Biking 'round Ypsi

April 23, 2012

Hey family, Happy Monday. Happy belated Earth Day too - that was yesterday - I hope no one went too crazy in their celebrating.

This week finally got our car taken in to the body shop to get the dent taken out. So we ended up on bike for three days. It felt good to be biking. The weather was great for it too. We actually loved it so much we're planning on setting aside some bike time each week. It was nice to be riding around in the fresh air and getting some exercise, but it also helped us find some sweet people we wouldn't have found if we weren't on bike. This one guy stopped us in his car and said he wanted to start meeting with us, he seems like a sincere guy. We also found a lady who is just a good good lady, we ended up having a lesson with her the next day and went over the Restoration. She has three autistic children, all are pretty young, you can tell she just loves them all. We feel really good about her and her family. We're hopefully seeing her again tomorrow.

This week we had a lot of lessons (15) with members coming out to help. There are some top notch members in this ward, they just want to help out and look forward to us calling them up each week. We even took a new member named Jerard out with us for his first time coming out with missionaries. He was baptized in January, just a good good man. He did great too. We actually took him to a lesson with a new-ish investigator named Dennis - it turned out they're related! Jerard's cousin-in-law is married to Dennis' sister-in-law, so not the closest relationship, but they knew a ton of people in common really well. So that in of itself was pretty cool, and Jerard did a fantastic job at being supportive and bearing testimony.

We also had a neat experience where we were teaching one of our investigators who is working towards baptism on the 13th of May. Her name is Cyiara, her mom is a member. She had a big day of try-outs yesterday for some elite softball team (she takes softball extremely seriously) and her mom made a comment after a lesson that they won't be able to make it church because of the try-outs. Cyiara said "Well you guys don't have to but I'm spending the night at grandma and grandpa's and going to church with them in the morning for at least sacrament". Cyiara's on top of it. So her and her mom and her younger brother ended up coming to Sacrament Meeting yesterday and leaving in time for her to get to her try-outs. That was just awesome to see. Also on a quick side note, Cyiara's younger brother Samuel is 9. He really wants to be baptized too. The tricky part is their dad is actually a member of a different church and hasn't been very supportive about baptism. That's why Cyiara hasn't been baptized until now. So we're teaching Samuel as well every time we go over, and we're praying hard that he'll be able to be baptized too. But if you would like to keep Samuel in your prayers, feel free, he's a good kid who really deserves it to happen sooner rather than later. The dad seems to be a genuinely good person too, he just isn't very open to the church right now.

Well that's about it for the week I think. A great week. I hear the Scotts are coming out soon, either this week or next week I can't remember. I'm pretty sure this week. So that'll be cool. They'll be serving in a different zone but I'll for sure see them at meetings.

Well that's about it for the week. Hope everyone's doing good. Happy Earth Day!

Love,
Elder Lamb

<('o'<) <----- Kirby

April 16, 2012

Hola! How's life in the sunny OC? it's raining here today. we almost took our bikes out the other day but decided against it because we had too many appointments that were too far spread out and wouldn't have made it in time, and the rain just sealed the deal. that's probably just showing how spoiled we might be compared to missionaries who have to go out on bike everyday regardless....so my hat's off to them.last night we went to a fireside at the bloomfield hills stake center, it was neat to see a few investigators i taught about a year ago, moving along slowly but still receiving the gospel line upon line. the fireside was really really good. the speaker was Brad Wilcox, he's on the Sunday School Board of the church and was a BYU professor at one point. he was a pretty funny guy. but the talk he gave was outstanding. he talked about grace, it was a talk that just clears up your vision on things more, it definitely helped me understand God more. Here's a link to a talk he gave not too long ago, it's almost identical to the one he gave last night. i know i put a lot of links in these emails, but this is one you should seriously check out. http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=13436&x=59&y=9 

  

Hopefully anyone who reads it will benefit from it as much or more than I did. Needless to say, I'm a fan.

