Miracle story o'the week

Dear everyone,

WELL! It's been a week! Like every week. Holy cow.

To get to the most important stuff first: This Sunday is going to 100% insane for us too. In addition to Mother's Day, it's the day before transfers, which means we as Zone Leaders get to drive one (1) missionary to the mission home so he can go home the next day. You'd think that wouldn't take too long, but because we have a pickup, we're also picking up two other missionaries' luggage and taking that up to the mission home as well, so we're literally going to be busy until probably like 7:15 or 7:30 our time, so that's probs when we'll be skypeing it up.

 

So interesting fact about Zone Conference: We actually didn't have to do anything except set up and attend. The trainings are done by the Mission President and the Assistants. But we did have to set up and that was a little stressful, especially because we had to call up one of the Bishops to unlock a closet last-minute so that we could get the key that lowers the projector screen in the gym. So that was fun. That was probably the most stressful thing. Also, we went to another one of the Zone Conferences to inspect cars (there are three Zone Conferences, 3 zones each), so that was kinda fun. At our Zone Conference our car won second most clean. Yay? Well so the thing is that everyone went to the car wash before Zone Conferences. It's a competition every Zone Conference to see who can get the cleanest car. We waxed it, shined the tires, and all that good stuff.

So we don't do anything except the usual like contributing at district meetings, but we plan and teach at a monthly zone meeting, and set up other events. So yeah, we're mostly just problem solvers.

Aside from Zone Conferences, this week was pretty cool. Miracle story o'the week: We had an appointment with this less active, so we went to his house to teach him. Turns out he's living with some friends of his from work. So anyways his English isn't that great (he's from Liberia originally), so when I asked if he was sharing with his friends (as in, the apartment), he I guess interpreted it as me asking if we could share the lesson with his friends. So he went and invited them and they totally came and we totally taught them about the restoration and it was great! They understood it really well, and we have a return appointment.

There were some stressful zone leader things going on, which was not great. but things seem to be resolved for now. We went on a lot of exchanges with some cool people, which was fun, including the Assistants on Saturday. Pretty funny--I stayed here in our ward with one of the APs and we had a lesson with this less-active who's kinda funny, and she told the AP how it really was, it was pretty hilarious. Lolz.

Anyways, that was the week! Transfers coming up, we'll see what happens! Scary. I'm hoping I get put back in Spanish, but I have no idea what'll happen.

See you soon!

Love,

Peter

Running the risk of sounding trunky

Well, it sounds like it's been a pretty interesting week for you. It's been really interesting for us as well. Like really interesting. Details will follow :).

With the whole "youth really don't know what missionaries do," it's totally true. I mean, to be completely honest, I had no idea what the missionaries did at home. Literally the only things you'd learn is the crazy stories in the church magazines or stories people tell you about from their mission. I don't necessarily think it's a huge problem (you figure it out pretty fast), but the best remedy to that would be having the youth go out with the missionaries, which we as missionaries like a lot, by the way.

So! This week! We had some interesting adventures, that's for sure. The beginning of the week was pretty boring, honestly. Meetings, tracting, meh. Things started to pick up on Friday, when just before going to dinner, we met this African dude who's apparently a pastor in Cameroon. He wanted to pray for us, so he grabbed our hands and like shout-prayed. We went back to teach him on Saturday and he just talked at us for like 40 minutes. Then we shared a 30-second Restoration and his son who was sitting there understood all of it, so that was awesome. 

Also on Friday we went out with a member to some really flaky appointments, but they actually both went through, which was very exciting. On Saturday, though, was when the most excitement came in. We were on exchanges, and at about 4:30, I got a call from another set of elders who were also on exchanges, saying they wanted to chat. So they came over after dinner, and we chatted. I guess they'd caught their companions breaking some mission rules, and were seriously concerned about what to do. So we talked it out for about an hour, and they decided they were going to call president. So they did, and then president called us. We're still not exactly sure what's going to happen, but it's no bueno. It's kind of funny--sometimes I feel really bad about myself because I'm not always the most focused, or I don't do all 30 minutes of exercise in the morning. And then I hear about other missionaries and I don't feel so bad about myself :).

