It’ll be a good week!

So Elder Vogt and I are staying here another transfer! I'm so happy too, we've got some new investigators and we've got some other cool things with less active members going on that neither of us wanted to leave! 

What a week!

hey hey hey!

Man o man what a week! I love it here in Oklahoma, these days are just always so different. 

So this week consisted of the following fun n stuff:

-Met a guy after pday who was drunk out of his mind and probably has no recollection of meeting with us.

-Had dinner with the Sigle's who are awesome and are important to make note of because of what happened later this week.

-Went on an exchange in OKC3. Elder Erickson from Yukon came to me and it was really good. We had a sweet dinner message involving a mouse trap and Ether 12:6

-Met with Brenda, an older lady who got baptized when she was 12, went to church for 4 years and then couldn't get a ride so completely fell away. She has been inactive for more than like 40 years and although she has some faint memories and good experiences in the church, she is pretty much an investigator. That has been interesting.

-Had District council on Thursday and discussed the importance of the Book of Mormon in missionary work and talked about how to do so. I beat the missionaries twice in a row at 21.

-Went to the bike shop after district council because Elder Vogt had his bike tire stolen on exchanges in Yukon (hilarious).

-Taught an amazing lesson with an investigator. We brought a member who just totally killed it! The investigator should be meeting with us this week and will probably come to church with us!

-Ate at a crazy Hispanic ladies home and had some ridiculously spicy food. Soooo good though, better than white people food!

-Followed a referral from the Sigle's to go visit their inactive daughter. We met and made best friends with them, they showed us their record player and their sweet collection of 60's to 80's records. And then they found out Elder Vogt played trumpet so they gave him one sitting in their garage!

-We met an awesome Less active family in the ward who used to live in Gilbert! So that was an awesome connection. We'll be going over for FHE this week and we'll eat some deer jerky he made after hitting a deer (looooong story)

-I got called out in Priesthood for doing something on Pday that I'll let the pictures explain. Great conversation starter and now everyone in our ward thinks I'm really good at basketball.

-We taught gospel principles on Sunday and had a great discussion. Later that day we made good friends with some Thailand guys hanging out and grilling in their garage who fed us duck and invited us back over for dinner.

And so yeah that is a brief over view of the week. Here's the highlight though.

We have been meeting with an inactive member for the past couple of weeks and have just been explaining how much we need him. We have taken him out to a lesson and it went really well, he taught by the Spirit and his testimony was definitely strengthened. We went over to his place this week and Elder Vogt talked with him while I distracted his VERY energetic 5 year old son from interrupting and being super loud (it was my turn to take him this time, Elder Vogt had him last time). The conversation went well and we found out more about how active he used to be, involved in the bishopbric and everything. We invited him to church and he CAME!!! It was so cool and the members really helped him feel loved and needed! We're excited to keep working with him and getting him back to where he wants to be with God.

Love you all! 

Elder Wold

 

 

 

 





On February 21st we got the following text and picture from Bro. Robison:

    

Elder wold and vogt helping me, bro. Robison load the truck.... 23degrees wind chill 7. Want to let you know that their assistance was massive. As we took this picture we were standing in sleet or ice pellets. We were in a race to beat the next wave of precip. Just finished loading. Great sons you have! -Bro. Robison

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Stoopid emoticon subject line. You're welcome.

My week was good. No fantastic stories or funny experiences. Just being and doing my favorite thing. A brief overview of the week:

-Got yelled at and a door slammed in our face by a "member". That sounds really bad, but it was just kind of funny. I used to take things so personally but I don't really care anymore haha. They'll get the truth of the gospel someday.

-Went to the Spanish area on an exchange with our Spanish speaking zone leaders. Totally different world and culture over there! Plus amazing food!!! I'm proud of myself too, I was able to understand most of the Spanish somehow, so thanks Spanish 1,2 and Alma (my friend who I used to speak Spanish with)

-Met with an inactive guy, became best friends with him and had him come out to a lesson with us. That was probably the coolest part of the week. He was super spiritual and the Less active lady came to church because of him!

-taught the restoration to this Baptist dude who just cussed the entire time we were there.(good cussing though, like not mad at us, just like slang/ trying to be a gangster)

-Met Mandi, a woman who used to have missionaries over when she used to live in Idaho. So we'll be over there this week!

