July 19, 2010
So it seems really weird that I've been out a year already. Today actually technically marks the beginning of the 2nd half of my mission, which is an even weirder feeling. Weird also to think how much changes in a year, it'll be a completely new life when I get home so that's kind of cool I guess. All well, not very much time left to work so just got to keep trying to do my best.
We've been helping out with a lot of service this week. We helped some members pound in fence-poles for their electric fence. We've also been helping members move and get things organized. It's been lots of fun.
The work out here is continuing to go well. This week we taught a total of 13 lessons, 4 of which were lessons with a member present and 3 more investigator lessons. Elder Senior and I are trying to get as many members involved with the work as possible to keep them going and getting excited. We are getting quite a few refferals as well which is really helping out.
One of those referrals was a guy named Steve. He is in his early 30's and was in the army for ten years. He described himself as a left-brained, needs to make sense kind of guy. We answered some of his questions about the church and then talked about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. It went really well and we have another lesson scheduled for later this week which I'm excited about.
Last Tuesday we had our plan to work here in town; however, we got a call from a kind-of investigator during district meeting. He talked about how his life was falling apart and wanted us to stop by. Well... he lived clear out on the northern border of our area, but we went by and changed our plans. On our way back to town we got a call from the office with a media referral and it was on the way so we went and stopped by. It was for an 18-year old named Brian. He had just gone down to Salt Lake to learn some more about the church for knowledge sake and requested a visit. He claims to be an athiest and is learning to learn. It was a really cool visit and we'll probably go back in a week or two to check up on him.
We had another good lesson with Heather and Ray. A lot less anti and a lot more honest questions. Heather seems to be taking a greater interest than Ray is at the moment, but we are going to keep doing our best to keep answering their questions and talking about the church.
This week has also been crazy with disasters. Thursday there was a propane fire which also burned some junk cars down from Sherrie's house. While we were visiting with her on Friday there was another fire in the exact same spot which was interesting. There was also another fire on the other side of town. And on Friday we were visiting with a less-active family named the Rogers. After the lesson, we looked out the window and saw a 350+ pound sheep just wandering down the street. So we helped his owners round him up and get him home. By-the-way, sheep are very stubborn animals and don't move when they don't want to.
So the scripture for the week is 1st Kings 12:1-16. This is the story of when Rehoboam pretty much loses the kingdom. I just think it goes to show that if we ignore the good advice for what we want to hear, we're going to find ourselves in trouble. Think of the old men as the General Authorities. They're telling us what we need to be happy. If we listen to them great; however, if we choose to listen to the world, or the young men, we will find ourselves in trouble later on. So... listen to those who know what's best and not for the popular vote.
Hope everything is going well with all of you. Keep going strong and enjoy the rest of summer.
Elder Wixom
