This past week was a super fun week. We got to spend Christmas morning with the Anoka Elders at the members house they live at. The members got me and my comp stockings too so that was super awesome! Then we got to Skype and that was fun. We had an early Christmas dinner at a members home at 2:30 but we were there till 6 it was super fun and it was good food. I got to drink all the Egg Nog I wanted because they had a ton of it. So I was super happy with that because I love my Egg Nog! That night we watched a movie with Harry and it is crazy he just loves anything and everything put out by the church it is so awesome to see!
So the beginning of Christmas was green and then it snowed the whole rest of the day so we had a good 5 inches on Friday morning and the temperatures just dropped form like mid 30's to low 20 at the highest for the next week. It is crazy how fast it can just get cold here, but i feel like I was meant for this climate because the cold really doesn't bother me that much which is great because there is plenty of cold to go around in this state!
Friday was a really slow day but on Saturday something super weird happened we have these investigators Ron and Heather and they are strange people. We were over there and they were just venting to us. He always says he wants my CTR ring so Heather, his wife, was trying to find it online and she looked up the wrong ring. Well in the middle of our appointment he just starts to ask me a question and Heater tries to stop him, but he asks me anyways. He asks are you gay and I said no! Heather thought I was because she looked up the wrong ring and she found a gay promise ring and thought it was mine. It was super weird and awkward, but I am glad that that is all cleared up now!
On Friday a member told us a way he planned on his mission was to try and make the days more effective and it was by planning 3 plans for every 30 min interval in the day! so we decided to try it and man is it hard. It usually takes us like 30 mins to plan, but it took us like an hour and 15 both times we have done it. It is super hard, but i think it will be worth it in the end!
This Sunday was our last Sunday at 9 am thank goodness, but we were at the church for ever waiting to meet with the Bishop, but we had dinner with this family who's son is named Seth who just got back from college and it was so confusing. Every time someone would say Seth i would look. It was really weird!
On Monday next week we find out about transfers we will see what happens. If my comp gets transferred I kinda want to train a new missionary because I think that would be a lot of fun to help some one learn what it is like and it would also be a learning experience for me as well.
Well that is all till next week!
love
Seth
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Phiscaly tough week, but an ok week
So this week was a slow week mainly because we didn't have a car. We have a pretty dang big area and so we were kind of restricted to where we can bike and walk to. Biking for me is not fun because my loner bike from the mission office is no good. It has some problems but I pushed through it. When I walk for a decent amount of time my feet kill, but I am trying to just push through it because I know what I am doing is important!
Not too much stuff really happened until Friday this week. We had this appointment set up with a former investigator and we confirmed it 2 hours before we were supposed to be there. We didn't have a ride so we had to bike 3.5 miles to his place and there were some hills. When we we get there he was not even there anymore. I was so mad because it was a really tough bike ride for me because of my bike and we just had to turn around and bike all the way back to our apartment it was 7 miles total. Oh my gosh it was not fun but I got over it. Then we had the apartment building Christmas party for dinner that night and that was good. It was a buffet potluck type thing it was pretty good!
On Saturday we did some more biking and then went with our Bishop to see a less active, but on our way there we stopped for gas and the guy we were going to go see was at the same gas station it was crazy ha ha! So instead we went to drop off some gifts to some of his neighbors so that was kinda cool. Then he gave us this thing that had mini 2 summer sausages in it and some cheese and it was good! The we saw Harry and he has been wanting some Christmas music so we spent the majority of the time going though the Christmas disk that we have. He was choosing which ones he liked best so we could make him a Christmas CD.
Sunday we were riding our bikes and my dang bike ripped my black pants when I was getting on it so now I am down to 2 pairs of pants instead of 3 because it looks like the rip will not sew back well at all. So that is no good. Sunday night we ate dinner and then right before we went on to our next appointment we get a call from Harry saying the sisters never showed up for dinner so we had to go eat dinner over there as well. It was a lot of food. It was called bitter greens, I think, and it was super spicy I was sweating while I was eating it. Oh my gosh it was super hot! Today we got a loner car from the mission office thank goodness because I was getting so frustrated with my bike! Now we have a car so it is all good. Well that is all for this week I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas!!
till next week
Love Seth
oh ya one more thing this former/current investigator we had got me and my companion some slippers a pumice stone and some gold bond for Christmas it is kinda funny and his kids made us stockings to hang up!
Not too much stuff really happened until Friday this week. We had this appointment set up with a former investigator and we confirmed it 2 hours before we were supposed to be there. We didn't have a ride so we had to bike 3.5 miles to his place and there were some hills. When we we get there he was not even there anymore. I was so mad because it was a really tough bike ride for me because of my bike and we just had to turn around and bike all the way back to our apartment it was 7 miles total. Oh my gosh it was not fun but I got over it. Then we had the apartment building Christmas party for dinner that night and that was good. It was a buffet potluck type thing it was pretty good!
On Saturday we did some more biking and then went with our Bishop to see a less active, but on our way there we stopped for gas and the guy we were going to go see was at the same gas station it was crazy ha ha! So instead we went to drop off some gifts to some of his neighbors so that was kinda cool. Then he gave us this thing that had mini 2 summer sausages in it and some cheese and it was good! The we saw Harry and he has been wanting some Christmas music so we spent the majority of the time going though the Christmas disk that we have. He was choosing which ones he liked best so we could make him a Christmas CD.
Sunday we were riding our bikes and my dang bike ripped my black pants when I was getting on it so now I am down to 2 pairs of pants instead of 3 because it looks like the rip will not sew back well at all. So that is no good. Sunday night we ate dinner and then right before we went on to our next appointment we get a call from Harry saying the sisters never showed up for dinner so we had to go eat dinner over there as well. It was a lot of food. It was called bitter greens, I think, and it was super spicy I was sweating while I was eating it. Oh my gosh it was super hot! Today we got a loner car from the mission office thank goodness because I was getting so frustrated with my bike! Now we have a car so it is all good. Well that is all for this week I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas!!
till next week
Love Seth
oh ya one more thing this former/current investigator we had got me and my companion some slippers a pumice stone and some gold bond for Christmas it is kinda funny and his kids made us stockings to hang up!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Taking the Good with the Bad this week
So this week was a good week, but also kinda a sucky week. A lot of awesome and fun things happened as well so that is good. Tuesday this past week I was on exchanges with one of my zone leaders and that was fun. I learned some things I need to work on and then in our interview he said that he could tell that I am just trying to love the people and that I am good at talking to people which was super comforting to hear because those were two things that I was really doubting myself on. So it was great to hear that I have made progress in that area of missionary work it was great!
Wednesday we had exchanges again, but this time with the Anoka elders and I stayed in Andover and it was not a good night. All of our plans and our backup plans fell through so it was a pretty slow night the only person that didn't fall through that day was Harry and he never falls through so that is super good! Harry is just so super awesome he is a solid member. He just loves the church with all his heart and you can tell. It is awesome to see how much he has changed!
Thursday was cool we got to teach one of our investigators who took a brake for a while again and he said he wants to get baptized, but he wants to read through the whole Book of Mormon first so we will see how that goes. Then we went and helped our investigators Dotte and Mike set up and decorate their tree. Dotte's mom is dying and will pass on soon so having us help decorate their tree was a big blessing for her because she has so much that she has to do right now with her mom. It is crazy how just the littlest acts of service can affect someone's life so much it is great to see!
Well Friday is where the bad comes in. We had a good day up until that night. We had just been tracting and then we were going to help the sister's teach their investigator who is getting close to baptism. They live a decent ways out in our area so we drove out that way and were tracting along they way. Then 5 mins from their house I am driving and the car just stops accelerating so we had to pull off the road. It would start, but it wouldn't run it would just die as soon as it turned over. So the Sister's investigator came and tried to jump us, but that didn't work either so we had it towed to a Goodyear. I will continue this story later in the email!
So Saturday morning we had a Zone service where we went to a church where they had gathered a bunch of toys and we helped parents go through and get Christmas presents for all of their kids it was such a fun service project. Doing service out here is just so much fun! Back to the car story after service we go to the Goodyear and they said they would look at it so we were there for 3 hours and he comes out and says they found the problem. Then he comes out 30 mins later and says well your car still won't start so we will have to keep it here over the weekend. We were not in our area so we just walked to the church from there and got a ride back to our apartment. So we had to get a ride everywhere on Sunday. Then Monday we got a call after Mission Conference and they said it turns out our car needs a new engine so that sucks. So we have to get it towed to a dealership for them to do it. Hopefully we will get it back soon! Our Mission Conference was awesome there was a lot of good training on how to use this Chritmas time to our advantage and how to use this "he is the gift" initiative to our advantage. If you haven't seen the video yet watch it! Then show it to all your friends because it is a super powerfull video!
