But I will get to that later! I want to talk about an interesting experience we had with our new investigator Laura. Laura is awesome! She is not deaf but she can sign really well and has been coming to our ASL class with her friend Ashley. Ashley is also awesome and has been helping us out a lot! So long story short, we recently found out that Laura actually lives in the YSA 2 ward boundaries....that's interesting....we cover that as well! So we were talking with Ashley and we mentioned that we are over that area and asked if Laura would be interested in taking the lessons. She said that Laura was actually kind of looking for a church right now and she (Ashley) just didn't know how to bring it up with her. This gave her the opportunity (and excuse) so she asked her when the two of them went to dinner that night. Laura said that if Ashley would come with her she would be interested, so we had a lesson on Tuesday! Now Tuesday was an interesting day, we were both really tired, our studies weren't effective that day, and everything we had planned that day fell through, so by the time we had our lesson with her after dinner our hearts weren't completely in it. This is really sad because we were both super excited for her. Anyway, it was one of the worst lessons I have ever been a part of and most of it is my fault. We didn't teach evenly, we didn't cover everything how it should have been covered. I don't know why but we just didn't have it that night. And it was awful! The two of us felt so bad after that! But what was interesting was that there was one thing that went right, the spirit was there. And that is really all that matters!
After the lesson we had our ASL
class and that one wasn't the best either, we were both kind of stewing over
our "failed" golden investigator. But through the class
I noticed that Laura wasn't herself either. She wasn't really paying
attention and seemed a little anise. About halfway through class she stood up
and walked out....and didn't come back! Again I was like oh crap! We screwed
that one up! But....but....when class was finally over we walked out into
the hall to find Laura sitting in the hall, reading from her new Book of Mormon
and MARKING IT!! I'm not kidding! It was one of the coolest experiences
ever! This just shows that this truly is God's work! It will move forward
even if we suck! Ha-ha That also should give hope to all who are
worried about sharing the gospel, you do not have to be perfect, and you
do not even have to be good! If the spirit is there and you desire to
share what we have and try to do your best! That will be enough! It was
wonderful! And she came to church with us which was also wonderful! That
is always is the hardest part, getting people to go to church!
Halloween! Halloween is a weird time
for missionaries. We were told to head home at 7 on that night so that none of
us get into trouble! Ha-ha I do understand, I saw some crazy stuff happening
before we got home and I can only assume it got crazier as it went! But it was
still good! We went over to the Belnaps and partied with them, the Agardys,
Danielle, and a few other missionaries! It was mostly just dinner and talking and
then we had cake and ice cream because Halloween is also Lily's birthday!
So it was really fun! All of them were dressed up and it was really fun!
Having a costume as missionaries, most of them are boring! Elder Matson put on
3 black dots and was a three hole punched paper (see the office if doesn't make
sense). And Elder Barlocker didn't dress up but he had a brown vest on and
Elder Matson had some cardboard gold plates in his car so he was Joseph Smith
(see pictures) and that was pretty cool! But me and Elder Nelsen were by far
the coolest! I have been working for about two to three weeks on our costumes. They
are 100% cardboard and duct tape (excluding the capes which were old bed sheets).
We were SPARTANS!! It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself! So
Halloween was really fun!
Let’s see...what else happened this
week? Oh, we started an ASL class for missionaries which have been really
good! Just them knowing the basics is great because they actually really
want to know and learn pretty fast! It will be nice when they can
kind of communicate with Elder Nelsen! Then they will finally get to know him
without me in the middle!
I guess that brings us to Friday!
Birthdays are weird on the mission and this one was even weirder than normal
because we had DLC (District Leader Council) which was also combined with ZLC
(Zone Leader Council) which made it a very long meeting! It
started at 8 and didn't end until 4! I went with Elder Matson, Eddy,
Foote, and Jones. Elder Nelsen went to hang out with Elder Kim and Elder
Eliason for the day. It was a good meeting but it was super, super,
long! It finally finished at 4 but we still didn't leave until around 5
and got back about 5:30 to find Elder Nelsen and company was in the
middle of dinner! So, I went to dinner with the zone leaders! It was good but
it was 7:30 by the time we were able to go get Elder Nelsen! It was a
really long day and by that time I got back, I was so tired that we
just went back to the apartment and crashed! So that was my birthday! Ya! Ha-ha
But I don't consider that my
birthday because we celebrated on Saturday! Me and Elder Nelsen went with
Elders Field, Nuttle, Kim, and Eliason to lunch at Olive Garden for the all you
can eat soups and bread sticks! It was great! It was really fun to go with them
and that was really, really, good! I really like that group of missionaries!
They are all super fun! Also on Saturday night, (after a very good dinner at
the Krakowiaks), we went to the Agardys for cake ice cream and party! It was
really fun! With the Agardys there were Elders Matson, Davidson, Barlocker, and
Espinosa! It was fun! We had the cake and ice cream, we joked around and
talked, and then we played spades for a while! It was really fun! I am grateful
for all of the awesome people I've met down here! I love these people! It stinks
to be away from all at home but there are good people everywhere! It was all in
all, a good birthday!
Oh! One more really interesting
thing happened this week! We went to a baptism for the YSA 2 ward Elders (they
are doing amazing!) and while we were there the girl who was getting baptized
asked me, (after seeing us signing), if I was going to interpret the baptism
for Elder Nelsen. Oh, I should mention that she SIGNED all of this which kind
of surprised me! Ha-ha I said yes and then she got excited and said, "Oh
good! My friend is coming and she is deaf so I was worried she wouldn't
understand it!" Both me and Elder Nelsen were shocked! That is fantastic!
So we were excited for that! Sure enough, about ten minutes later one of the
missionaries walked in with a girl and introduced her to us saying I don't
think she can hear! Ha-ha I was a little surprised! Of all the deaf people I
have only met one (excluding Elder Nelsen) that was younger then about 28. This
girl was our age and she was smart! (You can tell from someone’s signing if
they are smart or not). We talked with her for a while, her name is Kayla, and
she is really cool! She has been going to Galledeut (the deaf university) and
came back until next fall to work! Anyway, it was a good experience to have her
there. We got her information so we will see if we can visit her soon and spark
some interest! It has been a really good week!
That's it for this time, until the
next!!
Elder Banner
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