Haha, but really, the holiday was great, and it showed something really important. Like I said last week, we just bounced from house to house... to house.... to house. Four members' houses, four dinners (although, I will admit... I had to pass up on the fourth...). But, it ended up one of our most successful proselyting days. We had two lessons to nonmembers with members present, two lessons to less active members, and a lesson with a recent convert. Not only that, we got a new investigator out of it! All because members just invited us over along with some of their nonmember friends and family. We don't need to have a feast everytime we go over, but man, you have no idea the miracles that could happen if people would just have us around their friends and family! (Of course, it did help that Thanksgiving naturally makes people a little reflective anyways.)
Well, this is going to be one heck of a week! Last Wednesday, I found out I was going to be training a new missionary, fresh out of the MTC! Haha I'm a little nervous, because I haven't necessarily gotten along with my companions the greatest thus far, and I'd hate to find out it really was my fault and end up ruining this kid's experience in his first area. But, I'm looking forward to it, because it seems like about 80% of the missionaries come out of the MTC just ready and rearing to work hard. Sure, they are usually a little awkward for a while, but that's a lot easier to fix than a missionary with one transfer left who has grown more and more complacent his whole time out. Haha I'm really looking forward to that kick in the butt to get things moving in Freedom! But, as far as why this makes me busy this week, tomorrow I have to go to Rochester to pick him up, and then back to Rochester on Friday for me to learn how to train him and for him to learn how to be trained.
Then on Saturday, we're heading to Palmyra with Amanda. It's been the weirdest thing teaching her. She has never been religious at all, and her testimony is awesome but incredibly basic. Like so basic I don't think she can pass her baptismal interview with it... haha. She knows God exists and that He loves her. Then she knows that she feels that love the strongest when she comes to church, reads the Book of Mormon, and prays. And that about sums it up... We've gone over the Restoration with her multiple times, but I just don't think she cares too much if Joseph Smith is a prophet or not, and I don't know if she could tell you who Joseph Smith even is right now.... We're hoping that learning it all on the spot where it all happened will help her out. Haha I sure hope so, because I'm running out of ideas of how to teach it to her! Either way, the first Saturday in the field being in Palmyra with an investigator and the second being a baptism is going to be a heck of a start for the new guy, huh?
Haha it'll be weird in our district, now, though! As of Thursday, I'm going to be the missionary who has been out the longest! Haha that right there is absurd.
It's really nerve-wracking out here sometimes. I have found that I do a lot better teaching people once I've really developed a good, solid friendship with them first. The issue there, is it really makes it hard when they drop you or when you don't hear from them in a while. Alicia dropped us this week, Jesse keeps on cancelling or rescheduling appointments, and we haven't been able to get back to Ron and Stephanie's since our first visit. I was almost completely distraught when we didn't see Krissa for over a week! Luckily, we saw her again, and she had even been reading the Book of Mormon in that time. So that was a huge relief. It just really hurts when things don't work!
We're also getting a little overwhelmed here! We have soooo many investigators, we really can't spend as much time on each of them as they deserve. I know that's not the usual problem for missionaries, but I feel like it's considerably more stressful than when Elder Inkley and I hardly had any investigators and spent all of our time trying to find people to teach. At least when you are looking for people, you never feel like you're letting someone down. It's really hard to create good, strong lessons for all of our current investigators or less-actives we're working with. Haha I guess this could be classified as a "Freedom problem." But still, it stinks!
Hahaha wanna hear a funny joke? You know you're a Mormon when you have eight great-grandpas... and 60 great-grandmas. Hahaha thank you President Miner!
Hmm... I wish I could think of other things to talk about, but I'm drawing a blank. We spent a lot of time this week bouncing from investigator to investigator, from potential to potential, so everything is kind of melting together.
Well, you should all check out Mormon.org/Christmas! It's a page that's only up for the next month but is way cool. You can download free Christmas music, send eCards, get free Bibles, and--in my opinion, most importantly--share your testimony about Christmas. Everyone should go check it out, share their testimony, then post it on Facebook! Yay Chrsitmas! The whole theme of the campaign is "Christmas is Jesus Christ." It's awesome, I promise. Also, follow my blog brackenallen-
Write me and stuff, too, eh?
I love you, but I don't miss you!
Elder Allen
No comments:
Post a Comment