Week 16

Hey everyone! This week has been a tough one! We just couldn't get much done no matter what we did, but that's how it goes some times!

 

Monday, the week started off fine, it was P-Day obviously then at the end of the day we had dinner with a family from Colombia, in South America and one of the grandmas there who doesn't speak English so we spoke mostly Spanish, the Grandma isn't a member so we taught a little lesson in Spanish and then gave her a Restoration pamphlet in Spanish, at one point during dinner someone asked if we could teach her a lesson, she said "Si, pero no hoy" which means yes, but not today, and the of the kids in the family said that means she's not really interested, but we found out yesterday that she read the pamphlet and has a few questions! So we are going back on Wednesday to meet with her... that was the highlight of our week.

 

Tuesday, We found out mid day that we were losing the car, so we had to drop everything and go give the car to some other elders, which meant that we had to cancel some appointments because they were spread out, and that we couldn't really visit a young man who we are teaching who lives in the ward boundaries a ways away from us, for the entire week. So we gave the car up, and then went to the P. family's for dinner. After dinner we helped a family tear up some carpet because they were getting wood floors in the next day.

 

Wednesday, We went to visit someone, and when we got there after walking for like 40 minutes, Elder Valdez said, "wait a minute, I've visited this house before, she doesn't want any contact with the church!" so we walked there for nothing, and we had to rush back to our house to get ready for district meeting, in Independence. After District meeting we were picked up for dinner with an older couple that just got back from a mission to Pittsburgh where they worked in the office, they were super nice. Then we had an appointment to teach a youth in our ward, that is something our stake does, the missionaries teach the youth to show them how missionaries teach and stuff like that, while we were in that appointment our last appointment for the day canceled so we just stayed at the youths house and shot a few hoops, fellowshipping, right?

 

Thursday, we went on splits. I was with Elder Elwood in our area and Elder Valdez went to Riverview with Elder Kiene. Elder Elwood is from Gilbert, Arizona. And is a genius, he got accepted to MIT before coming on the mission, so he will be going there when he leaves in June with Elder Valdez. All day we just walked around and tried to visit people, but we only got into one house, a members house. After failing to visit people, we just went home where someone dropped dinner off. After dinner we walked to the church which is like half a mile, maybe a little farther from the house. And after walking all day and having nobody say anything bad to us, we were stopped TWICE to get chewed out by people, that was one of the most frustrating things I have experienced yet, even the Elder Elwood, the Zone Leader, was mad about it. Well after that we were picked up at the church for correlation which went pretty well, we planned a ward activity that I thought up, watching Meet the Mormons as a ward with maybe like a dinner or something.

 

Friday, we had weekly planning, after which we had a meeting with the 17 year old Brother G., our recent convert, at the Historic Liberty Jail, where we told him that he lives in another ward, Liberty 1st ward, and that we would take a little time to get a smooth transition in. I think a member of our ward said it right, "Is it more important that a soul is saved, or that the number look good, Is the ward boundary more important that this kids salvation?" I loved that. It boils down to the fact that we taught him without knowing where he lived, because we taught him in the church every time. Well that night we had appointment with Brother H., our investigator on date for this coming Saturday, May 2. He has struck a relationship with a lady in the ward who is kind of crazy and may believe in some things that the church doesn't, so we told him that if she ever tells him anything that we didn't or if she contradicts anything that we have said, to ask us about it, and he completely agreed with it, so that was relieving!

 

Saturday, we tried out a few people with little success, like our entire week went. Then we did some service for a member of the ward, we helped him clean out his rain gutters. After that we had dinner with his family, the Antezana family, they are one of our favorite families, the dad served a mission in Colorado and isn't much older than us, they have one daughter who is just a few years old. We love visiting them. After dinner we visited for a little with them.

 

Sunday, we had church. Which was very good. For sacrament we had a little performance from the stake choir about the temple, it was really nice. the rest of church was very good as well, I felt like I really needed that. After church we had choir practice, we joined the ward choir! Then after practice we walked home where we were picked up for dinner by a family that we love, and they really like us! It is the family that pulled us aside from the Presidents devotional last week and said that we are the best missionaries the ward has had. They are a really great family!

 

The week has been a long one. No matter what we have done it feels like we couldn't accomplish anything, but I still remember when Elder Torgerson told me that the mission is like a rollercoaster, that right after the lowest lows come the highest highs and vice versa, and honestly that is what has kept me going, is the faith that something greater is in store, that if I keep working my hardest we will find success! I love you all, I pray for you daily! Have a great week!

 

Elder Hinrichsen