Like I'm Davis from New Orleans(Ben letter/pics 10/21/2019)

Sausin carl, sausin on you.

This is Ben.

That line is for the newly wed.

These past 2 weeks in Moldova have been great. I have been kissed by 3 women, and only 1 man. Surprisingly, the man was the only one that went for the lips. I also drank wine, that I was told grape juice. Apparently it is grape juice if you don't drink enough to get drunk. However if you drink enough to get drunk, then it is wine. Somehow in Moldova the chemical composition in grape juice can change to wine in a matter of minutes. Another fun story was when I was teaching a lesson on a park bench, when an old lady DEMANDED our help. She was carrying a bag of wine bottles to the giant cathedral church. So I thought I could safely carry them over to help, stay within sight of my comp, and run back. However when we arrived at the door, I was forced by the collar of my shirt, by this amazingly strong woman, into the church and out of sight of my comp. I then witnessed this lady get on her knees and attempt to kiss every icon saint in the church. To make this short, in the 2 mins I was in there, I held a child up to kiss a pagan god, was forced to my knees to pray to Peter, crossed myself the wrong way twice, and was stared at by about 30 people who also asked me why I wouldn't kiss the baby Jesus. I finally just ran out of there Joseph in Egypt style practically. 

Other then that, the only other thing new is that I have a leadership calling, so I plan on using chairman mao and stalin as my examples of success. 

 

As for a spiritual thought, we had a zone conference on the atonement. Our president decided if something was going to help missionaries, or to fix problems, this would be the topic. The conference was 12 hours long, so I definitely got a better picture doctrinally how the Atonement works. Just one thing i liked was the difference between mercy and enabling. To fully use the atonement you have to use both. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Enabling is getting what you don't deserve. I think that speaks for itself. Don't reject blessings! 

 

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Nu vă supărați despre ceea ce am spus înainte 

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Sometimes Dubstep and Shrub Steppe are Similar (Cubby letter 10/21/2019)

Tuesday October 15

Today we woke up got into our pday clothes and went to a service we had scheduled. We chopped coconuts. As is the custom, we ate with the people of the house afterwards. They gave us some of the sweetest drinking coconuts I've ever had, they were pretty good. And for some reason the pandanus fruit they gave us was softer than usual and also really sweet. After that we went home and did our studies, and then left for Tabwakea. We had about a 2 hour meeting with the Menzies because they are leaving tomorrow and they wanted to give us all the keys to everything and whatnot. By that time we didn't have that much more time in the day, so we had one or two lessons, and dinner to end the day.

Wednesday October 16

A pretty solid day. We went to Tabwakea early for district council, and our water wasn't working very well so Elder Bartley wanted to take a shower there as well. We showed up to the sisters trying to break into the newly vacated Menzie home with a pocket knife. Later I learned that the Menzies gave the keys to the Elders in Tabwakea who loaned the keys to the Sisters, who locked the keys in the house. Suffice to say that we have the keys now. After that we had district council, me and Elder Bartley gave a training on staying with our companions. After that we had some members point the way to our investigators house. We tracted around this place that is kinda known for being unfriendly to missionaries, but it went a lot better than we expected. We had a lesson at 6, which went pretty well, but afterwards the wife needed some help understanding something from a business class that she is taking. Something about Accounting Entities. We basically just ended up translating a couple paragraphs, and it was easily the hardest translation I've ever done. You don't hear a lot of business terms here, so I really had to dig. After that we had dinner.

Thursday October 17

Woke up today to do service for a teenage male. We chopped coconuts for him, which is our favorite service to do. We got to his house before he woke up, because in every part of the world teenagers go to bed late and wake up late. So anyway we were eating with his family afterwards, and some kids came and informed us that one of his pigs was loose. He said it wasn't that big of a deal because it was pregnant, and pretty docile, so all he would have to do is tie it up while one of us poured food into its trough. While were doing that however, we saw that  another one of his pigs, this one being a male, had also gotten loose. And according to our teenage friend, this was a runner pig. At first me and Elder Bartley tried to catch it ourselves, but we underestimated how fast pigs can be, so it got away and hid itself in the bush, where we could see it, but not reach it. So our friend whistles, and 2 dogs out of nowhere come sprinting to attack this pig. So then the goal was essentially to catch the pig before the dogs could kill it. And while it was being attacked, it would still run wild, but with less purpose, thus giving us the opportunity to tackle it. I had the pleasure of capturing it, with a diving tackle. It reminded me of mix between Seahawk gang tackling, my teammates being the dogs, and the Bickleton Rodeo. So we tied up the pig again, but this friend of ours used a piece of cloth, despite my warnings that it would easily be broken. So long story short, it got loose again, almost immediately. The chase was on again, but this time our friend captured the pig. But when we tied it up again, he returned with the cloth. Our conversation went something like this:

Him: "is using cloth again a good idea?"

