Week 75 - Moving

大家好!

This week really has been an interesting week. We felt like this week was probably one of the longer week, but also really fast. We decided to try focusing on a few new things from the week and it really seemed to bring some amazing blessings!

As for the biggest thing from the week, we had a ton of finding, due to cancellations, we had a ton of time of finding in the heat. On Monday, we went out with jackets because we were both freezing, but starting Tuesday, it was incredibly hot, and actually got a little sun burnt, but it was totally worth the miracles that came about. Some of the really cool miracles that happened are running into a member two times in two days and working for "Team Jesus."

The member we ran into was actually an American. We were out contacting on a side road, talking with a driver when a guy comes up from behind us and puts his hands on our shoulders and said "Hey Elders, how are you doing?" Elder Ploeg and I were a little shock, mainly because it was a westerner and he was being super friendly. He said he just got here for a business trip and was actually looking to know where the church meetings were at on Sunday, so we gave him the information and then he headed off again and we continued talking with the driver. Then the next day, we were meeting with a recent convert at our office... McDonalds. For some reason, if we are looking for a place to meet that everyone knows, we meet at McDonalds, and as we were meeting the same guy walks in and sits down just a few tables over. So after meeting with him, we than spent a few minutes with the westerner and helped him better understand how to find the church here. It really was a miracle, that his first day here, he was able to run into the missionaries and then again on the second day. The Lord is always planning on how to make everything work out in the end! :)

As for the biggest miracle from the week, it was from working with the invites from President Jergensen during zone meeting, which is to have a much larger focus on preparing people for the sacrament and attending church. As we were doing weekly planning and talking about how we wanted to help these people come to church, we recognized that we needed to do more follow up with our investigators, less actives, and even recent converts. And as a result, we truly saw the blessings, especially at church as each of our investigators had a "companion" to walk them through each hour of church and be their friend, it really just seemed to be just an amazing experience for everyone. One of the other things we did was we decided to be more bold with our investigators about church. We have a lot of investigators that are doing really well, but because of not coming to church, they are kind of at a stand still. As we have talked with them about church attendance and boldly invited them to act, it really made a difference! As we are inviting for the right purpose, doing it out of love, our investigators will be able to feel it.

This week, we also got to meet with Bacon, who was the result of a scooter contact. This may be something our mission just does, but we literally talk to everyone everywhere. As we are at stop lights, we are always turning to the person next to us and sharing the gospel with them. Bacon is one of those people we actually contacted at a stop light and even though time was short, was able to set up a time to actually meet with her to share a little about the church. We had set her up at the church, and were able to do a temple tour, which was amazing. The sisters that do temple tours do such an amazing job and it does miracles for the investigators we bring, and so we are super excited to be able to be working with her and helping her come to know of the gospel's simple truths.

Probably one of the hardest parts of the week was actually passing off one of our favorite investigators to the other sisters in the ward. We have been working with 林琦淵 (Brother Lin) now for about half a month and should be getting baptized the end of this month, so we were super sad to find out that we needed to pass him off. He is truly an amazing man and his wife (who is a member) is also super amazing. I met them both my first week here and have been working with them ever since, and I am sure that the sisters in the ward will also see miracles with him as well.

Lastly, this week, we found out that Elder Ploeg would be leading/putting together the Christmas choir, so we have also spent a lot of time at the office working with the elders there getting music for the choir so that today (the reason why this email is also soooo late and a bit shorter) we could have choir practice which went really well.

Well, my time is pretty much up. Hope that you all have a great week! Thanks for all the prayers and letters!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Coolest guy ever 羅弟兄 (Brother Luo). It was his first time meeting the missionaries and was super willing to learn more.  He doesn't live in our area sadly, but I am sure the missionaries in the other ward will love working with him!

Morning frizbee before transfers this week, most of them are gone now.