John's letter...Sept 30, 2008

What do I do all day and not have to tract? Well lately we’ve been keeping ourselves extremely busy with working with less-active members and recent converts or with members who want to be member missionaries. We had about 14 lessons with that category over the last week. We also try to keep our investigators busy. Work with part-member families, contact referrals received from the media advertisements etc. but as far as finding is concerned we usually rely on what investigators we get from the members or while visiting the members and a lot of street contacting. We have been trying to squeeze some tracting into the mix too but the best time to do that is in the evenings and that’s also the best time to contact everyone else we need to contact too. In this area we have not only the ability but the necessity to pull out all the stops and use every resource available.
This week was a pretty good week. We’re making headway with Stacy I think. He’s a tough cookie to crack but we may have found a few things to help him move in a positive direction. Randy got rid of his tongue ring this week and I think he'll be ready to go for his interview this weekend before general conference. Also Ella was able to change her work schedule and so they were able to come to church this Sunday! we picked up a former investigator named Earlean and we’ve been working with her a lot and she’s really progressing well, there were some trials in her way this Sunday that prevented her from coming to church but I think shell come next week. In the mean time were trying our best to help her stop smoking. I think that’s about it for now.

My biggest experiences with the Book of Mormon in my life have taken place mostly here in my mission. I kinda wish I had paid more attention to it before. In my patriarchal blessing it talks about how important the Book of Mormon will be to me and to those who I bear testimony of it to. As I’ve begun this again I’ve already seen that. I’ve been trying to challenge people left and right to read it quickly. And as we've read with people I’ve seen the difference. Like with Stacy…we were reading Alma 40 with him yesterday and as we read the sprit world began to make more and more sense to him and the concerns he had before were resolved.
This week was a pretty good week. I just hate how every week we have the car it seems like it just zooms by before we can get everything we need done and then the other weeks feel like they drag a little bit more. This weeks already gone and a new transfer is a ready well on its way to be closed. That’s how it feels to me anyway. This mission experience has been an interesting one. I can’t believe how fast 2 years can go by. I was thinking about how little time I really have left. It was strange. Did you feel the same way about your mission?
Lastly, I’d like to note that if there’s one thing I’m certainly gained a testimony of on my mission is that single sisters (all sisters really) can accomplish an incomprehensible amount of good.
Period.

Letter from John on September 23

So I get this call mid-week from the mission office but we were busy so we didn’t get the call until later. The message they left was pretty basic, you had called and they wanted me to call the mission office to tell me about it. I’m not gonna lie. I was really really worried that someone was hurt or dead or something. Now that I think about it that as a pretty irrational thought because if it were something like that why on earth would it come through the mission office. Anyway when sister Bernett told me about those referrals I was very very relieved.
Anyways it was fun stuff. This week was a pretty good week. I’m not getting transferred and I’m not too worried about that at all. I really am excited I get to stick around a little longer. Now I’m going to be able to see Randy's baptism (Oct 11) and whatever else happens here before I leave. The hardest part of getting him (Randy) ready for that point is his tongue ring. He doesn’t want to take it out. He said without it he feels naked. He said he could have it out in time for his baptism, but I’m shooting for before.
Yesterday we had a neat experience. Our plans... well tanked is probably the best word for it. We had our last plan for the morning up and two hours before we had scheduled to be there. So we went to this little shop down the street to visit with one of our investigators named Earlean. Then after that we went to our last appointment we had scheduled for the morning and had a great discussion with a man who goes by Tattoo. We sat and talked with him for a while and as the conversation unfolded it became apparent that we were led there. He had just barely gotten home and had we showed up any earlier we would have never been able to talk with him. To make it all cooler is what happened the night before. We had come in and begun planning when we kinda hit a brick wall and didn’t know what we should do. We then realized that we had forgotten to pray. So we got down on our knees and asked God for what we should do for the next day and it was immediately filled down to the encounters I have just described. This work is most definitely LED by the very hand of God.
Hope you have a great week.
Love ya, John

Wednesday is my new favorite day

It is the Young Men/Young Women day! That means for a little while there are no teenagers at home. In our house it means there are NO children at home! Tom and I get a little while to do whatever we as parents want to do. It's so nice to have a built in date night!

My other favorite day is Tuesday. That is missionary email day. This week's news is that Johnathan is staying in Crossroads for 6 more weeks. He is happy with that. He's been there 6 months, but loves it. They have a baptism scheduled for next month that he is looking forward to as well.