Brotherhood of Beef Continues ....

Yes! It's time for another transfer. I am staying here in Antioch while Elder Hamblin will be leaving me. I will miss him so much! He has grown a lot with me this past 6 weeks and will be someone that is I'll stay in contact with after the mission. Training has taught me a whole lot! I know how to be better at being patient and humble. I have learned a great deal how to calm down and just work smarter. I have been so grateful for this opportunity. Elder Hamblin will be a great missionary! I am getting Elder Briscoe. He is another beefy dude so the Brotherhood shall continue! He goes home in 2 transfers so I will most likely be killing him off, meaning he will be with me until he goes home. This should be a party!

I will have to say that I felt the most spiritual in district meeting this week. I love the way president has changed district meetings. I realize now that the district meetings we had before have gone away from Preach My Gospel, so I decided to try and do it straight from the book. I love praying and receiving revelation on what to help my district out with. Also, I have learned that revelation is 90% information. The brother of Jared didn't just go, "Lord, do everything for me." No! He came up with a plan and did his part then he asked the Lord to help him. The same goes with trying to find revelation with things. So I got the impression to help on "How to Begin Teaching" in chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. The Sisters where having a hard time taking control of the lessons with their investigators so this subject should help. Instead of just getting up there and preaching then doing a practice, I tried the discussion route. It went very well! We focused on real life investigators and how this subject could best help them. I did the coaching method as well. What I did was have them be their investigator and I practiced with them some how to begin teaching. As we practice I would stop and we would discuss then keep going. After word we would analyze it and find out what was good and what we could improve on we would then apply it to the investigator later. The sisters reported to me later saying that the training really helped! It was such a good district meeting!

Couple other highlights of the week was that Elder Hinds (former AP) came down for the day. He taught us a lot! He is such a cool guy. Oh, I also had my most awkward moment ever tracting this week... I will tell that later sometime. I will have to show you rather than tell you. The next great thing was we had some real good seafood. Some of the adults at the church were out back eating crawdads. It looked like a drug deal from a distance but it was actually still pretty dang good! I got a video.

Oh and I have to add this. So I have gotten it 4 times this week that I look like Brad Pitt. Especially when he was younger like younger than the Mr. And Mrs. Smith movie. I feel very honored!

That is it for the week! Have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q

 

 

I am Truly in Nashville

I have to start of with Easter Sunday. In the morning I got dragged into the choir because they had heard I was in choir for a bit back home. I actually really enjoyed singing in the ward choir. We did pretty good. What I really want to get too, was this young couple that sang. Their voices were amazing! It was the perfect mix of country and pop sound. The girl was more on the country voice kinda like Dolly Parton and the guy was kinda like he was from high school Musical. It was so good! I had to fight back man tears. They sang "How Great Thou Art."

In the light of Easter, I would also like to bear my short testimony on the Savior. I know He lives. I know that He broke the bands of death so we can live with our Heavenly Father again. I know He has felt every pain we have felt and knows how to help us. (Alma 7:11-13)

The story of the week was eating at this amazing place called Monell's. It is family style dining. We got there and they sat us at this table. We sat with another family who were on Spring Break. They noticed we were missionaries and start asking us questions while we passed food around. The food just kept coming until we were so full and about to go into a food coma. It is all real southern cooked food so I loved it. Anyways, while they were asking question we got to teach them the first lesson! The old man next to me kept talking to me while everyone else got busy in their other conversations. We ended up talking about paid clergy. He was very amazed that we do all our calling for free (as are a lot of southerners) then he started talking about helping 3rd world countries. We ended up on the topic of fast offering! Ha! He said he will go and check Mormon.org because he wanted to learn more about how we do things. The lesson I learned was to just talk to everyone because you never know who is ready to hear.

We had zone conference this week so that was awesome! They are now only doing zone conference so that means 5 district meetings a transfer. Sweet! I finally learned the correct way to do a district meeting so I am stoked for Wednesday. President Stone talked about how to get grit. Or in other words, how to be a finisher. He read a poem for us from President Monson back in the 1989 June Ensign. It's called Finishers Wanted. I went back over the article later and I would have to say it is probably my most favorite one. I recommend you all take a look. There are 6 marks that make a finisher. Vision, Effort, Faith, Virtue, Courage, and Prayer. I will write the poem that President Stone quoted:

Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;
Beginners are many, but enders are few.
Honor, power, place and praise
Will always come to the one who stays. Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;
Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;
For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile
Will come life’s victories after a while.

