My Tie Collection Increased by 36%

I'm OK Y'all!  It was transfers this week, so on transfer week, P-day is moved to Wednesday and transfers are Thursday.  Neither Elder Johnson or myself are being transferred, of course, because we are still in the training process.  So, I'm very glad to stay here.

September = green!

 

October - same road one month later = FALL!

 

Happy Birthday, Kyle!  Big 15!  Hope everyone sang to you for me!

Hope everyone's doing good back home!?  I have 2 extra days to talk about, so I better get started.

Oct. 13, Monday:  Today was P-Day, but we taught a wonderful Plan of Salvation lesson to a woman named Elizabeth and her caretaker.  She has been through a lot and she got teary eyed when we bore our testimony that everything would be OK.  We invited her to say the closing prayer, which was wonderful, and she invited us to come back.  We are excited to have her as a new investigator and to continue to help her.
We had a district Halloween party - us 6 elders dressed up in some makeshift costumes from what we had and enjoyed treats we all prepared.
We had a lesson with the wonderful Ms. W.  She was happy and full of soul, as usual, but she had troubles understanding what we were teaching about the Book of Mormon.  In the middle of the lesson, she started blasting her gospel music.  That was interesting - and now I will never be able to get some of those songs out of my head.

Oct. 14, Tuesday:  Busy day!  Busy days are the best and make the days go by faster.  We went and saw a less active/non-member (we're still not sure of his status).  We had a good talk with him and he gave us a grocery bag full of food, a pair of shoes, 4 ties each, and $20 to go eat at a Chinese buffet he was raving about.  What a nice guy!
I got my family's Conference reports back.  It was so nice to read all those!
Then saw Rita, the wonderful lady we had an amazing lesson with last week with the Barnett's.  We taught the Plan of Salvation, orientated towards families being together forever!  She loved it and ate it up!  We tried to contact Darrel and Jennifer at their home - no luck.
We set up appointments and tried to contact potential Investigators.  We ran into a guy named, Brad, who we previously met with.  He's a Baptist Sunday school teacher, so he knows his stuff.  We got into a pretty long discussion with him.  I learned a lot from him and he probably learned a lot from us.

Oct. 15, Wednesday:  Today was district meeting.  Elder Johnson & I were put in charge of the role play section.  We focused on relying on The Spirit.  We did an activity where we paired each missionary with someone other than their companion and then prayed to know a scripture to share with that particular missionary to help them out.  This was an amazing spiritual experience and everyone was able to find a scripture (guided by the spirit) that helped the other missionary in some way.  As usual, we had correlation with the Brooks' right after district meeting where we asked Brother Brooks to come see one of our investigators, David, that night.
We then went to see Darrel & Jennifer - still no answer.
Then we taught a lesson to Heather and Almeida and read with them Alma 32.
After, we called to confirm our appointment with David and he said he wasn't feeling good, so he cancelled on us.  We didn't have a solid back-up plan because David's a sure thing!  So, we tried to get a hold of Bro. Brooks to let him know not to come all the way out to our area.  We couldn't get a hold of him, so he was coming!  We didn't want to waste his time, so we prayed we would be able to go see someone.  Our prayers were answered - we were able to set up an appointment with Tom Wood, our media referral.  We met with Tom Wood and Bro. Brooks drove us to meet him.  Brother Brooks was real friendly with Tom and the lesson on the Plan of Salvation went real nice.  Tom finds great comfort in the fact that he can be with his passed on wife and son through the Plan of Salvation.  We were so thankful for God answering our prayers and allowing us to set up something with Tom on such short notice.  Member-present lessons are so much more productive because it allows the investigator to get comfortable with someone from the congregation and adds another witness and testimony in the room!

Oct. 16, Thursday: We did weekly planning.
We went to go see Sherlee and Dole.  Dole came out and talked to us outside.  He said he couldn't meet with us anymore because he wasn't able to renew his minister's license if he was talking to the Mormons.  He was so mad with the license people for restricting him just because he was trying to learn more.  So, he did all the talking, but right then in front of us, he was convinced he was going to stand up to the licensing people.  He said he was going to tell them he should be able to talk to whoever he pleases and learn about any faith he pleases, and still get his license.  Go Dole!   Then we got our car stuck in the mud next to his house.  I got out and did all the dirty work (pushing the car, stepping in the mud, trying to provide traction with twigs, sticks and pine needles) while California beach bum, Elder Johnson (gotta love him), was afraid to get out and decided to stay in the car, and just call everyone to let them know we were stuck! ;)  Dole, this 80+ yr. old man, got down on his hands and knees and hooked up some chains to our car, then to his truck and yanked us out of mud. In the process of towing us out, our bumper cover popped off from the force of the chains.  Luckily, the plastic bumper cover popped right back into place.  So, then we had to call the mission office and do all that legal stuff.
Not a whole lot of success knocking on doors out in the rain today.
But, the Young family fed us homemade chicken noodle soup OVER (as in ON TOP) mashed potatoes! It was so good - and I've never had it!

Oct. 17, Friday: Got a flu shot today!  That was great!
At about 3 o' clock, we did an exchange.  Elder Morse, our District Leader, came with me to do the Beckley 2 Area.  We went to Little Beaver State Park where we ran into another Mormon!  WOW!  He was on his way home to Kentucky and was taking some pictures!  It's always fun to run into some fellow Mormons in the strangest places.
We were able to finally go to Darrel & Jennifer home and catch someone.  It was Jennifer outside - I was really glad we finally saw one of them, but the reason she was outside is because she has started smoking again. :(  Turns out Darrel was in the hospital for a couple days and he was resting in the house.  We set up a return appointment with her and gave her some encouragement to help with quitting smoking.
Then Elder Morse really wanted to meet Ms.W.  I'm just going to say Elder Morse might have not been ready to meet an African American woman like Ms.W.  He came out of there mortified.  We didn't teach a lesson - we were just there to help her rearrange her apartment - so the Spirit wasn't there - so that definitely didn't help Elder Morse get a good impression of her.  And she was just shouting and hollering the whole time while we helped move her T.V. and couch.
Then we had a Little Caesar's pretzel crust pizza!  Has anyone had it back home?  Those things are good!

