Quick Update

Monday, 29th of July 2013

Not too much stuff happened this week, but here are the highlights:

- Sam slid off his bike, luckily he was only going 5mph and he landed on his feet, but one of the pedals got a bit bashed up, there was oil on the road right on the corner, there was no grip at all!

 

- He tracted into a satanist, she looked like a man and had expanders in her ears and her ear lobes were all droopy

 

- There's been a lot of lightning lately, and it's been really windy, Sam and Elder Blanco had to fight the wind all the way back home yesterday.

 

- Sam and Elder Blanco have set up a game, they are sort of running the work like a business, it's made them talk to a lot more people and hand out a lot more pass along cards and pamphlets, they keep finding new ways to make the work fun.

 

- They haven't been doing a whole lot of tracting, here are the stats for the last 4 weeks: 198 doors knocked, 131 people weren't in, 44 people weren't interested, 1 crazy person (satanist), 15 people from other religions and 7 return appointments (they all flaked on them).

 

As you can see tracting isn't the best use of time, he is looking forward to when they can start using tablets and computers to proselyte, then they will be able to reach a lot more people, and waste a lot less time.

When The Rain Came Down...

Monday, 22nd of July 2013

This week has been an eventful week for Sam!

He had dinner with the Roper family, for a change he shared something with them for the spiritual thought. They watched a video on youtube called 'Brad Wilcox - His grace is sufficient'. It is the best talk Sam has ever heard, he explains perfectly how Christ's grace works, how the atonement works, and our whole purpose of being here. Sam really wanted us to watch it as he said it will change your whole perspective of what repentance really is, and how much Heavenly Father loves us.

On Friday Elder Blanco went to a leadership training meeting, so Sam was on exchanges until 4pm, in a completely different area. It was a good day for him as he felt he has definitely grown in confidence. In each situation he found he would naturally take the lead, whether it was in the conversation, sharing a scripture or a lesson, Sam didn't think he would be able to do that, but he had been praying that he would be able to be more confident and it definitely worked for him!

They had an interesting discussion with a man who had all sorts of concerns, they talked about the atonement, fall, restoration, spirit world, 3 degrees of glory, baptism, parables and black people not having the priesthood until the 70's. The guy would ask a question, then as Sam would start to explain he would bring up something completely irrelevant, then as he would explain that then he would keep interrupting. Sam explained that the church had no official statement on the priesthood not being given to black people, however he told him he had discussed it before. He explained, and he agreed that the people at that time were still biased towards black people, he then explained that with the priesthood comes a lot of responsibility, however because of the way the people were at that time, they wouldn't be able to fulfill their responsibilities. He kept asking the same question and Sam must have explained it 10 times to him. Sam said he was friendly but pretty ignorant.

After exchanges Sam and Elder Blanco went to check on the Wagasky family, they are the people Sam had his first meal with in the field, they were preparing to move so they wanted to see if they needed any help. On the way to their house, they could see a thunderstorm which was weird as they could see the lightning, but couldn't hear the thunder. It started to rain and the sky was black, and it was nearly constant lightning. They were inside talking to the family and Sam started to feel sick, completely randomly out of nowhere, so he stood outside for a few minutes and vomited four times, then was fine afterwards! Their phone went off, as they received a CMAS alert for flash floods and severe hail, the rain started coming down really heavy and the lightning was insane. Luckily Brother Wagasky gave  them a ride home, and they saw some INSANE lightning, you could see the bolts going straight across the sky, and a lot of fork lightning. It was almost constant lightning, the longest time he counted without seeing a lightning strike was 5 seconds. There were storms on Sunday as well, the wind was really strong, Sam sat out on the balcony and ate his cereal and watched the storm. They are going to have another storm today, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last night they had another really cool experience, one of the members didn't show up to church so they went by to see how she was doing. While they were there the young men's president also came and told them that he had been praying specifically for us. Literally 10 seconds after they left, a guy shouted out to Elder Blanco 'are you guys Mormons?', he told him they were, and he told them he wants to join our church, and wanted to know how to do it. He is called Christopher Williams, and seems pretty genuine in wanting to meet with the missionaries and learn. He said he invited the missionaries back to his house 2.5 months ago, but they didn't show up, however Sam and Elder Blanco were both in the area 2.5 months ago and they have never met him until now!

Samoan to English in 2 Weeks?

Monday, 15th of July 2013

The fire from last week was still burning, it was burning for over a week! It was the biggest fire the valley has ever seen, it was the #1 priority fire in America and 10% of all the hot shots (elite firefighters) in the nation were fighting that fire. Apparently nothing else is going to grow on the mountain for years now, the fire has done so much damage.

Sam enjoyed his week last week as the work is starting to pick up again. On Wednesday he got to go on exchanges with Elder Tusa, he is from Western Samoa and spoke no English. He went to the MTC for only 2 weeks to learn English and he has only been out in the field for 2 weeks! They had 3 hours of study together, the language barrier made it a challenge for them both. Sam was very impressed with how well he is going for only learning English for 4 weeks, he isn't afraid of going up and trying to talk to people even though he is just starting to learn the language!! Elder Tusa was so grateful to have the opportunity to work with Sam. He will make a great missionary if he continues to put in the effort to learn the language.

