Dear Britt,
CONGRATSS! on everything I guess. You're getting married in
November! Way too exciting. So fall is that time for harvesting. I love
fall, it is such a mysterious season. It is so interesting and the
weather is nice and the trees are colorful. Its a cool season. Plus it
has my BDay and Halloween and Thanksgiving in it so it deserves some
respect.
Me and Elder Hayes are still gettiing along pretty well. He is a
good companion, I wouldnt mind being with him another transfer. Two major
things happened this week with our friends. Rosie who we were teaching
has been passed off to the other mission now where she lives. It was
sad, but it is for the best. She will get baptized, but when is the
question. She also sent a facebook request so accept. The other friend
was Toni. I have talked about her a few times before, but this last
lesson has been the BEST. It was really just a normal lesson with her
reading from the BoM, and we got talking about Faith. I dont know what
we said, but she started bawling and crying. That is when we stopped
talking and let the spirit talk to her, and boy did he! After about 15
minutes of her being taught by the spirit and crying, she stopped and
told us how she was feeling. She said it like she was "remembering" the
spirit and how it blessed her before. It was a way cool experience,
those experiences that you pretty much live for. The spirit can change
anyone who is open to it. Oh, and Brooklyn, the 9 year old, is getting
baptized this saturday which is exciting.
Not much else going on. Jeremy was right. I can listen to anything
that I feel comfortable with basically. And I do feel comfortable with
most of TSFH {Two Steps from Hell...it's instrumental, beautiful music!} stuff and soundtrack stuff and piano music. For now I just
want that TSFH CD, but eventually I would like an iPod with all that
stuff on it. I found an iHome in our appartment and I am keeping it
because nobody wants it, but i need an iPod for it to work. This was the
big favor I wanted you to do, but dont worry about the iPod until after
all the stress is gone. Just the CD for now will do. THANK YOU!
Love ya!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 18, 2012
Hey Britt,
I did get the tie, thank you! I sent a letter yesterday that you
will get hopefully tomorrow. It has pretty much all the updates of what
has gone on recently. And not much has happened since I sent that letter
except yesterday we ran into this Jehovah's Witness lady who wanted to
bash with us. I hate bashing, it makes me angry and anger comes from the
devil. SO I dont like to bash and I avoid it as much as possible.
We had a baptism last Saturday that went very well. Brooklyn, the 9
year old, was baptized and all went according to plan. I hate repeating
myself so you will have to find out the rest when you get my letter.
Love ya Britt! Good luck on the wedding and get better!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 18, 2012
Dear Father,
I am doing pretty good at the moment. I am still with Elder Hayes, I
have been with him the past 5 weeks, have I not talked about him. He
has been out for 4 months and is from San Diego. We are still getting
along pretty good. Obviously not perfect, but no companionship gets
along perfectly. Right now one of the most stressful things about being
senior is finding things to do during the day. It is so hard with a
small area, mostly lds, and during the day most people are not home.
Tracting is pointless and it is so hard to think of who we need to see.
Also working with people who do not keep commitments is annoying, but
that is explained in my letter which I sent yesterday. This is kind of a
difficult area to work in which is why we work with LAs so much and
also poach a bit.
Right now we have like 4 or 5 nonmember friends, but like 2 of them
are progressing. Most of the teaching we do is with our member friends
and getting them to church. Right now we are teaching about 5 to 10
lessons a week. Kind of low for us, but everyone keeps on falling
through which is also annoying. We did have a baptism last Saturday for a
9 year old girl that went very well.
We took some of our member friends to the Brigham City open house
which was very good. They liked it a lot and I think it helped them at
least a little bit.
Sounds like everything back home is...normal.. It seems like there
is always one thing going on and it gets pretty crazy at certain times.
Good luck with the wedding and baby and everything.
The Atonement is very cool. In fact without it, we cannot be saved.
And the only way to access it is through ordinances. That is why, as a
missionary, my purpose is to help people access the Atonement through
ordinances such as baptism and the sacrament and the temple. I help
EVERYONE come closer to Christ, not just nonmembers. The Church is true
dad, how could it not be. I love you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 25, 2012
Hey Britt,
I like colorful cool looking ties {He asked for ties, I asked him what kind..}. I guess I prefer not stripes,
but they are still good. Im not sure if its 20 lbs {<<How much he has gained thus far!! He needed it...he was a twig. Literally}. It keeps on changing
with the winds. Last I checked I was like 15 lbs gained. I eat big
dinners and work out every morning so I should hopefully be gaining
more.
