First Snow of the Season, Butt Dialing 911, Crazy Wolf Lady, & an Evening with the Washington's - Praise the Lord!!! - 01/18/2016

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful week! It has been a pretty good one for us. 

Monday was just a super chill Pday, nothing really exciting there. 

Tuesday we had our meetings and then we went to work on the farm. It was really fun. The kids we we're helping were enjoying it and seeing the smiles on there face just makes your whole day better. While we were helping with riding in the barn, it started to snow! It was the first time that is has snowed this season and let me tell you Elder Bentley and I were pretty excited. 

On Wednesday we spent the day meeting with recent converts and less actives.  We also met with Harold, who is the member who takes care of our meal calendar. He is a very interesting man. He is really lonely so he loves to spend time with the missionaries.  After dinner we had our lesson with Betsy. We were teaching the world of wisdom and the Ten Commandments. I was kind of nervous about this lesson because the very first time we met with Betsy, she was wearing a I Heart Coffee shirt. We went over the lesson. Other thank her kids being really rambunctious and our phone butt dialing 911, the lesson went well. She didn't bring up any concerns about the word of wisdom and she committed to follow it.

On Thursday we met with some less actives. One of the guys we had met with had been a member since the 80's, but he stopped going to church 18 months after his baptism because of a few trials in his life. He is currently agnostic and he doesn't know if he will ever come back to church. He said he has nothing against the church, he just has something with God. It made me pretty sad that he has spent a good chunk of his life in that state of mind. I hope he will turn around sooner rather than later. We were also able to spend some time with Brother and Sister Chaney for dinner. Brother Chaney was baptized about a year ago and he is a really solid member of the ward. After dinner we went to our ward mission leader's house to have our ward correlation. It went really well, Brother Matsen is really good at what he does. 

On Friday we spent a lot of time at the bottom of our area visiting some lonely members. We visited this lady named Sister Puckett. She is known throughout the mission as the crazy wolf lady.

She is very kind and she loves the missionaries. One of the things we helped her out with was buying some supplies, so she can make some shirts. (She was the lady who made our wolf dream catcher shirts). We also had a finding activity at the metro. It went pretty well. I was able to teach a couple of lessons, but nobody was really interested.

Saturday we spent pretty much the entire day checking on all of our 17 referrals. It actually went really well. We were able to drop in on a couple and we were also able to set up a couple of appointments for this week. Saturday evening we had a very interesting dinner. Probably one of the craziest dinners on my mission. It was at the Washington home. A little background on the Washington family. Sister Washington is African-American and she is very proud of that. She is one of those people that just goes on and on about race. She has been a member for quite a while now, but she has been less active for years. She has just started coming back to church for about a year now. Sister Washington is married to Darrel, who is also a member, but he is not active at the moment. They have three boys. Sister Washington invited two of her friends for over for dinner. We found this out when we arrived at her home. She put Elder Bentley and I together with her nonmember friends in the front room by ourselves. Sister Washington proceeded to tell us to start talking about the church with them. It was pretty awkward, but we tried our hardest to make the best out of it.  All throughout the dinner, relatives of the Washington family kept piling into the cramped apartment. All of them moved into the family room to watch the football game, while Elder Bentley and I were in the front room trying to make good conversation with these friends of Sister Washington. When we were about finished up eating, Sister Washington invited us into the front room with everybody else. She told us that she wanted us to share a quick message and tell people who we were. She then proceeded to mute the TV while everyone was still trying to watch the football game. She then told everyone to be quite and listen to us. So I told  the small crowd of about 20 people that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we go around teaching people about how they can live happy lives and how they can come closer to Jesus Christ.

Elder Bentley shared his brief testimony and added that we do not worship Joseph Smith. After he had concluded speaking, Sister Washington went around the entire room having everybody say something religious. There was a wide spectrum of religions represented in the household. Most of these people were Christian, but there were a couple of Muslims. When it came to be Sister Washington's turn, her whole speech was pretty much about racism. She told everyone that the church was no longer just for white people, but it is also for the black people now. One of  her sons told her to stop making it all about racism. She then told him that it is all about racism. This whole conversation was very awkward because Elder Bentley and I made up two of the three white people in the entire house. The rest of the 20 were all African-American/African. I found it very amusing, it brought me back to the good old days in Anacostia. When everyone finished with what they had to say, Sister Washington randomly broke out into an old Baptist hymn that I had never heard of. Everyone started to sing along. If you have ever seen one of those Baptist choirs in a movie or on TV, that is pretty much what it looked like.  Elder Bentley and I were just awkwardly standing in the corner not knowing what to do.  Ha ha, it was a very fun night. 

On Sunday we had church like all the other Sundays, but this Sunday Betsy came once again. Yeah!! She had an awesome time with her kids. Her two kids went to primary and they both loved it. Her older son Alex went to young men's and he also seem to enjoy it. The ward did such a great job of fellowshipping all of them. Betsy is planning on being being baptized on 31st of January. We're very excited for her. Later Sunday night we went to the visitor center for the Why I Believe fireside.

It was excellent, the main speaker was a man by the name of Terryl Lynn Givens. He is a professor down in Richmond Virginia. He has written a few Books.  He wrote The Crucible of Doubt, The God Who Weeps, and Wrestling with an Angel. He gave an awesome talk! After the fireside I talked to the sister missionary who has also been working with Betsy. She told me that she had been talking with her about the Word of Wisdom. Betsy told her that after her fasting, she had not had the desire to drink Coffee. That made me very happy to hear.

    

Anyway that was our week in a nut shell. Thanks for all of the emails that you guys have been sending. It really means a lot. 

Have a fantastic week!

English Lessons with the French Elders, Betsy's Answer, A Visionary Man, and Exchanges with President Cooke - 01/12/2016

I apologize in advance! This email looks like my brain just threw up on the page. Sorry everyone...

Hey everyone!

I am so sorry about the late email. This week has been sweet! Monday was just another super chill day. We did not do anything super exciting. 

Tuesday we had our usual meetings and once again, the farm was canceled last minute, so we had an open day. We we helped out the French Elders teach English which is always really fun. And after that I was able to get a hold of a family that was in my first area which is probably 10 minutes away. They invited us over for dinner, and let me tell you, it was so fun. It was Elder Bentley and I, and two other missionaries who live right next to us that went. One of the missionaries, Elder Warens, served in the ward a couple transfers after I left. It was really great to see them. They are probably one of my favorite family's I have come into contact with on my mission.

Wednesday we had our normal visit with one of the crazy members in our ward. Our roommates and us also had dinner with the Natalie (the recently returned missionary) and her friend. After dinner, Natalie and her friend came with us to our investigators lesson and it went really well. We were able to find out that she had been praying and fasting to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if this was the true church. She ended up getting her answer on Tuesday. This investigator's name is Betsy. Betsy and her family were visiting the Festival of Lights at the temple. A sister missionary contacted her and asked if she would like missionaries to come and visit her and Betsy said yes. A couple of day's later we got the referral so we went and knocked on her door and nobody answered. We tried a couple of times, but still nothing. Finally a couple of weeks later we got a hold of her over the phone and we set up a lesson for December 30th. That day roles around and we show up for the appointment. We go in and got to know the family. We find out that it's actually a part-member family. Betsy is a non-member. She has 3 kids, Alex age 17 (he is a member),  Aiden age 7, and Gigi age 3. Her husband and his family are members, but he is very less-active. So we started teaching her the first lesson and it went pretty well. At the end, she said that once she got her answer about if the Book of Mormon was true, then she would be baptized. We then set up an appointment for the next week. Okay,  fast forward to this past Tuesday, January 5th. One of the sisters during our meeting was asking us about some referrals that she sent off from the visitor center and one of them was Betsy. We told her everything that had happened up until that point and she was very excited. She told us that she would follow up with her over the phone. Now this brings us back to Wednesday at her appointment. Betsy tells us that she had been fasting and praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true and if the this was the true church. She started her fast on Monday the 4th. On Tuesday she was still fasting for her answer. Some point later in the day Betsy was watching Mormon messages with her kids. During one of the messages her mind drifted into a "prayer mode." While she was in this state, the sister missionary missionary called her and she felt the Spirit so strongly that she started to cry over the phone. So she told us that she had her answer and that she wanted to be baptized. So we set her date for the 30th of January. That lesson also went really well! We taught her the plan of salvation and let me tell you,  it helps so much went you are teaching with members who have just gotten back from their missions. Haha, sorry for the very confusing story, my mind is all over the place. It would be much easier to be able to tell this story in person. 

