¡Hola Fonzfam!
It's been an exciting 24 hours since talking with you guys yesterday! We had a great conversation, definitely a lot more composed than the first time at Christmas;) After we got done, Elder Matheson and I headed out to one of our lessons but the lady wouldn't open the door so we just stayed in the area to find sombody else to teach. One of the doors we knocked on a 15 year old, EJ, answered and was pretty cool with us. He said that he and his mom use to meet with the missionaries but that things got too busy and there just wasn't time. He said that they liked the lessons and wouldn't mind starting them again. We were both like, "Sweet! Let's do it!" So we set up a time this week to drop by and visit with them to pass them off to the family ward missionaries.
Our baptism Saturday went really well even though we didn't get the biggest turnout from our ward because of work and the holiday weekend. But that's ok because I can't fully describe how happy Jimmie was as she enjoyed the company of those who did come with a huge smile. Earlier this week we were getting the details worked out on who was going to be part of the baptismal program and confirmation. So we left it up to Jimmie to pick and pray for who was going to baptize her and later confirm her a member. After a couple hours we get a message from her that she would like for me to baptize her and our Bishop to give her the Holy Ghost. She then explained how she chose us: She made a list of who could do it and placed those names on little pieces of paper in a hat and randomly drew them out. With those names she prayed about them, got confirmation, and told us. It was awesome to hear how she did that and it was an honor to have baptized her on Saturday.
With Jimmie's baptism done we've been looking at our teaching pool to see who we have that may have potential to be baptized in the next month or two. Mother's Day made it a little more difficult to get sacrament commitments from investigators this week, but we're excited for next. Our mission has set the goal to have 80 investigators at church this upcoming Sunday! It's going to take a lot of work and we're pumped to see what comes from it. These mission-wide goals have been pretty good as we've reached our finding goal of 100 new investigators as a mission each week for the last 3 weeks! It seemed like we were in kind of a lull, but things over all have really picked up and it's just making it more fun to be a missionary!
We were in this complex near the college in Oregon City during the afternoon after the baptism, and we weren't having any success. Right as we were walking up to the last door, this YSA age woman pulls right infront of us, her window already down. I looked at my companion and shrugged my shoulders and OYMed her. After getting to know her, she accepted a BoM and loved our message. She then asked if we believed in horoscopes because she read hers today and it told her that two religious people would uplift her that day. We just told her that it must have been God working in mysterious ways to have us meet at that perfect time and place:)
With the baptism we had, I've been studying Chapter 12 out of Preach My Gospel as well as of Christ's baptism from the scriptures. It's incredible to me to see his humility and his determination to be baptized while at the same time not necessarily needing it. But of course it was necessary as He knew, so we have the chance to follow His example and be cleansed from our sins. Not only once, but on a weekly basis through the sacrament. This understanding has grown over the course of my mission and I am so glad to be able to listen to the sacrament prayers, may they be in Spanish or English, each Sunday.
It's been a great week, and talking with my family definitely was the cherry-on-top! School's getting closer to its end and summer is right around the corner! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck
It's been an exciting 24 hours since talking with you guys yesterday! We had a great conversation, definitely a lot more composed than the first time at Christmas;) After we got done, Elder Matheson and I headed out to one of our lessons but the lady wouldn't open the door so we just stayed in the area to find sombody else to teach. One of the doors we knocked on a 15 year old, EJ, answered and was pretty cool with us. He said that he and his mom use to meet with the missionaries but that things got too busy and there just wasn't time. He said that they liked the lessons and wouldn't mind starting them again. We were both like, "Sweet! Let's do it!" So we set up a time this week to drop by and visit with them to pass them off to the family ward missionaries.
Our baptism Saturday went really well even though we didn't get the biggest turnout from our ward because of work and the holiday weekend. But that's ok because I can't fully describe how happy Jimmie was as she enjoyed the company of those who did come with a huge smile. Earlier this week we were getting the details worked out on who was going to be part of the baptismal program and confirmation. So we left it up to Jimmie to pick and pray for who was going to baptize her and later confirm her a member. After a couple hours we get a message from her that she would like for me to baptize her and our Bishop to give her the Holy Ghost. She then explained how she chose us: She made a list of who could do it and placed those names on little pieces of paper in a hat and randomly drew them out. With those names she prayed about them, got confirmation, and told us. It was awesome to hear how she did that and it was an honor to have baptized her on Saturday.
With Jimmie's baptism done we've been looking at our teaching pool to see who we have that may have potential to be baptized in the next month or two. Mother's Day made it a little more difficult to get sacrament commitments from investigators this week, but we're excited for next. Our mission has set the goal to have 80 investigators at church this upcoming Sunday! It's going to take a lot of work and we're pumped to see what comes from it. These mission-wide goals have been pretty good as we've reached our finding goal of 100 new investigators as a mission each week for the last 3 weeks! It seemed like we were in kind of a lull, but things over all have really picked up and it's just making it more fun to be a missionary!
We were in this complex near the college in Oregon City during the afternoon after the baptism, and we weren't having any success. Right as we were walking up to the last door, this YSA age woman pulls right infront of us, her window already down. I looked at my companion and shrugged my shoulders and OYMed her. After getting to know her, she accepted a BoM and loved our message. She then asked if we believed in horoscopes because she read hers today and it told her that two religious people would uplift her that day. We just told her that it must have been God working in mysterious ways to have us meet at that perfect time and place:)
With the baptism we had, I've been studying Chapter 12 out of Preach My Gospel as well as of Christ's baptism from the scriptures. It's incredible to me to see his humility and his determination to be baptized while at the same time not necessarily needing it. But of course it was necessary as He knew, so we have the chance to follow His example and be cleansed from our sins. Not only once, but on a weekly basis through the sacrament. This understanding has grown over the course of my mission and I am so glad to be able to listen to the sacrament prayers, may they be in Spanish or English, each Sunday.
It's been a great week, and talking with my family definitely was the cherry-on-top! School's getting closer to its end and summer is right around the corner! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck
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| Waving to you! "Happy Mother's Day!" |
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| Mother's Day sunset on Willamette River |
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| Jimmie's Baptism Day |
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| Jimmie's baptism was such a wonderful experience and we are all so proud of her! |
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