Progressing Investigators

Dear family and friends,

 

This last week has been VERY busy for me. Our work is picking up dramatically and I can honestly say that there's never been a boring day this week. Here was my schedule:

 

            Monday: Planned two FHE's but had to reschedule one of them because nobody would go on splits with us. Go figure they're having Family Home Evening. I taught the FHE lesson for the FHE we did go to. We also learned that a less active family that we've been trying to reactivate now have a desire to attend the temple. We were very happy to hear that. Monday was a regular work day because whenever you go to the temple that particular day becomes your p-day although the AP's (the assistants to the Mission President) told us to e-mail on Monday which is why Ryan got the e-mail on Monday as usual.  

 

Tuesday: Went to the Mesa Temple with a sweet member couple. If you include travel time I was there from 9 AM - 2 PM. The temple was an AMAZING experience and I walked out feeling clean and wholesome. The temple's always a mind-blowing experience on a spiritual level. Had dinner with investigators. Then we went on splits. After we went on splits we were supposed to be on exchanges with the Spanish Elders in Wickenburg.

 

The Elders we were exchanging with live 40 miles north of us so Elder Bell arranged for his ride to meet the Spanish Elders halfway. Due to some miscommunications on Elder Bell's part I ended up having to wait until 10:00 PM before having to go back to the apartment and wait for my new companion. It was a long night waiting around for them.

 

Wednesday: Went on an exchange with Elder Cotton, the Spanish Elder from Wickenburg. We basically tracted all day.

 

Thursday: Thursday's are usually busy for us because that's when we have all our meetings. We had weekly planning meeting, district meeting and both coordination meetings for our wards are back-to-back on Thursday evening. We taught a man named Mario Gonzalez who accepted the invitation to be baptized. Then we visited a media referral by the name of Alba Felix. Our weekly planning meeting wasn't even close to being done so we had to finish it up on Saturday.

 

Friday: Went on another exchange. This time it was with the other missionary companionship that we live with. We taught Mario again this time we committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We visited Alba Felix, the media referral we received yesterday. Shyest girl I've ever met. Her brother sat in as well. Gave them both a Book of Mormon. Then had another appointment at 1:00 with the investigator who looks like Aunt Laurey. We actually had a dinner appointment this time then we visited Cyndi Hargis (the last investigator of ours that actually got baptized).

 

Saturday: Finished weekly planning, which took up our morning and our afternoon. Went on splits again. I watched the Restoration DVD with Mario. The member who went with me snored through some of it. At 5:30 we went to the Easter Pageant in Mesa. We were allowed to go if we brought a progressing investigator with us. We had one that said she would go but when we were halfway down there she cancelled on us. We weren't going to tell our ride to turn back so we said "Oh well". The Pageant wasn't quite what I expected but I'm glad I went.

 

Sunday:  WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE! HALLELUJAH! It's for May 21st. Her name is Lynzee Hein. She's 9 years old and the rest of her family is less active although they recently started coming back to church. Brother Hein actually dragged his other daughter (her name's Lonnee and she's 19)  to the store so he could get her a dress. I was soooooo excited to set the date. Oh my goodness we haven't had an investigator with a date for aeons.

 

In the other ward that we serve in we had 3 investigators come to church plus two less active families. BOO YEAH! Oh and I taught in Gospel Principles again. I forgot that I was supposed to be teaching until after sacrament meeting. At that point I got a Gospel principles manual and went by the Spirit. It actually turned out to be a good lesson. We had as many investigators in that class as there were members. Oh boy I was scared but I did it and the investigators loved the lesson so I have nothing to complain about. Had dinner with a recent convert family and then got haircuts.

 

This next upcoming week is supposed to look even crazier since this is Elder Bell's last week before he goes home. That means we're going to be visiting a lot of people and there currently are four going away parties for Elder Bell. Elder Bell has meetings every day this week and I'm going to be on exchanges for two of those days plus while he has the parties on Sunday I'll be going to a cottage meeting with our investigators.

 

So before I end this e-mail I want to talk about Mario Gonzalez. He's the brother of one of our members, who referred him to us. This guy is GOLDEN! Before the member's referred him to us he already came to church and liked it! So far he's kept all of his commitments and tomorrow we're going to set his baptismal date for June 11th! OH MY GOODNESS WE'LL HAVE TWO INVESTIGATORS WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE! Do you all know how long I've waited for this? Oh my goodness we haven't had this much success in a long time! People are actually coming to church and keeping their commitments! You can definitely tell that I'm a happy elder.

 

I love you all and hope you're all doing well.

