so long plymouth

March 19, 2012

Well, transfers hit and i'm taking off. It caught us off guard. Elder Adamson's been here in Plymouth for a while now and he only has this next transfer before he goes home, so we thought for sure he'd leave before me and i was planning to be here for a while. so that's still really weird. but that's how it works. ain't no thing but a chicken wing. don't know where i'm going to yet, i'll find out tomorrow morning at transfer meeting.

but on a better note, laura little was baptized on saturday! :D it was awesome, she's just a top notch individual and is going to do some great things. and if you haven't noticed from the picture, that's lil' wayne standing right there. she was baptized by lil' wayne. few can say that. so that in of itself was a sweet experience too. he was baptized a little under two months ago and is already using his priesthood to baptize people. she was just excited to be baptized and didn't have a preference for who did the ordinance so we thought of wayne, he couldn't stop saying how much of an honor it was to use his priesthood. so his family came out to the baptism. and laura's family came out to the baptism, and we had some of our investigators there. when she was changing into dry clothes, elder adamson and i put on a short 15 min movie showing wilfred woodruff's experience in finding the church and getting baptized, it taught about the apostasy and the restoration and brought the spirit. and when the movie ended i bore my testimony. it was a really neat experience, the spirit was really strong and you could tell even the non-members were feeling it.

those are the biggest things from this week. i'm a little bummed i have to go, this has been my favorite area so far, and not to mention there are a handful of people we've been working with who will more than likely get baptized this next transfer which i'd like to be here for. but i'm looking forward to seeing where i'm headed. today's going to be busy, haven't started packing and we've got some errands to run. these past three months have kicked my butt, haven't knocked me down but it's been intense. there's a lot going on all of the time. maybe i'll just get transferred to some remote area in the middle of nowhere with no extra responsibilities? :) we'll find out tomorrow. but have a great week, love ya guys.

elder lamb

ps. sorry i haven't done a great job getting you pictures, i'm hoping to send an sd card to you soon with my winter clothes (it's been in the 70s this week). but there's a pic of me and elder adamson in front of the tigers' stadium when we had our district activity in downtown detroit a few weeks ago.

Gladys

March 12, 2012


Hey. Sorry I didn't get a letter out last week. Last week had a district activity in downtown Detroit and we had to meet everyone in time to catch a bus, and mine and elder adamson's emails to president took up more time than we realized. we looked at the time and realized we were already late so we just had to log off the computers. but it was good talking to you for a few min back and forth mom :)

this weekend was the Gladys Knight firesides. oh man that was sweet. i can't capture how cool it was, so pray that you can see the choir sometime. so there were a total of 7 performances, they added an earlier one on friday. and elder adamson and i got to assist at the friday ones which was really neat. the one at friday was at the palmer park building down in detroit. i don't know if i've showed you a pic of that building already, but it's an old greek orthodox church that we bought out and renovated only a little bit, so it's still pretty sweet. i'll upload some pics of the building i took when i was down in mack last year, we had our district meetings every week in this building. we got to talk to a lot of the choir members when we assisted and they told us they had never performed in a building like this one. for assisting we had to get there at 10 in the morning for training and to set things up, and we stayed for all 3 firesides that day and got back home at about 11:30 that night. but it was fun, we got to watch all three of those too. and we went to one of the saturday firesides with some of our investigators, and the ones on saturday and sunday were at the bloomfield hills stake center (same parking lot as the temple). the music was really good, never knew i was a gospel music fan. when gladys would sing, it was like she was declaring her testimony to the audience. she would sing at the audience rather than to the audience. and she's got some vocals. it was pretty interesting to see how Gladys would present herself differently when she was in detroit and when she was in bloomfield hills. in detroit she let her swaggah flow out a lot more, she sounded a lot like a detroiter, and she threw down on obedience. she said something like "you're not just saved, you've got WORK to do!" ha and all the detroiters would shout "amen" and "thass righ gladys". it was a lot of fun. we were standing and clapping. detroiters were shouting and hallelujah-ing. it's something i probably will never see again inside of a church meeting. and the fireside in bloomfield was sweet too. you could tell that the audience was thinking things through a little more, and the speakers could address things a little more directly with them. On the saturday performance Gladys' husband spoke too (he wasn't there for the friday ones) and he was super direct. he shared his story of how he was good friends with gladys since the 70s but thought she'd lost her mind when she joined the church. but eventually she got him to start meeting with the missionaries and they got married. in his testimony he said "I'm not here to convince you this is the true church...I'm here to inform you this is the true church." good stuff. he also said "if you came tonight to hear gladys knight and the choir sing, you completely missed the point of the fireside." and gladys was just as bold. she spoke for 20 min or so at the end. she shared her conversion story and said "it's no coincidence you're here tonight. you're hear because God wants you in His army. He's called you all here. it's up to you whether you accept that call and enlist though. if you don't, He'll let you go and serve whatever else it is out there you want to serve, but if you want to serve God in His army, this is your chance right now."

this was so cool, a once in a life time experience. we brought a family with us that's been investigating and they loved it. and two other investigators we're working with made it out and went with members. miracles were happening all over the place too. when we were working on friday in detroit, we had some extra tickets, so we started inviting people walking by the church. a couple people ended up coming to the firesides. this one guy named dion came in and we got him set up with the missionaries in that ward because he lives right across the street from the church, and i looked back at him a couple times during the performance and his face was lit up with a big old smile the whole time. our ward did a good job inviting friends too, they got more tickets than any of the other wards in the stake, so that was exciting, and members have been telling us how much their friends enjoyed it. so that alone was cool to see members way more excited about missionary work. i think i explained the request situation, but everyone who came to the fireside got a program with a tear-out request card that the missionaries collected afterwards. if someone filled it out, the missionaries in their area come by to drop off a gift bag with a CD sampler with some of the songs from the choir, a Restoration DVD, and a Book of Mormon. so our job starting tomorrow is to start meeting with all these people. the mission ended up getting about 800 of the request cards, so we should be busy the next couple months. i hope i captured as much of the fireside experience as i could just now. it was a good time, i've had gladys and the choir stuck in my head ever since. word on the street she's going to be on dancing with the stars too, she's got some moves. she was rockin out up there as she directed the choir. not only is the church true, but it's got some soul up in there.

well that was pretty much the highlight of the week. baptism coming up this saturday so stay tuned for that. her name's laura, and she's the coolest. super elect. we found out she's related to porter rockwell too, so that explains why she's got that die-hard faith.

love you guys. let's not forget to thank the lord for the restored gospel in our lives - and to share what we've been given with those who need it so badly. everyone needs it badly.

elder lamb

thug life

Yoo. It's about 60 degrees out here in Plymouth. The sun's out and the ice is nowhere to be seen. People who've lived in Michigan their whole lives have said this has been the mildest winter they've ever seen, so I can't complain especially after last year on bike in the D, but i'm still excited spring's almost here.

This week was really good. We had a cool day with President Holmes. One of his daughters was married last weekend and the rest of the family was busy with wedding business afterwards. This left President by himself for most of the week so he decided to spend a day with all the zone leaders. So we met up with him Wednesday night and he slept over then spent all Thursday with us. We set up really good appointments to bring him to...and most of them ended up canceling. So we did a lot of tracting. So that was dumb. But the lessons we did have went really well, it worked out that he needed to be there for those particular lessons. And we've been doing district work-outs once or twice a week at the stake center for our morning exercises. We usually play ultimate or basketball. We managed to get president out to that in the morning, ha he's pretty competetive. So that was cool.

The mission fireside this month was put together by our stake so we helped pick some of the speakers. Lil' Wayne spoke and shared his experience of joining the church. Such a cool guy. His parents came and really enjoyed it. They'll also be going to the Gladys Knight fireside. They're definitely feeling the spirit from his powerful testimony. Wayne said one of the sacrament prayers this sunday for the first time too. he was pumped about that. The other recent convert speaker was another lady from our ward named Brenda. her and her husband were baptized right before i came into the area, her testimony was top notch too.

we're working with a new investigator who i wrote about last week i think. she's really prepared. she was working with the sister missionaries in another area and just moved into our area. she's on date for a few weeks out. she could be baptized right away just based off of her testimony and understanding, but we wanted to give her some time to meet the ward. she came out to the Plymouth Ward for the first time yesterday and enjoyed it. and we had another lady with her son their for the first time. our ward mission leader and his family picked them up, they have a son the same age. she liked it and wants to come next week. and that family's taking them to the gladys knight fireside now too.

