Dear Family,
First of all congrats to Aubrey for having another baby while im on my mission ;) That is way exciting! Sounds like most everything is going good back home. Everything is going pretty good on this end. It has been another week of me using facebook and the whatnot. In case some of you have noticed that I am friends with people from back home just know that I am allowed and even encouraged to friend those people and do missionary work to them, so I am. Though I feel as though I am not getting anywhere with facebook. I feel like I should be teaching a bunch of people on there and also getting a bunch of referrals but I am not. I dont understand how I am supposed to use facebook effectively as a missionary work. It has taken some trial and error and a lot of effort into figuring out new things to try. It is a work in progress so far. If you have any ideas I am up to hearing them. I also beleive you can follow me on facebook. Dont friend me, but follow me that way you can see what I post but I dont see what you post and that kind of stuff. Tuesday, June 18, 2013
June 11th, 2013
June 4th, 2013
Dearest Family,
Hello, my new area is pretty good. We are walking which is a bummer, but the area is small enough that it isnt so bad. There was not much work going on when I got to the area, but we have picked up a date and several new potential people this past week. We have been working hard and putting our faces out there. This saturday we have a baptism for a girl named Elisa. She is 11 and totally solid. She knows everything and is super ready to be baptized. We are also teaching this guy named Kurt who accepted a baptism date for the 29th. He isnt totally commited yet, but he is progressing and I believe he will be ready by that day. He is already recognizing his answers for church which is solid.
We are doing some good work here I am excited! My new companion is Elder Singleton who is from Washington. He is almost exact opposite from Elder Weidner which is kind of funny, but it takes a bit of adjusting to get to used to it. He is very obedient though which is awesome because we are seeing some great success from the work that we are doing.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
May 28th, 2013
Dear Family,
--------
I just found out about an hour ago that I will be transferred. I am going to Clinton West with an Elder Singleton. Dont really know much about the area or my companion. I guess I am excited for change, but I do not want to go back to the Clinton area, I want to go to Cache valley or somewhere to get a change in scenery. But it is whats meant to be so I will go serve where I am needed and I will visit later. It is odd because I think I was starting to finally like Elder Weidner and get used to him with his querks. I feel like I was finally making some kind of impact on him and getting somewhere. But it will be good for him this next transfer, he will get good companions who will shape him up.
I just found out that I will be going into the district that is testing out the ipads, so I will now have an ipad! yay! I will also be doing missionary work on facebook, I just created a new one, but I can only use it for missionary work so only invite people that have to do with mission. So yeah that will be exciting and interesting, I will let you know what goes on with all of that.
Well, I dont know what else to say. I will be leaving all of the work that is going on in Farr West. We have a baptism this weekend for Kennedy, but now I am going to miss it. We were also finally able to get 2 of our investigators to church on Sunday who would not come, so that was definitely good. Though we do not have any other with a date at the moment. Hopefully that will change when I leave, the elders coming in will do some good work in that area.
Yeah, sorry this letter is so short, hopefully next week I will have a lot more to report. Hope your week is good. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
Note to all friends and family of Elder Connell:
Please be sure to take a moment and write (read below if you choose this option) and/or email him (Yes, he can now email friends!). Please let me know if you need his email address. It would mean the WORLD to him if you did so. Thanks!! Fyi, Tuesday's are his "P" days.
Those who want to write him: Zach was transferred back to Farr West back in April, but is now being transferred to Clinton West. I currently do not have his address from either place. Therefore, please wait to hear from me his new address next Tuesday once he emails us. Thank you.
Monday, February 11, 2013
February 5th, 2013 Email
Hello everybody!
Life is crazy, very crazy. This
past week has been an insane rollercoaster and it seems to be be
speeding up. As all of you now know I am now a father! Last Wednesday,
Elder Knittle went up to Willard and Elder Pape came to the area. A lot
has happened since then. Being a new trainer has stretched me a little
bit, but being with a new companion is the real kicker. Elder Pape just
came from the MTC a week ago and he didnt know much about missionary
work. They teach so much at the MTC so fast that by the time they get to
the field they have forgotten everything. I feel as if I have had to
start from scratch. It is a stressful process, but I am working through
it. Every morning we do companion study and as a trainer we do 2 hours
of companion study. So far our comp studies have consisted of me
teaching him how to teach the basic lessons and how to extend
commitments. It is cool because it helps me learn them more and it is
nice to see Elder Pape progress as he has learned the lessons more.
Still stressful though.
We have been very succesful as a
companionship however this past week. Last Thursday we stole the car
from Elder Walz so now we have a car. That makes things very easy
because we can cover our whole area in about 5 minutes. Friday we taught
this guy Doug for the first time. He has never heard much about the LDS
church and so he wanted to learn more. We taught him and extended a
baptism day for him. He didnt quite accept, but he knew that he needed
to find out if it was true and he knew how he would get his answer. We
also taught Kine that day for the second time and she accepted a date as
well, but she is definitely more solid than Doug. It was a good day
because we went to a baptism of ELder Henthorn's sisterinlaw's brother.
It was good. And we had another lesson with Ric that night which went
well.
Saturday was kind of lame
because we had two pretty cool lessons set up, but both fell through.
The rest of the day was pretty lame and slow and it was a hard day for
me. That night however, we had a zone "get to know you session" where we
played this game that is similar to fruit basket, excpet with
missionary experiences instead of fruit. It was fun and I ate food. Then
Sunday we weent to church all day like usual, but Kine and Doug did not
show up to church, so their baptisms will have to be pushed back. That
night we had some lessons and good times with some of the less active
people we work with. They are pretty cool.
Yesterday was a pretty decent day. 2 of our lessons fell through, but the two that we were supposed to have on Saturday
happened yesterday and we got 2 new investigators, and one of them with
a baptism date. Ben is interested in learning about the church, but did
not commit to a baptism date because he wanted to read the whole book
of Mormon first which is cool, but his answer will come before then. The
other is Kenshin, who is Takashi's 9 yr old borther. He wants to be
baptized, but only because it is "cool" We cannot deny him of being
baptized, so we will have to teach him the importance of baptism so that
he can understand it and understand the commitment he is making. We had
another lesson with Gideon, who is doing fantastic by the way. He met
with the bishop and he is working to going to church. He is now reading
the Boook of Mormon every day and doing everything he can to resist
temptation.
This week has been a crazy
rollercoaster. Training is draining me because I am doing most of the
work, nearly all of the work, but I am forcing my son out of his shell
by having him do some teaching and extending commitments. He reminds me
of myself when I was green and so I know how to help him and what I need
to do. It has been very difficult and some days I feel completely
stressed and depressed and overwhelmed by all of the things I have to
do. I am so grateful for the Lord because I know he is helping me out. I
could not do the work without his help, I just could not.
I am glad to hear that Grandpa
is doing a little better. I have been praying for him and yous guys.