Then after all of our training we got to watch It's a Wonderful Life and that was awesome! We had Eggnog and that was great! That night we went to the Bishop's house in the other Ward to have ice cream because one of the sisters in our district is going home. That was lots of fun. Then we got permission to watch Frozen. So this morning before she went down to Bloomington we all watched Frozen as a District and that was awesome. It was lots of fun! As you can see lots of fun and exciting things happened this week so that was awesome but that is all.
So till next week
Love Seth!
Wednesday we had exchanges again, but this time with the Anoka elders and I stayed in Andover and it was not a good night. All of our plans and our backup plans fell through so it was a pretty slow night the only person that didn't fall through that day was Harry and he never falls through so that is super good! Harry is just so super awesome he is a solid member. He just loves the church with all his heart and you can tell. It is awesome to see how much he has changed!
Thursday was cool we got to teach one of our investigators who took a brake for a while again and he said he wants to get baptized, but he wants to read through the whole Book of Mormon first so we will see how that goes. Then we went and helped our investigators Dotte and Mike set up and decorate their tree. Dotte's mom is dying and will pass on soon so having us help decorate their tree was a big blessing for her because she has so much that she has to do right now with her mom. It is crazy how just the littlest acts of service can affect someone's life so much it is great to see!
Well Friday is where the bad comes in. We had a good day up until that night. We had just been tracting and then we were going to help the sister's teach their investigator who is getting close to baptism. They live a decent ways out in our area so we drove out that way and were tracting along they way. Then 5 mins from their house I am driving and the car just stops accelerating so we had to pull off the road. It would start, but it wouldn't run it would just die as soon as it turned over. So the Sister's investigator came and tried to jump us, but that didn't work either so we had it towed to a Goodyear. I will continue this story later in the email!
So Saturday morning we had a Zone service where we went to a church where they had gathered a bunch of toys and we helped parents go through and get Christmas presents for all of their kids it was such a fun service project. Doing service out here is just so much fun! Back to the car story after service we go to the Goodyear and they said they would look at it so we were there for 3 hours and he comes out and says they found the problem. Then he comes out 30 mins later and says well your car still won't start so we will have to keep it here over the weekend. We were not in our area so we just walked to the church from there and got a ride back to our apartment. So we had to get a ride everywhere on Sunday. Then Monday we got a call after Mission Conference and they said it turns out our car needs a new engine so that sucks. So we have to get it towed to a dealership for them to do it. Hopefully we will get it back soon! Our Mission Conference was awesome there was a lot of good training on how to use this Chritmas time to our advantage and how to use this "he is the gift" initiative to our advantage. If you haven't seen the video yet watch it! Then show it to all your friends because it is a super powerfull video!
Then after all of our training we got to watch It's a Wonderful Life and that was awesome! We had Eggnog and that was great! That night we went to the Bishop's house in the other Ward to have ice cream because one of the sisters in our district is going home. That was lots of fun. Then we got permission to watch Frozen. So this morning before she went down to Bloomington we all watched Frozen as a District and that was awesome. It was lots of fun! As you can see lots of fun and exciting things happened this week so that was awesome but that is all.
So till next week
Love Seth!
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| An Ornament a 1st Grader in the Ward made for me |
Finally a not slow week!
So as you can tell by the title it was a little bit faster of a week so that was great. Quite a few interesting things happened I will say latter. The Mission came out with two new key indicators so that is crazy, but also cool because it has motivated us more to talk to everyone. Then as a district we are tracking how many of the #heisthegfit cards we hand out a week. This past week we gave out 24 so that was great. They are great cards and it is a great initiative!
On wednesday we had exchanges and I went out of the area to Anoka and we taught these two investigators who are 14 and they know it is true but are too scared to tell their parents about it because their parents are very big seventh day Adventists it is sad to see they can't act on the feelings they are getting from the Spirit, but hopefully one day they will be able to get the courage to do so!
Thursday we get a call from the other elders and my comp just says Elder Howe you might be the new designated driver and that was all he said. It turns out he got a speeding ticket on Wednesday afternoon. He called President and President took away his driving privileges for a while. So I am doing all the driving now which is crazy because once it gets icy and snowy again it will be my first time really driving on any of it. So it should be a fun experience, but I love driving so much better then having the phone that is for sure!!!
Friday we went and helped set up for our Ward Christmas Party and that was cool. On Saturday we had a great lesson with Harry about the Priesthood and then he brought his family with him to the Christmas party so that was awesome. We also had a family that we used to teach come to the party so that was awesome as well!! The party was great it was more of a fancy party where they served us, but it was such great food it was fantastic!
Sunday was a great day we did a lot of tracting and had a lot of good contacts with people and gave out a lot of he is the gift cards so that was awesome and that night we finally found a new lady to teach she sounded super interested so that should be great can't wait to go back to teach her again. Today we had zone pday and we played basketball which was a ton of fun and then did a white elephant gift exchange which was awesome! I got some Samoa girl scout cookies but I don't like coconut so they will probably just get given as a gift to somebody! Well it was a fantastic week here. I keep meaning to take more pictures I am going to try and be better about that this week.
Well till next week
Love Seth!
On wednesday we had exchanges and I went out of the area to Anoka and we taught these two investigators who are 14 and they know it is true but are too scared to tell their parents about it because their parents are very big seventh day Adventists it is sad to see they can't act on the feelings they are getting from the Spirit, but hopefully one day they will be able to get the courage to do so!
Thursday we get a call from the other elders and my comp just says Elder Howe you might be the new designated driver and that was all he said. It turns out he got a speeding ticket on Wednesday afternoon. He called President and President took away his driving privileges for a while. So I am doing all the driving now which is crazy because once it gets icy and snowy again it will be my first time really driving on any of it. So it should be a fun experience, but I love driving so much better then having the phone that is for sure!!!
Friday we went and helped set up for our Ward Christmas Party and that was cool. On Saturday we had a great lesson with Harry about the Priesthood and then he brought his family with him to the Christmas party so that was awesome. We also had a family that we used to teach come to the party so that was awesome as well!! The party was great it was more of a fancy party where they served us, but it was such great food it was fantastic!
Sunday was a great day we did a lot of tracting and had a lot of good contacts with people and gave out a lot of he is the gift cards so that was awesome and that night we finally found a new lady to teach she sounded super interested so that should be great can't wait to go back to teach her again. Today we had zone pday and we played basketball which was a ton of fun and then did a white elephant gift exchange which was awesome! I got some Samoa girl scout cookies but I don't like coconut so they will probably just get given as a gift to somebody! Well it was a fantastic week here. I keep meaning to take more pictures I am going to try and be better about that this week.
Well till next week
Love Seth!
Monday, December 1, 2014
Holy coldness and a dream I hope to accomplish
This week was another slow week, but it was super fun week as well. On Monday we didn't have p-day we just had time to email and shop. Our p-day was moved to Thanksgiving. Monday night I had the most filling soup of my life! I had no idea soup could be so filling but wow it was. I only had 2 bowls and I was filled. I don't know what was in it, but it was great!
I am trying so hard to think of things that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, but nothing comes to mind they were really slow days, but Thursday was a blast. In the morning we had the turkey bowl at 8 am. That morning I had to go buy a sweatshirt and sweatpants because when we started to play it was -2. It was so cold, but it was super fun! For some reason I play better in the cold because I played pretty good. I had 2 picks 1 was a pick 6 and then 4 or 5 other touchdowns. So that was good and then we went and played basketball so that was fun as well. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner at this member houses and they live alone so they invited this other couple over and it was weird because it was so quiet because there were no kids running around. It was a gluten free thanksgiving so there was no regular stuffing which is my favorite part of thanksgiving, but it is all good. All the rest of the food was super good so that is good! Then we just went to the church with the other elders and messed around on the piano and stuff till p-day was over. At like 9:30 that night we stopped by our investigators house and they gave us pie and apple cider and it was super good because it was my favorite, apple pie. It was awesome!
The next day wow was I sore, but i just took some ibuprofen and moved on. My companion was so sore it was ridiculous he made it sound like he was dying. He kept telling me he taught he had Ebola. That night we had kinda had a weird dinner it was a pizza crust with tuna on it then covered with provolone cheese and we baked in in the oven. It was OK, but not the greatest thing ever!
