Monday, February 1, 2016

February 1 - Letter

So to the start, we all meet at the Fishers chapel for Transfers and we find our new companions. I'm sad to leave Elder Coon, I loved him and we had a lot of fun and I miss him a lot but I like Elder Skoville a lot. Elder Skoville went to Timpview, and the other 2 Elders in my area that we're with a lot, they live in Culver, Elder Morgan and Elder Eschler, Elder Morgan went to Timpview too and his dad is a professor at BYU. He's hilarious and Elder Eschler is from Hurricane, Utah and he likes to workout so we have a good group. So at transfers we find are new companions and start loading our stuff into the car. A member, he's so funny, his name is Brother Timm he lives in Knox, a smalltown right outside of Plymouth, i'll tell you a little bit more about him in a minute, he was the one driving us from Fishers back to Plymouth. So we all get situated and start our way to Plymouth. Brother Timm is crazy he is the type of guy that makes me laugh so dang hard I can't stop laughing, he's a convert to the church, his story is a miracle, on the way home he tells me everything about how he came to be a member. He has PTSD, he is a walking miracle, he has seen crazy things since he was a kid, has had areally hard life and one time his wife met the missionaries and invited them over. He wasn't overly excited about them coming over but he told his wife he would listen and so he brought his bible out, sat down and met the missionaries. This is the way he explains it, he says "I sat down and started looking at the missionaries, they look over at me and start smiling and i'm trying to act tough but something is overcoming me and so I look away, I look back and they're still smiling at me, so I get up and walk out of the room and lock myself in the bathroom, he's thinking I've never felt what i'm feeling, I feel so happy, they start talking with him, he gets baptized, he felt the spirit so strong, and now he's fired up about missionary work. I love him, the first thing I say to him is "Do you know Elder Freeman?" He says "Unfortunately" I start laughing so hard. Elder Freeman is the one with the Purdue jacket on in the picture. Me and him are good friends and he served in Culver right next to Plymouth. So on the way home Brother Timm says "We gotta a lot of work to do, I'm a missionary, i'm here for a reason" and so later in the drive we're out in the middle of Indiana Country and there is a school bus driver and he stops his car, looks up at her and says "You're a cutie" oh man he does the craziest stuff. He is a nut. So we get to Culver, it's the sweetest place, it's a lakehouse that the Culver missionaries live in and we've slept over 2 times this week and it's a cabin pretty much. After that we get all my stuff in our car, we drive a Jeep Compass and we drove to Plymouth. Steve might know Brother Timm, I will get his first name but he was in Okinawa, Japan at the same time Steve was I think and that's when the missionaries found Brother Timm, and Steve might know those missionaries too. I'll get there names. We get to Plymouth and meet the Sister missionaries and they take me and introduce me to Bob and Bonnie. Bob has been investigating the church for 40 YEARS, he knows it's true, he comes to church as much as a member, he used to be a Penticostal Preacher. I love seeing the reasons why I'm put in Plymouth. Bob said something to me like "There's a reason you're here." Me and him click and we're already good friends. After that we went to Arby's ate dinner, got groceries at Walmart and then we went to Sister Sherwood. Sister Sherwood is a member but she's struggling, she is poor, smokes and is trying to take care of her family. We uplifted her and then we went back to Bremen. I get to our apartment for the first time, it smells like smoke bad, good thing I have vitamins, and we unpacked and went to bed.  

Wednesday - On Wednesday we woke up, I got to take a shower, I hadn't been able to take on in a few days because I was so busy, and then we went and saw some potentials. None of them answered so we started tracting. The first person we talked to and got a return appointment for was Joe. We talked to him in his front yard, gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he was in a hurry so we let him go. After that we met and Older guy but he was in a rush out his door, he said we could come back, so that's good. We're off to a pretty good start. After that we met a lady, she was very nice, she told us to come back and talk to her son. He son was in the Army and now he's starting to find God. That was a very good referral. After that we talked to a 16 year old kid in his front yard, we can't teach anyone under 18 so we set up a time to come back and talk to him and his family, so we have some good return appointments set up. This next one was a miracle, we knock on the door, this guy about 60 years old answers, long gray hair and beard, and we talk for a minute and then he says "Ok normally I get talking and I never stop, but this time I just want to listen so you guys teach me" So i'm thinking perfect. We walk in and there's another person living there, she's a 28 year old girl that's black. So i'm trying to figure out if there married or what's going on. It turns out they're living together to get through hard times. We start teaching him about the Restoration, and he agrees with most of it. He believes in the foolish belief of the Trinity. I don't know how someone in their right mind can believe in that but anyways he goes on to tell us this girl living there used to be a member of our church. She came out and started talking to us, I cleared up all the confusion she had, she sincerely thought our church was racist and didn't like blacks coming in but I told her we love everyone coming. We answered questions she had about if we believe in a hell and we asked her if she'd come to church. She said yes and was excited so that was good. She told me she needs to be re-baptized, but she says she wasn't ex-communicated. So she has to meet with our Branch President so he can figure everything out. Then we went to the apartment above Bruce and Allena's and met a woman named Nicole and talked to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and set up a time to come back. That night we slept over at Culver's house and played Book of Mormon war, it's a card game, it's fun.  

