October 13, 2009

I'm pretty sure that I haven't told you about TJ yet. TJ is a troubled youth in our ward. The funny thing is the kid has no fear when it comes to sharing the gospel with his friends. He had been trying for a long time to get him to come on splits with us. His parents grounded him, so he couldn't come. Well, I finally went with him to go visit some friends of his. Everything fell through and so we had to knock doors. TJ wasn't sure about his testimony, but I invited him to share it on the things he knew about. So, I would let him bear small testimony on each step. The last door step, it didn't effect the person very much, but TJ bore a solid sincere testimony about family and the word of wisdom. The spirit touched his heart and he decided that he now wants to serve a mission, just because of that moment. I committed him to read 3 Nephi 11 and pray about it.

So now that I've explained TJ, the following week, TJ and I decided that we should teach his girlfriend the gospel, so he can serve a mission. So he takes me to her house while her parents aren't home. Because her parents aren't home, we had to teach her outside, in the dark, with tons of mosquitos. It was a terrible lesson. I couldn't see her face because it was dark, so I couldn't read her body language. The whole time she spent swatting herself to not get bitten. The best part was in the middle, out of nowhere, this special needs kid comes up to say hi. He was tall and big, mind you, it's almost pitch black. Lets just say it scared me. It turned out to be AJ, her next door neighbor. She doesn't want to meet with us again because her parents won't let her, but she's ok with TJ serving a mission now. Cool, eh?

So the week before this, everyone was sick. We hadn't met up with Tanya for a week because they all had the flu. We finally stopped in and set up an appointment. Guess what, it was a dinner appointment. She decided to feed us. One of the great signs of being elect is when they feed you. She made a great dinner. "Tacos!" :) Anyways, they were good. We got to meet her husband Darnyl. He's not interested, but he's ok with everything. Tanya said that she had noticed a big difference without us being there. She wanted the spirit back. She fed us mint tea too. It was great. Her and all her kids came to church. Even Jordan. It was his first time, but they all loved it. They're so amazing. We have a meeting again with them tonight. They really have no doubts. Tanya was participating in class and saying things directed by the spirit. I love this family.

A new investigator that I don't think I've told you about is Arturo. He is Irma's son, of Joe and Irma. He recently moved into their house. I let him use my jacket at Joe and Irma's wedding. Arturo is so prepared. He watched conference with us and went to church last sunday. He understood and had great questions. My favorite quote from him is "yeah, I was baptized Christian. I've always thought though, who gave that man the right to baptize me?" He understands the authority. He also understands what the spirit feels like, and notices that it follows us around. He's so humble and agrees with everything. He said "if Christ was coming again, of course he would send a prophet."

I saved the best story for last. You asked about how Keenan is doing. Well, after we talked to him that one night, his cousin and brother told him that he was going to hell if he became a Mormon. So he cancelled our appointment with him. We kept trying to meet up with him again, but nothing worked. He was avoiding us and Alec, the kid who found him, was getting sick of us pushing him. So we just decided to stop. One day, Alec decided to go for a walk and bumped into Keenan. Keenan explained his worries and decided to meet with us again. Elder Palmer and I taught about how you need to follow the light that God gives you. We read 2 Nephi 29 with him. It was amazing. He told us that his goal in life was to gain knowledge. He knew the Bible had been changed and of course God would still speak to his children. He felt the spirit and knew it was true. He's 17, and he's saying stuff like "I don't want to put a curtain over the truth anymore. I've got to live with the light God has given me and show it." He still has to ask his parents if he can get baptized and break the news to them. In his closing prayer he said "God, thank you for leading Joseph Smith to the plates and helping him translate them so I could have this extra knowledge." He is amazing. Pray that he will know how to tell his parents, and that their hearts will be softened. We have an appointment with him Wednesday.

Other than that, not too much has happened. We had 8 people at church. This week was booming. It made up for our last week. I think that this companionship/area has been so amazing for a few reasons. First, the faith that I had in this area and my companions. They are both so amazing. We all got along really well. We all just expected each other to be obedient. We raised and lifted each other. Our strengths were in different areas. We taught in unity because we had the spirit. In short, we loved each other and got along with each other because we lifted each other and expected nothing less.

