Whoever is praying and fasting for me, thank you I needed it, and I hope you are blessed for your faith.
We went to the park to play basketball with the new elders in Santa Fe,
it was whitewashed. I was so psyched that I forgot my p-day shoes at
the apartment and I had to play in my proselyting shoes. It wasn't as
fun as playing in my p-day shoes but it was better than cleaning the
apartment again. We had dinner at the Noel's at 6 pm but it wasn't
served until 7 pm and we didn't get to leave until 8:30 pm, which is
something that we are working on, cutting dinners down to 1 hour instead
of 2 - 1/2 hours. We then received a text asking if we could help a
member move, we then dropped our dirty laundry off with Elder's Low and
Infanger. We found Elder Infanger in the Hot Tub, because his back was
hurting and he said he got permission from President Hobbs, but that
seems kinda out of character for him, but then again I don't know and
probably shouldn't jump to conclusions before I weigh all of the
evidence. Later in the apartment I received a talk from Elder
Chamberlain entitled "Who Cares".
We had district meeting, and in it I was actually paying attention to
what was being said. They were talking about how we should approach
studies and how we need to go find people and invite them to church. And
our district weekly actual left a lot to be desired only 8 % were
making it to church out of our 17. And we set the goal to hit our
district standard of excellence. We were told that we make or break the
mission in the first 4 hours of your day. We met with a less Active, Bro
Hickman, who told us the story of his marriage and how they worked it
out, he then told us that as we serve missions that he has seen his
sons, and the blessings that they have received that they wouldn't have
other wise if they hadn't gone on a mission. He then wished us
the best of luck that he could wish for us at that time, it was really
needed that day, he then told us that as a member he loves us as people
and as missionaries.
We went and tracted some more and we tracked into a guy named Arnold
who has recently gone blind due to a shotgun to his face, he was
interested, and told us to come back tomorrow. We then found another
Spanish family for the Spanish sister, we have already passed off 3
families to them and this family seemed super solid to us, so fingers
crossed. We then went to help the member move... out of a storage unit,
we were asking people while tracting if they wanted to come to church (our ward mates used this technique and got 3 potential families from it
in 1 day) and we got 1 person who said yes and she said that she liked
Mormons but that she was super busy so we would have to catch her whenever we could if we were to teach her. There was a JW pamphlet left on
her fence next to our card, she threw away the pamphlet and kept our
card (Do people throw our cards away?), we plan to see her in the near
future, for dinner. We had breakfast at the members home and we taught
about Prayer and Moroni. There was a moth flying around terrorizing the
family and I garbed it out of the air in mid flight and they were really
amazed by that because I caught it. Later outside I released it and
said "watch I'll summon the eagles Gandalf style" we got a good laugh
out of it.
We did service and taught less actives out of Elder Bednars talks.
We
weekly planned and rearranged the study room, we had a lesson with
Richard an investigator on the gospel of Jesus Christ and we got a
member there and he extended the commitment to come to church but was
then promptly rejected because Richard is a southern Baptist. Bro Casino
then bought us dinner, when we got back I had 15 minutes to pack for
exchanges.
We tracted, we taught, and we walked. We talked and had a good time. We
shared talks, our opinions, our feelings on Elder Bednar's talks and what
we felt from them, and we bore our testimony on them and on what was
taught.
Ward Counsel was today and it was great we actually had the auxiliaries
interested in who we were teaching and how THEY could help, it was
awesome we need more meetings like that. We got Arnold his tapes of the
Book of Mormon and in testimony meeting we had 2 investigators (1 was one
that had dropped us and only came because he felt loved here instead of
the ward he's in at Apple Valley) go up and bear their testimonies
and SING over the pulpit, and one didn't want us to teach him so the
other missionaries have to teach him now. Elder Chamberlain said "that
it is similar to being dumped by your girlfriend and she goes out with
your best friend." We later got dropped by more investigators and we are
really tired of it, why don't we do what J. golden Kimbell said " BURN
IT ALL UP AND DO BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD" I mean the summer should do most
of it for us, but when we would die we would have to do it then, so we
procrastinated instead of saved.
We did service for a member here who served in Holland, and we were
shoveling compost, and he commented that he could tell I was dutch
because I was able to shovel and dig, he then asked jokingly that if I
ever worked on a dyke.
We went to the temple here in Redlands, and it was awesome. We got
there early so we did initiatories, and there were so many elders there
that we had to go do sealing, and it was very emotional. I am not a
crier but I cried, it was touching, and it was hard not to cry. We later
went into the Celestial room and I thought I was out of tears but
apparently not, I cried some more.
I love you all,
from a servant of the lord,
Elder Van Engelenhoven
Elder Ammon Van Engelenhoven and Elder Chamberlain
After the Temple with Elder Ogbonna
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