First week with Elder Cramer (July 22, 2013)

Querida Familia,

So, I found out that my new companion, Elder Cramer, had been out in the field for about 9 days when he got transferred to me. He was a little more prepared for the field than I was when I first came out, in most ways, even though he's only been a missionary for about a month (I was a missionary for two months before I even came to Washington). He is from a small town in North Carolina, and his house is about an hour from Raleigh, the capital there. He used to be a wrestler back home, and tried to convince our superintendant here to let him wrestle on P-day in the school (he was joking. Mostly). He was in Kennewick, living in the Mission Home for about 8 days before he came up here to Oroville. I guess there was some kind of mix-up on his date to come to the MTC because of the mission changes, and so he came to the field about 2 weeks into the transfer. He is an english elder, but wants to learn how to bear his testimony in spanish, so he can participate more in those lessons. The majority of the work up here is english though, so it's not too big of a problem. I do miss speaking more spanish though. 

We met a few interesting people his first week. One guy told us that he fought in Vietnam and had over 600 "kills". That raised an eye-brow. Another man from another religion told us he was converted as he tried to assault someone. And then there was the dog that bit Elder Cramer on his 3rd or so day. Out for only a month, and he's already got a lot of good stories! :)

To tell you about the area: So, it's been a pretty crazy week. We found out that the reason Sofia, one of our main investigators didn't go to church last week, is because Walmart called her into work. I now have a personal issue with Walmart, but that's beside the point. She unfortunately couldn't make it yesterday either, for the same reason, but does want to come. But for now, we will have to wait until her schedule allows her to do so. We didn't have the chance to teach Kim this week, because he's on a fishing trip, but he told us he will be in town by Wednesday, for our Ward Party, and he's definitely planning on coming to that. We won't be able to introduce him to everyone there because we won't get home from Wenatchee for three hours after the party starts, but we arranged a really great member, Brother Quick to show him around. We also taught Sinforiano yesterday with Brother Quick, and were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to him. He seemed... interested. But not like his mind was blown like I kind of hoped. It was kind of difficult, since I was teaching alone in spanish, but I think he and his daughter, Abril, liked the lesson. We told them that they can't know for sure if they will have an eternal family one day or not, unless they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We're praying that his work in the vineyard won't wear him out too much that he won't have the time to.

I had been a little discouraged from tracting recently, partly because I felt bad that with Elder Heward, we hardly taught any lessons from tracting while we were together. So I had been somewhat avoiding that form of finding, but felt myself at a loss of how to find investigators yesterday, during an hour where our appointment cancelled, and our back-ups failed. So, I told Elder Cramer, that we were going to do some faith-tracting. He asked me what made it different, and I said that we are going to have an extra heaping of faith when we went out to find, that the Lord would bring us to someone that was prepared. He seemed down with that. So when we went out, of course the first few houses were unsuccessful (they usually are), and we actually went down a little alley way on the edge of town, where I hadn't been very often. And lo, and behold, on the other side of this alley-way is a family in their back-yard, of a mom and her 5 kids! We talked to her, and she speaks spanish and english (so it was good for me and Elder Cramer) and she said that she felt estranged with all of the religions, and that she just wanted to know which of all the churches is true!!! So we shared the Restoration, that this was the one true church, and gave them a Book of Mormon, and invited them to come to church! She said she didn't want all of her family to go at first, but  that she would come next Sunday and check it out. As we rode away, Elder Cramer told me "I've got a good feeling about them Elder". I smiled and said, "So do I!" I have faith in tracting again. But something to note is that I had to have faith first, before the evidence would come forth.

Something I wanted to say is that you can pretty much ignore everything I said last time about how to be a member missionary. INSTEAD you can read a book that's called something like "The Power of an Everyday Missionary" by Clayton Christensen. I guess the missionaries from the office gave a training on it to the Ward Mission Leaders, including ours, Brother Timm, and told them to have their missionaries read it when they could. I think it is the best missionary book I've read, that isn't written by Prophets! Please please PLEASE read that book, if you have any desire to be a member missionary. It is only about 150 pages, I've heard it is pretty cheap in paper back, and will teach you the 'how' of inviting people to hear the happiness that comes from the Gospel. That's my new invitation to you all. Just like my investigators, I'm inviting you to read a book, and act on it. :)

No pictures again, sorry. :( But I did get my new GPS from my family, and I plan on hunting down all of the "hill-people" hiding in the outskirts of Oroville! They can't hide from me now!

Hope none of you think I'm too weird, and I hope you all have a good week. Love you all!

Elder Grant