March 23, 2015

Meetings, meetings and more meetings...

Man I am so tired of meetings! I just want to get out and do something, ya know? Im not going to lie I loved these meetings, but man it took SO much time out of our week. 

So to start off the meetings we had, we went to one of my old districts in which I was the district leader. There are still two people there that were there when I was the DL. The meeting was good, very inlighting. The best part I believe is where we ate after the meeting. So back story, When I was in Norcross one of my investigators was opening a restaurant but i did not know where it was at. Well now I do! We went to his restaurant and ate. It was so cool to be able go see this place that he had working on for so long open and doing good. There were random people in there eating so it was good to see that. The food was really good as well. Then we went on exchange for the day. I went with Elder Henderson. We went out and knocked on some doors and had great experiences. the first two were really good contacts, in which we got to very quickly teach the restoration with the pamphlet and leave them with it. We did not find anyone there that was prepared to recive the gospel right then but we were able to plant seeds and i truly feel we fulfilled our purpose there. 

Wednesday started off with a mission leadership council at 10 in the morning, Elder Zwick from the presidency of the 70 came and talked to us. We had all been sitting quietly studding before the meeting and when it started he really hit hard the importance of reverence, it was good. I had gone to the meeting with the sole question of how to help the missionaries of the Zone and I received good instruction on how. It was to show and expanse of love and caring for the individual. I learned allot from him in this meeting. Also he made a HUGE announcement. That on the 20th of May our mission is going to be getting Ipads to do the work. It was really interesting to hear that.

later that night we had a fireside over in Roswell. just so you know our earlier meeting ended at 3 and this was at 7 and about 2 hours away. So needless to say we did nothing on Wednesday. But at the fireside he went over the importance of member missionary work and more togetherness with the ward council. It was really good, we are really trying hard right now to inspire the members to do the work. cause referrals are just the best way to teach. It will be fun to do the missionary work as a member :)   

Then Thursday we had a Zone conference with Elder Zwick. This was my favorite meeting , Cause I went to it with questions I had on what I could do to be better. I am so grateful that about 9 months ago I decided to get a study journal and right down this kind of stuff so I dont loose it. The question I had was "How can I make my relationship stronger with Christ?" The answer came to me little bits at a time but it came clear at the end. Seeing Elder Zwick you can just see how strong his relationship is with Christ. And for the past 20 so years he has been teaching about the gospel. Thats when the answer came. That to keep it strong and growing I must do what the savior always did, teach. If you want to come close to Christ what do you do? do as he did, one of those things being teaching. "always teach what you learn and you will learn while you teach" because when we teach what we have learned we are teaching truth and when you teach truth the spirit is there and when you have the spirit you learn new truths as he directs you. Teaching is the best way to learn. Thats why we dont have pastors, so others can teach and be taught.

Im excited to come home and do FHE with the family. We were never really good at that, but I have learned how important it. I am also excited to come home and to more stuff with my siblings, including Jackson and Brooke, they are my siblings as well. I hope all of the snow comes next year so I can enjoy it. 

This week was rough for the work, everything kept falling through, but we had so many rich experiences. Accomplishing what the Lord would have us do. Not being able to put down a number, but knowing in our hearts we did right. thats all that really matters, is what God thinks of us. Im excited for this week. We will have struggles, for which Im excited because Ill have the chance to grow. I know this work is true and the things I have done are good and am so happy I have 5 months left to do what I can for this people I love.

Con Confianza

Elder Lamb   

P.s. franklin got baptized!

March 16, 2015

Sickenss...

to start off it was not me that got sick so dont worry. 

So this week for the last 4 days we have not really been able to do anything. My Companion has been really sick with the flu. we just stayed inside all day until the evening. We would go to dinner than go out with our team up for the evening. It was hard for him to leave the apartment, but he knew i needed to go to the dinners because i had eaten most of my food out of bordem during the day :) All i did was text the few investigators I know, eat, listen to music and sleep. Needless to say I am super sick of our apartment. Like I dont even want to look at it. Im just tired of being there. 

But this week was not a complete bust! The Lord in his infinite wisdom knew he would get super sick and gave us the best Tuesday every! So we did not get out till 12 because he was just starting to get sick so he took a tiny nap then we left, but oh how the lord is merciful! So I had chosen this one place to tract, but we went to this other place for some reason. I just felt like we should go so i said nothing. While tracking we found a lady named Ashley, we talked to her for a while. She had a book of Mormon and read all the way to Alma! we talked for a little longer and then we left her with several places to read in and then set up to meet at the church the next day for a church tour.

