Called to Serve

Monday, October 28, 2013

S.A.L.S.A.

Well Hey There!
I cannot believe Kylie went through the temple!! Crazy.  Well let me tell you a little bit about this crazy week! So first off I had my first district meeting as a district leader! The sister missionaries in my district told me how they have had trouble with knowing what to say when they talk to people on the street and when they knock doors. They said nothing they are doing is working. So I decided to devote my district meeting to this concern. And since I have a new found love for acronyms I decided to develop one that i could use to demonstrate. SALSA! ha ha ya...let me explain.  So this SALSA acronym goes over 5 things that need to be done when contacting a person  for the first time. The first is S-short and powerful statement. This statement should include the restoration of the gospel. Then A-ask questions. This helps to get the person thinking. L-lead into testimony. PMG says we should always testify to invite the spirit. S-set up a return appointment. A-ask for referrals. Its important to ask everyone you speak to "Who else do you know that we can teach this message too?" So in district meeting we went over that and role played it a bit. And then we made home made salsa!! ha ha I called Sis. Berkheimer the morning of the meeting and asked for a salsa recipe. She gave me one and said I could go over to her house and get the ingredients. So I did and chopped up the onions and all the other stuff and put them into 5 ziploc bags and then after the meeting I had everyone get a bag and put their ingredient in and explain why it was important and then we mixed it up and had some chips and salsa! It was pretty awesome. I just thought I would spice things up a little bit. (no pun intended)

That night we had an appointment with a church of Christ family where their dad has been a minister for like 20 years. So when we get in there, we say an opening prayer, ask if they have any questions, and then first thing his son does is go over to the computer and pull up a site called Ex-mormon.org. We knew we were in for one at that moment. So they just started ponding us with these questions about this stuff they have read and frankly I didn't know what to say. So then I just said "Well we see that you have looked up stuff on exmormon and other MAN MADE websites but how has your Book of Mormon reading been going. It was"so shocking"when they told me they haven't even read a chapter of it yet.

Cool Story: We have a recent convert who is the coolest dude ever. Me and him have gotten to be really good friends. Before his baptism he had drug problems and just a couple weeks ago he slipped up again and ever since then he has been avoiding and the church. We have prayed constantly to know how we can help him. Finally last friday night we were driving around and all of the sudden the spirit came over me really strong and so I pulled over and we prayed to figure out what it was all about. During the prayer all I could think of was this newly baptized member! So we went straight to his house and he let us in for the first time in 2 weeks. The first things he said was "I'm so glad you got my text." We told him we never got a text from him though. He said he sent one right before we came over, apologizing to us and asking us to come over. He looked at his phone at the text never sent. So I guess Heavenly Father decided to send me a spiritual text! ha ha it was crazy though because the spirit was able to direct us at the exact moment where we needed to go. What a blessing! 

One of our investigators is awesome. He is 26 years old and  He is almost done with Alma in the Book of Mormon and he quit smoking in 3 days after we taught him the Word of Wisdom.

Chris and Jess are my favorite people in the world. They made brownies for the wards last baptism and Chris went to the stake priesthood meeting in Little Rock with Bishop. I love the experiences out here. O love the people I meet everyday! More then anything though i love how involved Heavenly Father is in this work and in our lives. I am beginning to understand a little bit of what my Heavenly Father is like. I know he loves us all more than we can comprehend. I know he wants us to know truth. And ACT upon those truths!!


There is only 7 missionaries in my district! Being a ZL is a lot more fun but its still cool. I didn't get a jacket yet. elder Boyer left his so I just wear it. where did cammie move too?

Chris and jess and so awesome Mom. They are people I can truly say I love on my mission. I am pretty sure they have grown my testimony more then i have grown theirs. ha ha So we had missionary sunday yesterday right? and i was kind of in charge of the whole thing. and then 2 hours before sacrament meeting I hear our main speaker president oliver, president petersens counselor, cancelled on us! it was pretty hectic yesterday but it worked out!

They made me sing in a musical number with all the sisters! i protested it in ward council but everyone voted against me! and then after sacrament everyone came up to me and asked why i looked like I didn;t know what I was doing. so annoying. Me,  elder spencer and the sister missionaries. me and elder spencer have the worst voices. its a rule in our mission that we sing a hymn together every night before we go to sleep and you should hear us sing! ha ha it sucks. but ya this week should be good. we got some investigators going to trunk r' treat. Bishop is going to hire Chris at Bike city too!!
I Love You All and Miss You! Thanks for everything you do!!