Wednesday, August 26, 2015

august 24, 2015 letter

Sorry that I am writing you so late, we ended up having to do a lot of things since it was Elder Allridge's first day and we needed to get a lot of stuff done and buy some things. But it was an awesome week. We had the most investigators at church today that they've had in Dairy Creek for a long time. We had 7 come. 

We had a really cool experience this week with a Cambodian family! So this Saturday, we had a really cool experience. A little while ago Elder Adams and I found an awesome Christian man who was riding his bike. We were in North Plains and had seen some guy riding a bike and he had waved us and we waved back, and then we saw him again, and again, and finally when we were walking to someones house, we saw him at his house getting off his bike, so we figured that the Lord was trying to give us a sign that this guy needed the gospel. So we went over to talk to him and he was super nice. We talked to him for a long time about how the LDS religion was sticking to their beliefs and he said he wanted a place that he could raise his child with good standards, and he liked the way we lived. His wife is from Cambodia and can speak pretty good English and his mother-in-law is  from there as well, but doesn't really speak any English at all. So we told him that there is a guy in our ward that went on his mission to Cambodia and that we could have him come over and teach with us. He thought that was one of the coolest things ever. So he gave us his number and told us to call him on Monday night to set up a lesson. Oh and he also said that if he was going join any church, that it would be the Mormon church. He is a christian and has huge family beliefs! So we were super excited and we called him that Monday night and got no response, so we called him the next day and still no response, and then we tried a couple days later to give it a break and still no response. So we were like, welp, looks like he just blew us off. But we decided to go over to his house, but he has a gated fence and we didn't just want to open the gate and walk in, so we started like clapping and knocking on the fence, and there was no response. So we left and figured that we would never get in contact with him again. But this week, while we were in North Plains we got the impression to go by his house again. We went there and just started knocking on the gate, when all of the sudden a white car pulls up behind us up to the gate. We felt a little awkward since we were just knocking on their fence door and we probably looked pretty weird. But she said, in a very heavy Cambodian accent, "oh, come in!" and she immediately took us around back and we sat down. Then he came out back with his daughter and we had an awesome conversation about the gospel and how they can be blessed as a family in the church. We gave them a book of Mormon, and asked them to come to church. They were so engaged and so interested about the LDS religion. They committed to come to church the next day. So on Sunday, we waited outside for them to come, and there they came, strolling in all dressed up! And just as they were walking up the brother who speaks Cambodian, got out of his car with his family. We introduced him to the family and he started speaking in Cambodian to her and she was so shocked! She immediately fell in love with him because he was white and can speak Cambodian. We had an amazing sacrament meeting, talking about how the Book of Mormon can bless our lives. After the meeting, we asked them how they felt about it, and they said they loved it and they would seriously consider joining the church, so we are so excited for them. The mother in law is Buddhist, and said if someone could speak her language, she might want to become christian! 

It was an awesome week, and we had a super good lesson with the bishop and two of our other investigators and things are going great there.  And the one we went to the temple with is still pushing to be baptized on the 20th of September and we will find out at our next lesson on Friday!  There is so much potential here and I love it. The work of the Lord is awesome. And it is super cool being with one of my PG boys! Haha it wasn't a huge surprise at transfer meeting, but I was super happy! I am loving it with Elder Allridge and we are going to tear it up! It was an awesome week full of miracles. I love you all!! Love, Elder Romney (:


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

august 17, 2015 letter

Dear Family:
This week has been a busy one and we have had a lot of changes and meetings! One of the highlights was going on two different exchanges. One was with the Council Creek elders and we had 5 member presents, and the other was with the Spanish elders and it was fun to speak in Spanish to people! Haha, I definitely miss that, but I feel like I've lost some of my ability to contact people in the streets in Spanish, just because the culture, and the way they accept it, is COMPLETELY different. So if I go back in a couple months, I would have to get used to contacting people in the streets in Spanish again.  

This week we got to go to the temple with an investigator and it was really spiritual there. We went to the visitors center and walked around the temple and invited her to be baptized on September 20th and she said that she would pray on it!  This is super good, considering where she was a couple months ago. 

I really feel like this area, and this zone are about to explode, and I'm so excited! I feel like with the new elder coming in that it will take off and we will be able to help a lot of people. We just need to keep working on finding people to teach, to make sure that pool of people is replenished at all times. I am excited for transfers. There are 8 new missionaries coming into our area. Two areas are being white washed, which means that both elders get taken out of an area and then 2 new missionaries come in, we are getting a new zone leader with me, and we are getting 2 new district leaders and 2 of the new elders coming in are brand new elders from the MTC and we are receiving a new STL (Sister trainer leader) because sister mower is going home. So basically all of the leadership but me and another district leader are being changed in our zone, and then the other missionaries coming in are greenies. so the next couple of weeks are going to be critical for the culture of the zone. As i sat in sacrament meeting yesterday, i received 2 pieces of inspiration that we need for this zone as our vision. One, to be exactly obedient, and two, "its all about the invite". meaning that it doesn't matter how many member presents we have, or how many people come to sacrament, or how many people are baptized, it matters how many people we sincerely invited to a lesson, or to church, or to be baptized. That is our calling, to "invite others".

