The baptism on Saturday went well. we end up not getting picture. He was having transportation issues. but it all worked out in the end.
So elder platt(apuss) has left Rogersville to serve with Elder Smith in Oak Ridger as a Zone leader. My new companion is Elder Roisum of Seattle Washington. Elder roisum has been on his mission for 14 months. He is a jazzy guy. tall slender, blow-away hair. He loves basketball, football, piano (plays by hear and can't sight read), acting, musicals, and cooking. He's a cool cat. He has been to the Seattle museum of Music and Science Fiction, the one we went to. He also has had the Crab Shack expirience many time that we got to have. Who would have thought?
so ya. That is what's happening!
-elder sowards
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
July 25
Dear persons,
This week was this week. For some reason it feels like last week was busy but we had low numbers and I can't really think of the high lights. hmm. I hope I didn't waste a week.
Well Elder Platt is leaving Rogersville tomorrow. I will obviously be getting a new companion.
This coming Saturday there will be a baptism. It is for the Husband of a less active member. He is excited.
We are also teaching a girl who wants to get baptized but works every week end. She only works weekends usually gets about 35 hours. We are praying that she can get a new work schedule.
We are also teaching another girl. Last week we had one of those dinner apointments that were way out on the outskirts of our area, so usually when we have one of those we look for things to do while we are out there to make the trip a little more worth the miles. So before the dinner we had planned to go to a certain road. We get to the road and drive down till we get to a house. We drove and drove. By the time we found the house we only had time to knock it and then leave for the apointment and show up late. After the dinner we had planned to find on a different road. We had the feeling that that road might be the same story. We we randomly found some houses. there we found her. She said the some Elders had come into her socialagy class and gave a presentation. We set up a return apointment but a series of events lead to us being late, not having her phone number and her even having the wrong phone number. We didn't talk to her then. It was all my fault. That night we asked for forgiveness and for a second chance. We called her and left a message and couldn't get a hold of her. Finally She called us yesterday and I have gotten a second chance. Hopefully I don't blow it again.
-elder von sowards
This week was this week. For some reason it feels like last week was busy but we had low numbers and I can't really think of the high lights. hmm. I hope I didn't waste a week.
Well Elder Platt is leaving Rogersville tomorrow. I will obviously be getting a new companion.
This coming Saturday there will be a baptism. It is for the Husband of a less active member. He is excited.
We are also teaching a girl who wants to get baptized but works every week end. She only works weekends usually gets about 35 hours. We are praying that she can get a new work schedule.
We are also teaching another girl. Last week we had one of those dinner apointments that were way out on the outskirts of our area, so usually when we have one of those we look for things to do while we are out there to make the trip a little more worth the miles. So before the dinner we had planned to go to a certain road. We get to the road and drive down till we get to a house. We drove and drove. By the time we found the house we only had time to knock it and then leave for the apointment and show up late. After the dinner we had planned to find on a different road. We had the feeling that that road might be the same story. We we randomly found some houses. there we found her. She said the some Elders had come into her socialagy class and gave a presentation. We set up a return apointment but a series of events lead to us being late, not having her phone number and her even having the wrong phone number. We didn't talk to her then. It was all my fault. That night we asked for forgiveness and for a second chance. We called her and left a message and couldn't get a hold of her. Finally She called us yesterday and I have gotten a second chance. Hopefully I don't blow it again.
-elder von sowards
Monday, July 19, 2010
July 18 & 112F (again)
Dear all,
Life goes on. That family I talked about is now in florida. She get custidy of the kids. Was threatened to had to leave the next night.
The 3 guys who got baptized last week got comfermed this week. They ended up getting off work at 6:30 sunday morning. We had to drag them out of bed to get them to church. If it had been any other week I wouldn't have blamed them for not coming, but due to them needing to be comfirmed they needed to be there.
Well that is all.
-elder sowards
Life goes on. That family I talked about is now in florida. She get custidy of the kids. Was threatened to had to leave the next night.
The 3 guys who got baptized last week got comfermed this week. They ended up getting off work at 6:30 sunday morning. We had to drag them out of bed to get them to church. If it had been any other week I wouldn't have blamed them for not coming, but due to them needing to be comfirmed they needed to be there.
Well that is all.
-elder sowards
Monday, July 12, 2010
July 11th
Dear Family,
Last week was great. We had 4 baptisms. There is a part member family in the branch That was compiled of a bunch of different families like so:
The mom and her 2 daughters (13 and 9)
The dad
The dad's nephew (15) and 2 nieces (15 and 9)
and the mom's 2 nephews (2 and 3)
9 altogether. 2 parents, 3 boys, 4 girls. 1 chaotic family.
Thier story: The mom grew up in the church down in Florida. She had two girls. She was wanting to get away from the church and go hide because of some extreme event that happened in Florida that involved the church. She found that Rogersville TN did not have a LDS church building so deemed it a good place to "hide" herself and her 2 young girls. Low and behold that the construction site she drove by every day was the, now, Rogersville Branch Building. Eventually she cought on and figured she could just lie low. She got married. A couple years ago her husband's sister's family was in trouble. The sister and the husband were both heavy alcoholics. She and her husband decided that they would fauster the alcaholic's 3 children. But a few months after that her cousin, with her 2 boys under 3, decided she wanted to be an alcoholic too. So this family ended up with those 2 boys as well.
