Well I don't have time to write as long as I wanted to because the missionaries around me have 0 pateince and I am being rushed. I am just going to have to copy and paste my letter from my mission president. But this week went pretty great, especially this weekend.
General conference of course was great. It always is. Favorite talk was either Holland's or Uchtdorfs. honestly I dno't know which was my favorite. But definitely the one that spoke the most to me was obviously Holland's? What can I say? I am a musician. I liked it because there are many times where I am unable to sing the song of redeeming love for some reason or another. I liked what he said that when that happens we should stay close to those who are on pitch. It is true. I was able to sing a lot better when I sang next to Elder Kama in church when I was serving with him. I really am hoping to be more structured in the way I set my goals from conference this time. In fact, I decided I would mimick the vision/plan sheet for weekly planning and turned it into a vision/plan sheet. Maybe it would be good for the mission to have. I'd have to show it to you sometime.
That was pretty awesome when Elder Ballard talked about many of the same things you taught us in regards to planning and goal setting. Its almost like he taught it to you. I'm guessing that he did. Either that or you are a really inspired mission president. Either way you are an inspired mission president.
This week was actually really good!
We were able to do some service for our investigator Robyn. She is refinishing her floors all of a sudden and we were able to bring members to help us. She was really grateful for it. We were able to have her come to a session of conference at her fellowshipper's home. She almost didn't come because she said she had to get her floors done because she has a lot of things to get done by a certain time. But we testified to her that if she were to put God first by keeping the sabbath day holy and watching even just a little bit of conference that she would be able to get everything finished on time. She started to weep after we told her that. She has a very sensitive spirit. She came and enjoyed conference. She walked in just after the talk by the Australian who addressed specifically investigators of the church! We are planning on setting a date with her this week. She also got a roommate move in with her who is a member of the church--a recent convert from Alabama.
Our investigator, Cora, is a work in progress. Right now her father is the hold up. Until this week, we were unable to figure out why he has been holding her back from being baptized. He is the gospel principles teacher. But I feel like we received a lot of direction from conference that would be helpful to their family and lead to their eventual baptism if they choose.
We really took to heart Elder Rasband's talk about "always following your first prompting." When he came and spoke to the mission January 2016 he said the exact same thing. We had a lot of promptings yesterday and we listened to most of them and it made a great difference. Like Nephi, sometimes the promptings of the spirit seem out of place or illogical, but they should never been second guessed like Elder Rasband said. I know that if we don't allow ourselves to become past feeling then we will be able to easily give heed to the promptings of the spirit. As we were on our way to try a less active, I felt a promptingthat we should go try one of our investigators, Nalani, who we aren't teaching too often anymore, but are keeping our tabs on her because she comes to church every week with her recent convert husband, Jacob Taylor. Jacob is doing really solid and we now were able to get a return appointment with them tomorrow which is great because they have been so so busy lately. Our musical fireside is getting postponed and so now they both may be able to sing and play the piano in it. That's one of the reasons we did the musical firesides in the first place so that Nalani could feel the spirit through music. Right now she isn't sure if Jesus Christ was the son of god, but is just interested in the philosophy of the church.
After visiting Nalani we felt prompted again to go across the street and visit with the Anconetani's, a part member. The husband is really nice and we have been working with him more and more lately. It turned out that we showed up at the perfect time because Sister Anconetani who is a more recent convert, was having what she called a faith crisis. We were able to share some things that hit her and she felt the lord's tender merices for sure. She and her husband were really nice to us and her husband is gaining trust with us. We are working with him slowly since he has met with so many elders before. They said they ended up watching the prince of peace video after we left and that they cried which was good. Hopefully Rick will get baptized here soon. There are a lot of part member families in the ward where there is an active spouse and a nonmember husband or wife that come to church but are unbaptized.
That was pretty awesome when Elder Ballard talked about many of the same things you taught us in regards to planning and goal setting. Its almost like he taught it to you. I'm guessing that he did. Either that or you are a really inspired mission president. Either way you are an inspired mission president.
This week was actually really good!
