August 15, 2016
So the biggest news is that I am safe as far as transfers. I will officially end the mission in the Pearland Ward. Big relief. But, its kind of wonky that my companion is getting transferred. My new comp and I have been just having a blast, so its a great way to end on a solid note! I'm excited to be able to have a new companion for my last little stretch and just hope I can get him acquainted with everything nicely.
We had a sweet sweet week this week though. I was quite proud of how things turned out. Probably the best week we have had in a long time. We didn't teach as many lessons as we did last week but it was more of a quality over quantity type effort. And, it doesn't even matter how many lessons we teach because I was super focused on just finding new people so we COULD teach. The Lord blessed us. We are now officially teaching Austin's kids!! We got to see them twice this week. They had us over for dinner one night and we talked about the Book of Mormon and shared a cool video on it. The second time we saw them some member's home.They actually invited them over for an after church dinner!! it was tight! The members invited her first and then us after and its amazing because our ward is taking them in sooo well. They are being the best at befriending and involving Austin. We taught the family and Austin's family about the Atonement of Christ and it was a pretty powerful lesson! The kids and Austin were paying way close attention and the kids totally understood. We also asked the other member family good questions and they had great responses that helped teach.
We also had a way cool experience as we went to go see a less active family and we saw someone mowing the lawn. So we waved to him and he came over and talked to us on the driveway. Turns out the less actives did not live there and the dude we talked to was named Steve. We proceeded to ask if he was religious at all and he told us about growing up baptist. We then taught him the highlights of the Restoration right there and then and he thought that was pretty nifty and said we can come back to share more with him this week!! It was awesome.
That is so cool to hear that you guys got to talk to Sis Hanzon!! Its always weird for me when the two worlds collide, but its exciting at the same time. Bet that was a neat visit. The weather has been cooling down actually!!! The storms roll in and drop humidity and temp a ton. I am super stoked for all the good plans we have when I get home.I try not to get trunky ;) I only think about it during morning workouts and when I shower. Beside that, the work is occupying the mind which is nice because thats not the case for all old missionaries.
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
Monday, September 5, 2016
Pearland Texas, Week 98: August 1, 2016 - August 7, 2016
August 8, 2016
We had a sweet week!! We just had a fun time throughout and we were able to see tons of people we planned to see. We also hit our highest record of lessons in a week this week again, 27 lessons. One day we had 7 lessons which was our daily highest record. We also had a highlight of being blessed with a mini missionary to join us from Thursday to yesterday. The whole stake did a mini mission experience this week and it was with the youth from 14-18. Our missionary was 15 years old. His name was Michael Barnes. He was a really good kid. He was way down to teach alongside with us and he asked lots of questions to learn about things, and he just had a jolly time with us. We talked a lot about Batman because he's a comic and game fan, so we totally related. He bore powerful testimony in multiple lessons that we had and it actually touched one of our members so much that she bore her testimony in church and talked about our visit and how he made her day. We also got a lot better at street contacting this week. We were able to talk to everyone that we saw outside. It didn't lead to any investigators unfortunately, but the people were quite nice and it lead to a couple referrals as well. So at least theres something.
Our stake president met with our zone leaders this week and totally complimented our companionship because we're in his ward. He told the ZLs that he loved how we followed up with him in person after we invited him to share his testimony of the Restoration with a non member and also to share the Plan of Salvation as a home teaching message. He was able to share the message with his home teaching family and he's going to share testimony with people at work. He was just impressed that we remembered and stopped by on Saturday and helped him to keep working on it.
So Austin and the kids are doing awesome. They came to church all together again this week. She has a 8 yr old boy named Isaac and a 10 yr old girl named Taris. Blackie for some darn reason wasn't able to make it to church this week. We weren't able to see him for a lesson either. The lady with the tomales wasn't too interested so we tried her daughter one time and found out that she doesn't actually live there, just visits so we referred her as well to the other missionaries. So Wilber has moved out, he went back to Houston because life was more settled. But Ann still lives there and said we can come back in a couple weeks, so we will definitely do that and hope and pray it works out a little better this go around and we'll be able to see her often. Dinner appointments are filling up for the month. We've been able to have some super good lessons after we eat with the members. They're about to find us some investigators. .
Love you tons,
Janz
We had a sweet week!! We just had a fun time throughout and we were able to see tons of people we planned to see. We also hit our highest record of lessons in a week this week again, 27 lessons. One day we had 7 lessons which was our daily highest record. We also had a highlight of being blessed with a mini missionary to join us from Thursday to yesterday. The whole stake did a mini mission experience this week and it was with the youth from 14-18. Our missionary was 15 years old. His name was Michael Barnes. He was a really good kid. He was way down to teach alongside with us and he asked lots of questions to learn about things, and he just had a jolly time with us. We talked a lot about Batman because he's a comic and game fan, so we totally related. He bore powerful testimony in multiple lessons that we had and it actually touched one of our members so much that she bore her testimony in church and talked about our visit and how he made her day. We also got a lot better at street contacting this week. We were able to talk to everyone that we saw outside. It didn't lead to any investigators unfortunately, but the people were quite nice and it lead to a couple referrals as well. So at least theres something.
Our stake president met with our zone leaders this week and totally complimented our companionship because we're in his ward. He told the ZLs that he loved how we followed up with him in person after we invited him to share his testimony of the Restoration with a non member and also to share the Plan of Salvation as a home teaching message. He was able to share the message with his home teaching family and he's going to share testimony with people at work. He was just impressed that we remembered and stopped by on Saturday and helped him to keep working on it.
So Austin and the kids are doing awesome. They came to church all together again this week. She has a 8 yr old boy named Isaac and a 10 yr old girl named Taris. Blackie for some darn reason wasn't able to make it to church this week. We weren't able to see him for a lesson either. The lady with the tomales wasn't too interested so we tried her daughter one time and found out that she doesn't actually live there, just visits so we referred her as well to the other missionaries. So Wilber has moved out, he went back to Houston because life was more settled. But Ann still lives there and said we can come back in a couple weeks, so we will definitely do that and hope and pray it works out a little better this go around and we'll be able to see her often. Dinner appointments are filling up for the month. We've been able to have some super good lessons after we eat with the members. They're about to find us some investigators. .
Love you tons,
Janz
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| Elder Haslauer, Michael Barnes (mm) and Janz |
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Pearland Texas, Week 97: July 25, 2016 - July 31, 2016
August 1, 2016
We had a decent week this week. It was slower in the investigator and total lessons taught sense but there were still some really good things that came about. One of the biggest highlights was that Austin and the kids were back in church yesterday. The kiddos said they had an even better time this week. They'll make great Mormons soon ;) Our ward mission leader also invited us and Austin's family over for a dinner and family home evening last night. It was super awesome. Austin got to know the Hugos more and vice versa then after that we had a pioneer themed lesson and activity. The kids had to pull a bunch of stuff in a toy cart and eventually had to pull Bro Hugo because he told them how some dads when crossing plains got sick and had to ride haha. Then they read pioneer stories and learned how to use a washboard. It was way fun! Austin and the kids loved it. Its amazing when the ward takes charge of helping people that we work with.
We had a decent week this week. It was slower in the investigator and total lessons taught sense, but there were still some really good things that came about. One of the biggest highlights was that Austin and the kids were back in church yesterday. The kiddos said they had an even better time this week. They'll make great Mormons soon ;) Our ward mission leader also invited us and Austin's family over for a dinner
Another highlight was that this week we were able to get more service than we ever have as a companionship. We got to help an activefamily move this week. There was so much stuff that they split it into two days of moving and we were there both of those. It was a good chance to bond with the guys in our ward. Another service we had was helping a single sister in the ward who just needed help painting her ceiling, moving a washer and dryer and moving things into an attic.
We saw Blackie on saturday but for some reason wasnt able to make it to church this week. Im glad you were amused at his excuse a few weeks ago. I knew youd get a kick out of that. Hopefully thats not his excuse again as we ask him what happened yesterday. District leading things went really well this week too. I was able to have one of the Spanish Elders come to my area. We worked on not being stressed and just enjoying everything as it comes. I'd say we had success on that!! We were able to work hard but just be happy the whole time and see the good.
But,I am doing pretty good!! We were able to work very hard every hour throughout the day. Thats one thing im proud of my companion for. Not all my companions have matched me in work ethic, but Elder Haslauer likes to go out and rock it with me, its fun!
