Ben the Organist!

Merry Christmas!

Well, this week ended on a pretty good note after going through much trial and tribulation during the week.  At the start of the week, we had a total of 9 people who had excepted a baptismal date and that we planned to work with during this week.  By the end of the week we were down to just 1.  Haha, absolutely crazy!  We got dropped by 4 of them in one lesson!  I guess that is missionary work though.  The one at least has a sincere desire to learn.  She is a single mom with two little kids.  We contacted her late on night (she was a referral) and we asked her if we could teach her.  Unfortunately, we didn't have a member with us and there isn't a man in the house, so we couldn't enter and teach her.  She then asked us if we wanted to go to the church to have a lesson!  The church is about 25 minutes by car from her house, and she was willing to go drive there right then to have a lesson.  Not wanting to put the burden on her though, we decided it would be better to schedule a time when we can go by with a member.  We also were referred to several amazing families on Saturday of last week.  Since there was multiple families we decided to split up with the English elders who had found them and go contact them all.  Elder Childs (English elder) and I went to the house of Miguel and Myra, two people that he had met several days before.  Luckily, Myra speaks a little English, so they were able to communicate who they were and what they do.  They are both from Puerto Rico, which makes it even more awesome because we don't find/teach many people from there.  They remember seeing a lot of missionaries in Puerto Rico but had never talked to any.  Miguel was given a Spanish BOM several days ago and had started reading it!  I was able to teach him a little more, and he said he would like to come to church the next day!  Woop!  Elder Carpenter was also able to contact a family, and they also said that they would come to church the next day.   was epic.  We had 3 people to sacrament who we had contacted less then 24 hours before hand.  Miguel told us later that Myra didn't come because she is kind of shy and didn't feel comfortable coming.  It was awesome because once in the church, the members were great at fellowshipping all of them.

Oh, yea, I forgot to tell you that I am now the organ player for the branch in sacrament meeting.  Before you all freak out and think that I learned to play a musical instrument on my mission, I will tell you that it is all programed and I just have to push a bunch of buttons to get it to work.  Yesterday was my first time playing it, and I only had 2 minutes of training on it two weeks ago (the lady who usually does it is on a month and a half vacation) and I was pretty nervous to remember everything to do.  Somehow I was able to remember everything and only messed up once!

We also had a mission Christmas party this week on Friday night!!!  Too bad for us every zone was asked to do 2 musical numbers.  Let's just say that the musical number didn't turn out anywhere near as good as McKay's.  Literally my zone has zero musical , there is only one elder that can play the piano.  We decided to just divide up into groups of two districts each singing a song.  We only had time for a half hour of practice with everyone and the performance turned out horrible.  Good thing I only had to be in one song!  Other zones had some people that could sing and so it was enjoyable to listen to them.  We also watched the movie "17 miracles" again this year.  What made the experience even worse is Thursday night (the night before the Christmas party) my companion got food poisoning and was throwing up all that night and most of Friday morning/afternoon.  The zone leaders came over and we gave him a blessing.  I don't know how he did it, but some how one of the zone leaders convinced my companion that he still needed to go to the Christmas party.  Although he felt a lot better after the blessing, he definitely wasn't 100%.  He didn't eat anything at the party and didn't sing with us, but I think he still had an enjoyable time.

Well that about wraps up the wonderful adventures in Washington for this week.  Until next time......

  

 Elder Howell

 

Christmas Devotional in FL

Hi Family!

I got a good laugh out of Logan's letter from this last week.  I can totally relate to being fluent in "Gangsta"!  We encounter all the same stuff here, so perhaps it's just inner city culture across the states.  I'm sure he's getting more of it than I do now -- Gainesville is a university city, so a lot of the people are more professional/educated. But we do have a few "hood" areas and it's always a treat to work there.  I just try to avoid them on Friday and Saturday nights -- it's not safe for white boys in suits preaching Jesus to be in there when all the sin is going down.

