January 2013-January 2015

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Week 9


So this week was  kinda hard, I’m not going to lie. So Monday was good. Lebonan is like 40 minutes away, we played basketball and had a nerf war. It was really fun. Then we had dinner with a less active member and then had a lesson with the Graves. So that was really good. On Tuesday morning Elder Tolman woke up sick, he was throwing up all night. This was a huge problem because our day was packed. We had 8 appointments and we needed to find someone to come with me and someone to stay with him. Well, everyone was at work so we couldn’t really find anyone, so we ended up canceling all our appointments until 4:00 - that's when Lebenon could come help us. They were at transfers and Elder Haws is training, so he has a new missionary and they have to come help us. So me and Elder Haws went to Kathy’s and she wasn’t doing very well because she’s still way afraid of her husband’s reaction to the church.  So then we went back and switched and I went with the new missionnary. That was scary because I have been out for 6 weeks and he got here on Monday. This was the first day in the field for him, but we went to an appointment with a lady named Beth. She is cool and the lesson went so well she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray and come to church. We also set a baptismal date with her for the 13th of April.  So she needs to come to church every Sunday to make it because you have to go to church 3 times before you can get baptized. So she said she would. Then on Saturday we stopped by and she said she would be there and that nothing would stop her, so when she didn’t come we were worried about her. So we went to check on her and she wasn’t there. We have an appointment with her tomarow so we will see.  Then Kathy Kaminsky ended up dropping us because she doesn’t dare talk to her husband about being baptized.  Austin dropped us as well - he left the Book of Mormon and a note in a zip lock bag taped to the door that told us he wasn’t interested anymore. So that was disappointing and it has been hard because we haven't been able to work a lot other than Saturday, because that is when Elder Tolman  started to get feeling better.  We were inside a lot and it was just a rough week, but he is feeling better now and this is going to be a good week. We have an appointment with the Graves later today so that's exciting. We are going to play basketball with Lebenon district again today. They came here because their library’s computers are getting worked on, so they came to email and then we are going to play basketball with them. I’m super excited! Well, it was a rough week but it was only a test of faith and I know that no matter what happens we have the Lord on our side, so we will always win and everything will work out. 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Week 8


So IQ means Inspired questions, or in other words street contacting - just a fancy name for it. So we got a ton of new investigators, I think we got 21 this week. So we are finding like banchees but they are not following through very well. We found this less active who isn't on the branch records and she has a 9 year old son who isn't baptized.  We are having dinner with her and the Campbells. The Campbells are an older member family, they are way nice. We got fed twice on Wednesday - we had dinner at a recent convert's house and we had pizza. It was so good and she gave us cupcakes too!  Then our branch mission leader took us to a buffet and we had a correlation meeting.  Today we are going to Leben with the other elders in our district because one of them is getting transferred. So we are going to play basketball and stuff there. Usually all we do is write letters, clean, and relax on p-day. We also buy food and do laundry and stuff, so its always a good time. My headaches are getting a lot better. I only had like 2 this week. So the Graves, the famliy with a lot of kids, we weren't able to see them this week, but we have an appointment today after dinner so I'm way excited. The members here are really nice but we need to get them to be more excited about missionary work. They like us but don't really want to do anything, which is kinda lame, but we are working with them. We think that if we have the members help, more appointments will stick, because we find a lot of people but they stand us up or really aren't interested. It's kinda frustrating. 
  We went to a baptism in Etown and we had an investigator who was going to come, but she never came and we were super bummed out because we talked to her the night before and she said she was going to be there. But the baptism was good. I didn't know her but Elder Tolman taught her before she moved to Etown, which is like a half hour away. One of the speakers didn't show up, so they asked me to give a talk on baptism. I only had 15 minutes to prepare for it and I thought it went well, then this guy stands up and was like, can I say something?  So he goes up there and talks and I felt a little dissed because I felt like he didn't need to go up there.  It destroyed my self confidence, but I guess that's just me being prideful, but it really bugged me.  Well, that's my rant. The baptism was really good, she was awesome and I am happy for her.  So yeah, that's basically my week. Thanks for making the music, I really appreciate it.  Hope you have a super duper week. Later.
  Love TJ

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Week 7


How are you doing?  Hey dad, thank you for the sports updates. I really like those. It sounds like the baseball team is doing a lot better so that's good.  So my headaches are not getting much better, but I'm not too worried about them. I will be fine. My allergies are starting to kick in. The last two days have been sunny, which has been a change because it was snowy and rainy most of last week.  That's cool that you got to talk to Forrest yesterday. We do a lot of tracting and some teaching. We like to IQ, we are doing a lot of finding, which is good. I had a fun experience with tracting an indoor apartment complex.  We decided to do that because it was snowing like crazy, and the first door we knocked, this guy yelled at us for soliciting and told us to leave. He was not nice. We could have argued with him because we aren't solicitors. They couldn't do anything to us, plus there was no sign. But we decided to choose the right and not argue. We told him to have a nice day and left. So that was fun. -- I haven't heard about Noah yet, but yes, it is leukemia that he has.  Kathy may be moving to Louisville because that's where her husband works, but we are still working with her and proceeding normally. We haven't been able to meet her husband yet, but he seams to be ok with her getting baptized now, so that's good. We are trying to get back in contact with Greg. We didn't get to teach him this week, but we did find a less active who is really excited about church. She just doesn't have a ride and she has like 6 grandkids and 3 of them are accountable and want to be baptized, so I'm way excited for that. We are going back tomorrow to talk with them a little more.  I haven't had to give a talk or a lesson yet, but we did teach the primary kids about the priesthood for like 5 minutes.  We had our first dinner appointment with President McGwire (the branch president). We had kiesh and potatoes and salad. It was way good and we have another dinner appointment on Wednesday. 
     So our phone didn't recognize daylight savings, so we woke up an hour late. We didn't miss anything except that we should have been awake.  Oh well.  I love the area, the branch is good but we are trying to get the members more excited about missionary work. Me and Elder Tolman get along great! We have a lot of fun and we work well together.  It was cool to see Chaz.  Will you send my allergy medication?  because I can feel it coming. Well, that's all I have for this week.  Love you so much!  Have a great week!

T.J. at the MTC Map

Monday, March 4, 2013

Week 6

Hey Mom and Dad, how are you doing? So my headaches are about the same, maybe a litle worse. Me and ElderTolmen don't cook together at all really but thats ok. We still haven't been fed by a member yet. I eat lots of cereal, toasted peanut butter and honey sandwiches. And casadillas and hotdogs. Its not too bad. That's too bad to hear about Grammy.  I hope she gets feeling better soon. I got to see Chaz on Saturday and will send you a picture of us. The mission conference was amazing! Elder Clatin, Elder Cook and Elder Perry were there and spoke to us.  That was way cool, the spirit was so strong there. All of us got to shake their hands, so that was way cool. We car pooled with the other elders in our district and one of them - his name is Elder Haws, his grandpa is Elder Perry and so they went to eat with all the people that spoke.  Since we were their ride, President Woodbury took us to dinner. It was us and the Boligures and the assistants. We went to Applebees and it was way good - the best thing I have eaten for a while.  On Sunday we had a special stake conference and Elder Perry and Elder Munes spoke, it was soo good! It was way cool to hear from an apostle two days in a row. So I have a sad story for you. There is a family in the branch - the dad is a recent convert and the wife was less active for a long time. They have a one year old little boy. His name is Noah and he has cancer in his blood or something. I'm not really sure, but he is sick and so we went to their house and gave him a blessing. It was a good experience, but it was really sad to see. They are going to the doctor tomorrow to see what they are going to do.
        So the teaching is going good. We met this guy who was a member referral and he is really cool. He believes a lot of the same things that we do, but he doesn't like the idea of religion. He believes in Christ and everything, but doesn't believe that any church is correct. But we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray about it and he said he would, so we will see. We are going to visit him tomorrow. So he is a solid investigator and we have Kathy. She has a baptismal date on April 20th, so that's exciting.  Her husband isn't really on board, but hopefully we can meet him and answer some questions he has. Well, I think that's about it. I hope you have a wonderful week. I love you very much. Love, TJ  

Mini Family Reunion.  T.J. and his cousin Elder Denton