Me: "no it's just gonna break again, we need to find a rope."

Him: "you're probably right huh."

But then he proceeds to tie the pig with the cloth again while I again remind him that the pig is going to immediately break free, and him even agreeing with me all the while. But he proceeded to tie it with the cloth and, surprise, it got out again. Again the chase, and I got another tackle. And since the pig was to tired to be lead at this point, I also had to carry it to the place it was going to be tied up. So this time our friend came back with some legit rope, and the pig was secured. Anyways, the day after that was pretty typical, some lessons and some finding. We had dinner in Tabwakea because it was one of the Sister's birthday, so we were invited to her Botaki. Unfortunately I felt myself start to run a fever at the end of it, and when we eventually got home I was running at 102. 

Friday October 18

Sick day. Nothing really to report. According to the thermometer Becky Mom sent me with it got up to 103, so I essentially laid around all day.

Saturday October 19

Had a fever in the morning, so the whole morning was spent sleeping. Woke up around noon feeling a lot better, but super hungry. Rested the rest of the day. A drunk guy did come and talk to us for an hour though.

Sunday 20

Better day. Was good enough to go to church. There was a ton of people there, which was good to see. Afterwards I laid down for about an hour. Then we went and took one of (actually the only) our young men to take the sacrament to old ladies. After that we had 3 lessons, which all turned out okay. Now that I think of it, all of them were the first lesson. I was pretty tired for the most part I did well. 

Double Oink Pig What? (Cubby Letter 10/14/2019)

Tuesday October 8

First thing we did today is teach a bunch of little kids at the primary school. We thought it would start at 9, but it ended up being at 9:30. Good thing because we were late. But essentially what we did for an hour was talk to some kids who interested, while the rest acted like wild animals. Not really, but they were unruly to say the least. And one kid did pee in the corner of the classroom. It's okay because they were dirt floors. So anyways, right after that we got a text from the APs saying that we had a leadership council that they wanted us to phone in to. That was two hours long, so any extra proselyting hopes were vanquished, because we also had to do a baptismal interview for the sister's in Tabwakea. We did have a couple lessons though. We got a lesson with this one guy that we haven't seen in awhile. He told us that he believes in the church but has to work out some weaknesses first. We're patient so it's  good.

Wednesday October 9

Slept in Tabwakea because Elder Menzie needed the truck, and we had district council anyway. District Council was good, me and Elder Bartley changed the way we do things a little bit, so it was good. I gave the spiritual thought and had to give the announcement about a new standard about sisters and elders not camping out in front each other's houses. We didn't have much of a language training, but we had a good training about humility given by Elder Geertsen. After that we had a bunch of lessons. One of them was about the Restoration of the priesthood, and it went really well. We did have a couple lessons fall through however, but that is pretty expected honestly. At dinner we were talking to our hostess about birthdays when she said her birthday was Oct 9. I didn't make that connection and I don't think she really did either, but Elder Bartley did, so we did a three verse happy birthday duo. 

Thursday October 10

Today was good. We got some good contacting done early in the morning, we made some contacts that seem pretty promising. Then we had lunch, I had the Stanfield special, 2 eggs in Ramen noodle soup. Then we had a couple people that we wanted to see but they weren't home. One of our old investigators that moved was finally found, as well as some new potential investigators. We tried to find another one that had moved, but no success. We had a lesson with Iotebwa about why exactly we need to be baptized. It went well, the only problem is that they destroyed  me by making fun of my accent. There's a lesson in Humility there.  When everyone keeps telling you that you're good at speaking, it's a humbling truth to have someone point out how bad you really are. 