But I am excited for this week and to see all of the changes and to help out these new elders! This week was awesome, and I'm excited for next week and to see the hand of the Lord more in my life and see Him guide next week as well! 
Love, Elder Romney (:

 last night for dinner and a bbq

We went to the temple (:

A bunch of us in the zone playing ultimate frisbee at 6 in the morning for our workouts. The one on the far right is a mini missionary. Not the same one I wrote about a while ago.

Got a new package from home!

Balancing bird his super awesome sister (me!) got him to reminisce on our childhood.




Wednesday, August 12, 2015

august 10, 2015 letter

Dear Family:
So this week has been one of my favorite weeks! We had some really amazing meetings. We had MLC on Wednesday and it was awesome. We were able to talk a lot about putting oil in our lamps and what the parable really meas. I've probably read it about 10 times since MLC and gotten something new out of it every time. It's one of my favorite parables ever. And we were able to council a lot about different things and one was about Facebook, and we probably wont get that for quite some time because the first presidency is still working on a couple of things before they release to everyone. But that was a super good meeting. We also talked about how we are going to have to step it up as the leaders of the mission for all of these new missionaries coming in. Its sad because we are having 3 of the "legends" of the mission go home. Elder Mckinlay, Elder Mcglothlin, and Sister Mower. So the younger class (us) are going to have to step up to the plate. 

We as well had such an amazing ZTM, which is a meeting that Elder Adams and I conduct and give training's and allow others to do training's as well. But the spirit there was undeniable and we basically taught the same things that we had been taught at MLC. Every body was crying at some point or another. It was one of the best meetings in my mission. The spirit the most potent; it felt like a piece of heaven. At the end we all gathered in a circle and sang I believe in Christ and it was incredibly spiritual. We all knelt and gave a profound prayer. 

We also had a really good lesson with one of our potential investigators. Her father is a member and her mother isn't. They got a divorce and sometimes she is with her father and sometimes with her mother. She happened to be there when we stopped by and we talked about how the book of Mormon can bless her life and how Jesus Christ lives. At the end we knelt in prayer and her dad began to cry as he prayed and asked that she would come to know that this church was true and that he would be a good example to her. 

Two of our other investigators are doing awesome and we had a lesson at the stake presidents house and it was a really good lesson! They are on date to be baptized on sept. 19th and that probably won't change in the near future. but i am excited for them! And i got to interview one of sister mower's and sister hardy's investigators for baptism and it was a lot of fun. I also went on an exchange with a new elder and it was a good growing experience, talking to a lot of people with him! 

The mission is awesome and i know this church is true! I love you! 
Love, Elder Romney (:

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

august 3, 2015 letter

8-3-2015
Dear Family:
This week I had some pretty cool experiences. I spent a lot of this week in other people's areas trying to help them on splits and exchanges. The first place that I went to was Tillamook, which is about an hour drive out to the coast and is probably one of the prettiest drives through their canyon in Oregon! It reminds me a lot of when i went to japan when i was younger and had never before seen trees that engulfed the mountains!  But I went on an exchange up their with elder Allridge. We got to their apartment before they got home, around 8 pm, so we had a little extra time and i got out of the car and began to speak with their neighbor who is Hispanic and probably talked to him for about 25 minutes about his life and his family and the gospel. At the end i asked him if we could stop by some other time to share our message with him and he said that we could! 

The next morning, we got the awesome opportunity of working at a food bank. it was a lot of fun to help people and get to know all of them. At the end we had to move a ton of food onto the stage of the school to store away, and we ended up moving around 2 tons of food. It was fun but a lot of work and it got really hot! That whole day, our goal was to talk to everyone and to find as many new investigators as we could.  We were walking past a house with a lady painting it and offered to help her. She kindly declined. We were about to keep walking, when i got the distinct impression to stay and keep talking to her about the gospel. She ended up warming up to us and we talked for about a half hour about religion and her life. Her husband also came out and started talking to us. He said that he was really interested in family history, so we gave him the time and address of when and where the church was open to do family history. They were both amazing people, and Elder Allridge and Vincent will now be teaching them over there. That night we went to a mans home for dinner who is not a member, but his wife is.  We ended up having a really really good lesson with him and committed him to read the book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true. it was a very spirit-led meeting and we were very bold and straight up with him.
 
