Another week

We had district meeting and interviews on the same day this week so President and Sister Evans were with us. we had to set goals for this coming month and it ended up taking the  whole district meeting. It got me stoked for this coming month. everyone in our district has been out for over a year. I'm the newest missionary here. we set some lofty goals for our district and we are so pumped.

We found this super awesome single father named Charlie or "Chuck". We just spoke with him on the street for a few minutes and set up a time to meet. The evening we were going to meet he wasnt home so we went finding and then decided to go back late in the evening right before we went home. He had just got home and he let us in and we had a lesson and he accepted a baptismal date in mid April. He has always been interested in learning more about the book of mormon and he ended up coming to church a little late and had to leave early because he was actually super busy on sunday but he came anyways. He apparently knows several of the people in our branch as well.

I'm doing well im just always busy talking to people and doing missionary work  :-)

on P - days we are forging knives with a guy named Nate in our branch. We are at his house for most of the day every monday. It is something i was planning on doing after my mission but i guess its alright now.

Oh and we are moving out of our apartment this week

This is the small forge with the hairdryer for bellows 

Elder Samhammer who I went on exchanges with up in Batavia

Address:

67 Linwood ave

Warsaw  NY 14569

District meeting with President and Sister Evans

The Hobbit hole

Warsaw is a pretty awesome place. It's a country area with a few small towns. Elder Steed and I got right to work when I got here. Our area book was empty when I got her except on new investigator. 

The apartment here has been nicknamed the hobbit hole by the mission. We are moving out of it this transfer though. Elder Steed and I are a pretty calm companionship. Most dogs seem to stay away from us because we just walk past them silently and it seems to scare them a little bit. 

We found 5 new investigators this week. They are all super prepared and it's cool to see.

Denise and Mike are a older couple. We taught Denise on her doorstep for about 40 mins one night. Even though it was about 20 degrees she stood there and spoke with us. She had never seen a book of Mormon or heard of our message. She is already ready the book. Her and her husband are both really sick now though. Splendid lady.

Jerry is an old fellow who let us in and spoke to us for a bit. He said he would have never done it when he was younger but now he is older and wants to look deeper into religion. His wife is against organized religion so he said that might be a problem.

Jim was a awesome find. We tracked into him and he seemed interested in talking about politics and religion but not to learn. He wasn't interested in hearing our message so we left. After we finished the road when we were walking back he waved us over and told us to come in. He is a old man (we seem to be out here for old people) who has a incredible testimony of God's hand in his life. He wants nothing more then to be with his God and His deceased wife but he doesn't believe that we have our identities after this life. This is something that most if not all religions teach. He broke down a little during the lesson about it. His son is a minister and lives next to him. We spoke with him too while we were knocking and he seems nice. Jim is a super awesome family guy.

Gary and Dave are the two others and also Les but I might talk about them later if it goes anywhere. 

To be a servant of the Lord is to be as meek as a lamb and bold as a lion.

Oh ya Becky Wilcox down in Cattaraugus was baptized a few weeks ago. Her divorce finally went through.

Transfer day

They're shipping me to Warsaw

Transfers

Well it was a brief visit to Palmyra but they are shutting down this area and merging the sisters area into it. I'm going to Warsaw with Elder Steed. Elder Smith is going to Cattaraugus with Elder Hershey.

We only have about 70 missionaries in our mission, but for the first time since I got here we are getting more people then we are losing.

For the past couple weeks every time we would go finding we would plant super solid seeds once or twice on each road. We were just preparing the area for the switch I guess. 

Brian finally got a job and he still hasn't come to church so he will probably get dropped if he doesn't commit. 

Laquana is on date to be baptized on the 8th of April. She still has troubles with being on time to lessons and church, but she is doing awesome.

We are meeting with Bill and Annie today so we will be able to let them know about the change. Hopefully sisters will be better for them. They are committed to come to church this Sunday or the next. They are just tied up with another church. 

Warsaw is in the Rochester stake. I met the ward mission leader down in cattaraugus in the summer when I was with Elder Kervin. That about all I know about it. 

Elder Steed is from Canada. I think he is from near Calgary which is in Alberta... or maybe Saskatchewan. I'm not sure. He is a really chill guy.

The slow roast

This week we went on exchanges finally with the Canandaigua Elders. I was with Elder Gardner in Canandaigua. We had a splendid time. We seemed to find a lot of people that had ties to the church. We found a member that Elder Gardner hadn't met. We met a excommunicated member. One of the bests was we found a member with her daughter that moved here from Kansas and lost contact with the church and the daughter wants to go to church and be baptized. So they are teaching that family now and they said that they are awesome. We had several lessons to teach as well which all went super well.

The Palmyra area isn't doing as well with finding people. I can find people in other areas but not my own :-/  I think Sunday night only 8-9 doors even answered in three hours... We are having a great time finding anyways.

Laquana came to church again this week though and brought both her daughters this time. She knows several people in the ward already and so things seem to be going well. We are meeting with her a couple times this week.

A simple highlight that captures this area perfectly.

We were knocking on doors all day Saturday until dinner when a member was taking us out to eat. One door a young guy answered and told us he wasn't interested and shut the door. When we got to dinner the member was there with that same guy that shut the door on us hahaha. It was pretty awkward for him at first.

You can't conquer the fear you don't face