Week 95 in Trio and Hurricane

 

Week 95    Aug 10, 2020

 For this weeks email we actually start ok. Tuesday and it's been a crazy week for sure! Tuesday is when Hurricane Issias was passing by and we got a lot of rain and wind. We still had fun and hit Golf Balls at the Church Property during the rain! While on the way home we saw two large trees fallen over blocking us so we had to go home the long way. One of the trees landed on the hood of a car! If it would have gone a few feet further, it would have killed the man driving. Shorty after the police and fire fighters got there. We then came home relaxed and called home. Elder Reids Dad Grub hubbed us some seafood. He got us crawfish, shrimp and some crab legs.

     With the storms from the Hurricane, many apartments lost power so the Ashford Elders were with us for about 3 days. It was pretty fun this past week, because we were juggling three areas and kept pretty busy! For the Norwich side not too much but texted a lot of people. Friday we were able to have an “In-Person” District Council!!! It was so nice, later that day we started to teach a man named "Jamesly" he was someone taught in the past, he is pretty cool! Nothing too much other than that. This upcoming Wednesday I will be getting another new companion but this time he is a reassigned missionary but that’s all I know! 

     I simply want to bare my testimony that "Joseph Smith Jr" truly was a prophet called of God! As he went into a grove of trees in1820, he prayed to know which of all the churches were true or were they wrong all together. From this prayer he truly did see God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ in the flesh! They indeed did speak to him by name and let him know that none of the churches were true! A few years later a Heavenly messenger appeared to Joseph Smith and told him of an ancient record of Christ’s dealings with the people on the American Continent, These were called the Gold Plates! By the power of God, Joseph Smith was able go translate this record written in "Reformed Egyptian" into English.  We now know it as the Book of Mormon and it is written in over 100 languages! I have read this Book and I truly do know from the bottom of my heart that it is the Word of God, WITH the Bible its whole purpose is go help others learn what Christ’s Gospel is! I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen                 

A Crazy Week

Week 94, 8-4-2020

   This for sure has been a crazy week, it's the new transfer I said goodbye to Elder Maldonado and Hello to Elder Briscoe. He is an awesome missionary from Chicago Illinois! He is also one of my previous companions cousin (Elder White). Unfortunately by the end of the week he made the decision to go home, it was hard to say goodbye but I hope he gets the help he needs.

     This past week was full of training and texting people! One for trainers, One for District Leaders, another District Leader training, and finally District council. Monday we had Zone Conference and I gave a training on the importance of appropriate dress and grooming. While I was in Zone Conference Elder Briscoe was packing up. Shortly after Zone Conference ended the West Westerly Elders picked us up and we drove up to Belmont to drop off Elder Briscoe at some other Elders apartment because he leaves in the morning to go home. I will be in a trio with Elder Reid and Elder Davis for about a week. On the way up we stopped by the Boston Temple!

     If there is one thing I learned this past week it is that "No effort is wasted". I had a great time getting to know Elder Briscoe before he went home and right now it is an extremely tough time to be a missionary! He gave it his best while he was here and I am beyond proud of him for what he did. He was young and not quite ready but his testimony is strong!  The Lord loves effort and he gave it his all.  I hope and pray that when the time is right he will be able to come back out and get more ready! In all things that we do it will never be perfect to a "T" but it's worth the effort we were able to give. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen 

Week 93- Elder Knowlden is going to be a trainer

District Council Elder Gardner and Reed

Baseball Stadium near our apartment

Elder Woods and Elder Madison and my companion Elder Maldonado

Week 93 7-27-20
     Well once again it's been a pretty slow week! But a couple things that happened is we did exchanges with both the Ashford Elders and the Westerly Elders! Thursday morning Elder Woods had a doctor's appointment done here in Norwich, he is currently up in Ashford. His companion Elder Madison has been out of state with in the past 2 weeks so he couldn't go in with him, so one of us needed to go in with him. We made some calls and they ended up coming over for exchanges for the night and stayed over so in the morn hoping we could take them to the appointment, It was pretty fun! Friday we had our final District Council of the transfer and had a great training on "The Restoration ". Friday night we had virtual exchanges with the Westerly Elders, I spent 90 mins with both Elders to check in on them. That was basically our week!
     Sunday night we had a pretty cool mission wide meeting! Starting Wednesday we are officially in phase 1 of re opening! We can do 10 hours of service (has to be through "Just Serve"). We can do lessons at the Chapel if people want to meet in person, we can have District Council and Zone Conference in person! We can also have 1 in person District P-day per transfer! To end the night we got transfer texts and I will officially be training starting Wednesday! I am so stoked for this new opportunity ahead of me!


     Today I simply wanted to bare my testimony on the Book of Mormon!  I have read the Book of Mormon 6 times so far on my mission, over 10 times in my life. I am also currently reading through the Holy Bible, these two wonderful scriptures fit like a puzzle piece and they truly testify of Christ. The Bible talks about Christ’s ministry in the eastern hemisphere while the Book of Mormon talks about Christ’s ministry in the western hemisphere! As I have read it many times I get added conformation that it truly is Another Testament of Jesus Christ and I always feel love from my Savior when ever I read from it! I know it's TRUE, I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

A slower week

Norwich District Council

Norwich Ct with Elder Madison and Elder Woods

Fun Waterfall Norwich

Norwich District Council

Elder Brayden Knowlden

Week 92 July 20th 2020
     It has been an interesting week for sure! Monday morning we took our car in to have a scratch fixed. We ended up needing to reschedule so we could be able to be with someone that has a car. Wednesday through Friday we the Westerly Elders came up to basically drive us to the Chapel and back. Our apt doesn’t have the best WIFI so it was very helpful! As of Thursday we no longer are over the Ashford Ward, because there are enough missionaries to cover the area!
     We haven't had to many lessons this past week, we still are having good daily lessons with John and he still has a lot of good questions. We have met with Brett and said our goodbyes because he is in Ashford. We had another Good lesson with Jesse about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We met with Sister Cimino to share a message, it was awesome because she is a less active member! We also met with the Allred family. We also had a good lesson with out friend Peg and we talked about the Book of Enos.
     Friday morning a car was finished so we picked up the car and hit the Chapel for studies and then had District Council! Elder Maldonado gave a good training on "Preparing those we teach for Baptism ". On Saturday we drove halfway and gave the Ashford Elders the extra set of keys we had for their area. We then hit up our Chapel to have WIFI for a training with the Zone Leaders for all the District Leaders in our zone.

     Honestly I have been pondering all week on what to share and nothing. At times this happens, but as I just started to type away I am reminded of the story of "The Brother of Jared". The Brother of Jared had so much faith he was able to see the Finger of the Lord! This helped him understand that The Lord had a body of flesh and bone! This is not what I want to share though. The Brother of Jared had three questions when he and his people were trying to cross the great waters. Number one "How will we get there?". Two "How will we get fresh air?" (their ships are describes basically as two plates put together, the one on top is upside down), and question three " How will we have light?". With this the Lord answered in three different ways! The Lord told the Brother of Jared to trust Him, the second He gave him the answer, and the third way was telling him to do what he thinks will work and come back to me. Basically the third way is Christ putting the trust in him! At times we have many questions and go to the Lord in Prayer and we feel as if we haven't been answered.  I invite you to look at what is around you, The Lord answers our prayers in many ways!