December 21, 2015

So first things first.

963 Lapwing Dr

Columbus, IN 47203

Alright so I am back in Columbus and am working with a Elder Wright who is a mission friend from way back. We have a lot of fun together and are busy trying to fix this place up. Apparently the reason I was brought back in was in hopes of trying to save the Columbus branch here.

It is looking very grim for the future of the branch and even the Mission president is not so sure what its future is going to be.

This is going to be short because the computers here are kind of bad.

But as for me I am doing great. We live with a member family who is awesome and we have been helping with door bell ditching treats and snacks and stuff like that with them. It has been a lot of fun.

This week is a busy one because we are having a special conference on Wednesday, Christmas eve Thursday, and Christmas Friday so it should be awesome. There is so much different stuff going on its a little crazy.

But most important of all I will get to skype you guys this Friday.

I am looking forward to it.

But hey I got to go. I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I love you guys.

Hey watch the new church Christmas video its called "A Savior Is Born"

December 14, 2015

Well let me start off by saying that this message will be short. This last Saturday I received a phone call saying that I am leaving Logansport and going somewhere else. Apparently being told repeatedly by the Mission President even him saying about 3 or so weeks ago I would be staying a long time is no guarantee. To say I am a little frustrated and sad is not to far of a stretch of the imagination. But that's part of being a missionary being moved around, and being sent where the Lord needs you. So as of right now hold on to everything, don't send any letters or stuff. I will get you my new address and everything tomorrow. I have some members who are going to help out with making sure you guys get all of my information.

Well this has been a pretty good week we as usual have been working a lot with the less actives we had a few on the path and committed to coming to church. Elder Scribner hopefully will continue to be on top of that. A few of our investigators we are going to go see today so I can say goodbye to them.

It was touching telling them members that I would be leaving because there was a lot of tears. I haven't been here very long but I feel very blessed to have gotten to know several of them and that I will be missed.

Logansport has been a area where I have grown to love quite dearly. It has perhaps been one of my favorite areas since Lafayette. And that is saying a lot.

I am sorry that this is going to be as short as it is. I have to now go say good bye to a lot of people and pack.

As a favor could you guys pray for the members and less actives of Logansport for me. I would greatly appreciate that.

As always but now with the Christmas season I can say I hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a merry merry Christmas. I love you all and miss you so much.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/meeting-the-challenges-of-todays-world?cid=HP_TU_12-8-2015_dPFD_fGC_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

December 7, 2015

Hello how all you guys? How was the week and did anything fun happen?

This week we have been busy with lots of fun and amazing things. We had a awesome conference with Elder Nash of the Seventy.

He talked specifically about how we can work better and accomplish the work. He gave us quite a list of commitments. He talked about patience, and how we can work with people to accomplish their commitments. He read with us the scripture of Jesus coming to the americas and teaching the people. With a emphasis on how Christ invited the people to pray about the things he had taught him and then proceeded with their increase faith leading to their baptism.

It was great and funny enough before coming to our mission they were in the Eugene, Oregon mission so we had a good laugh about that. He is also fluent in Spanish so we had a nice conversation. It took most of the day so we didn't get back home till about 7 where I launched my little surprise for Elder Scribner.

So it was his birthday last week and I secretly planned a birthday party with a member. I got some pizzas and the member made a ice cream cake and we played games. It was fun and I think he had fun.

We went to Monticello to see how our investigator out there was doing and she is doing fine just still recovering from her surgeries.

So a cool thing that happened with us recently was this. So we have a less active member who we haven't been able to meet with us recently due to issues with her husband. Well the one day we go over with a set appointment she isn't there and so we leave. A couple hours later we get a phone call from her asking if we can come over and we do and she tells us that she is leaving her husband because of multiple things but the highlight is physical abuse. Well she hadn't told anyone else this because she was very ashamed and embarrassed about the situation. We were the only ones she had told. Not even her family or friends. And so we told her that she needed to talk with the Branch president and that we were going to help her as much as we could. The cool part was that she was originally just going to go to a bar and get drunk for the first time in years but she felt very strongly to give us a call and talk with us. So now that's going on and if we could have her in your prayers that would be great.

We have been busy with lots of appointments so that has been pretty good. This Sunday we watched the Christmas devotional and it was fantastic. If you haven't seen it I wont spoil it go and watch its great. And the music as usual is fantastic.

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/first-presidencys-christmas-devotional/2015/12?cid=HP_SU_12-6-2015_dPFD_fMLIB_xLIDyL1-C_&lang=eng

Well as usual I love you guys and miss you. THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING. I got my Christmas package from the parents its pretty awesome there are new pictures and videos in the dropbox.

