Tasty Salmon

July 24, 2017

This last week was crazy. 

Monday night we met President and Sister Lansing at Red Lobster for dinner, had some exquisite salmon, then we all headed to SLC international to pick up 3 new Elders flying in from the Mexico MTC. We grabbed them and their luggage and brought them back to the mission home, where they would spend the night before they came to the mission office for their first day.

At 12:00pm that night, I threw up. Every 20 minutes for the next 5 hours. I got to visit that salmon all night long. At 6:30 elder Kaka woke up, and I rolled out of bed cause I sure as heck wasn't sleeping. We got ready and went over to the train station and picked up 7 elders and 4 sisters who just got out of the Provo MTC, and took em all over to the mission office where orientation day begins. Sometime around 9:30 Sister Lansing found out what I was doing all night and ordered me to go rest, so I went to a members house and took a nap for a couple hours, then headed back to the office around 1:30 to finish out the day getting the new missionaries assigned to their trainers. We went to the mission home for dinner, then spent the night with all the departing missionaries, most of which I came out with, but they were Spanish speaking so they go home a transfer earlier because of the extra time they spent in the MTC. We were up till about 2am with all of them.

Wednesday morning breakfast was around 6, so we had to be ready for that, then we drove them all (14 ish missionaries)  to the airport to send em on their way. We had a new missionary training later that day, always fun to see the new missionaries. Deer in headlights, lol.

Thursday we taught a referral, J., and put her on date for August 5th. Solid.

Friday we picked up two more referrals who accepted baptism as well.

Saturday we met with President Lansing as usual... we met with some Zone leaders as well to train them on some things we will be training all the Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders on.

Sunday was a normal day at church... 7am-4pm, then we worked all evening at met with a set of ZLs and STLs at 8:30.

Was a slam packed busy week, just the way I like it. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon in a while, or have never read it, do it. I promise it will bless your life as it has blessed mine. 

Till next week,

Love

-Elder Ray

Elder Tindall, Elder Ray, Elder Morris, and Elder Kaka

Elder Jensen and Elder Ray

Elder Froehlich and Elder Ray

Elder Ray, Elder Mestre, and Elder Kaka

Seth with most of the departing missionaries

P-day

      

Uno Mas Transfero

July 17, 2017

This week... I don't even know what happened.

Tuesday at 4 pm we met a member of the missionary department proselyting division—Ben—for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. A couple members of the missionary department wanted to go out with us and some Zone leaders, so we all met at separate places for dinner to discuss the plan to proselyte from 6-9 with them. So we spent all evening with Ben and showed him how SLCS Missionaries do it. We worked him to death, taught 3 solid lessons and picked up 2 New investigators.

Wednesday we got together with President and Sister Lansing and 3 people from the Missionary Department to discuss how Tuesday evening went, and to plan a(nother) special Mission Leadership Council. We concluded that the topic best suited for our missions needs is planning. So, Thursday we had a special MLC run by the Missionary Department focused on how to make planning more effective. It was pretty solid! The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders all loved it. 

Friday we had the last round of Sister Training Leader and Zone Leader Accountability meetings, Saturday we finalized transfers with President Lansing, and took care of stuff at the office. 

Sunday a bishop came up to us and introduced someone with an unbaptized child, so we now have a solid baptism coming up in August. We will pick up the daughter as an investigator on Wednesday. We were up pretty late last night getting everything ready for transfers, and this morning we sent out all the documents to the Zone Leaders. I will be spending my last 6 Weeks here in the Sandy West Stake! I realized today that Elder Kaka is my 2nd—out of 15 companion that I've kept for more than one transfer. I guess that's how you can tell if a missionary is trouble! The mission has been awesome thus far. Changes me daily. If you haven't been on one yet and still can, 'just do it.'

Love,
-Elder Ray

Elders Ray & Kaka with Ben, from the Missionary Department Proselyting Division

Happy Fourth!

July 10, 2017

Hello everyone!

One more busy week! So last Saturday in our weekly meeting with the Mission President, he was pretty fired up at how our mission is performing. We talked a ton about how a lot of missionaries are being lazy and not working as hard as they can, so we decided to hold a special MLC meeting on the 4th. So for 2 hours on Tuesday morning we held a meeting with all the Zone leaders and Sister training leaders. It was a pretty fiery meeting. Basically it was just us and the president grilling everyone, setting expectations that have been forgotten and lost over the past year. All in attendance recognized the need to step up and we're all on board. Later that evening, each of the zones presented the expectations to their missionaries in their Zone meetings. Wednesday to Thursday we did exchanges with the Draper Zone leaders, and Thursday to Friday we had exchanges with the South Jordan Zone Leaders. 

Friday afternoon was weird. We had a meeting for all the missionaries who begin their last transfer next week. The missionaries I go home with. Basically the purpose of the meeting is to be sure everyone sprints to the end. It was weird to be there, and even weirder to be the one in charge of the meeting and the training. I was training myself essentially. Everyone was laughing pretty good about that.

Saturday we met with President again and worked a lot on transfers. We got most everything done, and President told me what's happening with me for my last transfer. It's nice knowing what's happening!

Yesterday elder Kaka and I slammed the pavement and picked up a few new investigators and set up a ton of appointments. Life is good, the mission is the best. The church is true. 

       Love 

  Elder Ray

With the South Jordan Zone

God Speaks to Us

July 3, 2017

“This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted--by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed” -Joseph Smith
It has been amazing throughout my mission to see how the lord has spoken to me. One of the greatest restored truths is that the Heavens are opened, that God speaks to us, and that he speaks to a living prophet. 

This was a great week, busy as usual. We had an MLC meeting, did a couple exchanges, and went to the Salt Lake temple with the departing missionaries. Crazy to think we're winding up another transfer. 

Here's a couple pics: 

These first two are missionaries who served in the mission a year ago and now live in our stake:

Departing Missionary Salt Lake Temple Trip

With ex-SLC South Missionaries

Seth's Video Email

June 26, 2017

Hola todos. I've decided to send a video instead of an written email. I'm lazy today.

At the Draper Temple

With Brother Manu

Setting Mission Records

June 19, 2017

Hola familia!

It's been a good week. Had a baptism on Monday, and just cranked out some finding. We found a bunch of new investigators and a ton of potential this week. We did service for a potential investigator who comes to church almost every week.

We've been working a lot on some big things for the mission. This week as a mission we picked up 121 new investigators. Our online records go back to the beginning 2015, the highest we ever hit before was 107. Setting records!

Have a good week. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. 

Love,

-Elder Ray

Elders Ray and Kaka attending a mission baptism

Working hard (?) at the mission office