I'm going to be a Dad

Man has this past week been insane, in a spiritual way..... So, we will start with Wednesday. I went down to Bartellsville for district meeting and we exchanged so Elder Jose could go to Indy (Independence) to interview Craig  for baptism. I was with one Elder Wallentine for what turned out to be a two night exchange. We got snowed in, well the members didn't want to drive in the snow for fear of crashing. I was totally ill prepared for the weather. When we left our place there was no snow but half way there I realized I needed to have brought lots more clothes. So instead I got to wear Elder Jose's coat and sweater. We got to spend time with Matt though. Many of you will remember him as Halo 4 dude. He has become a great contact for the missionaries. He is super cool and we are great friends. I even got a picture of him so you all can see. The other picture is a depiction of me from a girl in the ward. Hmm that kind of sounds bad....

So Craig was unable to be interviewed because before the interview he asked a question about needing to serve a week of jail time due to driving on a suspended license. Jose had to tell him that he couldn't be interviewed because of that. He was crushed. Apparently he just sat in his room and reflected and was probably just furious. Craig definitely has a temper but he is working very hard and fast and taming it. But the next day he got in an argument with Bobo and to blow off steam he went up stairs and punched a counter so hard he broke a bone in his hand and needs surgery. But he did that rather than smoke, so in a way its better. We will have to change his date back a few weeks but he still has a huge desire to be baptized.

We got in contact with Duck this week and his wife left him, for the 7th time because she is so disagreeable. So he is on track to come to church and restart the lessons. We are looking forward to that.

Also on Saturday we got transfer calls and I am going to be training a new guy and Burr will be going to Branson. I am super exited to be training a new guy.

So on Sunday we got a referral for a part member family in Coffeeville that wants to be baptized and come to church. We will be seeing them on Wednesday so more info on them coming soon I hope.

 

2 Birthdays, 2 Baptisms

This week has been a lot of fun and a bit of work. So first thing is first, I will start with the bad news. Duck has decided to stop having us over to his place for a while. Apparently the contention between he and his wife has been very bad because of his investigation of the church. We called him this week and he informed us that for the time being he doesn't want us to come over for fear of his marriage. He says he is going to keep on reading and learning about the church but for the time being it would be better is we just held off. I am going to try and get our ward mission leader to talk to him and have them over for dinner and try and help Claudia, Duck's wife, become more open to the church, but we will see. The seed has been planted and grown in Duck now we the spirit needs to work on Claudia.

Now for the good news, I hear tales from Pittsburg that Hannah, the investigator that was so golden is getting baptized. That makes me super happy and exited to hear. Also we have set 2 baptismal dates with investigators this week. One with Craig  and another with Gabriel. We had a lesson with Craig on Tuesday and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ which led into the Word of Wisdom and his coffee and smoking problems. He is determined to get baptized and wants to be baptized on his birthday, March second. So on Wednesday we talked and made a plan to quit smoking and from what I heard last night he is still clean. After our lesson with Craig on Tuesday we went to Gabriel Trickett's place and we talked about baptism and she wants to get baptized too, also on her birthday, being March second. When we heard that we were blown away, apparently that is the day to be baptized and re-born so any one looking for a good day, that's it.

Also this week Elder Burr and I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting about missionary work, with our ward mission leader concluding the meeting with a talk. I talked about the importance of planting a seed and how we needed to go about sowing if we desired to reap. I based my talk off a talk entitled 7 lessons on sharing the gospel but filled it in with a lot of my own thoughts. I thought it went very well. Well there is the week in review for you. and now here are some videos and pictures that were taken earlier today out in the pasture of the member we live with having some fun in his watering hole

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B2kjzXYkWALKbVNVZ3g4dnc2akU/edit?usp=sharing

Another Week in the Books

This week went ok. I was sick again with a sinus infection that was brought on from last week's sickness. We finally got to teach the Oldweiler family that I had been mentioning for the past few weeks. We taught the plan of salvation that turned into a restoration lesson. It went ok, not a whole lot of spirit there but sure didn't do any damage. We have a weekly appointment with him on Fridays so he still does want to see us. Duck on the other hand is doing very well. We had a lesson with him on Tuesday and he told us that his wife is super against the church, but that wont stop him from being baptized. He is super committed to coming to church but was sick this week. We are also teaching a Craig  who is in a part member family and he wants to get baptized so he can baptize his daughters when they turn 8. Other than that all is well out here in Independence. No new people just great current people. Sorry I don't have a lot of time this week to write a big one. I miss you all and love you. Thanks for showing me your love. There will be a better letter next week, I promise.