That is also sad to hear about Pres Labrum's wife. That is a hard thing,
but you are all right about the plan of salvation. It is real and it
helps us all out a ton. Much loves to yas. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
January 29th, 2013 Email
Hey Fam,
So tomorow is transfers and I found out last night what is happening to me, drum roll......I am training! Crazy huh? I am getting a son, poor kid. So yeah that is whats happening, Elder Knittle is going up to Willard. Crazy times here that is for sure. I will update you next week who my companion is and what he is like and all that good stuff. I am super tired again so Im not sure how much sense this letter will make. I am always tired though, so this is normal. Mother I sent a letter to you, so you should get it soon.
Ya'll are saying that you liked my last email, that is good, I will try to do all of them like that. Last Wednesday was a normal day, we had some lessons that went well. We met this guy Matt who used to do some bad stuff and he went to prison and now he is wanting to do good. He is kind of an odd guy, but he is nice. Less active and kinda wanting to get back to church, but not so much. There is another guy like that, Tony. There are some pretty wierd people here, they are super nice, just way wierd. Morgan's baptism date was pushed back to the 16th because she is waiting for her dad to get the Melchezidek Priesthood so that he can do the baptism and confirmation. She is solid though, so no worries there.
Thursday was another average day. We had some lessons with some peeps. We also found 2 new nonmembers that day who we can start teaching. Ben is pretty interested and wants to know more. And Chris is semi interested, another odd fellow. Though both of them want to meet with us so we will see where that goes. Friday was also an average day. We met with Gideon that day though, he is still doing pretty good. He is going to more AA stuff and adiction recovery places. He had a meeting with the Bishop Sunday and we are not sure yet what happened there, but we will probably find out tonight. He is making pretty huge leaps and bounds which is so awesome because he is getting closer to Christ! We have had to reschedule with Kine as well, but it should work out now because we will be able to get the other guy there to help translate. Everything seems to be going good there.
Saturday was the interesting day. In the morning we made a few contacts, and then we had a lesson with Ralph. I dont know if I have talked about Ralph before, but he is less active getting active again. When we came saturday though he was struggling, so we helped him out a bit. My testimony on the Spirit was strengthened ten fold in that experience. We then helped some other missionaries that afternoon with a baptism. Our dinner for that night fell through and then we had a lesson with the Leighs, who are this family who is getting active again. They are doing super good.
Sunday was another average Sunday with meetings from 9-5. We fasted for Ralph as well, and that night the Elders quorum president went over there to check up on him. Everything else that night was pretty normal except that it was snowing pretty bad. Yesterday we had a pretty normal day as well. Meetings in the morning and then some lessons that afternoon and evening. Most fell through like normal, but it was a pretty good day. Takashi is acting strange with his mom, and his dad came by when we were there. He has no custody over Takashi, but he sees him every once and a while. Lets just say he isnt a very good influence. Cussing and yelling at your kids is not the best, even if they do something they are not supposed to. And then that night President Hiers called me and asked me to train, I rejected and he said I would do it anyway, jk I accepted. I feel as though I am ready for it and I need it. We had transfer breakfast this morning and found out where everyone else is going and doing. It is snowing pretty crazy again.
Oh did I tell you that there was a day where we had freezing rain. That was pretty fun, but dangerous. I fell twice and it took forever to travel anywhere cuz we had to shuffle the whole time. This week seems to have been somewhat uneventful haha, next week will be better though. My greeny is gonna have a reality check with some of the people we are seeing this week. We may have an anti person that we could start teaching. Fun stuff. I hope all of you have a good week. Pray for me haha. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Conelly
So tomorow is transfers and I found out last night what is happening to me, drum roll......I am training! Crazy huh? I am getting a son, poor kid. So yeah that is whats happening, Elder Knittle is going up to Willard. Crazy times here that is for sure. I will update you next week who my companion is and what he is like and all that good stuff. I am super tired again so Im not sure how much sense this letter will make. I am always tired though, so this is normal. Mother I sent a letter to you, so you should get it soon.
Ya'll are saying that you liked my last email, that is good, I will try to do all of them like that. Last Wednesday was a normal day, we had some lessons that went well. We met this guy Matt who used to do some bad stuff and he went to prison and now he is wanting to do good. He is kind of an odd guy, but he is nice. Less active and kinda wanting to get back to church, but not so much. There is another guy like that, Tony. There are some pretty wierd people here, they are super nice, just way wierd. Morgan's baptism date was pushed back to the 16th because she is waiting for her dad to get the Melchezidek Priesthood so that he can do the baptism and confirmation. She is solid though, so no worries there.
Thursday was another average day. We had some lessons with some peeps. We also found 2 new nonmembers that day who we can start teaching. Ben is pretty interested and wants to know more. And Chris is semi interested, another odd fellow. Though both of them want to meet with us so we will see where that goes. Friday was also an average day. We met with Gideon that day though, he is still doing pretty good. He is going to more AA stuff and adiction recovery places. He had a meeting with the Bishop Sunday and we are not sure yet what happened there, but we will probably find out tonight. He is making pretty huge leaps and bounds which is so awesome because he is getting closer to Christ! We have had to reschedule with Kine as well, but it should work out now because we will be able to get the other guy there to help translate. Everything seems to be going good there.
Saturday was the interesting day. In the morning we made a few contacts, and then we had a lesson with Ralph. I dont know if I have talked about Ralph before, but he is less active getting active again. When we came saturday though he was struggling, so we helped him out a bit. My testimony on the Spirit was strengthened ten fold in that experience. We then helped some other missionaries that afternoon with a baptism. Our dinner for that night fell through and then we had a lesson with the Leighs, who are this family who is getting active again. They are doing super good.
Sunday was another average Sunday with meetings from 9-5. We fasted for Ralph as well, and that night the Elders quorum president went over there to check up on him. Everything else that night was pretty normal except that it was snowing pretty bad. Yesterday we had a pretty normal day as well. Meetings in the morning and then some lessons that afternoon and evening. Most fell through like normal, but it was a pretty good day. Takashi is acting strange with his mom, and his dad came by when we were there. He has no custody over Takashi, but he sees him every once and a while. Lets just say he isnt a very good influence. Cussing and yelling at your kids is not the best, even if they do something they are not supposed to. And then that night President Hiers called me and asked me to train, I rejected and he said I would do it anyway, jk I accepted. I feel as though I am ready for it and I need it. We had transfer breakfast this morning and found out where everyone else is going and doing. It is snowing pretty crazy again.
Oh did I tell you that there was a day where we had freezing rain. That was pretty fun, but dangerous. I fell twice and it took forever to travel anywhere cuz we had to shuffle the whole time. This week seems to have been somewhat uneventful haha, next week will be better though. My greeny is gonna have a reality check with some of the people we are seeing this week. We may have an anti person that we could start teaching. Fun stuff. I hope all of you have a good week. Pray for me haha. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Conelly
January 22nd, 2013 Email
HEY!
I am super tired right now, and it is very odd because there is one more week in the transfer. Next week I will find out what is going on, I will probably stay, but Im not sure what will happen otherwise. I always get super anxious around this time of the transfer. And then a week after that I hit my year mark o_0 crazy to think about. This past week has been pretty crazy.