On Thursday, one of the Spanish elders was sick and the healthy elder called and asked if i could go teach a family with him because they hadn't seen them in a week and they wanted to be baptized. So elder Adams and i drove down there and I went with the healthy elder, and elder Adams stayed and took care of the sick one! When we got to the house to teach the family, they weren't there. We were pretty sad because we had taken a member with us to teach, so we walked down the street and started talking to a Hispanic man working on his yard.  While they were talking to him, I noticed an older lady walking by, so I stuck my hand out to pet the dog to get her to stop so i could talk to her. The dog was nice and stopped to let me pet her. I left the conversation with the Hispanic man, and began to teach the lady with the dog. I bore a strong testimony of the book of Mormon and that she could know these things are true if she reads it and prays about it. She seemed really touched and began to cry and told me that her husband had just been sent to jail, and that she might be sent to jail as well. I read from Mosiah 24 about God strengthening us to endure trials. She accepted the book of Mormon and asked me to come back the next day. I'm so glad i followed the impression to talk to her.  So the next night, Friday, the English elder who covers that area and his "Mini Missionary" and I went to go and teach her. We have a companionship in our zone that has a "Mini Missionary" which basically means that the person is still in high school, but wants to see what it is like on a mission and if he wants to serve, so they stay with the missionaries for a week and do and live like missionaries do. So I took this missionary and his mini missionary to the lesson with the lady I met so i could hand her off to them, while elder Adams and his real companion went and taught another lesson. It was such an amazing lesson that we taught. We taught about the restoration of the gospel, and she was like "well of course that makes sense that God would call another prophet today"! Towards the end of the lesson I was about to ask her to be baptized, but in the middle of saying the first word, i get the impression to let the mini missionary ask her. So i stop, and look at him and kind of give him a look. He looks at me with his eyes big and obviously a little nervous. I give him a reassuring look, like, you've got this. He looked at her and asked her to be baptized. She accepted and said that it all just made sense. It was cool to teach with a younger guy in high school. When we got in the car, he couldn't stop talking about how good he felt and how much he couldn't wait to be a missionary.  I gave him my email to let me know how things go back at home with school and when he gets his call. This is the letter i received from him this morning.

"Dear Elder Romney,

      I wanted to thank you for being such a great example to me this week! You are definitely a powerhouse when it comes to teaching the gospel, as you seem to be in sports too. Thank you for finding her and then giving me the opportunity to come teach her with you and Elder Hair. I also thought it was really nice that you let me invite her to be baptized! Elder Romney, you are an incredible missionary, and even just in that one lesson with her, I just could tell how in tune with the spirit you were. Everything that you said just came out so sincerely, and you were definitely able to teach her the things that she needed to hear.

 Also, thank you for sleeping in on Saturday morning for basketball (even though I wanted to see you ball it up) because I realized a blessing that came from it. I'm sure you heard about the graffiti on the other church building that we had to go to instead of yours, because we had that key, and because we went to that one instead, we were able to call someone and get the graffiti taken care of before church the next day. Had we not gone there, everyone at church the next day would have come to church and seen all of that gay/ lesbian/ transgender stuff and that would not have been good! So it may sound weird, but it was definitely a blessing that you didn't come to B-ball that morning :). But anyways, thanks for being such a great zone leader, and fun guy to be around. Keep up your incredible work and service!
Sincerely, Brother L
P.S. Tell Elder Adams that I said "hi" and that he is super awesome as well :)"

I enjoyed being with Brother L and hope that he will continue to grow in the gospel. I also had a lot of fun with a senior couple this week. I went up to interview one of the people who was going to be baptized and afterwards they took us out to lunch. They really are a lot of fun to be around and i enjoy talking to them. Even though they are older than I am, i feel like i can talk to them like any other missionary. She said that she was going to give me a paper that would be a guide to helping me finish all of the old testament, new testament, book of Mormon, doctrine and covenants, and pearl of great price in a year. so i am super excited about that (: The senior couples we have here are the BEST!! haha. 

We were also able to find a new investigator who is 18 and is the granddaughter of a member in the ward that we often work with. She has grown up atheist, but told us that she can't deny the feelings that she has felt before about a God. We invited her to read the book of Mormon and she accepted. We will be teaching her again this Tuesday. 

This week was really good, with some rough patches, but i know those rough patches are to help me grow! Thanks for all that you guys do for me (: I know this church is true and i know that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and that we can grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ as we diligently study from it every day. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love, Elder Romney.

Golfing on Pday with the Bishop.  The first time in a long time, and it was a lot of fun!



How i feel when we do paper work. It was paper work that we needed to present to the stake president about each ward.


You know those little popper things from the fourth of july? Yeah, Elder Allridge says it doesn't hurt to pop it in his mouth! haha (:

our investigator gave us a ton of these, so i am going around and putting these on missionary apartment fridges!! It's awesome (: