I'm Afraid it's the Normans!

Funny: I had the great experience to go to Durango with the zone leaders on exchanges. We did my favorite thing. Tracting!!! We knocked on one door and this kid opened the door. The exchange went like this:

us: Hi! is your mom or dad home.

him: My dad is

us: will you go tell him that the Mormon missionaries are here

him: (yelling into the house) DAD, THE NORMONS ARE HERE!

dad: tell them to go away

kid: Come on in

us: ...

dad: NO, tell the normons to go away!

kid: come back in a few hours

it was really funny; that kid knew what us the normons teach, haha.

Spiritual: We had a really good Sunday this week. We got with the elders quorum presidency and developed a plan of how we can help them with their home teaching. We are really excited to see what comes of finally having the ward trust us.

Where I am at: We are living life and loving it. We were able to put the Andersons back on date for April 14th and we were able to put David back on date for May 12th. Lots of good things are about to happen here in Bayfield we are excited! Also, we almost got snow. it looked promising and it started but when we woke up in the morning it was all gone. :( oh well better luck next time winter.

I love you all and can really feel your prayers

Elder Black

The Game's Afoot

Funny: This week was a little bit crazy as a whole. The Zone Leaders and our companionship started playing a referral game. It was who can give the most referrals to each other. As a result, we actually gave more referrals to them than we picked up ourselves. Haha, it was really funny that it seemed that everyone in Durango was in Bayfield.

Spiritual: This week we had a baptism!!! Patrick was taught in Texas but decided to be baptized here in Bayfield. It was a great opportunity, ironically this is the third baptism that we have been to here in Bayfield and we have met the people being baptized for the first time at the baptism. But hey, whatever works. I love baptisms, they are always filled to the brim with the spirit.

Where I am at: Sorry I don't have many pictures this week. We had a conference in Farmington for the District leaders and I brought my camera and promptly left it in Bloomfield. Thankfully I got it back Yesterday so that was a miracle. But life is good down here in Colorado. Still no snow and so we have been out in short sleeves and actually getting hot. We are a bit nervous for this week because we have to drive down to Farmington to go to a doctor’s appointment for Elder Howlett. He hurt his knee in Many Farms when he was serving there and we find out this week if he has to go home to get surgery. We are all hoping that the answer is no. If you will include him in your prayers that would be spectacular!

Back to doing what I love

Funny: Elder Fenton played his last joke on us. For about 3 weeks he said that he had brought the dinner calendar to church and had given it to our relief society president. He in actuality had not. So, we had one dinner this week. It was with a part member family. During dinner we mentioned how we had no dinners and they sprang into action. They loaded us up with a ton of food. Healthy food too!!! It was such a funny miracle.

Spiritual: This week was full of miracles. I probably saw more small miracles this week than any other week of my mission so far. We had so many opportunities given us to share the gospel. We were tracting an old apartment complex when we ran into a family. They had been taught by missionaries in the past, but no one had made a record of them and they dropped off the face of the earth. They are so humble and ready to be taught. We are so excited for them.

Where I am at: This transfer we are taking a more aggressive role with our members to motivate them and inspire them to do missionary work. We developed a plan and we are working very closely with our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader to help the work in Bayfield flourish. We are so excited about this transfer and I love my companions. They are both incredible missionaries and are highly motivated for the right reasons.

I love you all

Elder Black

Update- I asked him if he needed help with food and he said that the members really stepped up and were helping them out. So they aren't starving. Bless the good members in Bayfield.

DEER!!!

Funny: There are a lot of deer in town. We were driving back from Forest Lakes and we saw one stop by the side of the road. This is a fairly common occurrence so we didn't pay it much attention until we were about 15 feet from it when it jumped out in front of our truck. We turfed the deer in the back legs at 55 MPH. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the only damage to the truck was a small dent. The deer went flying but got up and ran off. It was really scary when it happened but now looking back on it, it is really funny.

 Spiritual: We had one investigator at church. His name is Johnny. He is one of those eternal investigators ​who have been taught forever. We finally got him to come to church which is a big deal because he hadn't been in probably 15 years. It was really special to see him walk through the doors into the chapel.

Where I am at: I am staying!!! Elder Eaton and I will be joined by Elder Howlett. We are excited to meet him because we don't know anything about him. Elder Fenton is going to Lukachuki which is deep rez in Arizona. It'll be exciting this next transfer. We are going to be doing a "cleansing" of the Bayfield area. What that means, I don't quite know but that is what President Adams said so here we go!

The "not so" humble 3rd grader

Funny: We have a family in the ward who need a bit of help and so they asked us to teach them the lessons. We were going over the restoration and we asked them what God had given their family that had blessed them the most. Their 8-year-old son piped up "ME". We all laughed up at that and then went on. The lesson went a bit different than we had planned and we got on the subject of pride. We again asked the kids who knew what being humble meant. Again the 8-year-old son piped up "it's basically me". Haha.

Spiritual: We had zone conference this week and it was all about Christ and member missionary work. It was incredible. The training that Sister Adams gave was on perspective. It is so neat to think about having that eternal perspective and we decided to do that for the rest of the week. We had a lesson with the Andersons where we had to take them off date because of reasons out of their control. We were able to use that training on perspective to help them see that it is God’s time not our time.

Where I am at: Life is good. We are working hard and feeling the Spirit testify through us. We were going to go on a hike in Pagosa Springs today but there is a beautiful winter storm going on right now and so we will have to do that another week. I hope that you are all staying warm and busy.

Oh Deer!

Funny: We went to a member’s house in Forest Lakes and they were talking about some deer that are very friendly and we were kinda laughing but he said that they were and that he would prove it. So, we went outside and he took some crack corn in his hand and started whistling. My companions and I were chuckling because there weren't any deer anywhere. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere 8 or 9 deer showed up including two good sized bucks. It was a very neat experience

Spiritual: We had a lesson with one of our progressing investigators Hailey who is going to be baptized on Saturday we were having a really good discussion and we heard the doorbell ring. It was her neighbors who had never met the missionaries before and they had just stopped in to see how she was doing. We had a marvelous lesson with them. usually we are knocking on others doors trying to share the gospel not the other way around.

Where I am at: The work is still fantastic here in Bayfield. We had a few sick days but we are back at work and it just snowed to everyone is happy and we are excited for another wonderful week!

Putting the Petal to the Metal

Funny: We finally had investigators at church. We had three of them. One of them is named David White (slightly Ironic that I am his favorite missionary). at the end of testimony meeting he got up and for the whole ward to hear he bore his testimony on the truthfulness of the Holy trinity and how it has blessed his life. We still have a way to go with him.

Spiritual: One of our other investigators that came to church was Hailey. She is on date for February 17th. she had been taught by the missionaries for a long time but this was the first time she has ever come to church. It was so wonderful to see how the ward members just swept her up and loved her. It truly brought tears to my eyes because she is a very shy girl and was very nervous about coming to church.

Where I am at: We have had our miles cut by 500 miles this month. At first, we thought that it was going to be problem but God prepares everything. We were able to get bikes from some members and now we are loving the 50+ degree weather by biking around. It has been wonderful. The work is great, we are happy and the church is still true.

Love ya