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 96 07/18/2016 - July 24, 2016
July 25,2016
We had another awesome week!! We had a less active brother named Blackie in church this week!! And he's not black, but hispanic actually, haha. We've been teaching him for quite a while. He's told us multiple times that this was the week he was going to come to church and then things would happen. Last week, his excuse was that he forgot which day it was, haha. That was one of the best "church missing excuses" I've ever heard. But, it was cool because he came and I got to sit by him at church and we had a great time. Also, Austin is back in town and she was in church this week. The best part was that this time she brought her kiddos. They came to church and talked to us for the first time!! That was a huge deal because we had never talked to them. They always were somewhere else. We even got invited over for a dinner with Austin's family. That was the big chance that we had to get to know the kids and help them have a better idea of the church and missionaries. Thankfully the Lord helped us and we had a blast over there. Her daughter at one point said "We should have the missionaries come to dinner more often" That felt nice to hear. They're cute kids. They seemed to like church for the first time as well.
We had a really good day on Friday. I was with one of my zone leaders in my area on exchange and we were able to find some new potential peeps to teach. It was funny because we just said a prayer in the car, before getting out, that we would be able to talk to everyone to find new investigators. We get out and talk about how sometimes it can be tough to talk to literally everyone and sometimes its nerve racking. Then all of a sudden a lady in her car, at the complex we were at, stops and rolls down her window and happily waved her finger for us to come over. We go over and she asked if we were from the Church of Christ. I told her were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Mormon Church. She seemed okay with that and then asked if we believed that Christ had already come to earth and was among us somewhere. We were like "ummm no, thats yet to come. We would know if he was here" I guess she had heard that from some weird church and was curious. Well,we ended up teaching her the the Plan of Salvation since she talked about her husband passing away and then after that she told us to go talk to her sister who lived in that complex because she lives in Alvin. We knocked on her sister's door and lo and behold, she was the same kind of friendly and talkative as her sister and let us in She actually fed us tomales while we talked about how religion played a role in her life. She told us we could come back. Her daughter felt bad that she didnt join in on the conversation and said we could come back and that she would like to talk to us next time too. So that was a super cool hour because we had two lessons back to back and they were so "finding based!!" ...pumped us up!
I also got to go on exchange with the Spanish Elders in my district this week. It was a good experience that I wasn't expecting because, apparently, an exchange was much needed. They are having serious trouble being happy together and getting along. We talked about it quite a bit and gave him a few "to do's" each day. Tried my best to explain that thats normal, but we need to do all we can to get rid of it because that doesn't just work itself out. He felt a lot better about it afterward and even on the phone last night with him. He said there's been some progress, so that was great to hear. Overall it was a good week and looking back it felt like we did a ton. There's a lot going on. Got to help a member move this week as well, but glad that we were able to just work and work.
Love you,
Janz
We had another awesome week!! We had a less active brother named Blackie in church this week!! And he's not black, but hispanic actually, haha. We've been teaching him for quite a while. He's told us multiple times that this was the week he was going to come to church and then things would happen. Last week, his excuse was that he forgot which day it was, haha. That was one of the best "church missing excuses" I've ever heard. But, it was cool because he came and I got to sit by him at church and we had a great time. Also, Austin is back in town and she was in church this week. The best part was that this time she brought her kiddos. They came to church and talked to us for the first time!! That was a huge deal because we had never talked to them. They always were somewhere else. We even got invited over for a dinner with Austin's family. That was the big chance that we had to get to know the kids and help them have a better idea of the church and missionaries. Thankfully the Lord helped us and we had a blast over there. Her daughter at one point said "We should have the missionaries come to dinner more often" That felt nice to hear. They're cute kids. They seemed to like church for the first time as well.
We had a really good day on Friday. I was with one of my zone leaders in my area on exchange and we were able to find some new potential peeps to teach. It was funny because we just said a prayer in the car, before getting out, that we would be able to talk to everyone to find new investigators. We get out and talk about how sometimes it can be tough to talk to literally everyone and sometimes its nerve racking. Then all of a sudden a lady in her car, at the complex we were at, stops and rolls down her window and happily waved her finger for us to come over. We go over and she asked if we were from the Church of Christ. I told her were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Mormon Church. She seemed okay with that and then asked if we believed that Christ had already come to earth and was among us somewhere. We were like "ummm no, thats yet to come. We would know if he was here" I guess she had heard that from some weird church and was curious. Well,we ended up teaching her the the Plan of Salvation since she talked about her husband passing away and then after that she told us to go talk to her sister who lived in that complex because she lives in Alvin. We knocked on her sister's door and lo and behold, she was the same kind of friendly and talkative as her sister and let us in She actually fed us tomales while we talked about how religion played a role in her life. She told us we could come back. Her daughter felt bad that she didnt join in on the conversation and said we could come back and that she would like to talk to us next time too. So that was a super cool hour because we had two lessons back to back and they were so "finding based!!" ...pumped us up!
I also got to go on exchange with the Spanish Elders in my district this week. It was a good experience that I wasn't expecting because, apparently, an exchange was much needed. They are having serious trouble being happy together and getting along. We talked about it quite a bit and gave him a few "to do's" each day. Tried my best to explain that thats normal, but we need to do all we can to get rid of it because that doesn't just work itself out. He felt a lot better about it afterward and even on the phone last night with him. He said there's been some progress, so that was great to hear. Overall it was a good week and looking back it felt like we did a ton. There's a lot going on. Got to help a member move this week as well, but glad that we were able to just work and work.
Love you,
Janz
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Pearland Texas , Week 95: jULY 11, 2016 - July 17, 2016
We had a super good week this week,as far as the work and the highlights within... This week was cool because the Flythe family came to church again for the second time in a row!! They haven't been in church since Easter and even then that was just a one time thing in a long while. They are older and their kids are grown up and married. I sat by them both times now in sacrament meeting. Our next goal is to help them stay for all three hours.
We went back to see Anne and Wilber, but they were having a rough day, so we just said a prayer for them and then they had to go. They live together and thats how we found Wilber. Our next appointment is tomorrow with them and hopefully this time we can follow up on our first lesson and be able to read the Book of Mormon with them.
We had a cool experience this week as we had a dinner appointment with a part member family. We have been over many times to eat with them and they both come to church almost every week. But we realized that we have never invited the non member husband to be baptized. We decided to teach the Restoration and invite him to be baptized during it. The lesson went solid and then I invited him to be baptized while we talked about priesthood being restored. He was like " no i dont want to be baptized, I dont do religion, I just believe in many Gods" He was raised Hindu and also studied other christian churches. So even though he wasn't ready to accept baptism I just felt good that we made sure we gave him that chance to learn and to know he should be baptized. My companion was actually on exchanges and I was with the new elder in the district and my companion was stoked when I told him I invited him to be baptized. It was a big deal just making the invite itself.
We also had a way neat experience of being able to go to an old folks home and give a sister a blessing. She was about to have a breathing test and she had a high white blood cell count and an ulcer. I got to give the blessing and it was powerful to be able to say whatever the Lord needed her to hear. Right after, as we were leaving, a gentlemen in a wheel chair in the hall stopped us and asked if we could put him in his bed. We said yes and wheeled him over and then struggled for about 5 minutes trying to find the right way to lift this dude. Eventually got it and we scooted him in position he wanted and he was very thankful And again, we just felt amazing to be helping out so much in that rehabilitation center.
We also had a chance to participate in two baby blessings yesterday. Both our ward mission leader and a recent convert in the ward asked us to join their circles for the blessing. That was pretty cool!
Love you tons,
Elder Janz
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| Janz with his b-day guitar strap |
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| B-day guitar pick punch |
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| Guitar w/new strap |
Pearland Texas, Week 94: July 4, 2016 - July 10, 2016
July 11, 2016
We had a really good week this week!! Lots of things that made the week memorable and accomplishing! Thanks for the birthday wishes!! Thank you sooo soooo much for the videos!! They were bomb, i loved them! You guys are champs. I had to fight back tears of missing everyone plus just being so excited to see everyone. That was amazing how everybody was able to pitch in. Thanks for letting them know about it and setting it up. That was hilarious honestly. I am totally saving that and keeping them forever on a flash drive! It'll be the perfect pick me up when days are tough. So for my birthday this week we didn't quite have any birthday celebration for me. I tried keeping it on the down low. The district heard about it and they sang for me after our district meeting, which was fun. I did a little jig as they sang haha. Then we went and had a good lunch at a fried chicken place.
But this week we were able to get two new investigators!! Their names are Ann and Wilber and its the lady that we originally helped jump her car. We got in the door and we were super intimidated because she had tooonnsss of catholic decorations in her apartment. She had like a 5 foot rosary on the wall! And there were more crosses on tables and on the walls than I have ever seen. So we were a little sketched that she was just catholic and wouldn't handle the invitation to be baptized well and understand the things we were saying. Buutttt, on the bright side, she ended up accepting baptism in the end and we had a really good lesson with her. I think we channeled our fear into powerful teaching and cranked up our faith and the Lord was able to provide and we got way excited. So we're gonna go back tomorrow and see how the prayers and study went for them.
We also had a huge miracle and saw the Flythe family come back to church. They had been taught, even before I was in this area, and the whole time I've been here and this Sunday, they finally made it to church!! It was way exciting to see them walk in the doors that morning. It seriously was like watching a baptism amount of joy for them. Love those guys so much. We're really close to them.
But we taught lots of lessons that day and had some sweet experiences. We had a member feed us dinner and it was cool because usually they do a food pick up and we go eat elsewhere, but we were blessed this time. We were able to go in and have dinner with them and bond and then teach. Things are going incredibly well. I am stoked for this transfer. Thanks for all you guys do. You make me feel like a rockstar.
Love you,
Janz
We had a really good week this week!! Lots of things that made the week memorable and accomplishing! Thanks for the birthday wishes!! Thank you sooo soooo much for the videos!! They were bomb, i loved them! You guys are champs. I had to fight back tears of missing everyone plus just being so excited to see everyone. That was amazing how everybody was able to pitch in. Thanks for letting them know about it and setting it up. That was hilarious honestly. I am totally saving that and keeping them forever on a flash drive! It'll be the perfect pick me up when days are tough. So for my birthday this week we didn't quite have any birthday celebration for me. I tried keeping it on the down low. The district heard about it and they sang for me after our district meeting, which was fun. I did a little jig as they sang haha. Then we went and had a good lunch at a fried chicken place.
But this week we were able to get two new investigators!! Their names are Ann and Wilber and its the lady that we originally helped jump her car. We got in the door and we were super intimidated because she had tooonnsss of catholic decorations in her apartment. She had like a 5 foot rosary on the wall! And there were more crosses on tables and on the walls than I have ever seen. So we were a little sketched that she was just catholic and wouldn't handle the invitation to be baptized well and understand the things we were saying. Buutttt, on the bright side, she ended up accepting baptism in the end and we had a really good lesson with her. I think we channeled our fear into powerful teaching and cranked up our faith and the Lord was able to provide and we got way excited. So we're gonna go back tomorrow and see how the prayers and study went for them.
We also had a huge miracle and saw the Flythe family come back to church. They had been taught, even before I was in this area, and the whole time I've been here and this Sunday, they finally made it to church!! It was way exciting to see them walk in the doors that morning. It seriously was like watching a baptism amount of joy for them. Love those guys so much. We're really close to them.
But we taught lots of lessons that day and had some sweet experiences. We had a member feed us dinner and it was cool because usually they do a food pick up and we go eat elsewhere, but we were blessed this time. We were able to go in and have dinner with them and bond and then teach. Things are going incredibly well. I am stoked for this transfer. Thanks for all you guys do. You make me feel like a rockstar.
Love you,
Janz
Pearland Texas, Week 93: June 27, 2016 - July 3, 2016
July 4, 2016
So the big news on transfers!! I will be staying in the area and my companion will be as well, no changes. I am pretty excited about that. I totally thought I was gonna get the boot. Most of our district will stay the same. Only two people are leaving. Were also about to get a brand new missionary too so I plan to do exchanges with them soon.
We had a slower week this week. It was kind of tough. We weren't able to teach any investigators. But, on the bright side, we were able to get a few potential investigators and one came from a lady that needed help. Her car died and we jumped her car and we were talking about what we do as missionaries as we were doing this and she was interested and told us to come back and share a message with her sometime. So, that was cool to see that if we have an attitude of finding, we will be able to find new investigators because the Lord blesses us.
We were able to see lots of less actives and active members this week though. We had a cool experience being inspired to go see a less active family that I had never met before. It was going to be our last house before we went in for the night and we just tried them and they ended up letting us in. We had a great time getting to know them, they're the Staner family. We taught about baptism because the little daughter was getting close to baptism age. We also got to visit some new members that moved in recently to welcome them and get to know them. They were glad we came by.
We also just texted Austin because she's out of town with her family and we wanted to see how that was all going. She said everything is great! They had one busted tire on the drive but beside that things have been fun. She'll be back the end of this month.
Tonight should be pretty fun too. We're going to a ward 4th of July BBQ!! There's going to be food, games and fireworks! Itll be fun to bond with members and also tell them that were staying in the ward.. I might even die in this area, we'll see. The ward is treating us well. We've had lots of dinners lately.
So i am planning on keeping my bike. I saw one of my old companions pack his up at the mission office and send it home so I definitely want to do that because I currently have no bike and this one here will be it. I still remember the address home, yep!! Thats because I've sent a few letters to ya'll on the mish.
Love you,
Janz
So the big news on transfers!! I will be staying in the area and my companion will be as well, no changes. I am pretty excited about that. I totally thought I was gonna get the boot. Most of our district will stay the same. Only two people are leaving. Were also about to get a brand new missionary too so I plan to do exchanges with them soon.
We had a slower week this week. It was kind of tough. We weren't able to teach any investigators. But, on the bright side, we were able to get a few potential investigators and one came from a lady that needed help. Her car died and we jumped her car and we were talking about what we do as missionaries as we were doing this and she was interested and told us to come back and share a message with her sometime. So, that was cool to see that if we have an attitude of finding, we will be able to find new investigators because the Lord blesses us.
We were able to see lots of less actives and active members this week though. We had a cool experience being inspired to go see a less active family that I had never met before. It was going to be our last house before we went in for the night and we just tried them and they ended up letting us in. We had a great time getting to know them, they're the Staner family. We taught about baptism because the little daughter was getting close to baptism age. We also got to visit some new members that moved in recently to welcome them and get to know them. They were glad we came by.
We also just texted Austin because she's out of town with her family and we wanted to see how that was all going. She said everything is great! They had one busted tire on the drive but beside that things have been fun. She'll be back the end of this month.
Tonight should be pretty fun too. We're going to a ward 4th of July BBQ!! There's going to be food, games and fireworks! Itll be fun to bond with members and also tell them that were staying in the ward.. I might even die in this area, we'll see. The ward is treating us well. We've had lots of dinners lately.
So i am planning on keeping my bike. I saw one of my old companions pack his up at the mission office and send it home so I definitely want to do that because I currently have no bike and this one here will be it. I still remember the address home, yep!! Thats because I've sent a few letters to ya'll on the mish.
Love you,
Janz
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Pearland Texas, Week 92: June 20,2016 - June 26, 2016
June 27, 2016
The week was extraordinary!! One of the best on the mission actually. Austin's baptism went very well. Tons of ward members were there and everyone fellow shipped her well. Austin even bore her testimony at the baptism too. Elder Haslauer was the one who performed the baptism. I got to give her the Holy Ghost yesterday at church. That worked out nice that way. It was Elder Haslauers first baptism in mission and first time ever baptizing someone. We were sooo stoked on Sunday. We sat by her in church and we all were just giddy. After the confirmation, we sat down and I asked her "that wasn't too bad huh?" because she thought priesthood blessings were kinda funky. But she was awesome and just whispered "thank you" super sincerely. I loved it. The Lord truly allows us to feel joy as we live the gospel and we get these amazing relationships with people in the gospel as well.
Another reason this week was bomb was, because I had been quite stressed and feeling blue until the baptism and then I realized that things aren't really about me. Even if we feel crappy, as we focus on others and what we can help them with, our problems seem to fade. I noticed that again before church as I was doing sacrament preparation. So thats one thing i'm trying to improve upon.
This morning was another cool highlight. We got to go biking with lots of other missionaries and President Hall. Everyone came down to a local high school and met up and we did a 14 mile ride together. Its pretty funny because now I can say that I have seen my mission president in skin tight clothing haha. He had a biking bib kit and his way nice bike.
Love you,
Janz
The week was extraordinary!! One of the best on the mission actually. Austin's baptism went very well. Tons of ward members were there and everyone fellow shipped her well. Austin even bore her testimony at the baptism too. Elder Haslauer was the one who performed the baptism. I got to give her the Holy Ghost yesterday at church. That worked out nice that way. It was Elder Haslauers first baptism in mission and first time ever baptizing someone. We were sooo stoked on Sunday. We sat by her in church and we all were just giddy. After the confirmation, we sat down and I asked her "that wasn't too bad huh?" because she thought priesthood blessings were kinda funky. But she was awesome and just whispered "thank you" super sincerely. I loved it. The Lord truly allows us to feel joy as we live the gospel and we get these amazing relationships with people in the gospel as well.
