Week 52--July 14, 2014

This week was kind of rough. Not too much happened, but fortunately the week ended on a good note.

So this is kind of how our week went:

Monday- P-Day, it was good, we got quite a bit of stuff done, pretty normal day.

Tuesday- Tuesday as a whole was a pretty good day, we had District Meeting in the morning, then we decided to move up our much needed Weekly Planning session. We had a great planning session, got ourselves organized, made some really good plans, and so forth. As we are Finishing up, one of the Elders that we live with comes bursting in screaming at us, telling us how Pissed off he is at us, and so forth. Two weeks ago we had let the Assistants know that this Elder was staying out late, and there were two nights when he didn't get home until after midnight. So on Tuesday this missionary's car was taken away. He was majorly pissed off at us and started throwing some of his weights around (he is a college rugby player), and it was just bad.

Wednesday- We got a call from the vehicle coordinator that we needed to take our car (2014 Chevy Cruze) to the Chevy dealership because of a recall on the front axle. So we got to spend from 9am to 4pm in Riverside at the Chevy Dealership. Then our lesson that evening canceled on us, and all of our appointments fell through. 

Thursday- We had all day to Proselyte, and nobody answered the door all day. It was hard.

Friday- We had one on one interviews with President Mullen, and it was great. It was good to get to know him quite a bit, and get to know his expectations for us and how we can help him. the rest of the day, we spent finding some part member families and working through some of our lists.

Saturday- We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators named Ted. The lesson was very powerful and it helped him a lot to progress. It was definitely the Highlight of our week!

Sunday- We taught Gospel Principles and a lesson to the Priests during the second and third hours at church. We got some stuff done in the afternoon and evening, and then were ready and excited to get on to this week! This upcoming week is going to be great!

Well I love all of you

Elder Bangerter

Week 51--July 7, 2014

This week was great. Elder Celeste and I had an awesome week. We had an especially good 4th of July, because we met President Mullen, He is great I am so excited to work with him. We got to know him a little bit as a group and he gave his first training as our Mission President. The biggest thing that he talked about was "Don't be Stupid" and he quoted Jacob 6:12. It was a good meeting and I am excited to have interviews with him this upcoming week. 

We picked up a really solid new investigator this week. Her name is Jordyn, she is the friend of one of the youth in the ward, Last week she went to EFY, and the week before she went to Girls Camp, She is one of the most prepared people that I have ever met. She is ready to accept the gospel! I am excited to work with her and see how she progresses. Besides that we have been working a lot with the Youth, and we have had a lot of success so far from it. We feel like the key to success in this ward is the Youth. They are great!

That's it for now,

Love Y'all

Elder Bangerter

Week 50--June 30, 2014

This past week has been a very interesting one.

Last week Elder Celeste, and I got doubled in to our new area, (Doubled in means that we are both new to the area), and unfortunately we didn't have very much to work with, but we did experience many miracles this week! 

On Monday we met with Brother Solesbee, our ward mission leader, and I have to say that he is the best Ward Mission Leader that I have served around. He is awesome and his vision for the work is great and we feel that it is spot on with what the ward needs. We worked with him and established a game plan for the work in the ward, and as we have done so we have seen SO many miracles. He feels like the members in the ward are doing a great job of sharing the gospel with their friends, and as we have visited with close to 30 families this week we have seen that that is true, the problem is many of the members don't know what the next step is, or how to follow up on the commitments that they leave. We have been working on helping them with that. 

As Elder Celeste and I were Studying on Wednesday, we both ended up reading the same chapter in the Book of Mormon, and as we were pondering on how to help the members we both were touched by the same verse, Alma 26:22

"Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance,even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance." 

We felt impressed to share this with the members of the ward, and along with that we felt impressed to share Chapter 11 from Preach My Gospel with members. We shared our plan with Brother Solesbee, and as we did so his comment was, "Elders, this is exactly what the ward needs." As we Implemented the commitment to the members we have gotten more referrals than I have ever gotten on my mission! I am very excited to see what the Lord has in store for me here.

I love all of you guys!

Elder Bangerter

Week 49--June 23, 2014

Sorry about how late this is.  I was trying to edit it on my iPad last week and it wasn't working.  I meant to get on the computer to take care of it bu, obviously, I forgot!  Sorry again!!  Sharon

Well I got the call Saturday night saying I am getting Transferred again, Into my 5th area. I am being transferred in to the El Cerrito Ward in Corona, which is on the opposite side of the mission from where I am now. I am getting Doubled in with Elder Celeste, who was just companions with Elder Reed, one of my old Companions. I am really Excited, because being doubled in brings Miracles! It is also very crazy to me that I will be hitting my half way mark in a couple weeks in Corona. I don't feel like I have been gone for a year, only a couple months. 

