Wednesday, July 24, 2013

July 22, 2013

I see that Luke wore my trek outfit “to the T.”  I'm sorry to see he didn't buy a new hat though.....  
Hey there's a missionary in my district named Elder Black, and he's from Blanding.  What are the possibilities we're related to him?
This past week was pretty slow... but I'm really excited for the coming week!  Our Mission President has challenged us all to do 10 hours of tracting and find 10 new investigators.  We need to focus a lot more on finding, to open our eyes and our hearts to those opportunities we have every day to share the Gospel with those all around us.  We've been sharing the video from The Work of Salvation broadcast, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" with members we've been meeting with, and it's been amazing the effect it has on them.  If you guys didn't see that broadcast you should watch it for FHE.  It's all on line.
We met with Fiona again and taught her the Plan of Salvation.  It was awesome, and we asked her to pray for August 3rd to be baptized on.
I wanted to send some links to some awesome Mormon messages.  Enjoy!
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001
Well, that's all for today.
Loves!

Elder Georgia

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

July 15, 2013

So strange story time:  We had a dinner with these awesome members who told us this strange (true) story:  Once upon a time there was a family in the ward named the Cooks (I think it was) who had a little too much fun naming their children.  The first child was a girl so the wife got to name her.  "Her name will be Mary," she said.  "How dull," said her husband.  The second child was a boy.  "He needs to be named something bold and dramatic," said the husband.  "His name will be... Ares!  Now, for such an epic name, he needs an equally epic middle name.  His middle name shall be... Crimefighter!"  "No," said the wife, "His middle name should start with a 'b' so his initials can be A. B. C."  The couple argued back and forth for a bit.  "Fine," the husband finally said.  "His initials can be A. B. C.  So his name will be... Ares Bcrimefighter Cook!"  And so it was.  The End.

Haha anyways.  So this week we were blessed with a new investigator named Fiona.  She's 16, and she doesn't actually live in our ward boundaries, but her friend--the one who invited her to come to church, girl's camp, and to meet with missionaries--Alma's family is moving into our ward so of course she'll be attending church with them.  We met her and taught her on Wednesday.  We talked about the Restoration, and asked her about baptism.  She said that she'd been praying to know, but she had some doubts, and she read a scripture in the Book of Mormon that started off, "Put all these things aside(or something)" and she knew that was God telling her to put her doubts aside.  So now she's praying for a specific date!

I went to the best Sacrament Meeting I've ever been in yesterday.  So there's a young less-active couple we've been working with who've been having some marriage troubles.  We've been trying really hard to get them to church, and on Saturday they said they would come so I said a prayer that they would be well fellowshipped and the speakers and teachers would be good.  Sunday morning came, but only the wife showed up.  She came up to us and started crying and talking about how angry she was at her husband and how she didn't know what more she could do, "I don't even know why I'm here," she said.  But we sat down and the service started.  She was in such a state she didn't even take the sacrament (probably a good idea), and she didn't sing any of the hymns.  The youth speaker was good, but the first adult speaker, Sister Cochran, spoke about how we need to let the atonement change our hearts and our lives, that we all have weaknesses, but Jesus Christ can heal them.  I thought that talk was really good for her, but then Brother Burgess got up to speak.  "There were a lot of things I wanted to talk about today,' he said, "But I felt very strongly that instead of any of those things, I should talk about discouragement."  I, and the most-discouraged-person-I-know who I was sitting next to, glanced at each other.  "Don't you look at me like that," she said.  Brother Burgess's talk was so powerful ans so extremely well suited to meet her needs.  By the end of the talk, our friend had dissolved into uncontrollable sobbing again, with the sweet sister seated on her other side holding her around the shoulders.  After sacrament, many people who knew the less-active woman came up to talk to her, and many who didn't know her introduced themselves.  She went in to talk to the bishop for most of the rest of church, then she went home afterwards, but the whole time a spirit of cleansing, and of the Savior's love and grace was with us.

I love you guys muchas tons!


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

July 8, 2013

So Corvallis is probably the most gorgeous place on earth, just sayin’.  The first few days I was here I spent in a transport of delight and stupefaction.  All the colors here are brighter than they are everywhere else!  The sky is pretty much always the deepest blue, there's every kind of tree of every shade of green, and all the businesses and houses are put to shame if they don't have a representative flower for every color in the rainbow out front.  Yeah, it's definitely a hippy town hahaha.
Being a district leader is new and exciting.  I've already interviewed two(2) people for baptism.  One of them was Chinese and had to use his iPad to look up words, and the other one was Mexican and had a few similar language troubles.  But they're both super awesome and they both got baptized on Saturday!  It was so awesome to see how they had come to know, through the power of the Holy Spirit that this church is true.
I also got to go on my first exchange!  I went to the Spanish missionaries area with Elder Hassell who I knew from Salem.  It was fun, even though I didn't understand anything that was being said the whole time.....
Hey, you don't know how happy the picture of the trumpet vine made me. :D  Seeing that it has finally started to flower has begun to heal the wound in my soul from when my wisteria was brutally murdered.... ;)
So yeah, stuff is awesome here!  It's good to hear that everything's good there too.  Keep up the good fun-having!
Loves,
Elder Georgia
And here's the crazy surprise of the week!  We went to a barbecue at our Elder's Quorum Presidents house, and we were just walking around talking to people when I heard, "Quinn!?!"  That kind of made me jump out of my skin.  I looked towards the sound thereof and behold, I beheld Hattie!  She was in my ward at BYU!  And she lives in Corvallis 1st ward!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

July 1, 2013

Hey!  This will come as a surprise cuz, I realized that I didn't mention anything about transfers coming up, but I'm being transferred!  My new area is Corvallis 2nd Ward, and guess who my companion will be?  Elder Benard!  My MTC companion! :[ ]  And I'm going to be district leader.... So basically I'm reverting to the MTC cuz I was the DL there, and Elder Benard was my comp.  It's weird, but cool.  Thankfully Elder Benard has been companion's with a district leader for like, two transfers so he can actually help me know what I'm supposed to be doing!
 
Leaving White City is sad... but I'm glad that I'm leaving just as a lot of awesome things are happening!  That way Elder Haidenthaller will have a lot of exciting things to do which will make taking over an area for the first time easier.
 
So I told my District that I had challenged all yall to create mormon.org profiles, who's done it (by the raise of hands)?  What!  No one!?  Haha well you still should.
 
Hey Lindy, check your e-mail!
 
We were able to meet with Lynn, an awesome 70 yr. old, redheaded, noun-confused, dog-artist lady.  She's the investigator we helped move in last week who's on date.  I say noun-confused because she had a tumor removed 20 years ago, and she wasn't able to talk or write for a whole year after.  She can't remember the words for the most everyday people, places, or things.  She told us she thinks she's about eleven or twelve mentally.  So talking to her is strangely super enjoyable.  She's very sweet and childlike.  Oy yeah, and she makes these super-realistic stuffed animal dogs.
 
Anyways, I can't think of any super awesome stories this week, so I'll send some super awesome pictures!
 
Love, Me.