So, nothing too exciting has been happening here lately. There was some snow. 6 inches maybe. No big deal. No ice storm, disappointingly enough. It was a very underwhelming storm.
Nobody came to church yesterday. Except this time I wasn't surprised, so it wasn't nearly so disappointing. Still struggling to find new people to teach, unfortunately. The Bible belt is hard, I tell you what.
My birthday is almost here. I am excited about that. We have dinner with the Bishop that night though, and I never like their food haha. I'm going to bake myself a cake and gorge myself. :)
I'm not sure what we're going to do on the Superbowl. I'm pretty sure we aren't allowed to watch it. And I sure as heck am not tracting while the game is on. That would not go over very well. So we'll see. It will likely be a very boring superbowl for me. But that's okay. :)
Yesterday we had dinner at the Johnson's home. It was pretty good. It was this stuff called Chicken Alabam. It's from the Lion House cookbook, apparently. So you might try looking in ours to see if we have it. I know they have multiple cookbook's though, so who knows? Anyways, you should try it. It was good.
So, I learned something cool in my personal study the other day from an old book I got for free from the church library. The part I was reading was talking about the Sacrament. I'd invite you to go look in Moroni 4 and 5 at the two prayers. The book pointed out something I've never noticed before. The prayer over the bread talks about us being "willing" to take upon us the name of Christ and always remember Him and keep His commandments. Now, when we take the Sacrament, we should do a self-examination, spiritually, about how we've performed the past week. It is an opportunity to repent and covenant with God to do and be better. Then, the prayer is said to bless the water. It says that when we partake of it we witness to God that we "do" always remember Christ. So, from the moment on, the moment we partake of the water, we are supposed to DO those things we have been thinking about. We must immediately change and become better the minute we take the sacrament. I thought a lot about this and applied it yesterday as I was partaking of the sacrament yesterday. It was a very spiritual experience for me. I'd urge all of you to think about that this week and try to apply that the next time you partake of the Sacrament.
Also, when are you going to go to the temple in February?
I don't know what else to talk about this week honestly. Nothing eventful has happened. Sadly. So, I'm going to get going now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, February 1, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Wow. It worries a missionary when he sees "Lots of News" as the subject for his parents email. I was gonna be so mad if you told me you were moving. haha.
Crazy times in Webb City. Russell's Baptism is delayed until Feb. 20th(at least). Pres. Merkley wants him to go to church consistently and to get his daughter involved in Primary.
I learned something new this week that I desire to share with all of you, that you may learn and share it with others. APPARENTLY, if you open a can of food and eat only half of it, you aren't supposed to store the leftovers in the can itself. You're supposed to put it in a different container. Otherwise, you can get really sick if you don't. You could even throw-up all over your dinner appointment's bathroom.....
I feel fine now. FYI.
None of us are getting transferred. My assumption is this: I will be with Elder Sherrick for one more transfer. He will then be sent elsewhere. I will receive a new Junior Companion for one more transfer after that. Then I will be sent elsewhere. So I expect to be here another 3 months. So I'm half-way done, eh? When I leave I will be half-way through my mission. Tomorrow is my 9 month mark. Crazy!
In March our mission will reach its peak capacity of 196 missionaries. That's pretty exciting. We have a very, very young mission right now. And I think it's a good thing. Out with the old, in with the new. Ring Out, Wild Bells, and let him die. Or something like that.
Congratulations to Kenny! Good luck with everything, cuz!
Well, I think that's everything on my end. I will talk to you next week! :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Crazy times in Webb City. Russell's Baptism is delayed until Feb. 20th(at least). Pres. Merkley wants him to go to church consistently and to get his daughter involved in Primary.
I learned something new this week that I desire to share with all of you, that you may learn and share it with others. APPARENTLY, if you open a can of food and eat only half of it, you aren't supposed to store the leftovers in the can itself. You're supposed to put it in a different container. Otherwise, you can get really sick if you don't. You could even throw-up all over your dinner appointment's bathroom.....