Another reason this week was bomb was, because I had been quite stressed and feeling blue until the baptism and then I realized that things aren't really about me. Even if we feel crappy, as we focus on others and what we can help them with, our problems seem to fade. I noticed that again before church as I was doing sacrament preparation. So thats one thing i'm trying to improve upon.
This morning was another cool highlight. We got to go biking with lots of other missionaries and President Hall. Everyone came down to a local high school and met up and we did a 14 mile ride together. Its pretty funny because now I can say that I have seen my mission president in skin tight clothing haha. He had a biking bib kit and his way nice bike.
Love you,
Janz
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| Austin's Baptism |
Pearland Texas, Week 91: June 13, 2016 - June 19, 2016
June 20, 2016
We had a solid week this week!! I loved our highlights that we had this time. One that I forgot to mention last week was that Brandon from Shadow Creek was married yesterday!! His wife is a non member so they did the marriage at the ward building by the bishop. It was so awesome to see him again. His life is just becoming ultimately better and he's so much happier and more confident. There is definitely power in choosing the right and letting a relationship with God be our constant priority. He's also about to have his new baby in October. His wife is now looking into the church and coming on Sundays and hearing some lessons. Its amazing what can happen when you light one gospel spark in Houston and see what else it can light. Hear stories all the time about the radiance of converts and how others cling to it.
Austin is doing really good! We had a little speed bump this week which scared me silly for like 20 minutes. So, she had called us one day and wanted to ask us about stake conference and one of the talks she had heard there. She felt offended and belittled by Elder Fosters talk at the end of Sunday. He was sharing how he is in the committee of restoration of blessings when people leave the church and come back. He, in essence, taught that choosing to leave the church will lead to your life crumbling and that he will be the one in 20 years to be able to reestablish the membership again. She felt like he taught it in a fear seeking way. She also had concerns for her children and said she would not want her children to come to church if that was the type of warning they would hear. She was pretty flustered but a lot of it comes from her having an ex boyfriend who left the church and they're still friends and I think she just saw that first hand so its a touchy situation. We just explained to her that Elder Foster would never purposefully implement fear through a talk. He still is a servant of the Lord, even if he's not perfect and that everyone in life has a different degree of living the gospel and a lot of times that changes how we respond to teachings like that.We ended up showing her that wasn't typical and that she wouldnt see much of that and she eventually felt better and was able to come to terms. She was fine the next day. We checked up on her to see and she was A okay and even gave her Presidents phone number which he recommended we do if she has big questions again. On a better note we just put together her baptismal program this weekend! She even had some hymns that she picked out "Joseph Smiths First Prayer" and "Be Still My Soul". We were impressed. She'll make it this Saturday and we'll have a jolly time!! Ward is all set to help out and attend as well.
We got new investigator this week too! Her name is Sarah and we taught her the Plan of Salvation as a first lesson even though it is number 2 normally because I felt prompted after hearing about how she had got slowly distanced more and more from God after her Gparents had passed away. I realized that knowledge of families being together forever in the Lords kingdom and helping her understand how God sees her as his daughter would be most important. Turns out it went great! she loved the lesson and we will be back soon.
I had some way cool district leader experiences this week too. So I heard that one of my zone leaders would be joining our district meeting in advance. Then a day before the meeting, President Hall shoots me a text "Hey where is your district meeting this week?" I was like, ohhh man. Then it got even better once I got there and setting up. Turns out that the zone leaders were on exchange with the APs that day, so in my meeting I had literally all leadership above me seeing how I do things. I didn't worry too much. Slight nervousness, but went away quickly. The best part is that I got compliments from all of them. They all sincerely enjoyed the meeting and the way I put things together and taught everybody. Made me feel pretty bomb.
I also got to go on exchange with an elder that I had never even spoken to until a couple weeks ago. He's now in the district and he came to my area for the day. We had an awesome time and we got to play street b ball with some kids our age and school them together! That was so cliche mormon missionary, but we had a good time and the dudes will have a better idea of the church and elders now, even though they didn't accept to hear us share a message after. We were able to go way out to the boonies again this week too! We had two appointments set up and they went pretty dang well. I've learned the more specific we plan things in life and ask the Lord, the more specific he will bless us and amplify the experience. Things are quite fun and exciting lately.
Thats sweet that Cleveland was able to get the big W. Lebron didn't really need it much but the team itself will be a boost and help them out. Most peeps in my mission cheer for everyone. Lots of kids still hold on to their favorite schools, NFL, NBA teams and what not. But, the longer they're out, the more Houston pride and the teams get cooler and cooler. Thats how i've been too.
Summer has definitely made its mark in both our homes right now it seems. We have been getting roasted lately. I swear, one day we were biking, I almost got pruny from the sweat that never seemed to dry out. My garments were dunzo haha\. Had to change when I got home because i would've felt bad for my bed to take those while sleeping. But we we're good about sunscreen this week. I got burned one day and just learned I can't even go out unless I spray up because it doesn't take long at all to get red.
Love you tons, Janz
We had a solid week this week!! I loved our highlights that we had this time. One that I forgot to mention last week was that Brandon from Shadow Creek was married yesterday!! His wife is a non member so they did the marriage at the ward building by the bishop. It was so awesome to see him again. His life is just becoming ultimately better and he's so much happier and more confident. There is definitely power in choosing the right and letting a relationship with God be our constant priority. He's also about to have his new baby in October. His wife is now looking into the church and coming on Sundays and hearing some lessons. Its amazing what can happen when you light one gospel spark in Houston and see what else it can light. Hear stories all the time about the radiance of converts and how others cling to it.
Austin is doing really good! We had a little speed bump this week which scared me silly for like 20 minutes. So, she had called us one day and wanted to ask us about stake conference and one of the talks she had heard there. She felt offended and belittled by Elder Fosters talk at the end of Sunday. He was sharing how he is in the committee of restoration of blessings when people leave the church and come back. He, in essence, taught that choosing to leave the church will lead to your life crumbling and that he will be the one in 20 years to be able to reestablish the membership again. She felt like he taught it in a fear seeking way. She also had concerns for her children and said she would not want her children to come to church if that was the type of warning they would hear. She was pretty flustered but a lot of it comes from her having an ex boyfriend who left the church and they're still friends and I think she just saw that first hand so its a touchy situation. We just explained to her that Elder Foster would never purposefully implement fear through a talk. He still is a servant of the Lord, even if he's not perfect and that everyone in life has a different degree of living the gospel and a lot of times that changes how we respond to teachings like that.We ended up showing her that wasn't typical and that she wouldnt see much of that and she eventually felt better and was able to come to terms. She was fine the next day. We checked up on her to see and she was A okay and even gave her Presidents phone number which he recommended we do if she has big questions again. On a better note we just put together her baptismal program this weekend! She even had some hymns that she picked out "Joseph Smiths First Prayer" and "Be Still My Soul". We were impressed. She'll make it this Saturday and we'll have a jolly time!! Ward is all set to help out and attend as well.
We got new investigator this week too! Her name is Sarah and we taught her the Plan of Salvation as a first lesson even though it is number 2 normally because I felt prompted after hearing about how she had got slowly distanced more and more from God after her Gparents had passed away. I realized that knowledge of families being together forever in the Lords kingdom and helping her understand how God sees her as his daughter would be most important. Turns out it went great! she loved the lesson and we will be back soon.
I had some way cool district leader experiences this week too. So I heard that one of my zone leaders would be joining our district meeting in advance. Then a day before the meeting, President Hall shoots me a text "Hey where is your district meeting this week?" I was like, ohhh man. Then it got even better once I got there and setting up. Turns out that the zone leaders were on exchange with the APs that day, so in my meeting I had literally all leadership above me seeing how I do things. I didn't worry too much. Slight nervousness, but went away quickly. The best part is that I got compliments from all of them. They all sincerely enjoyed the meeting and the way I put things together and taught everybody. Made me feel pretty bomb.
I also got to go on exchange with an elder that I had never even spoken to until a couple weeks ago. He's now in the district and he came to my area for the day. We had an awesome time and we got to play street b ball with some kids our age and school them together! That was so cliche mormon missionary, but we had a good time and the dudes will have a better idea of the church and elders now, even though they didn't accept to hear us share a message after. We were able to go way out to the boonies again this week too! We had two appointments set up and they went pretty dang well. I've learned the more specific we plan things in life and ask the Lord, the more specific he will bless us and amplify the experience. Things are quite fun and exciting lately.
