A crazy amazing week!

Subject: A crazy amazing week!

Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 11:41:31 -0600

Good morning family!

This week was super weird, because we had a lot of meetings.  On

Tuesday, we had a mission wide meeting where they gave us counsel on

how to use technology wisely, to prepare us for iPads.  Wednesday,

Elder Aguilar had a district leader meeting, so I went on splits with

the companions of the other district leaders in the zone.  More on

that later.   Thursday, we had a zone training meeting, where we

learned a ton and also got our iPads.  And Friday, we went back to the

zone building to set up the iPads.  They are awesome guys!!  Right

now, we can only teach using the pictures, videos, and pamphlets on

there, but eventually, we will be able plan, use Facebook, Skype, and

a whole lot more.  We can also use them for our studies every morning.

I will be honest, it is pretty nice not having to carry around my

scriptures anymore.

So on Wednesday, when we went on splits, we found a guy from Chile,

who has met with the missionaries before.  It was Elder Hollett, who

came from Mexico with me, Elder Buschilon (who is fresh out of the

Provo MTC, English speaking) and myself.  So Elder Hollett and I, two

fairly new missionaries, taught this guy the Restoration in Spanish.

It was awesome!

On Friday, after setting up the iPads, we had to go to the mission

office to have our car checked for dents.  We're getting a new car

soon!  Elder Mortimer, the vehicle coordinator, sent us to a body shop

to have them check it out.  They told us that it is one of the

cleanest mission cars they've seen, considering that it does have a

few minor dents and damage.  It really makes me

wonder what other missionaries do to their cars!

On Saturday, we moved.   I was sad to leave the Clausens, but our new

apartment in our branch president's house is really nice.  There is

even a spot for our car in the garage!

Miracles have continued to happen this week!   On Saturday, we were

trying to visit people in the apartments, but no one was home.  Elder

Aguilar felt inspired to visit someone in another building, so we

went.  When we got the building, we saw a Hispanic family walking up

the stairs, so I started talking to them.  The mom was hopping up the

stairs, because she injured her knee really bad in a car accident a

few years ago.  They live on the third floor!  I can't imagine how

difficult it must be for her to have to hop up those stairs every day.

Apparently, they had visited with the previous missionaries before,

but hadn't gotten very far.  We taught them about the Restoration and

the Book of Mormon, and they were really interested in reading the

BOM.  Then, last night, we met an inactive member in the apartments,

who has wanted to come back to church for a while, but has lacked the

motivation.  She has twins who will be turning 8 this month, and she

wants them to be baptized.  We will be seeing her tomorrow, so I am

really excited.  Elder Aguilar and I were talking last night about the

success we have been seeing in our area.  For the past few years, our

area has had very few baptisms, but all of a sudden, we have people on

date, and we have found several investigators.  It seems that the

previous missionaries planted several seeds, and we have been chosen

for the harvest!  It is great to be a missionary!

Yesterday, the P family, who were our miracle last week, came to

church again!  We were also told that there was another investigator

in sacrament.  The previous elders were teaching her, and she is ready

for baptism, but she wants to wait for her daughter to immigrate from

Peru. Because of that, she works ALL THE TIME!  We have not been able

to meet her yet, because she is never home.  We were sad that we

missed the opportunity to meet her yesterday, but at least she came to

church!

So there you have it, an amazing and crazy week in the mission field.

To make it weirder, it snowed Tuesday, but it has gotten up to

about 60 degrees the past few days!  It has been awesome!  I am glad

to hear that everyone is doing well!  Dad, I love your analogy with

the peanut butter and chocolate!  And Mom, that joke was pretty great!  

(* Note from the Mom. The joke Jared is refering to is this:  "Why are vampires afraid to go to church?  They are afraid of the Sunbeams."  Courtesy of Elder Cottle serving in our ward whom we fed dinner to last week.)

A couple more cool things that happened:  Saturday, we ate dinner

with someone who just came back from her mission in Roseville, CA.  I

told her about a sister in my MTC district who just went there.

Apparently, she (the RM) went back to visit a couple weeks ago, and

her previous companion is training my friend!  Also, we ate with the

S family last night, and he has a brother in the Seattle Hill

ward!  Finally, I found out that Michelle Searle (Jared's childhood babysitter) is in the Westland

3rd ward!  So we were in the high council room at the zone building,

which is the Westland stake center.  They have pictures/names of

people in certain callings throughout the stake, and voila, there was

Justin Searle, who I believe is a clerk.  Mind blown!  So yes, it

really is a small world!  The church is true.  My testimony of this

has grown immensely this week as we have been guided to those who are

prepared to receive the gospel.  I am so excited to start teaching

people using videos and other resources on my iPad!  The Lord has

truly inspired man to develop this technology for the carrying forth

of the gospel.  It is an awesome time to be a missionary!  Have an

awesome week!

Love,

Elder Jared Weller

Sent from my iPad