Hey Family, so for this week, i'm not too sure what to write about. It
was a good week, we definitely are working hard, but we aren't seeing
a ton of results from the labors we are putting in. Not sure if we are
just using the wrong tools or maybe not using our tools right. We
don't have a ton of people we are teaching. The people we are trying
to work with are pretty mas o menos too. Doesn't seem like many people
are willing to put in the work, to commit. So we will see what happens
with them as we try to follow up with them. I'm going to be reading in
chapter 9 to think of some more ideas to find the people that are
willing to listen to us. We have an activity coming up this Friday (if
all goes well), we are going to have food at the church and lots of
small "minute to win it" sort of games. I'm sort of skeptical on it,
because there has been zero announcements for it. I think chances are
it'll be moved to another day in these following weeks. Something good
that is going on is that we are developing more relationships with the
members in our area. We have been able to visit a few of them and so
that's going well. We are also working with the young men and women
too. We have plans to take one of them out tonight and to do some
follow up/finding in a neighborhood close to them. hopefully that goes
well. Something, sort of random, but I figure you all like it when i
write more, regardless of what I have to say. Anyways i've been
teaching about faith in the "how to begin teaching" with the people
that we meet with. Such a big difference. I feel like the sooner we
understand that Faith is a principle of action and power, the more
quicker we are to understand the need for obedience and commitment. It
is through our actions and obedience that our faith increases. Faith
in the bible dictionary says that it is a trust in something or
someone. Faith can be in many things, but Faith in Christ is the only
Absolute Assurance, nothing else can bring greater peace, joy and hope
that He can provide. I feel like the sooner we understand faith, the
clearer our purpose becomes. After all, faith is the first principle
of the gospel. I like to think of it as the "motivator," the reason
why we act. That was kind of a rant, but i've noticed a difference of
understanding between us and missionaries and the people we teach as
I've mentioned this precious principle. People have come to understand
out purpose far greater than I have noticed at any other time in my
mission. I guess some lessons are learned later than sooner, but
nonetheless, I'm grateful for them. But just want you to all know that
I love you. Hope all is well in all that you do. You are always in my
prayers.
Elder Baer
Monday, July 24, 2017
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Jacob - July 3, 2017
Hey everyone, so this week was littered with miracles. Elder cooper
and I did so much work that I'm still trying to wrap my head around
all that we were able to do. It was pretty tough in the aspect that we
didn't have AreaBook or a members list. Our goals leading into the
week were to try and have a meeting with the bishop, get to know the
members of our area, and also follow up with current investigators.
But due to our situation with a lack of resources, we weren't able to
really accomplish those goals. We also didn't have a phone for a few
days and Bishop is out of town. But despite that aspect of the work,
we met so many people and fortunately we had some members that signed
up for dinner for us, so we got to know them pretty well. There are
some great people here in Buena Park. Something else I've noticed is
that the people here are overall more friendly, people here just seem
to be open to talk. So we've been enjoying that. I will say though
that one struggle we have is that we live 20 minutes outside of our
area, so that kills us time wise, we usually come home every night at
9:30 just because we are so busy and talk with so many people that
time just seems to fly.
Also the reason for the title, I think it's something I've sort of
neglected to mention, but our mission President, president Taggart
ended his mission this past week. And so our new President and his
wife are the Golden's. They are super kind and we are excited for him.
He is a super smart man. He was quoting scriptures left and right when
he presented himself at a meeting a few days ago. Him and his wife
spoke mostly about faith, obedience, and obtaining a testimony of the
atonement of Jesus Christ. I look forward to working with them, they
are great people.
A few miracles about the week:
1.) We had a service opportunity this Tuesday where we went to this
second hand clothing store that sells "professional" styled clothing.
We just did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff there, cleaning and
sorting, but I noticed that they had a pair of really nice, almost
new, shoes that were size 15. I then remembered my companion, elder
Bean (the super tall companion I had a few months ago) anyways his
shoe size is 15 and he says it's super hard for him to find shoes, so
I bought them for him. They were only $8, closer to $6 with the
discount. But later that day when we were walking to dinner with our
member, I saw a wad of cash on the ground that turned out to be $16
dollars so that was pretty cool. Case in point we are blessed when we
have charity, in some cases it turns out to be physical blessings.
