February
16th, 2015
Dear
family,
It
was a great week!
Monday
night we helped the B family with family history for a bit and then
taught them about enduring to the end.
Tuesday
we got up early and left for Austin with the Sisters. We went to the
Austin Zone Meeting and they asked me to give a training on setting
daily, weekly, and monthly goals. It was a good meeting and then I
went on exchanges up in Round Rock with Elder L and Elder M. It was a
great exchange and we had great experiences. Elder L told me that
after I explained in a zone meeting that something I've done to make
my prayers more effective is to go into my bathroom closet and pray
out loud and he said he has done that ever since. I don't think he
realized how loud he was praying either, so I could hear the whole
thing and he went through every person in his zone and prayed for
them by name and their specific needs. It was incredible and I nearly
cried. We have such faithful leaders in our mission.
Wednesday
we came down to Austin for the Oak Hills Zone Meeting. It was funny
to see the different personalities of each zone. It was a great
meeting. The zone leaders there cover UT campus and ward, so that was
a blast to serve in. They are in a trio, so I went with the new zone
leader, Elder W. He is a great missionary and we had fun. There are
so many people outside always so we talked to so many people. UT
campus is right in downtown Austin and everyone we talked to was
really receptive to talking with us. We taught a ton of lessons and
it was just a completely different game. Knocking is really effective
and like I said, there are millions of people outside, so you just
choose someone to talk to. It was strange to see what college life is
like for UT students and it's fast-paced. There were tons of
fraternities and it was interesting.
Thursday
we drove back for our zone meeting in North Zone. We had our
interviews with President and I loved mine. President was just so
loving and nice to me, even though I was already in a great mood.
He's so incredible. We talked a little about what will happen in July
since Elder H and I go home the same day. As we talked I realized I
really do want to go back into the field and train a new missionary
maybe for my last transfer in Brushy Creek or something. It was
great. We had to catch up on all the office work we missed which took
us to the evening and our lessons fell through but we met a couple of
good people.
Friday
we went on exchanges with the Moving Elders. I went with Elder R. He
is doing really well. He's only been out four transfers, but he's
doing great things. It was fun to be back in San Pedro for a day. We
stopped by a member and they didn't even realize I ever left. It was
funny. We found this part-member family that moved in right before I
left and caught them home and taught them. It is a single-mother and
her son Trevor. Hopefully that continues, it was a great lesson. They
got a media referral for this lady and we had an incredible lesson
with her. She is a single-mother with two daughters and she lives
with her mom. Unfortunately they weren't home, but I guess they
taught all of the Saturday and they are on board too. She is dating a
member and had already read the whole Book of Mormon and knows the
church is true. It was a powerful lesson and she was crying for a lot
of it. She totally seems like a member already, she will be a great
member. She easily accepted baptism of course. I am really excited
for San Pedro to teach her. It's so interesting to see the contrast
of teaching someone who is ready and someone who isn't. It just goes
so smoothly and they understand so well.
Saturday
we were out trying to find almost all day, but didn't have any luck.
We also had to work out our schedule for Tuesday because the church
is taking 8 of our cars away, but they are random ones throughout the
mission, so we have to shuffle cars around to areas that need them
and put other missionaries on bikes. We had a lesson with the B
family and we finally had their membership record number so we
plugged that in and found about 20 names to take to the temple.
Brother B was so excited about it, it was awesome. They should go in
a week or two.
Sunday
was great. Church was really good and the talks were some of the best
I've heard. I don't know if I told you, but our Stake President got
emergency called to preside over the Salt Lake Mission on March 1st
since the mission president's wife died suddenly and the Spendlove
family has the resources to just pick up and leave. H came to church
and the Ns were there 10 minutes early. P got the Aaronic Priesthood
and he was excited and is doing really well. I love that family. We
had a great discussion with them about being in the world and not of
the world. There is a great talk by Elder Hales that I showed them
that talks about how being baptized into the church and keeping your
covenants is how to be in the world but not of the world. J didn't
come to church again, and we don't know what to do to help him
because Sister P works every Sunday. We had another great lesson with
the M family. The kids love us coming over and you can really tell
Brother M wants to come back. E said she wants to be baptized at
some point and Brother M said he would love to baptize her and E.
They are probably the closest to getting baptized at this point. Our
meeting with President was incredible as usual. "So as much as
in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel." Being a missionary
is the most fulfilling thing any of us could ever do. Thank you for
all the love and prayers!
Love,
Elder Pew
Love,
Elder Pew
An elder sent this to his mom and she sent this portion of his letter to me (Elder Pew's mom)! So nice. "I was with Elder Pew, the more seasoned of the two Assistants, and Elder I was with Elder H. Since we cover two wards, we just split the area in half and worked in both for the day, and it was very effective! It was great to talk to Elder Pew about leadership and how I can improve my leadership capabilities and be a better leader overall. He talked a lot about how fellow missionaries had been doing, and how the area in specific had been going for me. It was great to have a good and uplifting conversation with him centered on the Gospel and on the work, it made me realize that I can do better at that when it's just me and Elder I out working. We definitely had some miracles that day though with people that we hadn't ever been able to catch at home, being at home, and just the lessons that we had going very well that evening. Elder Pew is a great teacher and is very good about using the scriptures in his teaching. He complimented my teaching which was all too kind of him, he knows how to lift others where they stand and he's a great example I learned a lot from."
