Zone Conference and Craziness

On Tuesday we met with some friends for the first time by the name of Tony and Kasandra.  We had an awesome lesson with them he wanted a bible study so we made sure to read lots of scriptures from the Book of Mormon and the Bible to keep him happy.  They both seemed to really enjoy it and they both said they would come to church!  We arranged for them to get a ride and sure enough come Sunday they were there and they were already getting to know some of the members!  I could not believe after one visit that they decided that they wanted to come to church.  It was a miracle, to say the least.  The members also rallied around them we had one member even invited them over for dinner!

Also on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference and it was a multi Zone Conference.  We learned all about working with members and the best ways to do it.  We also talked a lot about getting people to church and the best way to do it.  Ultimately what we decided on was to start keeping track of how many member present lesson we have each week.  Elder Richey and I have already been doing it on our own and it has made a big difference in getting people to church.

Zac is still on date for October 12 and he is progressing very well.  He will be baptized in California with his family then he will come back to Michigan until he permanently moves to California.  It's kind of a bittersweet but I'm excited for him! 

Pictures
-Elder Richey and me at zone conference

The Cat Got in the House

Me and elder Richey were out tracting the other night and we had a cat that kept following us around and we couldn't get rid of him.  We were really worried that someone was going to open their door and the cat was going to run inside.  After we gently prodded the cat trying to get it to go away some one opened their door and sure enough the cat bolted inside.  The person inside was not very happy.  Long story short they booted the cat outside in a not so friendly way and told us to get off their porch.  It was really funny.  Me and my companion were having a hard time not laughing at the people who had the cat run in their house.

On Saturday evening Zac texted us and said he wanted to video chat.  We were really worried because we haven't been able to sit down with him for 2 weeks.  We knew this was ether going to go really well or we were about to get dropped.  It went really well.  We talked to him and he decided that Oct 12 he wanted to get baptized.  The reason being he is going to be in California and he wants his father-in-law to do the baptism!  It was pretty exciting.  I was starting to think a baptism wasn't possible in Holt but the Lord sure proved me wrong on that one!

We were calling those who were speaking on Sunday this week inviting them to invite nonmember friends and one of the Ladys we called said she wanted to invite her daughter.  We didn't think much of it, but then a little bit latter she called us back and said she wanted us to teach her granddaughter who is 8 1/2.  We got a golden referral right there and the best part is she already has been coming to church with her grandma and really enjoys it.  We just needed to know that she wasn't baptized and that her parents weren't members!

On Sunday we had a crazy turn out.  The Sandoval family came and we were really worried because the parents don't speak English, but they really enjoyed it and their kids were able to make some friends and have a good time.  We were also able to get Zac to come to church in total we had 5 of our friends at church!

Today we had our District P-Day.  To start with we had breakfast at our district leaders' apartment which was a ton of fun.  We were planning on disk golfing, but because we got started an hour late and one of the washing machines in our apartment broke elder Richey and I weren't able to go disk golfing, but it was still fun to socialize and mess around with other missionaries!

pictures
-My book of Mormon got worn out :(
-District P-day
-Dairy Queen

The Book of Mormon is Blue and It's True!

We had an awesome miracle with Zac last night.  We'd been messaging him a good chunk of the day and he messaged us a scripture he didn't understand.  We had to put him on hold for a little bit because we had an appointment to get to.  We ended up not having time between our appointment and the Face to Face to answer his question so we put him off for a little bit longer.  Towards the end of the Face to Face event for young adults, I saw a message from Zac on my phone.  He said "when can I get a baptismal interview"!  After we messaged back and forth a little bit more he said he had read 4 chapters and prayed and asked God if it was true.  He got his answer!  It was super exciting, to say the least!  It's amazing how if we put in our effort and do some reading and then ask God he will always reward our efforts.

Besides that, we had interviews with our mission president this week and those are always super fun and uplifting.  After our interviews we went to a football game of a part member family son we are working with.  We only stayed for a half-hour but it was weird the spirit was super strong and it lingered for a long time afterward.  It was definitely the spirit telling us that we did a good thing there.  It was really odd because that is not something we normally do as missionaries but we still had an amazing experience.

pictures
-leaves are starting to turn
-riding our bikes

One year!

Yep! I hit one year this is your 52nd email from me!  I bet you didn't know that?  Anyway this week went really well.  We were out knocking at the end of the night and we asked this lady who wasn't interested if we could help her in any way.  She said, "be careful what you ask for".  We ended up stopping by again a couple of days later and Lori was very grateful because she couldn't get anyone to help her and her husband move.  She wouldn't let us help while we were in our white shirts and ties but she let us share a message with her!  She found the restoration very interesting and wanted to learn more.

Besides that and a few other walk-in lessons not a whole lot happened this week.  We did hear from Denise and she is staying in Flint long term so we have officially passed her off to the missionaries in Flint.  I am confident that down the road she will be baptized and confirmed.  It still amazes me how prepared she had been from the very beginning.

I'll keep this one short because we don't have a lot of time because we went to a museum in Lansing today and learned all about the history of MI.

pictures
-In front of the Museum
 -And a bunch of One year pictures!

Week 51?

This week was kinda slow, but it was an awesome week non-the-less.  To start off with Elder Richey is amazing to serve around.  He is super positive, obedient and loves to work!  We started off the week working in South Lansing and literally, 5 people were home all day.  It was rough, to say the least.  We were also fasting as a zone for people to come to church so we had a good character-building day. 

We have been working with a part member family for the last 4 weeks or so and we were there again Sunday night for dinner.  And to start with they smoked us up some ribs and some really good Filipino food.  Their kids started asking about why we came on a mission and things related to missionary life.  It was awesome.  We were finally able to smoothly transition into a teaching opportunity.  We were able to bear testimony of the gospel and the Book of Mormon.  Next week when we go over we are planning to share the Plan of Salvation with them!

We were finally able to refer Denise to the missionaries in Flint.  The night we referred her we got a call from the Flint Elders.  We were able to expound a little more and I think Denise is in good hands!

We were able to pick up two new friends this week, Phyllis and Steve.  They have had us over for dinner the last 3 Saturdays in a row!  They invited a friend over by the name of Kevin and he had seen the movie 17 Miracles.  We got talking about that and eventually they started wondering why they went through what they went through.  We took the gap and shared a short Restoration with them!

Pictures
-Me and Elder Richey