July 26, 1991
Today surely had been a long day. We rode out bikes down to Farmington (a long ride) and spent all day visiting inactive members. It was kind of fun in that it gave us the opportunity to teach a lot of discussions. It had been painfully obvious as of late that we need to try to get the branch back on its feet before we will have much success with proselyting. We met a large number of members. I hope that some of them will have a change of heart and start coming to church again.
Things with Elder Lindsay were especially tough today. I’m not sure exactly what the problem is, but he had been extremely unwilling to tai any language advice from me. we had a long talk tonight, and both of us are going to try to make some changes. Hopefully things will smooth our a little.
I am starting to get things back into perspective a little. For some reason or another, I have been very stressed largely. That makes it difficult to feel the Spirit. Anyway, everything felt a whole lot better today. I hope that it will stay that way.
I got a letter from Lance Evans today. He was m zone leader when I first got to Stockton. He is now in Provo getting ready to go to school. I can’t believe that people I knew actually are home! That is definitely an interesting thought.
July 27, 1991
We spent out morning getting some repairs done on the car. Missionaries are so hard on cars. Our car needed both new brakes and tires. the shop only had time to do the brakes, so we will have to go back on Tuesday morning and get the brakes fixed.
This afternoon we went and saw Va Vang. He is one of the less-active members that we have been working with. After that, we went to a party. i met a guy who was a really neat guy and knew a lot about religion. the problem was that the simply wouldn’t accept the idea of having only on true church. That has got to be Satan’s most damnable doctrine. He convinces people that no matter which church they got to they will still make it to heaven. that pattern of thinking simply justifies people in their laziness in finding the truth. They won’t even pray and ask. It reminds me of Moses and the brazen serpent. It would be o simple for these people to find the truth if they would only kneel down and ask. Satan has them convinced that because of the easiness of that way, they can’t possibly find out that way. Instead they resign themselves to becoming victims of Satan’s terrible design.
I know the church is true. I will defend and proclaim that testimony to my death. I love the Lord with all of my heart. He atoned for my sins. I write this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
July 28, 1991
This morning we had a meeting with Brother Dolber. He is the high council representative to our branch. We went through the list of problems that our branch is having. I just can’t believe how little the stake seems to know or care about what is happening in our branch. Anyway, I don’t think we are going to get much help from the Stake for a while. Everything that we talked about kind of went in one ear and out the other. I just got the feeling that the stake wasn’t prepared to do much by way of providing people to help.
Church today was quite nice. we had 12 priesthood holders there again. In addition to that I got to help Tee, Nopparat’s husband, sinister the sacrament. it was really a neat experience.
Tonight the entire deistic had a joint D.A. with one of the workers in one of the branches. Afterwards, her husband asked us to give her a blessing. while we wer all giving her that blessing, I realized how truly blessed I a to be counted worthy to stand in a circle with eight elders of the Lord to give a priesthood blessing to on e of His daughters. I am truly blessed in the fact that I am allowed to hold the priesthood. I have so far to go that I can hardly believe it. There is just so much to learn and so far to go. I wonder if I’ll ever make it back to my Heavenly Father.
July 30, 1991
Today had been a pretty good day. After DDM, I went on gem-ups with Xiong Vang. It was fun. We were ably to teach three discussions that went really well. i think that between putting my relationship with Kristin in the right perspective (finally) and taking time out to spend some time realizing yesterday, I am much more positive and energetic. I have really been trying lately to be more supportive and less critical in my relationships with others. I have really been trying to concentrate on being more Christ-like and I am honestly beginning to see some progress. I certainly have a long way to go, but sooner or later I’ll get there. I Just have to try to take it one day at a time.
We taught one of our discussions today to Kao Lee and his family. He had taken a discussion on Sunday. By today, he had taught his wife all about the apostasy and had her reading the Book of Mormon. I am really excited about that family. Something good was bound to happen sooner or later. This month had been tough, probably because of the wonderful success we were blessed with last month.
Transfer calls will come tomorrow morning. I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. Actually, I think it would be a good deal if bothing changed, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
I got a lot of mail yesterday. It really helped me to straighten some things out in my mind.
Dear President,
Yesterday was the first chance for me to take some ‘time out’ since our interview. It was wonderful! I feel much better and I have a much better outlook. This week had been very busy. We have concentrated a great deal on our inactive members and it see,s to have paid off. Our church attendance was way up this week. We also spent from 1:30 am to 6:00 am in the hospital one night translating for a family whose little girl was having seizures. I think that when we spend time like that it is well worth the study time that we lose while sleeping the next morning. We are still gutting little to no support in the branch from the stake. However, our branch president is doing his best with what he has to work with, so all in not lost.
Things with the threesome are going fairly well, I wish that I could say that we went on splits more often, but we’re still working on that. i am beginning to notice doe progress in myself too. I am learning. Satisfied? No, but I’m working on it. thanks for all of your effort on my behalf.
Aug 1, 1991
Well, transfer calls came again yesterday morning. Elders Barton and Lindsay both got transferred, Elder Barton to Modesto and Elder Lindsay to Porterville. My new companion is Elder Taylor form Plaino, Texas. he attended BYU the same year that I did. He had been out for 8 months, 6 months out of the MTC. I am really hoping that things go well.
Today we rode our bikes all the way down to the hospital to see some members that are there. About four blocks from the hospital, Elder Taylor got a flat tire. That made for a long walk home. I hear that Elder Gardner has been sent back to Visalia. i am so happy about that! That means that some of the people that I was working with there will be worked with again. Not only that, it means that Mee and Jar Xiong will have someone there to help them out too. They need some support.
I can’t believe that I have been in California for a year! It seems both like I just got here and like I’ve been here forever. There is so much to do and so little time in which to do it.
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