something wrong with his eye and because he's not the greatest reader in the first place, but when we explain the gospel to him in a way he understands he loves it. He's always so grateful for us to come over and teach him. He wants to share the gospel with his whole family. In fact, he brought his brother I to church yesterday, and we're going to start teaching him too. Yes! I believe the 2nd ward is going to start getting more involved with the missionary work. The leaders attended the stake missionary correlation meeting and came back with some things to work on. Smithfield is the only ward in the stake that has been doing the ward mission process, and they have had 8 convert baptisms this year (6 English and 2 Spanish). As it turns out, the leadership doesn't really understand what it is, so we're going to work with them to explain it and help them get it going. We're trying to get the exchange calendar back on track, and Bro. Beck (our WML) is working on getting a new teaching coordinator. We've also requested to have at least one exchange a week from somebody who's a member of the Air Force. I haven't been on base once during the two months I've been here, there's a bunch of less-active/part-member families that might just be needing the invitation back to church. So yeah, it's been a pretty good week and we're looking forward to an even better one this week."
So, some background on Sis. M and Bro. W. Sis. M is a black, single mom, maybe in her late 30's or early 40's (you can never tell with black people, they seem to age differently). She's been taught by missionaries a bunch and I think she believes the gospel is true, but she's never truly made the gospel a priority in her life. Bro. W is a black, older man, maybe in his late 50's or early 60's. He's one of the most humble men I have ever met. The missionaries knocked on his door 3 or 4 months ago, and that's how he was introduced to the gospel. He's not an educated man, he doesn't read very well and only went to high school, but he's a really good man. It's been amazing to watch him become a better person, his prayers are so different now than when they first started.
Two weeks of the transfer have gone by. I'm going to try and make a special effort this week to do the Lord's will and to make sure that my personal studies are bringing the Spirit into my life and putting off the natural man. It's easy to do good for the first couple of weeks in a transfer cycle, and then let yourself down as things become first comfortable and then casual. Elder Bednar told us that we should absolutely, categorically never be casual about anything that we do as missionaries.
I got an e-mail from David, he told me about his mission call… The New Mexico Farmington Mission is the right place for him, as we learned from Elder Rasband's talk this past general conference the call of a missionary is truly inspired of the Lord…
I'm sorry to hear about Chet Bauermeister. Kind of strange that you should mention that. This morning, for some unknown reason, Josh Isley popped into my head and I just wondered how he was doing. Really weird, I can guarantee that's the first time I've thought of him since I've been on my mission.
Thanks for sending the CD! It's great. And thanks for the pictures too!
So, I was on an exchange in Smithfield this week with Elder Morrell. His companion is Elder Weichers (who was in my district for six weeks when I was in Dunn). He came to Goldsboro. While he was here he looked through my pictures, and recognized a picture of Jessica. As it turns out, when he was at BYU-Idaho he was in Brittney's FHE group and knew Jessica. He told me some funny stories. Tell Brittney that T.J. says hi.
Well, that's about all I've got. I'm looking forward to biking around some more for another hot week. I love you all, and hope that you are all doing well. Until next week!
July 5—
This week has been pretty good. Not quite the week we were hoping for though. We've had some roadblocks with some of our potential investigators. The appointment with Z was cancelled because his grandmother was unexpectedly going out of town. She's going to be out of town for another couple of weeks, we have an appointment for Monday July 19th. We talked to M from Raleigh about his friend E, and he told us that her mother is hesitant for her to meet with us. He's going to call us back if the status on that changes though. We'll be giving C a call today, hopefully we can start teaching him this week. We weren't able to start teaching I either, he was going to be there for our appointment with Bro. W and for some reason he had to go to Raleigh instead. So, hopefully we'll be able to start teaching him soon. We didn't get any new investigators again this week. Not from a lack of effort though.
We also taught Sis. M and Bro. W this week. Those efforts went a little better. Sis. M is at least somewhat trying to read every day. She came to church yesterday, she was late but it was great to see her there. Bro. W was also at church, but he left after sacrament meeting because he had family from Florida in town. Bro. W is set to get baptized on Saturday, I'm excited for him. He's a really good man.
This week has been a little cooler, which is nice. I'm pretty much used to the heat by now anyways. This week is supposed to heat up again, so I'll get back to constantly sweating when we're out working. On Saturday night I got to see a few of the fireworks, they were shooting them off just down the street from where we live. They shot off some fireworks when I was in the MTC last year but I didn't see them (me and my companion decided to just go to bed). I'm glad you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend.
Mom, I really like the idea of you sending me snippets of the notes you took on your mission. I would definitely enjoy and appreciate that. It's good to hear about MIchael going out with the missionaries. I can't believe he starts his mission papers in July, that's so crazy!
Here in Goldsboro, we write our letters at the Family History Center, which doesn't seem to close down for holidays. Hallelujah.
Well, this letter feels kind of lame, not as much stuff in it as I've had over the last couple of weeks! We've spent a lot of time finding and not a whole lot of time teaching. We're always trying to get the ward involved with missionary work but it's a struggle. I'm starting to hopefully enjoy finding a little more. I've been focusing on asking good questions so that we can get into a gospel conversation and so that I'm not a gospel salesman. It takes a little more effort but it's more rewarding. And of course we're always trying to follow the Spirit, no matter what we're doing (planning, teaching, finding, etc.).
I got to go to a pig pickin' again this week. That is some good eating! Eastern Carolina barbecue is a lot different than anything we have back West, it's polled pork with a vingar-based sauce. I didn't care for it much when I first had it but I love it now. North Carolina has definitely grown on me more in the last little while. It was hard at first. I'm still in the United States but it's so different than back West. But I'm growing to appreciate it more and more as time goes on.
I'm looking forward to this Preparation Day. In a few minutes, we're going to go play some frisbee golf (which I've never done before) with the Boneys, a really great family in the First ward. They used to live in Zebulon and remember Elder Robertson pretty well. I love spending time with members.
That's about all I've got. I love you all, keep up the good missionary efforts. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Casper
Monday, July 5, 2010
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!
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!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Winter is finally over!
March 26-
First off, I have to apologize about the lack of an e-mail yesterday. I forgot to tell y'all, but we had a zone leader/ district leader council in Raleigh, so I was there almost all day. It was great, we received a lot of good instruction and rubbed elbows with President and a lot of great missionaries.
So, here's an excerpt from my LTP. "This week was good. I found a lot of satisfaction and joy out of planning to work hard and following through on those plans. I wish I would have been more wise and got myself involved in the planning when I was with Elder Moreno. The lack of input that I had to give when we were planning was pitiful. I don't want to fall into the "we're in a new area so you have to do all the planning" trap again. Anyways, we did a lot of finding, specifically tracting, this week. We found some potential investigators…There is one lady by the name of Cynthia who really seems like she could have some potential. We found her on the way back from the ZL/DLC. We were driving back and I was thinking how we could put our line in the water a little more for that day. I couldn't look at my planner to see the names of the roads that I had planned to tract (because I was driving), so I tried to remember. The picture of one of them on the map came into my mind, so we stopped there and tracted into Cynthia. She seemed pretty interested and was willing to listen. Not too much may come of that, but that was a little miracle to me. When we exercise our faith, we have miracles…
It's been good to get a new companion. I'm changing my ways and my attitude and I've recommitted to be accountable to the Lord for the work here in Dunn. I've found a lot of joy in being exactly obedient and planning to succeed. My new companion is Elder Cole Jensen from Farmington, Utah. He's been out for 21 months, so he's only got 2 transfers left. Puts me in an interesting situation, do I get transferred after only 1 transfer with him or kill him off (to use the mission lingo) and get a new companion for another transfer in Dunn (7.5 months)? President told me he doesn't know what's going to happen. It should be good. We're going to work hard and get a lot done this transfer. That's all I'm focusing on right now…
Thanks for the e-mail, Mom. I love hearing about how things are going back home. Going to the zoo, Six Flags, a baseball game - sounds like an incredible amount of fun. Mom and Dad, I really appreciate everything you did for me when I was growing up, in high school, in college, etc. I didn't always listen like I should have or appreciate you, but I certainly do now…
There is no Stake BBall in the Fayetteville or Kinston stakes. I don't know about the other ones.