Last night they had a 'cool experience' (in the words of Sam) There is a less active lady whose husband isn't a member, it turns out that yesterday the ward mission leader, Doug Coburn, had visited them and her husband is now interested in taking lessons with Sam and his companion. They visited them last night and they are a great family, they even have a small black pug! He asked a lot of questions and even wrote some more questions down for next time so they can discuss them more. Its always a good sign when people ask a lot of questions and sincerely want to understand what it is they teach. Their recent convert, Sean Thomason, wants to go with them to the next lesson!

They have taught 11 lessons this week bringing it up to 18 in total. They are behind in numbers from last transfer but Elder Blanco says the work always slows down after a baptism. Sam is still loving it over there and he is still getting along well with Elder Blanco! 

Mystery Man and Fire!

Monday, 8th of July 2013

Last week has been slow for Sam since he just had the baptism of Sean and Amy, also it was the 4th of July weekend so there wasn't been a lot of people for him to teach. He only had 7 lessons. Sam and his companion have been doing more tracting that usual, but not too much more, they knocked 87 doors, 59 weren't in, 16 weren't interested, 8 were other religions and they got 4 returns appointments. One of the appointments fell through so it wasn't too fruitful. There is a reason the Apostles keep saying there is a better way of doing missionary work than tracting!

Sam had a really good experience last night, he was riding home and they got to the junctions at Tropical and Clayton, they can either take Tropical all the way to the apartment , or El Campo Grande, they decided to take El Campo Grande and took a short cut through the church car park. There was somebody parked there but it was 8:45pm. He  called out to Sam and Elder Blanco and they went over to speak with him. He asked when the church was open and they explained that it would be open on Sunday from 9am. He told them that he needed to get something off his chest. It turned out that on the 4th of July, he got drunk and went to a casino and blew his wages ($1500) Then after, a friend offered him some sort of drug which had a bad effect on him. He said he hasn't done anything like that in 5 years and that his family is more important to him than any of the stuff he did. He didn't know what to tell his wife, so they told him to be honest with her and not to lie about anything. He told them how he has met with missionaries before and it kept him out of trouble, so they talked to him for a while and left him with a prayer, a pamphlet on repentance and a Mormon.org card with their number on it. He really regretted what he had done and he was wanting to change. Sam is hoping he can meet with them again and start getting his life sorted out.

There is a huge fire on the mountains at the moment, it has been burning for nearly a week, it was started by lightning. There are 3 separate fires and with the wind it has been at 0% containment - in other words, the firefighters have no control over it! The amount of smoke in the air is amazing, Sam really didn't think a fire could push out so much smoke, he thought it was a cloud for a while until he saw the flames at the night time. Sam thinks its amazing because he would never get anything like this back home. He had his first proper storm yesterday morning, there was lightning, thunder and it rained for about 5 minutes, then it was over. The storms over there don't last very long but the roads flood really quickly!

Sam got his new best time for the Rubiks cube today, 19 seconds! He thinks it will be a while before he will beat that time though!

He also got a lot of food from a place called WinCo today because its so cheap. For $22 he got 2 cans of pringles, 80 tortillas, 2.5lbs of cereal, 1.5lbs of m&ms, 2.5lbs of fruit punch mix and 2 tins of baked beans. They have been eating a lot of tortillas lately as Elder Blanco converted Sam to them!

One of the less active families that they have been teaching gave them both camelbaks, they are so handy as its much easier to use while walking around. It hit 120°F over there, that's just below 50°C! Sam thinks he is adjusting to the heat as he is dealing with it a lot better. He now considers 100°F cool now.

Prayer & Prison

Monday, 1st of July 2013

This week Sam had another great week, Sean and Amy Thomason were baptised and confirmed, Sam did the confirmation for Amy. He was a bit nervous before the confirmation, but while he was doing it he felt fine. The Spirit was really strong at the baptism, after church yesterday Sean thanked him and Elder Blanco for knocking on their door. They are going to work with Sean so that he can get the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood as he is ready! Sam finds it amazing how fast they have both progressed, you couldn't tell that they were just baptised as it seems like they have been members for years! 

They had an interesting experience the other day, they were walking in the street and there was someone talking on their phone, as they were walking towards their bikes, he walked up to Sam and Elder Blanco and asked them what religion they were, they told him LDS, he said that he was supposed to go to prison that day for 2 years, but he prayed and somehow he got let off. He wanted to meet with them but unfortunately haven't been able to get back in contact with him. Sam loves how there are all kinds of people in Las Vegas, he thinks its great!

Sam and his family rescued a cat from the RSPCA 2 months before he left for his mission. Hunter, one of the boys who Sam is teaching, his cat had kittens so Sam was excited to see them. You can see how small they really are!

 

 

So far Elder Blanco and Sam have taught 13 lessons this week which brings them up to 64 total this transfer, that is more lessons than last! They have set a goal of 1000 doors this transfer, they don't normally do too much tracting so they are going to try and do it more and see if they get any results. They are staying together for another transfer which means Sam will probably hit his 6 months mark in this area. They finally met the NEW Mission President, Brother Ahlander, who is a really funny person who should make a great president! For P-Day they are staying in the apartment, grilling burgers and playing monopoly as it is transfer day there are no one activities.

 

Sam saw more bees as they had built a hive into the roof of the church, he was talking to the person who was removing them who said that they sometimes get Africanised bees there, but he has never seen them. He showed him his shirt where the bees were trying to sting him, he said the ones in the church were pretty tame, definitely not killer bees which Sam was very pleased to hear!

 

A New Direction

Wednesday, 24th of June

This week Sam found out the good news that his sister is expecting a baby! He was so excited and happy. He said when he comes home there will be a 1 year old that he has never met before! He made a joke that runs in the family - he wanted to know if it was a boy or girl so he knows if he will be an aunt or an uncle!

This week has been a great week for Sam, Sean and Amy had their baptismal interviews, all went well and Amy wants him to confirm her. He has never done a confirmation before so he is a little bit nervous.

Another investigator Linda is doing well, she is coming out to church every week and her husband comes quite often too. The only problem they are having is that they can rarely meet with them during the week, they either don't have time or they aren't at home.

Elder Blanco and Sam have got a new investigator called Latonia, she lost her 17 year old son 2 years ago, and it's coming up to his birthday so she's having a hard time. They taught her the plan of salvation which seemed to comfort her, and they had another appointment set up, but she wasn't at home. They have taught 11 lessons this week, 4 investigators and 3 less actives attended sacrament meeting. So far they have taught 51 lessons, it looks like they might be able to beat the number of lessons taught last transfer. This week the mission presidents switch. They will have a 'meet the president meeting' on Friday, then their first interviews with the new president next week.

Elder Harper and Sam had a disagreement about tracting, Elder Harper said it was 'the bread and butter of missionary work', but Sam said it wasn't an effective use of time and that they could focus their efforts elsewhere. There was a special missionary broadcast and they were telling the missionaries that they are going to start using computers now instead of tracting, they will use Facebook and other websites to spread the gospel. Instead of going out to knock on doors, they will use stake centres and use the computers. The whole broadcast was pretty much saying that they shouldn't spend time knocking on doors as times have changed. Everyone uses computers, smart phones and ipads, so missionary work has to change as well. Sam doesn't know exactly how its going to work, but its an exciting change ahead which he is looking forward to.

A couple of nights ago, the missionaries made pancakes. Sam added two types of syrup and a ton of condensed milk to pour over the top of the pancakes. He said it was really nice but felt sick immediately after eating them. 

Sam has realised he needs to take more photos as he saw someone doing sky writing in a plane but he didnt have his camera on him so he missed the opportunity! A photo he did take at home was his a challenge photo, he managed to fit 21 grapes in his mouth! 

The Ways of Finding People

Monday, 10th & 17th of June



Sam went on exchanges on Wednesday with another missionary, Elder Chapman. They get on really well together. They taught Shawn & Amy and Sam extended a baptismal commitment to them for June 29th which they happily accepted and they are really excited about being baptised! They are great people and they are progressing really fast. He helped them paint on Saturday and Amy bought them foot long subs for lunch! Sam loved the time he spent and it also kept him out the heat since its starting to hit 110-115°F. He enjoys being outside but only for a few minutes, then it starts to get uncomfortable so he is trying to schedule as many teaching appointments as he can!
Sam has been playing chess a lot lately and he finally beat Elder Harper who is really good and has a lot of experience playing chess. He also bought a Russian Book of Mormon which he is studying, he is in Las Vegas for 2 years so he might as well try and pick up another language while he is out there!

In 16 days Sam will have hit his 3 month mark and then in only 2 transfers time he will be at his 6 months mark! He feels like time is going really quickly over there and he is still enjoying it, even though its really hot!

They have found a new potential investigator in a really unlikely way! On exchanges Elder Blanco gave some rappers a pass along card, they threw it on the ground after he left, but someone else saw the card on the floor, picked it up and called them! She needed some inspiration so she wants them to visit her. Hopefully something will come of it!

For the first time since Sam has been over in Vegas he bought some fruit! It cost him $5 for some grapes so he probably wont be doing that again. For lunch he normally has a bagel with pepper-jack cheese, or a poached egg and chicken noodles. They have a lot of food in the apartment since the members feed them a lot.

With all the heat recently, the worst situation happened in the apartment.... the Air Conditioning broke so it got to nearly 90°F in the apartment! Sam was quick thinking and decided to freeze a bottle of water, wrapped it in a towel and used it as a 'cold water bottle' while he slept.