May 8, 2013
so it's P-day, and that means I get to email!! The MTC is awesome. I've
felt the spirit here stronger than I think I've ever felt it before. we had
sacrament meeting last Sunday and it was easily the coolest one I've ever
been to. we do these things called TRC's, where our teacher acts as an
investigator in a fake living room they have set up downstairs, and we teach
them as we would a new investigator. I've learned so much already in just
the first week, but I'm seriously anxious to get out. I don't know how
Marcus could stand 12 weeks of this! I mean, we're stuck in the same room
for like 12 hours a day! it’s driving me nuts!!! today we're going to have
the chance to go to the Preston temple, which is basically in the same
parking lot as us. It's really big and very beautiful, I'll send pictures.
we haven't really gotten to experience any of England yet as we've been in
this building the whole time. we get out for exercise once a day for an
hour, but it's not enough. our first TRC visit was a COMPLETE failure,
instead of getting to know our investigator, my companion freaked and just
jumped straight into the lesson. didn't ask her name, didn’t introduce
ourselves, no prayer, nothing. just "SO OUR LESSON IS ON THE RESTORATION".
it went downhill from there. our others have been considerably better.
May 12, 2013
The temple was awesome! apparently at one point it was the most expensive
temple in the world. I learned so much by going through again, but we won't
have the opportunity to go again for the rest of the mission.
Every day here is comprised of nothing but funny and spiritual moments. Last
night one of the other elders, Elder Ferris, found that his shirt had a
couple of ink spots on his white shirt pocket. So he takes it into the
laundry room and pours water on it and irons it. He now has a white shirt
with a purple and black burnt coat pocket! haha and then he picks it up,
looks at me and says "does this look ok?" I died laughing.
First Companion
May 20, 2013
Hey mom,
I've been out for about 5 days now and I'm dead tired. so for this story to
make sense you have to know the term: potential investigator = someone
who sets an appointment with us or gives us their phone number, The first
day that we really did anything was Thursday. My companion told me that
the guy I replaced was pretty apostate so they didn't get a whole lot of
work done. So that day we had zero appointments and a whole lot of time. so
we went over some of the goals and the standards of excellence (standards
the mission president thinks we can achieve). These numbers are like the
numbers of a dream day where everything goes perfectly right. The standard
of excellence for potential investigators is 4 per day. Elder Harris told
me that him and his last companion were lucky to get that in a week! So we
set out and started street contacting and knocking doors. we did this for
about 4 hours and we got 4 appointments with people. It was at about that
point that I met Jim. Now Jim had talked with the missionaries before
apparently and he obviously hadn't really listened to them. He ran into us
on the street and started ranting and raving about how he needs proof that
the book of Mormon is true, how the bible has plenty of proof of its truth,
and how there were contradictions between the two. The most annoying part
was that every time we tried to talk or explain something to him he would
cut us off. I tried bearing my testimony and he stopped me at "I know" and
told me that I didn't know anything and that I just believed. So I stopped
there in the middle of the street and told him that there are people out
there that are ready to hear our message and want to feel the spirit and
that he obviously didn't want to. I told him that he wasn't listening to
what we were saying, that all he wanted to do was to argue, and that he was
wasting our time. He didn't like that. He left us with a terrible feeling
and zero spirit. So we stopped, said a prayer and within the next hour we
had two more potential investigators. That day we got 6 potential
investigators!!! 4 appointments set and 2 phone numbers! one of them
accepted a book of Mormon from us. we were really feeling awesome until the
next couple of days when every single appointment fell through. It was
really disappointing, but we kept at it and tracted for the time that we
we’re going to be in the appointments, and then, here's the craziest part,
at the end of the day, when we had given it everything we had and laid it
all out on the field, we were up in our flat planning when we get this
phone call from the executive secretary. Some guy from the university had
just called him and said that he was interested in joining the church!! we
have an appointment to teach him tomorrow! I know that the lord was
rewarding us for our diligence. He works in truly mysterious ways. I love
you guys and miss you tons! I can't wait to hear back from you!
