Family,
HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPYYY
I know she can't read quite like Dory, but hey, worth a shot. I'm sure she'll appreciate the fact that I wished her happy birthday someday. I like how Mom always says that Pennie will be able to talk in the next life. So hopefully I get a compliment then? We'll see. She'll tell us how weird we are. Anyways, I'm glad that y'all had a good week. I had a great week. It was a busy one. Today my P-Day routine has been changed. The Pratt Sisters are coming out here to come bowling and we won't be able to go to Pratt. I don't necessarily like bowling but hey, it's 3 against one (more like 4 against 2 if you include the senior couple) and I'm going to do what they want to do to be happy. I've realized that I need to get over my stubborn self. There's still tons of room for improvement and Elder Clay has been the perfect companion to point that out to me. You know, when the mission split back in July, I didn't believe that President Bell was inspired of God to orchestrate transfers. But now as I look back, I know without a doubt in my mind that he is inspired of God. That man is amazing! He has different personalities than President Keyes, but the spirit is just as powerful with both of them. I will tell you why as I tell you about my week.
Monday was just another day. It was supposed to be really cold but I felt like it was warmer than last Sunday. I enjoyed the cold while it lasted. Kansas weather is strange because you get used to a certain type of weather then it changes for a week. It just keeps alternating. I've been needing a haircut really bad but will probably have to wait until next week to get it. I've gained the experience that the best barbers are those that have little experience with cutting hair.
Tuesday was zone conference in Wichita. . It was an absolutely amazing conference. I love President Bell. His talk on the atonement stirred up something inside of us all. It was awesome. The AP's trainings were also good. Then we heard from the Wichita stake President, President Williams. He is an AWESOME stake President. We always hear during general and stake conferences and sacrament meetings the subject of member missionary work. Well President Williams spoke about missionary member work. Instead of sharing with him our favorite scripture or something doctrinally based, we need to share personal experiences where you have seen the spirit of missionary work. I loved what he said to us all. I've been trying to apply what he taught unto my missionary work. Later, we heard about the changing of our standards of excellence. It was humbling to be able to receive such blessed learning and knowledge. Later was the departing missionaries testimonies. Those that are going home within the next 2 transfers bore their testimonies. What was crazy was that one sister in particular that came out on her mission after me is going home at the end of this transfer. I thought that day would never come. Next zone conference, that's going to be me. I am really not looking forward to that. It will be an emotional day. You know the whole time I've been typing all this, I've been thinking about what Dad told me in his e-mail about judging others. I haven't even noticed I have an issue with that. But now that you mentioned it, I know that I need to humble myself as a grain of sand and love anybody despite their imperfections. It's super hard not to do that because I often think that my way is best. So I will be mindful of others' weaknesses and seek to be a blessing, not a burden. I also need to do a better job of not comparing myself to others. I look at other missionaries at times (including those in PQ2) and realize how good they are. So humbleness is something I will try to work on this week.
Wednesday was an awesome AWESOME day. We had several appointments that fell through but the first one that held was an older man age 73. He has been reading the Book of Mormon for about 2 weeks now and has already said that he doesn't believe that "Mormon' is the way to go for him. He committed to come to church yesterday but didn't show up. During this lesson, I had the feeling that we've been trying to convince him that our church is true when that is not the way that Christ did it. We're here to teach the doctrine and invite people to come unto Christ. So that's what we'll be doing in a bold, loving way with him. Later, we had a member come out with us as a team-up. We had an amazing lesson with this entire family. Their youngest is 15 and oldest is 24 and they have 4 kids. 3 of them are out of the house but all live within relatively close proximity. We taught almost the entire family the first half of the restoration and gave them the restoration DVD to watch. I love that family so much! Next time we are going to invite them to baptism. That will be this Wednesday. Isn't it amazing when the spirit guides a lesson like that? We didn't slam anything down their throat, we just taught and let the spirit do the teaching.
Thursday was another awesome day. We did service at the recycle plant when it was still pretty cold outside. Then after that we had an appointment with the investigator that I am pictured with. She is trying to quit smoking. We keep telling her to use the atonement. She loves our visits. She told us last time that right before we came, she was tempted to call us and say that she wasn't interested anymore. But she knew what we have and that she wants that for her. She still has many hurdles to overcome but we've handed her the tools to do so. She committed to come to church and actually did! I was psyched. So we got a total of 8 new investigators this past week. I believe that's more than we have gotten since we got here. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's correct.
