January
27th, 2014
Dear
family,
This was a pretty solid week, although a little slower again. M's sister got hurt in H so she had to fly out to H and we weren't able to see her this week. We have some great stuff going though.
This was a pretty solid week, although a little slower again. M's sister got hurt in H so she had to fly out to H and we weren't able to see her this week. We have some great stuff going though.
Monday
we had a lesson with J. We had a lesson later in the week and it
turns out he had a pretty crazy week.
Tuesday
we found out that Sister K, S's grandma, was in the hospital possibly
about to die. Her family told us she was heavily sedated and kept
ripping her tubes out and she couldn't talk or anything. We went
first thing to give her a blessing. We found her in better shape than
they told us and she was able to talk to us and shake our hands. We
talked with her for a bit and then we gave her a blessing. It was a
great blessing and I felt like promising her a full recovery if she
desired to return to activity and love and serve God. She was very
thankful and promised us she would come back to church. It was a neat
experience. We went and talked with S and his mother on Sunday (Sis
K's daughter) and they said that after the blessing she started
recovering and that she was about to be released from the hospital. I
was so happy that they noticed the power of the priesthood and S
loves telling us about his day. We encouraged him to come to church
and he wants to go to mutual every week. I told the ward council of
an idea I've had with him where he gets picked up early for mutual
and taken to the church and we teach for like 30 minutes before
mutual so he can work towards baptism. He is a great kid and if the
ward reaches out he will be baptized soon. We had a really good
lesson with the Fs that night as well. We asked them to tell us where
they were and Sis F specifically how she felt. She told us that she
wants to try it out again but honestly the hardest part is getting
everyone up and ready by eight. She said that she couldn't force the
older girls to go, so we directed the rest of the lesson at them. We
asked them what it was going to take and I bore the most heartfelt
and sincere testimony of my mission about how the gospel will help
them even at this age. They still want nothing to do with the church,
but they really like us. We invited them to read scriptures and pray
as a family each day and told them we will text them a few verses
each night for them to read. I don't know if they have been doing it,
but they are awesome. Bro F told me he saw a side of me he hadn't
seen and that he really felt what I was saying. That was good to
hear. They are such a great family.
Wednesday
we had district meeting and that was pretty sweet. We went to J's
house and had a good lesson with him on the plan of salvation. He has
a hard time believing some things, but then he always tells himself
that he needs to have a more open mind. Him and his wife are such
good people and so nice. I love them both. We had dinner with the S's
. Sister S gave a killer talk about her conversion and how important
it is to help recent converts and that without fellowship she
wouldn't have progressed in the gospel. It was very powerful. She is
awesome and they are an amazing family!
Thursday we decided to take R back to the tent people to see if he could help them any more, but it was freezing cold that night. We actually got a text that we should go home if we didn't feel comfortable driving in the freezing cold and occasional ice. We took R there anyways and luckily they were inside somewhere and had a place to stay. Since we had him with us we decided to go to E's house so they could meet. We asked E what he's thought about baptism and he said he doesn't feel like he's there yet but he does foresee that in his future. We just can't seem to express to him enough how important it is and how badly he needs it. He told us he thinks the Book of Mormon is great and so he has a testimony of that, but he hasn't been to church and he hasn't read any more. R said some interesting stuff, and they got along pretty well and R told E how important his baptism has been to him, so that was great. We went to R's parents house afterward because they live close to E and we ended up giving R's mom a blessing because she had surgery. I wanted to try to teach them, because they were really nice, but R took us out of there before we could do anything.
Friday we woke up to snow, everywhere. It was crazy! It wasn't deep at all but it was the first time in like 3 years here. We were told to not go out until they cleared the roads of ice. It warmed up fairly quickly though and we were able to go out around 1. Not much happened except we had a lesson with R and J about patriarchal blessings. Me and Elder W have done a lot of studying about the 12 tribes of Israel and the importance of everything, so we explained it pretty well. It was actually strange since I was fulfilling part of my patriarchal blessing by learning about the 12 tribes and patriarchal blessings.
