The Dover Silo and more...

                                      Selfie of us in the car.

                                     Cleaning the font.

Things Pennsylvanians Have

Bittersweet Week.

I am sure you did a great job with the training. I really like the quotes you included. A lot of them are quite applicable! There was a point in my mission when I was trying to focus on getting in all the details, making sure everything was nice and neatly tied in. But then I realized that was teaching lessons not people, and that it is really so much better if you can solidify their testimony of a few principles rather than scampering through all of them. Obviously you have to teach them all the doctrine but it never says do it all in one sitting. That's been something I have really tried to change in my own teaching. The other point, asking questions, is perfect. Any lesson where we do most of the talking is not a good lesson. That ties into the other quote, helping people discover their answers. This not only builds their ability to receive the spirit of revelation but also builds their self confidence that they can learn this on their own and be ok without a missionary to guide them every step of the way. Too many times I've seen an investigator give an honest and true, if not complete, answer to a question, only to have a companion expound on it for another 2 minutes. Too much of that will lead them to doubt their ability to give good answers and feel like there's no way they could learn all the things we've told them. Building them up is how to do it. If not, in the words of Elder Bednar, "You are teaching neither people or lessons. You are talking to yourself in front of investigators."
Anyways. This week was wonderful but also really hard. Z and A had a wonderful baptism. The attendance was great, the branch was excited, and we had several investigators there. However, they were not there on Sunday for their confirmation. T, their one-year-old son, was bitten by a brown recluse spider and they had to take him to the doctor on account of the swelling and grayish pus that was oozing out of his arm. So that was a big downer. They were so devastated as well. We went over with their new home teacher to provide a blessing for T, and A was really worried it wouldn't be possible for her to receive the Holy Ghost. They will be confirmed this following Sunday. So that is a bad thing but we are just glad that they are okay. To quote our branch mission leader, "The thing about Z and A is that if anything bad can happen in their life, it will."
A big thing that we are excited about is C, our neighbor. She is progressing really well and had her baptismal interview Sunday before church! She passed! She really wants to be a member of the church because she knows it is true. What's tough is just that she has no support at home. She lives with her niece of whom she has custody, her brother, and a roommate. We've only ever seen the latter scampering from room to room to avoid us, but he doesn't like us. The brother, according to C, thinks we are "full of it." But this is from a guy with a mouthful of broken brown teeth, a criminal record, and a belief in aliens. C is still on track regardless. What makes this branch so great is that they reach out- Brother S and family are having her over for dinner Wednesday to get to know her better and teach a lesson with us. So we're pretty stoked on that. Anyways. Bittersweet week.
Love,
Elder Wright

Tricks of the Trade

A Church Cake

 The field is white, already to harvest!  And he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store, that he perisheth notbut bringeth salvation to his soul.

 Quote: "I've met with Elders like you for years. I've seen everything. All the arguments, scriptures, I've heard them all. There's nothing you can do that hasn't been already tried." Well, with that challenge in mind, we baked him a church cake. We'll be dropping it off tonight.


Elder B was insistent about cooking "gator".  We cooked it. My comments? Pretty gamey. And it all gets stuck in your teeth. Honestly, not too big of a fan.

It's God's Hand.

Well, you guys must have been praying for me or something, because this was a really good week. Things are looking up a lot, we are very happy with how things are going. It was a pretty dark time last week with the whole Z situation, but everything has improved. He is actually kind of sick right now, but is ready and prepping for baptism! He's been reading the scriptures a lot more, he is always asking us for new chapters in the Book of Mormon. A is still going strong. She has been clean since Sunday and she has committed she's never going back to cigarettes. In her words, "I've come too far." That’s pretty cool, right? We are gearing up for their baptism- the hymns Z chose (and was actually kind of adamant about) are “As I Went Down To The River To Pray” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. If you don't know what those are then I would direct you to the South, like back in the early 20th century. Ha-ha but it should be fun. They have come a long way and have come through the worst of it.

Well, when service opportunities are hard to find, just keep trying! We have now found ourselves with tons of ways to give back to the community! Even though it started off a bit frustrating, we have been able to get around the lady who didn't like us at the food bank and now help there every Thursday. We also shelve books at the library weekly, which is actually really nice too! (Though I get a little trunky. Also Elder B. doesn’t really like it at all.) And we have started helping a part-member couple in the ward with outdoors stuff, splitting and stacking wood, moving gravel, anything. They live in the deeps of the woods. It's pretty fun too. So we're doing great! It shows that Heavenly Father does answer our prayers! That was sweet!

Also on the whole prayers thing, I am glad for all the prayers you offered up for Z and A recently. A especially recognized a lot of miracles that made it easier for her to quit, and I have seen a lot of them as well. What's funny is that I could see myself looking at these things a year ago as just kind of random chance and good luck, but now I know it's more- it's God's hand. It's like something the director of 17 Miracles mentioned when he was asked what the exact 17 miracles were- he said, “There's way more than 17. Some people look at the film (read: life) and see only half a dozen "miracles". Others see 5 times that.” Cool thought, right?

Love,

Elder Wright

Our Super Sunday