August 26, 2013

"Week 3 ha"

Hey yall!!!

So this week has been pretty great! We were able to pick up some solid investigators this week! we have taught them this week about the first 2 lessons, The Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. They responded really well. Their names are Maddison and Jonathan. We were able to give them Book of Mormons and they have been reading them. We were so happy to hear that. They accepted the invitation to go to church and they were so excited to come. Sunday comes, and they don't show up. I was like, Are You Kidding Me!!! But we have appointments with them this week, so we will have to tell them that there is no excuse to miss church. Haha. I was able to give a blessing to this baby that I feel sorry for. The parents are not the best. The husband comes to pick us up, and you cant even see the bottom of the car floor because of all the Energy drink cans in the car. He smokes and just isn't all the way there. The mom just doesn't really take care of the house, and I'm not going to lie, me and my companion were really scared to eat dinner there that night. But we did and gave that baby a blessing. I hope he turns out okay.

I was able to go on my first exchange this week. I switched spots with another missionary for a day. So I went to a different area with a new companion. The guy I was with was pretty cool, and the area was not as awesome as ours though. But that day we were able to commit one of their investigators to quit drinking and to a baptism date. So that was pretty cool! But like I said it was only for a day, and i was happy because like i said, our are was a lot better.

I am in a biking area, and after not biking for a couple years, I am pretty sore. Our area is kinda big for a biking area and it takes a long time to get from one side to the other. But on Friday, we made that long trek to the other side of our area and had a lot of success. We taught 9 lessons that day and were able to pick up 5 investigators. So we have a lot of investigators now, the only problem is that they are not good at keeping commitments. Like we have this awesome family that we taught that day. They agree with everything, what we have taught has blessed their lives, and they just have a hard time reading and knowing that the Book of Mormon is true. But I just don't think that they are reading enough and praying about it. We gave them a week to read and they said that they would and they read a page in it. Like come  on. I know that this is new but only a page??? Frustrating stuff. But oh well.

On our P. Days, we have a zone activity. I am so happy cause our zone activity is playing basketball. One of the Zone Leaders actually is from Kaysville, Nantz is his last name, and he is really good. Our zone is really great. We have a lot of older missionaries in our zone, so we are pretty experienced, both in basketball and in the Work.

My companion Elder Vaoga, has a really cool conversion story. He was converted into the church at age 16. But he was into like drinking, smoking and all that stuff. He had a lot of those addictions and just had, what he thought, was a really good life. One day he was at a lake, and his best friend jumped off a cliff into that lake and his a rock and was killed. That week he asked God why this happened and if he was really there. 2 days later, some missionaries came to his house and talked to him. Not only did they answer his questions that he had, but he changed his life completely. He then converted his whole family into the church and is the first person in his family to serve a mission. He is the youngest of 11 kids. So he had been through a lot, and he is a really great missionary.

Just a heads up, I will be emailing all yall on Tuesday next week since it is labor day. The Library will be closed that day so it would be hard to email yall. I keep everyone of you in my prayers and I hope you guys have a great week! My scripture of the week is Mosiah 7:33. Check it out!

Elder O'Brien