Saw M. Russell Ballard in the flesh!!

Wednesday: Well, we had a lot of lessons planned, now how many actually
went through. Not so much. Those days do happen, and I haven't gotten
them much this transfer, so I can't really complain to much. Haha.
Kristoph does not look so good to being baptized this next week, he
still hasn't gained a testimony of Joseph Smith. I have faith that he
will receive his answer though!

Thursday: We had a super good District Meeting, which included
drowning Elder Wood. Haha, okay, I'll explain, Elder Wood the other
day was saying that he could hold his breath for 1 minute or a minute
and a half. So therefore, we had to challenge him, will filled up a
bucket of water and put his head in it. He only made it to 32
seconds... Of course, we had to relate it to the gospel somehow, so we
compared his desire to how he wanted to breath the same should our
desire be to do missionary work.
Afterwards we went on Exchanges, I was with Elder Muntinga, we had a
lot of good work that we did in the area, he is my District Leader,
and we really do exchanges just so we can improve, and each give
feedback. At the end of the day, when we always give feedback, Elder
Muntinga gave me a lot of positive feedback, and really no negative,
or constructive rather. I asked, "What can I improve on?" "Nothing I
saw, you did great." What the? I can't be perfect, I need constructive
feedback! haha

Friday: We were in the office,  and talking with one of the office
missionaries. On his mission, he punched a police officer in Canada,
because the police officer was using  foul language towards him. He
went to jail, and Thomas S. Monson was his mission president, and he
bailed him out. He said this was President Monson's Words, "I Would
send you home Elder, but you would enjoy that too much." Haha, he
wasn't the best missionary... Haha. The same office missionary, took
Elder Wood's $20 Bill, he said, "Find the famous person, dairy product
and famous movie." Elder Wood got Andrew Jackson. He couldn't find the
others. He took the bill, said, "Andrew Jackson is the Famous person,
(Then tears Elder Wood's $20 Bill in half) half in half is the dairy
product, (Throws the two halves behind him) Gone with The wind is the
Famous Movie." We were both just shocked.... haha, He then gave Elder
Wood a new $20 bill. Crazy man. Haha

Saturday: We had a baptism! For Cloe Hunter! It was really great, all
the young woman were able to come to it to support her, they gave her
flowers and girly stuff. Haha. Also, we went to this potential
investigators apartment, probably for around the 20th time, when we
knocked, we didn't expect much, because 20/20 times he didn't answer.
This time however, we heard the door start to open, Elder Wood and I
just looked at each other and we definitely had surprised looks on our
faces. We were finally able to talk to this guy, and we actually put
him on date for the 13th! Miracles!
For lunch we go to a Hug-hes every Saturday because Hug-Hes is kind
enough to let us eat there for free, however, this time, another
customer paid for us. We were like, "NOOO!" Haha, poor guy, well at
least that way he supports Hug-Hes I guess.

Sunday: Saw M. Russell Ballard in the flesh!! He spoke at the
institute building at Weber state, and since we cover the YSA of
Weber, we were allowed to go :) He looks pretty old... Haha.
Sacraments were good, but a little crazy, we had to speak in one, and
we had a meeting at the same time, so we came into the sacrament
meeting right at the time we were to speak, went up there, both of us
just gave about 5 minute talks then left right after, feel bad for it,
but we had a meeting as well! haha, Then we had the conformation of
Cloe to become a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints :) Always such a cool experience!

Monday: We had a lesson with Cloe, she talked about her being fancied
by a boy at church. Turns out, that boy is not a member, but has been
coming to church! So we committed Cloe to invite him over next time we
meet. We'll get them  both baptized and married in the temple!! Haha.

We have been trying to meet a referral that we have gotten, they are
always outside though :( It would be really awkward if we drove up,
got out of the car and went and talked with them, so we tried just
coming back later to maybe have them be inside, but nope, still
outside, 3 hours later. What kind of family is that!? I mean jeez!
haha

Love Elder Wrathall

Ruined his favorite shirt :(

Was definitely a good day!

 

Wednesday: We had a lesson at every hour of the day starting at 1, so
it was the coolest experience to finish one lesson, go onto the other,
repeat. Haha. Also! Only one fell through! Such an ideal day :) We
were able to help a couple of people get re-activated, and taught a
few of our investigators and helped them come closer to their next
ordinance. Was definitely a good day!