Thursday - On Thursday we woke up and went to a less active members coloring class at the library. It was fun haha we go there to make his class seem bigger and we talk to the older ladies and build friendships. One of the ladies there has family in Utah so we talked about that. We went out and worked and then in the evening we went to a Hair Salon that a less active girl named Tori works at. She will cut our hair for free so that's sweet. That night we went to a Chinese buffet that a member took us too so that was fun. She is a convert to the church and the only member in her family. There are so many converts here and i love hearing there stories of how they converted. After that we went back to Culver and spent the night again.  

Friday - On friday morning we woke up and went to Culver Academy and worked out. Look up Culver Academy it's sweet! It's a Top 10 in the nation school, it's a military school and it's like the ones you see in the movies. So it was fun working out there. After that we went back to Culver's, I cooked some sausage and we got ready and went to South Bend for Zone meeting! It was sweet. I got to drive past Notre Dame! Today we are going to go tour it and walk around I'm so excited, don't worry I'll take pics :) We had a good zone meeting and then after that we went to a cajun restaraunt called Yats and that was fun. After that we came back to Bremen and worked, we went and saw a guy named Craig, he's an actor, he is in the movie Sandcastles, it's coming out in February and he was in a show on Hallmark on Sunday and he's been in a couple others. OK LISTEN TO THIS, that night we went to dinner at the Reed's. The Reed's our members but they're converts, we got talking and GUESS WHO CONVERTED THEM. Brandon Cleverly. Landon Cleverly's brother. Brandon Cleverly lived in Indianapolis and so did the Reed's, right next door to each other. Brother Reed said "Ya he had roots out of Bountiful" and I said "I know a Landon Cleverly, he was my home teacher" and Sister Reed said "Yep that's him, that's his brother" I told them how much we loved him. It's a small world!!!  

Saturday - On Saturday we woke up got ready and met at the church at 10:30. We all met there, I met President Kelly, I like him a lot, he's the branch president and we went on splits with the members and went and saw a lot of members, less actives, and part member families. I went with Brother Richhart and it was a lot of fun. Another crazy thing, the first person we go see, her name is Sister Sam, she has family that live in North Salt Lake! Do you know David Sam? He is a federal judge and he lives by Uchtdorf. After that we went on a nice Indiana country drive way far out to go see people. Our area is huge we cover 5 counties. We saw some Ice Fishers, he took me to Subway and then at 4 o clock we met back at the church. After that me and Elder Skoville went and followed up with some people, we went and saw Joe and it went well, we taught him Restoration, He read our Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he said he would continue to read the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. That's all we can ask and then the spirit catches them :) we had a good long day seeing people and then I went straight to bed.  

On Sunday we woke up, got ready, went to church, we had to be at the church by 8:30 for a meeting, I met 2 kids, they both go to Culver Academy and one of them lives in Bountiful, right up the street from the Firestation. And the other one went to Brighton and we know all the same people. He played little league football at Brighton a year older then me and I watched him play Woods Cross and he was the one that fumbled the ball and ended up losing the game because of that I remember distinctively watching that game so that was fun to talk about. We were at the church from 8:30 to 4 and it was a good day! After church, we went and saw a potential and taught her husband Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. That night we went to dinner at Sister Padilla's. She had all 6 of the missionaries, us, Culver, and the Sisters and Sister Padilla is a Saint. She is a convert, the missionaries knocked on her door on New Years Eve, in 2014 and she told me this story last night, they gave her a Book of Mormon, she wasn't going to read it, she set it on the table and sat down and started watching t.v. She kept looking down at the Book of Mormon and finally she picked it up and read it. She read it all night till 2 in the morning, she woke her husband up and said "This is the truth, this is the truth, I know it is" and she was baptized 2 months later. She has went through a lot after she was baptized and she stayed a strong member and everyone looks up to her. It was a great week!:) I love you guys so much! There is a package on the way!

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