April 17, 2017

So this week President Carlson gave us a challenge to pray to Heavenly Father to have the ability to find, teach and baptize families. Missionary work is so much fun. I have a fire to constantly do it, because it can be exciting. This week we brought Elder Kretschmer and Elder Breiter into our area and "blitzed" which just means all 4 missionaries work the area. We had the Read's for dinner and they made a bunch of Salmon and Tilapia for dinner which was good :) We had a normal P-day before that, played 21 (basketball) went to the field in downtown and ran routes and threw a football around and we did some footwork with a ladder! We went on a nice jog and went to GNC, i love P-days :) Tuesday morning we went to the Bishops Storehouse and did service and I got to talk to Brother Lane from the East Side of Indianapolis :) We worked all day, and we had a lesson with Daryl Robinson and he told us his whole story about how he was going down bad roads in his life and he needed help and he prayed and we knocked on his door. We taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ this time, we need to help him understand the importance of being baptized by authority :) We took Elder Kretschmer and Elder Breiter back to their area which is close to downtown and then went to this less active's house to try and mow their lawn.

On Wednesday we went out to the Dobsen's, they are members in the Brownsburg Ward and they are building a house so we helped them paint their house and did some caulking. That night we had dinner at a Mexican Restaraunt with Sister Hodsen :) We then went and visited Coralie the investigator me and Elder Chapple we're teaching! It was good to visit her again. They are teaching her and trying to get her to come to church so she can be baptized. On Thursday we had interviews with President Carlson, I love seeing him. He's such a good mission president. On Friday we had Mission Leadership Council at the Mission Home in Carmel. It was from 10-4:30 so all day but Sister Carlson makes very good lunch :) I also got a Samsung Tablet from President Carlson to give back to Elder Chapple, President had to take it away from Elder Chapple a while ago :) This is a quote from Elder Chapple for the week "I don't always stay on the straight and narrow path, but I cross it as much as I can". He is my favorite person I've met on my mission hahaha. That night we went over and visited Coralie again and taught her about the Law of Chastity and it was a good lesson!

That night Elder Allred and Elder Dunyon stayed the night at our apartment and went on exchanges with us the next day. We had such a good day on Saturday, we got 8 New Investigators! A new investigator just means we taught them doctrine, and set up a return appointment with a day and time and they accepted to it. We knocked a lot of doors! 7 of the new investigators are Nigerian :) One of the coolest things that happened is me and Elder Allred are knocking doors in this apartment complex and the guy answer the door, I say "Hey we are Representatives of Jesus Christ, just sharing his gospel today" and he says "Oh Yeah I listen to the Book of Mormon on my phone all the time" I was like what??? and then he told us he went to the Temple Open house! He ended up coming to church yesterday and we are going back to teach him tomorrow :) Later in the day me and Elder Dunyon were together and a Liberian man answers the door and says "Are you from the Church of Jesus Mormon?" I don't know what that is? "But ya we're from there" He said he was not interested so we said alright and went our ways. About 40 minutes later we're walking in the apartment complex and he started waving us down from his car, it's a good thing Elder Dunyon was with me because I didn't even see the guy. We went up to his car and he said "Would you guys be willing to teach me about the Mormons? Can you guys set an appointment and visit me? I want to know what Mormons believe. Someone gave me a Book of Mormon and I need to read it. When I told you guys to leave the first time I closed the door and wondered why did I do that?" So we are going back to teach him tomorrow :) I told him I have a friend in Liberia (Deion) and I told him the cities Deion was in and he thought that was cool.

Later in the day, Elder Peterson, Elder Dunyon, Elder Allred and I went over to Sheila's and put her on baptismal date for May 6 and helped encourage her to quit smoking :) She is making progress. That night we had a Cookout at the Tingey's (Members) and 3 investigators were there! The next day at church we had 4 investigators at Sacrament Meeting and we had 4 last week as well :) Yesterday we went to a Easter lunch at our Ward mission Leaders house and then went to a Easter Dinner at a Part member families house, and finished the day visiting and talking to Nigerians in this apartment complex :) I know that Jesus Christ directs the work we do and it's because of him we can do this work and this is his church :) He Lives. I love you guys so much and miss you. Happy Easter!