The Little Engine that Wouldn't

Hello everybody this last week has been one of the best weeks I have had so far. On Tuesday we had transfers and I got to meet my new companion Elder Atkin. He is great my other companion was good, but Elder Atkin is great. He is from St. George and he was a ballet dancer before he came out here on his mission. He has been on his mission for five months and he will be training me for the last 6 weeks of the 12 week training program.We got a brand new Chevy cruze at the transfer meeting, I guess they really trust us missionaries, and I don't have to ride my bike for at least six weeks. So we found our way back to thousand oaks and got back to work and we taught a lesson that night to katelyn she's 11. It was our first lesson together and it went really well. She was really excited to learn more and read from the book of mormon which is great. Overall I think we had 11 lessons total this last week which is the most I have had so far. I am feeling a lot better about my teaching ability and Elder Atkin is really helping me become a better missionary. This last I learned a lot about finding those people who have been prepared to receive the gospel. We had just knocked on a door of an inactive member and they weren't home so as we were walking back to our car we felt like we should knock on the door across the street. Christina answered the door, we talked for a little bit and she mentioned that her brother William was looking for a church to go to and needed direction in his life. We asked if we could stop by another time and meet him she told us that they are both in and out all the time and don't know if they will be around, but we could try by anytime. Then later that week we stopped by and they were both there working on a car in the front yard. We asked if we could help and he told us ya I need to pull the engine out. So we all pulled and yanked at it, but it didn't come off. We prayed and it still didn't budge, so we taught them both the restoration as William worked on the car. We left them both with a copy of the book of mormon and they were surprised that we were able to catch them both home at the same time. I am just glad that we were able find them, because we were paying attention. I think sometime we miss opportunities, because we aren't looking for them. I know that there are people like Christina and William out there who are prepared to hear the gospel we just have to be looking for them. I love all of you and I you are feeling better Uncle Karl and Tim.

Blitz!

Well this last week has been a pretty good week. I went on two blitzes this week and they both went really well. A blitz is where we trade companions for an hour or so. The first one was with Elder Hofhiens, he is the other zone leader and he is an awesome missionary. He met us in our area and we only had 30 mins before he had to get back to an appointment. He asked me if I had a goal for the 30 minutes we would be together, I told him that I hadn't taught very much, so he said ok lets teach someone on this street. so we set off down the street and he was talking with me about some of my concerns and we knocked on a couple doors here and there. Then someone actually answered the door she told us that she was a catholic and she didn't need anything else, but we were able to get a conversation going about her beliefs and that gave us the opportunity to teach her the restoration on the doorstep. We said a prayer with her and gave her our number on the back of a restoration pamphlet. She probably isn't going to join our church or anything, but she was willing to listen to us and we were able to teach a lesson in 30 minutes I was with Elder Hofhiens when me and Elder Harlow hadn't taught anyone new for weeks. It really testified to me that the Lord has prepared people for me to teach and bring back to the fold. I just have to keep working hard to go find them. Then on the other blitz with Elder Robinson the next day, we were tracting on this street and a young man named Alex (probably 17 or so) answered the door and he said he had heard about the mormons, but he didn't know very much. We taught him the restoration and he was curious to learn more, but he had to go. So we gave him a book of mormon and set up an appointment with him the next day. So on that blitz we got to teach a lesson and we got a new investigator. I think I like blitzes. Unfortunately the next day when we went back to see Alex his parents were out front and they told us that they weren't interested and that we couldn't teach their son anymore of our "crap". Hopefully he will get taught in the future sometime. Anyway I'm doing really good and I am having a great time. Transfers are tommorow and I am getting a new companion Elder Atkins, I am staying here in Thousand Oaks, so thats exciting. Elder Harlow is going to Oxnard and will be training two elders at once for his last transfer. I love you guys and keep dunking it Jen!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

This week has been a pretty good week. I did a lot of learning this week. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with the District Leader Elder Watts. He is a really cool Elder and he has an announcer's voice. He pretty much sounds exactly like the guy who does music and the spoken word at conference. But he came into my area and I only mostly know my way around. So throughout the day we only got mostly lost a couple times. We didn't get to teach that day our one appointment fell through, but we did get to talk to a few different people. Towards the end of the day we stopped and said hi to these two ladies standing by their car. Turns out that they don't speak English, so my companion (Elder Watts at the time) starts talking to them in Spanish, very slowly mind you, but there was definitely some communication going on. He gave them a card, so I said the one thing I know how to say in Spanish. "yo mido siete con tres pulgatas" the hermanas (sisters) taught me how to say that and I had been waiting for and opportunity to say it ever since they taught me. It just means that I'm 7 foot 3, so ya I am pretty much fluent in that language. Anyways they laughed and then Elder Watts asked if we could have the Spanish missionaries come over and share our message. They said sure and wrote down their address, so that was good. Later on that same street we ran into another Hispanic who didn't speak English and Elder Watts talked a little with him then gave him a card. The seemed happy to see us but had to go, so I told Elder Watts "He seemed interested." Then he told me that he was already a member, but we gave him a card anyway. We also had interviews with the president last week and training all that day. That was really good and I learned a lot. Other than that everything is going great and there hasn't been anything too exciting. Actually there was a spider hanging from the ceiling in the bathroom when I woke up this morning. Needless to say the spider is quite dead and I was quite awake this morning. I love you guys and I am having a great time here.

Elder Hamson

Calisthenics - Physical and Spiritual

Hello everybody this week has been great I am getting used to the schedule and it was conference weekend so of course it was great. The schedule is the same everyday 6:30 wake up, exercise for 30 minutes 7:00 eat and get ready 8:00 personal study 9:00 companion study 10:00 training 11:00 go out and work. then we are back at the apartment by 9:30 to plan for the next day and get ready for bed at 10:30 As for the work, we didn't have very many lessons this week everyone we were going to teach cancelled on us last minute, but that's ok we were able to set up appointments with them for this week and we have a couple more appointments this week. We did teach one lady this week, Jami, she can be hard to teach sometimes, because we have this whole lesson planned about one thing we feel like she needs to know, but she always wants to talk about something else. She is learning though and we committed her to watch some of conference this last weekend, so we will definitely follow up with her on that. Then the last two day we got to watch conference, which is pretty much the best thing ever, especially when you are a missionary. I really enjoyed all of conference it was really great, but if I had to choose one of my favorite parts it would be Richard J. Maynes talk. He talked about basketball so of course it's my favorite, because I can definitely relate when he felt like he was going to die. He talked about how in order to get in basketball shape he needed dedication, perseverance and self-discipline. It is the same way getting into spiritual shape. So I will leave you with a question to ask yourself. What can I do to get myself in better physical and spiritual shape?