Well hello family. E-mailing somewhat late today. We had to end take an hour out of P-day to begin an exchange and we are finishing up our last hour of p-day now. I have forgotten my journal however - so this will be just recollection.
Sister Beck keeps a book logging doctors and who does free work, who is bad, etc - so she referred us to the dentist who did it for free.
I asked the sister missionary and she was not related to the person who Uncle Joe thought. But I am doing a musical number with her and her companion this week in district meeting. I'm playing the tune of Come Thou Fount and those 2 will be singing the words of O My Father - should be sweet - we ran through it today and it was good.
My thoughts towards teaching our friends - my thought is that it is crucial for missionaries to extend a baptism invitation in the first lesson. It is so critical for missionaries to 1) Find out the expectations of the investigators and then 2) Explain that our purpose is to help others come unto Christ by helping them make changes in their lives to life his teachings (keeping commandments, praying, BAPTISM). My thought is that you don't need to commit her to baptism at every lesson - As long as she is keeping commitments and knows where this is all going (aka - baptism).
When we are on
mormon.org - we look for profiles that match our investigators and then go tell them to look it up. Or become familiar with it so as we are out tracting, we can reference people to specific places on it.
Galen is doing fine. He's come to church once, he reads and prays - we told him we expect him to get baptized and that is why we are teaching him. So we'll see if he does it.
Alexxis got baptized this week which was great. I got to confirm her which was fun. We have another baptism this Friday which is really cool - Austin Squire.
I'll be fine for a camera - companion takes pictures and I copy them. The one I have works fine, but the screen is broken so you can't see what your taking pictures off. But it'll work cause I get good ones from Elder Hall.
For a Care Package: Cheeze - its, an investigator, a yo yo maybe, not really sure. I have every music cd in the mission - so none of those. Maybe a giftcard. Whatever will make me happy.
This week in quick review:
3-7-11: Taught Galen this morning - went fine. Played some ultimate frisbee and I sprained my ankle. It swelled up about twice the size. Next day had big black bruise - hurts to walk on it. Still do work. (it's been a week later and black bruise has gone down, it hurts only when i hit it and make sudden moves on it - shouldn't play bball in next 3 weeks - it'll be fine).
3-8-11: Taught Austin Squire and his family - active grandparents came which was sweet. They are doing great. Then went to a WML training for Deer Valley Stake - invited the zone leaders for our input - which I love to throw in there.
3-9-11: Had Interviews today. Mine with President Beck was short and to the point as always. I asked how I can help certain missionaries, so we spent most of time talking about them. Elder Hall and I held a 2 hr. portion of the meeting which included a skills training - Sister Beck sat in and watched mine and she really liked it. I was an investigator and had other companionships teach me to practice resolving concerns- it is fun being a missiony. After I began an exchange with Elder Tripp- an AP who is really cool. I love talking with him, but we got carried away and were up till about 1 or so.
3-10-11: Taught Galen again. Went to Elder Mendenhall's District Meeting. Had a lesson with Alexxis - put together baptism program.
3-11-11: Went to Elder Bird's District Meeting. Went by Alexxis Toledo's and met her Navajo grandparents who came in for the baptism - they are cool.
3-12-11: We had Alexxis baptism which was awesome - she was in tears the whole time - only 13 and it was great for her family. Had a quick meeting with the AP's after the baptism and talked about how to improve the zone. Then attended another baptism which was very stressful for the Sister Missionaries - about one-hour before the baptism - they found out that they had not gotten the mom's permission to baptize 2 children - and the mom was in Mexico, they didn't baptize the two children and Elder Hall and I helped them through the whole thing - so they sent us a nice message saying how much they appreciate us and how it must not be fun having emotional sisters in district. But I think It's fun - don't like to see other sad or down.
3-13-11: Church. Dinner with the Roques.
3-14-11: I finished my Arizona Phoenix Mission Study Guide - Level 6 Scholar - So I got to have a personal study with about 4 other misisonaries with President Beck and Elder Matsen - which was just great - they know a lot of things and so we got to ask any questions we wanted on almost anything (pertinant to our salvation) and they would answer them for about 2 hours. So that was really neat. Also went golfing which was fun. I did pretty good. I bogeyed on 4 holes, 3 were double bogeys, 1 was terrible over, 1 par, 1 birdie. So not bad for only my 3 or 4 time golfing. Also practiced song with Sisters - it will be good. Began exchanges with Elder Cecil who I am with now.
Something for the ward: Next week. Sorry - just tell them I'll write to them when someone writes to me. : )
Love,
Elder Perkins