February
23rd, 2015
Dear
family,
This
was a fantastic week! So many good things happened as the Lord
definitely showed that he is "able to do [His] own work" (2
Ne. 27:21). I'll get right into it
Monday
we had a great lesson with P and helped him get started on his family
history work and then we helped the S family for FHE to fill out
their "Work of Salvation" plan that the ward just came out
with. It was great. We had a lesson with the B's daughter again.
Tuesday
we had a special zone conference to get the black boxes in our cars.
They track everything about our driving. They keep us from driving
aggressively and mark you down if you do. They talk to you if you are
speeding or something and say "watch speed" but they aren't
too sensitive, so you hardly notice they are there. We had to get 8
cars to the mission office and move 8 other cars around, so we spent
the entire day with the Moving Elders frantically driving around the
mission getting everyone the right car and dropping them off. We got
back pretty late, but we had no other option because the Missionary
Department told us last Friday and they needed to be there by
Wednesday morning.
Wednesday
we drove down to the Border. We went to Eagle Pass's district
meeting. It was all in Spanish which was really fun. I understood
almost everything that was happening, I just couldn't speak. I went
on exchanges with Carrizo Springs, the only English area on the
Border. I went with Elder L and Elder M. They are both pretty young
and are really impressive. Both of them were very teachable and just
wanted to learn so much. We had a couple awesome lessons and Carrizo
is a tiny place. It's literally like a five minute drive across the
whole town. They have a lot going on though. I had one of the best
moments of my mission. We taught this family of 5. A grandma, mom,
and three daughters who had been taught a couple times and are
progressing really well. We taught them baptism, so we listened to
that Inside Out song "I like to Look for Rainbows" with the
John the Baptist song. I felt the Spirit very strong as I sat there
looking at this cute, humble family trying to follow God looking out
over the big Carrizo Springs sky standing up. The church is true. God
shows His love by reaching out to struggling families like this one
and it was so powerful to be a part of that experience. I felt deep
gratitude for the experiences I've had on my mission. We committed
them to be baptized on March 14th. The Branch down there only has 25
people, so that will be a great addition. I also played my first game
of proselyting basketball. We saw these two guys way down the street
so we went to go talk to them and they immediately said "are you
ready to lose?" and we tried talking about the church, but they
just wanted to play us, so finally I asked if we beat them, would
they listen to our message. They said yes, and we only had ten
minutes, so we went ahead and played them in a game of 21 to 13 for
the lack of time. They weren't even good, so I won pretty fast and
set up a lesson for the next day. I explained to the Elders that is
rare that that would be the right thing to do, but it was fun and we
got a lesson from it. It was a great exchange. I've noticed how much
better an exchange goes when both sides are very teachable and are
there to learn. President Slaughter says the greatest leaders are the
most teachable. It's so true. Elder Eyring gives a great talk about
being teachable called "Listen Together," it's a BYU
Devotional.
Thursday
we drove back and had a great evening. We split with Brother L and D,
and I went with Brother D. We were suppose to teach the Bs, but they
canceled and right then Brother M texted and said that E got bit by a
dog and was in the ER and asked on the ride over for us to come give
her a blessing. So we went and did that instead and it was a great
experience. Sister M was really grateful and it wasn't too serious. I
also realized how queezy I am because I almost passed out just seeing
like 5 stitches. It was a great visit.
Friday
we helped P with some more family history and I think we got all
three of us addicted to family history. We have about 15 names we've
found and still haven't hit a line that someone else has done. We had
exchanges and I went with Elder W and Elder I in the UTSA singles'
ward. It wasn't as crazy as UT. Both Elders are doing well and I am
great friends with both. We found a new lady who seemed pretty
interested.
Saturday
we were suppose to teach this 16 year-old who requested a Book of
Mormon on mormon.org,
but her mom wasn't going to be there and we wanted to teach the whole
family so we rescheduled for Sunday but we brought this Young Women,
S, to meet her and invite her to Stake Conference. It was great and J
had already read like 7 pages of the Book of Mormon. S is excited
with missionary work and has been trying so hard to find someone for
us to teach, so it was so cool to see how the Lord blesses those who
are honestly trying. It's clear that this whole experience is for
Sarah and it's cool.
Sunday
was our Stake Conference and it was the best day of my mission! We
had Elder Snow and Keele from the Seventy there for the
reorganization. H came, the Ns sat with us, and J came with S and
LOVED it. She is so prepared. Just as I suspected, Bishop Neuberger
(our bishop) got called to be the new Stake President, so now we need
a new Bishop. The meeting was great and afterwards T (from San Pedro)
came up to talk to me. He is doing so well! It was amazing to see how
much he has progressed. He is past Alma 40 in the Book of Mormon
already and is excited to go to the temple. He is incredible. After
church we taught J and her mom and her sister J who is 7. We had S
and her older brother T who is preparing for a mission. J didn't
think her mom was interested, but we were glad we were persistent in
meeting with her too, because she was very open and was actually
taught like 20 years ago. They are a great family! When I asked J
what she saw in the picture of the First Vision she said "well
that must be Joseph Smith, and that's God and Christ and they came
and answered about which church to join?" It was incredible.
