Less Active Family Comes to Church Again

- Do the Hispanic people make their own tortillas there?  If so, you should learn how to make them.

Some times, a lot of times they just buy them.  But I've attempted to make them on my own before...key word there would be attempted.

- How are things with the new companion?  They have kept you moving the last little while.

It's going pretty good with my new companion.  Like I said last week, he's only about 3 months out in the field, so I've been doing a lot of the talking now.  Which is great at times, but at other times it's difficult because most the time I understand spanish quite well, but there are still times when I get lost (and I'm sure I will still get lost talking to people in spanish no matter how good at spanish I get, just cause it is a foreign language).  and in this area we are near the military base, which means that  a lot of the hispanics that live here are from puerta rico, because they can serve in the army.  Dad, I'm not sure if you ever got to talk to anyone from puerta rico on your mission, but their accent as well as people from cuba and the dominican republic are quite difficult to understand.  I sometimes wonder if they're not speaking some other language.

- How is the new area going for you.

The new area is going great, well I guess it's not a completely new area, but the fayetville area and Raeford area have been combined.  But we have a HUGE area,  if you look on the map we cover cumberland county, Robinson county, and Hoke county.  and we have about 200 mi to last us through the next week.  We are limited on the miles that we can use each month, so it looks like we will be doing a lot of biking this week.

this last week we've been just trying to figure out the two areas.  I have to learn the new part in Raeford, and Elder Ratto is learning fayetville (not that I really know fayetville very well yet...you know how I am with directions...)

We are now living in the apartment in Raeford which we are working on repainting the apartment.  The walls were pretty bad, so pres. cotterral is allowing us to spend 1-2 hrs everyday to work on that.

This last week we taught this guy named .  I think I probably told you about him last week.  He is a friend of one of the members in fayetville.  or I guess I should say that he is staying with one of the members in fayetville while he goes to school here.  He's studying to become a missionary (which makes things interesting) and he has plans to go back home to guatamala and be an architect, as well as do missionary work for his church.  

Also, the family that I told you about, came to church again!  Sometimes missionary work can be difficult, expecially some of those days where you just knock doors all day long and don't find anyone that wants to listen, but moments like that when you get a family like the Rosas who hadn't gone to church for 5 years, to come again and not only that but two weeks in a row, and it makes everything else worth it.  It gives me hope that some of the people I talk to that may not seem like they want to progress, will eventually make the change.

Less Active Family Comes to Church

I bet that you have really pretty leaves there.  Are the leaves changing?

 

• Nope, it's still all green here

 

In one of your letters you said you got to eat with the English missionaries.  You said you got to use a knife and fork.  What do you eat with normally?

 

• use tortillas to eat.  You tear off a piece of the tortilla and make a little spoon with it and scoop up the rice/beans/meat or whatever your eating. 

 

So this week is transfers, and it turns out the whole bike area was only temporary, which is a good thing, this last week was kind of rough.  It was really difficult to be able to effectively work without a car.  The Fayetville area is being closed, so tomorrow I will be going over to raeford, which is the area right next to us.  My companion will be elder Ratto, my current companion is elder Loe and he's being transfered, but I don't know where to.  For right now we'll probably just finish teaching some of the people that we are currently teaching in the Reaford as well as Fayetville area, and then we will move more towards the Raeford area.

 

This last week I think it was tuesday, the cable on my front derailer broke, so I had to get that replaced.  It was kind of interesting though, the cable itself cost $4, but to install it would have cost another $12-15.  So I just decided to install it on my own, and it worked out pretty well, I was able to get the front derailer adjusted fine and everything.

