First week in the field...

Well, I entered the field on Tuesday morning. Got to ride the frontrunner from Provo to South Jordan. Got of the train with the rest of our group coming from the MTC (about 27) and the Mission President, his wife, and some of the other people working in the office were there to greet us and take us to the mission office. Mission office is located in Sandy, it is actually technically outside of our mission boundaries. So is the mission home. Anyway,so we went to the office and talked for awhile with the President and his counselors. Eventually we were split up into two groups, one group went into the chapel and talked about cars and finances and stuff like that. The other group split once again and half of them were interviewed by the president and the others were taken to the Draper temple to have some personal time and set some goals for themselves and stuff like that. I had actually been to this Temple a month or so ago. But it is so awesome because you can look out across the valley since it sits up on the hill and you can see the whole mission! As I stood next to the temple looking out at the place I would be serving for two years the wind was really strong at my back and it was almost like it was compelling me to get out there and start working. It was an awesome experience. So after visiting the temple and having interviews and eating breakfast and lunch we finally got to meet our companions.

My first companion is Elder Bennett. He is an awesome elder! He is an Edward Cullen looking guy. Like no joke. He's awesome though and we get along great. He is from North Carolina. So after we got our companions we left and set out to work. We dropped my stuff off at the house (We live in a member family's basement) and went to teach a lesson. Elder Bennett's last companion was Elder Nonne and it was his last day in the field so he came with us to the lesson. The girl we were teaching was scheduled to be baptized September 27th. We gave a short lesson on the Word of Wisdom and then went to the next lesson with a girl named Willow. We went with the Solomons who are the senior couple serving in the area. We watched a video on the Restoration and talked a little bit about that. Talked and met some other people the rest of the night. Had dinner at a members house. Next day there weren't any major lessons or anything, we had a district meeting though and Jasmine, the girl we taught the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday, was interviewed for her baptism. All went well. Thursday we had a zone meeting and we were asked to plan an event that would lead to us gaining five new investigators. Me and my comp have planned to have church tours this upcoming week. Hope it goes well.

Friday was Jasmines baptism. Elder or rather now Brother Nonne came back for it. He lives in Vegas. He even brought a date ha. It was an awesome baptism and was super spiritual. I have a lot more I could share about each day but I'm trying to keep it somewhat short and hit just the main points of each day. We did some yard work for an older man earlier that day as well. Saturday we visited a man we had tracted into on Friday named Maxwell. He comes from Ghana, Africa. We had a man call us Saturday morning asking us if we could give him a bible. We told him we didn't have one on us but we asked if we could come by and talk to him. His name is Jeff. We went by and found out missionaries had met with him around a year ago and he was close to getting baptized but he's been on probation so he hasn't been able to. He still doesn't have a testimony about Joseph Smith so we'll have to teach him some more but his probation deal is done sometime in November I believe. Oh on one of the days, I forget which, we went to go visit a woman named Morgan. When we went we met her father and found out he is a less active member but deep down he knows the truth. He and his wife are separated and they have young kids despite being a little older in age. He wants to come back to church and he wants his kids to be baptized. We went back and visited them with the Solomons on Saturday and figured out what we can do to help them. His youngest kids that he wants to get baptized stay with their mother most of the time. They stay with him for the summer but he has had some health problems and wasn't able to set anything up with us at that time. So now he only has them on the weekends and since both parents still have custody on them they can be baptized here. The mother is completely okay with them being baptized too. The father is a super awesome guy, hes been through a lot in his life though, and he just wants his family to come back together.

Later that night we taught a young woman named Neralyz. She speaks Spanish mostly so her step mother has to translate for us. Her family is trying to get her familiar with English or something like that so that's why we are teaching her, not the Spanish missionaries. So we had four lessons that day which was awesome!! Sunday was intense. Oh I totally forgot to tell you! I am serving in the Kearns East Stake! :) me and my companion cover three wards. It used the be the entire Stake but they just split it. We cover the 16th, 14th, and 3rd wards. The house we are living in is actually in West Valley. Just barely. So on Sunday we went to 16th ward for Sacrament and one class, then we went to 3rd wards Sacrament and one class (in the same building) then we went to 14th wards Sacrament and one class in a different building. So 6 hours of church... not bad! Had dinner with a family. Had fish again. I can handle fish, but I really don't like it much. When we got to 14th ward, they have sacrament last, the primary was singing and marching to called to serve. They saw us walk by and they asked us to lead them. So we marched and sang called to serve with them, it was awesome :)

So yeah its been an awesome first few days! Transferred into a baptism and a few more are on the way :) Hope everyone is having a good day and I hope you all have a wonderful week! The picture is from the baptism. The one not in missionary clothes is Elder Bennett's last companion. Oh yeah so we don't have a car in this area. Our mission doesn't have facebook or ipads or anything cool like that haha. We have a junky cell phone. Good enough for me. Also I'm reading the Book of Mormon in 12 weeks. Marking all the references to Jesus Christ, marking all of His spoken words and making a list of all the Names or Titles given to Him. I would challenge you to do the same if you feel up to it.