Thats sweet that Cleveland was able to get the big W. Lebron didn't really need it much but the team itself will be a boost and help them out. Most peeps in my mission cheer for everyone. Lots of kids still hold on to their favorite schools, NFL, NBA teams and what not. But, the longer they're out, the more Houston pride and the teams get cooler and cooler. Thats how i've been too.
Summer has definitely made its mark in both our homes right now it seems. We have been getting roasted lately. I swear, one day we were biking, I almost got pruny from the sweat that never seemed to dry out. My garments were dunzo haha\. Had to change when I got home because i would've felt bad for my bed to take those while sleeping. But we we're good about sunscreen this week. I got burned one day and just learned I can't even go out unless I spray up because it doesn't take long at all to get red.
Love you tons, Janz
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| Brandon's Wedding |
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Pearland Texas, Week 90: June 6, 2016 - June 12, 2016
June 13, 2016
We had a super week this week!! I loved it. Austin passed her baptismal interview, Elder Foster had a great visit with us, Austin came to stake conference and we taught lots of people. So I'll start with Austin. Her baptismal interview was way exciting. She went in and just aced it, she was way prepared. The best part is that she came out so happy and she was just fired up. Made me get happy and we all just wanted to do the baptism right there and then But it'll come, only 12 days away! She also came to the Saturday evening session of stake conference as well as Sunday session. What a champ huh? It was was fun to sit with her and show her off to everybody there haha. We even introduced her to President Hall and vthey had a good chat.
Now for Elder Foster stuff: So we got to meet him on Thursday. We had our mission conference then, and there were tons of great teachings. Elder Foster taught us more about how to work with our members to have them missionary minded. He later taught about how, despite the 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and were just little people on earth, God still knows us by name and wants to talk to us. It was pretty sweet. Also taught about how we need to have challenges and trials in life in order to grow and progress. I loved that because I feel more hope. I know that through Christs grace I can become strong from it.
I also got to go on exchanges with a new missionary this week. He's in my district and he came to my area for exchange. We had such a fun time. He's a lot like my friends back at home. We haven't seen the Flores family yet. Sister Garza is out of town right now but we'll get the friend soon. We taught her husband this week and kept him company so he wouldnt be lonely. We havent quite made it to the boonies yet. We got a little bit out there yesterday but not as far as we did the last time. I hope we can soon, we called some people that live out there and they said they would be fine with us stopping by so we will this week.
This week was definitely more dry. We were roasting in the heat. It was way hot all week and sunny until yesterday when it rained off and on. Yeah transfers are coming in about 2 weeks. I think I will be leaving as well. Ill get my last area. But i can also seeing myself stay because President just told me hes super impressed with me and he said he gave me the biggest district in the mission because he trusts my leadership. so i can see me staying since thats all going good.
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
We had a super week this week!! I loved it. Austin passed her baptismal interview, Elder Foster had a great visit with us, Austin came to stake conference and we taught lots of people. So I'll start with Austin. Her baptismal interview was way exciting. She went in and just aced it, she was way prepared. The best part is that she came out so happy and she was just fired up. Made me get happy and we all just wanted to do the baptism right there and then But it'll come, only 12 days away! She also came to the Saturday evening session of stake conference as well as Sunday session. What a champ huh? It was was fun to sit with her and show her off to everybody there haha. We even introduced her to President Hall and vthey had a good chat.
Now for Elder Foster stuff: So we got to meet him on Thursday. We had our mission conference then, and there were tons of great teachings. Elder Foster taught us more about how to work with our members to have them missionary minded. He later taught about how, despite the 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and were just little people on earth, God still knows us by name and wants to talk to us. It was pretty sweet. Also taught about how we need to have challenges and trials in life in order to grow and progress. I loved that because I feel more hope. I know that through Christs grace I can become strong from it.
I also got to go on exchanges with a new missionary this week. He's in my district and he came to my area for exchange. We had such a fun time. He's a lot like my friends back at home. We haven't seen the Flores family yet. Sister Garza is out of town right now but we'll get the friend soon. We taught her husband this week and kept him company so he wouldnt be lonely. We havent quite made it to the boonies yet. We got a little bit out there yesterday but not as far as we did the last time. I hope we can soon, we called some people that live out there and they said they would be fine with us stopping by so we will this week.
This week was definitely more dry. We were roasting in the heat. It was way hot all week and sunny until yesterday when it rained off and on. Yeah transfers are coming in about 2 weeks. I think I will be leaving as well. Ill get my last area. But i can also seeing myself stay because President just told me hes super impressed with me and he said he gave me the biggest district in the mission because he trusts my leadership. so i can see me staying since thats all going good.
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 89: May 30, 2016 - June 5, 2016
June 6, 2016
The weather has been nasty. Nothing can stay dry, its like constant mud and water. But this week looked to be a lot more clear and even more hot. So ill take that. Im sick of the gray and rain. ive heard about that drought as well. actually just recently. seems to be quite the extremes here. Thats pretty nuts its already in the 90s back at home. wow... im excited to see what 90 feels like dry. ive heard sometimes your eyes can turn into raisins from some elders that went back to Utah, eyes are wigged out by the humid to dry. We haven't had any flood service yet, but the Southern part of the mission is finally worse than the Northern, so we might get involved because we're closer to it. Rivers are overflowing in multiple places. Pearland has been draining great, yeah they keep their reputation. I have actually never heard if the name of Pearland comes from the fact that they grow pears here. My comp and I were talking about it and we havent seen a single pear tree, so we are not sure if it was just something in the past or if they're just been creative and what not.
So we had a great week this week!! We got the miles back on the car so we didn't quite bike like Iron Men again. A couple days ago we actually went to a part of the ward that we have never been. Its like 25 miles south of our apartment, way out in the boonies and farmland. It was so fun!! I always get like a relief or big sigh type feeling driving out on tiny roads with creeks and just trees for miles. We also had some tribal african music in the car that we put on to enhance the adventure mood. We decided we need to go back down there this week because there are many families that havent had any contact with members or missionaries for long time.
Austin is doing solid! we only have one more lesson with her and she will be set for her interview! We taught all the commandments this week as one lesson. Usually elders break it up into two or three but we are limited with her schedule so it was interesting just having the bulldozer doctrine approach. But we planned carefully and she took it really well. Her brain thinks like that anyways, all logical and needing fact after fact.
We got to see the Flores family twice this week. We had another dinner with them on Sunday as well as Tuesday. The lesson went really well on Tuesday as we taught about the importance of applying the scriptures to ourselves and pondering on the teachings even after reading. Sis Garza didn't make it to church this week due to work. She said she would've come if not. We think having more friends for her to hang on instead of just us would probably work better. We're just trying to figure out who.
We had a pretty cool experience one afternoon. We had tried quite a few houses and no luck. Last time, we decided to go to the other side of the area and try someone who seemed like they were home, but just didn't come to the door. This time finally someones answers and it wasn't the member we were looking for. He said he had moved and he's been there for 2 years. We were like "ohh okay, well whats your name!?" His name was Mark. We just told him what we do and he was super open all of a sudden and said, "I could use a message of Christ or something inspirational." So i shared a speedy Restoration lesson with him and really focused on the fact that God appeared to Joseph Smith and told him the answers to the questions he had so much confusion about. Mark thought that was sweet and he accepted to read the rest of the pamphlet and that we could come back. So, that gave me hope. Thats a new potential somebody to teach. This week should be pretty cool. We're having Elder Foster come to the mission on Thursday. He's a 70 and he's teaching the whole mission and also doing a special leadership training afterward. I always like these meetings a lot. So, I'm gonna go into it with the idea that I'll have lots of takeaways.
Love you,
Elder Deans
The weather has been nasty. Nothing can stay dry, its like constant mud and water. But this week looked to be a lot more clear and even more hot. So ill take that. Im sick of the gray and rain. ive heard about that drought as well. actually just recently. seems to be quite the extremes here. Thats pretty nuts its already in the 90s back at home. wow... im excited to see what 90 feels like dry. ive heard sometimes your eyes can turn into raisins from some elders that went back to Utah, eyes are wigged out by the humid to dry. We haven't had any flood service yet, but the Southern part of the mission is finally worse than the Northern, so we might get involved because we're closer to it. Rivers are overflowing in multiple places. Pearland has been draining great, yeah they keep their reputation. I have actually never heard if the name of Pearland comes from the fact that they grow pears here. My comp and I were talking about it and we havent seen a single pear tree, so we are not sure if it was just something in the past or if they're just been creative and what not.