May 8, 2013
so it's P-day, and that means I get to email!! The MTC is awesome. I've
felt the spirit here stronger than I think I've ever felt it before. we had
sacrament meeting last Sunday and it was easily the coolest one I've ever
been to. we do these things called TRC's, where our teacher acts as an
investigator in a fake living room they have set up downstairs, and we teach
them as we would a new investigator. I've learned so much already in just
the first week, but I'm seriously anxious to get out. I don't know how
Marcus could stand 12 weeks of this! I mean, we're stuck in the same room
for like 12 hours a day! it’s driving me nuts!!! today we're going to have
the chance to go to the Preston temple, which is basically in the same
parking lot as us. It's really big and very beautiful, I'll send pictures.
we haven't really gotten to experience any of England yet as we've been in
this building the whole time. we get out for exercise once a day for an
hour, but it's not enough. our first TRC visit was a COMPLETE failure,
instead of getting to know our investigator, my companion freaked and just
jumped straight into the lesson. didn't ask her name, didn’t introduce
ourselves, no prayer, nothing. just "SO OUR LESSON IS ON THE RESTORATION".
it went downhill from there. our others have been considerably better.
May 12, 2013
The temple was awesome! apparently at one point it was the most expensive
temple in the world. I learned so much by going through again, but we won't
have the opportunity to go again for the rest of the mission.
Every day here is comprised of nothing but funny and spiritual moments. Last
night one of the other elders, Elder Ferris, found that his shirt had a
couple of ink spots on his white shirt pocket. So he takes it into the
laundry room and pours water on it and irons it. He now has a white shirt
with a purple and black burnt coat pocket! haha and then he picks it up,
looks at me and says "does this look ok?" I died laughing.
First Companion
May 20, 2013
Hey mom,
I've been out for about 5 days now and I'm dead tired. so for this story to
make sense you have to know the term: potential investigator = someone
who sets an appointment with us or gives us their phone number, The first
day that we really did anything was Thursday. My companion told me that
the guy I replaced was pretty apostate so they didn't get a whole lot of
work done. So that day we had zero appointments and a whole lot of time. so
we went over some of the goals and the standards of excellence (standards
the mission president thinks we can achieve). These numbers are like the
numbers of a dream day where everything goes perfectly right. The standard
of excellence for potential investigators is 4 per day. Elder Harris told
me that him and his last companion were lucky to get that in a week! So we
set out and started street contacting and knocking doors. we did this for
about 4 hours and we got 4 appointments with people. It was at about that
point that I met Jim. Now Jim had talked with the missionaries before
apparently and he obviously hadn't really listened to them. He ran into us
on the street and started ranting and raving about how he needs proof that
the book of Mormon is true, how the bible has plenty of proof of its truth,
and how there were contradictions between the two. The most annoying part
was that every time we tried to talk or explain something to him he would
cut us off. I tried bearing my testimony and he stopped me at "I know" and
told me that I didn't know anything and that I just believed. So I stopped
there in the middle of the street and told him that there are people out
there that are ready to hear our message and want to feel the spirit and
that he obviously didn't want to. I told him that he wasn't listening to
what we were saying, that all he wanted to do was to argue, and that he was
wasting our time. He didn't like that. He left us with a terrible feeling
and zero spirit. So we stopped, said a prayer and within the next hour we
had two more potential investigators. That day we got 6 potential
investigators!!! 4 appointments set and 2 phone numbers! one of them
accepted a book of Mormon from us. we were really feeling awesome until the
next couple of days when every single appointment fell through. It was
really disappointing, but we kept at it and tracted for the time that we
we’re going to be in the appointments, and then, here's the craziest part,
at the end of the day, when we had given it everything we had and laid it
all out on the field, we were up in our flat planning when we get this
phone call from the executive secretary. Some guy from the university had
just called him and said that he was interested in joining the church!! we
have an appointment to teach him tomorrow! I know that the lord was
rewarding us for our diligence. He works in truly mysterious ways. I love
you guys and miss you tons! I can't wait to hear back from you!
