Pearland Texas, Week 104: September 12, 2016 - September 18, 2016

Just one more Post on Monday, Sept.26th
 Elder Deans will be home the 27th      

YE HAW!!!

September 19, 2016


Don't have much time to write today. I will get another chance next week as well. But, things are going quite swell. We had a good week being able to have 10 total investigator lessons which was very exciting because that's more than usual. We got to have members out teaching with us a lot this week. We had like 3 or 4 occasions that members were out and willing to spend a couple hours teaching with us. That's always the best. But I will send a great email next week and put more details into it.





Austin's kids made it to their friend's baptism! It was a neat day. The kids now are seriously thinking about their own baptism! It's pretty awesome. We're gonna just straight up invite them to be baptized in a couple days. We also got to teach a mini Restoration lesson to everyone at the baptism while peeps were changing after baptism. There were even some non member people that were friends of those there who got to hear it.




I'm excited to see ya'll very soon!! It's gonna be so amazing to just see everyone and give ya'll a hug. I haven't cried in a while, so maybe this reuniting will be the trick to get some tears out of me that have been trying for a while, haha. 
Love you tons!
Elder Deans

Pearland Texas, Week 103: September 6, 2016 - September 11, 2016

September 12, 2016

We had a very interesting week this week. It was good! It was just kind of a tough weekend because a lot of our effort was to get our investigators and also less actives to church this week and no one made it to church unfortunately. We have to reschedule our baptismal dates now. Buts its all good. We did our part and everyone has their own agency so that's just part of the work.


We were able to test our "faith over fear" by talking to  lots of people as we went out and tried tracting. We had some time in the afternoon that we set aside for tracting and we both just had faith if we follow the Spirit and we say what we need to then people will be interested and we will be able to get a lesson or return appointment. We ended up getting tons of contacts of people that said we can come back!! It was awesome. We just had fun out there meeting so many people and being real and sharing our testimony. Tonight were gonna go back and see a couple of the people that we met through tracting. We'll see how it goes.


Austin's kids are going to be at their friends baptism this weekend. We also were able to have a good lesson with Sis. Moser. We taught her the Doctrine of Christ, being: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. The lesson went really well and we invited her to come back to church. She really thought about it and wants to come, she just said its hard because her teenage daughters don't ever wanna go. So were gonna try to help her see that its important for her to come even by herself if she can. We're also going to do service for her tomorrow which will be fun.


We also had a way neat experience as we went to go visit a lady named Sis Hyde that Ive talked to a few times. She's a less active sister that likes when we come by. So, we went to her place and right as we are about to knock on the door she opens up! haha We were all surprised. But, the best part is that she told us that things have been really hard for her lately. Her family isn't too well and some are in bad health. We had a lesson and read in the Book of Mormon about Faith in Christ and did what we could to relate things to her. She ended up telling us that she totally thought our visit was inspired because she was needing to hear what we shared with her. Its always humbling for me to hear when people say they are very grateful for us in showing up and needing to hear what we share. Its one of those unique mission joys because we truly are on the Lords errand. I definitely know that missionary or not the Lord puts us in places we need to be when we aim to do what is right.

Love ya!

Elder Deans



　

hmmm, someone has a Utah Blanket just like me!  #utahfans



A gift from a inactive sister after her trip

Pearland Texas, Week 102: August 29, 2016 - September 5, 2016

September 6, 2016

So we had another fantastic week this week! We were able to see Hope accept baptism! She is going for the 24th of this month. Not quite sure if she'll get there because she didn't make it to church. Buuuuttt, on the bright side, we got her a Children's Book of Mormon because she doesn't read too well and she is way into reading that along side with the actual Book of Mormon. We had a cool lesson with her this week where we just showed her how she could use both of those to understand the story and teachings. We also had a member with us that is gonna take her under her wing and the member is totally stoked to invite her to things and keep in touch with her. Gotta love when you get members and investigators fellow-shipping. So I think she will be baptized, it just might take a little bit of time.

We also had a super cool experience yesterday as we were able to meet with Austin and her kids. We had dinner and a FHE. Austin, being the wonderful convert she is, did a sweet job on putting together a FHE. We played this crazy game which is super funny. Its called Speak Out. You should look it up, But we made the game all repentance and baptism themed and then after that we had a way good lesson for the kids on repentance and baptism and Austin and us taught the kids. I was way proud of Austin because she was teaching the kids how the LDS church and the catholic church do repentance and baptism differently. The kids will probably be baptized in the near future because they also have friends in the ward, one of which is having a baptism next week. So its cool how God has lined everything up so that they had this good lesson and then they will be there for the baptism so i think they will want to do that for themselves after.

Jennifer is doing pretty good! We had a solid lesson with her teaching the plan of salvation and we had a member with us this time. He was able to share his testimony of the creation and the atonement and they loved it. I felt that my companion and I did a good job at following the Spirit and being personal with her in teaching the lesson. I shared how these things have made a huge difference in my life and they help me to have God on my mind more. She is still planning on baptism since we reminded her in the lesson and that was a big relief to hear. She was totally planing on coming to church and then last minute wasn't able to make it. She had a friend staying at her place and the friend wasn't feeling good enough for church so she didn't want her to be alone. I think she will be there next week for sure though. Its awesome to see how she truly wants to. .

Oh, also today, I was totally reminded of something you told me a long time ago over email about how on your mission sometimes people will just bash/argue to waste our time and try to disrupt stuff. We had a run in with that today while we were at the store of all places!! But, I totally did what you said and it got to the point where I told the guy "look, I dont think we will ever come to an agreement. We also need to get some shopping done" After I said that and then it all faded out and we just kept shopping on. I hope it was also a good teaching moment for my companion to learn how to respond to people like that. It seemed like it was.

Love you tons,

Elder Deans

Someone dropped the "f" bomb, so we picked it up so no one would get hurt!

We were very careful with this 'cause we didn't want the "f" bomb to drop again!

 

You too can play the game "Speak Out"

 

Pearland Texs, Week 101: August 22, 2016 - August 28, 2016

August 29, 2016

We had a tremendous week this week!! We were a lot more non member and investigator focused. Like with my last companion, we worked hard but I think we got to the point where we didn't have much faith in getting investigators. Now the Lord is blessing us because my new comp and I have that faith needed for investigators.





We were seriously blessed this week. We just see the Lords hand in all the work and how people are ready to hear from us and commit to invitations we give them. We now have a baptismal date for a lady named Jennifer!! She was a referral that we got from a missionary who was going home and he talked to Jennifer and her husband in the airport. They were interested and he said other missionaries would come by and talk to them. So we did! We had a super good first lesson with her and her husband Michael. We taught the Restoration and they were awesome because they both just simply understood why we needed prophets and why we needed priesthood on the earth. I was honestly nervous when we started teaching because things were going too well and I didn't know what was gonna go wrong or what not, haha. But, then I felt the Spirit kick in more and it helped me to just not worry about it and teach from my heart and teach in a way they needed to hear things. So, Michael didn't quite accept baptism, but he said he definitely wants us to come back and they said they would study the Book of Mormon and pray about it all this week and we plan to go see them again this Saturda, hopefully for another sweet lesson. My comp and I were sooooo stoked walking out of their house. We both just got in the car and were like "holy moly!" and then we said a prayer of just straight gratitude for all the good that had just happened.





When you talked about the harder we work the luckier we get I was reminded of something I heard a missionary say once. He said "God is my luck and my coincidences." So what you said is true! We get both lucky with things that just happen and we have God that blesses us with things like missionary work and spiritual things.





Other highlights came from meeting with an investigator we have named Hope. We've been talking to her for a while, but she's now starting to be more solid and ready to act. We were teaching her a lesson and then it got all off topic and we were a little bit frustrated. But then, all of a sudden, one of her best friends came to her house and she started talking to us and telling us that she was super religious. She's a strong Christian lady and she was really impressed with us and what we do. We got to talk a lot about how the gospel just helps us to progress in life. We ended up giving her friend a pamphlet and she was interested. We later realized that was probably the reason why Hope got off topic, to stall so that we could meet her friend. She didn't try to do that, the friend came by surprise, but God worked it all out. That was cool. Hope will be coming to church soon and were seeing her this evening.





We even had a cool miracle that came from tracting!! We don't normally do that, but we just figured we had some extra time and we really wanted to find more people to teach. So walking back to our car we tracted a few houses. We got to one and a kid about our age answered. He told us to come back another time. Later we went over and we had a Restoration lesson with him!! He let us in and everything. He wasn't way interested but he said that he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and that we could come back in a few weeks when he's not so busy with school. So that was just a cool blessing for me to see that sometimes tracting really can lead to some awesome missionary moments.





So as far as Anne and the Moser family, Anne hasn't been to church yet. We're seeing her this week again. She's been reading though which is great. The Mosers do have kids. I've never talked to them, but I've seen them hanging out at the house. The wife is pretty solid on the Church and Book of Mormon. She just doesn't come to church. We actually visit the her quite a bit and try to share scriptures with her and be in the Book of Mormon with her. We were able to see Sis. Moser this week but we just talked to her on the porch for a second and next time we will be able to teach her.
 

Love you tons,
Elder Deans



New companion, Elder Holyoak

Elder Holyoak and Elder Deans, hmmm, questionable...

Pearland Texas, Week 100: August 15, 2016 - August 21, 2016

August 22, 2016

This week was awesome. It truly was. It was super fun to get a new companion! I felt the Spirit confirm to me that we would have a good time and work hard together right as I met him, it was pretty sweet. Felt good. But my new companion is Elder Holyoak. He's been out for 6 months and I'd never talked to him. He's from Moab, Utah, born and raised. He's 22. He's a way cool kid! But we have just had a great time together. He's just a really genuine and fun guy. We work way well together as far as planning and teaching. Its been nice. We still have our car, yes. Thankfully too because its been hecka rainy lately. But we hopped on the bikes Saturday and were blessed to stay dry. Except the sweat which dripped everywhere of course.

One of our biggest highlights this week was that we were able to see Anne again. We finally got to see her after like a month or so of no lessons!! We even had a member out teaching with us and just decided to stop by one evening and she was surprised to see us but excited and happy to let us all in. We ended up having a super good lesson on the Book of Mormon. Apparently she's been hesitant to read the Book of Mormon because she didn't quite get why its important to read it and what its about. So we focused on those things and she now truly does have a desire to study the Book of Mormon. She told us she'd be coming to church soon too so were hoping and hoping. It felt so good to have a lesson and see her turn the wheels in progression like that. Its been some time since last time we had that which was with Austin so it was just relieving and motivating.

Another huge highlight was that we felt prompted to go see a less active sister that I had talked to a couple times before. We were wondering if it actually was going to be worth it because we had a small window of time in between appointments and we had a lot to bike to get there. We decided we needed to go and just biked as fast as possible. We get there and all of sudden her husband answers the door. It was exciting though because he's also less active and I had tried to meet him tons of times and had no luck so I was stoked to meet him! He let us right in and was glad to see us. We got to know him some and then through inspired questions and just being guided he ended up sharing with us some reason why he hasn't been to church and also some concerns he's had with the church. He struggled having a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet and so we just told him that he needed to keep trying. To simply just commit to searching the scriptures and praying specifically about Joseph Smith being a prophet. We told him that God would answer his concerns but that he wouldn't recognize or get an answer until he tried his best to figure things out on his own. He comitted to spend more time in the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. He works out of town a lot so it'll be hard getting him back to church and seeing him often. But, we are going to do what we can and see that family more often now. They're the Mosers.

We were able to give two blessings yesterday. One came up out of the blue. Someone from elders quorum asked if we could help him in a blessing to his wife right as church ended. The other one was for a single sister, he son wanted a blessing for this school year. It was funny because the grandma of the kid was the one who got in touch to tell us about it and I actually knew her from the Shadow Creek ward! The gma is an active member in that ward. so it was cool to see her again and then the blessing went really well. I was the one who got to be voice and give the blessing for the little dude. He's like 8 yrs old. I also got to give a talk in church yesterday. It was the longest talk I've ever given! I was nervous because they asked me to speak for 15 mins and I had never spoken that long so i wasn't sure if I could do it but I ended up speaking the whole time allotted. I talked about how to maintain a testimony. People seemed to take things from my talk and enjoy it, so I'm happy. So things are just awesme. I feel like a new missionary honestly. Just really focused on the work and loving my companion and the people we see.

Love you,

Elder Deans




BBQing with Elder Haslauer

 



Last day with Elder Haslauer