Katy Perry Remix - Missionary Style!
March 16, 2015
Hello
folks!!
Life here in Cold Springs, NV is going well!! I am finally starting to get the hang of life as an English missionary, and dealing with white people problems. But we really do have a great ward, and I am excited about the direction we are heading.
Cold Springs
has had really good missionaries in it for a long time. So because of that, there have been quite a
few baptisms in the past year…like 20 or so, so
our teaching pool is almost
non-existent. So finding has been our focus, and we have been fasting and
praying specifically that we can find a family of 4 this month, who will be
ready for baptism next month. We have been working hard to find them!! We are
doing a mission-wide thing for April that we are excited about called
"April Showers of Miracles" which is actually a program that Sister
Stevenson had, and she and her companion shared with the rest of us at MLC.
(Sister Stevenson is an awesome missionary btw #LeesburgRepresent!).
But, basically during the month of April we are going to have a 40-Family fast for missionary work in the ward. So each day, a family will fast for missionary work, and then we will end their fast with them when we go over for dinner. It’s kind of a play on Christ's 40-day fast, but with 40 families. So one family each day, plus ten more because there are only 30 days in April. We then filled out our own goal sheet and set some goals for us as missionaries. I will take a picture of our goal sheet and the calendar and send them next week. But basically it’s just a program to get the whole ward and the whole mission involved and excited about missionary work. Also, every Monday night at 7pm wherever everyone is, they are going to stop and say a prayer specifically for missionary work. Isn’t this just a great idea???? Klingensmith and I introduced it to our bishop the other day, and he was quite excited about it.
 |
| Cold Springs and White Lake = my area |
But, basically during the month of April we are going to have a 40-Family fast for missionary work in the ward. So each day, a family will fast for missionary work, and then we will end their fast with them when we go over for dinner. It’s kind of a play on Christ's 40-day fast, but with 40 families. So one family each day, plus ten more because there are only 30 days in April. We then filled out our own goal sheet and set some goals for us as missionaries. I will take a picture of our goal sheet and the calendar and send them next week. But basically it’s just a program to get the whole ward and the whole mission involved and excited about missionary work. Also, every Monday night at 7pm wherever everyone is, they are going to stop and say a prayer specifically for missionary work. Isn’t this just a great idea???? Klingensmith and I introduced it to our bishop the other day, and he was quite excited about it.
 |
| Spending a day in Quincy, CA with Elder Hawkes and Elder Krey |
One member
who is a recent convert, and was baptized here a few months ago is a ski-boat
mechanic!! So we were instantly best friends, and we started talking about the
different boat companies and which is the best and stuff. As part of his job,
after he fixes up the boats, he has to go and test them, so he gets to drive
all sorts of ski boats for fun as he "tests them." He offered to take
us out one day, but the missionary white hand book says we cant :( haha! (BTW Dad, he recommends ski Natique or Malibu
boats...so start looking!! Just kidding, those are the most expensive ones!)
So Dad, just
to answer a few of your questions:
My new
companion is great. He is a workhorse. He will be going home next month - and he openly admits that he is starting to
get a little trunky, but we are working hard, especially to find new
investigators. And no worries, I will make sure he finishes through the finish
line. He is from Minnesota, and he's a Vikings fan! He was a mechanic before his mission (he is 22) and he knows
everything there is to know about cars.
And yes,
President Hermansen has us do lots of little things, like last Saturday we had a
mini-mission here in the Reno North stake, and the stake asked for two
missionaries to come and teach the mini-missionaries how to use Preach my
Gospel. So he assigned us to go down to
the stake center for what was supposed to be like 15-20 minute training, but
turned into like an hour-long thing. The stake center is 30 minutes away, so we
end up driving lots in the car (thanks again for the ipod....MoTab is great and
all but it gets old after a while...).
President also
had us arrange all the mini-missionaries into a companionships and make sure
everyone was in the right place at the right time and so forth. And then the
next day, after the mini mission, the stake asked for 4 missionaries to go back
to the stake center and do a Q&A session, so we went with two sister
missionaries for that.
We also have
to do Baptismal Interviews for the district leaders, which we have had like 6
of those in the past two weeks, which is a GREAT thing, but it just means more
driving, like we drove out to Tahoe again this past week, which is like a three
hour ordeal.
Yesterday,
we met with the High counselor in charge of missionary work and talked with him
for about an hour, and we have an appointment with the stake president
tomorrow. It’s all just little administrative stuff, but stuff we have to do. I
enjoy it, being like a little helper for President, but it’s also nice to do
real missionary work.
There is not
a "Spanish" Zone, although I wish there was. There are currently 8
Zones, and there are two other Zone Leaders currently serving as ZLs who were
called to speak Spanish, and have served in Spanish areas before, but all the
ZL areas are English speaking. Apparently there used to be a Spanish speaking
ZL Area, but it doesn’t exist anymore. On Tuesday, I actually had a personal
interview with President Hermansen (my first one), and we talked about me
serving in Spanish. He actually brought it up first, when he said "I'm
sorry Elder Todd, I know that you want to serve in Spanish, but right now He (The
Lord) needs you to serve as a leader." And then he told me about how one
of his past Assistants was called to speak Spanish, but was an Assistant for 14
months and served in English there. So in other words, he was trying to tell me
that if you are in Leadership, you are probably going to be in an English area.
As far as
creating a Spanish zone, I don’t think that will happen, because President
likes to keep the zones with the corresponding stakes, so until we get a
Spanish stake that won’t be the case....but ya never know!! The mission is at
an all-time small, but as usual, we are expected to get another big wave of missionaries this
summer. And of course, there will be lots of changes when President Hermansen
goes home and we get President Chestnut in July!! (Did you know they only get
TWO hours together?!!??)
 |
| Dog throw up... |
We got back
from our exchanges in California Saturday night to find out that our propane
tank ran out, so we have had no heat or hot water, no gas stove or oven or
anything for the past two days....so I have been bundling up at night, and it
stinks waking up to a freezing house!! But we called the mission office today,
and they are going to send someone over soon....so hopefully that is just a
short-term trial that we are going through hahahahaha....gotta love missionary
life!!!
But that’s
about all I have for this week!! Things are going well, the Zone is doing
great, I love my zone!! And we get to go to the temple on Wednesday, so we are
excited about that!!! I know that the church is true. I know that Thomas S.
Monson is a prophet of God. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our
prayers, and that he loves us.
I love you guys! Have a great week!!!
Elder Todd
No comments:
Post a Comment