Elder Austin Rich : 2018-02-11

Nyob zoo

Not happened this week in our area for missionary work, so I’ll just talk about some other fun things that happened this week.

This week is transfers on Wednesday, and me and Elder Vang are both staying here in Sheboygan so that’s good. On Wednesday last week, we went and helped clean out the old sisters’ apartment that used to be in Sheboygan, so it’s official now that we are the only missionaries in Sheboygan. This last transfer was a tough one. We didn't really make any progress with anyone and we really didn't find anyone promising. It is funny to me how many doors we knocked on. We could knock on doors for like 5 hours and not one person will answer but sometimes if we knock doors for 5 mins, we get 2 answers. It is just weird. We are still working hard, but no success. I am doing good though. I made a pretty good plan for my studies. I am hoping to learn around 2000 words in the next 6 months, so by my year mark it will be a lot of hard work, but very rewarding. I am excited about this next transfer and hopefully, we can start seeing some success.

On Thursday, we got a referral from the sisters in Manitowoc. They are teaching a lady there and her son is in the prison here. The lady wanted us to go and talk to her son., Devyn. On Sunday, we left church early because that was the only time we could go. We left and we went and talked to him at the prison and that was really interesting because I’ve never been in a prison before. He’s a super nice guy and he seemed kind of interested, so that’s good. On the way home though, we were driving home after talking to him, and a car rear-ended us. I guess that’s what we get for leaving church early. Kind of funny. It doesn't look like any damage was done, but we will have to have someone look at it.

A new family, last name Prusse, moved in a couple of weeks ago and they invited us over for dinner last week. We just had a simple meal - potatoes, sausage, and some salad. I got some salad - I don’t like salad - but I was being polite. So I put a little salad on my plate and I got the dressing and - I poured out about 1/2 the bottle on accident so… I had a lot of salad that day. It was a good first impression I guess. After the lesson, we played PieFace and that’s a game I think my sisters would like. I’ll put some pictures below.

We went to another dinner appointment this week, and it was really cute because right when they opened the door, the little 5-year-old daughter came right to us and gave us little valentines and some stickers. I put one of them on my name tag. It was cute.

Also this week, we went to a house and right when we got there, the girl was crying really hard. I won’t say who it is, but she was crying. We started talking to her and she said that she isn’t satisfied with her life and she isn’t satisfied with who she is and wasn’t happy. She always has these suicidal thoughts. That was a really sad experience for me being there because she really is so awesome and no one deserves to have those types of feelings that they’re not worth anything or no one cares for them. It just really made my heart sad. We ended up showing her a Mormon message and shared a scripture with her and it cheered her up. I think the lesson was really good because we just stopped by and didn’t tell her we were coming by and it ended up really helping her. It’s really sad that people in this world are mean, honestly, but she is super awesome. Sometimes people don’t tell her that, so it’s good that we can go over and tell her how awesome she really is and cheer her up.

That’s what this gospel is all about is picking people up and helping them see how much they are really worth and how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly love them and care for them. The way they can feel this love is through Christ's atonement because he - Christ knows what we are going through and understands our pains. The atonement really does show how much Christ loves us because it wasn't an easy thing to do, but he did it anyway because he loves and cares for us so much. This scripture explains just that.

1 Nephi 19:9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

Thanks for all you do for me.

Have a great week.

Elder Tshwj Xeeb