Love,

Elder Boothe

Dear Family,

Thank you one and all for all the gifts, cards, packages, and love. On Wednesday I received Grandma and Grandpa Boothe's package and thanks to them I am well stocked on mac & cheese. In fact I've bought so much food and received so much from packages that I won't have to buy all that much when I'm doing groceries. Elder Bell and I went out to Quizno's on Friday. I was able to get him two sandwiches which made me feel fantastic!

        Wednesday was zone conference and boy it was a powerful one! President Beck spoke A LOT about us getting our investigators to church and he severely chastised us on our dress. He said our shoes need to be shined frequently and that they should be as shiny as his. His shoes were so shiny you could probably see your reflection in them. Then he chastised us on how our ties needed to be at the proper length and how our suits need to be clean and not look like they've got snot on them. Then he said something I'll never forget,

          "If you go home after your mission and aren't doing what you're supposed to be doing I will hunt you down and do bad things to you."

        Then he invited a stake president to come up and speak to us about the power of the sacrament and of the power of the atonement. Oh my goodness the Spirit was strong there! It was incredible! This guy was as intense as President Beck! He spoke about how we need to gain a testimony of the sacrament and of what it really does and how it blesses us if we are to get our investigators to partake. I've been pondering a lot about the Atonement and about the sacrament and how it has blessed my life. I received a prompting to share some of these things with an investigator we had and I think it helped her out a lot too. Partaking of the sacrament's meant a great deal more to me since that talk and I've pondered a little bit about what the sacrament's really all about.

       That same investigator that I just spoke about finally quit her job and came to church with her whole family! It was amazing! They were all there and they stayed for all three hours too! Another person who came to church was a less active lady who it turns out has a much bigger concern about the church than we originally thought. We told her to talk to the bishop about it and I don't know what happened but she came to church too and neither of us were expecting it! Then in our other ward another investigator (who's name is Lynzee. She's a nine year old girl.) and her dad (who's a less active member) showed up to church before we did! That really made my day! What was even better was that nearly half the ward fellowshipped with him and he seemed to get along with everyone. One of members even volunteered to come with us!

HALLELUJAH!

 

After all this time I truly feel like we're finally moving forward! It feels great right now. One of our ward mission leaders said something that also made my Sunday. 

 

Before I say it I need to give some background on the area so you know where we're coming from: Elder Bell's been in Surprise for about a year now and in two weeks he goes home. Everybody's going to miss him. Everybody. At district meeting this week we had a member speak to us and he said that we should all strive to become "an Elder Bell". He said that if we're like Elder Bell we're doing great. 

 

Anyway so when we were talking with our ward mission leader, Brother Campbell, he said that we are the "dynamic duo". He said that we were hard working missionaries who are there to work. He flat out said that he was expecting my new companion to suck. My response was "well he's not going to be Elder Bell" but then Brother Campbell said "Yeah but he's also not going to be you". That really made my day since I'd always assumed that I was some robotic uncaring missionary that the members really didn't like but after that comment I've thought differently. I mean yeah I'm a lot more serious than Elder Bell and I'm learning to lighten up but now it really helps to know that you're being cared about.

 

It is true though. Nobody can replace the kind of impact that Elder Bell has had on me and ever since I've been with him I've grown exponentially. He's been with me through some really hard times and he's helped me learn and grow. Speaking of time I'm excited for this next week since we are going to be really busy! I'll let you know how everything goes in my next e-mail but we're basically swamped in one way or another for the entire week!

 

After zone conference Elder Bell and I went on exchanges with the Spanish elders. The Spanish Elders live about 45 minutes north of us in a small town called Wickenburg. We originally arranged rides for them but it turned out to be too much of a hassle so we switched off during zone conference. Because we had district meeting up there Friday morning we were basically on exchanges from Wednesday afternoon till Friday morning. That's the longest I've ever been on exchanges. I did a lot better than I normally do.

 

Well my time's almost up. I wonder why Ryan didn't e-mail me. Don't worry Ryan I love you a lot! I just want to hear from you.

 

Love you so very, very much

Elder Boothe

Elder Boothe Turns 20

Okay everyone probably wondering what I did for my birthday and if I got my presents or not. I got everybody's presents/packages/awesomeness except for Garit's and I'll probably be getting it some time this week.

 

 THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!

 

I got Grandma Barbara and Sister Schofield's packages on Tuesday. Thanks for the ties!!!! I love them! Thank you for the mac & cheese Sister Schofield and the girl scout cookies. The other elders were jealous so I had to share with them. It is the Christ-like thing to do after all. Thank you for the chocolate bars and M&M's Grandma Barbara. On Wednesday I got Grandma and Grandpa Boothe's card. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Boothe!

