Great Ward

Our ward is doing so great! We're seeing such a huge success with members coming out with us to lessons now. Whether they're with investigators, less-active members, or the member's home teaching family. Having a member testify is one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced. We officially now have an assistant ward mission leader which is so helpful. Now we don't have to dump everything on Brother Doyle so that's going to be a huge help for him and us.

We struggled this week to be able to teach our investigators. I think Robin is trying to avoid us at this moment in time. He came to church two weeks ago and I think it either reminded him of his past or it was too different from his past experiences at church that he's used to. So we're keeping daily contact with him over the phone but still trying to get back into his home.

Jacob has been working out of town this week and then we he came home for the weekend he went camping with his family. All we could do was keep calling him and see how he's doing. 

We're having an open house at the church in two weeks and are expecting a pretty decent sized turn out. Last time this area had a church tour a family was baptized. I'm super excited to see what success we can see from this!

Exchanges

This week has been productive. We had our exchanges this week and I learned quite a bit from Elder Nicholas. I think Elder Ehlert really learned to appreciate how well he's got it here in Sheridan after going up to Ranchester. He's learning to love the people here which is super important in keeping the members desires to continuing to do missionary work.

We now have an Assistant Ward Mission Leader! He is incredible and I can't wait to see what more he can add to this area. We've been stressing the Progress Record with our Ward Mission Leader the past month and have seen a noticeable increase in the desires of the ward to help out with feeding us and coming out on splits with us. We're finally starting to get some referrals again. We've be struggling with finding people to teach this month but I think it's starting to turn around now.

Jacob has been on-date about 3 times now. He doesn't like to be rushed or pressured but I know he still needs a small push. We've been working with him for 3 months now. He has been taught all the lessons and has great support from his wife who is a member. He just wants to finish reading the Book of Mormon before he's baptized.

The Sisters met Robin at Wal-Mart a couple weeks ago. They referred him to us since he's living in our area. We've taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and read the Introduction and testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses in the Book of Mormon. He came to church with us 2 weeks ago but had a "wishy washy" experience. He enjoyed the first talk but we had a musical number that he thought was really loud. He said all the people and kids walking around in Sacrament meeting really distracted him. So we've been trying to get back in contact with him this past week but he's been sick. We're planning on talking to him about church next time we see him though.

We were able to give a blessing to two less-active members this week. They went really well and helped one man come closer to his parents. During exchanges, we taught Jacobs wife and her sister Faith about virtue, and hope. The spirit took over and we ended up teaching the word of wisdom. We committed them both to stop drinking tea and coffee which they have been successfully accomplishing thus far.

We're excited with the upward progression in the area but we definitely have some things to work on like always. 

I love you!

Elder Autrey

Do you like Waffles?

So my head hurts so I can't remember anything! Good thing I wrote in my journal! So yeah. Typing here I come!

Sunday the 3rd- Today was a long sabbath day! We went and gave a lady in the hospital who lives in Buffalo a blessing. We left then came back and gave her the sacrament. We then had a really good correlation meeting with the ward missionaries. We introduced the new & returning member goal sheet. It is fast Sunday so we were blessed with hearing the wards testimonies in sacrament meeting. I love this ward so much. The spirit is so strong here. After church we had the linger longer to break our fast. We were able to talk with Sister Hodnett a bit. She asked me to role play with her and asked why families are so  important. So I taught the plan of salvation. She was able to pick some points out that said really helped. I'm glad she did because I couldn't think of anything real specific for her. The BYU-Idaho dance team had their devotional tonight. They talked about the word "remember" which lead to the importance of family history. Several of them gave stories of their ancestors that really brought the spirit super strong. We talked to some of the dance members after and after hearing their testimonies and talking I've committed 100% to marrying an lds girl. They're the best in the world!!

Elder Juggler

Monday- We went up to tongue river canyon with Elder Johnson and Rasmussen and the old BIshop Workmen in 2nd ward. That was fun but tiring. We got in trouble with Sister Taylor because we didn't invite them...dumb. We emailed and shopped and did all that fun stuff. We had dinner at the Hoopes house. Elder Ethan Hoopes leaves for the Mexico MTC on Wednesday. We talked about the importance of missionary work since he's about to leave. We went to talk to Erin for a couple minutes to see if everyone's still alive. We haven't heard from them in 2 days which is abnormal! We went to Kendrick Park and ran into all the other missionaries. That was fun. Brother Doyle is stepping up his game. It's so awesome!