Friday October 11

A busy day. We woke up and studied as usual, but we had to go to Tabwakea to do needs. That took longer than I would have liked, bit we did it in a relatively timely manner. We had a quick lunch and started my favorite activity of the week, weekly planning (that is sarcasm everyone). It's good for building production capacity. Next we did something that I refuse to do 99% of the time, which is teach teenagers by themselves, but it went okay. We did it because one of them came to church, but I'm anxious to find their parents. We found and scheduled a lesson with a previous investigator of mine from when I worked in London. We had two more lessons after that, one about the Divine Mission of Jesus Christ, and the other was the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. Afterwards we had dinner, and we are puffer fish (it's okay because they has eaten some first, and they were telling me that you die after like 50 seconds of eating bad puffer fish, so it was safe).

So during one of our lessons, this lady was explaining to us what happened to her when she prayed. So for some back story, when we first met this lady, she didn't really want to lesson with us, she always told us to just lesson with her husband or her daughter. But us, as missionaries, took it upon ourselves to be very stubborn and essentially demanding that she sit in on the lessons. And with this family, for some reason or another we basically just taught prayer/praying to know the truth  every time we came, and we never really moved on, because who knows. And she usually just refused to pray, belonging to a religion that uses memorized and recited prayers. Luckily for us (and it is lucky, read Alma 17), her mother was sick and in the hospital. So essentially that gave her a reason to pray. So in desperation, she said her first prayer on her own. And since she was praying anyways, she also prayed about Joseph Smith. She explained to us after wards, that she intended to pray for a short time, but after she started praying, it just kept going and going. She started crying during this prayer, and she is, in her own words "bad at crying." She also explained how she felt something come over her, but she couldn't really explain it (#tractatuslogico-philosophicus). Anyways, that next night she couldn't sleep, so she said another prayer with similar results. Still not being able to sleep at midnight, she tried to pray again, but got overcome by a feeling and after she opened her prayer she was crying too hard and didn't want to wake everyone up so she stopped. So when we came to her tonight, she sas easily tje most ready for a lesson person I've met here.  We asked her to close the lesson, but she didn't want to cry in front of her daughter so I had to finish it. 

Saturday October 11

Well I guess not every day will produce the best numbers, but it was good. Started off by tracting/contacting but nobody would accept anything, which is odd. And not a lot of people were home. We had 5 lessons planned besides that, but only 1 went through. We tried to contact as we went, but something was in the air today that was making people reluctant to talk to us. We did sit down with a person in our branch and he helped us with our language problems though, so that was fun. The sisters had a baptism, and the person wanted Elder Bartley to baptize him, so we went down. One of their speakers didn't show up so behold, they did choose I, Elder Stanfield, to speak on behalf of the absent one, and I did speak concerning the doctrine of baptism, and I did expound from the scriptures the principles of righteousness, and I did preach according to my knowledge. The people we had dinner with had a Botaki in London, so they dropped am insane amount of fish, chicken and rice of at our house.

Sunday October 13

We got up in the morning, and drove a ways so we could walk with some of our investigators to church. It wasn't actually that far away, but while they were walking, they were talking about how far it was. It was definitely no longer than from our house (the old one on Butternut) to Jason Lee, probably closer. There was a ton of people at church today, probably around 70, which is easily an improvement from the first week we were here and it was closer to 12. During church the Elders quorum decided on a service project which was to fix one of the main dirt roads in a part of Banana where a lot of members live. I thought it was a great idea, but also a little funny, because if we went and just started working on a road in Richland, we'd probably get arrested. Anyways, we had a couple of lessons, all were pretty good, average lessons. We had dinner and went toTabwakea to sleep.

On the edge of an artichoke farm (Ben letter 10/7/2019)

Salut fellow Americans of America. 

Another week has gone by, but it wasn't one of the best. It was an amazing week the first 2 days. We contacted hard and got to do another service project in little village named Cimişeni. We helped a friend pick some more grapes, because that's what people here do. It was very fun however, because all I had to do was carry the buckets of grapes to a trailer and dump. However they can pick so fast and so I had to start running. They got mad at me for working too hard. (Btw, when elder Uhctdorf was talking about hobbit villages and their simple, easy lives, it pretty much describes moldovans). 

 

So anyway we ate like 3 meals in about 3 hours, and it was placinte, goose, and compot. And yes I did get a goose foot. I got to talk to all the people working in the fields about everything, and they just loved us but did think we were strange for not getting a Moldovan wife. However bad thing, we used a community cup, used by about 20 people for dirty water. We will go more into this later.

 

The next day we did an exchange which was good. 

