Tuesday, July 27, 2010

21 July 2010

I'm worried about how all this is gonna work out. I have a new companion who like I was told is a problem child. He had a near fatal fall when he was younger and as I see it has the mentality of a 12 year old. His last companion treated him like crap and I'm just trying to be his friend and work with him. It is the hardest one yet. I have had 4 "Special Assignments" in a row. The first was to finish training, the second was to get a missionary to work, the third was to get a missionary to talk, and I'm not quite sure what this is other than a test of patience. I have been working hard though. I try to make it fun. It seems like I make it more fun for him than for me, but thats all good.

Transfers were fun. The missionary I was on exchanges with for that day, while I waited for my comp, i wish he were my companion. It was a lot easier with him. I could tell on the ride up to the mountains that this would be an interesting assignment. I'm trying to make the best of it and just making sure I get a chance to talk to other missionaries at night and stuff so I dont go completely insane.

The roughest part is that he's been out for 8 months and is completely incompetent in teaching. He'll get into random stories with no relation to the topic and hand and I either have to blow it off or try and tie it in myself. But its going to be alright. I just decided I need to pray harder and be more obedient so the Lord can bless me. Otherwise I don't know if I'll make it.

So I am excited. I bought an Mp3 CD Player and now I have Jesus the Christ on one CD and the Triple on one. I'm working on putting the bible on one. Its kind of nice too, because my player has a screen that displays the titles and allows me to search, so it is way way nice to have.

I miss you guys a ton. Know that I am working hard and studying hard and having a great time. I dont know what else to tell ya. I know that Jesus lives and loves me and I'll see ya on Dec 31. :)

Love ya
Tom

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

14 July 2010

Hey you guys!,

I'm Staying here in Evergreen and keeping the Vibe for a 6th Transfer. The APs were joking with me that I should just drive it home in December. haha Elder Chapman is leaving. One of the Assistants is a good friend of mine, and I got a lot of information out of him. He told me the new mission president was very impressed with me and wanted to put me in leadership which I don't like the sound of. But apparently my new companion is a leadership call. Its a newer missionary that has been struggling with things and needs a new perspective and he felt that I was just the missionary to do it. They told me that if i ever need anything at all to call them but it should be interesting. The missionary that is leaving me right now was one of those cases technically too, but that's just because the other missionaries he served with treated him like crap.

Other than that I'm pumped. We have a combined ward now, so we're going to get ward missionaries. Then we have three baptisms coming up. One on the 24th, one one the 31st, and one on the 7th. So three Saturdays in a row, hopefully we can get them fired up by that. There is so much potential here. One of my big pushes with the mission is going to be to get us living more in the middle of our area, so we can be more available to work the whole area.

So I was wondering what we'll need to do. My debit Card expires in September... I'm thinking about buying a CD Player that plays MP3 CDs So I can listen to all kinds of scriptures and talks from the church website and just download and use them to help me study. You can fit a ton on MP3 CDs, So I'm Going to do that. I got all of preach my gospel on 12 audio CDs, but It would be nice to have it more compressed. So That will help me with Study, because some days its just hard to focus!

Life is good. Idk what else to tell ya, but thanks for the shirts. It's nice to have some that are actually white again. I am going to go play mini golf today! YAY


Well I love ya tons and we'll see ya soon.

Love,
Tom

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

7 July 2010

How are you guys? It has been a good week. Lots of teaching and tracting, but I was kind of down yesterday to be honest. On Monday we met our new mission president and he is a great man. He used to be a regional CES administrator in California and knows Brother Andrews and the old guy that left. He told me that I will be flying home exactly one transfer early which will be New Years Eve and that he thinks it will be an amazing thing to get back into school right away and merge back into the real world quickly. He said he wouldn't have it any other way. My interview was very long. hahah He asked me a lot of questions. He asked me about old areas. And he wrote Buena Vista under my name when I told him I served there... He also asked my companion, you've been here six months right? That means I can trust you to stay in the area a while longer, right? So I think I may be driving out there on Thursday of next week when transfers hit. I think I might be moved then, but my address now is:

Elder Thomas Stevenson
c/o Marshall Family
29812 Troutdale Scenic Drive
Evergreen, CO 80439

and the office is:

Elder Thomas Stevenson
999 E. Tufts Ave
Cherry Hills Village, CO 80113

I'm also scared by other things that were said in the interview. The new President told me that he sees tremendous potential to lead in me and that he can feel that I have a strong spirit, and he told me he looks forward to learning from me. I kind of was confused and asked, "From ME?" and he said yes from you Elder. I am not quite sure what to make of that statement. Any thoughts?

