Amazing Baytown People

Baytown People

The Garcia's who have been taught by missionaries before the hurricane ike hit houston. When the hurricane hit there house got destroyed and loss contact with the missionaries and we found them by tracting into them which was a miracle. They said they want to be baptized but want to learn more about our message and come to know if these things that we teach are true. we set a date with them for the march 10. We taught them the first lesson wchich is the restoration of the gosepl. lets just say that the spirit helped us out a lot in that lesson. Becasue I did not do that great explaining and teaching it as well as i like. But my companion thought it was really good becasue they asked good questions.

 

The medinas are another sweet family. They want to know more about our message. we taught them about our purpose and they fed us dinner which was really nice. They hae questions about the book of mormon and about prophets which we will be answering and explaining to them this week.

 

More Amazing Baytown People

I love Baytown and I think this is my most favorite area I have had. Because one the people here are really nice. Since I have been out here and knocking on doors, I have seen that God has been preparing the hearts and minds of these people to hear and to accept the restored gospel, we have found a ton of people. I know that pretty soon that baytown will baptize a lot of people in the church. baytwon is ready but we are getting the ward missionary minded and excited so they can invite there friends. There is very few that are not ready yet but there time will come.

Baytown Kids

Baytown boys and Injuries

I AM IN BAYTOWN, I LOVE IT HERE!!! But I am serving in the 2nd ward. I love the people here they are so nice, love the ward. My new companion is Elder Jensen he is from Thatcher, Arizona he has been out for nine months. He is a really great companion. This is a bike area, we biked for the first day we got here, I am so grateful for that they have sidewalks here. It was a long time since Elder Jensen has rode a bike because he got in a bike accident and broke his arm, he was driving a car for awhile until I got in the area, than in the morning we went to the church to play basketball with the district for morning excercises, which he sparined his ankle. we have  a car again. Our mission president said that he will turn this area into a car area. We probably wont be riding our bikes that often. This transfer is going to go by so fast because first its only five weeks becasue of the new change, and with all the many things that our mission has planned for.

NASA

Yesterday Our mission president took our zone (pasedena) and the broadwy zone to NASA it was really fun. got to see a bunch of cool stuff. This friday we have zone meeting, this coming up monday we have zone P-day, two weeks from now we have zone conference and then the next week we have zone meeting again. 

People

Christian is ninteen years old he has graduated from high shcool and is working two jobs to earn money for college. He has a little brother and his mom who are with him. Him and his family does not have a really religous background, we are teacahing the basics who God is, prayer, yah the basics. I love them so much we are going to teach them the restoration soon and set a baptismal date with them soon.

Paul and Tavia is a couple that we have been working with, they came to church this past sunday and seemed to love it. Paul has been taught the restoration many times and we are trying to teach his girlfriend the restoration. we are going to set a date with them and get them married. they have a new born.

Jose is another person that we are teaching he has been reading the book of mormon I mean really studying it using the cross references to the bible and asking a lot of questions. which is great but he is not getting the docterine that is in it. we are going to teach the plan of salvation and have him to pray about it.

We have more investigators and a lot of potentials but those are the only ones I have really got to know so far. we have been working with a lot of less actives too.

Another Week in Texas

Getting Transferred

this past friday we got a call from the zone leaders and they said that elder harrison my companion and me are both getting transferred and two brand new missionaries are coming in. 

 

Soon to Be Baptized

we have been teaching blake and he is doing great. he should be baptized this saturday or next one. while we have been teaching him. His dad who has been less active for 20 years is enjoying the lessons. he got ordained as a priest and the bishop is working with him so he can baptize his son. he loves coming to church and is striving for the temple.

 

Want to change

Another family were are teaching is the crowells and deforrest. one of them a few weeks ago jsut got out of jail and wnats a better life, they have been enjoying our visits. they are slowly progressing. they like what we teach so far. They are having a pretty hard time right know, they are trying to look for jobs.

 

Two Apostles and Faith

Apostolic Power

This past week has been good. We went to Houston to hear Elder ballard and Elder Nielson speak to the three houston missions. they sopkle to us about companionship unity and getting along with them. They told us a story about a blind missionary that was serving in Florida. Since he could not read, he had to share of what he has felt. He bore his testimony to all of his investigators. It does not matter how much you know until you show much you care for them. He relied on the Lord and had faith. Then on Sunday he sopke to the kingwood stake on sunday. It was really good. Then everyone got to shake his hand.

