HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week was a fun but interesting week. President Hutchings family went home last Monday, so he's back in full force. However Elder Hansen's grandma died on Tuesday and it was really hard on him. He was having a really rough time and he just wanted to be preoccupied with investigators and other people to work with, so he asked to go on an exchange for the rest of the week. President let him, so I was companions with President Hutchings for a few days. It was a lot harder because there were times when I needed to do some things in the office and he needed to be elsewhere or on a private phone call or what have you and I still needed to be with someone, so it was a little trying, but it was all in all a good experience.
We started this round of interviews. We have all the local missionaries congregate to a central church and President interviews them one by one, and while he does that I present a training to the group. I really like this training I'm doing. It's about getting stronger commitments out of our investigators by using the language of faith. I focus on two types of faith that investigators need to have to keep commitments faith in the principle, and faith that they can do what they've been asked of Heavenly Father to do. Then I taught about hte creation and how in Hebrews it says that the worlds were framed by faith, and in Moses it talks about how God created the worlds by the power of his word. Using the example of "Let there be light." Then to quote Joseph Smith, "God spoke, chaos heard, and by reason of the faith he had, matter was organized." Then I make the connection that the words that we use in our commitments make a big difference when we use the language of faith. For example "When you come to know that these things are true you will have a desire to change things in your life to bring them in harmony with our Heavenly Fathers plan and be baptized by His priesthood authority." As opposed to, "If you come to know these things are true, you may want to be baptized." Something along those lines.
As for crucial conversations I remember almost a year ago (it's really weird to say that) I read over the crucial conversations packet and then read Preach My Gospel and they teach almost the same concepts, just with the gospel spin on it. The numbers are coming in now so I got to run. Love you and Happy Birthday Mom!!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Jan. 11, 2010
As for things to cover for President, he assigned us to do some baptismal interviews for people who have had problems with question 4, if anyone has an issue with question 4 they need to be interviewed by the President or someone he assigns. People who had issues with abortion, homosexuality, and serious crimes. It was interesting but a neat experience to see the atonement work with people. He told me something interesting that I hadn't realized before. When you're doing a worthiness interview your role is not to play FBI and figure out exactly whats been going on in their life but your job is to witness that this person has declared themselves worthy and that they understand what covenant their making with our Heavenly Father. Of course you need to follow the promptings of the Spirit and if you feel something is amiss ask more questions but a lot of its really in the hands of the person being interviewed.
Other then that this week has been pretty slow, we had some zone conferences, we're finishing them up this week. We're training on the doctrine of sacrifice, I may have already told you about it, but we had the idea of doing another visual aid so we build out of some goodwill supplies a sacrificial altar and spray painted it gold. At the beginning of the conference we pass out little square pieces of paper that have a clip art lamb on them and ask everyone to write down the things that they want to sacrifice this year in order to help them fulfill their calling. Then we teach about sacrifice and at the end of the conference we bring in this altar and have everyone lay their sacrifices on the altar. At the end of the round of zone conferences we're going to burn all the papers in the back of the mission home.
Well, number reports are now in so I've gotta run, but I love everyone and have a great week!!
Other then that this week has been pretty slow, we had some zone conferences, we're finishing them up this week. We're training on the doctrine of sacrifice, I may have already told you about it, but we had the idea of doing another visual aid so we build out of some goodwill supplies a sacrificial altar and spray painted it gold. At the beginning of the conference we pass out little square pieces of paper that have a clip art lamb on them and ask everyone to write down the things that they want to sacrifice this year in order to help them fulfill their calling. Then we teach about sacrifice and at the end of the conference we bring in this altar and have everyone lay their sacrifices on the altar. At the end of the round of zone conferences we're going to burn all the papers in the back of the mission home.
Well, number reports are now in so I've gotta run, but I love everyone and have a great week!!
Jan. 5, 2010
Hey, sorry I'm getting this in later then usual, with the new year we had to reformat all of our spreadsheets and what not for the weekly call in summary report, so our morning was packed with tedious computer work that I never ever want to do ever again.
