Mowing the Lawn

There is new missionary term I learned and that is "mowing the lawn." It means to knock doors and find for long hours of the day because the color on the area book is green. So it is like we are cutting the green grass. Anyways, this week I went on two splits! One with the T-stat 2 Elders and the other was up in my old area with the APs. The first one with the T-stat Elders went very well! I went with Elder Sanchez for most of it and he is a very powerful testifier. He is also from California and we knocked doors for a while. I got to eat dinner with someone that Grandma J and Niel know. She absolutely loves Grandma J and attributes a lot of her growth to her. It was very cool talking with her. A lot of the members here know someone I know because most are from Utah! Like yesterday I met a guy who is from Highland Utah and graduated from Lone Peak in 2009 or something like that!

My second split with the APs was really fun! I went with Elder Rock and we found 7 new investigators! That is the most I have ever found in one day. Elder Rock is such a awesome dude! We had so much fun just mowing the lawn all day. He taught me a lot about asking good questions and how to be just gritty. It was also very funny because we taught a guy that moved to a house that Elder Hamblin and I tracted so that was sick!

The baptismal dates we have are from Wednesday! Keep them in your prayers. They are solid and I can't wait to see them get dunked on Wednesday. It was pretty quick trying to get all the things situated plus getting reports for the mission. It was a super busy week but that made it go by that much faster.

As a missionary I have recommitted to just talking to every person we see. Even if they are like a ways away. That is actually helped our area a lot more with new investigators. We were headed on home for lunch on a very busy road. Out of nowhere this woman came out to check her mail. She stopped for us and started talking and she was super nice. She starts tellings us how she stopped going to church because it was so confusing. We taught her the great apostasy and she was down with us coming back over! It was pretty cool. The Lord puts people in your path if you are willing and ready to work.

That is about it. Have a blessed week y'all!

Love, Elder Q

Complete 180

Man, has my life flip flopped?! This new area I am in is very well off financially. It is crazy going from the slums to a richer part of the state. I kinda feel like I am back in my neighborhood in Alpine, Utah. It is weird tracting around and not having many people actually wanting to talk to you. Since people here are well off it is hard for them to humble themselves and listen to our message. Other than that I love this place! The member's here are super missionary minded and give us people to teach often. We set two kids up on date for baptism on August 2 but we might have to move the date to the 6th. We work with a lot of the members here and I have learned from my last area how to get people to feed us and we sure did fill up the week this week! Whoot! Nothing like Ritter's food, but at least we are enjoying our food intact, there is plenty of it!  Anyway's the members are so cool and they enjoy the missionaries coming over and teaching.

My new companion is Elder Maxfield. He is from the Bay Area of California. He played water polo and golf in high school and went to BYU Hawaii before the mission. He is a city boy so that is different then most of my Idaho redneck companions. He likes to work and teaches pretty well. We have a lot of long talks at night and just talk about the day or each others lives. It is pretty sweet!

We went to MLC!! That meeting was awesome! I got to see a lot of my MTC buddies and Elder White. We discussed about missionaries and how we can help the whole mission embrace the culture. We also discussed how we are doing a lot better these past 3 months in the mission and that we need to keep rolling. We discussed ideas and ways to help our zones with the STLs. Then we took our conclusions and things President wants with the District Leaders in a conference call on Skype. If I ever felt like I was in a business, it was at that moment. I am having a ton of fun though!

It has been in the high 90s this week but the heat index was around 110! I am straight melting! I even ruined a tie because I left a sweat stain on it. I drank like a gallon of water and didn't even have to use the restroom. Honestly, you couldn't tell the difference of me jumping in water or just sweating. We helped out this family on their ranch and I got to burn things down! It was so dang fun!

I want to give a shout out to my wonderful dad! It is his birthday this week! I love you so much dad and I am very grateful for all the things you have helped me through. That is it for this week. Y'all have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q

 

 

It aint over 'till the fat lady sings

My stay here in Antioch has come to a close. I have loved the relationships I have made here! So many hard good-byes to have tomorrow, but long lasting friendship I will have for eternity!  I have been well taken care of in Antioch!  This has been by far the hardest area but the place I have had the most growth. I am now headed over to the Thompson Station 1 Ward. It is in the Franklin zone so I am back in the same zone as I was when I was in Linden!! I will be living in Spring Hill which is close to Franklin.  My new companion's name is Elder Maxfield and I have heard a lot of really great things about him from peeps. I have only met him once during a zone Pday in Paducah, that was like a year ago .... sheesh, time flies. I am excited to hit the pavement and get some work done.

