June 25, 2012

This week we practiced a lot for the Spanish musical devotional that all of the missionaries in Greeley and Loveland are participating in. It has been odd to be back in a choir, but my musical training has come in handy as I have had to read another language and sight read the music for some 10 songs. It is all stuff by Janice Kapp Perry, which makes me a bit ill, but the Spanish missionaries need help. Hopefully, a lot of people show up because this has taken quite a bit of time. The performances are Friday and Saturday.

We had a non-member show up to church last week named Mike Crawford. He is the high school buddy of a member of the ward and we had a chance to meet with him this week. He is the assistant coach for every sport at the local high school and has been impressed by all the LDS kids there. He was receptive to the message of the restoration and accepted our challenge to be baptized. He is going to make it and loves what he sees already in church. The tough part is, he lives in one of the other wards. Not a huge deal but I won't get to teach him for much longer, which is a bummer.

Aaron  Spalding's parents were in town this week. We went over and had dinner with the whole gang and everything was normal until we got to talking about the gospel. We all had fun razzing Aaron for not having the stuff to marry Gina already but when we started answering questions about the gospel I realized why Aaron is so inactive. His parents would give the most screwy and incorrect answers  to even the most simple questions. When the hard questions rolled around I wasn't sure if I should laugh, cry or punch them in the face to get them to shut up. Wow. We would interrupt the parents a lot needless to say. All I know is I don't blame Aaron all the way anymore and that we have a lot of work to do. On the plus side, it is firmly established that they are weird and we are cool and that the gospel is not as odd as they may have first suspected! Using a family history explanation to try and explain how angels move from place to place. Really? Trying to explain that at all is what gets me. Give me a break.

The Lord is blessing  us in strange ways. We seem to be helping a lot of part member families get closer and closer to receiving the gospel and being ready to live it, but the process is slow. It feels a lot like farming. We have planted a bunch of seeds and have been caring for the ones that were already planted. We have seen them sprout and grow and now we are looking for the fruit of the labor. I know that I am doing much good here. It is just difficult to measure.

I hope you guys know that I am happy. My life is awesome and I love working for these people.

Begging For Soap

Well, this week was a bit on the slow side. (Poor kid, seems like he says that a lot.) Lots of cancelled appointments and people being out of town.

We did beg for soap and take money from a homeless guy.

So the story is that we were asked to collect donations for hygiene kits to help the fire victims and that became our tracting approach. (Colorado has the largest wildfire in history right now. Fortunately, nowhere near Reid.) A guy sitting on a bench asked us what we were doing in one neighborhood and then gave us some cash. After talking a bit more, we found out he was homeless, but he wouldn't take back the cash. So we summarized one day with that last statement.

I did have a cool experience on exchanges. So I was with a missionary that hasn't been out for very long and we had been going around with little success. Elder Greer was getting frustrated that  no one was home, but I promised that we would have success that day if he followed the Spirit. He prayed and said, well the only thing that comes to mind is to go see a lady we dropped yesterday. So we went. We found Karmen on her porch and we got to talking and after a bit we shared the 1st lesson with her and committed her to be baptized! A day of nothing turned into something awesome and Greer was overjoyed.

That always happens to me on exchanges, awesome stuff happens for them and their faith increases.

That is really all that happened this week. Lots of biking. Lots of sweating.

June 11, 2012

First off, I am feeling fine now. My immune system kicked in and all is well. It took a few days, but it was kind of nice to have to stop and just recuperate. Van Ausdal was bored staying home Tuesday and we finally got the release to go out Friday. It was a bit of a slow week because of being sick, but now I appreciate health and an awesome ping-pong paddle. :)

The package you sent made me laugh and that paddle is sweet! Thanks for thinking of it. Of course, you must enjoy the fact that you finally found something that I would want... :) (I did. That kid never wants anything. So I surprised him with a paddle.)

Wow, I don't have anything to talk about. I didn't do anything. Well, I learned that feeling lazy makes me ill and that I enjoy getting out and working. I didn't realize that until this week.

June 4, 2012

This week has been a bit odd. I have been coughing up green slime for the whole week, but I have been feeling good until yesterday. That is when I got tired. I was sitting in ward council and after a bit of coughing, I got up more gunk and the bishop looks at me and says, "Elder, after this go home and shut down for today and possibly tomorrow. Just don't make yourself worse." That is the first time I have been ordered to bed rest by my bishop and it was odd. We obeyed, and it felt weird to go home and stay home all day. Though I am feeling a bit better.

(The momma called the mission office to check on him and to make sure he saw a doctor...)

Besides that things sort of moved forward this week. Lots of cancelled appointments.

We had a great visit with the Spalding family. It was mostly great because they actually had read and had good questions. We found out that he is going to be working weekends for the foreseeable future, which is not cool, but she might make it to church which is nice. I really hope things work out for them. They are super nice and they deserve the gospel in their lives.

We got to meet with the Shumann family this week as well. They seem to have things mostly together and they definitely understand and recognize the Spirit. They have some relationship issues that they are going to work out with the bishop, so that is worrying. 

All in all, things are actually happening, just in ways I didn't expect.