So we had a great week this week!! We got the miles back on the car so we didn't quite bike like Iron Men again. A couple days ago we actually went to a part of the ward that we have never been. Its like 25 miles south of our apartment, way out in the boonies and farmland. It was so fun!! I always get like a relief or big sigh type feeling driving out on tiny roads with creeks and just trees for miles. We also had some tribal african music in the car that we put on to enhance the adventure mood. We decided we need to go back down there this week because there are many families that havent had any contact with members or missionaries for long time.
Austin is doing solid! we only have one more lesson with her and she will be set for her interview! We taught all the commandments this week as one lesson. Usually elders break it up into two or three but we are limited with her schedule so it was interesting just having the bulldozer doctrine approach. But we planned carefully and she took it really well. Her brain thinks like that anyways, all logical and needing fact after fact.
We got to see the Flores family twice this week. We had another dinner with them on Sunday as well as Tuesday. The lesson went really well on Tuesday as we taught about the importance of applying the scriptures to ourselves and pondering on the teachings even after reading. Sis Garza didn't make it to church this week due to work. She said she would've come if not. We think having more friends for her to hang on instead of just us would probably work better. We're just trying to figure out who.
We had a pretty cool experience one afternoon. We had tried quite a few houses and no luck. Last time, we decided to go to the other side of the area and try someone who seemed like they were home, but just didn't come to the door. This time finally someones answers and it wasn't the member we were looking for. He said he had moved and he's been there for 2 years. We were like "ohh okay, well whats your name!?" His name was Mark. We just told him what we do and he was super open all of a sudden and said, "I could use a message of Christ or something inspirational." So i shared a speedy Restoration lesson with him and really focused on the fact that God appeared to Joseph Smith and told him the answers to the questions he had so much confusion about. Mark thought that was sweet and he accepted to read the rest of the pamphlet and that we could come back. So, that gave me hope. Thats a new potential somebody to teach. This week should be pretty cool. We're having Elder Foster come to the mission on Thursday. He's a 70 and he's teaching the whole mission and also doing a special leadership training afterward. I always like these meetings a lot. So, I'm gonna go into it with the idea that I'll have lots of takeaways.
Love you,
Elder Deans
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Pearland Texas, Week 88: May 23, 2016 - May 30, 2016
May 31, 2016
We got hit with many much rain this week. There was one point when we got stuck at a dinner appointment and the rain came down way hard,filling up the streets and just massive downpour. But, we only had the bikes because we were trying to budget car miles and the family couldn't give us a ride. So we biked home with all our water proof on and ready to go. We were almost home when we went through one trailer park and the water was literally up to my mid calf and we had no other way around. So the bikes became paddle boats and we trudged through some way deep water haha. it was pretty fun!!
We had a great work week this week!!! Austin came back to church for the first time in 5 weeks! So glad she made it. She also asked if she could get baptized a week earlier than planned!!! She had a work trip come up and she doesn't want to have to wait until after, so wants to be baptized before!! Its super awesome! Now the new date is for June 25. She's doing so well. She had like an hour long conversation with our ward mission leader about how her family isn't very supportive of her conversion and how she's going to get baptized and then break it to them after, haha, silly head.
But we were also able to teach more lessons than we have in a long time this week as well. Saw people we usually don't. And one cool biking update is that I now have a new record of miles biked in one day. Yesterday we biked 43 miles total!!! It was insane. We also had a day of 36 miles too haha. Legs are just as heavy as tree trunks afterward. We had Brother Flores in church yesterday as well, yeah! He's also having us over for dinner tonight as well. I hope he can become an every Sunday guy now. He's way close. Sis Garza wasn't there for some reason. But we were bums and never went over last week to congratulate her more and to support. But we plan to see them today and we hope our visits really motivate them to come. Its all about getting the Spirit there and having it work on them and tell them what's up. So far its worked well on her, just need to get her husband too.
This ward is missionary minded and willing to work with it a lot though. They are great about having weekly correlation meetings with us and finding ways to help. I really hope we can get some new people this week. Like multiple. We are way low on investigators, just Austin and Dan and Sonya who we're seeing this evening. Pray that we can have an attitude of finding and that we will have courage to talk to everyone. I'm gonna do all that I can. Needs more peeps
Teaching Gospel Principles class was way cool. I've decided I just love teaching small groups haha. I don't get nervous at all anymore. I look forward to discussions or personal stories that crack people up. We talked about Eternal Familes for the lesson and at one part focused on how to have healthy relationships within the family. I brought up how you once told me you and Dad rarely rarely fight. There's times when it seems like a fight but you'd say " OH we dont fight, we just argue sometimes" and they got a kick out of that.
My companion and I are doing good. Yeah we're having fun together. And today the other elders we do p-day with won't be around, so its just gonna be us two. We're gonna play some pool at the apartment and then go play ball, It'll be cool for us.
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
NEWS!!! The church came out last week and said missionaries can wear sun/work
straw hats while proselyting! So we went for it and got walmart hats
haha
We got hit with many much rain this week. There was one point when we got stuck at a dinner appointment and the rain came down way hard,filling up the streets and just massive downpour. But, we only had the bikes because we were trying to budget car miles and the family couldn't give us a ride. So we biked home with all our water proof on and ready to go. We were almost home when we went through one trailer park and the water was literally up to my mid calf and we had no other way around. So the bikes became paddle boats and we trudged through some way deep water haha. it was pretty fun!!
We had a great work week this week!!! Austin came back to church for the first time in 5 weeks! So glad she made it. She also asked if she could get baptized a week earlier than planned!!! She had a work trip come up and she doesn't want to have to wait until after, so wants to be baptized before!! Its super awesome! Now the new date is for June 25. She's doing so well. She had like an hour long conversation with our ward mission leader about how her family isn't very supportive of her conversion and how she's going to get baptized and then break it to them after, haha, silly head.
But we were also able to teach more lessons than we have in a long time this week as well. Saw people we usually don't. And one cool biking update is that I now have a new record of miles biked in one day. Yesterday we biked 43 miles total!!! It was insane. We also had a day of 36 miles too haha. Legs are just as heavy as tree trunks afterward. We had Brother Flores in church yesterday as well, yeah! He's also having us over for dinner tonight as well. I hope he can become an every Sunday guy now. He's way close. Sis Garza wasn't there for some reason. But we were bums and never went over last week to congratulate her more and to support. But we plan to see them today and we hope our visits really motivate them to come. Its all about getting the Spirit there and having it work on them and tell them what's up. So far its worked well on her, just need to get her husband too.
This ward is missionary minded and willing to work with it a lot though. They are great about having weekly correlation meetings with us and finding ways to help. I really hope we can get some new people this week. Like multiple. We are way low on investigators, just Austin and Dan and Sonya who we're seeing this evening. Pray that we can have an attitude of finding and that we will have courage to talk to everyone. I'm gonna do all that I can. Needs more peeps
Teaching Gospel Principles class was way cool. I've decided I just love teaching small groups haha. I don't get nervous at all anymore. I look forward to discussions or personal stories that crack people up. We talked about Eternal Familes for the lesson and at one part focused on how to have healthy relationships within the family. I brought up how you once told me you and Dad rarely rarely fight. There's times when it seems like a fight but you'd say " OH we dont fight, we just argue sometimes" and they got a kick out of that.
My companion and I are doing good. Yeah we're having fun together. And today the other elders we do p-day with won't be around, so its just gonna be us two. We're gonna play some pool at the apartment and then go play ball, It'll be cool for us.
Love you tons,
Elder Deans
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| Crawfish Tie |
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| Crawfish Boil |
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| Crawfish Finger Puppets |
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| These are sticker to the most famous gas station in Texas |
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| Gnarly Watch Tan |
Pearland Texas, Week 87: May 16, 2016 - May 22, 2016
May 23, 2016
I was praying the other night and I realized that I had been out 20 months!! I thought it was only 18 for some weird reason. But time just goes and goes. Transfer Update: I will be staying in Pearland this transfer!! I'll have the same companion, so we weren't affected by transfers. I'm happy about it. Its kinda funny because our ward mission leader asked me at church if i could teach the gospel principles class next week and I was like "uhhh... yeah" because my companion kept telling me i would be leaving. So now I know that our ward mission leader was inspired and knew I'd still be here to teach. And I can rub it in my comps face, haha.
