¡Hola Fonzfam!
From what I hinted to in last week's email, my time in Tualatin was really short. Monday night I found out where and with whom I'd be serving. President Bullen had assigned Elder Matheson and I to be Zone Leaders together over the Milwaukie Zone. We are doing what's called a "whitewash" where both missionaries coming in are both new to the area. Making it a very fun challenge to learn who's in your area and what you need to do with it. Because we're serving in a YSA ward, the work seems to be a little more fun. Everything is done a little differently but the members are great and the ward is so fun!
When we came into the area last Wednesday we took a look at the notes left by the previous missionaries and got to work. They had a couple of investigators, one who just showed up at church two weeks ago in a shirt and tie and wanted to be baptized, so that's coming up on Saturday! Brian comes from a part-member family who grew to be very less active and recently he's figured out that something was missing. After already having a couple sit-down lessons with him, he's shown his testimony of how he's been prepared for the gospel to enter his life. Now with the baptism coming up so close, we will be meeting with him at least 3-4 more times this week inorder to teach him everything he must know. Let me just say what a nice miracle to come into:)
Throughout the last few days our focus has been on visiting the members and getting to know each of them better. There are at least 150 YSA members of the ward, but less than 50 consistently have been going. So for us we've been communicating with our Bishop about who to visit. There have been a couple people that we've gone by who are living with one of their non member friends that we hope as we begin meeting these less active members, their friends will become interested and together they can come back to church.
On our second day in the area we were stopping by one of our potential investigators who we didn't have anything more than an address for. Before heading to the house, we decided to say a quick prayer. Right after the prayer we opened our eyes and somebody was just pulling in. Because we whitewashed in, we knew nothing, so we OYMed her and found out that she was the younger sister of who we were trying to find. She had to immediately leave, so we pretended to leave too. After she was gone we turned around to knock on the door to find out more. So we knocked and this giant kid answered. He was only a junior in high school but totally looked like a junior in college! Anyways, he was really receptive to the BoM and gave us his contact info. Because of the timing of everything we were able to establish who this family was and in the end get a way to communicate with them and set up a lesson for later this next week. (They live on the outskirts of Oregon City and so it would've been difficult to check up on them regularly because it's so rural).
Again God's timing is everything and it's really cool as I've been able to recognize it.
Last night we were making our rounds from what we had planned to do and we had decided to go to a person who had asked for a Bible from Mormon.org. It was a small house on the side of a hill and when we knocked we were welcomed in by the parents. We asked them if Anthony was currently home, and his mom then yelled for him to come meet us. He was a big fellow, but really nice and talkative. He shared with us how he's gone to a Christian summer camp every year and how he's read some of the Bible, but things picked up spiritually when we told him about the Book of Mormon. After explaining it to him, his interest level went up and we were able to have him commit to reading it before our next visit on Thursday. I can tell that he's been prepared and that hopefully one day soon he'll be able to enter the waters of baptism.
Things have been a little nuts this week with the transition from Spanish to English, but I know no matter what it is the same work. I love my companion, Elder Matheson! He is literally the best and so kind and patient. He's been a Zone Leader for 5 transfers back over in Beaverton. It's going to be a great time serving side by side with him. Thank you for your emails and the letters I've been receiving. As things kind of slow down from the transfer (honestly I don't think things will ever slow down now) I'll write some letters home for you to read. I can't tell you how much I miss you! Keep faithful. Keep loving. Enjoy every day.
Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck
From what I hinted to in last week's email, my time in Tualatin was really short. Monday night I found out where and with whom I'd be serving. President Bullen had assigned Elder Matheson and I to be Zone Leaders together over the Milwaukie Zone. We are doing what's called a "whitewash" where both missionaries coming in are both new to the area. Making it a very fun challenge to learn who's in your area and what you need to do with it. Because we're serving in a YSA ward, the work seems to be a little more fun. Everything is done a little differently but the members are great and the ward is so fun!
When we came into the area last Wednesday we took a look at the notes left by the previous missionaries and got to work. They had a couple of investigators, one who just showed up at church two weeks ago in a shirt and tie and wanted to be baptized, so that's coming up on Saturday! Brian comes from a part-member family who grew to be very less active and recently he's figured out that something was missing. After already having a couple sit-down lessons with him, he's shown his testimony of how he's been prepared for the gospel to enter his life. Now with the baptism coming up so close, we will be meeting with him at least 3-4 more times this week inorder to teach him everything he must know. Let me just say what a nice miracle to come into:)
Throughout the last few days our focus has been on visiting the members and getting to know each of them better. There are at least 150 YSA members of the ward, but less than 50 consistently have been going. So for us we've been communicating with our Bishop about who to visit. There have been a couple people that we've gone by who are living with one of their non member friends that we hope as we begin meeting these less active members, their friends will become interested and together they can come back to church.
On our second day in the area we were stopping by one of our potential investigators who we didn't have anything more than an address for. Before heading to the house, we decided to say a quick prayer. Right after the prayer we opened our eyes and somebody was just pulling in. Because we whitewashed in, we knew nothing, so we OYMed her and found out that she was the younger sister of who we were trying to find. She had to immediately leave, so we pretended to leave too. After she was gone we turned around to knock on the door to find out more. So we knocked and this giant kid answered. He was only a junior in high school but totally looked like a junior in college! Anyways, he was really receptive to the BoM and gave us his contact info. Because of the timing of everything we were able to establish who this family was and in the end get a way to communicate with them and set up a lesson for later this next week. (They live on the outskirts of Oregon City and so it would've been difficult to check up on them regularly because it's so rural).
Again God's timing is everything and it's really cool as I've been able to recognize it.
Last night we were making our rounds from what we had planned to do and we had decided to go to a person who had asked for a Bible from Mormon.org. It was a small house on the side of a hill and when we knocked we were welcomed in by the parents. We asked them if Anthony was currently home, and his mom then yelled for him to come meet us. He was a big fellow, but really nice and talkative. He shared with us how he's gone to a Christian summer camp every year and how he's read some of the Bible, but things picked up spiritually when we told him about the Book of Mormon. After explaining it to him, his interest level went up and we were able to have him commit to reading it before our next visit on Thursday. I can tell that he's been prepared and that hopefully one day soon he'll be able to enter the waters of baptism.
Things have been a little nuts this week with the transition from Spanish to English, but I know no matter what it is the same work. I love my companion, Elder Matheson! He is literally the best and so kind and patient. He's been a Zone Leader for 5 transfers back over in Beaverton. It's going to be a great time serving side by side with him. Thank you for your emails and the letters I've been receiving. As things kind of slow down from the transfer (honestly I don't think things will ever slow down now) I'll write some letters home for you to read. I can't tell you how much I miss you! Keep faithful. Keep loving. Enjoy every day.
Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck
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| Gracias Elder Montague for the fun times in Tualatin Spanish! |
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| Spring is in full bloom here in PDX |
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| Our Meals On Wheels crew was top notch |
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| Elder Matheson & I are ready to take on Milwaukie! |
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