This week was difficult trying to get into people's homes for lessons
because just about everyone is out of town, or super busy for the
Fourth of July.
Monday
We had a awesome family home evening with the Parisi family again.
They are one of my favorite families to be around. The are really a
Christ family in their home of five girls, Marin (15), Morgon (13),
Megen (11), Macey (5), and McKinley (3). Macey was sitting next to me
when we were playing Bible Apples to Apples and was having a good time
and was asking for my help choosing every card. At the end she gave me
a great big hug. She is so cute. They love having the missionaries
in their home so that they can have a good example for their
daughters. They asked us about what made us want to come out on
missions and why we are here. We had a great discussion about how much
the gospel has blessed our lives and what it means to us. Brother
Parisi is wanting his girls to marry a worthy priesthood holder who
puts God before anything else, and is doing a great job at raising his
family in the Gospel with love. They are also working with someone
who they want us to start teaching pretty soon. Her name is Julie,
and we meet her at a sculling regatta where Marin was competing. They
have invited her to church a few times and she wants to come, just
hasn't been able to make it yet.
Tuesday
We biked up to Sister Touchstone's and right before we arrived at her
house, Brother Hoynacki drove by us. I guess he has been trying to
meet with all of the ward missionaries and trying to coordinate and
start setting things up with them. Anyways, at Sister Touchstone's,
she gave us some watermelon and popsicles. We also talked about Sister
Biggs, who told me in gospel principles that she loved coming to
church this last Sunday with Sister Touchstone and feels a lot more
comfortable now. She expressed how much that she has missed feeling
the spirit in sacrament meeting, and that she wants to have that
feeling with her more often now. Sister Touchstone also brought two
nonmembers with her to church last week, Tammy and Christopher. They
are now living with Sister Touchstone, and are complete strangers that
she toke under her wing. They just moved from Ohio a few weeks ago to
get away from drugs and are trying to Chang their life around. They
loved coming to church, and are planning on coming again. They really
liked Brother Su'a teaching Sunday school, and having the combined
gird hour with bishop teaching. Brother Su'a is a super great guy and
has a great knowledge of the gospel, and connecting with everyone.
Everyone here that knows him absolutely love him and his lessons. We
are having a dinner with Sister Touchstone on Tuesday and we are going
to introduce the Book of Mormon to Tammy and Christopher. This
evening, we were supposed to have a lesson with the Banerjee family,
but Kuntal had to stay at work late this evening so they canceled on
us. We will have to reschedule with them.
Wednesday
This morning we started off with district meeting and had a training
from Elder Peterson on how to introduce and help recent converts with
family history work. Afterwards, we went and had lunch with Elder
Peterson and Elder Cooper. They are on exchanges today. Elder Cooper
is a pretty cool guy, and I wouldn't mind being companions with him
one of these days. Anyways, we went down to Sarasota to see Leroy,
and we saw him on the side of the street. We had a brief visit with
him since he was heading off to lunch. We found out that his friend
Eddy, who we have taught before in lessons with Leroy, just passed
away yesterday on the side of the road. Not sure how, but Leroy was
having a tough time with that. He is really trying to get out of the
place that he is in now. We then went and visited with Brother Brown.
We learned that he is taking a health and nutrition class through his
doctor, and he had just gotten back and we were going to teach the law
of tithing , but felt that the word of wisdom would be more
appropriate. We talked about his experience learning about the word of
wisdom with his first set of missionaries. He has never had a problem
keeping the word of wisdom, and understands the great importance of
doing so. He wants to help his boys understand more about it as well.
The rest of the day was spent at the dentists office, hopefully the
last time there. Visit Number six I believe. Dr. Aaron Leavitt is
such a great guy and so are his assistants. They did a free cleaning
for both Elder Ronfeldt and I.
Thursday
We started off the morning with weekly planning and then spent the
remainder of the day with drop by appointments since we didn't have
anything set in stone. We went and tried to visit with Sister Biggs,
but it wasn't the best timing with her. So we will try to see her
again in a few days. We then went down and helped Sister Williamson
move some furniture around. She wanted us to stay for dinner win her
and Sister Tyler, but since there was no male present we were unable
to. However, we did find out that she does know Calvin Bryant, a
former investigator we are trying to work with right now. We are going
to try to have another dinner where he can come over and join us.
Sister Williamson did give us some of her chili, salad, and watermelon
for us to take home for dinner. The watermelon was definitely the
best part of it. We drove by Brother Wilburns to see if he was there
for later in the evening, and he was standing on his front porch with
a great big grin on his face. We think that he may have seen us. So
about an hour later, we went to try to see him with Bother Curtis, but
he was no longer there. We felt bad for making Brother Curtis drive
all the was down to try see him. But since that fell through, we
tried to visit the Guminski's but they weren't home either, than
Bother Curtis wanted to try Sister Rosploch, but it wasn't a good
night for her. As we were driving around, Brother Curtis was telling
us that he is moving at the end of this month back to Utah for his
next rotation. We knew about this, and are greatly going to miss him
and his wife. They are super fun to be around. He told is that the
doctor that he is working under right now, that he just found out that
she is a Mormon. We got talking more and he said that he works in St.
Petersburg, so I asked him about this doctors name. He only knew her
last name which is Oberbeck. I asked him if her first name was
Jenisha. He said that sounded rights. I know her from St. Petersburg.
