Christmas Came and Went!

The whole Christmas thing went awesomely!  I played a piano solo of "Oh, Holy Night" at the Christmas All-Mission Conference.

I received the Christmas packages from home...including the Christmas tree. I now have two Christmas trees! The sister missionaries that are in the apartment I was living in last December found my Christmas tree from last year, so they gave it back to me at the mission conference! I was so excited.

We're trying to find a lot more people. It was an interesting week. We have a couple of promising potentials. We're still trying to find more, though.

We've received eye-pads....You know those Minion notebook things shaped like a minion-eye? They're called eye-pads. We have those.  We don't have actual iPads, yet. Don't know when those are coming.

We went Christmas carolin' on Christmas Eve :j. The Christmas Zone Conference was great. I love the missionary life.

Finally, I got to Skype with my family on Christmas Day!  The audio was not working properly, they could hear me, but I could not hear them.  So, we used Skype for the video, and the cell phones for the audio.  It was so good to see each other, and hear each other's voices.  (Weird, but good!)...and I got to meet my family's foreign exchange student.

This and That!

My mission is the last mission to get iPads, I think. My trainer heard that they were getting iPads at the beginning of his mission...well, he's home from his mission now. So, It's been over two years.

We had a mission conference on Monday, December 21.

We had a baptism a couple of Saturdays ago. It was an awesome baptism. I don't have a picture yet, but my companion will email the picture to me sometime. It was really fun. I played the piano for it :D.

We had a zone conference in Springfield. I was able to see some former companions, and a bunch of my other friends in the mission.

I'm totally excited! We have a few solid potentials. :D. The branch president and his family are amazing. We went a-carolin' around the neighborhood, and we gave away a ton of ham to members in the branch.

Transfer = New Responsibility

I'm the furthest away from the mission office that I can get in the mission...It's pretty fun to be here.

Transfer days are always on a Thursday. Just count every six Thursdays and that's transfer day. Transfers start around 6:30-7 and go until around 4-ish.

I am now a district leader.  As district leader, I can set up exchanges with any elder in my district (besides the zone leaders), I have to collect indicators every Sunday evening and write them down...and then send the info received to the zone leaders. I have to prepare for district meetings every Wednesday...except for this Wednesday and next. We have a zone conference and a mission conference these next two weeks. So...a lot. I was the district leader's companion for two transfers, so I know how to do many of the things.

My district consists of three wards and three branches.  My new area is pretty cool. It's a lot like one of my previous areas, only bigger. We have a railroad crossing right in the middle of the city. We have some awesome members. We have had a Christmas party, and Stake Conference.

My new companion has red hair. He loves to tract. He's from Utah. He's been out for 3 transfers (4.5 months), and he's stayed in this area for all that time.

Amazing Exchange, Baptism and Confirmation!

We've experienced quite a bit lately, including snow, ice, and an amazing exchange.

Last month I went on exchange. We didn't have any appointments set, so we OTMed/tracted all day...not the most effective, but we went into a Kids Resale store. The only person in there was a lady. Music was playing in the background. I recognized the music to be "In the Dark of the Night" in Anastasia, so I told the lady that I knew this song was from Anastasia. She was so excited that I knew what it was because not a lot of people did. We talked about Anastasia for a bit, then about families, then about the church. I completely forgot to take a Book of Mormon with me when I came in, but we were able to give her a #BecauseHeLives card.

Well, 5 days after that happened, I asked another elder about the lady at the store and he told me they had closed. I was not happy about that. I've remembered to take a Book of Mormon with me since that incident.

Two weeks later we got a call from a ward member about a new referral. We met with her a week after that. We set a baptismal date two days later, and we arranged for a baptismal interview. Our district leader, asked us to exchange with him to save miles for the baptismal interview. My companion stayed with one another elder in this area while I went with the district leader to another city.

We were discussing our plans for the day, and I asked if we could check out this place where we found the lady. The district leader told me if we had time we would. So, we went to the first appointment. We then went to meet a member at a restaurant. I looked out my window as we passed the Kids Resale store on the way, and I told the district leader this was the place where I met the lady. Well, the member texted us, saying she was going to be late, and we found the opportunity to check out the "Kids" place. I went with a Book of Mormon this time. We walked in, and the same lady looked up to see who it was and said, "It's the Anastasia guy!"

Quick conversation starter! Anyway, we talked with her for a couple minutes, handed the Book of Mormon, and left. We both felt the Spirit in there....It was a wonderful day!

We baptized our new referral that Saturday. Her nonmember family showed up. I showed a couple of Mormon Messages after the baptism while the my companion and our newly baptized member were changing back into their dress clothes.

Then, my favorite part happened. On Sunday, the ward mission president confirmed our newly baptized member. It was a beautiful experience to stand in the circle and do that...I love confirmations so much. It's always the best feeling during confirmations.