27 September 2011

Hello family! I hope all is going well for you.

We had a good week here for the most part. Janet and Grace didn't show up to church this week. They were on their way to church when Janet's grandson stole Janet's phone, threw it out the window while the car was driving, and destroyed the phone, so they pulled over to pick it up and continue to church. After they picked it up, they got back in the car, and the car wouldn't start up again. Bad luck! They will for sure watch general conference this weekend, they said. TJ (Janet's fiance) delayed our lesson this week twice, then ended up just cancelling it, and didn't try to go to church. We're going to have a throw-down lesson on Wednesday to try to get him to shape up. As interested as he is in finding the truth, he isn't making a very big effort to learn!

We finally got a hold of Julian, Leon, Amanda, and Tony this week, and had a lesson set up at the Davis's house (no we're not related). They didn't show up, and we found out later than Leon has two abrasions in his eye and had to go to the hospital. Hopefully he heals up soon. We're trying still to get another lesson in. They moved this week to a new complex outside our boundary, but still nearby. They want to stay with us and our ward, but we'll have to see how committed they are before we talk to President Cook about that. Hopefully we won't have to pass off 4 more baptisms to another ward. We've already given away 5 since I've been in Vista.

Ceyda and Lavena are doing very well. We finally had a lesson with them on Wednesday, and we were able to catch up Lavena some more on the lessons by teaching the Restoration. She is just as intelligent as Ceyda regarding the scriptures. They are learning a lot and are progressing very well. We're going to teach the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday. They drink green tea, but there shouldn't be any other issues. Pray that goes well! Lavena (I don't know if I mentioned--she's West's mom, Ceyda's mother-in-law, that lives with them) made some REALLY good gravy and gave it to us. Lots of meat and flavor, etc. Elder Bowen ended up eating most of it while I was in the shower and writing things down, but I got some of it.

Christian, Josh, and Joselyne are moving on Saturday to San Marcos (next city southeast of Vista, between Vista and Escondido), and won't be able to meet with us anymore. They will go to a new ward down there. We and the Spanish elders helped them move a bunch of stuff to storage on Saturday, took lots of pictures, and they bought us pizza. We'll probably see them once or twice more before they move.

Sister Poe is also doing well. On Friday, she was still concerned that she had to get baptized again, seeing that she'd been baptized twice already. We explained authority once again, which she understands. We had a good talk about it, and concluded that she would need to continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray sincerely about it. She is not pulling away at all; she will be fine. She didn't make it to church this week, and will be gone this weekend too, visiting her granddaughter in juvy in San Diego. Hopefully she can be baptized before I leave Vista, but I don't know if that will happen.

Yesterday we had interviews with President Cook (as well as flu shots, so don't worry Mom!). He told me my task in training Elder Bowen he knew was a challenging one, but felt from the beginning I was the right person to do it. He had spoken with his stake president from Idaho a few days ago, and learned a lot of things about Elder Bowen's background, especially family, that made him the way he is. Elder Bowen has told me much of his background, so I understood. I won't say most of it because it's private and sensitive, but President Cook told me he appreciates the things I'm teaching him and is happy with the progress we are making, and to keep hanging in there. President also hinted that I may stay in Vista longer. We'll see. This is my 4th transfer in Vista (the same length of time I was in Esco), but hopefully I can be here 5 or 6.

Whoever has my SD card that I sent late April, send it back! I'm almost out of room on the one I have. There are over 500 pictures waiting for y'all to see them! I'll send it as soon as I get my other one back.

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks again for your support. There are a lot of prayers in my behalf, and I see that in my work out here. I love you all very much. Have a great week!

Elder Jon La Follette

GO UTES!

Maybe the Angels can pick it up next year.

20 September 2011

Hey family, I hope you all had a good week

My week was okay. We didn't teach very many lessons, but it was still a good week. We had a couple more people at church this week. Janet and her daughter Grace (aka Angel) came to church. Janet's fiance TJ (aka Carter) didn't show up, even though he promised he would. Janet was heavily thinking of joining the Jehovah's Witnesses church, but wanted to come to ours. She/they had a great time at church and the ward just jumped on them as soon as sacrament meeting was over. Some people are overwhelmed by that, but it was really good for Janet and Grace. We couldn't even talk to them for several minutes because there was literally a line of people waiting to meet them. Maybe it was because they don't see black people in church very much. We have a bunch of black investigators right now (TJ Janet and Grace, Julian, Leon, and Tony, and Mary Poe) so maybe we can get some more black members! They are doing very well, and we will meet with them again on Friday.