The next day when I got back with my companion, we were just about to fall asleep when we heard a bomb go off in our house. But a different type of bomb. We rushed into the kitchen  where he sound had come from, to see that our bottle of grape juice our investigator had given us blew up. It had fermented and expanded, and then we ended up with half juice half wine all over our apartment.

 

After cleaning that mess up until midnight, we went to bed, only for community cup (remember from the service project) came back to haunt us. We vomited all night and the next day. I also got a fever after the vomiting so that was no fun at all. 

Sunday we felt good enough to go outside a little, and we watched conference. However contacting was interesting because it was wine day or wine weekend. Everyone was drunk. However it did look like good food, and let me tell you I think that wine day is the most beloved holiday in Moldova. Let's just leave it at that.

 

So,  a great week, but also a horrible week for missionary work. However I do have some investigators and Moldovan friends that were more than glad to give me medical advice for sickness. But after hearing it there was no way I was going to follow any of it. Lets just say that putting dill and salt in water and then putting your feet into it does not work for stomach pains.

 

As for a spiritual thought, I really liked what the apostles had to say about choosing Christ to be happy. We cannot control how our life plays out in many ways. We cannot choose how to be blessed, but as my mother was telling me, we must receive and accept blessings. We might not get blessed the way we think we should, but maybe that just means we haven't quite aligned our will with what God wants for us. Maybe we won't even be blessed with some blessings until he next life. A simple way to recognize  blessings is look for he obvious. For example, if we pay tithing, we will have temples and churches. Its almost too easy to see. If we don't drink coffee, we will not become dependent or addicted and also we will have saved extra $20 a week. Think of all the blessings you will have after a year of saving. That's like 1040 blessings! I could go on, but every action has consequences, so let's make sure that when we are keeping our covenants with God, we recognize and appreciate at least the most obvious blessingsin our lives from making those actions. We can act and then recognize blessings. Blessings aren't just magic they are a consequence.

Vă iubesc 

Și sunteți cei mai urîți oameni pe toată lumea 

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Maybe it's a Cat (Cubby letter 10/7/2019)

Tuesday October 1

Slept in Tabwakea because we had zone conference in the morning. I enjoy the trainings at zone conferences? Which is why it was disappointing when we couldn't really get our call to go through. They wanted us to try and stay to see it through, so we just ended texting an Elder who was there to give us play by plays. During that time, we got a call from the mission nurse that the Elders on Washington had sickly among them and that they were flying in. So they came in  today. Transfers happened, the only changes are that a new elder is coming out to be trained here and that my comp is now a ZL as well as me.

Wednesday October 2

A topsy turvey day. So we slept in Tabwakea again because we had district council today. I gave the language training, it centered on the principles of language learning, and then some very instructional and specific language concepts for the missionaries in the zone. We went back to Banana right after, we did some work, we had to find where somebody had moved to (we are pretty sure they moved because this guy got drunk and now if he goes back to his old house then he'll get fined), but then we got a call from one of the Elders saying that the sick Elder that just came off Teraina was getting on the plane headed to Fiji, along with Elder Reddy, who was supposed to leave next week. We had something to do by the airport, so we figured we would go and see them off. When we got there though, the sick Elder told us that he was infact going back to the USA. That was a pretty big shock for us and for him, because he had found out only 20 minutes before we did. The Menzies asked us to go back to Tabwakea to tell the rest of the missionaries that he wasn't on his way to Tarawa, but to America. So we had to make the drive again. And then back to teach lessons (all of them fell through though), and then back again because we had been personally invited to a botaki. And that went long, due to the island time culture.

Thursday October 3

An alright day. Had a split with my old companion, Elder Geertsen. The day was mostly normal, we got out of the house early, tracted a bit, had a lesson, but then we had to go pick Elder Geertsen's and Elder Holman's bags that were coming from Teraina. Meanwhile, Elder Bartley and Elder Baker were trying to call Tarawa so Baker could meet his new companion that he is training. The problem was that the computers were not working, but my Data equipped phone did. So the leaders on Tarawa aksed if I would drive down to Tabwakea to give Baker my phone. So that was like a 2 hour ordeal, which was dumb. Anyways, we came back and tracted a bit again, and then had a lesson and dinner. At the dinner we had lobster and octopus, pretty good.

