Alma 32

What a great week! We've had some sweet lessons, some good exchanges and some good trainings.

Our investigator Rachelle is soaring right now! She came to church for all 3 and is just loving it! She has made friends with everybody there and is going to institute plus YSA(young single adult) FHE (Family Home evening) !!! SO cool! She had a cool story she told us too. We invited her to pray and to read Alma 32. Well she hadn't prayed in years and she has always struggled with believing in God due to past experiences. Anyway she prayed for like hours waiting for an answer, and nothing came, which frustrated her. But she had the thought to read what we gave her. So she read chapter 32 and came across verse 17, which she said punched her in  the face. She learned then that she doesn't need to know God is there, just believe and have faith. It's so cool to see her changing too, she went from some mopey girl we met on campus to someone who's just always happy! 

Exchanges!! I got to be with good ol Elder Wells again! WE had a lot of fun being together again and teaching on campus. We also went on exchanges with the AP's, that was a lot of fun! Good good good elders! I was with Elder Jones and our lessons were pretty good that day. He served on OU a couple of transfers ago so he was giving me some tips.

We trained at interviews this week! It was so fun! Our mission is really trying to improve our teaching skills. So we trained or rather had a discussion on PMG (Preach my Gospel manual) chapter 10 specifically the teaching skill of listening. It was way good. The Spirit is so so so important in teaching. Then we role played for like 2 hours straight as everybody got interviewed! It was such a  good day to learn and practice!

Campus is still the same as in how busy it is. The trick is going when there are people there for summer semester. So the mornings are our main times to proselyte! 

I had a goal last transfer to not think negatively but to be positive. I planned on doing this by casting out all negative thoughts and replacing them with positives, and after every lesson, giving myself 3 compliments and 1 thing I wanted to work on.  It worked wonders and now I'm more positive and more a
ware of the good guy I am.

Love ya!

Elder Wold

Our ward mission leader’s parents took us to ihop!

Hot!!!

I'm having lots of fun over here! It has been super hot! It was weird, yesterday was more dry than humid actually, which I loved. But yeah it's hot and I've been sweating and smelling just walking around campus all day. But it's still fun and I don't think anyone notices the smell or the backpack sweat marks. It's so funny!

And God has blessed us with tons of people to teach. Blessed us with people being receptive. Blessed us with direction and guidance in the things we do.

Zone Leader stuff is good, we're really trying to push everyone including ourselves to do better. I've had to step up more too, even though Elder Van Alfen is more experienced, he lets me do things and learn. I'm learning lots from him on how to teach to invite the Spirit more. I know we aren't the teachers, but it sure is nice being able to set up the Spirit by teaching things clearly, plainly and smoothly. So I'm working on that tons. I've never taught so much on my mission before. My teaching is getting a lot better. 

 I'm at a whole new level of expectations for myself and expectations from my leaders. God expects a lot out of me and I know I can do it. I can feel pressure. But I'm learning lots and I refuse to serve a mission and not grow and get pushed. I've been out a year and I feel like a  greenie again. I'm learning from the best of the best missionaries how to be a disciple rather than just simply a missionary. How to lead. How to push others. How to work hard, and how to have fun. But I have faith I'll come out victorious over it all in the end. The Spirit has been something I've been relying on a ton recently. Not only in teaching and in helping others but also in comforting me and guiding me. 

The university gets ramped up again in August, I don't know when exactly. But from what I've heard, it's going to get crazy!

Elder Wold

 

 The campus at the University  of Oklahoma!

Me with a statue of David Boren, the previous president on campus. Otherwise known as D-BO

Halfway

We're teaching lots and finding tons of people! It's been crazy here on campus, it is so fun!

So most of our investigators are actually just from finding people. We have a couple of member’s friends but not a lot. The YSA ward is somewhat big, but it's about to get huge with the fall semester coming up! Our zone is all of Norman plus some of the outskirts. We have 10 companionship's if I remember right...so 20 missionaries!

