28 Mar 2016

This week was good. On Monday we played basketball and volleyball. I hurt myself trying to dunk. I hyper-extended my knee a tiny bit so it's a little sore. It's not very bad though. It was a good activity.

On Tuesday we had zone conference. We were combined with the Taylorsville zone. President Palmer started off the zone conference by announcing the terrorist attack in Brussels where those missionaries were hurt. He told us not to focus on the negative things in the world. Then he went on to describe how the Iron rod is Christ and how everything we doing missionary work is of Christ. President Palmer also told us if we are unified as a mission, miracles will happen. He also told us that what we are doing is the most important work on the earth and we are doing it full-time. And it is not about us. It is about Christ. Then the sister APs gave the training on being unified with Christ. They told us that we should love him let him change us and follow him. Then the assistants gave a training on being unified as a companionship and testifying after each other. After that we had lunch.

After lunch we resumed the zone conference by hearing from President Young. He instructed us on the importance of the Lord in this work and how it is not about us; it is about the Lord. He also told us to use the time on our missions to strengthen our foundation on the Book of Mormon. Then we watched part of the missionary broadcast where Elder Bednar was training some missionaries. Some things that stuck out to me in the broadcast was where that all people have agency and if they don't use the agency they have to accept your message; don't get down on yourself. We also need to be obedient and relieved to have the Holy Ghost with us at all times. The training was a lot about using the Holy Ghost. Something that Elder Bednar said that really stuck out to me was that people don't learn from anything we say. They learn from the feelings they get from the Holy Ghost. The biggest roadblock towards progression is our own pride and lack of submissiveness. He also mentioned that teaching is listening and observing. Then at the end President Palmer closed the meeting with saying that we shouldn't focus on the little things in the church. We shouldn't be bothered if someone sits in "your" bench. He said that we should switch it up and not sit same bench every week.

On Wednesday we taught a lesson to the Wilkes family. They have an eight-year-old daughter who is not yet been baptized. So they want us to come over and teach the daughter. It was a very interesting lesson, because the daughter gets distracted very easily. Then after that lesson we went to the McFarlane family. They are really awesome family. They really like superheroes and guns, so we have lots to talk about.

On Thursday we had weekly planning. During weekly planning we got a call from some missionaries from the Salt Lake mission. They said they had received permission from their mission president to teach our investigator who speaks French because one of the elders in their mission can speak French. But we already have set it up where we teach once a week with the Temple Square sisters that speak French. Then later that night we got together. All the missionaries in our zone that it they're 18 month mark. We had a mass pants burning ceremony, and since Elder Paul it is 18th month mark, we went. It was fun.

Friday was a pretty slow day. We didn't have district meeting because of the zone conference. So we had district lunch instead. We had grilled chicken, it was really good! We brought a lemon meringue pie that a family gave us because we weren't going to eat it all on our own. While we were waiting for lunch to finish cooking we were playing with these remote control army tanks. When one of the army tanks shoots the other the controller shocks the person's hand who got shot. I played for like three seconds.

On Saturday morning we had a meeting with our ward mission leader in the third Ward. We discussed everyone we are working with in his ward and what they need to progress. We also discussed people that we could start teaching in his ward. The rest of the day was pretty slow until we got in for the night. Right after we finished planning and I got changed we got a call from one of our ward mission leaders. He said that brother Neffs nephew had gone into the hospital and brother Neff wanted us to come and help give his nephew a blessing. So I got changed and we left. We got to the hospital and give the blessing and then we left. It was kind of exciting.

On Sunday we had a farewell talk in the first ward we went to, a homecoming in the next ward we went to.  Then we had a ward conference in the last ward we went to. I really liked the ward conference because they had an awesome musical number by these five sisters from Hawaii. They were really good. And that was pretty much our week.

We are taking a guy to the Saturday afternoon session of conference.

 

 

23 Mar 2016 - Handwritten

I'm sending my thumb drive.  Could you please send me an email the day you get it and let me know if the videos work?

This morning I had a great study.  I studied Alma 7.  I loved that he was sent to teach repentance.  I need to put more emphasis on repentance while I'm teaching.  Then I studied Elder Renlund's talk.  It took new light this morning.  I realized that I still have a long way to go these next five months and an even longer way to go after my mission.  I am weak and simple like the scriptures say.  And I love what Elder Renlund said, "The Lord has called you for what He needs to do through you.  And that will only happen if you do it His way."  I wake up in the morning to get myself out of bed on time.  I tell myself, "If you want to be a trainer, you have to get up."  I say that about a lot of things.  In my Patriarchal blessing it says the things I ask for in righteousness I will receive.  So, if I keep being obedient and working hard, I may get that opportunity.  If not, I guess it wasn't to be.

