BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April 28, 2014

So.............. I'm 21 now. Haha, it's weird.

 

Hello and welcome to another Edition of........... oh. guess it's not an edition per se, welcome to another e-mail? That just sounds boring.

 

Meh.

 

So this week was pretty good!

 

The highlights were Exchanges and my birthday!

 

So I went on Exchanges with Elder Stum on Friday and we went to his area to work (Glen Hills ward). It was AWESOME! We had a great time, lots of fun and lots of working! We taught something like 15 lessons total and we were just go, go, go all day! It was sooo cool! Elder Stum is awesome, he's a hard worker and he's fun while working hard! You don't find that too often. He can make realistic gun noises with his mouth and we had fun like, miming battles in between doors, it was great. Good times! I learned a lot from him though, and I hope he learned something from me!

 

My Birthday was great! I opened my package from the family the night before so that Elder Blaylock could read his instructions and accomplish them as well. And then I got carried away and tore into the rest of the package :) It contained various items of the material nature that were very pleasing unto mine eyes. Also! We went to visit a member really quickly and they found out that it was my birthday, so they said, "well what do you want!?" So we talked about ties and food, and whatever else I might fancy. Then we actually went to a store right next to them so that I could purchase a birthday tie for myself, with money that was given to me by my brethren, and we saw them there! I had been eying a few watches, not necessarily because I need one, but because I saw some real good ones. And they decided that since I was buying a tie, they'd get me the watch that I wanted! However, they decided to make it a secret, and doorbell ditched us at 9:30 or so! They're awesome!!!!!!

 

Transfers is this week and I just found out that Elder Blaylock is leaving! So I'm going to be with Elder Dickson, never met him, never even heard of him..... so we'll see how this goes!

 

Love you all, hope to talk to you real soon!

 

Elder DeFreese

 

1. Me with former Elder Taylor! (He came to visit the mission)

2. My Birthday!!!!!

3. Ever Been to Norwich? I have!

 

 

Happy Easter!

April 21, 2014

For those of you who don't know, Sunday was Easter! And the wonderful and glorious message that we share especially on Easter Sunday, is that of the Savior. Of his suffering and bleeding, and dying for us. The most important part of the message of Easter, however, is that of the Resurrection. He is risen! And because He is risen, we will ALL live again. We will ALL be resurrected! The key is this, we have a body now so that we can learn how to use it for good. God has given us commandments, if we follow them and do all we can to live as Christ did, we can all live with God again.

Anyways, love Easter. :)

So let's see..... what happened this week......

Well. I think the only things I want to talk about this week are Nam and the exchanges I went on this week. Sound good? Good :)

Ok. So.... Nam.

Just this past week we had been teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as Tithing and Fast offerings. He knew and accepted both, because he knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God, thereby knowing that what we tell him is the truth. So, on Friday we had an appointment with him, and things had completely changed. We talked a little bit about tithing, just for a reminder/overview of what we had talked about last time. And then he goes off about how he has very little money, and he can baptize in any church and it won't be any different...... all this stuff. We did our best to help him see that he knew not too long ago that all this was true, but he wasn't having any of it. So we set a return appointment to go back on Saturday with a member, Joe Favre, who's been getting along with him really well. On saturday he sent us a text, "Hi. Nam would not like to rebaptize and go to church of Mormon. Don't come to my apartment." we got the break up text. One of the saddest days of my mission. So there's that.

Now, on to exchanges!

I went on exchanges with Elder Ives, who's the Zone Leader here, and he was in the group that came out with Elder Kempter....... which is the group that I am now going home with! Haha, so it was awesome. Elder Ives is a HARD worker! It went really well because we both are, and we were both just non stop all day, it was honestly, probably the best exchange I've ever been on. So cool, we found 4 new investigators, taught a bunch of lessons, it was just overall SICK! In the good way :)

Easter was great, church was awesome with all the speakers and stuff. We had dinner with a family who fed us ham, and ribs, and potatoes, and green beans, and jalapenos, and onions, and all sorts of good stuff! It was really spicy and I loved it! I think i'm starting to develop a love of spicy things, but I am determined that I won't come home with a love of tobasco like all of my brothers before me. Haha :)

Anyways, I think that about does it.

