November 30, 2015

Hey guys!

So for this week starting on Monday we went up to the stake center and played basketball and stuff with like 24 elders so that was a lot of fun. During the week we were able to meet with a couple of our investigators but most of them said they were to busy because of Thanksgiving. We met with Bryan who lives in Piffard and he had been reading from the Book of Mormon and is continuing to do so. He has a pretty crazy past and done a lot of stuff so it might take a while for him to progress. We were able to meet with a less active member named Barbie a couple of times this week and the only problem is she has no car and when people stop to give her rides she isn't home so we'll have to figure out some way to get her to church. 

We have been looking for more service opportunities in the area so we have been calling all of the churches, going to the town and village buildings, senior centers, etc.. And we still haven't found any yet. So hopefully some of them call back today. We were able to go and do service at the library moving book and stuff in the basement getting ready for a book sale. I think we will be trying to go and help there once a week so hopefully that works out. 

Thursday was thanksgiving and we went to the Moons in Avon and they had over 20 people there so it was kind of crowded but it was fun and it was really good food! We kind of just walked around for the rest of thanksgiving because the whole town was empty because all of the students were gone for the weekend. 

Sunday we had all of the usual meetings then that night we went to the senior center and made necklaces again in Mt. Morris.

Hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving as well! 

Love you!

Pictures from P-day adventures!

 Picture of them driving on Google Maps!

 Tim Hortons!  Yum!  ( He wants a gift card to Tim Hortons for Christmas)

November 23, 2015 ~ Geneseo

Hey guys!

So my first week in Geneseo was great! I'm liking the area so far and

being in a four person apartment is really fun! Its the only four person apartment in the whole mission so we are pretty lucky!

So, Monday we went to Greece and played some basketball and then I spend the rest of the night trying to pack all of my stuff I had accumulated over the last nine months.

Tuesday was transfer meeting and we got back to Geneseo at about 4. It's only about half an hour from Rochester, so not too far. So, everyday we walk from our apartment down to the campus and walk around there because that's really the only place people are. President wants us to go to the college for an hour a day but we can't really do any proselytizing so we just have to sit there and wait for people to come and talk to us. For the most part it doesn't really work that well but yesterday three girls came up and talked with us for a while and one of them had a friend on a mission in Brazil. So that was pretty cool.

Geneseo has a lot more hills than the rest of New York so it's nice to have a little change. We met some pretty interesting people this week too. There is one guy named Ryan and we went over to meet him for the first time and he was super high, so what was going to be a quick visit turned into him talking about random stuff for three and a half hours so it was a really interesting meeting. We also had a good lesson with a guy who has been investigating for three years but he can't come to church because of the usual reason...no car.

We had dinner at a couple of the members’ houses and so far I really like the ward members so far. On Thursday, some members had a pie night so as you imagine that was great!  Then Sunday we went to church and met more of the members. Then that night we went to a senior center in Mt. Morris with the other elders and we helped make necklaces with them then Elder Holmburg and I sang songs while the security guard played his ukulele. Then we had an hour-long discussion on the differences between our religions but it was good. 

Elder Holmburg knows sign language so I'm learning a lot of that and we were signing to each other on campus and these girls came up to us and started so sign but I didn't know enough to understand everything but we were able to talk just because she saw us signing.

And that was my week! 

Love you!

 ( College Campus)

November 16th, 2015~ Transfer to Geneseo

Hey guys!

So this week was pretty good and had a couple of things out of the

ordinary. So in he beginning of the week we went to this interfaith meeting with all of the pastors from Brockport. It's good to be in the community and to help around. This week we couldn't really help with much there because all they talked about was helping homeless people and child care so us as missionaries can't do much about that.

We went on exchanges again this week and and were able to have some good lessons with some less actives in Albion. One really interesting thing we did was I had to go underneath this ladies old nasty trailer home and it was full of water and mud and nasty stuff! So we were fixing a couple of things under there, wrapping the pipes for winter, etc.. But I got sooo muddy! It kinda reminded me of working with you dad!

Then Sunday, we had a member of the seventy come to church and he spoke in sacrament and he taught third hour and it was awesome! I learned so much and they all seemed to apply to me. Then third hour he talked about the new thing on same sex marriage, and sabbath day. Then the big news for the week was I'm getting transferred to Geneseo to be with Elder Lavin and I'm in a four person apartment so it should be fun!

Anyways, I have to pack so have a good week! 

Love you! 

Oh!  and I got to go to the temple on Saturday!

November 9, 2015

Hey guys!

So this week was a good week! One bad thing is this day light savings thing. It sure makes missionary work hard after about 5:30 at night because it gets dark. We are trying to just go to members’ houses once it's dark and strengthen our relationships with them.  So this week we were able to visit with a couple of less actives. Tom is still coming to church and he passed the sacrament this week again which is awesome!

Another kind of cool story is we were in Wal-Mart and this employee just came up to us and started talking to us and he told us how he helped build the church here in Brockport, and his mom used to cut the missionaries hair, etc... So we checked the ward list and he wasn't on there so we took his name to ward council and this really old guy in the ward actually knew who he was! So hopefully we can get his info and get him back to church.

We had a lesson with Joe this week about the atonement and he really seemed to like it. It was actually the most he's ever talked. We do have one setback with him though; he doesn't want to be a burden to the members for a ride so he won't come to church until he can do it himself. We got in contact with Lauren who moved back to Long Island like 8 months ago, and she still has the Book of Mormon and her sister come back to Brockport quite often so we are going to try and get in contact with them.

Since it's fall time people are preparing for winter so we had to fill this persons garage with wood pellets, and I got to mow their lawns and all the leaves on like a 20-year-old Forrest Gump lawnmower.

On Sunday we had the primary program, which is always the best to

see all of the kids yell in the microphone and make funny faces! Then we went to a birthday party for Jake McNeese that night so over all it was a pretty good week!

Have a great week!

Love you!

November 2, 2015

Hey guys!

So this week we did all of the usual things like district meeting, visiting less actives, and our couple investigators. We weren't able to visit with Joe this week. It's kinda hard with him because he lives about 20 miles away and he doesn't have a car or a cell phone and at this time he doesn't have any power so hopefully he can get that fixed before winter hits.

We watched some more conference talks with Georgeann and reviewed them with her but she has the same situation as Joe, 20 miles away from church and no reliable way to get there.

A less active we have been working with has been coming to church for three weeks now and we saw him a couple of times this week. We went with the elders quorum president, brother Williams (who went to Utah State) to go see him. We had a lesson on the oath and covenant of the priesthood and talked about him advancing in the priesthood. So this Sunday he passed the sacrament with us, which was a big step for him!

One kind of weird thing this week, was a member called us and wanted us to come to their house on Halloween and sit on the porch and hand out candy so they could stay inside and throw a party. She wasn't going to let us go to the party just sit in the cold and hand out candy so we only did it for half an hour and then we told her we had to go. It's amazing how much some people use missionaries.

So we weren't allowed to be out after 5:30 on Halloween so a bunch of the missionaries and kids from the ghetto met in Greece and played basketball. It was a pretty fun night! Anyways that's pretty much all of it! Have a good week!

Love you!