The horns award toes to the companionship that baptizes the most. It's a set of actual long horns....Texas style. It's pretty cool to have. I plan on gettin' em some day.

October 5, 2009

How about that conference? Wasn't it amazing? It's so nice to have such an awesome weekend- so spiritual- then have a nice relaxing p-day.

This week was crazy. We've been packing up and moving apartments. That was the first crazy thing about this week. It took a whole day and a half to move apartments. That is a lot of time wasted. It's a very nice apartment though. There's light in it. There's space to walk around. It's very clean too. All in all, it was a very nice and needed change. I still sleep on the couch for now, but transfers are coming up soon. It would totally be worth it to sleep on the couch again if I could keep Elder Palmer and Elder Tracy. I love them so much. Our numbers went down this week because of it, and other things, but we will do better next week.

Other things that were crazy and stopped us from doing so well this week... everyone here has the flu. It's ben going around like crazy. He had tons of lessons set up that got cancelled due to the flu. We hadn't been able to meet up with Tanya all week because it's been going around in her family. Now she has it. Stupid adversary! Attacking the bodies of the prepared and elect. This next week everyone should be over it. That will be nice.

We totally had a flood. Well, Texas is set up so it doesn't flood but this is as close as I have ever been. When it rains here, it can rain pretty hard. All the streets were like a river. We even drove past a house that had over 2 feet of water backed up into the yard. There was so much pressure on it that the fence fell over. All of this happened in about half an hour. An hour later, it was completely sunny again. I love the rain.

New news. I am once again without a ward mission leader. It's happened in every single one of my areas except UC. I think President is just sending me to areas to get the new ward mission leader off to a good start. Not really, but it happened in 4 of my 5 areas. Our ward mission leader was called to be 2nd counselor in the Bishop Brick (yes, Nathan really wrote Bishop Brick. lol.) The thing about this ward is that everyone is so awesome that we will have a great one to replace him. There is solid leadership in this ward. It's the best I've been in so far. It's known through out the mission for it's solid members.

Conference took upa ton of time. It was so worth it. But it added to our numbers problem. We were able to get a ton of people to watch it though. There were some powerful talks. I cane to understand that becoming a ZL is like becoming a father and that it's just training me to be a good dad. A lot of the leadership skills I'm learning now will help me for that... it's the same skills. Having a family is a leadership calling. Fun, huh?

You'll never guess what I just did. Are you ready for this? I went and held a piece of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Isn't that so cool? A member in our ward has a piece of it. I held a piece of paper that had to, at some point, been held by the prophet Joseph Smith. Isn't that cool? She went and got it authenticated. It was part of Alma 60. It was scripted by Oliver Cowdry. It felt like a dream. So unreal. Anyway, it was an amazing experience.

We also went to ZLC this wek. There was nothing new about this one, but it was still a blast. Tomorrow is stewardships. That's where we go and tell president everything we think should happen in the zone. I'll tell what it's like later.

I have a true love for the Lord and his Restored Gospel. My testimony has grown in sharing it. The Lord doesn't need me to share my testimony, but he has given me the chance to do so my testimony could grow. I know that true happiness comes from families, and we can only enjoy those blessings by obedience to the Lord's gospel.

A HUGE Elder Morris Update

Dear Blog Readers,

I am officially two months and three long letters behind in blogging Elder Morris’s adventures. Thanks for being patient with me. I decided that I can’t go on today until they are typed up and submitted to the cyberworld for your enjoyment. So here they are… from mid-August to almost October. These letters are full of really good stuff!

Love, Jamilyn

August 13, 2009

I can’t tell you how excited I am right now. Everything feels right. It’s been quite some time since that has happened. I’ve been having a slight, what would you call it, new and scary look on the mission. I don’t have much time left. I have people to help. I need to find all of them. I’ve been trying really hard to remain focused- to take nothing away from my focus. Sadly, it has turned me into a poor writer. Thanks for being patient with me and not giving up on me.

