October 20,2014

"Gathering of Israel, to Almost having a Quad"

Hey Y'all!

Man this week was awesome! So to start off, we had Elder Cardon of the Seventy come and we had a mission conference with him. He talked to us a lot but 2 things that he really focused on that stood out to me was the Gathering of Israel and how important it is to have the Head of the Household say the closing prayer at the end of the first lesson. So the reason why the Gathering of Israel stood out to me was because he read a series of scriptures in 1 Nephi 22 about how there will be a scattering and then there will be a gathering. And in verse 10 he told us we are the arm of God and that we are helping to gather the people back. I thought that was really neat. I also thought that is was really cool how Elder Cardon focused on the closing prayer as well. He did a roleplay on how it should be like and it was really bold too. He asked the family to re-arrange the furniture into a circle and sat next to the parents. I've never done that before on my mission. But he did it so that they were right next to the parents so that when the head of the household was going to give the closing prayer, they were right next to them the whole time and were able to help them. I thought that was really cool how all that worked out. It's like Elder Cardon knows a few things about missionary work. I was able to see a lot of missionaries I've served around in the past! I also left my bike pump down in Hewitt, so I was glad that I was able to get that back! 

So for this week we were able to have a really successful week. We ran into a part member family this week and it was so inspired that we went over there! We were biking that day and our dinner had just cancelled at like 4:30 and we were pretty bummed about that. So we decided to still go see this family and we went over and they let us right it. They are really awesome! The wife is a member and the husband isn't. She just got back into church a couple years ago and is a strong member already! He is really a cool guy and I think that the only hold up for he is that he hasn't had anyone or anything spark an interest in him yet. But the potential is there for him. They have family home evening, family prayer, and he leads it! It's really cool to see that! He recently quit smoking and that is a really cool story that he told us! So we are planning on talking to the Elders Quorum president about getting some really solid home teachers for them, ones that actually go visit. Because if we can spark an interest in him, I know he'll get baptized. He's been to church and everything. Just a spark of interest is what we are going to be trying to do these next couple weeks with him. We were also able to meet with another family for dinner last night. They are kinda hard to eat with because they usually eat dinner at 7, and we need to be done eating by 6 o'clock. So that doesn't work out with us really well. However, we were talking with them and said that if they were to bring a non-member into their home for dinner, we can eat at 7 with them and share a message with him after. So they said that they would do that and to plan on 7 in 2 weeks. We are excited to start going over there and teach him.

One other thing that I thought was funny happened as well. So we went on an exchange with our District Leader and I went down into Joshua, which is right below Burleson. So we were tracting a street and we got inside a house and these people were really friendly with us, but just weren't interested at all. They had a Quad that was given to them. (A Quad is the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other Scripture all in one book instead of 4 different ones.) So they told us to take because they don't want it and that "someone else could use it." So we left with the Quad and I was like sweet! I've never had a Quad before so I was planning on keeping because I looked in Isaiah and Revelation, and it was marked up with cross references and everything. So I wanted to go study that. However, there's that saying don't could the chickens before the eggs hatch or something like that. So we knock on a house a few doors down and we start to teach a lesson with this family. Then the mom said that they had just moved in to the house and that all their stuff was in a storage unit down in Houston and they didn't have the money to go get it. The reason why she brought this up was because her Bible was in that storage unit and we were talking about prophets. So as soon as she said that, I looked at the Quad and said to myself, I already have the scriptures and they need it. So I gave it to them to have. I thought that it was really cool though how that lady who gave it to us said that someone else needed it, and that someone else lived right down the road. It was really cool.

Last week for P Day we decided to go bowling and it was really fun. I bowled 227...in 2 games. However, the second game was the better of the 2, as usual. This week we don't know what we are going to do. We might stop by JCPenny's and look at the clearance rack for ties. Always on the lookout for some good looking ties. Thanks for all you emails this week! I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien