The Stake presidency invited President Griffin to speak on Sunday to
the bishops and ward mission leaders about the new flowchart from the
Quorum of the Twelve and the missionaries. It was an awesome meeting.
President Griffin is really good at making people feel at ease and
helping people understand more background before they make an opinion.
Being a Montanan rancher he can be really tough but he also can make
you feel like a million bucks and calm down a room. I know I was
called to this mission so he could be my mission president.
As far as our area goes this week we had a lot of flakiness happen. It
was sad to learn that a member didn't pick up an investigator for
church and we potentially have lost them as an investigator. We
weren't mad, just felt like we dropped the ball ourselves. To show the
Lord that we understand people don't come to the church because of
anything we did but by the Holy Ghost we made the goal to clean our
Areabook up- completely. We have a lot of lessons planned to figure
out people's desire level. We need to help these people know our
purpose, we are there to help them apply for blessings and become more
like Jesus. We feel good that if we do that, the Lord will have more
trust in us and put some solid people in our path.
Spanish Grill
It's a joke in the ward to make fun of my Spanish because...well I
don't pretend to understand everything they do but on Thursday at
splits with the elders quorum, hermano Dominguez who is our best
friend made the comment that my Spanish was getting worse since I got
here. He was just kidding but I was serious when I asked him to "help
me improve it then". He agreed and gave us a challenge: memorize 150
words and 10 verbs with all their conjugations in ten days and he'll
grill us dinner. I think it's been an answer to my prayers in several
ways. I've been trying to be more humble and with everyone poking fun
at me which I absolutely dislike because that pride thing it's been
great to use those opportunities to just accept it kindly and I've
been looking for ways to help fire me up about Spanish and not coast
with what I have. Hermano Dominguez' grill is legend here so you bet
your bottom dollar I'm going to accept that challenge.
Elder Plourde
...is the coolest. President wasn't lying when he told me I was
getting one of the best. Besides being a great chef, he's really quick
to pick everything up. It just clicks for him. He's from Fort McCloud,
We're
going to have a great time!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Bryan
January 12
First off, thanks for the birthday wishes. More than anything I feel a
sense of urgency as I am constantly reminded of how little time I have
left. Last birthday in the field and now coming up, last call home,
last general conference,etc. I want to leave Arizona feeling like I
did everything I could to help everyone around me come closer to
Christ in some way.
Our week this week was a little slow, everyone we are teaching is
sick. It turned out to be ok because we were able to clean up our
potential investigator lists. This area is pretty transient and our
records are a little outdated. I have to have things organized so now
I can breathe better. It feels so good to have a potential list of
people who actually live there and want us to stop by.
I had a lot of interviews this week including a French woman who
couldn't have been 5 feet tall. She was bouncing in her seat when the
translator told her that I passed her. People here are more humble and
receptive to the gospel. It's a cool sight.
La Pimienta fantasma
We have some families who live on the edge of the boundaries and
attend the other Spanish ward. In an attempt to convince them to come
to the ward they should be going to we set up a fhe with two families
for last night. After a really good lesson they informed us that they
made dinner. Good thing we had just finished before we got there :/
They really appreciated us stopping by because the other elders never
visit them. 'We have a great way to fix that!' We let them know, "come
to our ward and the missionaries can visit you more! Or move into the
other ward boundaries". They're going to think about it. Hopefully yes
because our ward needs more big families.
I guess they have this thing where they invite missionaries to try a
Ghostpepper, some form of entertainment. This guy unfortunately
stepped up to the plate. In my whole entire mission I haven't had
anything nearly as hot as this. It burned immediately and didn't go
away. I couldn't think. I'll send a before/after picture to give a
better idea. I tried the whole, 'you do it with me' to the dad but he
had asthma so I didn't luck out on that. Good experience but I don't
want to do it again.
Transfers
We got the news this morning that elder Clough will be transferred. I
was looking forward to being his companion for longer but 8 weeks is
better than the usual 6. #transferredMidTransfer. I also found out
I'll be training again which I'm super pumped for. I love training and
can't wait to meet the guy tomorrow morning. I'll let you know more
when I do.
Deyanira
Again a new investigator in Oasis West. We now have two recent
converts and eight investigators that live there. Deyanira was
actually a referral from Maria, an on date woman who has been sick for
a month and hasn't had us over till last Friday. Deyanira showed up to
church which was unusually cool and accepted the baptismal challenge
but wants to pray about her own date. Now if Maria and Deyanira could
help each other out to complete their commitments, they'll be on fire!
Thanks for all you do and have a great day!
Love,
Elder Bryan
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