Saturday we had a zone service where we packed a ton of apples at this food distribution place that distributes food to homeless shelters and stuff like that. We packed just over 10 thousand pounds of apple and my job was putting every box of apples on a pallet it was quite the workout I basically lifted 10 thousand pounds that day.
Sunday we had a miracle happen this guy we used to teach just randomly decide to show up to church again. So that was awesome. We will most likely be picking him up again to teach so that is great! oh yeah on Tuesday I ate at White Castle and I will never do that gain ever. It was nasty never ever again will i eat there! Today I got my hair cut! My dream I talk about in the subject is to, if it is not against the rules, walk across the frozen Mississippi River this winter!
Well that is all till next week
love Elder Howe
I am trying so hard to think of things that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, but nothing comes to mind they were really slow days, but Thursday was a blast. In the morning we had the turkey bowl at 8 am. That morning I had to go buy a sweatshirt and sweatpants because when we started to play it was -2. It was so cold, but it was super fun! For some reason I play better in the cold because I played pretty good. I had 2 picks 1 was a pick 6 and then 4 or 5 other touchdowns. So that was good and then we went and played basketball so that was fun as well. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner at this member houses and they live alone so they invited this other couple over and it was weird because it was so quiet because there were no kids running around. It was a gluten free thanksgiving so there was no regular stuffing which is my favorite part of thanksgiving, but it is all good. All the rest of the food was super good so that is good! Then we just went to the church with the other elders and messed around on the piano and stuff till p-day was over. At like 9:30 that night we stopped by our investigators house and they gave us pie and apple cider and it was super good because it was my favorite, apple pie. It was awesome!
The next day wow was I sore, but i just took some ibuprofen and moved on. My companion was so sore it was ridiculous he made it sound like he was dying. He kept telling me he taught he had Ebola. That night we had kinda had a weird dinner it was a pizza crust with tuna on it then covered with provolone cheese and we baked in in the oven. It was OK, but not the greatest thing ever!
Saturday we had a zone service where we packed a ton of apples at this food distribution place that distributes food to homeless shelters and stuff like that. We packed just over 10 thousand pounds of apple and my job was putting every box of apples on a pallet it was quite the workout I basically lifted 10 thousand pounds that day.
Sunday we had a miracle happen this guy we used to teach just randomly decide to show up to church again. So that was awesome. We will most likely be picking him up again to teach so that is great! oh yeah on Tuesday I ate at White Castle and I will never do that gain ever. It was nasty never ever again will i eat there! Today I got my hair cut! My dream I talk about in the subject is to, if it is not against the rules, walk across the frozen Mississippi River this winter!
Well that is all till next week
love Elder Howe
Heat waves....and slow once again
So this week was a pretty dang slow week, but on Monday we had zone p-day and we played volleyball and then people started some leg wrestling and I went unbeaten. So now some people refer to me as "The Legend Howe" just because I beat this guy who is 6-5 and was beating everyone, but i beat him! It was super fun.
On Tuesday we had exchanges and we had to get our tire changed because we had a flat. I take it in to pep boys and in took 2 dang hours just to replace the tire it was ridiculous so much time was wasted on getting the tire fixed. Gosh it was aggravating! then on Wednesday we did exchanges again and I went to Anoka the other area and it was fun we taught these awesome Freshman twins the Tarrs. They were cool they told me they wanted me to come back so hopefully I will get to teach them again sometime!
Thursday was fantastic because we got to go to the temple for a session and because I was on exchanges the member who took us left super early so we got there a lot earlier and we got to do some initiatories that was cool. It was just a great way to clear my mind and just think it was fantastic!
Friday we had something fall through again so we were tracting and we knocked in to this former investigator who was super nice and we set up another appointment with him so that was super awesome! He is way cool I might get to play one of his electric guitars and that would be awesome. I would definately get a picture with it!
Saturday all but 2 of our appointments fell through it was ridiculous! Then on Sunday the same thing happened again. All but one of our appointments fell through it was crazy. That has just been the trend lately we have just had appointment after appointment fall through it is no fun!
Today we found out about transfers and surprisingly me and my companion are staying. He has been here for 6 months. I am not counting it all done until tomorrow morning because last transfer President called some sisters in our district at 9:00 on Monday and told them they were being transferred. I won't be sure until 10:31 tonight when we got to bed we will see what happens! That is all for this week.
till next week
love Seth
On Tuesday we had exchanges and we had to get our tire changed because we had a flat. I take it in to pep boys and in took 2 dang hours just to replace the tire it was ridiculous so much time was wasted on getting the tire fixed. Gosh it was aggravating! then on Wednesday we did exchanges again and I went to Anoka the other area and it was fun we taught these awesome Freshman twins the Tarrs. They were cool they told me they wanted me to come back so hopefully I will get to teach them again sometime!
Thursday was fantastic because we got to go to the temple for a session and because I was on exchanges the member who took us left super early so we got there a lot earlier and we got to do some initiatories that was cool. It was just a great way to clear my mind and just think it was fantastic!
Friday we had something fall through again so we were tracting and we knocked in to this former investigator who was super nice and we set up another appointment with him so that was super awesome! He is way cool I might get to play one of his electric guitars and that would be awesome. I would definately get a picture with it!
Saturday all but 2 of our appointments fell through it was ridiculous! Then on Sunday the same thing happened again. All but one of our appointments fell through it was crazy. That has just been the trend lately we have just had appointment after appointment fall through it is no fun!
Today we found out about transfers and surprisingly me and my companion are staying. He has been here for 6 months. I am not counting it all done until tomorrow morning because last transfer President called some sisters in our district at 9:00 on Monday and told them they were being transferred. I won't be sure until 10:31 tonight when we got to bed we will see what happens! That is all for this week.
till next week
love Seth
Monday, November 17, 2014
Cold and slow .........again
Well this week was super cold it didn't get over like 25 all week. I am not used to that yet! I have been OK, but I never realized how fast your ears can get cold and once they get cold man it is not fun at all!
Tuesday we did a blitz with the zone leaders and the one I was with told me he can tell I have changed and progressed a lot since I have been out. That was super good to hear but it is hard to see if you have progressed or changed at all so it was nice to hear that I have!
Wednesday we watched the Restoration movie with Harry. He had never had microwavable popcorn before in his life so we brought some and he loved it. He is still recovering from surgery, but he is doing great!
Thursday we exchanged and I was driving and I have never driven in snow or ice before so that was scary, but most of the roads weren't too bad. We did get stuck once in this less actives driveway and I had to push us out while the other Elder drove it it was no good. It was cold and I didn't have a hat so my ears were cold, but we did get out so that was good.
Saturday we had Stake Conference and all the missionaries sang a musical number in it and that was fun. Then something awesome happened when the Stake President was giving his talk he gave me and my companion a referral from the pulpit and that was awesome. That is the first referral we have received and it was from the Stake President. It was so cool because the night before I really felt like we should set our goal for Saturday for referrals as 1 even though we weren't seeing any members and then we got one in Stake Conference that was so awesome!
Sunday we had the other session of Stake Conference it it was super good. We went tracting that day and I thought my ears were going to fall off because they got so cold. The beanie I had didn't cover them very well. I shoveled my first driveway ever! That was exhausting, but then the lady gave us hot chocolate so it was all good! It was a decent week I really hope it warms up just a little bit, but it probably won't so I will have to put up with the cold! Well that is all I have till next week.
love seth
Tuesday we did a blitz with the zone leaders and the one I was with told me he can tell I have changed and progressed a lot since I have been out. That was super good to hear but it is hard to see if you have progressed or changed at all so it was nice to hear that I have!
Wednesday we watched the Restoration movie with Harry. He had never had microwavable popcorn before in his life so we brought some and he loved it. He is still recovering from surgery, but he is doing great!
Thursday we exchanged and I was driving and I have never driven in snow or ice before so that was scary, but most of the roads weren't too bad. We did get stuck once in this less actives driveway and I had to push us out while the other Elder drove it it was no good. It was cold and I didn't have a hat so my ears were cold, but we did get out so that was good.
Saturday we had Stake Conference and all the missionaries sang a musical number in it and that was fun. Then something awesome happened when the Stake President was giving his talk he gave me and my companion a referral from the pulpit and that was awesome. That is the first referral we have received and it was from the Stake President. It was so cool because the night before I really felt like we should set our goal for Saturday for referrals as 1 even though we weren't seeing any members and then we got one in Stake Conference that was so awesome!