Well, this year's Christmas devotional was a big hit!  Having all 150 missionaries together at one time is pretty rare and it was quite the celebration!  Elder Bishop and I did perform our skit with a little bit of lip syncing to "You Are Loved"....in order to preserve my dignity, I'll pass on any further explanation of that one other than saying it was a big hit.  =D  But, in the end, it all came together with a very Spirit-filled devotional centered on the nativity and atonement. I opted to be in the choir again this year (of course) and we sang "Who Is He in Yonder Stall" and "Peace, Peace, Peace" -- two very beautiful pieces of music if you want to look them up.

In short, I'm experiencing all over again that Christmas really doesn't require anything other than love to be a success.  I love my missionaries, I love my work, I love the investigators we have, I love my family at home -- and I've never been happier about a Christmas in my life.  Jesus really is the center of it all, and the great thing is, He's with us no matter where we travel in this world.  I hope you all get to experience the simplicity, peace, and joy of life that I have been blessed with at this time.

Much love,
Elder M.

WA Update

Family,

I am happy to hear that the warm weather stayed for so long in Utah.
It now sounds like winter has finally set in for you.  It hasn't snowed over here yet and I hope that it doesn't (we don't get to use our car in the snow, and covering a whole zone on foot isn't too convenient).  We do, of course, see rain most of the days though.  Ummmm, have no idea if I will be skyping on Christmas.  I haven't given it too much thought.  I don't think anyone even has skype in our branch except for the branch president.  We will see what happens.

Jake, I loved your photos! Both were epic!

This week has been crazy!  Last Tuesday we had a great training for all of the new missionaries and trainers at Mercer Island with President Larkin.  A full day packed to the brim with spirituality beyond belief.  I think everyone left that meeting having a stronger sense to do the work with all their heart, might, mind, and strength.  Early that morning we felt like after the meeting we needed to go tract in a an area of our zone that we haven't been to recently.  It is towards the very top and literally takes about 30 minutes by car to get there so we are not able to make it very often.  After the training meeting we took the short cut across Mercer Island to get there fast.  We were in the area driving, not really knowing the exact street we were needed on that day.  All of a sudden, I saw an apartment building out of the corner of my eye and felt the need to go there.  Weird because I had been there about 3-4 months ago and nobody even listened to us.  We get to the apartment, and I immediately feel that we need to go to the bottom floor to start.  One of the first doors we knock, we met a lady named Mirna who is from Honduras.  The Spirit truly guided us to her.  She opened the door with a huge smile on her face and started talking to us.  At first I thought she had to be a member already, but she told us she had talked to the missionaries when she lived in Texas about a year ago.  They had taught her multiple times and she had gone to English classes and church there.  We talked to her a little about the restoration (which she already remembered most of it).  She then told us she knew the Book of Mormon was true also and had lost her other copy when she moved...so we gave her another one!!!  Great lady. Now we have to find her a way to get to the church here.  She also works some crazy random hours, but she is willing to learn.

We haven't been able to get ahold of Benito this week. :(  I think that he got another full time job.  It is kind of what happened last time with him.  We would be teaching him regularly for a time, and then he would disappear for a time because he was working so much.  I think he does have to desires to come to church, but prioritizes work first.

We have a new zone leader in Renton who speaks a little bit of Spanish.  He was actually my district leader when I was in Auburn, so it is kind of weird how I seem to continue to work around the same Elders.  It has been good having him here because we have started to receive even more referrals with him being in the area.  Most of the missionaries can't even communicate with the Spanish people to get their addresses or anything and would just hand them a mormon.org card and that was the end of it.  The down part is all of these referrals are on that far side of the zone I was talking about before.  Haha, literally like 1 block away from the end of the zone.  Looks like we will have to start making more trips up there to follow up on these people.

God bless you all.  Merry Christmas!!!

Elder Ben

Wynelle's Baptism in FL

Hello Family!