It basically started last Thursday when we had a zone blitz in our area. The whole zone tracted out a whole appartment complex. It was pretty crazy, but we got some more people to teach out of that. We did some other stuff that day and then we did splits that night. We got quite a bit of work done and set up some lessons for Monday which was very good! The next day Friday, we go back to see some of the people that were contacted at the appartment complex from the zone blitz. The first one fell through, story of my life, but they are still interested and want to meet with us sometime, so we set up a lesson with them on Monday. The second one did go through, it is a Martial Island woman. She does not speak good english so there was a language barrier there and we had to teach VERY simply, that was a new challenge, I will talk more about that a little later though, her name is Kine.
And then the other lesson for that area was this guy named Gideon, this is a pretty cool story. Gideon is a less active member, very less active. He has fallen into some addictions and has gotten to the point where he does not feel like he can be forgiven. This, coupled with some mental illnesses has caused him to become very depressed. The day of the blitz he was contmeplating suicide and was in the process of measuring his closet to hang himself when one of the missionaries knocked on his door. We came back the next day and talked to him. We talked about the Atonement and how it is for everyone. We told him that God does love him and is there to help him. We got him to pray and to make baby steps with his repentance process. At that time he was semi interested in changing his life, but after that lesson he said he was just going to get drunk again that night. We set up a lesson to meet with him again on Monday. I will continue this story later on.
Friday night we had a few lessons with some less actives that went pretty well. Miracle: one of the less active families that we are cool with knows someone who SPEAKS MARTIALISE! That is pretty rare, ESPECIALLY in Utah, ESPECIALLY in this area ESPECIALLY someone who we can get in contact with. God has plans for Kine and her family. The next day, Saturday, was Takashi's baptism. It was kind of a more laid back day because we did weekly planning and then we filled up the font for a while before the baptism. Takashi was baptized and it was pretty awesome, see photo below. He was confirmed Sunday, and we were able to be there for that which is awesome, Sunday was pretty crazy though and I will get into that now. We went to some wards in the morning, but then we had two places to be at 1, a confirmation, and an ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood for a recent convert. We found someone who could drive us around for the day so we tried to make this work. We went to the confirmation because it starts at the beginning of Sacrament, than we went to the ordination and got there right in the middle of it :( We were 2 minutes too late which was sad, but we were there to support him which was good. We then had a lesson and a meeting that afternoon and some other stuff for that night.
Now we get to Monday. If you have been following around so far you will have noticed that Monday has had a lot of lessons set up for. We had 7 lessons set up for monday, starting from ten in the morning and going until 7 that night with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. 10 oclock..cancells. 11 oclock goes through, we have a pretty good lesson with Jane who is one of our investigators. She is going to get baptized, but she has some issues she has to work out and we discussed that with her. 12- lunch. 1- cancells. 2- cancels. 3- cancels. 4 is with Gideon again, this is where his story gets pretty cool. We go to his lesson and he tells us what has happened over the weekend. The night we were over the first time, where he said he was going to get drunk, he got 1 and a half beers in and he lost the desire, he threw out all his beer. The next day he feels an overwhelming pressure to drink again, he overcomes it. Sunday he feels a comfort and peace that his burden has been lifted a little. And goes to an addiction recovery group and feels very welcomed by everyone there. Monday we meet with him and talk more about the atonement. He is going to meet with the Bishop and work through his problems. The atonement is for everyone, and it changes lives. From meeting with Gideon the first time I get this overwhelming feeling of love for him and all the people we work with. I had an overwhelming desire to help EVERYONE. I felt a portion of how Jesus feels for all of us. A tiny tiny tiny portion of that. Just to put things in perspective. 5- we have dinner with Bishop Fisher and wife, mexican food. 6- we go with one of our wml to visit some people in his ward, good contacts. 7- we meet with Ric and he is close to quiting smoking, he is going to get baptized soon. Overall the score for yesterday is: 4 cancelled, 3 gone through. Story of a missionary, thats pretty normal, but upsetting.
That is basically most of my week. The rest of this week is super booked with lessons most hours. Many will fall through, but many will go through. The Lord is blessing me right now with work and I am very grateful for it. I want the work because this area NEEDS the work, there are so many people here who need to hear this message. Lots of miracles this past week. I hope all is well with yall back home. This email is longer than usual, this is unusal for me because I usually dont like typing, but I felt like telling yous about all this. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
photos:
Me and Jeremy
Takashi's baptism
I am super tired right now, and it is very odd because there is one more week in the transfer. Next week I will find out what is going on, I will probably stay, but Im not sure what will happen otherwise. I always get super anxious around this time of the transfer. And then a week after that I hit my year mark o_0 crazy to think about. This past week has been pretty crazy.
It basically started last Thursday when we had a zone blitz in our area. The whole zone tracted out a whole appartment complex. It was pretty crazy, but we got some more people to teach out of that. We did some other stuff that day and then we did splits that night. We got quite a bit of work done and set up some lessons for Monday which was very good! The next day Friday, we go back to see some of the people that were contacted at the appartment complex from the zone blitz. The first one fell through, story of my life, but they are still interested and want to meet with us sometime, so we set up a lesson with them on Monday. The second one did go through, it is a Martial Island woman. She does not speak good english so there was a language barrier there and we had to teach VERY simply, that was a new challenge, I will talk more about that a little later though, her name is Kine.
And then the other lesson for that area was this guy named Gideon, this is a pretty cool story. Gideon is a less active member, very less active. He has fallen into some addictions and has gotten to the point where he does not feel like he can be forgiven. This, coupled with some mental illnesses has caused him to become very depressed. The day of the blitz he was contmeplating suicide and was in the process of measuring his closet to hang himself when one of the missionaries knocked on his door. We came back the next day and talked to him. We talked about the Atonement and how it is for everyone. We told him that God does love him and is there to help him. We got him to pray and to make baby steps with his repentance process. At that time he was semi interested in changing his life, but after that lesson he said he was just going to get drunk again that night. We set up a lesson to meet with him again on Monday. I will continue this story later on.
Friday night we had a few lessons with some less actives that went pretty well. Miracle: one of the less active families that we are cool with knows someone who SPEAKS MARTIALISE! That is pretty rare, ESPECIALLY in Utah, ESPECIALLY in this area ESPECIALLY someone who we can get in contact with. God has plans for Kine and her family. The next day, Saturday, was Takashi's baptism. It was kind of a more laid back day because we did weekly planning and then we filled up the font for a while before the baptism. Takashi was baptized and it was pretty awesome, see photo below. He was confirmed Sunday, and we were able to be there for that which is awesome, Sunday was pretty crazy though and I will get into that now. We went to some wards in the morning, but then we had two places to be at 1, a confirmation, and an ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood for a recent convert. We found someone who could drive us around for the day so we tried to make this work. We went to the confirmation because it starts at the beginning of Sacrament, than we went to the ordination and got there right in the middle of it :( We were 2 minutes too late which was sad, but we were there to support him which was good. We then had a lesson and a meeting that afternoon and some other stuff for that night.