Anyways the magnets thing worked out so well. They we're in teams of 3 one person with the compass, one with the directions, and another one who counts the paces, the only person allowed to speak was the directions person. Three of the teams had a magnet and it totally confused them, they had no idea what was going on. The Spanish missionary whose from Brazil Elder Martins had a magnet in his pocket and he was so mad at us, he was sure that we had written the directions wrong or had totally deceived him with the course somehow (and we did). After they all made it back we had them stand up and check their pockets and then we taught the principles about the Liahona. Elder Martins had a great insight he said something to the effect of, "When the compass was pointing the wrong direction my initial reaction was to aggressively blame my leaders who set me out on the task, when really the problem was with me the entire time." It was so cool to see him really grasp that principle on his own, often times when things aren't going well especially in the gospel we blame our leaders, it's the bishop's fault, or that's terrible advice why would I bathe in the river Jordan 7 times to heal my leprosy. It worked out perfectly.
Then today we started zone conferences. We taught about the law of sacrifice based on the talk given by Elder Ballard in the 1998 October Ensign. We built out of cardboard some 2x4s a goodwill picture frame and a can of gold spray paint an alter. At the beginning of the conference we gave out little paper squares with lambs on them that they were supposed to write down the things that they felt they needed to be sacrificed in order for us to progress. Then at the end we carried in the altar and had them place their sacrifices on the altar. After we do all of the zone conferences we'll take the sacrifices out behind the mission home and we'll burn them and collect the ashes and use them as a visual reminder that they've sacrificed the things that are holding them back. It was really fun today.
Tomorrow President Hutchings' family is coming into town, all of his kids and their spouses are coming so he's going to be tied up for the next week or so and we cover for all the things that he can't, so we'll be busy too. That's about it. I love you and we'll talk next week.
Anyways the magnets thing worked out so well. They we're in teams of 3 one person with the compass, one with the directions, and another one who counts the paces, the only person allowed to speak was the directions person. Three of the teams had a magnet and it totally confused them, they had no idea what was going on. The Spanish missionary whose from Brazil Elder Martins had a magnet in his pocket and he was so mad at us, he was sure that we had written the directions wrong or had totally deceived him with the course somehow (and we did). After they all made it back we had them stand up and check their pockets and then we taught the principles about the Liahona. Elder Martins had a great insight he said something to the effect of, "When the compass was pointing the wrong direction my initial reaction was to aggressively blame my leaders who set me out on the task, when really the problem was with me the entire time." It was so cool to see him really grasp that principle on his own, often times when things aren't going well especially in the gospel we blame our leaders, it's the bishop's fault, or that's terrible advice why would I bathe in the river Jordan 7 times to heal my leprosy. It worked out perfectly.
Then today we started zone conferences. We taught about the law of sacrifice based on the talk given by Elder Ballard in the 1998 October Ensign. We built out of cardboard some 2x4s a goodwill picture frame and a can of gold spray paint an alter. At the beginning of the conference we gave out little paper squares with lambs on them that they were supposed to write down the things that they felt they needed to be sacrificed in order for us to progress. Then at the end we carried in the altar and had them place their sacrifices on the altar. After we do all of the zone conferences we'll take the sacrifices out behind the mission home and we'll burn them and collect the ashes and use them as a visual reminder that they've sacrificed the things that are holding them back. It was really fun today.
Tomorrow President Hutchings' family is coming into town, all of his kids and their spouses are coming so he's going to be tied up for the next week or so and we cover for all the things that he can't, so we'll be busy too. That's about it. I love you and we'll talk next week.
Dec. 27, 2009
I don't really have a whole lot to talk about either. Not much has happened since Christmas. We had a few planning meetings with President Hutchings and I'm really excited for a few things that we're going to be doing in January for ZLC and Zone Conference. For the ZLC we're setting up an orienteering course for after lunch, during lunch we all take off our suit jackets and leave them downstairs, so during lunch we're going to slip some magnets into the pockets of their suit coats to mess with the compass and then afterward we're going to teach a lesson on the Liahona and how it worked according to their faith, heed, and diligence. For Zone conference we're going to be making an alter and teach about sacrifice. Throughout the conference we'll have everyone write down on paper some things that they feel they need to sacrifice in order to be more at-one with Heavenly Father and then at then end they come up and place these things on the alter. Then after the round of zone conferences we'll take it back to the mission home and burn the alter and send pictures of it to everyone along with a vial of the ashes. It should be fun and a memorable teaching moment. Anywho that's about it. Love ya and we'll talk later!
