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Pictures above:
Matt & Elder O'Donnley on his first day in the mission field
Bro. & Sis. Hanny
Hello, happy 6th everybody
It sounds like Rupert and Burley were hoppin' this weekend! That's pretty sad to hear about the mortar exploding, though. Is Paul going to make a new one? I imagine he has all sorts of connections with people who can get him 6-1/2" steel pipe with 2" holes drilled in it. Where did he get the original one?
We've been doing well around here. We don't get to watch fireworks since we have to be in by 9:00 and neither Madison nor Geneva had fireworks anyways. Ohio's fireworks laws are even stricter than Utah's - they can only have things that smoke, but no flame or sparks - not even fountains or ground-bloom flowers are legal. So, the big thing to do at parties and barbecues here in Ohio is cornhole. Everybody is crazy about it. Basically it's a beanbag toss. It's fun and all, but I don't understand why it's such a big thing.
You say "Cody and Dad got to shoot Paul's AR-15 yesterday". Did he not let you shoot it? Why just Cody and Dad? It seems like everybody has an AR-15 around here, too. When "Red Dawn" goes down, I can think of at least three different members' homes that are basically armories. Since when does Paul have an AR-15 and why didn't I get to shoot it?
Who is Rich that Delaney was texting?
I guess Elder O'Donley's family has been reading my blog - you guys should email them or something and tell them how to set up a blog for Elder O'Donley as well. Is his mom on the email group? We had a pretty slow week. A lot of our appointments canceled, and two of our investigators are out of town. The 4th of July doesn't help much in missionary work, I guess. Anyways, here's the update for investigators and LAs:
Steven: We had a great lesson with him last week and committed him to baptism on the 31st of July. We've been maintaining daily contact with him by phone on the days that we don't teach him, which is definitely helpful in getting him to remember to read and pray daily. He's working on quitting smoking. We taught him about fasting and then he, Elder O'Donley, and I fasted with him that he would have added strenght to quit smoking. Prayers would be appreciated, as he's struggling with it. I think he can do it, though - his daily reading and prayer, as well as fasting are a whole lot of faith being exercised. He didn't come to church on Sunday - he slept in, I guess.
Bro. and Sis. Elliot: We taught them about fasting, too, and they fasted that Sis. Elliot would be able to get work off and come regularly on Sundays. They are reading and praying together daily and doing great. Bro. Elliot should be at church Sunday, but Sis. Elliot is working, as usual. Bro. Elliot slept in on Sunday also. I'm pretty sure that everybody slept in because one day this week we left our phone in the kitchen when we went to bed and didn't hear the alarm, so we didn't get up until 6:40 and didn't fully keep the morning schedule. We've repented.
Bro. and Sis. Hanny: Are basically active now. We're ready to not actively be teaching them anymore and just let their hometeachers (Bro. Talbot, who we brought with us to several appointments to help him establish a good relationship with them, and his son) take over. They are working towards the temple. They were at church on Sunday (just like the last 6 weeks)
Bro. and Sis. Nelson: Haven't been active for a while, but we've been working with them and they came to church on Sunday. That was really exciting. They have strong testimonies and are really great people. They are feeding us this week!
That's about it...Todd and Sis. Dautartas and Ethan are all out of town, so they're temporarily on hold. Hopefully we can start teaching them again this week.
We've been having great lessons with a lot of members of the ward about member-missionary work. We have committed several families to do the activity on p. 172 of PMG, which asks them to pray about who they can prepare to hear the gospel and set goals of what they can do to help prepare them. We've been following up to make sure they did the activity and set goals, and now we're making appointments with them to discuss their people and goals and roleplay with them to help prepare them to effectively invite others to hear the gospel. We've been struggling with trying to motivate members and get them excited about missionary work, so hopefully this will help. Today in district meeting we roleplayed roleplaying with members.
On a related note, one member was coming teaching with us and on the ride to our appointment we roleplayed with him how he could talk his wife into letting him buy a four-wheeler. I thought that was funny.
On Saturday we're going to "This Is Kirtland - a musical theatre production depicting the life and times of mormon settlers in Kirtland". Sis. Hanny is going to bring her nonmember father, which is our ticket in. We're trying to get Steven, the Elliots, and another family we're working with, the Barths, to come to it also. It's a really big deal to the people out here - like as big as the pageants (or at least they think so).
Sorry about not labeling the pictures. Here's a couple explanations
sanyo105.jpg is bro. and sis. hanny
sanyo108.jpg is elder baxter
sanyo111.jpg is me and elder o'donley at transfer meeting his first day
sanyo102.jpg and 103.jpg are taped to the door of a sister in our ward who is one of the armories i might have to head to on d-day
lymnb, Elder Matthew Smith
It sounds like Rupert and Burley were hoppin' this weekend! That's pretty sad to hear about the mortar exploding, though. Is Paul going to make a new one? I imagine he has all sorts of connections with people who can get him 6-1/2" steel pipe with 2" holes drilled in it. Where did he get the original one?
We've been doing well around here. We don't get to watch fireworks since we have to be in by 9:00 and neither Madison nor Geneva had fireworks anyways. Ohio's fireworks laws are even stricter than Utah's - they can only have things that smoke, but no flame or sparks - not even fountains or ground-bloom flowers are legal. So, the big thing to do at parties and barbecues here in Ohio is cornhole. Everybody is crazy about it. Basically it's a beanbag toss. It's fun and all, but I don't understand why it's such a big thing.
You say "Cody and Dad got to shoot Paul's AR-15 yesterday". Did he not let you shoot it? Why just Cody and Dad? It seems like everybody has an AR-15 around here, too. When "Red Dawn" goes down, I can think of at least three different members' homes that are basically armories. Since when does Paul have an AR-15 and why didn't I get to shoot it?
Who is Rich that Delaney was texting?
I guess Elder O'Donley's family has been reading my blog - you guys should email them or something and tell them how to set up a blog for Elder O'Donley as well. Is his mom on the email group? We had a pretty slow week. A lot of our appointments canceled, and two of our investigators are out of town. The 4th of July doesn't help much in missionary work, I guess. Anyways, here's the update for investigators and LAs:
Steven: We had a great lesson with him last week and committed him to baptism on the 31st of July. We've been maintaining daily contact with him by phone on the days that we don't teach him, which is definitely helpful in getting him to remember to read and pray daily. He's working on quitting smoking. We taught him about fasting and then he, Elder O'Donley, and I fasted with him that he would have added strenght to quit smoking. Prayers would be appreciated, as he's struggling with it. I think he can do it, though - his daily reading and prayer, as well as fasting are a whole lot of faith being exercised. He didn't come to church on Sunday - he slept in, I guess.
Bro. and Sis. Elliot: We taught them about fasting, too, and they fasted that Sis. Elliot would be able to get work off and come regularly on Sundays. They are reading and praying together daily and doing great. Bro. Elliot should be at church Sunday, but Sis. Elliot is working, as usual. Bro. Elliot slept in on Sunday also. I'm pretty sure that everybody slept in because one day this week we left our phone in the kitchen when we went to bed and didn't hear the alarm, so we didn't get up until 6:40 and didn't fully keep the morning schedule. We've repented.
Bro. and Sis. Hanny: Are basically active now. We're ready to not actively be teaching them anymore and just let their hometeachers (Bro. Talbot, who we brought with us to several appointments to help him establish a good relationship with them, and his son) take over. They are working towards the temple. They were at church on Sunday (just like the last 6 weeks)
Bro. and Sis. Nelson: Haven't been active for a while, but we've been working with them and they came to church on Sunday. That was really exciting. They have strong testimonies and are really great people. They are feeding us this week!
That's about it...Todd and Sis. Dautartas and Ethan are all out of town, so they're temporarily on hold. Hopefully we can start teaching them again this week.
We've been having great lessons with a lot of members of the ward about member-missionary work. We have committed several families to do the activity on p. 172 of PMG, which asks them to pray about who they can prepare to hear the gospel and set goals of what they can do to help prepare them. We've been following up to make sure they did the activity and set goals, and now we're making appointments with them to discuss their people and goals and roleplay with them to help prepare them to effectively invite others to hear the gospel. We've been struggling with trying to motivate members and get them excited about missionary work, so hopefully this will help. Today in district meeting we roleplayed roleplaying with members.
On a related note, one member was coming teaching with us and on the ride to our appointment we roleplayed with him how he could talk his wife into letting him buy a four-wheeler. I thought that was funny.
On Saturday we're going to "This Is Kirtland - a musical theatre production depicting the life and times of mormon settlers in Kirtland". Sis. Hanny is going to bring her nonmember father, which is our ticket in. We're trying to get Steven, the Elliots, and another family we're working with, the Barths, to come to it also. It's a really big deal to the people out here - like as big as the pageants (or at least they think so).
Sorry about not labeling the pictures. Here's a couple explanations
sanyo105.jpg is bro. and sis. hanny
sanyo108.jpg is elder baxter
sanyo111.jpg is me and elder o'donley at transfer meeting his first day
sanyo102.jpg and 103.jpg are taped to the door of a sister in our ward who is one of the armories i might have to head to on d-day
lymnb, Elder Matthew Smith