It's amazing to see how much children inherently know. We committed
them to be baptized, but the mom works a crazy schedule and it will
be really hard to meet with all of them and for her (Sister O) to
come to church, so eventually she will need to quit her job. J is
totally excited and ready to be baptized, it was a miracle. S was so
excited, it was just great. We had a lesson with the Ms and they are
still coming along. E is really opening up, but Brother and Sister M
like us coming over, but aren't really committing or acting, so they
need some prayers. We stopped by the A family, the one we met
forever ago and we had given them a Book of Mormon before they left
on a trip two weeks ago. We were following up and Brother A let us
right in and told us that they had read the first few pages of the
Book of Mormon and he was blown away. We gave him one that the youth
had written a testimony in and apparently whatever they wrote hit him
really hard. Another sign that the Lord consecrates our efforts for
our gain, something simple like that made a powerful effect on them.
We had to leave but he wanted us to come back as soon as possible, so
we are going on Tuesday and we are really excited. It's a family of 5
with we think 3 baptismal age people. Our meeting with President was
really good. We talked a lot about the Stake Conference and the
unwritten order of the church. Things you can only learn through
observation, revelation, and experience. At Stake Conference there
was a powerful difference between all of the testimonies and talks
from the first few speakers and then from the Seventy and President
and Sister Slaughter because theirs were so focused on the doctrine
and they were powerful. President Slaughter is incredible.
I
am so grateful for my mission. This is absolutely the best thing for
me. I am so grateful to be in the Texas San Antonio Mission. There is
something so special about it that probably everyone says about their
mission but you would have to be here to experience. The gospel is
true and we witnessed this week that it is a living church. Thank you
for all the love and support!
Love,
Elder Pew
Elder Pew
March
2nd, 2015
Dear
family,
This
was a very eventful week. I'm going to go by investigators this week.
1.
H- We taught him on Monday and basically established expectations
that we help people prepare for baptism, so when we come over, that
is what we are going to do. He understands he doesn't need to meet
with us just to come to church. So we won't be going by him as much
and we can spend more time elsewhere and keep the ward working with H
We had a great discussion with the Elders Quorum President who has
been very helpful with him and he will lead out those interactions
until he's ready to be baptized.
2.
J- We taught J after mutual with the Laurels and she is doing so
well! She has read all of 1 Nephi and really wants to get baptized.
We were suppose to meet with her mom alone on Friday, but she
canceled and then our lesson with the whole family Saturday. We
taught just J and her younger sister J again. We set her with the
21st and she is really excited, but her mom told her that might be
too soon. We are trying really hard to help Sister O and to meet the
older sister as well, but we didn't have much luck this week. S took
her to church again and she loves the Young Women. Apparently she
answered all the questions in Young Womens. S is almost as excited as
J for her baptism.
3.
Ms- Went out of town for the cheer competition, but we dropped them
off cookies before they left, hopefully they got them and we pick
right back up where we left off.
4.
Brother W- We talked to this man several weeks ago and he said he was
interested but he's been busy until this week and we finally sat down
and taught him and he was really open and excited to read the Book of
Mormon and come to church, but he didn't come. He is by himself and
about 50 and is a good guy. We have another lesson with him tonight.
5.
B family- New family that we met street contacting by our ward
mission leader's house in a really nice gated community. We had a
really great lesson with them. Brother B is really interested and he
started by asking what makes us different. He said all Mormons have
this glow and they all seem to be what all Christians should be. We
told him we were going to teach him what makes us different and the
Restoration was perfect. We were able to teach very clearly, simply,
and boldly is that we are different because we are literally part of
Christ's church. The only one with the true authority. They have
three kids who are very well behaved and it went really well. He
canceled the return appointment though and said they need to "talk
about it as a family" and he would contact us after he had
studied a bit more, so hopefully he studies the right sources.
6.
J- Still hasn't come to church but we had a good visit and he still
wants to come to the church, he just wants his wife to be able to
come with.
7.The
N are doing so well! We tried to take them to walk around the temple
but A got sick, but they were really bummed and really wanted to
reschedule. So we are going Tuesday morning. . We talked about how a
testimony is really built on four things: Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith,
the Book of Mormon, and Priesthood keys. P thanked us because he said
he keeps thinking about what he would say if he went up to the
podium. He leaves Thursday for Austin for about a month, so we will
have to take him to do baptisms after because we didn't get a new
Bishop yet this week.
We
had transfer planning Tuesday and Wednesday and it was so great. It
is one of my favorite things for sure about being here. It's
incredible to watch President and how much he loves each missionary
and it's a great time to learn how revelation works and councils. We
actually finished early, but we didn't feel good about it, and after
doing some of the office work Thursday and Friday we started changing
a couple other things and finally we felt the confirming revelation
that it was changed to what it needed to be. It is really cool how
that works. We reassigned two zone leaders as district leaders, the
first of many in the next three transfers since we are losing
something like 15 zone leaders and 15 district leaders, so by
reassigning zone leaders they can train up new district leaders to
replace them and help the young zone leaders. It will be really good.
We called everyone Sunday night to let them know if they are staying
or going, and it is fun to talk to all the missionaries. It will be a
good transfer.
I
am so grateful for the chance to be serving the Lord. There is
nothing as rewarding. The more we forget about ourselves the happier
we will be. Thank you for your examples of living the gospel.
Love,
Elder
Pew
March
9th, 2015
Dear
family,
This
was a great and crazy week, although not as crazy as most transfer
weeks. Here is the rundown:
Monday
we had a lesson with R. He's doing really well. We had a great lesson
and read 2 Nephi 31 and he totally understood the need to be
baptized. He said, "well I guess I've accepted Christ, and I've
been repenting, so I guess my next step is baptism." We set him
for the 28th but he missed church due to a family emergency. He's
great.
Tuesday
morning we were up really early to drive to Austin to pick up the
departing missionaries. There were only 3 in Austin, so it wasn't too
bad. We dropped them off and finished the other office work we needed
to and went out to work. We took the N to the temple just to walk
around the grounds. They dressed up all nice anyways and it was
really misty that day and it was beautiful. We tried to have them be
reverent and think about the importance of the temple for their
family, but P just kept asking questions so that didn't work but we
answered his questions and it was powerful. They are super excited to
go to the temple. They took us to Kneader's for lunch and it was so
much fun. They are such good people. They got mini scriptures for
Jack, it was pretty awesome. We had a lesson with this atheist guy
named A. He has a friend on a mission, so he was curious. We told him
if he was willing to "give up all of his sins to know God,"
he would know of His existence and His love. He was open and that's
why we were able to be very open about that. We had a really good
lesson with the O family. We had dinner with a less-active family,
the Ss, and we asked Brother S if he could come to the lesson and so
we brought him. He said he wasn't going to say anything, but he ended
up testifying throughout the lesson. We helped Sister O a lot and she
said she thinks J is getting baptized too soon, but she wants to
"feel how she feels" so we told her how, through the Book
of Mormon and coming to church and she said she wants to feel
comfortable at church, so we set up a church tour, but then she
canceled on us and didn't come to church, but J is doing great.
Prayers for Sister O would be great. The departing missionaries
stayed at our apartment and Elder H was one of them, so it was good
to talk to him.
Wednesday
morning we took the departing missionaries to the airport. We had a
training meeting for the new District Leaders and it went well. The
Area Leaders helped us this time with the incoming missionaries. We
had a really great group. Lots of future leaders. One is Elder J. He
is from South Africa and he said he knew some Louws and Futters, but
I didn't know any first names, so if you send me some info on those
families that would be great. He's from Johannesburg and he's really
cool. He's in the zone, which will be cool. We drove them to the
temple and the Alamo and it was a blast. They were all super tired by
the end of the night. We found out it was suppose to snow in the
morning which would have been crazy since it was good weather on
Thursday, but President didn't feel good about it so we called
everyone and postponed transfer meeting two hours later for safety.
Thursday
morning we didn't have to get up as early and we studied with the new
missionaries. It was awesome. We each bore our testimonies and
abrazo-ed and it was a great start to the day. Transfer meetings went
really well. It was a smooth process. It was a pretty easy transfer
to figure out logistically this time. We got back really late though,
and it was 8:45 by the time we were back, but we decided to
stop by R and we had a great lesson with him and his sister that
happened to be there. It was a nice little miracle. We set up a
lesson for the next day.
Friday
we had a meeting with President and the Sisters for the upcoming Zone
Conferences. We are going to do them on teaching skills. It will be
good and I'm a little nervous because the way we are going to do it
is split off into groups and then we are going to just practice
practice practice and evaluate and practice again trying to help the
missionaries lift their vision on how to help people really
understand what we are offering them. It will be exciting. We did our
office work and then had a lesson with R and Brother L. It went
great. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he understood it really
well. He's great. We finally got in and taught the A family. We
testified of the resurrection and life after death. They were really
grateful we came. Hopefully their when lives calm down so we can
teach them more. We really want to show them the "Because of
Him" Easter video from last year. It's perfect.
Saturday
we had a great lesson with the M family. We talked about the
importance of reading the Book of Mormon and it went really well. We
committed them to read daily.
Sunday
we got a new bishop. It is Brother S, the 1st Counselor. Brother B
and T are the counselors. H came to church and so did J and the Ns.
All of our lessons fell through, but we helped with Mission Prep
class for the stake. We taught the Restoration and helped the youth
practice teaching too. It was a good experience. They have no idea
what great experiences await them on their missions. We had two
companionships of ZLs and STLs come to our meeting with President
just to give them the experience and it was a blast. We had some
great doctrinal discussions and I loved it. President and Sister
Slaughter are incredible.
Something
that I've noticed recently in my studies that I've been obsessed with
is how the Book of Mormon invites us to live consecrated lives, not
just to believe. That is part of the power of the Book of Mormon.
It's not just enough to believe. We must give up all that we are and
have to God and that is the only way to have true happiness. Here are
just three examples:
2
Nephi 25:29-"And now behold, I say unto you that the right way
is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One
of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him
with all your might , mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if
ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out." (my current favorite
verse)
Omni 1:26-
"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye shouldcome unto
Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation,
and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your
whole souls as anoffering unto him, and continue in fasting and
praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be
saved."
Moroni 10:32-
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in
him, anddeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny
yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your
might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that
by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the
grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the
power of God."
I
know living a consecrated life is the way to a truly happy life. This
is the true church. Thank you for all that you do!
