Dear Family and Friends, Monday,
November 4, 2013 at 11:49 (EST)
I am doing well. These past few weeks have been really good. We are
really seeing the work move forward in this area. It is starting to come back
to life. Elder Simmonds is doing great. He is applying himself as much as he
can, and he is working hard to become an even better missionary. He does well
with teaching people, and he studies as much as he can during free time. He is
going to make a really good missionary. He already is! I have really enjoyed
having an extra hour for companion study as I am training. We get two hours of
companion study each morning. We are really diving in deep and we are learning
a lot of stuff. We are moving a little slowly because of that, but we are
definitely learning a lot from it.
Jessie has a baptismal date now of December 7 which is really exciting.
We had an excellent member present lesson with her last week. We watched a
video of the prophet and now she has a testimony of modern prophets. Zach is a
new investigator we have. His father is a less active member. We included him
in the lesson, and now he wants to learn more. It was really exciting. We
werent able to meet with Nakita last week, but we are meeting with her on
Tuesday. She came to church with her grandmother, and seems to be forming friendships
with the children there. Things are really looking up here!
Monday we helped set up for the Halloween Party and then pretty much just cleaned the apartment.
Tuesday we taught Jessie with Brother Goyette. It went really well. We talked about modern prophets and showed a clip of Thomas S Monson from Spring 2012 General Conference.
Click link for "The Race of Life" by President Thomas S. Monson
Monday we helped set up for the Halloween Party and then pretty much just cleaned the apartment.
Tuesday we taught Jessie with Brother Goyette. It went really well. We talked about modern prophets and showed a clip of Thomas S Monson from Spring 2012 General Conference.
Click link for "The Race of Life" by President Thomas S. Monson
President Monson talks about building toy boats with his friends and
that those boats can be related to us in life. We are like the toy boats, but
we have been given the ability to steer in life. Unlike toy boats that must
follow the current we can choose where we want to go in life. We can either
follow the current and receive whatever that gives us, or we can set a
destination and work towards it. We gave her a little toy boat to remind her of
that. She really enjoyed it. We also went and saw the Lukasaks and invited them
to the Halloween Party. Then we went to Jules place and taught a lesson out of
a Sunday School Manual.
Wednesday we had District Meeting. Then we did some service at someones house. She had us prepare her garden to plant garlic, which you have to plant in the fall. We also pulled out her tomato plants.
Wednesday we had District Meeting. Then we did some service at someones house. She had us prepare her garden to plant garlic, which you have to plant in the fall. We also pulled out her tomato plants.
Then we helped set up for the Halloween Party. We had a table all set
up and everything. We had a treasure chest and we put a bunch of copies of the
Book of Mormon in it. It was pretty cool.
Thursday we went up to Milan. We saw Sue again and talked with her. She was a little sick. We have been seeing her for a couple of weeks. We usually just stop by and talk with her. She has some great potential. We havent met her husband yet. He owns an oil truck company in Berlin and really likes snowmobiling so I think me and him will get along. Here in New England most people heat their houses by wood or oil. They do not have natural gas. The "oil" they use is usually diesel or kerosene. It costs a lot to heat houses out here. We then did some service on a dairy farm. We washed out the barn for them. That was a lot of fun to be able to do some work on a farm. Since it was Halloween we had to be in our apartment at 5:00 and we cleaned it for the rest of the night. We got it looking a lot better, and it is a lot more comfortable.
Friday we had weekly planning and it took forever. After that we went to Jules house. He wasnt there even though it was our usual lesson time. So we went to teach Jessie. We had a lesson scheduled, but when we showed up she had forgot about it.
