This week was a pretty cool week. We were able to find 5 potentials and we actually were able to get 3 referrals from some of our investigators. We also were able to get 2 new investigators which was really cool too. We were loooooong overdue for new investigators.

Friday night our Branch President called us and told us that the person who was supposed to speak on Sunday got really sick and couldn’t do it anymore. So we got called upon to speak. I was assigned the topic of the Plan Of Salvation and Elder Alger spoke on the Book Of Mormon. It’s interesting preparing a sacrament talk in the mission field because you don’t have the resources that you do at home to help you prepare. For example, if we want to use a talk from one of the apostles, we have to dig through our stack of Ensigns to find it. It’s a lot easier to prepare a talk at home when you have constant access to the internet! Luckily all I had to do was talk about the Plan of Salvation which is really easy for me because we teach it all the time. I just summarized it and then encouraged all the members to do missionary work. Hopefully I inspired some people.

We have been doing a lot of member missionary work here lately. We’re really trying to inspire the members to get out and share the Gospel. I feel kind of hypocritical at times because at home I never gave any referrals to the missionaries. I know growing up in Utah I didn’t have a ton of opportunities but I can still think of a few people I could’ve have referred to the missionaries. But hopefully we can inspire members to get out and share. We’ve been making a really big push for them to share Mormon.org. As I’ve gone to other areas on companion exchanges I’ve noticed that a lot of their best referrals have come from Mormon.org. It makes a lot of sense because that website just sucks you right in! At least it does to me anyway. So we’ve been telling members “look, if you don’t have anything in the gospel to talk about with someone, show them mormon.org.” We’ll see if it works.

Elder Gonzalez came back to Romeo for a day to do Spanish Night on Thursday. It went really well. One of our Spanish families is making a ton of progress and we’re hoping to get them to church soon. We also found 2 new Spanish investigators and also another Spanish potential. We’re running into Mexicans everywhere! We have two trailer parks in our area that we call Little Mexico Uno and Little Mexico Dos. I don’t really know where to have them go to church though. We have 2 members in the Romeo branch that speak spanish but neither of them can translate very well. I was thinking of just inviting the investigators just to go to the Rochester ward because they’re better equipped for Spanish speakers by having Elder Gonzalez and a couple other translators there. But I’m not really sure yet.

Transfers are coming up on the 7th of February. I’ll have been in Romeo 4 months then so there is a possibility I’ll be getting transferred but I could very well stay until I’ve been here 6 months.

Well, love you guys! Tell everyone at home Hi for me!

-Erik

This week was pretty cool. We were able to find 3 new potential investigators which was nice. Hopefully they all become full investigators so we can replenish our dwindling investigator pool. We were determined to find some new potential investigators so on Saturday we knocked doors almost all day and it paid off. It was cold but luckily it wasn’t to windy and the sun was out. And we didn’t run into any lame mean people which is always a plus.

Lately I’ve been doing service work for people by helping them with their computers. Romeo is such a big farm/apple orchard town that not many people know how to use computers I guess. Yesterday after church I showed a member how to put a word document on a flash drive because he couldn’t figure it out. After I showed him how easy it was he said “That’s it? That had me stumped for 5 hours!” It was pretty funny. Then last week I helped a member and her sister set up their wireless router and network. One of them had been running her internet off her cell phone because she couldn’t figure out how to set the router up. So I set up the router and their wireless printer and now they love me. I never thought I’d have to use those skills out here!

We had an investigator come to church again this week which was nice. The last time we met with him he told us he was getting a little tired of coming to church and is always happy to leave after the first hour. But then on Sunday he came and LOVED it. He ended up staying for all 3 hours! He liked it a lot and had a ton of questions about the lessons in class. It was really cool to see how excited he was.

Last week we had specialized training where our zone gets together with another zone of missionaries and we learn how to better our missionary efforts. Out mission baptized 271 people last year! It’s a huge increase from 197 or so last year. It’s always nice to go to those big meetings too because I get to see all my other missionary friends. I got to hang out with my companion and room mates from the MTC again and that was really fun.

We just found out the other week that Gladys Knight is going to come to our mission and do a series of firesides for our mission specifically. I guess the church has her going out with her traveling choir to do firesides for different missions and it generates a TON of referrals. She’s not coming until March, but I’m really excited to go too.

But other than that things are about the same. It’s been hard to see our Spanish investigators lately. Elder Erickson spoke enough Spanish that we could set up appointments with them but now we don’t have that ability. We just have to take our member out with us and hope their home. Elder Gonzalez is coming up here on companion exchanges this week though so that will help out a lot.

Thanks for sending that package! I’ve been wearing thermal socks almost everyday so it’s nice to have more. Tell everyone thanks for writing me letters. Hope you all have a good week!

–Erik

Erik mentioned that he was getting a little down because of the progress in their area.  He has been in the same area since he returned October 3, 2011 but he is still doing well.  Write him words of encouragement if you can!  Thanks!  Miriam

It was a tough week again this week. We had to drop two investigators which made me sad. Well one made me sad, I was mad at the other. We stopped by her house (ahem, trailer) over and over but she was “never home.” We figured out last time that she was actually home, she would just send another family member to the door to lie and tell us she wasn’t home. So I was pretty mad about all the time we wasted trying to get in contact with her but oh well. The other person we dropped I was sad about having to drop. We have only had one lesson with her but she seemed to really like the first lesson. But since then we haven’t been able to get in contact with her by phone or by stopping by. So after about 3 weeks of trying, she’s dropped.

We had to knock a ton of doors this week but I don’t mind that most of the time. It’s just crazy sometimes though because no matter what time of day we knock, nobody seems to be home! Like yesterday we knocked a street of about 10 houses (it was a country road) around 5:00 and not one person was home. It was crazy! But I can’t complain to much because we were able to get one person to invite us back this week. I would’ve liked to have more (in Detroit we got about 5 people a week that would invite us back) but at this point I’m happy with one. It’s hard tracting out here sometimes because houses can be so far apart. We can literally knock doors for an hour and only knock on 7 houses. Sometimes is feels pretty ineffective doing that, but I just keep telling my companion “Everyone deserves their shot at the gospel!”

We almost set fire to our apartment the other day haha. We were cooking something on the stove and I guess we had this towel to close to the burner and it caught on fire. Luckily Elder Alger caught it in time and threw it in the sink and doused it in water. It was pretty crazy! Now we make sure all the towels are well away from the stove. And don’t worry, we’re usually pretty safe.

We started going jogging every morning to wake us up. We just do a lap around our apartment complex but it’s a good way to wake up in the morning. The air is so cold in the morning it’s an instant shock as soon as you walk out the door!

Well, I don’t think there’s really anything else to update you on this week. I’m still lovin’ being a missionary! Thanks for everyone’s prayers and support!

-Erik