Monday, January 12, 2015

The End is Near (Potentially Last Letter)

Hey Family!
 
Well I may be kind of brief today. I mean you guys can wait the 9 days right? But seriously this past week was actually really good. Some minor hiccups but for the most part it went very well. We got some new investigators to work with, and talked to a lot and I mean A LOT of Catholics. Holy moly. So as far as the new investigators go, Patrick is the most solid one. He is an African from Nigeria, and he is 28 years old. He's been in America since he was 19 so he speaks English fairly well, and is pretty intelligent. Not that being from Africa makes you unintelligent ;) So we were actually trying to see an unknown on the ward list and we knocked on the door, and we saw someone look out the window with the blinds and no one answered, so we were starting to leave and then Patrick came to the side of his house. It was super cold outside so he felt bad, and when we asked if we could come in and share a message about Jesus Christ with him he said sure. So we went in and taught him the Restoration and things went great. He said he could feel that it was right and he agreed for baptism on March 7th! So that was pretty neat. So the other investigators weren't quite as great as that, but it should be fun teaching them. 2 of them are a husband and wife, pretty young, and they're super devout Catholics (I thought that was an oxymoron but I guess not ;)) and we had a nice discussion with them and got to teach them the Restoration as well. It'll be a little tough with them since they're so invested in the Catholic church, but they have the Book of Mormon now and we'll go over again this week and read it with them. I heard more than I ever wanted to know about the Catholic church this week. I now know exactly what the Eucharist is now. Weird. And the 7 sacraments. Well anyways, that's about it.
 
I will definitely take you up on that weight loss deal. Count me in for a good 50 pounds. I am getting serious when I get home. It's hard to maintain the diet (high protein, low calorie) I want to with members feeding us almost every day, but come Utah I plan on being pretty strict along with going to the gym 6 days a week. Thanks for sharing the basketball information. I am excited to get back in the loop. Well that should do it for me this week. I might not be able to email you guys next week because it's Martin Luther King day or whatever, so if not I love you guys and I'll see you at the airport on the 21st at 10:14 AM. <3
 
Love,
Elder Ballif

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year - Funny Experiences

Hey Family!
 
Well I hope everyone is doing well. Things are getting better here in Elmwood, slowly but surely. We had some funny, I guess, experiences. So New Years was alright. We stayed up 20 minutes past 10:30, oh no watch out haha. My sleep schedule is somewhat normal now, but I expect that to change for a little bit when I get home haha.
 
We have been emphasizing working with the members and things are starting to progress. We did bear our testimonies the first Sunday we were there so hopefully that helped a bit. We have been visiting the members regularly as well. We actually started teaching a friend of Sister Oltman's daughter named Trae. He is pretty cool. We went to the trail center and all that jazz and we're going to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him tonight at the Oltman's. 

So as far as funny experiences, we met this dude named Paul Weisahpl (pronounced wise apple) and we walked with him for a couple of miles, but basically he said he is in a spiritual crisis right now, and that he's going to rehab for the 9th time. He is a super smart guy, actually like genius status, but he got into drugs and uses his smarts for not so smart things. He was so darn funny though. Holy cow, everything he said was hilarious. But he was very vulgar unfortunately. So we actually sat down with him, and got to teach him, and he opened up and said he wants to change, and he wants to start over. We talked about how through the Atonement he could and read a passage out of Alma 36 with him and talked about how Alma's change of heart, and he said that really "spoke to him" and he said he wanted to have a better life, and that he would read the Book of Mormon while he's in rehab and he wants to missionaries to visit him there. Pretty cool. 

Oh another story. We were driving home and there was this dude, sitting on the side of the rode, and as we drove by we noticed there was blood all over his face, and we were like "oh crap" so we pulled over and he then crawled his way to the middle of the street. Turns out he was super drunk and fell and hit his face. He needed to get to his apartment and he said one of his knees was really bad so he couldn't walk. That and he was hammered, I'm sure that was part of the reason. His apartment was just a block away, but we unfortunately aren't allowed to give rides to people in the mission cars, but luckily someone else stops, and hesitantly offered to help (he was super scared the guy was going to kill him or something so he asked us to watch them as he drove the block) and got him into his car, and drove him to his apartment. We then helped him in to his room. I just remember helping him up the stairs and his pants were down so his bare butt was right in front of my face. I just remember asking him "Would you like me to pull your pants up, sir" And he was like "no, I'm good" hahahaha. We then got him to his room and he just fell down and sat there on the floor. Beer cans were everywhere. Well we gave him our number and told him to call us when he sobers up, but we'll probably go visit him soon, since we know where he lives. 

Well anyways that's all I got for this week hahaha. I hope all you have a great week! I hope everyone starts feeling better! Well I love you guys!
 
Love,
Elder Ballif