This past week has been pretty good. We picked up a new friend, Gino. That was cool. I made a profile on mormon.org. Kinda random but cool. Transfers is tomorow, but I am staying with Elder Hayes, so nothing is changing for me.
There are not many trees to change here, but there are some on the
mountains and right now they are orange/red. It looks pretty rad. Your
weedding is soon.. what do you mean surprises? What is he planning? Have
you guys found a house already? Kitchens are pretty cool {haha, I love my kitchens...I made a comment about wanting a good lookin kitchen}
There is nothing wrong with the moon or sun here. Dont worry, there
is still plenty of time before things end in the world. There are
zombie bees in Washington though which is kinda neat, but dont worry.
And anyways, if you are being righteous, then you will be saved or
protected or whatever.{lol, I made a comment about the crazy looking sun and moon and how weird looking-but cool-it's been. I said it was as if the world is coming to and end soon! Which, I really don't think it is..but still. Weird.}
So ya, be sure to get that cd out asap cause it is so cool. Thanks Britt!
Love ya!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2, 2012
Hello Family,
I am doing emails a little different today, I figured that one
email with all the details of whats going on with me would be good to
send to everyone, and then shorter emails to everyone individually. Lets
see if I like this better. First off, I forwarded to all of you this
week's newsletter, read it and weep...for joy..I guess. It said to
forward so thats what I am doing. Second, I have attached photos. Yes
that is a lightsaber, and yes its mission approved. A member here had
extra lightsabers so they gave them to us. The green one is a Count Duku
style, kinda cool. Enjoy the pictures. I will take better ones when I
get a cape.
This weekend is General Conference and I will be going which is
exciting. The only problem is that we dont know who to take as of now.
We were going to take a nonmember girl who wants to be baptized, but she
cannot go. And the reason she is not baptized is because her parents
dont want her to, sad deal. And Gino will be out of town for a while, so
we cannot take him. We will have to find a less active person to take. I
am so excited to go to General Conference! If you remember last
conference we could not go because we gave all of our tickets away, but
this time we are going.
We had a lesson with Gino the other day, which went pretty good.
Every other week he is on DEX which is a medication that makes you super
hyper and unfocused. He was on it during the lesson, so we just talked
to him for a little bit. They are going out of town, so the next lesson
will be like a week from friday or something, he shouldnt be on DEX then
so we can have a good lesson with him.
Do you remember Gloria? We taught her a while back and she wanted
to be baptized, but right now she is on Kemo. She is sick ALL the time,
so we have not taught her for over a month! We are still trying to work
with her, but right now she is too sick.
That is pretty much it as far as nonmember friends, but there are
many less active friends! Toni is still not going to church which is
frustrating, I really dont know what else to do there. Brady is moving
along again. He is in the process of repenting and we are trying to get
him to read the scriptures. It was cool though because he said he met
someone the other day and they had a good gospel conversation. Brady
felt pretty good after that, he felt like a missionary talking to
someone about the gospel. He said that they were going to watch general
conference together. You see, miracles do happen, every day! All of our
other less active friends are pretty much the same as they always were.
So here is a neat experience that happened last night. There is a
family in our area where we were teaching the nonmember husband, but he
was pretty much uninterested right now. But the wife, who is a member,
still wanted us to come over and teach their family home evenings to
help her kids out. We have been doing that for several months now which
has been pretty good, but yesterday their neighbors came to their house
to drop off some dinner. We talked to them and kind of set up a time to
see the wife. We possibly found a new investigator through all of this
family home evening teaching. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and
because of it mirracles happen all the time. Most of the time we dont
notice them, but if we humble ourselves and look for those mirracles,
our eyes can be opened to all the glorious things that God has done and
what he knows and has planned out. It is all so cool and so complicated,
I love it!
That is pretty much all that is going on. I plan on having a good
birthday I guess. We have zone conference that day so who knows what
will happen. Thank you family for your love and support! I lovee you
all! See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 9, 2012
Hello Everyone!
