Sounds like the week was pretty action packed. I would have loved to see her funeral, it was good to be able to call you because of it though. The wierdest part for me was definitely talking to Emily, she sounds like an American girl completely and totally. After hearing Trini girls talk all the time it is the wierdest thing on the planet to hear something else.
We had somebody from the first quorom of the seventy come and speak at zone conference on friday which was cool. We saw how important repentance is and relying on the atonement more than just baptizing and trying to keep people active. He showed us a lot of the behind the scenes if you will, or the true meaning of what we do. It is quite the motivator to think that people's eternal salvation lies on my shoulders and bringing the holy ghost into their presence.
It sounds like everything is going well. As far as the Amer-indians you are teaching, I think you definitely need to realize what you have in front of your eyes. Guyana is by far the highest baptizing place in the mission, Trinidad only comes close by crazy hard working missionaries. In Guyana they literally search for Amer-Indians because there are so many promises w/ them. We just read one about how before the second coming the Lamanites will "blossom and become a righteous people". Also the Book of Mormon is promised to be brought to their remembrance, people can literally tell that they are their ancestors. Dreams and visions are common among them.
Bring the missionaries, and if not than do your best to testify of the book of mormon and give them copies. Read stories w/ them about Nephi and the Lamanites. Get them into the book of mormon! I would love to be able to show my fellow missionaries of an entire Amer-Indian family being baptized in Oregon! We had a few downers this week to start off with. We weren't able to catch travel because of the hours of rain that stopped them all from working. So we missed almost all of our new investigators for the week from coming to church because we didn't see them for 2 days.
The second downer happened Sunday morning. We went by to pick up Chubby and his cousin Avinash and chubby was still asleep. So we woke him up and he went and showered and while he was getting ready Avinash's boss came by after he was already totally dressed and made him go to work or he would fire him. That was very frustrating. Then we ran to church from Chubby's house and showed up 15 minutes late. It was sacrament meeting primary edition, it was real cool. I got a picture w/ the primary but I forgot to bring my USB cable so no pictures this week.
We took Brandon out w/ us (a way cool member who is 13 and is totally solid for coming to church) and he brought us by his friend Dominick. We taught him lesson 1 and he was real cool. We came back and taught him lesson 2 and he said when he prayed about Joseph Smith he got an answer to his prayers. As we always tell them we say ask "Is Joseph Smith a prophet" and he said he felt like a tingling inside, but he can never describe it. We came back 4 days later because of lack of travel, he has asked every night but 1 and has had 3 consecutive answers to his prayers about Joseph Smith and commited to baptism on the 15th. This boy is just about the most prepared person I have taught.
This week has been very crazy as far as missionary work goes. We have been taught not to teach ANYONE who is not totally prepared for the gospel. AKA if they don't keep a commitment they are dropped, if they don't commit to baptism on the first lesson as we ask "if you know its true will you be baptized" they are dropped, so we have been teaching only those people that have literally been prepared by God. It is very easy to get into people's houses in the West Indies, it is weeding out those that won't be willing to act that we have to do.
The missionary leaders know what they are doing in this work. It is amazing how helpful the Assistants to the President are. They are the ones who taught us it, and it is leaving us with only amazing people to teach. One thing I have never been good at is repenting daily. I always just thought I was good to go if I was mostly keeping the commandments. I had one of the most amazing feelings of my life as I humbled myself and repented for all of the terribly shortcomings I have as a missionary and as a person. The power of the atonement is real.That is about all of the week. Transfers always seem to start out slow, the miracles come as we prove our diligence to the Lord.
-Elder Risenmay
Monday, October 27, 2008
10-20-2008
Elder White is good, he is different than all my other companions but we get along pretty good. We don't really have anything in common either. This has probably been the hardest working week of my mission w/ not a lot of visible success in numbers. We got a new Older Couple this week also and they are real cool, I have never seen a couple so excited. They remind me a lot of myself, I don't know how they have kept the energy for another 40 years though I'm already half dead keeping up the pace.
Cool story about Chubby, we taught him at the beginning of last transfer and dropped his brother after he didn't want to come to church anymore and we didn't think he was interesting. We went by and taught him directly for the first time and had him pray right in front of us to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet. To my great astonishment he recieved a strong answer on the spot. We asked him how he felt after and he said that "It felt like my whole body just opened up inside" "I have never felt like that in my whole life". He has been testifying of his answer to all around him when we ask, soooo cool. He already wants to go on a mission, along w/ one of his younger brothers.