Thursday: Well we had 10 lessons set up for the day... 10, in a single
day.... Crazy how much we are teaching! :) however, only 6 went
through. Taught Cloe for the Third day in a row. She is kind of slow
at learning, it is probably really embarrassing for her, because she
can't remember any of the answers. So sad :( Hopefully we can get her
there, she is progressing, but slowly.

Friday: Elder Wood's Birthday! We tried the best that we could to make
it the best birthday for him, he turned 19. The best thing that we did
is that we all went up to Logan temple with a recent convert. Road
trips are so fun haha! It was about an hour drive there, seeing the
country land was beautiful, reminded me of going up to bear lake. We
ate at a crepery on the way there, and that was delicious!  At the
temple, we were not allowed to participate, however, we did get to
watch him be baptized for and in behalf of a family :)

Saturday: Elder Coronado and I went to the temple open house, we were
going to go through with a group of YSA, however, all that showed up
was two of the girls. But with just two young woman, and
me and my companion, it totally looked like a double date... I was
thinking, this probably looks so bad, but what can we say? "Oh sorry,
we can't go through the temple with you today, because it looks like
we are on a date..." Haha. We went through, probably got judged a lot.
Later that day, I went through again with Robi and Mike from Roy,
afterwards, they said that they wanted to get active again, so that is
really good to hear :) that temple works miracles!
Later, we had two baptisms in one program! McKenna and Stacey were
baptized! Two more enter into the fold! It was a really good baptism!
Lots of people there too.

Sunday: Okay, so here comes the day of miracles! Well first, we were
in ward council, and the young woman's president told us that she has
a young man living with her from the Czech Republic, and he hasn't
been baptized, but he has met with the missionaries, and he has read
the entire Book of Mormon in 6 days. We met with him, and he is so
dang smart, and he told us how he invited his neighbors to the temple
open house. WHAT THE??? HE ISN'T EVEN A MEMBER!!! HE IS ALREADY A
BETTER MEMBER THAN MEMBERS lol. He is so solid, so golden! His
previous missionaries never invited him to be baptized, and we asked
him if he would be baptized the 30th, and he accepted. haha, poor
missionaries, they could have easily baptized him if they just asked
him.
Then at another sacrament meeting we met with a part-member family,
who came to church all by themselves. The husband, whom is the
non-member said that he just needs to stop smoking and he wants to be
put on the right path. AKA BAPTISM!!!! However, he did just get out of
prison, and he is on parole. So it will probably be a while till he
can get baptized. Still! those miracles!

Monday: We had interviews with president today. Basically in my
interview president told me that I will stay as APB another transfer,
which would be pretty cool, because  next transfer will be super busy
at Weber State university, we would only cover the YSA next transfer,
so it would be completely different without even getting transferred
haha. Later in the day, Elder Coronado and Elder Young went to a
lesson with Christoff, and he was saying things like, "I know without
a doubt Joseph Smith was a prophet" "I know the Book Of Mormon to be
the word of God.... I think I will read it completely through again by
Thursday..." "You know, I actually might serve a mission." Like what?
Completely dumbfounds me, never have heard of such a golden
investigator lol.

SO now we are up to having 6 baptisms this month when we started off
with 0. Still need 1 more to get our goal of 7!

Love Elder Wrathall

"Do you want to be baptized?" "Yeah"

My next appointment for my nose is the 16th of September, Dr. Major didn't feel confident in doing this procedure, so he passed me on to another doctor, Dr. Thompson I believe. The new doctor is apparently really excited, Dr. Major told him I was a missionary, and he is active LDS, he said he would pay for my co-pays just like he did. It's nice to be a missionary in Utah. Haha.

