We have had some crazy stuff going around here lately. We just found out that my companion, Elder
Porter, is getting an Emergency Transfer. The reason being is because we cover a Young
Single Adult branch and since he has been here awhile, he has started to flirt
with some of the girls. It was getting out
of hand so I told the Mission President about it and he is moving E. Porter
out. I'm just kidding. He is getting moved out, but that is not the
reason. An Elder in a different area is
going home early and so E. Porter is going to take his place. I will not be getting another companion in
this area until the next transfer. I am
getting put in a trio with the Zone Leaders and we will be covering two areas. Sound familiar? Yep, I get to do it again haha. So we will make the switch Tuesday morning - should
be an interesting 4 weeks. Other than
that, not much is going on. Lucky for me it wasn't as hot this last week and it
even rained a little, which cooled things off occasionally.
Monday we had P-day and we just played a bunch of games with the other missionaries. Later we went tracting and found a couple potential investigators.
Tuesday we tracted in the morning and talked to a lady named Dorris. She seemed pretty interested and so we left her with a pamphlet and set up a return appointment. We then went and found a referral who is not active. Her mom referred us to go over there and give her a blessing. We had a pretty good discussion with her too. Later we contacted another referral named Travis. We shared the Restoration with him. The cool thing was that he called us and asked when we were coming over. So that was pretty good. We then went and saw some less-active members that were nearby.
Wednesday we had District Meeting. Then we did some tracting later. We helped a sister in the Branch move later that evening and one of our investigators was there helping too, which was cool. It was super hot that day so we were all dripping sweat by the end.
Thursday we visited a couple investigators, but nothing happened so we tracted for a while. While tracting a lady, pretty sure she was drunk, came up to us and said, "I know those are your bikes down there. Are they? I need to have one. Can you give me one?" We told her that we couldn't do that and our church won't allow us to either. Then she said, "Well, where is your church so I can go get a bike?" We told her the general location of, "it's downtown." She then told us that she was going to go over there and get a bike. So that was an experience. It is almost like the cruise I went on down here because I have seen numerous people drinking alcohol at 10 in the morning. It's crazy! Well anyways, later we had a dinner with a member family and there was an investigator there. We had an awesome discussion on the Book of Mormon. He has been reading and taking notes on the Book of Mormon all on his own. It is awesome!
Friday we weekly planned. Then later we met with Dorris again. She read some of the pamphlet and we shared a little more of the Restoration. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She had a question about where we go after this life. So we gave her Alma 40 to read to answer that question. We then went out with a member and were only able to visit one less-active family. Everyone we tried either wasn't home or had decided they weren't interested anymore. Well that's the mission life. That night I had the opportunity to call some of the missionaries in the Nashville mission, which was cool. I didn't know the missionary personally, but we had an investigator call us and tell us he wanted to learn more about the church. He wanted the missionaries to be there as soon as possible, but he is in their area so we referred him to them.
Saturday we went out with a member and we just tried to find a lot of less-active members on his home teaching list. We tried some of our investigators also, but unfortunately nothing happened. We then visited some less-active members and had a good discussion with them. It was kind of needed, not only for them, but a little bit for us too. Later we had a lesson with a guy named Tyrell. We were going to share the Restoration message, but as we started, he shared some of his story. The whole time I was just thinking, "Give him the Book of Mormon to read." So we talked and then gave him one. So that was pretty good.
Sunday we had church all day again. I gave a talk in the YSA branch. It was on Elder Bednar's talk last conference about always retaining a remission of your sins. It went well. After church we went out with a member to some of our appointments. They weren't available at the time. So, because it was a teenage boy that took us, we went tracting with him. No success that day though.
