28 June 2011

Hi family!

It's been a good week. Lots and lots of dropped appointments, so not of lot of new stuff, but at least there are things to talk about.

Last Wednesday we helped Bro. Hartung cut down his giant tree in his back yard. It was the 2nd time we'd been over to help. He would go up in the tree, tie ropes to the trunk and branches, and then chainsaw the branches down. We would direct the branches down (as big as trees themselves), untie them, and cut them to pieces with our own chainsaws. It was really fun. I felt very manly with dirt, sweat, sap, and cuts all over me, not to mention we were manhandling a giant tree. On one of the branches though, the rope got caught around Brother Hartung's arm, and burned his arm really bad as the branch fell downward. When the rope ran out, the branch jerked, and the rope broke his arm, just above the wrist. But he didn't know it was broken yet, so he grunted in pain a little bit, then continued chainsawing. Later he tied a rope to the top of the tree, including about 8 branches, and down below we pulled and pulled and broke the top of the tree off. It was so cool.

Ceyda is back from base, and we were able to teach her and West once. We talked about baptism, and they seem pretty excited to do that. We are aiming for July 23rd. We only have a small window of time to do it, because they're going on pre-deployment leave from July 1-16, then he'll be deployed probably July 30 or 31st. So we only have about two weeks to teach them the 3rd lesson, and all of the commandments, have them interviewed, and baptized and confirmed. We're going to try to make it work. He's been getting off work really late recently, so it's been hard to meet with them. Ceyda will still be around, but West will be gone for a year on deployment. Hopefully it will work out. They both came to church on Sunday (West's 3rd time, Ceyda's first time) and really enjoyed it. Ceyda felt awkward in Relief Society because the women talked about not having more than one piercing, and Ceyda has two piercings. But we talked about it with her, and I don't think it'll be a problem.

Sunday, we had dinner with the Mataaliis (a less active/recent convert family we've been teaching) and West and Ceyda at the Mataaliis place. It was really good for all of them, they are good friends now. Mataaliis are also a young couple with a baby boy. That was our second dinner of the night. Earlier we ate with the Faleumu family. They are Samoan, and of course, require we eat a LOT of food. We had ribs, which were delicious. We ate a ton. Then after an appointment, had the other dinner with the Mataaliis and West and Ceyda. We were SO full by the end. Reminded me of Dad's story about eating the giant potatoes. Elder Fackrell didn't have breakfast the next day because he was still full when he woke up.

Found out that one of the priests in our ward was in the same prom group as me when I came down for the high school's prom last year. It was fun to see pictures of us all, before we knew each other!

Our other investigators are doing well. Andy Zinniger is a guy in his 40s that we've been teaching a little bit. He's been coming to church for a long time, his wife is a member. He even teaches nursery, even though he's not a member. He's a really nice guy, and I think he'll join the church within a few months. He hasn't been wanting to be pushed into baptism, but I think he'll join soon. We see him once a week.

We haven't seen Sheryl for a while, but we will help her with yard work again tomorrow and teach her tomorrow night.

Christian is doing pretty well. We've all been trying to figure out a way to help him read the scriptures every day. So far it's working! Tonight we're going to invite him and his family to go down to the temple and take a family picture in front of it.

Yesterday every companionship got a small DVD player, so we could watch the Preach My Gospel training videos in companionship study. I can definitely imagine some of the missionaries abusing those... Don't worry, I won't! Our mission president said he's already planning on some being taken away soon.

Yesterday while riding to see a referral, we were riding down a street with a couple houses on it. We talk to everyone we see on the streets and try to share the gospel. As I was about to pass one house, there was a car pulling into the driveway. I could have talked to them fairly easily, or I could have passed them up. For whatever reason, I decided to pass them up and keep riding. I immediately started feeling guilty, since I never have a problem talking to everyone. I decided to ignore my guilt because I was well past the house, and when I decided to ignore the feeling, my water bottle, full of cold water, somehow made its way out of its holder and fell out into the street and then rolled down an open drain. I was really thirsty, and I just watched my water roll down the drain. That definitely taught me a lesson! If you get a prompting from the Holy Ghost, you'd better follow it. That was a minor "punishment" but often the consequences are more severe if we ignore instruction from God because we're lazy.

