Very Different from Last Week

Dear family and friends,

 

          The last time I e-mailed you all I said that I was having a crummy week. Well this week that I'm e-mailing you all about was the polar opposite of the last week that I wrote about. For starters WE HAVE 5 INVESTIGATORS WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE! Oh my goodness I don't think I've ever had that many before while I've been out! I've talked about having them but now I can actually say that I've got 5 investigators with baptismal dates! I've never gotten 5 before in one week! It's pretty darn amazing!  Keep the prayers coming because obviously they got answered! 

 

        The first 3 investigators came from a family that the AP's gave us. We were supposed to meet them two weeks ago but the family cancelled on us which really bummed me out. I didn't want to talk about them until we started teaching them. They're known as the Carpio family. There are three kids in their family. Two of them are baptizable ages plus the parents. Their middle child wasn't there when we taught them on Tuesday but we were able to commit both of the parents and their oldest toward September 24th. The mom, Nina, and their oldest daughter, Priscilla, seem pretty golden but the dad, Alex, doesn't seem so sure. They want to know everything before they make the commitment and Alex said that "this Restoration stuff is like telling me Mom and Dad aren't Mom and Dad". Alex grew up in the Catholic church then stopped going years and years before. We had a scattered lesson because Alex kept going off topic. We have an appointment with them tomorrow so I'd appreciate prayers that all will go well. Hopefully the baptismal calendar will work for them. Their middle daughter, Jayleen, will be there tomorrow so we'll get her a baptismal date for the 24th as well. The Carpio's didn't show up to church yesterday so we're going to have to work on that, but I get the feeling it won't happen again.

 

        Another little bit of good news is that Eltoniesha's back! For those of you who forgot Eltoniesha was an investigator that had a baptismal date for August 6th but pulled a houdini act and disappeared for about a month. Well now she's back and we decided to help her foster mom, Gina, make Eltoniesha's bed, dresser and nightstand. It took 2 hours on Friday. Both Gina and Eltoniesha were fairly touched by that act of service. It's about time I get a positive experience when it comes to service! Eltoniesha now has a baptismal date for September 17th. We already taught her the lessons before she disappeared so we're figuring that we can review them with her and then get her dunked soon! I do worry though since Eltoniesha doesn't seem as enthusiastic now as she once was. Eltoniesha has a ton of support from the members though and her foster mom's encouraging this so we shouldn't meet too many problems with the baptism. Gina's going to be feeding us this Thursday and hopefully we'll be able to set up a bunch of appointments before her interview on the 10th. Gina and Eltoniesha finally showed up to church yesterday and they stayed the whole three hours despite the fact that Eltoniesha was sick. I think that's a good sign. 

 

      Another really cool event that happened this past week were the two appointments we had with some less actives we've been teaching: Shana and Christina. Shana and Christina are less active people that we've been teaching since I've been in this area, so about four months. Shana is in her 40's and is also the mother of Christina. They were both born and raised in the church but quickly fell away. Christina stopped going after she was baptized so she didn't know anything about what we believe in. She's also very timid and shy and wouldn't answer any of our questions. It's been hard to get them to come to church because they both work on Sundays. Then at the end of July Christina came to church! After that she started going to the YSA ward. She's been there three times now. Christina's in Flagstaff right now back in school again. Shana wanted Christina to take the lessons because she wanted Christina to know what we believe in before Christina went back to school. Anyway this was Christina's final week before she left so we wanted to end with a bang. Our first appointment was on Wednesday, when I was on exchanges with Elder Bird, who is one of my zone leaders. We couldn't get our normal fellowshippers to come with us so we got Brother James. Brother James is originally from Pakistan. He also served his mission in Pakistan and he's a very interesting individual. We told him that we were going to teach Shana and Christina about temples and he bore a POWERFUL testimony about the temple. He related the story about how it changed his dad and the temple made his family happier. Oh my goodness we could not have gotten a better fellowshipper! The Spirit was incredibly powerful in that lesson! You could totally tell it was there! Even Shana started crying as she exhorted Christina to get a limited use recommend and experience the temple (outside of the visitor's center) for herself. Christina said she'd talk with her bishop in Flagstaff about getting one. After that really amazing lesson, on the following day, we taught a short lesson on enduring to the end. Then Christina fed us with ribs that she took with her from the restaurant that she works at, Famous Dave's. Those ribs were good! Then afterwards we had homemade cake which was followed by a box of Krispy Kreme's donuts. 