Thursday we decided to take R back to the tent people to see if he could help them any more, but it was freezing cold that night. We actually got a text that we should go home if we didn't feel comfortable driving in the freezing cold and occasional ice. We took R there anyways and luckily they were inside somewhere and had a place to stay. Since we had him with us we decided to go to E's house so they could meet. We asked E what he's thought about baptism and he said he doesn't feel like he's there yet but he does foresee that in his future. We just can't seem to express to him enough how important it is and how badly he needs it. He told us he thinks the Book of Mormon is great and so he has a testimony of that, but he hasn't been to church and he hasn't read any more. R said some interesting stuff, and they got along pretty well and R told E how important his baptism has been to him, so that was great. We went to R's parents house afterward because they live close to E and we ended up giving R's mom a blessing because she had surgery. I wanted to try to teach them, because they were really nice, but R took us out of there before we could do anything.
Friday we woke up to snow, everywhere. It was crazy! It wasn't deep at all but it was the first time in like 3 years here. We were told to not go out until they cleared the roads of ice. It warmed up fairly quickly though and we were able to go out around 1. Not much happened except we had a lesson with R and J about patriarchal blessings. Me and Elder W have done a lot of studying about the 12 tribes of Israel and the importance of everything, so we explained it pretty well. It was actually strange since I was fulfilling part of my patriarchal blessing by learning about the 12 tribes and patriarchal blessings.
Saturday
we went to a breakfast with the Js that the Fs invited them to for a
fundraiser for H's team. We were hoping that we would be able to talk
to their family. The Fs were pretty busy. Oh well. Bro R made us a
CD with a few chapters from the Book of Mormon and talks that I
picked for J to listen to. We picked those up and then had a solid
lesson with J. He really wants to continue to learn about our church
and he said he would listen to the CD soon. We listened to part of
one talk and then ended up discussing things with him for another
hour. It was a bit long but we hashed out some important things. He
is a great guy and we are going to bring a family history consultant
next time to help his wife with some of her family tree. We had a few
lessons fall through the rest of the night.
Sunday
was pretty good but we have just really struggled to get people to
church. We spent a lot of time Saturday reminding people about church
but we only had one person. It was Z, a young man whose father is a
member. Bro R brought him and he is a really nice kid. He plays
lacrosse so we talk about that a lot. Hopefully we can actually teach
him soon. Bro G (EQ president) told us our efforts aren't in vain
because Bro F told him that he really likes us. It was sweet. Elder W
is worried that when I leave all the investigators will just stop
completely since they all have really good friendships with me. I
certainly hope not but I'm glad I've been able to make such good
friends with such amazing people. I really love the people here.
Anyways,
I know that this church is true. That we have the fulness of the
gospel and that it brings true happiness when we live it. I know that
the Book of Mormon is true and incredible. I know that the priesthood
authority is so key to leading and guiding the true church of Christ
and that is what separates us from other churches. Thanks for all the
support!
Love,
Elder Pew
Elder Pew
***A sweet family just emailed these photos. They had Elder Pew over the day after his birthday so they had a birthday celebration. He loved it! So grateful to the awesome people there taking care of my missionary!
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February
3rd, 2014
Dear
family,
Okay
obviously the subject line is a complete lie (I watched my first
Superbowl was the subjectline). I just wanted to freak you all out
that I was watching the Super Bowl and none of you did. I honestly
didn't think about it a lot and I forgot until like 30 minutes ago to
find out who won. Anyways, this was the best week in recorded history
of our area! It was absolutely nuts! I hope I can fit everything in
because SO much happened and all of it was amazing!
Monday was
about the only slow day of the week. It was really bad weather and we
couldn't get a hold of anyone we were planning to. We did contact a
cool guy named R who said he would be interested in going to lunch
and discussing our religion with us. Hopefully it happens.
Tuesday
is where things really picked up. We were planning to help a lady fix
her fence at 2:30 and we wanted to go to J's with a family
history consultant, but we also had a lesson with M set up and so we
spent quite a bit of time calling everyone to set everything
straight. We called Bro A and asked if he could come to our lesson
with M and he said he could and then he called back and asked if he
could give us rides around for the morning since it was really bad
weather. We got a text telling us not to go out until the roads
cleared but we spent so much time setting everything up we decided to
go anyways. Bro A took us to our lesson with J and the family history
consultants were already working with J's wife on her family history.
