Week Ninety Six

Hey everyone! This week was pretty good! Whenever we have holidays in our mission that fall on a Monday, we push our pdays back a day. This always throws off the schedule a little bit and leaves us with a lot of extra finding time. So yesterday we grabbed some paper, pens, a crusty basket, and some American flags and hit the streets. We walked around and talked with a ton of people and asked them if they would write a little note for the veterans and we would deliver to the VA. Most people did, but then some people said they were too busy. I was about to tell some of these people that they weren't too busy for you, and some gave literally their lives so they could be here. But it's all good. We talked with some good people.

Elder Anderson and I had a good exchange this past Friday. We taught a couple of lessons with this Greek guy Brother Andreadokis. He was going crazy telling us all about the island of Samos that he's from and that Greek is the best language😂.  He taught me some, and it's pretty cool. He even wrote a book, it's called From Pythagoras To Salt Lake City. We had the opportunity to be at the baptism of the woman I interviewed and it was awesome! The Matkins from the office were randomly in town and we invited them to teach her with us the night before, and it went great! They were so happy to have us invite them to teach! The church needs more senior couple missionaries, they're the best! 

This week a lot of wildlife came out. I was looking at a bush outside the chapel and there were tons of bumble bees. Then I saw this monstrosity of a bumble bee come flying over. It was so gross looking, and I was like no way that's a bumble bee. I was right. A member googled it, and we found out it was a hummingbird moth bumble bee. Disgusting. Also found a salamander while stacking and chopping some wood. I thought it was a worm at first.

Anyways besides all of the animals and the exchanges we had a great week in the area. We are making some awesome progress with the people we are teaching, and I'm so happy we are teaching so much now. We helped our friend Bill out with his cows and stuff, and he has been keeping his commitments. The trees are finally getting their leaves. The sun was out for more then a  day in a row, and we have the van back. Things are looking good here in Winthrop. We will be heading down to Manchester tonight for MLC so that will be a good time too. 

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Posted up with the Matkins in the Oxford apartment! 

Our basket of notes for the VA.

Randomly stopped on the side of the road and found some new people to teach. They caught a fish while we were talking with them. 

Brother Andreadokis gave us his book and we got him to sign it😂.

Hummingbird moth bumble bee!!!

New England's finest store.

Drive through Auburn.

My cow.

One of my fav 'Throp members caught a little yellow bird with his truck.

 

 My salamander boy.

 

 

Week Ninety Five

Alright so this has been an interesting week. First off, it hasn't gotten above 60 degrees this week, and its been cloudy and raining for the past few weeks. Every person we talk to has been telling us spring hasn't been like this since the early '90s. The trees still don't have leaves😂 I remember each year getting out of school and it was nice and warm outside. Well my brothers and sister will be getting out of school soon, and I'm still wearing sweaters, and coats😂! It's alright though, I prefer this weather over what we've had the past 8 months. 

We've had lots of opportunities to teach this week, and it's been great. It took about 3 months, but we have a good sized teaching pool we are working with! I thank the Lord he has been blessing us with people to teach. 

We had interviews with President this week. It was all of our last interviews with him. It was so sad, he told me all about what he thought about me when I first came out, and how proud he and the Lord were. I've learned a lot from that man. Working with him for the past 22 months has been an experience I will never forget. 

This week I went on exchanges with Elder o'Rourke and I took him here to Winthrop. Prior to finishing the initial exchange meeting I told everyone to serve as if this was their last day in the field. We saw tons of miracles. We found a few new people to teach. The highlight was talking to this guy who was selling fiddleheads on the side of the road. He told us all about them, and then we told him about the gospel. He doesn't live in our area though so we had to refer him to some Sisters. He gave us a bag of fiddleheads, a baby canoe made from birch bark, and knowledge pertaining to fiddleheads. The ending exchange meeting was awesome. The Elders found some cool people, and Elder o'Rourke, a somewhat new missionary at 6 months walked away very inspired, and ready to put more down on the table of sacrifice.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to drive down to Portsmouth New Hampshire to meet up with the Larsen's and get our van back. We talked with them for a bit and out of nowhere one of their daughters called. Sister Larsen introduced us, and then she asked where I was from, and I told her Syracuse. She got excited and told me she was in Layton right then. Then she turned the camera and my eyes beheld one of my favorite places. It was the Layton Sam's Club😭😂!! Memories of hot dogs and pizza flowed. She showed me a few more things and then they had to get going. Its always a good time when we see the Larsen's.