Love,
Elder
Pew
 |
| President Slaughter and Elder Pew at a zone conference in Austin taken by Elder Pew's Aunt! |
March
16th, 2015
Dear
family,
I
guess the fact that we have lots to do doesn't really separate this
week from any other, but that's how I feel. We did plan our transfer
and we planned way less exchanges and meetings, so we should have
quite a bit more time in our area. That will be good. Zone
conferences start this week with the emphasis on teaching.
Monday
night we had a great evening. We had a visit with the A family to
discuss their work of salvation plan and they told us they have a
friend in our ward boundaries they feel is ready for the gospel, and
we didn't even have to ask. They set up a dinner with them for
Friday, so that was pretty fast. Recent converts are so good about
sharing the gospel. We had a lesson with R and read Moroni 6 with
him. He liked it. We taught a new guy named C who is a YSA that we
met street contacting. He canceled the return appointment, so we are
going to try by again.
Tuesday
we had MLC. We went to the temple again, except we had 8 more
missionaries than they would let us take, so we uninvited ourselves,
the LSTLs, and Area Leaders and set up an extra temple trip for
Saturday with just us. It was perfect because we had the Area Leaders
with us and we were able to practice and role play our role plays for
zone conference. It helped us all to get on the same page and be more
prepared when missionaries do unexpected things or just to help them
see a better way to teach. The MLC portion was incredible. I gave a
training called "the teachable TSAM" about how that needs
to be our culture in the mission and President Slaughter always says
that the culture of the mission starts with the MLC. I specifically
talked about how to be teachable and to prepare to get the most
possible out of exchanges and meetings. I talked about why we need to
be teachable, because the Lord needs His leaders to be moldable and
our progression perfectly parallels our increase in knowledge. I got
the idea from a talk by Elder Eyring "Listen Together." I
listed four practical things we can do to improve our teachability
and they really help a lot. It works if you are in a class when you
know the teacher will know much less than you and you can still
learn. First, you can pray for those you will learn from. I mentioned
specifically praying to recognize the other missionary as a servant
of the Lord and that you will be open to learning. Second, learn and
study the gospel. We can prepare for the exchanges or meetings by
studying and going in with specific things we want to learn. As we
prepare to receive revelation our hearts will be opened and the
Spirit will teach us what we need (Helaman 6:36). Third, repent
and conform to the teachings of the church. We must be willing to
change based on the things we learn. We should set goals to improve
based on what we learn. We should listen to even the faintest
prompting and obey showing the Lord that we are willing to follow and
He is more likely to bless us with more (Alma 12:9-10). Fourth, we
should serve those we will learn from. On exchanges we should serve
those we are with and in meetings we can ask "what are they
trying to accomplish?" and "how can I help them get there?"
It really changes the meeting so much for you. I only had 15 minutes
so I had to go through it quickly, but I hope it helps the mission be
very teachable when they go on exchanges with their Sister Training
Leader, District Leader, Zone Leader, or whatever. Our evening was
slow, we had a bunch of lessons cancel on us.
Wednesday
we had District Meeting and it was great. Elder W continues to do
well. We had to do our office work for the week and our evening was
again slow because we had so many lessons cancel, so we tried our
best to move in faith although we didn't see any immediate results.
Thursday
we had the trainer/trainee meeting and our van had to go into the
shop because the transmission is being strange, so we took a spare
Corolla that we've been driving around ever since. The meeting went
really well. We had an amazing group of new missionaries. Elder A is
doing well. Lots of leaders. I gave the same training on being
faithful to God, and I thought it went better than the last one,
which obviously it should have. We had Brother F with us for the
evening and we had a lesson with H. Mostly to invite him to a baptism
this week, but we went ahead and read Alma 42 also. Brother F was
really good. He just straight up asked H what is keeping him from
baptism in a very loving way, and H didn't really tell him, but
Brother F was very helpful.
Friday
we got to weekly plan which was great. We had Brother L with us and
we had a great lesson with R. We taught about prophets and set him
with the 5th for baptism. He accepted and is reading the Book of
Mormon on his own. He likes Brother L. We set up a church tour for
Saturday at 4, but later we found out there was a baptism at 3, so we
invited him to that with a church tour after.
Saturday
was amazing. We went to the temple in the morning. It was a great
session and I saw the last of the three videos that I hadn't seen, so
I've seen them all now. It was great to talk to President in the
Celestial Room. We went to their house for brunch with the other
missionaries and it was a great time. We had R follow us to the
church and he was late getting ready and of course the highway was
closed that day, so we showed up 30 minutes late for the baptism, but
luckily it hadn't happened yet. He enjoyed it and it was a great
baptism. We took him around the church afterwards and Brother A came
to that. They got along super well. We had dinner with the M family
and E was there again. We shared an Easter thought and E will come
along eventually. We found a new family called the P family at
8:40 sitting outside their apartment. It is a grandma who is
raising three grandkids. It went really well and we taught the Plan
of Salvation. They understood well, but weren't there for the return
appointment on Sunday. Oh well.
Sunday we
had a great time at church. Bishop Smith is great. The P family were
sick again and the Ns didn't make it, but R and J came. R loved
church and ward was incredible with him. There are so many
kingdom-builders in this ward. We had a lesson with B and V again,
but he hadn't read and isn't necessarily looking to convert, but he
is interested in reading the Book of Mormon so we read 3 Nephi 11
with him and left him the rest of 3 Nephi to read. We'll see where
they go. We taught the P family. They are a lot like the Bs where
they aren't very proactive, but they believe it's true. It was a
great Sunday.
There
is no doubt this is the true church. When we live the gospel to its
fullest we will be happy. I am so grateful for my mission, to learn
that again and again and again. Thank you for your examples!
Love,
Elder
Pew
 |
| Leadership Training Photo |
March
23rd, 2015
Dear
family,
This
was a great week and I had some pretty bad luck. First, because we
had so many exchanges this week I only ended up sleeping in a bed 3
times this week, the rest were on the couch or the floor. Then I was
shaving on Saturday and I realized I hadn’t cleaned out my shaver
in a while so I decided to take it apart and when I pushed the button
to do that, it fell out of my hand and bounced on the counter into
the sink, broke, and then the three razors fell off and down the
drain in the only sink without a stopper thing. So I need to buy a
new one today unfortunately. Then this morning we came outside to
play tennis and couldn’t find our car and we realized it had been
towed because we forgot to move the parking pass from our van that is
in the shop for transmission issues into our extra car, so that’s
also why $220 were taken out of my account. So that was rough, but
besides that it was a good week full of excitement.
Monday
was great. We went to this cool high-tech driving range that has all
these big targets you try to hit and the further away they are, the
more points you get for P day. It was fun. We had a lesson with the M
and they opened up a lot to us. We asked them if they were close to
coming back and they again said that they don’t like to be pushed,
but Sister M said she has thought about it, which is a huge change
from what she said three months ago. They are getting really close.
We are going to try really hard to get them to come to Conference at
the church with a pot-luck afterwards so they can meet all the
members. We had a lesson with J at the B’s home and it went really
well. The Bs are incredible. They would fit in with our ward so well
and their son got his call to New York South and he leaves July 8th,
which is strange. He reminds me of me. We are still waiting on J’s
mom.
Tuesday
we started Zone Conference. The first hour is President, then we
introduce the role-plays that we do, and then we split into 8 groups
in different classrooms and we have 3 25 minute sessions practice
teaching for understanding. Basically what we want them to get out of
it is that what we teach is not necessarily what they understand. We
need to shift our focus from OUR teaching to THEIR understanding.
Just because we have taught something doesn’t mean they understand
so we must ask questions to make sure and then clarify things that
they don’t understand. I was a little nervous for that part, but
they went well and everyone loved it. Afterwards we played a
scripture mastery type game for the 21 chapters in the Book of Mormon
we have been studying. Here they are if you are wondering: 2 Ne 2, 9,
31, Mosiah 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 16, Jacob 4, Alma 5, 7, 11, 12, 40, 41,
42, Helaman 14, 3 Ne 27, Ether 12, Moroni 7. They are incredible.
Afterwards President finished with a training on how the Book of
Mormon was put together and it was incredible. He knows the Book of
Mormon so well. He talked about how one reason it is the most correct
book on earth is that the four main writers (not prophets, the ones
who actually wrote what we have) were all personal witnesses of Jesus
Christ, and so was the prophet who translated it. It was powerful. We
went on exchanges and I was with Elder O in Round Rock. We had a
great time and had some great opportunities to teach and practice
what we learned at Zone Conference. I realized that the most
important thing about the zone conference is we need to shift our
focus from ourselves to them. At first we might have some clunky
awkward sentences and things, but it’s so important we actually
help them understand what we are offering them. We had 8 missionaries
in the apartment because Elder H went with Elder O’s other two
companions and they live with Elder Ts and his companion who went on
an exchange with Elder L, an area leader, so we had 8. It was a
blast.
Wendesday
we had another zone conference in Austin and afterwards I went on
exchanges in Capital with Elder Jensen and Wynne. It went well. They
still mostly knock, so I talked to them a little bit at the end about
the difference between finding people to teach (which is easy in
their area knocking), and finding people to baptize (maybe I’m
wrong and knocking is the answer, but I think it would have to do
with member involvement). They teach so many lessons knocking because
everyone is open, but they don’t go anywhere. We also had 8
missionaries again in the apartment.
Thursday
we drove back with the Sisters in time for District Meeting. It was a
good meeting. We had to do our office work that afternoon. We had a
lesson with R and Brother B. It went really well and we taught him
the Word of Wisdom. He has to quit coffee and tea, but he’s willing
to give it up. He wasn’t feeling good this weekend, so he didn’t
come to church, but he’s progressing really well. We had a first
lesson with these two single guys and they were pretty interested but
we passed them off to Sister Powell and her companion who cover the
Singles Ward here. For some reason every new person we find is a
single person. We had two more first lessons with Singles that we
passed off to them and have another potential one. Sister Powell is
doing really well.