So many of you have asked about the same things. I will start with General Conference since that was the most recent and most important. The few days before conference were very VERY frustrating. We asked every single person that we are teaching which is like 12 if they wanted to go to conference, and we could not find ANYONE. It was making me very angry how hard satan was working. We ended up going, we just invited some members to go with us, we had tickets and didnt know what else to do with them. We went to the Saturday afternoon session which was very good. We sat on the main floor kind of in the middle to the side a little bit. They were pretty good seats, but President Monson and the Apostles were still very small and I had to watch the jumbo trons anyways. There were tons of good talks that I enjoyed very much. I took a bunch of notes and stuff. It was a very good conference. The one that kind of sticks out to me is Elder Oaks talk saturday afternoon. How important families are and having loving parentS. That is so true from what I have seen on my mission and back home. I have met a ton of people out here who are divorced and sometimes remarried. Most of the people we are teaching have some kind of background in divorce or something like that. Families are definitely ordained by God.
President Monson's announcement on the age change was definitely very cool as well! 18 for males and 19 for females, wow. I have been thinking about that a lot and its the fact that God chose this particular time to change the age limit so that a lot more missionaries can serve. There will be so many more sister missionaries going out which is awesome! God knows what he is doing, and he certainly has a plan to bring all his children back to him before it is too late.
Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes. It was pretty good. We had zone conference that day and they had me wear a ribbon to signify that I was the "Birthday Boy". It wasnt my style, but sister Hiers told me too, so I guess I had no choice. It was pretty good though. I did get the package you sent mother with the boombox. That does work thank you very much! I was looking at the reciept and it says that you bought a shopping cart, did you buy a shopping cart? Anyways since there is still time, It is getting a little chilly and I would like you to also send my waffle shirts, the black, brown and white ones in my drawer, those are warm. All my clothes should still be in my dresser unless you moved it all.
We have not really taught any of our investigator friends lately. We really only have 2 progressing right now that we are teaching...well more like one. Gloria is still sick and it is hard to get a hold of her, so we have not seen her in a while. Gino has been out of town for a while, but we have a lesson this Friday which I hope will go well. Everything seems to be going the same with our less active friends as well since most of them have been out of town or whatnot. We did teach someone new the other day, Bree, and her boyfriend. The lesson was the other night and went okay. Her boyfriend is less active and he served a mission...not fun. He had some pretty tough concerns that he was throwing at us like how he has prayed and read and done everything he was supposed to his whole life and he felt like God was not there. Im gonna be honest, I feel like that too sometimes, but thats the point, its a trial. We experience that so that we can grow. Christ was even alone at one point in his life and that was not easy for him either. We just have to endure, and our Father will see that sacrifice and bless us tremendously in the end. Bree seemed a bit more accepting though. Her issues were similar, but not as deep and she seemed happier after she prayed and when we left. We also took some vodka off their hands lol.
It is starting to get a bit difficult finding more people to teach. I have been in the area for over 3 months now and I feel like I have tried everything. I havnt, but it feels that way. It is just a matter of keeping at it and somehow it will all work out.
I cannot think of anything else to write so I will end it here. I may write a letter home some time if I find the time. I love you all! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. if anyone else wants my emails let me know so that I can send them to them
So many of you have asked about the same things. I will start with General Conference since that was the most recent and most important. The few days before conference were very VERY frustrating. We asked every single person that we are teaching which is like 12 if they wanted to go to conference, and we could not find ANYONE. It was making me very angry how hard satan was working. We ended up going, we just invited some members to go with us, we had tickets and didnt know what else to do with them. We went to the Saturday afternoon session which was very good. We sat on the main floor kind of in the middle to the side a little bit. They were pretty good seats, but President Monson and the Apostles were still very small and I had to watch the jumbo trons anyways. There were tons of good talks that I enjoyed very much. I took a bunch of notes and stuff. It was a very good conference. The one that kind of sticks out to me is Elder Oaks talk saturday afternoon. How important families are and having loving parentS. That is so true from what I have seen on my mission and back home. I have met a ton of people out here who are divorced and sometimes remarried. Most of the people we are teaching have some kind of background in divorce or something like that. Families are definitely ordained by God.
