Tuesday, December 4, 2012

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.

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