Time is super short this week - when we originally got on to email a couple hours ago, all of Google Mail was down so we had to come back.

Wynelle was baptized this last weekend!  This is now the second person in their 70s that I've taught who was baptized.  People are NEVER to old to change/repent and learn the gospel.  It was great though, we had a lot of people involved in fellowshipping her and she asked a member friend to baptize her.  Doesn't get better than that!

Unfortunately, Satan is attacking us viciously yet again and we had scores of investigators drop us this weekend.  We had at least 10 families (less active, recent convert, or investigators) that we were working with who were seriously ill this week as well and it's apparently making its way around the city.  So we're almost all the way back at ground zero with not much of a teaching pool again.  Great thing about this work is that there's rarely a dull moment and it's always a challenge!

We have the mission Christmas conference coming up this week and Elder Bishop and I are throwing together a fun little skit.  I think we're doing a missionary/Christmas version of Josh Groban's "You Are Loved"....or something to that effect.  Lol, it's still a work in progress, but I'll let you know how it turns out.

I wouldn't say I pick up Spanish quickly - I think just enough of the words are similar enough to the English equivalent that I can make the connection in my mind when someone is talking about familiar topics.  Such as the gospel. I do look forward to picking up more of it though!  I've wanted to my whole mission and this just might be the opportunity I've needed.

Congratulations to Sarah on the wedding this weekend!  I know she's probably way to busy to read this, but all the same, I wish her well with the matrimony thing.  Isn't Chelsea engaged for sometime this month too?

Mom, I do not miss snow in the slightest. I don't have to worry about my fingers, nose, and toes freezing and falling off for all but maybe 2-3 weeks in January instead of 3-4 months in Utah.  I was thinking of taking a picture by the pool in our apartment complex with the green grass and palm trees waving in the background, but then it started raining, so I'll wait till a sunny day when it's 70 degrees again before I send you that sampling of how great the winters are down here.   =D

Photos of the week: Wynell's baptism.  Bah Humbug! (early mornings with ugly Christmas sweaters)

Love ya'll
Elder M.

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Trainer Ben

Mom,

Well, it sounds like you all had a good week., Mom I hope I never have to work at JCP after your job description. :)   I guess a job is a job and just having one right now is a huge blessing.

This week has been filled with a ton of high points and some challenges as well. We  were able to get in contact with Benito Gonzalez.  He is the man that walked into the church several months ago and wanted to be taught.  After that he got a job that had crazy hours and we were never able to meet with him over a space of about 2 months.  Now his job stopped and he is looking for another one, and so he has had evenings where we have been able to meet with him 2 times this week.  He has been to church multiple times and believes that The Book of Mormon is true and that the church has been restored.  We decided to set a baptismal goal with him.  After our first lesson with him last week Elder Carpenter (after much practice during the day) was able to extend the baptismal commitment in Spanish and  Benito accepted!!!  I also explained to Benito that we would help him prepare for baptism and that he needed to come to church and and continue meeting with us.  He told us he would come to church, but then on Sunday....no Benito at church. :(  We are going to continue working with him to help him understand more the importance of coming to church.

Last Sunday Elder Haro and I met with a family of four that lives in Renton, but they have member friends that live in a different stake who introduced us.  We taught them a lesson and they were super interested in learning more.  Later we found out that they were asking the members a lot of questions about the church when we left. They went to a nativity program in Bellevue this week with the members and also went and walked around the temple. They really wanted to come to church this past Sunday, and then three out of the four got sick and they couldn't make it.  We should be having a lesson with them in a couple of days to explain a little more about the youth programs in the church (something they really want to get their two daughters in).

Well, I have enjoyed training so far.  It hasn't really been to bad.  The only thing now is that I have to teach a lot more of the lesson.  I have never been with a companion in my mission who can't speak the language yet, so it has been a learning process.  Elder Carpenter is going to learn Spanish really fast though because he is always trying to speak it as much as he can.  He speaks Spanish about as well as I did when I started my mission, but will learn faster I think.  He has ALOT of enthusiasm for the work and we are working hard.  We now have a really young Spanish program of elders, and there are only a few older then me that go home at the end of his transfer.  Kind of scary!

Well, times running out.  Love you all!

Elder Ben

New Gainesville Area

Merry Christmas!!!!

I love being able to say that to people in contact approaches!  December is a great month for missionary work!   ....other than the sun going down at 4pm, that is.  We had a really funny guy get mad at us for knocking on his door "so late!"  It was only 6:30.  =D

Elder Bishop and I are tearing it up here in the 5th ward and we're already seeing a few miracles popping up.  We have been teaching an older lady, Wynelle, who has chosen to be baptized this next Sunday and we're pretty stoked about that.  The Lord has led us to a few more very prepared people who have been devouring the gospel in the past few days.  Nikki is a single mother who had a Jehovah Witness background but never really felt fulfilled.  She was pretty non-committal the first few times we taught her, but we had some time just before church and we went by to invite her to come.  She tried to back out by saying that she was watching her 5 year old son, but then we invited him to come be in Primary with the other kids and he was all over that so she had to give in.  Once she got there, she was poked by the spirit numerous times through testimony meeting and relief society and was being loved on by at least four of the sisters in the ward. By the end of the meeting block she was all in and says she wants to be baptized sometime this month!  Woot!

We also started teaching a man named Jay who shows a lot of promise and has great desires to change his life and find peace through Jesus Christ. We've spoken a lot of the Atonement and prayer and he is finding strength to overcome his addictions.  Crazy thing is, he was a professional chef not too long back and has cooked for several famous mormons.  He's on a first name/emailing basis with Steve Young!  Hahaha.  How wild is that?  Yeah, but he never made the connection that they belonged to this religion until he started meeting with us and doing some research into mormonism.

Our zone is in an interesting place right now.  We have four districts and three of those district leaders were called to fill the position for the first time, so we're busy with helping them figure things out and leading their areas.  We also have a LOT of people in training, so there is an incredible amount of young blood and enthusiasm in the Gainesville Stake/Zone at this time.  We've stayed super busy and I don't think I've written in my journal in over two weeks, so I may not even have any memories of this period when we get through it.  Hopefully I can sneak in a few pictures every now and again.

I went on exchanges with the spanish missionaries again this last week in Ocala and had an absolute blast.  I've gotten to the point where I can follow most of the basic three lessons as they're being discussed in Spanish.  Still working on being able to say anything, but at least I can comprehend what's being discussed.  I plan on practicing my invitation to read the book of mormon, pray, and be baptized in that language so that it will be ready by next month!

Mom, it sounds like your new job is pretty dry.  Alphabetically organizing any sort of clothing sounds like a mind numbing task. Was this last Friday your first every Black Friday?  I can't remember you ever getting into the post-Thanksgiving sales rush in years past. By the way, Elder Bishop will most likely NOT be the one to finish me off.  I've still got a substantial chunk of time and I have a reputation for churning through companions.  He is number 13, not including my two MTC companions, and I think we'll only be together another 4 weeks.

Tell the cousins that they had all better send me a wedding announcement or else!  Lol, I may not be able to come, but I still like to keep up with such major events in the family.

Ben, I'm not sure if your mission president allows you to get online for anything, but you can download the entire Book of Mormon in just about any language from scriptures.lds.org and then burn your own copies of the audio to CD if you need to do that for your investigators.  Any ideas of what would be helpful for you on your mission that I can send you from Florida?

Jaclyn, yes, I can listen to music.  Our mission is pretty open with variety and genre.  Have you ever heard of a group called The Lower Lights?  They've become a favorite.  The last couple EFY albums have been pretty good too. And of course, the always amazing MoTab is a popular hit with missionaries.

Much Love!

Elder M.