 Sounds like you had a lot of good food this week :) How are you doing with losing weight though?? Haha, I actually gained 6 lbs this transfer so far. I have been eating way more than I have ever ate. I am starting to work out a lot more though, so hopefully I can turn it into muscle :)

That is cool that you got a lot of good memories with family, some things  that you will always remember, and will take with you for eternity :) I want to spend a lot more time with family once I get back. That means I can't really live in Georgia though... It is too far from everyone else! If Jared lives in Georgia though, so will I! haha

Tuesday: We had a meeting with the Bishop, and he gave us some
referrals for some less actives that he would like us to go visit.
Right after the meeting, we checked in the gym, because we heard that
there are 3 non-members that come and play basketball with the youth
on Tuesdays. 2 of them were there, so we changed and started playing
basketball. Of course, I didn't do very well, even when versing 13
year olds, I'm pretty sure they were still better than me. I did learn
that the 2 non-members are brothers, and they are staunch Buddhist!
OOOHHHH Something that we don't see everyday! Leon is 13, and his
brother  is 16. They weren't very interested in meeting with us :/

Wednesday: We had a ton of lessons scheduled in the evening, and we
had two wards that wanted to go on splits with us... So thankfully
Elder Young and Coronado were able to help us out for the night. I
went to a lesson with a part-member family. The husband is an active
member, while the wife is a non-member. She actually wanted us, the
missionaries, to come by and do family home evening with them.
However, it doesn't seem that she is very interested in joining the
church, she is atheist and doesn't believe in Christ or Heavenly
Father. So pretty rough case. However, the daughter's friend, Zoey
came over, she is ten, and she listened in at the lesson, and she
seemed really interested in what was being taught, so later in the
week I plan on stopping by her house and talking with the parents.

Thursday: I went on exchanges with Elder Armstrong, whom is a new
missionary, he has only been out for 2 weeks. Which I was really
excited about, because I want to be a trainer, so to go out on
exchanges with him, is somewhat like what it will be like training. We
had a couple "could be better lessons" but at the end, we had a lesson
with Franklin, who's sons just got baptized. Franklin, after hearing
me say that "We all make mistakes, especially me, I make a ton of
mistakes." He chuckled, I was like, 'What?" He said, "When you guys
say that, it always makes me laugh, you guys were born with Mormon
parents right?" "Yeah" "Well you guys never made serious mistakes."
"Oh... Well I wouldn't jump to that conclusion..." " Oh c'mon, have
you ever took your mom's car and crashed it?" "...Yeah" LOL We were
all laughing. I thought that was so bizarre that he said exactly what
I have done before. He was so shocked to hear me say yes to that.
Everyone laughed, Haha.

Friday: Went to Wasatch Care center, because it was requested that we
share a lesson with two people whom are there. That place is a sad
place.  A lot of old helpless people. I never want to go in one of
those! Hopefully the 2nd coming will come before that point. Haha. We
shared The Plan of Salvation with them, they were nice people, pretty
coherent to.

Saturday: We thought we had a meeting with our Stake President, we
were wrong however. So we went and contacted some referrals that we
had. Or tried to anyways. We ended up helping a lady mow her lawn. She
gave us peaches from her peach tree, so I think it was a fair trade
haha.

Sunday: We walked into a church building, and in the foyer, this man
stopped us, and told us that his grand-daughter is 17 and wants to be
baptized. She was sitting there, and we asked her, "Do you want to be
baptized?" "Yeah". So that is another date that we have for this
month. We also had a lesson with Kristi, who is on date for 30th, she
has been having her non-member friend for the lessons. SO we put her
friend on date as well!! So another for this month!

Monday: Elder Wood's Non-member friends came up from California to go
to Yellowstone, so on the way up, they stopped by and we took them to
the temple open house! That was pretty cool, and Elder Wood made them
promise that they would see the missionaries when they get home :)

Love Elder Wrathall

The temple is absolutely beautiful. I think it is actually my favorite one I have been in!

Tuesday: We went down to my old apartment and raided it for my food.

Also got a haircut :) Went tracting with Elder Cornado, it was fun. I

really enjoy tracting :) We met some really rude people, and some

really wonderful people. Cornado taught me that you can actually type

in the address of a house in the area book, and it will tell you if

they are members or not. Which is really useful! We found a non-member

who wants us to come over to do family home evening. I thought that

was pretty interesting, super cool though!

 

Wednesday: Had lesson with Steve, whom literally said, "I wouldn't

mind being baptized, however, my children, just expect me to stop

smoking when I do" lol, so we really just need to help him stop

smoking, the problem is that he doesn't really want to. Sad. Lose

salvation over smoking.