this week was elder adamson's birthday (turned 25, he's a wise old man). we had a birthday dinner at a recent convert family's house this week. they gave me a Dr Dre tshirt for my present. thug life.

well i gotta go. super busy today. preparation days are always busy. we have zone conference this week and we have to put together our instruction today.

love ya guys.

elder lamb

Happy Presidents Day!

yo. miracles are happening in plymouth. we've been finding some new people to work with who are sweet. there's this one girl who's been working with some of the sister missionaries in a different area of the mission, she was getting ready for a surgery so they asked if we could go over to see her to give her a blessing because she was staying with some family in our area. so we did a few weeks ago and we could tell right away how solid she was. she's already planning on baptism but the surgery slowed that down a little, but it couldn't slow down her testimony. she's top notch. so they asked us to go over again a few days ago because her surgery would be the next day, it turns out she's moving into the plymouth ward boundaries. we're pumped to get to be working with her now.

someone else we met when i was on an exchange with one of the dearborn elders in plymouth. we were knocking doors and talked to this one lady for 20-30 minutes at her door. she asked if we could come in to share more with her, but we couldn't because we didn't have another man with us so we set up to see her the next day and brought someone with us. that lesson went really well. she's been looking for a new church and has been wanting to get her 8 year old son baptized. we let her know that we'd be happy to help her out with that.

last night we went over to see the whitfields, that sweet family that was just baptized with those rad twin brothers. we're trying to work with their aunt who lives in the same apartment complex, and when she didn't come over for the appointment we took the twins and knocked on her door but she didn't come out. so we asked them where we should go do missionary work instead and they took us to one of their friend's place. that family let us in and were really excited about the message of the restoration. we're taking the twins over tonight to teach them again. so that was cool, but i think the best part was that travis and tevin were willing to spread the good word like it ain't no thang. they're still new to the church and they're not afraid of nothin, they know it's true so naturally they know their friends and family need to hear about it. a good example for me.

that's pretty much it, missionary work all day every day. we're still getting ready for the gladys knight fireside. the ward members are kicking butt at inviting people. there was a neat experience with one lady in the ward. she called her cousin to invite her to the firside and left a voicemail explaining all the info. the person she called called her back and said "i got your voicemail, you called the wrong number actually, i'm not your cousin.....but i'll take some of those tickets". so that lady got herself four tickets, no one knows her yet but she's going to feel the spirit super strong in a few weeks.

we did some service and cleaned a fish tank. i don't think i ever want to have fish as pets. i'll still eat them though.

have a good week and a happy presidents day! most of those guys are members of the church now. maybe the next president will be too. love you guys!

elder lamb

still small voice

This week was pretty busy. We had a mission-wide training meeting, something that usually doesn't happen. It was to get some more training for the Gladys Knight fireside coming up next month. Two guys came representing the choir to tell us more about it and get us pumped up for it, they succeeded. We watched a DVD they brought where Elder ballard talks about the fireside, and then people from the areas they've done the fireside previously talked explaining the affect it had on them and the stakes and wards and areas. Pretty cool stuff. We already have investigators committed to going, some are pretty excited. And the members in our ward have been kicking butt at inviting their friends and co-workers. It's the easiest way to do missionary work. And hopefully it will show us a little more how easy missionary work really is in general. There was also a guy from the missionary department who came out to the training after they left. This guy was awesome. His attitude and sense of humor reminded me of Steven Colbert. Just an awesome guy who gets missionary work. So that was cool meeting.

Remember Bill Armstrong? That older man from my last area we were working with? He was the former baptist minister, with a few degrees from different universities. He also had a challenge where he smoked cigarettes to control a neurological problems he has. Well that was a huge adventure, without a doubt a learning experience for me. And as it turned out, he was baptized yesterday. President Holmes called me on his way home from the baptism to let me know how it went. People like that just blow your mind, there's no way this work isn't true.

