Servin' in the Rain

Hey Ya'll!  How is everyone?  How 'bout Conference, right???  I loved it!  Conference was great!  I took notes on every speaker!  I've never done that before.  But I'm so glad I did!  I enjoyed the talk on getting to sustain the prophet of God by Russell M. Nelson. What was y'all's favorite talks and why?

Anyway just thought I'd let you know real quick about the whole Mark and Civi situation.

The Good News: Civi and Mark are no longer living together. 

The Bad News: The reason why is because Mark is in jail.  And now Civi has a new boyfriend living with her named, "N."  Oh BOY!

Anyway here we go!

Sept. 29, Monday:  P-Day.  Got a sweet Haircut today!  It looks good! (I think)  I bought myself a West Virginia and Marshall T-Shirt at Wal-Mart today!  It's not to late to jump on the Marshall band wagon!  WooHOO (5-0) 

I love talking to people about sports and connect with them - and then say, "Thank you!  As missionaries, we don't have time to keep tract of sports because we are working all day." - and then that leads into a invitation to learn about our church!  It's great!
Then we got to play basketball with Bro. Laxton" from the ward and his co-workers.  Reminds me of back home - a bunch of older guys just jacking up THREES like nobody's business!  I met some cool people, including a guy named, Troy who played basketball for Marshall University!  He was raining those tres! 

Sept. 30, Tuesday:  Today was exchange day!  We did companion exchanges, so I was with Elder Carter today and Elder Morse was with Elder Johnson.  With Elder Carter, we covered the Beckley area today.  It was a very new experience for me!  It was great - we visited some less-actives and did some knocking.  We had dinner with a WONDERFUL couple, the VanNatter's.  They're younger and are so great!  He's into sports and an R.M!  He's been inactive though, but with the missionaries teaching his wife, he's definitely wanting to come back!  They'd be such awesome members! 

Oct. 1, Wednesday:  We had district meeting and correlation with the ward missionaries, Bro. & Sis. Brooks.  We visited David Lily, who is all for being baptized again, but he doesn't understand exactly why baptism by proper priesthood authority is any different than his other two previous baptisms.  Here's an update on Bro. Snuffer: we visited him tonight and talked with him to see how we was doing.  He's doing a lot better physically (sits up in a wheelchair and can move his hands and legs) but not so well mentally.  He's not completely there, but he's slowly recovering.

Oct. 2, Thursday:  Zone Meeting today!  I have some great Zone Leaders!  They emphasized Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel which is "Use Time Wisely."  We only have so long on our mission, and even less time actually proselyting, so we need to always be making the most of it.  Also, we discussed planning more effectively and to continue to pray always!  AMEN to that!  We met with two older folks named, Shirley and Dole.  Dole has read the Book of Mormon and has a good understanding of us Mormons.  He sure does talk a lot, so it's hard to teach a lesson with him always chatting.  Then we met with one of our rock star investigators - his name is Bill.  He's living all alone at home and does very well in life.  He is so open to hearing us teach him.  We taught him the Restoration, after teaching him the Plan of Salvation a week earlier.  He committed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray!  Can't wait to see him again!

Oct. 3, Friday:  After having a wonderful weekly planning session, we went to visit Civi, where we found out that Mark is gone, but now she has a new boyfriend living with her already.  Hmmm.  But, Elder Johnson and I have talked it over, and I have appreciated all the advice from home (Thank You!), and we think that the best way to approach this situation is to focus on the importance of families in God's eyes.  If we can explain to her how important and sacred the family is in God's eyes, we hope to have the Spirit touch her heart that way.  After a long day of looking, we met with a great lady named, Rita.  She is so into family history and we were able to give her a family history packet. We have a lesson with her for Wednesday with the ward Family History Consultants!  Can't wait! Then we met with a part member family, the Upton's.  Well, just Sister Upton and her mother-in-law, Ronnie, her husband, and one of our investigators was not feeling well.  But, we basically sat down and asked, "How can we help you, Sister Upton, to help Ronnie come to church and help him work towards baptism, and later down the road that temple marriage?"  We did not go in there with that game plan at all.  But, the Spirit directed us to do so.  So, now we have her ALL-IN to help him as well!  The man is the head of the household, but the woman is the neck! 

Oct. 4, Saturday:  Conference!  Woo-Hoo!  We had to wait an extra two hours here, since it didn't start until 12:00 here.  However, one low light of today was sometime last night, or this morning, our car got broken into (while parked at our house!) and unfortunately, my camera and Elder Johnson's sunglasses were stolen. (I couldn't believe it, first my camera case, then my actual camera).  Surprisingly, they didn't take the GPS which was in plain sight, but went through the glove compartment to find my camera. that was inside a sock (it's new "case").  That's tough luck right?  Ah well, luckily we were both safe and the car wasn't damaged too badly. (just some scratches where they pried the door open.)  To watch Conference, we went to the church.  It was just us missionaries from the district and the Bishop and his wife there.  I guess everyone was watching it online.  From the Saturday sessions, I really enjoyed Lynn G. Robbins talk on God's law will never adjust to man's law.  And Chi Hong (Sam) Wong's (I think?) talk on members being missionaries, too, including the great story of the man who had to be brought through the roof to see Jesus.  Then from Priesthood Session, President Uchtdorf's talk on "Lord, Is It I?"  Such a great talk on humbling ourselves and deciding where our treasures lay.

Thankfully we were able to keep the Priesthood Session tradition of going out to dinner. But this time, I will just have to send my notes on Priesthood Session home to my mom instead of reporting on it to her right after!

Oct. 5, Sunday:  More Conference!  Love Conference!  I took notes on every single speaker at conference!  It made it so much more enriching!  My Favorite Talks from Sunday were Richard G. Scott's talk on the 4 Tools to having a house built on the Gospel.  Then, David A. Bednar's talk for non-members.  It was a different approach, but it was so good!  Elder Johnson and I hope to, and already have, shared this talk with our investigators.  We hope they watch/listen/read this talk so they can get an understanding why we want them to enjoy the same happiness we do! 

Oct. 6, Monday:  We went to see "Meet The Mormons" for our P-Day!  We all headed up to Charleston to watch it at the stake center via secured link that President Salisbury received.  It was such a great, spiritual, uplifting movie!  I encourage all of you to go watch it! 

We spent the rest of the day driving back and forth from Beckley to Charleston, then Charleston to Beckley - about 1 hour and 45 minute drive.  With the time we had left, we had to file an incident report about the car break in and robbery.  With that we had to delay emailing until Tuesday.  We had an excellent dinner with the McGrady's and delivered a message about eternal marriage and how they are now preparing to go the temple since Brother McGrady was finally baptized after 44 years of coming to church.  The lesson was so awesome and both me and Elder Johnson were able to bear testimony of the blessings of families being together forever!  After that we went to go play basketball - it got cancelled! :( It reminds me of most of our appointments - but, in a way, I'm glad it did.  It was pouring buckets outside!  I had the great idea to go the local grocery store in Beaver and help people put stuff in their car, while we held our umbrella over them, so they wouldn't get wet.  We got drenched!  But it was worth it - so many people were so grateful for our kindness.  And it was great to make people happy! One woman was so grateful, and kept telling us, "Thank You, Thank You!" and then out of no where she asked, "Do you have any literature?"  Uh... Yeah, we do!  We gave her a Book of Mormon and got all her information, and she invited us to come teach her!  Service does pay off!  

Sorry the email is a day late! 

Hopefully everything is good back home!  Love You All!  I want to hear what your favorite Conference talk was! 

Love, Elder Brenchley