Missionary Work

Hey family!
    This week has been a great week! We actually got to spend a lot of time working in our own area... it was really nice. We picked up a family that was dropped a little while ago, and it was a miracle. The mom said "ever since you told me I wasn't progressing, I had a new found commitment to progress." She's been studying a lot, and came to church 2 weeks ago. She has a baptismal date for the 26th, and her kids will soon follow. They are 16 and 14 years old, and we're going to start teaching her 22 year old and bring him to the singles ward. I'll have my first english baptism! haha. Exciting. About other investigators, they're coming along well. We need to find more though! There's never enough.

   I wanted to send a bunch of pictures today, but I forgot my camera. I'll try and get a bunch developed and mail them out. Our area is right on the edge of downtown LA, so we took some really cool pictures. Part of me is glad I'm not serving in downtown, there are a lot of crazy people down there. We had some experiences that aren't really apporpriate to tell in an email, haha.

  Thanks for that thought you shared with me dad, I love the word "become". I've studied it a lot lately, I'm giving a training on it tomorrow to all the missionaries that are currently being trained. I'm using a lot from Dallin H Oaks talk "the challenge to become". The word become really puts things in perspective. I've realized that not one of us will reach a point where we can say "I became." We're always "becoming", emphasis on the -ing.

  Well I don't have much time today, as usual. :) We're playing frisbee golf later!

I love you guys! have a good week.

 

Tennis

Hey Family!

   Yes my p-day is on Saturday, but I'll probably still write e-mails on mondays. or maybe saturday, it's up in the air really. I'm so glad EJ is playing tennis! I played again this saturday, it was awesome. One of our members is starting a free tennis clinic every saturday, and it'll be a good missionary finding activity so I'll probably be playing tennis every week for the next few months! I'm excited.

   This week has been pretty busy, again. We were able to work in our area more though, so that was nice. 1 or 2 times a week we set up a booth at Pasadena City College to proselyte to the younger folk for our singles ward, it's a lot of fun. We found an awesome new investigator this week named Vivek. I think his family is from India. He's a 17 year old kid. We were walking around our church building waiting for one of our members to show up for an appointment and we ran into him. He first told us that he was athiest/agnostic and didn't really have any interest. We talked some more and for some reason he agreed to come into the church and take a tour. When we walked in he said "ah crap I forgot I have to go home now to eat with my family..." so we said okay and left him our phone #. As he was walking out he turned around and said "you know, I've actually been thinking a lot about christianity lately and I have some questions, I've got a few minutes." Well, a few minutes turned into about a half hour and he was so happy. He kept saying "this makes so much sense!". We were all very edified. At the end of the lesson I reached out to give him a handshake and he opened up his arms and gave me a big hug. President said once "You can know the spirit is working in you when you and your investigator both learn in a lesson." That's definitely a true statement.

   Well I'm excited to see pictures of that family all together! I'll work on getting some pictures soon, I've become a pretty bad picture-taker lately. Too busy! Okay, thanks for everything! Look forward to hearing from ya next week. love you all.

 

Ben.

  

Busy...

Hello Family!

   MAN I've never been so busy in my life. This last week has been pretty crazy. We had zone conference every day this week in different zones, give trainings, had to figure out transfers, call them out, move people, blah blah blah...haha. But it's been fun, I love working closely with all the missionaries and president. My 2nd night as Assistant we got a call from president at 2:00 AM asking us to go save some Elders because their apartment caught on fire. It was pretty crazy, everyone is safe now though. It's just been a super busy week, to say the least. I love my new companion, he's such a good missionary. My new area is great, too. It's weird to be working in a singles ward, but it's a lot of fun. Most of the singles ward members are here from Utah doing internships at Disney and stuff. I've already gotten a few chinese referrals, so I'll still be speaking my language occasionaly :) The family ward we work in, Glendale 2nd ward, is a great ward. Lots of the members are movie makers and directors, and lots of them work at disney and pixar and places like that. We met a guy on the street the other day that was the director for the TV series '24' haha. We're going to play tennis with a member and potential investigator tonight, I'm super excited. I haven't played tennis in forever. I live in the hills of Glendale, it's so pretty. The streets are narrow and the people are crazy, but it's a lot of fun. We can see downtown outside of our window. Glendale is filled with ARMENIANS. There are tons of them, we have an armenian branch here. Matt Dixon taught some of the Elders here when they were in the MTC. But yeah... everything is going great. 

   I've felt pretty overwhelmed this week with this new assignment. The elder that I'm replacing as assistant was definitely one of the best elders i've ever met, and it's been hard to feel that I'm capable of taking his place. But I've realized that the Lord didn't call me to be another him, but to be me. I've still got so much to learn, I almost feel like a greenie again. I love the opportunity to learn though and I'm grateful for that. I better get going though, I love you guys! Have a good week!

 

Ben.