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| New companion, a Jamaican Banana |
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| Christmas Eve Angels |
Members of the church in Texas sent these to us!
December
30, 2014
Dear
family,
Well
it was great to talk to y'all on Christmas. I hope you enjoyed
talking to me too. It was a pretty fun week. Well I'm too lazy to
write everything that happened so I will basically start with
Christmas Eve.
Monday
was pretty fun and we mostly played sports. Nothing else really
happened that day. Also happy birthday Joseph Smith.
Tuesday
was Christmas Eve and it was a great day. We got a ride out to a
lesson with the Fs and we gave them each Christmas Oranges and
told them to look for people to help out. It was pretty sweet and
they cooked us some really good food. We thought we were going
caroling because the sister missionaries were suppose to pick us up from there
but they got sick so we had to walk to dinner and then we told the
sisters we had to walk home from the lesson and that it took super
long time and that gave them a good scare. We had dinner with the
Js and then we rode around the neighborhood and looked at the
Christmas lights. It was fun. That was Christmas Eve.
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| Christmas Day! |
Thursday
we had a lesson with J and his girlfriend was there. We changed our plans to read Alma 36. It was
sweet and she loved it. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon
and she admitted she has some pretty serious issues.
It was a great lesson though. Not much else happened but it went
well.
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| Helping J move. |
Saturday
yet again we had a ton of things set up and almost all of them fell
through. We did bring an addiction packet to J's girlfriend and
we realized Alma 32 goes beautifully with addiction recovery so we
read that with her, but that day she wasn't really into it. So we left.
Sunday
was great and church was great! B was confirmed in sacrament
meeting and Elder W did the confirmation. It was a really
spiritual experience for Elder W and it was cool to be a part of.
One of the speakers said that he was really impressed with B and
then in Sunday School and priesthood B was answering lots of
questions and everyone was really impressed. It was a good day at church. Everyone fell
through yet again that night so it was a slow evening.
Well
it sounds like you all had a great Chirstmas! I know that we do have
a Savior who loves us and came to this earth who died for our sins so
that we can return to live with Heavenly Father some day. I love you
all and thanks for all the support this Christmas!
Love,
Elder Pew
Elder Pew
January
6th, 2014
Dear
family,
This
was a pretty solid week. Lots of ups and downs, but it definitely
ended with some huge ups. I'll let you all feel the suspense we did
with transfer calls and save it until the end. The subject line comes
from a four-year old boy who we went to his birthday party last
night. He is sweet! He loves the missionaries and they saw we didn't
have anyone signed up for dinner so they invited us over. He was
talking about movies so I asked him what his favorite movie was and
he gave me a little smirk and then said Frank Bob. So I was like,
"what? Are you making that up?" Then he just giggled and
said, "also, Kleenex (looking around the room for the next word
for the movie)... popsicle." Wow that was pretty genius. Someone
should get on that and make that movie. It was fun to attend yet
another birthday party of one of my little homies. We ate cupcakes
and wore party hats so that was fun too.
Monday the
Js wanted us back over for dinner and their youngest son R had a friend over so we were able to teach them and we invited the
friend to learn more but he wasn't super interested.
