February 9, 2010

Hey everyone! This week has been quite the week let me tell ya. On Wednesday morning Debbie Townsend's husband JJ from Layton picked me up in Clearfield and took me to Ogden to meet up with my new companion. It was nice to see him and visit during the drive. They are both doing well and Debbie has a church calling as a visiting teacher. When I got to the mission office there were a ton on missionaries there. It was fun to see some people that I hadn't seen for a while. When Elder Onon got there, we picked up a few supplies from the mission office and then we packed our car with all my stuff. I was relieved when it all fit. We drive a maroon 2007 Chevy Malibu. It's a v6 so it's got a little get up & go. :) Haha. It was a little weird to drive at first but it's all good now. Once we got to Brigham City we went shopping, had lunch, and then we washed the car. It was pretty dirty on the outside so we went through the car wash and had the tired shined up. I had gotten an air freshener when I was in Clearfield too so that the car would smell good. Later that night we had appointments...It was a crazy busy day and I was way tired that night. On Tuesday, the day before I left Clearfield, Jason Yarington took us out to dinner to Applebee's. It was nice to go out and visit with him before I left...after dinner we went to his house and had a little lesson and bore our testimonies to him. He was sad that I was getting transferred. I was too, but President Olson said that I can go back for his baptism on Valentines day so I'm happy about that. Elder Onon and I have language study ever morning in addition to the 2 hours of regular study that we have. He has a few English books that he's been studying out of, but I don't think that they are very effective. I've been trying to think of better ways to help him. We have been practicing how to pronounce words correctly and how to use complete sentences. I'm going to make some flash cards, etc to help him. I only have 5 more weeks to help him before transfers, and President told me this would only be for one transfer. President & Sister Olson came and spoke at one of our Adult sessions of Stake Conference. A member of the Seventy came and spoke as well. They all gave great talks and I really enjoyed it. Hymn#221 was mentioned "Dear to the heart of the Shepherd." At the end of the song it talks about the helpless and hungry and cold...bringing them back to the fold. That's what missionary work is. Bringing the helpless and hungry and cold back to the fold. Our mission doctor Dr.Nellis came a saw me at my apartment yesterday. I have an ingrown toenail lol, and it was hurting pretty bad, so he lifted the end of the nail and put some gause underneath to let it grow out properly and it feels soooo much better. I've also been having headaches pretty regularly for the past 2 or so weeks. They aren't way intense, but they are still there, and are in the back of my head. I get them every day sometimes more than once, and I asked the doctor about it and he said that it sounds like tension headaches. He told me to put cold/hot packs on my neck a few times a day and then see what happens. Hopefully they will go away. It makes me kinda concerned since it's been like this for a while. The area that we cover is pretty big. We cover 2 stakes, and 18 wards. We are given 1,000 miles a month for our car because our area is so big. We cover part of Brigham City, and then Corinne, Bear River, and Honeyville. It's gonna be harder to get to know the members as well as I have in the past...but I'm already starting to have my favorite families as always lol. The area is kind of slow right now, but that's gonna have to change haha. We have 2 investigators with baptismal dates and we are teaching a few others. We've been working with the members and auxilaries a ton...getting referrals, and then going and seeing the people that they tell us about. So far we are seeing some success from our efforts. We have 4 first lessons set up for this week so hopefully we will pick up a few new investigators. We had a sweet miracle happen last night. A member called us and told us about a part member family who wants to have their 9 year old baptized. They gave us the info, so we called right after, went over to their home, taught a lesson on the spot, and committed the 9 year old boy for baptism on feb. 27th! It was awesome. The Lord is blessing us fo sho! :) All I have to say, is that working with the members of the church is the best way to do missionary work. Another miracle that we had this week, was a girl in the area called us and told us that her non-member boyfriend that she's been dating wants to take the lessons. We will be meeting with them this week so hopefully it will go well. We live with members...Bro & Sis Barker. They are very nice people and are even the fellowships for some people that we are teaching. We get to live in their basement, and it's actually not that bad. It's really clean and smells good too. I was impressed at how clean the missionaries before me kept it. It's really nice to have a car in this area. I bought a GPS to have so that we don't get lost. It's a Garmin Nuvi 1300. It's way nice because we never get lost, which means we don't waste any miles, and it tells us the shortest way to get there. We have to be really smart about our miles because they are limited and we can't go over. I think that it was a good investment. A member in our area works at Malt-O-Meal, the cereal company, so he gets cereal for free, which means that we do too!!! Haha he told us that whenever we need some to let him know and he'll hook us up. Cool beans. Can you have Jenni get Katelynn Bunch's address for me please? I think she moved cause the letters I've sent her are getting sent back to me. :/ The Tidwells are driving up from Layton to come see me and visit with us over dinner at Maddox's today. I'm way excited to see them. Maddox is a well known restaurant and it's pretty good. From what I've been told, President Monson goes in there once in a while to eat, and so do other apostles. I guess President Monson's brother Scott Monson lives around here not too far from us. We had an intense dinner the other night. Some members had us over for dinner, and while we were eating, the wife all of the sudden broke down and started crying at the dinner table. She pretty much told us that she is struggling with her testimony and is having a really hard time with things. It was intense. I can't describe it in an email. Her husband has a strong testimony, and has been trying to get her to meet with us for a long time but she never would. Anyway, we talked to her for a while, and got her to agree to start meeting with us. We have a lesson coming up this week. Well I better go. Things are going good. I love you all and miss you. I hope to hear from you soon! Spread the Gospel!!! ~Elder Watts