I feel fine now. FYI.
None of us are getting transferred. My assumption is this: I will be with Elder Sherrick for one more transfer. He will then be sent elsewhere. I will receive a new Junior Companion for one more transfer after that. Then I will be sent elsewhere. So I expect to be here another 3 months. So I'm half-way done, eh? When I leave I will be half-way through my mission. Tomorrow is my 9 month mark. Crazy!
In March our mission will reach its peak capacity of 196 missionaries. That's pretty exciting. We have a very, very young mission right now. And I think it's a good thing. Out with the old, in with the new. Ring Out, Wild Bells, and let him die. Or something like that.
Congratulations to Kenny! Good luck with everything, cuz!
Well, I think that's everything on my end. I will talk to you next week! :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, January 18, 2010
So, I learned 3 things on friday:
1- If I can avoid it, I will never have a suspended ceiling
2- If I can avoid it, I will never have blown in insulation
3- How to hang a suspended ceiling
So, we woke up Friday morning and turned on the lights, and the suspended ceiling in our study room had collapsed overnight. HUUUUUUGE mess. Insulation and dust everywhere. So, we called our landlord over(who is a member of the ward) and we proceeded to fix it. We cleaned up the bulk of the insulation and took everything out of the room. Then we spend the better part of the day replacing/repairing the ceiling. So we got that done. We spent the better part of Saturday cleaning up the mess. SOOOOO much dust! We'd vacuum thoroughly, and half an hour later the dust would settle again and we'd have to vacuum again. We vacuumed that room probably at least 20 times on Saturday. Not to mention cleaning the other rooms that dust inevitably floated into and cleaning the dust off all of our junk. So, that was my weekend. I enjoyed it, actually. Just messy. I'm just glad that we weren't in the room when it collapsed.
So that's the biggest news. Also, we will not be having any baptisms this month. We have 2 slated for February. Russell O'Neill and Patti Stuckey. So we'll see how that goes. We desperately need to find new investigators. And it's not for lack of trying either. We have been trying. But nobody wants to investigate, darnit. People have been dropping us left and right. It's been pretty crazy actually, how many people have dropped us.
We had a great lesson with the Petersons, the RLDS family we are teaching. We took over Bro Lambeth(not planned, it just worked out that way) who was raised RLDS then converted. He bore a way powerful testimony about it. So it was good I think.
Well, thats about all I have to report this week. Transfer Awareness Night(as my trainer called it) is on Saturday. So next week I'll write you and let you know if I'm getting a new companion. I don't think either of us are getting transferred just yet though. :)
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bracken
1- If I can avoid it, I will never have a suspended ceiling
2- If I can avoid it, I will never have blown in insulation
3- How to hang a suspended ceiling
So, we woke up Friday morning and turned on the lights, and the suspended ceiling in our study room had collapsed overnight. HUUUUUUGE mess. Insulation and dust everywhere. So, we called our landlord over(who is a member of the ward) and we proceeded to fix it. We cleaned up the bulk of the insulation and took everything out of the room. Then we spend the better part of the day replacing/repairing the ceiling. So we got that done. We spent the better part of Saturday cleaning up the mess. SOOOOO much dust! We'd vacuum thoroughly, and half an hour later the dust would settle again and we'd have to vacuum again. We vacuumed that room probably at least 20 times on Saturday. Not to mention cleaning the other rooms that dust inevitably floated into and cleaning the dust off all of our junk. So, that was my weekend. I enjoyed it, actually. Just messy. I'm just glad that we weren't in the room when it collapsed.
So that's the biggest news. Also, we will not be having any baptisms this month. We have 2 slated for February. Russell O'Neill and Patti Stuckey. So we'll see how that goes. We desperately need to find new investigators. And it's not for lack of trying either. We have been trying. But nobody wants to investigate, darnit. People have been dropping us left and right. It's been pretty crazy actually, how many people have dropped us.