They have been really awesome. We had a good discussion with J and he
has enjoyed the CD so far. We tried showing him how we need a
spiritual witness and even though we have records that prove Jesus of
Nazareth is a real person, we have to have faith in who he said he is
and what that means for all of us. I also found a sweet talk by
President Uchtdorf about gaining a personal testimony from 2006 we
can show him. He's awesome. M wasn't home which was disappointing but
Bro A took us to lunch. He is great. We went to the service project
and invited the rest of the district to help, but only the sisters
came. It was pretty awesome. I loved the service. We went to the
place where we were fixing the fence and S lives right there and him
and his mom got home while we were working so S came to help us too.
A's mother is super funny and old and she just has no idea what she
was doing. We spent like 30 minutes just listening to her trying to
figure out what to do. We patched up her fence and picked up a bit of
trash and finished by 5 and told her we would come back to fix the
last part we didn't. She was super thankful. We set everything up for
S to get a ride early to mutual and we had a lesson with him at the
church before mutual. He is a great kid. He understands what we
taught him about faith in Jesus Christ. We invited him to be baptized
and he accepted for March 1st! We also taught him to pray and he
said a really sincere prayer and thanked God for our kindness and
helping him out. It was powerful.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference with the Assistants and President Slaughter. It was amazing. We did role plays for like 2 hours on different situations. We practiced diagnosing needs and raising their vision, combating arguments, and knowing who we are and acting accordingly. We role played how if they have a specific answer to just focus on that and not worry so much about points in a lesson. To reply to arguments we practiced just being very kind and making the other person feel good and inviting them to learn more. It was a very unique way of doing things. President gave us an amazing training on repentance and changed the fundamental questions that the gospel answers to Who am I? Why am I like this? and How can I change? He talked about how we are basically all scumbags by nature and would be without the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a different take on who we are then I've seen in the past, but it was cool. We went straight from that to a rescheduled lesson with M and we went to Bro A's house and taught her there. She said she is not giving this up and will do anything to get baptized this time. She is awesome! I hope the ward will welcome her with open arms.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference with the Assistants and President Slaughter. It was amazing. We did role plays for like 2 hours on different situations. We practiced diagnosing needs and raising their vision, combating arguments, and knowing who we are and acting accordingly. We role played how if they have a specific answer to just focus on that and not worry so much about points in a lesson. To reply to arguments we practiced just being very kind and making the other person feel good and inviting them to learn more. It was a very unique way of doing things. President gave us an amazing training on repentance and changed the fundamental questions that the gospel answers to Who am I? Why am I like this? and How can I change? He talked about how we are basically all scumbags by nature and would be without the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a different take on who we are then I've seen in the past, but it was cool. We went straight from that to a rescheduled lesson with M and we went to Bro A's house and taught her there. She said she is not giving this up and will do anything to get baptized this time. She is awesome! I hope the ward will welcome her with open arms.
Thursday was
a historic day. We went back to the D's to finish up the fence and
again A's mother was super thankful. She asked if we wanted to go to
her house to wash up and we accepted and asked if we could share a
spiritual thought. I brought my tiny copy of the Book of Mormon with
me and talked about how everything we do in the church is to follow
the example of Christ. We talked about how service is one of those
ways. She told us a few of her concerns with the church and we
discussed them and invited them to church and to learn more about the
gospel. She accepted both easily and seems pretty golden. She really
likes us and invited us to her cabin in the Rocky Mountains in June
or something on her time share so she has definitely warmed up to us.
We went straight from that to change and then to a lesson with M and
Sis S came again and it was a great lesson. She likes Sis S and she
came to church! She is cool. She also took us to Rudy's, some real
Texas BBQ. It is incredible. Brisket on bread with some amazing BBQ
sauce. It is legendary. We went to a lesson with the S's and G is
still not interested but we felt inspired to talk about the
priesthood and he said it was cool to learn about but he's still
missing something. They are a really nice couple. We also had a
lesson with S really quick and we asked his mom for permission to
work towards his baptism and she said absolutely. She is great.