Tuesday
we weren't suppose to proselyte after six for New Year's Eve. We had
a really great morning, but thing turned south. We stopped by S and were able to have a quick lesson with him. He
is so close to just coming to church, being taught, and being
baptized. It is a little frustrating how close he is and that more
progress hasn't been made. We tried by a former investigator that I
had already stopped by but Elder W went through the Area Book and
he said there name which is Francis Nottingham and I thought that
that name was definitely worth another shot. We need a few more
Francis Nottinghams in the church. It was almost a joke but we went
in with a lot of faith and the lady that answered was not Francis
Nottingham but she was interested in the learning more about the
church and how it strengthens families. She said she would be more
comfortable with Spanish so we got her information to give to the
sisters over the Spanish branch. We left them a voicemail. The sisters had a lesson with her and she accepted a baptismal
date so that was pretty cool! The Lord works in mysterious ways. We biked to R's house but
he was gone and a lady approached us and introduced herself and said
she is really struggling with her faith right now since everyone is
leaving the church she loves so we read some comforting verses from
the Book of Mormon and asked if she wanted to learn more about how
the gospel comforts us but she wasn't interested then but she was a
super nice lady and I bet she gets baptized someday. We went back to
the bikes and Elder W's tire was completely flat. We don't know
how that happened so fast but we didn't have anything to fix it. We
tried calling a bunch of missionaries but no one answered so we
started walking to the F's house since we told them we would come
by. The Zone Leaders called us back and said they would pick us up
and we went to CVS to wait and got Gatorades after our long walk . We stopped by the F's but they were really sick so we
couldn't have a lesson. We managed to get to the J's for dinner
and we helped them make like one million egg rolls. We came back early
and were told by Elder W (district leader) we were giving a training in District
Meeting the next day about gifts of the Spirit and the light of
Christ/Holy Ghost. I found some really cool stuff about gifts of the
Spirit because I decided to focus more on how to obtain them. D&C
46 talks about them a lot and it says if you ask in the Spirit you
will receive in the Spirit and then later explains that asking in the
Spirit means asking in accordance with the will of God (like verse 30
or something). The will of God is "to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39) so if we
ask with the desire to help other people to obtain eternal life and
exaltation we can receive them. I thought that was really cool. Our
zone always eats lunch together and that has pretty much turned into
everyone listening to me and Elder W's stories about funny things that happen to us. The zone really likes us
and it is pretty fun.
Wednesday
we had a lesson with R, we answered some of his
questions about different doctrine. We also stopped by E and
L and we found out that L was in the hospital with a
serious illness and was likely going to die. Obviously that was
really sad to hear and we taught P (E's sister) there and then tried getting a hold of E. We told him we were
praying for them and to let us know if there was anything we could
do. He said he would like it if we could visit them in the hospital.
Of course we agreed so he said he'd be in touch with us the next day.
We had a lesson with B and we talked about temples and baptisms
for the dead. He was pretty excited about that and we got him the
number to schedule an interview with bishop. He got cleared to
receive the Aaronic Priesthood and go to the temple with the youth
on January 18th. That should be sweet as long as the membership record
is made fast enough. He is doing really well.
Thursday morning
we did the same service thing with our district we have been doing
and it was super cold. It was pretty fun though. We weekly planned and we felt
like we should really try and use family history more in our
missionary work. Elder W suggested it almost as a joke since no
one really uses family history but now we are really trying to pick
that up. We got a text from E saying we could come that night
after her two surgeries. We had Bible Study but only J was there
but we had a good discussion and he is really close to getting the
Priesthood. He is awesome. We planned an uplifting thought for E and L and headed off. They were SO thankful that we were willing
to come to the hospital for L. We had to wait a few minutes
outside the room with E while they were doing some tests. We waited there for a few minutes then they let us in. L said she was doing fine and we
were so happy to see her. We talked about peace and comfort that
comes from the Atonement and the comfort the gospel brings. We shared
a story I found in an Ensign that talks about a lady who sacrificed
and lost so much but the gospel brought her peace and happiness
despite it all. It was a powerful story and it seemed perfect for
them. I brought up baptism again from before and E said he is
working towards that and wants to be baptized. We told him he can be
ready by February 8th, we
promised him he can if he works for it. It was such a great meeting!
I love those two so much! I got the privilege of blessing L. I
don't remember what exactly it was that I said but now that we found
out L is miraculously coming out of the hospital everyone thinks
I healed her but I think the only thing I said is that if she had the
faith she could be healed and that was it.I honestly don't want to receive any credit of
healing L. It was a really cool experience though. The Spirit
was very strong.
Friday We had a pretty good
day. We had another lesson with R and shared the parable of the
Laborers in the Vineyard. We stopped by J and ended up having a
really good lesson with him. He said he really admires our church and
he continues to complain about his church. I asked him why
he doesn't come to our church then and it's mostly because he has
been a member his whole life and isn't healthy enough to change. He said he is
really interested in our church and wants to read the Book of Mormon.
