Week # 83 ~Grapefruit?

Hi family,

This week has been weird for me!   While we were teaching investigators, I had a day of craziness.   I was mispronouncing words, backwards inside out and pushdown. We were talking about planting the seed of faith…. I accidently told them that the seed will turn into a grapefruit instead of a GREAT fruit.  Everyone laughed at what I said including me.  We laughed for a while actually. 

S.  Is out of town again and won’t be at church. 

We have a new ward mission leader who is kind of a bummer.  He is telling us what we need to do which we are already doing.   He expects us to be perfect which we can’t ever be, so it is kind of frustrating.  We will continue to do our best pray a lot.

Later in the week we saw one of the 3-doomsday planes. That was pretty cool. We also saw that bomber jet that is really flat and kind of looks like a triangle. It was a pretty interesting day.

Love Elder Vance

Week # 82 ~Three day mouse removal!

Hello Family,

 

We finally met with S.  and he is still willing to meet with us and we reset his baptism date to April 11^th.  Pray that is will happen and I will be there to see this man come closer to our Heavenly Father. 

So we found a mouse in our apartment and it freaked me out!!  It was pooping everywhere! It took us a good 3 days to finally catch that sucker! One day to strategize, one day to observe the enemies movements, and one day to execute our plan! And… we got it!  Peanut butter on a regular mousetrap wins again!  But I was super paranoid about that mouse coming into our room so I barricaded the door with towels and things so it couldn't get in. Somehow, it worked!

Love you tons and tons,

Elder Vance

Week # 81 ~No Transfer

Hi guys,

No transfers for me…YAHHH!  And I am still in Millard area.  I am so happy to have the same area and the same companion.  I am very blessed. 

So S.  Is now not progressing in a good direction.  He has been drinking coffee and a little bit of alcohol and is supering busy and is moving.  We finally met with him and we both are really sad about the situation.  We will work hard and pray hard for him. 

Other than that on Friday we stopped by a less active family and they are from Micronesia and when they opened the door their apartment was super hot and stank strongly of dead fish. Apparently they were making their own sushi and they didn't use any fish.   so I was really confused to where the fish smell was coming from.  Instead of fish they were using spam.  I guess it is cheaper that any fish. 

I wanted to be polite and so I asked for a little bit of it.  I thought that they would give me at most a little bit sized piece.  Nooooo, they gave me 8 inches of that stuff!  It was wrapped in a weird seaweed thing.  So I took it politely and we were off. As we were walking I decided to see what it smelled like.  So I sniffed it and almost threw-up.  I then thought, you know it probably isn't as bad the second time, it was worse.  Then my hand smelled like it.  I almost threw-up again.  So to be polite I waited to get far away from their home and through it in the dumpster.   You do not have to go foreign to eat gross food! Or to see weird things and meet interesting people!!

Love you,

Elder Vance

Week # 80 ~ Baptism Push Back

Hello Family,

So our investigator S. had to push his baptism backs two weeks because he is busy.  We are still teaching and praying for him.  We have hope that he will continue to progress and realize the importance of the Gospel in his life. 

Thanks for the letters and packages of encouragement.  We are trying to stay as upbeat as we can.   We have transfer calls are this Thursday and transfers are this Friday. I hope I don't get transferred; I want to see this baptism come through.  I love my companion he is a really kind and fun to be around. 

No I do not need anything and I love you all tons!!

Love Elder Vance

Week # 79 ~Temple Recharge

Hello All,

So we went to the temple this week and it was very needed, for the spiritual recharge.  Both of us really needed it.   The ward is getting kind of annoying, because we are getting any help right now.   We are trying hard to change that.  I jammed my finger while playing catch with a baseball and it is kind of swollen but it is ok. 

Sid, our investigator came to church again and we had a lesson on the word of wisdom and told him about drinking coffee.   He drank 5 pots a day, YES pots.   After the lesson he quit drinking coffee.  We just told him that it was against the word of wisdom and it will benefit his life.

He said it is super hard to not drink it but he is not drinking it currently.  Power of prayer!

My cold is gone! I am pretty close to 100% now

I forgot to tell you. Sid got up one morning and his back really hurt and so he said a prayer and his back suddenly stopped hurting.   He is very impressed about that and he is gaining a testimony of prayer.

Prayer is so powerful, it is amazing and sad to me that some people have never prayed or did not even now they could communicate with our Heavenly Father.  How blessed we are to have been taught at a young age that we could pray for help and guidance in all things that are of pure heart and will make us better. 

We have been doing a lot of service this week, mostly moving people out of their houses.

My winter cloths are holding up fine and so are my suits.

I love you tons,

Elder Vance

Week # 78 ~“I don’t remember the song…”

Hello My Family,

I am doing great.  Life here in the Nebraska is busy and wonderful. The wallet guy is coming to church still but only to gospel principles.  We are so glad he lost his wallet.  How amazing the blessings are.  Our investigator with a baptismal date (Sid) came to all 3 hours of church last Sunday.

Yes, I did get your package and thank you for that, it was awesome!!  I love you!!

So, I have been sick for a couple of weeks now and I finally went to the doctor.   I found out that I have a viral bronchitis.  I am taking a prescription steroid for it and it is helping a lot. 

So this week was interesting.  For district meeting that we just had, we have a mission song (that I have not sang since the first day I got out here) and we are doing actions to the song, and they are very funny.  Also, yesterday we randomly got a knock on our door (which never happens) and it was a pizza deliveryman.  An elder that lives with us, his mom ordered pizza from her home in Utah and sent it out to Nebraska and gave it to us.  So we had a late night pizza party for about 10 minutes then we had to go to bed.  It was a nice surprise.

We have two new rules in the mission now. 

1. We can’t open or read any mail to us, when we receive it, only on p-day can we open and read it. 

2. We can only listen to church music and talks from now on.  No more inspirational music only church music. 

That was kind of a downer but we have to live with it now.

To answer your question...Yes, I feel like I have grown a lot.

I don't think that I am anywhere as shy as I was before I left also.  I also fell like my testimony and my knowledge has grown leaps and bounds.  How could it not???

My release date is august 19^th. 

 I will not be able to do a lot when you pick me up.  I will still be an Elder.  I am no sure how that works?  I will find out, as we get closer. 

I would love some more Hank Smith cds that would be awesome, they are great.

I can listen to these, because we can listen to talks and his cds. 

My comp says thanks for asking if he needed anything.

Thanks for everything and I love you a lot!

Elder Vance

Week # 77 ~AHHH SICK!!!!!

Hello Family,

So I am sick again!!  I am coughing up stuff and have a really bad cough.  My nose is really runny and I am blowing it all the time.  It’s annoying and it seems to be spreading to everyone in town.   A lot of sicknesses come and go now.  I am taking as much vitamin c as I can possible take and trying to get some rest when I can, but we are very busy.  I will be fine soon.

On an exciting note, we set an investigator for a baptism date!    

We also found a new investigator!!!  I am super excited!!

I was given this picture and loved it.  It just says how we look in a spiritual perspective. 

 It is so inspiring to me because of how in a sense we are going out to battle.

I love you tons,

Elder Vance