Its me again. for the one hundred and second time or whatever. Can you believe that? I sure cant. 6 emails left then I'm done. Like I said a couple of months ago. I really dont want to go home. What will I do? I think its a lot better being a missionary than being a student. I could care less about going home. This is my negative comment for the week. Sorry family, you're great and everything but, I have a good family here in MT. JK, but seriously.
Alright. We got some big updates from last week. This is how are transfer schedule goes: Elder Ives drives the Wrangler Wagon down to Riverton, WY and back on Sunday. On Monday, he goes all the way to Kalispell. Tuesday, back to Billings. Wednesday, back down to Riverton. Elder Goff and I were at the office Sunday morning making sure that Elder Ives had everything he needed to get started on his adventure. (we figure out and type up the transfer routes for him, etc) He left. Then, we left for church a couple hours later and notice that one of the brand new cars at the mission home had a flat tire. We said whatever and left for church. I was speaking anyway at this kid's farewell and was pretty nervous anyway. The flat tire didn't even cross my mind. We got a call our third hour of church from Elder Ives saying that he had two tire blowouts and was running 3 hours behind. It clicked and we realized that it wasn't a coincidence that the tire on the car back at the mission home was blown out too. We got back to the mission home and counted 11 slashed tires. Kind of a bummer. The Van was supposed to leave this morning at 8 but because of getting all the spares replaced didnt leave until 10:30. Everything this morning was running way behind.
A didnt come to church. I think we backtracked with him a little bit this last week. He is doing good. I think we will keep meeting with him. We both feel that he just doesnt understand what we are asking of him. I guess, with no religious background, he doesnt really see or hasnt ever really seen or experienced the love of our Heavenly Father. Thats what commitments are for. Get him to where he needs to be and where he would want to be as well. I think he takes religion, generally, to be some sort of extra-curricular activity. No understanding.
D is going to get baptized before I leave. I dont know that for sure. I just feel it.
K just wrote up her letter to the First Presidency. We will send that in this week. I dont think it will happen but I would hope that she gets permission quickly.
Other than that, The MBM is flyin high. We start another crazy transfer of meetings, picking up the greenies, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Church is true. That statement, right there, should influence every decision that we make.
Love you dearly,
Elder P Heywood
ps I did get some citrus. The box is almost empty. Its just sitting out in the office. It was good thanks.
ps I dont want to go home.
ps I forgot to tell you about my new 6 week diet before I go home. I call it, "6 WEEKS TO SEXY". I am already feeling healthier.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Facebook, Blogs, lds.org....
Prophecy about the Future of Missionary Work
In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball issued an amazing prophecy about the technology driving the gospel message.
"Technology will help spread the gospel. We need to enlarge our field of operation.… The Lord will lay in our hand inventions which we can scarcely conceive whereby we will be able to bring the gospel to the peoples of the world…. I have faith that the Lord will open doors when we have done everything in our power. I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse….We shall use the inventions the Lord has given us to awaken interest and acquaint people of the world with the truths, to ease their prejudices and give them a general knowledge. We shall need to answer specific questions, and perhaps that can be done by two-way radio and TV perfected to a point beyond our present imagination. It is conceivable that such a program greatly perfected could be multiplied ten thousand times in ten thousand tongues and dialects in ten thousand places far and near…. Tens of thousands of young missionaries endowed with the power from on high will follow up the proselyting.[ii]"
(Thanks Ivonne)
In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball issued an amazing prophecy about the technology driving the gospel message.
"Technology will help spread the gospel. We need to enlarge our field of operation.… The Lord will lay in our hand inventions which we can scarcely conceive whereby we will be able to bring the gospel to the peoples of the world…. I have faith that the Lord will open doors when we have done everything in our power. I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse….We shall use the inventions the Lord has given us to awaken interest and acquaint people of the world with the truths, to ease their prejudices and give them a general knowledge. We shall need to answer specific questions, and perhaps that can be done by two-way radio and TV perfected to a point beyond our present imagination. It is conceivable that such a program greatly perfected could be multiplied ten thousand times in ten thousand tongues and dialects in ten thousand places far and near…. Tens of thousands of young missionaries endowed with the power from on high will follow up the proselyting.[ii]"
(Thanks Ivonne)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
After two years...he wants a "smothered" pork burrito. He should do a commercial...
