Tuesday, October 2, 2012

September 18, 2012

Hey parents! Let me just dive right in with the questions because this computer is running way slow and I won't have as much time to write.
It's a twenty minute drive to the chapel. Things are way spaced out here because we're out in the country……….. everyone is there before 9 o'clock.
I'm not really eating anything new. No fried possums or anything like that. Not yet at least. The most different thing that I've eaten is this soup made by this doctor in the ward. He's like a really really smart healer. He invented this laser that makes a broken bone heal…… faster……. ………… but he emphasizes being healthy and having the Spirit in the healing process. He won't treat anyone that isn't living the Word of Wisdom for example. But he made a soup of like barley and all these different vegatables. It looked really gross but it was really good. I think you'd like all his practices because he's all about vegatables and for meat he'll raise his own cow and pig and that's all the meat they'll eat for a year. It's way cool. He knows more about the human body than anybody that I think I'll ever meet.
…….. I'm still using that stuff I got from Sister Krieser and buying other face stuff as needed.
We loved the package. Thanks for the corny message too haha :) Thanks for including something for Elder Memmott, he really appreciated it……… I'll let you know when these Dr. Scholl's wear out completely. They're doing a pretty good job at the moment for everything else.
This week, finding new investigators has brought me the greatest joy. Friday night we worked really hard to find new people and knocked doors right up until 9:00. The last person we saw really seemed like she was waiting for the restored gospel. Unfortunately she didn't make it to church so we have to follow up with her on that. I really hope she gets baptized.
Our goals for the week include getting this lady to church so she can get baptized next Saturday and finding more investigators mostly. Mike and Paige are doing so great. They talked to the bishop and are getting married next Saturday! I'm so happy for them. Mike has just changed completely and they're going to be really strong in the church. I don't know if I told you this but he's on date to be baptized on his birthday, Oct 5th. Elder Memmott and I are really excited.
We've really been trying to think of things to help members. We committed this family to trying to give out some pass along cards this week. I hope it works well. But for now we're working on gaining the trust of the members and having them see that we're dedicated to this work…….. I know that through talking to them, bringing more investigators to church, and gaining their trust, we'll be able to have them help us out.
Overall, this week was great. I'm looking forward to finding new people this week and teaching them. We have some great leads right now and the leadership in the church is helping us get more member involvement as well. It's hard to get out to see (some investigators) but things are looking up because we've got some rides from members set up this week. We only can drive 1200 miles a month and they live about 20 miles away. 40 miles round trip makes it rough so it really helps when members can give us rides.
………. People find/ are led to anti-Mormon stuff all the time out here. That's why most people don't end up making it to baptism because everyone's baptist out here and a lot of them say bad stuff about us. We always try and give people Mormon.org pass-along cards right off the get-go so they don't look up bad stuff about us. But regardless, the purposes of God will go forth. I get a lot of strength from the book of Alma. When missionary work ever seems rough because people are shutting us down or things I just go to chapters 26-29. If you have Kyle's letter writing address send it to me in the next email if you can. I have to get off now but keep working hard with (that young man) and his family. I'll pray for them as well. Thank you for your prayers and support. Love ya  
Hey parents! It's good to see everything is going well……..  also I don't need vitamins anymore so if you haven't sent them then return them or keep them for yourself. Thanks so much.
I'm not supposed to share my exact address over email but……..the chapel is on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Whippoorwheel if you want to look up those areas.
Haha no I don't have a Southern drawl but y'all like rubs off on you really easily. So I do find myself saying that sometimes. Yeah, for the most part I (say Sir and Mam).  It's one of those things that you just get accustomed to really quickly out here.
My bike's working great so far. No problems yet.
These are some of the people we are working with right now.
(A Lady)- She's been investigating the church for a couple months before I came out here I think. She's married and has a daughter who's two and a son who's 2 months old. She's getting baptized this Saturday and she is way awesome. She was in the army for a few years and is wonderful. I'm so excited for her. Her husband Paul is on date to be baptized in October and we're working with him to help him……….
(A Man & Lady)- He decided to move his baptism up to this Saturday! It's so exciting because our zone goal for the mission was 16 and we were sitting at 15 people on date to be baptized this month. Last week our whole zone prayed and our prayer was answered this Sunday when he decided to move his baptismal date up. So they will be getting married this Saturday and then (he is) getting baptized right afterwards. I'm so excited for all of them! They're really on track to be life-long faithful members of the church.
(Two) are new investigators that we saw last week. They are both expressing sincere interest in the gospel and they really felt the Spirit when we taught them about the Restoration. They weren't able to make it to church this Sunday but they are reading the Book of Mormon and we'll probably see them again this week.
(There is this) cool 17 year old guy who got baptized about 5 months ago. It's been tough because the family he lives with isn't too down to changing and accepting the gospel yet. But his aunt came to church last Sunday and we taught her a lesson on Wednesday I think. She's really interested and she invited us to come back this Thursday. We put her on date for October 20th. Her fiance agreed to join us this Thursday as well so hopes are high this week.
(The older inactive Sister) is doing well. We're still working on getting her to church. She doesn't want visiting/home teachers yet. We're probably going to see her a couple times this week. We have an appointment to teach her daughter who we tracted into who's not a member. But her son who's fifteen has been wondering about the church so we're going to teach their whole family. Last time we saw (her) which was probably about 4 days ago, her husband talked to us and he's given the previous Elder's the cold shoulder for the most part from what I hear. So we're going to keep at it and hopefully get her to church this week.
God has prepared people for us to be honest. As we do everything that we can and do our best to be exactly obedient, Elder Memmott and I have the Spirit in our companionship. We've gotten quite a few leads from knocking doors and testifying of truth and being friendly and open with people. There are hard times in this work but just not letting those hard times discourage me has kept me going and the Lord is blessing us. I'm excited to follow up with a lot of people this week. Definitely some great potential ahead of us.

The Bishop in this Ward ……. owns a pharmacy down the street from us and just gave me some vitamins for free so that's why I don't need them anymore. He's got a son who's the deacon's quorum president who I don't really know that well. But I'm hoping we can visit his house sometime so I can figure out who exactly is in his family.
Things went really well for the most part this week. Again I'm excited for all the people we're going to try to see this week………... It's so awesome seeing the gospel change peoples lives. My mission has already been life changing and I know that it will continue to be lifechanging as I continue doing my best to do the Lord's will. And dad if you can email how your mission experience went I'd love to hear because I've always heard stories about it but I've never really gotten the whole story of it. I love y'all and appreciate your prayers! -Elder Nair

No comments:

Post a Comment