Transfers!

"Suffice it to say it was probably the hardest week I've had yet on the mission... Haha, it was just tough, to put it uneloquently, we got owned! First of all in one week we had a total of 7 flat tires! Yeah, that means we had to do a lot of walking, and had to miss appointments because they were almost an hours walk away. So, that really wasn't too great, but we did still manage to get some stuff done. Then it was super sad, we got dropped by four people/families that were really showing a lot of potential. Unfortunately they decided they didn't want to continue the lessons. It was honestly extremely sad. Then we had an appointment with [the great family], and frankly it was horrible. We brought along the ward mission leader, who is a good man, but is determined on taking control of the lesson, and proving the gospel logically. It was definitely not a good lesson, and after it Elder Shinost and I felt like we could've lost the family... We went back the next morning to try and see what we could do to fix the situation, and some incredible things happened. The ... family accepted a baptismal date! It was an extremely spiritual lesson, and honestly one of the highlights of the mission so far. However, just yesterday we found out that the wife really isn't feeling ready, and actually feels pretty badly about the baptismal date. We've pushed it back another week in order to give her more time to read and pray. [The father], however, is feeling solid, and that really is what God has prepared for him. So they're doing really well. There are some bumps in the road, but Elder Shinost and I are confident that they'll be baptized within the next month. Other than that, like I said, it was a really horrible week. We also met with these two less active boys. They are honestly some of the saddest boys I have ever met in my entire life... We honestly don't know what else we can do to help them, except for trying to help the mom, so that will be the new focus with them.

Other big news... I was transferred! Yep, I knew it was going to happen, and before I'd been thinking that I'd enjoy being transferred, but after being humbled this last week, I realized how much I really do care about these people, about their eternal salvation, and about their temporal well being. It's sad to me that I won't be able to continue visiting with [the family], nor will I be able to see those kids again... However, I take consolation in the fact that I will still get to come back when [the family is] baptized. Still, it was sad news... But like Mom says, I also do feel like I accomplished what I was supposed to while I was in Langley Park, and now the Lord has something else in store for me. I'm definitely going to miss working with Elder Shinost though, we got along really well, and we worked really well together.

I am now in an area called Onley with Elder Lee. Elder Lee was in our apartment the transfer before this last one, and I got to know him a little bit there.... It'll be a good transfer!"

...

"Well, I think that's about it. I'll have more news for you guys next week on how the new area is! I have a feeling time will just continue to pick up over here though. Oh, it'll also be super weird because I'm in a car! Ha, I haven't driven for five months! We'll see how that goes!"

Early PDay

Derek wrote early (May 18), but I'm even later getting it up here.

"Yep, I'm writing early, p-day is one day earlier this week... We were going to go to a baseball game today as a mission, so they switched the p-day. Unfortunately, it's been raining here for the past three days so it was canceled... Ah well, we'll go to one in the future!

As for things going on this week, it wasn't too great of a week in terms of teaching, unfortunately. But we did have some cool things happen! First of all would probably be this guy we've been trying to work with, that has the blessing of having Sundays off from work but works like crazy during the rest of the week. He hasn't come to church for two months, so we'll go by trying to drop him, but each time he's said I'll be there this week. Finally we haven't been talking to him for the last two weeks, and miracle of miracles he was at church this week! It was awesome to see him there, haha I was super happy and surprised, hopefully now he decides to keep coming!

We also have two baptismal dates!! Unfortunately, they're after transfers, so we'll see if I'm still around for them, hopefully so! We have one girl [who is] a fifth grader that is incredibly spiritual. A few weeks ago we just had a door step lesson with her about the Book of Mormon and prayer. She prayed for the first time, and from there has prayed every morning and night. It's been cool to see her change as more and more of the gospel has come into her life, and you can see that she has more peace and happiness despite all the horrible things that happen around her. Unfortunately the father is an alcoholic and often drunk and doesn't want her to come to church, so we'll be praying for a miracle there. Still, it's been cool to see her gain hope and trust in her Father in Heaven.

Then we have a guy... I think I've told you about him before, [who's] had a tough life, and we've been teaching him these last two transfers. Unfortunately he couldn't get baptized before because he's not married to his girlfriend [and is living with her], but luckily for his eternal salvation, sad for his temporal, she's going to Honduras for a year at the end of this month! We had a really cool lesson with him in the Visitors Center this past Sunday where we spoke about the plan of salvation and eternal marriage. Both he and his girlfriend have strong desires to one day enter the temple and be married for all eternity, and Dennis himself pointed out that before that could happen he had to get baptized. The spirit was strong as it always is so close to the temple, and we invited him to be baptized on the 29th of May,... he accepted and said he really felt at peace with the decision. haha needless to say I was incredibly happy! It's been cool to see him change as he's come to know God more and rely on him to get him through his trials in life. It's been cool to see how their relationship has changed as they've involved God in it, and committed to living the law of chastity... They've grown a lot, and I'm excited to hopefully one day see him enter into the temple!

Those were definitely the highlights of the week. There was also another interesting thing that happened. Do you guys remember me telling you guys about a guy... that had a really tough life, I met him probably my second or third week here? He's the one that walked away and I wish I would've called him back to talk to him. Well, it truly was a miracle but we found him again. We were biking past some buildings and we found him sitting by the side of one drunk. I was surprised I still recognized him, but we stopped and talked to him, and this time I feel like we did what we could for him. He wouldn't give us an address, but we have his phone number and we left him with a book of Mormon that I wrote my testimony in. I now feel like we've given him as much of a chance as we could have. I really hope he reads the Book of Mormon and hopefully can come to know of its truthfulness. He needs the gospel, but he can't seem to see it, probably doesn't help that he's almost in a permanent drunken state it seems. Though we did get him to throw away his bottle of alcohol he had with him! Still, he needs the atonement, hopefully he can decide to use it...

Other than that, that's about it for the week. It went by far faster than any week I've had so far. It really feels like I just wrote you guys yesterday. Sheesh, too fast! Last week of the transfers though, hopefully we can do well! I really feel like I'm going to be transferred though, not sure why, but I guess we'll see!"

We got to talk with Derek on mother's day. He sounds great and is doing well. We got a letter from him on Wednesday but I forgot to post it here.

"...we have had a couple of cool experiences in the last two days. We had a really good day Monday with a lot of teaching, it was incredible, we actually taught almost the whole day! People answered doors and let us in, and appointments actually went through! It was still kind of sad though, on Monday we talked to two 14 and 15 year old girls that are either pregnant or already moms... It's ridiculous, my eyes are being opened more and more to the wickedness of the world. In Utah I knew the world was wicked, but Utah is so nice, and there are so few of those cases that it didn't seem too widespread. I came here and realized more how wicked the world really was, how much it really needs the gospel. Now, my eyes have been opened even more, and I can see that the world truly is becoming ripe for the second coming. When 14 year old girls are about to become moms and they feel like it's a good or lucky thing, there's definitely a problem. Especially since more than likely the guy is probably in his 20's. It makes me mad and sad that Satan has "such great hold upon the hearts of the children of men".

Luckily, the gospel is also growing, and it's cool to see these people begin to light up as we speak to them about the gospel. There was this one 5th grader that had never prayed before. We taught her how to pray two weeks ago and now she prays every night and day, because she needs it. She laughs about how her Dad gets drunk and beats her as if it's just a normal thing that happens to everyone. It's so sad that these people almost don't realize how sad their lives are or how beautiful they can really become, but with the light of the gospel I think they're starting to realize that they're lives don't have to be the same, that there is a hope for a brighter future."

"This last week I've really been trying to focus on gaining a greater love for the people I teach. I feel like I'm serving for selfish reasons as of right now, or at least sometimes I am. It's not to get noticed or anything, but I think it's so that I can feel like I succeeded, like I did what I had to do. In other words it's focused on myself rather on focusing on these people and how their lives can be so much better. It's made a pretty good change already, and I hope I can continue to grow in love for these people. I think it's working because I'm beginning to feel like Nephi did when he said that he sorrowed for the sins of the world. Truly evil abounds, and the only thing that will ever be able to combat it and bring joy to these people's lives is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it really does shine into darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

Here is a picture of Derek's bike wheel after running into the car last week.

Hit By A Car

"I did indeed get hit by a car haha, yeah not something to laugh about, but what else can you do? It wasn't bad though, I was coming up this hill called metzerott, and the light I could see was red so I decided to turn left onto the sidewalk. Unfortunately the oncoming traffic light was green, and I was dumb and didn't see that there was a car coming, so I got hit... It wasn't bad though, just bent the front tire, and the lady managed to brake in a reasonably good amount of time so I mostly just tipped over when I got hit, but I had to buy a new tire... The lady was really nice though, she didn't even swear at me, which was something of a miracle! :) I also didn't make her pay, even though I probably could've because I felt dumb enough and it was really my own fault. But, no worries, I'm ok, and it really was a miracle I wasn't hurt, a little reminder from God for me to keep my eyes open."

"As for other miracles this week, there have been some good ones, and it's also been a rather frustrating week. The good news would be, 5 people at church! Whoot! [From the family, the] wife and kids came as well as two other investigators we have. So that was really cool! God has also been giving us more people to teach which has been good!"

Derek also talked about a good lesson they had with a couple, and some young boys who they took to the Visitors Center to have the Sister missionaries talk to.