I hope you are all well and happy! I hope you all keep in touch with each other. Family is so important, and the world doesn't understand that nearly as well as they need to. Don't take ours for granted.

Love you all

Elder Jon La Follette

21 June 2011

Hello family!

It's been an okay week! I apologize for not replying very much last week. We had limited time (as I do right now too!).

By the way, Tara, there are some Hiatts in our ward. The dad is Sam Hiatt, Maren's older brother! I thought that was a cool connection.

Happy Father's Day to Dad and Mike and Joe and Mike and Grandpa!

Happy birthday Camille this Saturday

West went to church again this week. He is solid. Ceyda comes back from Pendleton tonight. We will meet with them tomorrow night to discuss a baptism date. Hopefully we can get it done before deployment the lsat week of July.

The other day we played basketball with West in the morning. (short version of story) There was another guy playing with him that he didn't know. Eventually we found out he was Ruben, a guy we talked to on the street a few weeks back. We had given him a pass-along card, and he seemed mildly interested. While playing basketball, he said that card saved his life. There was "so much unrighteousness" in his life that that card saved him that night, and he wants us to come by and teach more. We coulnd't get a hold of him yesterday, but we met his neighbors, who have recently lost their baby, and want us to come teach. It's neat how God leads us to people all over the place.

No other big things to talk about this week, since I have so little time!

I did get a small pool table at a ward potluck white elephant gift exchange!

Have a great week!

Love you all

Elder La Follette

14 June 2011

Hey family I am extremely short on time this week. Elder Gale is being transferred this week and we've got a BUSY day. I will have to reply to emails next week. I am very sorry.

I did see the pictures and got an idea of Tara's accident. I am so glad she's okay. That is awful. You're in my prayers Tara!

I will be staying in the north side of our ward, where I've been working. Elder Fackrell is my companion, and there will be two new missionaries coming in tonight on the other part of the ward, so we'll have to show them around.

Update-- West went to church this week (finally) and had a really great experience. Josh and Amanda Adkins-Setty took him (they're the ones that I skyped from). We have a lesson tonight with him. Everything else has been a little slow this week.

I love you all so much and I am sorry it was so short this week. I will be able to talk more next week.

Have a great week. Feel better Tara!

Jon

7 June 2011

Hello family, this is going to have to be quick this week

We've had another good week. We've been focusing a lot on finding new people to teach.. Prayers would be appreciated. We need a little extra help with this.

A few stories from this week and a quick update are all I have time for.

Saturday night we went to an appointment to a less active I'm teaching. He is a elderly-person caretaker and lives at his work. Upon getting there, he told us there was something he needed help with. There was one old women on hospice care that would likely die that night or the next morning. He asked if we could do anything. We went in and met her daughter and talked for a while, then gave her a blessing. It was a really interesting experience. We blessed her that her passing to the next life would be really smooth. I felt very strongly that her spirit was longing to be free from her old and very, very frail body. I also felt she would not live much longer, and it wasn't God's will she be healed this time. Her labored breathing did ease though, and she looked more peaceful. I assume she passed away the next day.

Yesterday we had a district meeting. At the end, we all knelt as a district to ask if the Book of Mormon was true. It was a very powerful experience for all of us. I felt the Holy Ghost stronger than I've had in a while. It was really neat. The Book of Mormon definitely is true, and it's the best news in the world!

A good chunk of my area is Oceanside, and a lot of people we talk to go to or have attended Oceanside High. Several of them know about Jordan Wynn playing there and are happy to know I'm a Ute like him!

We had only one lesson with West and Ceyda last week. Ceyda had to go to base for 2 weeks so she asked me to give her homework. I made a pack of pamphlets and reading and stuff for her to do. She said she'd do it. West is still in town and I will meet tomorrow with him. Still no baptism date left.

