humidity's coming, dripsy in ypsi

May 21, 2012

Hey there. Hey happy birthday dad and makenzie! it sounds like you guys had fun celebrating. even though i wasn't there, i was thinking of you guys on your b-days. hope everything was great and that you got a bunch of cool gifts!

Here's the picture from Cyaira's baptism last week. That's her and her family. Elder Davis got permission to come up for the baptism, so you'll prob recognize him because he's so tall. It was a neat experience. I don't remember if I talked about it last week, but at the baptism Cyaira's friend came up to us and said she wants to be baptized. she's been coming to church every once in a while for years. her and her family is really tight with cyaira's family, and she told us she's been wanting to be baptized for a while and feels like now's the time. so we've been working with her all week and she's just cruising along. she's loving the book of mormon and it all means a lot to her. her mom isn't interested in having formal lessons right now, but we've had a couple good discussions with her and her mom, and the mom is very supportive. she's willing to give rides when for lessons and church and mutual. very exciting, she's awesome and will be baptized in the next couple weeks.

another miracle that happened this week was with a guy named dan. last monday we got a call from him saying he used to meet with missionaries a few months back and wants to get back on track. we saw him the next day for an appointment and before we really even introduced ourselves he said, "i know the church is true, i know joseph smith is a prophet, and i want to be baptized, and i think i can be ready in 3 weeks." whoa. i felt like i was in a dream. he's incredible. a few months back he was working towards baptism and was coming out to church regularly, but some things came up that knocked him off track. but last week he got the feeling he needed to call up the missionaries and get back on track. it's cool because he knows a lot of the members already so it's really just a matter of picking back up the momentum. so we've been working with him all last week too and he's planning on a baptism a few weeks out.

the lord has been pouring down some incredible blessings recently, and it's been fun, but it's also humbling. i feel like i have to live up to the responsibilities that He's given us that come with the blessings. i don't remember the reference, but there's a part in the book of mormon where king benjamin is talking about how we'll always be in debt to God. we try to please him to return the love he's shown us already, but when we please him he pours down even more blessings. but i think he's less concerned with that debt we owe him and more concerned with us just being happy. god is good, and the gospel life is the good life.

but michigan life isn't always the good life, it's starting to get humid.

well gotta go. love you guys lots. have a great week.

elder lamb

Cyaira's baptism!

May 14, 2012

Hey! Long time no talk! It was great talking to you guys yesterday, it just wasn't long enough. But November will be here quicker than we know it. Crazy. I forgot my usb chord for my camera, so i'll make sure i send you a pic from the baptism next Monday. But the baptism yesterday went great. The dad ended up coming out and it seemed like he was touched by the experience and the Spirit that was present. You could tell that Cyaira's whole family was feeling the Spirit and that the baptism meant a lot for them. There was a lot of people there from the ward too, Cyaira's been part of the ward for a while so even on Mother's Day it ended up being a packed house. She had some of her non-member friends there, and after the baptism one of them came up to us with Cyaira and said she wants to be baptized. Talk about a blessing falling from heaven. The girl's mom was there and we talked to her and she's really supportive about it too. So we're teaching her on Wednesday.

I still feel sick, but it is what it is. What's ridiculous is I was just telling Elder Pedersen a few days ago that I've never been sick on my mission. Then out of nowhere - boom - i get hit with something. What I should have said was I've never baptized 500 people on my mission and let that happen instead. I'll try it today and keep you posted. Today we'll probably run a few errands and just take it easy. We might play some basketball with the Belleville Elders but I might end up taking a nap as they all play. I've been against naps so far out here though so we'll see.

Yesterday at church a lady we found in Plymouth who was baptized with her son the week after I left was visiting some friends in the Ypsilanti Ward. So that was neat to see the two of them doing good still going strong. And I already told you that Jacob Foster was in our ward yesterday too with his sister. Small world. I've seen Morgan and the Scotts, who knows who I'll run into next.

Oh so last week we started teaching the boyfriend of a recent convert in the ward. We had a good lesson with them last Sunday and put him on date to be baptized. He was already thinking about getting baptized into another church at the end of the summer, but we put him on date for a day halfway through June to be baptized as a Latter-day Saint instead. I think something we said really inspired him because he actually ended up getting baptized yesterday in his church. Not quite what we were hoping for, but still exciting in a way.... Ha but we're still going to be working with him, that might have just been the warm-up round.