Then later that day with our team up we went and visited a guy named Brian. This same guy I met almost 9 months ago when I was serving in the Spanish branch here. We went back and taught him the restoration. He has many questions but he truly seeks the truth. It is crazy how after all this time I am still here and can now actually teach him because im in the English ward! 

But the biggest blessing/ miracle was a referral we received from church Head quarters named Mark Hymen. when we first called him we thought that someone was just trying to bash with us because he wanted us over that night. So we asked him how he came to know of the church. He said he was looking for a way to find God. And when he was in high school he had a good friend who was Mormon who had made a big impact on him. And over the years he has had several really good Mormon friends. He said God keeps putting Mormons in his life and thinks maybe its a sign. So we went over and taught the restoration. He is one of the most prepared people i have met on my mission. he is so open to the message and willing to do his part to know. He then told us he had gone on Mormon.org and requested the missionaries himself! like who does that?! we left him with several scriptures to read and a few days latter we asked him how they were and he responded. " i got from them is that i should not believe anything at face value, but that i should always ask God to know the truth." Like if this man is not prepared then I dont know who is. We will be teaching him tomorrow and we are going to give him a baptismal date for April.  

AS hard as it has been to change to English, I know the Lord always prepares the people to hear the message. And if we have faith an do all we can the blessings will come.

We do have 3 Spanish companionship's in our zone, but only one set is the district leader, so we can only go with them. 

Also the Suarez family got baptized on Saturday. Sadly my comp would not let us go because we have no investigators that speak Spanish, i was a little annoyed. But it was ok, as long as they got baptized i did not care. all that matters is they make it to the celestial kingdom. I can see them there. also Franklin is still getting baptized this weekend, he is such a wonderful young man. Im so excited for him. Wont be able to be there either, but same thing goes for him and with the Suarez :)  

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Lamb

March 9, 2015

Transfer...

Well it has been very interesting here in my new area. The language being the biggest part of it. It is going to take allot to get used to teaching lessons in English. 

So Friday was kinda cool. We had a mission leadership council with the mission president and the other leaders of the mission. The meeting was cool because we get to see all the new stuff before any of the other people get to. So that's a perk right there :)  The meeting was nothing super cool. We did get to see the new thing they are doing for Easter though. Its called #becauseofhim. It is allot like the #heisthegift. They did for Christmas. It has its on little cards and stuff. So it was cool to get the "sneak peek" at that though. 

this area does not really have anything really going. They have not had anyone one day for the past 4 months and defiantly no baptisms for the last 6. But that is why I am here, I have come to realize that one strengths is building up areas and helping them get investigators and other work going on. But English wards are good at member help. So im hoping i can learn how to work better with the ward while i am here. Even with the very short time i had in Norcross, we were able to find and will be baptizing on the 21st. Franklin is still good! Church was very different in English than in Spanish. 

The best part of the week though was, yesterday I had the opportunity to do the interviews for the Suarez family. The family i was teaching my last 3 months in riverside. They are getting baptized on the 14th and i will get to be there now that im close! It was so cool to be able to do those interviews and see how much they have really grown. It is just incredible! 

Also this morning we moved into a Brand New apartment! We are so excited because the other one was just awful, it was old and just gross. So we are excited!

  

Well that is about it for this week, I will report on all the miracles we are going to have this week (cause we need some ;) in my next letter.

No importa si estoy en un barrio de ingles, espanol siempre tendra el primer lugar en mi corazon.

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Lamb

March 2, 2015

Dang it!!

 

So the Branch i am in right now is the Norcross branch. But you will find out more in my letter. and vedel got baptized so thanks!! 

so yall know that I have only been in my area for 6 weeks and in that time we have done really good work. I have really come to love this area and was looking forward to a good long minuet here in this area. But i guess the lord had a different idea. This morning my Mission Prez called me and asked me to be a zone leader back in the zone that i just left from. Meaning I will most likely have more than half my mission in the Lilburn Zone. I accepted the call that he gave me, but im really sad. Cause we have started working hard with the youth here and I have come to love the members. Also Franklin is still good for the 21st. but I will talk more about him in a moment. The worst part is that the zone leader call means I will be in an English ward. So all my hard work in Spanish and I dont even get to finish it. Which really bothers me. Hopefully I will be able to go back to Spanish before I go home. You know, just one final push before the end.

