August 15, 2011

Elder Herschi and scary a bird

We decided to tract the towns of Egburt and Hillsdale this week and it was weird. Egburt's 10 or so houses upon closer inspection are mostly vacant. We only found 4 houses that actually had people in them and one of them is a member that we visit all the time. It was actually pretty freaky to walk around an all dirt road town full of mostly battered looking empty houses in the middle of no where. Hillsdale only has about 17 houses but at least most of them are occupied. We found a lady that has been inactive for approximately forever and while she isn't interested in anything gospel related, she did tell us about the one large building in town. She lives across the street from the old elementary school. After it was condemned a man bought it and used it for his residence and a junkyard. After he died, the fire department investigated the contents of of the "house" and found the upstairs was filled with old propane tanks and tires, the gym was filled with cars and the rest of the place had all kinds of flammable things. Instead of making it safe, they boarded it up and told everyone in the town that if they see any signs the building is on fire that they should evacuate. That's right, the whole town! I have some pictures of it and it is pretty creepy to begin, but the fact that the town has a bomb in the middle of it is priceless!

Now on to the good things that happened. We got a referral from one of the members in the ward to teach a girl named Miston Compton that has been friends with their son forever. At the lesson she expressed that she has never really had religion in her life and that at 27 she wants to find out why the Hollings are so happy and try to come to know who God is. So we shared  the first lesson focusing on the nature of God. We asked her  about how she felt about the things we had told her after relating the first vision and she said that she felt that what we had said was true. We explained that she felt that by the power of the Holy Spirit and she began to well up. The spirit was so strong there and it was clear that she was feeling it. After briefly explaining the

Book of Mormon to her she committed to read it every day and then prayed for us. As she offered her simple and heartfelt prayer the Spirit redoubled it's efforts ans she almost could not finish. It was amazing to see and I am thankful that I was allowed to be a part of that lesson.

Thanks for all of the prayers and support you give me. I feel your love and it holds me up.

August 8, 2011

Elder Herschi was in my MTC district so I had class with him every day. I am getting along great with him. He is very obedient and hard working. We have plenty to talk about  and he is going to be a big help in getting the work rolling here.

Well, we have seen more success in finding of late, which is refreshing to say the least, and we are working on pursuing every avenue to get things moving. One of the big things in the way right now is that it feels like this ward is just trying to survive and doesn't have a ward mission plan or a functioning Perry Program. We are going to have to fast and pray a little more, in my opinion, before we truly have all the direction that we need, but that said, things are looking up. The coolest things that we are starting to see is that members are beginning to work on referrals for us and they are getting comfortable enough to reveal that fact to us. That means that they probably trust us enough to teach their friends and loved ones.

We tracted almost the whole town of Carpenter the other day which was interesting. It is harvest time and that meant that a lot of people were away from home working, but you could feel the eyes on us everywhere we went. We had one really great interaction with a man who's brother is a member in another part of the state, but not much interest in learning. Oh well. At least we can say that we tracted a town of 100.  :)

August 1, 2011

We have moved to Sister Murdock's house and it is nice and clean. We have plans to move in a month or less to an even better house that will become a more permanent place for the missionaries as well. I can now officially say I live in Burns, Wyoming population 285.

This is how a typical day goes: Get up and get ready for the day. Study for 2 hours. Try to see specific people or work on things like paperwork until lunch. After lunch, head out and try to visit some less-active member on the way to an area where we may tract or street contact. Community service is another regular activity. Places like food banks or non-for profit thrift stores. Wear going to try and start up member lessons in this ward to get them more engaged in the work and maybe get a few referrals. We have a few appointments here and there which take precedence over all other things. Dinner with a member family is usually at 6 after which we try to visit specific individuals again. We try to be home by 9 so we can plan for the next day and do what ever else needs to be done. 

Today is the start of a new transfer and I am staying but getting a new companion. Elder Hersey (can't spell it yet) is someone I came out with and I think we are going to have a good time together. I am the senior companion and will therefor get to drive! This transfer is going to be 5 weeks long because I don't know why and the next transfer will be 7 weeks long to compensate. Dobronsky is so happy to leave it's a little odd. I like this area thus far and am thinking that there is a lot of good to do here still.