Monday, January 28, 2008

ah, youlittlepannywaste!

So, here are some more pictures:

Mary came to visit last weekend. We had fun!

Our superhero party for Becky. We were Captain Planet and his Planeteers, and Sven on the bottom was an evil villain!

Our cool power rings! and yummy!

Me and my old roommate, Brittany Gundersen. we lived together in Snowed Inn. She's a blast!

And the roomies that were together after Becky's party!
Those are just a few. I did go to a retreat this weekend, but I was not really in the mood for it, so I didn't take any pictures. But the lodge we stayed at was super cool! yep, that's all. I need to go maybe buy a russian-english dictionary and go sign some papes for my new job! woot! if you haven't seen it, you need to go to Hans and Holly's blog and watch my precious Kelsie talking. It's super cute!
peace.

p.s.
Here's a letter from Buzz: it's kind of long!
Yeah, so I am still in South Carolina. Here in Simpsonville. Transfers came about and alas, I am no longer serving with Elder Hall. I am now with my new companion, Elder Myers. I got a call on Saturday morning of a week ago (by the way I didn't email last week due to the whole Martin Luther King Jr. day thing) and one of the assistants informed me that I would be training a missionary this transfer! How excited I was! It was sad to be seeing Elder Hall leave, and he was sad to go, but there is not better place in the entire mission to be "born" than in the simpsonville second ward area. This place is rocking the set.Elder Myers is from Michigan. And he is already an awesome missionary. He has that greenie fire with him at all times. He's never afraid to do or try anything. It's kinda funny to see a missionary who has had nothing but MTC teaching experience to get into the field and start to emulate some of the things I do. It makes me ever-cautious of how I act, what I say, and how I say it. He said that he was a little nervous about his trainer being some lazy bum missionary that hates missionary work, but he was happily surprised to hear that they called out my name to be his new companion, because of my "enthusiasm". We're gonna tear up this place. There are so many wonderful things that are happening right now. This last weekend we had a stake conference and President Brailsford spoke at ours. Let me tell you that guy is not afraid of anything. He was soooooo bold with the members of this stake. He related how this mission, in order to fulfill Elder Kikuchi's prophecy of baptizing close to 200 souls before President Brailsford leaves, that the ward members HAVE to play a more active role in missionary efforts and sharing the gospel with their friends, family, and neighbors. It yielded instant results. The next day, people were walking up to us and giving us referrals. Referrals for people who they had been thinking about for a long time, but they were wanting the time to be just right. The work will continue and will drastically increase and improve. Elder Perry, the head of the missionary department for the church, is determined, absolutely determined to double baptisms in North America. As are we in this mission. That is unity of the faith. We have increased vision, increased goals and certainly an increase of faith. Faith not in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know with a surety that this is His mighty work, and we are his servants. Every one of us. None of us that have this tremendous knowlege is exempt from the responsibility of sharing it. I am so glad that we have these eternal truths that we get to share with everybody every day. Right now I am teaching Elder Myers the importance of a powerful first contact through a powerful first lesson in order to lead to a powerful conversion. He is already a better missionary than I am! I look forward to the opportunity to serve diligently in my mission. We had an experience the other day. We were trying to find a contact that we had previously made in a neighborhood and were not having the success in doing so. We decided to knock on a couple of doors to try and find the person. The first door that we knocked on was the home of a kind-looking lady. She was hesitant to let us teach her for a small bit, and then her little girl (the cutest little thing ever) came to the door. I did the wave and smile thing to her and got down to her level and talked to her a little bit. I think that softened the mother's heart a little and she soon let us into her home. She lives in humbler circumstances and has had a rough past with an abusive husband. She got out of that situation and for quite some time has been looking for the right church to go to. Her name is Jennifer. Jennifer has struggled for quite some time with knowing an understanding her trials and whether God loves her. I firmly believe that we were directed to her that day. After we taught her, and even while we taught her, she was visibly touched and when we asked how she felt, she mentioned that she was hesitant at first to let us in because she has had people from all sorts of churches visit her before, and she never really felt relief. She said that there was something different about us and what we shared. The whole lesson, the little girl, Bailey was crawling all over the place. Normally, we are not supposed to have children sit on our laps and stuff, but she just crawled right over us and sat down herself. I miss being able to play with kids and everything. Before we left, I asked her for a handshake or a high five. She ran up to me and gave me a big hug. What a little cutie.It's wonderful to know that God loves us. Every one of us. That is the main principle that I try to let everyone know. That we do have a loving, kind, gracious Father in Heaven. When people understand that, they have an increased desire to change and they feel a peace come into their hearts and lives, filling the void that sometimes they didn't even know was there. I absolutely love playing a small part in helping people to come to know the joys of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the best thing ever. You can quote me on that.Anyway, things are splendid and I love it. I love all of you and I hope everything is going swimmingly!
Love,
Elder Buzz
PS
nomlas spelled backward is salmon

4 comments:

Gwendy Lynn said...

hey! So what was up with your phoney last nighty? I tried to call you back a few times and silly me, I deleted your other number so I couldnt call you back. We need to talk again. That would be amazing! loves!

Unknown said...

sooo....my cousin (glenn HALL) just went on a mission to south carolina...and timing wise, he SO could have been buzz's greenie. how cool is that???
love the pics!
Mary (i am too lazy to sign out of cassies, so oh well. its me)

SPENCERS said...

Fun times! You got a new job? Do tell!

Anonymous said...

HEY HIDES...
Did you work out today? I did, and then I spent the rest of the day on my feet! OUCHIE! I'm SORE!
And my nose hurts, and my ears hurt, and my toes hurt...
J/K
I think I've caught some kind of deadly virus, because I've been sneezing and coughing and choking all day! Okay, I haven't been choking, but I thought it'd add to everyone's concern!~ :) LOL
Well, Loves!
Love, Bananiebutts

Awesome song! This was for this semester's Guitars Unplugged!