January 28, 2013

So this week was, ya, another up and down week!!

Monday we had zone pday in Bremen and played bball and soccer. Wayyyy fun. Nice to get some real exercise and I think everyone enjoyed it. I had a couple of great plays in bball and a few really awful ones too hahaha. Soccer was fun. Later that night we went and played soccer with a member and family and friends! That was fun because they were all good players. It was painfully obvious how much I've slowed up. But a little bit of my old skills are still there. My comp is also very good and our team fought from behind to win the game. Not pretty but we put our heart into it and won some respect haha. The next day we were obviously very very sore.

Tuesday was another exchange day. I was feeling sick and can't remember much of the day haha. We spent a lot of time in the cold waiting on trains and such. I do remember one cool thing as we were heading home for the night. A younger couple sat across from us in the bus and the elder and I were speaking in english and the couple probably thought we couldn't speak german and they were talking about us, as they had seen our name badges. I stopped and asked them if they too were religious and they were super shocked but replied that they were. We then taught them about the church and mainly the Book of Mormon. They actually got out at the same stop and we continued to talk. We ended up getting their address and inviting them to church. It was cool cause the whole time we were talking to them I forgot it was cold and that I was really sick. I was just happy to teach them.

We went to the district meeting the next day and that was great! Our mission is really focusing on making the district meetings more quality and  this district meeting was fantastic. Spiritual, fun, and good trainings. Everything president wants in a district meeting and exactly how we had been teaching the DLs. We were super happy.  

Thursday we had institute and a couple investigators came!  That was really cool. I think they both learned a lot and are getting to be friends with the people in the branch, which is sooo crucial. For institute we got in groups with the assignment to write an article as if the Jerusalem or Zarahemla times, about Christ's birth. That was a lot of fun.

Friday we did a fair amount of doors and found some cool new people. The highlight of the day was the new people found and then the eating appointment with a great family here.  We had a great visit and talked about the plan of salvation and how to bear testimony to friends. Really great, uplifting appointment.

Saturday we found a guy who was baptized 20 years ago in Berlin and has been looking for the church here but couldn't find it. That was a cool miracle. We got a referral from a contact who lost interest and this member ended up living in the house where we were referred. No coincidence. Soo cool. 

Later I was feeling worse and worse and got the chills and fever so we canceled the other appointments and I went to bed. I couldn't get warm for a few hours, just shivering, putting on more clothes and blankets and just thinking about people, and the gospel and faith and such. I finally fell asleep and woke up like 3 hours later drenched in sweat but no chills or fever. That was a nice gift of God to feel so much better. Plus my companion had cleaned the whole apartment. I'm blessed. 

Sunday was great. I translated for an African sister as she gave her talk and was surprised at how well the german flowed. I did way better than I thought I could and it was almost like I was just a bystander. Gift of toungues you could say. That was great. Our ward misison leader also gave a great talk. Sunday school was nice and priesthood too. We tell warm up stories now in Relief Society and priesthood and that has got the ward super excited about missionary work. We had 5 joint teaches this week and we are trying to visit more members to help them with their missionary work too. Really cool stuff developing here. 

Had a cool appointment later that day. Brought the perfect joint teach. They hit it off and the spirit was there in the lesson. She promised to read in the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Also found another potential new investigator later. We introed the BOM and had him read the intro in his language. We asked what it meant and he said, it is either true or it isn't and I need to find out. I've never heard someone give such a clear statement like that from reading it once. Wayy cool. He is going to read and next time he said we can talk about prayer. 

All in all it was a great week. Being sick sucks but I'm almost over it. Everyday is something new. New challenges and people and testimonies and successes and disappointments. Wouldn't have it any other way. 

Love you all.

Elder Clayton

January 21, 2013

Hey people people.

Hi. This week had some great things to it. Let me tell you about it...

