Jacob - June 12, 2017

Hey everybody, this week went well. Nothing too crazy to write about,
just the normal "teaching and finding." Monday though was a pretty
cool day, we had an FHE with the ward, not many members, let alone
investigators came unfortunately. But it was really cool for the ones
that did come. The ward has the idea and goal of having an FHE every
month, we weren't able to do one last month in April so we took the
theme of April and applied it to this month which, as you can imagine,
The Atonement of Christ. Each companionship prepared a segment of His
last few days/moments. My comp and I shared and spoke about the Last
Supper, another companionship spoke about the Garden of Gethsemane,
another The Cruxifixction and lastly the Resurrection. It was really
spiritual and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully next time more
people will come, investigators and members alike. Tuesday, nothing
too crazy happened, we went to service and came out with some cookies
from costco and some other goodies. Probably the free snacks is the
best thing about serving there. I also grabbed a box of that Velveta
macaroni, my comp said it's better, but i made it and don't agree with
him. Wednesday was sort of a hectic day. It was District Meeting which
went really well. We spoke about having a vision, setting goals and
making plans, and lastly a little bit about accountability and working
with church leaders. It was a good meeting, but getting to the meeting
was the crazy part. The church building we originally planned to go to
was being cleaned, so we went to a different building which had
another zone there, so we thought it best to go to a different
building again. So when all was said and done we spent like 45 minutes
more than we had originally thought which made a dent later in our
day, but stuff like that happens. Thursday, I can't recall what
happened, we probably just worked a ton that day since it's one of our
"free days" (no meetings, no service, just work!) Friday, we weekly
planned, we also tried to get my comp's new debit card up and working,
but that was sort of crazy. Some way or another some information was
entered wrong so the information he'd give to confirm his identity
wasn't what the system had, but he was able to figure it out and it's
now up and working. Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Dionicio
Bocaletti, he's from Guatemala, but speaks English and Spanish. We
spoke a lot of spanish with one another, makes me wish I get another
Latino companion before I die. We had a lot of fun together, he's a
hard worker and it was nice being with a companion that cares about
the work just as much as I do, not just being outside, but during
studies and planning too. Sunday was good, church was interesting, the
stake presidency came and used the last 2 hours of church to discuss
with the parents about helping the kids remain active in the church.
It was a good discussion, I feel like it's a matter of doing the
basics. Family prayer, scripture study, FHEs, things like that. But
there was a lot said both by the presidency and also the members of
the ward. Really interesting discussion. Oh also before I forget, on
the exchange we saw a bearded lady, it was quite the site. But that's
my week for ya. Hope y'all have a good one. Love you!

Elder Baer

Jacob - June 5, 2017

Hey everyone, this week went well. Lot's of work and things are going
well. We just saw a lot of the same people that we've been working
with. We picked up this "former" investigator and it's a weird
situation with her. She's going to need some miracles to get baptized,
but hopefully we'll be able to at least get her going to church again.
She's met with missionaries for a long time, I think first contact was
in 2013. Other people we are meeting with are doing sort of good.
They are really good in lessons, but they don't do their commitments
very well which makes it difficult for them to progress. But we are
working hard with them and trying to find new people as well. There's
a lot of hispanics in this area, but being in garden grove made me
forget that just because there are people, doesn't' mean they will all
be interested in the message. We here the same excuses on the regular.
For example "we are catholic" or "it's the same God, right?" It can be
frustrating, but we are staying patient and just try and help them see
the difference in what we believe. This past week we also went on an
exchange with an assistant to the president. It went well, but not
quite as crazy or special as I thought it was going to be. It was just
like being with another elder that works hard so nothing terribly
different than what I already am used to. He did share with us some
cool ideas and asked some thought provoking questions, I think we
asked him a few good questions too. It was a sort of strange exchange
because he was in the English program before being called to be an
assistant. So during the day he spoke minimal spanish, he knew enough
to say "hola", "como esta?", "le podría dar una tarjeta?" Really basic
things, but it still went well. Granted we live in the states, there
was plenty of English speaking people that we ran into. Overall that's
pretty much what my week was like. Nothing out of the ordinary.
tonight we have a cool opportunity to do a FHE with the ward. We are
going to be speaking about the last few significant events of Jesus
Christ namely: The Last Supper, His sufferings in the Garden, The
Crucifixion, & His Resurrection. We are excited and hope lot's of
people come. But that's it for this email. Love you all and hope you
have a great week!

Elder Baer