October 29, 2012
Hey! Yesterday was AWESOME. The baptisms happened. Kimi Berry was baptized, and so were Cathy and Madelyn Bladassarra. And it was an awesome day. Church was from 1 - 4 (we had 7 investigators there), and then there was a "Linger Longer" from 4 - 5, and then the baptisms at 6. It made for a huge turn-out. It was a really neat experience seeing the Baldassarra family last night. Gian, who was baptized a month ago, baptized his wife and 11 year old daughter. The Gospel blesses families, and God's plan goes beyond the individual. He wants to see families building on the rock of Christ, and really does have a perfect plan for each individual family. The Baldassarras were cool to watch through the experience because everything just fell right into place all at once for them as a family. In a year their 7 year old son can be baptized and they can all be sealed in the temple as well. And Kimi's cool stuff too. She's 20, others in her family were baptized a couple months ago. Kimi didn't feel ready back then but she's turned herself around and is on fire right now.
Something we're pretty excited about is we've come up with a pretty cool gameplan for helping keep these new members active and bound to the ward. We created these folders for the ward to use to track their progress in their new member lessons and assigning different ward members to teach these each week, and also tracking their progress in getting home/visiting teachers, callings, working towards the temple a year from now. the wards want to help new members but sometimes need a push, and we want to give that push more than we know how too, but the ward jumped at this idea. it came out based off of some other ideas from other missionaries, and some brainstorming with our ward mission leader.
out of time. love you guys. happy halloween.
elder lamb
October 24, 2012
I have to be quick today. We were suppose to get snow this week but the forecast has changed. But the snow is on its way. I just had an epiphony - snowball pass along cards. I'll take a pass along card and cover it in snow and throw these at doors as we drive by. The work is hastening.
This weekend two more of the Baldassarras will be entering the waters of baptism. Gian (baptized about a month ago) is going to baptize his wife and 11 year old daughter. Everyone's excited in the ward, especially the Baldassarras. Church gets out at 4, and there's going to be a "linger-longer" from 4-5 where the ward's going to mingle and have a small pot luck, and then the baptisms will be at 5. It'll be a fun day. And we're hoping another investigator we're working with, Kimi, will be baptized that same night. This past Sunday at church, Gian helped with blessing the sacrament for his first time. He was sporting a new suit for the day.
Another investigator we've been working with is doing AWESOME. His name's Gary. He's a machine. He's read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, the Gospel Principles manual, Preach My Gospel, the George Albert Smith teachings manual, and whatever else he can get his hands on. This has all been in the past 2 months or so. And on top of that, he's come down from 40 cigarettes a day to 3 a day for the past couple weeks......to quitting yesterday! He's doing great. Hopefully his baptism is soon.
Gotta go. Hope you guys have a good week. Look for opportunities to do missionary work. Our brothers and sisters need it!
Love,
Elder Lamb
hey family, sorry for leaving you hanging with the updates last week. i made my tall companion pass up shooting hoops right now so we could come in to the office and email. how are things in california, utah, and idaho? michigan's starting to get cold but nothing that bad yet.
today is day one of the last transfer. 6 weeks left. it hasn't really hit me as weird yet, but i'm anticipating waking up one day and feeling pretty strange. we've had a pretty busy day today. the new missionaries came in from the airport and we went over with President and Sister Holmes to go pick them up. So we were getting things ready and helping out a little at the mission home. Tonight we're splitting them all up and going out teaching with them for a few hours. We don't have a lot of appointments tonight so i'll have to rely on that new missionary fire to bring about some miracles in our finding with whoever i'm with. and then they'll all spend the night at our apartment (we have a bunch of beds for this reason). and then we'll take them all to the meeting in the morning to meet their trainers and we'll all go to the Transfers Meeting. I don't know if i've explained this to you before, but since our mission is pretty small geographically (four stakes), all of the missionaries who are getting transferred come to the transfer meeting with their companion. they get a call a few days before and are told they're getting transferred but aren't told where. and then at the transfer meeting there's a power point that goes through all of the areas and they find out that way where they're serving and with who. always a fun meeting.
so elder bednar came last night to the ann arbor stake.....but we didn't get to see him :( his son is in the ann arbor stake, and is actually the ward mission leader there. so he was in town to visit family and go to the U of M football game at the Big House ha. so for one of the nights he put together a fireside for all of the young single adults. president asked if missionaries could come with investigators, but elder bednar wanted us out working. that was rough, but understandable. but we sent our investigator kimi to go. and kimi loved it. kimi's on date for the 28th and is doing awesome. the rest of her family was baptized not too long ago but she struggled a little to get motivated and focused. she had to overcome some obstacles with her lifestyle, but is recently doing awesome. once she accepted a baptism date she came alive. so she's doing great. i'm a little bummed we couldn't see elder bednar........but elder oaks is coming next month! and we CAN see him! elder oaks is coming to our stake conference, so we get to see him there (we might camp out the night before to get good seats). but he wants to have a meeting with our mission so we'll get to see him there. possibly meet him. that's the weekend of the 10th and 11th of november.
remember gian who was baptized a few weeks ago? he is still doing awesome. and his family is too! his wife accepted a date for the 28th! and gian's going to baptize her! and it looks like their daughter is probably going to join her and get baptized that day too. just an incredible family. we had such a wonderful lesson with them this week. we brought a great couple from the ward to the lesson, we read from 3 Nephi 27 and taught the gospel, and extended the date. i can't explain it all, but it was a miracle. she had talked to her mom earlier that day about coming to her baptism basically on that date (which took some faith, her parents - like gian's - weren't very happy they were coming to the Mormon church in the first place), and when we extended the invitation after praying about on our own end, it just fell into place. that might not make sense, it's hard to explain, but it was cool ha. and without bringing it up in the lesson, they asked about getting sealed in the temple (we had a lesson on eternal marriage in gospel principles a few weeks back). so...i might have to make a trip out to michigan next october.
so we have some baptisms coming up. and hopefully a few more not long after those ones. the gospel is so good. the world needs it badly. and when people find it for the first time and start embracing it, it's a good experience :)
love you guys,
elder lamb
ps. conference was incredible huh?
October 4, 2012
hey there,
things are starting to get chilly out here. i'm hoping things hold off until december since i sent my winter gear home. the nice part is the leaves are starting to change colors, which is awesome in michigan because there are a ton of trees.
this past week has been good. on tuesday we went to New Missionary Training, where the new missionaries and their trainers come together and we discuss how the first month of their mission experience has been, do some practices, do some instructions, and give them a good boost to set them back on their way for the next 2 years. this was a really good batch of new missionaries. it was a great meeting. and sister holmes made taco salad, which is a favorite for any member of the lamb family, so life was good. today we have ZLCM (zone leader council meeting) at the mission home. always a fun meeting too. and sister holmes will have something for lunch too, so again life will be good.
we had an awesome lesson with the baldassarras (gian was baptized a couple weeks ago). his wife is also just an awesome person. she has a busy work schedule so we haven't gone over as much with her, but the whole family has been consistently coming to church every week since gian started meeting with the missionaries. so we were going over the plan of salvation with gian and kathy and the spirit was strong as kathy was soaking everything in. we asked her about baptism and she said she believes everything we've taught her and gian....and plans on getting baptized when she gets some more reading in! gian got excited when she said that, we all did. this past sunday gian was confirmed and received the aaronic priesthood so they're both excited already for gian to baptize her. just an incredible family. we cover parts of detroit in our area here, and they're in a pretty rough part of town, but still able to find happiness and be good people regardless of their circumstances and environment.
yesterday we were walking back to our car (we drive a dodge grand caravan, nothing wrong with that) after finishing up a lesson. and this guy was walking down the sidewalk and we stop to give him a card, turns out he met with missionaries in the past and....he raps about the gospel! he just started rapping some of his stuff, it was AWESOME! i actually remember the previous missionaries telling me about him when i was in this area on a exchange a long time ago, we were going to see him on the exchange but he had to cancel the appointment. so i was pumped to see him. we set up to go see him later today. i'll try and get a video or a cd or something. and baptize him. the restored doctrine and principles of the gospel will not only bless him and his family forever, but will also give him way more material than he ever thought possible.
i'm pumped for general conference. i'm trying to prepare for it the best i can, i want to soak in the words of the prophet and apostles as much as possible. their words are gifts from God, and it gives us the vision and strength we need for the next 6 months till they speak again. and something they say can bless us beyond 6 months and make an impact on us for the rest of our lives. Last year in General Conference Elder Holland said, "If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you". i'm excited, i hope you guys have a good general conf weekend too. president holmes invited us over to watch a session at the mission home and we've invited the baldassarras. it'll be good.
Check out this quick video, it'll pump you up for General Conference:
https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/general-conference-has-something-for-you-b?lang=eng
gotta go, love you guys. the church is true, the gospel makes us happier. shall we not go on in so great a cause?
love,
elder lamb