 

       As I hinted at in the previous paragraph I was on exchanges with Elder Bird, my other zone leader. Elder Bird's from Idaho Falls and he's been out as long as Elder Ware. Elder Bird's an amazing missionary and he always finds ways to uplift and inspire me. We also dropped David Howell, if anyone still remembers who he is. Thank you all very much for your love and prayers. Right now I could really use prayers that our investigators will continue to stay strong and steady as they head toward their baptisms. Also the week after this one is transfer week which means that my e-mail will come to you on Tuesday instead of Monday. I should know by then if I'm getting transferred or not. I'm hoping and praying that I don't so I can continue to work on the people that the Lord has placed in our path.

              

       Love,

 

     Elder Boothe

Bacon Flavored Root-Beer

Dear family and friends,

         I wish I had some cool story or neat experience to share with you that happened this week but unfortunately nothing special happened. Sister Darne came to church again. Today we had a double district activity. We played volleyball and knock-out. One of the crazier elders, Elder Zollweg, pulled out two bottles of bacon flavored root beer with cups and invited us all to have some. Bacon flavored soda is DISGUSTING! Seriously it's the worst kind of soda I've ever had! Another important thing to note is that the other companionship in my district gave us a yellow "suitcoat". I don't know where they got it or why they gave it to us but they did. They called it a suitcoat as a joke which is why I have quotation marks around the word. It didn't fit Elder Ware, but it fit me so it's mine now. Sister Wright thinks I look good in it. Please pray that Elder Ware and I will find new people. Currently we're in a teaching drought. We've been in one ever since Chris got baptized.

Love,

Elder Boothe

Hair-Cut, Non-Golden Investigator and Free Cinnamon Sticks

Dear family and friends,

 

       It's great to get mail again! Garit, both sets of grandparents and one of my MTC teachers have written me this week. Life is good! There have been a few things this week that have made life interesting that I would like to share with you all. 

 

       The first little bit started with last Monday after p-day ended. Elder Ware and I were biking on our way to an appointment and we get pulled over by this random car. My first thought was that it was a member probably asking us if we needed a ride then I was hoping she'd be a golden investigator again. It turned out that it was a member named Aimee (who I've never seen before so I'm guessing she's in a different ward than the ones Elder Ware and I cover) who happened to work for Domino's Pizza. She asked us if we had a dinner appointment. Believe it or not this was one of the few times during the week that we didn't have one so we said no and she took down our orders. After that she asked for our address and said that we'd only have to pay a $5 tip to the driver and that was it. So after our appointment, which I'll talk about in a minute since that was actually pretty eventful, we each got a free large 3 topping pizza plus free cinnamon bread! Elder Ware doesn't like sugary stuff so he gave his cinnamon bread to me which means that I got TWO free cinnamon breads! That was awesome! I totally wrote about that little incident in my journal! The appointment we were on our way to was an appointment with a part member family that our bishop recently contacted. The husband's a non-member and the way is less active. They are known as the Howell family. We set a baptismal date with Brother Howell for September 10th. Unfortunately Brother Howell's not golden. In fact he's the polar opposite of golden. He smokes, drinks, doesn't believe in the Joseph Smith story and slipped four disks in his back which makes coming to church difficult. He doesn't believe that he can be baptized by September 10th. We've got our work cut out for us don't we? I haven't dealt with a non-golden investigator who committed to a baptismal date. Usually my investigators either get baptized or they get dropped. I'm not looking forward to this but I have faith in the Lord. 

 

         Another interesting fact about this past week is that I went on exchanges with two different missionaries for two days in a row. For those of you who aren't acquainted with missionary work we missionaries switch companionships every now and then so that we can learn from one another. What will usually happen is that one missionary will go into the other missionary's area and the missionary who's staying plans all the activities for the day. Exchanges only go for one day each. So I took over the area for 2 days in a row! That was pretty fun! Allow me to share some insights about the missionaries I went on exchanges with:

              On Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Cecil. He's from Santa Cruz (Yeah another California missionary!) and he's been out for 16 months. His first area was Cottonwood, just like mine (except back then it was known as Cottonwood/Sedona; by the time I got there Cottonwood had two extra wards which were the wards I worked in) and he was companions with Elder Mortimer, my trainer. Elder Cecil, like me, is a bigtime fantasy enthusiast (to say the least) so we had a lot to talk about.

 

                On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Barrett, one of my zone leaders. (For those unacquainted with missionary work let's just say that he's a missionary who's also one of my leaders.) Elder Barrett is from Alberta, Canada and he's also 26. He already had his career lined up and his own place when he left to go out on his mission. He came out right before I did in mid-September of 2010. As far as I know we have three missionaries from Canada in our mission and he's one of them. He loves the great outdoors and he did a lot of hunting before he came out. The scouting program doesn't exist in Canada but he got the "Queen's Venture" award which is the equivalent of the Eagle Scout. He got most of his guns and bullets in the mail. I thought Canada had stricter gun control laws, but apparently not all of their laws are so strict if he can do that. I once asked him if went through a culture shock when he came down here but he said the only major difference in cultures is that everybody here uses WAY more ranch dressing than in Canada. Interesting. 

 

              Chris Brown's been sick this week so he haven't been able to see much of him. Ricky's been going to the YSA (young single adult) ward so we don't get to see him much anymore. He says he's looking for another job since his boss is overworking him to the max. We've been working a lot with the YSA elders because both Ricky and Chris are single plus one of the less actives that we're working with is single as well. (She's living with her mom in one of our ward boundaries that's why we've been teaching her.) We're still trying to coordinate our teaching visits with the YSA elders so that both Ricky and Chris get the new member discussions with someone from our ward and someone from theirs. It's been a little bit of a hassle but it'll get done. The YSA elders have been to both of our baptisms which is neat so Elder Ware and I have gotten to know them a little bit. They're neat missionaries. 

 

             So I got my haircut today and guess who cut it? Elder Ware! I wanted Sister Wright to do it (she normally cuts my hair) but Elder Ware wanted to and got offended when I made a joke about not trusting him. He did a pretty good job of cutting my hair actually and right now it's pretty short. Elder Ware and I have been pushing a lot of member-missionary work. We've been in a lot of homes with a bunch of different people in both wards. 

 

                So if you want to pray for me here are some things I could use help in:

1. David Howell feeling the Spirit and us having the Spirit help us when we teach him.
2. That the members will be able to feel the spirit of missionary work and that we'll be able to help them feel excited.

Love,

 

Elder Boothe 

Pictures from Chris' Baptism

Habubs, Signs and Chris' Baptism

Dear family and friends, 

 

        This week we had a baptism! On Saturday Chris Brown got baptized. The baptism was well attended by the ward. The entire Wilhelm family came and there were a lot of people from the Young Single Adult ward that were there, including their ward mission leader whom I mistook for some kid who barely got out of high school. Chris Brown's parents showed up too, not only for his baptism but also for his confirmation. The baptism seemed to go by really fast. The important thing is that the Spirit was SUPER STRONG! It was an amazing feeling! Tali, Chris's girlfriend, and her mom both gave talks and they an excellent job! Chris actually bore his testimony after he got baptized which was really cool! Elder Ware couldn't make it to his confirmation because he was in a meeting with the stake president. The confirmation went by really fast too. It's great to see how much Chris has grown in the past month since we've met him. It's always cool to see our investigators grow. 