Ceyda and Lavena came to church again and loved it as usual. They are also getting a lot of friends in the ward. Tonight they're going to a Relief Society function, and hopefully they can go on Saturday to the RS broadcast.

We picked up another couple of guys last week as investigators, Joel and his friend Rudy. They are devout JWs and wanted to meet with us to talk about our religions. They are different than most JWs we run into, being that they are very civil and non-combative. I don't know how far we'll get to go with them, but at least they listen to us and our message. They did say no to a prayer after the lesson though.

That's about all for investigators updates right now. Everyone is doing well for the most part. If you have questions about anyone, let me know. I'm not sure what you might want to know about them.

Last Tuesday we had a district activity in our church building. The activities have been always the same-- basketball with the elders, and when the sisters arrive, we play a game called "signs". This week, one of the elders taught us all how to play rugby (he played rugby in SLC before his mission. Wants to play for the U of U). We are all really bad at it, but it was so fun. We did a scrum, which is the part where everyone interlinks arms, bends down, and fights for the ball. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was really, really fun.

Last Wednesday we were walking down a street at night next to a place called Boomers, which is similar to Trafalga. We walked towards the place, and we heard a bunch of girls singing Called to Serve as we got closer. As we walked up, they sang really loud and cheered. It was a young womens group from San Marcos that was doing their Mutual activity, and they were happy to see elders walking by.

On Friday Elder Bowen and I had Christmas, just for fun. I have a Glade Cinnamon spray (to combat Elder Bowen) so it smelled really good in our apartment, and then we made gingerbread cookies while we were doing our weekly planning, listened to Christmas music, and wore green and red ties. To make it better, it was overcast and very cool outside. I was hoping Santa would even come, but he didn't.

Sunday mornings I always play the organ in the chapel long before sacrament meeting starts, and one of the bishopric heard me play and now is trying to get us missionaries to do a musical number in sacrament meeting. I'm not sure if I want to! I'm not very very good, and the other elders sing...ahem..very well. I'll let you know if that happens.

Last night we had dinner at the Guymons house, with several other families in the ward joining us. Elder Barlow (one of the elders in our ward) was dared for $1 to eat a Jabanero (spelling?) pepper. He did it, and for the next 30 minutes had pink eyes, a snotty nose, and tears constantly rolling down his face. One of the kids was assigned to bring him soda and cornbread to counter the heat. He got his dollar!

I was told the good news about the Utes!!! GO UTES!!!!! There's a family in our ward, the McKeons, that have a son at U of U, and are now all Utah fans. Sister McKeon wore a Utah polo shirt to church even. They always update me on college football scores. Wish I could have seen the game! But it's okay, it'll happen next year too. I figured that Utah might have won (before I found out the score) because no one was wearing their blue BYU ties to church. Hehe

General Conference is coming up. I strongly encourage you (BoM terms--exhort!) all to think of someone you can invite to watch Conference with you, maybe just 1 session. It's really a great opportunity to hear the Apostles and prophet speak. Even those not of our faith know very quickly that they are men of God. I hope you will all invite someone to hear conference. Let me know how it goes!

Well that's all for this week. I hope you are all doing well. Have a great week!

Love

Elder La Follette

13 September 2011

We had some computer trouble here so my time is really short. I had a lot to say, but my time is really short.

It's been a good week. Ceyda's mother in law went to church and had a great time. They fed us BBQ on Saturday and Lavena (Ceyda's M-in-L) made some really yummy apple cinnamon pie and sent us home with the leftovers. Ceyda's been doing a lot of missionary work--and will bring one of her co-workers to church next week probably. It's interesting how much true conversion will make someone want to share the Gospel as much as they can. It makes me think if members of the church are truly converted, and do we have a "lasting conversion"?