 

This Sunday I was really excited because the came to church.  They are some less actives in the branch that hadn't come for nearly 4-5 years.  We've been teaching them for this entire last transfer and it's been difficult trying to get them to come, but we had a miracle this last tuesday for one of the lessons we had with them.  We had an exchanged that was planning to come with us that day, however he called and canceled about and hour and a half before we needed to leave.  We were on bikes and so it would have not worked out to bike there, because it's about a 30-45 min drive in the car and we would have to take the freeway.  So we called a bunch of people trying to find someone that would be able to come.  We finally got ahold of somebody called brother drann (he served a mission in guatemala).  He came with us and I am certain that he was supposed to be there for the lesson.  We were teaching the family how to have a family home evening, and we were teaching the lesson about the plan of salvation.  In the middle of the lesson, brother drann jumped in and just laid it down about the importance of going to church.  The mom asked if the kids needed to wear dress clothes and we explained to them that at the church we are in God's house, so we should wear the best that we have, but then Brother Drann jumped in again an told them that he would by their kids some church clothes (which he did do.)   I felt like the family in a way wanted to go to church, but kind of felt embarrased to do so because it had been so long since they had gone, and because the boys didn't have church clothes.  But when we had a member there that was supporting them 100% it really helped them gain the confidence to come.

 

So the baptismal date that I told you about, we are still teaching him.  However he has to work on sundays, we talked to him about this, and he said that right now he wouldn't be able to get work of, but there is potential in the future.  We keep working with this guy, and maybe we'll be able to get him to come to church.

 

Back to Bikes!

So this week we had some more training.  I had told you previously that they will be changing the curriculum at the MTC, which is why we had that three day training a while back.  So this week we finished up that training however it was just one day this time.  It was really great, we learned about the role of the spirit in conversion as well as helping our investigators receive revelation through prayer.  I learned a lot from this and these trainings always make me excited to get out and go to work again.

so our area just recently got changed into a bike area, so we are now on bikes, which has been kind of interesting.  Saturday was our first actual day on the bikes and we spent the entire day knocking on doors and we only found one Hispanic to talk to.  So were going to have to think about how we find people and find a better way to do it on bikes.  I guess this could be a good thing, because it will definantly have to build our faith, because just as we were working hard to find Hispanics, and now we'll just have to be a little more creative.

Last night we had a pretty awesome lesson with a former investigator.  We went there with an exchange from the english ward.  It was kind of interesting when the exchange picked us up because previously the english elders had told us that this couple spoke spanish.  But when we got in the car and started talking to them we asked brother praneta if he had learned spanish on his mission or how he had learned it.  He told us that he spoke english on his mission, so then we asked him how he new spanish, and he said he knew a couple words in spanish.  So at this point I was wondering how this was going to work.  So we asked the wife if she spoke spanish, and she said that she spoke a little bit, but not too much.  I didn't really know what to think, because I didn't quite know how it would work if our exchange didn't speak spanish.  But it turns our we got into the lesson and sister praneta started speaking and she sounded like a native, so it worked out fine.  Sorry about that tangent... but anyway, we got in and started teaching the lesson, and the investigator told us a story about a divorce she had and all the ways that she had dealt with the stress.  So me as the missionary I was sitting there wondering how exactly to respond to this, and absolutely no ideas were coming to mind.  I was trying to think of what doctrine I should teach and nothing seemed to fit, but I guess nothing came to mind because I probably wasn't really supposed to say anything at that time because the exchanged jumped in and seemed to respond perfectly to what she was saying.  We didn't get to do much teaching, but it was really nice to have the exchange their because they were able to give our an investigator a lot of love and support that is just kind of difficult to do as a missionary.  were hoping to be able to visit with [her] this coming week, so let's hope that all goes well with it.

We also had a lesson with a guy named martin.  we've taught him about two other times, but this last week we were able to set a baptismal date for the 13 of november.  We've got a lot to teach him still, but he understands the importance of baptism and he knows its something he needs to do, so he should be able to progress.

As far as the family I told you about last week, the appointment fell through, so were working on getting back up with them to reset the appointment.

Chased By Dogs

• Have you been able to watch conference?

Yep, we watched it at the church.

• Did you get in any of the flooding in NC that we have heard about?  It seems most of it was along the coast but wondered if you saw any or at least got some heavy rain.

Nope, it rained all day last mon. and tuesday but I didn't get to see anything too extreme, kind of dissapointing but I didn't get to see much flooding.

• Do you need anything?

