Elder McCade Tracy

August 26th

This week has been kinda slow, work wise, we had all three of our baptismal dates drop yesterday as neither us or Shively get any investigators to church. I wish we had more teaching appointments, but sad to say that we only had 13 total lessons this week.

Things are going good, just a lot of tough things this week, with appointments falling through and not teaching that much at all.

High - Being able to watch Felton baptize his niece on Saturday, it was really cool to see that about two months ago I gave Felton the Aaronic Priesthood and to see him exercise that power was just incredible and wonderful to see.

Low - We now have no bap. dates. all of them were dropped yesterday. Now we have to start all over with Breianna because we dropped the ball and only worried about how to get her baptized and we were only stressing three things: coming to church, quitting smoking, and getting baptized. We lost sight of what was important to teach, and now we have to try and fix that because she is ready and we need to help her feel that same way again.

Trent is doing pretty well, he was busy pretty much all of last week so we were unable to meet with him and his bap date is going to get pushed back to Sept. 21, we're meeting with him tonight and we'll set it then. We still have to go over a few important things with him, we'll see how he feels about it all and how comfortable he feels about the 21st for baptism.

The thing that I learned about myself this week, was that I was getting to involved with the numbers, and I was pretty much going down a checklist for things that our investigators need to do for baptism and I completely lost sight of what was important, and that is to teach to the needs of the investigators and tell them what they need to hear to help them grow closer to Christ.

On Saturday, we helped a less active move a few things out of his house. His kitchen caught on fire and pretty much burned everything up. Before we went to help he stopped us the day before and said that he knew he couldn't do this without the church and that he knows that he needs to come back to church. He did that yesterday and I don't think that he'll ever miss a Sunday with the recent events that have just happened to their home.

 I don't like to even look at the number 6 anymore, it just reminds me that I'm ending the first quarter and I've only got three left to do all I can to help everyone come to Christ. I am trying to remember that every day, I'm realizing that the things that I do are the things that I am meant to do at this time. I will have no regrets from my mission because I know that this is the route in which I am meant to follow and that I will be blessed because of my efforts in serving the people of Kentucky.

September 2

My week has been pretty good, I'm staying in Shively for at least another 6 weeks, I know that my work has not yet finished here. We've also been trying to work with the Less actives a little bit more and not a whole lot of time finding new investigators but we'll be doing that more this week.

It was stormy a couple days ago, so it's been really nice this week so far.

For the second week in a row, we had no investigators to church, but our goal is to have them there next week for sure.

Trent is doing pretty well, he was in Indiana visiting his mom yesterday so he was unable to come to church

Haven't had much contact with Breianna lately, but we'll be trying to catch her on her day off some time this week and starting over from square one.

We made some improvement this past week, we were able to teach 16 lessons and we intend for that number to keep growing as the weeks go on.

High- Being able to stay in Shively for my 6 month mark and 7 month, and to keep working with the members and investigators that I've come to know and love so much

Low - not getting people to church and having appointments continue to fall through with solid investigators

The biggest thing I've learned in the first quarter of my mission is to forget the numbers and to just focus on the people and if I do that then the numbers will come and I just have to be patient with some people because they take a little longer than some. Also, to have a really good plan for the day, otherwise we'll be wondering what to do for the rest of the day and it'll go super slow.

Thank you for all your love and support! I know how important prayer is, and every day I find myself praying to know where to go and what to do and from that simple prayer it seems like I'm always guided to those who we need to see at that time.

Love you and Miss you so much!

Love your Son and Missionary,

September 9

Things are going pretty well right now, Trent was able to make it to church and after we talked with him we decided to move the baptismal date for him back a few months so then he feels completely ready and very sure about this major decision in his life.

Haven't gotten rained on in the last few days, yeah, I thought is was going to rain yesterday but it didn't.

This last week was interesting, we had a lot of solid appointments fall through and we were unable to meet with Trent this week, so we had to fall back on the former's and working with the less active members, which was fairly promising and we found a few new people to teach and a few less actives who know that they need to get back to church.