You may or may not have heard of the blackout that happened in So Cal, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Tijuana. We had our power go out Thursday afternoon until early Friday morning. It was nothing new for me, since power goes oout in Utah all the time, but the Californians had a really rough time. They are still talking about it! There was a ton of traffic on the highway and throughout the city--large and small streets, more than I've ever seen in my life! That was fun. We had neighbors below us take out a candle and roast marshmallows over it.

That's all the time I have, sorry. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all so much! The Church is true

Elder La Follette

6 September 2011

Hi family!

It's been a really productive week this week. We picked up 5 new investigators (a family of 3, a spouse of another, and West's mother that lives with Ceyda.) It's been nice to be busy! We never really had time for tracting or contacting because we were either in a lesson or on our way to one most of each day. It was really good to be busy. Julian, his brother Leon, and Julian's girlfriend Tony all accepted to be baptized on October 8th! They seem really solid, and we had a great dinner/lesson on the Restoration at a new ward family's house. Tony reminds me very, very much of Daniell, it's really funny! Unfortunately, Julian and Leon will be moving soon to another place in Oceanside, so we will probably have to pass them off to other missionaries. Should have expected it though! Since I've been in Vista, we have passed off 5 people that either got baptized, or will be baptized in coming weeks, all because of boundary rules.

Today is transfers in the mission, but Elder Bowen and I will be staying here in the Vista 3rd Ward. I will probably be here 6 more weeks, and then will be transferred. But, you never know!

Also, Josh and Amanda Adkins-Setty moved back to Oceanside today. We helped them move this morning. You don't know them, but they are good friends of mine (the other 3 missionaries in the ward don't know them at all or as well), the same ones whose computers I skyped on for Mothers Day.

We had rain yesterday for the first time in several months, it was really nice! Today is very hot and very humid. We are now entering the hottest part of the year for San Diego area (I don't know about other parts of Southern Cal).

Well that's really all for this week!

I hope you are all well.

Love, Elder La Follette

GO UTES!!!

30 August 2011

Hi family!
The day after tomorrow is September. Man the year is going by quick!
I hope all of you in Northern Utah are alive after that storm! Sounds like it was another 4th of July. We've been getting a lot of hot and humid down here.
It hasn't been very eventful the past few days, since Thursday. Saturday my back was better in the morning. We helped a lady in her yard, and afterwards came back for a shower. Shortly after my shower I bent down and up wrong and my back popped again. So, I was laying on the ground all day with severe back pain. Sister Cook told me to lay on the ground for a few hours with ice under my back and taking medicine. Bro Voigtlander (ward mission leader) brought some ibuprofen for me since I was out of it, and it helped a lot! My back is doing better today. It has healed a lot.
Friday night we had a really good movie night. We only had about 25 people show up, but it was good. One of our invesgators, Andy [edit], and his family showed up.
Sunday, Mary [edit] came to church and had a great time. She said while she was talking to the members, she'd never had such a warm feeling and welcoming feeling in her life. It was really good for her. She participated a lot in class too. We will teach her tonight and hopefully she will accept a baptism date.
We met with Paul on Sunday with Bro Coleman. He has a baptism date for Oct 1, but we are probably going to drop him this week. He won't do anything but more importantly, he can never remember anything we teach him. On Sunday we taught him a lesson about the Restoration for a good while. At the end, the only thing he remembered learning was "I remember a.. uh.. uh a pillar? Pillar of light! But I like to think of the blue sky." and goes off talking about how animals should be treated better. Yeah... It's been like that, so we probably won't continue to teach him much longer.
We have another new investigator, his name is Julian. He is 22 from Florida and got recruited to play football for several universities (including UF). Instead, he joined the Marines. A few months ago he finished his 4 years in the Marines and now wants to get closer to God.
Well that's all the time I have and really all i wanted to say anyway. I hope you are all doing well!
Have a good week
Elder Jon La Follette