Friday was an awesome day. We do service at the Kingman food bank as often as we can and this day was a good one because we're getting a closer relationship with the women that work there. Keep in mind that the food bank is in the basement of the Presbyterian church here in town so all of these people that work at the bank go to that church (I'm pretty sure). They really appreciate all the help that we do. That night we had another appointment with the 73 year old man and we just talked with him. We wanted to gain his trust and friendship. I think we did a good job at doing so. I'm good at making him laugh, haha! Everybody likes to tease me for the way I do things so that makes them like me because I don't get offended. But anyways, moving on. Later that night we taught a bisexual young man with 2 of his friends that are just doing anything they can to help him. We just talked with him and invited him to learn for himself. We also became friends with him ourselves. The guy that is his friend (who is married) is a really funny guy so that helps a lot.
Saturday was perhaps our busiest day of the week. We went and saw the investigator who doesn't have the faith to close his antique shop on Sundays to come to church. He already knows that the church is true, he just needs to act on that now. Last month he committed to come to church on the 19th because he remembers things easier when it's a long time away (like over a month or so). So we're excited to see him next week. After, we had a good lesson with one of our newer investigators who was watching the KU basketball game versus K-State. He is a Christian and goes to church here in town every week. He is also pretty old but is open to learn about what we believe in. I feel like we just spoke to a brick wall the whole time. So next time we're going to check for understanding and then get into the juicy stuff. I feel like as a companionship we need to do a better job at inviting people to make and keep commitments boldly and openly. Especially baptism. This week we're going to kill it with baptismal invites, just you wait. Later, we went to Pratt for dinner and had Mongolian food. I was to choose the country that we will eat about next time and I chose Northeast America. I don't think I've ever had anything from that region of the world so we'll see how it all goes. Before dinner, we taught a lesson to one of our investigators that I didn't want to teach. We were already late to dinner and we just wanted to go in and invite them to church the next day. They said they would think about it. Oh no, I'M JUDGING AGAIN! Okay no more.
Sunday was awesome too because the member that picked up the investigator that we told you about for church was perfect for her. She just kept welcoming her. I think she and her son enjoyed coming to church. After church they told us, in their own words: "We'll be back." But she has lots of questions for us. Also I saw brother Leavitt there at church. He was in the Wellington ward until he moved out on the 4th of July last year. He was back from Vernal, Utah for a few weeks for work. So I really enjoyed that. It was a surprise to see him. During branch council in the morning, we received the goals of our branch President regarding missionary work. He is an awesome man, let me tell you. He just talked about how we need future branch presidents. Too often, missionaries just teach to baptize when we need the head of the household to follow and join their family in baptism. He told a story about when he was on his mission in Zimbabwe how the Elders the day before he arrived in his first area baptized 18 people. Only 1 showed up to be confirmed on Sunday because they didn't get the head of the household. There were 600 members on the roster but only 12 were active. What he said was prophetic. That night during dinner, one of the members asked me all the foods I don't like because it seems like everybody in the branch knows I'm a picky eater. I told her my list and got teased for it. It was really funny, though. There's no hard feelings between us and anybody in the branch. I just get teased a lot because apparently I'm easy to tease, haha! But anyways, that's pretty much my week in a nutshell.
Mom, I like how you quoted that one ensign article about finding nemo. Maybe we should start making a trend saying: "Gollie, that's amazing." That would be funny. Just kidding, let's not do that. I'll try to remember to send home some stuff that I don't need today. I really liked both of your e-mails (Mom and Dad). May the Lord bless you this week as you keep the commandments and have many members-missionary opportunities. Oh, hey Dad, did you receive any word if the Chen's got my letter? And where are the Beebe's moving to? Are they going to move back anytime soon? Anyways, I best be off. We have lots of things to do with not that much time. I hope y'all have a good week! Oh, when are finals for Westview? I'm just wondering. Talk to you later! Love,
Elder Sutherland
