Rollercoaster

Sept 21, 2015

Dear Family,

It's cooled off a bit. The leaves are starting to fall. We might get one or two more 90 degree days. Mr R and Ms A have been on a bit of radio silence lately. I called him a couple days ago and he's still super interested. Ms A has been having trouble balancing her home and work life so she's hard to meet with. Ms G started progressing again. We were concerned for her because we almost dropped her but she's pulled around and started progressing again. 

Pumpkin ice cream is AMAZING! I first tried it at JCW's with caramel mixed in with it and I thought it was so good but it wasn't until Emery's pumpkin pie ice cream where I completely fell in love with it. The pumpkin, chocolate, and caramel combination is so good! With October coming up you should drop by and get some. You NEED the caramel. It will greatly enhance the flavor. Chocolate is another thing that greatly improves its flavor. 

Have you seen the Mormon Message "Lift"? It's about serving others. There's a quote by Elder Christofferson at the end that says something to the effect of "When we serve others our own spiritual substance increases. It's easier to find ourselves when we serve others because there's so much more of us to find." Ever since I heard that I've been finding a lot of scriptures that back that up. Serving others heals us.  

In answer to your teaching skill question, Chapter 10 in PMG is all about that. Teaching, like everything, improves with practice. The amount of knowledge you have is important but being able to display that knowledge in a way that people can understand is a skill on its own. From what I've learned there are 3 main components to successful teaching:
1- your own knowledge. You have to know the stuff you're talking about. 
2- you need to be able to have the skills to display the knowledge you have in a simple, easy to understand way. 
3- the Spirit. It's not you who teaches people, it's the Holy Ghost. If you have the Holy Ghost with you then what you say will be carried to the hearts. I hope that helps. 

This week was an adventure and a rollercoaster! On Monday I got another Emery's pumpkin pie thing. That's still the best thing I've ever got there. For the last 3 hours of the day we walked and saw everyone we set out to see. We walked so much we had to walk back to the apartment in the dark. It can get pretty dark out here. There was one point where I couldn't see anything. We won't be doing that again. :)

On Tuesday we happened to tract into Mr Ry and his wife. Mr Ry was a man we met contacting in D-Town Corydon. He wasn't really sure who God was because he's had a lot of trials in his life. We talked and testified and talked about the BoM. We lifted him and his wife's outlook on life. Unfortunately we didn't get his contact info so when we parted ways we had no way to find him and teach him again. We actually tracted into his house today. We had a solid first lesson and he was super happy to see us. The Zone Leaders called later and told us they wanted to do an exchange on Wednesday and that they wanted me to go to Jeffersonville with Elder Davidson. They told us they wanted to begin the exchange in the middle of the day. 

On Wednesday Elder Shelley and I started of with being farm hands for a local farmer. We helped him feed some of his animals and clean up his yard a bit. Dad would have been proud of me. We're set to go back soon. I'll try to get some pictures. In the middle of the day we started the exchange. I went with Elder Davidson to Jeffersonville. We had a great time! Elder Davidson and I just clicked together. We were able to bounce off of each other like we had been companions for 2 months already. We taught a really solid lesson to one of their best investigators who's been struggling to accept a baptismal date. Her name was Ms Ra. We actually didn't do a whole lot of talking in the lesson, the member who was present did 90% of the talking. She and Ms Ra just clicked together and were able to get along. We still weren't able to get her to accept a date but she did accept an invitation to pray about one. I had a cool contacting experience at the end of the day. We were walking through some apartments and we saw these two groups. As we were walking towards them Elder Davidson said "I'll get the group on the right, you can take the one on the left." You know me and contacting, so when he said that I had a small heart attack. I went anyway. I did it. I got them to accept a return appointment. I was quite happy with myself that I was able to pull that off. 

On Thursday we had an interesting morning. We got kicked out of two apartment complexes within 20 minutes of each other. The Zone Leaders have had problems with the manager of the first complex. She's tried to kick them out multiple times but the ZLs have investigators there so they've kept returning. She caught us this morning and re-expressed her desires to have us leave in a not so nice way. We actually went back later in the day to try and make peace but she wouldn't have it. The second complex was more of a joke. Right when we got out of the car we started walking towards this lady who was walking her dog. We had a great conversation with her. We found out she wanted to talk to us a while ago but didn't get the chance. In the middle of the conversation a manager came up and very kindly told us we weren't welcome on the property. Apparently someone complained. Oh well. We tried a few more people but the time came to end the exchange. Not much else happened the rest of the day.

On Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Brough. I got to know the Broughs more. President Brough thanked me for being the kind of person to allow the Lord to change my heart. 

On Saturday we taught a lot of lessons and did a lot of walking. One of the lessons I remember the most was with someone named Mr Ty. He reminds me of my 2nd drum teacher. He's had a lot of trials in the past but he's always known God has been there for him. He loves God and he knows we're on His errand. We taught him a quick L1 and he loved it. He asked us why people where so mean to us and I told him it's because we exist. 

On Sunday we had church. Church was great! We had a great sacrament meeting. We had a lot of less actives I've never seen in church at church. The Stake President happened to be there and he talked for a few minutes. Later we ate at the Parkers. They're the ones who own Max, the dog. They really love having us over. At the end of the day we got kicked out of another apartment complex here in Corydon. Only this time it was by the same angry lady who kicked Elder Davidson and me out of the one in Jeffersonville. She recognized me. I think it's funny I've met her as much as I have. 

That was this week. It was crazy. A lot of good and a lot of adventure happened. I know the Lord had our back all the way. He's blessed us so much. I'm happy to have a Savior and a God as great as the one's we have. They truly are watching over the church. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I've had too many experiences to even come close to denying that. 

Thank you for all your support.

-Elder Ben

Elder Shelley