May 30, 2016

So this last week was fairly uneventful other than the fact that we had transfers and I got a new companion. Then on Sunday Elijah came to church for the second time. For some reason he started asking about if one were to join the church, how they would do it. So we told him. And then he started saying that he was considering it. Then later that night we went over to his mom's house and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon because he lost his first one. Then we were talking to him and he told us that he decided to convert. So we're going to work with him more because from my perspective the only reason he wants to join is because he likes the community. I'm not really sure he has a testimony of the Restored Gospel and whatnot. Other than that not too much has happened. We're trying to work better with the wards and get lots of referrals, and more people to teach.

Elder Naegle

Visions of Glory May 23, 2016

This last week had some interesting experiences. First off: on Wednesday, we were at the church waiting for an exchange to come pick us up and we get a call from Elijah, the guy who lost his dog. He was raised semi-Jewish is the best way to describe it I guess, kinda like a less active Jew. Anyways he never believed in Christ. So Wednesday he calls us and tells us: I believe in Christ now. So we asked him why and he said that he was talking to a Catholic Priest and this guy told him to pray. So he did then he had a dream where Jesus Christ came to him and they talked. In his words they: "hit it off" So long story short, the Savior basically convinced him to believe in him. Then on Thursday we are teaching our other investigator Jessica, and well first of all she tells us she is thinking about leaving her husband and that was pretty awkward for us to hear, but then we read Lehi's dream with her and then she tells us of a dream she had where her grandfather who has been dead for a while, was trapped in a building and couldn't get out. He said he didn't think it was heaven and he didn't even know if heaven existed. Basically the way she explained it sounded exactly like the spirit world. We told her we'd talk about it more next time we came to see her. The zone leaders set up a blitz for their area with us on Friday. A blitz is basically where multiple sets of missionaries work one area. Ever since my companion, Elder Gordon has been here, he has been begging the zone leaders to take him to a show because they live in Branson and Branson is like a mini Las Vegas with lots of performers and shows and whatnot. There's lots of LDS people who have their own shows and if the missionaries bring an investigator they can get into these shows for free. Anyways we asked them if we could go to a show since we'd all be down there and they told us no. But then they surprised us and took us to SIX which is the best show in Branson right now. It was really fun and we had a good time. On Wednesday we blitzed our area with the Southern Hills Elders and that was fun. We played horse on our little nerf basketball hoop in our apartment. The only other thing that happened was transfer calls and they weren't good. Elder Gordon is leaving and I'm getting a missionary who is a good guy but very interesting. I'm not very excited but it will all turn out fine. He's a good missionary so I'll probably be able to learn some things from him. And I already know he likes me and we already have a pretty good relationship so it'll be fine. It just won't be as fun as with Elder Gordon. Also the rest of the zone, we got some lame missionaries so it wasn't a very happy transfer call. Nobody came to church again, which was sad.

Elder Naegle

BRUUUUCE!!?!?

So the last story that I forgot to tell: we went to an appointment with our investigator who is kinda Jewish. We show up and he walks out wearing a Mr. Rogers t-shirt and swim trunks. He tells us that his dad left the gate open and when he let the dogs out, his dog ran away. So he asked us to help him find it. So we hop in our little Toyota Corolla and start driving around looking for his dog. He rolls down the window and starts yelling: BRUUUCE?!? BRUUUCE!? He also pronounces his R's like a baby, with a W sound. So it was more like BWUUUCE? BWUUUUCE? It was hilarious. We drove around for like 30 minutes, the whole time Elder Gordon and I are praying to find his dog. Then randomly he says: If we don't find this dog I'm getting a @#$%&%$ cat. Then he asks if he can vape in our car and we tell him only if he does it out the window. Then a cloud of smoke envelopes us and he apologizes. Luckily we found the dog which was an answer to our prayers because there's no way we would've found it without divine assistance. Also he didn't put the dog in our car but he decided to walk it home. Then the next morning he texts us and asks if we can meet later that day. So we say yes. Then we show up and we call him to tell him that we're there because we meet outside his house, he comes outside wearing the same exact Mr. Rogers shirt and the same swim trunks and tells us he forgot we were coming. It was a very funny experience. 

Nobody came...

This last week was kinda lame. Nobody came to church. One of our solid investigators got in a car accident on the way to our lesson with him, and our other solid investigator said she was going to go to her other church this week and then third solid investigator said he was going to come, but then he didn't. There's this one missionary in my district that takes meds and when he doesn't take them he is bonkers and we just got in a fight. It almost turned bad. Other than that there was nothing too exciting that happened as far as I can remember. Transfer calls are this Saturday which is crazy, this transfer went by really fast. Especially because last transfer was a seven week transfer. Other than that things are going well and I have nothing to complain about.

Elder Naegle

Oh yeah, we were talking to a drunk investigator and he wanted to arm wrestle me, so we arm wrestled with both arms and I beat him both times. We arm wrestled on concrete and now I have a bruise on my right elbow, but I used a blanket for my left arm so it's not as bad. We also got it on video.

Zipline Day

Pretty Good Week: May 9th

This last week was pretty good. We had a zone training meeting and then exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Ham from my MTC district came to Republic with me and we had a grand ole time. We were able to see Jordan, the guy who went to Evangel university. He didn't bombard us with questions this time which I think is a good sign. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because of mother's day but hopefully he'll come next week. He believes in the Book of Mormon, but right now he's wondering if Joseph Smith still was receiving revelation after the Book of Mormon, so we're going to get him the Doctrine and Covenants to read and go from there. We also saw Jessica and she's starting to read a lot more of the Book of Mormon and she's really enjoying it. She wasn't able to come to church yesterday either but she should be here next week too. Then Elijah, he grew Jewish, but not very active and he's kinda like a convert to Judaism because his dad one day was like: we're going to be jews. So they became Jews. He's more into the gospel intellectually and he's a strange guy. He also tried to recruit us to the masons. Which is the second time somebody I've taught has tried to recruit me to the masons. Maybe it's a sign... Anyways he didn't come to church yesterday either because of mother's day. But Sean came through and came to church! He's turning out to be pretty solid. He's a really good guy. We taught him the Plan of Salvation at a member's home and then we taught the rest of it yesterday at church during sunday school. Other than that, there's not too much else going on. I gave a talk yesterday in church. I based it off of the talk O remember, remember by President Eyring which is a really good talk if anybody wants something good to read this week. I was able to skype my family yesterday, only we didn't skype we used facebook video chat. It was really good to see them all. I'm not gonna lie, after I was done talking with my family I just scrolled through facebook just to see what people are doing back home and it was interesting because all these people are doing all these fun things and what not and posting it and they seem like they're having great lives, but the feeling I got while looking at their stuff was a hollow, empty feeling and it made me very grateful for the gospel in my life. It made me think of the Savior when he was at the well with the Samaritan woman and he told her that He could give her water that well I'll just quote the scripture: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. So yeah I never really understood that scripture until last night, so that was cool. 

Elder Naegle