This week went by pretty fast! We did a lot of busing up to downtown and around since we have no car and elder Briscoe sold his bike. We talked to a lot of people.  Sisters will be taking our spots, so I feel super good about leaving them with some great peeps to work with. We have one on date right now!! I know the sisters will get him splashed. Sisters usually do better than elders anyway. I think they will like this place!!!  Don't you fret mom, I am leaving my room nice and clean!  ;)

Not a whole lot of time to write today since we are packing up and getting ready to go.  I got a nice visit from The Ball Family!  It was so great to see them!  For my personal study from this week I have been studying up on the Pioneers in light of Pioneer Day.  I have been doing a lot of studying of ancestors and church history. Our President allows 2 hours a week to do some family history. I have found 3 names to do work for and I have been reading a lot of their articles and journals (I need my brothers to do the baptism and confirmations)!  As I read their stories and the stories from the Saints I have really come to love their sacrifice. I grew up knowing that it was hard for them to trek west but I didn't know about all the persecution before. I should say I heard about their persecution but I didn't realize how bad it was. The pioneers were true believers.would be reading and feeling such righteous fury for the mobsters. If I was there I would have probably been killed because I would have fought back. I have come to appreciate that my life is not even close to as hard as theirs was. I am so thankful for my pioneer ancestors, whether they were on the plains or just recent, I am happy they made it so I could be here on a mission. I am probably teaching some of those mobster's ancestors and giving them the chance for eternal life! I love this gospel and how much it can change us.

Have a blessed week y'all!

Love, Elder Q

 

 

Tim Tam Slams

I got fleas....

Ok, I didn't have fleas that long but man, they suck! On the Fourth of July we helped this old lady move a bunch of furniture off her carpet so she could get some new carpet. She has like 17 cats and some were all mangy and they had fleas! We thought the carpet was brown but figured the floor was just covered with cat hair (gross)! When we moved furniture, we figured out that is was originally color of the carpet was purple... it was pretty nasty! Man, I just hate the bugs out here in the south! The rest of the day was chill and we did some Tim Tam slamming for our Independence Day celebration!!

We had splits with the zone leaders that speak Spanish. They came over with us to do some English work! It is funny seeing them try and pray in English, ha! We finished as much cleaning as we could at the horder's house. She can now safely walk from her bedroom to all exits. I also had my first real Bible bash. Well, the first one I could actually say I was able to toss some punches back. It did absolutely nothing and I felt bad afterwords. I will do more just testifying and leaving, but I had to try it at least once on my mission. We played Coup! Man, that is the best game known to man! It is so fun! I also got to workout in an actual gym so that was so sick!

We are teaching this woman who's son, Adam, was just baptized. She is coming back to church and we are helping her get re-baptized. I learned something really awesome in teaching her this week. She thinks she needs to be a perfect example for her nonmember husband and be
perfect to be baptized. Um, no. If we could be perfect then we wouldn't need the Savior. It helped me realized that baptism is essential because it is the cleaning effect from our repentance. After we are baptized the sacrament does the same thing. We just need to do better everyday and the Savior will heal us. I love seeing members and nonmembers who come to church smelling like cigarettes or have some other commandment problem. They are the ones who the Lord will forgive because they are trying. Church is a hospital for imperfect people. The atonement is so essential to any change in our lives. Let the Lord mold you! Be thankful for affliction because that is what will shape you into the person you need to be. I have seen that and been apart of that first hand here on my mission. In summery, we are not perfect but the Savior has provided a way for us to get to heaven anyways. I love that!


Love, Elder Q

Tender mercies of the Lord

A lot has happened this week that I couldn't think of a better subject line. First off, a miracle happened, I was up and out the door by 10:00 with my bike ready to go. Right when it hit 10:05 a member gave me a call. He told me he has found us a guy who was totally ready for the gospel! I instantly saw this as a  blessing for being a concentrated missionary. We went straight over to help this man, Ronny, move out of his apartment. We got talking with him and I was stoked to hear he was willing and ready to repent. We told us our purpose was to help him be baptized by the proper authority and he said that he was willing and ready to go there! The next day he was at church and even went up to bare his testimony! First day of church and this man is up baring testimony about how the Lord sends people to save you! Then, when we were in class, he started participating .... even more than the members! Everything that came from his mouth was true doctrine. He is gonna be baptized but we need to work with him on the word of wisdom.  We also need to help him find a job and new place to live. So, a lot of work but it will go great!

This week I went to Cumberland for exchanges. In Cumberland, I got to go with Elder Maggart and we got to use the bus system again. That is my favorite! I got a video of some black ladies talking about food. We found some sick people and I hope they keep repenting. We also ate at this soda place owned by Olen Rogers, the YouTube dude. Another night up in Cumberland we had a scripture class with the patriarch of the stake. He talked about blessings and most importantly the Abrahamic covenant. It was pretty dope!! I haven't heard some deepish doctrine in a long while.

We helped the hoarder lady clean more of her house.  She said the next morning she was afraid because there was light coming into her room from the living room! She could actually see!!  We have done a total of 5 dumpsters for this woman. Anyways, we went to eat at Olive Garden and it was so fun! The waitress was super cool and Briscoe was all about making her his future wife, ha! We were all laughing our butts of during lunch.

During dinner one night we had a blast! The APs and us were at a young member's home. He was telling us mission stories and we were telling ours. One subject will never get old and that is "becoming a true missionary" or in other words, the story where you had a bowel movement in your pants. Yep, that is right! I don't think I will ever grow out of thinking those stories are funny! Don't worry, I am not a true missionary... yet. Anyways, we had an awesome dessert! I made a video of it.  You suck hot cocoa through a cookie. Then you let it just melt in your mouth. So good!

We had breakfast this morning at Bro Ritter's place!  He made my favorite, breakfast burrito's!  He is always so good to us!  Great way to start out the week!

That was the highlights of the week. Just workin! Talk to y'all next week! Happy fourth and have a blessed week!


Love, Elder Q