I don't know if you have watched the Face to Face with Elder Holland or the Missionary Broadcast, Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts from a few months ago.  But I suggest you watch them.  They are really good.

21 Mar 2016

 This week was good. On Monday we went to downtown Salt Lake. We were going to go to the Salt Lake cemetery but it rained. So instead, we went to the Salt Lake Pioneer Museum. It was a cool museum. It had like six floors in it. My favorite part of it was the room with all the guns and swords. I also liked the two-headed sheep. After that we all came home. On the way home we stopped at the sandwich place. While we were there we met this dude who was a host on a radio show. When we were all headed back to the van to eat our lunch the dude stop us.  He wanted all of us to say our name and where we were from so he could record it and put it on his radio show. After that, he left and we started eating. We were about to leave and then he came back. He wanted us to say the Pledge of Allegiance so he could put that on his radio show as well. It was really cool.

Tuesday was kind of slow. We went around all day trying to contact people, but we had no luck. We did get to visit the Samami family though. They are a fun family. The mom is white and the dad is Tongan.  I talked to the dad the whole time about his mission. He served on the reservations in New Mexico. We talked about the high school basketball teams on the reservations. Apparently in New Mexico they are a lot better than back home.

On Wednesday we started knocking a group of houses called Fox shadows. There are a lot of records of people in there, but no one is sure if they still live there.  We didn't have any luck. So then we went to a different ward and started trying to contact less actives. Only one of the houses answered. They had a vicious dog and it tried to bite us through the screen. It was a little stinker. After we did that we had a lesson with Brian. He seemed to accept everything we talked about. We taught him lesson three, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. After his lesson we headed to dinner.  We had pulled pork sandwiches. They were really good. After dinner we went and visited Nelson Neff. He wasn't able to make it to church on Sunday so we taught the Millennium lesson from the gospel principles book with one of our ward mission leaders. After that our other lesson canceled so we went to the church and we played basketball with the young men in the seventh ward. It was really fun. They all wanted to play me one-on-one and I beat all of them. And then right before for we left I dunked it. It felt really good. I haven't done that in a long time.

On Thursday we went to lunch with the zone leaders. We went to Culver's, While we were there they asked us if we wanted to help them out with the service project and we said yes. So after we ate lunch they took us home to change and then we went to the service project.

The service project was deshingling a roof. We were there for three hours and we didn't finish it. I never have deshingled a roof before, but it was fun. By the time we left it was time for dinner so you quick went home and changed and then we went to dinner. For dinner we had roast and these really good cheesy potatoes. And then for dessert we get ice cream. Then we went to the stake center and participated in the youth choir because there is not enough showing up for it. And that was our night.

On Friday we had district meeting. It was pretty good. There was some training given on the trust. After district meeting not a whole lot happened over lessons canceled on us. It was kind of frustrating but that's just part of missionary work. So we did a lot of contacting on Friday.

On Saturday we went back with the zone leaders and helped on the roof again. Three of us were on the garage roof removing the shingles.  Elder Fakatou was on the other roof helping lay down the tar paper. After that we went to a lesson, but that didn't happen because they didn't answer the door. Then we had another service project where we raked the lady's yard for her. By the time dinner came around we were really tired. For dinner we had some Mexican food with this awesome family. Their oldest son went to the same high school as Atiba Jacobs. So we talked about Atiba for a little bit.

After dinner we went to the stake center so I can use the bathroom.

While we were there the Marshallese branch was having a wedding. They just finished the wedding and the bride and groom were walking out of the cultural hall and they were playing some love song and it was kind of making me trunky so I tried not to listen. Then we went to visit Bill Tate. It was a good lesson he is always a fun guy to go and visit. He is progressing slowly but surely. He's a great guy.

On Sunday, since we had the temple dedication we couldn't bring our investigators to church. So we took them to Music and the Spoken Word. Afterwards we took them on a tour at Temple Square. We brought Brian and some less active people who are returning. We also brought a man named Bruno. He is from Cameroon and he mainly speaks French, but he is learning English pretty good. So we had a Temple Square sister give Bruno the tour in French. We are going to set it up so that once a week we can take Bruno to Temple Square and we can tag team teach him in French and English. Then we came home and had lunch. Then we went to the 3:00 session of the temple dedication. It was really good. We got to hear from Elder Nelson, Elder Stephenson, Elder Clayton, and Elder Ringwood along with others. My favorite talk was probably by Elder Clayton. Then we went to dinner and we ate with a family where the wife is from the Philippines. We had Thanksgiving dinner. It was really good. Then for the rest of the night we visited member families.