Saturday we had planned on going to Bartlett. We decided to stop and grab some lunch at BK real quick. Well while we were in there we saw someone we knew so we stopped and talked a while with him. He is a kind of crazy dude. He is either a really good story teller, he has had some crazy expeeriences, or he is touched in the head. Last time we met him he told us that he was abducted by aliens near Billings MT. This time he told us about a creature that lives in the woods of New England that can shapeshift called a Puckwudgie. He said it is like a werewolf type creature that usually walks on two legs but can make himself look like pretty much anything he wants. Like I said he is a great story teller so it was pretty fun to listen to him. He said he is writing a book about it that should be published this spring. Its called "Puckwudgie Legend of Sunset Hill" His name is Ralph. We commited him to check out Mormon.org. We ended up not having time to go down to Bartlett so we stayed in Gorham and worked there. (Thats where the BK is) We had an appointment in Berlin at 6:00 so we hurried and went to that. It was with a less active named Ann. She lost her husband in May, and was left his rundown estate, so shes been working on fixing that up. Recently another less active, Danny moved into her basement. He used to work with her husband with a moving company. He's been going through a lot. He has been moving from apartment to apartment. So now he is living there. His son was there as well, so we had a good dinner with Danny, Annie, and Zach. After dinner we had a lesson. Zach, who is 10 is not a member. He had some interest while we were teaching and said that he would like to learn more. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a bit. It was a really good lesson.
Sunday was the same as usual. It was really nice to have the extra hour to sleep in, but now the sun sets at about 4:00. We went to church and then stopped by some people in Berlin. Ann wanted us over for dinner again, so we went over and had dinner with her and Danny. We then had a lesson about using the Atonement of Jesus Christ in their lives. They have been having really hard times and we encouraged them to focus their lives on the Savior.
Thursday we went up to Milan. We saw Sue again and talked with her. She was a little sick. We have been seeing her for a couple of weeks. We usually just stop by and talk with her. She has some great potential. We havent met her husband yet. He owns an oil truck company in Berlin and really likes snowmobiling so I think me and him will get along. Here in New England most people heat their houses by wood or oil. They do not have natural gas. The "oil" they use is usually diesel or kerosene. It costs a lot to heat houses out here. We then did some service on a dairy farm. We washed out the barn for them. That was a lot of fun to be able to do some work on a farm. Since it was Halloween we had to be in our apartment at 5:00 and we cleaned it for the rest of the night. We got it looking a lot better, and it is a lot more comfortable.
Friday we had weekly planning and it took forever. After that we went to Jules house. He wasnt there even though it was our usual lesson time. So we went to teach Jessie. We had a lesson scheduled, but when we showed up she had forgot about it.
Saturday we had planned on going to Bartlett. We decided to stop and grab some lunch at BK real quick. Well while we were in there we saw someone we knew so we stopped and talked a while with him. He is a kind of crazy dude. He is either a really good story teller, he has had some crazy expeeriences, or he is touched in the head. Last time we met him he told us that he was abducted by aliens near Billings MT. This time he told us about a creature that lives in the woods of New England that can shapeshift called a Puckwudgie. He said it is like a werewolf type creature that usually walks on two legs but can make himself look like pretty much anything he wants. Like I said he is a great story teller so it was pretty fun to listen to him. He said he is writing a book about it that should be published this spring. Its called "Puckwudgie Legend of Sunset Hill" His name is Ralph. We commited him to check out Mormon.org. We ended up not having time to go down to Bartlett so we stayed in Gorham and worked there. (Thats where the BK is) We had an appointment in Berlin at 6:00 so we hurried and went to that. It was with a less active named Ann. She lost her husband in May, and was left his rundown estate, so shes been working on fixing that up. Recently another less active, Danny moved into her basement. He used to work with her husband with a moving company. He's been going through a lot. He has been moving from apartment to apartment. So now he is living there. His son was there as well, so we had a good dinner with Danny, Annie, and Zach. After dinner we had a lesson. Zach, who is 10 is not a member. He had some interest while we were teaching and said that he would like to learn more. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a bit. It was a really good lesson.
Sunday was the same as usual. It was really nice to have the extra hour to sleep in, but now the sun sets at about 4:00. We went to church and then stopped by some people in Berlin. Ann wanted us over for dinner again, so we went over and had dinner with her and Danny. We then had a lesson about using the Atonement of Jesus Christ in their lives. They have been having really hard times and we encouraged them to focus their lives on the Savior.
Elder CWJensen