My trainee's name is Elder T.
G., and he's from Mapleton, Utah. He has some pretty good Spanish for only
being in the mission field for a week, and he's a pretty funny guy. I've been
feeling a lot more relaxed with Elder G., and we've been able to crack
some jokes that I couldn't crack last transfer because of a lack of laughter.
Srsly. There wasn't much sense of humor last transfer or the one before that,
so I felt pretty restrained. Nowadays, we've been working really hard in our
area, getting Elder G. used to the area. We've been meeting with investigators,
members, and less-actives, and he's been getting used to what we do as
missionaries. He's still in the English missionary mindset, so I've been trying
to show how some things work with English people and some things don't, and
vice versa with Spanish speakers. We have a Spanish missionary serving in English for our new zone leader. We're still struggling with the dinner
appointments.
On Wednesday, we got Elder G.'s
stuff into the apartment, and started our day with some lessons. We went and
met with I., and talked a bit about the Bible. He asked about the law of
circumcision and why the Lord would command Abraham to do that. After we
explained it a bit, he asked why God would command Abraham to sacrifice his
only son, Isaac. We explained a bit about sacrificing our desires for what the
Lord wants, and he asked how he, personally, could make a sacrifice for the
Lord. We talked a bit about how God has asked us to fulfill certain
commandments, and we talked about baptism again. Tomorrow, Elder G.'s
going to be extending the baptismal invitation to I. We then went and met
with Hna. G., a member in Mira Mesa. We read a bit from the Book of Mormon,
and she told us about how on Wednesday the week before, she had had this
horrible pain in her head, and that it wouldn't go away. Her sister came over
and gave her some pain pills, and the pain went away. However, she was still
pretty shaken up from it, so we asked if we could come back the next day and
give her a blessing, as we were tight on time. She said yes, and we went on our
way to our dinner appointment. We went and ate with a younger member, J.,
that has some doubts about the church and the gospel. He pointedly used a
scripture about polygamy in D&C, and asked why God would tell Joseph to
reveal that. I had been studying this a bit, and the spirit guided my words. I
feel that he got the message, and that it satisfied a little bit of the doubt
that he had.
Thursday, I introduced Elder G. to
Weekly Planning, and we went over all of our members, less-actives, and
investigators that we meet with, and got him a little more familiarized with
the area. We've been speaking quite a bit of Spanish to help him, (and myself),
to speak better. We started our proselyting day with some contacting, talked to
a few people, then we went and gave Hna. G. a blessing. After that, we went
and helped a member to get ready to move, since they had to be out by Saturday.
We then went and helped out a bit, she gave us dinner, and we then went to coordination
meeting with Hno. H. I don't know what was up, but he was on one. He was
cracking all of these jokes, and the meeting didn't stay very focused. But, he
toned down a bit towards the end, and we finished the meeting on a good note.
Friday, we had District Meeting, and I
got a very strong push from the Lord to talk about families and what
strengthens them. Seriously, it was really surprising how strongly the
impressions and thoughts came. So, after getting it all ready, we went and got
the room at the church all ready, (since it was Halloween), and we decorated a
bit using the webbing and stuff that you sent. I had this mechanical mouse that
squeaks when something walks past it, and we set it up strategically to go off
when the sisters walked up the stairs to the room we were in. We scared them
both pretty good, and even scared the other district that was there. I felt
pretty smug about that. :3 We then set a plan to help the branch to get
stronger as families, and have set up a branch FHE for the 18 of November. We
then went and tried to find some investigators, and contacted for a bit, and
then we returned to the apartment for the night. We got all dressed up in our
costumes, expecting to have a lot of kids knocking on our door for candy. Any
guesses on how many came to our door? Only 3. That was it. And they came
together, so we only opened the door once the whole night. Now we have this
huge pile of candy to deal with, which I am not going to eat. We finished our
huge study assignment pretty quick, listened to a talk, and went to bed a bit
early.
For Saturday, we started the day off
with some final service helping out Hna. W. to move out of her old
apartment into the new one. When we arrived, there were several other people
helping, including the branch president, his wife, the second counselor's wife,
and some friends of Hna. W. Around an hour later, it was just us Elders
and the second counselor's wife, so we ended up doing a ton of the heavy
lifting all on our own. I must say, I sometimes surprise myself by how much I
can lift in relation to my skinny body. I may be thin, but I can still pick
heavy stuff up. The key is to lift with your back, not your legs. (Just
kidding, Mom. ;) ) We then went and helped out for a few hours at the Old Poway
Park with setting up for a wedding. We set up the tables, chairs, and
decorations, and had this lady who just couldn't be pleased with how things
were, so we changed things around several times. Ugh. Women and weddings just
don't go together sometimes. After that, we had dinner with the H's, and I
think that it was an inspired dinner, because they got into this mood where
they kept talking about how much the Elders have influenced their lives and the
lives of others. It was good for Elder G. to hear that. After that, we
tried to visit a family that we had an appointment with, but they couldn't meet
with us that night, so we turned into pumpkins for the night.
Sunday rolled around, and my compy had
his first day of church on the mission. He enjoyed it pretty well. F.
came, and he had a white shirt and tie. We had really good classes, with Gospel
Principles talking about temple work and family history. Then, in Priesthood,
we talked about the topic of "Come, Follow Me", and managed to touch
on several good points that I think F. liked. In Sacrament Meeting, we
had the testimony meeting, and several members got up and bore their
testimonies. At the very end, the second counselor in the presidency got up,
and bore his testimony of the reality of eternal families, and told us that he
had been with his brother in the hospital this last week just before he died.
(That was why he wasn't helping us with the service, but his wife was.) He
invited the spirit really strongly, and a lot of the women in the branch were
pretty weepy by the end of his testimony. There was a Break the Fast after
church, and we had some tacos. We then went and tried to visit some people, and
finally met with the B. family. They gave us PB & J sandwiches, and
we talked for a bit about helping their son with his homework. After that, we
went and visited a member that goes to a Dialysis unit every Sunday, Tuesday,
and Thursday. His car is broken down, so he's been relying on the members of
the branch. We're hoping that as the members help him, that they'll get that
desire to serve more.
And finally, yesterday, we spent the
day trying to get a lot of things done, but we ended up getting pulled back a
bit by some circumstances. We went and contacted in some apartments, and found
a woman which, once we'd talked about temples, agreed to have us come by again
to talk to her. Around 6:00, Elder G. had to use the bathroom, so we went
to McDonald's since that was the closest thing we could find. We ran into our investigator
F. at the exact moment that he was taking his one and only 30 minute
break for the day. It was really miraculous that we found him right then. We
talked a bit, shared a scripture, and let him get back to work. Later that
night, we went and visited the B's. They gave us a drink that we're a
little suspicious about. It may or may not have been tea, so we're praying that
it wasn't. We talked a bit, but this time around, the conversation didn't
revolve around the temple. I tried to pull an inception, and tried to get the
conversation there, but it seemed that they needed to let some things off of
their shoulders for a bit, so we let them talk to us about some other topics.
And that's the week! We had some pretty
amazing miracles this week, and are looking forward to more.
Talk to you
next week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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