Hey I'm home yeah!!!!

Jeff  has been home for two months happy day!!!

Jeff is Home!

Last E-Mail of Jeff's Mission!

How did your Family History seminar go?

• It went alright, we only had one family show up, but we were able to teach them and hopefully that can turn into something good.  It was kind of stressful,  because when I suggested it to the bishop and the ward family history consultant, they really liked the idea.  But I had a hard time working with the ward to get it planned, so It probably wasn't planned and advertized as well as it could have been because of that.

 

How were things this week.

• Good, we are still teaching [Investigator].  He is just about ready for baptism.  We had a really good lesson the other night.  his sister was commenting to us that he had commented about how he would like to serve a mission.  It was just something he said, but nonetheless, it would be really cool if he got baptized and then a year out served a mission. 

 

How was it being with the zone leaders?  Are the zone leaders Spanish speaking?

• It was great.  they aren't spanish speaking.  in the evening they did a lot of work int he area book, so I wasn't able to do much, so I just had to sit there for a while, but overall it went well.

 

So quite honestly I'm just writing this email to kill time, because elder Warner needs to email, so I figured I'd might as well write an email.  But I'm going to see you on Wednesday, so I could probably just tell you all of this when I see you in a much shorter amount of time.  But I'm excited to see all of you.  I havn't been saying anything in my letters because I have been trying not to think about it too much so that I could keep working hard, but I am very excited to see all of you again!

Thinning The Teaching Pool

Note the time and location to the right of when Jeff will be speaking in sacrament meeting.

 

This week our teaching pool got thinned out a little bit again.  We had quite a few people that we had been teaching these last few weeks, but we dropped a few/were dropped by a few.  The one that needed the plumbing done has dropped us for now until she gets things straightened out at her house.  Another one that we had been teaching for several months, we finally dropped, because she was just not willing to leave behind her Catholic beliefs.  That family was a hard one to drop, because we had been teaching them for such a long time.

 

We are still teaching [Recent Convert's] brother.  He is still progressing really well, he has read a lot in the Book of Mormon, and has come to church twice.  He has a baptismal date for the 11th of Feb.  and it looks like he's going to make it. 

 

I went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week.  I went to their area, so I got to take a break for a while from having to be in charge.

 

I can't really thing of anything else too exciting that happened this week.

District Meeting

Did the sister get her plumbing fixed and did she get situated in her trailer?

 

• Not quite yet, it's moving along slowly.  we taught her on Tuesday, and it was quite the situation.  She doesn't have power or water in the house, and she was having a hard time getting the power set up.  one of the members came with us to a lesson and told her a few things to get the power set up, and it looks like it was going to work.  She was just having problems with getting the electricity inspected.  We haven't really been able to teach her that much this week, I think we'll still just have to wait until she gets everything fixed with the trailer before we can start teaching her.  But once we start teaching her, she should be able to get baptized within a couple of weeks.

We've been teaching [recent convert's] brother.  He's been doing really well.  He came to church, he's been reading in the book of mormon (He's already to about chapter 8 of the book of mormon) and he has a baptismal date for the 11th of february, and I'm about 100% sure that he'll get baptized that day.

 

This week for district meeting Pres. Cotterall came to our district mtg.  I thought that origionally he was going to teach the district meeting, but then I got a voicmal a couple of days before saying that I had to teach the district meeting.  So it was a little intimidating with him there as well as the zone leaders.  But overall it went well.

New Investigators!

This week we had a really good week.  We have a lot of people that we are beginning to teach (we find them just right when it's time to leave...figures...).  I told you about Alma, the one the moved recently and can now come to church.  We haven't been able to teach her quite yet, because she's still getting situated in her new house, but she did come to church.  she's working on getting the plumbing done in the house so that she can move in all the way, so were going to see if we can find someone that can help her with that, because i don't think we will be able to teach her untill she gets that all straightened out.

[New convert] (the one that got baptized recently) has a brother, that we began teaching recently.  We taught him for the second time yesterday, and it looks like everything should go well for him.  He did the reading assignment, and said that he would come to church this Sunday.

On Sunday we taught the sister of one of the members.  She showed us where she lived and introduced us to her and we taught her.  It was kind of interesting though, because we had eaten dinner with a member before hand, but then we went with the member and followed the member that gave us the referral to the house.  When we got there, they were eating dinner, so we had to eat some pasta, a tamale, and some pan [bread].  I didn't want to say no, because that's offensive and we wanted to gain their trust so that she would be more receptive to what we taught.  So we ate it, but I was stuffed.  But the lesson went well, and I talked to the member the next day, and she said that her sister liked what we taught.