President Monson's announcement on the age change was definitely very cool as well! 18 for males and 19 for females, wow. I have been thinking about that a lot and its the fact that God chose this particular time to change the age limit so that a lot more missionaries can serve. There will be so many more sister missionaries going out which is awesome! God knows what he is doing, and he certainly has a plan to bring all his children back to him before it is too late.
Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes. It was pretty good. We had zone conference that day and they had me wear a ribbon to signify that I was the "Birthday Boy". It wasnt my style, but sister Hiers told me too, so I guess I had no choice. It was pretty good though. I did get the package you sent mother with the boombox. That does work thank you very much! I was looking at the reciept and it says that you bought a shopping cart, did you buy a shopping cart? Anyways since there is still time, It is getting a little chilly and I would like you to also send my waffle shirts, the black, brown and white ones in my drawer, those are warm. All my clothes should still be in my dresser unless you moved it all.
We have not really taught any of our investigator friends lately. We really only have 2 progressing right now that we are teaching...well more like one. Gloria is still sick and it is hard to get a hold of her, so we have not seen her in a while. Gino has been out of town for a while, but we have a lesson this Friday which I hope will go well. Everything seems to be going the same with our less active friends as well since most of them have been out of town or whatnot. We did teach someone new the other day, Bree, and her boyfriend. The lesson was the other night and went okay. Her boyfriend is less active and he served a mission...not fun. He had some pretty tough concerns that he was throwing at us like how he has prayed and read and done everything he was supposed to his whole life and he felt like God was not there. Im gonna be honest, I feel like that too sometimes, but thats the point, its a trial. We experience that so that we can grow. Christ was even alone at one point in his life and that was not easy for him either. We just have to endure, and our Father will see that sacrifice and bless us tremendously in the end. Bree seemed a bit more accepting though. Her issues were similar, but not as deep and she seemed happier after she prayed and when we left. We also took some vodka off their hands lol.
It is starting to get a bit difficult finding more people to teach. I have been in the area for over 3 months now and I feel like I have tried everything. I havnt, but it feels that way. It is just a matter of keeping at it and somehow it will all work out.
I cannot think of anything else to write so I will end it here. I may write a letter home some time if I find the time. I love you all! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
P.S. if anyone else wants my emails let me know so that I can send them to them
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 9, 2012
Hey Britt,
Also, I am a bit low on letter receiving at the moment, can you encourage peeps to send me some love? Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 16, 2012
Hey Britt,
Maybe you could get me a John btw talk idk, whatever you feel is
best I guess. I gave you cds? I dont think I had a CD case besides the
lime green one, but that may have video games in it. I didn't have many CDs, which one are you looking for? I am getting the pictures to you
right now, so hopefully it will work this time.
I got your wedding invite yesterday! Ha thanks for it, I will keep it with all my other photos.
I just need warm stuff to sleep in, I have a jacket for outside,
but not jeans that fit. DONT BUY CLOTHES, just send mine from home.
Also tell people to write me. Thanks Britt!
Love ya
Elder Connell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 16, 2012
Dear Family and everyone,
Hello, this week has completely
and totally uneventful it seems. I will tell you why. This past week
within 3 days, we had 7 lessons cancel on us. It was a bit aggravating,
but its all good because we pretty much rescheduled most of them, so
this week will have a lot more lessons. Yesterday was probably the most
eventful day of the week because we had 2 lessons and some service. We
have been trying to keep busy by talking to people and setting up more
and more lessons with new people. We will actually be picking up 2 or 3
new investigators this week which will pretty awesome! I think we will
be teaching a lot of people by the end of the transfer, of course by
that time I will probably be leaving the area.
Haha, Britt you asked about crazy missionaries. There are plenty of
crazy missionaries here, it is fun to serve with and around them. We
like to see other missionaries every now and again so that we keep sane
haha.
Did I mention that we are kind of teaching a kid who is into
satanism? We have been teaching his less active girlfriend, and he has
been over a few times when we have come over. He is a very confused
young man. He prays to God and Lucifer? His beliefs are totally wacked
and we are trying to help him get on the right path. It is pretty unique
to teach someone like that because their views are so different from
what I have heard or experienced ever!
Not much else has happened this week. Im sorry I am not writing
much this week, but there really isnt much to write because not much has
really happened. Hopefully next week will be a lot more eventful. See
you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
P.S. encourage people to write me :)
.................Pictures to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment