Are you kidding me?!??!

May 27, 2014

So, this past week was a bit crazy!

On Tuesday we had an appointment with a new Investigator of ours, Richard. At first we planned on having a lesson with him in a members home, but then the ZL's challenged everyone in the zone to have a church tour, first one gets bonus miles! So, naturally, we wanted to grab hold of those miles! So we had the church tour, and throughout the whole thing Richard was asking GREAT questions! And when we asked him a question, his answers were equally great! For example, we invited him to be baptized, which he accepted, then we set a date (june 24th) and then he asked us, "What should I expect when I become a member of the church?" Whaaaaaat????!?!? GOLDEN! We're meeting with him again tonight, it's gonna be great!

On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Bell! It was great, him and I talked a lot about the air force base here, exercise, all that good stuff. It was a great chance to sit down and just talk with him. Super nice. Love that man!

On Thursday, Elder Dickson had a dental appointment, so we went there, waited in line for a good half hour to an hour, come to find out that his insurance wouldn't cover the visit because he had been to the dentist 4 or 5 months ago. They only cover every 6 months. So that was a fun waste of time! Haha, it's all good though, he got another appointment set up, so it'll get taken care of soon enough.

Friday was a loooooooooooooong day. A few weeks ago, while I was preppin' to go to bed, I brushed my teeth and put in my retainers. As I put in the bottom one, it chipped, and broke! Soooooooooo I waited for a little while before I told my mommy, and she told me to get it taken care of. So I finally talked to the mission nurse here and she set me up to go to an orthodontist! However, their office was/is in McPherson Kansas, which is a good hour to an hour and a half drive. Depending on traffic/weather and such. So we head out at about 9:30, get there at about 11. I start filling out the paper work and.... crap! Don't know my Dad's Social Security number! Gotta call him! But wait, to be obedient, I have to call President first! Hope he answers!!!!!! Luckily, he answered really quickly, gave me the green light, and I called my pops to get the info and such. Waited until about 11:40 or so, finally admitted into my little cubicle type of thing. The doctor finally gets in there and tells me that I should probably get a new bottom retainer made, and the top one is wearing down pretty good as well. Tells me that most people need to get a new retainer made once every 3 to 5 years... what?! That's stupid! Nah, it's all good. Stuff wears down and breaks. So anyways, I had them make a top and bottom one so that they can both be worn down equally. Here's the part that was looooooooooooong, it takes about an hour and a half to make them. So how the crap do we kill an hour and a half in an area that's waaaaaaaaaay outside of ours, and we have no money? We ended up going to lunch at Wendy's, then our windshield wiper blade broke, so we had to go and get some new blades! Gotta go to wal mart! Anyways, with all the laziness that a missionary can muster, we made those 2 things last about an hour. So we decided to just go back and wait! Unfortunately, the retainers weren't done yet, no biggy. So we waited, and waited.... and waited. FINALLY 2 hours after they started making them, they were ready! So they had me try them on and make sure they fit right. They fit real well, the dentist/doctor/whatever he wants to be called wanted to see me before we left. So we wended up leaving at about 3 ish. Got back to our apartment at like 4:20 or so, and all of our appointments for the rest of the night had cancelled! Yay!!!!!

It's ok though, it was a good day.

Yesterday for P-Day we had a lot of fun, we had a Zone Olympics! Smash Ball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc. Lots of fun!

Then we had a BBQ at a members home, and then FHE at another members home! It was good!

And now we're to today! Today we had a District meeting which I taught everyone on Questions and Listening, and how we are to use them both effectively to help the investigators teach themselves. Because we as missionaries can teach the crap out of these people, but it doesn't mean much unless they are able to help teach themselves.

But I think it went pretty good!

Now I'm on exchanges with Elder Eyre, one of our ZL's here. We haven't had a chance to get out and work yet because of Lunch and e-mails and such, but we're about to get out of here and do something!

Buuuut that about catches you up! This was a real long e-mail, huh?

Please make sure you all are doing your part to help build up the Lords Kingdom! Invite someone to church, share your testimony, do something! Love ya!

Elder DeFreese

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

May 19, 2014

Hi everyone! And welcome to another edition of "Elder DeFreese and his wanderings through the Kansas Wasteland"

Hahahahahaha, it's not a wasteland! It's awesome!!!!!!!

Anyways, apparently today is May 19th, which happens to be the date of my sisters Birthday!!! Ha, she's old......

No but seriously though, my sister is the bomb, she grew up in a home with all boys, and she held her own! I can remember many a time when brotherly quarrels would escalate, and she would be the one to come in and play the role of mediator. It was great having her in the home. I'll always miss that. Love ya sis!

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... yuck. Gotta get all that love off me.

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ahhhh, that's better!

So this week was pretty great! We got a lot of work done, visiting Less Actives and meeting new people as well! We spent most of the week trying to find new investigators though, and this past week was a bit difficult to do so. We were only able to find 1 person who wanted us to come back at a specific time, a few others who were kind of interested but not really, and then the rest was just a bunch of people who "weren't interested"

BUT it's all good! I have a solid testimony in hard work, and the blessings will come! Back when I was in Concordia Kansas, Elder Kempter and I worked our butts off for 3 months knocking door after door after door, with next to nothing to show for it, until finally, and very suddenly, we had 4 baptisms!!?!??! It was awesome!!!!!!!!! So I know that the blessings are just waiting for us, we just need to keep working hard and being obedient, and it'll come. So I'm not worried at all, because I know that our next blessing could very well be waiting just behind that next door.

