Preparing the Way...

We're really starting to get our area going...or rather, the Lord is preparing our area, to do a lot of missionary work. Very exciting.

We also had a zone training meeting, of which my companion and I experienced a miracle or two on the way.

An Investigator + Some Lessons = A Baptism!

We had a lesson with one of our investigators about the law of chastity at the church. We then went to a ward member's home and had another lesson about the laws of tithing, the fast, and the Word of Wisdom.

Our investigator has applied to Brigham Young University (BYU) and she is really absorbing the gospel.  She has read from 1 Nephi to 3 Nephi in three days. She is amazing.  Her baptism is on Saturday. I am so excited!

*My parents received this text from one of the members today:  "We wanted to thank you for raising such a wonderful son. The last few weeks he and his companion have taught our friend. Today was her baptism! We hope you enjoy these pictures."

Exchanges With the Assistants!

We had an exchange with the Assistants again this week. They taught us a couple of awesome things about the pamphlet lessons. We received a referral from a family while we were on the exchange, and the Assistants slept over at our apartment. The Assistants literally live out of their car, because they travel everywhere and go on a ton of exchanges.

New Investigators!

We have two new investigators who are going to get baptized within the month of November...99% positive! One was a member referral who almost knows the church is true. The other is someone who comes to church often, knows the church is true, but hasn't been baptized...yet.

Mission Halloween Fun!

Halloween was fun. We received TONS of candy from a lot of members...well, I received a lot of candy...my companion doesn't do much candy, so I received 90% of the candy...and the other 5% went to him...the last 5% went missing for some reason. Trunk or treats are fun. For the trunk-or-treat, Elder Naef dressed up as a "three-hole punch missionary", while I had an eyepatch...everyone's costumes were amazing at the Trunk-or-Treat.

For Halloween, I dressed up as my companion, and my companion dressed up as me. :j That was fun. We spent the two hours between 7 and 9 (we had stop proselyting at 7) at a cool investigator's house. We talked and had some more candy.

We had a little scary event happen during this week. A recent convert wasn't doing too well with his health. He is doing better now, but on the day his wife called us...she didn't think he would last the weekend.

Nevertheless, it was a great week. We were able to do a lot in both of our towns/cities. We got a new Ward Mission Leader in one ward, and the other Ward Mission Leader in our other ward wants to have more exchanges with us. I'm excited for that.

No Voice, Stake Conference, and "See You Later"...

I lost my voice this week the last week in October.. Losing my voice was fun. We tried to only have me whisper, but that didn't work, so I tried to talk...and that didn't work. I've found almost all of my voice now, but I have a cough now, which isn't going away for a little while based on the experiences I've had so far with laryngitis in my mission, But that's okay, I love cough drops.

We had stake conference, which was really fun. I finally met a General Authority in person! I've always missed them by a tiny bit. I was kinda scared about being transferred to another stake in our mission because this same General Authority went to their stake conference the week before...and I was giving a talk on that Sunday, and based on my previous schedule on talks on the week of transfers...I really thought I was giving my farewell talk in this area.

I was able to visit with a lot of other missionaries on transfer day while my companion and and I were waiting for our car. It's a really nice car. We love it. It has a back-up camera (we still have to back each other up, but it's a lot easier...we just stand and do nothing...well, a bit more difficult than that, but you get the picture. Two of my former companions went home this last transfer. It was a joyous reunion with both of them, right before we got the car. After visiting with them, we went back to our area, while they went to the mission home for their last dinner, and night in the mission. It was awesome to see them and visit with them.

General Conference and Other Happenings!

My favorite thing that happened last month was General Conference. 

I especially liked Dallin H. Oaks's talk on the Atonement. I loved Elder David A. Bednar's talk also, and President Russell M. Nelson's talk, too.  We had an investigator come to General Conference. It was cool

Other neat things that happened:

• While at WalMart, we ran into a lady who had seen us at the library about thirty minutes before.  We talked to her, and she tearfully told us to put her father into her prayers. We told her we would, and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She was excited to receive one, and she offered to pay for items. We declined the offer, so she made the cashier put all the items on her card. It was very surprising.
• One Preiparation Day Evening, we had no other plans for the rest of the day, and we still had 30 minutes to proselyte before we could return to our apt. My companion suggested that we pray, so we did. We were thinking about what to do...then we decided to check the mail, even though we already did earlier that day. We walked over and checked the mail. Obviously, there was nothing in there the second time. As we were walking back, however, we saw someone to talk to. We talked to him, and as we were talking to him, a woman came out. We talked with them both for a bit, then a car pulled up to the apartment building. The driver was a woman who was friends with those two we were already talking to. We were able to share a little lesson with all three of them, and the women seemed the most interested. My companion cuts hair, and one of the women him to cut her boy's hair. He told her he would do it, but we had to share a lesson after the haircut. She accepted gladly. It was awesome.

In other news, our trio dissolved on October 13.  One of our companions was transferred to the next ward over. He didn't go far, but we were sad to see him go.  It was totally weird to go back to an original companionship. For the next five days, My other companion and I kept on having awkward rides in the car, awkward lessons, awkward time in the apartment, etc. because we were so used to having an additional companion there. It was totally weird/funny.


Then later on in the month, during transfer call, we found out that my companion and I are both staying in our current area.  I was a little shocked that I was staying...I didn't know what to do when I heard that I was staying. I was so used to packing after transfer calls that I had to walk around and do something for the rest of the night.

My companion and I are so excited for this next transfer. We're helping a couple people quit smoking, with quite a bit of success with one...in fact, she's quit. The other is a little harder, so we've been preparing some DVDs with a TON of Mormon Messages on them because I love Mormon Messages, and it is a great way to help people quit smoking.

We went to our town's Fall Festival (and we were the taste testers for the dessert contest), and we received a ton of new prank ideas from a member who pulled pranks on her mission...It was so funny....My companion and I love pranks. It's an interesting way to have comp unity, but it works!

Mission Review...

So far on my mission...

• my favorite food has changed from chicken enchiladas to steak....I love steak. It's pretty expensive, though, so we don't usually get it.
• the hardest thing about serving a mission is talking. Talking to people I don't know is extremely difficult.
• the most enjoyable thing about serving a mission is seeing investigators get "more light" in their eyes as we teach them.  As they keep their commitments, and meet the challenges and goals that we help them set, we see a light come to their eyes.  It really makes a huge difference. It's always cool to see that!