Sunday we had the other session of Stake Conference it it was super good. We went tracting that day and I thought my ears were going to fall off because they got so cold. The beanie I had didn't cover them very well. I shoveled my first driveway ever! That was exhausting, but then the lady gave us hot chocolate so it was all good! It was a decent week I really hope it warms up just a little bit, but it probably won't so I will have to put up with the cold! Well that is all I have till next week.
love seth
Monday, November 10, 2014
Kinda a Slow week but OK I Guess
This week was kind of slow. We had almost every single one of our investigator lessons fall through. We only taught four of them this week it was crazy! It was still a good week. On monday night I had dinner with Amy at my Ward Mission leaders house so that was cool. Then not much happened except the other Elders in our district one of them got emergency transferred to a different area and that was crazy, but it was good because he needed the change. He was just super angry all the time here. So it is good he gets to get a fresh start! The new elder we got is pretty cool though.
It is crazy to think I have almost been out in the field 3 months now! Time has flown by. It was a super slow week so not muchd happened, but on Friday we were at a dinner and their little boy came up to us and said want to see my underwear and then pulled his pants down and showed us and that was super funny! It reminded me of Franklin because that is something he would totally do!
Sunday night we went to Harry's house and he had just gotten kidney surgery and he was peeing blood. He had us look at his bloddy pee it was so nasty and weird. He is such a funny guy!
Everyone was telling us it was supposed to snow and it did. We woke up this morning and there was probably like 2 inches down, but after studies were done President grounded our cars so we couldn't drive and there was like 6n inches of snow by then. We had to walk like 1 mile in the snow to lunch to an old country buffet and it was not fun because I was just in tennis shoes and my legs were hurting so bad afterwards. It hasn't stopped snowing all day and from what I understand it won't be stopping soon. Well the library will be closing soon I will talk to you next week. Sorry not much happened this week, but we did see a broken street light on the side of the road so that was cool I will send pics!
till next,
love seth!
It is crazy to think I have almost been out in the field 3 months now! Time has flown by. It was a super slow week so not muchd happened, but on Friday we were at a dinner and their little boy came up to us and said want to see my underwear and then pulled his pants down and showed us and that was super funny! It reminded me of Franklin because that is something he would totally do!
Sunday night we went to Harry's house and he had just gotten kidney surgery and he was peeing blood. He had us look at his bloddy pee it was so nasty and weird. He is such a funny guy!
Everyone was telling us it was supposed to snow and it did. We woke up this morning and there was probably like 2 inches down, but after studies were done President grounded our cars so we couldn't drive and there was like 6n inches of snow by then. We had to walk like 1 mile in the snow to lunch to an old country buffet and it was not fun because I was just in tennis shoes and my legs were hurting so bad afterwards. It hasn't stopped snowing all day and from what I understand it won't be stopping soon. Well the library will be closing soon I will talk to you next week. Sorry not much happened this week, but we did see a broken street light on the side of the road so that was cool I will send pics!
till next,
love seth!
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| Downed Street light |
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| Walking to lunch |
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| Cold outside |
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Dang Good Week
This week was just fantastic. Tuesday we had a Mission Conference up in Bloomington and Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the Seventy was doing a training. It was super good. I learned a lot of things that I need to improve in order to become the most effective missionary I can be.
Then on Wednesday we had our service at the Food Shelf because we were low on miles we road these loner bikes that the Mission Office gave us. Mine is not very good, but on top of that we had like a 10 pound box of supplies that we had to get to some elders. I had to hold it on the front of my bike and I looked really dumb because I was riding so slow and weird. Then we went on exchanges and that was good. I went out of our area again which was good. You always learn a lot on exchanges it is nice.
Thursday we had an interview with President Forbes and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It was super good. After that was the only bad part of the week we had this appointment with is guy who in our area book. He is listed as a super big bible basher. We get to the appointment and he wants to film it. I had a super bad feeling about it so I said no you are not filming us. He said OK. Then during the appointment I see that he is filming us. I had to pinch my hand so hard so that wouldn't yell at him. I was so mad that he filmed us anyways. It was just a waste of time because he was just trying to prove us wrong it was so aggravating, but it is all good now.
Friday night we went to the elders in the area next to us house and carved pumpkins with the family that they live with. That was super fun and then we ended up just staying the night there which was fun as well. Saturday was the best we helped clean then church and then we went to help a member move a TV and he fed us breakfast. It consisted of corn dogs, Sunkist, and candy such a nutritious breakfast. Then we raked some leaves. Then we had to go to the church and we had to stay and fill the font. We were there for 4 hours all the way up to the baptism. It was awesome! Harry got baptized and his two non member kids attended and that was super cool!
Sunday he was confirmed and I got to be in the circle and that was awesome. The Spirit was super strong in the circle. That evening we went to get some info for his baptism record and he forgot his wife's birthday and there anniversary it was super funny. Then we were getting all his kids down and we thought he had 12 but he forgot he really has 14 it was super funny.
This week was such a good week we had a lot of success and I hope that continues on to this week! Oh yeah one experience I for got to include a while back was when we knocked on our investigators door but he wasn't there, but this lady who lives there was and she was drunk and in the process of talking to her she turns to me and says 'what are you looking at dork' and she tried to kick me in the face, but was to short to reach me it was super funny.
till next week
Love
Seth
Then on Wednesday we had our service at the Food Shelf because we were low on miles we road these loner bikes that the Mission Office gave us. Mine is not very good, but on top of that we had like a 10 pound box of supplies that we had to get to some elders. I had to hold it on the front of my bike and I looked really dumb because I was riding so slow and weird. Then we went on exchanges and that was good. I went out of our area again which was good. You always learn a lot on exchanges it is nice.
Thursday we had an interview with President Forbes and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It was super good. After that was the only bad part of the week we had this appointment with is guy who in our area book. He is listed as a super big bible basher. We get to the appointment and he wants to film it. I had a super bad feeling about it so I said no you are not filming us. He said OK. Then during the appointment I see that he is filming us. I had to pinch my hand so hard so that wouldn't yell at him. I was so mad that he filmed us anyways. It was just a waste of time because he was just trying to prove us wrong it was so aggravating, but it is all good now.
Friday night we went to the elders in the area next to us house and carved pumpkins with the family that they live with. That was super fun and then we ended up just staying the night there which was fun as well. Saturday was the best we helped clean then church and then we went to help a member move a TV and he fed us breakfast. It consisted of corn dogs, Sunkist, and candy such a nutritious breakfast. Then we raked some leaves. Then we had to go to the church and we had to stay and fill the font. We were there for 4 hours all the way up to the baptism. It was awesome! Harry got baptized and his two non member kids attended and that was super cool!
Sunday he was confirmed and I got to be in the circle and that was awesome. The Spirit was super strong in the circle. That evening we went to get some info for his baptism record and he forgot his wife's birthday and there anniversary it was super funny. Then we were getting all his kids down and we thought he had 12 but he forgot he really has 14 it was super funny.
This week was such a good week we had a lot of success and I hope that continues on to this week! Oh yeah one experience I for got to include a while back was when we knocked on our investigators door but he wasn't there, but this lady who lives there was and she was drunk and in the process of talking to her she turns to me and says 'what are you looking at dork' and she tried to kick me in the face, but was to short to reach me it was super funny.
till next week
Love
Seth
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| Harry's Baptism |
Monday, October 27, 2014
Slow, but really good week
So this week was a super slow week. We only taught 10 lessons witch is super low usually we have at least 15, but it was still good. On Tuesday we taught Harry about tithing and fasting. It was kind of a weird lesson because he has no income so he can't pay tithing and has has health issues so he cannot fast either. So it was kind of like a will you commit to live these principles if you are ever able to? It was weird but good too!
On Wednesday we did service at the Food Shelf and I got to work the front desk and it was fun to interact with a lot of different people. Sometimes it was hard because they only spoke Russian there are so many different nationalities out here it is crazy. It is just one huge melting pot from places all over the world. It is really cool! After that we went on exchanges and I finally got to leave the area for the first time on exchanges. It was super neat! We taught this one guy and his family. All of his boy have long mullets that go all the way down their backs it is super hilarious. I wish that I had a picture of it!
On Thursday we took our car into Goodyear because it was making some weird noises. We were there for two hours and the guy just comes and tells us we just need to drive it for 100 more miles with the new oil that we had just gotten in it on Tuesday of this week. It was such a waste of time for such a stupid easy fix but it is all good now. We know our car isn't going to just brake down on us.