We were able to do some service for our investigator Robyn. She is refinishing her floors all of a sudden and we were able to bring members to help us. She was really grateful for it. We were able to have her come to a session of conference at her fellowshipper's home. She almost didn't come because she said she had to get her floors done because she has a lot of things to get done by a certain time. But we testified to her that if she were to put God first by keeping the sabbath day holy and watching even just a little bit of conference that she would be able to get everything finished on time. She started to weep after we told her that. She has a very sensitive spirit. She came and enjoyed conference. She walked in just after the talk by the Australian who addressed specifically investigators of the church! We are planning on setting a date with her this week. She also got a roommate move in with her who is a member of the church--a recent convert from Alabama.
Our investigator, Cora, is a work in progress. Right now her father is the hold up. Until this week, we were unable to figure out why he has been holding her back from being baptized. He is the gospel principles teacher. But I feel like we received a lot of direction from conference that would be helpful to their family and lead to their eventual baptism if they choose.
We really took to heart Elder Rasband's talk about "always following your first prompting." When he came and spoke to the mission January 2016 he said the exact same thing. We had a lot of promptings yesterday and we listened to most of them and it made a great difference. Like Nephi, sometimes the promptings of the spirit seem out of place or illogical, but they should never been second guessed like Elder Rasband said. I know that if we don't allow ourselves to become past feeling then we will be able to easily give heed to the promptings of the spirit. As we were on our way to try a less active, I felt a promptingthat we should go try one of our investigators, Nalani, who we aren't teaching too often anymore, but are keeping our tabs on her because she comes to church every week with her recent convert husband, Jacob Taylor. Jacob is doing really solid and we now were able to get a return appointment with them tomorrow which is great because they have been so so busy lately. Our musical fireside is getting postponed and so now they both may be able to sing and play the piano in it. That's one of the reasons we did the musical firesides in the first place so that Nalani could feel the spirit through music. Right now she isn't sure if Jesus Christ was the son of god, but is just interested in the philosophy of the church.
After visiting Nalani we felt prompted again to go across the street and visit with the Anconetani's, a part member. The husband is really nice and we have been working with him more and more lately. It turned out that we showed up at the perfect time because Sister Anconetani who is a more recent convert, was having what she called a faith crisis. We were able to share some things that hit her and she felt the lord's tender merices for sure. She and her husband were really nice to us and her husband is gaining trust with us. We are working with him slowly since he has met with so many elders before. They said they ended up watching the prince of peace video after we left and that they cried which was good. Hopefully Rick will get baptized here soon. There are a lot of part member families in the ward where there is an active spouse and a nonmember husband or wife that come to church but are unbaptized.
After visitng the Anconetanis we rode home on our bikes (which by the way the chain off my bike snapped earlier in the day but got it fixed). They told us to go a different way because they said the hill would be more fun. we didn't think much of it but did it anyway. At the bottom of the hill, was a lady in tears sitting on the curb. At first we passed her because it was dark and we were going too fast. But we decided we should go back. We asked if she was okay and if there was anything that we could do. She wouldn't reallyopen up to us, but she eventually accepted a prince of peace card. IT was a small and simple thing and a small and simple prompting but I believe that following even those promptings that don't seem to turn into a new investigator can have a great impact. And if it wasn't for Sister Anconetani being prompted (probably without knowing it) to tell us to go a different direction, we wouldn't have been able to try and comfort her.
We are also having some plans to get family history rolling still in the ward. I was glad that so many prophets spoke on it during conference because I was wondering if I should keep trying the idea I have to help the ward. I feel like I should. It will be a simple way to get members more involved to do family history and also will lead to them sharing the gospel as well.
I have plenty of finding ideas, just getting them to work is difficult. I really want to help people share the gospel more online through social media, creating blogs, etc. There is a whole list of ideas on lds.org about that that researched the other day.
Well I have a lot to talk about but not the time. .
Have a great day!
Elder Soutas
We are also having some plans to get family history rolling still in the ward. I was glad that so many prophets spoke on it during conference because I was wondering if I should keep trying the idea I have to help the ward. I feel like I should. It will be a simple way to get members more involved to do family history and also will lead to them sharing the gospel as well.
I have plenty of finding ideas, just getting them to work is difficult. I really want to help people share the gospel more online through social media, creating blogs, etc. There is a whole list of ideas on lds.org about that that researched the other day.
Well I have a lot to talk about but not the time. .
Have a great day!
Elder Soutas
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