May 18, 2015

Well another week bites the dust and this is a important week because this is transfers week. As to be expected I will be staying and finishing out Elder Thompsons final transfer. We will also be getting two Spanish missionaries coming down here to fill in the gaps of where the other elders have left. Its weird to thing I am lucky to get another six weeks in East Indy because after that it will be up in the air if I will be allowed to stay longer. We shall see how things turn out.

 

But on to the news. We are knocking a lot of doors lately. Partly because we are trying to find a lot more people and the other part because some of our current investigators have fallen off the wagon and are showing signs that are beginning to worry us. But that happens with all investigators so its not a huge deal. Other than that as usual we have been working with the menos activos and have been trying to get them to come to church. We did a service project this last Saturday where we were volunteers for a "walk for arthritis". Its a organization that seeks to find the cure specifically for children. We ran the food table and near the end were literally giving boxes of food away because no one wanted the excess. Even after doing that though we still had 3 boxes of bananas, box of apples, and 2 boxes of assorted granola bars. After the event was over we helped take down all the tents and threw the trash away, basicly clean up. But it was fun and best of all I got a free t shirt from it.

 

But lets see what else. We visited a member for dinner friday, and got invited to his birthday party the next day so that was a lot of fun. He is a really good guy, very strong in the faith and is constantly trying to help the missionaries. Hermano Bello is his name or La Familia Bello.

 

We had a powerful lesson with mario again and he is continuing to progress though he has yet to come to church. In fairness he works three jobs every day of the week though he is trying to get sundays off so he can go to church. His baptism is set for June13th, so we shall see how things turn out.

 

Well besides all this the rest of the week was standard missionary work. I drove the car a bit for exchanges, that was weird.

 

But perhaps I could end now with a quick spiritual thought. There is a section in the Book of Mormon that lets face facts we forget about quite often because while it makes up three books it is only about three chapters long. But that is beside the point. In the book of Enos it begins with Enos talking about his desire for repentance and finding himself alone one day he kneels down and prays earnestly to recieve a remission of sins. According to the text he prays the entire day and well into the night never ceasing till finally a voice comes to him saying "Enos they sins be forgiven thee." The rest of the story is fantastic but I focused heavily on this portion. I shared this story with a less active sister who is going through trials right now. We talked about the importance of prayer and that what we put into prayer is what we will recieve. Enos put his full heart and soul seaking repentance, likewise we must do for repentance, recieving revelation, comfort, or help in some way. And he did not stop with just a quick 3 minute prayer but all day and late into the night he prayed. Heavenly Father is always willing to help us but we must in turn help ourselfs. It may or may not come all at once the help we need. For some it happens in a second, others like Enos a day, or for others years before it comes. But it always comes. Often times we recieve the help or answer and its not what we were expecting or even wanting. Often I think we say we have yet to recieve the blessing or answer because its not one we like or really want to do. But its what heavely father has given us in order to be happy in our lifes.

 

Well thats all I have for today, I love you all and miss you all I hope everything is going fantastic.

 

 

Sincerely a brother/son/grandson/friend/someone you heard of,

Elder Ryan James Trapp

 

May 11, 2015

Hello just a quick hello for all of you. This week has been pretty cut and dry standard week for mission work. Honestly nothing to significant has happened.

 

But thats a boring email so here is some of the stuff that has been happening. So we have a sister we visited who is in the hospital who wanted us to stay and was watching gilligans island. Ironicly enough this is the first time I have ever watched gilligans island. We had talked with her for about a hour and spent five minutes watching with here until we needed to get going. She wanted us to stay and finish the episode which while tempting we had to get going hahaha.

 

So there is that, poor Elder Thompson was feeling a little sick during this week only for it to turn to a stomach bug that knocked him down saturday night and most of sunday. He was feeling so sick we had to drive to k mart to get some medicine, and soda, just to try to aleve a little bit of it. He is doing better today but is really tired and exhausted.

 

And now the biggest thing was yesterday. I skyped the parents. I wont go into great detail only that we spent a half hour complaining about my other siblings, and then the other half hour trying to find a way to get rid of them. And so after serious debate we decided to wait for a better opportune moment to eliminate my sisters, and to allow me the favorite of all the children to return home to help with the plan. (To advoid hurt feelings I am joking... or am I?) hahahaha

 

But that has been the significant part of the week. As always I love you guys and miss you alot. Just as a closer we had a song played earlier this week that I really liked hearing. These are just the lyrics but I am now just thinking about it.

 

Como os he amado, amad a otros.

Un nuevo mandamiento, amad a otros.

Por esto sabrán que sois discípulos míos,

si os amáis unos a otros.

 

As I have loved you,

Love one another.

This new commandment:

Love one another.

By this shall men know

Ye are my disciples,

If ye have love

One to another.

 

I love you all and hope things are going great for you all. Have a fantastic week and talk to ya next time.

 

Sincerely a brother/son/grandson/friend/someone you heard of,

Elder Ryan James Trapp

Pictures Posted on May 4th, 2015

May 4th, 2015

So this week has been a bit of a rough one. Lots of lessons but it was just a bit of a drag. Not that it was bad but perhaps because it was very uneventful.

