A Year, A Transfer, And The Lord's Miracles 8-29-16

HOLY COW! This week was pretty awesome. I will tell you, all about it later. We have Transfer Calls Monday morning and then Transfers on Wednesday. I for sure will be going to pick up a new companion so we can get back to doing the normal missionary work. I will tell you at the end what happens since we haven’t received the Transfer Call yet.

Monday started out like a normal day and then out of nowhere I got a call in the morning from some random guy named Peter. He told me he wanted to learn about the church and eventually get baptized. We met him that evening and taught him the Restoration. He had a super cool story of how he had gotten to this point. He said he was in a “reading mood” and the way he was talking, it sounded like he might have the whole Book of Mormon read by our next appointment, which is next Monday night. So he was super awesome. Then at lunch I got another call from another random guy named Jason. He was also interested in learning and joining the church. We were supposed to meet with him a couple times this last week, but every time we got stood up, which was unfortunate. And then later that evening around 5:30, I got another call from a guy named Andrew who said he wanted to come see what the church was about. All of these guys called during P-day. It was great. Other than that, we just hung out with the other Elders in the District. Some other missionaries in another District came to tour downtown so we hung out with them for like an hour.

Tuesday we did some service by helping people get some apartments ready for refugees to move into. Then we just tried to see some people throughout the day.

Wednesday we had District Meeting. We also got Elder Leahman back. Afterwards we had a lesson with Dean and we went through the baptismal interview questions because he wanted to know what he needed to do to be baptized. He is praying himself to know what day he should baptized on. Then we saw Jacqueline and Letia and we read some of the Book of Mormon with them. Later we met with Travis and we tried to help him figure out how he can get his work schedule changed so he can come to church.

Thursday we had lunch at a member’s home with Jacqueline and it was really good. Then we went up into the Hixson area and did some contacting and had a lesson with one of their investigators.

Friday was my 1 year mark. In celebration, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. That was fun – I’ve never been there before. We then went and tried contacting people some more. Later that evening, the Hixson Ward and another Ward had a softball game and we went and played a little. It was really fun. I had some sweet plays too.

Saturday we went out as Branch Leadership and invited a bunch of the less-active members to come back to church. It was pretty successful. Then we went and we had another lesson with Jacqueline and her kids. All of the kids that are 8 or older have accepted to be baptized as well. It is really awesome! The Lord has been pouring out blessings upon this area like crazy and it is awesome. Later that evening, we walked around downtown and on The Walking Bridge.

Sunday was a good day at church. We had 8 investigators at church. We were expecting around 15, but 8 is still good. In the family branch we had a total attendance of 107. When I first got here we only had around 60. So things are going really well in the branch. Can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for this area. We had dinner with the Elders Quorum President and some of their friends. They have a really nice view at their home. Well, not quite as good as a mountain could give you, but still good. It's funny. All the people out here call their hills, mountains and my companions, who are from Utah, and I look at each other and start to laugh. They haven't seen nothing!

So we got transfer calls this morning and I am staying obviously, but will also be “training.” I will be getting a new missionary. Should be fun. Pretty nervous about it, but I know we will do great things. I get to meet him Wednesday morning at Tranfers. Hope everyone has a great week and a fun Labor Day weekend. Until next time.

Elder Ellison