Well, that's about everything I've got. There are two new Elders in the district, Elder Jensen and Elder Banner. Elder Banner goes home in 3 transfers, so he's an old-timer too. It's really crazy how much the district has changed in 2 transfers. When I first came in, it was a fairly young district. Now, Elder Thompson and I are easily the youngest at 9 months. We've got a district full of old fogeys! I'm still the district leader of course, and I look forward to being a better one this transfer than I was last transfer. And my wish came true, Elder Oslund got transferred to Fayetteville 3rd with Elder Brockbank. So we'll get to hang out and play some ball on Preparation Days.
I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend. This week is going to fly by fast. This transfer is going to fly by fast, for that matter. Also, I think we're going to look at an apartment today. President wants us to find a new apartment, the cottage behind Bro. King's house that we live in now is old and it's time to move. Missionaries have been there since 1992. Craziness. So we might be moving here in a few weeks, we'll see.
April 3—
Well, this week has been a pretty darn good one. Here's a pretty accurate description of what went on.
"This past week was focused a lot on finding again. We did a LOT of tracting. We found a couple of families that I really feel have the potential to progress and become members of the Church. We found Connie and her family while I was on an exchange with Elder Van Orden. She seemed very interested, I'm excited for the return appointment. We were tracting around general conference sessions on Saturday and met Catherina. She was interested, so we set a return appointment before conference on Sunday. We showed up at 11 and taught her the Restoration. Her husband and children participated in the lesson, and she was very willing to accept Joseph Smith as a prophet. I'm excited to go back there as well.
Karen and Sis. B, who we have been teaching, have accepted soft baptismal commitments. I hope that they will both sincerely read and pray… We also met a really cool lady named Patty, who we are going to have dinner and a lesson with. We met her when we were receiving training to teach ESL classes from Sis. J. She's from Costa Rica, and apparently the missionaries would eat at her house all the time while she was growing up. We're going to teach her and her daughter, and possibly her son. In any case, this next week looks to be a good one."
So yeah, we've been working super hard. We've got some return appointments for next week that I'm really looking forward to. Half the work in missionary work is planning. I think I'm just really learning the importance of it and how well everything goes when you do plan well.
We have not found a new apartment yet. I think we'll move soon, but probably not for at least a month or two. We've found a pretty good location to move to. It would cut down on costs and be a better location for us. As it turns out, I am the senior companion by virtue of being the district leader. All district leaders are senior companions. Things are going well with Elder Jensen and I. We've done some good work together. We won't have too much time together, because he goes home in June. Either 4 or 10 more weeks. We'll just have to see.
Mom, that's a good point that you bring up about zeal. I had a lot of zeal when I was in the MTC. But when I left, it slowly dwindled and got pretty low. Now it's back up again and I feel great! Some things that have helped my get my zeal back up are putting more effort into planning, changing my attitude towards personal and companionship studies (personal studies fill up your gas tank, companionship studies build unity in the companionship), and the coming of spring.
I loved listening to conference. I think my favorite talk was Elder Holland's, for the second conference in a row. I'm so jealous you had that stake conference where he spoke. He definitely has moral authority. Pornography is a pretty important issue that always needs to be addressed, and Elder Holland's talk addressed it well.
We have interviews with the President tomorrow. 6 weeks ago I wasn't really looking forward to interviews at all, now I can't wait. There's a big difference when you're working and loving the work.
Sorry about the lack of pictures recently. We should start seeing some more wildlife now with the coming of the spring (it's been about 85 degrees over the past few days), it's been pretty dead here in the winter. I'm SO glad winter is over.
