Monday, October 31, 2016

10/31/16

10-25-16
This morning, we had DDM and I gave a training on faith. I focused on the power that faith has and how we can use it more fully. The APs showed up for it too, so that was a little nerve racking, but it was also good to see E. Overson again. After that, we stopped by some less actives and tried to set up some appointments with them. One of the less actives we stopped by is actually, Elder Staley's aunt! When I found out I was going to Blythewood, I remembered that his aunt lives there... so I went up and talked to him at transfers and got her contact info. She was a really nice lady when we met her and knew me from E. Staley's emails! It was a great way to break the ice and visit with her. Then, we stopped by a part member family where the wife is just the member. We pulled up to this really nice and big home and matched the address with who we were looking for. Her name is Sis. Lyons and we were able to catch her at home! Her mom and dad were there as well. Above her fireplace was a really big painting of lions laying down. Haha, so come to find out... her and her husband are owners of Auntie Anne's! We had an appointment that set up yesterday while we were biking around and went to a less active's house. He wasn't there, but his fiancée (Ana) was there and had met with missionaries before. We brought a member with us this time and his name is Steve Dobbs. And he looks just like Steve Jobs so it was hilarious. 😂 He also works on the circuit boards for work, so they're practically the same. He's just the off-brand version of Jobs. Haha but we got there and Ana was the only on there, so we taught her and one of her daughters. She's such an awesome lady and understands the Restoration! Bro. Dobbs had a lot of good input as well since he is a convert. 

10-26-16
We decided to visit a lot of formers that we have so we can figure out if they're interested in sitting down with us again or not. So we parked the car and biked around to each house. We decided to visit a less active who was in the neighborhood we were at, but she wasn't home. BUT her sister in law was and she was really nice and seemed interested, so we set up a time to meet with her again! After that, we loaded our bikes up and went to another area where there's a less active named Taimi Hill. Come to find out, it's this big Samoan dude. His wife answered the door and let us in. He just had surgery only his leg, so they were coincidentally, home from work! His wife was really nice and she's Puerto Rican! She called their kids SamoRicans. We talked to them for awhile and got to know them. Taimi played on a Samoan Rugby team out in New Zealand, so he knows how to do the Hakka. We went to the apartment to get some dinner and remember that there is a "Meet & Mingle" at the front office building of our apartment. They had a ton of pizza and cupcakes, so we had that for dinner! They had a raffle giving out gift cards and prepaid cards. There were five people that could win and we won! We didn't get any cards though. We got a voucher for a free carpet cleaning... 😐 haha but that's okay because we still won something! We had an appointment with a less active family we met last week named the Reynolds. There is a lady and her 18 year old son that lives there. We went there and ended up just talking to the son, Michael and built a relationship. He showed us his Mustang that he has and he took us for a ride. He's very proud of that thing! Haha we talked about how he needs to take us out teaching in it, so maybe he will come out with us sometime! We set a return appointment so we could actually share a message this time with him and his mom. 

10-27-16
I read over my Patriarchal blessing this morning which is always so neat. There are many things that I have already noticed in my life and so much more to come! We went to visit a guy who called us last week to set up an appointment. He was such a nice guy and had some great questions for us. We talked about the BoM and gave him one to read. We are going to go see him again on Sunday! While we were knocking around a less active woman, we knocked on this one house that is really nice with a big pond in the back. A really nice lady answered the door and knew we were Mormons. She started talking about her family history, so we gave her a pass along card for our family search. After that, she went off about Hillary Clinton and the refugees here and how she thinks white people will "become extinct if we keep bending over backwards for other races." Let's just say she was a racist! This sweet little lady was bashing on other races! Haha after that, we went to an appointment with... ironically, a black lady who's a less active (Sis. Lyons). And we shared the talk by Russell M. Nelson this last Conference called "Joy and Spiritual Survival." She asked for another blessing, so we did that as well. After dinner, we stopped by a few other people and then had choir practice. 

10-28-16
We were trying by some investigators and less actives and we noticed that an older lady who is a member lives around that area. We decided to stop by and introduce ourselves. Her name is Frona and she's this really sweet lady who has MS. Her house recently flooded, so she had a ton of things just scattered everywhere since they just put down new carpet. We could tell she was embarrassed about it, so we decided to help her organize her living room. We put some shelves up again and her decorations. She was so thankful and happy that we came because she rarely has visitors. Before we left, she gave us a big box of all kinds of food and a framed pictures of the temple. Haha she wouldn't let us say no! After we dropped the food off at the house and had dinner, we went to ward Coordination at Bro. Taylor's. We discussed the people we are working with and then afterwards, we got into some deep doc questions which was fun! Haha I love learning about deep doc because it's so intriguing. 

10-29-16
Today was a pretty slow day. We had three set appointments today and they all fell through... We were able to get in contact with a less active we have been trying to meet and he said we could stop by later to see him. We went over there and got to know him which was nice. He is from New York and that's where his wife still is. After we met with him, we got back to our apartment and got ready to go to the Ward Fall Festival (Trunk or Treat). There were a lot of people there including another Ward, so we got to talk to and introduce ourselves to a lot of people. We ate some hot dogs and talked with some of the young men and the other Elders. 

-Elder Mitchell