I love you all, and hope that you'll write me soon!

Elder DeFreese

P.S. As far as my challenge for this week goes... I really want all of you to look deep within yourselves and act as if the Savior, Jesus Christ, is asking you this question, "Have you been feeding my sheep like you promised me?" Really ask yourself. No matter what your own personal answer is, the result should be the same. I would hope that all of you, after asking that question, would have a new and deeper desire to share the word of God with all who will listen. That's my challenge to you :)

1. I can cook! I baked some breaded chicken breast, and then I shredded it by hand, and then baked it again with parmesan and a hint of ranch dressing. SO good!

2. Our disfunctional district trying to get a group photo...... haha :)

 

 

 

SNOW!

April 14, 2014

Greetings from the land of the frozen chosen!

It snowed this morning! Which is awesome because not 2 days ago, it was 90 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I don't have a whole lot of time, but I just want to cover a few things.

Nam is still progressing really well towards his Baptism on the 26th! We saw him on Wednesday and talked about the word of wisdom because we were a little worried about that, we had seen some cigarrettes around the apartment. So I asked him straight up what the deal was, and he told us that they were from his vietnamese friends who smoke all the time. The only reason that I believe this story is because he never smells like smoke himself, and he doesn't have the money to buy them at all. Some of you may think that I'm foolish, but I believe Nam 100 percent.

This past week we also had a Zone Conference and it was great! We talked a lot about how it is our choice whether or not to be a great missionary. I really loved that because there are some missionaries in this zone who are choosing to be really lazy missionaries who don't do JACK! It's a bit ridiculous, so I hope that it woke them up. Because it definitely woke me up and helped me to see that I have a LOT to work and improve upon.

I gotta run, but I love you all and I hope that you do as the Savior would, talk to someone this week about the church. Invite them to attend with you this week. If you just have the courage to open your mouth and talk to them, the Lord will help you.

Elder DeFreese

Conference!!!!!

April 7, 2014

Before I get to the clear highlight of every missionary on the planet, let's talk about how this past week has gone!

So on Tuesday, we had a special meeting specifically for the District Leaders in the mission. So I hopped in the car with Elder Blaylock and made the arduous journey (of about 10 minutes) to the mission office. We went from 1 in the afternoon 'til about 4:30. Basically we talked all about how to be leaders in the mission. We all learned a lot and had some great discussions on how to be better. It was great!

Later that day we saw Nam! ..... we'll talk about him later, because we kind of visit with him a bunch :)

On Wednesday we did a lot of finding, with little to no success. BUT we had planned a nice dinner with the Favres and a non-member friend of Sister Favre! We got there a bit early to help them prep, because it was going to be a pretty fancy meal, and just before Sister Favre left, she called to cancel because she was sick! :( Continuing undaunted, we partook of the bounteous feast. It was great! But it also sucked a bit because we didn't get to meet this friend.

Anyways! On Thursday we had a TON of finding opportunities with potentials and tracting and all sorts of good stuff. Then we went over to a less actives home for dinner! It was some of the best home made pizza that I have ever had! (...excluding my moms of course!)

After that we had a team up set with Brother Bain, and we went to visit Edwin, a new investigator who..... wasn't there. :( But we'll be trying him again! Then we went to see Nam again, and we'll talk about him later still :)

Friday we had a Zone Training, which went for 4 hours or so. Afterwards I went on exchanges with Elder Knight! I forget where particularly, but he's from somewhere in Utah. He's a great missionary! Lots of potential! We had planned to go out and find some New Investigators, but we were thrown into a service project, Oscar and his wife were moving into the apartment complex that we are in. So we did that up until dinner time!

Unfortunately, we had to help some other missionaries take care of their clothes. They have a massive infestation of Bed Bugs in their apartment, so we got to clean all of their stuff in our apartment.