Friday
I went on exchanges to Randolph. I was with Elder T. He is from
Mexico City and didn’t speak English when he came. He has a thick
accent, but his English is really good. He has only been out a year
and is very sharp. He’s going to be a great leader in the mission
and the church. Their apartment got bed-bugs the day before, so we
were working out of an extra apartment in Converse and he forgot the
area book with all the addresses, so a lot of our plans got ruined so
I was taking him to all the people I taught when I was there. We had
a lesson with Brother W’s dad and a couple other people. They were
all really happy to see me, especially A, the less-active guy me and
Elder H found. He’s made tons of progress and he’s working
towards the Aaronic Priesthood and was speaking at their baptism the
next day. It’s amazing to see the change in people. We had an
awesome day and came back to the extra apartment that was empty of
course, so we just slept on the floors. It was awesome. I was really
grateful for that day because I have always considered Randolph to be
the hardest area I was in and I had felt like I didn’t do too much
good there, but as we stopped by people it was neat to see that I did
affect people’s lives and I realized we were teaching tons of
different people in Randolph. We worked hard and it was cool to look
back after a few months and realize how much we did in the area even
if we couldn’t tell at the time.
Saturday
we exchanged back and we had the full day to work. We had a couple
lessons fall through and then S brought J to the church for a lesson
before the Sonterra Sisters had a baptism. J still really wants to be
baptized, and she loved the service, but her mom says it’s too
soon. They are moving on Saturday though and we got like 8 people to
help with the move and hopefully that will soften her heart to see
the selflessness of the members. I would like to teach J about
fasting this week and then we can all fast this Sunday for fast
Sunday that her mom will give her permission to be baptized. She is
so ready. After the baptism we had a few other lessons fall through,
but we are meeting tons of people.
Sunday
was great. Only J came to church because of R’s health and H was
busy, but Sister P came. Her Visiting Teachers told us that J isn't
doing well. It is super sad. Sister P seems to be doing well though
and she is really strong to be doing what she’s doing. The Ns are
still in Austin with a carnival and don’t get back until the April.
We had a lesson with the Ms again and brought Brother D because he
knows Brother M from their childhood. We had a great Easter lesson
and E has been reading her picture Book of Mormon. She is such a good
kid. Brother and Sister M are making great progress. We promised them
cookies if they read this week. They are such a good family. Our
meeting with President was great. He’s so incredible.
Thank
you all for your love and your examples, it means a lot to me. There
is nothing better than being a missionary. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder
Pew
March 30th, 2015
Dear
family,
The
subject line (The Cows Have Spoken) comes from Sister F at zone
conference (she is one of the LSTLs and is the one I gave a blessing
to back in Brushy Creek if you remember). The zone conference on the
border was in all Spanish and so the game about the 21 chapters in
the Book of Mormon was fun and us leaders played since I had to
translate everything into English in my head, so I thought it would
be hard, but we crushed the districts on the border. Elder H was the
judge and he made a really bad call and ripped us off one time and so
all of us kinda moaned about it and it sounded like cows, and then
Sister F said that. It was funny. This was an eventful week. If you
haven’t had a chance to watch the new Easter video, I recommend it.
I like “Because of Him” from last year more, but this one is
still good.
Monday
was crazy because of the car getting towed. We had a lesson with R
and we brought Brother B again. R told us that his family was giving
him a hard time about converting and then he said it was confusing
why we switched rooms so much at church, so he said he’s going to
try a different church. I think it was for several reasons, but the
main one is probably the family opposition. It may have been hard on
his health to walk around so much at church. He said he still wants
to read from the Book of Mormon and he isn’t done, he is just
slowing down and taking a break. We told him about General Conference
and he was very willing to watch that, so hopefully that helps him.
That was sad but it was cool to see how the Lord blesses us when we
don’t have wavering faith. We knew the Lord had a plan and we saw
some great things happen.
Tuesday we
had zone conference again. It went really well. We changed a couple
things, but it was mostly just having President Slaughter talk more,
so of course it was an improvement. We had two incredible lessons
after Zone Conference. We had Brother M with us, and we taught this
new guy we met street contacting named P and J. P is a former boxer
and competes in jiu-jitsu and he is very receptive. He understood the
Restoration well and Brother M was perfect. He bore a great testimony
and invited him to sit with him at church. We had a lesson with J at
the church before mutual and S was there too. We taught Sabbath and
fasting and it was so powerful. We all fasted that Sister O would
have a soft heart on Sunday. The Spirit was strong in the lesson
as we talked about fasting for a miracle. We talked about how true
faith is trusting in the Lord even if we don’t see what we want. It
comes from the phrase in Daniel 3 “But if not…” We must have
faith that the Lord is ABLE to do a miracle, but if not, we must
continue to follow Him. Brother M got choked up and thanked J for her
example. It was powerful. We are going by Sister O tomorrow.
Wednesday we
had zone conference and then I was on exchanges in Helotes. It is a
cool area just west of San Antonio. For some reason no one was home,
so we didn't get to talk to a lot of people, but it was still a good
exchange. Great Elders. When I was gone, Elder H and Elder S taught
the A family. The one we found forever ago and they haven't had time
to meet. We decided earlier this week to stop going by them and to
move on with faith. They were outside of their apartment so they
decided to talk to them and they had a powerful lesson. It was cool
to see that Lord was almost testing us and see if we would have faith
to move on with this family even if they seemed so golden, and right
when we proved we were willing to submit to His will and move on, he
plopped them back into our laps, also after trying our faith with R
kinda dropping us.
Thursday we
weekly planned which was great since this next week we are going to
be so busy inviting everyone to conference and trying to watch the
new Easter video with them. We received two media referrals but one
wasn't in our area, but that was still cool. The Area Leaders spent
the night with us because we left super early to go to the
border Friday.
