May 2011 to May 2013

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

We're the Super Servants!

This week I was able to have a really cool experience talking to everyone on the street. This experience showed me the importance of talking to everyone, as well as how much we need the members to set good examples and open their mouth to share the gospel with people. We were biking to dinner and we were just about there and the across the street neighbor was outside walking with his kids. We stopped and talked to him, and listened to the kid talk about who knows what. The topic kept switching. But we started talking to him about the gospel a little and about Jesus Christ and faith and all. We found out he knew the member family across the street pretty well. So we asked him if we could come by; he said yes. Then we asked him a time that would be good, and he said he was busy all week, then paused, and said except Thursday. I said, name a time and we will be at your house. So he said 6:30. We now have this awesome appointment with a friend of a member. When we told the member family, they were in shock, both that he said yes and that they had not got their before us. It was kinda funny, but they are real glad we are going over.

It has been a good week with everything else, too. It is cool to see how the Lord’s work keeps moving forward in the areas where the Members do their best to help the missionaries. I have learned one thing on my mission. I always have thought, through my whole life, that missionary work is the missionary’s job and that the members need to help when the missionaries need help. But I have learned on my mission, it is supposed to be the opposite. The Members are the missionaries, while the full time missionaries are the teachers and supporters of the members. We are like the super servants that are on call 24/7. Yes, missionaries do find and they do a lot of the dirty work because we have to keep busy.

It is great to be a missionary at this time, with everything that is going on and all the help we have with technology and all.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Helping Out in Little Ways

This week has been a good week. This new area is interesting. I have never seen so many people who are just not all the way put together. I feel bad for them, and we try to help them out in little ways. For one guy, we give him a different pamphlet to read every time we see him; soon we are going to run out of pamphlets to give him. We already gave him the Word of Wisdom one. The best thing about it is he loved it. He said this is how I need to live my life, not smoking or drinking. It was kinda funny.

Another person we help out is quite amazing. He is all the way there in his head, but he just can’t move. We were given the name of this lady to go help by some members. She has a son who is 30 something and he got in a bad car accident when he was 20ish. It clipped his brain stem, so he can still think clearly and understand everything, but he can’t move any part of his body. We help him do some stretches, because his muscles are all tight. We help him move his arms and stand up on a board that holds him up to move his legs and all that stuff. So it is a great help. He can move a bit by himself, but he is still on a hospital bed all day, every day. It is really sad.

We have also found this amazing family. Elder Rodriguez and the other missionary who was here found him first, but never got in to teach him. We finally got in to teach him. His wife was not home, but we just taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was great. He grew up Southern Baptist, but did not like it, because if you did anything bad you went to hell. And he believes in a God of mercy. So we explained the Plan of Salvation he said, "Well, that is what I have believed my whole life." It was great. He also accepted a baptismal date for a month from now. It was super cool!! They are a great family.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

A New Experience in the Town of Atwater

I am now in a small town outside of Merced named Atwater. I am still in an English area but with a companion from Acapulco, Mexico. I still get to practice my Spanish a lot with him; so that is good. He is super funny and he got baptized just a few years back. It is cool to see him grow in the gospel.

The work here in Atwater is hard, as well as Madera, but here we have a few lights. We should have a baptism at the end of the month, a niece of a recent convert. So that is cool. Also, we are teaching a lady who has studied with the Jehovah Witnesses for a year and likes us better, but does not know how to tell the Jehovah Witness's how she feels. That is her only hold up for the truth.

Here in Atwater there is a big old air force base, so there are a lot of ex-military people.  It makes the area interesting. One of our recent converts is living at the Wal-Mart parking lot, so that is very interesting. I really don’t have many stories from Atwater yet, but later this week we have a mission conference with Elder Christofferson, of the Quorum of the Twelve, so that should be really cool.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

New Area and New Companion

Note from TJ's Mom:  Last week the computers the missionaries can use were down in Madera, so no e-mail.  A letter arrived on Saturday to let us know that TJ has been transferred to Atwater (North and near Patterson and Modesto) and is serving with an elder from Acapulco, Mexico.  We were hoping to receive more information from TJ's e-mail yesterday, but no word yet!  Maybe the Fresno area has a computer curse!!  Or maybe it's just a missionary mom who is anxious to hear from her son!  I'll keep you posted...