The Week Before Christmas

Starting out this week on Tuesday we had trade offs and we had a member call us and he asked us to change a flat tire on his car.  We showed up and started tinkering around trying to get the tire out of the trunk and when we got the cover off the trunk the spare tire was literally inside a solid block of ice.  We tried a couple of things and then we called the member and said we would love to help, but there isn't a whole lot we can do.  Apparently they got it fixed because he was driving it at church.

On Wednesday Don drove down from West branch and took me and Elder Eccles out to lunch.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with him and reminisce about the good old days in West Branch.  He also got me a really cool mug that had all the different names for Christ written all over it.

On Thursday we did service at a soup kitchen where we handed stuff out to people.  It was a lot of fun and apparently the missionaries use to go over once a week, but I just found out about it so we will start going their more often

On Friday we made the long drive down to Lansing where we had the trainers follow up meeting.  That lasted most of the day.  It was a ton of fun though because we were able to catch up with a bunch of my mission buddies and it was like a mini zone conference.

Sunday we had an awesome day.  We went to church and after church we had two appointments.  One of those was with a fellow by the name of Dennis.  Dennis is an awesome guy this was the second time we have met with him and we talked with him about prophets and the plan of salvation.  When we showed up he had read up to 1 Nephi 12 which was awesome.  The second appointment we had was with Tom and Sandy.  They are a member referral we have been trying to get in contact with for probably two months now and we were able to sit down and share the plan of salvation.  Sandy kept asking us how do we get to the celestial kingdom so we left her 2 Nephi 31 which talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ and said we would come by in a couple days and talk more about it!  after Tom and Sandy we had call ins which took about an hour then we had a member invite us out to do some caroling we did that for about an hour.  Following that we had a quick dinner and we visited a part member family we have been having a hard time getting in the door.  We were able to share the Christ Child and the spirit was super strong and they loved it!  Phillip and Angela were both crying by the end!  After that we were about out of time for the day!

Pictures
-working at the soup kitchen
-caroling
-freezing on trade offs the feel like temp was -1
-lunch with don
-A frozen tire

I Forgot How Many Weeks!

This week we started out with Zone conference in Lansing.  We mostly just learned about the new handbook and how to become better disciples of Jesus Christ.  I also learned how long I had been on my mission because our Christmas presents were Michigan Lansing Mission notebooks.  I was still taking notes in mine from last year. 

On Wednesday we were out knocking and we set a record.  We knocked 4 doors and 3 of those 4 accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and accepted for us to come back.  Then later that night we found 3 more people knocking.  In total we got 6 return appointments in one day!

Last night we were out knocking again and Ed answered the door and he said hey do you wanna check out our church?  We agreed and he showed us around the Presbyterian church which was built in the 1800's.  It was super cool he even let me take some pictures!  We left him a Book of Mormon and he gave us some stained glass bookmarks who knows maybe someday he will read it and decide their is something to it.

pictures
-In the church
-Out in the cold
-Zone conference(in front of the ESPN poster!)

Christmas is coming!

This week we were able to teach our friend Kathy again!  She is doing super well and now we have her on a cycle where we meet every Saturday.  When we visited her this last Saturday she had read the account in 1 Nephi 11 when Nephi gives the interpretation of the tree of life.  We were able to answer her questions about the symbolism and we were even able to show her the Book of Mormon video about the tree of life.  She loved it and said she wanted to see more of them!  Unfortunately, though she lived in the Sisters area so we had to pass her off to the sisters.

On Tuesday we went out and did visits with the bishopric.  We were able to sit down and talk with 2 different people the first one was Philip.  We were able to talk to him for a while and build a relationship.  He eventually said that we could come back!  The best part about Phillip is his wife isn't a member.  We are hoping to reactivate Phillip and we are hoping she will eventually follow.  I also got to sit down and talk with Bob again!!!!!!!   If you remember I taught Bob a couple of lessons up in West Branch about a year ago.  He was just as talkative this time as he was last time.  I have never met somebody who can talk quite like he can! 

On Wednesday the Bay City sisters texted us and asked if we wanted to help out with a hot chocolate stand in downtown Bay City.  Of course, we said absolutely!  Not many people were out walking around, so me and Elder Eccles went and we talked to a couple of fishermen.  We offered them hot chocolate, but unfortunately, none of them were interested in hot chocolate.  We were able to strike up a conversation with one of them and we eventually talked him into accepting a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Besides that we talked to one or two other people, enjoyed some hot cocoa, and closed up shop.

pictures
-Hot cocoa stand
-We have a nuclear fallout shelter in Bay City we are safe!
-The drawbridge at night.

Thanksgiving

Last Monday we went out to teach our friend April and at first she said she wasn't interested anymore.  We managed to get her to open up and we were able to answer some of her questions.  She got "anti-ed" by her family and her neighbor, but after we talked to her for a little bit and answered her questions she allowed us to come back.  She was really the only person we were able to teach this week, but it was really exciting that she let us come back. 

On Thursday we went out on our bikes and we rode about 10 minutes away to a town called Essexville.  We tried out a new door approach where we ask people what the birth of Jesus Christ has done for them.  We were able to hand out 2 Books of Mormon in one hour and on top of that we got two return appointments!  On our way back home it started dumping snow.  By the time we got home we looked like snow men.

On Sunday church was cancelled and the problem is when church is cancelled it's usually snowy and very cold.  So we decided to go share the Christ Child video with some members.  We ended up having three members in a row answer and let us in.  Its amazing the spirit you can feel during that video. 

For Thanksgiving we went to the Martinez'. I literally thought I was going to die after one plate of food.  After we ate we went around and visited a bunch of members.  For dinner we went to the Jaimes' and nobody was really hungry so we all had a piece of pie for dinner and called it good.