Hey hey!

Hey Hey! 

So this week was so very eventful!

First, MLC was on Tuesday and that was super cool! The Ap's trained and the discussions we had about the mission were great. A lot was focused on District Council, correction and being a good example. Such good stuff. Elder Vogt exchanged with another Elder and they got so much done! Elder Vogt is a hard worker and I'm so very grateful for such a great companion, we're great friends! 

This week consisted of these things:

- giving Bible's and Book of Mormon's out to referrals from salt lake. Most were interested and we'll be following up with them this week.

- We taught Judy and showed her the Restoration video. She said she'd come to church this week! We'll be following up with he this week as well.

- Found some people while tracting, they were all open to us coming back by.

- Taught some good lessons including an overview of the restoration to some people we tracted into, read some of the Book of Mormon with another, introduced the Book of Mormon and how he can receive answers from God, had some sweet object lessons for dinner messages, and taught seminary this morning! Shout out to Brother Chatwin and Grandpa Wold, teaching 14-18 year olds can be hard, especially at 5:30 a.m.

- Church was just fantastic. We had a bunch of Less Actives we've been working with show up, a Recent convert who hadn't been in 2 months came and loved it, we introduced some marked Book of Mormon's to the ward and had an awesome missionary moment from one of our members who gave a Book of Mormon to his friend. 

- We got to do a "drive by" with the best ward missionary ever who took us out for 3 hours yesterday! We tried a ton of promising formers who had just gotten lost in the pile of work we have to do. We got like 3-4 revived investigators out of it so it was awesome! 

That was a brief overview of the week. If there is anything I want to focus on with this letter, it's the importance of members. Almost all our lessons had members there. They add a sweet spirit to the room and become closer friends and a help to these people that missionaries just can't do. The support and excitement to come out with us, along with the willingness to do things two 18 year old Elders ask them to do is amazing. That is really when missionary work is at it's peak, when it's not just the missionaries work but the work of the Lord. Where everyone is a missionary. 

Love you all!

Elder Wold

1.my tape name tag because I lost my magnet tag

2. Grandma's hat

3.ripped my pocket so...

4.  tape to the rescue!

5 & 6. Skinnying my tie from a thrift store

7.after District council, about to go out on bikes

 

 

 

 

A long letter!!!

Hello everyone! What a fun week! I have such a hard time emailing, there is so much I would love to share and talk about but emails simply don't ever do any of it justice! 

This week was filled with finding, lessons, FHE, a sweet district council, exchanges in the boonies, and stake conference. 

Tuesday we found this super cool young couple who are looking for a church and are super open to us coming by and teaching and attending our church! They have like a zoo over there with like 15 different animals, it's kind of crazy.

We also had a fun object lesson for FHE with an inactive family in the ward. We are getting to know them better and they're open to us coming over. So it's been super cool getting to know them and hearing their story. They have these two little girls that are just awesome! We also got to meet their crazy chickens who almost attacked me for invading their place.

We had our first district council this week and it went so well! We have 6 Elders and then the Hermanas in our district, it's so much fun. Everyone was so open about their areas and what they personally were working on for a goal for this transfer, there were so many great discussions going on! It's kind of cool too because everyone other than one of the Hermanas have been out 6 months or less. I'm one of the oldest (on the mission) in the district! So we all get along super well. We're all pretty athletic too so today being the first P-day together will be fun. We'll see if anyone can ball...

Elder Vogt and I got to go on exchanges to boonie towns in western Oklahoma. The two Elders we exchanged with came out on the mission with me so it was fun being with them. We split the area because it would've been stupid to have me go up and one of them go down, it's like a two hour drive there from OKC. They have the biggest area in the mission, to give you an idea they cover most of the western part of OK. We mostly stayed in Clinton where the apartment is, but we also went to Weatherford to do a baptism interview. The interview was so cool, it was just me and the 12 year old Austin and we just talked about him and his story/testimony for about an hour. His little brother got baptized the week before and the rest of the family is planning on being baptized too. I did my best to just weave the interview questions into the conversation since it would be just a boring interview otherwise. It was really cool and the Spirit was there. This young man is ready. I just realized while writing this that he gets baptized tonight at 6:30! 

We also had stake conference this weekend and it was way good. It was mainly focused on being selfless and magnifying your duties as a member. President Mansell gave a talk on being converted and how his goal for each of us missionaries out here is to still be active and converted in 20 years. Although this goal was made known to me since the first time I got off the plane and has been brought up many times, I had never appreciated it as much as I did when he gave the talk. I realized just how important this mission is and how it's preparing me for life. Such a cool opportunity and all the change and growth happens when we "lose ourselves" in the work. 

I'm trying to be more selfless this week and do as one of the speakers on Saturday suggested about selfless service, "love out of your comfort zone". Sometimes it's hard to love people especially when you're trying to help them accept the best thing ever which is the gospel of Christ and they won't do it. But I plan on pushing myself this week by trying to "see with Spiritual eyes" who these people really are and how much my Heavenly Father cares about them.

Love you all! Thanks for being such great examples to me in my life!

Elder Wold

OKC3 Transfer #3

Hello.

So transfers are up! Elder Vogt and I are staying for another transfer so I'm super excited for that! We've been rocking it here. 

Nothing too interesting happened this week but it's all good, it was still fun! We had some great lessons and some good experiences with some members. Recently we've been moving the paper area book into the phones so that's been kind of a hassle. But it'll be so useful once we get it all figured out! 

We got to watch the fireside devotional whatever it is thing Sunday night with Elder Uchtdorf. It was awesome and he said some great things about not worrying about the big things but focusing on the small things- scripture study, church, sincere prayer, etc.-instead. This really spoke to me especially being out on the mission when there are a lot of things that you can come to worry about!

My favorite experience this week was being able to teach a lesson to two returning less active members and their 8 year old investigator niece. It was an especially interesting lesson because we taught it on exchanges with Elder Wood. We were having a hard time figuring out what we should do for the lesson, and we ended up deciding to just go with a back up and let the Spirit direct for the main lesson. We had a member meet us and we said a prayer and then got in there. Now for some background, the niece has 0 religious background. She has no idea who Jesus or even who God is. So it's been kind of hard teaching her in the past. This time, we were able to really keep it simple and we were really able to help her believe that God loves her and is there for her. It was cool too because we felt that we needed to ask the uncle and aunt what their testimonies were concerning God and they were able to share great spiritual testimonies that we think really helped the little girl. They plan on coming to church!

The reason I love this is because yet again see how the Spirit teaches, not the missionaries. We provide the material and come prepared, the Lord will make things happen. He loves all his children and will give them experiences and will touch their hearts to help them find truth.

I hope all of you are doing well! I'll send some pictures from the new phones we got. They've been so useful!

Love,

Elder Wold

 

Elder  Vogt teaching a primary            

Look what Elder Wold sent us???!!!! A potato???!!!!!!

 

6 months out already?!!!

Hi everyone! 

SO first off, I hit 6 months this week. (insert surprised/freaked out look here). I still feel like a complete greenie out here and a quarter of my mission is already done! Not cool, I want to be out here forever.

Next, a little summary of what's been going on. 

1. COLD. Until today. Like straight 20-10 for a week (even reaching a single digit one day) and then yesterday afternoon and today Oklahoma is like, nah lets be 50's. So Oklahoma is super flakey with weather. 

2. People at sacrament meeting! We had a family we've been trying to teach come to sacrament and actually stayed almost all three hours! And they want to come back! That was a super fun miracle from God. 

3. Tons more Potential investigators! We have a ton of pretty solid people we've been/trying to work with. It's been kind of hard with the Holidays so we're trying to get people going again this week.

And yeah that's about all ya'll missed. It's been awesome though in some of these lessons, getting deep and just teaching to people's needs. Studies are great too, lot's to learn! 

Highlight of the week, studying and then teaching about Alma 32 and how the word is a seed. We have an investigator that just has a hard time with faith and God himself. He is very logical and likes it when things just make sense factually. And that is kind of hard with faith, especially in God. But he thinks the Book of Mormon teaches good, and that's all he needs according to Alma. He just needs to recognize it's good, nourish it and be patient and diligent until the seed or his faith grows. We invited him to nourish his faith by continuing to pray, read and now to come to church every week. We'll see what he decides Thursday, he's been kind of skeptical of church since his last time there, our class taught about baptisms for the dead and sealing's (which are no bueno for investigators by the way). 

Anyway, fun week! I'm loving the grind, it's hard but soooo worth it. I can already see it changing me in so many different ways!

Love,

Elder Wold

Also...got this text from the Bishop of OK3 ward’s wife: Kim Allsup:
 “Hi!  Your boys came to seminary this morning to help with my lesson!  We start at 5:45... I hope they stay awake today!!!!  They are both the BEST Elders we’ve had in our ward.”

Happy 2018!

 
Here with Elder Vogt and some families and people we’re teaching.

Our Christmas was way fun, lot's of members and stuff. This last week with church was cool, we got a family of 9 to come and the ward gave all of them rides. Then we had two other ones come with a less active family we've been working with! I love it when things work out. The Lord is definitely softening the hearts of these people, they're willing to listen to some 18-year who have almost no life experience. The Spirit is strong and manifest in us, this setting apart is so real! 

Not a whole lot to write about. Lot's of downs and a couple ups, you know how it is. Lot's of stuff falling through. But I know this is the Lord's work and so I'll gladly do it, rain or shine, cold or warm, happy or sad, energetic or tired and so on and so forth. I have faith it'll come together and that I'm doing alright.

love, Elder Wold 

🎉Happy New Year Party!!🎉

New Years day we went and had a zone pday with president and sister mansell. It was cool! We played games, ate great food, and visited until the wee hours of 9pm! Happy Nee Year 2018!!!