My release date is Thursday, March 17th. My flight into Sky Harbor should arrive at 11:00am. I will be home in time for Lunch. Costa Vida?
What up fam?
Elder Goff and I spent the weekend with the Fishers. They stopped in and saw us in the mission office on Friday, we saw him in the temple Saturday morning, sat by them all 3 hours of church on Sunday, and then ate dinner with them at the Wells Sunday night. It was awesome to be with them. I couldnt believe how well they remembered us. They were like proud parents. President Fisher, now Elder Fisher, remembered everything about me. It was crazy.
We met with A on Saturday again. We showed up at 1:30, which was the appt that we set up with him the week before, and he wasnt there. We were really disappointed. We stopped by about 3 hours later and caught him home. You tell he felt guilty about not being home at 1:30 but we talked about things and left knowing that both of us were rejoicing and had been edified. He told us that he is still really skeptical but once we helped him realize that he has nothing to lose he settled in a little bit better. He told us that he doesnt want to stop meeting with us if its something that might be good for him. Good logic A. We are hoping and praying for him. He even prayed at the end of our lesson. BAM
K and D. Now, just D. K was causing some problems and she got moved. So, we are only teaching D right now. We had a lesson the other day with D and she had a list of about 8 questions. Really good q's too. Consider her... PROGRESSING in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
K has her interview with PG tomorrow. Things are getting put in place for her baptism.
TRANSFERS: At this point. We still dont know what is going to happen. Who knows. Next Monday I may be writing you from Polson or Helena
At the end of this week we have a musical fireside in Red Lodge that I get to conduct. On top of that I get to speak in Sacrament Meeting.
Tell Luke that I really liked his email from last week. I wanted to ask luke to send me some star wars quotes. Dont ask why. just do it.
Love
Elder Parker Heywood.
Check out my new pics on FB
check out my blog this week on COACH JESSE PARKER
What up fam?
Elder Goff and I spent the weekend with the Fishers. They stopped in and saw us in the mission office on Friday, we saw him in the temple Saturday morning, sat by them all 3 hours of church on Sunday, and then ate dinner with them at the Wells Sunday night. It was awesome to be with them. I couldnt believe how well they remembered us. They were like proud parents. President Fisher, now Elder Fisher, remembered everything about me. It was crazy.
We met with A on Saturday again. We showed up at 1:30, which was the appt that we set up with him the week before, and he wasnt there. We were really disappointed. We stopped by about 3 hours later and caught him home. You tell he felt guilty about not being home at 1:30 but we talked about things and left knowing that both of us were rejoicing and had been edified. He told us that he is still really skeptical but once we helped him realize that he has nothing to lose he settled in a little bit better. He told us that he doesnt want to stop meeting with us if its something that might be good for him. Good logic A. We are hoping and praying for him. He even prayed at the end of our lesson. BAM
K and D. Now, just D. K was causing some problems and she got moved. So, we are only teaching D right now. We had a lesson the other day with D and she had a list of about 8 questions. Really good q's too. Consider her... PROGRESSING in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
K has her interview with PG tomorrow. Things are getting put in place for her baptism.
TRANSFERS: At this point. We still dont know what is going to happen. Who knows. Next Monday I may be writing you from Polson or Helena
At the end of this week we have a musical fireside in Red Lodge that I get to conduct. On top of that I get to speak in Sacrament Meeting.
Tell Luke that I really liked his email from last week. I wanted to ask luke to send me some star wars quotes. Dont ask why. just do it.
Love
Elder Parker Heywood.
Check out my new pics on FB
check out my blog this week on COACH JESSE PARKER
Monday, January 17, 2011
Hey. Make sure that you tell Savanna hi for me and that she better have a baby before I get home. One more thing to tell the two love birds. Tell them that I, Parker Heywood, "sure do love them."
