Week 7

Hello everyone!

Tuesday: Started off with a District Meeting, and was asked to give a 5 minute talk on "my purpose as a missionary." And it went really well I got compliments from about everyone in my District. We visited a less active family, the Malstrom's, and they seem like a cool family, the parents are less active and believe in some of the church doctrines but not with some. Their kids are not baptized but we had a good conversation with them and have a appointment on November 1st when they get done with sports and tournaments in Mesquite. 

Wednesday: Wednesday was a rough start, we had door after door slammed in our face, we even had a man mock us at a red light. But all the sorrows of the morning were worth it, we went on real time coordination (visit people with ward mission leaders) and we went to visit this man named Roberto, he took the lessons from the sisters before we got to the area and when we introduced ourselves to him a week or two ago he wasn't interested. He took the lessons to have an understanding of the LDS church. But he had a relationship with our ward mission leader and he  invited brother Homer to read a book he liked that talked about spiritual feelings, and said he would read the Book of Mormon if he read his book. So for RTC we visited him and he let us in and started talking about the spiritual book, and brother Homer turned into a preacher, he would not stop talking. And in the beginning I was thinking let us missionaries chime in on this conversation! But he was doing so well half way through I was thinking don't stop talking! You are answering all this questions! So we had a good discussion and answered a lot of his questions. He even asked us when church was, we didn't even have to invite him! After that we went over to a members home and the father just had another surgery on his head, (we didn't know the mans situation or story) but he had a hard time speaking and speaks very fluent ASL and his wife was a good translator. So we gave him a priesthood blessing. A good way to end the day after such a spiritual night. 

Thursday: We had a quick Zone Meeting about "finding" and the Zone Leaders hid 100 pieces of candy in the church and we had 5 minutes to find them all. They related it to having the desire to find investigators, as much as we had a desire to find the candy. During RTC we went to visit an investigator who we have a meeting with on Monday and wanted to confirm the appointment but they were so busy and she got back from Seattle a week ago, and he got back from Orlando last night and they didn't have time to talk about it. But the stockings are coming with us to the lesson and I love the stockings! 

Friday: We had a lesson with Evelynn down at Temple Square, we had a good time with her and her family. We visited the North visitor center. We started in the basement with all the models of the prophets and talked about all the prophets of old and new. Then visited the Jesus Christ statue. We went to the "Families Can Be Together Forever" video, which was really good for her. Then finished it off with going to the Joseph Smith museum across the street. They had a good video on the First Vision. They had an oval like screen that covered your whole peripheral and normal eye sight and felt like we were walking in the forest with him.

Saturday: We did service for this less active lady with Elder Woolums. We sanded her front porch railing then painted it. It took us from 9-2. We ended our night visiting an Elders Quorum president, Brother Dixon, and he was an awesome guy! He taught me so much on how to be a good missionary and some tips and tricks to have success. I am grateful for his desire to make me a new missionary more effective! 

Sunday: We were looking forward to seeing Roberto at Church, but he didn't show up! We went by his house to see why he wasn't at Church and he said he wanted to spend time with family, but he said he was interested in having us and brother Homer come back over on Wednesday. We taught a members daughter a lesson to prepare herself to be baptized. It was a good idea to have some practice teaching. They are a very active family. We finished out night by visiting the Stocking's! It was brother Stocking's birthday so we came by to tell him happy birthday and then we had an amazing discussion as always. They are such a spiritual family and I love going over there and talking to them. 

Well that is it for the week.

Love you all,
Elder A A Ron

Some pictures of our trip to Temple Square with Evelynn and her family.

Week 6

Hello everyone,

Tuesday- we had district meeting in the morning. Had meetings with President Lansing and he told me to be like the wise 5 virgins who had oil for their lamps and to be ready to be a trainer if needs be. Elder Costa's meeting was about to prepare me to be a trainer next transfer so I might not even finish my 12 week training. Not sure how I feel about that.

Wednesday- our dinner appointment fell through so we called a good family in the Crescent Ridge 3rd Ward and had some really good tacos! Blessings of being in Utah where there are people who will feed you whenever.

Thursday-we had a mission tour for most of our day. A member of the Presidency of the Seventy was there teaching us. His name was Elder Ringwood. He talked about how we should teach forgiveness more so than repentance. Because forgiveness is the biggest part of repentance. And that hope has two parts to it. 1. We need to have an understanding of time. 2. We need to envision a better future. After we went out to find people and we knocked on this mans door and he told us that he didn't believe what we believe, but said he is willing to give us a shot to plead our thoughts. He has talked to multiple missionaries and members of the Seventy. But who knows maybe we might be the ones for him. We gave our home owner a blessing because his hip had been bothering him and had a Dr. appointment the next day.

Friday- We were fed by members who home school their kids. They were good members who gave us referrals. We had a good lesson with Evelynn, talked about the Word of Wisdom but sadly her father (who smokes) had to leave before the lesson which was a bummer because it would have been perfect for him. We are taking their family to Temple Square next Friday.

Saturday- We mowed the lawn for our home owner because he wasn't able to. So it was good to do some service for people. Had by far one of the most funniest experiences. We were out knocking on doors and we went to a "recent convert house" and after my companion knocked on the door a woman said "who is it" and my companion replied it's the missionaries. She opened the door and began to sing "hello, I am elder John, I am catholic, go away." And slammed the door on us. She was mimicking a Broadway show that makes fun on Mormons. It was so bizarre and my companion and I started laughing so hard on the front step and couldn't contain ourselves! 

