Thursday, November 20, 2014

Transfer Surprise!

​Well, we had quite the exciting news today... Elder Cutshaw is being transferred to Wausau! One of my top 4 areas (I hope y'all get that joke...) He is super excited to go and I just can't stop telling him all of the good things that are there in Wausau and all the people that I want him to go check up on. It seems like I was just there, but I got transferred there about a year ago! My new companion is Elder Lor, another Hmong companion, he said, "This is going to be the best freaking time of our missions." I haven't served around him, but I've talked with him a few times, and I don't deny that it will be the best time of our missions. Transfers are Wednesday morning so the rest of today and tomorrow are already packed with packing and saying goodbyes.
This week, I'll take a little break from the updates on Tony (he rescheduled the lesson for next week). I WILL however, tell you about our newest investigator, Joyce Hill. Joyce was a media referral that we got last week, and after one very unsuccessful attempt to contact her, we weren't very optimistic that she even lived there. The next time we tried, we were miraculously able to get in the apartment building because somebody thought that we rang their door. We knocked on her door, and she looked a little bit rough, so again we weren't too sure. We began speaking and she was pretty short with us, so AGAIN, we weren't sure about her. Then we mentioned that the referral mentioned that she needed a blessing. As soon as we said that, she broke down in tears and asked "can you bless me with a new heart?" She needs surgery soon, and we did our best to comfort and console her. We gave her a blessing and ultimately she warmed up to us and has now essentially adopted us as surrogate grandchildren. We have another appointment with her this Wednesday that we'll have to push back due to transfers, but we are VERY excited.
BE GOOD!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

TONY!

This week was a fun week, lots of running too and fro. One of us lost the phone, so we had to take the hour bus ride to the mission office TWICE!! The first one we went and NOBODY WAS THERE!! We had no idea why and no way to call... We went again the next day and sheepishly forgot to mention that we had been there the day before. Again, just another update on our most promising investigator, Tony. We had yet another morning meeting with him on Wednesday. We followed up on our invitation we gave to him to pray. He had prayed, and his answer was-- get this-- I think that I need to read the Book of Mormon to find out if it's true. Uh, YEAH!! I don't think I've ever told an investigator NOT to read the book of Mormon, so he is right on par there. Oh my goodness, we were only slightly excited when he said that. Disappointed that he didn't get a Yes to baptism, but that's like being disappointed that you got cookies in stead of cake. It wasn't necessarily a yes I'll be baptized, but it might as well be because the power of the book of mormon is undeniable. He will know of its truthfulness, I know that. Tony is going to progress, and before you know it I'll be sending some pictures of him in white!
LOVE Y'ALL

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

An "off beat" week...

We had sort of a strange week this week... not bad strange or anything, just... strange. I think what really kicked it off was an emergency exchange with my district leader, Elder Ward. His companion, Elder Allen has been very sick really ever since I have been here, and this week it progressed to a sinus infection. Anyway, Elder Ward and I covered the two areas for the day, spending most of our day with their investigators in their lessons. We also taught one of their recent converts, Victor, who is a funny little man with a mustache. Anyway, while we were out, Elder Cutshaw and Allen had a good lesson with Tony, they invited him solidly to be baptized and he responded with something to the effect of "that's a big decision, I'm going to have to pray about that!" We are excited to meet with him again on Wednesday to hear about that experience. We know that everyone has agency, and sometimes it can be hard to hear an investigator say "this isn't for me" when in reality we know that it's for everyone. We pray that Tony prays in sincerity of heart with real intent and then listens to that still small voice so that when we go back, he will be prepared to accept our message. And now... something totally different! I just thought it would be good to shoot over a couple of videos that I've really enjoyed watching the past few weeks... LOVE

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?im=true&v=3792885561001
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001
https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/christs-authority-is-questioned?lang=eng