Thursday we were visiting with one of the less actives in the ward. His name Is Josef and he is from Turkey. We were going into this visit with the mindset that we were going to teach him the first lesson, so we could get some practice and help his memory. Well that was certainly was not what happened. We were able get through the first point and then out of nowhere he tells us that he has visions. He starts describing all of these visions that he has had and all of the ones that have come true. It was pretty trippy.  

On Friday we had exchanges with President Cooke and it went really well. We had a really great evening planned out. We were going to take him to both of our investigators who are doing awesome right now, but one of them canceled on us so we took him contacting at the metro station for that time. We took him over to meet and also help teach Betsy. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well! The Spirit was super strong. 

Saturday we had a couple of lessons with some less-actives and a recent convert. Later that day we were suppose to go to the temple with a recent convert, but he was not able to make it, so we visited some other people. 

Sunday was great! Betsy and her kids came to church and they loved it! It was awesome to see them all there!

🇺🇸ElderJohnson🇺🇸

Happy New Year! How Do you Solve a Problem Like Sunny? 1:00 o'clock Church, and New Year's Resolutions - 01/04/2016

What is up everyone! Happy New Year! 

I hope all of you guys had an awesome, and safe New Years! It was pretty crazy hear! Let me tell you haha. It has been a pretty great week. 

Monday was a normal chill P-Day. Nothing to exciting. 

Tuesday our lessons with our investigators got dogged which was unfortunate, but because we did not have any appointments planned, Elder Bentley and I were able to help the French missionaries teach an African to speak English. It was really cool! In the process of helping teach English we were able to learn some French as well.  

   

Wednesday was pretty interesting. We were on our way into an appointment with a new investigator when all of a sudden we get this call from a North Carolina number that neither Elder Bentley or I have ever seen. I answer the phone and it was a little man with a thick Asian accent. I could not understand him for the life of me. I thought he told me to hang up the phone and he would text us, so that is what I did. I hung up the phone and then 5 seconds later we got a text saying why did you hang up on me? So I quickly called him back. Thank goodness this time I could understand him much better. He told us his name is Sunny and he wants to learn more about Jesus Christ and the Mormon Church. Elder Bentley and I were pretty stoked. We talked to him for a few minutes before we walked into our appointment. We found out that he lives in North Carolina and he got our phone number off the computer. We told him we would call him back as soon as we got out of our appointment. He asked us what time we would call him, so we told him around 3. We went into our lesson and it went really well. It was a young part member family. We commited them to reading the Book of Mormon and almost baptism. We also setup an appointment for next week. Our lesson went a little over time. As soon as it hit 3:01 we get a text from Sunny asking us what happened to us. As soon as we were out of the appointment we called him. He was kind of mad at first, but we were able to calm him down. We told him that we would get missionaries in his area to contact him and we would call him back on Saturday....( to be continued)...

Thursday we spent a lot of time finding with little success. Our mission had announced that after 5:30 on New Year's Eve we could not proselyte. So we pretty much spent that time with members. A family in the Ward was having some of the youth over for a party and they invited us as well. That night was full of good food and board games. 

