Monday, March 4, 2013

March 4, 2013


Hi people!
 
This week was interesting. Started pretty rough but ended well.
 
I was pretty sick until about Wednesday. Hadn't seen the sun either for a while. We didn't do a full normal day until Thursday. There was a lot of time to think, clean, rest, and read. It was good to have that recovery time and to examine myself. I saw a lot of things I want to do better and was able to do some reflecting and thinking about the future. My companion gave me a blessing and the many prayers of family and friends helped as well and I didn't suffer too much. Thanks for the prayers they were really felt. I was able to feel strength knowing so many wonderful people were praying for me.
 
I exchanged with an elder on friday and that was a fun experience. It was cold and we did finding the whole day hahaha. A member prayed for a street for us to door out and so we doored this street. It was in a completely rich completely catholic village set on the top of a hill. That was a fun experience. Miserable but hilarious and great too. We taught one person and two people said we could come back another time. Everyone else rejected us pretty hard. Funny how we were loving life anyways! The gospel is true and they couldn't change that!
 
We taught an investigator on Saturday about chastity. We taught clearly and with the spirit and she understood why she should keep it.  It is hard when the world doesn't support at all what you teach. At least sabbath day and word of wisdom and others the world sees as a good thing, proven to help, but the world just kind of loves to disregard this commandment completely and the family is the victim in the end. It strengthened my testimony as we taught and saw the spirit tell us all what God thought was different from what the world thinks.
 
We taught and visited A. We talked about the role of the church in our lives and how going to church can help us. He is the coolest guy ever and we want to help him so bad. He is so humble and friendly. 
 
We got contact again with B, and had a great appointment. She hadn't read so we read 3 Nephi 11 with her. It was a good experience. We asked a lot of questions to see how she was understanding and feeling. She understood about the doctrine of baptism and how it is supposed to be done. She says she needs to build a relationship with the Book of Mormon like she has with the Bible. We read Moroni 10 3-5 to help her know how she can know it is true and figure out how we help her do that. Excited for her progress.
 
So that's the highlights of the week! Love you all!
Elder Clayton




February 25, 2013

Hi everybody!

I'm sick and didn't really sleep last night so if I misspell things or don't sound as excited as usual you know why. Besides being sick I'm doing pretty well.

This week was another crazy one.

Monday was zone sport in Bremen. We played basketball and soccer and made pizza. Lots of fun. We have a really great zone right now! I am out of shape and was sucking wind soooo bad at the end. Embarrassing. haha
After that we did a district leader training that went pretty well. We talked about the messages of faith and obedience President and Sister Kosak shared with us the week before. Then we did a training on exchange evaluations. We taught and practiced how to do an evaluation with the missionaries we tausch (exchange) with in order to help missionaries be more obedient and improve missionary skills. That went really well but was cut short due to trains.

Tuesday we started the stop smoking workshop with an investigator. He is a reallly cool guy. He is doing great. We call him everyday, meet twice a week, and a member calls him also everyday. He is 6 days smoke free as of today! Then we met with Herr S. That went really great. His first question at the appointment was, what do I need to do to get baptized? That is a question missionaries long to hear!  We taught the doctrine of Christ and he mentioned having some problems with forgiving. We printed him out a general conference talk about forgiveness. Teaching him is really interesting, a mix of the member translating, him actually understanding our german, and google translator. We ask questions to check his understanding and he gives great answers back. Wayyy cool.

We also had zone training meeting. That was awesome. We have a great zone. There was testimonies, a musical number, a zone council, a talk on baptism by Elder P, a training on teaching to people's needs in order to find, and one on asking inspired questions in teaching. It was really the highlight of the week I think for me. It is great when something you plan and pray about works out well.

Thursday we visited Sister A again. She is hilarious. I love latino people. I wanna serve a second mission there haha. We did some finding that night and found a new lady that has a lot of doubts and just seemed really sad. I testified of the power of prayer and Christ's atonement. I love the surge of courage that I feel when I see a humble person to whom I can bear testimony. Hopefully we can teach her again next week.

Friday we met with R again in the Book of Mormon, that was a spiritual experience and he struggles to read so it was great to help him recognize the spirit as we read. Later we taught Herr S again, the restoration. He has great questions and stops us when he doesn't understand something. It takes a while but it is a fun experience. 

Saturday we helped a family pick up a couch. I relish opportunities to do some manual labor. I go crazy being in a car so much. We later taught with the branch president and that went really well. Then taught someone else the plan of salvation. That was a great day. We filled up the key indicator column and we really had the feeling we helped people come to Christ.

Sunday was aight. Church was great! S got picked up by a member and really enjoyed church. We then had a hilarious choir practice and a branch council. The rest of the day was kinda depressing. I was feeling really sick and we tried to contact people and were getting an unreal amount of rejection. The good news is we finished off the night with a joint teach with D. We taught the restoration and it went really well. He asked good questions and we were able to show them several scriptures in the Book of Mormon that had answers. He promised to read and pray to know if it is all true. He said when he gets his answer he will be baptized. 

I'm grateful for the Savior. I'm sleep deprived and sick but somehow strangely happy. Watch this video if you need some encouragement to not give up the faith.
 
Love you all. 

-elder clayton 

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