Sunday- We had a meeting with all the Crescent Ridge Ward Mission Leaders with President Bishop and we talked about how we can be more effective. And it was good because there are two out of the seven that haven't been going to splits with us. And it was good for them. I gave a talk in the Crescent Ridge 4th ward, and talked about missionary work and the atonement and it was really good and powerful. We went to the Sandy East Stake to the Indian Ridge Ward and a return missionary gave a good talk about the Holy Ghost. One of his investigators said I will flip a coin and if it's heads I'll join your church, tails I don't. He flipped the coin and it was tails. But the man heard a voice as if someone where speaking to him and said "cheat" so the man said well ill become a member of your church. And was baptized the next week. Late at night we went to visit a member home to see what they knew about a part member family. The Castillo family is awesome! The father is a return missionary from India/Napal and we talked for ever about everything. Very cool experience. We are going to his house tomorrow to get a free haircut. He gives all missionaries haircuts for free! 

Hope you all have had a great week!

Love,
Elder A-A Ron

Week 5

Hello everyone,

Tuesday- Started off with a District Meeting and got a new theme for the month. True blue through and through solid as a rock. Our stove hasn't been working so we went to Arby's for lunch. No luck finding new people from that time until dinner. And elderly couple for dinner took us to Chuck a Rama, which was a buffet and was really good. As we were driving there we past two Elders on bikes and one was an Elder from my district at the MTC I screamed, Elder Best! And he waved back. I guess he must be in Draper. Since the Chuck a Rama is in Draper. 

Wednesday- Was brutal didn't have success anywhere. Couldn't find anyone and our two lessons canceled on us.

Thursday- My companion had to go to a Spanish meeting as well as another Elder in our Zone (Which I don't understand because they speak Portuguese). So I went on splits with Elder Mitchell, who came out to the mission the same week as me. So they left two "greenies" to fend for themselves. We taught a lesson to a less active in his area and it went really well. Went and saw a less active in our area when Elder Costa's meeting was done had a good discussion about General Conference and invited him to church, no luck there. We then had RTC (Real Time Correlation) where Ward Mission Leaders go on splits with us and we go see members of their ward. We went and saw the Stocking family who are an older couple. Both are active members and had a good discussion with one of our investigators and they are awesome people! Sister Stocking said, "I feel like your grandma and you need a hug". So you could say I broke the mission rules but it was so needed at the time. I felt like my grandma was hugging me. 

Friday- Wow. We had a lesson with one of our investigators and it went really well. We invited her and her family to come to temple square with us next Saturday and they accepted it. She is 9 years old and her dad is less active and they live with their aunt and uncle who are both active members. I had the craziest experience at night. It was 8:15 at night and we were knocking doors and this woman started crying as she opened the door and we were like uhhhhh.... She told us to come in. She was so happy to see us. She had the roughest day of her life. She recently got divorced and now is a single mom of three kids. Works and goes to school full time. And just got done with a fight with her mom over the phone two minutes before we were at her door step. She said the LDS people have always been there whenever she has had a rough day. And was blessed that we came over. We started talking about temples and how we felt as we went through the temple. And encouraged her to do the steps to get to the temple. We started talking about the plan of salvation to her/ the restoration. It was the most bizarre discussion I've ever had. She is big into spiritual psychology and was saying some weird things, but ultimately said that this was the true church and that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus. Her only concern is our churches stand on homosexuality and her friend was transgender and felt that she would be betraying her friend if she joined our church. So we bore our testimonies on families and told her to pray to know for herself. We are sending her an inspirational message everyday by text and seeing how she is doing. 

Saturday- Did a lot of tracting, we hit up a whole condo complex and didn't have much luck. We met this one guy who was a return missionary but according to the facts of blood samples and different things the Book of Mormon was just a fairytale. We kinda argued with him for 20 minutes. He believes that we have the best lifestyle out of any religion and stuff like that, but doesn't believe in God anymore because he has been through 5 divorces. My favorite quote that I heard on the missionary district videos was by Jeffery R Holland and it states, "No evil man could write such a book, and no good man would write it unless it were true and he was commanded of God to do so." 

Sunday- Sunday's are chaotic here in the Salt Lake mission! We are bouncing from church building to church building for meetings and being with our investigators. So much driving back and forth. I bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting about how my mission has been good for me so far. I talked about Mosiah 3:19 about the natural man and becoming as a child. I said it was hard for me to give up the natural man and making the decision to come on a mission. And how I need to have love like little children do  to all that I come in contact with, even the people who slam the door in our face. Because Jesus even loved the very people that crucified him. Good experience sharing about that.

Well that is all for this week.  Thank you for the prayers and support!

Love you all,

Elder A-A-Ron

Week 4

Hello everyone!  Greetings from the mission field....

So all is well! I got assigned to the Sandy area! I'm over Crescent Ridge Stake and Sandy East Stake(Brent Bateman, my dad's cousin, is in the Stake Presidency of the Crescent Ridge Stake). 

 

My companion is Elder Costa, he is from Brazil and he has been out for 6 months. He was in West Jordan for a bit speaking Portuguese before he was transferred to Sandy and 6 weeks ago he went from Portuguese speaking to English speaking.  His English isn't very good and is really hard to understand at times but he is s good person who genuinely cares about everyone and is focused on doing work.

  

I had a good birthday in the MTC, it didn't feel like a good birthday till late at night when we were having District prayer and I got a letter that had a short message from everyone on it in my District and a box of cosmic brownies. I soon realized I wasn't with my physical family and maybe that's why I was sort of sad throughout the day but then I noticed that I was with my family the whole day. My District was amazing and they all are family to me. I have gained a love for ice cream at the MTC, especially graham canyon, wow is that stuff good. I had a good experience in the MTC and will miss it! Looking forward to what comes next here on the mission field. Eyes up and do the work! 

Love,

Elder A-A-RON

Here are a couple of pictures that we received on Friday night and Sunday morning from the Jones family in Sandy.