Driving Through Tornadoes

So, headlines for this week:

We conquered the back roads and tornadoes of West Virginia to make it a Baptismal interview! (for more info, read Tuesday, May 26)

We had a wonderful Mission President fireside on Sunday.  I sang a short solo in a musical number us missionaries performed! (read more on Sunday, May 31)

I was so sad to hear about Elder Perry dying this week.  Something I always liked about him was his enthusiasm!  We'd do well to continue to live life with enthusiasm as Elder Perry did!

Our House

4505 Noyes Avenue

Charleston, WV  25304

Monday, May 25:

• Memorial Day/P-Day.  We emailed in the Mission Office because no public computers were open!
  
• We had a multi-district P-Day activity which included: basketball, chair soccer, and practicing our musical number for the fireside. 
• Bro. Hawes took us out for the night to three lessons; one with Valerie, a single mother, who couldn't stop complimenting me on my pink tie.  Another lesson was with Andrew - he's coming along really well and is on date for Baptism June 28th.  He's still smoking, but working on it.  He's getting more and more excited about coming to church.  Then the last lesson was with Rodney.  We could literally go over there any night and he's ready to have a lesson with us.

Tuesday, May 26:

• We helped John & Madison move.  John & Madison are the greatest!  They have both agreed to baptism, come to church 15+ times, and will someday be a General Authority couple.  We just have to get them married!  They moved down to Smithers, which is still our area. 
• We taught the Soram's" - Bro. Soram is a recent convert and he agreed to bear his testimony at the upcoming fireside, so we went over it with him.  His sister-in-law and nephews are not members - they are all from Micronesia.
• Now comes one of the funniest, craziest, fascinating stories of my whole mission.  PART 1: So the Spencer Elders needed us to interview a Baptismal candidate. (Elder Hadfield and Elder Williams are my Davis County homies!  E. Hadfield went to Layton High School, and Elder Williams went to Davis High School; we were actually pretty good friends in junior high). Elder Williams is the D.L., and he can't interview his own investigators, so then the responsibility falls to us for interviewing.  Elder Jacklin's GPS was set to "shortest distance" without us knowing it.  Rather than taking us the fastest way on ACTUAL roads, we were led to a four-wheeler path.  We were literally driving on boulders!  I got out of the car to guide Elder Jacklin, as we hear all these S-C-R-A-P-E-S!  Ooh!  Well, we finally make it out of this terrible road, and what do we see?  A trailer blocking our path!  Somebody was moving their trailer, and it was blocking the one little bridge out of this holler!  Also, we turned to our right, and there's a whole extended family out sitting in their front yard watching their trailer getting moved - and then were also graced to see us bumping down their 4-wheeler trail.  We got out of our car, and they said, "GPS take you here?"  Well, I guess we weren't the first ones to get lost down their holler.  PART 2: We finally got by the trailer moving company, across the bridge, and on the highway towards Spencer.  Well, there we hop in a member's car with the Spencer Elders, and off we are another hour to their investigator's house (after already driving an hour to get to Spencer.)  Well, we were just driving along (Bro. Martin and us four elders) and all of sudden it gets really foggy - we can't see a thing.  Well, then the winds start picking up.  We get stopped behind a long line of cars and we notice ice pellets the size of golf balls are strewn all over the ground.  As we get further up the line, we see trees ripped to shreds and power lines are down.  People driving past say a tornado hit 20 minutes ago!  WHAT????  See, this might be the difference between Utah Mtns. and WV Mtns.  We don't get tornados in Utah.  Well, they finally got the Rescue Squad out there with chainsaws and cleared the path.  We finally got to the investigator's house around 7:30, and Elder Jacklin interviewed, and their investigator definitely qualified.  We got home around 10:00. (smooth sailing on the way home - no tornadoes and our GPS was set on "main roads").

Wednesday, May 27:

• Click Day!  9 Months a missionary!
  
• We had a fun district meeting and lunch afterwards.  We have four sets of missionaries in our district, with two Elders and two Sister companionships: Charleston ZL's: us, South Hills: STL's (Sister Charlesworth and Sister Jackson), Winfield: Elder Thackary (DL) and Elder Rasmussen, Teays Valley: Sister Packard and Sister Campbell
• We had a great lesson with Bro. McGill to see Andrew.  He committed to coming to the fireside and church on Sunday!

Thursday, May 28:

• Happy Birthday, Brookelle!
  
• We went to the old Mission Home (since the Salisbury's have moved to a bigger, better home) and anything was "free game!"  We got some cool stuff.  And President Salisbury trained us on how we should house arriving and departing missionaries. (a lot of the stuff we got was for that purpose).
• Bro. Thomas, from Bountiful, UT, took us to a lesson with the Ratliff's.  Bill is an investigator and Virginia is a member.  They've both been to church 15+ times and the only thing holding Bro. Ratliff back is he has just one cup of coffee in the morning.  He had some good questions.  It's not a matter of IF he gets baptized, just WHEN.

Friday, May 29:

{Elder Jacklin, Me, Elder Taylor, Elder Caldwell}

• As zone leaders, we go on one exchange a week with the district leaders.  We have five district leaders in the zone, so we went on exchanges with the Cowen Elders.  I was blessed to go to Cowen with Elder Taylor, while Elder Caldwell, the DL (yes, my former companion), came to Charleston with Elder Jacklin.

 

• In Cowen, Elder Taylor and I were able to teach three people and have good success!

Saturday May 30:

• We exchanged back and had a long drive from Cowen to C-Town (about 1 1/2 hours).  So, Elder Taylor and I had plenty of time to talk and also listen to The Missionary Next Door.  It's a wonderful talk by a Return Sister Missionary about helping church members share the Gospel out of love and fulfill their duty as church members.  I recommend EVERYONE look it up!
  
• We had a lesson with Tom today - he's having a hard time committing to come to church.
• Had a lesson with the Holbrook family.  They are less-actives who have been active for the last two months.
  
• We saw not much happening, as went finding the rest of the night.

Sunday May 31:

• We had Lisa come to church!  As well as a former investigator named, Amit.  He's a member's nephew, and we will start teaching him again. 
• The Kirk" family came, but without their two unbaptized kids. :(  Also, Andrew, J & M, and Ratliff's didn't show up.  :(
  
• We had dinner/lesson at Bro. Foote's house with Lisa.
  
• We showed up early to practice for the fireside.  Our missionary choir, consisting of our district & the Assistants, were singing, "I am a Child of God."  The STL's did a good job of making an arrangement for us.  I had a solo with the, "And so my needs are great" line!  Nothing too big.
  
• The fireside went wonderful; we had the Holbrook's and Lisa there.  Bro. Soram bore a wonderful testimony.  Recent convert testimonies are PURE!  The theme of the program was, Who are You?  President Salisbury spoke but five minutes, and played videos the rest of the program, along with musical numbers and testimonies.  Lisa was crying after and she said she felt peace.  I was also overcome with peace, as The Spirit bore witness to me that I am a Child of God, and joint-heirs of the Kingdom with my older brother, Jesus Christ.  

What a wonderful week!  Everyone also remember what your ripple effect might be to others.  Christ can do wonders through you!

Always remember Who You Are!
The chorus of "I am a Child of God" originally said, "Teach me all that I must Know........."
The current prophet at the time asked it to be changed to, "Teach me all that I must DO."
Presdient Salisbury always asks us this question:
Who are You?  And what are You going to DO about it?


Love, Elder Brenchley