Apartment

Our Apartment

This is our apartment in Oshkosh, we live on the second floor in a nice spacious apartment.  We love our mission and we would not want to be anywhere else at this point in our lives.  We love the people we meet, we love the people we teach, and we love the people who serve with us in moving forward the Lord’s work.

This last Sunday the young single adults met at the Oshkosh church and we had a fireside on “How To Prepare For A Mission”.  President Tiel from the mission presidency spoke and did an excellent job teaching how to prepare to teach with the POWER of the Holy Ghost.  President Anderson, Relief Society President and a former missionary and President Prez, Elder Quorum President and a former Missionary both serve in the Neenah Young Single Adult Branch and Elder Wood, myself, and President Tiel then answered any questions the young men and women had on preparing and serving a mission.  Many of the young people told us afterwards the meeting helped them and they felt the Spirit in the meeting.  Life is Good!

Game Night and Spiritually Fed

Bishop Rhodes had us over along with some of his neighbors for a game night.  One neighbor was a member the others were not members.  Bishop Rohodes had all kinds of hunting clothes and animal calls sitting on a bench on his front porch.  Each person had to put on one or two items that was on the bench before you could go inside the house.  It was a lot of fun, we had a wonderful meal and were able to meet some very nice neighbors.  We handed out some pamplets on The Restoration and told them we would be happy to answer any questions they had.  They told us they would look it over and let us know and maybe they won’t be interested right now but we are getting out there and trying to share the gospel.  We were served White Tale Deer ( No, don’t turn up your nose, these deer are living in the corn fields and don’t taste anything like the Mule deer I have had before and we were also fed duck)  They had lots of cheese and crackers, vegatables, salads, and desserts it was a great evening as we talked and laughed and got to know each other.

We Were Also Spiritually Fed This Week

Last Wednesday we traveled about 45 minutes sout west of Oshkosh to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.  There at the Beaver Dam Branch we met with two other Zones and had Zone Conference.  We were spiritually fed by Elder Golden Jr. of the Seventy.  He is orginally from South Africa.  We heard not only from him but also his wife and President and Sister Jones are President Kindt our Stake President.  We loved every moment of this meeting.  You know how hard it is to sometimes sit through three hours of meetings? Well we sat through many more than three hours and never even noticed it.  It was so rewarding to be taught by and learn from such wonderful church leaders.   The sisters from the Beaver Dam Branch feed us a complete Thanksgiving Dinner.  One sister said when her son was serving a mission he did not get a thanksgiving dinner and she wanted to make sure every missionary serving in her area had at least one complete dinner.  They not only served us a meal but they served us with tears of gratitude in their eyes as they thanked us for our service to the Lord and to the people of Wisconsin.  We were truly spiritually fed that day.  As a thank you all the Elders had the sisters who were at the branch (there were many more who worked or could not be at the branch that helped prepare the meal) and served the meal come and stand in the middle of a circle and we sang the Primary Song, We’ll bring the world His truth.  Then there were not dry eyes anywhere.

We are still loving the work even with it’s little ups and downs the members are great and we are trying to work with them in activating and meeting new people to teach.  We are getting two young single sisters from the campus in Oshkosh to come up to the Young Single Adult Branch because they are not attending the ward as often as they should and with the Bishop’s permission we are having them attend were there are other members their own age to associate with.  One sister is from Puerto Rico and may only be here part of the next year.  She loved the branch.  The other sister will come in a couple of weeks.

Faithful Elders

Vaiant Missionaries

Here is a picture of our wonderful, valiant Elders at District Meeting.  The Zone Elders were at this meeting and we appreciated their support.  These great Elders are always kidding around with each other but totally have each others back.  They support each other making sure they are following mission rules and learning and sharing ideas on how to succeed or improve in preparing the missionary lessons and how to teach by the Spirit.  I just know the Lord is so happy to have such strong faithful young men in His service.  We were blessed this week to meet a special older couple.  They live in Ripon about 45 minutes south and west of Oshkosh, we felt an instant connection with them.  They have not been attending their meetings in Oshkosh for various reasons but they know the gospel is true and they honored their commitment to us and attended meetings this last Sunday.  They are also looking for some friends to share the gospel with.  I don’t think I could ever have realized how much  I would come to love and appreciate the wonderful people we have been able to meet and the lasting effect they have had on our testimony and our lives.

Humbled

Elder Wood and I were invited to a tail gate party by a wonderful Branch member and his wife down in Fond Du Lac.  This wonderful Brother and Sister from the branch drove to us to the local High School where a group of about 20 to 25 Branch members met.  We had a great time getting to know and associating with the members and experiencing our first ever tail gate party.  Sister Wood also ate her first “Bratz” and I have to tell you it was really good.   There was a gentleman there the Branch members had been trying to get to come out and meet with them for years.  He had always declined but because they had built up a friendship and trust with him and he knew these good members loved him he finally accepted and was there at the tail gate party, it was wonderful to meet him.  After the tail gate party we went to the local high school football game and watch it until half time when the heavens opened up and we were soaked in just a few minutes.  But it did not soak the feelings I had for the Branch members that night.  I learned two lessons the first was always go after the one with friendship and Christlike love, knowing it may take time for that one soul to respond to your invitation to come back to Heavenly Father.  Never Give Up!  The second lesson I learned was that the members of the tail gate party did not have a single relative participating in the football game but a young man from their Branch was playing.  They were there to show their love and support for him letting him know they loved him and were there for him, I don’t know if I would have done the same back home.  I think this mission is as much about what I will learn as it is about what I may be able to contribute.  They truly humble me with there words and actions.