Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Peoria Week 87 *April 20, 2015

 Hey there everyone!

This past week we have been pretty busy with exchanges, teaching and serving in the community. We were able to participate in three community service projects this past week alone and as a zone we wracked up a total of 117 hours of service! It was incredible. We started off with our weekly project at the thrift shop sorting through donations and putting them out on the floor. We found out that if we find something we like we can buy it for 1/2 the price because we are volunteers. A bunch of missionaries took advantage of that and walked out with a few hand-me-down items. Another project that we did was with the Live United organization. We were guides for homeless people as they traveled through a gymnasium and talked with different representatives from organization to get the help they need to get back on their feet and into some homes and jobs. It was really fun to get to meet completely different people and to see the life styles they had. I learned a ton of people's stories and the life lessons that they were so open to give. Obviously some of it had a bit of flawed logic but for the most part it was good advice. Then on Saturday we went to a river bed cleanup for the city of Glendale. There we were a part of a big group of environmentalists and volunteers trying to clean three miles of this river from all debris and trash. It was a great turn out and a lot of fun. I even got a little sun tan with was nice.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges this week with Elder Owens from Burley Idaho! He is a unique kid that has an absolute ton of potential and a great future in aeronautical engineering. His three favorite things in the world are planes, trains and ..... Cats. Haha. He is so funny. We had a great day and I even got to bust out my bike for a few hours. It was a blast riding around and feeling like a true missionary. I was talking with strangers, dodging cars, and jumping off anything I could find. Elder Owens had only been to In-N-Out once in his whole life so my goal was to treat him to a burger but as I went to pay a member snuck in front of me and beat me to the register! I was grateful but it wasn't necessary! Haha.

We are on a rotating schedule to teach the gospel principles class in the YSA between myself, Elder Johnston, our ward mission leader and another member. This week I was up and I taught about Adam and Eve and their fall from the garden of Eden. It was a good lesson if I do say so myself and I had a blast teaching it. Good discussions broke out and we were all able to learn from each other and all I had to do was stir up the conversation every once in a while with a question or two. In our family ward we are teaching a handful of families and individuals that are so close to making the choice to be baptized. Chris is still doing amazing and we are just working around his crazy schedule to find time to meet with him. He is hopefully going to be baptized may 16th. He basically teaches us each time we go over there and is just waiting for his schedule to line up. A part member family is allowing is to come by and teach them finally after years. Their name is the Harrison's. It is going to be totally wicked when we start teaching them! Then our other investigators are Rob & Alexis. They are great as well and but have a tough time having the time for church. They want to improve their lives and make the changes but work always gets in the way. It's a tough situation for them so we just keep working and scheduling appointments.

Well I love you all! I hope that this week is full of excitement and new beginnings! Don't get down on yourselves... You can do it!

Elder Cole Safford

1. This is Elder Langi from Tonga. He is 6'7" and 410 pounds. He's a defensive end for BYU. Needless to say elder Jonston and I took him down.



No comments:

Post a Comment