July 28, 2014

Hello family,

This was a pretty good week.

Yesterday our recent convert got the priesthood. It went really well. He is doing great.

Nothing too exciting came from the dinner other than an increased relationship with our neighbors and I feel like we put a good view of the church into their eyes. Sometimes that can be a powerful thing.

 

I was in charge of the district meeting at the temple, and I will go to the temple at least one more time. The departing missionaries always go on a special temple trip with their MTC group. That will be at the next transfer.

This week we did something pretty unique. In our area they had an emergency preparedness fair that was put on by the city and the LDS church. I was one of the volunteers. It was fun wearing one of the helping hands vests. I mostly was doing ticketing, but I helped serve food for a while as well. It was a fun event and there was a great turn-out.

Also, a month or so ago I found this lady that I taught a couple of times and found out she would prefer Spanish. I brought over the Spanish Elders and they taught her. Yesterday she got baptized, which was super cool. I wasn't able to make it to the baptism, but I saw her afterwards and congratulated her.

President Ballard came to our church building to interview my companion Elder Jones this week. I wasn't in the interview, but I guess it turned out well. President Ballard is a nice guy with an upbeat attitude. He is swamped right now though with everything going on and being new.

Anyway, that's about it.

Love, Elder Udy

July 21, 2014

Hello family,

This was a pretty good week. We had a strange dinner, a baptism, a temple trip, and a sweet district meeting.

On Friday we had the weirdest dinner appointment ever! Nobody from the ward signed up so we thought we would be on our own. On our way out the door that morning a lady from an apartment near ours told us that her birthday was that day. She proceeded to invite us to her birthday party that night. We debated on whether to go or not, because we knew a few people would be drinking. When we gave her our answer she told us that she had hand-selected everyone that was coming. She said she especially wanted us to be there so we could talk with all of them, because some of them need some help. That night we all walked over to the restaurant. The lady that invited us tried to focus all the attention on us. Is was weird. Obviously somewhere along the line we made an impact on her. One of the guests told us that he was a convert to the church, but hadn't been in many, many years. We told him where the church was and all the info about it. The lady that invited us afterwards was very appreciative that we came and said many of them have expressed interest in coming to church and meeting with us, but are afraid to ask us. We will try to follow-up with some of them. It's cool to see how the Lord has prepared people in our own backyard. None of them were members, except that one guy.

 On Wednesday we had a trip to the temple. It was awesome as usual. I learned some new things which were cool.

Directly after our temple trip we all walked over to the visitor center and had our district meeting. It was a really great meeting. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Our training was about how to take advantage of the visitor center and some of the expectations when you bring people there. I thought it was a super spiritual meeting probably because we were all on a spiritual high from the temple. It was a good idea. Since it went well with our group other districts are thinking about doing it.

On Saturday Theodore was baptized. He showed up super late so we didn't have time to take pictures of him in his white clothes. Kinda sad, because he is awesome, but it's alright. Everyone in the ward seems to love him a lot. They are all very friendly to him. He will be a great addition to the ward. The church came out with some new direction saying that we are supposed to remain in contact with our converts for AT LEAST a year. Theodore will be my friend forever. I had the opportunity to give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting. Giving someone the Holy Ghost is an incredible opportunity. Most of the time it's the first time the person has ever experienced the laying on of hands. 

Our meeting with the 11 year old boy turned out alright. We talked to him about Pokemon a little bit. The mom was supportive of him being baptized, but she said it has to be his decision not hers. We are going to get him involved with some of the other 11 year old boys in the ward as well as scouting.

That's about it for this week.

Love you all a lot, Elder Udy

July 14, 2014

Hello family,

They don't tell the missionaries anything about their flight plans home until 3 weeks before they go home. I didn't even know that they were sending things to you about it.

Interviews this week were interesting. President Ballard is a very cool guy. He is funny as well. Sister Ballard is way different than Sister Morby. A completely different personality. She is the one that gave me things to do on my mission not the mission president. They were great things to think about, but I wonder why she said them and not President Ballard.

Our investigator passed his baptismal interview this week. He is going to be entering the waters of baptism this Saturday. I am so happy for him. Something that has been a theme for our teaching appointments with Theodore has been "By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass" it's a scripture. One way that I have seen the Lords hand in my life this week is how He has blessed us with people to teach. When Malik got baptized we found Theodore the week of his baptism. Now, the week of Theodore's baptism we received a solid referral for an 11year old boy. Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for us. 

President Ballard in his last email to the missionaries he talked about how you reap where you sow. I feel that Heavenly Father is blessing me for my hard work, even if the work that I do doesn't yield direct results. God will help those who help themselves.

Also this week I thought a lot about the phrase, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god. Looking back is not good.

That's about it.

Love, Elder Udy

July 7, 2014

Hello family,

This week was super crazy.

We had a big meeting with all the missionaries in the mission so we could meet President Ballard. He is an interesting guy. He made some jokes, but he is definitely going to be different than President Morby. The Ballard's brought 5 kids with them. They all spoke at the meeting. It turned out well. They did a good job.

With President Morby all the missionaries were their family, but now the mission president and his wife have their family with them so the mission environment has changed completely. It's a big change, but it will be good for everyone. We have zone meeting this week and interviews. The interviews will be about 5 minutes each, but I will get to actually meet him for the first time.

We also helped a lady move out this week. It was a two day process, but all turned out alright.

For the Fourth of July we went over to the Allen's house and played with Lego's. I built the coolest airplane ever! All the kids were jealous. Lol. After that we went over to the Gibbs house for dinner and fireworks. They had a big neighborhood thing going on. There were some non members attending so that was good. The fireworks were super good. They did a few illegal ones, which was fun to see. There was also one called dark science that was super innovative. Somebody put some creativity into it. Then of course the normal fountains and ground blooms. Missionaries can't light any of them so I just watched.

That's about it for this week.

Love, Elder Udy