And then on Sunday we ate some hot sauce that was incredibly painful to eat. It was seriously bad. Apparently it was 4 million SHU which I guess is how they measure hotness, and the hottest chile in the world is like 1.5 million SHU.

So it was just a crazy week. We have zone conference this week, which should be cool. Other than that, nothing too crazy planned. So, yeah.

I'm glad it was a good week! Sounds like the Utah trip was enjoyed by all. Running the risk of sounding trunky, I am definitely looking forward to seeing the extended family this summer.

Things are going well here. I've definitely been fortunate for the past few transfers, in having really solid companions. I'm really liking this area, but I'd also like to go back to Spanish before the end of my mission. We'll see what happens in a couple of weeks.

Love,Peter

P.s. The picture is of a baptism I went to on Sunday. It was an 8-year-old son of a less-active family I worked a lot with in my previous area.

Yay!

Thanks for the update on everyone's week. It sounds like there's been a lot of cool stuff going on, and that everyone's been busy. Lots of excitement, I'm sure.

Here in Colorado, things have been pretty interesting this last week. I think probably something weird or cool happened literally every day this week:

Monday: We had to orchestrate an emergency transfer (I think I told you about that) It ended up being a lot less complicated than it was going to be, so that's fun. Hopefully all the parties involved are happier now. Also, I bought a portable digital voice recorder that I've been using as a journal lately. I can get a lot more motivated to just talk into a voice recorder for a couple minutes about how the day went than I can to write in a journal. So that's been fun!

 

Tuesday: Not too crazy, but cool. We had a lesson with an investigator, and he'd been pretty closed off to having members come with us, but we brought one and they hit it off really well. Yay!

 

Wednesday: Temple Trip! That was super great! Also we went to a district meeting, and one of the companionships had brought one of their investigators to the district meeting, so that we could answer her questions. The question my companion and I drew was "Why haven't we had contact with aliens?" So yeah we totes answered that from the scriptures.

 

Thursday: We taught a lesson in Spanish! That was a lot of fun, we just got let in trying a potential investigator and so we taught in Spanish! Yay!

 

Friday: We got let in by another potential (This doesn't happen very often) and we taught them and they seem interested! Yay!

 

Saturday: We were literally doing finding the entire day. No appointments. Yay.

 

Sunday: We had a linger longer with the ward, so that was a lot of fun! Also finding the entire day with no appointments.

 

So yeah that was the week! Lots of cool stuff. I love being a missionary, it's pretty great.

Love,

Peter

My companion sent me some pictures!

Well, it has definitely been a very interesting week, we'll say that! It's been good, and a little bit crazy, but that's basically the norm around here. I certainly hope we don't get any snow around here, but yeah it's definitely possible. You never know here.

I'm excited to hear what the Oregon Portland Mission STLs have to say! You'll have to hurry up and get that to me before email time is up :). For the record, our first step was to ask our zone's STLs. I was just curious what others thought :).

Like I said, it's been a kind of crazy week. Lots of craziness with the zone:

1. On Friday, just before we started our weekly planning session, we got a call from some sisters telling us that they needed us to go pick up a new phone for them. So we called the mission office and found out that we could literally only get it from there that day at that time, so we had to go all the way to the mission office, about 45 minutes away, to get the phone, and then come back and set it up for the sisters. So that took a while. Those are the things you don't really expect to spend your time doing as a missionary :). But it's okay. We're definitely lucky our mission is so tiny, too.

2. Everything was going pretty well this week until last night at 10:00 p.m., when we got a call from one of the district leaders telling us that some of the elders in their district needed help. So the district leader went out at 10:10 p.m. to pick up the elder.

With our ward mission leader

Some cooler things with our ward, much happier news:

1. We met this guy last Sunday between General Conference sessions, and he is super cool. We haven't even been able to teach him yet, because he's been sick (he's going through chemo), but he is just super awesome. He had a copy of the Book of Mormon from a while back, and he's reading it while he lies in bed recuperating! Who does that? He's already almost done with 2 Nephi!

