eldercaliforniadreamin: One Year Older And Wiser Too....

Well week 2 of training is down and things are going better and better. I am so excited to continue working with Elder Damon we are becoming better friends and better missionaries as we work together. I am excited for the next 10 weeks we have together. I have already seen so much growth. There are many new things coming in this mission. That main thing that is going on here is the new announcement of Facebook in our mission. The church has selected 15 missions worldwide to test this out see how online proselyting goes with Facebook. So as missionaries we will now be using our own personal Facebook accounts to connect with people and share messages with them. Another thing that we are going to able to do is to be able to have lessons with others on Skype. In case they are out of town or do not have time for us to come over and have a full lesson, we can skype with them and still have an opportunity to have a lesson with them. We can also have a member or a missionary who previously went home and has a relationship with the investigator join the skype video chat to help out. These two tools will really help the Lord hasten his work, as they will allow us to contact and teach more people than we ever could before. We are so excited to use the tools. The past few days we have been getting on Facebook to clean out our profiles and take off anything that would not be appropriate for a missionary to have. It has been so weird as I have gone through all my previous posts and pictures. It is like taking a trip down memory lane. So Just wanted to give you all a heads up I will be on Facebook now and I will be posting scriptures, and pictures and Mormon Messages, but just like normal rules I will not be able to communicate with any friends or family on there. That will only happen through my email. These posts will give us a great chance to not only share the gospel with the people we are teaching but also all of our Facebook friends. It is a wonderful chance for missionaries to be preaching the gospel at home and in the field at the same time if that makes sense.

Anywho this week we were able to meet with Deborah Davis and she is making great progress on stopping her smoking. She has set a date for Baptism on September 24th. She is excited to work toward that goal and quit her smoking. She has such a strong desire to be baptized and knows that this is the right path. Yesterday she called us and told us that she is going to be in San Francisco until the 10th, because that is when her son leaves for boot camp. This is a big deal because as she is working towards her goal for baptism it will be difficult for us to help her make progress towards that goal if we can't meet with her for two weeks. Fortunately we have the wonderful new tool of skype so we will be able to continue teaching her while she is out of town. We are so thankful for this.
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Florence and she knew it was my birthday. So when we got there she had bought a cake for me and I was so surprised. It was the sweetest thing. She accidentally put "21" on my cake because she didn't know my age lol. I did not mention to her that I was turning 20 because I didn't want to her to feel bad. Then on Saturday we were able to go on a temple tour with Florence. It was a fantastic experience. We were all able to feel the spirit as we walked around the house of the Lord and discussed the importance of it. We explained that it was through the ordinances in temple the she would be able to live with her son again someday. Florence has told us that she knows the things we share with her are true. She just won't take that step of faith to follow Christ and join his church. She is being a little stubborn about leaving her church so all we can do right now is pray for her. We love her and we know how much this gospel will bless her life.
This Gospel is perfect and it has the capability to bless everyone's life. I am so grateful for the new tools the lord has provided for his servants to help further his work. The Lord has promised us in D&C 88:73 "Behold I will hasten my work in its time." These new tools are a fulfillment of that promise. I am so grateful to be a part of this great latter day work. I know it is true.