Well, this week in Hemet was very good, we saw many miracles, Our Investigator Misty is going to get baptized this coming weekend, and it is a great thing to see. We got her to quit smoking, she moved out from living with her boyfriend this week, she is all ready to go. I will get to come back to see it and I am grateful for that. Misty has come so far while I have been here. It has been awesome seeing it all happen. 

We had Multi-Zone conference this past week. It was President and Sister Smart's Last Multi-Zone Conference and they gave us 10 tips to a happy life. Here they are:

1) Commit to living a Christ Centered Life
The First and Great Commandment: Love God
The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30)
Gratitude (Alma 37:37)
Christlike Attributes (PMG pg. 126)
Dating Tip: Run as fast as you can toward God, and if someone keeps up, introduce yourself
Find an Eternal Companion who is committed and trustworthy
The Family: A Proclamation to the World

2) Be Obedient - it is as easy today as it was when Moses told the Isrealites to look at the brass serpent and live (Numbers 21:6-9). This was very simple; too simple for some (See Alma 37:46). We need to look to the Savior and live. Today the simpleness of the way includes:
Reading Scripture (daily)
Pondering / Meditating (daily)
Praying (daily)
Go to Church (Weekly)
Attend the Temple as often as your circumstances allow

3) Attitude: Choose to be Happy
“If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” John 13: 17
“But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi.” Alma 50:23
Don’t worry, be happy scriptures: D&C 100:15, D&C 98:3, D&C 121:7, D&C 122:7, John 14:27, John 16:23
Keep a good sense of humor… (Trust Fall)

4) Be Flexible and Adaptable

5) Work Hard
“Sir, I am a true laborer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good…” (William Shakespeare)

6) Have a Purpose: define a Vision, Goals, and Plans for your life. "Dominate Chapter 8"

7) Take Care of Your Physical Body
Eat right
Exercise
Wash your hands
Get the right amount of sleep

8) Control Your Thoughts
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7)
"If you think you’re beaten, you are …" (Poem)
Recognize a bad thought and push it out
String Activity - the mind is a very powerful tool
Don't Get Too Caught Up in What Other People Think

9) Have a Forgiving Heart
It has been said, “A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.”
"Be quick to admit wrong, even when you are not." (President Uchtdorf)

10) Serve Others
Model your life after the Savior

It was very good and very spiritual. It is sad to see them go, but I am Excited for when President Mullen comes in next week.

Well that's it for now.

Love all of you guys

Elder Bangerter

Week 48--June 16, 2014

Well this week was very interesting, and it was really hard with Elder Plotkin. I am getting to the point where I am getting super irritated with him. But thankfully I have gotten to the point that I am a whole lot more level headed and I don't let stuff get to me nearly as much.

Well we should have a baptism this weekend. We have been teaching Misty for a long time, and we just barely got her to quit smoking, and to live the word of wisdom, and she has agreed to get baptized this weekend. There are a few things that could happen that would stop it from happening. I am sorry this letter is short, but I'll send a good e-mail next week.

Transfers are this upcoming week, I am almost positive that I am staying, 

I love you guys,

Elder Bangerter

Week 47--June 9, 2014

This has been a super weird week, Lots of ups and downs. One super cool thing this week was that we hit the standard of excellence. It was great to achieve that. One other super cool thing was something that was caused by my wonderful, loving, caring, beautiful Mom! I got a Package with two clickers to count Happy thoughts, among other things. That Package and those two clickers were a Miracle. Because of the Clickers, My Companion who suffers from Bi-Polar Depression was able to stay happy all week and to enjoy missionary work. It was awesome!

Well work here is starting to pick up, and It is awesome, we have some investigators that are progressing very well, one of them is Misty. Misty is getting married at the end of this month and then she should be getting baptized shortly there after. 

We are still working on finding, more people.

I love you guys,

Elder Bangerter

For anyone interested, I got the clickers from http://www.billionclicks.org.  I actually won the two I sent them, but anyone can purchase one.  :-) Sharon

Week 46--June 2, 2014

Well this week has been a good one! We had a good morning this morning, we went and played 9 holes at the local course with a member from the last ward that Elder Plotkin served in. I actually did pretty well according to the member, I shot 16 over par my second time ever going to play golf. It was Lots of fun!

We had a Baptism on Saturday, It went great! It was a great service! The girl who was Baptized was Mady. She is 12 years old and She has been waiting to get baptized for at least 2 years now, but because of circumstances with her mom she wasn't able to be baptized until now. It was a very exciting thing to see. Satan most definitely did not want the baptism to happen, there has been so much opposition with her getting baptized, and the one that I saw while I was here was that she broke her foot and was put in a cast that could not go in the water, just a few days before the baptism. Thankfully all went well and she got Baptized!

Things have been going kind of hard with my companion, he has been being extremely rude, and a jerk to me for quite a bit of the week. Then there are days where he is supper pleasant to be around. I guess that is his Bi-Polar kicking in.

Things are going very well right now. We are definitely in the Finding stages of the work, and are building the area back up.

I love Y'all

Elder Bangerter