Week 64 - Choice

Monday 1/16/2017

We started our laundry in the morning before we did some shopping. At P Day activity we played some Gator Ball and Pivot. Dinner was with the Haddock family which was fun. They told us about their missions, they served in Russia. They also showed us their collection of arms. We exchanged with Elder Westover/Jones at the end of the night. I went with Elder Jones to his area. 

Tuesday 

After studies we tried some people before district finding.  District finding was in their ward. We went to a neighborhood and everyone did some tracting. We were able to talk to a few people, but that were not interested. We all went to lunch at In-N-Out when we were done. We had service at Mary's kitchen with Elder Beddes/Seiriene/Westover/Wright. After Mary's we went out to find till dinner. Our dinner was with the Day family. We went to the hospital after to give a blessing to what turned out to be a member. We were not given much information when we received the referral. Not much for the rest of the night then we exchanged back. 

Wednesday 

In the morning we picked some things up before President Interviews. In my interview we were able to talk about serving.  He shared some really good stories. Sisters Taggart talked about faith in finding. We then had lunch and went to the mission office to get some paperwork done. We were going to do some finding,  but we got a call from the Sisters, a women wanted a blessing. We had dinner with the Halls,  Brother Hall is very scholarly in his knowledge of the scriptures. We shared a dinner message with him then he shared one with us.  He taught us some things about the everlasting covenant. We finished our night at Pedro and Linda's we taught the word of wisdom. Linda is having some trouble excepting she needs to follow the word of wisdom now. 

Thursday 

In the morning we had district meeting. We discussed working with the members of the ward council. After we did a grab then gather for the zone. We went back to the apartment for inspections. After inspections we went out. We went and saw Nerha and were going to drop her but she has showed interest in coming to church. We are giving her a little bit of another chance missionaries have been teaching her since 2014. We went over and saw Daniel and talked with him and setup a time to meet with him. We had dinner with the Sincock family. We taught them the restoration since they are having kids go on missions and one on a mission. They really enjoyed it. After dinner we went out we met Sister Lemock that is less active. She has no problem she just is married to a preacher and she goes to church with him. We offered her everything we could and she excepted home teachers. We then met a Spanish man and taught him the restoration. We liked it and told us a time we could come back without even asking. We asked him if Spanish missionaries would be better and he said yes so we referred him. We finished the night by seeing Salvador a referral.  We helped him put new windshield wipers on his truck. Then we talked to him for a while sharing some of the restoration with him. He had trouble with it.  We invited him to read and pray about it.  He even talked about the native beliefs of a white God that would come again that we were able to link into the Book of Mormon. We stopped by the church and saw then talked with Brother walker.  We then wrapped up the night

Friday 

We begun the day doing our weekly planning. The rain poured down most of the morning. We went out to visit people but most were not able to meet or were not home. We were able to see Meagan with the Sisters and we passed her to them. We continued till dinner with Sister Ellis she didn't have anyone home so we had the Sisters come. We were able to meet a potential, Mercedes and teach her a short restoration. She was wanting to pay for the book of Mormon at first.  We then met with the Sisters for the weekly coordination email. 

Saturday 

Our day was full of finding but we couldn't seem to see anyone for some reason. All of our lessons fell through. We had dinner at Red Robin with Brother Schwartz and the Sisters. We talked about the Holy ghost with him. After dinner we stopped by the church and there was a wedding going on. We continued our finding till the end of the night.

Sunday 

We woke early to go to ward council. We got there and no one had shown up but then the Bishop comes in, he tells us there turns out to not be ward council. Us and the Sisters didn't get a email from Brother Walker. So we setup chairs and cleaned up the chapel from a funeral. We talked about choice in gospel principles. In elders quorum we talked about Alam and Amulek. We had a ward missionary meeting after church. Brother Walker told us of the success that our ward missionary program has. It is setup different than any ward I have seen, the ward missionaries are previous Bishops, presidents of the organizations and very active return missionaries. We went back to the apartment for lunch and I got some rest. We had dinner with the Lilomaiava family. We taught them the restoration for our dinner message. We then ended the night at our apartment. May be getting sick. 

Choice 

One of the greatest things we are given is the ability to choose or what we call our agency. So we are given this ability and there is two ways placed before us. There is the way that provides happiness and the way that brings unhappiness. The way that brings unhappiness gives the since of happiness,  but in the long run it only provides the momentary feeling of happiness. 

There is always consequence for our actions may they be immediate or delayed there is always a consequence. Our good and righteous choices will bring us happiness, peace, and eternal life. Choices of sin will bring us unhappiness. We are responsible for our decisions that we make. Sometimes people's choices do effect us, but we must remember we are in control of how we choose to react. So let us choose to do good things of our free will. 

The rain continues to come down here. I can now say I was in California that one time it rained. Not a lot of pictures this week. 

Love Elder Caleb S. Bailey