We had a bomb week as far as the work goes!! Austin accepted a baptismal date this week. She wants to be baptized on July 2nd. We had our first lesson in her house this week, in the past its been out at restaurants. She'll be in church next week I believe. Her sisters are still in Lousiana and they'll stay there. We also had Sis. Garza and Bro. Flores, two different less active peeps, come to church this week for the first time in a long while because the lessons went so well with them this week. Made me so happy! I joked with Sis. Garza that now that she came I needed to take a selfie with her because I know she hates them and she was like "NO elder" haha, pretty funny.
The crawfish boil was super intense this weekend. So it takes forever to cook those stinkers right? So while cooking, which is outside, a giant storm rolled in and there was lightning and wind and rain. We just kept cooking and then decided to eat and hang out inside even though it might stink up the church. We go in the church and dish up and then the lights lost power. Thankfully we had a quarter of the gym with lights on which lit up the place slightly. But it was yummy. Lots of good times with the members. Felt glad to be a part of the ward.
Love you, Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 86: May 9, 2016 - May 15, 2016
May 16, 2016
We had a pretty good week this week!! We've really put a stress on finding new investigators and every day we had a good finding ttitude in street contacting as well. We've also been making plans with members to share the gospel with their friends. This week, we taught the most less active and recent convert lessons we ever have before as a companionship.
Had a huge highlight from Austin this morning. We were a little discouraged because she has been in Louisiana for the past 4 weekends. She goes every weekend, or just about, to help her sisters who live there. Her dad doesn't take good care of them, so she just got legal custody. Buuuttt, she texted us and felt bad about being gone so often and then proceeded to tell us that she is ready to figure out what 'needs to be done to move forward' and what timeline she has because she just got over her concerns she said! So hopefully we have a date for baptism by the end of the week. We're also having a crawfish boil this weekend and almost everyone we teach will be invited. She should go and show us all how to be cajun.
We also had a cool experience doing street contacting and found a lady named Ashton that is pretty interested. I met her because we were walking down a sidewalk in a nice suburban neighborhood and we see a lady on the other side come out and grab something from the car. So we crossed the street to eventually walk across her place and she walked back inside or at least couldn't see her anymore. So we come to the house and looked over and she actually was just having a smoke on her porch. So I said the first thing that came to mind which was " do you know anyone around here who is going through a hard time or would want to hear a message about Christ?" And its funny because she heard it all weird and told us "oh i don't have any time right now, we're about to go" I just repeated my first question and she got it. She said she just moved in and didn't know anyone. Then we started to focus on her and asked if she was religious. She ended up asking us, before we gave anything, if she could have a pamphlet! Love those moments, actually happens quite a bit for some reason, haha. Guess we got some readers here. So the update with Troy kind of stinks. He actually moved. We had no idea, had to hear it from his neighbors. He's now in Sugar Land.
Transfers will be next week and by this time i'll know my whereabouts. we will see. Very likely I'm bouncing again but it'd be wack if I did because i've never done a one and out. those are tough. We had a way cool zone conference this week on really owning our calling as a disciple and making sure every invite we extend is focused on the Savior and people know it comes from him. All we do is just echo his counsel. It felt good to try to get more into the lessons and commitments this week and make sure i wasn't just going through the motions. The Spirit does come a lot stronger if you know you are sent by God to help these people. Youve been set apart, you will have the words given to you to speak if you center everything on Christ. One less active family really felt it and was willing to come to church.
Love ya tons,
Elder Deans
We had a pretty good week this week!! We've really put a stress on finding new investigators and every day we had a good finding ttitude in street contacting as well. We've also been making plans with members to share the gospel with their friends. This week, we taught the most less active and recent convert lessons we ever have before as a companionship.
Had a huge highlight from Austin this morning. We were a little discouraged because she has been in Louisiana for the past 4 weekends. She goes every weekend, or just about, to help her sisters who live there. Her dad doesn't take good care of them, so she just got legal custody. Buuuttt, she texted us and felt bad about being gone so often and then proceeded to tell us that she is ready to figure out what 'needs to be done to move forward' and what timeline she has because she just got over her concerns she said! So hopefully we have a date for baptism by the end of the week. We're also having a crawfish boil this weekend and almost everyone we teach will be invited. She should go and show us all how to be cajun.
We also had a cool experience doing street contacting and found a lady named Ashton that is pretty interested. I met her because we were walking down a sidewalk in a nice suburban neighborhood and we see a lady on the other side come out and grab something from the car. So we crossed the street to eventually walk across her place and she walked back inside or at least couldn't see her anymore. So we come to the house and looked over and she actually was just having a smoke on her porch. So I said the first thing that came to mind which was " do you know anyone around here who is going through a hard time or would want to hear a message about Christ?" And its funny because she heard it all weird and told us "oh i don't have any time right now, we're about to go" I just repeated my first question and she got it. She said she just moved in and didn't know anyone. Then we started to focus on her and asked if she was religious. She ended up asking us, before we gave anything, if she could have a pamphlet! Love those moments, actually happens quite a bit for some reason, haha. Guess we got some readers here. So the update with Troy kind of stinks. He actually moved. We had no idea, had to hear it from his neighbors. He's now in Sugar Land.
Transfers will be next week and by this time i'll know my whereabouts. we will see. Very likely I'm bouncing again but it'd be wack if I did because i've never done a one and out. those are tough. We had a way cool zone conference this week on really owning our calling as a disciple and making sure every invite we extend is focused on the Savior and people know it comes from him. All we do is just echo his counsel. It felt good to try to get more into the lessons and commitments this week and make sure i wasn't just going through the motions. The Spirit does come a lot stronger if you know you are sent by God to help these people. Youve been set apart, you will have the words given to you to speak if you center everything on Christ. One less active family really felt it and was willing to come to church.
Love ya tons,
Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 85: May 2, 2016 - May 8, 2016
May 9, 2016
This week was good for us. I'll share some of the highlights from the work. So we actually have a new baptismal date!! Its for an investigator named Troy. We met him a while ago but finally got to have a solid lesson with him and he accepted to be baptized on June 4th. Hes hardly ever home because he works on the oil rigs out in the bay but were going to ask him more about his schedule and find time to meet with him every week.
Also got to have another good lesson with Austin. Answered some questions about the Book of Mormon and Bible and Joseph Smith. Thats her big hold up right now. She's having trouble knowing if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and if God spoke to him. So we plan to watch some videos of Joseph Smith. She's just gotta be as humble as possible and the Spirit will teach her and she can get her answer. She will be coming to church this upcoming weekend.
We had some great progress with less actives as well. We were able to see a less active recent convert family that we have been trying to teach for multiple weeks. Their name is the Zsigrays. We saw the husband washing his car outside and knew this would be a golden opportunity to actually catch them home and have a lesson. Had a cool lesson on the Gospel of Christ. They know they gotta come back to church they've just been busy. We also saw a single older lady this week with a kid in college from our ward and she came back to church yesterday for the first time in at least a month! So that was awesome. So those are the great things we have seen lately. We are excited. We've been going out to work with lots of energy because we know there are good things to come.
Love ya, Elder Deans
This week was good for us. I'll share some of the highlights from the work. So we actually have a new baptismal date!! Its for an investigator named Troy. We met him a while ago but finally got to have a solid lesson with him and he accepted to be baptized on June 4th. Hes hardly ever home because he works on the oil rigs out in the bay but were going to ask him more about his schedule and find time to meet with him every week.
Also got to have another good lesson with Austin. Answered some questions about the Book of Mormon and Bible and Joseph Smith. Thats her big hold up right now. She's having trouble knowing if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and if God spoke to him. So we plan to watch some videos of Joseph Smith. She's just gotta be as humble as possible and the Spirit will teach her and she can get her answer. She will be coming to church this upcoming weekend.
We had some great progress with less actives as well. We were able to see a less active recent convert family that we have been trying to teach for multiple weeks. Their name is the Zsigrays. We saw the husband washing his car outside and knew this would be a golden opportunity to actually catch them home and have a lesson. Had a cool lesson on the Gospel of Christ. They know they gotta come back to church they've just been busy. We also saw a single older lady this week with a kid in college from our ward and she came back to church yesterday for the first time in at least a month! So that was awesome. So those are the great things we have seen lately. We are excited. We've been going out to work with lots of energy because we know there are good things to come.
Love ya, Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 84: April 25, 2016 - May 1, 2016
May 2, 2016
We had a good week this week. Nothing crazy amazing in our area but for a big highlight in my last ward, Brandon got baptized!!! We were notified a week before and we got to go down to see his baptism! His brother baptized him and its crazy because the timing was perfect since his brother Aaron leaves to Navy Officer training in less than a week. It was soooo awesome to see those studs again. Brandon was having the time of his life. He was way touched and cried throughout the program. I got to conduct the music there too so that was sweet. Ill try and send a picture of us all.
