Missionary Moving Club

Dear Family,

This past couple of days have been nothing but crazy. We have been running/biking/walking/sprinting/begging for rides to take us to our appointments because we were so busy. Our day started like any other day Monday...

Monday. We had a weird day since all of the Elders are on bike except for the ZL'S. They have a truck (someday after the mission I will have a truck...That is not PINK (Seth and Abigail.)) So we have a p-day car, meaning that we steal the car from the sisters for Monday and drive around for the day, but we have to wash the car, which stinks because we have no money for p-day, well everyone else but me. I find it funny that I am among the few elders that are Thrifty with their money. Elder Low, my companion said, "I didn't know that going to the celestial kingdom was dependent upon how much is in your MSF" we had an awesome laugh over that. We then went to an appointment after p-day, which we only got to set up another appointment.

Tuesday. We had zone conference that day, we had to bike and it is not fun to bike there, get all hot and sweaty and then put on a suit coat. We are crammed into a 15x30 foot room, man I was sweating like crazy, and during the break, I went out to the couch and slept for 15 minutes before it started back up. Now some background information, I woke up the night before and had a feeling that I needed to open a fast and I was up for about 2 hours debating if I should or if I shouldn't. I then got up and opened a fast, and fell asleep in minutes after I closed it. So during the entire the next day I was fasting, and it was rough a little, for lunch the mission president bought us all, all-you-can-eat tacos, it was rough having to say "No." (My reasoning behind why it was rough was because there was a Latino making them, now if they make them they are AWESOME but when a white guy makes them it doesn't have the same taste.) After we finished with the zone conference we had a lesson with some investigators that have a baptismal date, and it went well with them. We invited them to church on Sunday. Right after that had a lesson with another investigator, which was awesome; we had to skip dinner in between the lessons to continue to meet with our investigators.

Wednesday. we called some recent converts, who are ward missionaries, who we had a lesson with to move our time to later in that day but he was just like "Could you still come at 3 pm I have my friend Bill on over at that time and he has some questions for you guys?" When I heard that I was just like "YESSSSSSS, WARD MISSIONARIES DOING MISSIONARY WORK, YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So we met with them at that time and we moved around our schedule to make it work. We got to eat dinner that day, the week previous we weren't able to go and teach and get fed; so we got to go home and eat. Right after we have our Scripture Study Class at the church, and we were going through the Book of Mormon explaining about what is being said, and we read 2 Nephi 28 which talks about false churches and their many avenues of attack and approach. We left them with 2 Nephi 29 to read in preparation for next week, and we had to stay with the missionaries in another ward at the church until their ride got there. (We had to lock up the building.)

Thursday. We gave service for some members that were moving and we helped them move from 9 to 1 pm then we had a lesson with a Less Active over Doctrine and Covenants 138:47-48, temples and sealings. After, we visited some people but they weren't there so nothing happened.

Friday...SERVICE FROM 10 TO 4 for the members that are moving. (They were supposed to be gone about 1 week ago, and they haven't because the mom want to bring every scrap of paper, everything in the house, and not leave anything.) It got to the point that the dad was like "16 boxes of Romance novels, BURN 'EM!" After that we had a lesson with our investigators with Baptismal dates, in which we had a church tour and explain everything that we do in the church. We ended at the Baptismal Font, and the spirit was there, they were on the verge of crying at that point. No sooner than when they left, our Recent Converts from earlier came to the church. We had a lesson on Genealogy and we set them up with a family search account. They were happy, because they had a baby die before they came to Church and they found out a little more on the processes in how they are sealed together as a family for forever, and we got them excited for that. Then we went and had dinner and we were supposed to weekly plan from 10-2 pm but that didn't happen so we planned to do it later in the day but it didn't happen. When we finished dinner, we went to bed at 9 pm and we planned the next day in the morning, and we didn't even get changed because we were so tired.

Saturday. We had a lesson at 10 in the morning on the opposite side of our area, and it is a 2 mile bike ride uphill with an 4-5 mph head wind. We got there 5-10 minutes after the set time and we taught the restoration, and there after we had some investigators that wanted to go to a baptism that some other Elders in our zone were having so we had to bike there, and explain what is going on. After that we had lunch and we were still so tired that we fell asleep during lunch, and weren't able to get to weekly planning. When we woke up, we discovered that we had an appointment in the middle of our area in 15 minutes, but they weren't there so we stopped by some other people and they weren't home. Guess what happened after, we were called by the members that were moving, asking us to come and help. We showed up and helped, and I hate to think of all of the boxes of books, of Romance novels, that we threw away.

 Now I feel a rant coming on so I am going to rant here so you can take a nap for this part. Romance novels do nothing but arouse emotions that are powerful, emotions that ARE reserved for your spouse only. If anyone reads such things I would ask you to let it go, they arouse those powerful emotions that mean something to both God, your spouse (Future Spouse), and TOO YOURSELF. You sell them for something of naught, they become meaningless, worthless and you CHEAT yourself, when you read Romance novels. Personally, I think that if you read a romance novel you are breaking the Law of Chasity. How can you keep yourself clean spiritually, mentally, and physically if you keep feeding the powerful emotions for something of no worth. If you have fallen into this trap, then repent, and talk to your bishop, PLEASE!!! Okay I am done ranting.

Sunday. We woke people up for church, but they didn't show. For ward coordination we filled out a Progress record (weekly report for the stake) completely. In ward council we said that we had couple on for a baptismal date and that they had to come to church that day, and one of the primary presidency said "They only need to come for 3 Sundays, it needs to be 6 months before we extend a baptismal date!" I am sorry to say but I laughed out loud and said "That's not going to happen, but it’s a good idea." All of the missionaries that were in the meeting said "We can't even get half our own members to show in a year and you think that 6 months is the soonest?!" Another said, “they raised it from my mission, it was 2 not 3 Sundays" Members need to go on a mission if they really want to understand the church and people in the church. We had 1 investigator show up but that is okay we can work with them on that. We got out around 6 pm where we had a lesson planned but no one was there, so we had dinner, and then went to visit other people and same story, not there, so we weekly planned.

Thus it is in the life of a missionary.

From,

Ammon

I am well. Yes, I have been trying to drink more water. It isn't even funny anymore ever since I started biking, my quads have gotten so big that when I sit down I fill out my pants completely. They get a little tight whenever I don't pull my pants up a little before I sit down and what is weird, I am Down to 188 lbs. but my quads have gotten about another 1-2 inches bigger. I haven't been as good in writing in my Journal, I am better but not by much, and my personal prayer and studies have been good. I have had some Aha moments... My prayers are getting better; Elder Low has been helping me to remind me to pray for the district. 

this is one that I will Share...

Helaman 10:4-5...

Open your mouth and you are blessed

We were so slammed those days that we were so tired. The only time we stopped moving was lunch or dinner. Not so much that day that we needed help if it was there I thank you for the prayers, but I think it was more for the spirit to be with us as we taught the gospel. We still kinda need help adjusting to each others teaching style, mine is get out of the way I am teaching all of this lesson until you jump in and start teaching. His is more of a let you go until you run out of steam then reteach the lesson again from the last point that he taught. It is a little frustrating but we are working on it. Again thank you for the prayers.

Love you all,

Ammon