July 15th, 2016- On their way to Buffalo to await picking up Elder Daugs on July 16th, 2016 at the Mission Home.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
It's been a quick two years!
Well guys this is it!
It's been a quick two years! Sometimes it seems like it flew
by but when I think back to the last thing I did while I was home that seemed
like forever ago. This week was a pretty good week. I got to go on exchanges
with Elder Peters, one of my favorite missionaries, we met lots of new people,
we put two people on baptismal dates for the end of August, I won a king sized
kit-kat for guessing where Hayden Schaff is going on his mission (he's going to
Fresno California ).
I got to meet the new mission president who is really
awesome, but unfortunately I won't get to know him. I'll probably only see him
twice, the first time I met him and when I Ieave. And I got to go to pageant on
Saturday with the Orchard Park Elders and a less active named Sister Plummer
who is super awesome! We went to the grove and to pageant and had a great time.
We sang Joseph Smith’s First Prayer in the Sacred Grove, made a couple random
people cry, and got to meet all of the people I've met over the past two years
at pageant.
Then I had my last Sunday as a full time missionary and got
to say good-bye to a lot of good people but they are all so excited to meet you
guys next week. I signed a bunch of my ties and gave them to the youth so they
can take them on their missions and hopefully it will remind them to keep in
touch. So it was a pretty good last full week.
I've learned a lot these last few years and I've grown a lot
as well. I'm so grateful for all of the people I got to meet, the Owens,
Pfaff's, Robison's, Alessi's, all of the youth here in the ward, and the rest
of the great families here in Orchard Park Ward. I really appreciate all of the
advice they've given me and the relationships with them I've been able to
develop. I've really seen why I was sent here to western New York, to meet the
people that I did. I'm sure that I will continue see why I was sent here over
the rest of my life as well. I'm going to have to try and stay in touch with
all of these people for sure.
A lot of really cool missionaries have become great friends
that I'll be a friend with for a long time. I've developed some great habits of
scripture study, and really increased my knowledge of the gospel being here in
the Cradle of the Restoration. I've really come to love this church and being a
member of it. I've come to know my savior Jesus Christ so much better and how he
can help me with everything. I really appreciate what Joseph Smith did for this
church. I love this gospel. I know it's true.
Behold
I Addison, son of Ammon, have grown strong in the gospel of Jesus Christ and do
promise to stay true and faithful to it. And I make an end to my speaking. ;)
Love you!
I surprised Sister Pfaff at Pageant as she was taking a picture with Elder Pedersen and Elder Fiesler.
Labels:
Alessi's,
Burnards,
Elder Fiesler,
Elder Pederson,
Last week,
Orchard Park,
Owens,
pageant,
Pfaffs,
Robison's,
West Seneca
Monday, July 4, 2016
Happy Fourth of July!
Happy 4th of July!
This week was a good one once again. We
didn't do much finding this week just because we had a lot of other things
going on but we were still able to hand out two Book of Mormon and meet a couple
new people who said we could come back sometime and teach them, so hopefully
they are actually home at the times they said we could come back.
I also went on exchanges with Elder
Fielding in Orchard Park and that was a lot of fun. The rest of the week was
mostly doing service. There was a family moving out of the ward for a job on
Texas so we went and helped them move all of their stuff to a storage unit and
that was really good to just spend some time in regular clothes, and with the
members. We did that for several hours on two days. We also did some service
for a lady named Suzanne who was the hoarder lady so I cleaned up another
corner of her lawn and we taught her a lesson afterwards and she really liked
it. She was really appreciative of our service and she said she would read the
Book of Mormon.
We also taught a lesson to Robert at the
church and he really liked it and he ended up coming to church this Sunday and
it was a really good fast and testimony meeting and he enjoyed it and he even
asked "how would I join this parish?" So hopefully he continues to
progress.