-Had another sweet lesson with our young men's leader at an inactive families house. We invited the son to come and get the priesthood and stressed the fact of how the young men need him. It was cool and the Spirit was strong. Yet again another testament of the power of members. None of that would've been possible without him there.

-Made best friends with a young mom who straight up told us the last time we went over in a mean way that "she's not into the whole Jesus thing". Well we didn't talk about Jesus and the spirit was still there. Plus she opened up to us and now likes being around us. Take that Satan.

-Had a sweet district council, our district is bomb.

It was a good week! Lot's of exciting little miracles too but I'll save those for things to share after this is all said and done. I truly love the little things God gives us, looking for those things instills a brightness of hope and faith for the future and for now. I've learned that is true happiness. Elder Uchtdorf nails this in his talk, "A Summer with Great Aunt Rose" (yeah it's a women's session talk, women's session is awesome). I've been striving to really seek out those little things and keep a faith that there are good things to come and make the best out of any situation I'm in. 

Love you all!

Elder Wold

Ship Shape Bristol Fashion

That subject line has nothing to do with anything in this letter. It's just a cool talk and a thing my Grandpa Wold used to always say.

Good Morning! What a week! We had some highs some lows, some fun some bores, but it's been great overall and quite the learning experience. 

So to start off, we finally had a lesson with Mariah! I don't know if any of you remember that story or if I ever told you it now that I think about it but whatever. Just know it involved a hard day 2 transfers ago, me pushing a drunk homeless guy in his wheelchair, and all of this happening outside a nice woman's house who we went back and talked with, who ended up being Mariah. 

ANYWAY, we finally got a set lesson this last Tuesday since work had been so busy for her, plus the holidays and it was awesome! We just got to know her needs and what she had a belief in. We made some common ground on how there are so many churches and that it doesn't make any sense that there would be so much confusion from the same God we all believe in. From there we were able to connect Joseph Smith to her and his whole search for the true church among so many denominations. The Spirit was felt and we were able to also teach her about the Book of Mormon and left her with a marked one to read. We'll be going back over this week to see how the reading is going and to answer any questions she almost certainly has.

So that was definitely the highlight to me. But the rest of this week was cool. 

We...

-met this former investigator guy named Tristan who was cussing up a storm but invited us back and gave us some shady looking rip off ding dong treats. We still ate them.

-were confronted by this big African American guy at 7 at night when we were locking up our bikes at a stop sign that was kinda sorta on his property (not really but whatever). He was like "HEY WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!" and was all mean until he saw our name badges. Then he like flipped a switch and kept referring to us as his church brothers and gave us some tips about his sketchy neighborhood. It was funny.

-watched a homeless guy make his puppet dance on the side of the road next to an intersection to the song "you gotta fight" by the beastie boys. Pretty weird especially since it wasn't for money. 

-taught primary again with the same class of crazies! It was way fun but man I have so much more respect for my primary teachers and primary teachers in general!

-made friends with a new investigator named Richard from "DE-troyeet" who rides a sweet chopper and used to live in AZ. He used to ride with the biker gang "Hell's Angels" so he's a bit intimidating.

-Had an awesome dinner at an inactive member's home along with a young couple from the ward. The inactive member is from the Philippines and the wife in the young couple just got off her mission there a couple of years ago. So she connected well with the inactive member and it was so cool . He has never opened up to someone like he did with her. Members are soooooooooooooooooooo important.

-did an FHE with another inactive family. They showed us their sweet aquariums, their karate belts and their gun twirling abilities (fake guns like color guard stuff. no need to worry mom, we weren't hurling AK's around). We showed them the Ask of God video and it was cool seeing the Spirit work on that family, especially the two boys. 

SO those were some of the things we did! We also did a lot of biking and tracting this week. Both were cold but Elder Vogt and I equally don't take ourselves very seriously so we made it fun. I guess this week all comes back to this quote from Joseph Smith for me.

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”

We had a lot of days this week that just weren't super Spiritually powerful or filled with lessons. We honestly just worked a lot this week, trying to find people, talk to people, invite people etc. Some of the days really weren't that eventful and sometimes, just sometimes, they didn't feel very successful either. But that quote reminds me that all I can do is do my best with my whole heart. To do it with faith and hope that the Lord is blessing the lives of these people through us. And to do all of this cheerfully!

Love you guys!

Elder Wold