Tuesday- A couple leaves are starting to change color and fall off the trees. I'm not ready for winter! We talked to Jack Stec today. Had a short but sweet lesson with him about John 14:27. We got a pizza from Papa Murpheys for lunch and finished the left overs for dinner. We had Sister Brenda Hodnett come out to see Claudine today. That was super great to see them click. Sister Hodnett brought her computer so Claudine was finally able to communicate a little better. We gave her a blessing which made both her and Sister Hodnett cry. We went tracting out in the middle of no where. We talked to a lady named Sheri for a while. She was raised in Rexburg, Idaho and knew a lot about the church. She's ever read a bit from the Book of Mormon. She didn't seem too interested until we offered our services to help do house work or what not. She took our number and said she has a friend who needs help too! Awesome! That's the most success I've ever seen from tracting. Ethan Hoopes and Jacob Bellus came out with us tonight. We talked to a guy we helped move into their home a couple months ago and then talked to Jacob about Family History. We set him up an account but didn't know much to do after that. He quits his chew this Friday! Cross your fingers!

Wednesday- After studies and lunch today we were planning to go to the food bank today but it was cancelled because no food truck came. So instead we went to Wal-mart and got Elder Ehlert a bike! When we got back we talked to a guy who was walking in front of our apartment. We talked a bit and found out he's interested in the church. We gave him our number so I hope he'll give us a call soon. We saw Sister Gilmore and talked to her about Family History again. We then went over to William's house and read the Book of Mormon. He's really improving with his doctrine! We had dinner at the Doyle's house and talked a ton about missionary experiences! It was so cool to see them so excited about it. Then after diner we went to the family history center with Brother Doyle and Sister Gilmore and tried to start out S. Gilmore's Family Search account. We didn't have much success with her but we did help out B. Doyle a ton! His chart filled up like crazy!

BYU Young Ambassadors

Thursday- Today was weekly planning day, bridge call day, AND area call day! WOO! We didn't get outside until 3:30 today... So lame. We went to see Robin at 3:30. We taught two commandments, pray often and scripture study and then the Plan of Salvation. He seemed to have a pretty good grasp of this lesson as well. He said he still hasn't read the Book of Mormon so we read the introduction and the testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses. He really enjoyed those. Then I invited him to be baptized and he said he would! September 27th is the date. The Duffey's had us over for dinner and we taught them about eternal families, temples, and family history work. Then we hung out with Jacob & Erin for the rest of the night and taught them about virtue. We got ice cream! :) He's quitting chew tomorrow night so I'm pretty pumped! Baptism is not far away!

Friday- Today after studies and 12 week training program with Elder Ehlert we went of by Jacob & Erin's house and brought them toilet paper rolls for this craft project Erin's doing and jalapenos for Jacob. We ended up staying for lunch so I ate probably five biscuits and three bowls of cereal. Free food is the best! We then had district meeting and talked about family history work again. After, we gave Brother Doyle a blessing. He's been pretty sick lately so it was cool to be able to do that for him. We then went back to Jacob & Erin's house and helped them move stuff around. I also brought up baptism with him again and let him know that he could be baptized whenever he wants now. We're going to give him a blessing tomorrow to help him overcome his addiction and to see if he would like to be baptized next Saturday. Sister Peterson had us over for dinner again. Her food was incredible like usual. We had the famous "HAM"burgers again. It's a burger patty with bacon inside the patty! It's so good! We talked to her about family history and asked her to find a story about a pioneer ancestor.

Saturday- We gave Jacob & Erin blessings this morning to help overcome his chew addiction. Then we helped Elder Johnson and Elder Rasmussen with a member who's moving. We got free pizza so I was happy! Then we got called by 2nd ward who was called by the mission office to give a man a blessing who's in the hospital. So we did that then went and talked to the Longhursts about her neighbor Ciara to try to introduce her to family history. We stopped by the Rybergs and said hello. Then we tried to see William but there were people outside his door so we didn't og see him because he might have got into trouble if we came. So we went and saw Robin. He was asking quite a few questions about tithing so we taught a lesson about tithing and fast offerings. The Bujan's had us over for dinner. We committed them to finding a story about a pioneer in their family. 2nd ward had a baptism for Gaile today. Then we went to Jacob & Erin's and med Erin's little sister Faith.

Busy week for sure! I love you guys so much!

Elder Autrey!