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