So this past week we had a specialized training on Tuesday, and it was a training that was focused primarily on finding! How great is that? Haha, it was cool. We learned a lot about how we can be "Fearless Finders" and what it takes to be a Fearless Finder. We also went through an activity where there were some missionaries who acted as the spirit, some who were potential investigators behind a door who HAD to be really really mean. I was elected to be one of the really really mean people, and it was terrible but awesome at the same time. It was really rough trying to tear down every single missionary that had to knock on my door. But it was a great learning experience because at the last door there was a person who was ready to listen and learn about the gospel! The spirit was there in between doors trying to pep the missionaries up and keep them going, and it was awesome. Learned a lot for sure.

On Saturday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Knight, another Elder in my district. It was great! We went to his area (Glen Hills) and worked all day! We had a bit of service in the morning helping to build a fence, and then we went out to knock some doors! We talked with a lot of people and we tried to do some Garage Sale Finding! It was great, we had a lot of fun and we worked real hard too!

I think that about does it for this week though, I challenge each of you to seek earnestly and pray for a missionary opportunity this week, then, instead of waiting on the Lord to give you one, go out and try to find one! I know that He'll show you the way, He has promised us that He will!

Love you all, talk to you soon!

Elder DeFreese

 

1. DRAGON!!!!!!!!!

 

2. Elder Knight and I

 

3. Screensaver...?

 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

May 12, 2014

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there! Especially mine, because she's the best one :)

OK, let's talk about this past week!

Honestly this past week has been a bit slow, for some reason I was just off my game I guess. We went out all week trying to find new investigators and working hard with the ones we currently have, just nothing really worked this week!

We were dropped by 2 of our investigators, 1 of which was on date, the other was part of a Part Member Family, who are now going to a Catholic church :( so that was pretty sad.

On Friday we had a great Zone Training which was about bold invitations, commitments, and finding our "corneilius" which goes to a story in the bible. I would tell you the story, but I think you ought to read it. Acts chapter 10. It's awesome :)

Oh! And did I mention that Elder Kempter is the new Zone Leader here? Yeah, it's pretty freakin' legit. This guy is a spiritual giant! Love him to death.

Really I think this past week was a bit of a disappointment because we got dropped a lot and we just didn't really find too many people. But I'm not too worried about it, Preach my Gospel teaches us that we will have disappointments and we will get discouraged because we desire for the salvation of the people that we meet. However, this does not effect my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that as we continue to work hard and be obedient, we will be blessed, and we will see miracles! I know that this is His Church, and I know that I have been sent here for a reason, please pray to our Heavenly Father to know what your purpose is, why you are where you are. And then go out and work. Talk with someone about the church this week, invite them to come to your home and learn more about the Gospel. I know that if you do, the Lord will help you in any way that you need. Please pray for the spiritual sensitivity to recognize the promptings that come, and pray also for the courage to act on those promptings. Love you all! Talk to you soon!

Elder DeFreese

 

1. Coooool sunset!

2. It's a Pig! (and a real blurry picture...)

3. Me, Kyle Wilkes (future missionary) and Elder Dickson!

 

 

Holy Moses!

May 5, 2014

 

So this past week was Transfer week!

Pretty much the only thing that I have to say is that Elder Dickson is awesome! He's my new companion, and he's been out for almost 4 months. He's also 25 years old. So it's kind of weird because I'm more of the leader because of missionary service, but he's older than me... kind of a weird relationship. But we make it work! He's awesome, we're having a lot of fun, and we're working hard!

I don't really know what to update all of you on.... so I'll go through my planner and talk a bit about some of our investigators or less actives or something.

Mike and Amber! Mike was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a long time ago, been less active for a loooooong time. But we found him! His wife Amber is a Baptist, and the whole family has been attending a... southern Baptist church? I think. Anyways, super cool family, Mike wants to come back to our church, but the family doesn't really want to. So he just wants to go with his family for now. But we're working on 'em!

Mike Sandoval is an interesting guy! He used to be a millionaire with his own company, but then his wife divorced him and he lost everything. Because he lost everything he couldn't support his kids, so he lost custody too. Now, it's been a couple years, he's got a steady job and he's just now getting more custody over the kids. However, he doesn't have permission to bring them to church yet. And he has his kids on the weekend... kinda sucks. Oh, did I mention that he's a baptized member of our church as of like... a year ago?! Cool beans! Love him, he's awesome!

We tried to visit Nam on Saturday, just to see how he's doing. He didn't answer. But we'll try again sometime this week!

I think that just about does it, really. Just lovin' the work, working hard, and doing our best every day!

Love you all, and please make it a goal to share your testimony with someone this week, alright? It's not that hard, you've got a week to do it. Please don't waste an opportunity to share the gospel.

Elder DeFreese

 

1. Elder Blaylock and I

 

2. Elder Dickson and I!