It is like 3 Guyanese families who all live together, it went from nobody interested to the entire family giving a very firm commitment to be at church next week, and 2 of them showed up at church yesterday. Things are looking way up. We are trying to get him to come to Zone Conference to get him pumped up to be a missionary. We committed him to start working towards and hour a day of reading and he promised. He has kept his commitments so far, but only since he got an answer. When we used to teach him he would never pay attention and be drunk half the time. He has been clean since that answer. Oh the power of the Holy Ghost! I am glad to finally have cool stories again, that is what happens when we start actually doing the work!
Elder White is going through culture shock, going from guyana to here is a huge change apparently. He can't get over most of the stuff that is different. He is worse on culture shock than I was when I got here from the states! But he is a good teacher, and a different one than I have ever taught with. Part of it is probably that he just came from Guyana. It has been hard to have fun, but easy to work hard. We are starting to find some slight things in common which will help. As soon as I can get to the point where I can joke w/ the companion and have fun is when things really start working. Loving the companion is a huge part of the work I have already found out.
This morning I had probably the best study I have had on my mission, maybe ever. It really showed me how many things I still needed to work on and how much more I have to do and can do to be a better missionary. Yet again I am being shown that Uncle Seth's advice was right, every companionship and area there is something the Lord wants me to learn. I need to tuck in my skirt and learn it as pappy says. Things are going good, I know that I have a lot more to learn which is going to help me a lot. I am about out of stuff to write about, more things will come as the transfer progresses and we have more people moving towards the gate of baptism.
-Elder Risenmay
Cool story about Chubby, we taught him at the beginning of last transfer and dropped his brother after he didn't want to come to church anymore and we didn't think he was interesting. We went by and taught him directly for the first time and had him pray right in front of us to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet. To my great astonishment he recieved a strong answer on the spot. We asked him how he felt after and he said that "It felt like my whole body just opened up inside" "I have never felt like that in my whole life". He has been testifying of his answer to all around him when we ask, soooo cool. He already wants to go on a mission, along w/ one of his younger brothers.
It is like 3 Guyanese families who all live together, it went from nobody interested to the entire family giving a very firm commitment to be at church next week, and 2 of them showed up at church yesterday. Things are looking way up. We are trying to get him to come to Zone Conference to get him pumped up to be a missionary. We committed him to start working towards and hour a day of reading and he promised. He has kept his commitments so far, but only since he got an answer. When we used to teach him he would never pay attention and be drunk half the time. He has been clean since that answer. Oh the power of the Holy Ghost! I am glad to finally have cool stories again, that is what happens when we start actually doing the work!
Elder White is going through culture shock, going from guyana to here is a huge change apparently. He can't get over most of the stuff that is different. He is worse on culture shock than I was when I got here from the states! But he is a good teacher, and a different one than I have ever taught with. Part of it is probably that he just came from Guyana. It has been hard to have fun, but easy to work hard. We are starting to find some slight things in common which will help. As soon as I can get to the point where I can joke w/ the companion and have fun is when things really start working. Loving the companion is a huge part of the work I have already found out.
This morning I had probably the best study I have had on my mission, maybe ever. It really showed me how many things I still needed to work on and how much more I have to do and can do to be a better missionary. Yet again I am being shown that Uncle Seth's advice was right, every companionship and area there is something the Lord wants me to learn. I need to tuck in my skirt and learn it as pappy says. Things are going good, I know that I have a lot more to learn which is going to help me a lot. I am about out of stuff to write about, more things will come as the transfer progresses and we have more people moving towards the gate of baptism.
-Elder Risenmay
10-13-2008 Pictures
2) I didn't know you opened up a shop down here pappy
3) Branch President's son got baptized
4) Sports day
5) There just happened to be a dirt bike race going on outside.
It is too bad almost all of em are yamahas
6) Sports day again
7) A few of our investigators were playing football(soccer) when we got there.
8) We found a lizard in our room....
9) This is what I use right now until I get a sweet wood box from juice.
6) Sports day again
7) A few of our investigators were playing football(soccer) when we got there.
Elder Endemann got some video of it that you will get when I ship all my files back home.
They were amazed a white boy could play
8) We found a lizard in our room....
9) This is what I use right now until I get a sweet wood box from juice.
BoM, Bible, Song book, tracts
10-13-2008 Another Week In Paradise!!??
250 pushups is a whole lot, he must be in real good shape. When I was doing weights the army came in and I did 100 in a minute, but that was probably the best shape I have ever been in. I am glad crazeball is working hard, I have a letter for him I am just about to ship off right after this. I wrote down in my planner to get a picture w/ the primary kids on sunday so it should happen. I will work on ideas for primary kids to do missionary work, I have a few already but it is much easier to think of our age. Elder Green will warm up soon, there are 2 Greens in our mission and both of them are great missionary. One of them is an older couple and the other is my age. I was probably one of the least timid when I came out, but I was still a little timid. He will learn to open up his mouth.
