¡Hola Fonzfam!
Yesterday was my 16th month mark of my service to the Lord. Where has the time gone? With Halloween already behind us I'm looking forward to the holiday season beginning with Thanksgiving in two and a half weeks (nobody can forget about that!). This month is going to be the perfect time to reflect on the many blessings God has given us. Gratitude is always the way to go because "thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." (D&C 59:7)
We've already met up with Amanda, one of the people from the chalkboard, and we've stayed in contact with many of the others we found. It's looking very promising and we're hoping to be able to go back to Mount Hood Community College for round two. Cassie is getting baptized this Saturday too! She's so excited and wants everyone from the branch to be there. Last night we met with her to figure out the details of her baptism and she came prepared with everything picked out. She wants Elder Hadfield to do her confirmation on Sunday and me to baptize her this Saturday. We'll still have a decent teaching pool after her baptism. There's a couple people who are pretty serious about learning and could have dates here in the next couple weeks. Oh, do you remember Adwoa? She's getting baptized either this upcoming Saturday or the next! Elder Wadsworth just let me know this morning but his lesson with her tonight will determine which week. I'm so excited for her in Meridian Park!
Halloween was a pretty fun day, but kind of a difficult one for being a missionary. Our Mission President had us return to our apartments by 6pm unless we were with members and shared a message. We actually ended up helping our Elders Quorum President with a store front trick or treating event in Gresham that night. We helped close off the streets and guide trick or treaters. It was awesome to see all of the costumes and the enthusiastic parents as kids filled their candy buckets. We needed to be home before 9pm though because we had a mission wide call-in over Messenger as zone leaders to try a new way of setting zone and mission goals. It was a part of the Mission President seminar that was held in downtown Portland Nov 1-3rd. 30 some-odd Mission Presidents, General Authorities, and even Elder Uchtdorf came. We didn't get to be apart of it but the assistant, Elder Clarke, told me about it during our exchange Tuesday. He got to do a role play infront of everyone there led by Elder Pearson.
So the other day my companion had wanted to go contact some less active members of our YSA branch who lived out in the middle of nowhere. Honestly I wasn't all in because I felt that we could use our time somewhere else, but I trusted him so we went. When we got to the first person's address, we were stopped by a large automatic gate with no trespassing signs all over it. We were really disappointed because it didn't look like anyone was home either. But we stayed there for some reason just letting the Oregon rain hit us. A few minutes later we saw a man on a tractor and shouted out to him. He stopped and shouted something back that we couldn't understand. A few minutes later he got in his car and pulled up to us behind the gate. He cautiously got out and asked who we were and told us he brought his gun with him in his car. We quickly told him that we were the missionaries and asked if he knew the person we came to see. He seemed to finally realize that we weren't the cops and loosened up. He told us that the family was out of town and that he simply worked on the property. Understanding that the reason we must've come all the out there wasn't for our member, we focused this guy, Tim. He recently moved to the area and his dad is a preacher from the South. He asked questions about us as missionaries and was interested in temples. We offered him a BoM that he took and he was actually excited to meet up again and learn more. We weren't expecting that kind of experience but it turned out the way it was suppose to.
My studies in the Book of Mormon had me in the final chapters of Mosiah where Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah made some incredible changes in their lives. Mosiah 28:3 sums up the desires of a consecrated missionary as one who "[desires] that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish." Preach My Gospel encourages us to talk with everyone we see, to teach when we find, and to find when we teach. Everyone is a member of God's family and needs to be provided a fair opportunity to hear the gospel. Just like the sons of Mosiah and Alma who declared the word to their brethren, the Lamanites, we too can declare the word to our friends by being an example of gospel living and by reaching out in service to those around us. Have a great week and get ready for a good report next Monday:)
Love you all!