This week went great. Elder Davis and I taught 34 lessons, 21 of them were investigator lessons. That's the most I think I've taught in a week in my mission. We're working hard and having fun. We're still finding a lot of new people, a lot of them struggle to turn into progressing investigators, but it's true that the more work we put into finding, the more people we will find who do progress. We recently found one guy I'm really excited about. His name is Dennis. We had a pretty rough experience where we got thrown out of a house by someone who was baptized a few years ago and has been struggling with some things, it just about broke our hearts. So we pulled over and said a prayer and then we saw Dennis right outside our car and both got a strong feeling to talk to him. We taught him that day and he committed to a baptismal date. He came to church yesterday for the first time and loved it. There's nothing sweeter than knowing and feeling the Spirit's presence in the work. If we seek for that, the miracles are bound to come. We're also teaching a girl who's preparing for baptism now. Her mom is a member but her dad isn't and even though she and her younger brother have been involved in church their whole lives baptism hasn't really been an option, but last week we invited her to be baptized and it was a miracle to say the least. just an awesome girl, her mom is super cool and super supportive too, the dad seems to be a really good guy too, things are just falling into place finally. we also started working with two little kids Collin and Caden, they're actually Kristena's cousins (sort of, cousins is an easier description). we started working with them when Kristena's baptism happened. Their parents want them to get baptized and we had a first official lesson with them this week. today we're going to play some more bball. but all this bball is making me miss h2o polo more than anything else....sigh. but really, i'm focused.

i think that's about it. our maintenance guy in our apartment complex is an ordained elder. just not in our church. he came by this morning to fix our dryer (yes we have a washer and dryer in our apartment, but i already established the fact we're spoiled), we gave him a book of mormon. i'll keep you posted on Elder Boon.

Well much love. Have a great week.

Elder Lamb

Happy Easter from Ypsi

April 9, 2012

Happy Easter from Ypsi! I hope everyone had a good day yesterday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you haven't had a chance to check out any of the recent Bible Videos that have come out, definitely check these ones out 
 ( http://www.lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng ) the newer ones are on the Atonement and are especially good. probably the best media the church has ever come out with. 

the spirit was very strong in sacrament meeting yesterday for the easter program. plus kristena was confirmed as well as another lady who was baptized yesterday by the other elders in the ward. a pretty neat experience also happened in the high priest class yesterday. elder davis and i went in for a few minutes with one of the ward missionaries to share a quick presentation. we watched a quick clip called "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" and bore our testimonies on missionary work. the purpose was to pump up the members in the ward (the other elders gave a similar presentation in the elders quorum, and we're going to do a combined one next week with the youth), and it was successful, the high priests were willing to help. the ward is already super supportive, but the presentation was more to help some of the members who haven't come out to help in a while. but a part that was especially cool was during the presentation one of the members spoke up to share a testimony on missionary work. he talked about how growing up his daughter would bring a friend to church every once in a while but they eventually went their separate ways. but fast forward 20 years to today, that friend recently had missionaries knock on her door and met with them for a few months and then was baptized this saturday with her 9 year old son. turns out i knew exactly who he was talking about because i tracted into her, and elder adamson and i had been teaching her and her son for the past couple months. the last day i was there she had an experience where she knew she wanted her and her son to be baptized. i was hoping to go to the baptism this saturday but it didn't work out because we were on exchanges - so when this member shared that story and i said i was one of the missionaries who knocked on her door, it seemed to add to the spirit of the discussion. the lord works in neat ways.

everything is great right now. i'm having fun and working hard and learning things every day. i feel like i'm especially motivated to work hard and exercise faith because of the opportunities to help people i'm starting to notice right now. the opportunities have always been there - and they will always be there for all of us - but i feel like i'm noticing more ways to serve now more than ever. i think part of that comes from asking the Lord for a vision of what it is He wants us to do. when we ask Him what we can do to help, He will surely point out opportunities to do so. and that's where miracles and true happiness is found. it makes others happy, it brings us happiness as we serve, and more than anyone the Lord is pleased.

time to go, but thanks for everything, you're all in my prayers.

love,

elder lamb

Thomas "the monsoon" Monson

April 2, 2012

Oh man. What a week. I'm pretty low on time too.