We had a lost sheep meeting to try and
locate all of the members on the roster with some of the leaders in the ward
and were able to find a couple so that was great. We helped teach young women's
on Sunday so that was a lot of fun! Then after church we went to the Alessi's
for dinner for the last time :( It's ok though because they are a family that I
will stay in touch with for sure!
Then that night the hunters had a really
big fireworks show at there house with most of the ward, and a lot of their
neighbors. It was a really big show with some really big fireworks and there
was only two close calls so that was a lot of fun!
Then this morning we had a Fourth of
July breakfast at the Collets with most of the ward again. I love this
ward sooo much!! The people here are just so awesome and I'm going to be sad to
leave them in a couple weeks but I'm going to try and stay in touch with all of
them and I'll have to come and visit. If there was any place in New York I would
live it would definitely be Orchard Park. It's such a good ward!
Have a good week!
Love you!
Elder Daugs, Elder Peters, Elder Marks, Elder Fielding
Final dinner at the Alessi's
Labels:
4th of July,
Alessi's,
Elder Fielding,
Elder Marks,
Elder Peters,
Orchard Park,
West Seneca
Monday, June 27, 2016
June 27, 2016~ Another week of doing good!
Hey guys!
So this week went by really quick and it
was a pretty good one. We were able to get in contact with a couple less
actives and have some good lessons with them. One less active had us over for
lunch and her husband is not a member but he has no interest in changing. He's
about 80 and he's been around the church most of his life, he knows all of the
doctrine, he loves all of the things the church does, and the people, but he
has not interest in switching at this point in his life.
We had dinner with the Mashburn’s and
had a lesson and that went well. He's working towards getting the priesthood
soon. We did a bunch of tracting this week and we didn't find anyone too
promising. Kinda a boring week there but we also were able to do some service.
We did some landscaping for a guy named
Mike and he's the same guy we've been doing service for for a couple weeks and
his house looks like a brand new house now. He asked for a way to donate to our
church so we brought him a tithing slip and explained what everything on there
was and and where the money goes to and he thought that was really cool so
hopefully he remembers what we did for him and it will lead to something in the
future.
We also did service for a lady named
Susanne who we tracted into. She is kind of a hoarder so her back yard is a
mess! So that was some interesting service. First off I dug two holes for her
dead cats in the back yard by the garage. The worst part was the cats died in
December so yeah... Pretty gross! Then we got talking about religion and gave
her a Book of Mormon, and Elder Marks talked to her for 1 1/2 hours while I
tried to start tackling the back yard. I went in with the weed whacker, some
pruners, and a garbage can and in an hour and a half I cleared about a 10 by 10
square. But that square looks really good! It's more of a service for the
neighborhood and her neighbors because she doesn't really care how it looks. So
we will be going back for a couple weeks to do the rest.
We went to Nathaniel Brunard’s mission
call opening and he was called to some place in Africa. I don't know how to
spell it but I think it's Namibia Botswana mission? He's going to be a great
missionary as well as Ben Bagley who gave his "farewell" talk this
Sunday and he did a great job! We also had another missionary return from his
mission here in the ward and he spoke as well. Two of the youth were ordained
to elders this week including Ben, and it was also a couple of the families in
the ward last week so it was kinda crazy!
Then, last night we had dinner with the
Welker’s who are a cool young family in the ward. That's pretty much it. Have a
great week!
Love you!
P.S.
We found a Buffett that has tons of seafood!
This is just some of the different kinds they have. I ate the octopus on the
left side but it wasn't that good!
Labels:
Brunard's,
Elder Marks,
Mashburn's,
Octopus,
Service,
Welker's,
West Seneca
Monday, June 20, 2016
Staying in West Seneca
Hey guys!
It sounds like you guys had a fun time
in Alaska and Seattle!
This week was a pretty hot on here in
New York for a couple of the days. But the missionary work goes on regardless.
We are kinda like Mailmen. Rain or shine. So for p-day we had all of the youth
come to the church and we played some basketball, and this game that's kinda a
mixbetween, dodgeball and lightning. So it's a free for all but only one ball
and you can only take two steps. And if you get out you sit down but if the
person that got you out gets out your back in so its pretty fun especially with
all of the youth!
