Dear Family,
This week has gone by way fast. Much faster than any week in Clinton. I heard that after my first area, time flies, but I had no idea...Anyways, Farr West and Plain City are both awesome towns. I love these kinds of towns where everyone knows each other.
Today we had Zone Conference. This was my first Zone Conference and it was long...9am to 4pm. They talked mostly about the Spirit Sandwich which I explained in one of my letters. I think today helped me feel more confident in teaching because we did role plays all day which I hated, but they were helpful. Overall it was long, but I learned a lot.
So we will be baptizing 2 people this Saturday. A mother and her son. They are very poor right now, which makes them very humble. It is pretty cool. I will also be confirming her as well which will be neat for me again. I think I will be doing a lot of those and baptisms. So far this year our mission has been the highest baptizing mission in the U.S. I have also gotten the chance to give a ton of blessings so far. Each time really strengthens my testimony though, I love it.
There is also this 16 year old kid named Kendrick who was baptized last year and he is an amazing missionary. He is trying to get his whole family baptized which is awesome! Recent converts are truly the greatest missionaries I know of so far. So like with that girl taking the discussions in the 2nd ward, when she gets baptized, she could be an awesome missionary.
That reminds me, you guys should offer your home to have the discussions at. The home can be a great place to invite the Spirit and avoid distractions. You should also have them over for dinner if you can. And then you can have them bless the home because missionaries are good at that.
Well that is all I got for today. I hope you guys have a good week. I love you all and I am grateful for your support. See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
(This letter came to us in the mail at the beginning of the week, but I lost it up until today. Sorry for the delay!)
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
April 24th, 2012
Hey Britt,
This will be really short because I
have very little time today. I will write a letter after I get the one
you send me. We did have the baptism and it went very well. Now we just
have one date in a few weeks and other than that we are just teaching. I
will update you on anything else that is going on in the letter.
Love you!
Elder Connell.:{We got a letter in the mail from him on Monday...I will type it up for ya & post it soon!}:.
Friday, April 20, 2012
April 17th, 2012
Hey Britt,
This new area is rockin! It is super awesome. My new place is
pretty cool, its a more "cozy" place than my last appartment, but I like
it. This area has quite a bit of investgators. I have only met 4 or 5
so far, but it has only been a week. 3 of them have a baptisimal date
sometime in the future so it is all exciting. This area does have a car.
I am happy about that. This area covers 2 stakes and kind of 2 cities,
Farr West and Plain City. It is kind of farmland out here and most of
the people know each other around here. Its cool, i like it.
Thats cool about the investigator in the second ward. Tell the
missionaries to do good with her. By the way do you see the missionaries
there much? Have you had them over for dinner often? I only ask because
there are some families here that have missionaries out and they like
the company of missionaries. So ya, just wondering.
You got kinect?! Im jealous kind of. But ya dont activate the live
because it is connected to my account. You will have to change the
payment info to your credit card instead of mine because im not like
making any money or anything. Dont ask me how to change it because i
would have to be there myself to figure it out, but I dont think its too
hard.
Thanks Brittany for all the support. I think about you always and miss you! I will continue to keep you guys in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Connell---------------------------------------------------------
Hi Dad,
Yeah, I love this new area. Me and Elder Henthorn get along great.
We joke together and do good stuff, its cool. He is from Washington
State, not by Amy, and has been out 14 months. He has trained and greeny
busted many times so I am nothing new for him. We havnt taught very
much the past week, but we have a lot more investigators here and a lot
more potential investigator that we could teach. There is one
investigator named Karren Stone, she is in her 60s and handicapped. She
has 3 pugs and a bull dog that we walk sometimes. It is kind of like
teaching Bunny a little, but she is an investigator.
Congrats to Austin and Collin! Though its a bummer they didnt go
instate because those are the best, sorry dad. Yeah, I remember that
story now about you bashing, I dont like to do it because it brings in
contention. I am studying more though because I want to know as much
about the church and other churches as possible so that I dont feel
dumb.
So you know how the mission will be changing in July. And they will
be sending 40 missionaries down to Salt Lake, preferrably experienced
missionaries. And they are bringing in 60 missionaries the next few
transfers. If you do the math then basically I will probably be training
pretty soon. Im guessing I will train in the next area I go to, so in
about 4 months from now I think. It is pretty crazy and I dont know if I
will be ready by then, but I figure I will learn quick.
Thank you dad for all of your support! I love you and miss you! And
can you ask Jeremy if he got my letter that i wrote him a few weeks
ago? I havnt really gotten any letters in a while and its probably
because I transferred.
Love
Elder Connell
Monday, April 16, 2012
Transfer
Dear Family,
So there is kind of a lot to talk about this time. As you all know, I was transferred to Farr West. My new companion is Elder Henthorn. I guess he is kind of my greeny buster as well as my second trainer. I have only known him for about 12 hrs, but so far he seems to be about the apposite from Elder Motsamei (last comp). He is much more open with people, and animated. That is kind of what a greeny. buster is like though, to sort of break you in.
