Answers to Questions

• How was your week? 

Good...more will be explained later...

• Any more progress with [investigator] or are his grandparents still opposed to his being baptized?  

No, were actually trying to set up an apointment with him again so that we can have a lesson about what are plan is from here.  We plan to talk to him about what he could do to gain his grandparents trust and to discuss baptism with his parents.

• How did transfers go?

Great.  I have a new companion, elder Larsen.  He's been on his mission for 21 months now, so odds are I'll probably be his last companion.  From what I've seen so far he seems like he'll be a really good companion.  and he gets mad whenever anyone asks him how long he's been on his mission...which is good, because that means he shouldn't get "trunky".  Another thing that's going to work out well with this companionship is that he likes to ride bikes...I think enough is said there (he didn't ever really ride bikes before the mission, but he likes riding his bike on his mission anyway, and he keeps as pretty good pace)

Also It's been kinda crazy because we have 3 missionaries (including my companion) that have been transfered into the branch.  So as far as things are looking right now this is a good thing, because all the members are excited that a bunch of new missionaries are here and their excited to meet all of them.  In fact we've got a dinner appt with a member just about every night this week.  Which is good for two reasons 1. it's food....kinda obvious 2. We can get referals.

• How is it being the guy that knows the area?

So...the guy that knows the area...well, I'm realizing how little I know the area at least...  One thing I've never been good at is...well a couple things is directions( I'm pretty sure you all know that, because I always got lost when I tried to go somewhere in provo) not to mention that fact that there are no numbers for the rodes and they wind all over the place in what ever direction they want.  Another thing is that I'm not good with names.  Other than that It's going pretty good.  and I'm starting to learn some of the names of the rodes, and I've got my planner to write down peoples names.

• Is it getting pretty hot?

Yep, it's getting hot and humid.  whenever we stop and get off our bikes the sweat just falls off our face (I'm serious about that too, I'm not over exaggerating) and my clothes are usually wet all day long, but other than that the heat isn't too overbearing, because once we get on the bikes and we get the wind blowing then it cools us off.

So, yea, that pretty much explains our week, we've been doing a lot of finding recently.  But I'm pretty excited for this next transfer because I've got a new companion that works hard and the members are feeding us (wich will give us an oportunidad (sorry I don't know how to spell that in english...) to talk to the members and get them excited about missionary work, and then hopefully get some referrals.

So I'm going to have to get some more details on this river trip.  Sounds like it was pretty crazy!  and of course pix.

Also I'm excited to hear about Timberline for [biker boy] and [the student's] trip to Connecticut.

Transfer for Elder Compton's Companion and Pictures

Hey, how are things going for you guys?  So that's awesome that sharee got her mission call!  My companion always makes fun of me when I talk spanish with an Argentina accent, so I'll have an excuse to do it now!...

Tomorrow are transfers and my companion is going to be transferred...He's been a good companion and he's really good at teaching, I'm just excited to have things changed up again.

I went on an exchange this week with one of the zone leaders.  It was really enjoyable and I learned a lot from him.  He's a really hard worker and really good at teaching.  We were on the bikes for about an hour and a half that day overall and he probably kept a pace of about 18 mph the whole time...I was able to keep up, but I was worn out at the end of the day.  Also he was really good at contacting people and never fell into the trap of teaching the same thing without really catering to the investigators needs.  I learned that to be able to do that I have a lot more studying I'll have to do.

So other than that not too much really happened this week, we've done a lot knocking doors, and I've got to get ready to take over the area...I'm a little nervous about that, but I'm sure it will work out fine.

Elder Compton

Bicycle path on the way to their apartment

Jeff's companion riding (did Jeff take this while riding his bike?  Look like)

Desks in their apartment.  Jeff's is on the left.

