But that is the missionary life. And overall, despite all that, it’s a pretty good one.

Yeah the work is going great here! The snow just keeps coming, though. Pretty over it at this point. 

Church in Jamestown yesterday was awesome! Fast and testimony meeting was probably one of the most spiritually powerful meetings I have attended in my life. R got up and bore her testimony about how though even her baptism has been postponed; she still knows this church is true. Then J, another of our investigators, bore her testimony of how the gospel has changed her life. (She also gave a shout out to us, calling us "my missionaries"). Sister W, a returning member, bore her testimony for the first time in her life! Plus several other members from our area got up to bear their testimonies about missionary work! The Spirit was powerfully present there, and I could feel it so strongly. The fire alarm actually went off in the middle of several testimonies (some crazy kid kept pulling it or something), leading Elder B to quip, “Well, the second hymn in our hymnbook reads "The Spirit of God like a fire is burning'". That was a really special experience. The church is true!

Last week, we tried to do the repentance object lesson with this guy named K that we found. Anyway, don't know if you know this object lesson. A bowl of water is you. Every time you sin, you sprinkle pepper in the water and it looks yucky. The power of repentance is dish soap. You put a drop on the tip of your finger and touch the surface of the water and the pepper blasts away. Anyways, back to the story, K doesn't have any condiments in his cupboards. Nothing in there but beans and squid. :P  So Elder S. tried using ground-up coffee, which doesn’t work, because it sinks and disperses in the water. I was about to scrap the idea but found some canary food, which worked well enough for the purposes of the lesson. I still think it maybe went over K's head though...

At this point, we have a lot of investigators, it's a pretty tough process just leading them and helping them get through their individual problems and concerns and get to baptism. One thing for sure is, the devil does not let up on them! As soon as you start moving towards baptism, you are out of neutral ground. Multiple investigators are facing massive family backlash. Some are struggling financially, with health, whatever. It is really frustrating. And really hard to see. But that is the missionary life. And overall, despite all that, it’s a pretty good one.

Love,

Elder Wright

Freezing In Fredonia

                                I'm singing in the freezing rain...

                                 Not sure what this means...

Pumpkins

Where true happiness comes from...

 Hey there! It's twig talk, with Elder Wright.

The twig is going well. The ice storm hurt expected attendance, unfortunately-we are still in the mid 30s but hoping to grow that! But unfortunately the twig will be closed the next two weeks, for fast Sunday and then for Ward conference, both of which will happen in Jamestown. So that's lame! But it's ok. We'll figure it out and get things happening again after a brief interlude.

And story time! Well, some families have been bringing cookies and stuff for after church, just to encourage folks to get to know each other better. Sister W, a less active member who's coming back to activity, was going to bring Oreo's but she slipped on a frozen STOP sign (long weird story) and landed hard on her back, so she didn't go to the store on Saturday. She was like, "The Lord would definitely understand if just this once I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday to get the cookies, right?" And we were kind of like, "Um, keeping the Sabbath day is pretty non-negotiable..." But anyways we said we’d just buy the cookies so she wouldn't have to break the Sabbath. So Saturday night we are driving back and it's like 9:15, we've been jam-packed with appointments all day, and we haven't bought those cookies yet. So we are going to do a Wal-Mart lightning visit, and I tell Elder S, “ There's no way we'll get in and out of here without running into a member of the church." Sure enough, we are almost to the checkout line when this random dude finds us (he's not even in our stake or mission) and is like, "Elders!" and proceeds to launch into a 10-minute monologue. By the time we extricated ourselves we were most certainly late to get home. But we helped Sister W keep the Sabbath! Yay!

About R: He said something that really describes his personality pretty well-he was with his wife, who is just an all-around stud member, and he was asking just tons of questions on church organization, functions, etc, and K gets perhaps a little fed up and asks, "Why do you have ALL these questions?" He goes, "I'm an I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-O-R.  I'm investigating! It's what we do!" The core of it is he really is a good, genuine, guy, with a very firm testimony of Christ and a true desire to do what's right. I really have enjoyed teaching and learning from him.

The gospel is true! It's awesome! I had an interesting thought last night as I flopped down, exhausted, on my bed after a long day of talking, teaching, testifying, listening, and praying. I'm essentially working 6 days a week, not getting paid, fulfilling the equivalent positions of street minister, therapist, and unskilled laborer, without girls, media, or even a decent cell phone. But I am the happiest I've been in my life. What a weird thing that is! There's something to be said for that, I think. About the kingdom of God, and our roles in it, and how we manage our time, and where true happiness comes from. 

Love,

Elder Wright

Companion Exchange Etiquette

Braving the Erie Wasteland

                                 Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

                                 The Erie Wasteland

                                Brother C makes homemade hot sauce.

                                  The Fredonia Elders

Just a little icicle on the tip of the mission.

Well, let me tell you about a couple of things...

Episcopal drama

The bacon dropped into the fire for our investigator R this week. As I might have told you, she's dating a member of the church, J, which led to her investigating the gospel. She is heavily involved the Episcopal Church as well, she does secretarial stuff as well as altar duties. Well when her parents found out she was engaged to a Mormon, they flipped out and threatened to disown her. Things didn't necessarily improve when she said she was getting baptized. So she was really distraught about that. But this crisis is what pushed her to the point of calling to her Heavenly Father for help. And He gave her the testimony that she needed to be sure that this was the right decision. She talked to her pastor, who was kind of too shocked to protest, and then met with Bishop F. He sealed the deal. He was a former Episcopalian himself, and friends and family rejected him as well when he converted. So he was able to lend a lot of needed support. So the baptism will be the 31st at 1pm! Yay! 

#fredoniatwig

The ranks of the Fredonia twig were thinned this week by a virulent flu that's been sweeping the area recently. That being said, we had 37 people there this week! That was really cool to see, because we actually had some new faces as well  -  other less active members who came out. And the spirit of friendship and fellowship has been great! Afterwards, we all had cookies and hot chocolate together! I'll be speaking next week about the Malden Twig experience and what we can do to learn from that. Really great things are happening here. We are also getting fed a lot more now which is nice!

We are really cut off ha-ha, just a little icicle on the tip of the mission. 

Love, 

Elder Wright