Parent's note: We had a great talk with Bryan on Christmas for about 75 minutes. He sounds great and is happy. One year down; one more to go!
Parent's note: We had a great talk with Bryan on Christmas for about 75 minutes. He sounds great and is happy. One year down; one more to go!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Dec. 20, 2009
My first week in the office involved taking the departing missionaries to the airport. Elder Geohagen and I did that we're both brand new neither of us had a phone and we didn't know where the airport was and my gps was packed in my bags at the Franklin stake center so we got a little lost but eventually we found the airport and then we got a little lost again and eventually we found all the missionaries there.
Then we've been driving President around the mission all week for him to do the interviews. It's interesting that you mentioned the law of consecration, because that's the thing we've been training on. While Elder Arnold was here he taught about the 3 laws of heaven 1st obedience, 2nd sacrifice, 3rd consecration, and each is a step progressing further and further towards exaltation. We used the example of the Savior's sacrifice in the atonement and asked if He had not first been obedient would His sacrifice have meant anything? Then we tied that into missionary work, if we're not striving to be obedient what power does our sacrifice have? Then we talked about how the essence of consecration is the atonement. "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of ONE heart, and ONE mind, and they dwelt in righteousness, and there were no poor among them." The word Atone isn't reek or Hebrew or Latin, its anglo-saxton English and it means to be at one. So living the law of consecration as Zion did makes us at-one in mind and heart with each other and the Lord. You can't have consecration without first being obedient to the commands of God and you cant have a worthy sacrifice without first being obedient, and you need both sacrifice and obedience to fully consecrate yourself to the Lord. That's what we've been training on all week several times a day every day.
I figured that I've gone over 500 miles in the last week. It's fun though, just a different kind of fun.
For a time to e-mail home we don't really know yet because we don't know what's going to be happening during the week or on Christmas day, but since we'll be in the office I'll be able to e-mail you again before Christmas to tell you a time for sure. If you could tell Kaylee that I know I owe her a letter and I feel really bad I haven't written her yet, I've been meaning to ever since I got a letter from Sister Baker that had a picture her and Kaylee with their primary class on it, however I don't have her address in my book. So if she could send me a letter I would be more then happy to write her back, or if you could send me her address via e-mail that would work out just fine. I'm planning on getting caught up with all my letters on Christmas and Christmas eve. I'm way behind. I still haven't sent out all those Christmas cards that you sent me!
Hopefully Ali gets feeling better soon, and I'll be writing you back probably today or Wednesday with the time that I'll be calling you
Love you; buh bye!!
Then we've been driving President around the mission all week for him to do the interviews. It's interesting that you mentioned the law of consecration, because that's the thing we've been training on. While Elder Arnold was here he taught about the 3 laws of heaven 1st obedience, 2nd sacrifice, 3rd consecration, and each is a step progressing further and further towards exaltation. We used the example of the Savior's sacrifice in the atonement and asked if He had not first been obedient would His sacrifice have meant anything? Then we tied that into missionary work, if we're not striving to be obedient what power does our sacrifice have? Then we talked about how the essence of consecration is the atonement. "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of ONE heart, and ONE mind, and they dwelt in righteousness, and there were no poor among them." The word Atone isn't reek or Hebrew or Latin, its anglo-saxton English and it means to be at one. So living the law of consecration as Zion did makes us at-one in mind and heart with each other and the Lord. You can't have consecration without first being obedient to the commands of God and you cant have a worthy sacrifice without first being obedient, and you need both sacrifice and obedience to fully consecrate yourself to the Lord. That's what we've been training on all week several times a day every day.
I figured that I've gone over 500 miles in the last week. It's fun though, just a different kind of fun.