On Friday we had a zone service and it was down in Minneapolis so we got to go down to the city and it was awesome. It is a cool looking city. Service was strange we just helped set up a Fundraiser event for a Charity at this super fancy hotel. It was fun, but kind of strange as well. Then after that we went and rehearsed a musical number with the whole zone because we are all singing at the Saturday session of Stake Conference on Nov 15 so that should be super awesome!!
On Saturday Harry had his baptismal interview. It was scheduled for one but the member who was supposed to pick him up forgot. He was late, but the Zone Leaders who were doing the interview were also late in fact the Zone Leaders were like almost a whole hour late because of traffic. We let Harry look at our Gospel Art Picture Book because he loves the pictures in it. He said while looking at a picture of Jesus. 'Jesus was a handsome man'. Ha Ha. It was so funny. He passed his interview so he is getting baptized this Saturday it is going to be so awesome!! He is super ready for it. It is amazing to see how he has changed since we have been teaching him. He has gotten so much happier then he was before. It is awesome to see. That evening we had dinner with Harry at his house and we had some african food called fufu. It is this mashed potatoes like stuff the looks like dough and it is served with pepper soup and you cut pieces of it up and then you just swallow it whole and don't chew it. It was very interesting. That night Harry told me he liked how I eat. It was funny. Liberians like people who eat a lot of food apparently.
It was a super good week and I got my hair cut last Monday so i will send a picture of that and a picture of what fufu looks likes!
till next week
love,
Seth
On Wednesday we did service at the Food Shelf and I got to work the front desk and it was fun to interact with a lot of different people. Sometimes it was hard because they only spoke Russian there are so many different nationalities out here it is crazy. It is just one huge melting pot from places all over the world. It is really cool! After that we went on exchanges and I finally got to leave the area for the first time on exchanges. It was super neat! We taught this one guy and his family. All of his boy have long mullets that go all the way down their backs it is super hilarious. I wish that I had a picture of it!
On Thursday we took our car into Goodyear because it was making some weird noises. We were there for two hours and the guy just comes and tells us we just need to drive it for 100 more miles with the new oil that we had just gotten in it on Tuesday of this week. It was such a waste of time for such a stupid easy fix but it is all good now. We know our car isn't going to just brake down on us.
On Friday we had a zone service and it was down in Minneapolis so we got to go down to the city and it was awesome. It is a cool looking city. Service was strange we just helped set up a Fundraiser event for a Charity at this super fancy hotel. It was fun, but kind of strange as well. Then after that we went and rehearsed a musical number with the whole zone because we are all singing at the Saturday session of Stake Conference on Nov 15 so that should be super awesome!!
On Saturday Harry had his baptismal interview. It was scheduled for one but the member who was supposed to pick him up forgot. He was late, but the Zone Leaders who were doing the interview were also late in fact the Zone Leaders were like almost a whole hour late because of traffic. We let Harry look at our Gospel Art Picture Book because he loves the pictures in it. He said while looking at a picture of Jesus. 'Jesus was a handsome man'. Ha Ha. It was so funny. He passed his interview so he is getting baptized this Saturday it is going to be so awesome!! He is super ready for it. It is amazing to see how he has changed since we have been teaching him. He has gotten so much happier then he was before. It is awesome to see. That evening we had dinner with Harry at his house and we had some african food called fufu. It is this mashed potatoes like stuff the looks like dough and it is served with pepper soup and you cut pieces of it up and then you just swallow it whole and don't chew it. It was very interesting. That night Harry told me he liked how I eat. It was funny. Liberians like people who eat a lot of food apparently.
It was a super good week and I got my hair cut last Monday so i will send a picture of that and a picture of what fufu looks likes!
till next week
love,
Seth
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| Haircut |
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| Fufu |
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
2 Months Gone By
Well this was a Pretty good week. It is crazy to think I have already been out two months because it hasn't felt like two months it kinda flew by. I hear that it doesn't slow down and just keeps flying by. We almost hit all of our goals for the week we found 4 new investigators that is the most since I have been out it is great.
Twice a week we visit this recent convert named Brother Gray. He is 64 and had a stroke a little while back. So he is a little out of it, but is completely accountable. He is my favorite person to visit. He is so funny. He just loves the church so much and has a super strong testimony. It is great. We are helping him to be able to say the sacrament prayers so that he can do it in sacrament meeting. It is lots of fun to be over there. This week we brought him teaching with us twice and he was great he doesn't have a huge knowledge of the gospel, but he knows what it has done to his life and how it has made his life better. This is almost better then just having a knowledge of the gospel it is really amazing to see.
This week we got a referral from the Mormon Battalion site in San Diego and we finally got into see them and they are awesome. They have a friend who is LDS, but hey knew absolutely nothing about what we teach. They were super open to it. She told us "who am I to tell you this is wrong when I haven't even read it". That was super encouraging because it means she will read it with an open mind. That is great because a lot of people have trouble doing that. I can't wait to get back to see them and see what they thought and felt. It should be great!!
We had two great lessons with Harry this week he is just super awesome. He just wants to serve the Lord, but has health problems and it slows him down a little bit. He always prays that he can be healed so that he can serve the Lord. It is super humbling to hear because he wants to serve super bad, but he can't. I know I am completely able and could always serve more diligently than I am now. It is a good reminder you can always improve and work harder.
One super funny thing Brother Gray told us this week was that when we see Jesus again we are going to be buck naked. It was so hilarious he is so funny. oh yeah so Harry's full name is kinda funny. His name is Harry Gbotee but his last name is pronounced Booty so his name is Harry Booty people always laugh when we tell them. It took us a whole month to realize it too. His baptism is getting super close and we are getting super excited. He is super ready! He came to church again and loved it.
Well that is all for this week till next week.
Love, Seth
Twice a week we visit this recent convert named Brother Gray. He is 64 and had a stroke a little while back. So he is a little out of it, but is completely accountable. He is my favorite person to visit. He is so funny. He just loves the church so much and has a super strong testimony. It is great. We are helping him to be able to say the sacrament prayers so that he can do it in sacrament meeting. It is lots of fun to be over there. This week we brought him teaching with us twice and he was great he doesn't have a huge knowledge of the gospel, but he knows what it has done to his life and how it has made his life better. This is almost better then just having a knowledge of the gospel it is really amazing to see.
This week we got a referral from the Mormon Battalion site in San Diego and we finally got into see them and they are awesome. They have a friend who is LDS, but hey knew absolutely nothing about what we teach. They were super open to it. She told us "who am I to tell you this is wrong when I haven't even read it". That was super encouraging because it means she will read it with an open mind. That is great because a lot of people have trouble doing that. I can't wait to get back to see them and see what they thought and felt. It should be great!!
We had two great lessons with Harry this week he is just super awesome. He just wants to serve the Lord, but has health problems and it slows him down a little bit. He always prays that he can be healed so that he can serve the Lord. It is super humbling to hear because he wants to serve super bad, but he can't. I know I am completely able and could always serve more diligently than I am now. It is a good reminder you can always improve and work harder.
One super funny thing Brother Gray told us this week was that when we see Jesus again we are going to be buck naked. It was so hilarious he is so funny. oh yeah so Harry's full name is kinda funny. His name is Harry Gbotee but his last name is pronounced Booty so his name is Harry Booty people always laugh when we tell them. It took us a whole month to realize it too. His baptism is getting super close and we are getting super excited. He is super ready! He came to church again and loved it.
Well that is all for this week till next week.
Love, Seth
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| Funny text from the Ward Mission Leader |
Monday, October 13, 2014
One Transfer Down
This week was a little slow because we had a few things that took up a lot of time. On Tuesday my companion had a leadership training in Bloomington so I went on exchanges with another district leader's companion in their area and their area was a bike area.This posed a problem because I don't have a bike right now because mine got stolen. I had to use the other elders super old and beat up bike. While I was peddling down their street I had just got to the bottom of a hill and the whole crank arm fell off of one side of the bike. The elder I was with didn't see and kept peddling. I had to walk up the street waving my peddle in the air trying to get his attention. We road nine miles and man was I sore I hadn't ridden a bike for that long in a long time. It was hard and of course they had some decent size hills we had to go up. Man I am glad I have a car right now because that was exhausting!
On Wednesday we had service at the food shelf like always and I am out side on "butt" duty sweeping up the cigarettes butts with another elder and we started talking to this guy and he was kinda crazy. He just told us how much better the world would be if there were no people in it at all. Then he told us that he eats Bambi's that he kills it was super weird.