Let me tell you why I’m so excited! In these past few weeks, everything is getting better. Our numbers are going way up. We’ve been pushing and loving, and it’s working. August is going to be a great month. We are so going to blow our goals out of the water. Speaking of goals, our companionship: 2/3 baptized, Our district 4/5 baptized, Our zone 13/14 baptized our mission 79/100 baptized. We have been trying as a mission to get 100 baptisms ever since I’ve been here. This month looks like it will happen for sure! Since I’ve had my new and scary look on the mission, we’ve been doing great with lessons and new investigators. My numbers probably look the best that they ever have in the mission. I just feel pumped. You probably don’t care too much about numbers. I do though. I know that they mean people. Numbers = people, thus I care. I love helping people.

Anyways, lets talk about some really fun stuff. We’ll start with the Jackson family, Kris and Jerome. They are probably one of my favorite families. They were so prepared for the gospel. We found them knocking. A month before we found them, they got married. Fifteen days later, Kris has her baby boy Joshua. Fifteen days after that, I get transferred here and we knock into them. Kris always accepted the gospel from the beginning. Always remembered what we had taught her, even though her kids were going crazy during the lessons. After we taught Kris some, she came to church. Then, Jerome lost his job. That made it possible for him to be home, so we could teach him. Church, he would always sleep in for though. Well, Kris’s baptism comes around and he gets forced to church. He loves it. We got him into playing basketball with the ward on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. So he saw all his basketball buddies at church. Kris’s baptism was beautiful. Jerome came and it helped him a lot. After the baptism, the first thing they grabbed was a tithing slip. We taught them about tithing and how it was important. They wanted to pay right away, even though Jerome didn’t have a job and they were only making $300 a month. The next week Kris and Jerome came to church and paid their tithing. Guess what? Jerome got a call up from an old job and they offered him a permanent spot . How cool, eh? Then Jerome got baptized. It was so so so sweet. Everyone was there. They are so solid. I can’t wait to see them get sealed. Anyways… it’s been great to see them change too. They used to argue, be unhappy and even dress funny. Now, hey smile, love each other, and look shartp. They are preparing for eternal marriage. All in all, they are up there with the Chris Timmermann baptism.

My district is doing a lot better, hopefully. We’ll see how their numbers do this week. The sisters made up and apologized. They decided they can be friends. Shoal Creek A Elders seem happy. I went on exchanges with Elder Schoney in our area. He is a great missionary. We got so much done. Every door we knocked on, pretty much opened and let us in. It was way sweet.

Elder Blaylock and I are doing a lot better. I’ve been focusing on creating unity and dropping bad thoughts about him and not feeding them. If you feed bad thoughts, they grow. About unity for example, we went on a huge thrift store tie hunt on P-day. It was so good for us. We even bought comp unity ties. Focusing on things that we both can do and have fun has united us. Exchanges showed me one thing though. It’s great to live with someone you get along with.

September 7- 14, 2009

I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll just start from right now and work my way back. If there is anything I need to fill you in on as well, I’ll do it along the way. So… Let the fable begin.

Once upon a time, there was a man of great valor. His name was Sir Elder Moris. Most people called him Elder Sir Morris because the “Elder” title was more important. In this story, we will just call him Elder Morris. Elder Morris had just received notice that he was to go to the Land Northward to rally up some troops. He was informed that his responsibilities would be greater. That everyone would be watching him and would follow his lead. He would be tripling the amount of his previous army, and on top of that, he would be assisting in breaking in a new soldier. There was lots of work for him to do.