That is the address that was on dad's first letter I got, but I've only got one letter from him. You could send my package to the mission office if you wanted to. I sent you a letter with a thumb drive in it.

You should get it today or tomorrow. Let me know if you get it and if all the pictures and videos work. 

14 Mar 2016

This week was good. On Monday we went bowling as a zone. It was really fun. I won one of the games we played.

On Tuesday we had a district lunch. We ate at our district leader's house. My district leader is Elder Ama and his companion is Elder Mahi. Elder Mahi made some burgers and everyone else brought stuff. Nothing happened during the day but after dinner we were at the stake center using the bathroom and some people needed help running their church ball game because playoffs started. I was going to be a ref but then their other one showed up so Elder Paul ran the clock and I did the book. It was our service for the night.

On Wednesday we had exchanges. I went to Elder Mahi's area with him. We had lots of fun. In the morning we went to the mission office and Elder Mahi got driver certified and also got certified to drive the mission van. Then we went to lunch at Subway. After that we went to a church to have a meeting with his stake president to discuss missionary work in the English wards. While we were waiting we went to the room where all of the pipes for the organ are. After that we ate dinner with a really cool family. We had BBQ chicken sandwiches and Cheetos. It was a great meal.

On Thursday we had weekly planning it, was a lot better than last week's. After that was finished we went to dinner. We went to a Marshallese family in the next stake over. When we walked in the first thing I saw when I walked in was a tout of frozen fish. So I thought that was what we were having for dinner. Luckily we had chicken and rice. It was good and I tried to eat as much as I could so I didn't offend them.

On Friday we had district meeting in the morning. It was a good meeting. We had a training by our Sisters on hope. They talked about how hope is the start of faith. Then we gave a training on following up with people. I think it was really good, but I'm not sure how everyone else liked it. That night we went to a Marshallese wedding because the family invited us for food afterwards. I think that's the first wedding I've been to that I can remember. When they were signing the marriage paper thing they didn't have a pen so they used mine. I'm pretty proud of the fact my pen married someone. So we had to leave at 6:30 for a FHE with our ward mission leader at the church history museum. The wedding finished at 5:45 and when 6:30 came the food still wasn't ready so we left. The museum was awesome! It was my first time being there, the first thing we saw was the first vision movie. It was good we took some less actives and some non members.

On Saturday morning I was going to play basketball with the Marshallese branch because there were some non members coming but someone died so there was a funeral there instead. I was kinda bummed out. So we went to Brother Buttar's house. He is one of the ward missionaries and he was a mission president in Arizona a few years ago. We went over the unbaptized list with him and we might have found a good potential. So the rest of the day consisted of everyone canceling their appointments. One of our lessons didn't cancel and that was the last one of the day. His name is Bill Tate. He is going through a rough time. The whole lesson the spirit was there and I had the prompting to ask him if he wanted a blessing. So I asked him. He said yes and I gave him a blessing. The spirit was super strong. All the things I needed to say came to my mind. Bill and I were bother teary eyed at the end of it. It was a good lesson.

Sunday was a regular Sunday. Brian came to church.  I think we are going to push his date back. We feel that he isn't progressing fast enough to reach his date. That night we had a lesson with a family where the mom is active and the daughter just got home from her mission. Everyone else is inactive. We taught the plan of salvation.  It was a good lesson too. Hopefully we can help them get active and go to the temple. That was my week.

7 Mar 2016

This week was good, we helped this lady from Africa move for like 3 hours. She had so much stuff. It took forever. We made probably 3 or 4 DI runs to donate things. Each one of those runs we filled up the back of a truck and a trailer. We had pizza for lunch so that was good. Then that night we taught mutual and did a lesson on missionary work.We showed some videos and did some role plays. It was fun.

On Wednesday we had some awesome lessons. We had a lesson with Nelson Neff again. He is so awesome. I love seeing people with his enthusiasm for the gospel. He is a man that gets it. We talked a lot on the topic of repentance. After his lesson we taught another mutual. We watched the last episode of the district 2. Then we talked about missionary work. After that we taught the McFarlane family. They are really cool. I have lots of fun when we go over there.

On Thursday we taught Brian the plan of salvation, he is progressing pretty good. After his lesson we had weekly planning. That night we had a lesson with the Meyer family. It was a really awkward lesson. So we made it short. Then we taught a guy named Bill Tate. He is really funny and has lots of stories. We committed him to stop drinking coffee so the can prepare himself to go back to the temple.

On Friday we had zone training. It was really good. I learned a lot and got pumped. My favorite training was probably the one from the Sister APs. The talked about the joy that the gospel brings and how we should be more joyful while we do missionary work. That night we had a FHE at one of our ward mission leaders houses. We got some nonmember kids there. We talked about how we can better our relationship with Christ.

Saturday was really slow. We went contacting all day and went on ward visits.

On Sunday we went to all 3 of our sacrament meetings. I love going to the Marshallese branch. I never wear the headphones because I like to listen to their testimonies in their language. We went up to bear our testimonies twice yesterday. It was a good way to introduce myself. I also consecrated oil in Elders Quorum. After dinner we got stuck in the rain. It was wet. So for the last few days I've had a cold so some members gave me NyQuil. So right before I went to bed I drank a little bit. It was so nasty. About 5 minutes after taking it I threw up because it was so nasty. Well that was my week.

29 Feb 2016

 This week was good. On Tuesday we had transfers. Elder Rodgers drove me to my new area. The address they gave us for the building I had to pick up Elder Paul at sent us to the middle of a trailer park. We eventually found it. The whole first day we walked because my bike was still at my old apartment. We went around and pretty much met a bunch of the ward missionaries. My apartment is really nice though It's probably one of the biggest ones I've stayed in too.

On Wednesday we contacted people for a lot of the day. And then we had a lesson with a recent convert later in the night. We were talking about the scriptures and how they apply to us. Then the guy (His name is Nelson) said something and Elder Paul, our member present and I all  opened our scriptures to the same place so we could share it with him. None of us planned on sharing that scripture at the beginning of the lesson, but the spirit prompted all of us to share that scripture it was really cool.

On Thursday we ate lunch with some old dude. We ate beef stroganoff and it was pretty good. After that we had weekly planning. It was long.  All of our lessons the rest of the day fell through. So we had a chance to do some more contacting.

On Friday we had district meeting. It was not the most exciting meeting ever. The district is kind of odd. After district meeting we went home and ate lunch. Then we went and visited a dude that moved from Cameroon. His English is ok, but we are getting a translator. After we visited him we went to the mission office to get a French Book of Mormon for him. Then that night we had a meeting with one of our ward mission leaders. We are going to start teaching active families and help them with their missionary efforts.

On Saturday we had a packed day with like 7 lessons planned. But one by one they all fell through except for the one at the end of the day.  So we did some service for this lady who is moving. Then our ward mission leader took us out to lunch. We went to Culvers! I was so happy, it's the first time I've gone in like 2 years. So it was a slow day, but we worked hard.

On Sunday we went to all 3 sacrament meetings. I liked the 5th branch. It was pretty cool listening to them speak Marshallese. We had a head set for a translator, but I didn't use it for the last talk. I also already knew some of the people in the Marshallese branch, I played basketball with them in my last area. So it was cool to see them. Church was fun. We found a non member at church and pulled him into a room taught him and put him on date for March 26th. It was a good lesson, a little jumpy because that's the first time we taught the restoration together. But we found out Brian (the guy we put on date) just moved in with his girlfriend, who is the one he came to church with. She is also in high school too, so it's not like we can get them married. Frustrating.  Then we went and visited some members and that was our night.

So I now cover two English wards and the 5th branch which is the Marshallese unit. The Marshallese branch covers the whole valley so if I stay maybe I will get a car. It's weird to think that I may end my mission in this area. I think I will have one more area, but who knows. This morning we went to this Philippino ladies house and ate breakfast with the 2 sets of sisters in our stake.

22 Feb 2016

This week was great. On Monday we went ice skating in Murray. It was really fun to watch the people that haven't done it before. I was proud of myself as I didn't fall over at all. We had lots of fun. Then later we were cutting through the parting lots at the Valley Fair mall and a young lady stopped us. I think her name was Kara. Anyway, she asked us some questions about baptism and repentance. She got baptized when she was 9, but hadn't been active since. So we explained to her that when we take the sacrament we renew our promises with God and it's like being baptized again. She started crying and said thank you and then we went our separate ways. After she was out of sight we realized that we should have gotten her address and sent missionaries to her home. We felt pretty bad. So we will be watching out for her so we can make things right.

