Nov 13, 1991
Well, this has been quite a week. On Friday, I got Kristin’s wedding announcement on Friday. She is getting married to an 18 year old kid who is not even done with hight school yet. She called me on Sunday and wanted to come up here to see me. I told her NO WAY! She is an absolute basket case. She had been immoral in the most extreme way possible with Brian. They have both been disfellowshipped and their bishop had counseled them to get married. She has quit her job and moved back to Mesa, but her parents won’t let her move in with them. It is a mess. She has traded marrying mer in the temple for marrying some kid that will probably never amount to anything. Anyway, the whole thing has caused me to have to spend all of my effort in keeping my mind on the work.
The missionary work here is going really well. I have been doing a lot of teaching and so has Elder Jeppson. I hope that we can get things going well enough to get some baptisms soon.
Nov 14, 1991
Today has been one of the very best days of my whole mission. The Spirit has been really strong. My companion has not felt good today and has completely lost his voice. As a result, we teamed up with the Span-ams today so that Elder Jeppson could ride in their car so that he wouldn’t have to ride a bike in the cold. The wind blew really hard today.
We have found two or three families lately that are really doing well. Elder Russon and I had a chance to teach two of them today. The Spirit has really been strong today. I have made some very deep spiritual changes in the last few days that will change my life. The events of the last mouth have caused me to take a close look at myself and my own spiritual condition. I have made some pretty big changes, or maybe I should say that the Lord has made some changes in me. It is amazing to me how the Lord constantly knows what changes I need to make; furthermore, I am amazed at the care which He take to be sure that I am faced with the challenges that will bring about those changes in the most effective way. I am grateful that the Lord loves me enough to present me with the challenges that I need to help me to become more like Him. It’s truly been a great day.
Nov 15, 1991
Well, today went pretty well. my companion got his voice back, so we went to Lao families and houses all day. When 1/2 of a zebra companionship gets sick, it can really throw off the work for a while. I guess that it all evens our, but today was one of the more boring days of my mission. I got a chance to study quite a bit and stuff, but I really miss seeing Hmong people.
I have become acutely aware today of the ease with which I lose the Spirit, or at least lost the intensity which I love to feel. it is so easy to lose the Spirit. However, it is so worth it to feel an intense outpouring of the Spirit. The Lord has been giving me a crash course on how I effect my own sensitivity to the Spirit. I hope that I can soon learn. I am getting so that I really enjoy the lessons that the Lord is teaching me. Instead of dreading the challenges that I am presented with, I am now trying to learn from my challenges as soon as I can. It sure makes life more fun that way.
Nov 19, 1991
Well, President Bott came up today for interviews. It was sure good to talk to him. He asked me to be a zone leader. I was quite surprised. He said that he would have done it a couple of months ago, but with the problems that the Bishop in Provo told him that Kristin had had, he figured that he should wait. Anyway, I am quite excited and I’m looking forward to it. I’m not too sure how being a zone leader will fit in time wise with the situation that we have here with our zebra companionship. I am very certain that the Lrod will prepare the way for me to do all that He asks of me.
Elder Jeppson is still quite sick. As a result, our missionary work has been quite limited for the past couple of days. I hope that he will soon get over it. He really wants to work, but he just can’t. He has had really bad congestion, headache, dizziness and laryngitis. All of that makes riding around on a bike in the cold a not very smart thing to do.
The work here is going forth. I wish that I could be better organized. There are so many families that want to learn. I hope that we can soon get some of them to commit to be baptized soon. transfers are tomorrow. Elder Jeppson has a pretty good chance of getting transferred.
Nov 20, 1991
Today has been kind of a hectic day. My comp didn’t get transferred, so that is good. I have done quite a bit of paperwork for some of the referrals that we get in the zone. That is really not very fun, but referrals are really important for the English Elders. We had a stake missionary presidency getting tonight. it seemed to go fairly well. I had never realized how many Stake missionaries this stake has. i wish they would transfer just a few of them over to the Hmong Branch. Anyway, my first day as Zone Leader seems to have gone fairly well. Elder Conrad is the other Zone Leader, but he lives down in the Los Banos. That means that much of the stuff that zone leaders usually do has to be done by me alone.
We challenged Kia Xai Chang (Nkag Nchai Tsaab) for baptism on the 7th of December. He seemed to be ready to do that, although it wasn’t as firm a commitment as I was looking for. One thing is for sure. I need to do a lot more challenging for specific dates. I have kind of slacked off on that and I need to get at it again.
Elder Jeppson seems to be feeling some better today, but he still has a sore throat. My ears have been kind of plugged up today. I hope that I’m not catching the same thing that he has. Quite a few of our investigators have been sick lately, too. There must be at least one bad virus going around.
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