Friday October 4

Not the most exciting day. Elder Geertsen was with me early in the morning, but we switched back to normal when we drove down to Tabwakea to do needs. So we took out the garbage and stuff, then we came back to Banana and started getting some stuff down, like confirming dinner and finding less active members, the while deal. Then we came back and did a long weekly planning session, it was longer than usual because we didn't just go over investigators and what not but since we're Zone Leaders, we went over the needs of the missionaries as well. We had to fill out companion exchange reports, which took a while. We left the house again after that, and we got some good potential investigators, but soon my stomach started feeling odd and we had to retreat back to the house. So I was tied up with bekanako for about an hour, and then we went back out, then came back for about an hour, and then went to dinner.

Saturday October 5

An okay day, some more problems with Bekanako to start the day, but I solved that by not eating anything. We had a lesson in the morning with some newer people which was refreshing. Usually we have lessons with people that are essentially ready for baptism, but they are held back by marriage papers or something. We figured out a little through the day that our house and bathroom key was missing from our key chain, so we had to take a while to track them down. We eventually found the house key, but the bathroom key is missing still. Elder Bartley really had to go, so we had to break into the bathroom. Thanks dad for the pocket knife (pocket knives are called 'te waro' here, translating to mantis shrimp). 

Sunday October 6

We slept in Tabwakea last night because early in the morning to watch General Conference live at a members house at 6 in the morning. The rest of the day was good, we gave a couple lessons. We ate so much at dinner that we almost threw up. We had a missionary fireside at night, and the speaker we asked to come didn't show up. So ya boy Elder Cubby had to give a 15 minute talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I mean I had a lot to say, but the talk was less than organized.

Am băut eu vin, și am făcut un vin (Ben letter 10/1/2019)

Salut, 

Another good one in Moldova.

 

This week was a lot of fun. I have come to realize that I love working hard, because it is so much more fun. Another missionary asked me "why do you get all the cool stories"? Simply explained, by talking to everyone you see, and being outside all day. Try it in America, and you will probably get the same results. Look up Ion Surulcianu, he is my favorite musical artist from Moldova, and yes that tops O Zone.

 

This week we did service again at a kindergarten. Mostly just raking leaves and whatnot. Also I had an interesting conversation with a guy that said we worship mormon. And then another guy. And another. Then I asked the NEXT guy what they learned in church and he said " you mormons". Of course.

 

Next, I got a call from an investigator, and needless to say she was in a frantic state. We needed to go to her village and pick her grapes NOW. And yes I am understanding more Russian swear words every day. But this was very unlike her, so right after church we headed out to her village house. (Fun fact, most people here have 2 houses, 1 for the city, and another in he countryside for the weekends). So we spent from about 1 to 8pm picking grapes and grinding them and putting them in wine barrels. Let's just say the word of wisdom lesson is going to be sooner than later, so we can have some grape juice before it ferments.

 

Also we went to another investigators house for her son's birthday party. He was turning 6, and we bought him a bumblebee transformer. But man, they go all out on the celebrations here. We ate a lot of food. We met a lot of her friends, and celebrated a birthday moldovan style. 

 

Next today we met an orthodox priest named Alin. Super cool guy, and he is almost done with priest school. He has known missionaries for a couple years, and is not interested in converting. So instead I took the couple hours I was with him to really understand the orthodox church doctrines. We went into a cathedral and he just let me ask questions away about anything.

 

Lastly, I have been having more fun on my mission lately, because I can communicate better now. Before I could have a full conversation or lesson with someone, and understand everything and be able to say everything I needed. However, now I have reached the next level, which is humor and cultural references . It's way more fun to have a conversation when its not just to understand, but to really just talk with them. Also I can't do Moldovan humor in english.

 

To share something I learned his week, the thing i have noticed about every opinion, belief and religion is that it is based on just that, opinion, belief, or religion. I realized how important it is to know purpose, and how to use that. Talking with my dad today I realized that purpose with knowledge is everything. Long story short, I am not a missionary to argue or convince. I am here simply to spit truth and facts, and if someone feels the spirit that it's true, then I can help them come closer to Christ. Just like what Jesus did, it was all based of purpose and knowledge. Not any opinion or belief. FACTS. Believe me or not, but I can't change truth.

 

Vă iubesc și poftă bună 

Vîrstnicul Станислав 

 

When it Has Human Teeth (Cubby letter 10/1/2019)

Cubby didn't technically write a letter, just his journal entries.

