Hey All Y'all!
Soooooo... It's transfer day and I am in the Clinton building emailing in the history center....
I am training! Just thought I would let all y'all know. My trainee's name is Elder Kingston. I have yet to meet him. They have been in a meeting since I got here. He is from Kaysville, UT, so he gets to be my second Utah companion out in the field.
I need to get going back out there, but hopefully I will have a little more time to email later. Life is great though! I love you all.
Love,
Elder Mendenhall
Monday, February 6, 2012
10/11/2011
Hey All Y'all,
Man, Philly is just doing great! It has been a really good week. We now have two people with a baptism date, both for Oct. 30th. Stacy basically reconfirmed his date last week. We haven't seen him since last Tuesday, but he has told us he has been praying and that he really wants the Lord in his life. It's music to my ears!
We were at Diego's last night, and I lost my name tag. We found it after a looooooooooooooong search (okay... so I lost it while tearing off the plastic off of a couch he had sitting in his front room). It had ended up falling inside of the couch. We had given up and gone back to our apartment, and we remembered that Elder Belden had filmed me tearing off the plastic. We were able to see it fall onto the couch, which lead us to tilting the couch up on it's side again and shaking it until we found it. The Lord answered our prayers. He truly cares about us and the things we care about. He is great and greatly to be praised, so come let us worship the King!
Thursday was a bit of a bummer, as everyone canceled on us, and that was okay. We figured other things out. Saturday we helped out Sister Nickles with some service she "needed" us to help with. It was mainly just a way for us to get to know her less active brother and nonmember sister-in-law. We made some good impressions, and her sister-in-law was very impressed with us.
Sister Oaks is progressing closer and closer to baptism. We had an awesome lesson on baptism, repentence, the Holy Ghost and the Sacrament. It was really good! And She has been studying baptism lately too, since her bro-in-law sent her some scriptures and information about it.
We got a media referral that we were able to contact last night. She requested the Joy To The World DVD. She saw an ad on Facebook for it. We delievered it and talked about the Book Of Mormon. She is interested in it and is going to read the copy we left with her. More and more blessings.
Needless to say, the Lord is really blessing Philadelphia. It is just so awesome and amazing to see His hands working here. Please keep praying for us and the people here. And also continue to look for opportunities to share the gospel over there. The Lord needs us all the spread His message in anyway we can. So please do so! :)
Transfer are a week from today, and Elder Belden's end is drawing near. I am excited to see who my new companion will be and if I am actually training or not. We should get the phone call this next week.
I hope you all had a happy Columbus day yesterday! As a missionary, I didn't like it. It means no mail! Oh well! :D
I love you all and wish you the best week possible! Keep on keeping on! Kia Kaha as they say!
Love,
Elder Dwight Mendenhall
Man, Philly is just doing great! It has been a really good week. We now have two people with a baptism date, both for Oct. 30th. Stacy basically reconfirmed his date last week. We haven't seen him since last Tuesday, but he has told us he has been praying and that he really wants the Lord in his life. It's music to my ears!
We were at Diego's last night, and I lost my name tag. We found it after a looooooooooooooong search (okay... so I lost it while tearing off the plastic off of a couch he had sitting in his front room). It had ended up falling inside of the couch. We had given up and gone back to our apartment, and we remembered that Elder Belden had filmed me tearing off the plastic. We were able to see it fall onto the couch, which lead us to tilting the couch up on it's side again and shaking it until we found it. The Lord answered our prayers. He truly cares about us and the things we care about. He is great and greatly to be praised, so come let us worship the King!
Thursday was a bit of a bummer, as everyone canceled on us, and that was okay. We figured other things out. Saturday we helped out Sister Nickles with some service she "needed" us to help with. It was mainly just a way for us to get to know her less active brother and nonmember sister-in-law. We made some good impressions, and her sister-in-law was very impressed with us.
Sister Oaks is progressing closer and closer to baptism. We had an awesome lesson on baptism, repentence, the Holy Ghost and the Sacrament. It was really good! And She has been studying baptism lately too, since her bro-in-law sent her some scriptures and information about it.
