Monday, February 9, 2015

Ironbound Week #3



Hola familia!

What a week we had here in the Ironbound. Things are going great and Im feeling amazing. Lots of changes but lots of good things going for us as well. It all started on Tuesday at zone meeting. First good thing: I got to listen and enjoy in zone meeting instead of having to be up there doing all the talking and trainings. Ha it was nice to listen and participate from the crowd. I love our zone leaders. Elder King and Elder Nelson. Elder King and I served together as district leaders back in Scotch plains. And Elder Nelson has been a good friend of mine and Elder Packer from the beginning. He came out one after us. They are super good friends. They taught a super powerful training and the spirit was there super strong at zone meeting. Basically this guy from SLC came last week and showed us that a lot of the things we had been doing were distracting us from our main purpose. I mentioned it a little last week but things like: paperwork for exchanges and accountability, reporting other numbers than the normal numbers (for example: number of contacts a week), and playing sports with investigators. I dont know there is a bigger list. But just a bunch of little things that slipped into the cracks that were keeping us from focusing on our main purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. I was a little hesitant about it at first because a lot of the changes were things which were normal for me for the last 18 months and now were doing something different. Imagine that kind of change. Its like we are going back fresh out of the MTC again. A lot of the older missionaries thought the same. But before this meeting I had been praying tons about it and for the help to follow the leaders and President Taggart. And I felt really good about it all and then the spirit was super strong in the meeting and BOOM I was pumped for the new changes. Turned out it took so much of a burden off this past week. These new changes are all about building companionship unity and not so much zone unity, and setting goals as a companionship not the leaders setting goals for championships. Its pretty cool stuff. A lot less stressful. I feel like we were all super number focused before, but now its all about the people are the motivated and numbers don't matter as much. You think we would've learned that 18 months ago haha but hey that's what changes are for. 

We worked super hard all week to find new people to teach. Ill be honest we had three investigators at the start of the week who we still couldn't get in contact with and I still hadn't even seen. So we really have been searching for people to teach the last three weeks. We tried tons of people and contacted a lot and really not a lot of success. Honestly of the 100 contacts last week, we haven't found anybody who was willing to listen. But the Lord works in mysterious ways right? So we got a straight up MEDIA REFERRAL this week. Not just one but TWO. Ha these are referrals from the church headquarters and until this last week I hadn't received one my entire mission. So we were pretty pumped. We call both of them and set a lesson with one of them named M---. We go teach this guy yesterday. We get in there do some How to begin teaching, teach a super simple Restoration, then Boom he accepts a baptismal date for March 15. Pretty sweet miracle. So we are seeing success in different ways than we even thought. Pretty neat. 

Went and saw some awesome members this week as well. We didn't have a lot going on when I got into the area so we made a goal to go see all the members and get to know them while we search for investigators. We are blessed to have some rock solid members. And quite a few of them too! They are the best. One family, the P--- family, invited us for a FHE and invited two non lds friends. They didn't end up coming but we were pumped for them for making the invite.

Well the weather is looking good. Only one or two cold days. Haha yes Chloe they may not be in the negatives but still Im cold. Haha I dont know what it is here. Lots of wind and this coldness just cuts to the soul. I finally, after 19 years of living in the snow and skiing, figured out how useful wearing long john thermals are. Haha I wear them top and bottom everyday. Guess what? They actually block out the cold. Thought someone would've told me that long ago. haha im kidding parents. sorry I never wanted to wear them before. But hey I bought some boots for $33 as well! Boom. Cheep and stylish.

last few weeks for me= Pansy, haha im ready to tackle the chuff out of this work now. 

Love,

Elder Sumsion

He also sent these:  Funny – He has never given me his address in Newark yet! So I called the office and they gave me one - I sent him a package and we ordered a pizza and had it delivered to that address..... 

ha no im doing super good. Thank you for the package. Funny story... That is NOT our address nor any missionary address. It was about 3 weeks ago, but the missionaries moved. So the church doesn't own it. The other Elders went by a few days ago to check on something and saw and picked up the package, and they were super confused on the whole pizza thing. It was just sitting there in the cold. Haha turns out they took it home and put it in the fridge for like 3 days till it thawed or something. Then they ate it! Ha no worries. SO it didn’t go to waste!!!! 

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