Now we get to Monday. If you have been following around so far you will have noticed that Monday has had a lot of lessons set up for. We had 7 lessons set up for monday, starting from ten in the morning and going until 7 that night with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. 10 oclock..cancells. 11 oclock goes through, we have a pretty good lesson with Jane who is one of our investigators. She is going to get baptized, but she has some issues she has to work out and we discussed that with her. 12- lunch. 1- cancells. 2- cancels. 3- cancels. 4 is with Gideon again, this is where his story gets pretty cool. We go to his lesson and he tells us what has happened over the weekend. The night we were over the first time, where he said he was going to get drunk, he got 1 and a half beers in and he lost the desire, he threw out all his beer. The next day he feels an overwhelming pressure to drink again, he overcomes it. Sunday he feels a comfort and peace that his burden has been lifted a little. And goes to an addiction recovery group and feels very welcomed by everyone there. Monday we meet with him and talk more about the atonement. He is going to meet with the Bishop and work through his problems. The atonement is for everyone, and it changes lives. From meeting with Gideon the first time I get this overwhelming feeling of love for him and all the people we work with. I had an overwhelming desire to help EVERYONE. I felt a portion of how Jesus feels for all of us. A tiny tiny tiny portion of that. Just to put things in perspective. 5- we have dinner with Bishop Fisher and wife, mexican food. 6- we go with one of our wml to visit some people in his ward, good contacts. 7- we meet with Ric and he is close to quiting smoking, he is going to get baptized soon. Overall the score for yesterday is: 4 cancelled, 3 gone through. Story of a missionary, thats pretty normal, but upsetting.
That is basically most of my week. The rest of this week is super booked with lessons most hours. Many will fall through, but many will go through. The Lord is blessing me right now with work and I am very grateful for it. I want the work because this area NEEDS the work, there are so many people here who need to hear this message. Lots of miracles this past week. I hope all is well with yall back home. This email is longer than usual, this is unusal for me because I usually dont like typing, but I felt like telling yous about all this. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
photos:
Me and Jeremy
Takashi's baptism
Saturday, January 19, 2013
January 15th, 2013 Email
To the Family,
I feel like I was just in this stinkin library yesterday, this week has gone by way too fast! I guess I will outline the week sort of for all of yous. Last Wednesday I was sick, so I stayed in that stupid room all day while other missionaries went to the lessons we had. It was not fun. The next day we had the "huge" snow storm and they called us in early so that we would be safe. Utah doesnt know how to plow their roads, so there was a ton of traffic that night. All of the neighborhood streets are still not plowed or salted which makes it scary sometimes when people drive. It snowed all the way through Friday and stopped on Saturday. Overall we got about 14 to 16 inches so there is a decent amount of snow here and it is a blast to walk in!
Not much happened Friday or Saturday except for some lessons we had with mostly less actives. Sunday we gave talks about fulfilling our calling which I thought was interesting because father spoke a bit about that on Sunday as well.
We also taught some lessons that night and saw a bunch of peeps which was good. Yesterday President finally met with Ric about the polygamy thing and he doesnt have to meet with a GA!! That will make it easier for him to get baptized! Now all he has to do is quit smoking and move out of his ex wife's house, odd situation.
To update you on our peeps. Takashi is getting baptized this saturday!! Everything is set up and ready for him so that should all be good. Morgan is now solid to get baptized, but it will happen the 9th of February because she wants her dad to baptize her, so no complaints there. Kristen still has to get married first and we are having a tough time getting that set up with her. Greg is ready, but he has to get divorced first. And we have not met with Ralph in a while which is no good. We talked to this woman yesterday who is a semi investigator. She doesnt really believe in God because she says she has never felt his presence. We talked to her yesterday a little bit about the Spirit and how that works. We are going back on Friday and will discuss some more things. Pray that she has an overwhelming experience and acts on it!
We are meeting with a bunch of less actives which is cool. The Leighs are a cool family and they are progressing very well to make it to the temple pretty soon. Devon is an 18 year old kid who kinda believes in the church, but has made some mistakes in the past and kind of needs to work through those. I cant think of any others off the top of my head, but there are also a bunch of recent converts that we are working with. There is plenty of work to do in this area. I especially realized this the other day when we were walking through one of our appartment complexes for what seemed for hours! We have 8 or 9 appartment complexes like that. We determined that there are 50000 to 100000 people in our area. I might be exagerating, but that is till a mucho! And not many of those are active members. It was a little overwhelming when I came to this realization, I felt like I needed to try every appartment and find EVERYONE! But that would require knocking doors, and that is a waste of time. We are going to try to work through members more because they are the key. I think I have explained this many times, but I cannot stress it enough. Members are full time missionaries. I spoke about this on Sunday how God has commanded us to do missionary work, so we gotta do it. It is part of our calling.
Well I will stop ranting. I hope all of you have a good week! See you on the other side!
Elder Connell
I feel like I was just in this stinkin library yesterday, this week has gone by way too fast! I guess I will outline the week sort of for all of yous. Last Wednesday I was sick, so I stayed in that stupid room all day while other missionaries went to the lessons we had. It was not fun. The next day we had the "huge" snow storm and they called us in early so that we would be safe. Utah doesnt know how to plow their roads, so there was a ton of traffic that night. All of the neighborhood streets are still not plowed or salted which makes it scary sometimes when people drive. It snowed all the way through Friday and stopped on Saturday. Overall we got about 14 to 16 inches so there is a decent amount of snow here and it is a blast to walk in!
Not much happened Friday or Saturday except for some lessons we had with mostly less actives. Sunday we gave talks about fulfilling our calling which I thought was interesting because father spoke a bit about that on Sunday as well.
We also taught some lessons that night and saw a bunch of peeps which was good. Yesterday President finally met with Ric about the polygamy thing and he doesnt have to meet with a GA!! That will make it easier for him to get baptized! Now all he has to do is quit smoking and move out of his ex wife's house, odd situation.
To update you on our peeps. Takashi is getting baptized this saturday!! Everything is set up and ready for him so that should all be good. Morgan is now solid to get baptized, but it will happen the 9th of February because she wants her dad to baptize her, so no complaints there. Kristen still has to get married first and we are having a tough time getting that set up with her. Greg is ready, but he has to get divorced first. And we have not met with Ralph in a while which is no good. We talked to this woman yesterday who is a semi investigator. She doesnt really believe in God because she says she has never felt his presence. We talked to her yesterday a little bit about the Spirit and how that works. We are going back on Friday and will discuss some more things. Pray that she has an overwhelming experience and acts on it!
