Wed, We went to go and see our Recent Convert Amanda who we haven't been visiting cause she didn't seem like she liked me at all..well it turns out maybe it was my comp haha. We had a good visit and set up times to come back. It is nice to use the excuse that we are just introducing the new guy haha. We then saw Bro Chatman for a minute too. Fun to introduce the comp to all the people.
Thurs, We had a great day updating the area and establishing what we are going to work towards this transfer. My last comp didn't push me really at all and i didn't really push him cause that just frustrates me. We did alot of work but not as much as we are going to do this transfer i can already tell. This is my first Idaho companion! It is going to be really fun. E. Hall is a really good kid. You just look at him and can just tell that this guy has never broken any rules his entire life. Tis a really good thing. We went and saw a less-active we never tried, Bro Groome. Had a really good visit with him. Interesting story. Joined the church with his first wife in the 70's, cold-turkey'ed smoking drinking and coffee! Was strong for a year and then his wife decided that she liked women better. He pretty much just holds a super strong grudge against God and doesn't understand why He would let something like that happen. He says he believes in the Church still but just isn't going to come back to church but likes visits from us! Tough one...He is in his 80's i believe but not sure. Health problems maybe make him seem older. Didn't have too much time but just re-scheduled to come back on Monday...
Fri, Leadership Meeting in the morning. It was fun but not as good ad the last one. They just re-buked us all on not being good leaders and how we need to be a better example in everything we do. It was good for me cause i need to be better. President Cooke is definitely a politician. Kinda annoyed me when he was training us. Walking around the whole place...then the military came out in him when he gets excited. Yelled at us for a good 5 minutes haha. Good yelling. Just about how excited he is. Really different from President Matsumori. Weirdest change i have gone through on my mission for sure. Kinda hard to adjust but it is the only thing to do. I am sure i will end up loving him just as much. Lots of exciting things happening tho. He is going to crack down on the wards from what a letter came from the First Presidency about how the Ward council will be filling our schedules for things to do. My comp visited a less-active i never met while i was there so that was good. We then went to Sis Puckett and met her! She is just great! Super nice and just taught us a lesson like she always does! She is a really spiritual person and the way she talks it makes it seems like she really does have conversations with God! It has taught me alot. I am still trying to figure out revelation and things. She seems to have it down pact. we have been talking to everyone we see and just biking like crazy around to people to try to set up appointments. It has been really good but hard on the body i am super sore haha. We met a couple of kids. Marcus and his friend. They are around 17. They talked to us first and asked what we were doing. Ended up giving them both a book of mormon. Really good mini_lesson but he gave us a falty # and then when he was leaving he turned around and asked "Do you believe you can't have sex till your married?" Kids these days...
Sat, We tried to have appointments today but they both fell through. Cancelled on one so that was nice. We met a guy named Farhan Kalyar from Pakistan. He was a really nice guy. Just visiting for the Weekend. Had a good conversation with him about the Church and how he enjoyed the Visitor's Center when he went. He pretty much told us that someday he will join the church but doesn't have time right now. He lives in Baltimore but after our meeting he told us that he is going to call us in August sometime on his birthday and take us out to lunch. We said heck yeah! really nice guy. I bet we talked to like 30 people today and knocked on prolly 30 too.
Sun, Church was great! We had a bunch of people in Gospel Principles. Before i got here 3 people were baptized before. Today was the first time we have had them all there for gospel principles. It was a horrible lesson tho...i don't know why we have the teacher we do but she is horrible. She taught the creation and had us all go through what happened on each day. Well if you read the manual it really says nothing of what happens on each day. I felt like she missed the point. I think i am going to talk to Bro Berg about it but he just has a unpleasant look on his face every time we are in the class so i think he knows haha. We had a good meeting with Bro Alexander after church. He finally read in between visits! It was great even tho he read it 30 min before we came haha. But improvement! He is kinda a crazy guy tho and don't know if the ward really wants him back. He is mental and apparently preached some false doctrine every Fast and Testimony Meeting. It was a good night out and about again.
Mon, District Meeting was good. New faces so that always makes it nice. There is a good analogy that was used in Leadership Meeting that i shared with them....After a really bad storm, this man went to the beach. On it there were thousands of star fish that are stranded. Like tens of thousands. He looked and saw that there was a person on the beach throwing the star fish back in to the water. He went and told him that he shouldn't even try. There was no way he would ever even make a dent in the amount of star fish that was sure to die. The person just looked at him, picked up another and threw it as far as he could. He turned and said "It made a difference to that one".....In leadership they used to to say that we need to help the people who are under us and make a difference in their life...I used it as a g-q'ing analogy. I have decided that is what i am going to try to do with everyone i come in contact with. Try to make a difference in their lives. Sometimes we fall into the routine of talking to people and don't focus on trying to help them as much. I know i won't be able to do it everytime but it is something i am going to have in the back of my mind. We met with Bro Groome today! It was a great meeting. Just talked about his life. What else do you talk with a old guy about! It was great! He was happy to have a farm boy in his house haha. told us a story about when he was raising cattle. They had a all black angus bull named Chudney haha. It is "Nigger" in a different language haha. I thought you might enjoy that story. Then next black bull we get might get tagged with that name lol. I then brought up the subject of doing family history with him! He is super into it and i am going to be learning from him! I am excited to go back cause he has been working on Family History for about 30 years! We then met with Lori Nansi! She is from Rigby Idaho, She went to Ricks College the same time mom and dad did! Do you remember a Lori Paraskeva? She is less-active now cause of work and had a really bad experience with the church there in good ole Idaho when her parents died. sometimes people are just not understanding. we are going to be going and doing family home evenings with her and her non-member husband and 4 year old twins! It is going to be great!
Tues, It was a good morning except for the fact that me and my companion were just dead. our bodies just told us to give up...he looked sooo tired it was kinda ridiculous. So we took a nap and updated till about 1 when we went to an appointment! Bro Corbin! It was fun to just sit and talk with him. He came to church finally this last week! It was good to see him there. We then had a dinner with the Irvines! That was always fun! good to talk with those guys about everything. We then saw Amanda and had a good visit! Just chatted about the Creation a little more it was good. Going to be teaching her the lessons again. She needs them i can just tell!
Wed, We did "sunrise" pictures this morning! Then went to the American Indian Museum! It was great! Maybe some pics next week cause people are waiting for the computers! Always a good day to go and play football on the Mall too!
Thanks for everything! I got a letter yesterday that went through the mail on July 1st so the mail is just been super far behind! I don't understand why either...
Love Elder Stoor!