We have been trying to work a lot with members more and that has been a real success actually. I haven't tried it enough on my mission and it hasn't been done a ton before in this mission but this week we saw some cool stuff with that. We are working with a new convert on sharing the Book of Mormon with his roommate, with another member on offering his very sick friend a blessing, and with another member on inviting her friend to meet with us. I've found the key is you bring the spirit, then ask who they want to share the gospel with, but you ask them what they think the next step of action would be, and how you can help. Then we sometimes do role plays in inviting or bearing testimony. It has been rather successful.
S is progressing nicely. She didn't read so then we read with her to help her see how great it is and then the next time we came she had read. It is hard for her to find time but she is progressing, starting to keep committments and the appointments are spiritual. Her son was sick so we got to give him a blessing too and that was a great experience. 
We also got in contact with a former investigator again finally! That was great. We hadn't seen her since before Christmas. We had a really  good appointment and got her phone number this time so that doesn't happen again. But she was very positive and had been reading a little. Stoked about her too.
Church was really good on Sunday. Disappointing because 0 of our 3 expected showed up but I told myself the night before that I was done being sad about disappointments, I was just going to enjoy the work, no matter what the others say. The sacrament was great and I learned a lot in Sunday School. 

Well ya I'm out of time here so I'll stop. I'm loving being a missionary. Excited about the future. We are getting a senior couple in the ward soon and today we are having zone sport! Peace!

Elder Clayton

January 14, 2013

Hi everyone!

Another week gone! Crazy how fast it goes. 

So I'll run you through the week's happenings...

Monday we did an area book makeover and found all the records of former investigators that look like going by would be good and just organized it all. We have a ton of people to visit so that gives us a huge pool of potential investigators! 

Tuesday I was on exchange. I was with an awesome missionary in his third transfer and it was really fun to work with him and talk about the work. He is a great missionary and we had a great day of learning and teaching together. That was a lot of fun. He actually went to my high school hahaha but we didn't know each other! Small world.

Wednesday we planned for our Zone Training Meeting. That went real smooth so that was good. We then did some finding and found a lady who was neighbors a few years back with a member of our ward! We were able to share with her the Book of Mormon and she said she would read and call up her mormon friend and talk about it. We talked to the sister at church and that should be way cool having her have a friend and fellowshipper right away! Right place in right time.

Thursday was awesome. Zone Training Meeting went really well. We have a good zone with some really great missionaries. We had two trainings, one on member work and one on teaching simply. We had a zone council and talked a lot about the standards of excellence. It was a learning experience, being my first one as a zone leader but we felt it went really well and President Kosak did as well. My interview with him was great. He is hilarious and inspired. We are reading the Book or Mormon together as a mission. It is an exciting time to be a missionary. 

After that we had a sweeet joint teach. Our joint teach served a misison in D.C. and she was great to have along. We read a lot in the Book of Mormon together about baptism and confirmation. It was really great and flowed nice and the spirit was there. We will see what happens with her this week. 

After that we taught a new investigator about the restoration and that went well, then visited a less active brother. Both good appointments.

Friday was rough. We went by tons of people but nothing really worked. The only good thing is we got a referral from a guy that didn't want to meet with us. Just not a great day, not a great focus either.

Saturday went better. Had a first lesson with a another new lady. She almost got baptized a few years back. We were able to talk about her concerns and invite her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, something she didn't do full heartedly the first time around. Really positive. We then did weekly planning, which went really well, and then found for a while. Found or re-found some really cool people.

Sunday was tough. Some investigators were supposed to come and neither did. Then we got dropped over text message during church by someone else. Then we got kinda lost coming back from a member eating appointment (which was actually great), (our gps broke) and missed an appointment. We had our other appointment cancel and the other fell out. The one good thing is the referral from the other day was there and we had a good appointment with him. We watched the restoration in french and he applied it right to himself saying, "I'm just like him, there are too many churches, which is right?" We asked him how he could find out and he said, pray like Joseph and we introduced the Book of Mormon and challenged him to read and pray. The only ray of sunlight on that day of disappointments. 

Oh and I gave a talk in church and that went pretty well. I like preparing talks more than giving them. Teaching a class is more fun cause then you get participation too. Naja it was a good experience. Something I needed to learn more than anyone else. I talked about doing your duties from your own free will without being commanded and reminded the whole time (D&C 58:26-27) and I used the examples of Nephi and Sam compared to Laman and Lemuel to illustrate the point. Nephi had the spiritual strength and faith to be so willfully obedient because he was constantly praying and applying the scriptures. I need to do that better so this talk actually helped me alot.

Anyways that's the week. Ups and downs and new things learned.  

Love you all.

Elder Clayton