We got a media referral that we were able to contact last night. She requested the Joy To The World DVD. She saw an ad on Facebook for it. We delievered it and talked about the Book Of Mormon. She is interested in it and is going to read the copy we left with her. More and more blessings.
Needless to say, the Lord is really blessing Philadelphia. It is just so awesome and amazing to see His hands working here. Please keep praying for us and the people here. And also continue to look for opportunities to share the gospel over there. The Lord needs us all the spread His message in anyway we can. So please do so! :)
Transfer are a week from today, and Elder Belden's end is drawing near. I am excited to see who my new companion will be and if I am actually training or not. We should get the phone call this next week.
I hope you all had a happy Columbus day yesterday! As a missionary, I didn't like it. It means no mail! Oh well! :D
I love you all and wish you the best week possible! Keep on keeping on! Kia Kaha as they say!
Love,
Elder Dwight Mendenhall
10/04/2011
Hey Everyone...
Another week has gone by. We are in Ridgeland again after having gone to the Doctor's again. Slow healing.
General Conference was awesome!!!! Was it not?! I loved it! We had two investigators watch it. I loooooved it!
Well... last week was a bit of a bummer week. Everything we had fell through! But, not to worry, because the Lord watches over us all, even in little Philly. We found an awesome new family to teach last night! The spirit was there with us when we were talking to the mom, who is a member but hasn't been in probably 20 years. They were referred to us by her brother, that we found after an appointment fell through with the guy across the street (that was a week or two ago). The guy we were trying to see is someone we talked to my first day in Philly while at the gas station. Good stuff. I hope I didn't lose anyone with that :D
Also, we are going to be seeing another part member family on Thursday. She wants her son baptized, and I want them all active. So we'll see how things work out there. It shows promise though.
Things definitely are looking up in Philly. We have a lot going on. We have appointments to go out with members for the rest of the week. Should be good! I am grateful to the Lord for blessing us here and I am grateful for all the prayers and continued support from all of you.
Oh! I'll let you all in on a little p-day excursion we had yesterday. So, we frequent the pawn shops on p-days, mainly because they have $2 DVDs and you can sometimes get really good deals. Well, I bought yesterday (to send home, mind you, not to watch while on my mission) all three Lord of the Ring DVDs for $2 each, as well as all of the Bourne movies, and all of them in EXCELLENT condition. The Bourne ones are like new condition. It made me happy. :)
Well, I hope all y'all have an awesome week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Dwight Mendenhall
Another week has gone by. We are in Ridgeland again after having gone to the Doctor's again. Slow healing.
General Conference was awesome!!!! Was it not?! I loved it! We had two investigators watch it. I loooooved it!
Well... last week was a bit of a bummer week. Everything we had fell through! But, not to worry, because the Lord watches over us all, even in little Philly. We found an awesome new family to teach last night! The spirit was there with us when we were talking to the mom, who is a member but hasn't been in probably 20 years. They were referred to us by her brother, that we found after an appointment fell through with the guy across the street (that was a week or two ago). The guy we were trying to see is someone we talked to my first day in Philly while at the gas station. Good stuff. I hope I didn't lose anyone with that :D
Also, we are going to be seeing another part member family on Thursday. She wants her son baptized, and I want them all active. So we'll see how things work out there. It shows promise though.
Things definitely are looking up in Philly. We have a lot going on. We have appointments to go out with members for the rest of the week. Should be good! I am grateful to the Lord for blessing us here and I am grateful for all the prayers and continued support from all of you.
Oh! I'll let you all in on a little p-day excursion we had yesterday. So, we frequent the pawn shops on p-days, mainly because they have $2 DVDs and you can sometimes get really good deals. Well, I bought yesterday (to send home, mind you, not to watch while on my mission) all three Lord of the Ring DVDs for $2 each, as well as all of the Bourne movies, and all of them in EXCELLENT condition. The Bourne ones are like new condition. It made me happy. :)
Well, I hope all y'all have an awesome week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Dwight Mendenhall
9/28/2011
Hey All Y'all!
It's been an awesome week in Philly. To kick it off, we had an awesome Zone Conference in Clinton last Wednesday. Man I loved it! Turns out that our mission used to have a mission song, and they just came up with a new one. It's to the tune of "Carry On" hymn #255. Maybe I will have to sing it someday for all of you fine souls back home. Maybe. Hahahaha. Seriously though, Zone Conference was awesome! I really enjoyed it.
Friday night, we had dinner at the Oaks as usual. Sister Oaks isn't a member. She has a testimony though. It's only a matter of time before she decides when to be baptized. She's already decided to be baptized, now it is just WHEN. But Brother Oaks brother and sister-in-law were there from Utah. They've served three missions together. It was awesome to have some backup. We had a really spiritual lesson, which the main point was letting Sister Oaks know that we know she has real intent in studying, because she got her answer. We talked about different times when the spirit has spoken to us. It was awesome and really powerful.
Saturday night, we had a pre-conference fireside. We showed three talks from previous conferences. It was awesome. We had five investigators and two less actives. Oh! But earlier that morning, we went to the flea market. We had gone the previous Saturday and met a woman who works for a member. Anyway, we had asked those members to call and invite her to the fireside and they did that morning. Then we went to the flea market and say her (Tiffany) and her husband, Reggie. We talked to him, and he's awesome. He agrees with the organization of prophets and apostles. Anyway, they came to the fireside and loved it! He wanted to watch them again, so we gave him the church's website and told him what talks they were. They should be coming to watch conference this weekend (which I am super excited for!!! I LOVE CONFERENCE!)
Yesterday we went to the Doctor's and found out that Elder Belden had a little pus coming out of his leg, so the doc put him back on antibiotics for a week. It was slowing the healing process down. But when we got back, we had a lesson with Stacy (who was at the fireside). He is really intelligent and has read the Bible 3-4 times. We were able to set him with a baptisimal date for Oct. 30th. He has agreed to work towards that and to have that goal. It was an awesome lesson.
Anyway, I am loving the work here and am trying to be the best me I can be! I love the Lord with all my heart and am grateful to be serving him in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I am grateful for all the love and support from all of you! Thank you for the prayers and keep 'em comin'!
Love,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall!
It's been an awesome week in Philly. To kick it off, we had an awesome Zone Conference in Clinton last Wednesday. Man I loved it! Turns out that our mission used to have a mission song, and they just came up with a new one. It's to the tune of "Carry On" hymn #255. Maybe I will have to sing it someday for all of you fine souls back home. Maybe. Hahahaha. Seriously though, Zone Conference was awesome! I really enjoyed it.
Friday night, we had dinner at the Oaks as usual. Sister Oaks isn't a member. She has a testimony though. It's only a matter of time before she decides when to be baptized. She's already decided to be baptized, now it is just WHEN. But Brother Oaks brother and sister-in-law were there from Utah. They've served three missions together. It was awesome to have some backup. We had a really spiritual lesson, which the main point was letting Sister Oaks know that we know she has real intent in studying, because she got her answer. We talked about different times when the spirit has spoken to us. It was awesome and really powerful.
Saturday night, we had a pre-conference fireside. We showed three talks from previous conferences. It was awesome. We had five investigators and two less actives. Oh! But earlier that morning, we went to the flea market. We had gone the previous Saturday and met a woman who works for a member. Anyway, we had asked those members to call and invite her to the fireside and they did that morning. Then we went to the flea market and say her (Tiffany) and her husband, Reggie. We talked to him, and he's awesome. He agrees with the organization of prophets and apostles. Anyway, they came to the fireside and loved it! He wanted to watch them again, so we gave him the church's website and told him what talks they were. They should be coming to watch conference this weekend (which I am super excited for!!! I LOVE CONFERENCE!)
Yesterday we went to the Doctor's and found out that Elder Belden had a little pus coming out of his leg, so the doc put him back on antibiotics for a week. It was slowing the healing process down. But when we got back, we had a lesson with Stacy (who was at the fireside). He is really intelligent and has read the Bible 3-4 times. We were able to set him with a baptisimal date for Oct. 30th. He has agreed to work towards that and to have that goal. It was an awesome lesson.
