Still Biking and Finding!

We have biked a ton this week. While we were headed back to our apartment Saturday, a man at a house called out to us, "Hey, Mormons!" We were going pretty fast down hill, so we slowed down, U-turned, and came back. We didn't know exactly where the house was, but as we passed it again, a young boy looks at us through the door and says, "Howdy-doo, Mormons!" We stopped by and talked to the head of the household. His family has just moved here from out of state and they want to change their lives and come to church. We went back to their house the next day with one of the branch members. Our new investigator and his wife are amazing.

Our other investigators are doing great, as well!

Car Problems = Bike Riding = New Investigators!

We went on exchanges.  My companion went with an elder from my hometown, and I went with his companion.We went to a repair shop to get something fixed on the car, which took a couple of hours. On the way, we had to drive over a water bridge (a river on a road) and something on his car didn't like the water bridge. The next day, we had to take our car to a car dealership a few hours away for the exhaust system. We stayed in another city for the night, and went back to check out the car. The exhaust system was next to ruined, and so we have no car for this week. 

As a result, we've been on our bikes. It's been very awesome. A little hard because we had a couple appointments that were a mile or two apart, one after the other.  We've been biking everywhere. Half of our town has no sidewalks, so we've been riding along the edge of the roads mostly. It is fun.

Riding bikes in our area is fun because it is flat enough that it doesn't take too much effort to bike uphill, but it is steep enough that we go fast on the downhills.  Riding our bikes makes us think of a couple things we can do to make this area better. Since we don't have many investigators, we've been mainly finding. We've been thinking that we could be finding in a couple of other towns, too. We can bike around our town because it is tiny enough to do so, and we can drive to the farther places lwith our car and bike those towns, too!

We have two new investigators just by biking all around town! It is awesome.

I Love Italian Food and Missionary Work!

We went to an amazing Italian restaurant with some of our members, and their food is fantastic. We were also able to contact a less active who works there. Next week we are going to play tennis with him.

We contacted him again on Sunday with a branch member while doing ministering visits after Branch Conference. The restaurant was closed, but we were still able to talk with him.

Exchanges!

We had an exchange with our zone leaders. We met in a town up north, and I went even further north while my companion stayed in the town in which we met the zone leaders.. They stayed most of the day contacting people, and met a referral we received a week ago. He turned out to be a golden investigator. I haven't met him yet, and I probably won't meet him until next week, because we are having an exchange tomorrow with our district leader.

Tornado Warning...Not For Us!

We had a HUGE thunderstorm in our mission last week. It hit Poteau pretty hard, and we had a tornado watch in our city because this thunderstorm headed right for us. The members told us where the tornado shelter was, because our apartment isn't the best place to be in when a tornado comes. Interesting thing about this big thunderstorm was that it was on the anniversary of the tornado that went through a neighborhood in 2009. People were very scared that we would see another one. We were teaching a lesson on that day with a member with us, and we heard a bunch of thunder and a huge downpour occurred at the end of the lesson. After we said the prayer, we received a call from the member's wife, and she talked to her husband and said something about a tornado warning (Tornado has been spotted). We went back to the house and got drenched along the way. We went to the house, and we found out it wasn't for our area that had the warning, it was another place where the members' son was, and the tornado was almost on top of them. We said a prayer for their safety, and we heard later from these same people that the tornado barely missed the trailer home where their son was. It was awesome.

Because He Lives!

We asked one of our branch members to create a sign for the Because He Lives Initiative.  It is awesome. We're going to show the rest of the missionaries in our zone.

Don't I Know You? You Look Familiar!

An elder from my MTC (Mission Training Center) district is in my Zone now! Guess who his companion is? The Navajo Elder who grew up on the reservation.

The Work Moves Forward in Brazil and Australia!

I am very extremely super-duper happy right now :D.  I've been thinking about a ton of different things. Two young men in our branch got their mission calls last Saturday!!!! One is going to Brazil, and the other is going to Sydney, Australia. I need to tell him about Vegemite!  :D They are leaving in September and August, and they are so excited. One of the mother's cried when she found out where he was going.  I'm so glad that their mission calls came when they did.

Investigator Getting Close to Baptism...Elsewhere!

We've made progress with one of our investigators who has wanted to be a member for ages. He is moving outside of our mission sometime this month. We're going to refer him to the missionaries in his new branch. He is going to be a pretty easy baptism for them. It is awesome!  After he moves, he will be able to be baptized in three weeks. He got permission to go to church from his parents. I am so excited for him :D

General Conference Was Amazing!

General Conference was amazing! My favorite talk was the one given by Elder Wiford W. Andersen, who talked about the Navajo Medicine Man and music (#NavajoPride ;j). Another elder in our district and I loved that talk a lot because we're both Navajos :D.  It should also be obvious because he talked about music (Which I still listen to 24x7).

There were a ton of talks that were mission-themed :D I loved those talks, too. It was awesome. (I kinda fell asleep during the last session, but in my defense, the pews are extremely comfortable in the chapel.) 

Biking, Working, Saving Miles!

This week has been AMAZING! We were able to get a lot done. We've been trying to bike around our city to save up miles for the car to drive to the farther places. It is working, somewhat.

Our District is Splitting...

Our district had a district meeting a few weeks ago because nobody was getting transferred. It was awesome.

I love today. We're "going fishin' in the Mississippi River" * (Jk....we're fishing in Poteau ;j) with the rest of our district as a last HURRAH! Our district is getting split because of another district that needs another group of elders to have a district meeting. We'll miss them, but they'll do well in that district.

*The "We're going fishin' in the Mississippi River" is in reference to the lyrics of the finale in "Tom Sawyer, the Musical" that I participated in during my senior year of high school.

Happy Easter!

Have you seen #BecauseHeLives. helives.mormon.org ? You should watch it. It's awesome. We've started using it and we've had success with getting members invigorated with it.  We've been trying to find more people to teach, and haven't found success yet, but it'll come with this Easter Initiative.

Awesome Sunday Happenings!

We had a linger-longer this past Sunday, and a couple of investigators came to it! A less active came too! It was awesome. We had it because there was a senior couple that was in our town that came back. They did a bunch of work here, and we use their work to help us find less actives. It is awesome.

New Investigator!

We have a new promising potential investigator. He is willing to read the Book of Mormon. It's awesome.

Green Skies or Green Lightning Means Tornado!

I love this area. It is awesome. There was a tornado in our mission at the beginning of this week, and our town had hail and huge thunderstorms from the same storm that caused the tornado. We heard that one person died from the tornado. I've also heard that if we see green lightning, or green skies, that means tornado. I'm pretty excited for tornado season.