Now this family of 9 were all together, with the dad strugling to make ends-meat. As you can imagine this caused alot of stress for the family. They decided they needed church. She was still trying to avoid the trueth that she knew, so they went to a baptist church. That lasted a few months. She didn't like/agreen with the things there. She says that the spirit was working on her but she was still as stubern as ever. So, the Lord had to work a different way. A month after they stopped going to the baptist church, Elder Smith and Major show up at her drive. She comes running out from the side of the house screeming "No! You weren't suppose to find me! go away!" She was mad, so they left. Elder Smith wasn't going to give up that easy. He found an old pocket hymn book and went back and gave it to her. Little did they know she loved the hymns and missed them most. Shortly after she started coming back. One of her daughters and her neices decided to get baptized. Shortly before I came the other niece was baptized. This left her other daughter, her nephew, and her husband who still needed to make the covenent of baptism and recieve the Holy Ghost (the 2 boys being too young). The three of them were not open when I first get here. Some how the nephew started asking more questions. Them her husband. We started teaching them again, they all came to church. Things were great. Espicially for the nephew.
Then last week a terrible thing happened. The dad was arrested and she was fililing for a devorce. This left the her with her 2 nieces and nephew and they were not her's by blood. There was a possibility that the courts would not allow her to keep the 3 of them. This left the nephew to some sierious thinking. He aproched us and said "If I'm going to get baptized I'm going to need it now more then ever." So he decieded to get baptized on saturday. The court hearing will be this thursday. Please pray for this family.
The baptism yesterday went very well too. The 3 guys were super excited and so was the ward. President Griffen even came to the baptism.
-von
Last week was great. We had 4 baptisms. There is a part member family in the branch That was compiled of a bunch of different families like so:
The mom and her 2 daughters (13 and 9)
The dad
The dad's nephew (15) and 2 nieces (15 and 9)
and the mom's 2 nephews (2 and 3)
9 altogether. 2 parents, 3 boys, 4 girls. 1 chaotic family.
Thier story: The mom grew up in the church down in Florida. She had two girls. She was wanting to get away from the church and go hide because of some extreme event that happened in Florida that involved the church. She found that Rogersville TN did not have a LDS church building so deemed it a good place to "hide" herself and her 2 young girls. Low and behold that the construction site she drove by every day was the, now, Rogersville Branch Building. Eventually she cought on and figured she could just lie low. She got married. A couple years ago her husband's sister's family was in trouble. The sister and the husband were both heavy alcoholics. She and her husband decided that they would fauster the alcaholic's 3 children. But a few months after that her cousin, with her 2 boys under 3, decided she wanted to be an alcoholic too. So this family ended up with those 2 boys as well.
Now this family of 9 were all together, with the dad strugling to make ends-meat. As you can imagine this caused alot of stress for the family. They decided they needed church. She was still trying to avoid the trueth that she knew, so they went to a baptist church. That lasted a few months. She didn't like/agreen with the things there. She says that the spirit was working on her but she was still as stubern as ever. So, the Lord had to work a different way. A month after they stopped going to the baptist church, Elder Smith and Major show up at her drive. She comes running out from the side of the house screeming "No! You weren't suppose to find me! go away!" She was mad, so they left. Elder Smith wasn't going to give up that easy. He found an old pocket hymn book and went back and gave it to her. Little did they know she loved the hymns and missed them most. Shortly after she started coming back. One of her daughters and her neices decided to get baptized. Shortly before I came the other niece was baptized. This left her other daughter, her nephew, and her husband who still needed to make the covenent of baptism and recieve the Holy Ghost (the 2 boys being too young). The three of them were not open when I first get here. Some how the nephew started asking more questions. Them her husband. We started teaching them again, they all came to church. Things were great. Espicially for the nephew.
Then last week a terrible thing happened. The dad was arrested and she was fililing for a devorce. This left the her with her 2 nieces and nephew and they were not her's by blood. There was a possibility that the courts would not allow her to keep the 3 of them. This left the nephew to some sierious thinking. He aproched us and said "If I'm going to get baptized I'm going to need it now more then ever." So he decieded to get baptized on saturday. The court hearing will be this thursday. Please pray for this family.
The baptism yesterday went very well too. The 3 guys were super excited and so was the ward. President Griffen even came to the baptism.
-von
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
4th of July
Deer,
It sounds like you guys had fun. The town of Rogersville celebrated Independents Day on the 3rd this year. There was a big parade down main street and after that a huge party down at the city park the rest of the day. We didn't go to it though, we had appointments. We drove by it Sunday morning and saw that is was trashed!
Yesterday we had 6 investigators at church and 5 of them were potential-priesthood-holders. The 3 guys that I talked about last week will be getting baptized on Sunday evening. They were at church. The other 3 are members of a part-member family that we are teaching.