2.) This week we met a girl from El Salvador, she's been in the states
for about 2 years. But she was super excited to see us and recognized
us right away when we knocked. Turns out she had a friend back in her
home country that invited her to church and to the activities and they
were really good friends. We had a really good conversation with her
and set a return appointment. When we came back, we introduced some
members that live in her same complex and offered her a ride to
church. She said yes and sure enough she came yesterday and now had
plans on coming back. We are super excited for her and she mentioned
how her mom wants to come too, but got caught working. We are going to
keep working with her and hopefully everything will go well. It was
pretty cool to see fruits from the efforts we had given, especially to
have an investigator at church after only 1 week and also white
washing.
I'm trying to remember other stuff to write, but I think this is it
for now. I love you all and hope you have a great 4th of July! Take
care!
Elder Baer
and I did so much work that I'm still trying to wrap my head around
all that we were able to do. It was pretty tough in the aspect that we
didn't have AreaBook or a members list. Our goals leading into the
week were to try and have a meeting with the bishop, get to know the
members of our area, and also follow up with current investigators.
But due to our situation with a lack of resources, we weren't able to
really accomplish those goals. We also didn't have a phone for a few
days and Bishop is out of town. But despite that aspect of the work,
we met so many people and fortunately we had some members that signed
up for dinner for us, so we got to know them pretty well. There are
some great people here in Buena Park. Something else I've noticed is
that the people here are overall more friendly, people here just seem
to be open to talk. So we've been enjoying that. I will say though
that one struggle we have is that we live 20 minutes outside of our
area, so that kills us time wise, we usually come home every night at
9:30 just because we are so busy and talk with so many people that
time just seems to fly.
Also the reason for the title, I think it's something I've sort of
neglected to mention, but our mission President, president Taggart
ended his mission this past week. And so our new President and his
wife are the Golden's. They are super kind and we are excited for him.
He is a super smart man. He was quoting scriptures left and right when
he presented himself at a meeting a few days ago. Him and his wife
spoke mostly about faith, obedience, and obtaining a testimony of the
atonement of Jesus Christ. I look forward to working with them, they
are great people.
A few miracles about the week:
1.) We had a service opportunity this Tuesday where we went to this
second hand clothing store that sells "professional" styled clothing.
We just did a bunch of miscellaneous stuff there, cleaning and
sorting, but I noticed that they had a pair of really nice, almost
new, shoes that were size 15. I then remembered my companion, elder
Bean (the super tall companion I had a few months ago) anyways his
shoe size is 15 and he says it's super hard for him to find shoes, so
I bought them for him. They were only $8, closer to $6 with the
discount. But later that day when we were walking to dinner with our
member, I saw a wad of cash on the ground that turned out to be $16
dollars so that was pretty cool. Case in point we are blessed when we
have charity, in some cases it turns out to be physical blessings.
2.) This week we met a girl from El Salvador, she's been in the states
for about 2 years. But she was super excited to see us and recognized
us right away when we knocked. Turns out she had a friend back in her
home country that invited her to church and to the activities and they
were really good friends. We had a really good conversation with her
and set a return appointment. When we came back, we introduced some
members that live in her same complex and offered her a ride to
church. She said yes and sure enough she came yesterday and now had
plans on coming back. We are super excited for her and she mentioned
how her mom wants to come too, but got caught working. We are going to
keep working with her and hopefully everything will go well. It was
pretty cool to see fruits from the efforts we had given, especially to
have an investigator at church after only 1 week and also white
washing.
I'm trying to remember other stuff to write, but I think this is it
for now. I love you all and hope you have a great 4th of July! Take
care!
Elder Baer
Jacob - June 26, 2017
Hey everybody, this was a crazy week, bunch of just random things
happened, one being something that I had never seen before in the
mission. Anyways first things first, this week was the last week of
the transfer and the news is that I am moving to Buena Park with Elder
Cooper. Not sure if you recall, but Elder Cooper was a Zone Leader up
here in Santa Ana North. So he was released as a zone leader and I was
released as a district leader. I'm super stoked. We are going to be
white washing once again. 3rd time for me and I believe 3rd or 4th
time for him as well. So we've been around the block a few times on
this and ready to get working. I don't really know how hispanic the
area will be, but I figure nothing can be worse then Garden Grove, not
that it's a bad area, just tough to find and teach people there. But
anyways this past week was pretty good. We've continued to find some
new people. We found this cool family that we think have good
potential. It was sort of funny because we originally had ran into the
mom where she said to come back Friday when her Husband would be home,
she mentioned they had been going through some challenges together and
that she wanted to see if our message could help them out. But here
was the catch, she wanted us to come back as if we were knocking again
and have it be a "surprise". So when we came back she opened the door
and acted all surprised by our visit and turned to her husband and
said "Pueden pasar?, 5-10 minutos, pueden pasar por favor?" To wrap it
up, we got in, taught the restoration quick while got to know them a
little better and now they are new investigators. We are hoping they
take the time to read and do the things we ask them. Other than that
there was a lot of following up this week with some mas o menos
investigators. Lots of them are having struggles with keeping
commitments. We've had a hard time finding people with real intent, a
lot of the people do enjoy our visits, they just don't keep
commitments. I imagine elder Schoen will be dropping a few when I head
out. It's just a process in missionary work. Something I've noticed is
how if we do the basics, the tings we are suppose to, then when the
time comes to meet someone that is ready, we will already have an
understanding of all that needs to take place for them to be baptized.
All of the baptisms I've had and seen on the mission have usually just
come out of miracle moments or through member referrals. But back to
the week, so I think it was Tuesday, my comp and I were inspired to
visit an investigator that has had a lack of real intent, so while
teaching and reading from Alma 34, we heard a loud crashing sound. So
we looked out the window and saw a car flipped upside down! So we ran
out and helped pull the people out of the car. Fortunately everyone
was ok, there was 2 young kids in the back and a teenager in the
passenger seat and then the mom that was driving. The teenager had
some crazy shock going on after everyone was out, he only had a few
scrapes and a cut on his hand. It was a really bizarre accident, we
still aren't exactly sure how it happened since they couldn't be going
more than 20 mph. Wednesday was a normal working day with district
Meeting, that was good, not too much to mention on that day. On
Thursday a member took me, my comp and another companionship to a
restaurant close by, we ate papusas and it was good. Can't every
complain with papusas. Friday was a normal working day. Saturday the
district got together to celebrate the birthday of one of the elders.
I used a gift card that
Lexie gave me a while back and bought an ice cream cake at Dairy
Queen, that was tasty. (A little sad that I didn't get the cake all to
my self, but it was worth it, he had a good time.) Sunday was also a
good day, we just went around seeing some people that we had worked
with, letting them know I was heading out. Most of them weren't home.
Another family that we were excited about ended up dropping us, but I
think my comp is going to pass by and figure out why. Overall that was
pretty much my week. Love you all and hope you have a good one!
happened, one being something that I had never seen before in the
mission. Anyways first things first, this week was the last week of
the transfer and the news is that I am moving to Buena Park with Elder
Cooper. Not sure if you recall, but Elder Cooper was a Zone Leader up
here in Santa Ana North. So he was released as a zone leader and I was
released as a district leader. I'm super stoked. We are going to be
white washing once again. 3rd time for me and I believe 3rd or 4th
time for him as well. So we've been around the block a few times on
this and ready to get working. I don't really know how hispanic the
area will be, but I figure nothing can be worse then Garden Grove, not
that it's a bad area, just tough to find and teach people there. But
anyways this past week was pretty good. We've continued to find some
new people. We found this cool family that we think have good
potential. It was sort of funny because we originally had ran into the
mom where she said to come back Friday when her Husband would be home,
she mentioned they had been going through some challenges together and
that she wanted to see if our message could help them out. But here
was the catch, she wanted us to come back as if we were knocking again
and have it be a "surprise". So when we came back she opened the door
and acted all surprised by our visit and turned to her husband and
said "Pueden pasar?, 5-10 minutos, pueden pasar por favor?" To wrap it
up, we got in, taught the restoration quick while got to know them a
little better and now they are new investigators. We are hoping they
take the time to read and do the things we ask them. Other than that
there was a lot of following up this week with some mas o menos
investigators. Lots of them are having struggles with keeping
commitments. We've had a hard time finding people with real intent, a
lot of the people do enjoy our visits, they just don't keep
commitments. I imagine elder Schoen will be dropping a few when I head
out. It's just a process in missionary work. Something I've noticed is
how if we do the basics, the tings we are suppose to, then when the
time comes to meet someone that is ready, we will already have an
understanding of all that needs to take place for them to be baptized.
