Hey,
This week was pretty awesome. Some great things happened. Things have come together for both Mike and Elizabeth to be baptized this upcoming saturday. I can't explain it all but miracles have just been taking place that has made everything possible. It's clear to see the Lord wants people baptized just as much, and more, than we do. He has been involved in these conversion processes throughout it all and without a doubt before the lessons even began. Much prayer and fasting, hard work, Elizabeth and Mike's own faith, and the Lord's divine intervention has made things possible. Experiences like this solidify my knowledge that the Lord is alive and involved in our lives. Whether we realize it or not - and when we realize it and turn to Him, He can and will do even more for us.
We had another awesome experience yesterday. One of our investigators texted us and told us he had some good news he wanted to share with us and his member friends whose house we teach him at sometimes. We went over for a lesson at the members' house and he told us he's been praying about baptism into the Mormon church and got his answer that he should! His name is Big Marcus. He's the man. We've been working with him for a few weeks and he's been thinking about baptism, saying he would if he got the answer to, and said that he hopes he gets that answer. And now he finally has that answer. So he's on date for a few weeks out from now. It was great, there was a great spirit in the lesson and we were all really happy for him, he was happy himself.
This is less miraculous but still exciting, but this week we're going to watch some baseball! We switched our preparation day from today to Thursday because we got tickets to see the Angels play the Tigers down in Detroit. Don't worry I'll root for the Angels. This will be the first game I've been to, and tickets were like 9 dollars I think. So that'll be fun. We still came in to do emails today but we're going out to teach once we're done.
I think that's about it for the week here in Ypsi. This is week 6 of the transfer and Elder Pedersen's last week of his mission. Crazy. We're going all out.
I hope you guys have a great week. Enjoy Batman and Spider-man.
Love,
Elder Lamb
July 9, 2012
like a fire is burning
hotter than a mug. that's what they say in the D. I've never learned what mug really means, I've been told it means something pretty bad, but other people say it doesn't really mean anything. so maybe be careful who you say it around, but even the locals don't really know what it means so you're probably safe. but it has been hot. in the triple digits, and the humidity bumps the heat index up even higher. and if you remember from my last email, our AC had been off. It was off for about a little over a week. it took a few days for them to figure out what the problem was. it turns out my companyero did it. he kicked my sky ball you guys had sent me and it hit the thermostat and broke it off the wall. and in the chaos of all that the wires got fried so it wouldn't connect to the water heater. but they didn't know that at first and thought it was the water heater, so they replaced that, which meant they had to turn off the water for a about a day and a half. ha it was an adventure, but it's alright because it builds character. also, we went on two exchanges this week and i left the area each time :) but at any rate, it's all good in the hood! we got the AC back on on Friday morning during weekly planning.
and thanks for the package! the bacon chocolate was pretty neat, tasted a little strange, but very cool. and the shirt is awesome. hope you guys had a happy 4th and delaney i hope you had a bumpin' b-day! i can't believe you're 13! it sounds like you guys are having fun and keeping busy.
this week was pretty awesome.
Some major miracles happened. We've been teaching this awesome investigator for a few months now, she's very converted to the gospel. She's 16 and she's already planning on going on a mission one day. She has very close friends in the ward, she's the girl I've told you a little about who came up to us at Cyaira's baptism and told us she wants to get baptized. so we've been meeting with her regularly and she's been doing just awesome. her mom is a really nice lady and has been sitting in on a lot of the lessons and has been really supportive in driving her to church each week and lessons and mutual. she's been holding off on giving her daughter permission to be baptized until December to make sure she'll have enough time to learn everything and to see if she's really committed to it all. So we've just been teaching and helping her regardless of when she's getting baptized, and we've been doing a lot of praying. And we even fasted with Elizabeth (the daughter) and some other members in the ward this past Fast Sunday. And then last night her mom texted us asking us what would have to take place to prepare for her baptism if she was to give her permission to be baptized this month. And then Elizabeth texted us today telling us she's getting baptized on July 21st! That is in every sense of the word a miracle. Only the Lord could have directed this situation from where it was to where it is now.
