Thursday, August 21, 2014

8/18/14

Towards the end of this week we started going through the Less Acitve list. We have started teaching all the Less Active members in our area. The Stake President has ask us to share the Plan of Salvation with every member. After the message we ask for referrals so we can hopefully increase our teaching pool.
 
One of the Less Actives that we visited was Melissa Johnson,.During the lesson at the end we invtied her to just come to sacrement if nothing else. We told her we know this can help all of her burdens to be relieved. The spirit was so strong that she started crying. It was a really amazing lesson!
 
During our lesson with Homer Cook, he told us how he had been praying. As he was ending his prayer we walked by. That was when he chased us down and told us he wanted to turn a new leaf. It was really amazing to see how God directed his life. Helping guide us to that particular place at the exact time so as he could receive the help that he needed.
 
Elder Ashcroft

8/11/14

James Muchow- this week when we were talkig with James about the importance of getting rid of his rated "R" movies the spirit was really strong. It seemed like it started to click and make sense with him. I think that with the help of Brother Oakes, who himself had to give them up, he will be able to do it. He was on date to be baptized this Saturday but we are going to have to push it back. We want to make sure that his testimony is stronger before he is baptized.
 
Derrick Weaver- will be back this weekend. He is on date to be baptized next week. He has missed a lot of lessons, due to being gone to camp for 3 weeks, we are going to push his back as well. We will be meeting with him this upcoming Sunday.
 
Kim and Gordon- are a young couple with 4 kids and another on the way. We tracted into them. I love them so much already and we haven't. We haven't even taught them yet. We have only sat down with Kim and told her about the message we share. I hope to be able to teach them with their super busy schedule. While we were over there she told us that she needs the kids to be in Sunday school. I know that if they will start keeping the commandments that they will be able to find a better job and start providing for their family. Then be able to spend more time together as a couple.
 
Quanah Reid- this week while we were talking to her I got the impression to ask if she knew that Jospeh Smith was a prophet and if The Book of Mormon is true. She told us that she did not. I explained to her that our entire message depends upon these 2 things. If she knows one to be true then she will know that everything else that we teach is true. We invited her to read a designated chapter out of The Book of Mormon and then to pray and ask.
 
Andy, Edward, Patience, Naomi- this week we were able to teach Patience and Naomi and make them new investigators so that we could start teaching them all together! We taught them The Restoration.
 
Rich Fredricks- while talking with Rich, he told us of his desire to quit smoking. We told him that we have a 12 step program that will help him quit in a week. He was really excited for it and is starting to open up a little at a time. Hopefully, through this we will be able to share the message of The Restoration with him. He is a really awesome guy!
 
Elder Ashcroft

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

8/4/14

-James Muchow is doing good. We have not been able to work with him recently regarding his addiction to rated R movies. Our mission president has said that for him to be able to be baptized he needs to either one destroy them or two sell them to a pawn shop.

7/28/14

Well this week was awesome! We had the highest lessons we have had in this area, which was double the highest number we got last transfer. It is great to see the area start to take off.
 
On Sunday we got to go teach Andy and Edward The Restoration. We are hoping to be able to teach Patience and Juliana this upcoming Saturday!
 
Derrick is doing great we taught him about some of the commandments. He is on date for Aug. 23rd. We would be able to be baptized alot sooner but he has so many camps. He is getting pretty excited especially from going to another baptism and feeling the spirit so strong there.
 
This week we got a referral for a 28 year old guy named James Muchow. We have been meeting with him 3 times a week, which is really awesome, and the most that I have ever met with an investigator. We leave him like 3 commitments each time we have a lesson, including to find people who would like to hear the message of the restoration. He finishes all the commitments within the 2 days before his next lesson. He said that he is feeling closer to God by doing all the things that we are leaving him to do. James is on date for baptism for Aug. 16th.
 
We also got a referral from a lady named Quanah Reid. She actually referred herself. She looked across the park one day and saw us walking across the way. When she was online awhile later she looked us up. She  had met with missionaries a long time ago and wanted to try it again. We left her with a lot of scriptures about how our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate and distinct individuals. We then invited her to read and pray about them. She needs to get over the hurdle of the Trinity before we can teach her anything else. It is really awesome that she is open to learning and doesn't just mentally "close the door"!

.:Baptism:.

Gary Hoffman