Week 49 fun on the pier

P-Day District fun

Looking towards Boston

on the pier

P-day with our District

The pier

Elder Barbosa 

Love the Lobster

KKaties Burger Bar famous in Boston

Week 49 Sept 23, 2019
  Monday was our District P-day so after we got all our stuff done we traveled up to Hingham to meet up with the Sisters in the District. We had lunch at Walburgers, a famous burger joint in Massachusetts. After lunch we all made our way to Webb State Park to have a little hike, check out the beach and plays some games. While at the beach we saw Boston in the distance. After all that we made one last stop for Ice Cream at Dairy Queen.  While in line we witnessed a car accident and the Cops were already there. It almost got out of hand! After we got back into our area we had a quick dinner and left for the night. We had a good lesson with Brother Gould and continued to read from the Book of Mormon.  We then did tracting and street contacting for the rest of the night.
     After our studies on Tuesday at 4:00 we got picked up by Brother Volpetti to go visit a couple of members. Before we started he took us out to lunch at Ninos Deli, this time I got a meat ball sub. The first member was Reed, he lives in a Retirement Home and was so happy to see us. We sat and talked for a little bit along with the others that were at the table as well. We later visited a Sister Hudson. We got to know her more and helped Brother Volpetti give a blessing. I always feel so much spiritual power in Blessings! After that, Brother Volpetti dropped us back off at our place and we made our way to visit Eric and his friend Jimmy. Both have strong Faith in Christ and the Bible. Eric does seem more willing than Jimmy but after our lesson about the Plan of Salvation,  Jimmy said he needed to pray about it. Honestly that was so cool to hear, because we want the ones we teach to pray and know for themselves! Eric said he read the Book of Mormon and that he really liked it as well! After the lesson they let us know that they really trust us compared to missionaries in the past because we are patient and willing to listen. After our lesson with them we made our way to the church to print off a few things, then made our way to a late dinner with a part member family, the Lecarda family. We talked to the husband who isn’t a member. He is a really cool guy and even comes to church every week.
     Wednesday was a day of service. Today we went and helped out at the Food Bank and it was a weird day. It was back and forth between busy and really slow. At times we just stood around and the other times we were moving a lot. After we got back I just passed out for about an hour, while I slept Elder James did his studies. He woke me up using his duck call but he didn’t get the reaction he wanted, lol.  We had some companion studies then did some street contacting Downtown. We then made our way up to the Chapel for Ward Correlation. It went pretty well, and after he took us out to eat at "KKaties" its rated Massachusetts number 1 burger joint.  I got the biggest burger they had, it's called "The Rock" and oh boy was it good! After dinner we had a good lesson with "Al" about the Restoration. This time it went really well! He is hard of hearing and he was able to hear us pretty well in this lesson! After our lesson we did some street contacting downtown, but sadly it was dead, and really empty.
     Thursday, was the day we do weekly planning, so we were inside the apt longer than usual. We had some good studies both personal and companion study. We then had our weekly planning session and talked about how we can help our friends in their faith. We had our first appointment cancel so we cleaned the house to stay productive until our next appointment.  We met Chris, he is a less active member and has had health issues. When we got there we just talked and got to know him and how we can help.  We had a good talk and said a prayer and left to the Cala Family home. We helped with cleanup in the basement.  This time we started to water and bleach mop the floor from the water that flooded the basement. We also started to help organize the basement as it got cleaned. They had dinner for us for helping out. We shared a message on Eternal Families, and it really helped the non-member brother that was there. After visiting them, we stopped by the Salmons to help move a few things and take some items to the dump. They have one wild dog there! We then left to “The Projects” and a couple other stop byes before coming home. To end the night we walked downtown.
     Friday was District Council and we had a really fun time with some “get to know you questions and miracles”! The lesson was put on by the Hingham Sisters about "why commitments"? I learned a little on how I can better help the ones we teach. We had a little dessert to celebrate Elder James 19th Birthday. After that we started our exchanges, I was with Elder Barbosa in Plymouth.  