And then another miracle took place yesterday at church. We're working with another awesome guy who's on date for baptism also. The ward has been really helpful with rides and fellowship, he doesn't have a car right now. It hasn't been the easiest situation for him in meeting with us also, some of his roommates are giving him a hard time and his mom has been a little upset with him too. But yesterday in sacrament meeting he got a text saying his mom is going to just give him her car. Miracle!
So it's been an awesome week. I barely remember the heat. Things are good. There was an area in our zone shut down a couple weeks ago so we went to clean out the apartment today with some other missionaries and then went to lunch at a place in downtown Ann Arbor called Krazy Jim's Blimpie Burger. It was good, really greasy. It's been on the food network or some sort of show like that.
Gotta go. Have a great week everybody.
Here's a cool quote. "Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us." - President Ezra Taft Benson.
Much love,
Elder Lamb
July 9, 2012
I haven't heard a word about my return date yet. Elder Pedersen goes home in about two weeks and he told me that his family got the itinerary info a few weeks ago. So you'll prob get it about 4-6 weeks before I come home. So you'll probably find out the date sometime in October?
July 2, 2012
Happy 4th!
This week was warm. Which didn't help when our AC stopped working a few days ago. So my blankets are a thing of the past. We're going to figure it out with the maintenace man hopefully today. He's a cool guy. He gives us spiritual thoughts whenever we see him. He's an elder himself, ordained when a local bishop layed his hands on his head, just from a different church...and so a different authority. Awesome guy though. We gave him a Book of Mormon a few months ago. Nothing has come of it yet. But one day it'll happen!
We went to the mission fireside this week and brought one of our investigators. His name's Big Marcus, he's a close friend of an awesome family in the ward. We've been working with him for a few weeks now. He seemed to get a lot out of the fireside. There were some great recent convert testimonies. And at the fireside I saw a kid named Esclon who I was teaching the whole 6 months I was in Roseville. Awesome kid, he's 17 now, just never had a way to get to church. That was all he ever needed to get baptized. Knew the church was true the whole time, just never could get to church and his family wasn't very interested. So I haven't seen him in almost a year and I saw him this past Thursday, and he told me he was getting baptized the upcoming Saturday. So he got baptized this weekend! That was a tender mercy to be able to talk to him there a few days before his baptism. You never know when someone's going to accept the gospel and eventually enter into that covenant, we just have to keep planting and nurturing those seeds.
This week should be fun. We're going to a BBQ on the 4th at the institute building down in Ann Arbor. Our district is putting it together so all of those missionaries will be there with hopefully a ton of investigators and recent converts. We've got a few people planning on coming from our area already.
That's about it for the week. Have a fun 4th! The missionary handbook says we can't play with fireworks so set off a ton of extra ones for me, the more the better :)
have a great week, love you guys
elder lamb
June 25, 2012
general authorities in ann arbor:
Good morning :) how was new york? did you spot any celebrities? i hope you all had fun. and happy almost anniversary mom and pops!
this week we had elder per g. malm from the 2nd quorum of the seventy come out to tour the mission. he came to speak to us when i was at the mtc too, and i was looking through my notes from both meetings and it turned out he shared a lot of the same stories each time i saw him speak. but that's not to complain, this meeting was awesome. he's an awesome man. he's from sweden, he's pretty funny and at the same time there's no doubt he takes his calling very seriously. he talked about personal accountability and integrity and about acting in faith. pretty typical topics, but i got a lot out of it that i needed. it was probably the most revelatory experience i've taken away from a mission meeting, which is saying a lot because they're always jam packed with the spirit and give you an awesome boost of momentum. it was a blessing having him come, no doubt he's a very inspired and righteous man. just talking with him and especially when you look into his eyes you can tell he's called by God.
things are still good here in ypsi, we're staying busy. we've been improving our finding and we've found some awesome people we've already had a couple powerful lessons with. and we're still working with elizabeth who is still doing incredibly well. she's the friend of cyaira who came up to us after her baptism telling us she wanted to be baptized. she's pretty much been taught everything but her mom is still wanting her to wait a while before she's baptized so we're just helping her build her faith even more at this point. her mom's not a member of the church, so it's understandable to be a little cautious. but she's doing great, the ward loves her and it seems like her yw leaders are really impressed with her. she and kristena both went to youth conference this weekend and really liked it. they're both planning on going to young womens' camp this summer too.
weather's really nice today. we might play some volleyball with a couple other companionships and some members. we might go get some lunch with some other missionaries too. should be a good week coming up.
have a great week and enjoy your summer. hit up the beach for me if you can :)
love, elder lamb
June 18, 2012
new couch:
Happy Father's Day dad! Hopefully the girls made you breakfast in bed or something nice like that. It's probably even cooler to have breakfast in bed made for you when you're vacationing in New York City. Jay-Z would approve. Hope you guys are having a fun trip. If you get a chance and if you're in the mood for burgers, you should try a place called the Shake Shack. Have fun :)
This week has been good. We got a couch the other day from the smiths. We were ecstatic. Missionaries still haven't been in this apartment for very long so really the only furniture it's had are some wooden chairs and our beds. Not to complain, other missionary apartments might even have less, but it's been nice to have this couch. The bad part about all this is that Elder pedersen set his glasses and name tag down in our hallway when we were moving the couch up the stairs, and when we came back out they were gone. someone must have snagged them. sort of a bummer. he likes the couch a lot though, so we're not too upset.
this week elder per g. malm of the seventy is coming to tour the mission. he spoke at the mtc when i was there, he's a cool guy from sweden. that's tomorrow and that will be fun. this week we found a lot of new people and we're feeling good about this new transfer. there are a lot of good things going on. we're so blessed to have the restored gospel of jesus christ in our lives. we have it so good. the more we immerse ourselves in the gospel, the happier we are. the gospel life really is the good life.
love you guys a lot. have a great week in the city!
love,
elder lamb
June 11, 2012
new transfer:
hola! how's everyone doing? makenzie's prob pretty pumped, congrats on making it through high school. have fun at your graduation this thursday! everyone's out of school out here i think. this week is the first week of the nex transfer. elder pedersen and i are both staying here in ypsi. this is his last transfer too, so we're going all out. i guess we're suppose to go all out every transfer anyways, but regardless we're going hard these next 6 weeks.
something new that's going on out here is there's a new senior couple in the ward. they're here for 18 months, they were called to work in the singles ward that meets in the same building and with the institute program, but they also agreed to help out the ypsi ward. so we're pumped, they're going to be a lot of help for some people we're working with. they're names are elder and sister tingey. they're cool. a highlight of the week was that we took kristena tracting. by the way, kristena found the link to this blog somehow, so if you're reading this kristena, stop creeping on my blog :) jk, you can keep reading. but as i was saying, we went tracting with kristena one day in her neighborhood to give her a little sample of the missionary life. we actually didn't get very far because we told her that tracting is what we do when members don't invite their friends to meet with us, and so she called up her friend who actually lived on that street and he said we could come by and teach him. we haven't heard back from him since, but it was a neat experience. kristena also spoke in sacrament meeting this week, she told her experience of starting to meet with the missionaries and working towards baptism. it was prob the best talk i've heard in sacrament meeting in a while. everyone was paying attention and the whole ward was feeling the spirit really strong. i wouldn't be lying if i told you i ALMOST got a little teary eyed. but just almost.
things are great though. it's al ittle rainy today, we were thinking about playing some ultimate at the church with some other missionaries and members but we'll see. i think that's about it for the week. that's about it for time though.
by the way, word is spreading that i was on yo gabba gabba. pssh i feel for elder david archiletta.
love you guys. thanks for all you do. keep being a great example to me and everyone else around you. the church is true!
love, elder lamb
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