We met someone yesterday whose mom cleans the mission home. She said that President Cook is the only mission president they've met who wears robe and slippers around home. I thought that was really funny.

That's all I have time for. Have a great week

Love you all

Elder La Follette

31 May 2011

Hey family!

I'm rushed right now, the computers are weird here at the library today so I could get kicked off at any moment. If I do, I'll talk about stuff next week.

We went to the temple this morning. It's always a great experience. It's neat driving down I-5 and suddenly the big white castle appears out of nowhere! It's really neat. On the way back we drove on the coastal highway so we got to see the ocean a lot. It's really big. We saw an aircraft carrier in the distance.

The other day we were riding on our bikes to check on a person. On the way there, Kurt [edit] drove by and stopped us to chat! He is a member, who is dating Christine [edit], one of my favorite people to teach in Escondido. That was really fun to talk to him. After we saw the person, we were riding our bikes really fast to get to dinner. On the way, we saw a girl getting out of her car, so Elder Gale and I stopped to "contact" her. We started talking, and we saw Elder Fackrell speeding behind us. He looked at her to say hi, then realized we had stopped. He slammed on his brakes to stop, but only his front brakes work, so he crashed really hard right in front of this girl. It was hilarious. Elder Gale and I couldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes. Priceless.

Saturday night we went to a wedding. Normally we wouldn't go, but there was a recent convert there that requested we go. It was really interesting to go to one of those! I've been to some, but I don't remember them well. They had dinner there too so we had about 2 platefulls of ribs. Mmmm!

Elder Gale has a metal slurpy straw from 7-11 that we've converted into a blow gun. You can fit pushpins perfectly in them and make good darts. We've been having target practice during lunch on a corkboard. So far I've been the best aim!

West and Ceyda are doing well. Ceyda has to be on base for 14 days, so she won't be able to be taught or go to church, but we will teach West by himself. He didn't show up to church on Sunday so we'll have to find out why, since he was so excited to go. Everyone is doing very well. We picked up another investigator lady yesterday. She is a Christian that was fascinated by the fact that Christ came to the Americas. I will meet with her tomorrow night! I say I because I go on splits with priests or the ward mission leader every night. We've split the area but I don't have my own companion for a few more weeks so we split up all the time. it's weird using the words "I" and "my". You don't say that muhc as a missionary.

That's about all I have for this week. I love you all and hope you're doing well.

Have a good one

Elder La Follette

24 May 2011

Hello family!

I'm back in the tri-companionship again. Elder Farley left Wednesday morning. Our mission president came to pick him up at 6:30. While he was at our apartment, he mentioned how nice and clean it was. We didn't do any extra cleaning so that was cool!

This morning during our companionship study we heard lots of yelling and screaming next door, and some loud crashes. We weren't really sure what to do, because it could have been one thing our another, but eventually the cops showed up and broke up a fight. Apparently he was beating his girlfriend and such. Never a dull moment around here.

A few updates on our teaching--

I don't know if I even told you about our/my investigators. I say "my" because we still divide our ward boundaries. Elder Farley and I worked north of the highway, and Elder Gale and Elder Fackrell work south of the highway. Now that E. Farley is gone, I still cover north of the highway by myself, so the priests in the ward and other members go on splits with me all the time.

I have 3 good investigators. One is Christian [edit]. He's about 21, and is dating a less-active member of the church. His brother Josh just got baptized about two months ago. Their mom, Georgina, takes lessons from the Spanish missionaries. They all come in for the lessons. It's really fun to be teaching a family for the first time. They have quickly become good friends and almost like family to me. Christian wants to get baptized but either has to marry Joselyn (his girlfriend) or move out first. They don't have any money to do so right now, so we are waiting until they can. Right now we have a goal for a baptism on June 25. They all come to church every week and have strong testimonies.