We promised him he would have the health and energy to do these thing
if it was really his desire. It was great. We had a lesson with J that was good. We read Mosiah 3 with him.
Saturday morning was pretty slow but we got a call from the ward clerk that there was a lady who has been trying to call the church several times and wants to meet with missionaries. She was taught by missionaries like 6 months ago. He got her info and we stopped by to meet her. She is a great lady. She had been taught for awhile and has a testimony and loves the church and everything but she has some things to resolve that are keeping her from being baptized. We told her if she sets a goal of faith that it can be accomplished and she can be baptized. She is cool though. She has a really cute son named N. Oh and her name is M.
Saturday morning was pretty slow but we got a call from the ward clerk that there was a lady who has been trying to call the church several times and wants to meet with missionaries. She was taught by missionaries like 6 months ago. He got her info and we stopped by to meet her. She is a great lady. She had been taught for awhile and has a testimony and loves the church and everything but she has some things to resolve that are keeping her from being baptized. We told her if she sets a goal of faith that it can be accomplished and she can be baptized. She is cool though. She has a really cute son named N. Oh and her name is M.
Sunday was
interesting since we now have 8 o'clock church. Sacrament
meeting was pretty good and there was one testimony that just blew me
away. Bro. B (C3PO) bore a very powerful testimony. His wife
isn't a member and he talked about how during the holidays he was
with his family and his parents told her that they have been praying
for 20 years that he would leave the Mormon church. He just laid it
down though and bore a very powerful testimony
of the church and the Book of Mormon. It was sweet and inspiring. We
had PEC afterwards and Bro. R has done a good job as
Ward Mission Leader. We had a lesson with A about the
commandments and that went pretty well. I've had mostly Elder W and the Ss teach those lessons to help Elder W and Brother
S with their gospel knowledge. We tried to have a lesson with
the Fs but they are still sick. I was really
nervous about transfer calls because I wanted to stay but I couldn't
feel either way if I was staying or going. I have only heard of two
other people staying in their training areas for five transfers, but
I am also training Elder W, so it was 50/50 for me. We were expecting calls at like 6
and 8:30 rolled around and we still didn't have a call. I
realized that that meant President wasn't calling since he called the
last three times since Elder V was a district leader, then
training, and then I was training and Elder T was a Zone Leader.
That clinched that I wasn't going to a new area to train, but I could
still leave and just be senior companion, but that would be unlikely
so we were more sure that I was staying. Everyone in the Zone was
texting if we were staying or not and we just ignored them until we
got the call finally. The assistants told us they have heard good
things about us and that I was...staying. Woohoo! I was super happy.
I just love this area and it would have been sad to leave. I am SO
EXCITED for this next transfer. We have so much going on and I am so
thankful to be staying here. Everyone else was really anxious to hear
what happened with us but we kept them in suspense and only told the
zone leaders who sent out a voicemail to everyone with all the news.
They announced everyone and when they announced ours they said that
it was the one that everyone was waiting for and that everyone is
looking forward to the "perfect team" to stay together.
That was really nice and made us feel good. It re-affirms that the
other missionaries are really watching us and we have a unique
opportunity to be examples even as young missionaries. It is pretty
fun.
I
know that this church is true. This is the true church. I know that
the Atonement is real. We have such a deep understanding of Jesus
Christ and the power that comes through his sacrifice. It is real and
we can access it. I know that he suffered that he might know how to
succor his people. I know that the gospel bring peace, comfort, and
understanding that nothing else can bring. We have the truth. Christ
came, lived, died, and rose again. He loves us. He lives. As we turn
to Him, He can heal us. Through Him we can become better each day and
as we follow Him we will find true, everlasting happiness. I know
this is true and that one day we will be so happy for our decision to
stand by Him and follow Him at all times. I love you all and thank
you for your prayers!
Love,
Elder Pew
Elder Pew
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| Elder Pew with a friend from Lone Peak high school who is waiting for his visa, in Texas! Fun to see him at the mission Christmas party. |
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| MTC district elders reunited at the mission Christmas party! |