So this last week we showed a lot of people a 2 minute video of President Monson talking on gratitude. In it he says that we should always pray and express our gratitude, and when we do so, it helps us to see even more blessings in our lives than usual. We always focus on the bigger blessings, but do we notice the small ones as much? There was a girl in my seminary class one time that said she would write down 3 blessings a night. She noticed after a couple months of doing so, that she was thinking of things that she never thought she would think to be a blessing. We have things in our lives that we take for granted. We have so many blessings in our lives because our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants to bless us. We should all work on being more genuine in our prayers to our Heavenly Father and expressing exactly what we are thankful for in our lives. When He sees that we truly are grateful for the things we have been given, He will bless us with more. I know these things to be true and that gratitude is an amazing gift we all can feel. I close these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder Ellison
Monday we had P-day and we just played a bunch of games with the other missionaries. Later we went tracting and found a couple potential investigators.
Tuesday we tracted in the morning and talked to a lady named Dorris. She seemed pretty interested and so we left her with a pamphlet and set up a return appointment. We then went and found a referral who is not active. Her mom referred us to go over there and give her a blessing. We had a pretty good discussion with her too. Later we contacted another referral named Travis. We shared the Restoration with him. The cool thing was that he called us and asked when we were coming over. So that was pretty good. We then went and saw some less-active members that were nearby.
Wednesday we had District Meeting. Then we did some tracting later. We helped a sister in the Branch move later that evening and one of our investigators was there helping too, which was cool. It was super hot that day so we were all dripping sweat by the end.
Thursday we visited a couple investigators, but nothing happened so we tracted for a while. While tracting a lady, pretty sure she was drunk, came up to us and said, "I know those are your bikes down there. Are they? I need to have one. Can you give me one?" We told her that we couldn't do that and our church won't allow us to either. Then she said, "Well, where is your church so I can go get a bike?" We told her the general location of, "it's downtown." She then told us that she was going to go over there and get a bike. So that was an experience. It is almost like the cruise I went on down here because I have seen numerous people drinking alcohol at 10 in the morning. It's crazy! Well anyways, later we had a dinner with a member family and there was an investigator there. We had an awesome discussion on the Book of Mormon. He has been reading and taking notes on the Book of Mormon all on his own. It is awesome!
Friday we weekly planned. Then later we met with Dorris again. She read some of the pamphlet and we shared a little more of the Restoration. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She had a question about where we go after this life. So we gave her Alma 40 to read to answer that question. We then went out with a member and were only able to visit one less-active family. Everyone we tried either wasn't home or had decided they weren't interested anymore. Well that's the mission life. That night I had the opportunity to call some of the missionaries in the Nashville mission, which was cool. I didn't know the missionary personally, but we had an investigator call us and tell us he wanted to learn more about the church. He wanted the missionaries to be there as soon as possible, but he is in their area so we referred him to them.
Saturday we went out with a member and we just tried to find a lot of less-active members on his home teaching list. We tried some of our investigators also, but unfortunately nothing happened. We then visited some less-active members and had a good discussion with them. It was kind of needed, not only for them, but a little bit for us too. Later we had a lesson with a guy named Tyrell. We were going to share the Restoration message, but as we started, he shared some of his story. The whole time I was just thinking, "Give him the Book of Mormon to read." So we talked and then gave him one. So that was pretty good.
Sunday we had church all day again. I gave a talk in the YSA branch. It was on Elder Bednar's talk last conference about always retaining a remission of your sins. It went well. After church we went out with a member to some of our appointments. They weren't available at the time. So, because it was a teenage boy that took us, we went tracting with him. No success that day though.
So this last week we showed a lot of people a 2 minute video of President Monson talking on gratitude. In it he says that we should always pray and express our gratitude, and when we do so, it helps us to see even more blessings in our lives than usual. We always focus on the bigger blessings, but do we notice the small ones as much? There was a girl in my seminary class one time that said she would write down 3 blessings a night. She noticed after a couple months of doing so, that she was thinking of things that she never thought she would think to be a blessing. We have things in our lives that we take for granted. We have so many blessings in our lives because our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants to bless us. We should all work on being more genuine in our prayers to our Heavenly Father and expressing exactly what we are thankful for in our lives. When He sees that we truly are grateful for the things we have been given, He will bless us with more. I know these things to be true and that gratitude is an amazing gift we all can feel. I close these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder Ellison
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