We are meeting with a bunch of less actives which is cool. The Leighs are a cool family and they are progressing very well to make it to the temple pretty soon. Devon is an 18 year old kid who kinda believes in the church, but has made some mistakes in the past and kind of needs to work through those. I cant think of any others off the top of my head, but there are also a bunch of recent converts that we are working with. There is plenty of work to do in this area. I especially realized this the other day when we were walking through one of our appartment complexes for what seemed for hours! We have 8 or 9 appartment complexes like that. We determined that there are 50000 to 100000 people in our area. I might be exagerating, but that is till a mucho! And not many of those are active members. It was a little overwhelming when I came to this realization, I felt like I needed to try every appartment and find EVERYONE! But that would require knocking doors, and that is a waste of time. We are going to try to work through members more because they are the key. I think I have explained this many times, but I cannot stress it enough. Members are full time missionaries. I spoke about this on Sunday how God has commanded us to do missionary work, so we gotta do it. It is part of our calling.
Well I will stop ranting. I hope all of you have a good week! See you on the other side!
Elder Connell
January 8th, 2013 Email
Hey Everyone,
This time I am emailing on Tuesday and it should be this way for a while. The past 2 weeks were flukes because of the holidays, just so all of you are aware. Well, another week has come and gone. I did see Jeremy last Friday which was wierd, we had just checked the mail and I see him in his car right in front of me. I thought it was kind of odd and then I actually realized that it was him. He came into the room and we chatted for about half an hour and he gave me the package. Thank you so much for that by the way it was pretty nifty cool!
Yesterday we had zone conference. It was a pretty good zone conference, shorter than they usually are. They trained us on using the Spirit in lessons, how to introduce the Book of Mormon, and goals. I learned some pretty neat things that I can take with me and use in my work here in Clearfield. Then we had lunch, took a group photo and got to the second half. Sister Hiers spoke on hope and President Hiers answered some questions we had and the like. He then put us into groups where we discussed missionary experiences of getting people to the temple, and some missionaries shared some of their stories. Then he did something different and he called on a few missionaries to share their testimonies. It was pretty neat and the Spirit was there pretty strongly.
This past week some other missionaries had a baptism and we attended that since our lesson canceled. That went pretty well. We also picked up a baptismal date with Morgan. I dont think I have mentioned her before so I will talk more about her now. Her mom was just recently reactivated and her dad was just recently baptized and she has just recently shown interest in learning more. So that is where we come in. We kind of met with her and talked to her once 2 weeks ago, and then last week we had the first lesson with her. The Spirit was there and she recognized it at least partially, so we invited her to be baptized. She said yes, but she is still iffy about it and has to find out whether or not she really wants to do it. So we set a date with her, the 26th, and by reading and praying and attending church she can find out whether or not this is all for her. That is where we are at with her. We have a lesson with her tomorrow, so we will find out where she has progressed in the past week.
Ric, the guy who has to meet with an apostle, is still doing good. He first has to meet with President Hiers, which he will do on Thursday. Kristen, another investigator, wants to get baptized, but first has to get married. We are meeting with her tonight to figure that out some more. She is thinking it will be after February because she wants family to come, and they may not be able to come until then. Tekoshi was interviewed last night to be baptized and he passed! The only issue is that the baptism will be moved back to the 19th because his mom will be working late this saturday. It will happen, it just keeps getting pushed back which is not fun. All the other peeps we are teaching right now are not really progressing too much.
A less active couple we are teaching just recently had their baby!! That is exciting and very cool. We are working a lot with the less actives and recent converts to get them to the temple. That is the mission vision, to get people baptized and then get them to the temple. It is a good vision because we dont want anyone to go less active after they are baptized because we dont want them to get lost. That is my purpose as a missionary.
That is really all that has happened this past week, it hasnt been too eventful. Hope all of you are doing well back home. See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
This time I am emailing on Tuesday and it should be this way for a while. The past 2 weeks were flukes because of the holidays, just so all of you are aware. Well, another week has come and gone. I did see Jeremy last Friday which was wierd, we had just checked the mail and I see him in his car right in front of me. I thought it was kind of odd and then I actually realized that it was him. He came into the room and we chatted for about half an hour and he gave me the package. Thank you so much for that by the way it was pretty nifty cool!
Yesterday we had zone conference. It was a pretty good zone conference, shorter than they usually are. They trained us on using the Spirit in lessons, how to introduce the Book of Mormon, and goals. I learned some pretty neat things that I can take with me and use in my work here in Clearfield. Then we had lunch, took a group photo and got to the second half. Sister Hiers spoke on hope and President Hiers answered some questions we had and the like. He then put us into groups where we discussed missionary experiences of getting people to the temple, and some missionaries shared some of their stories. Then he did something different and he called on a few missionaries to share their testimonies. It was pretty neat and the Spirit was there pretty strongly.
This past week some other missionaries had a baptism and we attended that since our lesson canceled. That went pretty well. We also picked up a baptismal date with Morgan. I dont think I have mentioned her before so I will talk more about her now. Her mom was just recently reactivated and her dad was just recently baptized and she has just recently shown interest in learning more. So that is where we come in. We kind of met with her and talked to her once 2 weeks ago, and then last week we had the first lesson with her. The Spirit was there and she recognized it at least partially, so we invited her to be baptized. She said yes, but she is still iffy about it and has to find out whether or not she really wants to do it. So we set a date with her, the 26th, and by reading and praying and attending church she can find out whether or not this is all for her. That is where we are at with her. We have a lesson with her tomorrow, so we will find out where she has progressed in the past week.
Ric, the guy who has to meet with an apostle, is still doing good. He first has to meet with President Hiers, which he will do on Thursday. Kristen, another investigator, wants to get baptized, but first has to get married. We are meeting with her tonight to figure that out some more. She is thinking it will be after February because she wants family to come, and they may not be able to come until then. Tekoshi was interviewed last night to be baptized and he passed! The only issue is that the baptism will be moved back to the 19th because his mom will be working late this saturday. It will happen, it just keeps getting pushed back which is not fun. All the other peeps we are teaching right now are not really progressing too much.
A less active couple we are teaching just recently had their baby!! That is exciting and very cool. We are working a lot with the less actives and recent converts to get them to the temple. That is the mission vision, to get people baptized and then get them to the temple. It is a good vision because we dont want anyone to go less active after they are baptized because we dont want them to get lost. That is my purpose as a missionary.
That is really all that has happened this past week, it hasnt been too eventful. Hope all of you are doing well back home. See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
January 2nd, 2013 Email
Dear Family and peeps,
It is now a new year! Im sure all of you know that by now though. Yes, I am emailing on Wednesday again because yesterday was a holiday and everything was closed. Next week will be on Tuesday though, so you will have time to repent and email me.
This has been a very good week so far if I remember right. There have been several things that have been very interesting.
I guess I will start out by saying that we have a baptism date for the 12th of this month. It is a 13 year old named Tekoshi. His mom is less active, but we are working to get her more active, so that Tekoshi is not baptized into inactivity.
I think I also mentioned a guy named Ric who has to get an interview by a member of the 12, so we are getting that going, right now he has a meeting scheduled with our mission President. There are some others that we invited to be baptized, but they have some issues that we are kind of working out right now. We hope to get a bunch more peeps with dates within the next week or so.
