Week 2 and An Enlightening Exchange

This week went by way faster than the first 4 days. P-Day felt like it was yesterday. As far as driving goes, I haven't received my "tiwi" yet, so I can't drive. Basically you scan an ID card, "tiwi", before you drive and then it reports things like speeding and aggressive driving. I think once I get mine, I'll probably be the main driver.

Sleeping has gotten better, I think my bed is slightly unlevel and I was sleeping with my head down. So now I sleep on the other side and I prop up my pillow more. The bed is comfortable, but I still wake up a lot. Speaking of my bed, I make a fake SAMI bed every morning cause it makes me happy. Feels homey. But, I never had that desire at home, so I think it's just a feeling I have with twin sized beds.

Our lesson with Carol fell through yesterday because it was cold and stormy and we usually meet outside if we can't get a member to come with us. Also, she really just wanted to bundle up and hibernate, so she asked to reschedule to next Sunday.

We had a good lesson with Sarah and Keith, her significant other. We discussed the family proclamation and the law of chastity. Sarah says she just wants to get married and get on with it, but Keith has been through a divorce and is still hesitant. We're going to go through all the lessons with Sarah one more time in preparation for baptism, and really just hope they can get married by then.

We went to dinner at the Mills house and they are an awesome family. Their kitchen is totally torn out because of a leak, so they said it would be simple, but I loved it. Salad, pot pies, and macadamia cookies. We shared a message about loving, sharing, and inviting. I mentioned how we get a lot of referrals, but really we'd like to refer our friends to members. We talked with the bishop about everyone we are teaching and asked for members he thought would be beneficial for them to meet. We have like 200 people in the ward, but only 30 attend church between both zoom and in person. We mentioned the need for people to love the Gospel, so that they will want to keep coming to church even when they've been offended. And the need for people to have true friends at church, so they want to keep coming even if they are struggling spiritually. Finally they need callings, so they can feel they are needed and have purpose in the church.

We do stop by "members" pretty often, but most of them don't go to church and most of the ones that don't go, don't want us to visit. It's pretty sad. One family that would love to host us, but are set on not hearing a message or going to church is the Casey family. The Dad, Jesse Casey, mentioned his parents lived in Modesto, and I asked if him or his parents knew any Wardles. He goes, "Oh yeah, I know a Troy." When I told him that was my dad he got super excited and went to grab his phone to take a picture. He also told me he used to give Grandpa a hard time. Said Vern was his scout leader and he loved him, but was probably a pain for him. It was cool to find that connection, but considering he's pretty set on not coming back, I don't think I'll get to see him much.

We haven't really heard from the lady we'd given the BofM. She said she was reading, but still doesn't really want to meet. So, we've moved on for now.

My district leader said it was fine to do language study with HaoMing (an exchange student from the Taiwan Air Force that is a cadet at the Air Force Academy and was in Jaxon's flight at the academy) so I called him yesterday for language study. We've discovered that my vocabulary is pretty good for the time I've been learning, and I can speak, though slowly. My biggest issue is I can't understand Natives due to speed for the most part. So, I've decided to add a lot more listening exercises to my study plan.

First some backfround: My trainer doesn't talk much. He decides on people he wants to try to contact and we go to their house and then proceed to knock on doors in the area. He doesn't like to talk to people outside and we just go door to door for our entire two hours and we often have very little success.

Now for good news. I went on an exchange after only 4 full days with my trainer and boy was it Godsent. The district leader actually put me with Elder Markstaller who has been out one transfer and me 5 days, so we're looking at a total of maybe 2 months in the field. Elder Markstaller and I went to see the people Elder Jeffery decided we should try to contact, and one was not home and the other was very much not interested. However, Elder Markstaller taught me how to really talk to people and how much easier it is on the streets than at someone's door where they are waiting for the conversation to end so they can go back inside. We talked to everyone outside and didn't knock any doors other than the ones Elder Jeffery had asked us to. We had way longer conversations with people and a lot more interest than I'd seen before. We got 6 return appointments though 3 were in Spanish. It was such an inspired exchange, Elder Jeffery and I would not have talked to any of those people, plus we can't speak Spanish.

Elder Markstaller did a lot of the talking but it was nice to see how someone else did things and he was quite successful that day. The next day, I got Elder Jeffery back, but now I knew a different way of doing things. After the first house we went to, Elder Jeffery put his stuff in the car, but there were people out, so I asked if we could walk down the street and talk to them. He said sure and we walked over, but they went in the garage and closed it. But then we saw some others outside and talked to them. We met Isaac who had done rehab in Utah and some nice Mormon boys had told him to say hi to the missionaries if he ever saw them. He had only gotten back from Utah the day before and wanted to come to church with us. We were in front of his Uncle's house and also scheduled a lesson with him. There were a few more times we found people by going out of our way to talk to those out and about. Basically, Elder Markstaller showed me how to do things and Elder Jeffery is so quiet I get to practice. We got like 9 return appointments during those two days and it was super fun. Unfortunately, 3 were spanish, so we turned them over to the sisters and then half the remainder fell through. I'm starting to realize it's like that a lot. You set up a ton of lessons and you teach like a quarter of them.

I've learned that Elder Jeffery sends us to inspired places, but needs a little help finding the people in the area. So now that I have a better idea of how to find and talk to new people, hopefully he will continue to take us to good areas and I can help him talk to the people. Elder Jeffery really does pray a lot and for a long time. It's helped me to try to be more sincere and thorough in my prayers.

My favorite lesson so far was with a man named Aman and he's about 24. He's very busy with work and school, but when we knocked at his door and introduced ourselves, he said he had a little time if we could give him the lesson right then. We went inside and taught him the restoration. Aman was super engaged and everything made sense to him. After we finished saying the closing prayer he looked up and asked me if he could be a missionary too. I told him if he were to be baptized and continue learning and growing in the church for a year, he may qualify to go on a mission. Aman was super excited, and he told us he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon as soon as we left so he wouldn't forget once he got back to his busy schedule.

Good News:

Teaching 3 new people and had an awesome exchange that really opened my eyes and is helping me be more efficient in our efforts.

Miracle:

There are many miracles every day, so it's hard to think of one, but here's what I got for this week. We started teaching a lady named Bertha who has 5 kids from 17 to a newborn. During our first lesson with her (on Saturday) she told us that she had been praying and thanking God for all He's given her and had been asking Him to help her know how she could come closer to Him, and better serve Him. Then, the missionaries showed up, so she figured she needed to at least listen to them in case that was her answer. Super happy to hear that. I have a feeling her sister might fight against us coming over and our beliefs, but I believe Bertha is sincere and hope she will pray and receive her own witness before allowing her sister to harden her heart.

Priscilla could use some prayers. She needs some love and appreciation, all she does is serve others who aren't very good to her.

Love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder Wardle