For a time to e-mail home we don't really know yet because we don't know what's going to be happening during the week or on Christmas day, but since we'll be in the office I'll be able to e-mail you again before Christmas to tell you a time for sure. If you could tell Kaylee that I know I owe her a letter and I feel really bad I haven't written her yet, I've been meaning to ever since I got a letter from Sister Baker that had a picture her and Kaylee with their primary class on it, however I don't have her address in my book. So if she could send me a letter I would be more then happy to write her back, or if you could send me her address via e-mail that would work out just fine. I'm planning on getting caught up with all my letters on Christmas and Christmas eve. I'm way behind. I still haven't sent out all those Christmas cards that you sent me!
Hopefully Ali gets feeling better soon, and I'll be writing you back probably today or Wednesday with the time that I'll be calling you
Love you; buh bye!!
Dec. 13, 2009
The firesides this weekend went really great. I really loved being in the choir and it was pretty cool, but it's so time consuming! All weekend was spent singing and it was a very powerful program. We sang "Jesus Name of Wondrous Love," an arrangement of "Simple Gifts for Christmas" called "Simple Joy," and then a slew of other songs, many of which were arranged be Sister Heidenriech, who just finished her mission here. She was a Sr. missionary from Arizona, she made the Songs of the Savior program which we sang as the close to the fireside. They also recorded this fireside so hopefully soon we'll be getting a CD and I can send you home a copy of it. I don't know Sister Taft personally but I do know that she's in the mission.
Sister Matsuda is good; so is Marietta and the Burgesses but none of them made it to church yesterday :(. However Gordan Avery did come to church, we've been working with him pretty much ever since I got to this area and he hasn't been progressing very well and at church he told us that he's noticed that the happiest times of his life have been while he was actively studying the gospel with us and that he'd like to be baptized before Christmas. So that was pretty exciting. The 12 dates of Chirstmas worked wonderfully. We went from zero to twelve dates in nine days and had 14 by the close of the 12 days! This zone is doing really, really well.
For transfers I'm being transfered. I'm kinda bummed out to be leaving. I'm going to go to the mission office as President Hutchings' assistant. I'll be serving with Elder Hansen as my companion, he's the same missionary that trained me so that'll be fun. However now most of my time will be spent doing management-type things for the mission and meetings rather than working in our area. The good news though is I now get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders so I'll be able to come back to this area on exchanges. Other good news is I will now be living at the mission home so I get all my mail direct now.
That's pretty much all thats going on here. I love you guys!
Sister Matsuda is good; so is Marietta and the Burgesses but none of them made it to church yesterday :(. However Gordan Avery did come to church, we've been working with him pretty much ever since I got to this area and he hasn't been progressing very well and at church he told us that he's noticed that the happiest times of his life have been while he was actively studying the gospel with us and that he'd like to be baptized before Christmas. So that was pretty exciting. The 12 dates of Chirstmas worked wonderfully. We went from zero to twelve dates in nine days and had 14 by the close of the 12 days! This zone is doing really, really well.
For transfers I'm being transfered. I'm kinda bummed out to be leaving. I'm going to go to the mission office as President Hutchings' assistant. I'll be serving with Elder Hansen as my companion, he's the same missionary that trained me so that'll be fun. However now most of my time will be spent doing management-type things for the mission and meetings rather than working in our area. The good news though is I now get to go on exchanges with the zone leaders so I'll be able to come back to this area on exchanges. Other good news is I will now be living at the mission home so I get all my mail direct now.
That's pretty much all thats going on here. I love you guys!
Dec. 5, 2009
Things here are getting kinda crazy with meetings this month. I'm really worried about how well we'll do in December just because we have so many non-proselyting meetings. The mission has organized a missionary choir that's is going to be singing in 3 different stakes this weekend and at 2 malls and in the Opry Land Hotel so with practices and the performances it takes our entire weekend!!! Then we also have zone conference this week, so we really only have 3 working days this week!!
Things are still going well we're running into the problem of trying to help the Burgesses get to church. We're unable to go on post to help wake them up and we have limited help because the unit on post is a branch so its a small group and spread out over a LOT of area. Ft Cambell has a lot of just wilderness type land all over it where they do field training and what not. So the actually residence area of the base is spread out long-ways over most of the city of Clarksville and Oak Grove spanning the Tennessee and Kentucky state line, so finding them a ride is hard. So they didn't make it to church, but we're seeing them tonight and we'll figure something out with the branch mission leader. He was called last week, he's really gung ho about the work and that helps out leaps and bounds so we're really excited to work with him.