     

 Friday was a non-proselyting day because of the holiday so us and our roommates had a pretty chill day. We enjoyed ourselves with some Cafe Rio and we spent a good chunk of the day transferring photos and videos off our iPads on to our flash drives. Elder Bentley and I had dinner over at a member’s home. When we got there all of the Spanish missionaries in the zone were there so it was packed, but it was lots of fun. The lady who was feeding us was originally a member of our ward, but for the past year she has been going to a Spanish ward with her son so she feeds all the missionaries from both wards. After dinner, all the Spanish Elders left and Elder Bentley and I got to sit down and talk with Lulu (the member who feeds us) and Natalie (Lulu's daughter who just got back from her mission a month ago). It was so much fun. They are some really cool people.

     

On Saturday we were in our studies and all of a sudden we get probably 5 texts within 10 seconds. We check the phone and it was... Sunny (story continues). He sent us 5 of the same texts. They pretty much said "What happen to you guys? Did you read my last text I sent?" So Elder Bentley gives him a call. We tell him that we would give him a call back at 11 when our studies ended. 11 comes around and Elder Bentley calls him up. Sunny tells him that missionaries have not contacted him and he wants to learn more, so Elder Bentley proceeds to teach the first lesson to him over the phone. He commits him to read the Book of Mormon and he commits him to be baptized. After he got off the phone He goes to LDS.org to call the bishop of the ward that covers the address that he had given us. The Bishop picks up the phone and Elder Bentley tells him he needs the missionary's number who serve in the area. The Bishop asked what the name of the referral was, so Elder Bentley tells him. The Bishop proceeds to tell him not to worry about it. He tells Elder Bentley that Sunny is a member in his ward and he has been a problem. He has been calling missionaries all over the United States wanting to learn more about Christ. The Bishop told Elder Bentley to block Sunny and he was already working with Sunny on that problem. THE END. The rest of the Saturday was spent with a couple of members. One of them was Harold, who is the person who passed out at church. He just got back from Hawaii and wanted us to give him a priesthood blessing. I was able to give him the blessing and while I was giving it I felt inspired to say that he would get better. I know God has a plan for him. I just hope he is willing to align his will with God's will.

     

Sunday was our first day of 1:00 o'clock church. It felt really weird walking out and the sun was setting... Kind of depressing haha I felt like those penguins in Antarctica during those dark winter months.

     

Sorry for the lengthy email once again. I hope you all enjoy the start of the new year and I hope you all have made some kind of New Year’s resolution that you will keep longer than a month, I know I struggle with that, but I feel like this year will be different (I know, I know... everyone says that). If any of you guys were wondering here are a few of the New Year’s resolutions I have made:

1.       No carbonation :(

2.       Write in my journal every day

3.       Drink at least 60 oz. of water a day

4.       Exercise everyday👌👌, except the Sabbath 🙏

5.       Read the standard works.

Thanks everyone! Have an awesome week! Please!

🇺🇸Elder Johnson🇺🇸

Merry Christmas!!! - 12/28/2015

Hey everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I know I did. Because of Christmas being this week, the work was a little has been a little slow, but it still has been enjoyable.

     

On Monday we did our normal shopping at the local grocery store and the we hung out for most of the day. Towards the end of Pday we realized that we needed to grab a couple of things from Costco that we had forgotten about so we rushed over before Pday was over. While we were shopping Sister Prince was shopping at Costco as well so we said hi to her. She ended up buying a bunch of groceries for us. It was very thoughtful of her. After we were done with Costco Elder Bentley and I went caroling with some people in the ward.

      

Tuesday started out with having breakfast with one of our investigators and then we taught him some of the plan of salvation. After we had finished up we traveled to the chapel for our district meeting. After the District meeting, the zone leaders had prepared hot chocolate for us. Unfortunately most of it burned. After District Meeting, we spent a lot of time trying to contact the referrals that we keep receiving. After we had finished with that we went to the visitor center with some of our members.