I think a highlight first of all was seeing Jennie and Morgan outside of my apartment. That was crazy, ha it didn't really register in my brain so I think I might have seemed a little dazed. It was short but definitely a highlight of my mission. If Jennie or Morgan are reading this, thanks a lot for the fragel and for the surprise. It was great to see you guys.

Another highlight, our investigator Kristena was baptized on Saturday. I don't have my camera with me. But it was a fantastic baptism. Kristena is a really amazing individual. She's 15. A few months back her parents passed away in a car accident, and she started living with her cousin and cousin's husband who are a part member family. And there are a lot of less-active and non-member family members in this family who are really being blessed by her decision to be baptized. At the baptism there was a ton of the family members, and the spirit was felt really strong. we talked to a couple of people who felt the spirit and said they want to start working towards their own baptisms now. just an awesome family, it's really special to be able to be a part of the experience of seeing the Lord pour down blessings upon these people.

another highlight, remember the new ford fusion we picked up last week? we were in a lesson and watched through the living room window as a car backed into it a few days ago. it was a pretty hard back. we heard it from inside and there's a pretty big dent in our shiny new car. since we saw it all happen we ran out the door but the person drove away. dumb dumb dumb. the cops came out, but we didn't have the plate info to give him.

today for preparation day our zone went to U of M for a tour of the Big House. It's the football stadium. gigantic. it was really neat. we got to check out some of the box seats, the locker room, got to hang out on the field for a little bit. i had a 100 yard dash with a few other missionaries from end zone to end zone, i didn't win though. awesome experience though. and then afterwards we and the other companionship in the ward met up with an awesome member family at the church to play some basketball, frisbee, dodgeball and some other games for a few hours. it's been a really fun preparation day. scrambling to finish up at the library right now though before 6:00.

there were some other highlights. but i'm out of time. but i've gotta mention conference. man oh man. how great it is. seriously, there isn't anything like it. hopefully everybody got some good things out of it specifically from them, if not go back and check out another talk or two.

well i'm out of time. love you guys. thanks for everything. have a great week.

elder lamb

first week in ypsi

March 26, 2012

yo! i'm officially transferred. i'm serving in the Ypsilanti Ward (sounds like ipsilantee). i'm a zone leader still but i'm in the ann arbor zone instead of the westland zone. i probably have explained this before, but in the mission each zone is made up of a zone. so there's four zones (four stakes) in the mission - Bloomfield Hills, Grand Blanc, Westland, and Ann Arbor. I've served in the other three zones, but this is my first time serving in this zone.

my companion's cool. believe it or not, the Lord has seen it fit to bless me with michael rex as my companion. their personalities are pretty similar. it's great, but surreal, i feel like i'm back home hanging out with michael. actually he went to SUU and played bball (he's 6'8'', an inch taller than my trainer Elder Berger). his name's Elder Kyle Davis. great missionary, been out about 10 months. i went on an exchange with him once when i was in plymouth and we had a pretty miraculous day on our exchange, and this week has been one of the most powerful weeks of my missions. he and i click pretty well in lessons, powerful lessons. we found 10 new investigators this week and got close to 30 lessons. he's only been in this area a transfer longer than me and the zone leaders were serving somewhere else. so we didn't quite white wash the area (but he white washed it when he came into it last transfer) but we're white washing the zone leading aspect of the area. but i'm excited. word on the street is, this is one of the best if not the best wards in the mission as far as missionary mindedness goes. the members are pumped, come out to help with appointments a lot. this morning we traded in our 96 Chevy Malibu for a 12 Ford Fusion. we're planning on a baptism this saturday before conference. life is good. oh and a couple of families i've met in the ward are good friends with David Fosters' family. I think the fosters used to live in this ward before they came to CA? small world.

so here's the new address:

2277 Grove Rd. Apt #824W

Ypsilanti, MI 48198

Conference is coming. I found this sweet video on lds.org, check it out, post it on fb or something. spread the word!

http://www.lds.org/general-

conference/invite-others?lang=
eng

Well that's about it for now. i'm looking forward to conference. don't forget to prepare for it by praying that the Lord will teach you things you need to learn. without fail there is something there for all of us. gotta go. have a great week.

love you guys.

elder lamb