-von
It sounds like you guys had fun. The town of Rogersville celebrated Independents Day on the 3rd this year. There was a big parade down main street and after that a huge party down at the city park the rest of the day. We didn't go to it though, we had appointments. We drove by it Sunday morning and saw that is was trashed!
Yesterday we had 6 investigators at church and 5 of them were potential-priesthood-holders. The 3 guys that I talked about last week will be getting baptized on Sunday evening. They were at church. The other 3 are members of a part-member family that we are teaching.
-von
Monday, June 28, 2010
June 27th and it is now HOT
On saturday we had a baptism (see attatched picture). It went well. Because the faunt at the church was being difficult we held the baptism at a (indoor) pool of a member (se attatcher picture). In order to get to this pool one must first enter the master bedroom, then enter the master closet. When you enter the master closet you will find yourself in a short hall way with 2 doors to you left, 2 doors to your right, and one at the end of the hall. Enter the one at the end and you will find yourself in the "private oasis" that we turned into the baptistry. Yep. It is a really nice house.
The baptism went very well though. She was so excited.
Last week we started talking to these 3 guys in our aptartment complex. We had them read the intro to the book of mormon were it says it is "the most correct book on earth" and the got really excited. They said "That means that book is more correct then the Bible! And it's shorter so it gets more to the point." I just wanted to respond and say "you said it, not us." We met with them again and they said they would come to church, and they did! well 2 of them. A sister in our branch has really been longing and praying that this branch will turn into a ward and then a stake. That was a promise to one of her children in thier patriartical blessing. When These 2 potential-priesthood-holders showed up she was just so ready to step it up and welcom them. We committed them and the other guy to be baptized on the 11th of july. We are excited.
We had 4 other potential-priesthood-holders investigators come to church yesterday and a couple less-active-prospective-elders too. It is great! We are deffinitely seeing the hand of the Lord in our work this week.
Well I love you all,
-von
p.s. The other pictures are of a park that has a "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" theme up in Kingsport. That park is called "Daral's Dream" and Warrior's Parth State Park. I might have spelt Daral wrong and it might not be a state park. Oh well, it was pretty cool.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
June 13th
Dear Arizona!
Our trip to Nashville went well, though we didn't get to go to the temple. In our exodus out of Knoxville and the rest of east TN we used alot of miles on our cars. We got a carter bus and a few other 15 passenger vans and headed on over. It was blimin hot there!! We were all sitting there melting in the chaple waiting for Elder Ballard to come in and some one walks in and say "Elder Ballard has givin approvel for the elders to remove thier suit coats." so we all did quite willingly, but even then it was still misrable. The Apostle came in without his coat, said a few jokes like "why are you all standing? Is it cooler that way?" and told us to all be seated.
We were instructed to talk to 10 new people (other than tracting) a day. We also were instructed to have concentrated study time. Also to take members to invite friends to church/FHE/lessons/whatever. This will help us in our work.
Elder Platt and I have been striving to live more concentrated lives as missionaries.
Sunday we met a lady who use to work with a member of our ward. We asked her what she is looking for in life and she said nothing really. She said the she felt that her purpose right now is to help her son be happy and good and teach him were to turn for guidence, God and the scripures. So we showed her that the first few principles in the restoration pamphet were just that, blessing families and prophets/scripure is to help us do that. We told her about prophets and Joseph Smith and she said that she would be scared to follow someone who might be a scam artist and that she would need some thing to help her know it was true. So we told her about the BoM that it is there to help us know if he is true or not. We are going there tonight to teach her and her son with the member.
I hope all is going well for you people out there!
love ya!
-that kid in the south
Our trip to Nashville went well, though we didn't get to go to the temple. In our exodus out of Knoxville and the rest of east TN we used alot of miles on our cars. We got a carter bus and a few other 15 passenger vans and headed on over. It was blimin hot there!! We were all sitting there melting in the chaple waiting for Elder Ballard to come in and some one walks in and say "Elder Ballard has givin approvel for the elders to remove thier suit coats." so we all did quite willingly, but even then it was still misrable. The Apostle came in without his coat, said a few jokes like "why are you all standing? Is it cooler that way?" and told us to all be seated.
We were instructed to talk to 10 new people (other than tracting) a day. We also were instructed to have concentrated study time. Also to take members to invite friends to church/FHE/lessons/whatever. This will help us in our work.
Elder Platt and I have been striving to live more concentrated lives as missionaries.
Sunday we met a lady who use to work with a member of our ward. We asked her what she is looking for in life and she said nothing really. She said the she felt that her purpose right now is to help her son be happy and good and teach him were to turn for guidence, God and the scripures. So we showed her that the first few principles in the restoration pamphet were just that, blessing families and prophets/scripure is to help us do that. We told her about prophets and Joseph Smith and she said that she would be scared to follow someone who might be a scam artist and that she would need some thing to help her know it was true. So we told her about the BoM that it is there to help us know if he is true or not. We are going there tonight to teach her and her son with the member.
I hope all is going well for you people out there!
love ya!
-that kid in the south
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