October 24, 2006
Mom,
Headthrow Moi? thatd be interesting. A bunch of missionaries wanted to wrestle yesterday, so i kicked their butts. Some of them with one hand.
Im so stoked for Zak! He is going to have such a great time in the MTC. Im glad that this farewell went well! I remember going to dinner with him and Mark shortly before i left. We had a pretty long discussion about missions and school and stuff. I think its important for people to really be converted, and want to serve before they go on their mission. I have seen many a missionary who seem to be just "doing their time".
Im sure you will do well on your certification. You always pass everything, and you arnt the type to not prepare at all; especially for somthing like that.
I like that article you sent. Faith is an interesting topic. It is remarkably simple, yet infinitely complex because of its application. I have narrowed faith down to this: It is really trusting that the Lord's desires will be done. There is a lot to say about faith, but the most important thing is just to remember that it is the power by which the worlds were created.
Im glad that you got to email with Sis Greenhalgh. That family is so cool. They were such a great help and inspiration to me. Bro Greenhalgh and I would always talk about doctrine and stuff. Their eBay business is way cool. its a great idea, and a lot of people are using such a service.
I cant believe your trainer's name is Troy. That is so cliche. Does he have a german accent? now that would be funny.
The ZL/DL thing has been killing me. So much to worry about and SOO much paper work to do. I have to worry about the zone in general, and now also my district even more so. Its intense, but i see the benefit of having it as such. im kinda the test case for this, since it only worked out perfect where i was in the only zone and district where the timing was perfect for me to replace the old DL (Elder Farr, who went home).
This past week was quite amazing. in fact, miraculous. you read about those miracles that happen to missionaries, well we had two. But before that, ill talk about Elder Anderson. he is from Las Vegas, and he is way cool. He has been out for about 15 months, has been serving in Marlborough, and he is senior comp (to my relief). We ahve a lot of fun, and work really hard. He is a good worker, and just a funny guy.
This past week we had laid out the Zone Plan. We were challenged by 3 general authorities (Tingey, Mickelson, Nash) to double our baptisms in 6 months. So in order to achieve that, we were given a set of goals we need to be meeting. in order to reach those goals, we had devised a multi-phased zone plan, broken up into six week increments. Each phase builds upon the prvious phase. the first phase emphasis is about getting the missionary into a HARD work cycle, and habit. I dont want to say that the MBM (our mission) is a laid back mission, but there is definetly room for improvment. The phase after the first one is aimed at building a large investigator pool. The third fase on teaching effectively and commiting, and the fourth in maintaining our level of achievement. So we commited ourselves and the zone to this plan. We had a spiritual meeting in which to explain the plan, adn get everybody excited. All but on missionary really caught the vision, but thats a whole different story. So anyway, that was friday, and so we started right away working EXTRA hard to show everybody that it could be done. Ironicaly, it was the big Rowing competition on the charles going on (i got to see the West Point team row against Navy) so we were contacting in that general area. Literaly ALL day we were contacting. the last 2 hours it was raining, with heavy rains, and very dark. We had scheduled a week in advance what is called a "window of heaven" where you tell God where you will be and he sends people there for you to contact. Although it was miserable weather ,we made a game out of it. We were running up and down the Week's footbridge (crosses the Charles river from Harvard Business School to Cambridge), not letting a single person go by without talking to them. It was kinda funny. We worked right up until 8:00, which is when we have to head back home (we live far away from our area). Nothing pretty much that whole time, but we had hope that our efforst would not go unrewarded. The next day we headed out to Boston University for another "window". On the way there, we each taught a wonderful lesson and 2 potential investigators. We thoguth that was cool. Elder Scott and I had been doing so much teaching/contacting last x-fer with no results, it was nice to just get a potential investigator! After about 30 minutes of stiff rejection in front of BU, a member comes up and gives us money for dinner! score free meal! that was rad of course. So we contacted for another hour with absolutely no success. We were taking a break, and all of the sudden this dud walking by us just stops, turns towards us, walks up and shakes our hands. He asks where we are from and we tell him, then we ask him what ward he is in. He responds "whats a ward?". we totaly thought he was a member. Then he said "I alwasy wondered what you guys believe". Then he gave us his info, told us to call him, and walked away. I was floored. It was remarkable. I was literaly in awe. I could not believe that it was just that easy. IT was like he just fell out of the sky. He contacted us!! that NEVER happens! I didnt think it oculd get any better. Literaly 5 minutes later we were contacting this guy crossing the street. We thought he would just walk right by us, and we would try to teach him while we walked with him. instead he stoped, but down his drink ,crosed his arms, and asked "What is the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and your church?". We taught him for 45 minutes. he was asking questions, and was really sincere. We taught him a ton. He kept on saying "that makes sense", and stuff like that. At the end, he pretty much asked us to teach him more. We took his info, and when we were about to say farewell, he asked for a book of mormon and was reading it while he walked about. Miracles do happen!
Love ya, miss ya! ttyl!