We had a great lesson with the Petersons, the RLDS family we are teaching. We took over Bro Lambeth(not planned, it just worked out that way) who was raised RLDS then converted. He bore a way powerful testimony about it. So it was good I think.
Well, thats about all I have to report this week. Transfer Awareness Night(as my trainer called it) is on Saturday. So next week I'll write you and let you know if I'm getting a new companion. I don't think either of us are getting transferred just yet though. :)
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Bracken
Saturday, January 16, 2010
It has been a ridiculously cold week! Luckily we had the car! We had to give it to the Carthage Elders yesterday, but guess what! It's warmer! We might be above freezing right now! I'm not sure. But it's considerably warmer now.
The Library is FINALLY back open! I'm so glad! I was getting way sick of invading our member's homes to email. The school's have been closed all week,pretty much. Which is ridiculous. They say it's closed because of "dangerous temperatures." Whatever! Have gym and recess inside! This isn't that complex. These darn Mid-Westerners are a bunch of wimps. haha
So, no one came to church yesterday. That was way lame. We haven't found a new investigator in 2 weeks. That is very upsetting. We're expected to get a new investigator every day. 7 a week. And we've had two weeks without a new one. And not for lack of trying either.
A couple weeks ago we did a cookie-run. We baked some cookies and took them around to some people. Some investigators, somc less-actives, and I think 1 active family. Sis. Lewis, one of the less-actives we gave the cookies to, told us last night about her thoughts on the cookies. She thought we had greased the pan with bacon grease! She said they smelled and tasted like bacon grease! I don't know what happened! We did not use bacon grease! Now she's telling everyone in the ward that we made her bacon cookies! lame!
I don't recall if I told you about how we had lunch with her on Christmas Eve. We went over to her house and watched An Unlikely Mormon. It's a DVD of Glenn Beck telling his conversion story. It was good. I really enjoyed it.I highly recommend it.
I'm glad that the Shipley's are enjoying the dog. How is Grammy's cat doing?
We have a mouse in our house, we discovered this week. We named him Hamlet because he is going to die. Stupid Hamlet.
Do you have any suggestions for cheap Crock-Pot recipes a missionary could make? We recently acquired a crock-pot(just like the old blue one I grew up with!) and I would love some ideas on how to best utilize it. We cooked a nice pork roast in it all day, then shredded it and made pulled pork sandwiches. That was awesome. We also cooked steaks in it. I remember you tellin me Dad, about the Scouts cooking steaks in a Dutch oven with Vegetable Oil. We tried that with some super cheap steaks we found at Wal-Mart. It wasn't bad. Kind of a unique flavor.
I have improved much in my cooking ability. I like to cook a lot. I make some amazing tacos and quesadillas, I tell you what. :) The secret is the stuff called El Pato. It's this little can of Mexican tomato sauce kind of stuff that you buy at Wal-Mart for 62 cents in the Mexican Aisle. It makes for an amazing sauce for taco meat or to cook a chicken breast in for Quesadillas. Of course I add other spices as well, but that's the main ingredient. I'm going to make some Manwich Sloppy Joes today. I've never done that, but it sounds so simple.
Not much else is going on to report of at this time. Hopefully things will start picking up. :)
Have a great week! Enjoy your vacation!
Love,
Elder Bracken
The Library is FINALLY back open! I'm so glad! I was getting way sick of invading our member's homes to email. The school's have been closed all week,pretty much. Which is ridiculous. They say it's closed because of "dangerous temperatures." Whatever! Have gym and recess inside! This isn't that complex. These darn Mid-Westerners are a bunch of wimps. haha
So, no one came to church yesterday. That was way lame. We haven't found a new investigator in 2 weeks. That is very upsetting. We're expected to get a new investigator every day. 7 a week. And we've had two weeks without a new one. And not for lack of trying either.
