Birthday Packages

Monday 16th of September, 2013

 

Sam received his 21st birthday packages! The Joseph Smith Papers, The Holy Temple and the Statesmen CD. He was so grateful to receive them! They've given him some variety which he really needed being in the same small area for so long! The JS Papers book is a lot bigger than he thought, it's set out really well, it has the manuscript on the left page, then the transcription on the right page, he thinks its great being able to read the original manuscript! He has also been reading the Holy Temple, and read nearly half already, however he is going to re-read the chapter about Elijah, since there is a lot of information in there and he doesn't feel like he understood it all. There were a few new tracks on the Statesmen CD, Elder Ballard was really happy that there was an organ solo in one of them, because he's obsessed with the organ!

 

They had a really spiritual and uplifting evening last night. The ward mission leader (Brother Doug Coburn) organised a missionary fireside where members could invite friends. Their investigator Sheila showed up, and she really enjoyed it. Sam spoke for 2-3 minutes, he had to try and fit in the story of Joseph Smith, the first vision and his testimony within that time, somehow he managed! Their most recent convert, Amy Thomason, also shared her testimony which was great! Elder Ballard sang without a microphone as he can project his voice really well and he is a good singer!

 

The other three investigators, Karla and her two sisters, showed up to church again this week, they seem to be really enjoying it, they will hopefully be able to set them with a baptismal date soon!

Daniel, the 16 year old who they tracted into, hasn't been coming out to church, however he was visited by some of the young men, so now he knows some people in the church other than the missionaries!

 

Finally, Curt, who is probably their most receptive investigator, finally got back from his training this week, so they should hopefully be able to start working with him again.

 

Some bad news, there's been some sort of sickness going around their ward, and around the schools in the area, and Sam and Elder Ballard have caught it, so they're probably just going to spend today recovering so they can get back to work tomorrow. He swears every member they visited this week was ill, so it was only a matter of time before they caught it!

 

Sam keeps forgetting to take the photo of his gender guess for his sisters baby, so he placed his guess now and then will take a photo later. His gut feeling is that it's a boy, but he doesn't know why, that's just his guess! He is going to find a creative way of putting that into a photograph.

 

Sam nearly forgot to tell us all the most exciting thing that happened all last week! On Tuesday in the conference with Elder Anderson from the Quorum of the 12, he asked to shake everyone's hand, so he got to shake hands with an Apostle for the first time! He also got to shake hands with Elder Callister, on the Presidency of the 70. He remembers which tie he wore when he shook their hands, so Sam wants to keep it forever!

 

A special thank you again for the birthday packages Sam received as he is really grateful for them!