 

           Sister Darne, the less active lady that I gave my pants to so she could deliever them at church the week before Sunday, came to church again along with her daughter Delilah. Sister Darne talked about how as she was doing laundry somehow a temple garment came across the load and she felt like it was a sign that she needed to prepare herself to get ready to go into the temple. She made a goal to be ready by the time the new Phoenix temple's built. It was really awe-inspiring because Elder Ware and I have been working on them since mid-July when they stopped us over and said they were "missionary deprived". Another less active we've been teaching is an elderly gentleman by the name of Phil Schvanevelt (pronounce the v like a w). Apparently this guy's been a tough egg to crack because when we told the members that we were teaching him those who knew him were amazed! I liked that because I'm planning to use this as a way to show the members that we mean serious business and that they need to give us referrals. 

 

             As it stands right now we're being fed dinner at least 5 out of the 7 days of the week. One of our wards cover the even days (except for Sundays and Mondays) and the other ward covers the odd days. Sometimes nobody will sign up on a specific day so we'll go without a dinner at a member's house, which doesn't bother me since food doesn't mean that much to me anymore. Yesterday nobody signed up for dinner and today we don't have someone signed up either. I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised because now I've been in the routine of just going over to someone else's house that not having dinner feels weird to me. Elder Ware and I decided to follow Garit's advice about trying to get a less active/investigator over to someone else's house and it's been going good so far. We've got the Wilhelms inviting someone over (they would have done that anyway) and we've got another member family inviting the Darne's in about three weeks from now. It feels great to involve the members more in the missionary work. I guess the saying goes "If you want something done do it yourself". 

 

           I've heard several comments from people about how the dust storms and the fires are affecting me and some people have wondered why I haven't talked about them. The reason why is because for the most part I haven't been affected by them too much. I've only had to ride through one habub (it's an Arabic word for dust storms) which made riding really difficult but Elder Ware got to our appointment on time and the habub left afterwards. Since then I haven't had to worry about dust storms. There've been no fires anywhere near me, they're down in Mesa from what I've heard. Once July hit we've been in the "monsoon" season. That means that the humidity increases and sudden bursts of lightning and minor amounts of rain happen. Nothing serious has happened yet. Recently the temperature's gone back up but at this point I don't really care one way or the other. 

 

           Elder Ware and I could really use some help getting the member's more active in missionary work. Please pray that such opportunities will happen and that we'll be able to recognize them. We could also use some prayers to find more people. I love you all and I am very grateful for my awesome family.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Happiness and Success

Dear family and friends,

 

      I am pleased to report that Chris Brown passed his baptismal interview on Saturday. He will be baptized this upcoming Saturday. It feels great being able to have another baptism! July was pretty slow and then we found Chris and Eltoniesha. We've been struggling to find people and we've praying hard for the Lord to put some more people in our path for us to teach. The member family that's been fellowshipping Chris have done a fantastic job of fellowshipping him! Their entire family, along with Chris's family, will be attending his baptism this upcoming Saturday. We'll probably have to do most of the service in the chapel because there are so many people who are planning to show up! It reminds me of how well Ricky's baptism was attended. Chris has been solid gold and I've loved being able to teach him. He understands everything we teach him and he embraces it wholeheartedly. Chris had to be interviewed by President Morris in the mission presidency. President Morris is a wonderful man and I've loved being around him because he always uplifts and inspires me to do better. He also gives some pretty good council and instruction to both us and whoever else he meets with. He counseled us to involve Chris's parents in the lessons so that's our next plan of attack, involve Chris's parents and see if they're interested. 

 

     Yesterday we had 5 less actives come to church. 5! That's pretty incredible! Here's a pretty neat story with how I got one of our less actives to come to church. I noticed that I had a hole in my suit pants and Sister Wright was out of town so I couldn't ask her to fix it up for me and I don't know why but I wore it when we were visiting the Darne house and Sister Darne told me that she knows how to sew and do other things like that. So that's when I got the idea to drop off the pants to her Saturday evening and have her deliever it to me on Sunday at church. The plan worked beautifully and Sister Darne even brought her less active daughter-in-law with her too! I think we're off to a good start. Right now we're struggling to find people so please pray that Elder Ware and I will find someone who's been prepared by the Lord to hear the message of the Restored Gospel.

 

I love you all and I'm glad to be serving in the Phoenix Arizona mission,

 

Elder Boothe