All of the baptisms I've had and seen on the mission have usually just
come out of miracle moments or through member referrals. But back to
the week, so I think it was Tuesday, my comp and I were inspired to
visit an investigator that has had a lack of real intent, so while
teaching and reading from Alma 34, we heard a loud crashing sound. So
we looked out the window and saw a car flipped upside down! So we ran
out and helped pull the people out of the car. Fortunately everyone
was ok, there was 2 young kids in the back and a teenager in the
passenger seat and then the mom that was driving. The teenager had
some crazy shock going on after everyone was out, he only had a few
scrapes and a cut on his hand. It was a really bizarre accident, we
still aren't exactly sure how it happened since they couldn't be going
more than 20 mph. Wednesday was a normal working day with district
Meeting, that was good, not too much to mention on that day. On
Thursday a member took me, my comp and another companionship to a
restaurant close by, we ate papusas and it was good. Can't every
complain with papusas. Friday was a normal working day. Saturday the
district got together to celebrate the birthday of one of the elders.
I used a gift card that
Lexie gave me a while back and bought an ice cream cake at Dairy
Queen, that was tasty. (A little sad that I didn't get the cake all to
my self, but it was worth it, he had a good time.) Sunday was also a
good day, we just went around seeing some people that we had worked
with, letting them know I was heading out. Most of them weren't home.
Another family that we were excited about ended up dropping us, but I
think my comp is going to pass by and figure out why. Overall that was
pretty much my week. Love you all and hope you have a good one!
Jacob - June 19, 2017
to town with following up and just working hard. Unfortunately no one
came to church.. but we've met a lot of new people that we are excited
about. One of them is the family Portio, they are from El Salvador
that live in the same complex as a member. So we went to visit the
member and we saw this family on their balcony and stroke up a
conversation with them and they ended up letting us in so we shared a
small message with them and when we asked for a return appointment
they said sure and that they would make us papusas (my favorite Latino
meal) so we came back the next day and had a dinner lesson with them.
It was super cool and we are excited about them, they have a lot of
beliefs that are already in line with what the gospel teaches. Also
this week we had zone Conference which was super good. We learned
about our missionary purpose, the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion
and also teaching repentance and baptizing converts. It was really I
souring and I learned a bunch. The mission at the moment is at a hard
point with as far as baptisms have been going and so we've been
encouraged to increase our faith and I've been noticing a difference
since the conference. Lots more motivation and dedication. Not that
I've been bad at those things, I'm always excited to work. But
hopefully we'll find more success as our faith grows. Also another
highlight was an exchange we had with the zone Leaders. It went really
well, I was with elder cooper, he's from Texas. But we taught a bunch
and just worked hard. It was a good day. There was some other families
we've met, but nothing super crazy to write about. Actually there is
someone we met a while back that she was taught by the missionaries
about 6 years ago and we went to look up the records in AreaBook, but
the record we found had a wrong address, but we think it's her. She
went to church when she was being and so we hope to help her start the
lessons. Um, that's about it. Today on P-day we saw a bunch of horses,
it was something different, but a good time. One of the sisters in our
district loves horses and so she was telling us all about them. I've
got a bunch of pics to send home so y'all get to see what I've been up
to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)