We are trying to find rides and have them for every evening, but we need to fill in a day too. Otherwise even working closer to home we'll probably be about 30 miles over. But in their own words, oh well, they'll just have to deal with it. hahaha Plus next week is transfer week and the miles reset then, so I'm not too worried if we go over. We'll try our best to make it happen, but I do feel kind of bad, because if we don't find rides, there are a couple of referrals we'll just have to postpone visiting until next week. We will do what we can though!

I am also sick of living on the edge of our area, where most the dinners are about 40 miles away and we have to get rides to dinners and are at their mercy to leave. I am going to be in touch with the housing coordinator and whoever our ward leadership will be and figure something out. That's another funny thing!! Our wards are shrinking and we have had stake presidency members there almost every sacrament meeting, and on Sunday we have a "special combined sacrament meeting" with the whole stake presidency and an area 70 there. hmmmmm So I am making a gross assumption that it will all be one ward on Sunday, but we will find out soon enough.

I can't wait until next week when I know whats going on.

We are bumming a ride down to Golden today and playing some sports, so I will have a chance to let out my agression, so I'm pretty excited. Life is good. I miss you all and hope all is well back home. I love you and I'll see you guys in less than 6 months! :P I'm going to try and make picture CDs to send home.

Love ya,
Tom

Monday, July 5, 2010

30 June 2010

Hey y'all... its been a great week. We officially have a new mission president... wow... that is pretty crazy to think! Who knows what changes it will bring. I will miss the Christisons so much though. But I'll probably see him on the big screen for conference pretty soon. haha. He really was a good man. I go to talk to them the night before they flew out.

Other crazy news. There was an Emergency Transfer of the Elders that were in Buena Vista and now they are serving with a couple of Zone Leader companionships. Now we have no missionaries out there because last time the Zone Leaders checked on them they werent doing ANYTHING!!! So there are now no missionaries there. They are opening it again at the start of the transfer. President Christison discussed sending me back there last week and I told him I am fine with it if I get to pick a companion that I know will work! He said thats up to the new guy, but I may be going back to Buena Vista in a couple weeks. He said if he were staying he would trust and allow me to choose my companion. But the last companion I had that I had a bit of a hard time with was given the ultimatum that if he doesnt shape up with our zone leaders this transfer then he flies home! Kind of sad, but its what he needed.

Other than that we have been doing a lot of door knocking and the weather has been absolutely gorgeous!! I love it! I am going to miss the Colorado summers! It has been a ball to be a missionary here. Obviously there are challenges, but that is life, it is just a fantastic place. I can't wait to be able to come back and hike the mountains out here too! there is soooo much!

Well later on today we are playing sports down in Golden. Since Buena Vista is closed I get a lot more miles! YAY. One good thing comes out of it right?? Thanks so much for all you do. I love you guys. We'll talk soon.

Love,
Tom

26 June 2010

Hey I just thought I'd fill you in on a bit more from my week. My brain was like total mush on Wednesday...

So we found out one of our investigators only has a couple weeks to live. That is a rough thing to hear, and his family convinced him he can be baptized by anyone, so one of the churchs that gave us hell in Lakewood sent a preacher up and he was baptized in his bathtub. That is so rough to see when they have been taught about authority and all and especially where he's a goner.

Other than that we are starting to work with some new people. One of the funniest stories, we were going to talk with some people at a park and hopefully find some people there and I ended up climbing in a tree and teaching a girl a lesson in a tree and we got her number and will be teaching her a bit more. She has a unique story... She is living with some friends of her mom, her mom took off when she was young because her dad was a alcoholic and cocaine addict, and she was basically left to raise her sibilings in Kansas and her dad abused her, and still wanted her to go to church, so she was previously turned off to religion. She came out here to escape drinking, which is funny because everyone drinks here, but we'll let her live in her bubble as far as that goes. So hopefully that will go somewhere... she deserves a new start.

Other than that its the same old grind. We have been getting more dinners with less actives lately at our own initiative, just because no one signed up this week. At least we have 15 names, even if they havent contacted them like they're supposed too. haha So we'll just see what comes from it.

Other than that life is good.

Well tell everyone I say hi. I was thinking about it and i feel kind of sad that no one from your ward or my ward even writes me. I got that christmas letter which was pretty cool, but other than that nothing... Well i hope all is well in the land of a million dreams. You all have a great week and we'll talk soon.

Love,
Tom