White Christmas

December 26, 2016

Hello Everybody. 

'Twas a killer Christmas. 

Monday was a pretty standard PDay, we hit up Deseret Industries to get some gifts for a white elephant party we had planned with all the Zone Leaders at President Lansings house. That night we taught a couple of my recent converts.

Tuesday we had district meeting, we went to Elder Choi's district meeting. He is our newest district leader, this was his second district meeting ever, and it was so so good. He is an awesome elder! We had all three district meetings meet in our Zone building just because of Mail coming in, to make it easy on the office staff. After the meeting we got a call saying there was more mail at the office so we went and picked it up and played mail man till dinner, then taught The B.'s and I.

Wednesday we had exchanges, elder Westover came to the Oquirrh Lake Stake with me. We taught the B.'s again, and had a great lesson. At the end, we had the dad to pray and ask the lord if he should be baptized. After the prayer we sat in silence waiting for an answer, and his wife was the first one to speak up saying "I feel something telling me we all need to do this. I just keep feeling 'All', so let's move forward." It was pretty rad. They wouldn't accept a date, but they at least want to move forward, even if the pace is slow.

Thursday we ended exchanges early and had our Zone Leadership Council with the district leaders in the zone and set our January baptism goal for 8 baptisms in South Jordan. That evening we taught some less actives.

Friday was weekly planning and call ins...

Saturday was Christmas Eve! We spent a good portion of the morning making and delivering Christmas cards to the zone members, then spent the rest of the day up till 6 visiting members and sharing messages. At 6pm we went to president Lansings house with all the other Zone leaders in the mission and the assistants and had a white elephant gift exchange, dinner (number three for us for the day) and then had a bit of a devotional. It was pretty rad, I'll probably never forget that night.

Sunday we went to three sacrament meeting Christmas programs which were all great. The first one had a ton of instruments, it was so cool, the spirit was so strong. After church we got to Skype the fam! Always cool. Loved it. But now I'm trunky and wanna go home. Just kidding, I wish I could stay out here forever. Then we had dinner with  a few different families and shared messages. Pretty good stuff!

Today we had a Zone activity, we did a white elephant Re-Gift exchange, which pretty much ended up being candy swapped for candy, and played some sports. 'Twas a great week! It's crazy to think the year is wrapping up. 2016 is the only full year I'll spend on the mission and it's almost over! Crazy. 

Love

-Elder Ray

A White Christmas

Zone Christmas Re-Gift Exchange

Yo I Met an Apostle

December 19, 2016

This week was pretty rad. 

So Monday we had Transfers to take care of and Tuesday I moved. BACK TO OQUIRRH LAKE! It's been pretty great to be back. Literally everyone I see goes "Wait Elder Ray, YOU'RE BACK!" I can tell I left a good impression on the stake because everyone is stoked to see me back. The second we started meeting the Ward mission leaders they all started giving us referrals of people that need to get baptized. We were able to take care of all the transfer items pretty quickly... we got bikes all moved to where they needed to be and made sure everyone had the info they needed to work since there were a decent amount of changes in areas.

Wednesday we had a District Meeting, and they all happened at the zone building so that Mail is easier for the mission office staff. Then everyone went home and came back after lunch for our Zone expectation meeting. All our missionaries are great, I'm pumped for this transfer. It's a 7 week transfer so we have a ton of time to find investigators, and we are already off to a good start.

Thursday we had a Zone conference with our Zone and the Sandy Zone, elder Jensen and I gave a training on the importance of studying Preach my gospel. It was pretty fire in my opinion.

Friday we had weekly planning and call ins for most of the day, but we found a ton of good potential. We contacted a girl named C. on the street, and the spirit was so strong as we testified of the Book of Mormon! She kept coming closer to us as we testified and we held out the book of the Mormon and she took it without us even having to put forth any effort. As we walked away from her after setting up an appointment we heard her say that this is exactly what she has been praying for. Wow.

Saturday we had a breakfast Christmas party where we shared the #LighttheWorld initiative and ate some food. Then we found and picked up a new investigator, I., whose wife and kids are active members.  We had a great lesson where we basically taught him how he needs to learn (by not trying to combat everything we say with what he believes). Haha.

Sunday was another session of "ELDER RAY WE ARE SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK!" All day long. We had a great dinner, then it was off to the mission office in Sandy. While President and Sister Lansing were in the MTC this summer before they came out, they were being trained by the apostles, and Elder Rasband asked them what he could do to help the mission. They told him it would be great to have a visit from him, and so spawned the idea of this little Christmas Devotional. So last night we all got to shake hands with Elder Rasband, the newest of the Lord's Twelve Apostles, then we got to listen to him teach us about Christ. Wow. It was amazing. I have a few pages of notes but I would say the thing that stood out to me was the promise he made to us that "The more you know the Savior, the more you will love him. And the more you love the Savior, the more you will want to serve and follow him" He told us how he has learned to look into the eyes of a missionary and discern whether or not their fires are kindled to the point of them having the desire to diligently do the work, and that some of the missionaries he shook hands with could use a little wood on the fire. He then counseled us to study the life of the savior so we can know him, love him, and follow him better. Pretty neat stuff. 

Have a merry Christmas week everybody!

       Love 

  Elder Ray

Seth and Elder Jensen

I'm Back!

December 12, 2016

Well this was a short week!

Wednesday we had temple day, and Thursday we had a zone leadership council with the District Leaders and the sister training leader. It went really well, we trained on the principle of accountability which was much needed. After that we did some service then had home inspections, then I interviewed one of elder Froehlich's investigators for baptism. After that we had real time correlation and we picked up two unbaptized kids as new investigators!

Friday we had a lot of administrative stuff to take care of...

Saturday we had a Christmas party and a bunch of lessons...

Sunday some more lessons. 

Haha. 

And we got transfer info today! We have spent all morning doing transfer calls and found out that Elder Rossette will be spending his last transfer just as a normal Senior companion in West Jordan and I will be going back to the OQUIRRH LAKE STAKE! I'm so stoked! Gonna be great. 

That's it for now!

Love 

-Elder Ray

Elders Rossette and Ray at a ward Christmas party

Happy December!

December 7, 2016

Hokay. A ton happened this week and I don't have much time so...

Tuesday last week we had Zone conference all day, then Mission Leadership Council all day Wednesday, and after that we started exchanges with elder Manarin and his companion, we ended right before interviews with the mission president Thursday morning, then after interviews  we started exchanges with the assistants. The APs are such good missionaries!  I learned a ton from Elder Kelley about how to be a better zone leader. Sunday we took a less active family to temple square and we saw some people we recognized...

Tuesday this week we had a zone meeting that was pure gold. It went really well, the spirit was so strong! And today was pday, we got to go to the temple! 

Talk to you soon,

Love 

-Elder Ray

Cleaning the Font with Elder Rossette

At Temple Square

With Elder (Tyler) Beckman at Temple Square

With  ex-Elder Aquino, Elder Rossette, ex-Elder Gutierrez, and Elder Embley.

Merry Christmas from Seth and Elder Rossette

At a baptism

At the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

At the Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Seth's Zone Meeting

South Jordan Zone

A Pretty "Food" Week

November 28, 2016

This was a pretty food week. I mean Good week. Good food.

Tuesday started with a district meeting, we evaluated Elder Manarin's meeting. It went pretty well, he has a pretty tough district. 3 young missionary companionships which is pretty normal, and 6 senior couple companionships. Senior couples are the salt of the earth... but they like to talk a lot. He does a great job keeping it all under control! After the meeting we started exchanges with Elder Froehlich, one of the district leaders, and he's another Arizona elder! He came out one transfer before me and is solid.

Wednesday morning we ended exchanges at 7:30 because elder Froehlich had to go to district leader Training meeting, then at 9 am we went to a companionship study with a companionship that has been struggling with a few things—having effective door approaches and street contacts, extending bold and clear invitations, etc—which turned out really well. They appreciated the help and have seemed to be doing better already. At noon elder Rossette had to go to a specialized Spanish/Portuguese training, and so he went with another elder in our zone and I worked with his companion, Elder Choi, from South Korea. The whole time I had flashbacks of Elder Kim and our good times in Draper last Christmas. Later in the evening we met one of our High Priest Group Leaders that is super missionary minded and he gave us a referral for an older less active couple in his building, we were able to go over and teach them on the spot! That was pretty great.

Turkey Day! To start off the day we went to the companionship study of another companionship that is struggling with working in unity and with their relationship. It was pretty sad to see how the senior companion (and District Leader) is so prideful and harsh to his companion what has only been out for about 2 months. After that we had lunch with the Kinikini Family, a huge Tongan family. Such a blast! The Polynesian people are so nice, I've never met nicer people in my life. Then a few hours later we had dinner with a large extended family, also very good. Throughout most of the day we just went by members and shared the new #LighttheWorld Christmas message you can find on Mormon.org, then we made cards for all the missionaries in the zone, our mission president (who lives in our zone), and then some of the leadership we work with a lot in our wards. Pretty chill day.

Friday we spent most of the day doing weekly planning and call ins. While doing call ins we mad our poster finally, it turned out pretty rad. We taught Shelly one last time before her baptism, she rocks! We knocked on a door and got let in by a less active man, pretty quickly we could tell he was really drunk and it basically ended with him pulling out two chairs and screaming at us telling us we had to sit down. So we left. Bahaha. Then we taught a less active family and had a really good lesson.

Saturday was killer. We had Shelly's baptism at 11am, then at 12 I got to go back to the Oquirrh lake for Reagan's baptism! I was able to find and teach Reagan just before I left Oquirrh Lake Stake, and I was able to do her baptismal interview as well

Sunday was pretty normal, just trying not to fall  asleep in sacrament meetings all day long. After dinner we were able to teach M., an 11yr old, and pick him up as a new investigator! He didn't accept a baptismal date but we will help him to when we go back this week! 

Now it's snowing again, so that's pretty fun. 

Love

-Elder Ray

Missionary Poster by Elders Ray and Rossette

At Elder Manarin's District Meeting

Thanksgiving Meal #1 with the Kinikini family

Thanksgiving Meal #2

Shelly's baptism

Reagan's baptism

No Mo Good Weather

November 21, 2016

Well this week went from beautiful to freezing overnight. But now it's not too bad, just raining. 

Zone leader responsibilities are definitely different, but I like them. We have to do exchanges with each District Leader in the zone, as well as the assistants to the president, so 4 exchanges per transfer. Then we also move around to the different district meetings to evaluate them and tell the district leaders what went well and how they can improve. At the beginning of each transfer we have a meeting with all the district leaders to train them. We also have a short 1.5 hour zone expectation meeting at the beginning of each transfer, as well as a longer 2.5 hour zone training meeting at the beginning of each month, and a zone conference almost every month (with multiple zones included). So we are pretty busy. Haha. But it's fun! 

We have spent a ton of time this week helping out other missionaries and it's taken a lot away from our area, but yesterday we found some super solid potentials we know we can baptize, so it's really cool to see that as we serve our zone, the lord provides us with baptisms!

Monday was a pretty crazy day, we didn't have a lot of time and were pretty busy, but for he most part we got everything done and started work at 6. Not a ton happened that night, just taught a few lessons.

Tuesday morning we went to elder Froehlichs district meeting to evaluate it, then later we taught S. and K., both are doing great!

Wednesday we did some service raking leaves and then started exchanges with elders Partridge and Westover. Elder Westover came into my area with me. Elder Rossette went into the Oquirrh lake stake, where they froze to death because it snowed that night.

Thursday was a lot of administrative stuff, and Friday we met with the assistants in the morning to go over a few things since I'm a new ZL.

Saturday was pretty crazy. We did triage exchange blitzes in two areas in our zone to try and help the areas and the companionships out. We also had a baptism of an 8yr old whose parents we reactivated, and I got to go back to the Oquirrh Lake Stake for H.'s baptism! It was so great to see that our efforts helped T. stop smoking so he could baptize his daughter!

Sunday was pretty normal, about half way through the day we had to go interview an investigator for baptism, and the rest of the day was pretty chill. We received some really good referrals, so we are excited for what this next week has to offer! 

Love

-Elder Ray

H's Baptism

B's Baptism

At the chiropractors

Elders Rossette and Ray

Seth with the South Jordan Zone on Pday