That day we taught harry and committed him to be baptized on November 1st. I know he is going to make it he is super solid. We taught him the word of wisdom and then right after the lesson he went in to his room and gave us all his coffee to throw out for him. That was super awesome!
We had a really intense lesson with an investigator who has been investigating for over a year. The member we had with us just called him out and really made our investigator just see it how it really is. It really hit him hard and I think he realized what he needs to do better to get baptized. Hopefully he does those things. Members make such a big difference!
On Friday we had a lesson fall thorough so we went to stop by a house where a potential investigator lived. It was a different guy than we talked to before, but he let us in and we prayed with him and then taught him the restoration. He had worked for Marriott before. He found a Book of Mormon while he was working and so he is interested. We should start teaching his whole family now so that should be awesome.
On Saturday we called up this guy who had been taught 4 years ago. He invited us to go and do service with him at this Middle School that he was building a set for a play at. We did that for like 2 hours and then he took us to Denny's he was super nice and has read the books in the quad once through at least, but just doesn't agree with some pre-life things. He still isn't ready, but maybe down the road he will be.
Sunday was good we had Harry at Church again this week and he stayed for all 3 hours. He loved it again. He told people that he justs wants to become one of us so that is awesome. Then we had a lesson with an investigator whose view on everything go straight in line with ours he lives the word of wisdom and the law of chastity without even knowing what they are. It is crazy he just needs to come to church once and gain a testimony about the Book of Mormon. He would be a solid member. He is super active in his church right now tough so it is hard to get him to ours on Sunday, but he promised he would find a sub and come once. Hopefully he will hold true to that promise. It was a good week over all hopefully this one is even better than the last!
till next week
love,
Elder Howe
On Wednesday we had service at the food shelf like always and I am out side on "butt" duty sweeping up the cigarettes butts with another elder and we started talking to this guy and he was kinda crazy. He just told us how much better the world would be if there were no people in it at all. Then he told us that he eats Bambi's that he kills it was super weird.
That day we taught harry and committed him to be baptized on November 1st. I know he is going to make it he is super solid. We taught him the word of wisdom and then right after the lesson he went in to his room and gave us all his coffee to throw out for him. That was super awesome!
We had a really intense lesson with an investigator who has been investigating for over a year. The member we had with us just called him out and really made our investigator just see it how it really is. It really hit him hard and I think he realized what he needs to do better to get baptized. Hopefully he does those things. Members make such a big difference!
On Friday we had a lesson fall thorough so we went to stop by a house where a potential investigator lived. It was a different guy than we talked to before, but he let us in and we prayed with him and then taught him the restoration. He had worked for Marriott before. He found a Book of Mormon while he was working and so he is interested. We should start teaching his whole family now so that should be awesome.
On Saturday we called up this guy who had been taught 4 years ago. He invited us to go and do service with him at this Middle School that he was building a set for a play at. We did that for like 2 hours and then he took us to Denny's he was super nice and has read the books in the quad once through at least, but just doesn't agree with some pre-life things. He still isn't ready, but maybe down the road he will be.
Sunday was good we had Harry at Church again this week and he stayed for all 3 hours. He loved it again. He told people that he justs wants to become one of us so that is awesome. Then we had a lesson with an investigator whose view on everything go straight in line with ours he lives the word of wisdom and the law of chastity without even knowing what they are. It is crazy he just needs to come to church once and gain a testimony about the Book of Mormon. He would be a solid member. He is super active in his church right now tough so it is hard to get him to ours on Sunday, but he promised he would find a sub and come once. Hopefully he will hold true to that promise. It was a good week over all hopefully this one is even better than the last!
till next week
love,
Elder Howe
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| The Ghostmobile. I guess I am right next to the Halloween capital of the world |
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Conference Weekend
It is crazy to think I have already been out almost one whole transfer. It has gone by super fast already. This week was pretty good we did exchanges again with the elders in the area next to us. I ran the area for the 3rd exchange in a row. It is weird being the one in charge of the plans when I still don't know how to get everywhere, but it went pretty good.
Every Wednesday we do service at a place called ACBC Food Shelter and it is always so much fun. It is good because it shows the community that we are just nice regular people not a bunch of freaks. We get to do a lot of good for people who are in need of food and don't have money so that is awesome.
This week we taught our first doorstep Restoration Lesson in a while we hadn't taught one in a couple weeks. The guy didn't accept a Book of Mormon or anything but he listened to all of it. Something might come out of it further down the road that I won't see or even hear about, but that is OK. It was kind of a slower week we taught Ron and Heather twice. Man their kids are so crazy it is hard to get in a good lesson because they are always like running around screaming and stuff. It is just crazy.
We did a fast with or investigator who is trying to stop smoking and that went pretty well. At first he thought that it wasn't a good fast but then he realized that whole day he didn't smoke a single cigarette. He realized that he can quit if he just takes it one day at a time and doesn't look at it as an all or nothing situation like he was before. We are going to keep teaching him and his kids because they are ready. His smoking is the only thing stopping them from being baptized.
Our investigator Harry is just Golden we taught him the Plan of Salvation this week and it just all made sense to him. He is progressing along well and wants to get baptized, but is still nervous about his health. He is healthier then he thinks. Hopefully he can over come that fear.
Conference this weekend was fantastic Harry watched all four sessions of it and loved it so much he wants us to make a CD of it for him. I will do that for him. There were some amazing talks. There was a big focus on bringing less actives back. This is something our Mission President just talked to us about. We have to get this going better. One of the best ways is member fellowship.
After the Priesthood Session we went to get ice cream and a member ended up being there and he bought us ice cream. Then we sat and talked to his family for a little bit and that was super fun and nice to do.
Today we had zone p-day and we went to a park and played a bunch of games like ultimate Frisbee, a relay obstacle course and then capture the flag. It was so much fun. The last two p-days have been just fantastic. It has started to get colder. It was in like the 40's and 50's all week this week. That means winter is close. This morning we had to scrape some frost off our window and it is only the beginning of October. Hopefully the snow holds out till at least November. till next week.
Love,
Seth
Every Wednesday we do service at a place called ACBC Food Shelter and it is always so much fun. It is good because it shows the community that we are just nice regular people not a bunch of freaks. We get to do a lot of good for people who are in need of food and don't have money so that is awesome.
This week we taught our first doorstep Restoration Lesson in a while we hadn't taught one in a couple weeks. The guy didn't accept a Book of Mormon or anything but he listened to all of it. Something might come out of it further down the road that I won't see or even hear about, but that is OK. It was kind of a slower week we taught Ron and Heather twice. Man their kids are so crazy it is hard to get in a good lesson because they are always like running around screaming and stuff. It is just crazy.
We did a fast with or investigator who is trying to stop smoking and that went pretty well. At first he thought that it wasn't a good fast but then he realized that whole day he didn't smoke a single cigarette. He realized that he can quit if he just takes it one day at a time and doesn't look at it as an all or nothing situation like he was before. We are going to keep teaching him and his kids because they are ready. His smoking is the only thing stopping them from being baptized.
Our investigator Harry is just Golden we taught him the Plan of Salvation this week and it just all made sense to him. He is progressing along well and wants to get baptized, but is still nervous about his health. He is healthier then he thinks. Hopefully he can over come that fear.
Conference this weekend was fantastic Harry watched all four sessions of it and loved it so much he wants us to make a CD of it for him. I will do that for him. There were some amazing talks. There was a big focus on bringing less actives back. This is something our Mission President just talked to us about. We have to get this going better. One of the best ways is member fellowship.
After the Priesthood Session we went to get ice cream and a member ended up being there and he bought us ice cream. Then we sat and talked to his family for a little bit and that was super fun and nice to do.
Today we had zone p-day and we went to a park and played a bunch of games like ultimate Frisbee, a relay obstacle course and then capture the flag. It was so much fun. The last two p-days have been just fantastic. It has started to get colder. It was in like the 40's and 50's all week this week. That means winter is close. This morning we had to scrape some frost off our window and it is only the beginning of October. Hopefully the snow holds out till at least November. till next week.