25 August 2011

Hi family! I'm low on time so I'll share the best stuff from this week.
Elder Bowen finally got a bike last Saturday from a lady we've been doing yard work for. It was a piece of junk but I fixed it up for him. He claimed he knows how to fix stuff really well but we eager to sit back and watch me do it. It's all good. I finally got his brakes fixed yesterday so we started riding bikes for the first time since he's been in the mission. I was really excited because I'm tired of walking all the time. We got about 10 min into the day, then I hit a bump and my bike tire went flat in about 3 seconds. We walked our bikes back to the apartment. En route, we talked to a lady that was walking by. We asked how her day was, and she said it was good, and asked how our day was. I said we were doing well, until my bike tire went flat and I showed her. She looked at it and said "Oh my. Well I hope it stays that way!" and walked off. It was a great start to the day!
On Tuesday Elder Gibbons of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission. We had 3 zones meet in Carlsbad for the conference I went to. I was asked to play piano by the APs a few days before. They had two songs picked out, one of which I could play. I asked if we could play a different one, and they asked if I could just learn it. I said I could, and they were happy. They also mentioned that President wanted it to be "General Authority perfect!" No pressure! I got it learned though, and it went okay.
The computer just asked me if I wanted 30 more minutes of time! Yay! I won't use it all though.
Elder Gibbons talked a lot about member missionary work with us, and how it is done. He first started with the doctrine of it and why members do missionary work. The First Presidency said that missionary work is centered in the ward, not in the missions. The bishop and stake presidents hold the priesthood keys to find investigators. The mission president holds the keys to teaching and baptizing investigators, and the missionaries primarily do the teaching. The missionaries will have their own efforts finding investigators, but the primary responsibility lies with the members of the Church. As a missionary, I have noticed how much more effective "member referrals" are than us tracting and talking to people on the street. In our mission, 63% of baptisms in the last year came from member referrals or part-member families. Only 11% came from tracting and 15% from street contacts. So "logically", missionaries will see results like this, and then spend most of their time knocking on doors and talking to people on the street. Really, missionary work should be focused more on the members of the Church. In our mission and other missions in the world, we are trying to start a major change and instead of focusing on finding people on our own, and then asking for a referral from members here and there (and 99% of the time, no one has a referral), we will focus on helping members in their missionary efforts. Elder Gibbons asked us to not ask for referrals at dinner anymore, but rather to focus our conversation on helping the members in their efforts. We'll see how this goes! President Cook and really all of us feel really strongly that this is the right thing to do. President Hinckley said something to the effect of "many look at missionary work as simply tracting. Those who are familiar with this work know that there is a much better way, and that way is through the members of the Church." If we are to do the Lord's work, we need to join together the Missionary Church and the Member Church and make it the Church of Jesus Christ. Elder Gibbons said that members need to realize that 1- Missionary work is NOT hard 2- Missionary work is NOT complicated and 3- You will NOT lose your friends in inviting them. It was a really good zone conference. I wish I had time to tell you all I learned from Elder and Sister Gibbons and President and Sister Cook, but I don't have time. But that was the biggest thing he talked about.
We had a really powerful lesson with Ceyda on Tuesday night. She had an experience where she clearly heard the voice of the Holy Ghost telling her something she needed to know. She said for sure she wants to be baptized into the Church. When she talked to West, she asked him if it was really important to him that they get baptized together. Otherwise, she'd go for it right now. West said it was definitely important to him and that they should wait. He said "I was the one who got you into it in the first place!" It was pretty funny. West and Ceyda are looking at February for baptism, since he'll have a 2- week leave from his deployment. I hope I will be in a place that I can go to it. They are probably my favorite investigators of my whole mission, maybe combined with Patrick from Mira Mesa. I've felt a really strong connection with both of them. They have grown so much since I first went over with Elder Farley. Ceyda told us that every time they go to church on Sunday (Saturday for West in Afghanistan) they will talk to each other for a good length of time about the things they each learned in church. They are so cool!
Sister Poe wasn't able to make it to church this week. Her daughter from Chula Vista (about two hours south of Vista) was going to pick her up to take her to see her grandaughter in Juvy, and that was during church. Sister Poe's daughter never showed up, so she called her later and was mad at her for not showing up, and that she had to miss church for nothing. She is planning to go this Sunday.
There is a young couple in the ward we're working with, Amanda and Mario [edit]. They have been working with their neighbors Jerica and Junior, and next week we should begin to teach them. We had a BBQ at the [edit] on Sunday that they went to and had a great time! Junior is a BUFF Tongan. He laughed when I called him Junior Seau. He used to play linebacker. I would NOT want to get hit by him.
About a month ago I had an idea of having a movie night with the ward at the church. The ward liked the idea, and tomorrow night we're having the Missionary Movie Night. The ward is excited, and a lot of people are bringing their friends, and some of our investigators are going to come. We're going to play Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. It's the really good Joseph Smith movie that played at Legacy Theater in Salt Lake for a long time. Elder Child gave me a copy of it last November so we're going to watch it. We're going to have popcorn and pink lemonade, and people are going to come in PJs and bring blankets and beanbags and such. Pretty much like the Timpview Pillow Concert but for a movie. It's going to be awesome!
Well I've ended up taking a lot longer than I thought! Good thing I got extra time today. Sounds like football season is going to start soon. Go UTES!!! It won't be a big distraction here, because no one cares about college football in San Diego, since San Diego State hasn't been good for a while and they're in a dumb conference now. Sunday nights are always funny because the streets are lined house after house with a bunch of guys in every garage sitting on a couch watching the Chargers games together and holding beers. We've learned that generally guys aren't interested when the Chargers are on. I wouldn't be either though, if my team was playing!
I hope you all have a great week! I love you all
Elder Jon La Follette

