NOTE: 1 NEW PICTURE! CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO THE RIGHT TO VIEW THE PICTURE ALBUM.
Well last week has been pretty interesting!
First, I was shot at last Tuesday the 22nd with my companion while we were on exchanges. As you may know this has sadly been happening in the Phoenix area, but not Mesa. But I’m fine, it was just scary.
Second, this week I got a new companion straight from the MTC who I’ll be training. His name is Elder Catmull and he is an actual Windows Technician. It's really nice to be able to talk with someone who knows computers. My previous companion basically knew how to turn the computer on, and that's about it. He will be replacing Elder Hodges as our mission Tech Specialist because of his training. Let’s just say that we set up his iPad very quickly. We're getting along great!
Right now we're helping a lot of our new investigators (and others) get to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. What a wonderful blessing it is to be able to do work for those who have not had the opportunity to get such wonderful blessings here on earth.
Have a great week!
Elder Sands
Monday, September 21, 2015
A pretty interesting week. We've had a few good lessons but mostly this week has been a drop down from our recent success. Several of our lessons fell through and we're losing so many of our investigators due to moves and such and even bigger changes are coming. So now we're seeking for as many people who would be interested in the Gospel as possible.
One of the people we contacted on a list from our bishopric has been progressing from the moment we contacted him. He had been less-active for a few years and from the moment we came and invited him to go back to the Temple, he's been coming back to church, getting involved with activities and becoming friends with many people in the ward. He's such a wonderful example of what can happen as we keep focused on those people not coming to Church. We shouldn't just focus on who showed up on Sunday, but more so on who didn't show up.
Now that we have iPads, it is so much easier to teach certain things to the people we're teaching. Mormon Messages are a wonderful example. Mormon Messages gives people a Spiritual punch in the face and often teach very simple, yet profound and important principles that apply in some way to everybody's life. For example, "Mountain's to Climb" is one of my favorites that really teaches us about trials. We show this one quite often to the people who are struggling "under the onslaught of troubles." I would recommend you all watch it and find another that you like and even share it. You can find them and “Mountains to Climb” at:
https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/mountains-to-climb-2
Have a great week everyone!
Elder Sands
One of the people we contacted on a list from our bishopric has been progressing from the moment we contacted him. He had been less-active for a few years and from the moment we came and invited him to go back to the Temple, he's been coming back to church, getting involved with activities and becoming friends with many people in the ward. He's such a wonderful example of what can happen as we keep focused on those people not coming to Church. We shouldn't just focus on who showed up on Sunday, but more so on who didn't show up.
Now that we have iPads, it is so much easier to teach certain things to the people we're teaching. Mormon Messages are a wonderful example. Mormon Messages gives people a Spiritual punch in the face and often teach very simple, yet profound and important principles that apply in some way to everybody's life. For example, "Mountain's to Climb" is one of my favorites that really teaches us about trials. We show this one quite often to the people who are struggling "under the onslaught of troubles." I would recommend you all watch it and find another that you like and even share it. You can find them and “Mountains to Climb” at:
https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/mountains-to-climb-2
Have a great week everyone!
Elder Sands
Monday, September 14, 2015
NOTE: 1 NEW PICTURE! CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO THE RIGHT TO VIEW THE PICTURE ALBUM.
This last week I had my first baptism! Yay! Shawna and LJ were both baptized on Saturday and confirmed the follow Sunday as full-fledged members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was the one who confirmed LJ. I also played a special musical number in our ward that day.
Story: I played a song for a dinner message at one of the member's homes (big mistake)-they were instantly were on the phone with the ward music director and the next day they had me to play a special musical number during sacrament meeting. Thankfully, I keep a few songs under my fingers for situations such as this. It's kind of nice to be going back to that way of doing things. In the Deaf Branch, there are no intermediate hymns or special musical numbers, so it was a nice change of pace.
We've been having about 9 people on average coming to church every week since I’ve been here. We're one of the busiest areas in the mission. This last week with all of the duties of a district leader, we literally didn't have time for lunch some days. We just had too many appointments. It's amazing how much the Lord blesses you when you try. It reminds me of this quote: "God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability!"
Remember that quote, not only is it true in the gospel, but also in many aspects of our everyday life. It's truly amazing how gospel principles/ideas carry over into just about everything, making it better.
Have a great week!
Elder Sands
This last week I had my first baptism! Yay! Shawna and LJ were both baptized on Saturday and confirmed the follow Sunday as full-fledged members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was the one who confirmed LJ. I also played a special musical number in our ward that day.
Story: I played a song for a dinner message at one of the member's homes (big mistake)-they were instantly were on the phone with the ward music director and the next day they had me to play a special musical number during sacrament meeting. Thankfully, I keep a few songs under my fingers for situations such as this. It's kind of nice to be going back to that way of doing things. In the Deaf Branch, there are no intermediate hymns or special musical numbers, so it was a nice change of pace.
We've been having about 9 people on average coming to church every week since I’ve been here. We're one of the busiest areas in the mission. This last week with all of the duties of a district leader, we literally didn't have time for lunch some days. We just had too many appointments. It's amazing how much the Lord blesses you when you try. It reminds me of this quote: "God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability!"
Remember that quote, not only is it true in the gospel, but also in many aspects of our everyday life. It's truly amazing how gospel principles/ideas carry over into just about everything, making it better.
Have a great week!
Elder Sands
Monday, September 7, 2015
NOTE: 1 NEW PICTURE! CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO THE RIGHT TO VIEW THE PICTURE ALBUM.
Last week was wonderful, but I expect this next week will be a little bittersweet.
We had several great lessons and many good visits and lessons with our investigators and less actives. This week, we're baptizing two of our investigators, Shawna and LJ, which is wonderful. They are just wonderful people who are really progressing. The bad part is that we have to find people to replace them. This isn't a last minute thing, we've known these people are going all the way and have been searching for more people to teach, but it's hard to replace those golden investigators who want nothing more than to learn more about the gospel.
Last week was wonderful, but I expect this next week will be a little bittersweet.
We had several great lessons and many good visits and lessons with our investigators and less actives. This week, we're baptizing two of our investigators, Shawna and LJ, which is wonderful. They are just wonderful people who are really progressing. The bad part is that we have to find people to replace them. This isn't a last minute thing, we've known these people are going all the way and have been searching for more people to teach, but it's hard to replace those golden investigators who want nothing more than to learn more about the gospel.
Elder Clark is starting to think more about home, but he's not getting
trunky (thinking of home so much that he doesn't want to work anymore),
if anything he's starting to work harder. Sometimes I say to him, "Okay,
it’s getting late, and we need to start heading back now..." but then
he wants to go visit that one last door or talk to that last person. He
has an incredible work ethic and that's a good thing
Everything else is going good. We've got a couple of families (soon to be, they need to get married) we're teaching and we have some solid people that are progressing. I even came across a couple of deaf people the other day but they weren't interested in the slightest. Oh well. We're in Mesa Branch's area anyways, we don't want them to have all the ASL baptisms ;)
Have a wonderful week!
Elder Sands
Everything else is going good. We've got a couple of families (soon to be, they need to get married) we're teaching and we have some solid people that are progressing. I even came across a couple of deaf people the other day but they weren't interested in the slightest. Oh well. We're in Mesa Branch's area anyways, we don't want them to have all the ASL baptisms ;)
Have a wonderful week!
Elder Sands
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