Another week in Waukesha

We had a great week this week!  I'll just go over the basics:

Monday for the rest of my birthday we went and played sports with the rest of the missionaries and spent time with them until we finished up, went back into Waukesha, and went to dinner with the Schuenke's and had a party because they also invited the Loutensock's, the Blacker's, and Rosa to be there and spend time with me too!  :D  I felt so special - it was great!

With the Loutenstocks

With Rosa!

Tuesday we had a super awesome district meeting talking about progressing investigators and being true disciples of Christ.  It was awesome how the district participated and how each of us learned from the other!  I'm so thankful for having a great district that really wants to learn and do the right thing!

Later on in the day we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders and I was with an Elder Arbon in the Waukesha area.  Throughout our exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday, we were able to teach several investigators and be able to find a bunch of new families, so I was definitely thankful for that!  One huge miracle is that when I was here in Waukesha last time, we were recruited in attempting to help a family in the ward take care of the weeds in their back yard, but this time when I got back we got the young men involved so we'd actually be able to make a dent in it, and we took out all of the weeds and ingrown things all throughout the yard!  Hopefully now he'll be able to fix up the yard so it'll be good and beautiful.  :)  Then tonight as we were finishing up, we were caught in a rainstorm that was so bad that when we walked outside for 3 seconds, we were COMPLETELY soaked!

Wednesday and Thursday night we were able to have lessons with some members at later hours in the evening, like at 7 or 8, and we showed them a video that we have that talks about missionary work, and promise them that as we watched it, names of people would come to their mind, and those people would be the people that they could reach out to and help by giving them the gospel.  It's been great to see how names come to people's minds as they watch it, and to be able to help each of them make plans on how they can be more effective missionaries by reaching out more as their friends.

Wednesday during the day, I was asked to give a talk in church.  And then Thursday evening me and one of the sister missionaries, along with a member of the ward, all decided on what song we would be singing for church this Sunday, because I'd also been asked to sing a duet this Sunday.  So that worked pretty well! 

Friday, we were supposed to go to the Temple with Rosa, but in the morning she fell off of a stool and hurt her shoulder pretty bad so she wasn't able to go on Friday, which definitely put a damper in our plans for the day.  However, the situation now is this:  We get to go on Tuesday at 1!  So we'll still be able to go, but it'll just be this week and not next week.

One of my favorite days this week was Sunday.  I was pretty nervous to speak in church because I didn't have much time to prepare my talk, but it went super well!  First I sang, and afterwords both me and the Sister Missionary were complimented a lot on the way that we sounded, one person even saying that they'd never felt like clapping in church before today!  :P  And then my talk was all about how to recognize the Spirit and use it to deal with life's challenges.  It went well, and somebody later thanked me because their 8-year-old son is NEVER focused at church, but for whatever reason was zeroed in on the talk that I had given.  I know this probably makes me sound cocky, but I was very glad that I was able to get the point across so well.  Another person told me that I taught it so simply and powerfully.  I'm thankful for the Spirit that was there in that meeting - that's what made it good!

But yeah, things are great here in Waukesha!  Elder Trogdon and I are getting along incredibly well, and the work is progressing!  We're finding new people that might not progress far while I'm here, but we're all about creating a foundation that can be worked upon by later missionaries.  Life's great!  Love you all so much!