November 30, 2015

HAPPY REALLY LATE THANKSGIVING AND ya.

So for this email the week was pretty standard in terms of the work. Lots of visiting lots of knocking, with some walking thrown in. The highlight was definately Thanksgiving and the majority of the letter this week will be about that.

But before that lets talk about some of the other fun stuff. So we live about 30 minutes or so away from a town called monticello. We have several members there and a few of our investigators. It is difficult for us to make it out there because of our milage limit but this last week we have been able to make it out several times. All good stuff.

We have also been busy with the less actives as usual. But they are being as cooperative as mules. Frustrating but we are still working on them. As a side note please keep Sister Figueroa in your prayers she has been having a lot of family issues so keep her in mind.

This week we also had to prepare three talks because this tuesday we will be having Elder Nash of the Seventy come and visit us this week.

With him coming we are going down today to lafayette to sleep over there that way we can leave early in the morning and it will be easier on our miles. We are also celebrating elder Scribners birthday today which will be fun.

So now onto thursday the big day. Fear not about our dinner because we actually had two thanksgiving dinners. First dinner was with the Tinchers who are the best. We ate with a small portion of their family with the whole traditional meal turkey, yams, potatoes, cornbread, pumkin pie, rolls, a lot more pies and you get the idea. Brother Tincher is very funny because he looks like and acts alot like brother wiley and its pretty funny. He calls me the communist. And sister tincher is like another grandma she is so funny and lovely. The food was excellent and we had a lot of fun.

The next dinner we had was with the Ortiz. They are a less active family and we ate turkey, rice, pork shoulder, and the various other traditional thanksgiving food. We also watched joseph smith prophet of the restoration. Then after we finished eating we helped brother ortiz dump some garbage out into a dump which helped a lot to because we were stuffed and going to fall asleep. After that we left and went to visit sister dool and spent the night watching mormon messages and videos. It was fun. We were told that Thurdsday was going to be another p-day for us and we were told not to track which make sense because no one would really be in the mood to talk.

But that is the week and what has been going on. A very good thanksgiving plenty of food and alot of leftovers.

I hope it was good and great for the rest of you. Plenty of food and rolls. WE ARE GOING INTO THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!! YAY!!!!

November 23, 2015

Well we have come to the week of where we devour our spoils of a years worth of food. Oh and thanksgiving is on Thursday.

Well I don't have too much time today we have to get some things done and we only have a half p day. This Thursday we have two thanksgiving dinners. One with some less actives and another with the Tinchers.

This week though.

Well we had plans to go visit one of our new investigators this week but we couldn't set up a appointment with her. It was pretty annoying but its how it works. We have been trying to find new people because as of right now our investigators aren't progressing and so we may have to make some drops soon.

One of the big worries we have is concerning our grandma like investigator. We have gone by her house and have called several times but we haven't been able to make contact.

Some of the less actives are FINALLY committing to come back to church. We are also working hard on making sure that the younger families are going to church on a regular basis. There are a lot of them that are going to be the future of the branch here so we are on top of that.

This week we got our first bit of snow. Friday night it started to freeze, and then later Saturday morning its starts to snow just a little bit and it looks like its only going to snow and not stick. Well we had some service to do for a sister and it was putting in posts to make a barrier that could help sliding cars on her road. She has a steep driveway. Well it started snowing a lot more and we got about 4-5 inches of snow. And the roads got really bad, and we had a scary moment where I had to tell Scribner to slow down and stop because he was about to rear end someone at 35 miles per hour. Well we slid just a little and it all worked out in the end. Later that day we visited a lot of more people and got a lot of soup.

Well we have a full week. We will have quite a lot of things to do.

And so I wonder what is the plans of for the rest of you guys this holiday weekend.

I hope we can remember that part of thanksgiving is giving thanks. Thanks for all we have, for the blessings we have received and of course for our families and friends.

Things are going pretty good for us just lots of stuff to get done.

November 16, 2015

Well a lot has been going on this week. Both in the mission and also in the real world. We will go into the mission news and maybe talk a little bit about the world news for just a moment.

SO lets kick off with Monday.

But Monday was just p day afterward we went out to try to visit some peeps but no big success. So lets move onto Tuesday.

Tuesday we had some service to do for one of the single sisters, who we havent been out to see very often. We moved logs that had been cut up and cleaned up a good chunk of the woods. We then had a very impressive fire to burn out all the random branches and underbrush. We have plans to work on a few more projects up where she lives but we will probably need some back up from some of the other members to help with that. We also visited some of the less actives and knocked some doors but that pretty much finished the day.