A miracle we had in our own area this week was we finally made contact with an awesome lady we've been trying to work with for a while. She requested the missionaries to start coming over a while back after she saw a close friend of hers get baptized in a different ward, she felt the spirit at the baptism and knew she wanted that for herself. she was progressing pretty well, she even had a baptism interview, but contact was just stopped somehow. when i came into the area elder adamson decided it was probably enough time that we could start trying to contact her again. so we spent all last transfer trying to get a hold of her. probably stopped by her home at least 10 times. well he and i decided to have a fast saturday night for our area and our investigators. and sunday morning during our fast we had just enough time to stop by her before church, and we found her outside in her car. that alone was a miracle. and we set up to see her that night, so we came by and brought an awesome newly-wed couple that just moved into the ward and had an awesome lesson. so she's back on date and excited. the Lord is the one doing all the work, but he directs it all through the spirit and sometimes we need to focus ourselves a little bit more to feel its promptings. whether it's missionary work or any other aspect of our lives, if we listen for the spirit and obey, things will happen that we might not even expect. and the things that happen will always be more than worth the sacrifice we had to make to feel that spirit and receive its guidance.

well that's about it for the week. hope you guys have a good week.

what happened to the cow that jumped over the fence? -- it was utterly destroyed.

love,

elder lamb

zone activity

Feb. 6, 2012

hey i've got to be quick today. this morning we had a zone activity at the stake center. dodgeball, woofle ball, ultimate frisbee (wish you were there for that dad), ping pong, basketball. we also had a good chunk of time for a fiesta with mexican food and for going over miracles and other things going on in the zone. it was lots of fun. i have horse poo on my running shoes from doing service in burton, so i wore my vans today. my feet are raw now. definitely worth it. but we're pretty much out of time. oh man, we're actually all out of time, i just realized preparation day ends in 5 minutes, we didn't do our grocery shopping or anything else. ha well alright, love you guys. have a good week!

elder lamb

gladys knight

January 30, 2012

Hola. I am tired. But that's ok, spreading the gospel is worth it! I don't know if I've talked much about it, but we haven't had much of a winter out here in Michigan. It's still freezing and there's snow and ice everywhere, but compared to last year and what a MI winter is usually like, this year has been super bueno. It's already February and it's only snowed a handful of times.

We had a pretty good week. We went on exchanges with the assistants which was fun, they're in our district, so it was a good opportunity to talk about things going on in the district, the zone, and the mission. and we also went on exchanges with the district leader and his companion. and our district leader is elder hoffman, who was just an assistant and was my first district leader/follow up trainer. so it was good getting to go with him on an exchange. he's the man. he goes home next week actually. i'm getting far enough into the mission where it seems like everyone around me is dropping like flies. it gives me goosebumps.

but anyways, things are good as always. some big news actually, there's a gladys knight fireside going on in march. it's a pretty big deal. she comes with her family and her choir (Saints Unified Voices choir, they've won a grammy i'm told). she does these firesides around the country with the choir and each time it's huge. it's put together by the first presidency and the mission department, and the mission and the stakes are starting to get the ball rolling on spreading the word and organizing things. they want us to emphasize that it's not a concert, but it's a missionary fireside. it's mostly gospel singing, but it's main focus is gladys knight and her family bearing their testimonies of the restored gospel and how they joined the church and pushing the non-members to meet with the missionaries. so we're trying to figure out how to encourage as many members/investigators as we can to come and bring non-member friends. there's 6 performances. 2 on a friday down in detroit in one of our church buildings, and 2 on saturday and 2 on sunday at the bloomfield stake center. anyone who comes gets to request if they want the missionaries to come to their home and drop off a bag that has 1 Book of Mormon, 1 Restoration DVD, and 1 cd of the choir. so our job is to spread the word to the people we're working with and pump up the members to invite their friends! i don't think i know any of gladys knight's music, but from what i hear it will still be pretty cool. and either way it will be priceless opportunity to spread the love that comes from spreading the gospel. i'm not a brigham young or a heber c kimball, i'm no alma or amulek, but i do have a love for the gospel, and that love really does motivate me to share it with others out here. and even when i'm not the one sharing it, i just get pumped to hear about people coming closer to christ. he really is the only way to real, lasting happiness. if we're not happy about something, anything, we can do something to come closer to Christ. it can be as simple as saying a prayer in that moment, or picking up a good habit like reading our scriptures everyday if we're not already. and no matter who we are, there's always something we can do, so there's always a chance for more happiness. and without a doubt, i know that's true.

this is the true church of christ, and the book of mormon is the word of God. these things are the keys to our happiness.

love you guys, have a great week.