So Franklin is doing awesome. the member had taught him of the word of wisdom and tithing. so it was super easy to just go over those things yesterday. He is living both of them already. So sweet! He told us that he will be baptized on the 21st of march. It is what he wants and he is reading and doing his part so he is ready for that time. So luckily I will have him in this area. Meaning I have still had baptisms in all my areas thus far. Im just sad I dont get to help him all the way to the end. But i know I did my part. But I will be able to go to the Suarez family baptism in riverside on the 14 because its super close. So that is a awesome blessing!

On Saturday we were able to go out and knock doors with a youth member from our branch. He name is Karelia, she getting ready to go on a mission at the end of this school year. so we went and knocked doors with her in her apartment complex. It was really cool to go out with a member and do that. Its not something I have done in my mish but It is something Ill do more often. But we had some weird experiences that day. So first we talked to a JW woman for a little while and she was showing us scriptures and stuff. It was annoying like usual. But the weirdest one was right as we were saying bye to Karelia a Islamic guy came up to us. And talked to us a while. He was talking to us and quoting scriptures from the Karan. He was trying to tell us Jesus was no more than a prophet and that God had no son. But i just keep bearing my testimony over and over. Telling him scriptures from the Book of Mormon. I know he felt what i was saying because each time I bore a testimony he would have to pause for several moments and then keep talking. I finally told him that I was not going to change what God has told me is true because some man is talking to me. So he gave us a pamphlet and I gave him one of the restoration. 

I dont know how anyone can live a life with out Jesus in it. The peace that gives and the hope that he gives us all because of his resurrection is so powerful I dont know how anyone could go on with out it. Like I told him, I tell yall that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. That because of his atonement we can be cleansed of ANY sin. there is no one that is out of his reach. If we will but believe on him and offer up our lives to him, he WILL forgive us and clean us. There is no need to live with sin, all we must do is lay them at the feet of Jesus and he will willing take it from us. I know he lives and I love him.

Con Un Testimonio De Cristo

Elder Lamb  

February 22, 2015

 I miss that chili and rice, one of my favorite things is the world! i also really like corn tortillas now as well. We will have to add that to the recipe. Man cale looks so much bigger! He looks like he has done allot of growing in this last year and a half. I heard he is now running track. Im happy for him, I liked it allot. I wish I would have done it through the rest of high school and not just the first year. 

This week it was freezing!! For like 3 days it did not get over 30 and we had a wind chill, it was horable! Cause I am just so stinkin skinny that the cold just cuts right to my soul it feels like! I can only put on so many items of clothing before I just cant fit anymore! But I mean im writing this letter so I obviously survived the super cold weather. One morning me and my comp went running and it was 10 degrees! needless to say we did not run long :) 

All the cold weather really effected the work this week as well. People did just not want to open their door, and if they did they did not want to keep it open very long. So once again we were not able to find any new investigators this week, we did get into a couple homes but the people were like "Na, were good"  thats not what they said, but it can be interpreted as such. But the end of the week is when the blessings really started coming. The first was we had dinner at a members house and in that house there is a mom and her daughter that are not baptized. Many missionaries have worked with them but nothing (the funny thing is she got a calling in the branch on sunday) but any way I felt like for our message we should just share the story of Joseph Smith. So we shared it and bore our testimonies. At the end the non member was crying, the spirit was really strong in there home. I think that her time is getting really close, so we are going to start talking to them and bring those little messages so soon she will choose to be baptized.

Then Sunday we went to our ward mission leaders house and had breakfast with them and then afterwards we taught Franklin the Plan of Salvation. He just ate it up, he already knew so much about Adam and Eve and said the story of them just made sense. He liked knowing where his grandpa is and he wants to be baptized so he can go to the temple and go the work for him as well. It was such an awesome lesson, especially after a hard week. It just made me think how much I love sharing the Gospel with people and seeing their lives change. Im going to work my hardest to have as many lessons like that before i go home and things like this just aren't as common. Then at the end of church he asked at what time his baptism will be, because the youth want to know so they can be there when it happens. So awesome! 

I love being a missionary, I dont regret a single minute of it. It is the best thing I have ever done and I would not trade it for anything. I know who ever chooses this path has made the best choice for them and all the people who they will help and if they serve with love they will feel the same way I do right now. I love my mission with all my heart!

we cant change the past, but we can change the future and it starts with what we choose today. so lets change the future for the better.

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Lamb