Thanksgiving Week

How is [investigator] doing?

• He's in there.  I've been with my companion all of this week.  the other missionary that came for the mini mission came this last Tuesday, so I haven't taught [investigator] at all, but he is quite busy, because he doesn't have any money and he's scrambling around looking for a job, so they've had a hard time getting up with him.

 

Are you still in a threesome, or did the third Elder get the ward mini-mission companion?

• nope, he got here.

 

So did you get a package in time for Thanksgiving?

• yep.  Thank you very much!!  The tree looks great.  I set it up in our apartment.

 

This week we started teaching [family].  They were a referral from the zone leaders in Clayton.  They had been teaching her for a while, but she wasn't progressing.  She speaks pretty well.  But Spanish is her native language, so they thought that maybe if we taught her, we could resolve some of her concerns a little bit better in Spanish.  So we started teaching her.  It looks like there is some potential with her.  She has read the reading assignments we've given her, and she's come to church.  The biggest obstacle is that she has been Catholic all of her life, and isn't sure if she wants to leave all of those beliefs behind.  so we'll see if we can help her overcome that.  She has a lot of member support, because it was a few of her friends that are members that intruduced her to the church, so she knows a lot of members, and has a lot of suppoprt from them. 

 

On thanksgiving we did our weekly planning (which we normally do on thurs., which worked out well, because we couldn't tract on thanksgiving.)  then in the evening we ate with the Jensen family.  Which was kind of ironic.  Because the missionary that has come to do the mini mission is elder Jensen (their son).  So all four of us, including elder Jensen wen't to their house.  It was funny, because he kept calling his parents bro/sis. Jensen, and so we kept telling him, "just call them mom and dad!"

 

On Friday I went to a zone leader/district leader council in raleigh.  It was a good meeting.  It was pretty similar to a training, and I learned a lot from it.  Elder warner stayed back in Smithfield with the companion of another district leader, and he did well, because the missionary he was with didn't know Spanish, so he had to fend for himself with Spanish.  He did well.  He called up a member and arranged to do a service project in Spanish without me there!

Ready for Thanksgiving Week

How has your week gone?

• Good

 

What is the weather like?

 

• Different every day.  it's starting to cool off, so some days it will get down into the 40/50's.   but other days it will be up in the 70's.  We've had a little bit of rain recently, but not too much.

So you said you are in a threesome how long will you be in a threesome? 

• That's still kind of up in the air for right now.  It looks like one of the members in the ward is going to do a "mini mission", so he will be companions with the other English missionary for the next three weeks.  He has to be interviewed by the bishop, stake pres., and pres. Cotterall.  He's had all of the interviews so far, and he will be interviewed by pres. Coterrall this afternoon,  so within a couple days we could be back into our normal companionships.  I will be excited for that, it has been kind of stressful, because right now while I'm training, I want to teach elder Warner how to be a good missionary, and I've been avoiding teaching him any bad habits, but that's been a little difficult with an extra missionary in the companionship.

 

Do you think you will be transferred before Christmas?

• Probably not, because since I'm training right now, they have it set up so that you are with your trainee for at least 12 weeks, so unless something crazy happens, Elder Warner will be my last companion.

 

Is the work harder during the holiday season or are people more receptive to your message?

• It depends.  I guess it really just depends on how you work.   I think the holidays could provide some really good opportunities to find people if we take advantage of it.  the ward will have a Christmas party, so that will be a good way of finding people, and in the winter time, there are more people that aren't working, because the construction jobs aren't as available, so they often times have more time.

• This last week has been a whirlwind, we have had a ton of appointments, since we combined the two areas we've had almost more than we can handle.  But it's been good, it is a lot more enjoyable being busy than struggling to find people to teach. 

 

We've started teaching a guy.  I think I may have mentioned him in my last letter, but he was a guy that me and elder Warner contacted, and he was weighed down with all the mistakes that he had made in his life, and was ready to try whatever it would take to get his life back in order.  so we started to teach him.  He's read part of the Book of Mormon, and he knows that it's true.  He wan'ts to get baptized, and we set the date for the 10th of Dec., but he wanted to move it forward a little bit. however I don't think we'll be able to move it much more forward, because I think it will take at least that amount of time to get him ready, probably a little more time.

Distric Leader Responsibilities

So what are your duties as a District leader?

• I just have to plan for and teach district mtg. every week on weds.  and at the end of every week I have to record our districts numbers and then report them to the zone leaders.

 

How is your bike doing? 

• Pretty good.  A few weeks ago it got a flat tire, so I had brought it inside, but I think it got knocked over at some point in time, because the front derailleur got all wacked out of place.  I tried to fix it as best as I could, but it still doesn't shift like it should.  I might try to look at it again, but I'm not sure what to do with it, because the closest bike shop is about an hour away.

 

Since you are a DL do you still ride your bike a lot or do you have to drive around to check on the other missionaries?

• No we still ride in the car/ drive the same amount.  Elder Walker was the district leader before, so it's pretty much the same routine, it's just that I'm doing it now.  We don't really have to go around and check on the district.  Actually I live with our district.  it's just us, the English elders, and the zone leaders.  well, it was us and the English elders.  I'm in a threesome now, I'm still companions with elder Warner, but we've added elder Brewer to our companionship, and we will be doing English and Spanish work for now.  So now it's even more interesting, because it's just us and the zone leaders in the district.

 

So Thanksgiving is coming do you have an invitation to someones home yet?

• yep

How do you like the extra study time or is it hard not being out?

• There are good things and bad things.  I've been learning a lot from the new study program that they have, but I do get a little bit of cabin fever every once in a while.

How is your teaching pool?

• So this week our teaching pool has been pretty low.  In fact there was nobody in it.  We really struggled this last week for some reason.  We were only able to teach one lesson the entire week.  However now that the English area is combined with our area we have a couple of investigators again.  There is one that I'm actually pretty excited about, because it was a referral that we gave to the English elders last week.  It was a guy that we found that was pretty drunk at the time that we met him.  But he told us about how he had recognized that he hadn't been living like he should and he has really just hit rock bottom.  he has tried many different churches, but nothings really helped him, so he's decided to give our church a try.  The English elders taught him twice this last week, and he has a baptismal date for sometime in December.

 

We normally shared the car with the English elders, and they would have the car for a week, and then we'd switch.  this week was our week on bike, so for elder Warner's first bike ride we went 25 mi.  He was pretty worn out by the end of the day.

Baptism!

[Investigator's] turned out really well, the members all gave us a lot of support and helped out a lot with getting [her] ready, and to get the program ready.

 So I have my new companion, elder Warner.  he is from Orem.  On Tuesday I went the mission home for the "trainers mtg"  and they talked to us about training.  They have a new program set up for the new missionaries that come in to the field.  There is a study plan set up for our companion studies, and the plan goes for 12 weeks.  Our studies are extended also,  so instead of 1 hr of personal study 1 hr of companion study and 1/2 hr language study, we have 2 hrs of companion study and 1 hr of language study.  So between that and eating lunch we don't get out of the apartment until at least 1 o'clock in the afternoon.  However, I really like this new program,  it is really set up well, and I'm learning a lot from it. 

This week has all been a whirlwind with getting a new companion, teaching my first district mtg, getting ready for margarita's baptism, and just trying to figure out how to be a trainer/district leader.

Elder Warner is a really good missionary,  I'm really impressed with where his Spanish is at for just having left the MTC.  We taught the plan of salvation last night, and he taught  probably about 20 % of it,  which is really impressive for the first week in the field.

Jeff with New Companion in Mission Office