Member family

2010-06-07 Letter and Pictures

This last saturday we had a really awesome experience.  Elder David A Bednar came and talked to our mission for about 3 hours saturday afternoon.  There's only about 150 missionaries in our mission, so we were easily able to fit everyone in the chapel (on the soft seats).  It was probably one of the most amazing things that have happened on my mission so far and I wish that I could describe what it was like, but you would have had to of been there to really be able to understand what it was like.  He basically was teaching us how we can seek learning by faith.  Which to summarize the entire meeting into one sentence would mean that we have to act or do something to demonstrate our faith in order to recieve results...an example of this that he gave us is that in our prayers we shouldn't ask for the missionaries to be able to find people to teach, but rather we should ask for the courage to talk to people about the gospel so that we can find people to teach, and then we should act on that request.  So, yea, that's a summary of what happened, but I can't excactly tell you what I learned from the spirit and an apostle for three hours,  but just know that it was awesome.  He asked us a bunch of questions for the first half to help us learn helped us learn some concepts about learning by faith, and then in the last half he let us ask him questions.  One really cool thing that I learned (I'm not sure how it got brought up but anyway...) is that he told us that if we don't think something will happen to us then it will happen to us, but if we think it could happen to us then we will work hard enough to prevent it from happening to us.

One other think that I learned is that he told us that it's only when you loose everything that you realize that none of it really matters.  I've realized this a lot bn my mission.  Because I got over missing my guitar and friends a couple of weeks into the mission, the only thing I really miss now is you guys...my family (don't worry though, not enough to get distracted)

Letter from 2010-06-01

Hey how are things going for you guys, it sounds like you had a pretty fun trip this last weekend.

So our teaching pool is still pretty small, but we have a pretty solid investigator right now that has a baptismal date for june 12.  I think I may have said a little bit about him last week, but he's 14 yrs old and he's friends with a couple people in the ward (which is how we found him.)  He doesn't really do much so we can teach him several times a week.  He's pretty fun to teach and he is really excited about his baptism.  It's really cool, because he almost always follows through with the commitments we give him.  He will read a chapter in a day if we give it to him...which is really amazing because a lot of people "cant find time" to read over an entire week.  It was kinda funny this last weekend because we had an activity where some of the youth in the ward came on splits with all the missionaries to knock doors.  [He] found out about this and wanted to come.  He's only 14 and not a member yet, so he couldn't come on his own, but [his friend] is old enough that he could come with us.  so he came with us to visit a person.  It was really cool because he shared his experience about how he gained his testimony of the book of Mormon and tried to commit the person to come to church.  I thought it was awesome, and funny that he was doing this when he wasn't even a member of the church yet.

I was pretty excited because my companion got his bike fixed this week.  He pretty much had to replace the rear gear casset, his chain, a couple sprockets, and had his gears readjusted.  He had a lot done on it, but that's good because now we can pick up the pace a little bit on the bikes now.

yesterday we didn't get to email because it was memorial day and the libraries were all closed.

Other than that there wasn't too much of anything exciting that happened.  We are excited because the fireside with Elder Bednar is this weekend.

so How's dallin doing out in japan?

Sharee is Going On A Mission Too!

Jeff's sister Sharee has decided to go on a mission.  She actually started the process back in March and then wasn't sure if that was what she wanted to do.  A couple of weeks ago she decided to commit to going.  Visit Sharee's mission website here and be sure to bookmark it!

Letter 2010-05-25

While everyone was anxiously waiting Monday for an e-mail from Jeff, none came.  However, Tuesday brought relief as and e-mail came in about the usual time, just a day late.  He was busy helping one of the couples in the mission prepare to return home.

Hey how are things going for you guys? 

Thanks so much for sending me the package with all the stuff for my bike, the cookies, shirt, and Salsa.  So that light for my bike works great, thank you very much for getting it for me.  I feel like a car driving down the rode with a light like that.

so you put a maple tree in the front yard?  Awesome! You'll have to send pix.

sorry I didn't get the email sent off yesterday.  We were helping elder and Sister Lewis move some things and get ready to move back home, so our pday was cut short yesterday and so were emailing today this week instead of Monday.