     

On Wednesday we had an appointment with Harold (the guy who fainted at church). Harold loves the missionary's so much. He had prepared stockings for Elder Bentley and I with different presents. It was very nice of him. After that, we were finally able to meet some of the other Brazilians from that apartment. We taught the restoration and It went really well. There are just a few hang ups for these people, but I think we will be able to overcome them.

     

On Thursday we had breakfast with our investigator, David. We finished up the plan of salvation and we tried committing him to a baptismal date, but he is not ready. He wants to be baptized, but he feels like he needs to make some changes in his life before he sets a specific date. We are still working with him and we are hoping that we will be able to break down that barrier. After we had finished with David, we finished up with some gifts that we were going to get for an elder that had not received anything for Christmas. Then we went and helped this guy move into his new place, and yes this is on Christmas Eve. We helped for a good chunk of time, till we had to leave for another appointment. The appointment we had to go to was with Igor. He is so solid! We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he loved it. He was even telling us what he knew about the the different kingdoms.

After that appointment we went with our roommates to a party in Chevy Chase that Harold invited us over to. It was a great party! Tons of food and drinks, lots of things to do, and there were lots of missionaries. We even got really nice ties as the door gift. It was very fun. This was actually the same party I went to last year. After we had finished with the party we raced home and put together all of the presents we got for this Elder who had not gotten anything. We gave all the stuff to some other missionaries that were going over to stay the night. They smuggled all the presents in and once the elder fell asleep they put everything under the Christmas tree.

     

Friday was Christmas!! We woke up early so we could open our presents as an apartment. It was great! It reminded me a lot of home.We had our Christmas Conference at the temple visitor center. The Cooke family put on the devotional. After they had all spoken, the Assistants presented the Cooke's Christmas gifts. The mission had given them a Redskin's jersey with all of the missionaries signatures. The other gift was a dinner the assistants put together a few weeks earlier. The dinner was shown to us in a little video they had put together. After the gifts had been presented we were able to watch a movie. Well, how it went down was the Disney castle showed up on the big screen... Then Star Wars music started playing.... Then the classic intro started with the Star Wars Episode 7 "The Force Awakens" in huge letter then all these words go flying up the screen. Everyone was cheering like crazy. Right when the movie was suppose to start the screen went black and then the words "Just Kidding" covered the entire screen. Haha we were not happy haha. Instead of Star Wars we watched Inside Out which was still pretty good. After the movie we walked over to the Stake Center, had lunch, watched the mission talent show, and then we left and drove to a members house to Skype and have dinner. Being able to Skype my family was awesome! It was great to see everyone. After we had finished with that we sat down and had a nice dinner. And that was pretty much our Christmas Day in a nut shell.

     

We spent Saturday getting back into the grind. We spent a lot of time planning and trying to set up some appointments with people, but it was kind of difficult because we are still in the Holiday season. We also went up to the visitor center. We were going to meet up with one of our investigators, but he never showed up.

     

Sunday we had our normal Sunday meetings. We were able to get one of our investigators to church. It was the first time he has attended and he seemed to enjoy it. We were a little nervous because in the priesthood meeting it was a hard core pornography lesson, but he seemed to enjoy it! After church we met with some members for a late lunch/early dinner. Then we spent more time setting up appointments with different people and then we went to the Festival of Lights again with our investigator Igor and his mom who just flew in from Brazil on Christmas Day. They both loved it very much. Igor's mom could not stop crying at all the lights and the music and the Christmas trees. It was pretty cool.

     

Thank you all for all the support you give me! It really does mean a lot. And sorry about the long email It has just been such a great week! Have a Happy New Year and I will talk to you guys next week!

🇺🇸ElderJohnson🇺🇸

Merry Christmas, Book of Mormon for the Chick-Fil-A Lady, Festival of Lights and Davis Allen! - 12/20/2015

Hey everyone! merry Christmas! I can't believe it is all ready here again! Time is really flying by! This week was very enjoyable!

Monday: Monday as pretty relaxed. We started of our day with going over to Dr. Prince's home. (He is the same guy who owns the farm we work at.) We sat in his Library ate some cheese and had some very interesting discussions. It was quite nice. For the rest of that day we pretty much spent it on shopping. One of the places we went to was a church book store. Elder Bentley, our roommates and I bought a Book of Mormon for this lady at works at Chick Fil A. All of us have been going to Chick Fil A pretty often for the last transfer and almost every single time we go she gives us free food. This lady isn't a member so we thought that a nice Book of Mormon with her name engraved was a very appropriate gift. We also made a shirt with a picture of our faces haha! It's pretty awesome! That's how we spent most of our Monday. 

Tuesday: We worked on the farm and had a good ole time as always.

Wednesday: Most of the day was taken up by our transfer meeting.

Nothing crazy happened, most of the people stayed in the same areas.

After transfer meeting we visited a few members in our ward and checked on referrals from the Christmas events they are putting on at the visitor center. We have about 15 people that we need to get a hold of, but they are doing a really good job at hiding. We have only been able to get a hold of three of them and they told us that they were not interested.

Thursday: We visited with some less active members. One man we visited with is from Turkey. He is a very cool guy, he has been in the United States for most of his life. He immigrated to the US when he was very young. He became a tailor by trade and had become very success until 2008 when the market crashed. He had owned shops all around the country, but unfortunately he had to close down most of them. He now works in Chevy Chase. He can't come to church because he works every Sunday,  but he told us that he is planning on retiring sometime in January so he can start going to church again. 

Friday: Us and our roommates went to Chick Fil A for lunch and we gave that lady the gifts that we got her. We told her she could only open the Christmas Cards and she has to wait till Christmas to open the other ones. She was very excited and very happy. After that we spent most of the day trying to contact those referrals again with little success

Saturday: We started our day with teaching one of our investigators about the plan of salvation. It went pretty well. He gets distracted very easily so we are going to have to teach him differently, so he will be able to concentrate. After that lesson we spent the rest of the day contacting and trying to build our teaching pool.

Sunday: we had our normal Church services. Five of our investigators were suppose to show up, but they all got hung up with something. After Church we visited with some family's and then later in the evening we went to the Festival of Lights. At the Festival of Lights we saw three of our investigators! It was awesome! We got to set up an appointment with all of them. I also saw a very familiar face that I have not seen in about a year and 5 months. Elder Allen was visiting the temple visitor center! It was so great to see him. Sounds like he is doing an awesome job!

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Thanks for all you do!

  

Helping on the Farm, Festival of Lights, a Baptism Date for Igor, and Christmas Caroling in Spanish?? - 12/14/2015

Hey Everyone! I am so sorry for this late email. It has been a pretty busy day. This week has been a great one. On Monday we relaxed the whole day and then some members took us out to Cafe Rio. After we finished up with that we went and visited the member who had passed out at church on Sunday. He seemed like he was doing okay. His health has been declining for the past little while now.

     

Tuesday we had our district meeting and then we headed up to the farm to help out with riding. It has been really fun. The kids we help are great. Every time they step up on to a horse they have the biggest smiles on their faces.

    

A lot of Wednesday was spent checking on referrals that we have gotten from the Temple's festival of lights. And to make a long story short, none of the referrals answered the door or their phone and so we had a lot of free time. Earlier in the week, a lady from the ward called us telling us about these neighbors who were wanting to learn more about the gospel. So we decided to call her and see if we could get the information about these people. She answers the phone, but she said she was really busy and she would call us back. So Elder Bentley and I we sitting in the car waiting for this member to call us back while this van comes up to us and starts honking at us. We rolled down the window to talk to the person and it turns out she was the mother of the member who was going to call us. We get talking and it turns out that she has all the contact information for these neighbors who want to learn more about the gospel. We call them up and one of them was home and available. We headed over to his place and taught the first lesson and now he has a baptismal date!! His name is Igor and he is a boss.