Anyways the van's back in the 'throp, and we are working with some amazing people. I am excited to see what happens here in the next couple transfers. The Lord definitely has his eye on this area. #templein10 

Week Ninety Four

Hey everyone! It's been an eventful week here in the 'throp. First off Elder Ricks is gone. He didn't go far though. It was probably the easiest transition I've ever seen a missionary have to make. So all is well with him. All of my gluten free adventures are now over. We took Elder Vallace down to transfer Meeting, and picked up Elder Steenson. We also had to temporarily swap out the van for a different car so they can be inspected in their states. So now we are whipping a Rav 4 for a few weeks. 

Things are going well with Elder Steenson. We've already had a few good teaching moments, and he seems to be doing good here. Things are doing much better then when I first got here, and it's somewhat warm outside, so we can do more than ever before.

This Thursday was the day of transfers we had a lot going on. Between new companions and cars, the Stake President also scheduled a Stake Coordination meeting with the missionaries. So Elder Steenson didnt get to see his area until about 9pm. It was fun though. Tiring but good.

We are currently working with a few people at the moment that are really close, but not quite where they need to be for baptism. That's ok though, and that's why we are here to teach them. We invited Bill to be baptized this week,and he said he would pray about it. So last week we taught him how to pray using the sandwich analogy. This week he told us his prayers were like Sloppy Joe's, and he is trying to upgrade them to a better sandwich. He's a really cool guy. He used to be on the special forces, and one of his specialities was parachuting into places with his little team of people. He doesn't talk about those days too much though.

Patrick is doing good. He seems to be accepting the word of wisdom better now, and more willing to try it out for an extended period of time. So that's an answered prayer.

Overall I'm just hoping to see something more happen in this area. Besides Keira there hasn't been a baptism since I first got in the mission. It's a tough area, but I know there are at least a few people ready to receive the gospel. So this week I'm going to try harder than before to really receive some revelation on how to work this area. 

Anyways hope everyone has a great week! Byeee! 

Week Ninety Three

Hey everyone! This week was a good one. We had a bunch of stuff that we had to do. We got to take the van and pile all of our mission pals in and drove a couple hours into Manchester. That night Elder Solomon and I were looking through the Revere Elders phone reminiscing on all of the good times we had. Then Elder Petersen popped up and we reminisced on the Rockland days. Good times.

Coming home from MLC we had to rush to our Book of Mormon class in the ward. We got there right after it had finished, and were able to talk with a few of the people we were teaching. One of the men we were teaching Bill came, and we went over to his house the next day to have a lesson. We had an awesome member come with us, and we ended only getting through two points of the lesson. The member bore some strong testimony, and then Bill even bore testimony, and I had the opportunity to teach him how to pray. When we left he prayed for all sorts of great things. When you follow the spirit and teach to their needs, the Lord has a lot more room to soften the hearts of those you teach.

We had some more meetings with the district leaders, and helped them make some goals for their districts. They've planned some good action steps based around Obedience, and reading preach my gospel. Preach my Gospel is essential for your progression as a missionary. You can tell the difference between a missionary who has diligently studied preach my gospel, and who has floated through picking it up every once in a while. Since we have a lot of new missionaries we are helping them build good study habits and Obedience so they can serve amazing missions.
Also found out about transfers this week. It was a good run with Elder Ricks and I. I'll be staying here in Winthrop and receiving Elder Steenson. Elder Ricks is doing something crazy. He's moving 20 minutes down the road to Farmingdale to be a district leader there😂😂 We live 8 minutes from the border of our area and Farmingdales area, and we go there each week to get groceries. So he's taking a big leap.

I think the highlight of my week was definitely yesterday. It was the first time we had a good sunny day, and it hit 68 degrees for most of the day. Elder Ricks got sunburned pretty good, and I actually got a little sunburned too. We were joking "only in Maine could we get sunburned when it's 65😂". Our skin was probably flipping out because it's been 7 1/2 months since it's felt the sun. We even busted out the bikes, even though there's literally only like 5 streets in our village. 
Anyways things are slowly looking up here, and I am excited to see what happens these next two transfers.

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! You're pretty much the best of all time in the history of ever. Hope you have a great birthday. Love you!

My lake.

My dad van.

MLC