Friday, July 9, 2010

Happy Independence Day

<<We mentioned to Richard that Joshua and I would be at Camp Durant this week, and also mentioned about the face recognition ability built into Picasa.  Sister Bunker had a picture of Richard on her blog also (from the Oakland temple).  I’m including it here.  Richard is on the back row.>>

OaklandTempleJuly2010_DSC_0061 Oakland temple July 1, 2010.  This is Richard’s Zone.  He’s on the back row, third from the right.

Camp Durant should be awesome, it'd be cool to see it again, and see how it's changed. Maybe I'll come back and accompany the scouts on their trip. That'd be fun. Josh had better write me! :P I'm sure he'll love it out there. (I think that the wireless internet out there is cheating and defeating the purpose of camping, but... I guess I shouldn't be complaining since I'd have fun with that too.)

Mom will love her time in Arizona, and I'm sure that aunt Janelle and uncle Mike will enjoy letting her take care of Chas, Taylum, and Camden. I wonder if Taylum will be as shy towards her as was towards me? She's a darling though. no, Camden wasn't born when I visited everyone. He was born just a few weeks after I came out. It'll be funny to see him running around when we go visit everyone again. 

Yeah,  Dad I know It's awesome and amazing all of the fun software/ hardware that are coming out. It's fun to take a peek when we have a group of us explore Radio Shack at the mall during shopping. It just makes you think of just how fast things change.

We did get to see the fireworks, and it was a decent show, but we made sure to be in the apartment by 9:30 and to follow the other mission rules regarding the evening schedule. There wasn't much else, but we had a good time.

Transfers were yesterday, but nothing's changing for me. I'm here with Elder Bittner, but I'm sad to sad goodbye to my good friend Elder Williams... We'll be going home the same time which is really cool. He's like Uncle Jeff was for Dad I think. I'm sure that Elder Williams and I will keep up with each other after the mission. (he lives in Utah ;-) )

This week has been a good week! It has been full of work, and I was actually surprised at the end that we only managed to have a total of 9 lessons this entire week... but I guess that all of the visits we've made to see people and set up appointments , or the really short visits we have don't quite cut it for a lesson. We're still improving, and working on talking to everyone, using questions of the soul, and making our missionary skills well-rounded. Overall I really love this area, and I'm gaining a stronger love for this people, and the members of the ward as I get to know them more and more. I'm excited for zone conference, and I'm looking forward to the inspiration we'll receive from that, and the direction we need to take with furthering our personal sanctification of the Santa Rosa Mission, to take ourselves to the next level. I can feel the difference already, and I could feel how right these changes were when I first heard about them from Elder Wisniewski back in Sonoma. I look forward to seeing the heights we'll reach together as we all make that effort to move forward and upward, and bring salvation to our brothers and sisters here in California.

Investigators:

  • Amada Carrillo - she was faltering a couple of weeks ago after a run-in with J-dubs, but she's back on track. We were teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how it all works with repentance which she had some questions about that and how it works with baptism, since she has a member friend that has had some trouble after being baptized. We talked to her about that and showed her that God is just and merciful and that we can always repent, and how baptism is key to repenting. We invited her to be baptized, but she wasn't quite ready. We invited her to pray to know the truth again, to ask if this was Christ's church restored. We're excited for her, and we'll see how she progresses from here on out! We'll keep inviting her to set a date, and hopefully she'll find out for herself soon!
  • Eric Jacobo - we haven't been able to have a set lesson with him this week, but we found the perfect member friend for him. Bro. Vargas knows him from several years back and they we're really great friends, and with his help I think Eric will be moving forward faster. We have a solid commitment from him to come to church next week, since he wasn't able to yesterday, and we'll be inviting him to be baptized to keep him focused on why we're here to share the word of God with him. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. We've found some great contacts in the past couple of days, and we're excited to work and teach more of our brethren here in Fairfield. I hope things are going as well for the other areas in the mission.

I know that this church is true! I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I know it with all of my heart, and no matter how many people try to tell me that I'm part of a cult, I know that I have that spiritual witness from God, that these things are true. I know what I have felt. I know what I know. Christ lives, and He is our Savior.

I love y'all!

Have a wonderful week!

Your friend, and brother

Elder Richard Mackelprang

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note that this is a moderated blog - Elder Mackelprang neither reads or (directly) writes to this blog. This is done by his father.