Hey Everyone!
I can't believe another week has already gone by! It seems like just yesterday that it was my birthday... but that's been 10 days ago already and there isn't much to be done about it now! It seems like time keeps going by faster and faster, but that's probably just an illusion... Luckily we still got some good stuff done this week and had a blast doing it!
Last Monday, we had zone p-day and then we ended up coming back early since Kyle - a young man in the ward got his mission call! They were planning on it coming on Tuesday, which wouldn't have been a huge deal, but it came Monday so we got permission to come back early and be there when he opened it! It was a good time, and there were quite a few people there! He's going to be heading to Roseville, California and he's got until the beginning of July before he leaves! Of particular note on Tuesday we got to have a blast visiting with a few of our investigators throughout the day and ended up having a pretty great day! We had a good time at scripture study class, and focused on the pre-earth life and the fall and had some good discussions with those who were able to make it out. We also reviewed "For the Strength of Youth" with one of our investigators and it was a very good reminder - I'd suggest those of you who haven't checked it out in the recent past go and give it a once-over since it's super good. A few things that stuck out to me were in the work section where it says: "Set high goals for yourself, and be willing to work hard to achieve them. Develop self-discipline, and be dependable. Do your best in your Church callings, schoolwork, employment, and other worthwhile pursuits. Young men should be willing to do what is needed to be prepared to serve a full-time mission. Heavenly Father has given you gifts and talents and knows what you are capable of achieving. Seek His help and guidance as you work to achieve your goals."
After that, it seemed like the week just flew by filled with opportunities to serve and share the gospel with those around us! On Wednesday we did service at the hope center, which was a blast! We had a good time there and then were able to catch a few people in the afternoon before a delicious dinner with the Hoods! They do this cool thing where they have an electric skillet on the table and they put vegetables, meats, and sometimes fish, on it and it's all been marinated in Soy sauce and tastes delicious after being cooked on the skillet for a little while. The catch - you have to help cook it and are only allowed to use chopsticks! It was a good time, and I quite enjoyed it. We also stared using something called a "marked Book of Mormon" where essentially we mark a copy of the Book of Mormon with some key verses circled as shown in the attached dealio. It's pretty neat, but I'm definitely glad that I wasn't the one who took it upon themselves to go through the Book of Mormon and select a set of verses that can be read within a couple hours so that you can get the main ideas in the Book and see how valuable it is as a book of Scripture. So, we shared a couple copies of that with people and it was pretty neat. One of my favorite verses is marked in Alma 37:6-7 where it says: "6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." On Thursday we did quite a bit of tracting in the afternoon, which was good. Tracting is a very humbling experience for those of you who haven't experienced the joys of being a full-time missionary. It involves lots of doors that people don't answer, lots of people who don't even let you say why you're there and just wave you away, a few people who will talk for a minute and be very kind and courteous, and then the select few who are actually interested in hearing your message. But, you'll always be blessed in some way for the effort that you put in according to the attitude you have. I've heard of missions where they require you to tract for a certain number of hours each week and I'm quite glad that ours does not, because it's rather ineffective, but it is quite character building. Then that evening we were graced to be able to attend the pinewood derby and have a blast watching that and socializing with those people who participated and brought friends! It was a good time with some solid refreshments afterward.
On Friday, after district meeting, I had the privilege of doing an exchange with Elder Wilcox who is typically up in Guthrie. He's pretty fresh on the mission - like he's been out less days than I have left - but we had a good time. We visited with one of our investigators who is an older gentleman and marked his copy of the Book of Mormon for him, so that he could read through that synopsis and we ended up having a pretty good discussion while doing so. Then we were called to help Paul, an awesome guy who's been coming to church for a while now but isn't quite ready to be baptized, move a mattress, so that was a blast. Especially since while we were visiting right before that it had started raining... yay for rain! It was fun though, and we got it done without any one getting seriously hurt and with little visible damage to the mattress. After all that we headed to dinner and it was with a family in the ward who makes the most delicious food I've had - and on Friday they had steak with us to celebrate my birthday and also had a cake :) So, it was a good time! After dinner we got to see Michelle and Sandy and talked about Baptisms for the dead with them, since they'll be going with the youth this Thursday. So, Friday was a pretty sweet day! On Saturday we got to help a recently moved in member of the ward hang their kayak to the roof of their garage - which was a pretty intense endeavor. They fed us some delicious breakfast food for lunch, and we got it knocked out - he hung it up himself when they were in Montana, but he hurt his knee a couple weeks ago and asked us to help him get it done so they could get stuff organized. Then we ended up doing some more tracting before a delicious dinner and then we caught a fantastic family and visited with them for a little while in the evening. Then Sunday was good :) It was a pretty solid week, with some interesting things learned throughout it that I'll go ahead and throw in a bullet list here:
- Some forks have a notch taken out of one of the prongs for stabbing olives
- There's 3 different types of air traffic controllers
- 2 Nephi 14-27 is a very good passage of scripture - particularly when you want to talk about the fall of Adam and Eve
- Chopsticks use muscles that I typically don't use in my hands as of late
Those are just a few fun facts that I learned this week! I hope y'all have a great week! Love ya!
'Til Next Time,
Elder Jordan Nielson
No comments:
Post a Comment