Monday, August 25, 2014

You gotta be kidding me!!!!

August 25, 2014

Man, its been another week again. This is ridiculous!!!

Craaaaap, gotta get running real soon.

But to catch you up real quick, this Zone has seen some ridiculous miracles in the past week! One of our companionships has 6 people on date for baptism!!!! Super cool! As a zone we are really stepping it up and seeing tons of miracles, lots of improvement, it's great!

This past week I went on 2 exchanges, 1 with Elder Jones, a District Leader. And 1 with Elder Telford, a new missionary.

Elder Jones and I went to the Harrison Park ward and worked our butts off! We biked a ton, which hurt a lot, but I'm better now! Elder Jones is a stud muffin! Super hard worker, great person, great friend. Love him!

Elder Telford and I worked in my area, Ridgepoint, and had lots of success as well! It was a lot of fun because Elder Telford is from Springville, and knows Don (my older brother) so it was cool for sure!

Other than that, this past week has been a blast, I'm loving it out here, gotta go! Love ya!!!

Elder DeFreese

P.S. Don't forget to invite someone to come to church OK? Sweet! 

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Holy Moses!!!

August 18, 2014

It's been another dang week already?!?!??? What the heck!!?
OK, guess I gotta hit you up with another e-mail or somethin' eh? 

Here goes...

FIRST, I have to give a shout out to my little bother, Elder DeFreese, again. HAPPY STINKIN' BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! He's just turned 19 today, and he's a missionary!!!!! I'm so dang proud of my little bro. I can't even really describe the type of relationship that him and I share, it's something real special. Whenever I think about heroes, I honestly think about Superman or Batman, but when I actually think about who my heroes are, I really think about my family. In particular, my little brother Braden is one of my biggest heroes. One reason why is because of the things that we share, and how we've overcome our problems. He is a great example of acknowledging fault, and fixing the problem. He's a hard working person, and I love the crap out of him. Happy Birthday, glad it landed on a P Day!

Alright, now I can get into my week. Running out of time like usual, but I'll try and catch you up to what's going on. 

On Tuesday we attended our own District Meeting, and it was great! We talked about inviting people for baptism, but more particularly, inviting everyone to baptism! It was great, the role plays really helped us to see what we can do to better teach these things, and now we're starting to see miracles in the district because of it!

On Wednesday we had a lot of people to visit, and lots of contact to try and make, most of the investigators we tried weren't home, but we found 2 new investigators! It was great, we're working hard at both the ZL things, and our own area. We're definitely seeing the Lord bless us! 

I want to add a quick disclaimer, unless it's something cool I'm going to try to not mention all the boring spreadsheet work and stuff that I do all day, and try to focus on the other things... unless the usual boring stuff was actually exciting...

On Thursday we had a great miracle!!! We went to try and visit a couple investigators with Bro. Webber (Secretary in the ward) and nobody was home, so at the last house we tried, I turned around and saw a grey house that looked reeeaaally busted up. I felt like we ought to knock it, so we did! We found Michelle, her husband Angel (pronounced ahn-hel) and their daughter (I don't know how to say/spell her name... it's cool though). And they want to learn more, they're looking for a church. Aaaand they're praying about Baptism!!!!! So stoked about them, they're great!!!

Basically this week has been pretty great! Lots of miracles, finding tons of new people, member presents, all that good stuff!!!

Uhmm...... yeah! I think that's all I got!

Love you all so much, don't forget to read the Book of Mormon, and invite someone to come to church!!

Elder DeFreese

P.S. Something cool that I learned yesterday in sacrament meeting when the Stake President spoke was this statement that he made... he talked about how "People will say, and it's true, that the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." He went on to say that, "It is also true that, when the Spirit is strong, the flesh is willing" So... think about that. K? K. :) 
 
 
1. Elder Nicholes and I! (He's a DL in the Zone)

2. Richard Sharp (Guy I taught in Harrison Park who got baptized recently)

3. This is what ZL's do allllllll day!
 


 

Monday, August 11, 2014

Here we go!

August 11, 2014
So... it's been another stinkin' week! (I don't say that negatively, just like... holy crap it's been another week??!?!? That type of thing...)