Love,
Seth
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| Not sure if they had a license to drive. |
Monday, September 29, 2014
Ups and Downs
So this past week started off slow. Monday we had to get the flu shots and I wore a long sleeved shirt so I basically had to take my whole shirt off that was just a super awkward experience. Then we had a good night that night. The next morning I woke up not feeling good at all. The member who lives on the first floor of our apartment brought me a thermometer and I had a fever so I had the flu. We had district meeting we had to go to so I went, but i was so exhausted. After the meeting we went home and I took like a 2 hour nap so that i could make it through the rest of the day and it helped. That night was good to we had a member take us to an appt and he just set our investigator straight on what his priorities should be and why he was having such a hard time quitting smoking. While he was doing that we were messing around with his kids and I have some funny pictures of that. I have learned how powerful having a member with you can be it is amazing the difference a member can make. Whenever you get the chance go out with the missionaries because you can make a huge difference!!
Wednesday was great we had this thing called "New Missionary Training" up in Bloomington, which is where the mission home is, and it was fantastic I learned so much that is going to help me become a better missionary. It was great. That night we did exchanges with the elder who are in the area next to us because me and the elder who I was with are both new I got to drive!!! It was so great to drive again.
We just got a new Ward Mission Leader and he is going to be fantastic. Wednesday we did a teaching evaluation with him and he told us his conversion story and it was so amazing! I am excited to work with him he has a lot of great ideas.
Thursday I am in an appt and the phone goes off and it is a text from a member that just says "Elder Howe?" and that was all. I texted back yes and apparently there is someone in the Crystal Ward that Amy knows and she knows the member in my ward. She told me that Amy says hi so that was cool . We have keeping our bikes in our garage. When we went to ride on Thursday we found that our bikes have been stolen, that sucked. Sorry that it was just such a waste of money because it was stolen. I don't even know how but they are gone. I don't know what we are going to do about it.
On Saturday we didn't have a dinner planned but then the member we had at a lesson of ours took us out to eat at a place called Baker's Square and it was amazing I had a crazy good omelet and then one of the best pieces of pie I have ever eaten it was so good!!!
Sunday Harry came to church and he loved it so that was great. Then today we had district P day and we went to this place called Grand Slam. We did mini golf and played laser tag it was tons of fun. I have some pictures I will send of it. Then I had some amazing Mac and Cheese at Noodles and Company it was almost as good as Panera but not quite. I loved it. I am still doing great and I am loving it out here still. Till next week.
love,
Seth
Wednesday was great we had this thing called "New Missionary Training" up in Bloomington, which is where the mission home is, and it was fantastic I learned so much that is going to help me become a better missionary. It was great. That night we did exchanges with the elder who are in the area next to us because me and the elder who I was with are both new I got to drive!!! It was so great to drive again.
We just got a new Ward Mission Leader and he is going to be fantastic. Wednesday we did a teaching evaluation with him and he told us his conversion story and it was so amazing! I am excited to work with him he has a lot of great ideas.
Thursday I am in an appt and the phone goes off and it is a text from a member that just says "Elder Howe?" and that was all. I texted back yes and apparently there is someone in the Crystal Ward that Amy knows and she knows the member in my ward. She told me that Amy says hi so that was cool . We have keeping our bikes in our garage. When we went to ride on Thursday we found that our bikes have been stolen, that sucked. Sorry that it was just such a waste of money because it was stolen. I don't even know how but they are gone. I don't know what we are going to do about it.
On Saturday we didn't have a dinner planned but then the member we had at a lesson of ours took us out to eat at a place called Baker's Square and it was amazing I had a crazy good omelet and then one of the best pieces of pie I have ever eaten it was so good!!!
Sunday Harry came to church and he loved it so that was great. Then today we had district P day and we went to this place called Grand Slam. We did mini golf and played laser tag it was tons of fun. I have some pictures I will send of it. Then I had some amazing Mac and Cheese at Noodles and Company it was almost as good as Panera but not quite. I loved it. I am still doing great and I am loving it out here still. Till next week.
love,
Seth
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| flying horse at Grand Slam |
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| Ward Activity - Racing with a pumpkin between my legs |
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| Ward Activity - Racing with a pumpkin between my legs |
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Super Spiritual Experiences and Fun Ones too
This week was good. On Tuesday I went on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders so I took over the area for the day and I think I did OK. It was a good experience because it let me see that there are so many different ways to do things. I can just be myself with my personality and not try to be someone who I am not. It also showed me somethings that I needed to work on that I hadn't thought of before. He told me that I was a good teacher and that I just need to slow down a little when I talk. That made me feel good because I didn't know whether or not I was teaching well so when he said that it made me feel super good.
We had one of the most awesome lessons on Thursday with the Lattus family. They have been investigating for like a year. We showed up at 8 and Brother Lattus wasn't there so we could not go inside. We talked to his daughter outside until he showed up at 8:30. After he showed up the Bishop and Stake President showed up as well. He has a good relationship with them and they joint taught with us. President just took over and helped him realize how stupid it was to let smoking keep him from baptism. Then Brother Lattus said he wanted to be a part of the church so that his two sons could go on missions because of the example we set for them. That hit me hard I did not realize how big of an example we were setting for him and his kids. At the end of the lesson he decided with President that he would move his baptism up from Oct 18th to Oct 5th. So he had to stop smoking yesterday for good. Right before we left I felt a prompting to give him a blessing for strength to resist the temptation to smoke. I was able to participate in my first Priesthood Blessing. The Bishop gave the blessing, but it was a super cool experience. I know he will be baptized on the 5th.
The next day we went and saw our old Liberian investigator Harry. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and has a solid testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet. He wants to be baptized, but is concerned about his health. At the end of the lesson we gave him a blessing. I gave the blessing. It was cool I was super nervous I wouldn't know what to say, but when i started talking the words just came to me it was amazing and super spiritual for him and me.
On Saturday I got to watch half of the BYU football game because we had an investigator watching it with the Elder's Quorum. We called out Mission President and he said we could watch the first half of it. It was super awesome and fun.
On Sunday I was feeling down in the morning because we did a lot of service Saturday and my back was hurting. We had an early meeting at the church. I wasn't able to eat breakfast. We also went to get some investigators so they could come to church, but they did not answer their door. I was feeling down, but then after Sacrament meeting as when we are out in the foyer we see Ron standing in the Chapel looking for us. I did a double take because it surprised me.It made me happy that he could make it. He was only able to stay for 2nd hour because he had to work, but he had a great time in Gospel Principles. I think he will be more inclined to come back now which is fantastic. He has been being taught for 6 months and that was his first time at church so that was awesome.
There was Fireside Sunday night that is put on once a month by the Mission and it is where recent converts tell there conversion stories. You only get to go if you have an investigator. We had a ride for us and our investigator all lined up, but then the ride fell though. We were not able to get another one. I felt that the Lord needed us in our area not up in Bloomington that night. We went and saw an Samuel instead and it turns out his mom had just passed away that morning. It was a good thing we stopped by so he had someone to talk to that wasn't just family and people saying sorry. He is super family centered and he committed to coming to church this week so hopefully he comes.
Oh yeah, on Friday we had a Ward party which was super fun. I got chosen to do this pumpkin relay thing. If I ever get pictures I will send them because it will be some really funny pictures. It was super fun and it helped us get closer to the ward.
It was a good week this week. Till next week.
Love you all
Seth
We had one of the most awesome lessons on Thursday with the Lattus family. They have been investigating for like a year. We showed up at 8 and Brother Lattus wasn't there so we could not go inside. We talked to his daughter outside until he showed up at 8:30. After he showed up the Bishop and Stake President showed up as well. He has a good relationship with them and they joint taught with us. President just took over and helped him realize how stupid it was to let smoking keep him from baptism. Then Brother Lattus said he wanted to be a part of the church so that his two sons could go on missions because of the example we set for them. That hit me hard I did not realize how big of an example we were setting for him and his kids. At the end of the lesson he decided with President that he would move his baptism up from Oct 18th to Oct 5th. So he had to stop smoking yesterday for good. Right before we left I felt a prompting to give him a blessing for strength to resist the temptation to smoke. I was able to participate in my first Priesthood Blessing. The Bishop gave the blessing, but it was a super cool experience. I know he will be baptized on the 5th.
The next day we went and saw our old Liberian investigator Harry. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and has a solid testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet. He wants to be baptized, but is concerned about his health. At the end of the lesson we gave him a blessing. I gave the blessing. It was cool I was super nervous I wouldn't know what to say, but when i started talking the words just came to me it was amazing and super spiritual for him and me.
On Saturday I got to watch half of the BYU football game because we had an investigator watching it with the Elder's Quorum. We called out Mission President and he said we could watch the first half of it. It was super awesome and fun.