We are also working with a bunch of less actives and recent converts right now which are doing pretty awesome! I cant really think of any off the top of my head that are progressing or whatever, but we are helping them.
We just recieved a training today, and we are going for 460 baptisms for the mission within 3 months. The goal for our zone will be 40 baptisms in three months, which is very achievable. They also trained us on our daily and weekly planning things and how to do those more effectively. I am pretty stoked about this training and incorporating it into my planning sessions and all that.
So there were a few interesting experiences that happened this last week that I am going to talk about. Neither of them are connected really, but I understand what both experiences taught me and how they connect in that way. The first experience happened one night when we were at a lesson with one of our investigators. The mother of the home lives there and is a member. She was very sick at the time and desired to recieve a blessing. So we give her a blessing, I annointed and Elder Knittle blessed and when we were down she turned to me and said that when I put my hands on her head she felt an immediate warmth. I was kind of caught off guard by that because I was just using my priesthood as I normally would, but she felt a difference. I have given several blessings this past week which have been very good and helped in one way or another. God can do anything by the priesthood.
The second experience happened on Sunday which is super crazy. So we were just walking from one church building to another, ward hopping, and this guy in a truck pulls into a parking lot in front of us and asks us if we speak Spanish. We say no, because we dont, but we give him the number of the Spanish missionaries. We thought nothing of it so we go our merry little way to church. Later that night we find out from the Spanish missionaries what happened with that guy. He called them and told them to meet him behind a Laundro-mat at 7pm that night. They thought that was pretty sketchy so they came prepared kind of. They meet him there and it all turns out good and he invites them to his place of residence. It turns out that he has talked to missionaries before and not wanted anything to do with them. But that morning the Spirit directed him to go on a drive. When he saw us on the side of the road the spirit directed him to talk to us, but he resisted. The Spirit told him again to talk to us, so he pulled over and did. We gave him their number and he called them and told them to meet him at the laundro mat. He decided that if they showed up to the meeting then they were messangers from God. They did show up and now he has a baptism date for the 26th. It is interesting to think that the Lord put us in that exact place for a reason, and we didnt even know about it really. The thing that I got out of these experiences is that I am a tool for the Lord, he is using me to work his miracles and I need to be worthy for him to use me. It is very humbling to know this.
It is now a new year! Im sure all of you know that by now though. Yes, I am emailing on Wednesday again because yesterday was a holiday and everything was closed. Next week will be on Tuesday though, so you will have time to repent and email me.
This has been a very good week so far if I remember right. There have been several things that have been very interesting.
I guess I will start out by saying that we have a baptism date for the 12th of this month. It is a 13 year old named Tekoshi. His mom is less active, but we are working to get her more active, so that Tekoshi is not baptized into inactivity.
I think I also mentioned a guy named Ric who has to get an interview by a member of the 12, so we are getting that going, right now he has a meeting scheduled with our mission President. There are some others that we invited to be baptized, but they have some issues that we are kind of working out right now. We hope to get a bunch more peeps with dates within the next week or so.
We are also working with a bunch of less actives and recent converts right now which are doing pretty awesome! I cant really think of any off the top of my head that are progressing or whatever, but we are helping them.
We just recieved a training today, and we are going for 460 baptisms for the mission within 3 months. The goal for our zone will be 40 baptisms in three months, which is very achievable. They also trained us on our daily and weekly planning things and how to do those more effectively. I am pretty stoked about this training and incorporating it into my planning sessions and all that.
So there were a few interesting experiences that happened this last week that I am going to talk about. Neither of them are connected really, but I understand what both experiences taught me and how they connect in that way. The first experience happened one night when we were at a lesson with one of our investigators. The mother of the home lives there and is a member. She was very sick at the time and desired to recieve a blessing. So we give her a blessing, I annointed and Elder Knittle blessed and when we were down she turned to me and said that when I put my hands on her head she felt an immediate warmth. I was kind of caught off guard by that because I was just using my priesthood as I normally would, but she felt a difference. I have given several blessings this past week which have been very good and helped in one way or another. God can do anything by the priesthood.
The second experience happened on Sunday which is super crazy. So we were just walking from one church building to another, ward hopping, and this guy in a truck pulls into a parking lot in front of us and asks us if we speak Spanish. We say no, because we dont, but we give him the number of the Spanish missionaries. We thought nothing of it so we go our merry little way to church. Later that night we find out from the Spanish missionaries what happened with that guy. He called them and told them to meet him behind a Laundro-mat at 7pm that night. They thought that was pretty sketchy so they came prepared kind of. They meet him there and it all turns out good and he invites them to his place of residence. It turns out that he has talked to missionaries before and not wanted anything to do with them. But that morning the Spirit directed him to go on a drive. When he saw us on the side of the road the spirit directed him to talk to us, but he resisted. The Spirit told him again to talk to us, so he pulled over and did. We gave him their number and he called them and told them to meet him at the laundro mat. He decided that if they showed up to the meeting then they were messangers from God. They did show up and now he has a baptism date for the 26th. It is interesting to think that the Lord put us in that exact place for a reason, and we didnt even know about it really. The thing that I got out of these experiences is that I am a tool for the Lord, he is using me to work his miracles and I need to be worthy for him to use me. It is very humbling to know this.
Well, I dont know what else there is to say right now so I will end
it. Tell me all your new years resolutions and whats going on back
home! See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
December 18th, 2012 Email
Dear yall,
I know all of you are wondering whats going on with transfers, but I
wont tell you....JK!! I am being transferred to Clearfield, my new
companion will be Elder Knittle who I dont really know anything about. I
think it will be a pretty good transfer. This email is going to be a
little bit shorter than usual because I have to pack and do a bunch of
other stuff today, I will only be able to say so much.
Next week is Christmas, and I
dont know what we are going to do. I am supposed to tell you the plan
today, but I dont know anyone in my area so I dont know how I am going
to tell you what we are going to do...Hopefully we will be able to
skype.
Not much else has happened with
our investigators or anyone so there really isnt much to report there. I
am leaving them anyways so I wont know whats going on with them either
after this ha!
I did hear about the massacre
in Conneticut. That was very sad to hear about. The girls family does
live in Ogden, but im not sure where at around here. I hope they are
doing alright as a family. It is hard to hear about these kinds of
things happening around the world, but we need to remember the Plan of
Salvation and how the Atonement of Jesus Christ is for everyone. As long
as we strive to live the commandments and follow Christ, we will be
able to live with our Father in Heaven again for eternity and be way
happy! It is also good to remember Christ during this season and
remember not only the fact that he was born, but to remember why he was
born.
