Week 62

 

What's up everyone, 

The past couple weeks felt a little slow, but looking back I've noticed a lot of change for our area. We've had a bunch of random calls from people who want us to visit, so that's been really cool. We've helped prepare our young friend in the ward, she had her interview and wants to be baptized by Elder Wayment next Sunday. We've been eager to meet new people and teach more than we have before. With every new person to teach, there is usually setbacks, but we've managed to push forward, set new goals, and prepare ourselves for the best outcome. We did a couple service activities this week, helped a lady in her yard with the other missionaries and helped trim a tree for a man in our ward. The week before we did a community service event with our fellow elders in a nearby town, Delhi. We met their friend who was baptized a couple days ago. We've been swapping a lot with the sister missionaries, we tend to find people in each other's areas. Nonetheless, we find ourselves busier and busier with each day that passes, as we phase back into the missionary work we were used to before covid. Can't believe I've been doing something so different for 6 months. Let the Lord prevail in your life! 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 61

 

It got a little cooler this week.  It stayed mostly in the high 70s and low 80s, but this next week might be one last surge of mid 90s for the year.  Elder Wayment and I have been having a good time.  We've been visiting plenty of people and finding new reasons to get outside, using new tools and ideas to find people.  This week we got 2 calls, one from the Sisters who found a guy who wants to be baptized who lives in our area, and another man who is neighbors with a member and asked that we teach his family.  We teach them both this week and we're stoked to do it!  Last Monday when we were at Walmart, a man whistled and us and asked for our bishops number, we invited him and his family to church.  The guy said he'd been down on his luck and currently homeless, but when Sunday came around he called and told us he was at a doctor's appointment and couldn't make it.  We'll see if he's interested this week if we can schedule a time to visit him.  We had zone conference this week, we packed into the family history center at our church with the rest of the zone and listened to the president and his wife and some Fresno missionaries give us news or whatever.  It was cool to hangout with the other missionaries, we participated in the role play in front of everyone at the end, and after we went to Costco and got some food.  Good times!  We had a few visits this week, a member family, our young friend getting ready for baptism, and our less active friend.  We had church outside again, that was fun.  We saw a new group of members and set a couple appointments.  It's good to be back closer to normal.  Last night we took some scriptures to a funny guy in our ward, he was a convert, he grew up hindu and still lives with his parents, and he gave us some cookies.

It's gonna be a good week!

Elder Gneiting

Week 60

 

This was a good week.

Our final Monday of the transfer we got the district together to play some soccer at a park, and we managed to borrow some spike ball nets from a member which made for more fun after. Tuesday was transfers, Elder Shuldberg was transferred down to Selma and I got my new companion, Elder Wayment. He's from Nashville, Tennessee, so that is pretty unique. We came back, had a lesson with our friend who's getting baptized in October, the next few days were spent contacting and trying to meet people in our area again, but we didn't have too much success. A couple evenings, we've gone walking in a park or neighborhood to try and talk to people, so far they haven't shown too much interest. Friday we did service at the food bank again, this time we made sandwiches and packed them for the trucks to take out, it was pretty cool, I really got the hang of bagging sandwiches. Afterwards we went to Perko's for breakfast, the first time since I was in Modesto! Saturday morning we helped a new member move into the ward, and missed the first session of conference. We did, however, watch the rest. Lots of inspiring messages! Saturday night we went to dinner with our member friend Harp, I met him when I was in my training, he took us to a taco truck and we got some sick tostadas. I asked the lady working there to hook me up with her favorite ingredients and she loaded me up with some bomb hot sauce, I downed that thing no biggy but my poor comp didn't fare so well. Sunday we visited a couple members, we ate cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast, then went with the zone leaders to a member to have sliders for lunch, and then after the final session we ate ribeyes in his backyard, it was awesome. We ate plenty of food, and when we got back, we called some people and tried Facebook finding. We didn't set any appointments but we will keep trying. I'm excited for today, Elder Greene is back up north so we're gonna try to meet up.

I wanted to share one insight I got from conference this weekend. A theme that continues to stand out in my mind is the phrase "Love your enemies". What I've found is I have a lot less to fear when I choose to love those around me, and love the situations I'm in, determining to stay positive and have an eternal perspective, I can make any circumstance a positive one. 

Love y'all

stay clean

Elder Gneiting