Daniel vs The Pain

Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 10:31:13 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This week was pretty slow again. But things are starting to turn around! School has started in Queen Creek (weird huh?) and so everyone's back to reality. We've made some good progress with our wards, people are starting to do stuff and help us out more. Having three wards as a missionary can be a blessing... but its also really stressful sometimes. I remember we had six wards in Gilbert... that was hard. I hardly knew anyone. But its going good. We biked almost 150 miles this week. Just trying to find some people outside to talk to! We're doing our best to qualify for blessings. But we're really sore because of it.

We had Family Home Evening with Bro. Powell and his family on Monday. And he helped us fix Elder Darrington's bike tube later in the week. The pulled pork was amazing... I cant even describe it. And he gave us a ton of the left-overs. They're gone. But we taught his family, and some friends of theirs who were in town about the importance of going to church, reading their scriptures and saying their prayers. It was funny because their friends weren't members, or really religious people, and I don't think they go to any church because when I asked the kids why they thought it was important to go to church, they asked the mom and she got really embarrassed! But the lesson went good and Bro. Powell was even at church yesterday! He told us on Saturday night that he had a dream where he didn't go to church, and when he did, he didn't wear his shirt and tie, and they kicked him out and wouldn't let him come back. So he took that as a sign that he needed to go on Sunday. But we were at our other ward so we missed him!

We were in the other ward because we were expecting a new potential there. Actually, she was taught about a year ago, but she's been coming to church on and off with an awesome member, and asked the Relief Society President if she could take missionary lessons again. So we got a call Friday morning! And we'll be teaching her next Wednesday. Awesome.

We also had a lesson with Jacob, one of our investigators who is 16 and has a member girlfriend. The concern has always been if he was sincere or not, and I've always really thought he is. Our lesson with him confirmed that. We asked him about his family and what they thought and he got a little concerned. He said his parents are like "whatever" but his grandma is mad, and he doesn't know about his siblings. Turns out, his dad investigated the church and almost got baptized while he was dating a Mormon girl too. But she got cancer and dumped him... So he never joined. But his family always talks with him about what he learned and his dad knows alot. So we're hoping theres still some potential with his family there. He told us his grandma was going to take him out to lunch, probably for his birthday, we don't know, and said she would drive all the way to Queen Creek from Mesa to take him to her church and he was he was happy where he was, and she just took him home. So he's going though some struggles, but these will help him have a spiritual conversion. So its bittersweet.

We're going to a huge indoor sports complex today with a ton of missionaries to play football and stuff. Should be fun.

Love

Elder Feller