Ok, that’s taking too long to write like that. I hope you enjoyed it thorugh. As I told you through email, I’m in the Round Rock zone again. It’s so much fun. Elder Leonard is a district leader here. That means that I get to go on exchanges with him. We’ll be comps for a day. Those are pretty much the only missionaries in my zone that I know. Sis. Kliesler was here for 3 days but then she got emergency transferred because she was more than her companion could handle. Kinda sad. She is still having struggles. Let’s tell you a little about my companions. They’re both from California. Here is Elder Palmer:

“Hello, this is Elder Palmer. I am from Redlands, CA. I am excited to be serving along side Elder Morris. I have heard good things about him ever since I came up to Austin. He is invincible and is doing really well. He asked me to say more about myself. So here goes. I am #2 of 6 kids. I used to swim in high school. I went to Harvard before my mission. I love to write and have done a bit of photography. And now here is Elder Tracy”:

“Hola. Me llamo Elder Tracy. I’m from California, around Sacramento. I have 3 sisters (2 older, 1 younger). My oldest sister is now pregnant with her first and my other older sister had her first at the end of June. Elder Morris and Elder Palmer are training me and doing a fine job at it, at least from my perspective. Elder Morris is the man. I did 2 semesters at BYU before my mission, loved it. I run track and cross country. Not sure what else to say, so I’ll stop. That’s the best bet. I’ll throw it back over to Elder Morris now…”

Yeah, they’re both incredible. I love them so much. I just barely found out that Elder Palmer is a big Yo-Yo Ma fan. As a matter of fact, he has met Yo-Yo Ma. He’s been to two of his concerts. How cool is that. I guess Yo-Yo Ma is a Harvard grad, so he still lives by the University.

I have two companions now, but my apartment is really really small. We can fit all of our stuff in it just fine. The only problem is that one bedroom apartments are not made to fit three beds. So I offered myself as a sacrifice and I’m sleeping on the couch in the other room. It’s a really comfy couch

We have been seeing so many miracles as a companionship. Our goal for this month is 4 baptisms. It may be more though. We officially have a “weddism”. It will be my first. I hear that they are way sweet. Joe and Irma are their names. They are so solid. They were having troubles drinking coffee. We we brought over a big box that we called the Faith Box to their house yesterday. We read to them the story of Moses telling Satan to get hence. You know, how you should cast out temptation. Before we could tell Joe what the box was for, he said “You come back next time and ya’ll will see what’s in that box.” So we are going to pick it up tonight and hopefully the coffee maker is in it.. They’re getting married on the 19^th and baptized on the 20^th. Irma is having rouble giving up coffee, so pray for her.

Being in a threesome is so different. It just seems like too many people. It seems overpowering. We’ve worked it out pretty well though. At a doorstop, one person will teach, the other testify, and the lst commit. It still seems like too many people though. But I don’t know if I’ve been this successful in a companionship in a while. We get along really well. I’m so excited. We are seeing tons of miracles. We are being lead by the spirit. Time is going by way too fast. I have so many mixed feelings at this point in my mission.

Right now I am studying the BoM. Sis cutler gave us all a new copy of the BoM and a marking system to go with it. We are supposed to finish by December 23. I just started 2Nephy. We mark Yellow for his name or pronouns referring to him. His words by him or his prophets (thus sayeth the Lord) in red. Green is Christ-like attributes from chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel. Blue is things that apply to the gospel of Jesus Christ. – Lesson 3 of Preach my Gospel. Pretty fun, huh?

I’m so excited for conference! Bring a nonmember friend to conference, k? Anyone I have ever gotten to go see conference has known the church is true. Will you do it? Go watch it at the church too. .

I’m really loving any Hispanic food. Although the best thing I have been fed was a vegan meal I pretty much just love food. I can eat a lot more now, and I’m no longer nervous to eat in front of people. The other day I had a Fudruckers 1 lb. burger, a large fry, and 2 sodas. Crazy, eh?

What do I like about myself and what is my best missionary quality? Luckily enough, we just had comp inventory, so I know the answers my companions think. I’m very cheerful even in hard times. Also, I’m very personal. I see someone’s need and fulfill it. I care about each person individually. That’s what my companions say.

I’m so glad you love cello. We’ve been listening to a lot of cello music lately. Both of my comps like it! I haven’t been able to fine one, but I get two, and they both like it! I love this companionship! My favorite yet!