--Author Unknown

I love y'all and thank you for the Easter letters! Have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q

Sister Underwood

I am living true to my goal of converting Carried Underwood to Mormonism. Ok, I am not that close, but I am on the right path and maybe I will even get Brad Paisley. I haven't met either of them, but I did meet their cook! We were helping out an investigator with his yard and the next door neighbor came out to help as well. We got to talking and turns out he is the cook for Brad Paisley! I was flipping!! I thought I had met a celebrity.
He was interested to listen to us so that was awesome! He has also cooked for Carrie Underwood and others! I am so stoked!! Hopefully something good comes out of it.

Other than that it was a pretty normal missionary week. We worked real hard and even tracted for like 3 hours straight! That is the most I have tracted in one outing. We got one new investigators out of it so I am happy about that. This week we did a lot of service. We helped clean up some of the debris from the tornado that came in. That was pretty fun! Being around the APs everyday had been awesome! We also helped the STLs make a pen for this dog. That was also a party. I love doing service because it just re-energizes me!

The talk I really studied this week was M. Russell Ballard talk, "Return and Receive." My favorite part was to ask yourself "how am I doing?" I asked myself this and went through a personal interview. I came to the conclusion that my mission goal is to return with honor. I will work and do all I can so I can return with honor. I urge all of you to ask in prayer "how am I doing?" Then, be humble enough to recognize and do what the Lord wants. Our goal should be His goal "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Let us align ourselves with his plan so we can return to His presence and receive all that He has.

Sorry for the short one this week but not much to report on. I love y'all and have blessed week!

 

 

Deja vu

The reason I made Deja vu the subject line is because something similar happened to me last general conference. We got another solid baptismal date! Six months ago I had set my first solid one of my missionary service. Every time I see the gospel in effect, it is so rewarding as a missionary. The baptismal date we have set this time is with a super energetic lady! She is so funny! She is in her 50s but acts like she is 22 or something. My mom would be good friends with her I think.

Another really cool thing happened this week while trying a referral. We were fixin to put our bikes up when a man called to us and asked if we wanted some water. We never turn down water. We went into his house and started asking him questions to get conversation going. We found out he is from Brazile and is trying to learn English. We were chatting for a while and then his wife came down to chat with us too. We found out that they are moving to Utah in 2 months! We taught them the first lesson and they both said they would be baptized! It was like God was giving us a referral. They even were ok with changing the way they normally pray (Usually it is hard to teach people the correct way to pray)! We hope to continue chatting with them so they can be baptized before they move.

One last thing before I get into my general conference sh-peel, I have been hanging out with the AP's a lot lately and have learned some interesting things. They are very wise missionaries and also a lot cooler then I thought! We played this game video called Wet Head and they give us rides everywhere. I think the Lord has sent me here to not worry so much what my peers think of me. We are all called to the same calling so we are all equal in that. Also, we are going on a diet and planning to get to 19bs! I haven't been there since like 10th grade.

General conference was the most spiritual conference I have ever seen! I learned a ton! I will be doing more of the things I learned in later emails but I want to discuss what I learned about families. There was multiple talks on getting the families to do the basics. One of the commandments that I picked out this conference is that we need to read the Book of Mormon everyday. That includes reading it with our families. If we can get up and read for 10 minutes, our lives will be so blessed! I have been reading in the Book of Mormon everyday and can tell you that it had brought peace, comfort, and revelation to me. I apply Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:3-5 to gain a even greater testimony of the Book of Mormon. You can too! I know that as we read the Book of Mormon with our families that it will bring unity in the home. It will bring happiness and it will bring spiritual growth which leads to change. The gospel is to change us into what our Heavenly Father wants us to be. So let's repent if we have not been reading everyday and strive to have the word of God in our homes. I love this restored gospel so much!

Have a blessed week! I will see y'all next week.