Wednesday we went and visited one of our investigators, and then went and helped out with some yard work for a less active. After that we went and did family history which was fun. After that we went to dinner which was at a members house which finished out the day.

Thursday we had Zone Conference which took up the majority of the morning and a little bit of midday. After that we went and got lunch with the lafayette elders and frankfort sisters. Then we returned home. Went out to try to see a few former investigators but didnt have much success.

Friday we were super busy. We recieved a referral from a member who actually doesnt live in our mission but his mother does. He came down from Peru (Indiana) and gave us a ride to a nursing home where his mom is recovering from a broken leg. He is actually a recent convert as well but is already on the ball with doing missionary work. We had a wonderful lesson with his mom and she seems fairly interested in learning more. After that we went back and checked up on one of the members whose husband is working at the temple. And we also then went to Rochester to have some lunch and also a district meeting. After that we went to dinner at a members house where they let us know about the situation in France. And that finished up the night.

Saturday we had church tours. The branch had this brilliant idea to set up a day where we just do tours of the church. They put out a ad and invite friends and everything. Unfortunately we didnt have much of a turnout. We did get one of our investigators to  come and so we did get one. But its just how it works we have just restarted it so we shall see how it goes. After that we went to lunch with the rochester missionaries. Then we had some service for one of the older members. After that we went to visit one of the less actives and that was fun we played with the kids and it  was good. Then we went to one of the older members to visit but had to leave because another member needed help with moving some furniture. Funny enough I helped move a massive bed and after we had moved it to the other house we found out that it was the wrong bed but we werent going to move it again. After that we had a appointment that finished out the night.

Sunday we had church and then a linger longer with some delicious food it was awesome. We had the vast majority of the less active families there as well and it was great. After that we went out to visit a few members and investigators and that was the day. That night I cooked pork and rice for my meal big thanks for mom for teaching me how to cook simple stuff.

And that was the week in the mission.

Things are going pretty good for us just lots of stuff to get done.

November 9, 2015

Dear Everyone,

 

Well this week was quite a adventure.

 

Monday: P-Day afterwards some visits

 

Tuesday: Went down to Indianapolis for transfers due to a broken black box in the Rochester car (the car coordinator had to fix it). Afterwards came back helped with a member on his new house (its a fixer upper). It was just scrubbing some finish and cleaning some floors. Afterwards we went home got clean and went to visit a less active member. She is very funny. She has a boyfriend by the name of "Stoney" and he is quite a alcoholic, smoker, and yaaaa. But he is super nice to the missionaries and really likes to hang out with us. Me and him always have a long conversations about smoking pork, hunting, fishing, and cars. Then dinner.

 

Wednesday: Family History. Visit to a investigator and service afterwards. Less actives, schedule appointment fell through. But then dinner with the Watts.

 

Thursday: Service at the salvation army where we served lunch. So cool thing about that. We work every Thursday at the salvation army preparing the lunch for all the homeless less fortunate and a few crazy people its fun. After that we had tracting, weekly planning, and then service for a member where a few of her trees had fallen down so we got help from the branch president to cut them up and stack them up in a nice pile. There is still a lot to do there but we will get it done later. After that president bought us dinner, we ate and then went to visit one of the less actives.

 

Friday: We had district meeting which was fun, then went on splits with the Rochester missionaries. After wards we got picked by a member who was feeding us that night but lives in a town over so helped us out with a ride. I shared a message about faith and showed the trick with the two forks and two toothpicks where you balance them out (big thanks for dad showing me that trick).

 

Saturday: Not to much happen today. Lots of trying to visit other members and investigators. We also helped out again with them member who has the fixer upper house for a few hours and got dinner from him which was fun.

 

Sunday: We had quite a busy day of meetings. PEC meeting we had in the morning, afterward we had church and then ward council. So quite a busy day with lots of fun stuff. After that we had a few appointments and we were going to visit one of the Spanish members but he was sick so instead went on break, then finished the day with a few member visits and less actives and finished the night with dinner at home. Proudly I got some ground beef, bbq sauce, and bread and made myself some burgers it was good.

 

And that was the week.

 

Quite a lot of fun stuff this week, lots of stuff done and a lot more to do.

 

Here is a spiritual thought for the week

 

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/10/the-plan-of-salvation-a-sacred-treasure-of-knowledge-to-guide-us?cid=HP_WE_11-4-2015_dPFD_fLHNA_xLIDyL1-C_&lang=eng

 

Well that's all for this week. Not to much going on but we are staying busy.