Teaching the Restoration

From an email sent to mom:
..........That'll be fun having the missionaries over for dinner and restoration! You'll have to tell me how they teach it. We really like using the pamphlets the church provides. The Sunday before last we taught the Young Men and after we talked with them and discussed the lesson for like 45 minutes. I asked them how fast they though it could be taught. They said 10 minutes at the fastest, some of the leaders guessed 5 but we bet them I could teach it in under a minute haha. Of course they said no way. So I used the pamphlet and had someone roleplay me knocking on their door while someone else timed us on the watch, and wouldn't you know it they accepted the invitiation to pray after I got through the whole thing at 59 seconds! They were blown away haha it was sweet! I just used the pictures on each page of the pamphlet to explain each one of the points of the restoration lesson briefly, it makes a great door approach :)

What A Week! 4/29/13

It has been quite a week here in Quantico! We had some really good lessons with a lot of the people we are teaching and found some sweet new people to teach! We also got our car towed haha, that was a bummer. We woke up Friday morning and our car wasn't in front of the apartment and the front office told us it got towed for not having a parking permit. We didn't know we needed one haha but it turns out when we switched the area from having a minivan to a car, the parking permit that comes with the apartment was left on the van's window and we can't get another one from the front office... so we are in the process of retrieving the pass off the old van haha. Luckily since it wasn't our fault the mission office reimbursed us for the towing bill, usually the missionaries just have to pay for it haha. Later that Friday though we were driving back from an appointment and stopped at a red light and sure enough we got rear ended! Same day the car got towed! Both of us were just fine, but our car's bumper is messed up pretty bad so it's going to be back to the mechanic this week! We're not looking forward to that at all haha. It still ended up being a great night though. We met a woman named Dabrika and started teaching her and she wants us to come back this week! So that'll be sweet for sure. Also Lorenzo and Nicole are super excited for their baptism on the 11th, that is going to be awesome! They have decided that they want me to baptize Nicole and Elder Rasmussen is going to baptize Lorenzo, we are honored and can't wait! We are going golfing again today with Lorenzo and a friend of his from the ward at 3 o clock. This is the best ward ever! Awesome people to teach and golf, what more could I ever ask for? Haha. It's a little rainy today but that won't phase us, the 4 of us love to golf! We had a family that was planning on coming to church this weekend for the first time but then last minute the wife got diagnosed with an early case of lymes disease, such a bummer! She got a tick bite during the week that ended up causing it but they caught it super fast so she is going to be alright. Lymes is dangerous though, if you leave it untreated for very long at all it can take years to recover. In those cases it usually causes some permanent joint damage too, scary stuff. So she is down and out on antibiotics for a bit but they want to come to church so bad! So they are going to try and make it this next week instead haha. Hopefully they can! The husband of the family is taking us shopping on base tonight at the comisary and marine exchange which are super cheap stores reserved for people with military ID, we are stoked! We are going to save a ton of money haha. Well that's about it for this past week, it's been a good one as always! I hope that you are all having a great week as well and I will talk to you next week! Love and miss you all!

Busy busy week 4/23/13

Man this past week has been packed!! So packed that we had to move our emailing to today, bummer for sure! Transfers are always a crazy week for us though because we get put in charge with making sure everybody gets back to their new areas and gets situated, it's a awesome couple of days filled with phone calls from missionaries about questions if they just took a second to think about they would already know what to do haha but they call us instead. Now I know why my Mom got mad at me for all the times I would buzz into her office at work for easy questions I should have figured out on my own haha. But I am still here in Quantico with Elder Rasmussen! Which is awesome! I was so glad to stay in the area and I'm glad Elder Rasmussen and I will get to work together some more! It was a rough week for lessons due to all the meetings and missionary business we had to do, but things are going lots better so far this week! We had to spend another full day in the Mechanics this past week as well, for the same thing we were there for just a few weeks back! and now we will be going back for the same thing again this week... lame! The brakes on our car are not doing so hot haha. Or I suppose they are doing too hot really, the new pads they put in last time were put in wrong so they just rubbed constantly on our rotors and caused them to overheat and warp, so this past time we had to wait 5 and 1/2 hours in their little lobby while they replaced our pads, rotors, and calipers, the longest day of my life! And since then the brakes have been sounding even worse haha so we will be back in there in a few days, bleh. If this place didn't have to keep doing it for free because they did it wrong we would definitely find a new mechanic haha. Luckily though we are missionaries so we are involved in a work every day that makes all the frustrating times melt away! haha. The people we are teaching are all doing great! Lorenzo and Nicole who were going to get baptized this upcoming weekend had to move their baptism to the 11th of May for a few reasons but they are solidly set for then! We can't wait! It was announced in church this past Sunday and everything so they are excited and ready! We also met a new couple that we are teaching this past week from Nigeria, they are way sweet! They loved the message we shared about the restoration and loved the book of Mormon! In fact they stopped us and asked us if they could come to church with us like halfway through our lesson haha. African people are the coolest! We have lots of great lessons lined up for this upcoming week as well! It's always a good week in Quantico! Well I hope that each of you are having a great week as well and I'll talk to you next Monday! I love and miss all of you!

A Busy Week Here! 4/15/13

It's been another busy week here in Quantico but that is always a good problem to have as a missionary. Busy-ness is welcomed haha. We had two more of the people we are teaching commit to a date for baptism this past week, so that was awesome! They are working towards May 4th as a goal as a couple. We can't wait! We had a zone training on Tuesday with the missionaries in the Stake that really seemed to go well, those always make for some busy prep work though haha. Then Wednesday we had a doctors appointment for Elder Rasmussen to get some blood work done, he might have Limes disease :/ so we're really hoping and praying that nothing comes from that. Also we were able to go on exchanges with some Elders this past week that went really well too. The Elder I was with was from Norway, so it was really cool to get to talk to him about his home country, such a different place than here! It sounds like a way sweet country though, I'd love to go visit there someday. We had some really good lessons this last week though with each of the people we are teaching. We were really glad we still got to get some good teaching in despite being so busy haha teaching is always stressful but at the same time very refreshing because you get to see the Gospel bring happiness to the people. We had dinner at a members home with the family preparing for baptism this month that we really great as well. Their names are Lorenzo and Nicole and they are working on being baptized on April 27th. They are such a cool family! Nicole is the one who has been inspiring all of Elder Rasmussen's healthy eating haha, she is ready as can be to join the church, she wants to be baptized so bad! We are just helping her husband find his answer that what we've been teaching is true too. He's not opposed by any means, he just doesn't have the same conviction she does for the Gospel quite yet. We are going golfing on the Quantico Marine Base golf course today with a guy in our ward, that'll be sweet! Golfing 3 P-days in a row, I love this area! We also got word from a guy in our ward yesterday that he talked to the manager of a local course and worked it out to where we can play the course for free from now on since we are missionaries, how cool is that?! So we're going to get some good P-day golfing in haha. Also today we are having a Zone BBQ with all the missionaries in the stake at a national forest in our area. It's going to be a great day! Transfers are this week and Elder Rasmussen and I are really hoping we stay together, we get along great and are making a great team so far. Well I hope you are all having a great week wherever you are!  I love and miss all of you! Talk to you next week!

Another Awesome Week in Quantico 4/8/13

Well it sure was an awesome week here in Quantico! Conference this weekend was great and we got to go on some good exchanges with missionaries in the zone this past week as well. Watching conference with each of the people we are teaching this past weekend was definitely the highlight for sure! We had another husband and wife decide that they would like to get baptized! Also the family that had gotten their answer last week has set a date of 4/27 as a goal to have their family baptized on :) I can't wait! They are such an awesome family! We were able to have some really good time with them this weekend in between the sessions of conference answering questions and helping them to be ready and living the Gospel standards. We were planning on going golfing with the husband and a guy in our ward today but they ended up not being able to go, so Elder Rasmussen and I went and golfed again on our own, it was awesome haha. Unfortunately we got even worse since last time haha but it was still a lot of fun! So the story of that husband and wife that decided that they would like to be baptized was pretty cool, we were watching conference with them Sunday morning and afterwards we were just talking to them about everything that we had been teaching them, and the book of moron, and conference and how they had been feeling about everything and the wife just asked "So do we have to read the whole book of Mormon to know that it's true?" and we were like no it all just depends on when you get your answer from God, sometimes it takes 1 verse sometimes it takes the whole book. Her response to that was "Oh okay cool because I have already prayed about it and I got an answer that it was true, so I'd like to become a member" We both were shocked! How cool is that? This was only our second time meeting with them, they had met with missionaries in a different ward for a long time but baptism was just never really talked with them I guess. So as soon as we brought it up and invited them they were ready to go! It was sweet! Such a cool couple! We are going to try and go out to lunch with them and the other family that just got their answer this upcoming week so they can all talk together, it should be awesome! The messages of conference were great as always though! It was crazy to think that this will be my last General conference that I get to see in the mission field. My Mission has flown by so fast! The Priesthood session was definitely my favorite one. The talks by the first presidency were all phenomenal! They were very motivating and exactly what the guy that we are teaching who was sitting next to us needed to hear. It was super cool! Well that's about it for the week! I am so drained from golfing! My clubs are super ghetto so my hands are very sore from the grips haha. It was fun nevertheless though! I hope you have all had a great week wherever you are! I love and miss all of you guys!

An Awesome Easter Week in Quantico 4/1/13

It has been a great week here in Quantico! We have had a lot of great lessons and have had some awesome success working with the members of the ward here. I got to be a missionaro de espanol this past Tuesday with my past companion Elder McGoffin who is now a Spanish Elder, that was cool, I got to practice a little bit of my Spanish, it's too bad I almost failed that class haha. We got to go on exchanges with our Stake President Wednesday night, which was very sweet, we got to take him with us to a few lessons and we were glad to have him. We have a really missionary oriented Stake here, it's awesome! We had an incredible Easter Miracle though! We had a family that we've been teaching got awhile come to church for the 2nd Sunday in a row, which was cool. The Mom has been investigating the Church for over 20 years now and has told us many times that she just has a hard time believing all the things that Mormons believe and really can't accept that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. But on Sunday they seemed really happy to be there and just super-friendly talking to everyone, and in our Sunday school class she showed me a text on her phone that she had sent us the night before and we had never got saying that she had received her answer from God that this was the true Church of Jesus Christ and she wanted to talk to us as soon as possible to see what needs to happen so that her and her husband can be baptized! How awesome is that?! She ended up baring her testimony about her search for the truth during that same class. We went with their family to the Temple Visitors Center that evening and they are excited to be able to go get sealed together as a family someday as well. It was awesome! Her only concern now is that she wants her husband to be as pumped up as she is about the church and knowing that it's true before he joins because she doesn't want him to fall away later on. She has a very in depth understanding of the church but he doesn't know too much about the foundations of our beliefs so he wants to start by reading the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover and gaining a testimony that way. That really made for such an awesome Easter! We have been working so hard with them! They are such a sweet family! We are going to go golfing at a super high class country club next week with a guy in our ward and the Husband of the family this next Monday, it should be super sweet! So today Elder Rasmussen and I are heading to a golf course nearby to practice up a bit right after we finish emailing haha. I can't wait! I hope you all had an excellent Easter as well! That's about it for me from this week. I hope you all have a great week, and I love and miss all of you!

Six months to go!





MTC group. These boys will be home in 6 months!!