¡Voy a Salir Tualatin Otra Vez!

¡Hola Fonzfam!

It's been a good time with Elders Wadsworth and Wilkes these last 6 weeks. From this experience I've learned and grown so much from their examples and styles of missionary work. I'm grateful for the time that I've been able to spend here in Tualatin and I'm so sad to be leaving again. A lot of great work was completed with the undeniable help of our Heavenly Father.

For some-odd reason we're still having been some difficulty with setting up return appointments with those who we are teaching because we've been utilizing the members a lot more and it's requiring a lot of follow up with them. It's good that we have been able to get to that point with most of who we're teaching even if things are moving a little slower. But in the end those who are learning about the Church are going to be more solid.

Something cool that happened this last week started about 8 weeks ago when Elder Clements and I found this single mom named Meredith who was so excited to hear about the Restoration of the gospel. Unfortunately we had to stop teaching her a couple weeks in because we weren't able to keep in contact good enough. She had come to my mind during weekly planning last week and so we made plans to stop by and invite her to General Conference. That Friday night she was home and was happy to see us. She was all in for checking out Conference and so we watched the Sunday morning session together with a member family who had a little boy the same age as Meredith's son. It was awesome and such a miracle to provide her with the opportunity to hear the words of a living prophet. We'll be meeting up with her hopefully this next weekend (At least Elder Wadsworth will;)

In preparation for General Conference I studied up on prophets for new OYMing approaches. I love the scripture Mosiah 3:13 as it describes what a prophet does. I then thought about some inspired questions to ask those who we share this scripture with:

• What did God send His prophets to do?

• How do you think a prophet today would help you?

• If there was a prophet today, what do you think they'd say?

• If provided an opportunity to hear a prophet speak, would you want to listen?

It was cool to hear the responses of the many people we asked this to and we left them with the information on how to access General Conference. It was definitely a good one to hopefully have been the first one for many of those we talked to. But what an AWESOME conference we had! I took so many notes and I was able to get answers to all of my questions every session. One thing I liked of many was how President Nelson restated the "Why" behind the emphasis on the name of the Church. It made sense to me before, but it was good to hear it explained again because a lot of people looked at it in a different way than it was meant to be. I'm grateful for a living prophet in these days and for the opportunity to spend the next 6 months studying his words and following his counsel.

I'm mildly surprised to be leaving Tualatin after only being here for a couple transfers but I'm excited for where the Lord wants me to serve next. Again, I've learned much from being in a trio and I look forward to more growth in my next area. Another transfer means there's more work that needs to be done. I'm looking forward for new opportunities to learn and gain experience as a missionary, leader, and disciple of Christ.

Love,

Elder Fonnesbeck