Tractism

Monday 27th January, 2014

So transfer calls came this week, Sam is staying in Tule another 6 weeks which he is happy about, there's still so much work to be done! There are about 85 less active families in the ward, they have contacted or are working with around 30 families, so many people just aren't interested, lazy or just don't have their priorities right, however there are some great people as well, all it took was one visit to a less active sister in their ward and she came back to church. She's really nice and felt bad about missing their lesson (she had to go to the hospital), so she took them to u-swirl.

Less active work is just like tracting really, finding those who are ready to commit or re-commit to following Christ. Sam is not going to lie but says it's pretty frustrating when he meets with people who just don't "get it". But it's all worth it when people do listen and keep commitments and have a sincere desire to live the Gospel.

They've tracted about half the streets in the area and hoping to get the rest done the transfer before Sam leaves! There's also a lot of members there who aren't on the ward directory, it's surprising how often they tract into them!

Tonight they are eating dinner at the Freeman's, Sister Freeman cuts their hair but her son just had surgery and so she hasn't been able to cut their hair recently (as you can tell by the photo). But Sam doesn't want to go somewhere different, since he loves visiting them! Her Dad is the MTC president at the Preston MTC, so she tells them stories about the missionaries there.

Sam got a nice surprise last week, remember Daniel Black who he talked about a while back, who he tracted into in his last area? Well Sam got a text on Friday morning letting him know he would be baptized on Saturday! So he got to go to his baptism and meet everybody from his last ward :) It was a great experience, he has a lot of support from the ward and he has progressed a lot since Sam last saw him. That is Sam's first 'Tractism'

Sam thinks he's gained about 15lbs being on the mission, he is 155lbs now, and that's staying pretty consistent.

Missionary work is always hard, but in different ways. When he first came out it was hard since he had to learn to teach, tract, street contact etc.. it was all new and he was really nervous. Now it's hard because sometimes he just feels like he is banging his head against a wall. Hopefully the wall breaks before his head does though! :P

They received a referral, and he called her and spoke with her (her name is Martha), she told them she feels like most Churches are man-made, but feels like ours is true, since it helped her son out a lot. They have a lesson with her tomorrow at 11am so hopefully that will start to go somewhere!