6/15/2015
This has been another crazy crazy week! Super busy!
Thanks Danielle and Brad for the letters this week! Missionaries like to give me a hard time because I get so much mail! Haha but I can't complain :)
Like I mentioned last Tuesday, we had Elder Neilson of the Seventy come and visit our mission. He was the one the gave the talk at conference about his sister falling away from the church and then coming back after 12 years! We feel like there is going to be a big push for us to start working with less active members. Not only to help them come back into the church, but also because they are an amazing source of people that are not members. Active members don't know too many people outside the church, and the ones they do aren't the best investigators. So I'll keep you posted on how the mission starts changing!
Tuesday was our P-Day! We played soccer with our whole zone and it was a lot of fun! We had dinner with one of our ward missionaries, Brother Palmer, and his family! Elder Turner left right after dinner to go teach the Young Men how to fish, because no one else knows how to do that in our ward! I went out with Brother Palmer to go try and visit people, but nobody was home! We tried knocking on a ton of doors and I eventually went over and helped Elder Turner with the fishing activity! It was a lot of fun. There's a man-made lake in the middle of one of the nicer neighborhoods in our ward. We went to Bishops house and sat out on their little shoreline. Nobody caught anything, but apparently there are fish in the lake!
I wasn't feeling to good on Wednesday, but we had a ton of appointments, so we went out and worked! We did service for the Salvation Army in the morning. We moved some furniture, and sorted some boxes of donated goodies for a few hours. Then we went home, watched Legacy, took a nap, and went to do some more service for a lady in our ward! She has tons of trees growing in her yard that aren't supposed to be there. We helped chop them down, trim some other trees, and cut up the huge piles of branches we left behind! It was super hot and we got a little sun on us! But it was a lot of fun and I was feeling a lot better afterwards! We had dinner with one of our favorite families in the ward, the Tatums. It was a ton of fun! It was their daughters birthday, so we had to sing Happy Birthday"Tatum style". Which means you sing it as bad as you possibly can! So much fun! Then we went to the Morales family. We brought a return missionary, Jessica Garcia and her sister Makayla, with us! It was a super good lesson. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and they had a ton of great questions for us. They were working towards June 27 for baptism, but I don't know if that will happen.. The daughter isn't ready yet, and we found out that the parents actually aren't married, and the wife is working on her divorce from her ex-husband from about 10 years ago.. We are going back this Wednesday to figure out all the bumps and such, so hopefully they will be able to be baptized in July!
On Thursday, we got to go to the temple again! I love love love going to the temple! It's such an amazing spiritual experience. I learn more and more each time I go! We also got to go to Cafe Rio!! Which only happens every three months, because the nearest on is in Redlands by the temple!
Friday AND Saturday I was on exchanges! Friday I went with the elders in my district, Elder Glathar, and Elder Calvert. I went with Elder Glathar to the Hidden Springs ward (where they have a car!!!). We had a lot of fun. They have both been struggling with missionary work, so the zone leaders and I have been trying to help them a lot. It was a good experience for me to see how he works and what he is like. This way, I know more of how to help him and his companion! While I was with Elder Glathar, the zone leaders called and asked if we would exchange with them on Saturday! So I went with Elder Aguilar to the Nuevo ward in Spanishland (and also in a car again). I learned a lot from being with him! So I wasn't in my apartment or ward for two days! It was crazy! When I finally got back, Saturday night, I crashed! I was so exhausted! It takes a LOT of hard work to be a district leader! But it's very worth it. I love being able to serve the missionaries in my district and help them improve and use the enabling power of the Atonement!
Sunday was pretty normal. The Morales family came to church! After church and dinner, we were supposed to weekly plan... Normally we do it on Thursdays, but we had the temple trip, and exchanges on Friday and Saturday.. and then we had lessons on Sunday... Whoops! Haha we saw Serena (one of the recent converts) because she hasn't come to church in two weeks now. She told us that she doesn't feel like she is fitting in. She doesn't fit that perfect cookie-cutter shape of a Mormon woman. But we told her that it doesn't matter if she feels like she's "different". Nobody is the same. It takes all sorts of people to help our Heavenly Father's work along. If we were all the same, we wouldn't be able to learn from each other and progress. Like with Elder Turner and I. We are COMPLETE opposites! And somehow, we work great together. We teach and learn from each other. So hopefully Serena will feel better now and keep progressing towards the temple!
Speaking of Elder Turner, I was able to have a really good conversation with him last night! I've noticed that he is very laid back, and just doesn't really care. Which isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes I get wound up and upset over something that really doesn't matter, so it's good to have him there to help balance me out. But at the same time, he doesn't really care about the rules, being obedient, etc. He'll do it, but his heart isn't in it. I've been wondering what is the best way to go about talking to him about it. I didn't want to just call him out and ruin the friendship we've built, but I do want to help him. But last night somehow it just all worked out. I can't tell what I said or what he said, because I can't remember. But I DO know that the Spirit was there, putting the words in my mouth. I don't know if he will change, but I have this feeling that I at least helped him a little bit last night. It was a really neat experience!
Well, thanks for all the love, prayers, letters, packages, and support you send my way! It really means a lot to me! I love you all and miss you so much!!
Love,
Elder Warren
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