There were also a few old investigators that we found in the area book that we got up with this week, and are probably going to start teaching.  so we'll see how it goes with that.

On new years eve, we didn't really do too much.  had some lessons that we taught, and then we got back home, planned, and went to bed.

Miracle

So I just talked to you a few days ago, so I don't have too much to say.  However in these last few days (2 days) there have been soo many things coming out of the woodwork, that it's amazing.  We have three or four member referrals that we should be teaching within this next week or two, and we had a really awesome miracle last night. 

There was an investigator that we stopped teaching just when I got here, because she got a job and didn't have time to visit with us or go to church.  She was on track for baptism and had been taught everthing.  it wasn't that she just lost interest, but more of that she literally couldn't come to church, she had to work to survive, so we dropped her for a while, but we have been trying to stay in contact with her and we stop by every once in a while when we are near her house.  last night we stopped by and she was there.  She told us that she is going to move today to another house in the same city, so we're going to help her move tonight.  The trailer that she is going to live in was given to her, so she doesn't have to pay rent anymore because it's her house.  so she quit her job, and has another job lined up that should allow her to be able to come to church again, and she said that she would be at church this sunday and she still wants to be baptized!
 
So, other than that not too much has happened since Sunday.  I got the package.  Thank you!!

Spanish Family History Seminar

We had a fairly good week this week, we are still teaching [sister investigator], and it's about the same situation with her, were still trying to help her come to know that the Book of Mormon is true.  She's keeping the majority of her commitments, but is having difficulties leaving behind her old beliefs.

Si this last week we started planning a family history seminar (in Spanish) for Jan. 21st.   I have never really used family history as a finding idea, but I was reviewing the talk by Elder David A Bednar [click Elder Bednar's name to see the talk] from general conference where he talked about family history, and I also thought about grandma ruby's conversion, so I thought maybe it might be a good Idea.  The plan is to have the members come and invite their friends, and we will also invite people that we find.  in the class we will teach about why we do family history and how to do it.  We just barely came up with the idea, but we decided that if we were going to do it, that we better start advertising right away, so we got a flyer put together this week and got a lot of plans put in place for it.

We had quite a surprise on Tuesday.  Tuesday was transfers, and we thought that elder Jensen (the one that did the mini mission) was going to stay.  But we got a call from the APs and the zone leaders on Tuesday afternoon while we were in a lesson.  So we called them back, and they said that the new missionary was on his way and would be at our apartment in half an hour.  so we hurried back to the apartment to wait for him, (because the English elders were out at an appointment and weren't answering their phone).  

We had the Christmas zone conference this last week (you saw the video of it).  it was good,  the first half of the day, we had training on "the Doctrine of Christ"  and then we did the singing.  [Scroll down to see last week's post with the video]

Singing at Zone Conference

Here is a video of Elder Compton and his zone singing for the Christmas zone conference.  You can also see it by clicking here. 

We had a fairly good week this week, it looks like the work is starting to pick up a little bit more.  I may have mentioned the [investigator] family that we found a little while ago.  They had been attending and experimenting with several different churches, but hadn't found the one the were looking for, so they decided to let us in and see what we had to say.  We taught them the restoration, and did the normal things that you do when you teach a first lesson.  Then we had a return appointment for this last Wednesday.  When we went for the appointment at 8, they weren't there.  so we went to visit some potentials, then the member we were with dropped us of at our house at about 8:20.  so we made some phone calls, and then we took the car and went back, and they were there!  so we taught them and had a really good lesson.  they had read what we had left with them, and had some really good questions about what they had read, and they had also prayed about it, they didn't feel like they had received an answer, but they are going to keep praying about it.

We are also still teaching [Sister Investigator] and her son.  She's moving along, she is fulfilling commitments (except for coming to church these last few weeks, but she should be coming this next week.)  but she's having a hard time changing beliefs.  She told us that she's been Catholic all of her life, and that to change and accept that you weren't in the true church all of that time would be really hard to do.  Which I agree with, it would be really hard to do, but hopefully we could help her overcome that.

So it's been kind of weird, so since I've been training, [my companion] always asks me questions about how to say certain things in Spanish, and even asks me why I say certain things in Spanish.  But its been hard to answer some of his questions about why certain things are said.  It's not because I don't know how to say those things in Spanish, because I normally do know how to say it, but they are just things that sound right to me but I don't know the grammar behind all of it.  for example if I were to say "I read the scripture"  instead of "I'll read the scripture".  You hear it and it just sounds bad, that's kind of how it's been.  I know how to say it, but I don't know why you say it that way.