 

Tuesday September 24

A bit of a rough start to the day. Apparently as I was leaving the house to work out or go to the bathroom or something, Elder Bartley went to look at me and something popped in his neck. So that disabled him for most of the morning, so I got in a very large amount of personal and language study done today. I played doctor a bit, I boiled some water and put it in a cup and had him heat his neck, then I gave him 4 ibuprofen (he's a big guy--6'5--so I'm trusting it wasn't too much). I was told later that the real way to fix a sore neck was with matches. I'm not sure how to apply matches to a neck, so we didn't try that one. We missed our first lesson, but necessity called that we pick up the Menzies from their return flight from Fanning island. They generously gifted me with a Kiribati knife, probably because I got shafted by getting transferred, and it's pretty cool, it was very nice of them.That trip got Elder Bartley loosened up a little bit, so we could execute the rest of the day as planned. We got a rat trap today, I'm pretty excited to get this rat tonight, it's been keeping me up when it's chewing on things and whatnot. 

Wednesday September 25

Just another day. Woke up to see that the rat trap had been sprung, and the peanut butter was gone, but there was no rat. Sad morning. Had some eggs though in the morning, in contrast to the usual peanut butter and crackers. We had district council. Also fun fact, there are 3500+ species of mosquitoes in this world. Afterward we took Elder Bartley down to the Kiritimati equivalent of the town hall and got his license. So I taught him a bit about how to drive a stick (because I am so experienced). At the end of the day we went and picked up Elder Reddy to come and work with me in Banana. And when we came home, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for us, because the rat trap caught the rat! 

 We had a lesson today on Jacob chapter 3 in Ana Boki Moomon. I had a specific verse in mind when we first gave it to this lady, but when we read it together, I thought another verse was good for her as well. And after she read that verse, she told us that the reading we gave was perfect for her.

Thursday September 26

A good day as well. Woke up and worked out, and got in some good studies with Elder Reddy, he isn't very good at the language yet, so I had a lot of teaching opportunities as well, just during studies. When we went out to go teach, our first couple lessons fell through, so we made 3 or 4 good contacts and scheduled 2 or 3 lessons with new people. Don't get those kinds of percentages in Moldova. We also picked up someone's house and put it on the back of a truck, which I'm also assuming that can't be gotten in Moldova. We had a lesson with Teretia, the same lady from yesterday, and Elder Reddy had the idea to share Ether 12:27. I thought it was kind of random, but it's a great doctrine, so we just sent it. So long story short, Teretia just ended up asking us why is it that every time she reads Ana Boki Moomon with us, she feels like it's directly applicable to her life. Coincidence?

Friday September 27

The day started out normal, but before we were about to leave the house, we locked our keys inside. Good news is, however, no matter where we leave our keys in the house, we can always grab them with a stick. We had an alright day after that, tried to make some new contacts, but they weren't really turning out today, but that's okay. We did pick up a new investigator though, which was good (I realize that the difference between meeting somebody for the first time and a new investigator might not make sense to some of you at home, but for the missionaries out there reading this, y'all know). It was good because this whitewash has had us meeting people who are used to other elders, and meeting members of the church, so finding new people has been kinda difficult. Dinner was good, it was the Branch President's father in law's 53 birthday. They demanded I give a speech at the end and tell the story of when I closed a botaki in Abaiang. 

Saturday September 28

A great start to the day. We had an early lesson in the morning, in which we had our first lesson with a family of 5. And that pretty much took us through the morning. We came back and ate lunch after that, the typical noodles with egg. So apparently during our split on Thursday, Elder Bartley learned a dance for today's good bye botaki for the Menzies. So he had a practice just past noon. We had to take missionary needs down to Tabwakea anyways, so we went. After doing needs, we set up for the botaki, and that took us to the end of the day. It was a fun botaki, even though I was the only missionary who didn't dance. I did get tricked into the London Branch's kamataku (to make watch... performance maybe?) which just included sitting and clapping and singing. I faked knowing the songs pretty well I think.

Sunday September 30

A pretty good Sunday. Woke up and studied or whatever, then we had church. There was an unusually large amount of people there. We got a new Branch Presidency, and they bore testimony so that made for a lively sacrament meeting. We also had some investigators come that hadn't really ever come before. And for some reason somebody brought ice cream for after church. We took the only young man in our branch to take the sacrament to people. 

So lately there has been a focus in the mission to extend Spirit lead invitations rather just giving out readings to people. So I've been really focusing on it and seeing real results. Today we had a lesson with somebody who read Ether 12. Looking at him after he read verse 12, it looked like the secrets of life were unleashed to him