Service

It's been a good week. We're starting to see a lot of progress from some of our less active members. We saw two on Tuesday, and they love to talk. We were there for about an hour and a half, so we kind of got their life story and more of their conversion stories and why they stopped coming to church. They're great ladies; I like them a lot. We invited them to Book of Mormon class and they came! It was great, the topic was on happiness and they both participated a lot. And then they came to church on Sunday. They're planning to come to Book of Mormon class and church from now on. It's like the easiest reactivation ever. We still have to help with some Word of Wisdom issues as well. But all they really needed was an invitation. Hopefully we can get them some friends in the ward. 

We had our first zone conference with President and Sister Turner on Wednesday and it was really great. It was good to see President and Sister Turner again, since we hadn't seen them in over a month. We talked a lot about setting goals, and we set new goals for how many baptisms we want to get in the next year. It was a really good discussion and I think we all feel pretty good about our goals. I've learned a lot about the importance of setting good goals on my mission. We need to stretch ourselves to do better, but we also need to be realistic. I think our new goals are a good mix of realistic and stretching to improve. 

Sister Boyson and I have felt like we need to look for more opportunities to give service, so we started praying for ideas. On our way to the library one day, which is right across the street from our apartment, we noticed that the park by our apartment had a lot of trash on the ground, so we decided we'd just go clean it up after lunch. We did, and it didn't take long at all, but the park looked a lot better after that.

We got another opportunity to serve that night when we went to see another less active member who recently moved in. We brought an RM, a sister, who just moved into the ward. As soon as we got out of the car, the member asked us if we'd mind helping her rake some of the leaves in her backyard, so we all grabbed a rake and went at it. There was a lot to do, so we worked on that for about an hour. The RM even grabbed the lawn mower and started mowing her grass, in her skirt. She's awesome. We had a good time. The member we were visiting told us she was going to come to church on Sunday, but she didn't show up. But she called us this morning and told us she'd tried to come, but had gotten lost. We gave her better directions and she promised to try again next week. 

We had another amazing lesson on Friday with the member I mentioned last week. It's amazing how when you just give someone a chapter to read from the Book of Mormon and then discuss it with them, it works really well.  It's obvious that the Spirit is working on him. We talked about the sacrament and what taking the sacrament does for us. He told us that he's really starting to understand the gospel and all his excuses about why he can't come to church are just melting away. They were sick this weekend, so they couldn't come to church, but hopefully they'll be here next week. 

We were also able to get back in contact with a family. We just stopped by their house Saturday evening to try and set up an appointment with them. They were in the middle of a football game, but they invited us in to have peach cobbler and ice cream and then we ended up going through the study questions with the parents, and it was a really good lesson. We set up to teach them again on Friday at a member's house. 

Our missionary Sunday went really well. I feel like I was able to express what I wanted to in my talk, which was that missionary work isn't about going out and doing these big grand things, it's about following the spirit and sharing our experiences with the restored gospel. And the third hour presentation also went really well. Everyone in the ward loved Sister Boyson's song. I hope it all helped people feel more confident about missionary work. 

I can't believe it's already September and Sister Boyson only has two and a half weeks left. This transfer has gone by so fast. I'm going to miss Sister Boyson; we've had a lot of fun together. Because of the Ogden temple dedication, fast Sunday, and general conference, Sister Boyson isn't going to give her homecoming talk until October 12. It's crazy because that's also the day her brother will be giving his farewell talk. He's going to Jacksonville Florida October 15. Sister Boyson is super excited about it. I'll make sure and talk to Sister Winsor and find out the details on her homecoming at transfers. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you!