"Other than that it's been a humbling and frustrating week as well. It's super tough to know what to do... We're always told we're here to harvest the people that are ready, those people must be hiding pretty well, because it seems like we can't find them... Still, God leads us step by step, and it's just making it through these tougher times, especially when we hardly ever teach, it feels like our day has been wasted...

Oh, another cool experience. Elder Shinost and I decided to go check on some referrals we've received. We have a pool of 54 referrals, most of which are never home, but we decided to each choose a couple by the spirit and then go visit whichever ones matched up. Out of the 54 Elder Shinost picked two, I picked three. Elder Shinost's two matched my two exactly! We checked on them, and both were fake addresses haha, but we talked to some cool people, and actually ended up being in an area of another referral at exactly the right moment for them to be home. God does indeed work in mysterious and small ways, but he does work. I just have to learn to be more patient and trust that if we're working we're doing his will, which is honestly very hard at times when you just don't seem to see any results... All our people are just sitting there, not really progressing towards baptism because they all have a big stumbling block that we just can't seem to get around... We'll see what happens this next week, we're really trying to push them and impress upon them the importance of baptism, hopefully it goes well!"

"Man, the time just goes by so ridiculously quickly... Ha, I even dated a letter April 4th today, and thought it was perfectly normal, psyche, it's now May 4th, whatever happened to April? 20 months is all I've got left, and it feels like they're going to be gone before I know it, haha missions should be three years! Anyways, talk to you soon, I love you all!"

No One Showed Up

"Man, this week flew by really quickly, way too quickly. We only have 4 weeks left in the transfer, and there is a ton to do it seems. This week was honestly a little stressful. We feel like we're at a stand still with all of our investigators. [The] family can't get baptized until [the father] gets back from his trip, so it's still a waiting game. We did go to the Visitors Center with them again on Easter for a special choral performance which was pretty cool. They're still going strong, and have their goal aimed for a family sealing in the temple! However, no doubt he's going to face some trials on his trip, so prayers would most definitely be welcome! Especially since we probably won't have much contact with him!

Then we have [a couple] which are still at a standstill. We've determined we need to push them a little harder to keep the commandments, and maybe get [the man] baptized even before a marriage instead of just waiting, that will definitely be an interesting conversation haha.

Then it was super disappointing this Sunday because we set a goal of 4 people at sacrament meeting, with a personal unwritten goal of 7, and we had 8 investigators that should've gone, half of them confirmed with us Sunday night, as well as 5 or 6 less actives. No one showed up! Whoot, humbling! Yeah, God decided to humble us I guess... Slightly depressing, but we figured we must be doing something wrong, so we're trying to switch it up a little bit this week and switch our focus a little more, and be more bold with our investigators. Ha, I read in a talk as well that if you've set the goal and all your investigators drop out on you go knock some doors and talk to people on the street with a prayer of faith that you'll find people willing to go to church, so we did it, and got denied by some Catholic families, nevertheless, we were trying! Luckily we weren't too depressed, just frustrated, and we're still working just as hard, if not harder. This Sunday will most definitely be better, as long as God agrees of course! :)"

"So weird to think it's almost May, and that I graduated almost a year ago! It feels like so much longer and so much shorter at the same time!"

"Life is pretty good right now though, the routine continues, and hopefully we can figure out how to use our time a little more effectively this week. We just don't know what to do between like 12-3, nobody's home, so knocking is almost useless and a waste of time, as well as checking on references. If you have any ideas let us know, we really won't to change it up so we can learn how to use those hours of the day!"

"Man, time is passing way too quickly, before I know it I know I'll be at my 6 month mark, 1/4 of the way... It's super sad that it's all going by so quickly! Still, the work is great, and thankfully I still have a boat load of time left! :) Pray for us to have some miracles, we need them! We already see a bunch, but we could definitely use some more!"

"Buen suerte a todos!"

First Week After Transfers

"Wow, so this week went by really slow and fast at the same time. It feels like Elder Castillo left ages ago, probably because we had a lot of cool things happen. Elder Shinost and I work really well together, and we both teach. Sometimes it's not as coordinated or flowing as it could be, but we'll get there with some more practice together. Still, it's been really good!"

"... we worked really hard this week! We had a miracle Thursday where all these [people] that we've been trying to get a hold of all transfer, and Elder Shinost the transfer before that, talked to us!... Then we also had a super cool Saturday when we took [that special] Family to the visitors center. They loved it! While we couldn't get a ride and so had to bike and metro for an hour in the rain to keep our appointment, it was totally worth it. The spirit was super strong, and we tried to commit them to a baptismal date, the 24th. They're ready, but they said they wanted to pray about the date as a family, which is just fine, because that's what we wanted them to do.... it was really exciting, and God has definitely blessed us with this family. We have literally done nothing to deserve [the opportunity to teach] them, and they just keep growing in their testimony, and now we're going to have the opportunity to baptize a family, it truly is a blessing, and so exciting to think that in just a year they can enter the temple and be sealed as an eternal family, it's going to be amazing!

