Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Happy Birthday

March 24, 2014
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's the BOMB! It's true, if you haven't met her, you should. Mainly because she's the best, and........... yeah. She's awesome :)
 
Anyways, I gotta tell 'yall about my week!
 
So, this week was transfer week, and Elder Blaylock and I are sticking around, so we didn't have to pack, or do anything really. We were able to focus on working hard!
BUT, I have to mention that on transfer day we went down to the 13th st. building (where everyone goes to be transferred out and everything) so that we could say goodbye to some people. I saw Elder Rojas!!!!!!! It was so cool! I got to talk to him a bit and give him some advice on different aspects of missionary work. It was awesome, he's going to be a great missionary!
So.... on Wednesday night/Thursday morning at about 1:30 or 2 A.M. I was woken up by Elder Blaylock vomiting and moaning and groaning real bad. So we called the sister in charge of medical and told her what was going on. She said that we should go to the E.R.! So, we drove there and told the medical staff what was going on, and got admitted. The diagnosis came out that he got a stomach virus. It was so bad that he couldn't keep any fluids down or anything, so they gave him an IV. The IV got the job done, and he was feeling much better. But they gave him some anti-nausea meds just in case, and told him to rest and drink lots of fluids. So we got to chill at the apartment all day and rest. I called a ton of people and tried to set up some appointments.
Another thing that kind of put a damper on the week, is that one of the Recent Converts for the sisters, actually passed away just a few days ago. But it's OK, because if there's one thing we know being a part of this church, is that death is only the beginning of something far better than anything we can imagine. This life is not the end!
This week has been reeeeaaaaaalllly tiring for me, mainly because District Leaders in this mission are getting a lot more responsibility than ever before. So I've had a lot of stuff to deal with, and adjust to. But it's all good, because I love serving those who are in my District, and I think they are at the very least OK with me leading them. I'm super excited to keep working with them and doing everything that I can to make sure that this District is the best one in the zone! We've already vastly improved from this past transfer, so we can only move onward and upward!
I think that'll about do it, I love you all!
Elder DeFreese
P.S. the Scripture of the day today is Mosiah 28:3 which reads "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human sould should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."
All of you who are back home, you're still missionaries. This is how you should also feel for those around you who do not have the gospel, or who are currently choosing not to be involved in the church. I'm not asking you to go out and preach the gospel all day, just pray for the strength and wisdom to talk to somebody, just do what you can. My dad always says do some good today. That's my challenge to all of you, do some good today, and the Lord will bless you, and those that you serve.  

1. The zone!
 2. Us and the Ridgepoint sisters (sister Hannah and Sherman)
3.Lunch!



Monday, March 17, 2014

Transfers!!!

March 17, 2014
So this week's e-mail is going to be real short mainly because today... I'm just really sick of e-mails! Haha, but to address this week's subject line....
I'm not being transferred! I'm still in the Harrison Park ward down here in Wichita/Derby Kansas, however I'm also going to be a District Leader again! Super stoked about that! I can't wait to serve the crap out of my District! :)
This past week was pretty good, I guess.
A really big downer for us was that our Investigator, who reeeaallly wants to be baptized... has just gotten pregnant. She's had the lessons at least 4 times all the way through and yet this happened, so that was really sad. She still has to get married to her boyfriend, they're living together, and then after that they can be baptized. But this is just another setback.
But that was a downer.
But to get back to the positives! We are teaching a man named David, he's a young hispanic guy, single, and he is SO cool! Haha, he's way chill and down to earth. He came to a baptism this past Saturday and he said, "That was Bad A** dude!!!" Hahahahaha, so funny. He has a bit of a mouth on him, but we're working with it. He's doing real good, and he's on Baptism date for the 12th of April! So stoked!
I also got to go on exchanges with my current District Leader, Elder Pack, he came out with my MTC group! Love him to death, he's so cool! But we had a pretty good exchange, he's actually the Car guy in the mission office, so we had to be in the office all day, but we had fun and we really bonded a lot. :)
And last but not least, on Sunday our Stake President came to the ward and talked for just a bit. One of the things that really hit me was this, "Motivation is not a feeling, it's a decision" And with that I just want to tell each of you who are reading this, who don't feel motivated to do something in the church, whether it be a calling or home teaching, or just going to church all together. Your motivation to go to church is not a feeling. You have decided to feel this way. So my invitation to you all is to change your attitude, change your decision to do what the Lord wants us to do. We love you, we need you. Please, please help us do this great work the Lord has set forth.
I love you all! Talk to you soon,
Elder DeFreese

A true servant of the Lord....

March 10, 2014
Oh hi there!
 
So.....
 
yeah.
 
