Sunday, April 24, 2016

Pearland Texas, Week 82: April 11, 2016 - April 17, 2016

April 18, 2016

We had a fantastic week!! I'm loving the new changes!!! It's always so exciting to get a clean slate and just be humble and learn again. My new apartment is so big! you walk in and on the left is the kitchen and straight forward is the family room and then our study central. Again I'm able to do laundry at home, so that saves tons of money. We even have an "Open" sign in our bathroom that lights up and we turn it on when we wake up haha. This is my second nicest apartment next to the Alvin one. My companion, Elder Haslauer, is a character. We're having fun. He's from all over the place, but last lived in Bakersfield, California. He's a year younger than me and has been out on the mission 9 months. Its just us two in the apartment and we just drive a car in this area.

We have some really cool investigators. Austin is our most solid. She's a lady actually, haha. She's from Lousiana and she dated a member before and now recently moved in right by the missionaries in Friendswood so she feels like the church keeps poppin up in her life. She has come to church twice now and is so outgoing! It gets the members way excited and they're more outgoing because of it. She was going to take us out to lunch today for cajun food but President called for a 'rained in' day today due to a bad storm going down and we can't be out on the roads. There was hard rain all night and this morning. We also got a text from President saying that one missionary car is down because someone took it through a deep puddle and wrecked it. Kind of stinks, but were okay with it. More time to do chores that never seem to get done and write letters and such.

We also have an investigator named Dan, thats pretty sweet. Hes in his 30's and he's very religioius and has been active in his church for a while. We taught the gospel of Christ lesson to him the other day, which is faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and enduring to the end. Our goal was to establish our purpose more with him. Help him see where we envision this going. I think we explained pretty clearly we're here to help him be made clean from sin and prepare for baptism. He wasn't offended either, took it well and said a powerful closing prayer for us.

We also work with many less active families here and they are all so different, haha, keeps you on your toes. Everyone has got a personality here. The active families here are amazing, they adore their missionaries. They feed us just as much as my last ward. I feel like I'll fit right in and feel at home. We can always stop by to get to know them more and share a message. Im meeting lots of people that either are from Sandy or know people in Draper and Sandy. Pretty cool!

Love you tons,
Janz

Pearland Texas, Week 81: April 4, 2016 - April 10, 2016

Monday, April 11, 2016

BIG UPDATE! I will be serving in the Pearland Ward starting Wednesday!! I called it. haha.   My companions are dying at the end of this transfer and I knew it would be weird to pull them out for their last when things are goin well. Its pretty funny because its only like 5 minutes West of my area right now. It's nuts!! We got an email this morning with all the details. We do that instead of a big reunion and meeting at the office. The vApostles heard about it and said that's a no no, haha. Apparently it wasn't just us in this mission, but others too. Now we just do all the news and details over email and everyone can see it Monday morning. Its pretty nice because it was Wednesday before you had any idea. But I don't know my companion. His name is Elder Haslaur. He's more on the new side of mission age. I'm stoked though!!  I always get excited to just start so many things over and see how it works in nother part of town.

We had a way cool member missionary event this weekend. So our choir director and ward mission leader set up a Restoration themed Investigator fireside. Basically, 'Music and the Spoken Word', It was sweet! We even sang 'I am a Child of God' with some sister missionaries. It was a powerful meeting. Cool songs and Aaron Sanford, Brandon's brother, was the concluding speaker and gave a powerful testimony and told his conversion story! There's nothing too exciting with anyone else yet. But, I am going to try to come back when the Sanfords get sealed, go to the temple with them, and to see Brandon get baptized. He doesn't have a date but it'll probably be the very end of this month or May. The Monette family moved this week! It was sad. They were a big part of the ward and worked hard for us. They went to Reno, home for them.

We had a cool opportunity to do another big city run service this week. We worked with Missouri City and they had a "Trash Off" event where groups go out and clean up the sides of big roads. There's a competition for who can collect the most and the most peculiar item of trash. We won the most peculiar with a way wonky pic my companion found. It was a late 80's picture, so bad lighting and clothes. The picture was of a pregnant mom sitting down and her three year old son kissing  her tummy which is sticking out. Gnarly.

Love you!                                                                                                                                                                    Elder Deans

Pearland Texas, Week 80: March 28, 2016 - April 3, 2016

Monday, April 4, 2016

I feel like I had P day and emailed you two days ago!! This week was super fast. But man... we had a really great week. Conference was incredible as always. I get so excited as it starts. Conference on the mission is a biiiggggg deal, you're right. We love it. We watched at the church on Saturday and on Sunday we were with the Johnstons and then the Monettes. Both fed us well. Conference is so powerful. I loved Elder Eyrings talk in the Saturday morning session. He talked about the importance of learning through the Spirit as the conference speakers were talking. He also talked about praying to have a  spiritual experience. My favorite part was his testimony at the end. He testified of the love that Heavenly Father has for every one of his children. By the end I had tears rolling down.

We got to see Stephen finally, just yesterday!! It was cool. We taught a little about what the Book of Mormon was to remind him and then we started reading from the first chapter in Nephi with him. It went well and he agreed to read some each day. He also is excited to come to church next week. His neighbors are members and will be giving him a ride and fellowshipping him. Works well.

We also have a new investigator named KJ. Known her for a while but have been able to teach and make consistent contact with her and she's rockin it right now. She had read 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon while we didn't see her. Robert was tricky this week. We went over and he shewed us away, but I was thinking he did it because he had a whole bunch of gang banger friends hanging out around him. Maybe next time. We plan to see Brooks and his wife this week, I'll let you know.

So for the Eagle Project this week, we went and were surprised to see that this time we had reinforcements from the ward. The young men and leaders came to help us out. We measured and marked a lot of lumber, trimmed the posts we had set last week, screwed the boards to posts and then we had to go so we weren't late to conference. We heard they just finished putting the swing on and it went okay.

Guitar skills are sharp. I've been able to play quite a bit. I've been learning  hymns. I found a 'hymns made easy' music book and taught myself a few of my favorite hymns. I haven't written any songs, no. Corn and others have asked as well, but I just don't think about it. I kind of put that on hold. Thanks for the heads up on weather. Things have definitely  been warm lately. I can handle heat better than cold so im blessed that way.


Love ya,                                                                                                                                                                           Janz