A couple weeks ago we did a cookie-run. We baked some cookies and took them around to some people. Some investigators, somc less-actives, and I think 1 active family. Sis. Lewis, one of the less-actives we gave the cookies to, told us last night about her thoughts on the cookies. She thought we had greased the pan with bacon grease! She said they smelled and tasted like bacon grease! I don't know what happened! We did not use bacon grease! Now she's telling everyone in the ward that we made her bacon cookies! lame!
I don't recall if I told you about how we had lunch with her on Christmas Eve. We went over to her house and watched An Unlikely Mormon. It's a DVD of Glenn Beck telling his conversion story. It was good. I really enjoyed it.I highly recommend it.
I'm glad that the Shipley's are enjoying the dog. How is Grammy's cat doing?
We have a mouse in our house, we discovered this week. We named him Hamlet because he is going to die. Stupid Hamlet.
Do you have any suggestions for cheap Crock-Pot recipes a missionary could make? We recently acquired a crock-pot(just like the old blue one I grew up with!) and I would love some ideas on how to best utilize it. We cooked a nice pork roast in it all day, then shredded it and made pulled pork sandwiches. That was awesome. We also cooked steaks in it. I remember you tellin me Dad, about the Scouts cooking steaks in a Dutch oven with Vegetable Oil. We tried that with some super cheap steaks we found at Wal-Mart. It wasn't bad. Kind of a unique flavor.
I have improved much in my cooking ability. I like to cook a lot. I make some amazing tacos and quesadillas, I tell you what. :) The secret is the stuff called El Pato. It's this little can of Mexican tomato sauce kind of stuff that you buy at Wal-Mart for 62 cents in the Mexican Aisle. It makes for an amazing sauce for taco meat or to cook a chicken breast in for Quesadillas. Of course I add other spices as well, but that's the main ingredient. I'm going to make some Manwich Sloppy Joes today. I've never done that, but it sounds so simple.
Not much else is going on to report of at this time. Hopefully things will start picking up. :)
Have a great week! Enjoy your vacation!
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, January 4, 2010
2010! Only 2 years til the end of the world! ;)
So, twice today I have had to wite-out the year on some forms I filled out. I hate switching years. It takes so long to get in the habit of writing the correct one! Oh well, I will learn!
We did absolutely nothing unusual, different, remarkable, or noteworthy for New Years. They were just normal days for us. Didn't stay up til midnight or anything. I DID, however, have pizza on New Year's Eve at a member's house. So that was nice.
Yet again, I find myself writing an email at a member's house. The library is closed still. Apparently, the have no heat. Sissies.
Seriously. 3 inches of snow and everyone out hear loses their minds! That fell Saturday night, so church was cancelled. That was so disappointing. We were set to have the whole Stuckey family there! And school was called off today as well. I don't know how these mid-westerner's survive!
It has been very cold here. It's about 13 degrees right now. Wind chill makes it about 5. But the real problem is the humidity. It's about 65%. It's a whole different kind of cold here than in Utah. Cuts right to the bone. I love my scarf and sweaters. :)
Also, I DID get Aunt Vicky's package! Thank you! :) It's awesome. :)
Not much else to report this week. I better get going. I don't want to be on their computer too long. :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
We did absolutely nothing unusual, different, remarkable, or noteworthy for New Years. They were just normal days for us. Didn't stay up til midnight or anything. I DID, however, have pizza on New Year's Eve at a member's house. So that was nice.
Yet again, I find myself writing an email at a member's house. The library is closed still. Apparently, the have no heat. Sissies.
Seriously. 3 inches of snow and everyone out hear loses their minds! That fell Saturday night, so church was cancelled. That was so disappointing. We were set to have the whole Stuckey family there! And school was called off today as well. I don't know how these mid-westerner's survive!
It has been very cold here. It's about 13 degrees right now. Wind chill makes it about 5. But the real problem is the humidity. It's about 65%. It's a whole different kind of cold here than in Utah. Cuts right to the bone. I love my scarf and sweaters. :)
Also, I DID get Aunt Vicky's package! Thank you! :) It's awesome. :)
Not much else to report this week. I better get going. I don't want to be on their computer too long. :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
So, I will make this fairly brief. First of all, we just talked on Friday. Secondly, the library is closed so we are emailing at a members house and I don't want to spend all day on their computer.
Russell didn't come to church and he wasn't there for our appointment on Sunday. So that's a little worrying. I hope that everything is okay.
We had a great Christmas. We just hung out at the Miner's house. Talked on the phone. Played games. Ate food. Watched The Best Two Years. It was fun. :)
Thank you for the gifts. They are very nice. I love the sweaters. :) As far as my birthday goes, I don't know. The only thing I could think of that I could really use is a GPS. They're pretty handy. I don't really need anything else.
Well, I'm gonna get going now. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Hopefully the library will be open on Monday for us to email. :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Russell didn't come to church and he wasn't there for our appointment on Sunday. So that's a little worrying. I hope that everything is okay.
We had a great Christmas. We just hung out at the Miner's house. Talked on the phone. Played games. Ate food. Watched The Best Two Years. It was fun. :)
Thank you for the gifts. They are very nice. I love the sweaters. :) As far as my birthday goes, I don't know. The only thing I could think of that I could really use is a GPS. They're pretty handy. I don't really need anything else.
Well, I'm gonna get going now. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Hopefully the library will be open on Monday for us to email. :)
Love,
Elder Bracken
Monday, December 21, 2009
Merry Christmas!
I am proud of you for not opening my package. It's nothing terribly remarkable. I hope youre not disappointed. I did get your package and I am very excited to open it. I was hoping that your email would tell me to open it now, but I guess I'll just have to wait too. :)
I am very excited to call home. That's what I'm most looking forward to about Christmas. I will be calling at Noon here. So it will be 11 am there. I hope I get to talk to Amanda & Scott as well, but I understand if they have other plans during that time.
My companion is Elder Robert Sherrick. he is from South Jordan, Utah. He is a good missionary. Very humble. And he never complains. About anything. It's so crazy. That is a skill I definitely need to learn from him during our time together. He has been out 4 1/2 months. He was just serving in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. He has a (fraternal) twin brother serving in Brazil right now.
We gave our tree away. We started teaching this guy Davie(ey?). He's really cool. Very humble guy who just wants to do the right thing. He's helping out a friend of his named Joel. Joel is living with Davie along with his little kids. I think he has 2 of them. So Davie's helping him out trying to make sure they have a Merry Christmas. But they didn't have a tree. So last night we took ours over and left it on his doorstep. Hopefully they will enjoy it more than we did. And hopefully the stupid flashing lights won't annoy them. haha.
Well, I don't have too much else to report this week. Especially since I'm calling home on Friday. I don't want to spoil it. :) So I will talk to you then! Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Bracken
I am very excited to call home. That's what I'm most looking forward to about Christmas. I will be calling at Noon here. So it will be 11 am there. I hope I get to talk to Amanda & Scott as well, but I understand if they have other plans during that time.
My companion is Elder Robert Sherrick. he is from South Jordan, Utah. He is a good missionary. Very humble. And he never complains. About anything. It's so crazy. That is a skill I definitely need to learn from him during our time together. He has been out 4 1/2 months. He was just serving in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. He has a (fraternal) twin brother serving in Brazil right now.
We gave our tree away. We started teaching this guy Davie(ey?). He's really cool. Very humble guy who just wants to do the right thing. He's helping out a friend of his named Joel. Joel is living with Davie along with his little kids. I think he has 2 of them. So Davie's helping him out trying to make sure they have a Merry Christmas. But they didn't have a tree. So last night we took ours over and left it on his doorstep. Hopefully they will enjoy it more than we did. And hopefully the stupid flashing lights won't annoy them. haha.
Well, I don't have too much else to report this week. Especially since I'm calling home on Friday. I don't want to spoil it. :) So I will talk to you then! Merry Christmas!
Love,
Elder Bracken
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