We first came home to eat lunch. We then made our way to “The Projects” and meet with Helen. She instantly brought up Revelations 22:18 but then contradicted herself by using different Bibles... people like that confuse me. (That scripture says don’t add or take away to the Bible, why people don’t want to read the Book of Mormon). She was kind and she said she would pray for our safety. She doesn't know too much about what we believe but in the prayer as we left she said let the truth be known to each of us. I thought that was pretty cool, it gives us more reason to have the spirit help teach her. We then made a couple more stop byes by a few potential contacts in the area. One asked to come back that night the other didn’t give us a time. We then made our way to the visit Ollie and Peyton. We had a message about Christ helping us in our trials and we also talked about the Plan of Salvation. Next time we go over we will go in more detail with them all! Before we left we watched a Book of Mormon Children's Video with Peyton to help her better understand. We came home after that and walked downtown, and there were a lot of tourists. We met about 5 Germans, a Russian and a lady from the Ukraine. We then ate dinner at the Lobster Hut. I had some good ol New England Clam Chowder. We finished and walked out on the long rock path (some call it a Jetty others a Dike) it was long! But talked to some really cool people while on the walk. After we did a little more street contacting as we made our way back to the car. We then went to meet Jessica but she still wasn’t there. To end the night we met with the Lecarda Family to share a message. Brother Lecarda isn’t a member yet and is also from Brazil. He had a good time talking to Elder Barbosa because they are both from Brazil. We shared the video "migration: a yearning for home". Just like animals in the wild travel across the world to be where they can survive, we too must do what we can to spiritually survive and come closer to our Heavenly Father.
     Saturday after we got ready we traveled to exchanges back with our regular companions. When we got back to the apt we had a little time to do studies and have a little lunch.  We made our way to Sister Burges to help mow her lawn and trim down some bushes and vines. After we finished, she wanted to take us out to lunch because she had a coupon for Woods Seafood. It was her and her daughter along with Elder James and I. We each got some steamahs (clams) a Lobstah and some clam chowdah, It was super good! I didn’t get any of it on me until I was eating my side of fries and ketchup for onto my shirt... I was so close! After we came home to change my shirt, we had a lesson with Al and Sherrie. We talked about faith and prayer to know the truth. We helped give Sherri a Blessing of comfort, she has had some struggles at work. It was awesome to see the faith she has in asking for help! With not to much time left we made a few calls and had dinner.  We met with Brother Gould and finished up reading 1 Nephi! We talked about having faith in and trusting our leaders that they are helping us come closer to Christ. We then met with Sister Conway who lives in a nursing home. She was happy to see us there. We also shared a wonderful message with her about trusting in God when we have trials. We didn’t have too much time left for the night but we wrote up an email to the Ward Council  to keep them informed/updated on the progress of our week.
     Sunday morning I began to type up my email for the week. While on the way to Church there must have been something in the back of my throat because I just about died from coughing. Unfortunately I didn’t have water in the car. When we got to Church we help greet the members as they walked in and we were asked to help with Sacrament.  We helped bless this week and it was pretty fun. In Sacrament we had two great talks on missionary work. The first talk was great, it was all about developing Christ like attributes! The second hour was how we can be more effective in sharing and studying with family at home. After church we were asked to bring Sacrament to a couple members who were sick and couldn't make it to Church. They were Brother Gould and Sister Conway, both were extremely happy to be able to take Sacrament. We then had a little time to come home and eat lunch before our next appointments. Sadly the first one needed to cancel because they were still gone. We then did a few stop byes with less active and people taught in the past a few even gave us a time to come back! We were a head of schedule a little bit so while we had about 20 minutes left until dinner so we listened to a talk "Feed my Sheep by Elder Holland" for a little bit of studies for the day. We then had breakfast for dinner with the Wood Family, and we had a lot of fun with them.  Later we were able to have a part of Ward Coordination with Sister Wood and got to know how we can help her as the new Relief Society President. On the way home we got a call about a new referral at the edge of our area. We called him and plan to meet Wednesday night! For the last little bit of the night we walked downtown and had a couple great conversations with some people. We even have a new friend who has interest!

                        Alma 29:9                                         
   “I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy"

     I am honored to be a Disciple of Christ, to be called to serve him full time in the mission field. I am proud that he has faith in me to be an instrument in his hands for his great and eternal purpose, to help others find Christ in their lives. Its not all about baptism,  it's simply helping others recognize and help their faith strengthen in Christ and his Gospel. As I have seen repentance in my own life I have felt so much relief and ask for the help and strength to be better each and every day. I want others to have that Joy in there life as well! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen