This week started off good, but then the new missionaries came to the area and took over teaching the investigators. They are really cool missionaries and will be really good for that family. Actually it has worked out well for them since they are neighbours. I am pretty sure they have taught them every day since they have come into the area. The entire family came to church which was really good to see. The Mum thought it was different from her church but I think she liked it. The kids had a good time. They set a baptismal date with the oldest son which is really cool. Hopefully all of the family will be able to be baptized eventually. We also had some cool experiences earlier in the week. We were at a less-active's house when we got a call from a member in another ward to visit one of their family members. He used to be anti, but after some real challenges in his life he is now very humble and very receptive. It was cool to teach him and see how the Gospel could really help him. The next day we had a call to go to the hospital and give a lady a blessing. She has been fighting cancer and was probably not going to live that long. It was a little sad, but a cool experience at the same time. You could tell she and her family were really appreciative of us going to help them out. Besides that the week really slowed down now that we do not have any investigators, but we will continue to try our best to find people to teach.
Love,Monday, October 28, 2013
Transfers (October 21, 2013)
Well it is the end of the transfer. I am staying and so is Elder M which will be good. Since he goes home at the end of the transfer I will probably be staying in the area for two more transfers.
Elder Cook
This week was by far the best week in this area. To make sure that you fully understand it I am going to have to explain some stuff I have told you the last couple of weeks. So we have a recent convert who we are teaching and her son, and they live in a caravan park. The manager of the caravan park does not like Mormons so told us not to come around, and also told the same thing to the Bishop. We were frustrated and so was she, and she was complaining to her sister in law about it. Her sister in law knows missionaries and was taught in the past and said that we could have lessons over there. One of the conditions was that we teach her and her kids as well. On Tuesday we had a lesson with the kids about prophets and prayer. It was a hard lesson, lots of kids and they were not focusing too much. At the end we asked the oldest kid who it 10 to say the prayer. After he said it he was crying. The next day he was acting different, instead of being a pain to his mum he was trying to help her since she was going through a hard time. He then had a conversation with her. He told her that he now believes in God. He talked to her about the church asking if she was going to join it. She said she does not know at the moment. He then asked if he could be baptized. She said that he could when he learns more and wants to. We were excited about this and had a good lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation. It was new to her and she was not too sure what to think, but we told her to pray about it. Also the kid came to church on Sunday because he asked his aunt if he could come. It has been cool to see the change in him in just a week. We know that the Lord is in this. At first we were very annoyed about the caravan park manager, but now looking back it has been a huge blessing that we could not have imagined at the time. The only bad news is that they are splitting the area, and they live in the other area, so we will lose pretty much the only investigators we have. But we will hopefully still be able to see them occasionally and the missionary we know is going there is a good one so they will be in good hands. Also some bad news is we will probably lose the car to the other area, but I do not mind too much, I really enjoy biking. I also had my first American moment while driving. I turned into the wrong lane, but Elder M could tell I was going to so he checked to make sure there were no cars coming so it was not bad, luckily. That is about it. I hope everyone has a good week.
Love,Good Week (October 14, 2013)
This week was better, mostly because we were busy. I was scared about getting a mini missionary because I didn't just want to tract the whole day with him, but we were really blessed with being really busy. We actually did not have much time for tracting, we could only do it for about half an hour because of all of the service we were doing. We also found out that getting kicked out of the caravan park ended up being a good thing. Now we are teaching the recent convert at her friend's house. Her friend was an investigator but told us she was not interested when we first got to the area. We had a short lesson last week with her and she said that we can teach at her house as long as she gets a lesson as well. We are pretty happy to be doing that. It was also good to be able to make her a new investigator because she is the first of this transfer. She also has one kid that is 10 and we think two others that are over 8 so we hopefully will be able to get them as investigators as well, which will be pretty sweet. It is funny how the Lord works in mysterious ways, but really cool to see that He is in control of everything.
