Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Pearland Texas, Week 71: January 25, 2016 - January 31, 2016

Monday, February 1,2016

We had a pretty darn good week!! Brooke came to church!! That was sooooo cool. She was loving it too. She made comments in Gospel Principals and everything. Some of our ward missionaries did a good job sitting by her and fellowshipping. Those member missionaries also went with us to teach her this week and they got along great. We're trying to set up a Brooke family and Monette family(those members) FHE together. We also had some other good friend members bring friends to church for the first time!! It was awesome. That is like dreamed of missionary opportunities and doesn't happen too often around here. Hopefully going to start teaching those people that came for first time next couple weeks.

Damon and Skylin, the kiddos being baptized, came to church as well. I sat by Damon and we went to Primary together. Elder Evans sat by Skylin and Elder Dawe did a split and went with the Elders Quorum. That's our new thing. Primary needs the help too, the kids are kinda rowdy. We had a cool lesson with those kiddos this week too. We had their hometeacher Brother Kameron Krebs come with to meet them and help teach. We just read from the Book of Mormon and then talked about what was happening and what to take away from it. It went well and Kameron had good comments and got to know them. They will be baptised in a few weeks, after their grandpa's foot heals so he can bvaptize them.

We have the ward very missionary minded right now because thats almost all we have been sharing when we meet with them. We work on different ways they can find people and invite them to things. Also had an exchange with  one of the district leaders and his comp in the zone and they didn't need much correction or instruction. they were great missionaries in lots of senses. I just taught them a little more about nightly planning and working with members.

I got to go on an exchange this week to one of the Spanish district leaders in the zone. I went to his area with his companion as well. Made a trio there. That was way cool. They are solid solid missionaries. I got to eat some wonka donk food for dinner too... I ate chicheron. What is that? Well, that is pig skin. I had it in gordita form

We're also working with a sister of one of our members whose name is Renee and her member sister is Sis Kern. We went over for our second dinner appointment with them. Last time we taught the plan of salvation and Renee was liking it. This time we taught the Restoration so she wouldn't be so confused on the basic things we believe in and do. She liked the lesson but doesn't quite understand, the importance of organized religion. Feels like she can be spiritual and righteous alone. Also doesn't understand the importance of this being the Lord's church. It's His. We do things in this church to draw unto Him and become like Him where we couldn't otherwise. So we're gonna try to resolve that this week and just go slow.

So,thats a summary of the exciting progress of the peeps. We don't have the dates like we had last week. We just have Damon and Skylin and some lady we only saw once named Wilda. Andrea hasnt come to church yet and it was tricky getting in touch with her this week. Also the miraculous Tony from last week has moved again!! he left to another place so we lost em. we dont know where, the member living with him didn't hear at all. Tony just left one night. I have hope he will find our church, get taught and baptize wherever he ends up.

We had a cool service project this week. We got to help Sis Kern and Renee move stuff in a storage shed out in the middle of nowhere. I wore my new jeans and boots!! Felt so good. Hope to meet with Juanita and Mrs. King this week. Keep ya posted.

OH and HEeeyeyyyyyy! I totally met President Nelson of the quorum of the twelve apostles. he came to see all three Houston missions and speak to us. He let all the missionaries come up and shake his hand and say hello. And, just as cool as that,  I saw Elder Jake Lives and talked to him in person!!!!!!!! haha. Tthat was nutty, quite the experience that day for sure. It was way fun talking to him for a minute. He's great.

Love you tons,
Janz

President Nelson teaching the 3 Houston Missions.Elder Deans was in the back right and Elder Lives in the back left. Good luck finding them :)



Walking around in the cold one day
Elder Lives & Elder Deans finally found each other!







Pearland Texas, Week 70: January 19, 2016 - January 224, 2016

Monday, January 25, 2016

We had a bomb week this week. It was FILLED with goodness. We now have 5 different people that want to be baptized. We have the kiddos still, but their date changed from this weekend to mid February. And now we have Andrea, Tony and Wilda. So ill tell you how it all happened with em.

So, Andrea was a referral from some people in the ward named the Kenworthys. We set up a lesson with her and we actually had our first lesson in the Kenworthys home! Thats ideal in missionary world. Thats golden. Andrea was very comfortable. She wanted to learn and the lesson on the Restoration went awesomely. She said she would like to be baptized and the goal is for Feb 20. She's only 17 years old and both us and the Kenworthys have talked to her Mom and her mother is supportive which makes it all possible.

Tony is a crazy story... We met him through going to visit a recent convert of ours. We planned to go teach Jerrod and then as we went inside to teach we saw that someone else shared a room with Jerrod. The guy had no shirt, was laying down in his bed smoking a cigarette and watching a movie. This guy was Tony. Hes a 55 year old black dude. He was way friendly and put out the cigarette as we came in and put on a shirt and would allow us to teach him as well. We decided to teach the Restoration and focus on him and Jerrod could also help. The lesson went great and Tony also wants to be baptized and understands that this church has the Priesthood Authority of God and no other church has that. He just barely moved in with Jerrod and he came from another part of Houston after a nasty breakup. He didn't bring anything with him. We gave him some clothes and toiletries so he could come to church. He ended upcoming to church!! I was with him the whole time while my companions visited and took care of everything else.

Wilda was a media referral from Salt Lake. We saw that she requested a Bible. So one night we went over to deliver it to her and we did and she was excited but we also asked if we could teach her about Christ out of the bible and she let us in. Again we taught the Restoration. She was very comprehensive and agreed to be baptized on Feb 20. The two new people that we found on Monday that I told you about last email are not so cool. We didn't see one of them and the other was very sick. So thats on hold.

We also just yesterday had a very spiritual afternoon because we delivered the sacrament to those that are not healthy enough to come. Our first stop was with a sister named Sis Butler. Shes a very old black lady that can't get out of bed. We got to know her, sang a hymn and then administered the sacrament. She was way grateful to see us. The Spirit was uber strong there. She bore powerful testimony about how the gospel has blessed her family. After that we went to see the Hopkins family. They are older as well. The husband just got back from the hospital and is very close to death and they basically set up hospice for him at home. We did the sacrament and then we also got to give him and his wife blessings. Those made me cry. It was so special. But as you can tell, one of the best weeks on the mission. Were doing swell

I didnt realize the anniversary!! dang... I guess thats right. I'll be ready for next month on Feb 7 when I hit the 16 months in Houston.

Love ya
Elder Deans


Elder Jake Lives, inperson, at the