Week 12 - January 30, 2012

Hi everyone,

I can't believe my second transfer ends tomorrow! I've been in the field for three whole months now, which is crazy to think about. The big news this week is that Elder S is being shipped off to a different area until he finishes his mission in April, so we're driving to Louisville to pick up my new companion. Because the number of Spanish elders is soooo small compared to the English elders, it's pretty easy to find out who is being moved and stuff. So far we only know of one other Spanish elder that is being moved, so he is probably my next companion, although we don't know for certain. There could always be some crazy shake-up and I get an English companion or something. Who knows? Saturday was a pretty stressful day. We had our District Meeting, and we were doing our normal stuff, and we took a pizza break (as part of an inter-district challenge, losers had to buy pizza. We tied, so we all paid). Our phone started ringing, and it was President Woodbury! He told Elder S to come to Louisville on Tuesday. Everyone else was on edge, waiting for a call. Only one other companionship is changing in our district. We're sad, because we love our district, but it'll be okay.

Our district. It's pretty much the coolest.

We had a neat opportunity to go to Louisville for a fireside this week. Clayton M. Christenson, some crazy famous Harvard business professor came down and spoke to everyone. He's LDS. He talked for a long time about business and buyouts and undercutting. It was super boring. And then he talked about how a huge percentage of his classmates from Harvard are divorced (some many times) and are unhappy. They are rich, but unhappy. One of his classmates was actually part of that big Enron drama way back when. Anyway, that's when he started relating all of the business stuff to the good stuff of the gospel. He said that we have to understand what things in our lives are going to deliver the highest pay-out. When we have some extra time and some extra energy, are we using it to make more money at work, or are we investing it in our families and friends? The tricky part is that one pays out pretty quickly, and the other you might not see for many years. That long-term investment in family will be so rewarding many years down the line, and we need to remember that as we keep moving forward. I think our family had done a pretty good job of that so far. :)

Anyway, we're only allowed to go to firesides if we have a recent convert of investigator there. Irma and Agustin decided to come, and our rockin' ward mission leader, Brother Anderson, took us. We drove past the Louisville temple on the way to the stake center too, so that was really really exciting! It is so tiny. But hey, it's a temple. And it's beautiful. And I miss going to the temple every week like in Utah, but I'm excited at the thought of helping people get to the temple someday. That's kinda cool, huh? Also, Brother Anderson and I had some super good conversation on the way to and from the fireside (Elder S sat in back with Irma and Agustin). It was just a cool night.

Update on Sergio. His family all lives in Mexico, so at some point, when he was talking to them on the phone, he also talked to some preacher guy down there they have been in contact with. So he called us and said we needed to give him a week to think about everything, because he got confused with the two different messages that he had heard. We told him the only thing he could do was pray to know what was right. We're going to see him this week sometime and hopefully he'll have figured out what he wants.

We got to pie the district leader if we won the challenge. Since we tied, everyone pied him. Haha

I think I've written about Roxy before. She's a senior in high school. Her sister's fam is getting reactivated right now, and her mom is actually a member, but no one can find her records. Anyway, we have chatted with her a lot lately, and yesterday we watched the moving "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration." It's a super good film, and y'all should watch it sometime. We talked with her for a bit afterwards, and we asked her if she thought Joseph Smith was a prophet. She wasn't super super animated or anything, but she said yes, and so that's something so great! We just know that she can progress and move forward. She asks great questions, so we'll see where things go. We're super optimistic for her!

One other thing we do is besides the English classes we teach at the church, we started teaching in this little Mexican store/restaurant. The owner and her gang of friends all come after the store closes on Sunday nights and we teach them English. They are all sooo cool. We pray before and after each lesson (we've done two so far), and for now that's all the gospel-y stuff we've done with them. We're trying to build friendships a bit before we sort of try to get the gospel going with them. But Elder S said he thinks the seeds we are planting with them are really really good, and though I haven't really seen a lot of methods of missionary work, I don't doubt it. They will always associate missionaries with good people that helped them. I don't know if I'll see them progress in my time in Frankfort/Versailles, but maybe the next batch of Elders will be able to help them out more. Kinda cool, huh? Also, the shop owner gives us food and Mexican soda after the lessons, and that's great. :)

Well, I think that's about it for now. Next week we're going to have our Spanish testimony meeting, so we're excited for that! Fingers crossed that goes well!

Have a good week, everyone!

Love,
Zac

Week 11 - January 23, 2012

Hi family!

This week was good! We had a few really interesting things happen, and one was meeting a man named Sergio. We had out lots of cards that have Jesus on one side, and a number you can call on the other side to get a free DVD. Well, we get a text message from Salt Lake with the name and address of someone who wants the DVD. So we went and tried to deliver it. He wasn't home. We went the next day and he was there! He let us in and we talked for a long time about the church and the stuff we believe. Well, he's actually a pretty sharp Bible guy himself, and was super open to everything we had to say. We made an appointment to see him a few days later. When we showed up we talked about Priesthood authority, which is almost always something super key in helping people understand the true need for a restoration. He soaked it all up, and ultimately accepted a baptismal date for Feb 21st! Which, actually will have to get moved back because that is a Tuesday, which we didn't realize, but that's okay, because he wants to learn and hear our message! Yay! He works nights, and works every single day. No weekend. No breaks. So getting him to church is going to be rough, but we'll find a way. And his roommate, Rufino, wants to learn too, so we have an appointment with him this week too.