Anyway, I am loving the work here and am trying to be the best me I can be! I love the Lord with all my heart and am grateful to be serving him in Philadelphia, Mississippi. I am grateful for all the love and support from all of you! Thank you for the prayers and keep 'em comin'!
Love,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall!
9/27/2011
Hey All Y'all,
The computers in Philly are down for reservice/updating so we can't email there. We are in Ridgeland right now to pick up supplies (after having gone to the Doctor's in Clinton) since they gave us the wrong ones at Zone Conference last week. They wont be back into the office until 2:30, so we came here to email really quick. We should have some more time tomorrow in Kosciusko after District Meeting. Just wanted to shoot a quick email out. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Mendenhall
The computers in Philly are down for reservice/updating so we can't email there. We are in Ridgeland right now to pick up supplies (after having gone to the Doctor's in Clinton) since they gave us the wrong ones at Zone Conference last week. They wont be back into the office until 2:30, so we came here to email really quick. We should have some more time tomorrow in Kosciusko after District Meeting. Just wanted to shoot a quick email out. Love you all!
Love,
Elder Mendenhall
9/19/2011
Hey All Y'all,
Here is a little about the mission and the work in general here in Philly.
The mission really is full of crazy and wonderful experiences. It is hard to type and write in details about things, so I have started to keep an audio journal on cassette tapes. I have only done that for two days so far, and I plan to listen to it and write it in my journal the next day after I record again. That way I will have an audio recording of it, and a transcribe of that. In Priesthood at church we have been talking about Family History work a lot (and really, that is part of missionary work) and I have been more and more impressed upon to keep a journal. I haven't been good about it so far in my mission. I think I missed 1 day while in the MTC but after that, it's been pretty sporadic entries. So I figure the audio thing will work out better. Random side note... did you know that Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal every day after he joined the church? That is a lot of writing.
My day to day process.... As far as tracting goes, we haven't done a lot here. Actually... we haven't done any. Since the Doctor doesn't want Elder Belden getting sweaty, that kind of stops us from walking around much. Though in my training area with Elder Redmon, we tracted quite a bit. President Tucker would rather have us 5,5,5 then tract. When we go to a house (either for an appointment, to contact a referral, or to see a former investigator, or member or any other reason) instead of just leaving after and going from place to place, we are supposed to knock five houses to left of the house we are visiting, then five houses to the right, and five across the street. And if we have already done that, then we need to expand more and go further then 5 away. The Lord has guided us into that area for a reason, and it may not always be the person we intended to see. So we 5,5,5! It is effictive too, especially around members, since that means there is already someone close by to help fellowship anyone that we find. In Long Beach, we actually found a guy who was already a member by doing that. He had moved from California, and hadn't had his records moved or hadn't made any effort to contact the church there. We found him and taught him the Restoration. That was right before I left to come to Philly.
The Branch here helps a lot more then you might expect. Brother Muse (the 2nd counsler) usually goes out with us at least once a week. Brother Wrich (the Branch Mission Leader) goes out with us once a week (both Brothers Muse and Wrich leave 30 minutes away from us in Union). President Boyles (the Branch President) will go out with us if we give him a couple of days notice. And we are teaching Brother Oaks wife (part member families are the best!), and they have us over usually every Friday to eat and then we have a lesson after. And they live 20-30 minutes away. Sister Braxton feeds us every Wednesday and her inactive son picks us up and takes us there (surprise! 20-30 minutes away...). So we get quite a bit of help. We are having a General Conference fireside this Saturday, and we mentioned that to President and Sister Boyles when we were at their house, and Sister Boyles suggested having ice cream sundaes after, and she made a sign up sheet for that and a poster for the fireside. She really took it upon herself to make it happen.
To give you an idea of what out goals are each week and what we actually get, here are our numbers from this past week: (goal first, actual second... hope it makes sense!)
