Don't let the numbers fool you! Life is Good!

Letter #36
May 5, 2014
Area: changed boundaries, Humble
Companion: Anderson (the red-head)

It sounds like all of you had an incredible week! I definitely had an interesting week because Elder Owens was transferred and Elder Anderson, who had been serving in the south area of our ward got moved up with me as my companion. So the first few days just felt as if we were on exchanges and after a few days everything would just be back to the way they were...but nope, Elder Anderson is still with me.

answer to some of your questions:

1)  P-Days are every Monday and we usually do laundry at our Bishop's house and study there, then we shop, clean, and grab some exercise clothes and go to the chapel. We usually end up playing some basketball, soccer, or frisbee, but a few weeks in a row we were playing rugby...not tackling each other, we played 2-hand touch rugby, so it was fun and safe :)

2) Elder Anderson has been out for about 10 months, so one transfer ahead of me, and he is from Utah, I am blanking on what city, but yep, Utah, like almost everyone else :P

3) Mother's Day call- sorry...it's not happening... They said that it detracts too much from the work, sorry.

 

    This week has been a good week for the area.  We have been working hard and we are seeing the payoff for it.  We have decided to focus on finding this week.  We thought of many ways to do this 'finding' and also save miles on the car (we only have a certain # each month).  This is the first week of Elder Anderson being a District Leader, but he seems like he has been doing it the whole time.  He is doing great and he even had the opportunity in conducting a baptismal interview for an investigator of Hermanas Hunter and Lockhart on Friday!  While he was doing the interview, I made good use of my time by talking with the hermanas and found some things that are bringing them success, things that could help us build up our area and make it better.

   We only had 5 lessons with investigators, and 1 lesson with a less-active member, but don't let the numbers fool you.  We worked hard and had a lot of success in our area.  All of the lessons we got were with new people, and there was a part-member family that just moved into the ward that came to church.  The non-member husband is fine with us coming over to visit them!  I really enjoyed this week, even though it was the worst week number-wise that I've had on my mission.  We have thoughts that we will be able to add on at least 5 lessons a week with people we find.  Our goal is to eventually make it so we drive the car to one area (within our assigned boundary) and park the car, and from there we'll have the whole day, and enough people in that are, that we can get at least 4 lessons that day.  We feel like there is so much potential in the area, and we are both really excited to see where it goes.

    We have still been tracking some of the miracles that happen each day, and it is great!  We really had a wonderful day, on Saturday especially.  We went out to the far end of our area, that is far enough away that we usually wouldn't have the miles, or time, to go out there.  But we dedicated almost all of Saturday to being in that area, and basically trying to contact everyone there.  We ended up with the chance to find a couple of really solid people (one who actually worked with the 2nd counselor of the bishopric). We taught a couple of lessons.  One was to a new person, who we found, and the other to a family where the kids have the desire to be baptized, but can't get parental permission. Oh, if these parents really understood the the fruits of the gospel, they too, would have the desire to be baptized.  These two kids have their grandparents (who are members) setting a good example to the family members.  We explained to Book of Mormon to them and promised them that by reading it they would feel God's love for them.

   I really enjoyed this week, and I feel like it was really successful, even though we lacked numbers, but that should change as we meet with our investigators and less actives this coming week.

    As for the Mother's Day call-- I really was just kidding!!   We apparently get to call (using a member's phone) and talk for up to 40 minutes.   --snicker, snicker...sorry, mom, for teasing you earlier in this letter :)

  I love you guys, and I love hearing about the kids and all of you (and the progress of your lives).

Elder Stanley Scott Dye