2 weeks - 9/28/15

Dang it's been a pretty good week. But it's also had it's downs. 

Good News: We are working with Sister Lish's son. He was baptized like 26 years ago but knows basically nothing about the church but he really has a desire to learn and find out if it is true. He is so awesome I just love him. He's been reading and just has such great questions. 

Bad News: We have tried and tried and tried and just can't get a hold of Nick and Demonte. And as for one of our other investigators, we went to go see her and we saw her pull up with a JW in a truck and the JW told us to come talk to her so we did and she said that our investigator has decided to study with the JW's and that if she wants to study more with us she will let us know but for now she doesn't. And our investigator was there the whole time and wouldn't make eye contact with us so ugh that's such a bummer. That actually got us kinda down for about 30 minutes.

Funny moment at Church: So I'm like "ok I'm safe. I won't have to give a talk at all in Natchitoches since next Sunday is General Conference and the one after is Fast Sunday and then I'm home." So on Sunday Pres Deford was there and the high councilor never showed up. So I'm getting ready to sit back and relax a little after passing the sacrament when the bishop calls me on the spot to come up and bear my testimony. haha I was fine with it but it definitely caught me off guard. 

So right now we are kinda in a rut since most of our teaching pool has vanished so we are really looking for ideas to find more people in little ol Natchitoches. I mean I'm not gonna have another baptism on my mission but I wanna leave Elder Allen with something behind, ya know. 

Well we are ready to hit this next week hard. 16 days left and I am not gonna check out!

Love yall!

Elder Lehr

dang good week - 9/21/15

Dang! Wow this week has been busy! Lots of meetings and stuff. But the time we did spend proselyting was real productive.

Cool Miracle: I just wanna say thank you for all of your prayers. So Olivia called us and said that she knows God has answered our prayers. She now has a new place to stay and is at peace of mind and is super happy. A lot more receptive to the gospel now. So their family is now on track and progressing. 

Investigators: So Bob has been reading his Book of Mormon some more so that's real good. And also Nick and Demonte have been as well. They just need to come to church! But they are doing well. I can see their faith increasing. 

Members: I just wanna say a shout out to the members here. They are so willing to have us in their home and to work with us. It's great. The hard part for us is getting a solid return appointment with an investigator haha but the members are helping us out a lot. 

Hymns: Dang I love hymns. They are the best way to invite the spirit. I now sing them in the shower and listen to them all the time. I think my new favorite one is He Sent His Son. Dang now that is a good hymn.

Wow I can't believe I'm going home so soon. I talk about it a lot and joke about it but it really does not seem real. But I am excited.

Love yall 

Elder Lehr

P.S. Dang I did not hear that about Sierra Leone that is soo sad! (severe flooding). When will they get a break. Josh has a class with Elder Gosch! That's sooo cool he was such a solid missionary.  And Many is doing well now. They have been having soo many miracles happen recently. They just got a full family that came to church and wants to be baptized. And they are relatives to the Johnston family there so it's really, really cool. Dang love ya mom!!!

Dang - 09/14/15

Dang this has been a pretty dang busy week. 

Exchanges: We went on exchanges and I was with Elder Dobie again in Many. It was fun. Basically just tried to help give some tips on how to use time in Many effectively. Dang I forgot though how tough it was in Many to do that haha but we had fun. 

ZTM: We got to go to Alexandria and see all of the other missionaries. It was awesome. The instructions were pretty good. Basically talking about what Elder Allen and I were talking about the other day (becoming consecrated). 

Cottage Meeting: We held a cottage meeting last night at Pres. Deford's place and we prepared a nice play and everything. We invited like 30 people to come and literally no one came. It was a big disappointment. But we still had tons of fun doing it.

Dying wish: So our ward mission leader Bro Allen always gives the missionaries who end their mission here a dying wish. So since he is a super good cook he is now giving me cooking lessons for my dying wish. So I'm real excited to try all of this out!

Investigators: We still haven't gotten a hold of Olivia. The young men who are investigators are both doing well. Though they didn't come to church. And Bob the old vietnam vet is actually starting to progress a bit! He is keeping his commitment to read the Book of Mormon! So that's probably the best news as far as investigators go. 

Dang love yall so much!

Elder Lehr

Becoming Consecrated - 9/7/15

Dang this has been a pretty weird week. I literally have no idea what happened. We basically had a lot of meetings and a lot of service projects. Honestly Elder Allen and I just lost some motivation this past week. But....

Spiritual moment: Last night we were doing 12 week training and we got a little off topic but we started talking about our potential to become like God and how we can get there. We talked about how Elder Holland said that the goal of Preach My Gospel is to get us teaching the same way the ancients did. With so much power and authority. We talked about the need for the Gift of the Holy Ghost a ton and well it would take forever for me to explain it all the way I would like to so suffice it to say we have made goals to be sanctified and worthy of the spirit always so that we can teach like Nephi of old. Especially the one in Helaman. So we are really consecrating ourselves these last 5 weeks.

Celestial Burgers. We went with the Many Elders to Granny Lois for dinner and ohohoho it was sooooo good. Literally the highlight of the week. Those are some dang good burgers.

This next week we are having an activity at Pres. Deford's house and the missionaries are doing a little play where it is like the great and abominable sin to eat chocolate cake and to wear the color red. It's pretty funny and fun. It will be good. I hope a lot of our investigators come. 

Oh and some really good transfer news is that Elder Johnson is in Many!! I am so pumped. He was being trained in Natchitoches when I first got here. Good times.

Love y'all

Elder Lehr

Granny Lois' burger of deliciousness

Last transfer - 9/1/15

Wow I can not believe I only have 43 days left. Literally insane. 

Well this week has been pretty darn good

Good stuff: The members here are absolutely awesome. We are working with them a lot more now. Our investigator family,  most of them are doing real well but the mom is struggling so keep her in your prayers. It would be so neat to see this family live the gospel and become converted. They could help so much in the ward and also it would be so good for them. Also we had 2 investigators come to church on Sunday! They are 2 young men who are referrals and relatives of a family here. haha Also we had this less active come to church named Charlie Brown. I think that's so awesome that we are teaching a Charlie Brown. 

Transfers: Well we're staying. Sister Neisen is gone. And Elder Jacildo is gone in our district. That's the big news I see. 

hmm Well that's about it for this week. I'm excited for this last transfer. Gonna keep it going.

Love yall 

Elder Lehr

P.S. Man I am excited to come home but I am enjoying it every last bit here. Dang, love you so much Mom!