Baptized- 1/0
Confirmed- 1/0
With A Baptism Date- 1/0
Investigators in Sacrament Meeting- 3/1
Lessons With a Member Present- 4/2
Other Lessons- 8/11
Progressing Investigators- 2/2
Referrals Received- 0/0
Referrals Contacted- 2/0
New Investigators- 3/1
Lessons Taught To Less Actives- 4/2
BoMs Lent Out- 2/0
That's that. Not the best numbers, but there are people behind them at least. :) And we are getting another case of BoMs at Zone Conference on Wednesday, which is good. And we only have ZC 4 times a year. Every other transfer. Same with interviews.
Life here is great and the work continues to pick up and I continue to improve at being a true servant of the Lord. I strive to do my best, but constantly fall short again and again. I am striving to overcome my laziness though and to be the best I can be! I love you all and am thankful for the support and love!
Love,
Elder Mendenhall
Here is a little about the mission and the work in general here in Philly.
The mission really is full of crazy and wonderful experiences. It is hard to type and write in details about things, so I have started to keep an audio journal on cassette tapes. I have only done that for two days so far, and I plan to listen to it and write it in my journal the next day after I record again. That way I will have an audio recording of it, and a transcribe of that. In Priesthood at church we have been talking about Family History work a lot (and really, that is part of missionary work) and I have been more and more impressed upon to keep a journal. I haven't been good about it so far in my mission. I think I missed 1 day while in the MTC but after that, it's been pretty sporadic entries. So I figure the audio thing will work out better. Random side note... did you know that Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal every day after he joined the church? That is a lot of writing.
My day to day process.... As far as tracting goes, we haven't done a lot here. Actually... we haven't done any. Since the Doctor doesn't want Elder Belden getting sweaty, that kind of stops us from walking around much. Though in my training area with Elder Redmon, we tracted quite a bit. President Tucker would rather have us 5,5,5 then tract. When we go to a house (either for an appointment, to contact a referral, or to see a former investigator, or member or any other reason) instead of just leaving after and going from place to place, we are supposed to knock five houses to left of the house we are visiting, then five houses to the right, and five across the street. And if we have already done that, then we need to expand more and go further then 5 away. The Lord has guided us into that area for a reason, and it may not always be the person we intended to see. So we 5,5,5! It is effictive too, especially around members, since that means there is already someone close by to help fellowship anyone that we find. In Long Beach, we actually found a guy who was already a member by doing that. He had moved from California, and hadn't had his records moved or hadn't made any effort to contact the church there. We found him and taught him the Restoration. That was right before I left to come to Philly.
The Branch here helps a lot more then you might expect. Brother Muse (the 2nd counsler) usually goes out with us at least once a week. Brother Wrich (the Branch Mission Leader) goes out with us once a week (both Brothers Muse and Wrich leave 30 minutes away from us in Union). President Boyles (the Branch President) will go out with us if we give him a couple of days notice. And we are teaching Brother Oaks wife (part member families are the best!), and they have us over usually every Friday to eat and then we have a lesson after. And they live 20-30 minutes away. Sister Braxton feeds us every Wednesday and her inactive son picks us up and takes us there (surprise! 20-30 minutes away...). So we get quite a bit of help. We are having a General Conference fireside this Saturday, and we mentioned that to President and Sister Boyles when we were at their house, and Sister Boyles suggested having ice cream sundaes after, and she made a sign up sheet for that and a poster for the fireside. She really took it upon herself to make it happen.
To give you an idea of what out goals are each week and what we actually get, here are our numbers from this past week: (goal first, actual second... hope it makes sense!)
Baptized- 1/0
Confirmed- 1/0
With A Baptism Date- 1/0
Investigators in Sacrament Meeting- 3/1
Lessons With a Member Present- 4/2
Other Lessons- 8/11
Progressing Investigators- 2/2
Referrals Received- 0/0
Referrals Contacted- 2/0
New Investigators- 3/1
Lessons Taught To Less Actives- 4/2
BoMs Lent Out- 2/0
That's that. Not the best numbers, but there are people behind them at least. :) And we are getting another case of BoMs at Zone Conference on Wednesday, which is good. And we only have ZC 4 times a year. Every other transfer. Same with interviews.
Life here is great and the work continues to pick up and I continue to improve at being a true servant of the Lord. I strive to do my best, but constantly fall short again and again. I am striving to overcome my laziness though and to be the best I can be! I love you all and am thankful for the support and love!
Love,
Elder Mendenhall
9/12/2011
Howdy All Y'all!
Sometimes I forget I am in the south until I go in a store and the lady says "how y'all doin'?" or when we go to a member's house and while riding in the van, some younger kids are talking to me and man what an accent on them. Real southern folk there.
Well... the weather is back up in the 90's or so. So much for fall. That's okay though! The hole in Elder Belden's leg is *almost* gone! I can actually see the skin inside of it and I can barely get any gauze in it. The Doc may tell us to let it close up tomorrow! Woot!
Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I am now officially 20. Whatever officially means. Elder Belden and I were in our apartment Friday night and he told me I only had a few hours left as a teenager.
The mailman came to the door with 4 packages for me on Friday. I opened three of them while Elder Belden recorded me. I have a bunch of videos I need to send home. Maybe in the next few weeks I will put them on a CD or something. Thank y'all for the presents! More importantly, I want to thank all of you for the much needed love and support. I know that I have my amazing family behind me every step of the way in everything I do, as well as my friends.
Diego cooked some delicious steak for me Saturday night! He actually went to a butcher to get it. And... He came to church! Granted, the reason was to hear Elder Belden speak, but hopefully he liked it and wants to come again. Sadly he left right after Sacrament meeting because he had some business he needed to attend to, so I really didn't get to talk to him about it. I will soon enough though! Well... probably not until Thursday, but whatever.
Saturday morning we went and helped President Boyles (the branch president) move some pallets, bricks, and wood on his property. They fed us lunch and Sister Boyles also made me a delicious chocolate cake. In fact... we have a lot of sweets at our apartment. There are parts of three pies in the fridge, and we have a whole cake. And that doesn't include any of the goodies from my packages. As Elder Belden put it... "It's either feast or famine and right now it's a feast". Give it a couple of weeks and we wont have much. That's when I feast on ramen! ;)
Well.. I need to get writing a couple of other emails. I love you all! Please continue in your prayers and fasting for the welfare of the people who know not God, especially those here in Philadelphia. :)
With Love From The South
From The One And Only,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall
Sometimes I forget I am in the south until I go in a store and the lady says "how y'all doin'?" or when we go to a member's house and while riding in the van, some younger kids are talking to me and man what an accent on them. Real southern folk there.
Well... the weather is back up in the 90's or so. So much for fall. That's okay though! The hole in Elder Belden's leg is *almost* gone! I can actually see the skin inside of it and I can barely get any gauze in it. The Doc may tell us to let it close up tomorrow! Woot!
Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I am now officially 20. Whatever officially means. Elder Belden and I were in our apartment Friday night and he told me I only had a few hours left as a teenager.
The mailman came to the door with 4 packages for me on Friday. I opened three of them while Elder Belden recorded me. I have a bunch of videos I need to send home. Maybe in the next few weeks I will put them on a CD or something. Thank y'all for the presents! More importantly, I want to thank all of you for the much needed love and support. I know that I have my amazing family behind me every step of the way in everything I do, as well as my friends.
Diego cooked some delicious steak for me Saturday night! He actually went to a butcher to get it. And... He came to church! Granted, the reason was to hear Elder Belden speak, but hopefully he liked it and wants to come again. Sadly he left right after Sacrament meeting because he had some business he needed to attend to, so I really didn't get to talk to him about it. I will soon enough though! Well... probably not until Thursday, but whatever.
Saturday morning we went and helped President Boyles (the branch president) move some pallets, bricks, and wood on his property. They fed us lunch and Sister Boyles also made me a delicious chocolate cake. In fact... we have a lot of sweets at our apartment. There are parts of three pies in the fridge, and we have a whole cake. And that doesn't include any of the goodies from my packages. As Elder Belden put it... "It's either feast or famine and right now it's a feast". Give it a couple of weeks and we wont have much. That's when I feast on ramen! ;)
Well.. I need to get writing a couple of other emails. I love you all! Please continue in your prayers and fasting for the welfare of the people who know not God, especially those here in Philadelphia. :)
With Love From The South
From The One And Only,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall
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