 

Thursday: Had a post-op appointment for my nose. I still thought it

was super bent, and Dr. Major confirmed that. SO for the first

surgery, Dr. Major said that he had gotten it straight, what had

happened now to here, I'm not sure. So what is going to happen in like

3 weeks, because I have to have my nose re-broke, and they are going

to do a more intensive surgery, and make sure that it is straight. I

have a new appointment for the 14th for more deciding of what to do.

 

 

 

Friday: We went to the first session open to the public for the temple

with our investigator. She has been working with the missionaries for

a year and she has certainly come a long way. She is now saying "when"

rather than "if" when it comes to baptism. The temple is absolutely

beautiful! I think it is actually my favorite one I have been in!

During the tour, after going through the celestial room, I was waiting

out in the hall because KB (Our investigator) wanted to go back in

because she missed something. I was looking at a familiar face right

in front of me... I was thinking, "Bro. Birch??" Then Sis. Birch said,

"Dallin! How are you!?" It is pretty crazy that I saw the Birch family

way out here! :) Sister Birch got a picture of us together, so you

will have to get that from her mom. Haha. Also after the tour, Elder

Fisher of the seventy came up and met with Elder Wood and I :) That

was cool :)

Interesting fact of the temple. It has the most polished stone out of

any temple. And it is all imported granite from Egypt!

The last visit of the night, we met a guy outside his house, and it

looked like he had gone through a major surgery in his leg, because it

had staples from his ankle to his hip. He told us that he had 362

staples in his leg, and around 700 Stitches. I can't remember what it

was for, some doctor phrase or procedure. Makes me glad all I have is

a broken nose.

 

Saturday: We had a zone blitz (Where all the missionaries go tracting

in a area at the same time) in a sister area, because all the sisters

are working in the temple a lot, so they have less time to be in their

areas. It was really fun, we got pretty lucky with the people that we

tracted into. Most of them were nice, set up 4 return appointments in

just 1 hour of tracting. We did have an odd visit with some members

though. They answered the door, they told us straight off the bat that

they were members. We were like, "Okay, would it be fine if we came in

and shared a spiritual thought?" She said, "Why? Did bishop send you

over here??" We responded, "No, we just want to invite the spirit into

your home and bless it." “Oh, no, we aren't really in need of that, I

have two grandchildren on missions and we are endowment holders." I

could tell that Elder Wood was getting pretty angry. "So you are

saying you don't want us in?" "Yeah" "Okay, well have a good day." We

just had to leave, because Elder Wood was going to explode. Haha. So

that was really interesting.

 

Sunday: After one of our Ward Councils, we started receiving a call,

and in it said that it was from the Weber State Penitentiary. We got a

call from a LA whom was put in jail because he was drinking the night

before, and his wife told him she was cheating on him. So he hit her a

few times. Now he is in jail. He is 19, she is 30. So we are trying to

get him out of jail. Elder Wood knows the relationship, and he says

that she is not a very good wife, and he loves her a ton, and would do

anything for her. So sad :(

  We had dinner with President Hiers, grilled Salmon. Sooooooo

goooooooodddd!!! Also homemade ice cream cake from sister Hiers :)

  Afterwards we had a lesson with the Thompsons, they want to do

baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple, that will be really

cool! :) I haven't been there for baptisms.

 

Monday: Went in the morning to go get my permanent tooth! The loving

Knight were there to support me. Everything went well, the tooth

wasn't quite perfect because it doesn't have the little white peaks at

the bottom point of the tooth like my others, he told me he could do

it, but it would take a week, so I decided it was good enough, which

it is :) Then had lunch with the Knights.

  In the afternoon, we had a lesson with Justin, whom is a recent

convert, he said he is choosing to go on a mission. Sooo cool!! We

also are going to do baptisms for dead with him soon, he wants to go

to the bountiful temple. Had another lesson with Stacey, a 9 year old,

we taught the restoration, using the cups, as the foundation of

Christ's Church. If you don't know about the lesson, i'm sure you can

find it on youtube lol. We did not sing though haha.

Love Elder Wrathall