Flagpole Fun

Hello mother!

We taught five new people this week, but only two of them have solid return appointments. One is Bertha, who isn't really new, and the other is Brianna. There's still not a whole lot of commitment keeping, we're trying to make a stronger emphasis on our invitations and our following up, so hopefully that helps our friends do better. This week we had Liam, and Charnell at church. Liam doesn't wish to be taught, and Charnell has a sister who recently joined the church, so she wants to see what it's about. But, the sisters found her, so we'll probably do a pass of lesson sometime this week or next. Sarah and Keith didn't make it to church yesterday, but they told us they want to quit smoking on Tuesday and we are starting the program with them and their sponsor family this Wednesday. The Kings are actually going to be their sponsor family, and I'm pretty excited to run them through the program, but also a little worried because I'm afraid they won't follow it. It requires some discipline in following the steps and they haven't been the best at keeping committments in the past. But I know it's possible, if they want it, so I'm pretty stoked to introduce the program to them this week. The lesson with Joseph went super well, I'm really hoping he has read and prayed and we have another lesson tonight. Marie rescheduled for tonight, she always sounds so genuine in person and then it falls through, it is so sad. Mary had to cancel last week, but said she wanted to meet again this Thursday. Wesley's work slowed down, especially for him, because he got cataract surgery and has some time off. Apparently he's not feeling well enough to meet today though, so we may end up dropping him for some time. I wasn't at the lesson with Carol last week, I was on exchange in Hughson, but from what I heard it was amazing. We had decided to do a church tour, so she came to the church and they showed her around, explained pictures, the sacrament, and showed her the baptismal font. They said they forgot to follow up on their reading because it wasn't a formal sit down lesson, but she said she would come to church and she didn't 😭 I went to Hughson with Elder Johnstone on an exchange. It went pretty well, we had someone videocall us right before we had to be in our apartments and she talked for an hour, and I was so close to falling asleep. It was good, though. She had read 3 Nephi 11, and felt like the Mormon church was the true church and she now is going to stand up for us in the Christian community and she wants to be baptized, and she wants to invite all of her family to watch her be baptized in the Mormon church. They haven't taught her all the lessons though, so that needs to happen. I like exchanges with Hughson, those Elders are so good at just talking to everyone and working all the time. It's so relieving to constantly work. Marquita didn't join us in the lesson again, we don't have an address for her either. She says she's finally getting settled and thinks she'll be there for a couple months now. She also rescheduled with us, so hopefully we can get her address and pass her off because she does a lot better with in-person lessons. The Elders in Modesto love Marquita's mom, Nora. They think she'll convert for sure and she loves talking about the Bible, and loves the lessons and reading from the Book of Mormon with the missionaries. They just have a hard time getting a male-member there, so they can teach her in person. I haven't been able to teach with Chinese this week, and because of the exchanges and zone council, I didn't get to do any practice calls either 😥 I listened to a video in Chinese and I understood the first 3 sentences, and then got nothing for the next minute of this guy talking. He was mumbling, sluring, and talking so fast. So, I still can't understand natives at all:(

Super impressed with Jordan. Second at divisionals is awesome! I'll probably call to talk about things to work on. Miracle: This week our zone has been making an effort to spend more time outside, so now that it's a little warmer, we do our studies out at parks. Not only is it refreshing to be outside, but we talk to so many more people and sometimes people even come over and ask us what we're up to. One lady said she used to study with Jehovah Witnesses and said she might join us one of these mornings. Challenge: Elder Astel leaves his wallet in the car, and someone broke in. So, I had to pay for everything this week like the food and car wash, so we are now broke. Also, we have a lot of people we teach, but everyone is inconsistent and no one is progressing very quickly and some not at all. Good news: Sarah and Keith committed to stop smoking this week, so we get to run them through an awesome program. Also we've been able to talk to a lot of less active members this week and hopefully we'll be having more lessons and get them to church soon. Love you, Elder Jaxon Wardle