This week we've been teaching a boy .  He's only about 14 years old and he's friends with a few of the members which is how we found him.  But he's been progressing really well.  We've taught him about three times this last week and we set a baptismal date with him on June 12.  I'm quite certain that he will go through with this date because he's been quite dedicated and excited about his baptism.  Since he is only 14 years old we have to have the permision of his parents to baptize him.  From what he's told us, his parents are just fine with him being baptized however we need to go over and meet his parents soon so that we can be sure that they are good with it.  But he also came to church this week and did just fine.  He already knew (conocio...I'm not sure which spelling to use in english...) a lot of the boys in the branch so he fit right in.  it was kinda funny, He was actually getting after for sleeping and texting on his phone during sacrament meeting.

There is one other family that we've been teaching, but they've been progressing pretty slow.  We've been teaching them since the beginning of this month and we've only been able to teach them about 3-4 times.  Not only that we haven't gotten past the first lesson with them.  However the seem like a good family and I think they'll have potencial, I just think they are a little more hesitant.

So we found out that David a Bednar is going to come speak to our mission on June 5th.  So that should be pretty exciting for us.

Not too much really happened this week.  We've been doing a lot of finding, mostly because our teaching pool has greatly diminished.

So the Spanish is starting to come quite well.  I'm realizing that I can almost understand everything people say, especially when they talk about the gospel.  It does get a little harder to understand whenever they start talking about things outside the gospel though.

So that's really awesome that Sharee turned in her mission papers.  I'm really excited to find out where she goes (I hope it's spanish!...)

Les amo

Elder Compton

2010-05-17 Letter

Sorry to be so late getting the letter this week posted.  Here it is.

How's everything going for you?

So this last week has been really slow.  We only were able to teach 4 lessons the entire week.  We've pretty much lost contact with all of our old investigators, which is kinda disappointing, so most of our lessons have been with new people we've found.

We've been talking to a couple families in the branch to try and get them to invite some of their friends to listen to us.  Two of the youth in the ward had a friend that we started teaching on weds.  We have taught him twice already this week (so in other words he our lessons with him consist of half the lessons we taught this week...)  It was really cool though, when we came back to teach him the second time he had read the chapter in the book of mormon that we left him twice because he didn't understand it the first time.  This was really great to hear since often times it feels like pulling teeth to get them to read.  We talked friends who told us that later on that day when they were playing basketball, told them that he felt like his heart was swelling during the lesson and that he was afraid he wasn't going to be able to breath and die.  it was kinda funny hearing his experience in feeling the spirit described in that way, but explained to him that it was the spirit that he was feeling.

This week I went on exchanges with and elder in our district.  Since is district leader I get to go on exchanges a lot.  It was quite interesting because I stayed in our area and went to a different area and I got to try and show around our area...and you know how I am with directions and it's even worse in NC where the are all over the place.  Fortunately I didn't get us lost once!...We were close many times though...  We had to do a lot of biking that day (almost 1.5 hrs in the afternoon)  and at night we had planned a 2 hr. out and back trip planned.  However that night about 20 min into the ride I looked back and saw elder pulido walking...He got a flat tire.  So we walked about a mile to a members house and they drove us back to our apartment where we had a bunch of old tires that we pulled a tube out of and put in his tire.  However we realized that we didn't have the bike pump, some other elders had taken it (that's why I wanted my pump so that I can always have one) and it was already about 8 o'clock so we couldn't have even done much  good even if we had a pump because it takes almost 20 to get to the border of our area and we have to be back by nine to plan.  So that was kinda frustrating, we did our best to make phone calls and use our time as best as we could, but it's kinda difficult when we can't leave the apartment.

This week also was zone conference which was really good.  We talked about how important it is that our investigators are baptized and then also about the importance of them praying and how we can more effectively encourage them to pray.  It was really awesome I learned what i needed to do with everyone of our investigators to help them progress (assuming we get back in contact with them...)

I haven't received the package yet however I'm sure it will come soon.  Thank you very much for sending it to me, I appreciate it very much.