For dinner on Thursday, the relief society invited us to come to their christmas activity, that was just for the relief society.  I'll be honest, it was a little strange going to a relief society activity, there's a reason that they don't invite the men to relief society activities.  It was just wierd.  There was a lot of food there, but everyone put just a tiny amount of food on their plates, while we were stacking our plates as high as we could.  And the conversations were just awkward.

Salsa!

There isn't a whole lot that I have to talk about this week.  It has been a little bit slow recently. We've really been struggling to find and to fill our teaching pool this last little while.  Were still teaching the [investigator] family, and we made some pretty good progress with them.  By talking with her this last week we were able to help her recognize when she had felt the spirit in her life, and even realize a little bit of feeling the spirit while she was reading the Book of Mormon.  We were pretty excited about that, and we are going to eat dinner with them at a members house tonight, and then teach them.  so we'll see how they progress, I'm really hopeful that they will progress.

Yesterday we had an awesome lesson.  We taught a family named the [new investigator family].  It looks like they have a lot of potential, especially the wife, because she is looking for a church and has tried many different churches, but hasn't found the one she's been looking for.  So they told us that the would give our church a try and see how it goes.

I know this is kind of random, but I'm getting better at making salsa.  I tried it a while back, and it didn't go so well.  But I asked a member to tell me how to make it, and she told me and then gave me the onion, garlic, and chile de arbol to make it.  It turned out good, it could use some improvement still, but it's getting there.  It was definitely hot, but I liked it.

Since it's winter time, it's starting to get dark sooner (by 5 or 6).  so we have had a hard time finding daylight hours to look for people.  and then in the evening we do our best to try and set up member visits to ask for referrals, or work in the area book to be as productive as possible, but it doesn't work too well to knock doors after dark, because they just get mad at you for knocking their door after night.

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

District Leader

Has it cooled off much for you?

• Yea, quite a bit.  it's been dropping down into the 40/50's.  it's been a little chilly.

 

How is [sister investigator]?

• Good

 

Is she going to get baptized?

• yea,  she is going to get baptized this next Saturday.  She is doing really good.  We had a Halloween party at the church and she came with her daughter and husband, and what surprised me more is that she brought food to the activity,  which means that she is already actively participating in the church even though she is still an investigator.  Which gives me high hopes for her staying active in the church, because she isn't going to sit around and wait for fate to decide her salvation, but instead, she'll get in there and actively look for it.

 

 How is your investigator pool going?  Has it grown at all this past week?

• poco a poco.  It hasn't really grown that much.  But I'm hoping to change that.  I have some changes that I'm going to do for finding, so we'll see what comes of it.  The plan is to visit/seek referrals from members a lot more, do service, and look in the area book, and to do very little door knocking.  The reason for that is because knocking doors is not very effective,  but hopefully through those other things we'll be able to find some new investigators.

 

So tomorrow are transfers, and elder Walker is being tranfered, and I'm training this transfer, and I'm also going to be district leader.  I'm a little nervous about that, mostly about training,  because the way I train him will have a pretty big impact on how he turns out as a missionary, so I don't want to mess up.

 

I told you about the Halloween party that the ward put on.  It turned out really good.  They had a bunch of games for the kids, and then did a trunk or treat.  There were a lot of nonmbembers there.  We spent the whole first hour and fifteen minutes talking to the nonmember friends that people had brought to the activity, and then they did the trunk or treat, so that was a little difficult to talk to them then.  but we got to visit with them,  we just need to follow up with some of the members to try and teach them again.

Birthday Doodle by Jeff

This is a doodle that Jeff sent me on my birthday card.

Doodle by Jeff

Picture from Zone Conference

Are the Fall colors nice?

• yep,  I'll try to remember to take some pix.

 

 How is [investigator] coming along? 

• Pretty good, her baptism was planned for this weekend, but I don't think it is going to happen.  We went over the interview questions with her and she passed with flying colors, she is just a little bit afraid to make the commitment.  She knows its what she needs to do, and that she is going to do it,  I think she is just a little nervous about making the commitment.  We were working hard to get her ready for this Saturday, but she just kept saying that maybe she would get baptized this Saturday.  We were thinking of talking to her Sunday morning and telling her that she needs to decide si o no, but we decided that maybe it would be best to slow it down a little bit, and that maybe she has a doubt that would be best resolved before her baptism.  So we called it off for this Saturday, and were going to talk to her about it.