I hope all of you have a good
Christmas, I promise that next weeks letter will be better! Love you
all! See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
December 11th, 2012 Email
To the Family,
Another week has come and gone
like a flash, it is starting to freak me out! Some of yous have been
asking about sending a package. At this point all of yall should send
stuff to the missionn office due to the fact that I will probably be
transferring next week. I have been in the Ben Lomond Stake for the past
6 months, it is time for me to go. Also, you have been asking what I
want, that would be music and ties and random stuff that you would think
I would need I guess. Pictures are always good. From this point forward
I am banning food from being sent. We get fed WAYYY too much here and
it is hard to eat all the goodies that people give me. Thank you.
Last week we had the Mission
Christmas Conference. It was pretty good. We had an interesting training
in the morning about what we need to do from hours 1 to 5 and how we
should speak to members during dinners. It was pretty cool. We also
heard a returned missionary speak about his experiences. He is from Utah
and he served in Boise haha. Then we had lunch, ham and potato,
original...and then we took a mission picture. Then after that was the
talent show, I was not a part of it. There were many neat talents shared
and some not so neat talents haha jk it was all good.
Some of you were asking about
that older couple that I talked about last week. Well they dropped us
haha. The morning before we had the lesson they called us and said that
they were not interested and that they did not want to change. Story of
my life, nobody wants to change out here!! We did not really expect that
all due to the fact that our first lesson went so well and the spirit
was so strong you could cut it with the Book of Mormon. We did help them
come closer to Christ even just a little bit if anything though. We
helped the lady forgive herself for something that happened so long ago.
Who knows, maybe they will be looking for something later on down the
road and they will remember that experience we had and look further into
the Gospel.
We did pick up a new
investigator this week!! It really isnt as exciting as it sounds though
because he isnt that interested haha. Remember I talked about the
foreign exchange students a few weeks ago. This guy is the Serbian
exchange student. He has many questions and odd concerns, but is
interested in at least hearing about what we believe. The lesson was
supposed to be on the Plan of Salvation, but it got way off topic, maybe
our next lesson he will listen a little bit more. We will talk about
faith since he doesnt seem to have any belief in faith at all or even
know what it is. We have yet to meet with the German girl still who
seems to be the more interested one. We had a lesson set up but she
kinda bailed on us, so now we are trying to set up another lesson.
How was the Christmas Party
back home? Did you have any nonmembers or less actives show up? How long
was it? The parties here are like an hour and a half long and it seems
too short. I dont know, maybe Im going crasy. We have been to 4 of them
so far and we have 3 more this saturday in the morning. Who knows why they do morning parties here? The funny thing is that they all serve the same food, so every saturday
we know exactly what we are going to eat for breakfast and for
dinner...ham...We have invited a bunch of people to the Christmas
parties and a few have showed up. We are hoping this weekend will be
better. I sang in the stake Christmas choir a few nights ago, there were
a lot of cool songs we sang. We also had a few people show up who we
were teaching which was awesome!
Other than that I dont think there is anything else new. Next Tuesday
I will be able to tell you where I am going so that will be exciting. I
am getting a bit anxious again to find out whats going on. I hope all
of you have a good week! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
December 4th, 2012 Email
To the Family and others,
Okay, so there are a few items
of business. Thursday is the mission Christmas party that you have heard
about. All of you can just send packages to my appartment. Transfers is
the 19th and I am most likely transferring so keep that in mind. I dont
know where I will be going, but I have a feeling that it will be up
north. And mom, I think there are sister missionaries in the area that
the Ures are living, so it is unlikely that I will go there, at least at
this point in time.
Also, a few of you have asked
if I have been sick. I dont remember saying anything about that last
week, but this past week I have had a small cold. It is going away now
so no worries. It was just annoying.
For Christmas I just want
music, more ties of course. Maybe a calendar if you feel so inclined,
but I dont need one. Pictures are always good, and letters in general
are pretty cool. What do you guys want for Christmas? I cant do much,
but I want to do something, so give me some ideas.
There were a few interesting things that happened this week.
Arianna has not returned home yet and we still have not taught the
German girl again, but we should this week sometime. We are picking up
more and more less actives though with a few nonmembers popping up here
and there.
Here is a crazy story. Last
week we were knocking on doors that had been referred to us by a ward
mission leader. We have a map that shows us where each house is. I
briefly looked at the map to see where one of them lived and saw that
they lived on a corner of a street on the edge of our stake. We park up
the street a ways and knock on a few houses and talk to a few people on
the way to this particular house. We knock this house and an old couple
answers the door, we ask to give them a Christmas message, they say no,
then Elder Hayes says that nobody listens to us and we need to teach to
stay on our game. We kinda guilt tripped them, but we got a lesson set
for the next day so it was all good. We go the next night over there not
really expecting much to come from this lesson. We give the Christmas
message and then some of their concerns come out and we addressed them,
and she felt the Spirit, strongly. Strongly enough to want to learn more
at least. So that was pretty awesome. Then a few days ago I was looking
at the map again and realized that the people actually live outside of
our area, BY ONE HOUSE!! I mixed up the boudaries in my head as I was
looking at the map before. But the thing is that we would have never
knocked on that house if we did not make that mistake. The Spirit was
directing us there, that was for sure.
There are a ton of Christmas
parties going on. We have three to go to in one morning! Its pretty
nuts. We are also doing little Christmas messages for the season. We
basically talk about the nativity story in Luke 2, share some personal
stories or traditions, ask if they have any experiences, and then we ask
to come back to teach them more about Jesus and the Restored Gospel. It
is a pretty nifty idea for the season.
Oh yeah, one of our less
actives that we thought was active dropped us. She had been listening to
our lessons and keeping committments, but the whole time she didnt
agree with certain parts of the Gospel. We found that out last week and
we spent an hour trying to resolve those concerns, but her heart was
hardened, she did not have the desire to learn more because it would
mean she would have to change. If they dont have the desire to know then
they will not learn.
It was an interesting week, I
felt pretty out of it half the time because my sinuses were going crazy.
I can see now that being sick makes it harder to listen to the Holy
Ghost. Kinda annoying, so that is why the Word of Wisdom is so
important.
Any who I hope all of youo have a good week, I will try to as well. Lovest thees! See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
Novemeber 27th, 2012 Email
Hello Ya'll,
Thanksgiving
is over, next is Christmas...yikes...another call home. Anyways,
thanksgiving was very fun! We played turkey bowl for 3 hours that
morning, then we went to "dinner" at 1pm at one of the members house and
ate delicious food. Then we went bowling with one of our Bishops,
afterwards we visited a few of the people we are teaching. Than we went
to Plain City to visit the Sparks because they wanted us to. We played
that picture sentence game at their house which was way super funny, we
laughed. It was a good Thanksgiving.
Just
a heads up, transfers is in 3 weeks, on the 19th. I will most likely be
transfered meaning you wont have my address until I can give it to you
on Christmas Day...I dont know how thats gonna work anyways.
So
this week has been somewhat the same as other weeks. Last week was
pretty slow because of the Holidays, most people were busy, so they
didnt want to set up any lessons with us. I told you about the 2 foreign
exchange students right? Well we havnt heard from them yet about doing a
lesson, but Im sure it will happen with the German girl. We also kind
of picked up Toni again last week. We taught her a lesson and she said
that she would probably come to church this sunday, so we will see.