She was one of the first people that I gave a blessing to late one
night with Elder Whaley and Brother Owen. She is a great missionary
member with talking with her coworkers, So that was pretty cool to
find out that connection.
Friday
This morning started off with ward correlation up at Brother
Hoynacki's home. The Sisters talked about Paula Obryan, who we handed
off to them earlier this week because we felt that she would be better
for them. Paula is coming to church on Sunday, and has said yes to a
soft commit for baptism. Elder Ronfeldt and I are a little sad that
we didn't keep her in our teaching pool, but we are excited for her to
come to church. Sister Canulette gets along great with her, and we
felt that she would be the best person for fellowshipping. We talked
some about Harry Potter World, because Bro. and Sis. Hoynacki are
going there tomorrow to upgrade their tickets, so that they can go
opening day on Tuesday. Sister Skeem is a huge Harry Party fanatic,
and she was so jealous that they were going. It was pretty funny
hearing them talk about it, especially when Sister Skeem noticed a
picture of Hogwarts School on the wall, and when Sister Hoynacki was
showing pictures of it that she had taken of it herself. The other
really funny thing that happened at that meeting was when Sister
Hoynacki was giving us the brownies that she had made. Elder and
Sister Greenwood are on a diet, so Sister Greenwood said no that they
wouldn't take any. Next thing you know, Elder Greenwood taking one
against his wife's will. You should have seen the look on Sister
Greenwoods face, and everyone just started laughing. You could tell
that he was going to get it as soon as they get in the car. After
correlation, we didn't have any appointments set for the day sine it
is the fourth of July. So we had less active contacting to do. We
weren't able to get in with anyone, but did find a few more names that
need to be forwarded out of the ward. At one home, I was pulling up
in the driveway and there was a super small ditch. We have a super
junky bike rack that we have and it feels like it is going to fall
off, but the tires of our bikes hit the ground and next thing you hear
is air hissing out of the tire. We got out and inspect the damage
and of course, it is my bike that has the flat. The cause of it was
from the other bike pedals hitting my rims and spokes and scratching
them up, then it hitting the valve and broke it off. There is no way
of repairing it, so now I need to buy some more bike tubes. In the
evening, we felt that there would be a lot of people on downtown
Sarasota for the fireworks. So we headed down there for street
contacting. There were quite a few people that we talked to and
handed out tons of cards. Elder Ronfeldt wasn't in the best mood
because he hates being in large crowns. We did have some luck talking
to people. The first guy was a security guard that came up to us in
front Chase Bank. He started talking about his research that he is
doing for a flag. I wasn't quite understanding all of what he was
talking about. I think that he is Jewish. He told us that our church
had just creat a flag, but we are pretty sure that we haven't. The
next family we talked to was members from Brandon ward. Diana Sevigné
and her three daughters, and one of their boyfriends. I guess the
boyfriend isn't a member, because Diana said he is going to start the
discussions soon. Whenever they see missionaries, they like to take
pictures with them. It was fun seeing members there in e large crowds.
Most of the people weren't too friendly, and one guy told me to bite
him, which I thought was pretty funny. The last people who we talked
to were Derek and Linda who were sitting in lawns chairs getting ready
to watch the fireworks. We were biking by and stopped to talk to
them. They asked us about what was different about our church. So we
explained the restoration and gave them a pamphlet that they could
read through as they were sitting there. We talked some about the
Book of Mormon and how it goes along with the Bible. It feels like
it's been quite a while since we have talked like that to anyone we
meet on the street, so it was a really neat experience. We should
have asked for their information so that we can meet with them again.
Saturday
We started off the morning with our monthly meeting with Bishop and
had a great breakfast that Sister Leedom made for us. We spent about
2.5 hours just talking about the ward and the people who we are
working with. Afterwards, we went and visited with Leroy again.
Today we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and tried to commit him
to baptism, but he didn't accept and shot it down. He says that he
has been baptized twice before and doesn't need to be baptized again.
We explained about the priesthood authority being restored on the
earth again, but he was quite getting it. We invited him to come to
church, but he also declined that invite. He still wants to meet with
us so we will be coming back again tomorrow.
Sunday
This morning we got our transfer calls differently than we normally
do. Usually we have a conference call Saturday night, then transfers
are Tuesday morning. This time we got an email Sunday morning, and
transfer meeting in on Thursday morning. There are 24 missionaries
that are going home. Most of them are sisters because that is when
the influx of missionaries started. There are 25 missionaries that
are coming out. So you are probably wondering what happened. Elder
Ronfeldt and I will no longer be companions. We were together for
three transfers/four months. Elder Ronfeldt is leaving University
Park after being here for his first seven months, and he is white wash
training a new missionary. I too, will be training a new missionary
for the next two transfers. It has its pros and cons, but it will be
good for me to train someone. I'm not looking forward to it too much
right now, but I know that things will work out. We will have to see
how it all goes. Hopefully he is a cool guy. The rest of Sunday went
really well. I felt like I was able to have better connection with
the members than ever before, and that is one of my goals is to work
with them more this next transfer, because I know that they have
friends and neighbors who are ready to receive the gospel into their
life. I know that this church is true and that we have a living
prophet who guides us today. I am so blessed to see the miracles of
people accepting Christ into their life each day and it is something
that is really special to witness. I love you all and hope that
things are going great for you.
Love,
Elder Leavitt
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment