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