  

Lifelong Lessons

Getting Better

My finger is doing better, but the other day it was hurting alot more than it usually is. which I think it means that I am getting feeling back into my finger, which is a good sign. I am going to get the stitches out tomorrow so i am really excited about that so it can fully heal. President interviews were great. 

Exchanges

On every saturday night all the neighbourhood kids come to the church to play basketball it is just to keep them off the streets. Before we begin we start off with a prayer and share a spiritual message, then we play some basketball from seven to nine. We are working on if we can teach them personally and bring them to church. This past week we also had exchanges with some other elders in our district. I went to Livingston, it is also another big area, they have a truck and it is pretty hilly over there. It is north of our area.

 

Learning To Teach

We had zone meeting on friday in kingwood which was very good. we are going over the first lesson (restoration) in detail for each principle, so that we can become better teachers, our mission is the best finders but not a lot of those we find get baptized and we teach a lot of first lessons so we are going to get more better at teaching the first lesson. We see what inspired questions we can ask them, what analagies, picture aids, and scriptures, we can use, and what commtiments we can leave with our investigators. Our zone is focusing on four key idicators which are baptismal dates, sacrament meeting, new investigators, and member presents. In our zone we have about three districts. We are doing a competition between the districts where which ever districts gets at least two of the key indicatros they win for that week,. they get to have the texas flag that everyone signed in the zone. At the end of the month whatever district had the flag more wins the big prize, which they have not told us yet.

 

Investigators

We are doing pretty good here in cleveland. We are teching a part member less active family. we are teaching the nine year old Blake and we have set a date for him for febuary 2. His parents also came to church which was good. We are going to get a baptism and also with two reactivations.

 

We are teaching Crystal who is the wife of a member we have taught her the fisrt lesson and she has been coming to church which she seems to be liking it. we are hoping that we will set a date for her soon. This week we are going to be working very hard on part member and less actives in the ward. that is pretty much what happened for this week.  love you all

New Area

New Area

Hey I want to give you all an update on transfers. I am serving in Cleveland, Tx. Which covers a big area and it is also pretty crountry too. it covers cold springs and some other areas. My new companion is elder Harrison. He is a really great guy. He is in the marines. he has been out for a little bit more than a year know. Here is my address.

 

307 sleepy hollow Dr.  apt. 301

Cleveland, TX 77327

Hurt Finger and New Area

Hurt Finger

I attatched two pictures of my finger the day after it was stitched up. Yeah my finger is doing better, it is healing but the wound is still open. I am so glad that I did not brake any bones in the finger, it could of been a lot worse than it was. which i am very grateful for. 

 

Christmas Day

The rest of the day on christmas we just hanged out at our apartment and played monopoly. It has been really cold here lately in the 30's-50's. the cold down here is way different than up there. If it snowed here when it was cold it would be a lot different. That is so exciting that you guys get to go to Cancun. That would be a nice trip.

 

Baptisms!

Yeah I got to go to barbies baptism which was great. a member from Buna the castlemans picked us up from cleveland and drove us to Buna. When we got to Buna they took us to there house and fed us a huge meal. we had a whole box full of goodies. I might go back to Buna again for another baptism. Carrie and her son Josh is going to be baptized in the next few weeks. Which is really exciting. speaking of baptisms We had one here in Cleveland on Sunday it was really great. Alex got baptized and his parents who is not members came to church for sacrament meeting, sunday school, and his baptism. they did not go to priesthood or relief society becasue they  kind of did not like seperating. But they loved of what they saw and heard. during the baptism we watched the restoration movie and they felt the spirit was so strong. After the baptism the dad was tearing up when he left and the mom felt good. We are going to start to be teaching them soon.

 

Reactivation

Yesterday we taught a less active part memmber family, we are teaching the nine year old who wants to get baptized. While the kid is being taugth the parents are asking us questions too. Hopefully we can reactivate the family and get a baptism from it.

New Years 

we did not do that much for new years either. we saw some fireworks that were going off but not to many becasue it was raining. we played catan for awhile. we went to the faucetts to eat dinner. We have president interviews this week. I will pray about what I should do about going home a little bit early for school and I will talk to my mission presidnet. I dont know if i told you this but elder ballard is going to come down and speak to all the three missions and then on sunday he is going to be speaking to the kingwood stake which I am in know. So I get to hear from him twice.