September 14-21, 2009

Hey again. I told you that I would write you a letter about all my zone leader things that I do and what not, so I thought I’d get started soon.

First, I’ll tell you about Zone Leader council. It’s the first Friday of every month. So, I went to my first one my second day of being a ZL. We had to drop Elder Tracy off with Elder Jensen and his companion, cause he’s not a ZL. Then we picked up Elder Dutson and Elder Erickson and went on the long trip to San Antonio. By long, I mean an hour and a half. It was so much fun. I love them so much. We meet up at the stake center by the temple and talk about ho we can improve the mission. It’s so spiritual. I know President Cutler truly cares about us all. After we council. We race to President’s house. I mean race. There is an unwritten award for being the first one there for some reason. I followed behind President into his gate community. Bad idea. We almost got chopped in half by the gate. I guess the gate is timed. Most gates aren’t. We made it safe though. When we get to president’s house, we just sit and talk for a bit until Sis. Cutler is done making lunch. You’ll never guess what she made. French dips. J I remember how you used to love those. They were so good. I’m glad you are eating healthy now though. After lunch, tey hand out awards such as the horns and the shoe. Following that, we go around the room and everybody bears their testimony. The spirit is always so strong. Wouldn’t you know it, right when I get to the middle of my testimony the doorbell rings. After testimonies, each companionship chooses a hymn to sing. At the very end, they chose to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The secret is at the chorus, everyone starts to march in a circle. They don’t tell the new people so it’s extra funny that way. Even President does it, and he is a very serious man. We sing “love one another” to finish it off. We put our arms around each other and sway back and forth. We sway as far as we can without falling over. It’s fun. After all the singing is over, we take a group picture. We then take off to the office to pick up mail and what not. We just spend time hanging out for a little bit. Then head back home.

Something fun about the car ride home though. The stakes in Austin decided to fast and pray for rain. On our way home, as soon as we hit Austin, it’s a wall of rain. It’s flooding like crazy. I took a wrong turn and ended up taking us off the freeway onto the flooded streets. Water was shooting up 2 feet in the air out of the gutters because there was so much rain. You could barely see. I was for sure our car was going to get stuc in all the water. We dropped Elder Dutson and Erikson off at the church. I left something in the church, so I had to run 15 feet into the church to get it. I was completely soaked from head to toe! The streets were rivers. It was crazy. We drove 15 minutes north to get home to Round Rock and it’s not even raining. I guess that’s what you get for fasting and praying for rain. It hasn’t stopped raining here for a week and that so isn’t Texas.

Another thing that’s different is that you only train once a transfer as a Zone Leader. You have to make it really good. I trained on having faith. That’s probably the biggest thing that I have learned on my mission. Your work, your area, and your companion all have to do with how much faith you have in them. I figured out the area thing with McNeil. As I changed my attitude, the area changed. Seguin, I gained faith in my work. As I went to Shoal Creek, at first I didn’t have faith in Elder Blaylock. He was tough to work with. He was awkward and unfunny. Didn’t love working much either. You helped me see that my attitude was all wrong though. I changed the way I iewed him and increased my faith in him, and it worked. He was a great companion and friend. All because of my faith. After I trained on faith, I committed everyone to do one good thing for themselves, their companion, and their area per day. We passed out white boards so everyone could write down the names of the investigators in the zone, and pray for them by name for them. It was a really good Zone Meeting.

Now, the pesky thing about being a zone leader … exchanges. I guess it’s not too bad, but we did it two days in a row. So I left my area for two days to train other Elders. By the time I came back, I was so lost in my area. It’s amazing how much you miss in two days. I erally missed Elder Palmer and Elder Tracy. I can’t speak enough good stuff about them. A lot can happen in two days.

More that’s happening. Joe and Irma didn’t get baptized this Sunday as planned. They are waiting for 1^st presidency approval. First off, Joe and Irma are solid. Joe is going to be a bishop someday. He just needs a little more time.

We also have a wonderful family of 6 that we are teaching. 3 of them have a date to be baptized in October. Their names are Tanya (mother), Jordan (10) and Epiphany (8). Her other kids are too young. We are trying to teach the husband right now but his work is conflicting. He found some weird religion where he gets up at 3 am , lights a candle, and meditates in the closet. So that will be a new challenge. Pray that his heard will be softened. Tanya really knows that the church is true. She wasn’t able to make it this Sunday because her mother had a stroke in Fort Worth, and is in the hospital. Pray for her mother, and pray that she can make it home soon.

Are you ready for a sweet miracle? The miracle of the week happened when we went to visit some members. The Beck family. The Becks, we had taught them to make a list of 5. So we were going to follow up with them. Well, they cancelled and moved it to two weeks later. So we go to visit them and show up. Their so Alec was supposed to be there, but decided to go for a walk and forgot that we were coming. We go over the list one by one of the people they are going to give us to teach. They get to Alec’s name, and it’s his friend Keenan. Elder Palmer tells us the story about how he randomly bumped into Keenan while street contacting. He was sitting on a rock listening to his ipod. He asked if he had any mormon friends, and Keenan told him that he knew Alec, but he wasn’t very interested. Elder Palmer committed him to talk to Alec if he ever had any questions. Little did he know, Alec is like is best friend and he was waiting to go on a walk with him. Side noteL we had picked up Alec as he was walking home in the pouring rain. We told him that we would only give him a ride if he gave us a referral (as a joke), but he gave us Keenan. We committed him to talk with him about the gospel. That was the end of that. Wo, back to Elder Palmer and the story of finding Keenan on a rock… as soon as Elder Palmer gets done telling the story, guess who walks right in the door? KEENAN! His first words are “looks like I came at the right time.” Ya see, Keenan and Alec had just gone on a walk with each other to talk. Well, the gospel came up. Alec taught him the plan of salvation and about the priesthood. Keenan really wanted to know more and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. There we were, Everyone knowing we were talking about him. He sat down and we answered his question of ow he could know it was true. The spirit was so thick in the room. We bore testimony so powerfully. He was saying things like “It just feels good” and “It just makes sense” and II feel like I belong”. Elder Tracy committed him for baptism right then. Or greeny committed him! That’s how strong the spirit was. Elder Tracy says “Once you know this is true, will you be baptized?” Keenan’s response was “I already know it’s true. Yes!” Isn’t that amazing? It was incredible. We taught him 10 minutes and he knew it was true. He couldn’t deny the spirit. Pray for Keenan through, because his family is giving him some real opposition right now. Pray that his parents will soften their hearts. Since he is only 17, he needs their approval So that’s your miracle of the week. I can’t wait to tell you all the miracles I have seen.

*If ya read all the way to the bottom of this post, please leave a comment and tell me that ya read it. Sometimes it feels like I do this for nothing. But I'm sure that's false, right? Right? -Jamilyn

Email Excerpts From Labor Day 2009

My new address is:
101 E. Bowman Rd #217
Round Rock, TX 78664

But that will be changing at the end of the month. We are moving into a new appartment. That's what it is until I say differnt tho... :)

Here's my new Compaions. Elder Palmer is in the middle and Elder Tracy is to the far left. Elder Tracy is our trainee.

Elder Palmer and I are Zone Leaders. Elder Palmer has the red tie. Elder Tracy is our trainee. It's really fun being in a trio, but it does seem over powering sometimes. Exspecailly at doors and what not. Elder Tracy is such a solid Greeny. I wouldn't even call him Green. Our companionship has already seen so many miracles and it hasn't even been a week yet! I'm so excited!

Round Rock zone is the same zone that McNeil was in. Now I'm the Zone Leader. They pretty much touch each other. So, all my areas have pretty much touched each other up here in Austin/Round Rock. I see over 2 wards. La Rama de Palm Valley and Walsh Ranch ward. If you didn't pick up on that, I'm in a spanish branch! There's not too much spanish here, but there's more then my other areas. It will be perfect. I'm so so so excited about everything here. I've been focusing really really hard, which has been making me send less letters. 