Friday we
left at 5:30 to go to the border zone conference. We took
the mission van so all of us could fit. It was really fun. We made it
to Del Rio just before 8:45. The entire zone conference was in
Spanish and it was cool. It is interesting to see how my Spanish has
changed on my mission. Before I knew all the grammar but I couldn't
understand what people were saying, and now I can listen and
understand really well, but I've forgotten all the grammar. I
understood almost the entire zone conference. I didn't do as much
since I can't really speak Spanish. I took the tier 2 test (there are
three tiers of Spanish in our mission) and scored 62% and 70% is
passing, so they gave me a certificate anyways. If Senorita sent me
my packet I think I could easily pass tier 2. Every area on the
border got an exchange with one of us, so that was fun. I was with
Elder B and Elder D in El Indio in Eagle Pass. The Border is sweet.
It is about half Spanish and half English, so we mostly only ended up
talking to English speakers.
Saturday morning
we did a huge Spanish study because that is the Area Leaders
responsibility to help with Spanish and there were seven of us in the
apartment. I went with Elder H who is in his third transfer and we
worked at our level and the zone leaders and Elder P our area leader
switched off helping us with our Spanish. It was fun and it's
interesting to see that I'm about at the level of a third transfer
Spanish called missionary. We drove up to Del Rio to pick up the
other missionaries and drove back to San Antonio. We got back
around 4:30 and when we went to drop the area leaders off
at their cars in our apartment, Elder H and L's car was gone. They
misunderstood the guest parking signs and they got towed! It was
insane. We had to go pick up another VSF form and all the banks were
closed so we looked up UPS stores and there was only one store that
hadn't closed so we could get our paper notarized. We had to leave
immediately because it closed at 6. Once we got close, we started
driving on the road leading to Fort Sam and we realized that the
store was on Fort Sam Houston, so that wasn't going to work. We had
no idea what to do and then Elder H realized he knew someone from the
Spanish branch in the area that could notarize things. So he called
the Elders over that area and asked for the number to the member he
knew. They didn't answer the phone so we drove to their apartment
because he remembered where they lived. They moved and so he got
another number of a family friend that he thought would know if they
moved and sure enough they gave us the new address and we stopped by.
The wife with the notary wasn't home, but the husband was, and he
knew of one place locally that could notarize documents. We went
there and by then it was about 6:45 and it said it closed
at 6 but luckily they were still open so we finally got the document
notarized and went over to the car impound. It was crazy and
hilarious. We were just laughing the whole time especially because we
were so lucky it happened to be Elder H who had all these family
connections we could use. There was terrible traffic and construction
on the highway home, so we got back around 8:15. We stopped by
the O family because they had moved earlier in the day to a different
apartment in our complex and we got a bunch of members to go and
help. J said Sister O was very thankful, so hopefully it helps soften
her heart.
Church
was great. H came and sat next to me and it was fast and testimony
meeting and he asked me what exactly a testimony is (which is sad
that we as members make that really confusing) so I told him it just
consists of declaring what you know to be true and usually is based
on Joseph Smith being a prophet, the Book of Mormon being true,
Christ being our Savior, and the priesthood being restored, and I
could tell he was debating getting up. I told him the ward would love
it if he did. He turned to me and asked another question about 5
minutes later and I knew he was seriously considering it. I leaned
over and told him it could be real short and simple and I would get
up too if he wanted. He said he just needed to think about what he
would say. Finally he got up and bore his testimony and he did great.
He is such a member. P randomly texted us and it was so incredible.
This is what he said: "Good morning Elders! We have not seen you
guys for quite some time now. The truth is we miss spending time with
yall in our home. Thank you for teaching us so much about the gospel
and our Heavenly Father. Your service inspires us continually. Thank
you for carrying out so diligently the Lords work her on earth. We
will not be at church this morning. We flew to California to witness
our niece's baptism. And A's brother is giving his home coming talk
today. I just wanted you to know that we miss you guys, and the
Deerfield ward. See you soon, the N family." It made me so
happy. They are awesome. We had an incredible lesson with the A
family. We taught them the Restoration and they understood. We talked
about how they would need to commit and that it takes sacrifice to
follow God. We asked why they want to give this a shot and they said
everytime they had a bad day we stopped by and it was a sign to them.
It was incredible. They just need to be solid enough to start reading
the Book of Mormon and come to church. We went from that to a lesson
with the M and we brought Brother D again. It went super well. We
just wanted to get them excited for Conference because that will be a
huge step for them if we can get them to watch it. Brother D is
having a get together at his house after the afternoon session on
Sunday so we had him invite them to his house. The kids were
really excited about it and we promised them more cookies at the D
house if they read the Book of Mormon every day. Sister M works on
Sunday, but Brother M plans to bring the kids. He grew up with
Brother D, so he's the only one in the ward they feel comfortable
with. We are so excited. They are progressing so well! Our meeting
with President was great. We had Elder L and I with their companions
come down for the meeting because we are doing a district leader
meeting this week and we want them to see that we value them a lot as
former zone leaders. It will be great. It was an awesome week.
We
definitely learned that the Lord is so good to us. We truly do
receive a witness AFTER a trial of our faith. He has miracles waiting
to happen, we just need to keep going. This is the Lord's work. Thank
you for everything you do!
Love,
Elder
Pew
