November
10, 2014
Dear
family,
We
had a great week here in the TSAM. Some awesome things
happened.
Monday night we taught J.
Monday night we taught J.
Tuesday
we had a lot of zone leader stuff to do and had a baptism interview.
Elder L has a SWEET investigator getting baptized. We also had a
lesson with A, that less-active guy we just met.
Wednesday
we also had a lesson with Sister M. Sister Marshall is excited and
committed for her baptism. We tentatively set Saturday for the
interview.
Thursday
was MLC so that was incredible as usual. President laid down some
sweet doctrine and we basically counseled for like 2 hours on how we
could apply the things we learned from Elder Hamula. I think the
Assistants (and probably President) were impressed that we hit our
goal again for baptisms and we led the mission too. It's really paid
off to track the investigators in our zone so we can be so accurate
and then work hard to make them happen. Our goal for the month is to
go on lots of exchanges and really work to find. We have a goal to
find one new family in each area we go on an exchange. I'm really
excited. I just want to help the Elders so badly and give them a
great experience with a new family. Elder Hamula said that we usually
have more success in other missionaries' area if we are really trying
to help them and raise their vision.
Friday
we went straight to work on exchanges and I went with Elder J in
Cibolo. He is a great missionary and they have a very country area
but are on bikes. That was fun to ride Gimgimno again (that's my
bikes name, named after the city destroyed in 3 Nephi 8 I believe),
and we talked to a ton of people. We even worked through dinner and
talked to probably 100 people. We taught these two ladies who were
very religious, but they weren't ready and so we moved on just making
sure we are finding those who are ready. We were exhausted and
starving by the end of the day and a little sad to not find a solid
family, but we did our best.
Saturday
we were trying to get a hold of Sister Ml and finally we called
Sister B and talked with Sister M because I guess her phone broke, so
we set up the interview for 4 and then had to call Elder L to see if
that even worked for him. He said it worked so we went to pick him up
and then we couldn't get a hold of Sister M again, so we just
showed up and luckily she was ready to go. Sister M passed her
interview with flying colors, so it's all set for the 14th
at 6:30.
Sunday was awesome. Sister M came to church and the H family did too. J and his wife came to Gospel Principles and the Ts did a great job of helping them to feel welcome. They loved it and they were making some really impressive comments. I don't think people were expecting J to be like that, but he was on the money with his comments. We were talking about the role of parents in a family and he even brought up how your kids should know you are a father first, then your friend, so they understand the importance of listening to their counsel. He said he would love to have an eternal family and it was just 40 minutes of heaven for us. They had to leave partway through priesthood because the kids were getting really fussy. We were very pleased to see both Sister M and J at church and for the successes we have seen with them. We worked really hard to find some new people, but didn't have any luck this week. The gospel is true and it really is such an amazing experience to see others experience the joy that we feel. Thanks for all the support!
Sunday was awesome. Sister M came to church and the H family did too. J and his wife came to Gospel Principles and the Ts did a great job of helping them to feel welcome. They loved it and they were making some really impressive comments. I don't think people were expecting J to be like that, but he was on the money with his comments. We were talking about the role of parents in a family and he even brought up how your kids should know you are a father first, then your friend, so they understand the importance of listening to their counsel. He said he would love to have an eternal family and it was just 40 minutes of heaven for us. They had to leave partway through priesthood because the kids were getting really fussy. We were very pleased to see both Sister M and J at church and for the successes we have seen with them. We worked really hard to find some new people, but didn't have any luck this week. The gospel is true and it really is such an amazing experience to see others experience the joy that we feel. Thanks for all the support!
Love,
Elder Pew
November 17, 2014
Dear family,
First, we have a family
that is just here for 2 months at Randolph AFB and they were at
dinner yesterday with the V family and their last names are the
Bowns. Super nice young family and gave a great talk in church last
week. I recognized the name, but when Bro. Bown asked where we were
from and we said Cedar Hills, he asked if I went to Cedar Ridge. I
said yes and he asked if I had Mr. Bown. Turns out it's his dad.
Small world! He took a picture to send to his dad. Anyways, I'm going
to just write this by major events:
First,
Second,
the Hs also came to church and even brought J's brother M that we
met. The talks seemed like they were really good, so that should
help J. He's loving the church and is really on fire. We got them a
piggy bank to put their money into instead of buying cigarettes or
beer. Hopefully that will help.