Oct. 18, Saturday:  We spent all morning clearing fallen trees from Sister Jackson's property.  A tornado came through where she lived and there was so many fallen trees and debris everywhere!  I felt insufficient compared to all the brethren from the ward with their big chain-saws!  All I could do was just pick up logs and branches. 
We then had a member-present lesson scheduled with Sister Doolitte to come meet Joyce Young.  The lesson went really well (as most member-present lesson do!)  We taught the "Gospel of Jesus Christ" lesson and extended the invitation to be baptized, which she accepted, and wants to keep learning/studying.  The only concern is she has a busy schedule and might not be able to come to church tomorrow.
Then we had to fill out another incident report for our car because the bumper cover came off Thursday as we were going to see Darrel and Jennifer.
Darrel called us - he was going to the emergency room with trouble breathing, so he had to cancel. Uh-Oh.  Darn smoking.
Then were able to meet with Sister Cline and her friend, Kevin, who attended church last Sunday.  She said she wanted to continue to keep coming to our church, but would never join our church.  It was sad to hear, but we still hope to bring her closer to Christ.
Then we went to see recently-returned-home, Bro. Snuffer.  He was out of rehab and back home, walking with a cane.  He just can't use his left hand.  He told us he'd be going to church in the morning, to which we both replied, "Didn't you just get back from the hospital?!?"  He said, "I'm fine and I'll be at church in the morning." 
Then met up with Tom Wood to teach him again.  He promised he'd be at Church in the morning - after he picked himself up a coffee at Starbuck's.  Haha.

{Our District}

  L to R:  Elder Kamauu, Elder Morse (DL), Me, Elder Johnson, Elder Jacklin  

(Elder Carter was taking the picture)

Oct. 19, Sunday:  Well, this Sunday was not like last Sunday.  None of our investigators came to church - after thinking there would be 4 or 5.  Darn it!  We had our scheduled appointment with the twins and Sister Blackburn, who weren't at church, but they had us over right after church.  Apparently, Sister Blackburn slept in and didn't want to show up to church 2 hours late.  The twins really want to come to church and be baptized.  And they are really looking forward to the Primary's Halloween party this Saturday.
The Heller's, being so kind to me and Elder Johnson, had us over for dinner again, where we made our own pizzas!  Best pizza I've ever made!

Oct. 20, Monday:  My brother, Kyle's, birthday today!  It wasn't P-day because of transfers.
We had such a great, spiritual lesson with "J" today.  It was on the Prophet.  We showed her President Monson's talk.  She was really touched by his words and really understands God loves his children then and now, so it makes sense he'd always bless us with a prophet.  The Spirit was really strong at that point, so I felt prompted to ask Joyce if we could pray right then and there and ask if God has blessed us with a true prophet on the earth today, and if the prophet was Thomas S. Monson.  I really hope Joyce can receive that answer and know that he is a true prophet of God.
Checked on Darrel and Jennifer - they weren't there.
We hoped to set up an appointment with Civi, but the house (trailer) was deserted!  I wonder where they went?
After spending the whole day tracting and looking for former investigators, we had dinner at the McGrady's and talked with them about Brother McGrady receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood in a month @ Stake Conference.  Sister McGrady was just as excited as he is for that.  We showed them the Mormon Message, "Sanctify Yourselves" - one of my personal favorites about being worthy to exercise your priesthood.

Oct. 21, Tuesday:  Today was a really good companionship study session and 12-week.  We read from Preach My Gospel and watched videos from "The District" on the importance of having investigators pray.  We will implement that going forward, so we know they will always be comfortable to pray - even when they are in front of other people.
So, we went to go see Darrel and Jennifer.  All was well until we started offering to help them quit smoking.  Darrel was very unlike himself and got all worked up on the idea of how our religion is condemning people for smoking and retorted, "There's a lot worse sins out in the world than smoking!"  We agreed, but smoking is the only thing holding Jennifer back from being baptized.  The lesson was on following the commandments.  And when we brought up the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, Jennifer paused and realized, "I can do better on that one because cigarettes, for me, are coming before God."  We were so glad she realized that and she wanted to put God first.  But, that didn't go over well with Darrel.  He must have been having a bad day and said, "I don't want to talk about smoking anymore!  You can leave if you are just going to talk about smoking!  Your religion and your Prophet wants me to quit smoking!"  Then out of nowhere, he brought up Mountain Meadows.  Being the history buff that I am, I was like, Uh-Oh, he read some Anti-LDS material.  We tried to explain our intentions.  Instead, he just got up and left the room and said, "I don't want to listen to this."  Jennifer sat there quietly and was really embarrassed.  I felt so bad for her, but the rest of the lesson went great.  And we invited her to pray at the end, and she was nervous, but she said a great prayer straight from the heart!

I can testify that prayer is so important.  I am truly learning the importance and power of prayer.  I know we can all receive personal revelation from God.  And when we pray, we can feel of His love so strongly!

That's the week!  Hope everything's great back home!

Love Ya All!

Love, Elder Brenchley