On Sunday I was feeling down in the morning because we did a lot of service Saturday and my back was hurting. We had an early meeting at the church. I wasn't able to eat breakfast. We also went to get some investigators so they could come to church, but they did not answer their door. I was feeling down, but then after Sacrament meeting as when we are out in the foyer we see Ron standing in the Chapel looking for us. I did a double take because it surprised me.It made me happy that he could make it. He was only able to stay for 2nd hour because he had to work, but he had a great time in Gospel Principles. I think he will be more inclined to come back now which is fantastic. He has been being taught for 6 months and that was his first time at church so that was awesome.
There was Fireside Sunday night that is put on once a month by the Mission and it is where recent converts tell there conversion stories. You only get to go if you have an investigator. We had a ride for us and our investigator all lined up, but then the ride fell though. We were not able to get another one. I felt that the Lord needed us in our area not up in Bloomington that night. We went and saw an Samuel instead and it turns out his mom had just passed away that morning. It was a good thing we stopped by so he had someone to talk to that wasn't just family and people saying sorry. He is super family centered and he committed to coming to church this week so hopefully he comes.
Oh yeah, on Friday we had a Ward party which was super fun. I got chosen to do this pumpkin relay thing. If I ever get pictures I will send them because it will be some really funny pictures. It was super fun and it helped us get closer to the ward.
It was a good week this week. Till next week.
Love you all
Seth
Monday, September 15, 2014
Week 2 in Andover
This past week has been good. We had an investigator drop us, but that is OK. We had an FHE with a family who has been investigating for a year now and it went great it was so much fun. We met with that same family on Thursday and committed them to work towards a baptismal date of Oct 18th. The dad has had a couple baptism dates in the past and hasn't made them, but we are sure he will make this one. We are doing all we can to help him stop some bad habits so he can make it and be baptized with his whole family. He really wants to be baptized because his wife died a year ago and he wants to be able to have his daughter do her baptism in the temple. So we are doing everything to get him to that point. I am sure he is going to make it this time.
So Ron and Heather didn't show up to church again it is frustrating because they sound so committed to coming in our lessons, but then they don't show up hopefully we can get them there at least once soon. That will help them progress so much more then they are right now.
The Liberian food at Harry's wasn't too bad he toned it down from super spicy to just a little spicy but he gave us so much to eat. I would finish and then he would say, "more, eat more". I had so much rice and soup that night it was crazy. We had a dinner appointment at a member's right after that. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, and pie we were so full!!! I thought I could eat a lot, but oh my gosh that was too much food!
Harry is coming along so well. We had only read the introduction and all the testimonies in the front of the Book of Mormon and he already said he knows it is all true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It is all so crazy amazing. He said he would get baptized but he is old and is super concerned about if he is healthy enough to get baptized. We think he is, but we will see. Hopefully he realizes it is better done sooner rather than later.
I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday night we were seeing where we should go tracting and we hadn't been having much success tracting this week. We choose a place and prayed about it and then each of us opened to a random scripture mine was Alma 26:22 which reads;
"Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance."
After that we knew we were suppose to go to that place to tract. While we were tracting there yesterday we found a couple potential investigators and one new investigator who we taught the Restoration to on the door step. We got a return appt and she has a young family which is like the type of people we really want to teach.
All in all this week has been pretty good. I do love it out here. The members in the Ward are really nice and the bishop said they are going to be revamping the Ward missionary work so that the members will be asking us to go with them to appts and for us to get more referrals.
So Ron and Heather didn't show up to church again it is frustrating because they sound so committed to coming in our lessons, but then they don't show up hopefully we can get them there at least once soon. That will help them progress so much more then they are right now.
The Liberian food at Harry's wasn't too bad he toned it down from super spicy to just a little spicy but he gave us so much to eat. I would finish and then he would say, "more, eat more". I had so much rice and soup that night it was crazy. We had a dinner appointment at a member's right after that. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, and pie we were so full!!! I thought I could eat a lot, but oh my gosh that was too much food!
Harry is coming along so well. We had only read the introduction and all the testimonies in the front of the Book of Mormon and he already said he knows it is all true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It is all so crazy amazing. He said he would get baptized but he is old and is super concerned about if he is healthy enough to get baptized. We think he is, but we will see. Hopefully he realizes it is better done sooner rather than later.
I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday night we were seeing where we should go tracting and we hadn't been having much success tracting this week. We choose a place and prayed about it and then each of us opened to a random scripture mine was Alma 26:22 which reads;
"Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance."
After that we knew we were suppose to go to that place to tract. While we were tracting there yesterday we found a couple potential investigators and one new investigator who we taught the Restoration to on the door step. We got a return appt and she has a young family which is like the type of people we really want to teach.
All in all this week has been pretty good. I do love it out here. The members in the Ward are really nice and the bishop said they are going to be revamping the Ward missionary work so that the members will be asking us to go with them to appts and for us to get more referrals.
Love,
Seth
P.S. The picture is the view from my apartment
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Andover Area Minnesota
So far the mission field is fantastic. I am in the Andover Area and my companion is Elder Boekweg from Mt. Pleasant, Utah we get along really well. It is super great we live in an apartment. It took the first couple appointments we had to get used to being the missionary. It just felt weird but now I am a lot more comfortable I am still trying to get used to talking to everybody that I see that is one of the hard things for me, but I am coming along in that area I think. We have a couple of cool investigators my favorite
is a 60 year old man from Liberia named Harry. Our last apportionment he said he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he is willing to get baptized. He is just worried about his health. He should be coming to Church next week, we hope. Another is a couple named Ron and Heather they want something better but they are so hard to get to keep their commitment. Heather promised she would come to church this week so I really hope she does.
So we had a really cool experience we were tracting and we knocked on a door and started teaching this guy "The Restoration" out of the pamphlet it got to the First Vision and I was reciting it and as soon i said "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head" his super bright porch light turned on right then it was so crazy awesome I cant believe it actually happened.
So when you teach the Restoration you are supposed to invite people to be baptized in that lesson right there and I have invited 3 people to be baptized so far. It was weird at first but now it is a lot more natural. I hope we can get all of our investigators to church this week.
We do get fed often. Last night we had dinner with a family in the ward and it was so great we had German pancakes and it just made me feel like i was at home it was great. On Wednesday we have a dinner set up at Harry's house and we are trying Liberian food I am super nervous because it is supposed to be like super spicy. Hopefully I can handle it.
Elder Boekweg says we are doing good work so far. I hope we can keep it up and get some more investigators. We have an FHE setup tonight with a family in the ward and then a family of investigators. It should be an amazing experience the Dad just has to overcome a smoking addiction and some law of chastity problems and he can be baptized. I hope we can help him get over all of that. Everything is going super great so far. I love it here the people are super nice and the Ward is pretty good too.
Love Seth
P.S. Ask the people in the Ward if they know anyone from the Andover Area.
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| New MMM Missionaries and Mission Pres and Wife |
Such an Amazing Week!
The MTC is so great I am learning and growing so much. The classes are so amazing our two devotionals have been amazing but the most amazing was on Sunday we got to watch an old devotional by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ" it was a life changing talk. It was so amazing. I have a link of one he gave like it at BYU-Idaho to send you guys. Listen to it because it is amazing. The Lord is blessing me so much. Our first investigator, who is just one of our teachers acting, is going great we have committed him to baptism witch is good. Our last lesson with our second one is tonight and those lessons have been so amazing. We have gone in with a lesson plan twice now and then not used them and the lesson focused on something else. We just taught by the Spirit. It is an amazing experience. I am told that I am good at knowing when to push commitments with our investigators so that is good. This whole time has just been so amazing, but I can't wait to get in to the field and teach real people. I am learning and growing so much.
I love you all.
Seth
Link to "Character of Christ" Talk by Elder Bednar
http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/ReligionSymposium/2003_01_25_Bednar.htm
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| MTC District |
MTC
So far the MTC is going great! All is going well. My companions name is Elder Torrie from Canada and we get along well. I wont tell you much about the first day because I am sending a letter I wrote today. I would have sent it yesterday but I had no time. The days here are very full, at most we have like 30 mins a day not including meals where we are not in a class or a meeting. Yesterday felt like it was 3 days long, but it was good. All of the classes we have had so far are great I am learning a lot of things. The spirit here is strong and I love it here. I feel like the 12 days or so that I am here are going to pass quickly. On Monday we have our first lesson with an assigned investigator. I hope it goes well my p-days here are on Friday so I will email again next Friday ,as well, just a couple days before I leave for the mission field I hope everybody is doing well.
Love Seth
P.S. The food is also pretty good.
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| Elder Torrie and Elder Howe |
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