Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Staying Put

Heeeeyeyeyyyy.

This week was transfers, I in the same place. My companion did leave
though and I am now with Elder Ruiz. His family is Mexican but he
never spoke Spanish at home. So, he is kind of my first Hispanic
companion. He is awesome though. I am really excited to work with him
over the next six weeks. His attitude is awesome, he wants to work
himself and be 100% obedient. So that is what we are striving to do
now. Work ourselves to death, in everything we do and be 100%
obedient. There were not a whole lot of other large developments other
than transfers this week. We did have some great lessons and, I did
have some great studies(those seem to be mysteriously connected). I
spoke in front of most of the mission at transfer meeting on the power
of scripture, it was by random selection though, so I am actually
nothing special it just makes me feel good about myself. Also, it was
scary, because I had prepared a talk but forgotten it at the
apartment. I wrote an outline for my new one with my mission president
looking over my shoulder, he said he understood though.

You can tell Evelyn that I have acquired a green thumb of my own. I
have an interesting little succulent that I have named "Elder Brent".
He is great I will send a picture soon.

This week has been a week of rededication for me. I have been trying
to find things I have fallen short on in the past and making them my
strengths. I am pretty sure I only have six more weeks left here and I
want to make them the best six weeks of my mission. I guess I have
thought that before but this time I really mean it in every way. "Up
and up, no downs" that is my maxim for this week. My goal is to have
two entire families of investigators at church on Sunday. We have one,
we just need to help them all get there and we have to find another
proper family to bring to church. So, all my work this week will be
consecrated towards that.

I love you all/

//EJB

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Elders Bigelow, Clark, and member



We play basketball at the church with a bunch of different
missionaries. We do that pretty much every p day now because we have
had so much so and often can not drive. So we find a way to get to the
church and play some b-ball. Now it is just something I like to do, so
if we don't have anything planned or anything in mind we kind of just
settle for basketball. I do want to go into d.c. And stuff but we just
haven't really had a proper opportunity. Instead I have decided to
save my trip for cherry blossom season. That is in April right? That
is what I remember. We will see though.

How has the reading, writing and service going? Every day? I have been
pretty tired this week and had some pretty exciting things this week.
One of those specifically was an amazing lesson with the Rocabado
family. We taught the restoration again from a different angle and
they finally got it. It was like a switch got flipped. As we were
teaching you could feel the spirit sneak in and the dad Jesus got a
little more focused and started listening more. At the end it clicked,
and he committed to a few things he has never properly done before. He
is reading and praying now regularly. This is saw what we have been
waiting, hoping and praying for. Once the dad gets it the whole family
will follow. I am excited to see that happen.

This week my Maxim is: "Persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent" -Calvin Coolidge

My goal is to be valiant in my service as a missionary

In other news I very well be getting transferred this Thursday. It
will be sad to go away if that is what happens. I have really come to
love this ward and area. It is weird, I have been here for almost six
months as well. Can you believe I will have been a missionary for a
year on April 17th... I am pretty sure that is the date...

I spent a lot of time writing a email focused on the atonement for the
priests in our home ward. All my spiritual insight is in their this
week. Though, along those lines I have finally found a way I like to
mark my scriptures and it has made a world of difference for my
studies. I will send a picture and explanation next week. It is quite
simple but has a lot of wiggle room and customization possibilities. I
think that is one reason I like it so much. Also, it is pretty when
done, and I want my scriptures to pretty. I hate it when they look
messy or way to cluttered. I am picky and weird like that.

 I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love you guys a lot.

<3

EJAB

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Ruts

Fam Bam(EVERYONE)
 
This week
 
Ruts are the worst, I feel like I am stuck in one a little bit. Plenty of things have been changing around us, the ward, the iPads, the district, all sorts, but I don't think I am changing enough as of recent. It is interesting how we become comfortable with ourselves the way we are and slow our changing. I am not a bad person by any means, but I am not where I want to be. Somehow, however, I lost sight of that mission. Not completely, but partially. Because of that I am not progressing, changing, developing, etc. in the way and with the speed that I want to. Do not worry however because I have recognized it and have identified what to do to change it. That took some personal analyzing and some thought but in retrospect, I understand. How do you stay out of your ruts, how do you keep progressing? The thing that has done it for me this time is a deeper thinking and reflecting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is my gift to conquer the things that hold me back from achieving my divine potential. That is big. One of the most powerful tools that brought that about was a series of videos by Elder Christofferson called Daily Bread. There are three of them;connecting our daily bread and sustenance ultimately to the bread of life, Jesus Christ. Through him all is achievable and all is conquerable. Will you watch those three videos for family home evening and then identify what you(us) as a family can change to more fully live, breath and think the necessary pattern to access the atoning power of Jesus Christ? When you do that will you let me know the specific changes you will implement so I can be a part of any that I can from this distance? If you do, I will give you your next family home evening activity as well! It involves fire, so maybe only for adults...But I love it!
 
 
 
Okay, so enough of serious stuff, YOU GUYS GOT THE NEW RECORD FOR BEST PACKAGE EVER. Thank you so much, everything was and still is perfect. Especially the amount of Chocolate going on, also the cookies, well just everything. I am going through the yoga "practices" now, following Mr. Yee's every word.
 
It has been snowy and stuff recent so I haven't been getting as much running in as I would have like to otherwise because my comp doesn't really love running and can't ride a bike on the ice. That will one thing I will be glad for after my mission. I can run by myself! But, you do know me, I would prefer to run with people. That is another thing, I still love people. Good people are a lot better than everything else in the world. Coming right behind them though are still: good skis,good cars, good bikes, good shoes, good clothes, good gadgets and fancy food. So, I haven't left everything in the dust, priorities have just been jumbled.
 
How was meeting Obispo Magleby? Weird? I talked to him about it yesterday, he showed me a picture, it looks like you guys had a good time. He reminds me a lot about spencer, which is great. Tell them I miss them and love them too.
 
Nothing insanely out of the ordinary happened this week missionary work wise, other than iPads are the best tool ever. My goal is to make something insanely out of the ordinary happen this week.
 
Last thing (I think, unless I think of something else), I have chosen a Goal and a Motto for this week. I am going to continue to do that for a while and then tell you guys about it. Please, if I don't do it, remind me to.
 
Goal. Be properly exhausted at the end of every day
Moto. No average days
 
So, yeah. By the way, I don't really like the word motto too much, so if you have some cool sounding synonyms let me know.
 
I love you all bunches and bunches/
 
//Elder Jonny Bigelow