I also really loved conference. I really liked Elder Ballard's talk and the other 70 who played football at BYU. I did not just like them because they talked about missionary work, but they put it really simply how to do it. Just inviting to an activity, or praying for someone, those are things that almost anyone can do. I also liked the praying for the missionaries by name as well as their investigators. There is a quote by President Hinckley about not just praying for missionaries world wide, but for the ones serving in your ward, as well as praying for ways you can help them. I also agree with what the mission president there said about missionaries being the teachers, and members being the finders. Missionaries are really good at teaching, that is what we love to do and practice every day. But we are horrible finders. Most people will not change their life because two men dressed weird knocked on their door. Some do and they are amazing, but most won't unless they have a friend introduce it to them.Monday, October 7, 2013
Better Week (October 7, 2013)
This week has been better, mostly because we have been kept busy. P-day was really good being able to go to the temple. I realized it was 10 months since I was able to go, so it was really nice and hopefully we will be able to go at Christmas again this year.
We did have an interesting experience on Friday. We have been visiting a recent convert almost every day to visit her son since he is turning 8 soon. We are giving him the lessons because he does not have that Primary background. She lives at a caravan park. The first time we visited we could tell the manager did not really like us. Then on Friday he came up to us and told us that Mormon Elders are not welcome and told us not to come back. We were just in shock and didn't know what to say, and he walked off. I probably would have said something if there were not other people around, but mostly I was just stunned. A Christian group owns the camp, and I was thinking that it was not a very Christian thing to do, and I am pretty sure it is illegal. I would have understood if we were proselyting there, but we were just teaching this kid. It was even weirder because we were wearing normal clothes because we had service right after it. I am used to people being rude at the door, or yelling out as they drive past, but that was the first time that I have been told not to go somewhere because of my religion. It felt so strange.Love,
Elder Cook
Another Week (October 3, 2013)
We dropped off Elder F at the mission office last week, so now it is just the two of us, and we do not know this area at all. Good thing Elder M has a GPS so we can at least find our way around. Mom thank you for that email, I really needed it this week. The last couple of weeks I have struggled a little in this area. I think I am just a little tired of being transferred into slow areas. I loved Karratha but it was slow by the nature of the town. The area before that was slow, and now this one is too. But we plan on changing that. President Lindsay introduced a new thing we are going to do with members that will hopefully help us. We haven't had a chance to try it yet, so next week I will let you know more about it and the results. I think one of the hardest parts of being in a slow area is the fact that the mission is the most successful it has been, perhaps ever. Last month we had 27 baptisms which is the highest in a month in the last couple of years at least, if not ever in this mission. It is cool to see the success of others, but it would be even better to see some of that success ourselves. But I know that it is the Lord's work not mine and he is in control. In the last week I did learn a lot about faith. I know that God is all powerful so he can do anything, but at times I realize I doubt if he will do something. I have learned that faith is not knowing that God can do something, but knowing that he will, in his own way and time. It has been a good lesson, and I hope that I can begin to increase my faith and know that God will send us miracles as we do all we can.
Love you all, hopefully this coming week will be more eventful. Also sorry about the weird timing, it is because this p-day we are able to go to the temple.
Love,
Elder Cook
OK Week (September 23, 2013)
This week was just ok. The area is really slow at the moment. This week should be busy because everyone in the ward wants an opportunity to say goodbye to Elder F before he goes. He served here for 3 months, got transferred, and now is back, so he is pretty close to people in the ward. We are trying to take advantage of that and get to know as many members as we can before he leaves. It is also good because Elder M is really good at getting to know the members. The ward is good so far. I enjoy heaps of the members, but it is a slow ward for missionary work. They had a baptism not too long ago, but before that it was about 3 years since they had a convert baptism. And we do not have a ward mission leader at the moment. But the good thing is that last zone meeting we had training by the Stake President which was so good. He talked about how he knows that most wards struggle with missionary work, but we need to go out and keep trying, they will get better. Also a ward cannot stop the work from progressing, nothing can stop the Lord's work, it is just who wants the blessings by being a part of it. It was really helpful. That is one of the struggles of being a missionary. After the Work of Salvation broadcast I was so excited to do missionary work, especially working with members. One of the hard parts is I feel like I had all of the excitement, but none of the members did, and nothing has seemed to change. That has made it a bit hard, but it is not my work, or the ward's work, but the Lord's work. This week I have also started a journal to record every miracle I see in my life. It has been cool to see small miracles that I would have forgotten about, or not recognized. It has helped me build my faith that the Lord is with us in the work.
Love,
Elder Cook
Love,
Elder Cook
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)