February 15 - Letter

Monday - So last Monday after we got to e-mail, we went to the store to shop for food, then we met Ben Richhart (A returned missionary who went to St. George) at Taco Bell for lunch and he paid for us. Then all of us went to Tori's hair salon (Tori is a less active member and recent convert who was baptized recently) and she gave us haircuts. She cuts are hair for free because she likes us and she is good at cutting hair! We talked to her and got our haircut and then we went to Culver Academy! We went and met Laken (a member who lives in Brighton, but is going to this military school in Culver and he is preparing to serve a mission, he's the kid that we both know all the same people and he fumbled the ball against Wx to lose the game so we always joke about that) and him and a investigator named Lizzie gave us a tour of Culver and we're going to go to one of their hockey games soon! After we toured the school, he showed us his dorm and everything, we went and had Family Home Evening in a room at the school. We gathered a few of the members that go to Culver (One of them lives right by us in Bountiful by the fire station and Smith's Marketplace) and we all talked about our most miraculous moment on a mission. It was a fun night and then we headed back to Bremen.

Tuesday - On Tuesday we had our morning studies and then we went to the Museum in Plymouth to do service. We dusted off all of the old things in the museum and covered Christmas Trees so they didn't get dusty. It's fun going there and seeing all the old things they have. After that we got lunch and went out to work! We had a very good day. We tracted and had a lot of good lessons, had a deja vu, we were walking, and there were two elderly people outside that we went up and talked to, they told us they were just bringing a family member home from the hospital and it had just snowed so I told them if she ever needs help to give us a call and we wrote our number on the pamphlet. We then ran into a lady, she is Presbyterian and the day before I was talking to Ben Richhart and he told me his mom was Presbyterian before she was converted, so I said "We have a member that used to be Presbyterian, her last name is Richhart, and this lady knows the Richharts, she is 2nd cousins with Delane Richhart, Ben's dad. And they our strong members, so we taught this lady we just met the Restoration and we're going to go back with Brother Richhart and see her, the lady hasn't seen the Richharts in a long time so I said "come to church and see them"! And Brother Richhart is actually doing Family History and needs to get some names from her so that will be good. After that we were tracting some more and we met a lady named Jamie, she has 3 little kids and lives in a little apartment, she was in a hurry to go pick up her little kid at school so she asked us if we could come back. We then met Ashley a couple doors over, she was smoking, but listened to us teach her the Restoration. She then told us she didn't actually live there, that it was her sisters house, but that she lived in Georgia. I told her I acutally knew a couple of missionaries in Georgia and that there is 75,000 of us throughout the world so we could get some to come meet with her. So I asked her if I could get her contact information and she gave it to me and we gave the referral to missionaries in Georgia. If you ever have a referral you can just go on mormon.org and type it in and missionaries will go. After that we knocked on another door at this apartment building and we met a kid named Dillon. He was nice and interested and we taught him Restoration lesson. We then gave him a pamphlet and on the back of the pamphlet there is a picture of the Book of Mormon, he said "So you guys are mormons" and we said ya and he said "I have a friend that is somewhat Mormon, I've read a little bit of the Book of Mormon" and we said oh ya who's your friend? and he said "He lives in Culver and his name is Lodge" and the Culver Elders are teaching Lodge and we knew that so we said Oh ya we know him and so we are going to try to get Dillon and Lodge to church. We're brainstorming to make friends with them, like go out to dinner, or bowling. After we met with him we went and met with Yazmin. Yazmin is someone they found before I got there but we talked to her a little but about the Plan of Salvation and got her number so we could go talk to her and her mom sometime. They are a mexican family and they live close to the Relief Society President so I told her to go take them cookies or go say hi so that will be good. After that we tried by Amber, a family that looks like an LDS family, but she wasn't home. So we took Dinner, and went back to Bremen. We went and saw Craig Lemmons (the actor) and talked to him and had a good discussion about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We then went and saw Richard (a 50 year old man, with a couple tattoos and beard) really nice guy and taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one and committed him to read 3 Nephi 11. After that we went and saw Blaine. Blaine is a 20 year old guy with a wife, they're good people and he is very interested, he accepted the Book of Mormon, we had a powerful lesson with him. It was a good day!

Wednesday - On Wednesday we had our studies and then tried to go see Cindy, wasn't home and a couple other people and they weren't home. So I said "Lets go tract" so we started tracting this street and I saw this lady on the street shoveling snow. I got out of the car and I told Elder Skoville "Lets go talk to this lady" He said "No lets knock on this house first" ADVICE: Always follow the spirit but when someones right in front of your eyes go help them and then go back and knock. So we did and I had a deja vu and we talked to her, I finished shoveling her walks and we found out missionaries we're going to see her when she lived in another house, she has liver cancer, her husband is struggling with believing in God and we had a very good discussion with her and she was happy when we left and we set up a return appointment. MORE ADVICE: When on a mission talk to everyone, especially when they're right in front of you and you can serve them. After that we knocked some more houses, there was a lady trying to take care of all her grandkids and we offered to shovel her walks and at first she said No but we kept asking and she was really happy we did it and we were happy to help. We then went back to the apartment and Brother Mcliver met us there, we planned to go see some people but we went 0-6 on all the people we tried to see. We let Brother Mcliver go and we started tracting. It was 3 o clock and we had nothing planned but tracting till 7. Haha I said "We're gonna tract for 4 hours" Elder Skoville says "We'll take a couple breaks and just chill" so I said " I didn't come on a mission just to chill" So we tracted for 4 hours. Haha then we met at the church and Brother Timm brought us pulled pork and it was fun.  

Thursday - On Thursday we did our morning studies and Elder Skoville comes in the room and says "We have to be at the Bremen hospital at 9, Sister Padilla was in a car accident and we're gonna meet Brother Reed there to give her a blessing" Sister Padilla was driving on Plymouth Goshen Trail and hit black ice on a curve, she was talking to her mom on the phone and didn't have her seatbelt on and hit a fence, then hit a telephone pole and snapped the telephone pole in half and then her truck spun into an Amish guys house. The Amish guy comes out and tries going around finding a phone (get it) and Sister Padilla then calls 911. She cut her eyebrow pretty bad and she's pretty banged up but they let her go that day and now she's doing a lot better. She even came to church on Sunday. We went to try and see Janie, she wasn't home, then we went to Cleo's (the man we committed to baptism) and met his daughter and found out he has dimensia so we can't keep visiting him because he isn't accountable. After that we tried by a couple more people but they weren't home, and then we had lunch. We went and tracted Plymouth-Goshen Trail, it's where all the farmhouses are and we talked to an elderly couple, everything made sense to them, we showed them a Mormon message, the only reason they wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon is because they didn't want to get confused. We met a couple more people didn't have a lot of success. We stopped by some people in Plymouth, not a ton of success, and then we tracted some more. We had a good day tracting this neighborhood called Eastwood Estates. We met an elderly couple, she's read the Book of Mormon, and we gave her our number if they ever needed help with service. That was really good because she was happy and excited to get our number. We then met another lady and taught her Restoration and had a nice discussion with her. We knocked some more houses until we met Brad. Brad goes to the Church of Jesus Christ, a different church then us and we taught him Restoration, he has some confusion, he believes God is a spirit and in the Trinity, and doesn't believe Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ but we testified and taught him about the Book of Mormon and explained how it goes hand in hand with the Bible and the lesson turned very good and he was happy to get one. We then had dinner and Weekly planned.  

Friday - On Friday, we did studies and then we had District meeting. I gave a training and that was fun and then after that we had lunch at Hacienda's. It was actually a very good mexican restaraunt! After that we tracted, and tried by Joe, and Brad, neither answered, so we did some Family History. Sister Ellis taught me how to do Family History and now I think it's fun! After that we went to dinner at the Richharts, all 6 of us did and that was fun. They live way out in the woods and it snowed a lot so it fun being out there.

Saturday - On Saturday we went out with members and saw less actives, me and Brother Reed went together and we had very good lessons with 2 less active families and we got one of them families to church. It snowed a lot during the night, so the cars were grounded but we were already in Plymouth so we just drove back to Bremen and we went and did Family History for an hour. After that we tracted this street. I had the best 3 hours I've ever had on my mission. We taught 8 lessons, committed a mexican lady to baptism, and she has 4 kids, we gave her a Book of Mormon, we got 3 return appointments and had powerful lessons and made 4 good friends. Tried to teach a man the Plan of Salvation, he needed it but he wouldn't listen. But at the end we met this guy, taught him outside his door and then his wife says "Will you come upstairs?" I am convinced in every way that this was a miracle she said this because he said "Come down here" and then said "Are you guys allowed to come inside?" and we said "Ya!" and this led to a very good lesson. They were about to feed us dinner the first time we met them, they are just nice people, they go another church called the Living Gospel and the discussion we had with them made me realize how much more we know then any other church. She had Anti questions but it wasn't a contentious discussion, they were actually just wondering. We taught them everything from War in Heaven, Satan and Jesus being brothers, the Restoration, agency, Adam and Eve and every question they had, we answered and their eyes were locked on us the whole time, they were so interested. They said they'll accept a Book of Mormon. It was good.

Sunday - Sunday we woke up, we went to Branch Council in the morning, then we had church and after church we had correlation meeting. Then we all went to the Sisters house and made Navajo tacos to take to Sister Padilla for dinner, and in the middle of doing that, tried to go see 2 investigators, they weren't home though so we took dinner to Sister Padilla. It was a good night. Then Elder Morgan and Elder Eschler came and slept over at our house. It was a very good week. I love you guys so much and miss you!!!