Dear Family,
This week has been quite the adventure. I know I say that a lot, but it's true- everyday is a new adventure. We are doing lots and lots of work. Two interesting things happened this week.
One, we taught a gentleman by the name of Mike, great guy, lives with his 9 year old son who just got baptized. We've been visiting [his son] for new member lessons, and lately the lessons have been focused on Mike. He has had lots of trials in the past two years and the Bishop was able to be a helping hand when Mike needed it. He decided he needed to have a chat with bishop to get some concerns off his mind. We thought it was going to be a confession, but it was just a few concerns about our beliefs. From either perspective it worked out because either he confessed sins to a bishop and would become better converted than most or we draw out concerns and get them taken care of and he beomes better converted to the gospel. It's a win-win situation. We feel he is better prepared than most who are in his spot. We also taught a lady who is married to a member and wants to visit with us and even join the church but because of her southern baptist parents who have threatened to disown her, she cannot and it breaks her heart. She probably reads the scriptures more than some missionaries, the Book of Mormon even.
The second thing is, on Friday night we got a call from a member of the bishopric in one of the wards, giving us a assignment to talk the upcoming Sunday. So Saturday night we got into bed late writing our talks which we were told were awesome talks. I made a joke at the beginning by saying "I think Bishop is a good bishop and everyone should make him a plate of cookies and brownies" then i turned to the Bishop and ask "Bishop, i can't read your handwriting, did I say that right?" Quite a few people got a kick out of that. It was a neat experience how it really only took a little amout of time to write my talk yet the Bishop thought it was inspired. The spirit really does give you what you need.
We didn't get in last night till about 10 because we were making sure to visit all that we could, otherwise we would have been home at 8:30 pm and we would feel bad for not having done more. So I explained that to my Zone Leaders that I would rather they call President saying I worked hard and ended up getting home a little late than not do anything and hope they would not find out about it. Lots of work is coming to us and we are excited to see what the Lord will give us. We are changing the ways we plan and setting our goals so that we can see what we really need to be doing.
Sorry if I have a few (several) typos in this letter, all the places we usually e-mail at are closed so I'm using a members laptop to e-mail.... it's amazing how much of a difference there is between the two. We also learned how much of a difference member participation makes in an area. Some wards are good and want work in their ward and some want work but don't know what to do. My advice to people is if you want to be a help to missionaries, let them know of upcoming events so they can invite investigators to them so they can get familiar with the ward. We learned of a breakfast this morning and only because we were in the ward that Sunday. Well, I've got a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks cause I'm still going to be in Idaho Falls. So much stuff can be done yet there is only a finite amout of time. Prioritizing is definitely going to be a big facet these next few weeks.
Well, talk with you all later.
Love,
Elder Hedgecock
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Elder Michael Hedgecock Jr.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
May 7, 2012
Dear all,
This week we spent more time sorting out the baptism we had, which was really fun. I woke up with the feeling we needed to be at the church building to fill the font; my companion was confused because he was sure we had set it up already, so we got ready really quick and went to the church building to find no one was there and we needed to have the font filled in 2 hours, ironically it needed 2 hours to fill.
A dinner appointment canceled so we had dinner at Maverick, a gas station (not recommended), but a hot dog, corn dog, egg roll, and nacho dinner was something I had not had in some time, in fact not at all.
Ping Pong seems to be a new thing. The members we live with have a ping pong table and my companion and I play it sometimes. It was exciting when we didn't care how it was played and just knocked the ball back and forth, for instance we tallied how many times one would hit the net and the first one to 50 lost. The idea was to try to do better at not hitting the net.
We contacted many, many people this week and they all seemed very friendly, some only cause they were sick so they were probably only friendly cause being mean just make being sick worse. We took a family to the temple visitor center yesterday and they were all so cheerful to be there, the dad was not a member but the wife was and her son was baptized about 3 weeks ago. The husband seems very friendly with us and we think if we don't push him he will eventually ask to take the lessons. This week has a lot ahead of it, and I am looking forward to calling on Sunday!!!!!! T.T.F.N. "Ta Ta For Now"
Love,
Elder Hedgecock
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This week we spent more time sorting out the baptism we had, which was really fun. I woke up with the feeling we needed to be at the church building to fill the font; my companion was confused because he was sure we had set it up already, so we got ready really quick and went to the church building to find no one was there and we needed to have the font filled in 2 hours, ironically it needed 2 hours to fill.
