Things went well this week. It's always fun preparing for zone
conference and trying to stay focused and normal throughout all the studying
and planning.
We stopped going to the Riverside ward in the morning which will
make it easier for me to call home on Sunday. I will be able to call in the
morning; I'll call around 10:00 my time. I'll be calling your cell. We will
be calling from the mission office so that my companion is going to call
from the land line here and I'll be on our cell phone. I guess we will talk
about other things and I will be able to answer more questions then.
So the week went well. We have gotten a lot done and prepared
for this upcoming Zone Conference. I feel like there have been a lot of
achievements this past week, but when I look at my planner and review the
week there wasn't really all that done. We have spent a lot of time getting
ready for this next week and I would have to say that I have the best
feeling about this zone conference then I have since I first came here.
This week I have done a lot of studying about the family because of topics
spoken about in General Conference, and because of some needs that our
investigators have. I was talking to one of the missionaries that we
livewith, Elder Greg Otterstrom, about missionaries and he called to my
attention a thought that I once had several months ago that helped me learn
a lot about families. He said that you can observe missionaries and get a
general idea of what their family was like back at home by the way the
missionary acts. So, with all my thoughts I had that came from my studies
about the family, thrown in along with this concept of seeing how
missionaries life's were back at home with their families; I got to thinking
about my family and how it prepared me to serve a mission. Here were some
of my thoughts: My family and life did prepare me to be a missionary. Moving
from place to place, going from school to school, and ward to ward, and
sometimes branches, has equipped me with understandings and perspectives
about many situations that one can live in. Missionaries out here are
shocked when they are placed into a ward, or branch that covers counties,
instead of street blocks. When I was in an interview with Sister Merkley,
during their first transfer in the mission field, I asked her what it was
that prepared her the most to serve as Mission President and wife, and her
response caught me off guarded, she said that life had prepared her and
President Merkley to serve. It was an answer that has changed my view on
things and has continued to teach me even till this day. Life and family
really do shape the person that you are. Even though I might not want to
admit it sometimes, I am really just a product of my parents, family and
upbringing. There was more that went into those thoughts, but that was the
main theme of things.
Teaching Amy is going well. She still is coming to church and taking the
lessons, which is good. Teaching her is defiantly a learning experience; she
is helping learn how to be patient and to have long-suffering. It's all
about waiting with her right now, the desire to be become a member is there,
but there are other things that need to be cleared up before we can proceed.
The feeling that I get is that we are going to be waiting a long time
because there are some major events that need to take place before she can
be baptized.
We have another family that we started teaching this week! We are teaching
the Coleman family. It's a family with a husband and a wife with four kids.
We have taught Brother Coleman before, but this week he actually became an
investigator. Our lesson went really well, he read the scriptures that we
left him last time and he was prepared and ready for what we planned to
teach him. In our first lesson he told us that he felt like he has never
received and answer to his prayers, so in this week's lesson we planned to
teach to this concern. We used Moroni chapter 10 and 7 to help him see how
the Holy Ghost will testify of truth, and along with personally experience,
helped him see how he might receive an answer. It went really well, I feel
really good about him and his family. They are coming to church on Mother's
day next week.
That's all for this week family. We've got some things to do before we take
off tomorrow, so I've got to go. I love and thank you for all that you are
doing for me. I'm excited to get to call home and talked with you.
Love
Elder Kelly Conrad
PS the picture with all the missionaries is the picture of all those who
came to our Zone Leader Council this past Tuesday. The next picture is of
the Haynie family. Sam is the one who always comes out with us when we go
and teach Amy. This family is the sweetest! They feed us all the time. I
spent last Thanks Giving and Christmas at their home.
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