Hopefully we can help her come to some lessons and get her back to
church too. I would be ecstatic if we could get the Ds to pick up S
and his mom and they can all help each get to church since they live
so close and S and his mom don't have a car. We dropped into the Fs
and they had a lot of stories to tell us for some reason so we only
had like 5 minutes to share a thought about the purpose of life and
they are still struggling but just an awesome family. They are
awesome! So if you kept track, that was 5 lessons with a member
present in one day. It was so awesome and I am so thankful to
Heavenly Father for allowing us to have such success.
Friday we
weekly planned since we didn't have time Thursday and we
did a spoof of Trale Lewous for our song. Nobody got it but everyone
loved it. We felt inspired to stop waiting around and praying for the
Hs to pick a baptismal date for T, so we decided to pick an inspired
date and fast for that to happen. We decided on Feb 15th. We
headed off for the day. One of the sisters in our district needed a
blessing, and I gave it. It was incredible. I honestly can't
describe how I felt but I'm very thankful for the priesthood and the
Spirit because I know there is nothing I could have come up with to
comfort her but the Spirit was right there with me helping me to know
what to say. I witness the reality of both the priesthood and the
Holy Ghost and how real they are. We ended up having a lesson with
the Ss and B and they both went really well. They are awesome. We
actually had a lesson with J the recent convert of 10 months. She is
awesome! She told us everything she is going through and she has
quite a few trials and she said she has re-evaluated her life and
wants to strengthen what she calls her "weak faith" and
then she describes how she just "knows" the church is true
and doesn't know how to describe it any other way. We told her she
described to us strong faith so she is doing fine. She feels like she
doesn't know any doctrine so we are going to meet every week to help
her. She is an amazing lady and she loves basketball! She played with
a semi-pro team in the area and I want to play her
sometime!
Saturday we had a few lessons. We had lessons with J, R, and the S, all RC or LA members. We also had a lesson with J and he is still having a tough time with "faith" but he's coming along and wants to make it out to church soon.
Saturday we had a few lessons. We had lessons with J, R, and the S, all RC or LA members. We also had a lesson with J and he is still having a tough time with "faith" but he's coming along and wants to make it out to church soon.
Sunday we
had an amazing day! We decided to fast for T and her family for the
baptism date of February 15. M was the only one to come to
church which was a little frustrating, but we had an amazing day at
church. Sister R got up and bore her testimony on missionaries and
thanked us specifically for all we do. It was awesome! We have seen a
big increase in the ward's prayers for the missionaries and I think
it is a huge reason for our success this week. After church ended
Brother H came up to us and told us his wife set a date of February
15th for T's baptism. We were absolutely stunned. In our
excitement we didn't ask for a time or any details but we told him we
would plan and schedule the whole thing. We walked out of there and
we were so happy. I was absolutely filled with gratitude with the
miracle that had just taken place. We went into a room and I offered
a prayer of thanks for allowing us to be a part of this miracle. When
we came out suddenly everyone was talking to us and telling us how
amazing they think we are and we were on top of the world. In PEC
Bishop H offered a prayer specifically for me and Elder W and thanked
us for our efforts and asked that the ward be more conscious of
opportunities to share the gospel which was powerful and the ward is
very impressed with the many people we have been helping. It is
amazing. We didn't even have enough room on our progress record and
we taught 20 lessons this week. I don't even know what to say it was
such an amazing week. Just pray that everything will continue to work
out and we can really help these people progress towards baptism.
Thanks for all the support!
I
know that this gospel is true. I know that with faith and according
to the will of God all things are possible. I know that fasting is a
real principle and commandment. I know that the Spirit is real and
can guide us as long as we open our ears to hear. I know that the
priesthood power is back on the earth and I am humbled to hold it. I
know that it was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith and that
the Book of Mormon is true and is the evidence of our church being
led by prophets today. I know that through Jesus Christ we will all
be resurrected. That through his sacrifice and our obedience to the
laws and ordinances of the gospel we can stand spotless before God. I
know that through the priesthood power families can be eternal. I
know that the hope in Jesus Christ motivates us to do good to all and
that we can always rely on him. Good luck and have a great
week!
Love,
Elder Pew
Love,
Elder Pew
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| At the temple with a guy they taught and baptized! |
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| The pond behind their apartment where they like to skip rocks. |
