December 21, 2009

So, this was probably the longest and most exciting week of my mission....
On Tuesday, Elder Williams gave an incredible training for district
meeting.  We were really close to reaching the mission goal of baptizing
1050 people in the year... and we needed to baptize someone that week.  So,
we looked through all our records for someone who has been to church that
we could baptize... but there weren't any.
So, we went tracting... Bagley was doing one half of the neighborhood and I
was on the other side... I decided that it would be fun to run from door to
door.  So, I started running and I was thinking about how we could find
people to baptize this week.  I decided I couldn't do the normal approach cuz
that would take too long so I just knocked on the first door and asked have
you been to the Ghurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before and
she said no. So, I said Lord bless you and started running to the next
house... I did that for 2 hours and didn't teach a single lesson...
As I was running down the street, however, a woman pulled up next to me in
her car and rolled down the window.  She asked what I was running from and
I told her nothing and asked her if she had been to church...
She said no, when can I come?...  just laughed and took her address down,
and her name, which is Cathy... I told her we would come by tomorrow... I
didn't think anything of it.
The next day we had President interviews and it was probably the best one
of my mission. I told President about the whole story except I left out
Cathy because I didn't think she was a big deal in the whole thing and he
loved my new approach... so later that day we went to her house and told
her where the Church was and invited her to our Wednesday night class...
At the class, Bagley put on The Testaments for all of the recent converts
to watch and when Cathy showed up, to our suprise,
I took her into another room and taught the first discussion.... turns out she has been to church 4 or 5
times and has read the Book of Mormon and already knew it was true...
hahaha!
So, we set up her baptism for Sunday, yesterday.
I called President that night and told him the miracle and he was so
excited about the whole thing...
Then we had mission conference and President had me come up during the
devotional and share my miracle and my testimony in front of the entire
mission.... After that, he did the entire training on how we all need to
have the faith to run... it was so cool! Then President pulled me aside
again and told me that Cathy is a bigger miracle than I understand....
Friday we had Elder Williams come to interview her for baptism and we
found a major problem... She is living with her boyfriend who is 14 years
younger than her and abusive...  She wants to get away from him so that is
her job for this week--to get him to move back to Miami where he is
from....  but her son Daunte got baptized on Sunday.

I finally understood what President meant by saying she is a bigger
miracle than I understand. He was definitely under the influence of the
spirit when he said that because as we were talking to her last night she
confessed to us that she wants all her kids and grand kids to get baptized
as well and she is going to set up all of the baptisms for us...
We are planning on baptizing her, her 2 daughters, one of her daughter's 2
grandkids, and her next door neighbor this next Sunday... so we are going
to need some prayers for Cathy Farmer-- she needs the courage to get
Jermaine, her boyfriend, out of the house.  We are going over their every
night this week to give her more support, but all the support that y'all can
give her through prayer will be stronger than that.
Another miracle-- our mission baptized and confirmed a total of 1055 people
this year. We reached our goal yesterday...
Anyways, thanks for all you do and I am excited to hear from everyone on
Christmas. I will probably call early. Love ya!

December 14, 2009

Hey the comp is being way slow today so my email will be short...
In our district here in Ocala we had 8 baptisms this week but the coolest
one was Bridget.  She was a part member family who is the daughter of an
inactive member.  In all six of us missionaries taught her at different
times and brought her to baptism it was sweet... she was supposed to get
baptized on Saturday at 2 but she got in a huge car accident and she
couldn't walk... so we gave her a blessing and she came and got baptized
anyways cuz she wanted it so bad.... then Sunday came around and they
announced that she wasn't going to be confirmed today because she had to
be rushed to the er.. because her pain was so bad... after the Sacrament
the doors open and she comes in on crutches with her Mom by her side....
she walks up to the front..... gets confirmed and then she had to be
rushed back to the hospital because of the pain... it was epic.... one of
the most inspiring things I have ever seen...
sorry my email wasn't any better.. I love you all.
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December 9, 2009

Sorry, I didn't write on Monday. We were in Gainesville all day and didn't
have time to make it...  but we had a good time. Elder Huff is going to be
playing the violin in the mission conference on the 17th so he needed to
go up there and practice.  We just played basketball, but we ended up
staying there really late and didn't have time to write home or go the the
store.
Well, we had a trade off with the district leader and he is Spanish. I
got to go with his companion to his area... Elder Hansen just came out and
can speak Spanish about as good as I can.  Also, he is scared to talk to
everyone so I got to teach some Spanish people yesterday...it was way funny.
We have met some cool new people lately, but no body incredibly prepared,
but we will go find some tomorrow and that will be a load of fun.
Anyways, I am sorry it's such a short letter but it's not p-day and we have
things to do.  I love you all and I am excited for Christmas when I
get to talk to y'all again.
OK, so for Christmas this year I need maybe two new white shirts--16 1/2
neck and two more pairs of slacks.  Pick some cool colors and designs-- it can
even be gray as long as its not like bright i can wear it...
Other than that I would rather you just put the money that you would
normally spend on me in my sock drawer or something for when I get home...
I really don't want or need anything right now.
If anybody else in the family wants to send me stuff I wouldn't say no to
some more ties.
Anyways, mom, I love you and thanks for all the letters and everything else.

**Note from mom**
This is so cool cause this is like 6 months ago....Trevon must have made an
impression on James and Angie.....

P.S. Mom, I don't know if you remember me telling you about an
ex-communicated member in Dunn Ave. that wanted me to come up and bless his
baby. Well, he and his wife are getting baptized and they want me to come do
it so i have to drive all the way across the mission on Saturday the 19th
to baptize James and Angie Howard... i am so stoked!

And I am going to need glasses when i get home most likely for driving.
I am starting to notice that I am near-sighted and can't read signs
until I am within 20 yards of them...

November 30, 2009

So Thanksgiving was sweet! In the morning we went to a members house and ate a lot of food. They sent us home with a lot as well. And then at night we went to another members house and ate a lot of food... and guess what! They sent a lot of food home with us too... We aren't going to have to go shopping for anything but milk for hopefully the rest of the year! That would be so nice...

So on Saturday we were tracting and we found a woman named Stephanie Medly who invited us right in and loved everything we said! ! She was soo sweet and said she has never been baptized and she wants to be baptized and her kids and her husband with her... such an awesome woman!.. We are going over to meet her husband and daughter who is 12 tonight and hopefully they will get baptized on Sunday after church... they have a 5 year old son, too... I talked to her about how her husband could baptize him when he turns 8 because he will hold the Priesthood by then. I am so excited for them... she doesn't even own a Bible so we have to bring her one tonight. She is so wonderful though... we also found some new areas that need to be tracted so we will hopefully be getting some sweet new investigators...

There was a really boring talk on Sunday and Tony our recent convert fell asleep and when he woke up he snorted really loud and made this buzzing sound! Everyone looked at him and he instantly pretended as though nothing had happened... it was soo funny! After Sacrament meeting was over he just busted out laughing... haha he is such a good kid...

Well I am still in Ocala... the only one who got transferred in our entire district was Elder Zabriskie who got replaced by Elder Porter as Huffs new companion...

Porter is sweet... he is a way funny guy. I am still with Bagley who has been doing a lot better. I am starting to figure out how to cheer him up when he gets down so we have been laughing a lot more this last week which is way good for him... He is always either happy or sad so we are working on making him happy. all the time...

Anyways I love you all and we are going to be working our tails off this week we still have about 70 baptisms to go to reach 1050 for the year so President wants us to get them all before the 17th which is the Mission Conference...
So keep praying for us love you all.