Elder Farley and I also found a young couple in the Marines (LOTS of Marines around here, especially in our apartment complex). Robert (goes by West) and Ceyda (Jay'-duh) Bridger. They are both in the Marines and have a little girl. They have always admired the Mormons they've known for being such happy people. She has a Christian background, but nothing too deep. He has basically been religion-less. They are growing in their testimonies very quickly and are loving everything we've taught so far. He is going to be deployed in about a month or two, for the third time. We will try to set a baptism date tonight.

One funny story--the other day we taught West and Ceyda, and we brought by Brother Coleman, the Ast. WML. He likes to talk about doctrine without realizing he's confusing people. We talked a little about the word of wisdom, and we all discussed the bad things caffeine does to our body. Then West left the room. Bro Coleman then brought up the fact that caffeine does have great medicinal uses if used properly, as well as other positive things. West came back in, and looked befuddled. Eventually we stopped talking and asked him why he looked so confused. He said "just a minute ago caffeine was awful, then when I came back it was awesome..."

Yesterday we had zone conference. Toward the end, President Cook and one of the APs was doing a demonstration on using the scriptures to help answer concerns. The Spirit had been really strong for several hours and had been really peaceful and quiet. He asked Elder Gale (one of my companions, and a goofy kid) to go up to pretend to be the investigator. Elder Gale had to come up with a concern. He said something along the lines of "last week was a really hard week. I work on a ranch, and my dog saw a rat, and started chasing it. It ran into the road, and my dog ran after it, and a truck came and hit my dog..." There was a moment of silence, then President Cook busted out laughing really, really hard. About a minute later, he tried to gather himself and continue with the demo, and then started laughing again and again. It was really, really funny.

Apparently the world was supposed to end last Saturday. I'd heard about it since last September. We've been joking about it to ourselves the whole week. There were a few people that were really worked up about it, and LOTS of people were out Friday and Saturday night drinking and drinking and drinking and having parties and etc... The last week there were a lot of people that yelled and cussed at us (nothing new), but this time they included "you Mormons are all liars!! You idiots! The world is NOT going to end on Saturday! Stop LYING to people!!" We got a kick out of that one.

Well that's about it for this week.

Love you all, have a good one

Elder Jon La Follette

17 May 2011

Hello family!

It's been a good week. Last Tuesday I got my new companion, apartment, car, and area. He is Elder Matt Farley, grew up in Spring City, UT, lived in Alaska for 5 years, and then to GA for a few months. We got along really well. He got his visa really quick, and will be on his way to Brazil tomorrow morning. We are both sad. This also means I'll have to go back into a threesome for the rest of the transfer. President Cook said they requested another visa-waiter, but one wasn't able to come. Elder Farley has taught me some Portuguese! I can say it better than I can spell it though.

We have the nicest apartment in the mission, according to the assistants. We have lots of space, a great kitchen, a couch, and even our own washer/dryer. We are spoiled!

We didn't have a lot of success late last week so we counted the people that waved to us as we walked around town. In one day, we had 26 wave/smile combos, 3 nod/wave combos, 6 smiles, 95 waves, 10 nods, and 2 honks. We also had 1 nod/smile/wave combo.

We picked up an investigator couple last night, West and Ceyda (jay-duh). They are a young military couple that looks really promising.

On Sunday we were asked to do a fireside for the youth. We gave a 30-min presentation on missionary work, then they played a game called "stump the elders". All the youth brought inanimate objects in paper bags. Elder Farley and I (north side) and Elder Gale and Elder Fackrell (south side) competed to find scriptures that related to the random objects, such as a stuffed duck, a container of bubbles, a mascara thing, etc. It was really fun.

Towards the end of a relaly long day on Thursday, we walked by a shop, and a mid-aged Mexican lady called "elders! Elders!" She asked us to come to her home and give her mother a blessing. We went there, found out neither were LDS, but loved Mormons. We taught about the priesthood, gave her a blessing, and she immediately felt better. It was a good day!

That's all I have for this week. Sorry it is short. Have a great week!

Elder La Follette