This area seems to be a lot more active with teaching and baptizing. I believe being here will help me be able to learn to teach better and become the missionary the Lord needs me to be.
I want to share an experience that happened last night while I was still in Clinton. We were out doing a bit of "tracting" because that is what we do a bit there. And the last house we went to the lady was already outside kind of watching us. We started talking to her for a few minutes, and I learned pretty quickly that she was pretty anti-mormon and anti-Book of Mormon. Let me tell you, we were there for too long. She was saying some things that made me a bit angry and I held back, but Elder Motsamai was kind of arguing with her. As we were talking with her, I was just feeling upset and confused and not good. But then, as soon as we left, the Spirit came back and I felt much more at peace and relaxed. This church is true. Don't let anyone lead you astray any other way, especially coming up with the election. Satan will lead many away. Stand firm. Anyway, I wanted to share that because it really strengthened my testimony and I know I will be running into a lot of those type of people.
Just a heads up for you mom, my new companion's mother will be calling you sometime in the next few weeks. He says she does that with all his companions, so don't freak out. And dad, do you remember Connor Walz from Mesa? He was apparently related to us. Well, cool thing is that he is serving in this mission. Haven't seen him yet, I just know he barely got in. I am kind of excited about that.
So I can't think of what else to say. I am pretty excited for this transfer and I expect great things to come. I hope you are all doing well there. I love you all!
See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. Address:
1355 W Harrisville Rd.
Farr West, UT 84404
So there is kind of a lot to talk about this time. As you all know, I was transferred to Farr West. My new companion is Elder Henthorn. I guess he is kind of my greeny buster as well as my second trainer. I have only known him for about 12 hrs, but so far he seems to be about the apposite from Elder Motsamei (last comp). He is much more open with people, and animated. That is kind of what a greeny. buster is like though, to sort of break you in.
This area seems to be a lot more active with teaching and baptizing. I believe being here will help me be able to learn to teach better and become the missionary the Lord needs me to be.
I want to share an experience that happened last night while I was still in Clinton. We were out doing a bit of "tracting" because that is what we do a bit there. And the last house we went to the lady was already outside kind of watching us. We started talking to her for a few minutes, and I learned pretty quickly that she was pretty anti-mormon and anti-Book of Mormon. Let me tell you, we were there for too long. She was saying some things that made me a bit angry and I held back, but Elder Motsamai was kind of arguing with her. As we were talking with her, I was just feeling upset and confused and not good. But then, as soon as we left, the Spirit came back and I felt much more at peace and relaxed. This church is true. Don't let anyone lead you astray any other way, especially coming up with the election. Satan will lead many away. Stand firm. Anyway, I wanted to share that because it really strengthened my testimony and I know I will be running into a lot of those type of people.
Just a heads up for you mom, my new companion's mother will be calling you sometime in the next few weeks. He says she does that with all his companions, so don't freak out. And dad, do you remember Connor Walz from Mesa? He was apparently related to us. Well, cool thing is that he is serving in this mission. Haven't seen him yet, I just know he barely got in. I am kind of excited about that.
So I can't think of what else to say. I am pretty excited for this transfer and I expect great things to come. I hope you are all doing well there. I love you all!
See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. Address:
1355 W Harrisville Rd.
Farr West, UT 84404
Monday, April 9, 2012
April 3rd, 2012
Dear Family,
How are all of you doing? I am doing pretty good out here. This Clinton area is a bit dry teaching wise, so President might transfer me to a bussier place so I can get more teaching experience. Tonight was probably the first lesson I had with a new investigator. We do what is called the "Spirit Sandwich". We begin the lesson by stating our purpose there which is to bring people closer to Christ through baptism and we talk a bit about that. We then talk about the Holy Ghost and his purpose and how to know of his presence. We then do a conditional committment by saying, "If you feel the Spirit, will you be baptized?" They will pretty much always say yes to that like she did tonight. We then go through the lesson until we get to the first vision and we go back to the Spirit and talk about it a little more. We then give the account and pause so that the Spirit can teach a bit. It seems pretty fool proof, am I right? We got a date from Mia, that's her name. She will plan on the 28th this month. It's pretty neat stuff we do out here.
So mom, I will try to answer most if not all of your questions. I would like to say the members are helpful but we don't hear much from them besides Bishops and Ward mission leaders. We try to see people and write them to do missionary work, so we will see if that leads to anything.
I am doing fine with clothes. No issues there at all. And the only cooking we do is for lunches and rarely a dinner. There isn't much cooking involved there though. We do fine though, so don't worry. We get money each month for food. We don't have bikes in this area and we get rises from members, no car.
Since Clinton is near a military base, there are some people who are not LDS. I want to say that it is 50/50, but I don't know for sure. Never really door slamming, just people being rude or not even answering the door. Most people here in Utah have made up their mind about the church. Lots of people have had the discussions before or something like that and now have no interest. This is just a different mission from the rest. I feel like I am starting to love the people. It is kind of hard to do, but I am working towards it. I know it will make the work so much easier if I love the people.