Not
much new has happened with our investigators. Arianna has been out of
town for a while now, but she wants to talk to us about something...?
Who knows what that means, I hope its not something bad. Our less
actives are doing pretty good as well. Again, not much has changed
because this week was a little slower, but not much bad stuff has
happened either so thats good.
The
weird thing is that everyone has been getting sick lately. We have met
like 4 or 5 families that have had some kind of flu going around. That
is why so many of our lessons cancelled, because peeps are getting sick.
I havnt gotten sick so no worries there.
Not sure what else to say. Volleyball is still going
pretty good. Not many people are showing up, and lately it has been
just members, but hopefully this saturday
we will have more show up. There are a lot of Christmas parties going
on this month, it is funny. We are also singing in a stake Christmas
choir which is kind of fun. We will be inviting all those we are
teaching to come watch us.
Remind people to write me because I dont get much
these days. I hope you are all having a good time back home and that
everything is going well! See you on the other side!
Love,
Elder Connell
November 20th, 2012 Email
Hello all yall,
Another week in Ben Lomond. Lets see what has happened...
Arianna's baptism has been
pushed back another week because she is not quite ready. She needs to go
to church one more time and she needs a stronger testimony of the Book
of Mormon and the Gospel itself. She has come a long way though. She is
starting to recognize some blessings and the Holy Ghost. That is what
its all about, conversion, step by step. We cant learn it all at once,
otherwise our heads would explode, no joke.
It is unfortunate, but all of
our other investigators, besides Gloria, are not really interested in
being converted. They just want to know more about our religion because
they just moved here. Or they just want to socialize and feed us. We did
have a pretty cool dinner last night though. We did service with this
young man last week who was talking about some of his friends who were
foreign exchange students. We asked him to invite them to dinner with us
because his family was feeding us. So we ate dinner with them last
night. One is from Servia, and the other is from Germany. We had a good
discussion with them at dinner, the Servian is not sooo interested, but
the German girl seems pretty solid from what I can gather. We have
another lesson with them on Wednesday that we can see better where they
are at. It was pretty cool.
Have I told you that we are doing volleyball every saturday morning
with peeps in the area? Well we do. It is pretty cool because some
peeps we teach are starting to come. Hopefully the foreign exchange
students will come as well. Dad, you could mention this idea to the
Elders that they could do volleyball with the youth and have them invite
friends. It is a pretty good way for missionaries to get to know
nonmembers in a nonthreatening way...and its fun.
Our less active work is pretty
awesome as usual. We picked up this family the Lee's, I dont know if I
mentioned them before. We are mostly just helping the mom get back to
church, because she knows its true. Thats the thing...most of the less
active people we talk to know that the church is true, but they are
caught up with little things like if they got offended, or they are
lazy, or they were forced into things as a youth which caused them to
rebel. It is pretty sad to see them in their situations, but I guess
that is why I am here, to help them get back to church and to access the
Atonement of Jesus Christ and feel of his love.
I dont know what else there is
to report. I did think of another Christmas gift idea. I have been
wanting to learn guitar as maybe a possible few of you may have possibly
guessed. Well I do.. So.. a cheap ukeleley, with a beginner book guide,
I dont know. You dont have to, but it is just an idea.
Thank all of you for
everything. THanksgiving will be good, there are peeps who will feedest
me so dont worry. Muchos love! See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
November 13th, 2012 Email
Hello Peeps,
First of all I want to
apologize for last weeks letter, it was rather lame. To clear things up,
I am staying in Ben Lomond for another 6 weeks, well...5 weeks now. And
I am still with Elder Hayes which is very unusual to be with one
companion for that long. I thought for sure that I would be transfered,
but the Lord needed me here for a little longer for some odd reason, Im
not sure why yet.
Congratulations to Britt for getting married on Saturday!
Wish I could be there, but I will be there in spirit so its all good.
It sounds like it will be a very good wedding, so take much photos and
record it well so that I can see what its like and stuff.
Okay, and peeps been asking me
what I want for Christmas. First off, you dont have to get it to me by
that deadline thing, I dont care if I dont get a package for that
mission conference thing. You can just send the stuff whenever. I guess I
just want the same things as I did for my Birthday. Some more music,
maybe some talks or books on tape or whatever. I always like ties,
pictures, letters. I dont know what else, maybe a nice watch? I dont
know, I will have to think some more. There isnt much that I really
need, Im a missionary haha I dont have much use for things.
Okay, so our work is picking up a bit again. We had a baptism date for this saturday,
but it is being pushed back because Ariana, the investigator, isnt
ready yet. She HAS progressed though, a lot. It is crazy to see the
change in people. She has a hard time keeping committments because she
is not used to it, so we are helping her with reading the Book of Mormon
and praying. Our other investigators are not really going anywhere
which is pretty sad. Gloria is still very sick and it is hard to get a
hold of her. Gino, and the Lambs have basically come to us and said that
they dont want to get converted, but they like to learn more and talk
to us and stuff like that. The only thing we can do there is bring the
Spirit and pray that their hearts are softened.
Our less active work is going
great though! We are picking up a few more people to teach there. Like I
said last week, our less actives have been doing missionary work and
doing awesome things! I will share with you a story I guess yesterday.
Well, its not really a story, its just the fact that yesterday was a
really good day. We just seemed to talk to all the right people, the
Lord was guiding us to all the people that He wanted us to talk to. We
can no longer use public gyms, so we went to turn in our key card to
snap fitness and we talked to the girl who was working there and it
turned out that she was less active and we had a good conversation with
her and hopefully helped her out. And then when we were leaving the
parking lot we saw this guy who was also less active who wants to get
back to church. We have talked to him before, but have not met up with
him yet. It was just cool to be an instrument in the Lords hands to
guide me to His children that He wanted us to see that day.
That is whats going on right now. I have some pictures to upload so all of you can enjoy. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
November 6th, 2012 Email
Hey Family,
Transfers was this week, I am staying with Elder Hayes and nothing
happened. Sometimes I just think that President doesnt really care what
happens so he just leaves me here. Dont get me wrong, I like the people
in my area, but I cannot be within the same square mile for 6 months, it
makes me stir crazy and I feel a little stressed right now so sorry if
my letter today is out there.
It is very cool because we are teaching some less actives right now
and they are being super missionaries! Danica now has a testimony of
God and has invited her nonmember friend to our lesson tonight. Jason
and Whitney, this other couple who we are teaching, brought a friend to
our lesson last night who wants to get back to church. Jason and Whitney
were helping us teach the whole time and were bearing their testimony
the whole time. It was awesome!
We also saw footloose the musical at the local high school. We sat
on the front row. It was cool to see so many people that I know and
recognize in the cast. We are teaching a bunch of people in it so we saw
it to support them.
Im sorry again that this email is lame, I am not into it today. I
got the package the other day, thank you for all the cool stuff. Love
you all. See you on the other side!
Love
Elder Connell
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