Dear
family,
You
already heard about a lot that happened this week, so I'll try and
keep this pretty short. This is just the best time to be a
missionary.
Monday we
went bowling with the Moving Elders and it was pretty fun and Elder T
beat me by one point. Of course. In the evening we found this new guy
named W that is really cool. He is like 28 and lives with his fiancee
and their three kids. We introduced our message and he was just like,
"any chance to talk about God I'll take it," We tried to
get in to teach his fiancee too, but he was sure it would be best to
wait until next lesson. He understood the Restoration really well and
seemed genuinely interested. He is really cool and just has a great
light about him. He was really interested in the Book of Mormon, but
they are busy with the Holidays, so we are teaching him
again tomorrow. It was great.
Tuesday was
Smithmas. So I read 2 Nephi 3 and it was pretty amazing. One thing
that stuck out was that the restoration was not just to restore truth
but to help people have salvation. I was also on exchanges with Elder
G and Elder H was with Elder T back in my old area. We had a lot of
lessons set up but of course they all fell through. We did have our
lesson with P. He is a really cool guy. He is a big basketball fan
and he is really interested. He is really excited and really likes
the lay ministry and how much our church reaches out to each other.
It was a fun exchange and I like Elder G.
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| Caroling as a district |
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| District eating |
Wednesday we
had district meeting and we have a huge district. It is so funny to
be back in the same district that I was over, but now not having to
worry about being the Assistant's District Leader. It's strange how
your mindset changes. We drove up to Austin to make sure everyone got
their Christmas packages on time because Sister Williams in the
office was stressing out about that. We had a lesson with J and he is
doing great. He should get Sundays off at the first of the year and
then he can get baptized. They are such a good family and it has been
so easy to love them since it all started with P's baptism. We went
caroling as a district in the evening and I forgot to tell you, but
we stopped by T and B and it was one of the most amazing experiences.
T was so happy to see me and when B recognized me she started crying
and hid behind T in her wheelchair. After we finished B said it was
her "new best Christmas memory." She said she would hunt me
down if I didn't hug her. I was pretty much crying and T really liked
the gift you sent him. He's doing super well and hasn't missed a week
of church. The Moving Elders slept over and that was pretty fun.
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| Christmas morning |
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| Christmas gifts |
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| Anniversary gift they made for the mission president and his wife |
Christmas
morning was great. I was just really grateful for all the great
things I got. Thank you to everyone who sent something, it was the
best Christmas. We went to President Slaughters for brunch and he
gave us fried mush. I guess it's an Oklahoman tradition. It's
basically deep fried gritz, but it was pretty good. It was just us
and the Lead Sister Training Leaders and it was a blast. They are
just a good family. We are so lucky to be around them so much. We
also gave them the gift that we made for their anniversary and they
really liked it. It was great. We took treats around to our
investigators and it went great. The Ps and P were really thankful.
We had dinner and then skyped, and then we went to President's house
again for a presentation on the translation of the Book of Mormon. It
was incredible. Basically Joseph Smith made it very clear that the
Urim and Thummim was the means of translation, not some seer stone.
It was a fantastic Christmas.
Friday Elder
T got super sick, so I just studied all day which was good since we
have MLC coming up this week, a trainer and trainee meeting, and Zone
Conferences next week. So, hopefully I'm ready for those. I got a
funny picture of him.
He literally just slept all day.
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| Elder T sleeping all day, he was sick. |
Saturday we
visited a lot of people and invited them to church, but we didn't
have much luck. We did set something up with the M family, so
hopefully that goes well.
Church
was great. H came to church again, so that is 22 times. We had a
lesson with him too and we asked him to accept baptism. He just loves
the church and is a great almost member missionary. We read Alma 22
and invited him to give up all his sins to know God, but he just
still says he "has doubts." Our meeting with President
that night was incredible, and I don't even know how to put it into
words. President just talked about when he was the Bishop and his
stories are just incredible. He just really ran that ward well. He's
amazing.
It
was great to talk to y'all and hear from you, but I'm especially glad
I was able to bear my testimony of this work to you. I really know
that this is the greatest gift we could give the world. The gospel is
true and this is Jesus Christ's church. Love you all!
Love,
Elder
Pew