Today Elder Jensen and I got a ride from Bishop Ginn to the Fayetteville 3rd missionaries' apartment. Elder Oslund just got transferred there to be with Elder Brockbank. I'm looking forward to getting to hang out with him and other missionaries on the upcoming Preparation Days, Elder Oslund is such an inspiring and uplifting person. It's good to be around him…
Well, that's about all I've got. I love you all, and I love this missionary work. I know that the gospel is true, and that it blesses lives. Have a nice week!
First off, I have to apologize about the lack of an e-mail yesterday. I forgot to tell y'all, but we had a zone leader/ district leader council in Raleigh, so I was there almost all day. It was great, we received a lot of good instruction and rubbed elbows with President and a lot of great missionaries.
So, here's an excerpt from my LTP. "This week was good. I found a lot of satisfaction and joy out of planning to work hard and following through on those plans. I wish I would have been more wise and got myself involved in the planning when I was with Elder Moreno. The lack of input that I had to give when we were planning was pitiful. I don't want to fall into the "we're in a new area so you have to do all the planning" trap again. Anyways, we did a lot of finding, specifically tracting, this week. We found some potential investigators…There is one lady by the name of Cynthia who really seems like she could have some potential. We found her on the way back from the ZL/DLC. We were driving back and I was thinking how we could put our line in the water a little more for that day. I couldn't look at my planner to see the names of the roads that I had planned to tract (because I was driving), so I tried to remember. The picture of one of them on the map came into my mind, so we stopped there and tracted into Cynthia. She seemed pretty interested and was willing to listen. Not too much may come of that, but that was a little miracle to me. When we exercise our faith, we have miracles…
It's been good to get a new companion. I'm changing my ways and my attitude and I've recommitted to be accountable to the Lord for the work here in Dunn. I've found a lot of joy in being exactly obedient and planning to succeed. My new companion is Elder Cole Jensen from Farmington, Utah. He's been out for 21 months, so he's only got 2 transfers left. Puts me in an interesting situation, do I get transferred after only 1 transfer with him or kill him off (to use the mission lingo) and get a new companion for another transfer in Dunn (7.5 months)? President told me he doesn't know what's going to happen. It should be good. We're going to work hard and get a lot done this transfer. That's all I'm focusing on right now…
Thanks for the e-mail, Mom. I love hearing about how things are going back home. Going to the zoo, Six Flags, a baseball game - sounds like an incredible amount of fun. Mom and Dad, I really appreciate everything you did for me when I was growing up, in high school, in college, etc. I didn't always listen like I should have or appreciate you, but I certainly do now…
There is no Stake BBall in the Fayetteville or Kinston stakes. I don't know about the other ones.
Well, that's about everything I've got. There are two new Elders in the district, Elder Jensen and Elder Banner. Elder Banner goes home in 3 transfers, so he's an old-timer too. It's really crazy how much the district has changed in 2 transfers. When I first came in, it was a fairly young district. Now, Elder Thompson and I are easily the youngest at 9 months. We've got a district full of old fogeys! I'm still the district leader of course, and I look forward to being a better one this transfer than I was last transfer. And my wish came true, Elder Oslund got transferred to Fayetteville 3rd with Elder Brockbank. So we'll get to hang out and play some ball on Preparation Days.
I'm looking forward to General Conference this weekend. This week is going to fly by fast. This transfer is going to fly by fast, for that matter. Also, I think we're going to look at an apartment today. President wants us to find a new apartment, the cottage behind Bro. King's house that we live in now is old and it's time to move. Missionaries have been there since 1992. Craziness. So we might be moving here in a few weeks, we'll see.
April 3—
Well, this week has been a pretty darn good one. Here's a pretty accurate description of what went on.
"This past week was focused a lot on finding again. We did a LOT of tracting. We found a couple of families that I really feel have the potential to progress and become members of the Church. We found Connie and her family while I was on an exchange with Elder Van Orden. She seemed very interested, I'm excited for the return appointment. We were tracting around general conference sessions on Saturday and met Catherina. She was interested, so we set a return appointment before conference on Sunday. We showed up at 11 and taught her the Restoration. Her husband and children participated in the lesson, and she was very willing to accept Joseph Smith as a prophet. I'm excited to go back there as well.
Karen and Sis. B, who we have been teaching, have accepted soft baptismal commitments. I hope that they will both sincerely read and pray… We also met a really cool lady named Patty, who we are going to have dinner and a lesson with. We met her when we were receiving training to teach ESL classes from Sis. J. She's from Costa Rica, and apparently the missionaries would eat at her house all the time while she was growing up. We're going to teach her and her daughter, and possibly her son. In any case, this next week looks to be a good one."
So yeah, we've been working super hard. We've got some return appointments for next week that I'm really looking forward to. Half the work in missionary work is planning. I think I'm just really learning the importance of it and how well everything goes when you do plan well.
We have not found a new apartment yet. I think we'll move soon, but probably not for at least a month or two. We've found a pretty good location to move to. It would cut down on costs and be a better location for us. As it turns out, I am the senior companion by virtue of being the district leader. All district leaders are senior companions. Things are going well with Elder Jensen and I. We've done some good work together. We won't have too much time together, because he goes home in June. Either 4 or 10 more weeks. We'll just have to see.
Mom, that's a good point that you bring up about zeal. I had a lot of zeal when I was in the MTC. But when I left, it slowly dwindled and got pretty low. Now it's back up again and I feel great! Some things that have helped my get my zeal back up are putting more effort into planning, changing my attitude towards personal and companionship studies (personal studies fill up your gas tank, companionship studies build unity in the companionship), and the coming of spring.
I loved listening to conference. I think my favorite talk was Elder Holland's, for the second conference in a row. I'm so jealous you had that stake conference where he spoke. He definitely has moral authority. Pornography is a pretty important issue that always needs to be addressed, and Elder Holland's talk addressed it well.
We have interviews with the President tomorrow. 6 weeks ago I wasn't really looking forward to interviews at all, now I can't wait. There's a big difference when you're working and loving the work.
Sorry about the lack of pictures recently. We should start seeing some more wildlife now with the coming of the spring (it's been about 85 degrees over the past few days), it's been pretty dead here in the winter. I'm SO glad winter is over.
Today Elder Jensen and I got a ride from Bishop Ginn to the Fayetteville 3rd missionaries' apartment. Elder Oslund just got transferred there to be with Elder Brockbank. I'm looking forward to getting to hang out with him and other missionaries on the upcoming Preparation Days, Elder Oslund is such an inspiring and uplifting person. It's good to be around him…
Well, that's about all I've got. I love you all, and I love this missionary work. I know that the gospel is true, and that it blesses lives. Have a nice week!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Excerpts from last month's letters
Another week that has flown by. I'm really enjoying the mission, I can't really imagine doing anything else right now. It's such a blessing to be able to serve!
Missionary work: "Well, this week has been a pretty interesting one. Robert got baptized on Saturday. It was a pretty cool experience. There's only one person left to baptize in the L family, and that's Danielle. Danielle is definitely interested, I believe she lives in the boundaries of the Wake Forest ward but I'm not sure. The only thing that's really keeping her back is the fact that her husband doesn't really want anything to do with the church. We hope that his heart will be softened. This week was pretty surprising to us in that we were able to set two new baptismal dates with investigators. The first one is Chevy, he's read a bunch of the Book of Mormon and is really good friends with the bishop in Kinston. He asked us what he needed to do to get baptized, so we set a date with him. Then Dolores also told us she wanted to get baptized. She recently found out that she has cancer, and I think it made her really think about it. So, if all goes well she still get baptized this coming weekend! I'm pretty excited, we're working hard and enjoying it."
…As for Spanish, there's not a huge population in Dunn per say, but there are some here and there. There's a bunch in Angier and Benson, which are in our area. There are Spanish-speaking elders in our mission, maybe about 40 or so.