We also met two guys named Angel and Manuel. Anyway, they were really cool the first time we saw them. They told us to come back Saturday night. So we did. And they had just bought an 18 pack of Bud Light. But that's not all. I counted 17 empty Bud Light cans that were on the coffee table. There were 5 guys there total that night, and despite how many beer cans there were already empty they all seemed pretty normal -- not tipsy or anything. I guess that's why they bought another 18 pack. But they all had tons and tons of questions, which was kind of cool. Elder S told me the only reason we went inside is because we had already met Angel and Manuel, and that we would normally never enter a home of guys that had a bunch of beer. So don't freak out. Also, I didn't have a bad feeling or anything about going in, which either makes me naive, or shows that it was okay to talk to them.

We had a few minutes to kill before an appointment, so we played on the railroad tracks right next to the apartment complex.

We had Zone Conference on Friday, so we drove into Lexington to meet up with everyone. We watched some safety videos about cars, because apparently we have had an unusually high number of car accidents in the last couple of transfers. Oops. Anyway, we had some great speakers, including President and Sister Woodbury, had a delicious lunch, roll-played and had a great time being around other missionaries. It was a lot of fun, and it perked us all up and got us excited to work hard.

Church was good yesterday, and Spanish Gospel Principles is still my favorite. We didn't have any investigators there, but Irma is still rocking it all, and had lots of questions about eternal marriage and things. Her boyfriend wants to get married, but she said she wants to be sealed in a temple. You go, Irma! Also, before church we had a big meeting with Bishop S, our ward mission leader, a Hispanic couple (who totally rock!), and a few other Priesthood leaders in our ward. We talked for a long time about what we can do to help the Hispanics in our ward. We're going to start having a separate testimony meeting in Spanish each month, and we're going to rotate saying the sacrament prayers in Spanish every other week. It is amazing how accepting and excited this ward is for the Spanish speaking people! We're so excited to have a Spanish meeting in a couple of weeks!

Yesterday evening we had a meeting with our Stake President in Lexington. Our Bishop, the Bishop of a Lexington ward, and all the Spanish missionaries (3 companionship's) met with him and one of his counselors. We talked for about an hour about the ways that we can strengthen and grow the Spanish speaking membership here. Because transportation is a continual issue and our stake boundaries are really really big, we can't really create a branch any time soon, but that is ultimately the long-term goal. For now though, each ward is starting to do it's own thing to see what works best, and I feel like we are totally prepared to really ramp up helping the Spanish speakers.

It was cold! Haha. I hope I'm not in a bike area next winter.

Both of these meetings made me think a lot about my call to speak Spanish in this part of the country. We already have a temple here, so I'll never come back for a temple dedication and feel like my work was part of what paved the way for that. And it's not like I need to feel that, because I am really glad there is a temple nearby that already has a session or two each month in Spanish. But I did feel pretty strongly that I was called here to help pave the way for future Spanish members in the church here. I don't know how long it will take for a Spanish branch to take hold here. Probably a long time. But knowing that I'm going to be a part of this new program for Spanish speakers, and to specifically help build Priesthood leadership (because that's what we lack the most) in the Frankfort ward sort of validated my calling here in Spanish. And I know that God sent me here to teach in this language, but thinking about that was pretty cool.

Quick notes about the weather. It was kinda cold this week, and we're running out of miles. We decided to bike on Thursday because we had some appointments in Versailles, and Versailles is tiny, so biking is pretty easy. But when it's 32 degrees outside, it isn't super fun. Even with thermals and your coat and scarf and gloves and earmuffs. Hahaha. But it was kind of a fun adventure. Also, I appreciate our car more than ever. Haha. Yesterday it warmed up (into the upper 40s and eventually the upper 50s) and apparently the rapid temperature change could have caused some tornadoes. Kinda crazy huh? Also, it rained like crazy, and it was nuts because one minute it wasn't raining, and the next it was pouring. It is kind of an all-or-nothing thing apparently. And we had lots of thunder and lightning, and it reminded me of the desert. :)

Starting our biking adventure.

I guess that's all. It was just a good week. I look forward to more like this. We get transfer calls on Saturday, so we're kinda nervous for that. We'll see what happens! If Elder S or I get moved far away, we'll go to Louisville for the transfer meeting. If we get moved, but not far, we just have to arrange for a ride to get there. Transfer meetings are super fun, so I'd love a reason to go all the way to Louisville, although I don't know that I really want a new companion just yet since I'm getting used the one I have! haha.

I hope y'all are doing good!

Love,

Zac