We Got a Referral....to a Mormon!

Hey Ya’ll! 

How is everything doing!  Looks like my brother had his Sweet 16, and first dance/date!  What else is going on?
The week started by getting cold, but then warmed up a little, then chilly again! 

 But, the leaves are absolutely beautiful out here!  

This week, we saw a lot of people.

Mon. Oct. 19:    We had Preparation Day.

We visited with Brother Marvin Ray Hamilton - we recently started visiting him.  He’s a less active member.  He is hilarious; he knows I'm a HUGE UTES fan, so he said he was going to make sure to give me a BYU shirt for Christmas....then proceeded to laugh his wheezy laugh for about two minutes!

Also, finally we were able to meet with the Stoneman’s!  They were a referral we got a while back; they're Brita and Ethan and their two kids.  They are so Mormon!  They live all the standards already, and are just an awesome, young family!  During our first visit, we discovered half her family was Mormon.  So, as we were talking, she mentioned she has taken the missionary lessons before.  So, I asked, “So, did the Missionaries ever invite you to be Baptized?”  She replied, “Yeah, I was Baptized.”  Haha, so she’s a member!  She proceeded to tell us how she was really involved growing up; Laurels president, graduated from Seminary - you could tell she was getting really excited, and the Holy Ghost was working within her.  We were able to teach Ethan about the Book of Mormon and about General Conference.  We think Ethan may be a theological thinker, and doesn’t believe in God.  But, we’ll keep talking with him.  They are just a great part-member family!

Tues. Oct. 20: Happy Sweet 16 Kyle!

We had a lesson with Severin - he got really excited about the 3 Degrees of Glory!  Huge progress!

We also had a lesson with Jordan and Brittany.  We brought their neighbor, Sister Wheeler, who’s the Activity Days Leader for the 8 yr. olds.  B & J have an 8 yr. old daughter and Sister Wheeler invited her to the activity the next day, and she came!  Woo hoo!  Member fellowship!

Debbie was in the hospital, and so Brother Turman was able to take us to go see her, give her a blessing, and teach her a lesson.  She really appreciated the visit.

Wed. Oct. 21:  We had a great Family History lesson today with John and Beth Branham. (We found John at our family history booth.)  Brother Alvstad,  a family history guru, came with us, and was able to get them squared away with an account and find some people.

Correlation Meeting was tonight.  The Jacobsen’s got called as Ward missionaries, so we’re really excited to work with them.

Thur. Oct. 22:  We had a lesson with Joel - he’s not in good circumstances.  He recognizes the Gospel will help him, though!  He needs drive to just read the Book of Mormon!

We got to have a great fun, kids lesson!  We were able to teach Brianna and Kiersten, two less-active little girls (the parents are less-active or non-members).  It was fun; it was at Sister Mahaffey’s house (the Primary President) and we brought the Monson’s (the Primary teachers).  We taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy through church attendance

We had dinner at the Bishop’s house.

Fri. Oct. 23:  We had district meeting today, it was wonderful.

District meeting

We went on exchanges with Elder Kelly and Elder Moser (the Rockbridge Elders).   Elder Kelly is our District Leader, and he came with me to Buena Vista.  Rockbridge ward uses the same church building for 9:00 a.m. church.  These Elders live in the same apartment complex as we do.

We had lunch with the Carter’s!  They are awesome couple!  He plays baseball, so we’re going to do batting cages sometime on P-Day, and she’s going to cut our hair for free!

Nothing really turned out today.  We did meet a really nice, less-active member, Sister Turner, who’s excited to have us back!

We did see a lot of members, and have been committing them to come to the fireside on Nov. 1, and pray about someone they can bring with them!

Sat. Oct. 24:  We exchanged back

We had a good day of work!  We didn’t teach many lessons, but we talked with people we’ve been looking up in our Area book.  I'm hoping to teach them soon.

Sun. Oct. 25:  So, Joel was having a hangover, so he ended up not coming to church today.  Betty and Debbie, also, were just too sick to come.

The Primary program was today, and we had a great time listening to the Gospel taught the simplest way possible.  The Gospel, through the testimony of a primary-aged child is pure and simple - just the way it should be.

Our appointment with George didn’t go through, and we had Brother Fallon (a Bountiful Brave) with us, so he took us to his friend's, and we were able to invite him to the Fireside.

We stopped by the Hand’s to invite/commit them to the Fireside.  They gave me all these clothes (mostly SVU or VT stuff) that Brother Hand didn’t want anymore!  Sweet!

So there’s the week.  This coming week will be so busy!  We have a Baptismal interview down in Lynchburg today, then MLC tomorrow, then zone meeting on Friday.  Transfers are next week! WOW!

I’m going to keep working hard!

I invite all of you to remember when you first knew the Gospel was true.  When you first knew the Book of Mormon was true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet, when you gained a witness of the Priesthood power, when you knew families can be together forever.  Consider these, and go back to that moment.  The chances are you were prepared to receive that revelation.  Put yourself in the same spot today, through preparation and work, and you can receive revelation to answers you need!  I testify that our testimonies can be as simple as a child’s: PURE.  The Gospel is perfect!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Brenchley