Dear family and everyone else,
I was able to help pick oranges off of a less actives tree this week. It was fun. I just needed to clip off a few leafy branches to get to a few. I then wanted to prune other trees too and learn how to do that, but I didn't. A picture is provided of one of the oranges I picked. I have eaten some and they are really good. It's orange season time. Happy February! My year mark has also come and gone, and I decided to make a berry cobbler--a dad famous recipe. Sadly, as usual, the fruit sunk to the bottom. About half of it was eaten after district meeting. The Newcum's serving in the San Andrea's ward also brought a bunch of pizza for us all. It was a really good day of food. On Wednesday, the weather was just absolutely perfect--partly cloudy, with a slight breeze, and 62 degrees throughout the afternoon. I probably haven't felt that extremely perky since my first day or two in the mission field. I just wanted to go out and talk to everyone on the streets about that happy day and share the gospel while I was at it. I took the rest of the cobbler home and ate all the rest of it. It was soo good.
On each of these Monday's, we started teaching a former investigator named Bruce Fifel. He talks a lot about politics. I don't like what I hear. There's got to be good things as well that happen in the U.S. I'd be happy to know who the next president will be this next year since this year is presidential elections. I just can't be a part of it is all. He said he has read the Book of Mormon a little and prayed once if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He wasn't patient with the spirit in receiving revelation, so he received none and then he was dropped. We are teaching him the principles of how we receive personal revelation. As I teach this kind of principle, the more I learn for myself. It's got to be the hardest thing to achieve in this life to pay attention to the whispering of the spirit. I'm getting there though. We also haven't been in contact with Kaylee since her winter vacation. We went to see her this week. She had the flu, so she said to come again in a couple days. We also asked her if she could start listening to the Book of Mormon on her phone until then. She said she would. We will see how that goes. She did download the Gospel Library App so she can listen to the book.
Peter has been busy at work, so we haven't talked to him this week. He also works on Sunday's and is still trying to find a job so he can come to a church on Sunday's. He understands God's commandment about the Sabbath Day, he just needs to find the right job. Donald had a good trip all the way down to Visalia. That's about 2 hours from here. He did read some of the book of Mormon and kept rereading to understand the characters of the first few chapters. He went down to see if he can get a better job as a real estate agent.
We are about to pick up a former investigator named Gary Tuggle. He had one lesson with the elders a year ago and mainly talked about the Book of Mormon. That was the end of that though. He is still interested in learning about our church. He also said he was going to try praying at the mosque in our area this week. He also loves motorcycles, so that was interesting to hear from him. He's just trying out some of the religions in Lodi. This would be a great opportunity to share the restoration with him and especially with his family, because we know that the gospel blesses families and we can live together forever in family units. I think that will really stick out to them. We will see this week.
Last night, we were able to read two chapters in the Book of Mormon with Felix. Next visit, we will share the restoration with him. He's really busy building this new house in Lodi. He pretty much found a permanent job in the housing industry. One of our Former investigators moved to San Francisco for a better job. Her nursing job had too many hours and not as much of a pay compared to a metal worker. We are waiting to see if the person she is living with would allow the missionaries to come over to teach her.
Lastly, we have been working with Jenny some more this week. We brought Brother Hazelhofer, her new home teacher. He is also the 1st councilor of the bishopric. We talked about goals on how we can get her to church and better keeping the Sabbath day holy. We held a panel in 3rd hour at church about what the members themselves can do to make that day more meaningful. There was some really good insight. I love councils. For Ray, we are still building his faith and knowledge about God and of his dealings with mankind. We left him with Alma 36 about his repentance. That's what we are talking about with him on how we can use the atonement and how we repent ourselves. That's it for this week.
Elder White
An orange from the tree
I was able to help pick oranges off of a less actives tree this week. It was fun. I just needed to clip off a few leafy branches to get to a few. I then wanted to prune other trees too and learn how to do that, but I didn't. A picture is provided of one of the oranges I picked. I have eaten some and they are really good. It's orange season time. Happy February! My year mark has also come and gone, and I decided to make a berry cobbler--a dad famous recipe. Sadly, as usual, the fruit sunk to the bottom. About half of it was eaten after district meeting. The Newcum's serving in the San Andrea's ward also brought a bunch of pizza for us all. It was a really good day of food. On Wednesday, the weather was just absolutely perfect--partly cloudy, with a slight breeze, and 62 degrees throughout the afternoon. I probably haven't felt that extremely perky since my first day or two in the mission field. I just wanted to go out and talk to everyone on the streets about that happy day and share the gospel while I was at it. I took the rest of the cobbler home and ate all the rest of it. It was soo good.
On each of these Monday's, we started teaching a former investigator named Bruce Fifel. He talks a lot about politics. I don't like what I hear. There's got to be good things as well that happen in the U.S. I'd be happy to know who the next president will be this next year since this year is presidential elections. I just can't be a part of it is all. He said he has read the Book of Mormon a little and prayed once if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He wasn't patient with the spirit in receiving revelation, so he received none and then he was dropped. We are teaching him the principles of how we receive personal revelation. As I teach this kind of principle, the more I learn for myself. It's got to be the hardest thing to achieve in this life to pay attention to the whispering of the spirit. I'm getting there though. We also haven't been in contact with Kaylee since her winter vacation. We went to see her this week. She had the flu, so she said to come again in a couple days. We also asked her if she could start listening to the Book of Mormon on her phone until then. She said she would. We will see how that goes. She did download the Gospel Library App so she can listen to the book.
Peter has been busy at work, so we haven't talked to him this week. He also works on Sunday's and is still trying to find a job so he can come to a church on Sunday's. He understands God's commandment about the Sabbath Day, he just needs to find the right job. Donald had a good trip all the way down to Visalia. That's about 2 hours from here. He did read some of the book of Mormon and kept rereading to understand the characters of the first few chapters. He went down to see if he can get a better job as a real estate agent.
We are about to pick up a former investigator named Gary Tuggle. He had one lesson with the elders a year ago and mainly talked about the Book of Mormon. That was the end of that though. He is still interested in learning about our church. He also said he was going to try praying at the mosque in our area this week. He also loves motorcycles, so that was interesting to hear from him. He's just trying out some of the religions in Lodi. This would be a great opportunity to share the restoration with him and especially with his family, because we know that the gospel blesses families and we can live together forever in family units. I think that will really stick out to them. We will see this week.
Last night, we were able to read two chapters in the Book of Mormon with Felix. Next visit, we will share the restoration with him. He's really busy building this new house in Lodi. He pretty much found a permanent job in the housing industry. One of our Former investigators moved to San Francisco for a better job. Her nursing job had too many hours and not as much of a pay compared to a metal worker. We are waiting to see if the person she is living with would allow the missionaries to come over to teach her.
Lastly, we have been working with Jenny some more this week. We brought Brother Hazelhofer, her new home teacher. He is also the 1st councilor of the bishopric. We talked about goals on how we can get her to church and better keeping the Sabbath day holy. We held a panel in 3rd hour at church about what the members themselves can do to make that day more meaningful. There was some really good insight. I love councils. For Ray, we are still building his faith and knowledge about God and of his dealings with mankind. We left him with Alma 36 about his repentance. That's what we are talking about with him on how we can use the atonement and how we repent ourselves. That's it for this week.
Elder White
An orange from the tree
Berry Cobbler