Hey. This last week sure was good. We went to Bozeman, Billings, and Glendive. Elder Goff and I sure stayed the night at VJs house so that was good and entertaining as always. He wants to meet the fam if we come back up. The only prob is... Glendive is 3 hours east of anywhere Ive served. That's six hours roundtrip if we just want to see a couple of people in Glendive opposed to "driving through" all the other areas Ive served in. Sure isn't convenient. I told V that he is just going to have to go down to AZ for a trip.
Elder Max Elmer stands right next to me as I type this email. I sure do love him. He sure is one great solid piece of spiritual steel, serving out in the middle of nowhere. We are having zone olympics today so both Billings zones are going up against each other. Billings East and Billings West. Everyone from the outlyings areas (Elmer - 100 miles out of town) have driven in today. Its gonna be so sick x2 (POUND)
Last week: You know when missionaries write home about how the Lord really "blessed them with success?" Well we sure did have one of those weeks this last week. Let me tell ya about it. We hadn't been in our area for the whole beginning of our week so we got off to a great start. Elder Davis (QC, AZ) had taught a guy up in Havre who moved down to Billings a while back. The missionaries here (my area right now. PIONEER PARK ward), at that time, were teaching this guy. We will call him Luke. So, now its about 7 months later and Elder Davis calls us up asking whatever happened to ole Lukey. I say I have no clue. Four weeks go by and I get a call from Elder Davis again asking me about the Lukester. I embarrassingly tell him that we haven't contacted him and decided that we better do it. Saturday night we plan to go by this guys place and see what the big deal is. We have about 40 mins before dinner and go knock on his door. No answer. Well, we then decide to spend our remaining forty minutes knocking the surrounding doors. First door we knock on, a 30 year old man named A answers the door. It was really weird. He was very intrigued at what we were doing but also very cautious and taken aback. You could tell he really wanted to figure out who the two mysterious young men were on his doorstep but also was very anxious and nervous about us knocking on his door. It was so weird. Ive never felt two emotions so present at the same time like we experienced the other night. Anyway, long story short, A lets us in and he has no religious background. We set up a return appt for the next day and take a member of the ward over there with us. The lesson goes very well and he starts talking about church attendance and what not. Ive never had an experience like it. STAY TUNED next week for A. Moral of the story: Sometimes the Lord leads us to people when they aren't actually the ones he has immediate plans for. We are so human sometimes. I invite you to: metaphorically, "knock on the house next door."
This week we also started teaching some Foster kids living with an awesome family in our ward. Two girls from Poplar, MT. K and D. We have taught them twice now and have another appt this Saturday.
Elder Goff hasn't baptized anybody his whole mission and he just received news that a lady wants him to baptize her in Worland, WY on the 27th of Feb. We were just talking the other day about the possibility of him going his whole mission without baptizing anyone. Wish granted.
This week we finish off our very redundant facebook presentations in Worland WY, Powell WY, and Billings Heights. Sure cant wait to be done with this blasted thing.
Elder S from Tempe, AZ went home this last week to be with his mom for her last couple of days. She has cancer. Some of the missionaries are still in mourning about that. But, I think he/they will be ok and things will be alright.
Sure do love and appreciate ya,
Elder Heywood.
8 weeks hahahhalkkdjlkfhdshlahlhalsd
Hey. This last week sure was good. We went to Bozeman, Billings, and Glendive. Elder Goff and I sure stayed the night at VJs house so that was good and entertaining as always. He wants to meet the fam if we come back up. The only prob is... Glendive is 3 hours east of anywhere Ive served. That's six hours roundtrip if we just want to see a couple of people in Glendive opposed to "driving through" all the other areas Ive served in. Sure isn't convenient. I told V that he is just going to have to go down to AZ for a trip.
