April 22, 2013

What a week what a week. It's getting down to crunch time and I'm getting anxious. I find myself needing more and more to work more intensely and find and teach and baptize more!

Monday was a fun day. Decided to put my leftover Christmas money to use and went where else but the soccer store!  I got sweet deals on jerseys. I got one from all the major teams in the areas I've worked in!  And then a Barcelona one too cause they are obviously the best team in the world and they gave me a sweet deal!

Also got some letter writing time in great, chill, pday.

After that we went to work and did some planning and finding.  I'm really trying to make these last two transfers the best.  It's working pretty well, wish I had implemented some of these things earlier haha.  Anyways, back to the week...

Tuesday we visited a less active brother and an investigator. We taught sabbath day observance on both occasions. Neither of them come to church often and we are working on getting that to be habit. I can't imagine going without church every Sunday and the sabbath is something so special, something I miss from home.  It's great here on the mission too because we teach so much on Sundays, but you miss the whole family, and day of rest, aspects.

So after those two lessons we did some finding again. We learned where not to do street contacting haha.  After 30 mins we decided to go do doors somewhere else cause there were simply just too few people.

Thereafter we happed on a train to Bremen, where we would visit their district meeting in the morning and have an exchange with the elders there. We got there and were greeted immediately by the two elders there. They are the definition of missionary excitement!  They were so stoked about the exchange and we were all jacked to work with one another.

I was with an awesome elder in his fourth transfer training.  He is a fireball.  His favorite thing is finding.  We planned that night and set some pretty high goals and made some good plans.  He was hilarious as I bothered him until he agreed to make back up plans.  Lots of elders sometimes ignore that part of the planner but we as zone leaders are making sure it is being used and used well.

The next day we had a good district meeting there.  They are a great district. All young and excited except one sister who goes home this transfer.  She has been in this zone for like six transfers and she is super solid so we will all miss her in the zone.  Crazy when someone who went on a mission significantly later than you goes home before you.  Anyway that was a good meeting.

Then we had an awesome appointment with their super prepared baptisimal candidate.  Coolest guy ever.  He is very sensitive to the spirit and has tons of faith!  We watched the Joseph Smith movie with him and talked about baptism.  We had a great joint teach there too who explained the apostasy well for him and the elder I was exchanging with gave a super powerful testimony.  Great appointment.  He is going to be baptized in a few weeks and after the prayer he asked if we could get missionaries to his mother and sister. We obliged.

Then we went to get doner.  The delicious turkisch kebab.  After that we did lots of street contacting.  I've missed that because in Oldenburg we are always in the car and can't find as much on the way to appointments and such.  It reminded me of the old days in Berlin where we walked everywhere and were able to talk to everyone.

Back up plans came in handy as the rest of the appointments for the day fell out. The elder I was with just kept saying how his testimony of back up plans had grown hahaha.

It was a good exchange.  Except for the one appointment we didn't see a ton of success but we learned a lot.  The elder I was with has a lot of drive and I learned I need to step up my focus.  I also learned I needed to bear more testimony.  Anyway it was a great time.

After we switched back we headed over to the church for the setting apart of our ward mission leader who is going on a mission.  President Kosak set him apart since we are in a district and not a stake.  I love that man.  So fun and full of spirit.  We got to stand in the circle as the missionary was set apart as a missionary and everyone in the room knew he was about to learn and grow a lot and have a great mission.

Thursday we had a very successful morning. We got in contact again with a few people we had found and one let us in and we taught him a bit and got a new appointment with him.  The other is going out of town for awhile but wants to meet when we get back.  The timing worked out way good that we caught them at home.

We later had some success doing doors

Then we had a meeting with our new ward mission leader.  That was awesome. He is very focused and we talked about several ideas to help the branch grow! Things are really being stepped up a notch here and we are really going to see success I think in getting the members involved.

Friday we planned for the week, visited a less active brother, visited the non member father of a member, and then taught a new investigator. It was a good but long day.  

Saturday was great. We started off with visiting a newer investigator.  He had cancer and had a whole lung removed, but thanks God everyday for the chance to still live.  He might be the happiest, most charitable man I know.  We talked with him, his son, and friend about prophets and the restoration.  It went really well.

Later we went by two less active brothers who we haven't been able to get in contact with since forever.  They were both home and both want to meet next week.  Then right next to them we ran into another man we met and taught on the street a long time ago and invited him to church.  Coincidence_ not a chance..

The rest of the day was basically spent finding.  Our two joint teach appointments after that both fell out, so it was time to find.  I wasn't feeling too well, headaches, but decided we were going to find.  One of those moments where your desire to find people is bigger than the others.  Sometimes when things don't go our way it actually helps motivate me to go further, instead of throwing in the towel.  So we did lots of doors.  We made out tons of appointments with new people, and at the end we taught the two people.  We talked about everything, they had so many questions. One took the Book of Mormon glady and promised to read the whole thing. He loves religion and has a strong faith in Christ and basically the Book of Mormon is going to convert him.  We finished the day with high spirits and ya, we knew we had worked hard.

Sunday was really nice.  I had headaches again but it wasn't too bad.  One of our investigators came to church!  As well as two less active brothers we have been working with!  Way cool.  The best was in sunday school we taught about the sacrament and baptism.  We talked a lot about how the Holy Ghost can be with us always with this covenant.  The spirit was strong and at the end our investigator just thanked us and thanked us.  Love that guy.

After church we had an eating appointment with a cool family and had an investigator there too.  

That evening we taught another investigator. We taught him and his wife in January or December last and we haven't been able to get an appointment go through since then, but it finally worked out.  We got to make a good connection with him.  He is so prepared.  He had great questions and we answered and bore testimony and watched the restoration. He kept asking the right questions and at the end he brought up the subject of baptism. He wants to get baptized but wants to do it sincerely and do all the steps right so he can stay with it for the rest of his life. He is not sure if right now is the right time but he is going to think and pray about it.  He asked for a reading assignment haha and we gave him good chapters about the subjects that he has questions on.  It was a way good appointment, the spirit was there and we could see it working in him.  We are meeting again next week and will hopefully have a member family there too that we think would get along great with them.  There are prepared people!!

So that was the week.  Things are going really great.  I feel like I'm being the best missionary of my mission right now and I'm being blessed a ton.  It is not any easier, but since the beginning of my last two transfers I've kicked it up a notch.  My companion has helped a ton too.  Gotta finish strong!  There are people to baptize here!

Have a great week er body.

Elder Clayton

April 15, 2013

What a fun week. Things were crazy cool.

Monday we were with a member family for Easter!  It was fun.  We watched To This End Was I Born and we were all basically on the verge of tears.  

Tuesday was kind of a miracle day.  Because Monday was a holiday we had to take care of some stuff for pday and that took some time.  It took longer than expected so we were under a time frame before our train left for Osnabrück.  We planned to visit a former investigator and we almost didn't cause time was short, but we did anyway. So glad we ended up going.  

After that we went by a contact and this woman was very interested. She told us a ton about her religious background.  It was cool to see her have some hope in that and she is excited to meet next week.

After that we had a little bit of time left and decided to go by an investigator, with whom he had lost contact for a few weeks. She was there!  And she was happy to see us. She had been really sick the week before and had not answered our calls because of that and because she didn't have our new number so we cleared that up and she even told us she had been reading in the Book of Mormon.  Super good.  We set up an appointment for later in the week and rushed to the train station and barely caught our train.

Wednesday was good. We visited another district's district meeting and then went on an exchange.  We have really great missionaries and district leaders in our zone right now and it was a really good experience.  I was with a younger missionary and we had a very good day.  He is struggling in his area to find new investigators and we went to work finding and made out like 7 new appointments in less than an hour.  I could see his faith growing in finding prepared people.  I too was surprised at the amount of success and my faith grew.

Thursday was a day where you do everything right, but things didn't work out like we had planned.  

That evening we headed out to our zone leader council in Berlin.  We drove to Hannover and picked up the zone leaders there then slept the night in Magdeburg with two of my favorite elders!  So fun to see them again.  We rejoiced in another's righteousness and awesomeness in declaring the word.

Friday was the zone leader council in Berlin.  That is always a fun meeting haha.  It's always awesome to be taught by president.   We played soccer once again at lunch, we surprised president by all bringing shorts and shoes and the game was a little better quality and I didn't have to worry about my pants ripping again hahaha.  Also fun is the picture we always take.  Elder Fuller and I always come up with something to do that will bother president haha.  He loves us sooo much.  All in all it was a good meeting and our mission will be benefitted by the changes I think.

Saturday morning we got back, having stayed the night with the elders in Hannover.  We didn't have much time to rest, having appointments planned, so we went right to work.  We met for the first time with a new family.  They are super cool.  Then we taught another investigator finally again.  She is hard to get a hold of.  To our great surprise and delight, she has been reading!  

Then we had conference. I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!!!   Our church is so true it is ridiculous.  Can I just say, I love being a member and missionary for the Lord's church.  The messages were amazing.  Favorites of the first session were Craig A. Cardon's about the Savior forgiving, Elaine S. Dalton on doing your part, and Henry B. Eyring's on drawing near unto the Savior. POWER!!

The next day's messages were also great. Tad A. Callister about building the deacons quorum president, Richard G. Scott on centering the home on the Lord, Quinten L. Cook on peace, Whitney Clayton on marriage, Russel M. Nelson on missionary work wave, Dieter F. Uchtdorf on enlightenment, Jeffery R. Holland on developing faith, Enrique R. Falabella on parenting, and my all time favorite, President Monson on obedience.  It was such a spiritual feast. Lots of things to learn and apply in the missionary work and at home.

We even had an investigator there. 

Monday was zone pday!  We went to Bremen and played soccer and basketball and ping pong and billiards. That was a ton of fun. I realized how out of shape I was haha.  Playing sports now is fun but at the same time frustrating because I can't do the things I once could.  It was mostly just a lot of fun to get together with all the missionaries in the zone.  Our zone is sooo spread out so it is seldom that we can all get together.  We have such a great zone right now though.

After the training, we had a district leader schooling and that went really well. Our district leaders right now are very dilligent and obedient.  We presented to them some of the changes in the mission and how they will help us and gave them the job to introduce the changes to the whole zone at zone training meeting, which they did awesomely. It was a great meeting, very focused but fun and helpful for all. We were pleased.

Tuesday we finished our planning for our zone training meeting and went to work. Highlight was our appointment with one of our investigators.  He related that since he had actually read and prayed and asked God, he can understand the Book of Mormon much better than before.  That was super cool to see!  Just goes to show me that all people have to do is put in the honest effort and God will answer.  We did doors that night and found 2 new investigators!  We practiced doing what we wanted to teach in our zone training meeting and it worked!!!  Super cool.

Wednesday was the zone training meeting.  We planned prayerfully and carefully and planned things that we thought could help the zone the best.  Our training was on the power of the Book of Mormon and how we can use it to find more new investigators.  Our zone has been struggling with that and we got tons of positive feedback on how much the training helped and then saw our numbers at the end of the week and our number of new investigators as a zone almost tripled!  Sooo cool.  Other trainings on obedience and member missionary work were also very helpful.  For me at least.  We need to do better work with the members here.  Anyway, despite some unexpected setbacks, the meeting turned out really well.  Like I said, we have a great zone right now so we are really pleased.

After that I was on an exchange with my district leader, who happens to be one of my roommates from the MTC almost 2 years ago!  Hahaha.  We had a great time and saw some miracles.  Here is one...

We were doing doors and talked to this nice christian man, who told us he already believes really strongly and that he didn't have time to talk and nicely kind of rejected us.  I felt like something had been left unsaid, and that he needed to know more about the Book of Mormon before he denied us (subject of our zone meeting only hours before).  Anyway I had this feeling as he closed the door, but we continued on doing the next door and as we finished talking to the next man, out comes the christian man and tells us he changed his mind and that he wanted to hear us out about this book.  We introduced it and asked him to pray about it and he accepted.  MIRACLE!  He had totally rejected us, but God somehow put into his heart that he should at least give it a shot.  Excited to hear how the reading went, when we meet next week.

Thursday wasn't too special.  Can't think of anything worth reporting...

Friday was packed.  

Saturday was good.  We had a joint teach with a family.  They speak italian better than german so we brought an italian family in the branch and they hit it off really well.  The father wanted to know what our church has to offer that his church doesn't. We watched the restoration and he decided he had to come to church.  Super cool.  Later we taught a guy we found earlier that week. That didn't go as expected.  He wasn't very open to try our message.  He listened well but basically said, although what you're saying makes a lot of sense, I already have my beliefs.  He then began to tell us about something he had read earlier that day online, where two christians fought about what was the right way to be baptized.  We testified that that is exactly why the Book of Mormon and modern prophets are so helpful.  We don't have to have these doctrinal disputes!  God never wanted that!  He understood and finally agreed to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon that talks about this subject, but he wouldn't pray about it or make out another appointment with us. That is frustrating. Knowing what your message can do to help someone, you tell them this, but somehow they don't want it.  They would rather mope and groan and stay where it is comfortable. Sad.  But we did what we could.  I believe the Book of Mormon will touch him and perhaps he will later get another chance.

Sunday was great.  Normally when I fast, I'm a bit tense or grumpy, but this time I was just super at peace and spiritually in tune.  It helps that I had a great personal study before church.  Anyway, we were supposed to have two investigators at church so I was excited.  The meeting started, and still no one.  I had the feeling I should text one of them, and she was like... we are in the church, where are you?  We later found out she went into the wrong church and she got to our church about halfway through sacrament meeting.  The other one called later that day and simply misunderstood where the church was, he had searched a wrong street for a couple of hours trying to find it and called to apologize.  Poor guy.  Glad he called!  We will get him next week.  Apparently satan doesn't want people to find our church.  I wonder why?

Later in the day we finally got in contact with 4 investigators with whom we had lost contact.  Good ending to a great week.  This next week has a lot in store so we are stoked.  We should have a few baptisms next transfer!  Plus we got a new ward mission leader who is is going to get the members on boat!  And spring finally came, after the longest, darkest winter in 60 years.  It is just a great time to be a missionary.  I'm happy.

Have a great one folks!

Elder Clayton