We made some great progress with our less actives and recent converts this week. One day we planned to see a convert that lives in the bottom of our area, about 15 miles away, named Dizzy. But we had been driving a lot that week and we ran out of our monthly allotted miles so we had to start biking the last few days. We ended up biking down the highway to go see her and she lives out in the boony country. I got fried that day from a long bike ride. I was lobster status even by the ride back after our lesson. We taught her the plan of salvation because she missed a temple prep class and us and the ward are helping her get to the temple for endowment. We had a great time teaching it. Turns out she is the mom of a lady I knew well in Alvin.
We also were able to get in and teach a family that hadn't been in contact with the ward or missionaries for months just a couple days ago. It was way unexpected. We think the only way we were able to get in is through their wild little boy that answered the door in his undies and was a total chatty kathy and telling us all the cool things they have recently bought like the Star Wars movie. We taught them a quick message on the atonement using Mosiah when it speaks about how salvation doesn't just come through the law of moses, but ultimately its through our utilization of the Atonement of Christ and the difference it makes in our lives. I compared it to living the gospel and treating it as a checklist or just going through the motions versus constantly relying on Christ to heal us, make up our imperfections, strengthen us. They loved the lesson. We''re gonna try to teach them more often. They're the Green family.
Besides that, things have been tough with investigators. Haven't been able to teach any of them. Austin is out of town, Dan was again busy and Dmitri was the same. We,re just going to find more investigators so if those fall through we're still seeing the good people we need to!
Love you tons, Elder Deans
We had a good week this week. Nothing crazy amazing in our area but for a big highlight in my last ward, Brandon got baptized!!! We were notified a week before and we got to go down to see his baptism! His brother baptized him and its crazy because the timing was perfect since his brother Aaron leaves to Navy Officer training in less than a week. It was soooo awesome to see those studs again. Brandon was having the time of his life. He was way touched and cried throughout the program. I got to conduct the music there too so that was sweet. Ill try and send a picture of us all.
We made some great progress with our less actives and recent converts this week. One day we planned to see a convert that lives in the bottom of our area, about 15 miles away, named Dizzy. But we had been driving a lot that week and we ran out of our monthly allotted miles so we had to start biking the last few days. We ended up biking down the highway to go see her and she lives out in the boony country. I got fried that day from a long bike ride. I was lobster status even by the ride back after our lesson. We taught her the plan of salvation because she missed a temple prep class and us and the ward are helping her get to the temple for endowment. We had a great time teaching it. Turns out she is the mom of a lady I knew well in Alvin.
We also were able to get in and teach a family that hadn't been in contact with the ward or missionaries for months just a couple days ago. It was way unexpected. We think the only way we were able to get in is through their wild little boy that answered the door in his undies and was a total chatty kathy and telling us all the cool things they have recently bought like the Star Wars movie. We taught them a quick message on the atonement using Mosiah when it speaks about how salvation doesn't just come through the law of moses, but ultimately its through our utilization of the Atonement of Christ and the difference it makes in our lives. I compared it to living the gospel and treating it as a checklist or just going through the motions versus constantly relying on Christ to heal us, make up our imperfections, strengthen us. They loved the lesson. We''re gonna try to teach them more often. They're the Green family.
Besides that, things have been tough with investigators. Haven't been able to teach any of them. Austin is out of town, Dan was again busy and Dmitri was the same. We,re just going to find more investigators so if those fall through we're still seeing the good people we need to!
Love you tons, Elder Deans
Pearland Texas, Week 83: April 18, 2016 - April 24, 2016
April 25, 2016
We had a great week over here!! The weather has been nuts. We've had some hard rain on and off here, but the flooding is elsewhere so thats nice. It doesnt flood over thanks to good city engineering and drainage. Plus, our apartment is on the third floor, which is fun to carry groceries or bikes all the way up haha. We stayed in last week but it wasn't all day. We were able to go out in the afternoon and didn't stay in any more after that. I've seen the pictures of the temple!! Yeah, thats amazing. Looks really pretty with the reflection though. We haven't done any clean up or flood service. We're waiting to hear back.
But as far as the work goes... Things were awesome this week. We were able to find a new investigator named Dmitri. We were walking through a trailer park looking for people to street contact and we saw some black dude and his wife hanging out on their porch so we waved and said hi but didnt go up to them becuase we thought they were busy. Then a few seconds later the Spirit totally chastened me and was like "dude, go back over there and talk to them, they will listen" So we turned around and I just said " Hey! Can we show you somethin?" And they let us come up and talk to them. He said his name was Dmitri and he was with his mom. He's like 40 yrs old. But they were way happy we came back to talk to them and I told them I just felt prompted. Then I got our Restoration pamphlet out and taught a quick lesson to them. They enjoyed it and said we can come at any time. The Lord is truly preparing people to speak to us and we just have to listen to his promptings.
We also were able to have a good lesson with Dan again. This was my second time teaching him. We read from the Book of Mormon with him because we weren't sure if he had been reading it. He said he liked how we just read for our lesson because it forced him to read and he knew that he should be reading every day. He was going to come to church, but then his wife had to stay home and study for finals which meant he had to stay home and watch the kids. Once finals are over both he and his wife will be more open and able to make it to church.
Austin is doing great. She took my companion and Elder Glover out to lunch. It kind of stunk becuase they went to a way popular bbq place called Killens and I was on exchange that day in Elder Glovers area in the ghetto of South Houston, haha. But its all good, glad they had fun. They were able to have a lesson with Austin there. She didn't make it to church due to a trip out of town, work related. I told her that I had family that lived there, yeup. I also asked her what they call people from the boonies of Lousiana and she said it, and we laughed because its kind of crude.
We got the bikes out this week. We biked a whole marathon on Saturday because of great weather and limited miles left on our car. My new comp and I get along really well. We are able to talk about anything, we agree on a lot of plans and we just have fun. There are times when we bug each other or we may disagree, but we don't hold on to it and let it go quickly
Love you tons. Elder Janz
We had a great week over here!! The weather has been nuts. We've had some hard rain on and off here, but the flooding is elsewhere so thats nice. It doesnt flood over thanks to good city engineering and drainage. Plus, our apartment is on the third floor, which is fun to carry groceries or bikes all the way up haha. We stayed in last week but it wasn't all day. We were able to go out in the afternoon and didn't stay in any more after that. I've seen the pictures of the temple!! Yeah, thats amazing. Looks really pretty with the reflection though. We haven't done any clean up or flood service. We're waiting to hear back.
But as far as the work goes... Things were awesome this week. We were able to find a new investigator named Dmitri. We were walking through a trailer park looking for people to street contact and we saw some black dude and his wife hanging out on their porch so we waved and said hi but didnt go up to them becuase we thought they were busy. Then a few seconds later the Spirit totally chastened me and was like "dude, go back over there and talk to them, they will listen" So we turned around and I just said " Hey! Can we show you somethin?" And they let us come up and talk to them. He said his name was Dmitri and he was with his mom. He's like 40 yrs old. But they were way happy we came back to talk to them and I told them I just felt prompted. Then I got our Restoration pamphlet out and taught a quick lesson to them. They enjoyed it and said we can come at any time. The Lord is truly preparing people to speak to us and we just have to listen to his promptings.
We also were able to have a good lesson with Dan again. This was my second time teaching him. We read from the Book of Mormon with him because we weren't sure if he had been reading it. He said he liked how we just read for our lesson because it forced him to read and he knew that he should be reading every day. He was going to come to church, but then his wife had to stay home and study for finals which meant he had to stay home and watch the kids. Once finals are over both he and his wife will be more open and able to make it to church.
Austin is doing great. She took my companion and Elder Glover out to lunch. It kind of stunk becuase they went to a way popular bbq place called Killens and I was on exchange that day in Elder Glovers area in the ghetto of South Houston, haha. But its all good, glad they had fun. They were able to have a lesson with Austin there. She didn't make it to church due to a trip out of town, work related. I told her that I had family that lived there, yeup. I also asked her what they call people from the boonies of Lousiana and she said it, and we laughed because its kind of crude.
We got the bikes out this week. We biked a whole marathon on Saturday because of great weather and limited miles left on our car. My new comp and I get along really well. We are able to talk about anything, we agree on a lot of plans and we just have fun. There are times when we bug each other or we may disagree, but we don't hold on to it and let it go quickly
Love you tons. Elder Janz
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
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
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
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
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