Then that night we had service for Katy
doing some landscaping which isn't my
favorite but I've had a little experience at it so we do it a lot! We went over
a couple other nights to help to and we had some lessons too so that was good
and she ending up coming to church yesterday! So the service payed off! Also
she bought Elder Fielding and I some ice cream so bonus!
Elder Fielding and I went on exchanges
on Tuesday and that was a lot of fun! I really like having elder peters and
fielding in the ward and the district. We have a lot of fun! And for some
reason we just click with the ward really well. We did some service at
Burchfield Park spreading 6 truckloads of wood chips on the playgrounds. Then
we went to another guy to do more landscaping and he had a Book of Mormon and said
he is going to read it and he also wanted to make a donation to the church for
what we've done so that's really cool! We had a lot of lessons with less-actives
this week and they were all pretty receptive and open to us coming by again. We
found some more people to add to the ward list who referred themselves through Mormon.org
so that is always really cool to see the people come out of the cracks and back
into the church. Also a couple new families moved into the ward.
We did the usual tracting and trying to
find new people and we met two cool guys this week. One took a Book of Mormon
and is interested in meeting with us again and just wants to talk about
religion and life.
The other guy was really awesome! He
said "I felt the spirit when you guys were walking down the street"
and he was saying all of the right things. For example he said he doesn't like
it when churches have crosses he said "Jesus isn't dead anymore... Take
him down" he also believe there is only one church and that's the church
of Jesus Christ... Which so happens to be our church! He thinks there's a lot of
corruption in all of the different churches so hopefully we can help him see we
have the truth!
Other than that everything was normal.
Oh, and I am staying another
transfer. I am finishing my mission in
West Seneca with Elder Marks.
Have a good week!
Love you!
Saturday, June 18, 2016
June 13, 2016
Hey guys!
So for this week we did a lot more of
the usual stuff like tracting, trying to visit potentials, etc... We went to
the Mashburn’s and set up a family mission plan with them mostly just setting
goals with them to develop good habits in the church like scripture study,
prayer, family history, etc... We have been talking a lot about pageant with
people just telling them about it and how it connects to the Book of Mormon and
people are a little more open to that since they've usually heard about it before
and heard that it's a really good show. So I hope that at least one of the
people we've talked to about it actually makes it out to see it. All of the
members in the ward are also inviting all of their friends, neighbors, etc...
Even the primary kids are handing out a bunch of pass along cards for it.
We had Visit with the Garbaz’s who is
the family who texted you a picture a couple weeks ago mom. They are really
nice and a super awesome family but they are mostly just friends with the
missionaries, not interested in joining the church but they might go to pageant
so that would be cool! We don't really have lessons but we just answer a lot of
questions about the church, so hopefully some seeds are planted. We also had
some good visits this week with some active families like the Robison’s and he
Alessi's. We went and did some service for the Alessi's and had dinner with
them as well and they are really great! I was able to just talk about the
future and get some more good advice and council from brother Alessi. I just
like talking with people and seeing all they've done to find success and
happiness in their lives.
We also did a bunch of other service at
a nature park here in West Seneca, mostly cutting down perennials and they have
about 10000 of them so we only got part way done with all four missionaries. We
also cleaned up a couple abandoned houses and one of them had a ton of stuff!
Weed up to your waist, and old pool and deck that had to be taken out, etc...
And I also changed the spark plugs in the Mashburn’s car for them so that was
fun!
The ward had a baptism this Saturday.
Just one of the primary kids but there was a few non-members there so that was
good and they seemed to really enjoy it. Then Sunday we had all of our usual
meetings. Ward correlation at 7:15, then ward council, sacrament and we had a
choir performance this week, and scheduling stuff with members for this next
week. Then we went to the Robison’s for dinner again to finish the Sunday.
So overall a pretty good week!
Love you!
Found this tracting this week.
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