 

On my actual birthday I got Dad's Quizno's card. Thank you Dad! I already made Elder Bell let me buy him a sandwich. It hasn't happened yet but we're definitely going to do it before he goes home. I also liked your card Dad. I didn't get it at first but I had a good laugh when I did. Then on Saturday I got Ryan and Becca's Subway gift card and by the way I like your card too. Then today I got mail from Sister Ricks, my freshmen seminary teacher. Oh my goodness she is a saint! She's been giving me birthday and Christmas cards ever since I was in her class! Gosh I love Sister Ricks. SHE'S SO COOL!

 

Now to my birthday. Elder Bell totally wanted to do something for me but he's already awesome as it is and he's our district leader so I didn't want to burden him with me. The thing is though we had a surprise exchange (no that's not meant to be a corny pun on the name of the city that I'm serving in. Nice try) with the zone leaders so there's nothing he could have done anyway. The reason for the unexpected exchange is because we were originally going to go on exchanges on Saturday but the zone leaders had too many appointments on Saturday so they called us Thursday evening and told us the news. Elder Bell went to Elder Angelos's area and Elder Turner (our new zone leader who got transferred into this area as a zone leader) went into my area.

 

Elder Turner's from Washington state like half of the other elders in our zone, including Elder Bell. Elder Turner's from Tri-Cities. Was in your area Dad? Elder Turner said it was in the eastern side of the state so maybe not? Before anyone says anything no his first name is not Will. Trust me he gets that a lot. Anyway when he found out that it was my birthday and that pizza was my favorite food he drove us around until we could find a pizza place. Pizza places are scarce in Surprise but we eventually found a Domino's pizza and he paid for two pepperoni pizzas. We decided to get two since the other companionship that lives in my apartment was taking their lunch hour and we decided to celebrate my birthday. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me and I pulled out the Root Beer that I bought since it was my birthday week. 

 

Last week when we went shopping I decided to splurge and I bought myself pizza makings, root beer and ice cream. That's basically what I've been eating this whole week. French bread pizza, pizza with a Boboli's crust, root beer floats and Sister Schofield's mac & cheese. The only exception to this rule was Sunday when we had a dinner appointment (it wasn't a set dinner appointment the family offered to feed us on the spot which was a really cool yet unexpected surprise) and lunch consisted of french bread non pizza sandwiches. The pizza stuff was delicious but expensive so I'm still wondering if I should do it again or not. 

 

We didn't go tracting on my birthday, not because it was my birthday, but because we were literally so busy we didn't have too. We spent the morning looking up genealogy stuff for my study guide (We missionaries have study guides that we're supposed to do for our personal studies) then visited part member families. We had an appointment with a less active family after lunch that went on for two hours since the member we brought as the fellowshipper turned out to be PERFECT for this person. Then we visited a former investigator who came home from Iraq. It turned out that she was celebrating her son's birthday. I thought I was the only one born April 8th. Anyway she let us have some pizza and we set up a return appointment with her. Then we contacted two referrals and then we had to go on splits.

 

 Poor Elder Turner had to teach another less active family while I was at the "Daddy Daughter Dance". Before anyone says anything Elder Bell planned that that way and personally I would've rather taught the less active family. This "Daddy Daughter Dance" was set up to be this big event in one of our wards and I was told that usually a lot of non-members go to that. Yeah right. There weren't any non-members and only one less active guy. I only got to talk to him after the activity ended. I kind of made progress with him but to be honest I felt like the event was an awkward waste of time. It was awkward because they played music that I normally would've danced to but couldn't since I'm on a mission. 

 

As for the rest of the week: I've been so many splits/exchanges that I can't even count them all, nor do I want to bother making the effort. While Elder Bell was in district leader council I went with a member to give a blessing then taught a potential investigator alongside the other two district leader's companions. Basically we taught the guy Lesson 1 in a trio. It was fun, but weird at the same time. The lesson by itself went well though and the guy said that he would read the Book of Mormon. We tried to set up a return appointment with him for next week but the dude's busy so we'll have to give him a call. 

 

I've noticed that everyone (except for maybe two people including the guy I just told you about) we're teaching right now is either a less active family or they're in a part member family. Hmmm...I wonder if this means that I'll be bringing a lot of families to church then. Speaking of that it's a little frustrating how our investigators can't come to church. Everyone is ridiculously busy. However we are busier though, even though we still have no progressing investigators or very mmany member present lessons.

 

Well I love you all and once again I appreciate all the love that was sent to me.

Love,

Elder Boothe