On Tuesday we had a lesson with one of our on date investigators (Amber). We taught her lesson 4 and 5. She was really excited for her baptism and to receive a calling after she is baptized.  We also made the program and I am giving the talk on baptism. After our lesson we went to lunch with our senior couple at Cafe Rio. It was really good and they were playing regular music so that was a tender mercy. Then later that night we went to Kolbie's baptism in Millcreek. It was a good service. I got to see Elder Fike again. After that we ate dinner with the Lewis family. We have been teaching their 8 year old daughter, Mariah. They are an active family but they just waned us to teach her and prepare her for her baptism. They are a really nice family. Sister Lewis is from Brazil and she is really funny. Before we left she told me to send her a wedding invitation when I get married. I assured he that it wouldn't be for awhile then she said, "That's what they all say." But it will be awhile.

On Wednesday we taught Amber again. We talked about latter day prophets and went over the baptismal interview questions. She did really well. She is really excited to get baptized. Then after that we went over the program with the ward mission leader. After that Elder Wells and I were walking to dinner and I realized that transfer calls are this week and we find out on Friday night what's happening. I thought we had another full week left. It also kinda hit me that I only have 5 months left so I can't waste a whole lot of time. Then that night we had a lesson with a returning member , her name is Tara.

It was a good lesson and we taught the Word of Wisdom. She is pretty accepting of everything we talk about. After that I played lightning with the young men. It was fun. Then we plastic wrapped the sisters door and headed home.

On Thursday Amber had her interview and she passed! Me and Elder Coleman did the interview because Elder Beagley had his Trunky Temple trip because he's going home. So while the interview was going on it started to hail and thunderstorm. Then it started to snow. Utah has crazy weather and it changes so fast. After the interview we went to Cafe Rio. It's a tradition that started with Elder Helgesen that we go every Thursday before weekly planning. Weekly planning was good. Just as we were finished we got a call from a man named Johnny Carroll. He lives at the other side of the area. Our ward mission leader in that ward told us about him, but I had never met him. So we got a ride and went to his house. When we got there he was drunk. He was also threatening to drive his truck off of a cliff. But we calmed him down.  He is super depressed because he lost his job and some other things. While we were there he finished 5 cans of beer. And be told us that he wanted to go to rehab. But yeah that was interesting. After that we went to dinner, and then went and contacted people. After that we went to the stake center and played basketball. I sucked it up really bad. I am so out of shape. We got home planned and then crashed.

On Friday morning we had district meeting. It was kinda sad because we had 3 missionaries going home. We had a training about studies and how we can make them better. After that we ate at Chilies. No one paid for us this time. After that we helped carry a microwave up a flight of stairs and then we did some contacting. After that we went to dinner.  We had some kind of pot pie. It was ok. After that we did some more contacting. Then I got sick and we came back to the apartment. 

So at about 9:25pm we got our transfer calls. So I am going to the Granger West Stake and being Sr companion to Elder Paul. I have met him a few times and he is really weird, but apparently he works hard so that is good. After that Elder Semu and Coleman came to give me a blessing. I was told not to worry about this upcoming transfer and that it would make me grow. So I'm not so nervous anymore.

On Saturday we went to the baptism of Mariah Lewis. She is an 8 year old we have been teaching. We had the privilege of helping confirm her after she was baptized. Right after that we had Amber's baptism. It was very short and simple. I gave the talk on baptism and I was also a witness when she got baptized. So we have had 2 convert baptisms this week. Not a lot happened the rest of the day, I visited some people to tell them that I was leaving. There was actually some people that were sad. A wife of one of my ward mission leaders surprise hugged me when she found out. She said "Just don't hug me back and it's ok." I thought it was pretty funny.

On Sunday Amber was confirmed and we helped pass the sacrament. Then we went to Koibi's confirmation. After sacrament meeting no one showed up to gospel principles so sister Thaxton invited us to the marriage and family relations class, so we went. It was kinda weird, but we had fun and learned a little bit. After church we went to a Samoan house to eat dinner. I ate a lot of fried chicken. After dinner we went to visit some people and then we went to the Thaxton's house. I was sad all day because I'm leaving and lots of people said they would miss me. So I've been depressed all day.

I learned that I will be covering a Marshallese unit in my new area. The only reason I'm nervous about my area is that I will offend them because I won't like their food. I'm also sad because my district leader Elder Beagley is going home, I will miss him.

Love,

Elder Pleshek