So things are good out here in Ypsi. Still having fun and working hard. Today I should be sending two boxes of winter clothes to you guys. You can unpack them if you'd like but it's not anything important so you can also just leave them all in the boxes and I can figure out what to do with it all when I get home. The weather's nice today. It feels like a California summer right now. A little breezy but still warm. The humidity hasn't kicked in yet but it'll be here soon. Oh boy.

Have a great week. Love you guys.

Elder Lamb

so cal fiesta

New transfer. My new comp is Elder Pedersen from Yucaipa, that's near Riverside down in sweet southern California. but you guys know that because you all were there for youth conference. so it's nice to be serving with someone who appreciates an In-N-Out burger and hanging out at the beach. don't worry it's not so nice that it makes us homesick or makes us lose our focus. he actually only has two transfers left so he'll probably stay here until he heads home, which means i'll probably take off after this transfer or be here for a few more months because they usually don't white wash an area like that. it's weird to think in short chunks of time like this.

we've had a great first week of the transfer. some awesome miracles have happened with people we're working with. we're having a baptism this sunday actually, so i'll tell you more about that when we talk on the phone. i'm excited to talk to you guys too! makenzie and delaney look grown up too so who knows if they're even the same people anymore. i'll find out on sunday when i ask them. i don't have a ton to say today, but life is good. i love the gospel and i love the Lord. i'm still figuring things out myself and will be forever, but without a doubt i have learned some valuable things out here. the Lord pours blessings down when we serve Him and others. But my favorite part about all this is that so many of God's children get to find more happiness and peace in their lives. it's not my doing, it's the Lord's, but it is a humbling experience to be able to go out and represent Him. i love the gospel, the Church is true! have a great week.

much love,
elder lamb 

April 30, 2012

all straightened out

Baptisms! Here's a pic of Kristena's baptism a few weeks back, I never sent that to you. The other pic is from Saturday night. A lot of people dressed in white. I don't know if I've said much about the family we've been working with, but the whole experience with them so far has been incredible. My first day in the area, 6 weeks ago tomorrow, a member pointed out a kid walking by as we were driving back from transfer meetings. She said the kid is a member but his family hasn't been active, so we decided we'd start working with them as soon as we figured out more about them. Then later that same night, our ward mission leader called us and said he just stopped by a family he had just been assigned to do home teaching for and that the mom wanted a couple of her children baptized. So we've been working with this family the whole time, meeting with everyone, not just the two girls working towards baptism. There's 8 children total and the mom is single and under a lot of pressure working to provide for the family. A great lady. The mom is working on Sundays but some of the members of the ward have just been incredible in getting the children to church and mutual and other activities. And the baptism ended up happening this weekend. Something else that's pretty neat in the whole orchestration of things is that another set of missionaries in the zone felt inspired to stop by a less active man and they were able to start working with him, and as it turned out he had two sons he wanted to be baptized. And then somewhere in the teaching process of these two families, we found out this man and this lady were divorced a while back, and one of the girls we had been preparing for baptism goes to his house on the weekends. The dynamics are pretty complicated. But we team-taught this girl with the other set of elders. And yesterday her, her younger sister, and the two sons of the dad were all baptized! So the girl standing in front of me in the picture is the older sister, the one who switched between the two other elders and us, Elder Davis baptized her. The younger girl standing in the very front is her sister and I baptized her. The two little boys are obviously the brothers. And then the guy in front with the facial hair is another cool guy who was baptized by another set of Elders in that ward, a cool guy. But it was a great baptism. Just an awesome family who has come a long way in the past 6 weeks. More good things to come for them too.

So other big news, the transfer's over. Elder Davis is peacing out. He's going back to the Spanish branch down in Detroit, he's a Spanish Elder so he's pretty pumped to go back "home". It was a power transfer, a pretty dynamic duo we had going. But good things are in store for the next 6 weeks for sure. We're working with a lot of great people right now.

I think that's about it for the week. Today we're running a few errands and Elder Davis is packing up. We got haircuts from a lady in the ward this morning and helped some other members pack up a trailer to move out. It's raining today. Oh this week we stopped by a member family for a dinner appointment and we found out that the wife is a chiropractor. She offered to do a quick adjustment afterwards for either of us and I couldn't resist. My hip had actually been bothering me for a few days after tweaking it in basketball one morning. I ended up getting an adjustment on my back from the wife, apparently my lower back was pretty tight and I had a rib that was out of place. One of my legs was longer than the other too? I didn't even know that could happen, she showed her husband and Elder Davis and they said it was a good inch or two of a difference. She's done chiropracting for Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Anniston, and a couple other stars when she worked in Hollywood. Now I feel like a star.

That's about it around here. Have a great week.

Much love, Elder Lamb

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