A dinner appointment canceled so we had dinner at Maverick, a gas station (not recommended), but a hot dog, corn dog, egg roll, and nacho dinner was something I had not had in some time, in fact not at all.
Ping Pong seems to be a new thing. The members we live with have a ping pong table and my companion and I play it sometimes. It was exciting when we didn't care how it was played and just knocked the ball back and forth, for instance we tallied how many times one would hit the net and the first one to 50 lost. The idea was to try to do better at not hitting the net.
We contacted many, many people this week and they all seemed very friendly, some only cause they were sick so they were probably only friendly cause being mean just make being sick worse. We took a family to the temple visitor center yesterday and they were all so cheerful to be there, the dad was not a member but the wife was and her son was baptized about 3 weeks ago. The husband seems very friendly with us and we think if we don't push him he will eventually ask to take the lessons. This week has a lot ahead of it, and I am looking forward to calling on Sunday!!!!!! T.T.F.N. "Ta Ta For Now"
Love,
Elder Hedgecock
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, April 30, 2012
New Area!
Dear All,
This week has brought forth some new lessons to learn.
We had a baptism Saturday, taught them new member lessons on Sunday. We learned that a baptism date we have [set for] this Saturday doesn't live in our area which really complicated things this week. We called our mission president and he gave instruction on what to do. This morning we called back to give the outcome of the situation, it's still in the air a bit, but President told us why it is so important that we make sure we don't make a mistake.
I feel really close to my Mission President considering the number of times I've had to call him. Who would have thought I would have made more calls to him than anyone else this week? But as he has said before "I prefer it that way."
Those are things that just if anything add a bit of stress, but as long as the investigator gets baptized it's worth it. We visited many people and my companion almost got his face eaten off by a dog. (we were both surprised that dog didn't hop the fence.) We learned just how important we are. A [member] seems to really like us and is less active. His wife told us she was glad we don't take the same approach as most to get him up and doing his duties.
I got to give a blessing to [a members] wife; I'm surprised what I feel and what I say during those. No amount of thinking will do me any good, unless it's a prayer in my heart asking to have the spirit with me. How blank my mind can be yet I can still make complete sentences when I speak. Bearing testimony can be both exhausting and exciting at the same time. It is especially amazing how there is slight differences from one to the other. I can tell I've given a powerful one when the next testimony is so much more powerful and different than the one before it.
Much to my surprise we- I - bumped into someone who looked familiar to me. The following words is what i heard from a gentleman from a ward I serve in. "Hedgecock? you from Phoenix?" "yep!" "whats your dad's name?" "Michael" "I used to go to the family ward you guys went to in Phoenix, I served in the Bishopric there." "with Bishop Hunsaker?" "Yep, Bishop Hunsaker." Chris Brown and his family live in the Sand Creek 3rd ward that I serve in. Our dinner appointment canceled on us and he invited us over to dinner. It was the closest thing to home I've felt in a while, which was refreshing to feel and made the rest of the day better. We met with the stake President who said "President Colton and I have a agreement, he either sends me the best missionaries to serve here, or I make them into the best missionaries." With a statement like that, it's got to be good to be here!
Love you all,
Elder Hedgecock
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
This week has brought forth some new lessons to learn.
We had a baptism Saturday, taught them new member lessons on Sunday. We learned that a baptism date we have [set for] this Saturday doesn't live in our area which really complicated things this week. We called our mission president and he gave instruction on what to do. This morning we called back to give the outcome of the situation, it's still in the air a bit, but President told us why it is so important that we make sure we don't make a mistake.
I feel really close to my Mission President considering the number of times I've had to call him. Who would have thought I would have made more calls to him than anyone else this week? But as he has said before "I prefer it that way."
Those are things that just if anything add a bit of stress, but as long as the investigator gets baptized it's worth it. We visited many people and my companion almost got his face eaten off by a dog. (we were both surprised that dog didn't hop the fence.) We learned just how important we are. A [member] seems to really like us and is less active. His wife told us she was glad we don't take the same approach as most to get him up and doing his duties.
I got to give a blessing to [a members] wife; I'm surprised what I feel and what I say during those. No amount of thinking will do me any good, unless it's a prayer in my heart asking to have the spirit with me. How blank my mind can be yet I can still make complete sentences when I speak. Bearing testimony can be both exhausting and exciting at the same time. It is especially amazing how there is slight differences from one to the other. I can tell I've given a powerful one when the next testimony is so much more powerful and different than the one before it.
