WONDER how the missionaries are doing this week 10/6/2014

From #1

I definitely still do have bad days, but I'm getting there. We are keeping mostly busy. It's a lot of finding. No one is listening. There's gotta be somebody, right? I'm so jealous you got to go to the temple! I was supposed to go for Sister T departing temple trip and Sister R was going to be there, but now I'm not going because there's too many missionaries leaving. :( Oh well. Another time then. 

My favorite talks were Lynn G. Robbins and Chi Hong (Sam) Wong. I missed some because we were at the church and the church doesn't get good reception. :( I liked Chi Hong (Sam) Wong's because Sister R was one of those friends. She did every thing in her power to make sure I was okay and getting better. It expressed my feelings perfectly, so I sent it to her. I liked Lynn G. Robbins because it helped me make sure I was facing the right way. :)

Monday, was nothing. It was pretty chill. Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady names S. We are trying to help her understand why we come over. She's still not getting it. We are going to see her this week. It's a do or die. Hopefully it's a do. We also had dinner at the J's. It was great. I love the J's so much! Wednesday we helped set up for a bike rally. It was crazy! We had to use rope to make circles and all kinds of stuff. The member almost made us ride bikes, but I was not in a bike skirt, so there was no way I was doing that! Thursday, we were finding less actives and what not, and we helped a lady clean her house because it was going to be inspected. She did something to her back a while ago and so if she's not careful, she will be paralyzed. Funny story about her though, she's 71 and she has a stuffed purple rabbit and Ernie that she sleeps with. Also, instead of cleaning and dejunking, she either hides everything beneath her comforter on her bed and SLEEPS ON IT, or she puts it in a bag and puts it in her car for a while. What the heck? It was crazy. To make it even better, though, she offered her phone to us to call our family and friends! She was like: "No body will ever know." We said that it's against the rules and that the Lord will know. You want to guess what she said? She said:  "Well, God told me that it was okay." She's crazy. So we just said thanks and that we will see her at church. :) Friday was normal. But we did have a miracle. You remember K? The one that's in the National Guard? Well.........(drum roll please)..........HE"S HERE! Something happened with his health, so he couldn't leave, so he's here and we can start teaching him again!!!!! YAY!! I'm so happy! Pray for him, and us, that we can teach him and that he will know that what we are teaching him is true. Saturday was General Conference. It was pretty fun. We talked to some people and everything. Sunday was General Conference as well. People do things weird here in the south. On Sunday morning, members come to watch the morning session at the church and then go home. I'm just like, watch it at home! It's a bit strange, but whatever. We watched the afternoon session at the G's. It was a lot of fun. We played bingo and such. It was pretty cool. We had fajitas for dinner, which were delicious and then I went to bed at 10:00 because I was ready for bed. That was my week.

I've been studying the bible this week. I just finished Exodus this morning. The story of Moses is awesome. It made me want to watch The Ten Commandments. So let it be written, so let it be done! I also read 1 Nephi 17 today. I liked verse 47 because that is how we has missionaries feel! We are working tirelessly and relentlessly for these people and some just don't listen! That's all I have for this week. It's time to go. Love you bunches! Can't wait for next week!

From #2

   Thank you for your letter! This week has been good, some of our investigators are struggling, but we are seeing miracles with other investigators. 3 of our investigators that said they would come to conference didn't come, but 3 did, so things are progressing. There are a lot of great people that we are teaching here, but the three that didn't come to conference don't seem to have a complete grasp of our message yet or they wouldn't struggle to keep commitments as much as they do. We are teaching a family of 4, one of them is a baby and so I guess we aren't really teaching her, but there is a mom, dad, teenager, and a baby. They are Hattian, but we have help from the members to teach them and communicate with them. They actually asked to be baptized a couple days ago, but they need to come to church one more time and we need to teach them the commandments. They came to conference and watched it in Creole in another room. They loved it! they asked if president Monson had a TV show they could watch, they believe that he is a prophet. We are seeing them this week and will try to set a baptism date with them for the end of this month. I'm really excited about them!

     I can't believe its already October, time is going by faster than ever. I'm having a lot of fun and really enjoying working here in Ocoee with Elder P. Today was bike week, we share the car with the other elders in the ward, Elder N and Elder B. It was nice being on bike again, I like biking, it helps us to talk to a ton of people, there are some really nice people we met that we are excited to meet with. We will have the car again next week so we will be able to visit more less actives and people we already have the addresses from from past weeks, I think it works out well because it is hard to make it to appointments on time when we are on bikes, but its harder to contact and find people when we have the car. I've been thinking a lot about the future again this week, I still don't know whats going to happen, so I don't know why I worry about it like I do. There were a lot of talks I really liked that helped. Things will work out, as long as I follow the prophets guidance and look upwards for help I will be able to be alright, I'm not worried about it much now.

I liked:

Jorg Klebingat: he was very bold and direct, that was really cool

Lynn Robbins: Which way do we face? I am too much worried about what other people think of me.

I liked the talk about personal ministering, I don't have my notes with me, so I don't remember the names of the people who talked about stuff.

I liked the talk about the guy reading his patriarchal blessing and changing his life plans a lot, he was Spanish. But I got it in English I thought that helped a lot with my worry

Conference is great at the chapel, it helps me stay focused and not fall asleep, plus its more conducive to the spirit I think. I love General conference, it seems like the sessions are getting better and better each year.

     I love you tons and tons, keep praying for me! I hope all continues to go well for you.

From #3 (get ready to laugh)

Well another week has come and past and what a wonderfully hard week it has been. A lot of hard things have happened this week but that's okay. If it isn't hard I must not be working hard. There are still a lot of problems in the Albany ward but it is getting so much better. The funnest service project we have had this week was helping Sister M with yard work. We were cutting down her hedge when all of the sudden we all jumped back because we saw a Diamond head snake. It was a blessing none of us got bit. But what happened next I will always remember. Elder S and I picked up two sticks and held the snake down as T ran into the house. We waited thinking he was going to get a knife but the next thing we know we have a shot gun barrel in between both of us and with a loud bang the snake was no more.

Although taking the hedge down was hard work this was not the hardest service we did this week. I know it may seem silly and pretty dumb but the hardest thing this week was programming a universal remote to a persons TV. Stop laughing. The reason it was so hard was because the instructions made no sense . It told me to push buttons that weren't even on the remote and I was just super confused. I eventually got it but it still took me about 15 min.

We had almost all our investigators drop us this week and we dropped one ourselves. All the people dropped us, told us that they already had a church and that they were good where they where at. The one we dropped actually was from ____________church. I don't know what you know about their church, but their church writes anti against us. In fact their the church that says the most against our church down here. We where invited to go to their church and if we did she would come to ours but every time we prayed to see if we should go we had the feeling that we should not. When we told her this, her response actually made me laugh. She told us that she would pray for our souls but didn't know how much good it would do. I thought it was funny and told her thank you and that we would do the same for her. After that we have tried to break contact but she will send us scriptures now and again that pretty much say that we are damned. I think its really funny and me and Elder S have to laugh at it a bit before we can go back to whatever we are doing.

I loved listening to Conference i got so much out of it. Probably my favorite talk was the talk given on living up to the blessings of our patriarchal blessing. I also really liked Elder Bednars talk on why we convert. The whole time he was giving his talk i was thinking about C. I don't know if you remember their family but I have been emailing him from the beginning of my mission, trying to get him to read the Book of Mormon. 

It has truly been a wonderful week here in Albany and I am loving it here. I love you so much and I pray for you and the family all the time.