May 18, 2009

Hey, so bad news first. Matt's baptism didn't go through this week. Elder Garrison has been getting sick since Thursday, so on Saturday we were told to stay home and have him rest. So I was at my desk/kitchen table studying and the phone rang. It was Matt. He was supposed to have his interview that night and everything was go for the baptism. On Friday night his parents' trailer burned down! They live in our area but on the outskirts about 20 miles away. He had been out there since Friday night, and his parents are fine just in shock, and they were being put up in a motel out in Woodbury (the closest city to them) and Matt was the closest family to them, so he was staying with them trying to work things out. So he wasn't able to be baptized. He still wants to be baptized and all but circumstances just prevented it last week. So he'll probably be baptized in the coming week.

Then Ben who came to church last week and asked to be baptized has his date set for this Saturday. So we might do them both on Saturday, or we might have Matt's on Friday or Thursday so Ben can come see what it's like. So good news and just a really bad delay.

We learned something at zone conference that I thought was very interesting and it ties in to what Dad said about the temple celebration and what Mom said about visiting Kayla. It was about the power of silence. The focus of it was on committing them to baptism but it can be applied with any commitment or the teaching of any principle. This originated from the missionary committee members who came to visit the mission. Recently they've been doing a study with recent converts from around the world asking them how they'd feel if missionaries waited a little while before trying to resolve their concerns. We have a tendency to get so excited about resolving investigators' concerns that we just shoot off as soon as they're done expressing the concern. Most of the investigators said that they'd appreciate a moment of silence because it shows them that we're actually thinking about it, and more importantly it gives us the chance to let the Spirit teach us what to say. I've applied it this last week and it's amazing what the Spirit will tell us when we're listening for it. It's as if the Spirit is our missionary companion and when we just shoot off into the lesson teaching all the principles and everything we don't give the Spirit the full opportunity to teach. When we're silent and we wait for it, the Spirit will always direct us with what that investigator needs. Its crazy cool, and it all comes down to if we're listening or not.

Other then that its been a really slow week. With Elder Garrison being sick with the cold we've been doing little to no work since Friday, then zone conference on Wednesday the only 2 days we really worked were Tuesday and Thursday. Transfers are tomorrow though. I'm staying here and Elder Garrison is going to Manchester down south. I'm getting Elder Dean, I have no clue who he is or what he's like but he's been out almost a year, and I'm still senior companion and district leader so that'll be interesting. This week should be a good week. We have a lot of good things going, and for the first time ever it looks like we'll hit the goals that are set for the area. The goals I set for the district were 3 baptized and 4 dates set, so far we have 2 dates set and 2 to be baptized this week and that was the goal for Stones River. As for Blackmen, the sisters' area, it looks like they're not going to pull anything out for this month. We'll see though. Thanks for everything and I love you, and I'll talk to you later!

Elder Carpenter