Thursday we went on an exchange with the young men's president. We visited some less actives and it helped us get to know the members a little better.

     

Friday we spent the majority of the day contacting people. And later in the day we went to the temple's visitor center for the Festival of Lights. It was great.

Saturday we went contacting at the metro stop. After we concluded with that we were invited to participate in singing to the elderly. Funny thing about it was that elder Bentley and I were the only English Elders and the rest were Spanish. So every few songs they would all bust out in Spanish and we would just stand there awkwardly haha it was pretty funny.

      

Sunday was stake conference and we once again had the chance to go back to the visitor center for Festival of Lights with one of our investigators.

     

Thanks for everything you do! If you could send me our address as soon as possible. Anyway have a great week!!

This is my Happy Face!!!!

National Mall for PDay, Mission Temple Trip, Festival of Lights at the Temple, New Investigators, Ward Christmas Party and Christmas Devotional - 12/07/2015

What's up everyone!! This week has been a good one.

Monday we went down to the National Nall for Pday. We went to the this spot on the mall where the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, are directly in front of you  and then to your left the White House, and directly behind you is the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, and on your right is the Jefferson Memorial. It is a really cool plaice where you can see the history of this great nation in every direction. After we found that spot we walked through the WWII monument to the Lincoln, all the way around to the Jefferson memorial building then clear over to the capital building, to the Library of congress. It was a long walk but it was worth it. At the Jefferson monument, when we first got there it was silent and nobody was there. Then all of a sudden busses of students came pouring in and it was no longer quiet haha.  The cool part of this was that there were two schools from Utah there and we were treated like celebrities hahaha. Tons of the girls asked us for pictures and tons of the guys asked us for mission advice. It was awesome! At the Library of Congress we got lost in the basement looking for the place to get our library card. We finally found it after walking around for probably a half hour.

Tuesday we got out a little bit early from our studies to go trackting and the Lord blessed us. We only had an hour and a half before we had to leave to a meeting and in that time we were able to teach two lessons. Both of them seem really interested, but one of them lives in Georgia so we sent that referral off. After we had finished we headed to our district/zone meeting. Once that meeting was over we traveled to the farm and spent the remainder of our day helping autistic kids ride horses. We all really enjoyed it.

Wednesday was our missions temple trip and that is always a great time! We are so blessed to have a temple so close by. It has become probably my favorite Temple. The view never gets old and inside it has an awesome colonial feel to it. After the temple we ate at Olive Garden because one of our roommates had some gift cards and he payed for all of us. It was very nice of him. The rest of he day was spent by going to member appointments. The members treat us very well in this area.

Thursday we spent pretty much all of our day checking on less actives with little success. We were able to get into one home and the people seemed very nice. We invited them to the ward Christmas party and they said that they would try to come, but they did not show up. We will be visiting them again shortly. Thursday was also the first night of Festival of Lights at the temple and we were able to go with a member. It was great! The lights look great! And the musical performances were awesome!

Friday we spent the majority of the early part of the day trackting. Later that day we were suppose to go on an exchange with the mission president, but he ended up not coming because he was really busy. We had a few lessons set up with investigators. The one that did happen was awesome! His name his David. He is from Haiti and he wants to look into our church because his girl friend is a member.  We taught him the restoration and it went very well. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he got very excited.

Saturday we had a finding activity that some sisters in the district set up. We went to the metro and talked to people. It was pretty great! We were able to teach a few lessons to people while they were waiting for their buses. Unfortunately they were not to interested. After we had finished with that we went over to a member for dinner. Once that was finished we headed to the ward Christmas party.

Sunday during church we had member pass out twice and so the ambulance came and picked him. It was pretty scary luckily the Derwood ward is chuck full of doctors. When Harold passed out, there were 4 doctors in the room so he was in very good hands. After church we checked on less actives till dinner. After dinner we went to the temple visitor center for the Christmas devotional. It was excellent.

I hope you all have an amazing week! Merry Christmas