There is a transfer on the 15th as far as me being transferred it seems probable but I have no idea. I'll find out this Saturday and will be able to tell you next week.
Cool story. Wednesday of this past week we had a choir practice and on Tuesday we had our ZLC at the mission home. So for 2 days in a row we drove down to Franklin and Brentwood and spent the majority of the day down there. On Wednesday after we got back to Clarksville we went to go see an old media refferal we got about a month ago. We had tried to contact this refferal several times and never had any success but we thought we'd try it again. We pulled up to the house and there were a bunch of cars outside like they were having a party or something. We thought about trying another time and then figured that we were already there we might as well go for it. So we did. Turns out the Romita Matsuda a local of the Marshall Islands had moved there about a month ago. Her and certain family members had been taught by the missionaries in the Marshall Islands for the entire summer and had been attending church. Romita wanted to be baptized and then her husband got home from a deployment and was posted to Ft Cambell. So now we're teaching her and she's going to be baptized on the day after Christmas! Then we went to her house again so she could follow us to the church to see where it was. When she was getting into the car she said to us in a very thick polynesian accent, "My cousin is coming too, she is also a Mormon believer!" Her cusin Marietta also wants to be baptized! So we are very excited about that. Thats two families this month who have already been taught everything about the gospel. The Burgesses had a set appointment with the missionaries in Germany every Saturday night for a YEAR! So now its really just a matter of helping them make the last few steps and doing the paper work. Its also a cool story because on Wednesday when we met Sister Matsuda and the Burgesses, we decided earlier that day to implement what we're calling the 12 dates of Christmas. We're trying to have 12 baptismal dates in the zone by the 12th of December and that night as a zone we set 5 dates!!
Thats about all thats been happening here this week.
Love Elder Carpenter
Things are still going well we're running into the problem of trying to help the Burgesses get to church. We're unable to go on post to help wake them up and we have limited help because the unit on post is a branch so its a small group and spread out over a LOT of area. Ft Cambell has a lot of just wilderness type land all over it where they do field training and what not. So the actually residence area of the base is spread out long-ways over most of the city of Clarksville and Oak Grove spanning the Tennessee and Kentucky state line, so finding them a ride is hard. So they didn't make it to church, but we're seeing them tonight and we'll figure something out with the branch mission leader. He was called last week, he's really gung ho about the work and that helps out leaps and bounds so we're really excited to work with him.
There is a transfer on the 15th as far as me being transferred it seems probable but I have no idea. I'll find out this Saturday and will be able to tell you next week.
Cool story. Wednesday of this past week we had a choir practice and on Tuesday we had our ZLC at the mission home. So for 2 days in a row we drove down to Franklin and Brentwood and spent the majority of the day down there. On Wednesday after we got back to Clarksville we went to go see an old media refferal we got about a month ago. We had tried to contact this refferal several times and never had any success but we thought we'd try it again. We pulled up to the house and there were a bunch of cars outside like they were having a party or something. We thought about trying another time and then figured that we were already there we might as well go for it. So we did. Turns out the Romita Matsuda a local of the Marshall Islands had moved there about a month ago. Her and certain family members had been taught by the missionaries in the Marshall Islands for the entire summer and had been attending church. Romita wanted to be baptized and then her husband got home from a deployment and was posted to Ft Cambell. So now we're teaching her and she's going to be baptized on the day after Christmas! Then we went to her house again so she could follow us to the church to see where it was. When she was getting into the car she said to us in a very thick polynesian accent, "My cousin is coming too, she is also a Mormon believer!" Her cusin Marietta also wants to be baptized! So we are very excited about that. Thats two families this month who have already been taught everything about the gospel. The Burgesses had a set appointment with the missionaries in Germany every Saturday night for a YEAR! So now its really just a matter of helping them make the last few steps and doing the paper work. Its also a cool story because on Wednesday when we met Sister Matsuda and the Burgesses, we decided earlier that day to implement what we're calling the 12 dates of Christmas. We're trying to have 12 baptismal dates in the zone by the 12th of December and that night as a zone we set 5 dates!!
Thats about all thats been happening here this week.
Love Elder Carpenter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
