This week was a pretty good week but we were really busy. We had to go to two training meetings on Wednesday and Thursday and they lasted pretty much the entire day. Plus it takes about an hour to drive to the chapel we went to. They were still good meetings though and I learned a lot. And it was nice to see all my missionary friends again too. We were really focusing on how to work with ward leadership and ward members and I got some pretty good ideas to try out. We also focused a lot on how to introduce the Book of Mormon to someone by just sharing our testimony and sharing a favorite passage. At the end of the second meeting though, Elder Stark locked the keys inside our car and we had to wait for another half hour for the roadside assistance guy to come and unlock it. That wasn’t fun.

We also had a ward game night on Friday and we had a few investigators and less actives that we’ve been working with show up. It was a lot of fun. We were hoping to have a baptism next Saturday but that’s not going to happen… Some people get so close and then just fail at the end. It’s lame, but maybe they’ll accept later. We still have a few awesome investigators that will hopefully be baptized in December so keep your fingers crossed.

We don’t have a ton of stuff going on this week except for Thanksgiving. And hopefully that gets all worked out so we don’t get stuck eating ramen casserole for thanksgiving! I’m sure someone will invite us over. Last year in Romeo we had something like 4 dinner appointments! Elder Erickson and I were so full that all I ate the next day was a pop tart. We reeeaaaallly wanted to get tickets to the Lions game, but they’re really expensive and there’s no way we would be able to get permission to go.

Well I’m running out of time so I guess I better finish up. Thanks for all the letters and packages and stuff. That scripture case you sent me is really nice! I wish I would’ve had it from the beginning of my mission. It’s really nice when you’re tracting and you have your scriptures hanging right by your side so you can whip them out when you need to.

Well I hope everyone has a good week!

-Erik

This week was a pretty sweet week for us. Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke to our mission on Saturday and that was probably the highlight for the week. We all thought the meeting was going to be longer though! He was only there for an hour but it was still awesome. He told us that he was in the mission to a a stake conference that weekend and whenever he has to travel anywhere on church business he likes to speak to the mission. He spoke a lot about a lot of different things but he really focused a lot on how the purpose of our mission isn’t to baptize, but to build up the church wherever we are. He really focused a lot on how we really need to focus on keeping our converts active and different ways we can improve retention efforts in the ward. He told us some funny stories too and also made a 7-11 reference! I have the audio recorded on a voice recorder so I can send it home to you guys.

We have a couple really promising investigators right now and it’s been awesome working with them. I love finding and teaching the people who the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel. There are times where you find people who are so ready for the Gospel it’s amazing. Our last baptism was someone like that and then we have three other investigators right now that are the exact same way. It’s like we’re not even really teaching them sometimes! They start teaching themselves, and then all we have to do is baptize! It’s sweet and I love it that way!

The weather these past couple days has been so bipolar it’s ridiculous. Last week started off in the 40s and then Friday  Saturday and Sunday were all in the 70s. And then on Monday the temperature dropped back down to the low 30s and we got a little bit of snow. It was crazy.

On Sunday after sacrament meeting we got emergency called to teach the Gospel Principles class because the teacher didn’t show up that morning. It was ok though, the Gospel Principles class really isn’t that hard to teach. Especially as missionaries because the first 49 chapters in the Gospel Principles book are basically the lessons you teach out of Preach My Gospel. So it was no big deal and we actually had a lot of people come to the class and had a lot of class participation.

This week we have SO many meetings we have to attend it’s ridiculous. Altogether we’re going to be spending about  16 hours in training meetings. Plus we have a fireside we’re hoping to take an investigator to this Thursday, and then the ward is hosting a board game night this Friday and we have an investigator family that wants to come to that with us. So we’re going to be busy this week but I like it busy rather than slow anyway. Although I can’t believe that this transfer is almost over. I’ve almost been in Warren for three months now and it feels like it was just yesterday I was getting ready to leave Howell. The first 6 months of a mission feel pretty slow but after that things just start going faster and faster. It’s crazy to think about how little time I actually have left to be a missionary and then after that time is up I’ll never be out doing this again.

Well I’m going to have to bail because my time is pretty much up. I hope everyone at home is doing awesome! Thanks for all your letters and everything!

-Love Erik

Most missionaries don’t get the chance to spend one Devil’s Night in Detroit, let alone two. Of course most people wouldn’t even want to spend one there! But I spent two and survived so I’m pretty proud of that! There were fires and guns and police and explosions and fire trucks and drugs and…. actually nothing really crazy happened. From what I’ve heard nothing really happened anywhere and it was all calm and quiet where I was. On Halloween though, Warren’s mayor held a press conference and encouraged everyone to postpone their trick-or-treating until Nov.2 because they were worried about the weather from hurricane Sandy. Most of that quieted down Wednesday morning so the weather actually wasn’t too bad on Halloween. We still had to go inside at 7pm though because the mission didn’t want us out in Detroit. 

This week actually turned out pretty good for us. It sucked dealing with the weather on Monday and Tuesday though. It was SUPER windy and rained on and off all day. It was virtually impossible to go tracting on either of those days though because nobody wanted to open their door because of the cold wind, and the wind made it ridiculously impossible to try and yell through a glass door. 

We had an interesting experience on Friday. We got a call from a couple other missionaries about an investigator they were teaching that was moving into our area. They said she needed some help moving in and we said we could do it. Well we called her up and she made it sound like they only had a small truck to unload and then they were done, but when we got there we realized it was a full on U-haul semi that they hadn’t even starting unloading. It was about 5pm when we got there, and they had to return the truck by 8pm or else they would get charged an extra day. So we made some emergency calls in the ward and we were able to get a good amount of people there which was nice. I was so sore the next day though! 

Probably the coolest thing from this past week happened on Sunday. Our current strongest investigator came to church and also brought her neighbor who is also interested. In Gospel Principles her neighbor kept asking awesome questions and we’re meeting with her tonight! But even better – In Relief Society our investigator, Natasha, was asked to introduce herself. When she got up to introduce herself she was like “I’m Natasha, and I’m getting baptized on November 24!” It was pretty awesome!

We have Dallin H Oaks coming to our mission to speak this Saturday and I’m pretty excited about that. It’ll be my first time hearing an apostle, and he’s only speaking to about a ground of 100 so that’s pretty personal. And he’s speaking directly to OUR mission. It’s going to be pretty cool. Last week we had a meeting that was specifically focused on preparing us to hear him speak. Everyone in the mission is really excited!

Well, talk to you later!  

-Erik