We also had a cool experience taking the Bishop to an appointment with us. ... The bishop was really cool, and I honestly learned a lot from him. He immediately became their friends even though he'd never met them, and they quickly confided in him.... Then he taught them, and it was a great lesson for me to learn how to teach with more love. It's not that I don't love the people, but I've always had a hard time showing love, something that is so necessary since it's through us that these people are supposed to feel the Savior's love. It really opened my eyes to the vitality of teaching so that they can feel the love we have for them, and that the Savior has for them.

I also started taking Elder Castillo's advice. I asked him what he thought I should most improve on, and he said it was caring about the members more. The thing is I worry about wasting time, and I've always hated small talk anyways, but as Elder Castillo said, the members have to see me as a real person, and they have to trust me. So I decided to be myself at the Bishop's house last night for dinner, and engage in a little small talk, and really care about their lives. The change was amazing... The Lord is slowly teaching me how to grow, and how to really do his work, and we're definitely seeing the blessings as both Elder Shinost and I have grown a lot in this last week. It's going to be a transfer full of miracles!"

"As for a weather update, it's beautiful here, though humid, and starting to get a little muggy. Haha at least the trails are beautiful, the city, not so much, but it's all good. It's also rained a ton!"

"Elder SHionst and I now have a goal to not eat out at all in May, he loves to eat out, hence I get to too. And to eat more vegetables, because we've noticed our energy levels are a little low, probably from lack of vitamins, so we're switching up the diet.

Anyways, that's it, I'll talk to you guys next week! We're off to a museum now! :)"

Transfers

From Derek's letter on April 13, 2011

"Elder Shinost and I are staying in Langley Park! Which is really good, it'll be good to have a normal companionship, especially since I already know how to work with Elder Shinost, and we have caught the vision for this area. I was really glad I wasn't transferred, because I feel like God has something specific for me to do this transfer, now I've just got to figure out what it is and do it. It'll be sweet! :)"

"Well, this week was a pretty cool week, a little weird though because unfortunately we didn't get to work too much. Since Elder Castillo is leaving the members here threw a little party, and invited us to eat a ton of times! We had back to back dinners one night because we didn't know another member had scheduled us to eat with them, and we also had another appointment, that night I literally gained 5 pounds... Yeah, it was super disgusting and I felt gross for like a day and a half afterwards, haha but members literally do not take no for an answer, like you tell them no and they come out with another plate expecting you to eat it all."

"But some super cool things did still happen, first the baptism! Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of it, I'll have to wait until we can print them off from Elder Shinost's camera, but it was way cool. Elder Castillo baptized her, and the spirit was really strong. That day the ward had 6 baptisms! The coolest part for me was realizing just a little bit how much [this young girls] life will change now that she's a member of the church. Even though we didn't have the opportunity to see her change much while we were teaching her, since she's so young, it's really amazing to think of the difference her life can take now. Now she has a support group in the ward, and the Holy Ghost that will help her to avoid all the horrible stuff that happens here. There are so many pregnant fifteen year olds, the smell of pot is in just about every apartment building, and weird stuff happens on the street every day. It's super sad, a lot of these kids just have no chance, but thankfully, the gospel gives them that chance. It made me extremely grateful to have the gospel, and to see her have the same opportunities, the same possibility of having an eternal marriage and family, it truly is a miracle."

Then this week we also taught [the family] who I think we've mentioned before. [The Father is] ... a fairly well off man. Yet he's still humble, and extremely religious. This week we had an incredible lesson with him. We taught him about Lehi's dream and pointed out the vision or goal that we have for him and his family, or better said, that God has for him and his family. We talked about the importance of scripture and prayer, baptism and the holy ghost, all as prepatory to receiving eternal life. He and his wife caught the vision, and at the end they committed to be baptized.... The spirit was really strong, and [the father] even bore testimony to us of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of the Church. It's incredible because we have really done nothing to deserve having such a prepared investigator. But prepared they are, and God has given us the blessing of helping to bring them into his Church. It was really cool to feel so clearly of God's love for these people and of his intense desire to have them have an eternal family. It was incredible, and needless to say made us all very happy! :)"

"[These] pictures probably look interesting, they're district pictures in a church tower. And please don't freak out mom! :) It wasn't dangerous or anything, as safe as window washing, probably safer actually.

We volunteered at a race [the Azalea Classic 5k run University Park, Maryland] and this is the picture. Haha I really wanted to run!