Somehow - I guess through not paying enough attention, I posted this on the wrong blog...OOPS
I was going to take it off and repost where it belongs, on Zak's Mission blog, elderzak.blogspot.com
but maybe people might read it here and enjoy it; if you don't then just don't and
please accept my apologies!
QUESTIONS:
Have you heard the First Presidency
letter about testimony meeting?
yup, our bishop read it a few weeks
ago. I will comment further below
I sent you mail this week with some
pictures; got it yet?
yes I did! I will comment further below
Don’t your Pres. Packard interviews go
along with transfer weeks? Does that mean transfers are coming again soon??
we have interviews about every 3
transfers. Our next transfer is a week from this Thursday
How did your Mormon.org appt go this
week?? How old is he?
we went and...... he was not there. Unfortunately
that is not an uncommon happening with this sort of thing. We haven't gone back
yet, but we certainly will soon. We do have a home phone number too. We don't
know who it was that requested the missionaries sent to that house. It was not
stephon, probably a friend from out of town or something that thought he would
listen too/they knew he was an open thinker.
note on mormon.org referrals: we get
them every once and a while and this is close to the best one i've gotten.
often times it is exactly like tracking; you knock and they just say all set
(or some derivative. people in CT don't use it as much). If you want to share
the gospel with a friend it's usually not the best to do it in secret and
silently send missionaries while hoping your friend never realizes it was you
who sent them. You ought to ask them yourself if they're interested; they are
way more likely to respond well to you, a friend, than two goons in suits who
knock on their door while they're in the middle of something. If you care
about/believe in the gospel and you care about your friends it only makes sense
you want to connect the two. done with the right way with the right intentions,
friends will feel more cared about and loved as a result, whether they say yes
or no. (not that there is specifically a "right way" or silver bullet
answer, but I think you know what I mean).
One interesting analogy I found when
I first came to the area: We asked a couple (they have 2 kids, both priest age,
everyone very strong in the gospel and good at missionary work) to come with us
to a lesson. it went well and afterwards they took us out to lunch (at Arbys!).
while there they told us a funny story about how the neighbors/friends in the
area, about the same age, also with kids etc, would invite them to keggers/wild
drinking party's. they thought it was kind of gross parents were having such
parties and kind of funny that they kept getting invited even though everyone
knew they were Mormon. they would say stuff like "hey I know you're not
coming but, there's a party this Saturday if you want!". I asked how they
(the couple) felt when they were invited to such things. they said honestly, it
was neighborly and friendly! the invite is oozing with irresponsibility and
not-smart-ness, but because it was done out of true care it still made them
closer friends. how come the beer-party people have figured this aspect of
missionary work out, but we struggle when we are sharing something to helpful,
meaningful (which people already learned once before they were born! all we
have to do is remind them about it) also clearly a lot of people would be
offended by that invite no matter how it was given, so we do need to think
about what we invite people to as well as how we do it.
Did you have Hot and Cold weather this
week? Did you wear short sleeves this week?
a little bit. I think coming from California
What are your plans today?
just regular P-Day things. I mentioned
we're speaking at church about general conference soon, it's this sunday (the
21st. I may have accidentally said a different date last time) so we'll spend
some time printing out a few conference talks to use and quote from. Then
dinner at the Phillips and then a lesson with an investigator
What good food have you eaten recently?
our fast sunday meal yesterday was Sooo
good. it was grilled chicken (and he "grilled" a few pieces of wood,
I think cedar, along with the chicken to give it flavor). and Risotto and salad
and broccoli (they said they have broccoli almost every day!) and some of the
best rolls ever. Also there were cookies and ice cream for dessert.
Hear any news on any of your old
companions...how they are doing? Just wondering.
my trainer Elder Woodruff is home. I
heard from another missionary that he was made ward mission leader there. I
called Elder Beck once, he was doing fine. He has since been transferred
somewhere else
Did you ask the Elwells if they knew
the Coles from Duarte
no, I forgot to ask about the
connection there. another person in the ward, brother Purser said we may be
somehow related because he has some sort of Cole relatives in Idaho
About the letter you sent, It was fun to read. I can't believe you
guys didn't immediately see the joking'ness about watching conference in our
apartment! us missionary types have basically no access to technology; if we
had a math problem to solve we'd probably have to ask around for an abacus
because we've forgotten how to use anything more advanced
and good drawing you put in the end
this week was pretty good. we had a ward party on Friday which was
very well done. It had a decades theme (50's through 90's). A lot of people
dressed up pretty well, and we had an investigator come! she and her daughter
who came both really liked it and a member or two did a great job reaching out
to talk to her.
sunday we were really excited because that same investigator was
going to come to church for the first time. we even went to the house in the
morning to make sure and everyone was getting ready. then, they never showed
up! (we found out later a friends had to go to the ER, and she dashed over to
watch the kids. understandable). but initially we were disappointed while at
sacrament meeting. Also none of the youth invites pulled through, most people
were already out of town for spring break and stuff, so we'll continue thinking
about them. but the cool thing was that still all the priests got up and bore
their testimony. everyone really liked it. Most of them spoke about missionary
work which was cool too. Another person also got up and talked about a great
missionary experience. very good meeting, made us feel a lot better. Afterwards
bishop got up and talked about how he thought it was a great meeting, and
beforehand he was thinking about whether or not to re-read the first presidency
message, but was glad he didn't because it went well. also he said something
like "the reason this was a great meeting was because we did exactly what
it said, which surprised me!). it was funny.
exciting news for quinn, he often gets to spice up the emails. I
hope Christopher enjoys his long muddy run. I hope Kobe
-until next week,
Me