Elder Fonnesbeck
Yesterday was my 16th month mark of my service to the Lord. Where has the time gone? With Halloween already behind us I'm looking forward to the holiday season beginning with Thanksgiving in two and a half weeks (nobody can forget about that!). This month is going to be the perfect time to reflect on the many blessings God has given us. Gratitude is always the way to go because "thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things." (D&C 59:7)
We've already met up with Amanda, one of the people from the chalkboard, and we've stayed in contact with many of the others we found. It's looking very promising and we're hoping to be able to go back to Mount Hood Community College for round two. Cassie is getting baptized this Saturday too! She's so excited and wants everyone from the branch to be there. Last night we met with her to figure out the details of her baptism and she came prepared with everything picked out. She wants Elder Hadfield to do her confirmation on Sunday and me to baptize her this Saturday. We'll still have a decent teaching pool after her baptism. There's a couple people who are pretty serious about learning and could have dates here in the next couple weeks. Oh, do you remember Adwoa? She's getting baptized either this upcoming Saturday or the next! Elder Wadsworth just let me know this morning but his lesson with her tonight will determine which week. I'm so excited for her in Meridian Park!
Halloween was a pretty fun day, but kind of a difficult one for being a missionary. Our Mission President had us return to our apartments by 6pm unless we were with members and shared a message. We actually ended up helping our Elders Quorum President with a store front trick or treating event in Gresham that night. We helped close off the streets and guide trick or treaters. It was awesome to see all of the costumes and the enthusiastic parents as kids filled their candy buckets. We needed to be home before 9pm though because we had a mission wide call-in over Messenger as zone leaders to try a new way of setting zone and mission goals. It was a part of the Mission President seminar that was held in downtown Portland Nov 1-3rd. 30 some-odd Mission Presidents, General Authorities, and even Elder Uchtdorf came. We didn't get to be apart of it but the assistant, Elder Clarke, told me about it during our exchange Tuesday. He got to do a role play infront of everyone there led by Elder Pearson.
So the other day my companion had wanted to go contact some less active members of our YSA branch who lived out in the middle of nowhere. Honestly I wasn't all in because I felt that we could use our time somewhere else, but I trusted him so we went. When we got to the first person's address, we were stopped by a large automatic gate with no trespassing signs all over it. We were really disappointed because it didn't look like anyone was home either. But we stayed there for some reason just letting the Oregon rain hit us. A few minutes later we saw a man on a tractor and shouted out to him. He stopped and shouted something back that we couldn't understand. A few minutes later he got in his car and pulled up to us behind the gate. He cautiously got out and asked who we were and told us he brought his gun with him in his car. We quickly told him that we were the missionaries and asked if he knew the person we came to see. He seemed to finally realize that we weren't the cops and loosened up. He told us that the family was out of town and that he simply worked on the property. Understanding that the reason we must've come all the out there wasn't for our member, we focused this guy, Tim. He recently moved to the area and his dad is a preacher from the South. He asked questions about us as missionaries and was interested in temples. We offered him a BoM that he took and he was actually excited to meet up again and learn more. We weren't expecting that kind of experience but it turned out the way it was suppose to.
My studies in the Book of Mormon had me in the final chapters of Mosiah where Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah made some incredible changes in their lives. Mosiah 28:3 sums up the desires of a consecrated missionary as one who "[desires] that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish." Preach My Gospel encourages us to talk with everyone we see, to teach when we find, and to find when we teach. Everyone is a member of God's family and needs to be provided a fair opportunity to hear the gospel. Just like the sons of Mosiah and Alma who declared the word to their brethren, the Lamanites, we too can declare the word to our friends by being an example of gospel living and by reaching out in service to those around us. Have a great week and get ready for a good report next Monday:)
Love you all!
Elder Fonnesbeck
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Cayman had a great baptism last week. He's a stud! We're going to work with him to help prepare him for the temple.
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Cayman's Baptism Day. (Baptized by his newly baptized brother, Devan)
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Elder Clarke and I hit up this place called "Calamity Janes" during our exchange where missionaries get 50% off anything. The grilled pineapple teriyaki burger was sooo good!
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I did my best to make some jack-o-lantern pancakes for my comp and I Halloween morning
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Check out this cool VW van that was all decked out for Halloween! I'm still keeping my eye out for one that we could have;)
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