Nope, as far as I know I think I'm doing good...well actually if you could see if you can find Ryan Hyatt's mission address on facebook or through Dallin's mom, that would be awesome!

Dad, you were saying that you were thinking about buying a spanish copy of preach my gospel.  I sent home an extra copy of that home with that package that I sent home just before I left the MTC that you can have, that was an extra.

So this last week, we spent pretty much the entire weekend at the church.  Conference weekend is always difficult because you almost feel lazy all weekend because we have hardly any time to get out and ...tocar  But either way, conference was great, and I learned a lot from it.

Also last friday I went on exchanges with Elder Ratto, which was pretty fun.  He's being trained right now, so he's still pretty green.  but i enjoyed the exchange and I got to ride my bike again, as tiring as it got some days in raleigh I have gotten to where I miss being able to ride it.  ..oh, yea... I got chased for my first time on my bike by some dogs.  It started out with just one dog, and then he came back with another dog, and they were on both sides of me, about a foot away from my bike.  but it wasn't long until I was flew past Elder Ratto trying to get away from them.  But Elder Ratto must have gotten used to being chased by dogs, because they started to follow him, and I don't think he even flinched.

Last night we found a really awesome family.  We basically just taught them the restoration, like a normal first lesson.  They understood really well the doctrine that we were trying to teach them (which was a miracle because it was by no means because of how we taught them that they learned so well/quickly).  This made me think of a scripture in the BOM, I'm not sure where, but it says something along the lines of that the spirit will carry the message to the heart of a person.  Meaning that the spirit will teach us the things that we need to know, but the person must allow for the message to enter in.  I've seen some lessons where I've felt like I did a really good job at teaching the lesson, but yet the people just don't seem to understand.  And at the same time with lessons like what we taught last night where I didn't necessarily do an amazing job at teaching but yet they understood really well.

Splits With District Leader

 So, I'm trying to think of what we did this week, and it seems that every week it's hard to remember what happened during the week, time passes so quickly that it seems like I wrote you just yesterday.  But I'll see if I can remember a few of the things that happened this week.

This Wednesday we had a district meeting like normal, and afterwords we went to a Chinese buffet to eat lunch.  but just as we were sitting down our district leader asked if I could go on exchanges that day, so we finished eating, went to the apartment, threw a couple of things in my suitcase, and went on exchanges for the day.  I learned a lot from this missionary (elder stewart)  he is a really hard worker, and he knows the gospel really well so when people have questions he knows how to answer their questions.  And he can bike really fast, and he doesn't get worn out very fast.  More than anything what I learned from it is how important study is every morning, in fact since then my personal studies have been a whole lot better (not to say they were bad to begin with because I had good studies before, but in these last couple of days they've really improved, and I've began more and more to look forward to study.)

This last week we taught these two people, and .  We talked a little bit about the gospel of Jesus Christ in relation to the Baptism.  knew that baptism is something that he needs to do, however told us that he had already been baptized in the Catholic church.  We had previously taught him about the apostacy and the restoration, and he even told us that he understood what we were teaching and that the priesthood keys were taken off the earth and that it was restored back through joseph smith, but he still felt like his baptism was valid.  So, that's kind of the point of the lesson where you feel like you just hit a really big brick wall.  So then i asked him if he felt like he had been baptized with the proper authority.  And he told us that he was baptized by the spirit because he said he has seen some of the fruits of the spirit throughout his life.  So then I ran into an even bigger brick wall.  So then at that point I felt more than ever the importance of the book of mormon.  I had listened to the talk by jeffery R Holland that morning about the book of mormon, titled safety for the soul in spanish while we were in the car (we had about a 45 min. car ride) so I listened to it in spanish so that I could practice hearing spanish from a native speaker.  But anyway, Parts of that talk came to my mind and made me realize that in God has always provided "safety for our soul" meaning that he has provided a way that we can know for sure if we are on track.  And for us in these days it's through our testimony of the book of mormon (any questions on that, go read the last paragraph of the introduction.)  But this was a really cool experience, the spirit taught me in the very moment what I needed to know (or, more than anything just drew some connections for me that I hadn't drawn before).  But I don't know if will progress or not, but that was a really cool experience for me.

Translating for Stake Conference

This last weekend we had stake conference.  Me and elder Loe were asked to translate for the Priesthood session as well as the adult session on Saturday afternoon.  Nobody at the priesthood session needed the translation, but there were a few people at the adult session.  So we took turns translating for this session.  We would translate for about 15 min. then switch.  Also Elder stewart and his greenie elder Ratto translated for the session on Sunday, however Elder ratto didn't translate (because he's still a greenie) and so Elder stewart needed a break after the first hour of the session, so I translated for the last 45 min (more or less) of the last session.  I don't know if you ever got to translate on your mission or not dad ( I'm guessing that probably not, because everything was in Spanish in Venezuela, but it's a lot different than just speaking Spanish.  We had this headset that we wore, and we sat outside of the chapel and listened to the speaker and we would speak into the headset and translate as the speaker spoke.  It's really difficult to do, because usually when I speak in Spanish, I think in Spanish also.  I don't really think in English and then translate it to Spanish, but I just think in Spanish to begin with.  Also the grammar in Spanish is different than English, so I have to constantly be thinking about how to phrase whatever the speaker was saying.  And then trying to do all of this in real time is not the easiest thing I've ever done.  However it was a really cool experience.  At the begginning I just said a prayer, basically just begging for the gift of toungs, and then it was really cool, because it seemed like it worked.  I was able to hear what the speaker was saying and the words just seemed to flow out of my mouth.  in fact for these last two transfers I have had a goal to learn 5 new words every day (words that I hear people say or that I read in PMG or the BOM) and then I practice these words (I know 5 words a day doesn't seem like much, but over 3 months it turns into about 300 words, which when you get all the verb conjugations turns it into a lot more words).  This has helped me out with my vocab, but not every word that I learned is a word that actually got added to my vocab, or the words I use everyday.  However while I was translated I was able to kind of retrieve those words and use them to translate.  It was a really cool experience, it is kind of hard to explain how it felt, but it was amazing to know that I was actually being guided as I was translating.

yesterday on sunday we went with the english elders that live with us to eat at one of the members house.  But we ate some reast and potatoes which was really good, but then they decided to play a "joke" on us.  Because when your a missionary you are pretty much expected to eat everything that is put on your plate (and they were very aware of this unwritten rule of conduct.)  So they came out with a brownie that  was about 8 inches square, and a huge pile of ice cream on top of it, thinking that they would just completely over fill us and that we would leave the dinner feeling like we were about to die.  However I am proud to say that I joyfully ate the entire thing and didn't even get close to overstuffed. Ha Ha, they'll have to try harder next time!

Trip to Raleigh Temple

So today was the day that we went to the temple.  It was kind of crazy because today is our Preparation day and in order to go to the temple we had to leave at 8 45 this morning and got back at 3.  So I we don't have much time today to do too much (in fact our personal study was cut short and we don't even get a companion or language study today.)  But just let the boys know (I'm not sure which one I had plans to write this week), but I'll try and get both of them next week.

But, wow, going to a new area is different.  It's a little new having left raleigh where I knew my area like the back of my hand and then coming here to where I pretty much have no idea where I'm at half the time.  I think I may have said this last week, but our area is HUGE,  if you look of the map, we cover all of comberland county.  I thought two hours a day on a bike was a lot, just try two hours in the car every day.  But with our area being so large we are mostly in the car, in fact we only got to pull out our bikes once this last week.

As far as investigators go, I only know of one so far and a few potentials (meaning they've been taught once or twice).  ..it looks like he's been taught just about everything.  The only thing right now holding him back from baptism is that he's on probation, which could take him up to 3 months at least to get off that.  And in order to be baptized you cant be on probation.  So I guess we'll just see how things go with him.

Raleigh Temple with Elder Loe

Sandwiches we made didn't quite cut it

District in Raleigh

FHE with Members

Nightly Trek Up the Stairs