 

2. We were walking around on Saturday night, going to try a potential investigator, when we randomly started talking to this guy in a parking lot. Turns out, he'd been investigating in a different ward that my companion served in previously, and almost got baptized, but lost contact with the church when he moved. But he wants to come back to church and was super grateful to us for talking to him, which was just a really cool experience. Sometimes, all you have to do is open your mouth, and the rest just follows.

 

We're looking forward to a temple trip this Wednesday, which should be great, and we're going to have a great week!

I hope all the exciting things go according to plan this week for you.

Love,

Peter

Well! Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend, because we sure did. I hope you also enjoyed general conference, because it was pretty awesome as well.

 

Favorites from General Conference - I especially liked a couple of talks:

Bishop Causse's talk about the wonder of the gospel

Elder Pino's talk about having an eternal perspective,

President Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood session about not being "artificial disciples".

Obviously all the talks were great, and it was awesome to see that President Monson's still got a lot of energy, but those were probably my favorites.

Fun--we watched conference at the church building where all the Spanish members meet, so whenever there was a talk in Spanish, we'd run over from the English room to the Spanish room to hear it. It was pretty great. And for Priesthood session, our ward has a tradition that we should definitely implement in the Oak Hills Ward. An hour before conference, we went as a ward to 5 Guys and all got burgers there, and then went over to the church to watch General Conference. So that was a lot of fun.

For us, it was kind of a crazy week. In addition to General Conference, we also had a day-long meeting at the north end of the mission on Friday, which was good, but long. We talked about such things as how to involve the Sister Training Leaders more (maybe you could ask the sisters in Oak Hills about that, we're kind of struggling here), and whether or not missionaries should be allowed to have lunch together as a district. So you know, lots of excitement.

Other than meetings, we had a lot of appointments cancel, which wasn't super happy, but that's kind of how it is. One really cool experience, though: between sessions of General Conference on Sunday, we went out tracting. I was pretty apprehensive, because it was Easter and all that, but we went out and worked anyways. And we found this really awesome old guy! He's had friends who are members, has a Book of Mormon that he wants to read more of (even though he's never met with missionaries), and he wants to come to church! So Heavenly Father definitely blesses us when we show faith in Him, that's for sure.

Love!

Peter!

We had a lot of fun and worked a lot.

Dear everyone,

First of all, our housing coordinator has also been complaining a lot about all the couches that missionaries pick up from members. So it's a worldwide problem, probably. Here's something you could ask the elders that I'd like to know: do most missionaries in the Oregon Portland Mission live in apartments, or with members? Here, it's mostly with members.

So it's been a pretty great week. Like you said, kind of crazy with having two companions going home, but honestly, it wasn't that weird, because they acted pretty much the same. We talked a little bit more about what their plans were at home, but we worked just as much, if not even a bit harder. Really solid missionaries. There were a couple things, like we went to our Ward Mission Leader's house Saturday night before our transfer meeting to say goodbye, and the Bishop invited us over to have ice cream, but other than that, it was pretty standard. We had a family from the Denver 4th ward invite us over Saturday night for dinner--we had carne asada, and it was really good.

With the 3 companions thing, yeah, the guy that joined us midway through the transfer sat in the back seat the whole time mostly. He was okay with it though.

Not a whole ton to report in terms of the missionary work--things are still a bit slow. One cool thing, though: We were able to get in contact with a less active that we haven't seen in forever on Sunday (I may have told you about that last week) so we met with her again on Saturday, and she had a really neat experience--she was reading the Book of Mormon on the bus, and she felt like the bus trip took way longer that it usually does, so she had time to read a lot more! She described it like she had her own personal "time zone" where time took longer! It was pretty cool.

Another cool thing: We went on splits on Thursday night--I went with a ward member to try potential elders, and the other elders went and taught a part-member family. I honestly wasn't expecting much to come out of trying the Potential Elders, but the first one we tried let us in, and we talked for about 45 minutes. He's a really cool guy. He joined the church about 6 years ago, but had some problems and left. He's going to some nondenominational churches right now. But he told us that the churches that he's going to just don't feel the same as when he was going to the LDS church, and that he wants to come back, he just has some doubts. Really cool thing: he said he hadn't had contact with missionaries in years, but that that morning, he'd been talking to some lady he met on the street who was LDS, and who told him he needed to talk to the missionaries. Then we knocked his door! Pretty awesome. So that was a really cool experience.

