Member Work

Yo. This week has been kind of interesting. I've been getting a little frustrated lately because we've been really struggling with finding new people to teach. There's been a lot of contributing factors tonthat, but it's still been kind of frustrating. So we kinda decided we'd keep focusing on the members and doing our best to support our wards. So throughout the week we did some service and helped some members out and then we had these two lessons with some less active families and holy cow. The first was one this newly wed family where the wife is super strong and has a testimony and a desire to stay strong in the Gospel but her husband is kind of lazy and doesn't really care a whole lot. Our long term goal is for him to get the priesthood, but for now we're just trying to motivate him to study the scriptures and pray. We had a lesson the other night and it was SUPER spiritual and then at the end of the visit he was just like "Could you guys come every week? I think it would help me a lot" and so now we're going to be doing an FHE with them every monday and eventually passing it off to the members. It was pretty dope haha and then we had another less active family that we felt like we should go stop by and we just chatted about general conference and about personal revelation and then they brought up that they've been wanting to go to the temple together so now we're working with them on that. It's so refreshing to see how the Spirit can open people's hearts and help them be more receptive to change and enrichment.

So I've mentioned Michael and Robin a couple of times. Michael has some pretty severe health problems and so it's hard for him to have time to meet. The other day he fell off a ladder and collapsed a lung and broke a couple ribs, and then he visited his doctor and found out he has some disease. He's really not doing well. He gave us a call and basically just explained what all was going down and that he wasn't going to have any time to meet for awhile, which we totally understand haha but the other day we felt like we should go do our studies in their neighborhood. So we were down there and we saw him walking. He came up to us with tears in his eyes and told us this story that the night before he had been considering ending his life but that at 2:17 in the morning he opened up the Book of Mormon and just said a prayer and asked God to tell him something. He opened up to a scripture that gave him exactly what he needed and it changed his heart and his mindset and gave him the strength to keep carrying on.He is such a baller, and I am so grateful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and that through the power of revelation He can truly communicate with us. If you need something, ask a question and open the Book of Mormon with a prayer in your heart and I know you will receive an answer. 

We also had a funny experience the other day with a guy on the street. We chatted with him for a bit and he told us he wasn't interested so we asked him if he had any friends who could benefit from some help or a message about Christ and he was kind of making fun of us and told us we should try out his whole building and so we went for it and the first door we knocked was this lady named Ophelea who said she'd been feeling kind of lost and we have a lesson with her coming up this week haha it was pretty lit.

At times the work can be pretty hard, but we have so many awesome experiences and I serioiusly know that I'm meant to be here with these people. Also it's been really pretty lately. We also did some exploring in our area the other day and found a primate research facility behind locked gates with a security checkpoint and everything, which was a little strange haha but yeah. I love being out and feeling the Spirit and seeing it change people's lives. The Gospel is the best thing for us. I've talked with a fair amount of people who try to bible bash and tell us we're wrong and it's just kind of impossible to get shook about it haha having the Spirit to testify of truth and teach us about the scriptures and how true they are is such a blessing.

I love you all and hope you're doing well

1 and 2. Elder Measel and I 

3 and 4. Dope Pictures 

The Patriot

yo this week FLEW by. It was pretty weird haha but lots of good things happened this week. I had an exchange with Elder Petersen our district leader and we had an awesome day. We've had next to no finding time lately and so we made a point to have some finding time and we got tons done haha we accomplished most of our weekly goals in that one day. We also had a lesson with Susie and set a date with her, which I'm really looking forward to. We've been teaching her since as long as I've been in the field.

We also had an interesting service opportunity on Saturday. Hillsboro has this big farmers market every weekend and then the School District joined in and did some booths and events and whatever. So they got in touch with our zone somehow and invited us all to come volunteer and help out and whatever. We got there and they were like "yo we have mascot costumes for each of the schools but no one showed up to be the patriot mascot and so I got to be the patriot for the day haha I just went around and handed out balloons and yeah. It wasn't anything too crazy but then I heard that there was going to be a mascot dance off and I was like "heck no" and fortunatley the person who was supposed to be the mascot showed up and took over #tender mercies

All in all it's been a good, productive week. I got to video chat home yesterday for mothers day (HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM AND ALL YOU OTHER MOMS) which was probably the highlight of my mission so far haha and yeah. I hope you all are still doing well.

Love you all. 

Stay lit

1. Elder Petersen and I with our freshly shaved legs 

2. One of our investigators (Bob) owns an excavation company and I want to be just like him

3. Jet spoons

4. No comment

5. We had a water fight today 

6. I forgot I had a quesadilla in the oven haha

Yeet Yeet

Alright, couple quick updates for y'all.

Our area and our entire zone are both doing extremely well. We're making members a priority and we're seeing some major success from doing so

This was a bit of a rough week, we had all of the new missionary meetings for Elder Measel and I and we had zone conference and we did almost 22 hours worth of service throughout the week, which led to almost no finding time for us :(

Zone conference was super good

Susie invited her friend Donna over for a lesson we had with her and Susie flat out bore her testimony to her friend and then talked about how ready and excited she is to join the church. She just has a couple questions she wants answered before she commits to a baptismal date

Bob and Cheryl came to fast and testimony and Cheryl talked to us afterwards with tears in her eyes and told us that this was the first time she had taken the sacrament in years and that she had never felt the presence of Jesus Christ so strong and that she was so excited to continue to learn and feel more of Jesus Christ and His gospel. I may have cried a little bit when she told us that

I waxed my legs for zone P-day

We had a district car wash and I got sunburnt which was weird

I'm loving the work and working with our people. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. 

I love you all

Elder Bond

New Comp

Well I have a new companion. His name is Elder Measel and he's from Detroit. He's also a ginger, which is kind of fun. We've got a lot of work to do this transfer and I'm excited to see how the busyness is going to help him adjust to the life of a missionary. This week has been pretty slow, it's kinda hard to keep things going with the adjustment of having one companion leave and a new one come in. Oh yeah, I'm training Elder Measel, he's a brand new missionary. So yea, It's going to be a good couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how our work goes.

I can't really think of anything else super exciting that happened haha missionary work is hard work, and it's so rewarding but also stressful and it lowkey starts to get kind of monotonous haha I hope you all are doing well. 

Love you all

Elder Bond

1: our zone last week. After transfers it's way different now haha

2: doin service

3: the newbie, Elder Measel

4: The Crew