July 29, 2013

This last week has been fun. These last few days have been raining and cold.

Tuesday the Zone went to the Zoo like all ways. We planted more grass for the zoo. There is a Lot of work they have set apart for the missionary's to do. This week we had fun holding an alligator and feeding them. Holding an alligator is not a normal thing for visitors to do at the zoo. These alligators have been here at the zoo for 6 weeks and will leave in 2 weeks. When the alligators leave the building will be dissemble into all the usable parts and trash. They will then have us rebuild the building for the next animal.

This week we had the car to drive around. The weeks we have the car we can travel to the farther parts of the ward without wasting time walking or waiting for the bus. The car is very nice to have in the rain. I wish we could have a car all the time. This last week on P-Day I fixed my bike. I aligned the tire and put a new tube in the back tire. The bike now rides nice; I have only spent $45 on it.

This week I had to go with the Zone Leaders on splits. Thursday was fun to spend time with Elder Blake. Elder Blake only has a month left on his mission. He knows lots of Spanish. Elder Bennett went with Elder Pack to cover my ward. The zone leaders have a full time car because their area is the whole town of Topeka. They now cover the Spanish branch. Their branch only has 30 members that come each week. This was interesting to spend time, hearing a lesson in Spanish but only know a few words that where spoken. Elder Blake taught 5 lessons with me that Thursday. One of the lessons the sister asked for a blessing. I was able to do the anointing of the oil. Then Elder Blake performed the blessing in Spanish. This was a neat experience to help a Spanish sister, when I could not speak or understand her. The only good thing about this 24 hours with Elder Blake was that dinner was with a convert in the Colly Creak ward and they spoke English.

This week we meet with a sister Melody Mills. She has been seeing the missionary's since 2002. This time she has made lots of progress with reading The Book of Mormon. Every night she has read and prayed to know if she should be baptized. She loves to see how the Book of Mormon is like the Bible. She has a 17 year old daughter and a 9 year old son. The children do not want to talk with us but they will listen to the lesson.

This week we also talked to Nathanial. He is a friend with a recent convert named Kaleb. He is 21 but only looks like he is 15. He also has a mental handicap. This might be hard with teaching him things and him remembering what we taught him. We taught him about the Book of Mormon. He is doing great. He came to church and stayed all 3 hours. This next week we are going to bring up about Plan of Salvation.

The ward has a high number of members that are not active. The ward is putting us to work in helping get a hold of these members and talking to them about why they do not come to church.  The member are very helpful in helping find rides and people to come with us to house of single sisters. The mission has a new idea that is we get the member involved in missionary work that they can fill our schedule with people to teach. This new lesson we teach is a MML. Member Motivation Lesson are being taken fairly well. The member are also helping us get into home of Less Active and Non Members to do service with them.

This week coming up will be busy with teaching and doing service to help people. Hope all is going good in Mesa and it is not to Hot. Have fun and thanks for the Emails.

Love Elder Andrew J Allen