So this past week has been AMAZING!!!!!!!!! And fairly sad at some points. But I'll keep it in chronological order, so that we can keep things moving fluidly.
On Monday, Elder Blaylock and I had our normal P-Day, and afterwards had Dinner with the Darlings! I think I mentioned them last week, so we had dinner and a haircut like planned, but we had to pause my haircut halfway through so that we could eat! It was pretty funny, but I like it! Sister Darling did a great job, and I won't need another haircut for another 2 or 3 weeks probably.
On Tuesday........ we had a bunch of time to work in the afternoon, no luck. BUT, after dinner with the Christiansens, Elder Blaylock went with brother Christiansen, and I went with Brother Favre on team ups! I went to an FHE with some Less Active members, and one of our investigators, Ariana. I taught the lesson, on personal revelation. It was great, good night! :)
Wednesday......... ehhhhhh nothing too special. But we worked hard! Haha :)
Thursday was pretty much like wednesday, lots and lots of work, without really any numbers or anything to show for it. But we keep trying! Ha, appointments fall through, people slam doors, it's all good! We do our best :)
Friday.... was freaking INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I was able to keep this a secret but Elder Bednar came to our Mission! A freaking member of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles! SICK!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a meeting with just the missionaries for 3 or 4 hours, where we were able to ask him questions about anything. He taught us soooooo much. One thing that we learned was that we treat most people as objects, not as agents. Meaning that we just say stuff in front of a mirror pretty much, and we instead need to reeaally focus on teaching the person. Help them to learn just as the Angel taught Nephi in 1 Ne. 11-14 I think, not quite sure right now.
Anyways, a lot of the stuff we talked about, Elder Bednar asked us not to share with everyone... soo......... awkward.
Haha, then on Saturday we had another meeting with Elder Bednar about Hastening the Lords work. This meeting was with the whole stake, as it was stake conference weekend. He taught us that the Lord has already hastened the work, and that it's our job to try to keep up. The biggest thing that he taught the members was that it's the members job to find! You cannot pray for us, the missionaries, to find, YOU need to go out there and get it done! This is coming from an apostle of the Lord, so I want to encourage you, just as Elder Bednar did, to go out and find people for the missionaries to teach! Not necessarily go and knock on doors, but prayerfully identify one person who you need to talk to, and talk to them! It's EASY!
"But Elder DeFreese, you say it's easy because you're doing it full time"
My response to that is this.
BULL. It's easy because the Lord has made it easy for us. Are you honestly saying that it's hard to live the gospel? Are you saying that it's hard to share with people what you know is true? If that is the case then I invite you to humble yourself and remember that the Lord has asked you to do this. It's not hard, the Lord will be with you. And if you need any extra help or advice, I'm always here, send me an e-mail or a letter and I'll do everything I can to help you. Because I love you, and because I know that if you do this, the Lord will bless you with a multiplicity of blessings.
Ok. Now this is a bit too long for my taste so I'll wrap it up.
I love you all! And I'll talk to you soon!
Elder DeFreese
 
My posterity!
Left to Right: Elder Karchner, Me, Elder Kempter, Elder Walton

Elder Johnson and I
 

Snooooooooow!

March 3, 2014

Hello yet again all you who.... are reading this...
Tried to think of something clever to say, didn't work. Went with that ^
Anyways! First off, I want to clarify because I guess I didn't make it too clear. I love my companion Elder Blaylock! He's awesome! Great missionary, hard worker! Him and I get along great, and the work here is on the cusp of EXPLODING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, that's out of the way.
"Elder DeFreese, how was your week?"
"Funny you should ask! I'll tell you allllllll about it!" (exept a bunch of details that I'll forget)
So we'll start with Tuesday. In our ward boundaries, we have an Air Force Base, however, we can't get on base without someone who is actually a part of the Air Force. President Bell (he being a part of the Air Force himself) has told us that we need to get in there somehow, and see if we can't teach someone! SO, after a lot of calls and some appointments made and cancelled, we finally got an appointment with the Chaplins on base, and with a member who could get us in there! So we met with them and told them how we wanted to hold a Family Home Evening on base for those who are a part of the LDS faith. From what I understand (and we still need to clear this up) the chaplins said that we (the missionaries) can do next to no teaching at all, that it has to be up to the member (brother Berret) to teach and set up everything. Again, we still need to figure that out, but it sounded like we can't really do anything on base. But it was really cool to get on base in the first place! It doesn't really seem all that different from the outside world, but it was still cool :)
On Wednesday we had a bunch of appointments, they all fell through. Exept Dinner! Dinner was great, we had it with a young family in the ward, the Grassie's. Brother Grassie is a member of the Air Force, so the live in a Military Housing area, so that was cool. They're a way cool family! At one point, Brother Grassie looked to his son, Orin, and asked him if he wanted any more food, he replied quickly with, "No thanks, I'm picking my nose" after which he promptly jammed his finger ALL the way up there! Hahahahahaha, so funny! We had a great time, and then went out with Brother Grassie to try some of our appointments, and a few extra backups, which all fell through. But I still count that night as a success because he and his family saw that we're out trying!
Then on to Thursday we had a bunch of appointments with investigators, and less active members, which ALL fell through! Are you sensing a pattern here? Hahaha, BUT dinner with the Stouts was still on! The Stouts are also a mility family, just a couple for now though. Brother Stout is in the Air Force and he's way cool! He watches Scrubs! So we quoted the show back and forth during dinner. But anyways, we went to Olive Garden with them, and we met the Grassie's there! It was great! So, at Olive Garden, the waiter (taaaallll black guy with a flaming red mohawk) asks Orin if he wants any cheese on his spaghetti, Orin replies with, "I farted :D" <with the biggest grin on his face! The waiter, and all of us, just DIED laughin! It was so great :) He's the funniest little kid! Haha :)
On Friday we had Interviews with President Bell, him and I talked about a lot of stuff, but he mentioned again that he really wants me to be a leader, but at that time he hadn't really started working on transfers, so again... who knows what the crap could happen?! Haha, nobody! But it's all good, we'll just have to observe what occurs. :)
After Interviews we had a few appointments, which ALL FELL THROUGH! So sad! :( But it's all good, because guess what? Dinner was still on! We had dinner with the Darlings, another young couple, and they're SO cool! Brother and sister Darling were so nice, and we had a lot of fun! They noticed early on that I had pretty long hair and asked me about it, and I said that I was pretty low on money and I was just going to wait until (today) to get a haircut because then I'd have some money, at which point, Sister Darling offered to cut our hair for free! So we're having dinner with them again tonight, and she'll cut my hair too! Sweet! Blessings! Haha
Then, on Saturday, we had a 70, Elder Martino, come visit us! It was SO cool! He talked to us a lot about teaching people with the members, and asking for referrals in the correct manner. It was so cool, and we learned a lot! After that we had a few appointments set up, which, can you guess? EVERYTHING got cancelled! Yay! Even dinner cancelled this time, but another member (Carlos) offered to feed us! He took us out to a mexican restaraunt called alejandros, it was really good, TONS of food! However, during the course of the meal, Elder Blaylock got a suuuuuper bad migraine, which just floored him! So sad, it was also really bad because it made him really sick, so we had to go in for the rest of the night so he could rest.
I forgot to mention also that Saturday was rough because the weather really started to hate on Kansas, we got freezing rain! So the roads were all covered with a nice inch of ice.
As a result, on Sunday, all our cars were parked, and CHURCH got cancelled! :( Bad day :( So we were stuck inside all day, but we were told to park our cars just after a few Elders had gotten to our apartment to drop off their laundry, so we got to spend the day with them playing board games and such! So I guess it wasn't all bad :) We made the most of it :)
Wow. I've typed a BUNCH today! Hopefully that will tide you over 'til next week, eh?
I love you all! And I hope someone sends me a letter soon, because I may just break down and cry :)
Kidding! I'm too lost in the work ;)
Love ya!
Elder DeFreese
 
Need a dish?

We have a fireplace :)
 

"We put our differences aside..."

February 24, 2014

I'll get to my subject line in a minute...
So this past week has been SUPER frustrating. When I got here, I saw that the apartment was a MESS, just ridiculous amounts of trash, clutter, and neglect for care of the apartment itself.
So we got to work! We started cleaning out all the junk in the closets, organizing supplies, cleaning out the area book and organizing it, making our maps coherent so we could find our members and Investigators. With all this crap we had to do, it's taken us all week of working a good 2 or 3 hours a day to get it just about finished. There's still a bunch of work to do, but this week we should be able to get it done.
We saw a Recent Convert the other day, Larry, he's been struggling a lot lately with physical problems and spiritual problems as well. So we went over to try and see how we could help him. He kept telling us that he had been given SUCH great blessings before, and everything has been taken away from him. He went on to tell us of all these things being taken away, and I was impressed to give him the story of Job. Larry completely blew it off, saying that he didn't have the faith that Job had, and we explained that he didn't need to have the faith he had, he just needed to trust in the Lord. Something like that, anyways, we kept trying to help him see that he could get through these problems, and he kept blowing us off, making excuses. So that was really frustrating, he wouldn't allow the spirit to teach him at all.
Anyways, to finish out this e-mail...
The Mission has a standard for certain Key Indicators, which are the BARE MINIMUM for missionaries to achieve. Basically if you don't hit them, you're a bad missionary :)
So..... Elder Blaylock and I were having some HUGE problems working together, just a really rough time. He was being a jerk trying to take complete control over every aspect of the work, and I was trying so hard to be an equal player in it, but it didn't work. Finally I just said, "Elder Blaylock, let's just put our differences aside, get out there, and work!" He didn't really like that...
KIDDING! Ha :) We were just so strapped for time trying to get the area in order that we didn't have too much time to work. BUT, just yesterday we were able to get 3 member presents and a new investigator to juuuust barely get us over standard :)
YAY! We aren't bad missionaries!!!!
So that's the story of the week, gotta love missionary work!
Love you all! Talk to you soon!
Elder DeFreese
P.S. Miss my challenges? Don't worry, I'll think of a new challenge next week. Hopefully I'll hear more stories about you all doing missionary work when I come next week with something easier.
 
 
 
Good 'ol Elder Blaylock

I'm a human burrito!