Elder Justin Thiel

December 18, 2014

This week has really be a humbling experience for me. It was a good week and we still got a lot of things done. It was mix with a lot of the spirit reassuring me of myself.  We spent a lot of this week trying to study how to make our teaching more effective by learning how to ask better questions, to keep our investigators more involved in the lesson.  We got it to the point of where we had the investigators talking more, then we were in the lesson but they were teaching themselves, so it was really good, and I felt like they understood what we were talking about.  We also tried to focus on finding out what the investigator needs and focusing on how the gospel could help them in their different situations.  I realized more and more this week, that as a missionary you can't just rely on yourself to teach people.  It's not about the eloquence of the speaker or anything like that.  It is about bringing the spirit, and letting it teach the people, and really just getting out of the way as a missionary.

We had a sad moment this week.. on Sunday we were talking with Brother Kirkland, Benjamin's father, and he said that we needed to move his baptismal date and that we could talk about setting one after the first of the year.  He didn't really give us a clear reason for this, other than his family is going through some hard times!  So I hope something hasn't happened.  We are still going to keep working with him.

We were able to put a kid on date for baptism, named Nathan Owen.  He is the grandson of a less active that spends most of his time over at their house.  His mom is okay with him being baptized, and his date is on the 1st of January.  He even came to all three hours of church this Sunday, and that is a big accomplishment! He is really shy though, and seems like a kid that would get picked on in school... it just breaks my heart to see kids like that.  There are a couple in the ward.  I just want to be friends with all of them, just to let them know that someone cares about them.  And then go and talk to the kids who pick on them, to try and help them understand what damage they could cause to that kid, which could change the course of their life..

We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday and it was pretty good, not nearly as big as the ones in Utah, but it was still good.  We had some of the best ham ever there, and they had lots of different rolls and southern foods.  I love some good old southern corn bread!! Mmmm!!!  They also had some awesome deserts.  The program consisted of one of the primary kids getting up and telling Christmas jokes to everyone there, some singing by a new couple, and Santa coming so the little kids could come sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  Overall, it was really fun!!

On Sunday, we had our weekly lunch over at a members home, named the Bush's.  They invite all of their family to come over as well, so there is a good group of us over there.  They always serve us really good food and after lunch we have a corn hole tournament.  Corn hole is a bean bag game where you have to toss bags onto a board that has a whole near the top of it.  There are 2 people on each team, with two boards facing each other about 20 feet away!   Each team has one player standing near one of the boards with a member of the opposing team standing with them.  The other team members stand next to the other board so that they are facing each other. It is really hard to describe... it's one of those games that you have to play to understand.  Anyway, it is kind of a big deal and really competitive.  My rival, is the man who taught me how to play the game, named Bug Island. He is a wealthy man in the ward.  This Sunday, he won against me so there was a lot so smack talk going on...

I'm sorry to hear about grandma and grandpa and I will be sure to keep them in my prayers

I am out of time, so I am sorry that I didn't get to comment more on the things that you told me, but I did read them.  I love you guys and make sure that Matt gets me some ideas for Christmas.  I also bought an electric blanket on sale for $25 and a sweater for $17, I think, so that I will stay warm.. I am still in the trailer, but we do have some small heaters now.

I hope you all have a good week!

love,

Elder Thiel