Elder Max Elmer stands right next to me as I type this email. I sure do love him. He sure is one great solid piece of spiritual steel, serving out in the middle of nowhere. We are having zone olympics today so both Billings zones are going up against each other. Billings East and Billings West. Everyone from the outlyings areas (Elmer - 100 miles out of town) have driven in today. Its gonna be so sick x2 (POUND)
Last week: You know when missionaries write home about how the Lord really "blessed them with success?" Well we sure did have one of those weeks this last week. Let me tell ya about it. We hadn't been in our area for the whole beginning of our week so we got off to a great start. Elder Davis (QC, AZ) had taught a guy up in Havre who moved down to Billings a while back. The missionaries here (my area right now. PIONEER PARK ward), at that time, were teaching this guy. We will call him Luke. So, now its about 7 months later and Elder Davis calls us up asking whatever happened to ole Lukey. I say I have no clue. Four weeks go by and I get a call from Elder Davis again asking me about the Lukester. I embarrassingly tell him that we haven't contacted him and decided that we better do it. Saturday night we plan to go by this guys place and see what the big deal is. We have about 40 mins before dinner and go knock on his door. No answer. Well, we then decide to spend our remaining forty minutes knocking the surrounding doors. First door we knock on, a 30 year old man named A answers the door. It was really weird. He was very intrigued at what we were doing but also very cautious and taken aback. You could tell he really wanted to figure out who the two mysterious young men were on his doorstep but also was very anxious and nervous about us knocking on his door. It was so weird. Ive never felt two emotions so present at the same time like we experienced the other night. Anyway, long story short, A lets us in and he has no religious background. We set up a return appt for the next day and take a member of the ward over there with us. The lesson goes very well and he starts talking about church attendance and what not. Ive never had an experience like it. STAY TUNED next week for A. Moral of the story: Sometimes the Lord leads us to people when they aren't actually the ones he has immediate plans for. We are so human sometimes. I invite you to: metaphorically, "knock on the house next door."
This week we also started teaching some Foster kids living with an awesome family in our ward. Two girls from Poplar, MT. K and D. We have taught them twice now and have another appt this Saturday.
Elder Goff hasn't baptized anybody his whole mission and he just received news that a lady wants him to baptize her in Worland, WY on the 27th of Feb. We were just talking the other day about the possibility of him going his whole mission without baptizing anyone. Wish granted.
This week we finish off our very redundant facebook presentations in Worland WY, Powell WY, and Billings Heights. Sure cant wait to be done with this blasted thing.
Elder S from Tempe, AZ went home this last week to be with his mom for her last couple of days. She has cancer. Some of the missionaries are still in mourning about that. But, I think he/they will be ok and things will be alright.
Sure do love and appreciate ya,
Elder Heywood.
8 weeks hahahhalkkdjlkfhdshlahlhalsd
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Goal for 2010
In case anyone was wondering about the 1000 goal of baptisms and reactivations for the Billings Montana Mission...we learned from yet another missionary's blog that the final number was........1006!
Contratulations to the all the hard working missionaries in Billings Montana!!
Contratulations to the all the hard working missionaries in Billings Montana!!
A Note About FaceBook & Blogs
(This is an excerpt from Elder Heywood's companion's (Elder Goff's) last letter. He explains what the mission is now doing with facebook and gives more detail then we have gotten from Elder Heywood...we thought any blog followers might be interested....)
As I type this I am sitting passenger going through Butte, MT. Elder Heywood and I are spending our P-day driving to Kalispell, MT. For the next couple of weeks we will be going to each zone in our mission with President and Sister Gardner to do training and to introduce Facebook, and blogging to the rest of our mission. Up to this point it has only been District Leaders and Zone Leaders using facebook and blogging. We will be the first mission to get everyone online. President says that if it’s going to be a pilot program we better test it out. Why not have everyone try it. We have no reason not to trust everyone else with this great new ability. I’ll admit though, I am a little nervous about it being available to all of the Elders. I’m not worried about the sisters, they are saints, and will do great with Blogs and Facebook. The Elders are easily swayed. I think they will do well for a while, but then start to slack and use it for the wrong reasons. Elder Heywood and I have talked a lot about our concerns, and have had some ideas we shared with President to help keep The Elders using it correctly. We are going to have the Zone Leaders Monitor the Missionaries in their Zones. They will go to both facebook pages and blogs of missionaries in their zone and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to. Elder Heywood and I have said that the Zone Leaders will have to be “buttheads” so that everyone will use it for what we are supposed to. I think most of the Elders online now have done a great job; there are of course a select few who have already lost the privilege. So there will be a punishment, or a consequence, which will be deleting your blog and facebook. President, Elder Heywood and I came up with 3 pages of guidelines, Tips, hits and rules for Proselyting online. So I guess it will either work or it will crash and burn. J We’ll see what happens.