16 August 2011

Hello family!

It's been a good week this week. Things are looking up. We finally found a new investigator on Sunday, and then another one last night. Sunday was a man named TJ. Older black gentleman from Rochester, NY (ha!). He has spent much of his adult life (now in his 60s) trying to find a church that fits what he reads in the Bible. So far he has found that the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and 7th Day Adventists are the closest. He said the Mormons are probably the religion that follows the Bible most closely, including building temples and "the order of Melchizedek." He is very religiously smart and so far is fascinated with the LDS Church, especially the principle of the pre-mortal world. He will be a very interesting person to teach!
Last Saturday I was on an exchange with Elder Davis, one of the zone leaders (not related, as far as we can tell). Among all the people we talked to was an older black lady in her 70s, name Mary Poe. She grew up Lutheran and Baptist and loves the Lord. We taught her last night for the first time and got to know her better and gave her a Book of Mormon. We arranged to get her a ride to church on Sunday and she is very excited. She told us that last week, she was on her knees praying in her room that somehow she could go back to church, since she hadn't been in the 5 years she's lived here. Her back hurts too much to walk to the church down the road. Just a few days later we found her on the street and she was happy to let us come by. She was very happy to accept the invitation to come to church with us.
Fonzie Vavao got baptized this last Wednesday! I didn't tell y'all because he called me after I was done emailing and asked me to come to the baptism and baptize him. I was definitely happy to, and the baptism was held last Wednesday. It was in the 10th ward, the ward to our east. Other than their ward mission leader, and a counselor in the bishopric, there was only one family that came to the baptism (beside Fonzie's). The Riddles decided to come, so I got a chance to see them for the first time since last spring when I came to Vista! Karisa, her brother Joe, and their dad (Uncle Craig) were there and after the baptism I got a bunch of time to talk to them. It was good to see them again! Their good friends in the 3rd ward, the Isas, feed us sometimes, so they said the next time we eat at the Isas, they would come too. I'm so happy for Fonzie! It was really cool too see him and his family again, and be able to be there for his baptism. He will be a solid member of the church.
We had a meeting last Thursday for all the trainers and their companions that were in their first 6 weeks, so we went. There is a new program introduced by the Church that sets up a curriculum for trainers to teach their new companions by the time their first 12 weeks are over in the mission. In the packets we got, it said the goal is to prepare our companions so well, that by the end of their first 12 weeks in the field, they will be ready to successfully train a new missionary! Elder Bowen is making some good strides and learning a lot about the work. He has a good drive when we're out working and loves the work. He still smells but he's a nice kid.
Next Tuesday we have another General Authority coming to our mission. Elder Gibbons of the 2nd quorum of the Seventy is coming to visit and teach us. Because he's coming to our area of the mission on Tuesday, our PDay will be on Thursday next week instead of Tuesday. The next week it'll go back to normal.
I hope you are all doing well! I appreciate your love and support. Have a great week everyone

Elder Jon La Follette