Week 26

This week was good.

Tuesday we found out that one of our investigators (who was at a rehab
in Smithville which was 40ish minutes away) moved back into his house in our
ward boundaries. He was in the rehab for a surgery that he had. So
that was some great news to hear! But we got our Mormon.org time done,
then we visited some potential investigators. Then we went home and
waited for our dinner to show up, it was supposed to be delivered
pizza but the order got screwed up so we ended up waiting for like two
and a half hours because of that. So that took the entirety of the
night...

Wednesday we were asked to fast by our mission president because the
numbers of the mission have been declining for a few months and the
MLC, which is some of the leadership of the mission, was going to
discuss solutions to the decline in numbers... Well we decided to
fast. So we went to an appointment that morning and were offered ice
cream by a member who was working an ice cream truck and we took it
without a second thought and started eating before we realized.... We
were fasting haha... So that ruined that experience. But anyways. We
went to a neighborhood and walked around for about an hour - street
contacting - with little success. We visited with some members in
the neighborhood. Then we visited with a few less actives and had
dinner and the last new member lesson with the P.family. So, they are
home free... Just kidding, we will keep visiting with them and helping
them get other things done.

Thursday we were able to meet with the investigator in our Ward who
had moved back into our boundaries. We talked with him about the Book
of Mormon and the whole story behind it. He committed to read it and
pray which was awesome. After that we visited with a member in our
Ward who we are having fellowship a part member family, or trying to
at least. In hopes of a potential baptism. After that we went to
dinner at an awesome family's house! I got to share the
dinner message in Spanish which was cool since I don't get much
practice in this ward. After dinner we had to go make a progress
record then had correlation at the Historic Liberty Jail.

Friday we had zone training in the morning, it lasted a few hours. It
was about what the MLC had decided was the solution for decreasing numbers
within the mission. We needed to
focus more on the Atonement of Christ, and we need to work with
the members more. I gave a short training on dinner messages and how
we can more effectively use them as a missionary tool. After that we
went to lunch. After lunch we went home and had about an
hour and a half before we had to go to dinner, so we tried to visit a
few less active members before going to dinner with a less active
family who we have been fellow-shipping and have showed a lot of
interest in coming back to church!! After dinner we tried to visit a
few people and called it a night.

Saturday was the FOURTH OF JULY!!!! we had a ward breakfast at church,
pictures will be below. After the breakfast some members started
playing a basketball game of knockout so I had to jump in, naturally.
the we helped some members in the Liberty 1 ward move a mobile home,
but we had to cut out early to make it to our dinner. So we ate at 2, then went
with some members and played some soccer for a few hours, which was
really fun!!! After the soccer we had to rush and go change because we
had to help 'usher' at a concert for an LDS family down in
Independence. We didn't really do anything but stand around. Our
Mission President attended the concert but asked that we were back
proselyting by a certain time so we had to cut out once everything started. We
went back and realized we were both starving so we grabbed some food
and went home to eat, we watched a few fireworks from our apartment,
but that's the extent of the night.

Sunday we had ward council which we usually report at the beginning
then are excused, but today we sat through the whole thing because the
sisters in our Ward were on shift at the Historic Liberty Jail  so
they couldn't go until later but we weren't told that we didn't have
to go until the end and we sat awkwardly through the entire meeting
with little relevance to us. Sacrament was okay. It was the
stereotypical sacrament that we don't want investigators to attend...
The first testimony after the bishopric member was about blood moons
and the second coming, so that was fun. Sunday School was about
fasting and the role it plays. well for the third hour everyone but
primary was combined to talk about the church's statement in the gay
marriage vote. We dipped out early to set up for the break the fast
activity, which went great! After that we visited with 2 less active
members and an active member family before teaching a youth lesson to
a young man in our Ward.

So this week was pretty good, we are still struggling to find
investigators. But I hope everyone is doing well. Hope you have a good
week!

Elder Hinrichsen