I guess there was more to talk about than I thought.

Transfers came, of course! I'm still here. My companion is also Spanish speaking and came out the transfer after I did. He's a great guy. So it's going to be a great transfer, I'm excited.

I hope everything goes great! I love you all!

Love,

Peter

Excerpt to a brother: 

...anyhoo, things went really well last week. Even with the triple companion action and zone leader thing and with being a missionary. We had a lot of fun and worked a lot. Pretty crazy. And now I have a new companion, who's great as well.

Imma just go ahead and talk a little bit about what it means that I am a zone leader or what it means I do:

-We go to loads of meetings. We go to all three districts' district meetings, we have a zone leadership meeting every week, and every month we have a 6-hour long mission leadership meeting called MLC. Try to guess what it stands for.

-We try to help missionaries if there are weird situations going on. For example, there was a companionship who had a missionary who had to stay inside for a while, so we went on exchanges with his companion so he could get out. 

-We give permission for things like: going outside the zone, calling people outside the zone, kissing girls, things like that (jk obvs on the kissing)

-We report a lot of things to the mission president and the assistants to the president.

Anyways that's basically what we do. It's fun. Lots of work though.

Anyways Love Peter

Trust that his plan is better than our plan

Hey!

It really does seem like you're having tons of opportunities to hear music. That's good! I haven't had any really in the last year and a half, so you know, feel lucky :).

Brother Nees! He's a cool guy. I'm glad he made it out to the concerts, it seems like he's always very supportive of the youth, which is cool.

Good luck with the home teaching thing. Don't give up on the guy. As a "regular member", you definitely have a perspective and opportunity that the full-time missionaries don't.

Things here are going great. Something kinda weird is that for the next week I'm in a trio with another elder whose companion is a little down for the count after breaking his hand. The other trio's doing well--they all get along pretty great so there's no problem there. And the guy with the broken hand has actually healed up pretty quickly after having surgery last week, so they've been able to work.

My companions are from Arlington, TX and from Virginia.

WELL! It's been quite the week! There has definitely been some craziness going on, but it's been good.

Big things that have happened:

1. Well so if you remember how there was that companionship that was having to stay in because one of them had broken his hand, well along with President Mendenhall we made a plan, so he went with the other set of missionaries in his ward, and his companion came with us! So now I have another companion. He actually also goes home at the end of this week. So that's gonna be really interesting. It's great though, these two elders are really hardworking and aren't getting trunky at all. And it's really fun being in a trio. And it definitely makes it easier getting into sisters' houses, which is a plus. We actually were tracting this week and we just knocked into this lady who was single, but really interested, and willing to let us in, and because there's three of us, we could go on in and teach her. That was really cool.

2. We had stake conference! That was pretty great. We have a really cool stake president, and he set it up really well. The temple president and matron came and gave talks, which was really cool. I really liked the stake president's talk, though. He talked about our personal life plans, and how we all have this perfect plan for how our life's going to go. Sadly, though, most of the time life doesn't actually go according to plan. So, we have to have enough faith in God to trust that his plan is better than our plan. Case in point: definitely wasn't planning on getting a second companion this transfer, but it turns out to be a great blessing. So that was a great talk.

3. We had Zone Meeting, which is like a 3-hour-long training meeting with the whole zone. It was really cool--my first zone meeting as a zone leader, and it was neat. We gave a joint training on planning for lessons during companionship study, and it went really well. As always, there were some people who were a little cynical about things, but all in all, people received it very well, and it was great.

Aside from the major events, we're doing a lot of work! Lots of finding, because we don't really have too many investigators right now, but that's okay. We were able to get in touch with a less-active member we've kind of fallen away from, and she was really grateful to see us and to have us teach her.

Love,

Peter