First I gotta get a quick shout out to a few people, first to my little brother Braden (A. K. A. Elder DeFreese the younger) he's on his way to the mission field now!!! Super stoked for him, he's gonna be a bomb missionary, what a stud muffin! Love ya brotha!!! 
Next shout out goes to my best pal Hunter Nelson! He's home!!!!! This guy is just the coolest, so proud of him. Aaaand since this is a shout out.... I gotta tell ya to not get married for at least 6 months, K? I have to approve dangit!!!!!!!! 

Anyways................

This past week has been pretty crazy! Starting off with Monday, we went on exchanges right after P-Day with the Arkansas City Elders, Elder Nicholes and MacArthur. I went to Ark with Elder Nicholes, and Elder Turner stayed here. 
On this particular exchange I learned really only 1 big thing. And that is how to keep your dang mouth shut when you have some stuff to say. On Tuesday we had a District Meeting, and Elder Nicholes was setting goals. The sisters in his district started to disagree with the goals that he set and they started to tear him down hard core. I got really really upset. I wanted to rebuke the crap out of them, and tell them to go home. Luckily, the spirit constrained me and I didn't say anything. Finally Elder Nicholes turned to me and asked me if I had any input and I lovingly rebuked the sisters. They now understand that he has been called of God, and dangit what he says ought to be what goes. So that's good. :)

Then on Wednesday we had MLC's, where we talked for a good while about all sorts of stuff! It was great, we met up with all the ZL's and STL's (Sister Training Leaders.... dunno if I've mentioned them). And talked about a lot of policies and different things we can do as a mission to improve. 

On Friday we had a Zone Training, where I trained on the Fundamentals. It's basically got 8 basic things that everyone should be doing all the time, you learn these things in the MTC, and the first 12 weeks of your training in the Mission Field. 
My training was focused on actually studying and becoming the Fundamentals. I likened it to Tim Duncan, who is Mr. Fundamentals in Basketball. To do so effectively, I played a bit of one on one with one of the members in the zone. It was great, got the point across, and I think the Zone is about to do some really great things, I'm excited!

So the biggest news is what happened on Friday after Zone Training. Some missionaries were having some problems within their companionship, so we had determined to talk with them after Zone Training. We were going on exchanges that day with another companionship though, so we decided that I would stay and Elder Turner could just go ahead and start working with his exchangee. 
We had a great talk, talked about planning, charity/love, getting lost in the work, etc. And it went fantastically! They were completely changed! Elder Riddle and I got back to our place afterwards, and right when we knelt to pray to start our exchange, these Elders called. The Elder on the other end immediately started yelling at me saying that his companion had run away!!!!!!!!!!!! CRAAAP!!!!!!! So we bolted for the car, got in and started heading their way. On the way I called the AP's, got them involved, and we started looking. He had run away starting on a railroad track. We walked for miles on that thing, and never saw him. We had started searching at about 3:30, eventually we got the entire zone involved, and then even the Police. FINALLY we were told that we had to go inside and get to bed. But the Police kept looking, and they found him at about 10:45 or so. He's doing fine, he had sort of a.... mental breakdown. Super sad. He's alright though, so we're all happy again!

That about catches you up though, and I gotta run! Love you all!!!

Elder DeFreese

P.S. Don't forget to invite someone to church today! Also, I would challenge each of you to hand out a Book of Mormon with your testimony written inside. Who should you give it to? Let the Holy Spirit guide :)

Monday, August 4, 2014

Holy Moses!!!

August 4, 2014
Good morning everyone!!!!! 

This week I'm going to keep it nice and short, mainly because I don't want to take the focus off of my lil bro!!!! He just went into the MTC this past Wednesday!!! So that's super exciting, also he got made a ZL in there as well! So I'm super proud of that guy, love the crap out of him.

That's the big news....... uhmmm.... 


This past week has been pretty great! 

The only real big info that I could share this week other than my stud of a brother going on a mission is that I went on exchanges this week! I went with a brand new Missionary, Elder Christiansen, in Harrison Park ward!!! It was awesome! Super fun to go around and see all the people and meet some new ones!

While there, we were able to teach a couple people, we found a family, the Canada family. Super spiritual moment, we taught them the Restoration and then put the Mom, Tori, on date for baptism! It was awesome!!!

Other than that, this past week has been lots of phone calls and paper work. BUT, I will say this, I can see SO much how the Lord is truly hastening this work. I know that this is what He wants us to be doing, and I know that He is with us every step of the way. 

Love you all so much! Talk to you soon!

Elder DeFreese

P.S. You best be invitin' someone to church this week! :)