Much to my surprise we- I - bumped into someone who looked familiar to me. The following words is what i heard from a gentleman from a ward I serve in. "Hedgecock? you from Phoenix?" "yep!" "whats your dad's name?" "Michael" "I used to go to the family ward you guys went to in Phoenix, I served in the Bishopric there." "with Bishop Hunsaker?" "Yep, Bishop Hunsaker." Chris Brown and his family live in the Sand Creek 3rd ward that I serve in. Our dinner appointment canceled on us and he invited us over to dinner. It was the closest thing to home I've felt in a while, which was refreshing to feel and made the rest of the day better. We met with the stake President who said "President Colton and I have a agreement, he either sends me the best missionaries to serve here, or I make them into the best missionaries." With a statement like that, it's got to be good to be here!
Love you all,
Elder Hedgecock
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, April 9, 2012
Happy Easter!
Dear All,
We have had a very interesting week! This week was "Walk With Christ" [presentation] and we tried to get all the people we could to go to it. What a neat experience it is! Seven rooms, each one depicts a different part of Christ's life. What an amazing experience. The Spirit was very strong in the Walk with Christ, I wish I could describe it with ease.
It is very possible I may not be in the same place next transfer, which we will recieve calls for this Saturday. I'll will tell you what I learn next Monday. We got a call Monday at 8:30 and were told we were moving, to make the experience more exciting they told us we were moving the next day @ 2pm. So 16 hours to pack 8 of which we are suppose to sleep. We moved into our new apartment and we find we are in a smaller apartment. Much smaller. Our bathroom is newly remodeled and the apartment has a brand new stove in it too. So we are so glad to have good things but wish we were not crammed into a small room. The best part: the Landlords who live above us can hear anything above normal speaking level in our bedroom.
We helped a guy transplant tomato plants he had, we invited him to 'Walk With Christ', but was unable to make it.
I got permission from my mission president to go up to Rigby to see the baptism of 2 over age youth I taught. We also got permission to go fishing in American Falls, which has not happened, I'll let you know when that happens.
We also used up a lot of our Book of Mormons for Walk With Christ. We asked our Zone leaders for 2 boxes (80 books) of Book of Mormons. They asked us what we planned to do with them, we said, "Give them out".
We learned a ward in need of a Gospel Principles class is putting it on hold, which is stressful, 'cause we have people we want to bring to Church but it's hard to want to bring them if we don't have that class. We could just take those we bring to a class and teach it ourselves. If we have people there next week and no class is made we will do just that and if someone makes a complaint we will be in the right completely so I will not fear.
Hope all of you are doing well, I am doing fine in Pocatello. We got a lot of Candy for Easter, as I've stated before people like to take care of missionaries out here.
Love you all,
Elder Hedgecock
We have had a very interesting week! This week was "Walk With Christ" [presentation] and we tried to get all the people we could to go to it. What a neat experience it is! Seven rooms, each one depicts a different part of Christ's life. What an amazing experience. The Spirit was very strong in the Walk with Christ, I wish I could describe it with ease.
It is very possible I may not be in the same place next transfer, which we will recieve calls for this Saturday. I'll will tell you what I learn next Monday. We got a call Monday at 8:30 and were told we were moving, to make the experience more exciting they told us we were moving the next day @ 2pm. So 16 hours to pack 8 of which we are suppose to sleep. We moved into our new apartment and we find we are in a smaller apartment. Much smaller. Our bathroom is newly remodeled and the apartment has a brand new stove in it too. So we are so glad to have good things but wish we were not crammed into a small room. The best part: the Landlords who live above us can hear anything above normal speaking level in our bedroom.
We helped a guy transplant tomato plants he had, we invited him to 'Walk With Christ', but was unable to make it.
I got permission from my mission president to go up to Rigby to see the baptism of 2 over age youth I taught. We also got permission to go fishing in American Falls, which has not happened, I'll let you know when that happens.
We also used up a lot of our Book of Mormons for Walk With Christ. We asked our Zone leaders for 2 boxes (80 books) of Book of Mormons. They asked us what we planned to do with them, we said, "Give them out".
We learned a ward in need of a Gospel Principles class is putting it on hold, which is stressful, 'cause we have people we want to bring to Church but it's hard to want to bring them if we don't have that class. We could just take those we bring to a class and teach it ourselves. If we have people there next week and no class is made we will do just that and if someone makes a complaint we will be in the right completely so I will not fear.
Hope all of you are doing well, I am doing fine in Pocatello. We got a lot of Candy for Easter, as I've stated before people like to take care of missionaries out here.
Love you all,
Elder Hedgecock
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