Monday, March 3, 2014

Transfer 15, Week 5, Lakes Zone, Desert Breeze Ward‏

Dear Family,
First week with Elder Till and Gonzales! This week went super well! People opened that have never opened in the past! We have knocked on these doors at least 15 times and they have finally opened! 
We biked around our area this week, trying to give us more opportunities to talk to people. Its been going very well and we need to find more time to do things like that. 
We finally were able to teach Bryan. He was set with a baptismal date a while ago but we have not been able to meet with him since we set him. We met with him and talked about setting a new date and having him be more committed to it. He didn't come to church this week, which is a bummer, but hopefully we can meet with him again and list out all the things we need to teach/things he needs to do to prepare for baptism. we committed him to be baptized on the 22nd of March. 
We also had the opportunity to meet with Konrad. Konrad is 19 years old and has not graduated high school. He sits at home and plays video games. His dad is worried about him. This last lesson we focused on making him feel accepted by us and helping him see that God loves him. He committed to coming to church but he didn't make it. I think he slept in. We will meet with him this week and see if we can get a fellow-shipper to help him feel accepted. After we left the lesson he said, 'thanks for coming over'. Hopefully he can feel accepted and start to progress! 
We stopped by Tommy, a former investigator, this week. In the past he has said, 'Its not a matter of if I get baptized its a matter of when.' We have worked with him for so long to try to just get an appointment set up. This time he finally said that he was going to make it to church. Well he came and guess what! He bore his testimony! There was one of those super long pauses between testimonies and I was just thinking, 'I hope Tommy gets up'. And he did a great job! He said that he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet. Now all we need to do is to funnel that and help him realize what that means for his progression in the Gospel. 

We also had the opportunity to meet with Steve and Kristi. We told them that we want to start the lessons and we will hopefully be meeting with them tonight. They got sick Saturday night so hopefully they have recovered. 

Sunday afternoon we were able to go to Zions Youth. A production that the youth in the valley put on. The production was called The Lamb of God. We invited the Langstons and the Worku's. The Worku's showed up and we think the Langstons came too. We also invited a less active in the ward who really wants to come back (Sis. Corn), but she got very sick Saturday night. It was great to have people come and hopefully it can help the Workus progress! Sister Stevens, our Relief Society President stopped by this past week and met with sister Worku. I think it really helped. Oh and those of you in Pueblo will be happy to know that we ran into Sister Swerdfiger at the performance. The location is on our side of the mission but it is really close to the Las Vegas mission so their mission president lets them come over. It was great to see her and she was very surprised that we were able to be companions! 

This Sunday was great! We had a Lady come to church with her member friend. She said that she will be back on Sunday and we hope to start teaching her. Tommy came to church. It was just a great day! After church we also taught the Worku's and committed them to read 'The Family: The Proclamation to the World'. 

We have been doing Family Mission Plans with the ward and we have hit most of the members of the Ward Council. In a few weeks we will hopefully have some referrals! or people will start talking with people and preparing people. One visit we made this week went very well! We met with The Young Mens President and his wife. He said that this has been weighing on his mind ever since Stake Conference. He has been worried about how to do it. But he knows that it is part of the plan and that the work is hastening. He said, "Things are supposed to be happening, why else would there be 90,000 of you guys?" 

So this is kinda embarrassing but this past week we were standing at a door and after I knocked on it I said, "This is really girly but I'm about to cry". Then I started to tear up a bit... I think its because I've realized how much more time I have to serve the Lord all day every day. I'm going to make good use of it. 

Great week! I love you all and hope you can continue to share the Gospel! Be BOLD because of LOVE. 

Love, 
Elder John,
"Some of us have been momentarily wrenched by the sound of a train whistle spilling into the night air, and we have been inexplicably subdued by the mix of feelings that this evokes, or perhaps we have been beckoned by a lighted cottage across a snow-covered meadow at dust. Or we have heard the warm and drawing laughter of children at a nearby playground. Or we have been tugged at buy the strains of congregational singing from a nearby chorus. Or we have encountered a particular fragrance which has awakened memories deep within us of things which once were. In such memories, we have felt a deep yearning, as if we were temporarily outside of something which we actually belonged and of which we so much wanted again to be a part... There are spiritual equivalents of these moments. Such seem to occur most often when time touches eternity" - Neal A. Maxwell

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