 

Any new promising investigators?

• As of yet,not really.  We've been struggling a little bit to find recently.  there's a few potentials, but were hoping that we can turn a few into progressing investigators,  because pretty soon margarita is going to get baptized and then we'll be left with nothing if we don't find somebody soon.  However, even though we are struggling to find, somehow we taught an amazingly high number of lessons this week as compared with other weeks,  I'm still not sure how that worked out.

 

I'm trying to think of what to write about this week, but I'm not coming up with too much.  On wednsday I went on exchanges with the English missionaries. It's kind of a different exchange, because we live in the same apartment as them, and we have the same area as them, they just do english work and we do spanish work.  so it was an exchange, but the only difference was that I did english work for a day.

Mission Conference

How are you? 

 

Good.

 

How was the temple?

 

Great, we went with one of the members, and it was a great experience.  it always is.  then the member took us to a Chinese buffet, and then we went back home and rested/cleaned the apartment (our preparation day was on the day of the temple.)

 

How is the weather there?

 

pretty good.  It's starting to turn into fall.  There are some really hot days and other days that are a little chillier.  But the leaves are starting to change colors.

 

So, an update on [sister investigator].  I don't remember what I told you about her before, but she had told us before that she wanted to wait until December to be baptized.  But this week she came to a baptism (the zone leaders had a baptism).  and at the end of the baptism, one of our zone leaders said to her (keeping in mind that he doesn't speak Spanish so it was kind of a Spanglish conversation).  but he said thanks for coming and asked her "so this is going to be you in December, right?"  and then she responded saying "yes...maybe antes".   So she might get baptized sooner,  but there's a lot of pressure going on from her family/friends/husband.  But either way, she has a lot of faith, and I'm confident that sooner or later she will get baptized.

 

this Sunday was stake conference.  It was a really good stake conference.  elder Johnson from the quorum of the 70 came and spoke.   However we were a little disappointed that none of our investigators showed up.  Margarita wanted to come, but that just didn't work out.

 

so, I'm writing you today, on tuesday, because yesterday was the mission tour.   elder Jensen from the 70 came and spoke to us.  It was a really good meeting, and he really brought the spirit strong.  He taught us about faith.  It seems like every time I feel like I've learned everything about faith, and I learn more.  There is no end to learning about what faith is.

Baptism!

Things are going pretty well for me. 

 

We have several people that we are teaching right now.  We are teaching someone named [sister investigator].  She is a member referral, and She is progressing quite well.  She came to general conference this weekend, and i think she liked it.  We didn't have much time to ask her about it, but I think she liked it.  We had a lesson with her recently and she's starting to recognize a little bit more the promptings from the holy ghost, she told us that when she reads the book of Mormon it becomes really exciting for her and that she wants to read more.  We also set a baptismal date with her. 

 

We also found a family just when I got here.  They're still pretty new investigators, but [mother] has already read the Book of Mormon and told us how she felt relaxed while she was reading in the Book of Mormon.  That is such a huge miracle, I think that is a huge struggle for most people is to first of all read in the Book of Mormon, and then to recognize when the spirit tells them that it's true.

 

So, General conference.  There were a lot of talks that I liked from it.  There were some good talks in the priesthood session.  I love how bold Jeffrey R. Holland is.  There was also a talk that someone gave in the priesthood session, I don't know who it was, he is an x-mission pres. but he talked about missionary work. 

 

So, I'm getting this letter sent off a little bit later than normal, because this morning we went and played basketball with some members.  the church building is literally about a block away from our apartment.

 

So my time was about to run out, so I wanted to hurry and get the letter sent off before I got kicked off, but my companion is still writing his letter, so I signed back on.

 

So kind of a funny story.  we watched conference at the church.  But something wasn't working right with the electronics, and they couldn't at first get the spanish translation going, and we had an investigator there.  So I got the translation equipment ready, because I thought that I was going to have to translate (which wouldn't have gone too well, because, I tried to translate a few things in my head from conference, and their vocabe and grammer is really good, and it would be hard to keep up with)  But just as I got that set up, they changed it to spanish.  However there were about four other missionaries there, and a member that don't know one bit of spanish, so for about two of the talks they all just had to watch and wonder what was going on.  Then they finally got the english back on, but we had to listen with the headphones, so I just listened in spanish.  but I had to second guess myself when I heard that they were going to turn the tabernacle into a temple, I wondered for a minute if I understood it wrong.

 

Baptism of person Jeff taught before he was transferred