Week 10--September 23, 2013

Oh man it I'm glad that this past week is over. It was a hard week. I'm ready to have an amazing week this week.

Everyday we had our investigators flake out of lessons. We had some dinners cancel. We had an investigator drop us. Everything was hard but It was still worth it for the good things that happened this week. 

Elder Reed and I had some really good lessons this week even though we had some lessons flake, We had some really good Lessons with Anthony. He is progressing so much and he has come so far, A year ago he was in Prison with a Life sentence, but one day he had a vision of angels and he decided to change his life, and to become a better person. He definitely has, he is now married and is progressing towards baptism, he is trying to start an anti-bullying movement with his art and t-shirts. I had a dream about him the other night, and I know that he will be baptized within the next two months. All he has to do is go to church. Then we have started teaching Cheyenne again and she is totally committed and she is ready for baptism. She moved up her own baptismal date 5 days because it would be the anniversary her LDS grandmother's death. It is amazing to see all the progress that she is making again.

I think that I have spent more time praying the past few days then I think I ever have. But I know that The Lord is there and he hears my prayers, the feeling of comfort that comes when I pray is absolutely amazing. I love this gospel and I know that it is true. 

I'm pretty excited for tomorrow. We are having Multi-Zone conferences and Elder Kent Richards of the Seventy is coming to speak to us. It should be awesome.

I hope all is well with everybody.

Elder Bangerter

Week 9--September 16, 2013

Hey everybody It's been an awesome week!

My new Companion is Elder Reed, from Reno, NV, he is absolutely awesome! He and I get a long super well, and we are very effective together, and he taught me how to solve the rubik's cube. It's awesome how good of a follow up trainer he is, I really think that He is helping me become the missionary that I need to be! It's awesome to see how much we can accomplish together. 

I have had some pretty amazing experiences this week.

First, Seeing the "Ballard Promise" in action. The Ballard promise is a promise that Elder Ballard made to missionaries that if we would talk to 10 people, 20 per companionship, on the street outside of tracting and open our mouths, our convert baptisms will double. So as we have gotten our OYM's  everyday, this week and made sure that every one of them was effective, we picked up 5 new investigators through street contacts.

Second, If as missionaries we make a promise, that a blessings will come if someone keeps a commitment, no matter how much of a miracle it is, it will happen. One of our investigators named Anthony, his wife was in the Hospital with pneumonia and the doctors were scared as to whether or not her and her unborn child would survive. As we were having this lesson with him and he brought the situation up, he told us that he was going to go visit her that night. I promised him that if he took a Book of Mormon with him and read 3 Nephi 11 with his wife in the hospital, then she would be out of the hospital by the end of the week. He Kept that commitment and she was out of the Hospital the next day.

It has been an awesome week, and I feel like Devon (Captain Awesome) from Chuck because I am saying awesome so much.

Love you guys

Elder Bangerter

Week 8--September 9, 2013

Wow it has been an amazing 6 weeks here in Lake Elsinore! I have learned and grown so much it's crazy, and It is one of the most amazing feelings serving the Lord! 

We got the call that Elder Elliott was being transferred out at 9:30 Saturday night, and he was transferred out today to the Valle Vista ward in Hemet. I can't tell if he was excited or not. He called his new companion who is there now, and asked if Hemet is really as bad as everybody says it is, the Elder told him that his companion couldn't sleep most nights because of all the sirens and gunshots... So it'll be an adventure for him.

My new companion, Elder Reed, will arrive in Lake Elsinore around 4 this afternoon. I'm excited, from what everybody tells me he is an awesome missionary. They are splitting my district and Elder Reed was brought in to be the new district leader, so it'll be an awesome experience.

This week we have done a lot of stuff, we didn't get as many lessons this week but we got a lot of stuff done. We, really just me, rearranged our room. We cleaned up a lot of our ward records, and got this week planned. Now I'm just waiting around for my new companion, playing ball.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Elder Bangerter

Week 7--September 2, 2013

Hey everybody!

It has been an amazing week! We had a baptism this weekend and the picture attached is from the baptism.

Yeah, so our investigator, Lisa, was baptized this past Saturday, It is truly amazing how the gospel can change someone's life. Lisa asked me to speak at the baptism, on baptism, and it was just an amazing experience, the spirit was so strong there, and it is incredible to see the changes in Lisa's life, and in her boyfriend Zack's life as he overcame a lot to be able to baptize her.

I feel that I have learned so much this past week! I have learned the Importance and the difference that being bold can make. As I was on splits with Elder Carbonneau this week I truly learned how big of a difference that being bold can be. As we were teaching one of his investigators the investigator was trying to flake on his baptism and Elder Carbonneau basically told him that If he didn't get baptized that week on his set date, then Satan would gain control of him and he would never be baptized. The investigator was baptized on Friday. I have learned so much about just always trying to love my companion. There are quite a few days that he just drives me insane, but I have learned to look past that and to Love him any way.

I have really been studying and pondering a lot this week and one of the talks that I have been reading is the Character of Christ by David A. Bednar and it is truly an amazing talk and I personally have learned so much and been very uplifted from it. Here is a quote from it

"Perhaps the greatest indicator of character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us. Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress. Thus, character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward. If such a capacity is indeed the ultimate criterion of moral character, then the Savior of the world is the perfect example of such a consistent and charitable character." -David A. Bednar

I hope that all is going well

Elder Bangerter