Then conference came!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand NAM WAS THERE!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!! He came to 3 of the 4 sessions, and he had a great time. He asked us to get him a DVD of conference and a CD of the Book of Mormon. He's doing so well! And he'll be ready by the 26th for sure! :) So exciting! Love this guy!

My favorite talk was by Elder Oaks. And I'm going to say no more than that. :) If you would like to talk about it with me, shoot me a letter or e-mail and I'd love to!

I love you all, and I sincerely pray that each of you will seek missionary opportunities in the coming weeks and months. As Elder Bednar has said, "Let us ACT as AGENTS, not sit and be OBJECTS"

Love you all, talk to you soon!

Elder DeFreese 

Holy Moses!

March 31, 2014

So this past week was pretty great!

Starting on Monday, we had dinner with the Oxborrows (a real nice, young couple in the ward) and they took us out to a place called Genghis Grill. It was pretty delicious! I liked it a lot! Then we went and visited a less active family in the ward, the Koch's (pronounced coke) and talked a little bit about church. Unfortunately both of them work every Sunday, so that's a big obstacle for them. But they're way cool, and super easy to get along with.

On Tuesday we had to get our carpets cleaned, and they gave us a window from 9 to 2, so we had to stay in until they got here to clean the carpets. So we didn't get to work as much as we would've liked that day, but we got some stuff done still! We had a lot of tracting, and a few less actives to visit, then we had dinner with the Fields (a really old couple in the ward) they fed us Long John Silvers. Elder Blaylock already wasn't feeling too hot that day, and the food just flipped him over the edge. We had to get home pretty quick because he was real close to throwing up, so we stayed in the rest of the night. But that's OK :)

On Wednesday we had a TON of potential investigators to try and visit, and so that's what we did, aaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day. Unfortunately we were only able to find 1 person who wanted us to come back, but even still, we did our best! So that's good.

Thursday rolled around and we visited a bunch more potentials, and then a really Less Active member texted us and said we could stop by! Nathan is in the Air Force, and he repairs the jets, so that's pretty freakin' cool! But we talked very boldly with him about coming to church and he said he would make it! (he didn't though... it was sad)

Friday came and we still had a ton of potentials to go and see (still do by the way) and so we did just that! When dinner rolled around we were able to go to the Bensons and have some Papa Johns, afterward, Brother Benson came out with us to try and visit some people. We were only able to talk to a Less Active member of the ward, which wasn't what we had planned. But we still had a good talk with him, and invited him to church. He said he would be there! (He wasn't... it was sad)

Then, just yesterday we had a really successful day! We tried a few potentials right after lunch, and then we had Bro. Favre pick us up for a team-up, and we went out and visited all sorts of people, one such person was Nam. I haven't mentioned him yet I don't think, mainly because I wasn't quite sure yet. But anyways, Nam is from Vietnam and he speaks very broken English. However, he has been reading the Book of Mormon for the past 3 years in English and Vietnamese, and that's how he's learning English! SO cool! We have him on Baptismal Date for the 26th of April, and he's progressing really well. It's hard to gauge how much he truly understands, but from what we can see in his demeanor, it's a lot more than we originally thought. He's awesome! After we saw Nam we got dropped off at our Dinner Appointment, we had STEAK! It was awesome :) I really enjoyed it for sure. Then we got picked up for a team up with Brother Bain, found 3 new investigators!!!!!! It was awesome, that rounded out the day. :)

Just yesterday we weren't able to do too much, due to different meetings and such. But we had an appointment with a new Investigator, Terry, he was unfortunately running out the door, but we still had a quick lesson with him about the Book of Mormon, and he said he would read it! So we're really hoping and praying that he does.

But that pretty much updates all of ya!

This is truly the Lords work everyone, and He has hastened it! Let's catch up :)

Elder DeFreese

 

1. This cat's owner shut the door a bit too fast on us...

2. This chair is RIDICULOUS!