Birthday Boy

For anyone who might have forgotten:

Nathan's birthday is August 31.  Which is ten days from now.

And if you need gift ideas, he says he ALWAYS loves new ties.  And he especially likes paisley ones.  He also could use paper and stamps.  

And the address on the right is current, so if you decide to send birthday greetings, that's the place to send them.

August 17, 2009 email

It was a way way sweet week this week. I've been trying to stay more focused and it paid off. I know I shouldn't be a numbers person, but numbers mean people and our numbers were off the chart. I'm so excited to keep this up. The Lord  is truely helping us right now. I got some of the highest number in my mission this week. It feels like I just got a 4.0.
       I thought you would enjoy some pictures. Two are of Jeromes Baptism. The other is my chainmail tie. You remember the guy that let us try on his chainmail? Well, he taught us how to do it, so we set to work on making a tie. Do you like it? It says "TSAM" with a baptism sign. Anyways, he said he would come to church if I wore the tie, so I did, and he came. His name is Micheal, he was formerly a Jew. He Loved church and wants to come back, so we can start teaching him the lessons too.
        Remember Flan and how we confirmed him in his home? Remember how touched his wife was? Guess what, her daughter came to live with them in Texas now. That means that she can quit her second job and come to church. So she, and her daughter both came to church. The great thing is that she already wants to be a member. We just need to teach her. She'll be getting baptised on the 30th with her daughter.
        We also knocked into a Bekah this week. She is such an Austin hippie earthmuffin. I Love it. She is so prepared and elect. She had issues with women not having the priesthood, but that was fix when we brought a member, Melissa, to come teach with us. The lesson was so full of the spirit. Complete change around.
         All in all we had 8 people at church, and they can all get baptised this month, like, they are progressing. we taught 29 lessons this week to. Everyone we talked to just let us in. It's so sweet when the work is sweet. It's all in the attitude and the effert you put forth.

July 27, 2009

Kris got baptized!!!  It was way sweet.  We had a great turnout to her baptism too.  There were 40 people or more.  Kris was way nervous before the baptism.  She was afraid of the water and getting drowned.  She was way happy after and couldn't stop smiling.  The spirit was so strong there.  Jerome, Kris's husband, kept telling people that he was going to get baptized in 2 weeks.  I think it was just the thing he needed to push him along.  Kris and Jerome were found knocking too.  That's my first knocking baptism.  I love it!  To think if we weren't being obedient to President Cutler's council and knocked at least an hour every day, we wouldn't have found them.  I love that family so much.  

Francis also got baptized.  He is from Ghana. Francis knew the church in Ghana and loved it, but he was never baptized.  Once he came to Texas, he called up church headquarters in SLC to find the nearest church.  He doesn't have a car, but his friend Moses goes to our church.  It took Francis 2 and a half months to get to church, but he did it.  We thought he was in mine and Elder Blaylock's area, but he belonged to Elder Froste and Elder Paisley.  So, we taught him the first lesson.  He was so ready that the spirit told me to commit him for the 26th to be baptized.  He accepted.  He should have been baptized in the singles ward, but he wanted to stay in Shoal Creek and Elder Paisley hadn't had a baptism  yet and he is over 6 months out.  So, Elder Paisley got to teach him a little.  Elder Paisley got transferred before the baptism, but President Cutler let him come back to baptize Francis.  Guess who Elder Paisley's new companion is?  ELDER SMITH!!!  So Elder Blaylock and I have had a close relationship in baptizing Francis too.  It felt great.  

Not too much else happened with out week.  We did run into some very Tim Burton-ish people that let us in to teach them because we were glowing.  They actually saw a light around us, but they wouldn't set up an appointment to let us come back.  

What creepy things have I seen?  Just locusts, cockroaches, and lizards.  My first armadillo was pretty cool.  They do have tons of bugs that I have no clue what they are tho.