…Ok, well the missionaries in my district are Elder Thompson, Elder Skeem, Elder Van Orden, and Elder McDonald. They're fun, they definitely all have different personalities. I would say the most discouraging part of missionary work is doing work during the day. You don't find too many people at home and sometimes you wonder if it's worth your time. Today for P-Day we are going to go play some basketball/soccer/other sports with a bunch of other missionaries. Way fun, didn't get to do that at all in Harker's Island because we were too far away from the other missionaries.
…We worked harder this week and plan on doing better this next week. I'm just catching up on everything and trying to develop better habits. One of those includes cleanliness - we did some cleaning and the apartment looks better now. It wasn't horrible before, but it wasn't that great either. I'm also trying to do a better job in my e-mails, journal, updating the area book, planning, and lots of other things. I've got a ways to go, but I'm working on it.
… Thanks for the encouragement. I need all of it I can get! It's hard to choose the right when you're by yourself. I'm grateful to have the support that all of you give to me.
My goal for the next little while is to try and be led by the Spirit as much as possible. I've realized that when we are, the work becomes easy and miracles happen. I realize now that I screwed up with my music back home. I didn't listen to profane music, but I listened to so much music that I really wasn't sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. I'm going to have to struggle with how much I listen to when I get back. I'm not gonna lie, listening to music is the thing that I miss the most. But anyways, I did have that insight. It's weird to look back and realize that you didn't always do everything right. I guess that's one of the blessings of being on a mission and getting a break from real life.
Missionary work: "Well, this week has been a pretty interesting one. Robert got baptized on Saturday. It was a pretty cool experience. There's only one person left to baptize in the L family, and that's Danielle. Danielle is definitely interested, I believe she lives in the boundaries of the Wake Forest ward but I'm not sure. The only thing that's really keeping her back is the fact that her husband doesn't really want anything to do with the church. We hope that his heart will be softened. This week was pretty surprising to us in that we were able to set two new baptismal dates with investigators. The first one is Chevy, he's read a bunch of the Book of Mormon and is really good friends with the bishop in Kinston. He asked us what he needed to do to get baptized, so we set a date with him. Then Dolores also told us she wanted to get baptized. She recently found out that she has cancer, and I think it made her really think about it. So, if all goes well she still get baptized this coming weekend! I'm pretty excited, we're working hard and enjoying it."
…As for Spanish, there's not a huge population in Dunn per say, but there are some here and there. There's a bunch in Angier and Benson, which are in our area. There are Spanish-speaking elders in our mission, maybe about 40 or so.
…Ok, well the missionaries in my district are Elder Thompson, Elder Skeem, Elder Van Orden, and Elder McDonald. They're fun, they definitely all have different personalities. I would say the most discouraging part of missionary work is doing work during the day. You don't find too many people at home and sometimes you wonder if it's worth your time. Today for P-Day we are going to go play some basketball/soccer/other sports with a bunch of other missionaries. Way fun, didn't get to do that at all in Harker's Island because we were too far away from the other missionaries.
…We worked harder this week and plan on doing better this next week. I'm just catching up on everything and trying to develop better habits. One of those includes cleanliness - we did some cleaning and the apartment looks better now. It wasn't horrible before, but it wasn't that great either. I'm also trying to do a better job in my e-mails, journal, updating the area book, planning, and lots of other things. I've got a ways to go, but I'm working on it.
… Thanks for the encouragement. I need all of it I can get! It's hard to choose the right when you're by yourself. I'm grateful to have the support that all of you give to me.
My goal for the next little while is to try and be led by the Spirit as much as possible. I've realized that when we are, the work becomes easy and miracles happen. I realize now that I screwed up with my music back home. I didn't listen to profane music, but I listened to so much music that I really wasn't sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. I'm going to have to struggle with how much I listen to when I get back. I'm not gonna lie, listening to music is the thing that I miss the most. But anyways, I did have that insight. It's weird to look back and realize that you didn't always do everything right. I guess that's one of the blessings of being on a mission and getting a break from real life.
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