As I type this I am sitting passenger going through Butte, MT. Elder Heywood and I are spending our P-day driving to Kalispell, MT. For the next couple of weeks we will be going to each zone in our mission with President and Sister Gardner to do training and to introduce Facebook, and blogging to the rest of our mission. Up to this point it has only been District Leaders and Zone Leaders using facebook and blogging. We will be the first mission to get everyone online. President says that if it’s going to be a pilot program we better test it out. Why not have everyone try it. We have no reason not to trust everyone else with this great new ability. I’ll admit though, I am a little nervous about it being available to all of the Elders. I’m not worried about the sisters, they are saints, and will do great with Blogs and Facebook. The Elders are easily swayed. I think they will do well for a while, but then start to slack and use it for the wrong reasons. Elder Heywood and I have talked a lot about our concerns, and have had some ideas we shared with President to help keep The Elders using it correctly. We are going to have the Zone Leaders Monitor the Missionaries in their Zones. They will go to both facebook pages and blogs of missionaries in their zone and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to. Elder Heywood and I have said that the Zone Leaders will have to be “buttheads” so that everyone will use it for what we are supposed to. I think most of the Elders online now have done a great job; there are of course a select few who have already lost the privilege. So there will be a punishment, or a consequence, which will be deleting your blog and facebook. President, Elder Heywood and I came up with 3 pages of guidelines, Tips, hits and rules for Proselyting online. So I guess it will either work or it will crash and burn. J We’ll see what happens.
Monday, January 10, 2011
I would much rather be on dry roads than icy roads. It gets a little scary driving down the highway at 70 and have your car's back end slide out. I like Montana but I dont think I could live somewhere that snowed and had sub zero temperatures. The last week was really long. But, really good. I like being able to see all of the missionaries and see how they are doing. We finished off the week in Great Falls, Helena, and Butte. After doing the same presentation 4 times in a row it gets a little bit redundant. We still have 6 more to go. This week is Bozeman, Billings, then Glendive. They should be good.
Its kind of a bummer not being in an area full-time. I feel like there are lots of things we miss out on. I think the times when I'm happiest are when I know I have a good relationship with the ward, when we are finding, and teaching, etc. Its a little bit harder to do that here, especially when you leave Monday and get back Saturday night. But, things are good.
I don't know what will happen the last transfer. I propose that I either stay or go back to an old area. I'm good with whatever happens but that would be my proposal.
We spent another evening in Helena seeing oldies. We saw a lady who Elder Jensen and I baptized. I didnt tell you but, she hasnt been going to church for the last 6 months. We talked for quite a while and she had all kinds of concerns. It came down to her not having a strong testimony and getting baptized for some of the wrong reasons. She talked about all of the stresses and problems in her life and told me how hard things were for her... financially, with family, with church, work, etc. I felt like I needed to do something about it so I made her a promise. I told her that if she would read the BofM she would have more peace in her life. I asked her if she would try to read through the whole things with me before I went home and she politely told me that she wouldnt. It almost had me in tears. Its been a long time since I was that depressed. What can you do? Overall, our visits went good.
Here in Billings we are still teaching K. She had a mild stroke on last Wednesday and I think things have been a little bit scary for her. She came to church Sunday and we sent her right back to the emergency room because she was trippin on her new meds. It was pretty bad. I thought we were going to have another stroke right there in the foyer. She is crazy for coming. She is doing well. She will soon have her interview with PG and send a letter to the first Presidency.
Our new theme for the year is: 2011 Entrusted by Heaven. We had a couple other ideas that rhymed with 2011 but they didnt really fit: 2011, Beware of the Pharisees Leaven. And... Dos Cero Uno Uno, Learn to Blog with Frank Bruno. haha. There is a guy on facebook named Frank Bruno who is part of the church program. He is always helping missionaries do different things online so we decided that could be one of the new themes. Prez didnt go for it.
Thats all
Love
Elder Heywood
Its kind of a bummer not being in an area full-time. I feel like there are lots of things we miss out on. I think the times when I'm happiest are when I know I have a good relationship with the ward, when we are finding, and teaching, etc. Its a little bit harder to do that here, especially when you leave Monday and get back Saturday night. But, things are good.
I don't know what will happen the last transfer. I propose that I either stay or go back to an old area. I'm good with whatever happens but that would be my proposal.
We spent another evening in Helena seeing oldies. We saw a lady who Elder Jensen and I baptized. I didnt tell you but, she hasnt been going to church for the last 6 months. We talked for quite a while and she had all kinds of concerns. It came down to her not having a strong testimony and getting baptized for some of the wrong reasons. She talked about all of the stresses and problems in her life and told me how hard things were for her... financially, with family, with church, work, etc. I felt like I needed to do something about it so I made her a promise. I told her that if she would read the BofM she would have more peace in her life. I asked her if she would try to read through the whole things with me before I went home and she politely told me that she wouldnt. It almost had me in tears. Its been a long time since I was that depressed. What can you do? Overall, our visits went good.
Here in Billings we are still teaching K. She had a mild stroke on last Wednesday and I think things have been a little bit scary for her. She came to church Sunday and we sent her right back to the emergency room because she was trippin on her new meds. It was pretty bad. I thought we were going to have another stroke right there in the foyer. She is crazy for coming. She is doing well. She will soon have her interview with PG and send a letter to the first Presidency.
Our new theme for the year is: 2011 Entrusted by Heaven. We had a couple other ideas that rhymed with 2011 but they didnt really fit: 2011, Beware of the Pharisees Leaven. And... Dos Cero Uno Uno, Learn to Blog with Frank Bruno. haha. There is a guy on facebook named Frank Bruno who is part of the church program. He is always helping missionaries do different things online so we decided that could be one of the new themes. Prez didnt go for it.
Thats all
Love
Elder Heywood
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Late
Dear Family, I am sitting here in a car, driving to Kalispell while I write to you this fine day. We are going to be spending our Pday driving almost 500 miles. I would rather take a shower with a bear than drive to Kalispell on my pday. I would rather go on a date with Rosie O’Donnell than drive to Kalispell on my pday. I think you get what Im trying to say. I wish I didn’t have to drive to Kalispell on my pday.
LAST WEEK: We had our east side leadership meeting in Billings and drove to Helena the next morning for our west side meeting. The Helena meeting ended early afternoon. Elder Goff and I then spent the rest of the day visiting old places and old faces. We went from house to house from 3 to 9:30; and we could have spent another week or so seeing others. It was a splendid day. . The next morning we had district meeting with the Helena district and saw another couple of families then headed for Billings. On our way home we stopped in a place called Big Timber, which we are actually passing through RIGHT now, to visit a man named Rumple. Here’s a little background on our friend Rumple: He is a 55 year old un-wed mystery man. He got to know some of the Elders up in Great Falls and started getting attached to some of them. He later moved to Big Timber to move on in his life. In a much unknown way, he got our phone number and started calling Elder King, asking him when he was going to come see him. He would call several times a day sometimes over 60x a week. It was getting ridiculous. So, Elder King and I decided to go see him one evening. After a visit that can’t even be described, he never called us ever again. Elder Goff and I decided to do the same thing this last time through Big Timber and the calls are still at a minimum. I will have to show you a picture of Rumple and us. He answered to the door in long, red, woman’s night gown. I’m so glad to have these great spiritual memories of my mission. I will never forget the big, red, long, night gowned Rumple.
After our meetings, we were able to get in 3 lessons with the Cs, J and M, and K. They were all good.
We had a really good fast and testimony meeting yesterday. One of the better ones in the past year. There were times when we had 6 people waiting up on the stand to share testimonies. It was good.
In our meetings this last week, there was a time allotted to role play the first vision with each other. We had all done it a million times before but, we did it once again. I know, personally, I have recited the 1st vision thousands of times. Even though this might have been the 3000th time, the experience was just as spiritual as ever. It was a really special experience for everyone. It made me think about the night of my setting apart and talking about the first vision. For most people, concerns might arise about polygamy or doctrine, etc but what it all comes down to is if Joseph is a prophet. It’s as simple as that. And I think that that is why the spirit is always very present when sharing feelings or testimonies about the first vision. Apart from the Atonement, its seems to be one of the most important things we can bear testimony of. Even now, when talking about it. It is a blessing to know that.
I am sorry for not sending you my letter Monday evening. We didn’t have time and went right to bed. We got to stop in Polson and see the Burninghams, the Atchleys and Bro Heskiel. It was good to see Emy again. She acts, walks, and talks like a normal member. We talked about her and Earl getting sealed to their parents. We talked about how lots of her kids have been interested in the Gospel. We talked about a lot of things. It was good. I haven’t seen them in over a year. Since 2009.
Bye
LAST WEEK: We had our east side leadership meeting in Billings and drove to Helena the next morning for our west side meeting. The Helena meeting ended early afternoon. Elder Goff and I then spent the rest of the day visiting old places and old faces. We went from house to house from 3 to 9:30; and we could have spent another week or so seeing others. It was a splendid day. . The next morning we had district meeting with the Helena district and saw another couple of families then headed for Billings. On our way home we stopped in a place called Big Timber, which we are actually passing through RIGHT now, to visit a man named Rumple. Here’s a little background on our friend Rumple: He is a 55 year old un-wed mystery man. He got to know some of the Elders up in Great Falls and started getting attached to some of them. He later moved to Big Timber to move on in his life. In a much unknown way, he got our phone number and started calling Elder King, asking him when he was going to come see him. He would call several times a day sometimes over 60x a week. It was getting ridiculous. So, Elder King and I decided to go see him one evening. After a visit that can’t even be described, he never called us ever again. Elder Goff and I decided to do the same thing this last time through Big Timber and the calls are still at a minimum. I will have to show you a picture of Rumple and us. He answered to the door in long, red, woman’s night gown. I’m so glad to have these great spiritual memories of my mission. I will never forget the big, red, long, night gowned Rumple.
After our meetings, we were able to get in 3 lessons with the Cs, J and M, and K. They were all good.
We had a really good fast and testimony meeting yesterday. One of the better ones in the past year. There were times when we had 6 people waiting up on the stand to share testimonies. It was good.
In our meetings this last week, there was a time allotted to role play the first vision with each other. We had all done it a million times before but, we did it once again. I know, personally, I have recited the 1st vision thousands of times. Even though this might have been the 3000th time, the experience was just as spiritual as ever. It was a really special experience for everyone. It made me think about the night of my setting apart and talking about the first vision. For most people, concerns might arise about polygamy or doctrine, etc but what it all comes down to is if Joseph is a prophet. It’s as simple as that. And I think that that is why the spirit is always very present when sharing feelings or testimonies about the first vision. Apart from the Atonement, its seems to be one of the most important things we can bear testimony of. Even now, when talking about it. It is a blessing to know that.
I am sorry for not sending you my letter Monday evening. We didn’t have time and went right to bed. We got to stop in Polson and see the Burninghams, the Atchleys and Bro Heskiel. It was good to see Emy again. She acts, walks, and talks like a normal member. We talked about her and Earl getting sealed to their parents. We talked about how lots of her kids have been interested in the Gospel. We talked about a lot of things. It was good. I haven’t seen them in over a year. Since 2009.
Bye
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