 

We taught several lessons this week but I will only mention the most significant ones. First is Mario, who I believe I have mentioned before. We had a discussion about baptism and had Hermano Bello accompany us to talk with him. After a really powerful discussion, and testimony of baptism he agreed that he wanted to set up a date (fecha) to be baptized. It probably wont be till June due to some private personal issues he has, but he is one of those elect converts you find and so we are very excited for him.

 

We also met a lady named Maricarmen (interesante nombre) who believe it or not has no, and literally no religious background but is very interested in hearing the lessons. She is I believe from Mexico, maybe Veracruz.

 

Now we can get into some that were frustrating. As we were doing some tracting for the day we were walking down the street and stopped to talk to some black people who were just sitting not doing anything. We really wanted to get a lesson in just for the numbers because a appointment had fallen through and so we stopped to talk with them and the man and women next to him were nice, but then the friend or aunt or whoever as soon as she heard we were Mormons went off on a rant about our racism, and how we were trying to corrupt people to believe in white supremacy (though I look hispanic?), and how every one knows we came from Africa bla bla bla. Poor Elder Thompson was trying his best to sneak in a word, and I could tell he was fuming how rude the lady was being. Finally I we just walked away though not before asking if they knew of any hispanics in the area only to get the lady saying "do i look like i speak hispanic, dont ask stupid questions", hahaha just honestly a lovely lady (heavy sarcasm). I sort of found the situation yes frustrating but also amusing just because it was like, what. Poor Thompson had such patience with her but he was not very happy. After that we went to another appointment where we saw the peopl go in but ended up talking to a guy who I am pretty sure didnt even live there tell us they werent there and have a good day.

 

So all in all a pretty rough day that was. But not to worry because we went to a less active to teach a lesson and that boosted our spirits up. Then we went to a members house to eat and have Thompson skype his family. His brother got his mission call so he got permision to skype. So we ended the night sleeping over at some other elders house because they lived close and it was getting late.

 

But ya those were the highlights of the week. Nothing really eventful here.

 

I hope things are awesome back home, I dont have alot of time again today because we got to go take care of some stuff but as always I love and I miss you all. Indianapolis is proving to be a fun place to be, I am excited to see what happens in the next little while.

April 27th, 2015

Hello everybody how are you all doing. From what I have heard pretty good. Things have been going pretty good here in the City. I have actually grown to like it. Its alot different from places I have lived in but at the same not to different. The members are great though on the east side we dont have to many, and a good chunk of them are inactive/or awol.

 

Now I suppose I should talk a little bit more about me companero. His name is Zachary Thompson, he has approximately a month and a half or so left on his mission, he is from Brigham City Utah, and likes sports. He has a interesting story in Spanish because he started out as a English speaking elder only to reach his 9 month mark and change to being spanish speaking. He took 4 years of Spanish in highschool so the transition was easier then it sounds. He is a very relaxed sort of guy and is pretty cool to work with. Most likely I will be his very last companion he will have.

 

But lets see what else. Spanish is a little better though I wish it were better, hahaha I think near the end of my mission I will still be complaining about it but its going good.

 

So in reference to some of your emails concerning packages you can send them to my address or the mission office, either one works, so its up to you guys.

 

We had a area conference this sunday where we had general athorities speak over satelite to us. We had Elder Hales and Scott talk about prayer, and faith. Though my favorite was a talk given by a seventies who shared a story about a muslim man he knew who he couldnt identify or even say which country he lived in for his safety. This man and grown up in the Islamic faith, but had always found it never had all the answers he sought, a friend of his suggested Christianity to him where he discovered more truths. He would spend some time researching on the internet about various faiths until he discovered a small website called LDS.org or the Churchs website. Finding this he spent the next 17 years researching and eventually reading the BOM. At the end of the 17 years he went to a neighboring country found a local district leader and told him that he would not leave the country till he had been baptized and confirmed a member of the Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After this he returned to his home country teaching his family and preparing them for when they will have the opportunity to be baptized as well. In his letter he wrote to the seventy he said it was a little distracting at the moment as the sounds of machine guns, artillery, and explosions were going off but he ended with his firm testimony in the truth of the gospel and his faith in Christ.

 

A week and a half ago we met a man by the name of Mario who has been taught by english missionaries in the past and before them has studied the BOM and the teachings of the church for many years. Tomorrow we plan to put him on a baptismal date which we know he will keep. It is plain that there are many people in this world who have been prepared or have personally prepared to recieve the gospel in their lives. We as missionaries and as members need to remember to look for those who are actively seeking the gospel.

 

Well thought I would share that you guys as a quick spiritual experience and thought I had.

 

The rest of this week has just been working to find new people. Though in one of our tractings we found a member from Mexico who didnt know that we had church buildings or even other members in her area. She seem pretty nice, when we knocked on the door she said "oh los elderes" and immediately invited us in though we couldnt stay long.

 

We also got to try some national award winning BBQ at a nice restuarant because a member worked there and boy it was really good. It was the first real BBQ I have had since home. Though and I think after all the BBQ I have eaten I count as a critic, dad I think your meats could take them.

 

But yep the work continues forward, I hope you are all doing well and that your all having fun at the same time.