I don't remember if I told you last week or not, but we have picked up 3 kids recently, Mkayla, Madison, and Trey. They have taken the discussions before and now have a date for them, we are also working to get the parents active again so that they can take the kids to church and make it easier for them. Oh and Kyle, one of our investigators is getting baptized on the 7th. I will be confirming him on Sunday, so that will be a first for me. Other than that, there is not much new with our investigators.
We have a piano here at our house. I play it whenever we aren't doing much like in the morning before study. My companion doesn't play however. It is just something to do when I get bored. No I will not send a video, I don't know if we can because we use the computers at the family history center in Ogden. I wouldn't even know what to do a video of so no, sorry. I will try to take more pictures though, that is something I don't do much.
I am actually writing one of my friends from school who is not a member. That is it though. I am writing Michael and in the process of writing Sam, or email actually. That reminds me, I would like Ryan Keeney's email, not address because I can't send mail internationally.
Well it is bed time so I will end here. Thank you for the letters and the support! Havg in there! Remember who you are and why you are here! Do the best you can and the Lord will take care of the rest. Love you! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. Cat story will have to wait for later. It is too much to write and it's not important, just funny.
How are all of you doing? I am doing pretty good out here. This Clinton area is a bit dry teaching wise, so President might transfer me to a bussier place so I can get more teaching experience. Tonight was probably the first lesson I had with a new investigator. We do what is called the "Spirit Sandwich". We begin the lesson by stating our purpose there which is to bring people closer to Christ through baptism and we talk a bit about that. We then talk about the Holy Ghost and his purpose and how to know of his presence. We then do a conditional committment by saying, "If you feel the Spirit, will you be baptized?" They will pretty much always say yes to that like she did tonight. We then go through the lesson until we get to the first vision and we go back to the Spirit and talk about it a little more. We then give the account and pause so that the Spirit can teach a bit. It seems pretty fool proof, am I right? We got a date from Mia, that's her name. She will plan on the 28th this month. It's pretty neat stuff we do out here.
So mom, I will try to answer most if not all of your questions. I would like to say the members are helpful but we don't hear much from them besides Bishops and Ward mission leaders. We try to see people and write them to do missionary work, so we will see if that leads to anything.
I am doing fine with clothes. No issues there at all. And the only cooking we do is for lunches and rarely a dinner. There isn't much cooking involved there though. We do fine though, so don't worry. We get money each month for food. We don't have bikes in this area and we get rises from members, no car.
Since Clinton is near a military base, there are some people who are not LDS. I want to say that it is 50/50, but I don't know for sure. Never really door slamming, just people being rude or not even answering the door. Most people here in Utah have made up their mind about the church. Lots of people have had the discussions before or something like that and now have no interest. This is just a different mission from the rest. I feel like I am starting to love the people. It is kind of hard to do, but I am working towards it. I know it will make the work so much easier if I love the people.
I don't remember if I told you last week or not, but we have picked up 3 kids recently, Mkayla, Madison, and Trey. They have taken the discussions before and now have a date for them, we are also working to get the parents active again so that they can take the kids to church and make it easier for them. Oh and Kyle, one of our investigators is getting baptized on the 7th. I will be confirming him on Sunday, so that will be a first for me. Other than that, there is not much new with our investigators.
We have a piano here at our house. I play it whenever we aren't doing much like in the morning before study. My companion doesn't play however. It is just something to do when I get bored. No I will not send a video, I don't know if we can because we use the computers at the family history center in Ogden. I wouldn't even know what to do a video of so no, sorry. I will try to take more pictures though, that is something I don't do much.
I am actually writing one of my friends from school who is not a member. That is it though. I am writing Michael and in the process of writing Sam, or email actually. That reminds me, I would like Ryan Keeney's email, not address because I can't send mail internationally.
Well it is bed time so I will end here. Thank you for the letters and the support! Havg in there! Remember who you are and why you are here! Do the best you can and the Lord will take care of the rest. Love you! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. Cat story will have to wait for later. It is too much to write and it's not important, just funny.
Monday, April 2, 2012
March 27th Letter
Hey Dad,
ps i need jeremys address
----------------------------
We don't get much from the emails, but we get more from the written letters...it's kind of a pain to have to type them up, but maybe I'll start doing that. Please write Zach, he would love to hear from you! He is pretty good at writing back too.
I need Jeremy's address to write him! I have been asking for
several weeks and no one has sent me anything. Yeah, missonary work is
not easy. It is hard to see how we are successful as missionaries when
we get no results. But I realize that our job is to plant seeds, and we
do plenty of that, so we can be considered as being succesful. It is
cool that you guys are doing service. It is the best and it is a good
way to plant that seed. Like what Ammon did, served. If he hadnt served
like he did, then he would have probably been killed and yielded no
results. But he served and converted many. So keep it up!
I will write more in my letter because I like writing those more than emails. Have a good one!
Love You
Elder Connell
----------------------------
We don't get much from the emails, but we get more from the written letters...it's kind of a pain to have to type them up, but maybe I'll start doing that. Please write Zach, he would love to hear from you! He is pretty good at writing back too.
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