Third,
we had zone meeting this week but the Assistants and STLLs were
coming, so as a zone leadership we only had an hour to train, so I
just had 15 minutes to present our plan to implement Elder Hamula's
trainings. We are really going to strive for doubling our finding
since by the numbers 4 new investigators a week would put us at 1
baptism a month as a mission and as a zone we are even doing better
and it would be 2 baptisms a month. We had 15 minutes before lunch
and the Assistants asked me to give some thoughts, so I basically had
to get up and give an on-the-spot training, but I had something in
mind so it wasn't a crash and burn. We also had interviews with
President but nothing really to report from that. President Slaughter
is just incredible. It was fun to talk to Elder Thorn during lunch.
Fourth,
I went on exchanges in Highland Hills, the Spanish branch and that
was an adventure. I wasn't able to contribute much, but I understood
almost everything going on. They have some awesome investigators. We
also found a new lady and her son at like 8:30, so we
accomplished that goal.
Fifth, we moved this week! I forgot to warn you all. We just moved to a bigger, nicer apartment (strange I know) so that Cibolo could move in once their lease ends to save the mission money, but that means for now me and Elder Hughes have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment to ourselves. I realize that that was bad timing since my birthday is coming up, so hopefully nothing gets lost in the mail. I forgot my birthday was so close. We had to spend almost all day Thursday packing everything up since we had to be out of our old apartment by the end of Friday, and it was also the first day the new apartment would be ready. We got everything moved over pretty well and are settled in the new one. So from everything going on, we didn't have as much time to find this week as we'd like, but we did teach a first lesson to a lady named E that seems fairly promising.
Sixth,
A, is one fire too. He's been a really cool experience to be a part
of. I can't remember if I even told his story, but basically late one
night we were walking past his house and we saw him inside painting
and we walked past, but I figured we might as well talk to him and
knocked on the door and he told us he was LA and was wanting to come
back to church. He loved church and wants to meet everyday if we can.
His daughter E is like 4 and is super cute and she really loves us.
Overall
it was a great week despite the little hiccup we are still working
out. The work is true and it's real. It's more than a good idea or a
nice fantasy. It really works and really changes lives. Jesus Christ
is the way to true joy. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
Love,
Elder Pew
Elder Pew
November
24, 2014
Dear
family,
Happy
birthday to "Zane the President of the USA and Pompeeface Sr."
today!
This
was an eventful week. 4 exchanges, driving to San Antonio twice, and
becoming two decades old.
I first want to start by saying thanks for
all the birthday cards and wishes! It helped "another day"
to be a good day. I also want to give thanks for each of you. Thank
you for being such a great family. I am so grateful to be a part of
the crazy, pompeeface Pew family. I am thankful to have such great
parents who have taught me so well. I still brag about you guys to
every missionary who ever talks about their parents and the counsel
you have given me comes back to help on a weekly basis. One example
was this week on an exchange, teaching a recent convert that after 40
days of quitting drinking, slipped up and fell back into alcohol. The
missionaries have been lost how to help him. In the lesson when he
retold his story of drinking again, a question that dad once asked me
after making a dumb decision came into my head, "Did you read
the Book of Mormon today?" So I asked him. He sat there, and
realized that it was the first day he missed reading in a long time.
We testified that it would give him the daily power to give it up
again. I'm thankful for growing up in a home where the gospel was the
center. Even if no one listened to me that little kids only have a 20
minute attention span and FHE shouldn't go any longer, I'm grateful
for the consistency of daily scripture study, prayer, and weekly
family night. Thank you for helping me to gain a testimony of this
gospel.
Monday
was a hard working day. No one was home and it got into the mid 30s,
and we ended up knocking for a lot of it.
Tuesday
I left on a two-day exchange, the first one being with 1st Ward. That
is where P and L moved, so I got to have a lesson with them. It was
awesome! P was super excited to see me! The lesson went great and
hopefully they are more motivated to go to church. I accidentally
interrupted a drug deal in that area. We racked up a lot of
referrals just by asking everyone. My goal to find a new family was
accomplished. We went by an old media referral and the lady let us
right in. Her name was G and she said that missionaries had stopped
by before and gave her a "Merman Bible." We clarified to
make sure it actually was the Book of Mormon and she still had it and
said she knew she should be reading it. We asked what she was looking
for in life and she said "humility" so that was cool. We
read part of Alma 32 and she really liked it. In the closing prayer
she thanked God that she was able to open up her "Merman Bible"
again. Those Elders have been struggling so hopefully that helped to find a new person for them to teach.
Wednesday I
was with Mission Creek. I went with them to their district meeting.
Elder S in Mission Creek is the District Leader and he's pretty
great. We spent most of the day teaching and they have some really
cool investigators. They didn't have a clue it was my birthday until
President texted at like 10 to say happy birthday. It was just how I
wanted. A normal working day serving the Lord without any attention.
It's weird to think that on a mission a birthday just doesn't mean
that much and I honestly kept forgetting.
 |
| Balloons and poppers for Elder Pew's birthday |
Thursday I
returned and found that Cibolo had moved in with us. While I was gone
they had a lesson with J and he was super excited about his baptism,
so they talked about the 29th but we haven't been able to teach him
again, so we will need to move it to the 6th since he hasn't quit
smoking. We had to take Elder S to the mission home and it was weird
being there again. I feel like I'm always the one who ends up at
President's house and it was clear that I was the only one who felt
comfortable there. I asked him about Sister M and he said it's not a
huge deal. He said he will only start to worry if it's been 3 months
and she still hasn't been confirmed. We stopped by to give them some
goodies just so they knew we were thinking about them.
 |
| Rainstorm |
Friday Elder
H was on exchanges and so I was with Elder J double working Randolph
and Cibolo. Not much happened other than a lesson with the L family
(the one who loves the Cowboys). Me and Bro L get along super well,
it's too bad he's just not interested in religion still but he was
the one who wanted us to show him a mormon message. We also found out
Elder J was getting a new companion Saturday. He was super
stressed about it because they don't have anything going on in Cibolo
and I think he was looking forward to working with us and having some
help, so I helped him go through their record and get a ton of people
to go by and I just talked up the potential in the area and I hope it
helped him, he seems to be doing much better.
Saturday we
had to go to the mission office and saw Elder T and President again.
We picked up Elder J's new companion Elder R, who is from PG. He has
been out 6 months and totally reminds me of Elder V. Knows tons about
every subject and is pretty funny. Good addition to the apartment. We
got Elder H back and went to work. We had no luck for a Saturday and
I have really exhausted this area. We have gone by nearly every
single former and potential investigator, as well as every
less-active member. It's just hard that everyone we are working with
can't have lessons. It started to rain at about 8 and turned into an
absolute typhoon. It was awesome!! We were at a less-active member's
house and it started coming down soooo hard. The entire street was
flooded so we decided we needed to quickly leave if we wanted to make
it back. Driving home was the funnest, most dangerous thing I've ever
done. It was insane. In some places there was a feet or two of water
and at one point it nearly stopped us and I had to floor it pretty
good to get out. We made it safe and were done for the night and I
loved it. The rain here is just amazing.
Sunday was
pretty good. Church was great and the Hs came again, but only for
sacrament meeting. They didn't really have a reason to leave other
than fussy kids and being tired, so that was too bad, but we have a
lesson tonight that hopefully won't fall through. J's brother Mo did
come with, the same one we referred to the missionaries in Castle
Hills and he moved in with the Hs. I told him we were happy to have
him at church and he gave me a big smile and said "you'll be
seeing a lot more of me around here, I love it!" Of course if
he's there tonight we will start teaching him too, although he might
be better in the Singles' Ward. We had another unsuccessful night trying to find new families to teach,
but we are talking to lots of people everyday. We know it will turn
around soon.
Out
of all things I'm thankful for, the thing that I treasure the most is
my testimony of this gospel and of Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful that
it's always been firm and that I know how to keep it that way. I am
thankful for the peace and joy it has brought me despite whatever
hardships we face. I'm thankful for the direction it has given me in
life. I'm thankful for the knowledge of the Atonement and of
repentance. I'm thankful for the knowledge of eternal families. I'm
thankful for the example Jesus Christ set for us to live joyful,
successful lives, and to return to live with Him again forever. Thank
you all for all you do!
Love,
Elder
Pew