My new address before I forget:

748 Ridgecrest ct apt 1411

Norman, OK 73072

Actually cool story, the second counselor in the bishopric knows my Grandpa Pete Taylor(My mom’s Dad that passed away). I guess Grandpa was his Priest Quorum Advisor. We found that out before Priesthood. When we went in, I was asked to introduce myself and after I did, Brother Tucker (the 2nd counselor) talked about Grandpa. He thinks very highly of him. Very. He started choking up, it was really cool. Grandpa made a huge difference in his life. He said how he knew that Pete was in law school at ASU at the time and had little Emily running around and didn't have time for some 16-18 year old priests. But he made time. He said Grandpa helped him out a ton. Pretty cool.

Covenants have influenced me a ton, they are really what keeps me going. They give me strength through the blessings that come when I keep my part of the covenant. And that in itself is why they're important to me. As I do my part and I'm obedient, blessings come. 

Not much else to report on.

Elder Wold

OU!!!

Hey hey hey!!!!      July 7, 2018

So we email on Saturdays here at OU (University of Oklahoma) because there is better work on Mondays to do rather than on Saturdays, so we just email on Saturday and work for those 2 hours on Monday. 

OU is awesome so far! We have a crazy schedule with all our responsibilities here as zone leaders but we do so much cool work. We have talked to so many people on campus for summer school. We have been teaching a couple lessons a day and have so much going on. It's all about time management and high expectations here. It's so fun talking to people and teaching to their needs. I love it and it's been so awesome! 

We are over the Young Single Adult (YSA) Ward here and we only teach people who are YSA. Which is fine because everybody on campus is YSA! There is also institute when school is officially in, so we'll be attending that since we're on the campus.

My new companion, Elder Van Alfen is a stud! He works hard, is obedient and has fun! We have some high expectations for ourselves and for the zone, so it's going to be a great transfer. 

Not a whole lot else to report, other than I'm learning and growing so much right now. OU is so much more different than Wagon town, but it's great. We're going to see some miracles here!

Love,

Elder Wold

Transfer to OU!

Everything is going well here! We've been working hard, having fun and staying hydrated (it's hot).

I'm transferring to the University of Oklahoma (OU) campus in Norman, Oklahoma, so I'm a boomer sooner now, probably for life. It'll be so good! 

Yeah things have been picking up! I've been really growing and I think I know how to missionary! Now it's time to become a true disciple! OU is really going to push me that's for sure! But God trusts me and sent me here, so that means I can do this.

I know I'm making a difference out here! I've been seeing it more and more. I'm just grateful that I can be used in the Lord's hands. I've grown a lot.

So a miracle from this last week was with our Investigator Alicia. We found her in a very average way, we just talked to her and her friend at a park a couple of weeks back on exchanges. She was interested but kind of indifferent about everything. We were finally able to meet up with her this week at the park again. We started talking about life, she's been through a lot and is just kind of down trodden. We talked a lot about a person’s ability to choose and how so much revolves around that. So that naturally lead to the plan of salvation. We taught her simply and she asked some good questions. At the end of it all, she liked it. She said she felt very peaceful talking about it, a peace she hadn't felt in a long time. Then Elder Kestner asked her to pray about what we had said. She hesitated, she hadn't prayed in years and felt so distant. We explained how to do it and just that she just needed to just say what she needs to say. We reassured her that God is our Father, that he wants to hear from us and is just waiting for us to "knock". We sat there a bit, quiet. Then she started to pray. What a spiritual experience that was. She was talking to her Father, we knew it and she knew it. It was simple yet natural and special. She told us after, she hadn't felt so good in so long and that she knew the things we taught were true. She's excited to keep meeting with us.

There are a lot of hardships with the mission. There’s homesickness, loneliness, feelings of inadequacy, fear, and a work grind that at times becomes tedious and feels like nothing is happening. But it is all worth it for that one experience. 

Elder Wold