Elder Onken
elderonken.blogspot.com
Headthrow Moi? thatd be interesting. A bunch of missionaries wanted to wrestle yesterday, so i kicked their butts. Some of them with one hand.
Im so stoked for Zak! He is going to have such a great time in the MTC. Im glad that this farewell went well! I remember going to dinner with him and Mark shortly before i left. We had a pretty long discussion about missions and school and stuff. I think its important for people to really be converted, and want to serve before they go on their mission. I have seen many a missionary who seem to be just "doing their time".
Im sure you will do well on your certification. You always pass everything, and you arnt the type to not prepare at all; especially for somthing like that.
I like that article you sent. Faith is an interesting topic. It is remarkably simple, yet infinitely complex because of its application. I have narrowed faith down to this: It is really trusting that the Lord's desires will be done. There is a lot to say about faith, but the most important thing is just to remember that it is the power by which the worlds were created.
Im glad that you got to email with Sis Greenhalgh. That family is so cool. They were such a great help and inspiration to me. Bro Greenhalgh and I would always talk about doctrine and stuff. Their eBay business is way cool. its a great idea, and a lot of people are using such a service.
I cant believe your trainer's name is Troy. That is so cliche. Does he have a german accent? now that would be funny.
The ZL/DL thing has been killing me. So much to worry about and SOO much paper work to do. I have to worry about the zone in general, and now also my district even more so. Its intense, but i see the benefit of having it as such. im kinda the test case for this, since it only worked out perfect where i was in the only zone and district where the timing was perfect for me to replace the old DL (Elder Farr, who went home).
This past week was quite amazing. in fact, miraculous. you read about those miracles that happen to missionaries, well we had two. But before that, ill talk about Elder Anderson. he is from Las Vegas, and he is way cool. He has been out for about 15 months, has been serving in Marlborough, and he is senior comp (to my relief). We ahve a lot of fun, and work really hard. He is a good worker, and just a funny guy.
This past week we had laid out the Zone Plan. We were challenged by 3 general authorities (Tingey, Mickelson, Nash) to double our baptisms in 6 months. So in order to achieve that, we were given a set of goals we need to be meeting. in order to reach those goals, we had devised a multi-phased zone plan, broken up into six week increments. Each phase builds upon the prvious phase. the first phase emphasis is about getting the missionary into a HARD work cycle, and habit. I dont want to say that the MBM (our mission) is a laid back mission, but there is definetly room for improvment. The phase after the first one is aimed at building a large investigator pool. The third fase on teaching effectively and commiting, and the fourth in maintaining our level of achievement. So we commited ourselves and the zone to this plan. We had a spiritual meeting in which to explain the plan, adn get everybody excited. All but on missionary really caught the vision, but thats a whole different story. So anyway, that was friday, and so we started right away working EXTRA hard to show everybody that it could be done. Ironicaly, it was the big Rowing competition on the charles going on (i got to see the West Point team row against Navy) so we were contacting in that general area. Literaly ALL day we were contacting. the last 2 hours it was raining, with heavy rains, and very dark. We had scheduled a week in advance what is called a "window of heaven" where you tell God where you will be and he sends people there for you to contact. Although it was miserable weather ,we made a game out of it. We were running up and down the Week's footbridge (crosses the Charles river from Harvard Business School to Cambridge), not letting a single person go by without talking to them. It was kinda funny. We worked right up until 8:00, which is when we have to head back home (we live far away from our area). Nothing pretty much that whole time, but we had hope that our efforst would not go unrewarded. The next day we headed out to Boston University for another "window". On the way there, we each taught a wonderful lesson and 2 potential investigators. We thoguth that was cool. Elder Scott and I had been doing so much teaching/contacting last x-fer with no results, it was nice to just get a potential investigator! After about 30 minutes of stiff rejection in front of BU, a member comes up and gives us money for dinner! score free meal! that was rad of course. So we contacted for another hour with absolutely no success. We were taking a break, and all of the sudden this dud walking by us just stops, turns towards us, walks up and shakes our hands. He asks where we are from and we tell him, then we ask him what ward he is in. He responds "whats a ward?". we totaly thought he was a member. Then he said "I alwasy wondered what you guys believe". Then he gave us his info, told us to call him, and walked away. I was floored. It was remarkable. I was literaly in awe. I could not believe that it was just that easy. IT was like he just fell out of the sky. He contacted us!! that NEVER happens! I didnt think it oculd get any better. Literaly 5 minutes later we were contacting this guy crossing the street. We thought he would just walk right by us, and we would try to teach him while we walked with him. instead he stoped, but down his drink ,crosed his arms, and asked "What is the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and your church?". We taught him for 45 minutes. he was asking questions, and was really sincere. We taught him a ton. He kept on saying "that makes sense", and stuff like that. At the end, he pretty much asked us to teach him more. We took his info, and when we were about to say farewell, he asked for a book of mormon and was reading it while he walked about. Miracles do happen!
Love ya, miss ya! ttyl!
Elder Onken
elderonken.blogspot.com
posted by Queen Bee at 9:45 AM
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