Transfers - Staying put

November 17, 2014

         I am still not feeling 100%, but I managed to eat today.  Today was also transfer day and no one moved in our zone.  Not even Elder Dorneles or Elder Rogers.  This is their 4^th transfer together.  Elder D. has been here for 5 transfers.  The hard part is that they don’t like each other – that is probably why they are still stuck as companions! 

         We taught several really good lessons today.  One of our investigators is really ready for baptism but she is not able to attend church on Sunday right now because her daughter is in jail and the only visiting day happens to also be on Sunday. It is more important right now for her to try to help her daughter. 

November 18, 2014

         We went back to teach our lawyer friend.  He is super cool.  He has a huge dog that is a cross between a rotweiler and a Doberman.  He calls the dog, Judge and yeah he is an intimidating watch dog. We taught an unusual lesson on the Restoration that included church history discussion about Kirkland, Far West, and Nauvoo.  It was very interesting.  I really hope that he continues to stay interested to learn more.

November 19, 2014

         So our new zone leader has been in Brasil for all of 2 months.  Elder H. was serving his mission here for 10 months but then went home because of back pain.  After a few months he came back and now he is here in our zone.  It is really different…and there are a lot of other really strange things that happened with this transfer.  I will just keep on working and keeping my head down as I work.

         We finally caught up with C., our investigator who has been dodging us for a while now.  She says that she has been missing church because she was asked to be a Godmother for a friend’s baby and so she has been attending the Catholic Church for the past several weeks.  But, she says that she is excited to be finished with that and she is now ready for her baptism which is scheduled for next week.

November 20, 2014

         We met with our lawyer friend today and he is looking forward to church on Sunday, but he still hasn’t read the Book of Mormon.  We focused on the importance of scripture study and in particular reading the Book of Mormon.  Today was the first day that we made friends with his monster dog – Judge.

November 21, 2014

         I got my birthday package!!!! I opened it in honor of my Dad’s birthday.  It was also one of our Zone leaders birthday and an older guy in our ward’s birthday.  We sand happy Birthday in English to the older man and he absolutely loved it.  He is a humble fisherman and he loves the missionaries so much. 

This is the shell that the old fisherman/missionary dad gave me for christmas and my birthday. I think that it is super cool

 Anyways, I loved my package!  By far the best thing in my package was the photo book with pictures of all the people from the ward holding “Happy Birthday Elder Colvin” poster.   It was so cool to see everyone.  Freckles and Tootsie Roll look ancient!  I also loved the guitar book that my parents sent me.  It says that it is for absolute beginners and literally starts out like this: “What is this thing sitting on my lap? It is called a guitar.”  It is super fun, and funny.  My companion (the pro guitarist) looked through it and he said that it is a really good book and would really help me out.  Also – loved the corn nuts…a LOT!  The bug toy is hilarious.  I was reading the warnings on the package and it says in big bold letters:  “DO NOT EAT HEXBUG!”  haha.  Anyways, Mom, it was a fun package. Thanks!

         In the missionary department, we had another investigator delay their baptismal date.  I am not too worried about it though because we still have some things that we could review with her that might help her feel more prepared.  We will keep trying to help her.

November 22, 2014

         So funny story, we have a recent convert who is a super smart and nice young man of 12 years, who went out with us on teaching appointments.  He is quite small for his age which made for a terrified little boy when he first met Judge.  The dog was bigger than the boy!  Things got complicated in our discussion so I am thinking that we will not likely see our investigator in church on Sunday, but he is going to have lunch with us on Monday.