WEEK 16

Hey guys,

So I guess you noticed that my p day wasn't on Monday this week. They moved it to today so that we could have our p day on Thanksgiving! Also I am not in New Prague anymore, I was transferred to Red Wing!

So I will start with the highlights of this week! First off I am with Elder Huntley again! It was a happy reunion and we were able to talk about what we did the last two transfers. We have told every member we talk to that we were companions in the MTC and it blows their mind! Second off we were able to get three date sets in the first few days! The first person is Bernie  and they actually set a date with her the day before I got there. She is super for baptism and she actually asked them if she could be baptized. She is Hawaiian and her sister is a member here in Red Wing, Sister Fickle. So this week we have been over at the Fickles a lot to teach Bernie's family, who are staying there. We finished teaching her all the lessons on Monday and planned her interview with the Zone leaders. We then set a date with James as well. He has some Word of Wisdom issues to overcome, but last time we met with him he was a week sober. He said he wants to start the year off with a clean slates so we set a date for January 7, but we told him that if he kept sober he could get baptized with his wife, who is getting baptized December 3! The Fickles are starting to come back into activity as well since the Bernie and James have been taught. Our third date set was with a guy named Brant. He was actually a former investigator who was being taught last spring and was actually going to be baptized, but then his girlfriend at the time stole a bunch of his stuff and sold it so she could go buy heroin. So that kind of ruined that, but when we saw him last Saturday we were finishing our lesson and we brought a member with us who actually helped out a bunch. Brother Edwards came with us and he was baptized two years ago and overcame a lot of the same things that Brant went through. His date is set for December 17 and he is going to have to overcome Word of Wisdom issues as well, but he said he can do it. We have a family we are teaching and their son Aidan was actually just baptized a few weeks ago. We went over to teach him about the priesthood since he is getting it this Sunday and his younger brother, Rourke, told us he wants to be baptized. He has said that before, but his dad, Blaine, said he doesn't really know what that means, but this time he told him he could if that's what he wants.  He pretty much taught him about what he is going to have to do after he is baptized, like go to church every week and read your scriptures and things like that. So we are going to go set a date with Rourke and then try and work on their parents, Amanda and Blaine. So hopefully we can convert the whole family. I know they will eventually because they believe all of what we teach is true, they just aren't willing to give up their addictions yet. Amanda smokes and drinks coffee and Blaine chews. I don't know if I have ever seen Blaine with out chew in his mouth. We have a few other people that I think are progressing, but not enough to talk about them.
 
So the people in my district and zone are pretty cool too! Elder Huntley is the district leader, or the Relief Society President, because our district is all Sisters! Sister Westover and Sister Darrington are in Woodbury and Sister Darrington has only been out a week. Sister Frank and Sister Eriksson are in Cottage Grove and are the Sister Training Leaders, which is like a Zone Leader, but they are for the Sisters in the zone. Sister Brown and Sister Peterson are in Eagan and they pink washed the area, which means there were Elders there right before they got there. Sister Brown came out with Elder Huntley and I. My Zone Leaders are Elder Oldroyd, who has been a Zone Leader in Hudson for 6 months now, and Elder Last is my other Zone Leader. It was kind of funny when we had our district meeting through Skype and the Zone Leaders were on it and all of us were introducing ourselves and one of the questions was the area where they Last served and Elder Last, Elder Oldroyd and I all said New Prague. I had heard a lot about him while I was in New Prague.

On Sunday we were at a baptism for one of the members, which was right after church, and then that evening at 6 we went to church again. No not at our church... we had one of our investigators that we called to try and set up a lesson or something invite us to her church where her Dad is the pastor. So we told her we would go. The name of the church is New Life United Pentecostal Church and I just got to say... it was weird. When we got there Becca came and said hi and thanks for coming and then we sat down and started singing songs and there was a piano and and guitars and stuff and we sang this one song that was actually kind of catchy about letting the hallelujahs roll. We sang songs for like 15 minutes and I was starting to think that all they did at this church and I thought they just sang the whole service and that was their church. The weird part was after every song people would say things like "Praise the Lord" or "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" and some people got really weird with it. Then finally a guy came out and actually taught us stuff, I didnt agree with all of it but it was still good. Then at the end he asked everyone to come up to the front and stand and we stood up but in the back and he started saying a prayer and then the person on the piano started playing and singing and everyone started saying Praise the lord and things like that and there was one lady kneeling down crying. I think it was awesome that they love Christ so much, but it was just a little too much for me. After though Becca thanked us for coming and some other people came and introduced themselves to us and they were super friendly. The pastor even came over and said hi. That was my first experience at a different church.

Well we have to go to eat some yummy food so I am going to have to cut this short, but have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Sorry if I don't get to email anyone back, I don't know if we will have time. At least you only have to wait four days this time!

Elder Bullock

Elder Huntley and Elder Bullock re-united again