We only had Trent at church this week, which is a lot better than the last three weeks when we had nobody show up.

We had 14 total lessons this week, we were working with our less actives a lot this week and it really helped because a few of them have started coming back to church pretty regularly.

High - Getting a new investigator from the former's, he was taught two years ago in December and so we tried to make contact with him and we have an appointment set for Wednesday afternoon.

Low - Breianna dropped us, she told us that she's not ready yet for the  "Mormon lifestyle" and she's going to be looking around to find what works for her and hopefully with continued contact some missionaries in the future will meet with her and help her over the last little hurtles so she'll be a solid member.

This guy that we were meeting with really studied and researched about the Book of Mormon, when we went to meet with him, he had all sorts of different things that he "found" that was different from the original copy of the Book of Mormon and the one that we have today. He told us that he got his info from the Library of Congress and that it can't possibly be wrong, we told him that anyone can make a web site and change all sorts of different things to make it seem like we're wrong and that it doesn't match up from the original copy. That whole experience really helped me to know that there are so many people out there who will try and make it seem like we're false and that Joseph Smith didn't translate the Book of Mormon correctly.

I know it's short and not really detailed, but don't worry because I have it all down in my journal. 

September 16

This week has been really good, it started of kinda slow with not many lessons being taught but it went better when we went on exchanges this past Friday, and it really made a difference for the rest of the week. We were able to make contact with a really interesting referral and we'll be meeting with her this Wednesday and we added a couple more new investigators to our pool, which is really good because we need to move the work forward and keep refreshing the teaching pool as much as possible as we work with our progressing investigators and the less actives in the Branch.

I know how you feel mom, over these past couple weeks I have had the feeling that this is my last transfer in Shively, and Josh made a prediction before he left to move to Ohio on Friday that I would be transferred after he left because my real training was then complete and I know it'll happen even after yesterday while I was talking to a few members of the Branch and they said that they need to stop getting attached to all the missionaries that come through the area, so now that I know that my time in Shively is short I have been doing all I can to make the most of it, and I have been getting Elder Gallagher ready to take over the area as we continue to work with our investigators for the next little while.

We only had Trent at church, and plus it was Stake Conference this Sunday.

We had 16 lessons taught this week, we kinda got saved thanks to the exchange on Friday.

High- Finding two really solid investigators who want to do all they can to learn, and we'll be trying to make contact with our other referrals because they also sound really interested in the Gospel and I know that they will be strong in the Branch as soon as they begin to come.

Low- The mother of a recent convert passed away last week, her funeral is on Wednesday, it was a huge shock to me because it came out of the blue. I felt really grateful to get to know their family and even though they're out of my area now, I'll do all that I can to help them get through this rough time.

a spiritual experience that I had last week was: Elder Gallagher and I were planning for what we were going to do the next day, and I was very stressed and began to get angry. I thought of standing up, grabbing my chair and smacking it against the ground out of frustration and anger from our investigators who weren't keeping their commitments. As I sat down.... I looked at my name tag and read it and then I looked at a picture of Christ, I then thought to myself "What are you doing you idiot?!" after that I sat on the floor and continued to think of what I was doing, as I thought I gained a really inspired revelation to why I am out here and why things must be so difficult, as these thoughts came to my head I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote them down. I truly felt as Joseph Smith as he was in Liberty Jail receiving revelation for three sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. I will never forget that day. Every time that I get frustrated I read that, and as I get to the end of the revelation I feel at peace with everything going on around me.

What's really worked the past little bit is talking to less actives after the first Sunday and having them come to a Pot Luck on the second Sunday of the month (The Branch has a pot luck dinner after church on every secondSunday of the month! It's so awesome, because a lot of people show up!)

Thanks for all your support and love! I miss you all so much!

Love your Son and Missionary,

Elder McCade Tracy