This week has to go down as one of the busiest weeks on my mission! It was super good. We have basically been running around like chickens with our heads chopped off trying to get everything done and also teach our investigators, and I'll be honest, that's probably when I'm the happiest, when we are just crazy busy. It just feels good at the end of the day to finally lay down in bed exhausted and know you did everything you could that day.
This week is probably going to be even busier. On Sunday we had to present our numbers for each district in the Stake report, and then today, along with our p-day, we have to figure out every companionship's goals and names to back up each number and pray to see about getting another car for the zone and the ups and downs for that. Then tomorrow we have a big zone conference call with everyone in our zone and then we have to colaborate with the STL's (Sister Trainer Leaders) about how we are going to present ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) and that same day we also have to have another conference call with president Samulien and the STL's about MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) and our SWOT (our Strengths, Weaknesses, Obeservation, and Tactic for the zone). Then on Wed. the 6th we actually have MLC where all the leaders get together and discuss things about the mission and whether to progress into the next stage of the I-pads. That meeting will take 8 or so hours to do, and that same day we have an exchange with the AP's (Assistants to the President). Then the 7th we have to correlate with the STL's about what we learned in MLC and what we will train on in ZTM and we have to prepare and study for ZTM, and then Friday we have to present ZTM (which is basically a huge training with all the missionaries in our zone.) And during all of that we also have to get two investigators ready for baptism in the next couple weeks, progress our investigators that we are teaching now, and find new ones! This is the best!!
Some super exciting news is that we were able to teach both of our solid investigators this week. The boy has a baptismal date set for the 17th of this month, and the girl is on date for June. We had an awesome lesson with them the other day on the restoration, again to catch her up on what she had missed and she loved it and accepted to be baptized when we invited her to do so. The parents are super on board for both of the baptisms and actually want to help out with refreshments and stuff. We haven't personally had the oppurtunity to meet the parents yet, but the member family that is helping teach, is super on the ball and have been such a huge blessing in helping them get to this point. So we are really excited for them and to see their baptisms coming up pretty soon!
This week we also went to the temple with a family. It was a really good experience and the husband, having told us just a couple weeks ago that he wasnt interested at all, really enjoyed it and thought that the temple was so beautiful. We also got to watch Meet the Mormons with them at the visitors center and they both loved it a lot and it seemed to open his eyes to the fact that we are just normal people! And then after that they wanted to take all of us out to eat at Benihana's. It was cool because they prepared the food right in front of you and performed tricks and stuff like that. It was a little loud and obnoxious to me, as a missionary, but was a cool experience! And the chef was from Guatemala and had been in the states for about 3 years so it was fun to talk to him. And then the other family, the ones who drove us, had to pick up his son in Portland. We aren't supposed to go there, but had no choice really, given that they were our ride home! So I was in Portland for a while and that felt super weird... I definitely like Banks Oregon a lot better!
We had a really good lesson with someone. He's 38 and was baptized about 10 years ago and hasn't been to church in about 6 or 7 years, and we stopped in to teach him. We taught him the restoration and it turned into the strippling warriors and how we have to fight for what we believe in. It related really well to him because he served in the military for years and loves fighting for the country. So at the end I said "I invite you to take a stand for what you believe in. You aren't in a fight with the enemy of the country anymore, but in a fight with Satan, and in order to be ready for that fight you have to do what we ask you to do." It really struck him and for the first time in several years he came to church and said that he wanted to keep coming!! So that was an awesome miracle. Additionally, a man came to church for the first time in a really long time! We are definitely seeing the fruits of our labors!
We also went and contacted a girl who we had met just a few weeks ago. She was interested in family history, but every time that we tried to sit down and teach her, she always said that she was too busy. So we decided that we weren't going to let that happen again, so instead of asking if we could teach a lesson, we just went right into on the porch. She ended up opening up a lot and we offered her a blessing and she accepted. It was such a cool experience to give that to her on the door step!
I think the thing that made me the happiest this week is that we had previously evaluated our numbers and realized that everyone really needed to start kicking it in gear. We had set goals for them and gave them to the district leaders and told them about our vision and this week we went up in every indicator and tripled the number of people we have on date! So people really answered to the call but we need to still keep improving to reach our goals.
This week was so awesome and I can't wait to see what next week has in store!!
Love, Elder Romney
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The view from a member's house
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| A humerous porta potty sign |
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| Leadership meeting |
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| Driving along the road. |
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