Missionary Updates:
"Hello everyone,
Well first of all, if you did not know already, I have finished the
grueling 14 week training and I am now in the Leander/Parkside area.
This area is north of Austin. So far, it has been an amazing experience being up here! My new companion is Elder Goeckeritz. He is a huge sports nut and is referred to as a ken doll by other missionaries. I also seemed to have lucked out again because I am still in a car area! We have an amazing apartment and are staying with one other companionship (Elders Hunt and Camire). Elder Hunt is well known in Austin for being a very successful missionary. He is an exceptional and I am certain that President Slaughter could put him anywhere and see results. Elder Camire is in his second transfer of training. He is excited to be on the mission and incredibly enthusiastic. There are also two other missionaries that cover New Hope/Liberty Hill. They stay with a member. Her name is Sister West, but we call her Abuelita. The Leander missionaries used to stay with Abuelita, but recently the New Hope missionaries have started staying at her home because their area is in closer proximity to her home. Abuelita is a little old lady from Mexico city/California, she loves SpongeBob and missionaries, so all is well there!
Right now we have 6 investigators with a baptismal date, we have a
district goal of 15 baptismal dates by the end of the transfer (6
weeks). There is one investigator specifically that we are working
with that has had a series of events happen in her life that has
allowed her to let the gospel work within her. Diana grew up in really negative circumstances and for a long time, believed that there was no loving God. She now reads the scriptures every day and her 15 year old daughter has been baptized. She will be baptized on April 30th! We are so excited to see Diana and the journey that she has taken to get herself closer to those saving ordinances and become so spiritual. Our Heavenly Father prepares people, I can testify of that each and every day.
The message I wanted to share today was from an Ensign article from
February 2005 by Elder Clayton Christiansen. The article is titled
Seven Lesson on Sharing the Gospel. He tells the story of experiences he has learned about being the most successful member missionaries and making the work for the full-time missionaries' easier. Here is one of the principles he learns with a story attached to it.
"We simply can’t predict who will or won’t be interested in thegospel, and building a friendship is not a prerequisite to invitingpeople to learn about the gospel. We discovered these principles when we were newlyweds and the missionaries in our ward asked us to make a list of people with whom we could share the gospel. We were to start with those at the top of our list and begin “preparing” them through a twelve-step process. First, we were to invite them to our home for dinner and follow that by going to a cultural event together. The sixth, seventh, and eighth steps were to invite them to church, give them a copy of the Book of Mormon, and ask them to take the missionary discussions. The program culminated in the twelfth step--baptism. We dutifully made this list, placing those we thought most likely to be interested in the gospel at the top. They looked like “ideal Mormons”--people whose values, such as clean living and commitment to family, mirrored our own. We then began building deeper friendships with them, adding additional social events to our already busy lives. One by one, those we thought might be interested in learning about the gospel declined our invitations when we got to steps six through eight. Our invitations didn’t offend them, but in their own way they told us they were happy in their present approach to religion. After much work over many months, we didn’t find anyone who was interested in learning more about the gospel. New missionaries were then transferred to our ward. Knowing nothing of our history, they came to our home, unfolded an identical chart on our table, and asked us to make a list of people with whom we could cultivate friendships in preparation to teaching them the gospel. We protested, “We’ve tried this. It took a long time and didn’t work.” We explained that we felt we had honestly tried with everyone we thought was a candidate for hearing the discussions. Desperate for a referral, the missionaries pleaded, “Don’t you know anyone we could visit?” We gave them the names of four couples we had excluded from our initial list. Among them were the Taylors (names have been changed). We warned that while the elders certainly could knock on the Taylors’ door, it would be a waste of time. Ken had bad feelings about organized religion of any kind. In addition, he was a tough rugby player and a high-volume consumer of ale. The elders later returned, jubilant. The Taylors had invited them in, listened to the first discussion, and invited them back for the second. We subsequently became close friends with the Taylors as we studied the missionary discussions together. We would never have imagined that they would have had any interest in the gospel.We learned from this experience that we simply cannot know in advance who will and will not be interested in learning about theChurch. We thought we could judge and therefore excluded from our list many people whose lifestyle, habits, or appearance made them seem unlikely candidates. As we reflect upon those who have joined the Church, however, it is clear that few of them would have been on our list of “likely members” when they first encountered the Church."
We are commanded to share the gospel to the best of our abilities (Doctrine & Covenants 38:40). Missionaries need your help all around the world in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the work is progressing. I love this mission and I am all in, like it says in our missionary purpose statement, "My decision has been made, I have put my hand to the plow, I have crossed the line, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every Sister, Every Elder, all in!"
I love you all!
Elder Arciniaga
Here is my new address: 1101 Brushy Creek Rd #902
Cedar Park, TX, 78613"
Recap:
Mother & I tweaked these peeps in preparation of Easter. They were so yummy!
Remember how I told you that my sister, Allie, was the queen of Snapchatting my baby? Well, here you go.
OMG these guys have my heart!
Mother/now Grandma made up Easter treats for everyone. These are Adam's goodies. :)
OMG I love my family.
Ryan tamed the craziness that was the jungle that resided where our front lawn should have been. Yay, Ryan!
We went to a Kings game! Ryan scored free tickets from his coworker.
It was so fun!
The popcorn was good too...and our team actually won! Yay!
Today was bath day! I love bath day, but Adam does not. Haha.
My Weekly Obsessions:
- Glee! ...still trying to figure out what to watch when I'm finished...(I'm so over Rachel and her diva attitude...on the other hand, I feel like Kurt has become a total boss. Plus I adore Adam Lambert as Elliot...)
- Not caring how I look. This was a really tough one for me. I usually like getting dressed up and wearing makeup and all that, but this week I've taken a break from that and just soaked up enjoying Baby in all his fussy, sweet, "mommy-don't-ever-set-me-down" glory.
- My Boba baby wrap. This thing is a real lifesaver. It is so much more convenient than lugging around a stroller in public, plus Adam loves it! Being in my kangaroo pouch puts his to sleep almost right away!
Ryan's Weekly Obsessions:
- His new fave game: The Division (based on a Tom Clancy novel)
- This meme:
Fun fact: Ryan is a boss at waking up Adam, feeding him and burping him (he figured out a system like right away) ...which is quite an accomplishment since Adam's favorite thing to do once he starts drinking his bottle is fall asleep. He definitely inherited Ryan's talent of being able to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Ha.
Thankful Thursday: my sweet little family, Adam Wesley, sunshine, baby snuggles, the opportunity to be a mommy!
If you'll excuse me, I have a SweetAngelBaby to stare at. I'm trying to soak it up while I can. After all, he's only little for a little while.
XOXO,
