12 Weeks

Eventful week!

Monday we had FHE at a member's home in the Amherst ward. We helped them clean up their yard because they are trying to sell it real quick because their husband got transferred in his job. It was pretty cool because we got some nice spring rain that started to poor. It was super nice because it was actually warm enough to enjoy the rain! On that note, the weather has been super nice this week. I could sure get used to it! After just a little rain all the grass is super green (and not covered in snow).Tuesday we got to see a Recent Convert down in Orchard Park. She hadn't

Tuesday we got to see a Recent Convert down in Orchard Park. She hadn't been to church since I've been here mostly because of car issues and Orchard Park is a good minute away. But I think she has been going to the family ward over there. But she is joining the marines and doing a bunch of stuff with that. She's pretty cool though!

My former companion, Elder Angell is living in Lockport now. Crazy stuff. He is dating a girl there.  Pretty crazy. The punk won't come to YSA though and He owes me a Jamba Juice. To try and get him to come to the activity we were in Lockport so we stopped by his apartment. He didn't answer the door (He said he was in the shower) so we covered his car in YSA flyers and mormon.org cards.

We perfected the Booths! I'll have to send pictures. Posters, a table cover, etc. Lots of cool handouts. We got a couple potential investigators. Also got one or two potential Less Active Members to meet with that ran into us.

We are working with a Recent Convert to try and help him to quit smoking again. He relapsed after his baptism. He is such a solid kid and gets all the doctrine so well. He just is 19 and a punk. So he likes to rebel and stuff. But he is a good kid. We hope that we can help him to quit!

Niall our investigator is slowing down a little. He is still interested. Still super awesome. Still seeking truth. But it just feels like it's slowing down a lot. Not quite progressing though. All our lessons seem to be super solid with him. He just doesn't want to commit and then go Less Active. Solid guy. Super smart. I think he is awesome!

Another interfaith thing! I love the Jews! They are pretty cool. On Friday night we went to the Hillel meeting. Hillel is a Jewish organization that is on most college campuses. They are non denominational Jewish organization. Basically we went to their beginning of their Sabbath thing. They have their Friday night Sundown thing and then they have another thing the next morning. They did the whole thing in Hebrew. It was a bunch of songs. It was super interesting. And very confusing to follow. Then we had the ceremonial bread and "wine" (Grapefruit juice). But first we had to have our ceremonial washing of their hands. In between the wine and bread. So we went to go around the corner to wash our hands with them and he sang "OH when the Jews... Go wash their hands. Oh when the Jews go wash their hands." They changed it up to "When the Jews & Mormons wash their hands." It was pretty funny. But then we had the serious prayer thingy to wash our hands. 3 times per hand. It was cool. Then we had the bread then that was the end of the ceremony. Then we had dinner. With a Q&A afterwards. It was pretty cool! I liked it.   They had great questions. The Jewish religion is super interesting. Especially getting a feeling for what the religion used to be and where it is now. They shared the funny little quote "IF you have 2 Jews in one room than you'll have 3 opinions." Plus it's interesting to see the spectrum of devotedness to their religion as well as the spectrum of reformed to conservative to Orthodox. AND I got to wear a YAMAKA! Or however you spell it. The whole time. It was super cool. I loved every moment of it. And it didn't even fall off of my head! Boom! Be jealous.

Saturday we got to do a temple trip. Sadly we didn't get to do an endowment session just because of how the serious of events happened. We just did the site tours which was pretty cool and always fun. Plus I don't think I ever have had a full official tour of the BOMPS. So that was a super big plus. The Sacred Grove is very interesting when it doesn't have leaves. It's still super calm and peaceful, it's just not the same old lush feeling. Which just makes it feel interesting. We also ran into some Pennsylvania sister missionaries! They are allowed to go to the temple once every 6 months. With that they do the tour of the sites. Lucky them! They were in a trio. Sister Rock, Sister Meyers and Sister I-can't-remember-her-name. Sister Meyers is from Riverton Utah! And Micheal decided to throw me under the bus by telling her that we should date when she gets home. Micheal... Likes to open his mouth. Ha! But sister Rock and I go home the same day actually! So that was an interesting twist to the day.

Saturday night we had a big missionary activity. Didn't quite go as the original plan seemed to make it seem like. But it still went well. Did some team bonding exercises. Plus we had to do this game where there was a structure behind some bags. The communicators had to describe he structure to the runners who had to run and describe it to the builders on the other side of the gym. The goal was to get the builders to build the exact same structure. It was made out of starbursts and toothpicks. Each starburst had to be in the exact same orientation and had to be the same color. Crazy stuff. It was fun! The whole point was because there had been some conflict and division in the branch.

Sunday night we had the #BecauseHeLives! musical devotional. Us, Sister McLaren/Stoddard and Lancaster's Elder Domgaard/Hadley put it together. It was in place of the usual missionary fireside. We had some people from every unit play/sing something. It went really well. 250 people showed up. Which was like 5x as many as any other missionary fireside. Sister Stoddard has an AMAZINGLY voice. She sang an amazing song with another Elder. Super talented. Then Sister McLaren played an amazing mash up of Amazing Grace and I Know My Redeemer Lives that she made up like 4 days ago. And she played it on the Harp. Those two sisters have so much talent. It's crazy.

Transfers. Elder Whatcott and I are staying together. Which is a stress relief for me. I don't have to worry about taking over the area and winning people's love. It was interesting because we were so sure Whatcott would go AP this transfer. But instead we got a different kid. It'll be interesting. Sister McLaren has to go out to the sites to be a Cast Trainer for the Pageant. Sister Stoddard is staying here with Sister Storms. That'd be interesting. I don't know Sister Storms well. Cramer is staying! Yay! Jones is leaving. Yay! Haha he is a good guy....