"After about a week of good weather and thinking it was spring... we got some more snow. But for the most part it has melted off now and we're just back to spring. Last monday the four of us elders had some fun with the hockey net the yard of our apartment. We were playing some hockey and soccer with it and it was a lot of fun to be out in the sun and just playing at least some variation of sports. Also that same day we found out that there was a bakery near the walmart where we get groceries, so Elder Echeverria and I bought some dessert and got a free loaf of baked bread. As always, it was a little bit on the expensive side, but it was definitely worth it.
"The other day it was really cool because we were trying to contact a referral that we had given a book of mormon to, but she didn't really want to talk with us much more than that. As we were walking up to her house, there were a whole bunch of kids out playing on the street and one of them was 9 yr old Ellie who is a member - so she came over to talk with us and then all of the kids followed and were surrounding us and just talking with us for quite some time. One girl was trying to show off on her roller blades and tried showing us how fast she could go - some other boys had a skate board and they were trying to show us some tricks. Ha it was a lot of fun seeing them and just talking to all of them. Then we went and talked with Deb ... - the referral - and we were able to make a really good contact with her. We were able to figure out why she wanted the book of mormon in the first place and it was really cool because there is a quote by elder holland in preach my gospel that goes something like 'more important than speaking is listening... As you listen to people I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a principle of the gospel of which you can bear testimony' and that was really true as we listened to her story. We were able to talk about the gospel and it opened the door for us coming back another time. Hopefully this week we'll be able to see her and talk with her and her family.
"This week Elder Cowling and I were asked to give a training at the zone study that we had on Wednesday. It was really fun because we gave a training on baptism. We talked about what baptism is just in general terms, what makes it valid - or what gives it authority, then we talked on a more spiritual note about what baptism is - why we make the covenant of baptism, we then went on to talk about committing people to baptism on the first and also just bringing up baptism at any contact - following the spirit and listen like Elder Holland advised us to. Two of my favorite parts of the training were 1. A talk given by Elder Oaks about why we do missionary work. One of the things I like most about his talk was when he says something to the effect of 'we don't baptize people just for the sake of adding to the membership of the church, we baptize them so that they can return tothe Celestial Kingdom and live with God. Other Churches cannot do it. Good Christian living cannot do it. Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has that authority.' I wish I had the talk in front of me so I could quote it exactly. 2. Elder McMurrin told me of a zone study that he went to in which an Elder asked the question 'How many of you feel the insatiable need to baptize on your mission?' That question is a tricky one - ha I remember when Elder McMurrin asked me this question - I didn't answer right away because I wasn't sure what he was getting at. Then the elder continued 'You better feel that need to baptize because that is the only thing we have to offer!' I thought it was really cool. Also a third favorite point of the training was when we talked about the different forms of baptized - Elder McMurrin was talking to one person at a door with Elder Resek and then they handed him a book of mormon which the guy accepted and then paused and said, 'wait, this isn't how you baptize people, right?' Ha not quite.
"Last night to end the day we decided to stop by Anna and her family. They let us in and we talked with her and her two daughters for quite awhile. We showed them a bible video and a mormon message and then we were able to really talk about the book of mormon. It was really neat because of a couple reasons. 1. We had tried teaching about the book of mormon before and about the restoration but I don't think anna fully realized the importance of it until yesterday. 2. Alexa, Anna's daughter, is one that is really into philosophy - and likes to argue just for an argument's sake. But we asked her to read Moroni 7 and I totally expected her to try and start a discussion about it, but she said that she liked it and that it made sense to her! That was cool. It was also a really neat feeling for me last night as I was trying to find a reading assignment to give to Alexa and Chiara, the daughters, and as I thought and prayed about it during the lesson a couple chapters came into my mind to give to them that I feel will really help them in their understanding of the gospel and that they will like them."
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