It is very good to hear about how well the family is doing, I am usually about in tears when I hear the difference that it makes me being out here. I just have to make sure I hide them from all my companions. Emily told me about her bell whacking experience, I laughed pretty darn hard at that one. And they will obviously not meet my qualification of 1/2 a day reading the book of mormon for marriage. Or the only other qualification which is being willing to ride a dirt bike.
This week was real slow for us, my companion about died. Puking, Diahrea, coughing, weezing, literally everything you can think of. We tried going out a few times early on in the week when he was especially sick and he was breathing real hard just standing up. But yet in the 2.5 days we went out we got enough work done to get it to an above average for trinidad week. I had the chance to write quite a few letters because of all the laying around we did.
Wednesday is transfers, last transfer our area was combined, west to east became 1 area. Now it is being split up again, I am going west Endemann is going East. I am going to be w/ Elder White, he has been in Guyana for the last year. So it will be an interesting transition for him, most Elders have a real hard time coming from there to here because they think they don't hardly baptize in Trinidad. We will prove them wrong this transfer. I am pretty pumped up for it.
-Elder Risenmay
It is very good to hear about how well the family is doing, I am usually about in tears when I hear the difference that it makes me being out here. I just have to make sure I hide them from all my companions. Emily told me about her bell whacking experience, I laughed pretty darn hard at that one. And they will obviously not meet my qualification of 1/2 a day reading the book of mormon for marriage. Or the only other qualification which is being willing to ride a dirt bike.
This week was real slow for us, my companion about died. Puking, Diahrea, coughing, weezing, literally everything you can think of. We tried going out a few times early on in the week when he was especially sick and he was breathing real hard just standing up. But yet in the 2.5 days we went out we got enough work done to get it to an above average for trinidad week. I had the chance to write quite a few letters because of all the laying around we did.
Wednesday is transfers, last transfer our area was combined, west to east became 1 area. Now it is being split up again, I am going west Endemann is going East. I am going to be w/ Elder White, he has been in Guyana for the last year. So it will be an interesting transition for him, most Elders have a real hard time coming from there to here because they think they don't hardly baptize in Trinidad. We will prove them wrong this transfer. I am pretty pumped up for it.
-Elder Risenmay
10-6-2008
I have heard a bit about the economy problems but not a whole lot. You would think that we would hear more about it but apparently no one in the West Indies knows. Whenever there is a flood they know though, and they always think it is in our home towns. I figured it was pretty bad but I didn't know it was that bad. That is a partial contributing factor to my wanting to go into a health career, they are never going to go out of business, people need to stay alive.
I had a wierd feeling through most of conference, I felt bad for my lack of devotion in the work that I am engaged in. I feel like I can do a lot more to find people than I am right now. My fire was partly rekindled. Transfer calls are saturday and Elder Endemann is training, so that means I will have someone new and stay on the west side of chaguanas.
This week is going to be a picture week. Get ready for plenty.
1) First Baptism in Chaguanas, Ann Marie
2.) Elder Willis Baptizing
3) I definitely could have whooped the owners of this game.
4) Golf for the first time.
5) Fortunately Action Drain doesn't do this
6) Picture I accidentally took, Member kid beating up on my investigator.
3 boys standing up on right are the family who got answers daily
3 boys standing up on right are the family who got answers daily
7) Washing some dishes at a member's house
8) Ice Cream Wedding
9) Group
10) Ice Cream Baptism, 4 baptized
11) This is Elder Palmer telling me I should get to my fireside
12) Shaking hands before I go
13) Blood Pudding
14) Rasta dog, Dreads on tail ears and legs
15) Hair cut
16) Sunrise
17) Moraccas Beach, we played american football first,
and then football football(Soccer) 2nd. Elder Fox and I scored 6 goals
18) Ride Back, checking out what my camera can do w/ colors
19) Gators!
20) 2nd baptism in Chaguanas, Chucky
21) This is how I rode around town w/ the other Elders hiding from the cops
22) Playing w/ a motorcycle at a member's house.
Everyone loves dirt bikes here but no one has them.
23) Former Investigators having fun
24) Lashley family, part member
25) Sweet picture I accidentally took. Kinda scary.
That is my whole transfer on photo.
That is my whole transfer on photo. -Elder Risenmay
9-29-2008 What a Week!!
Bad news about the jeep, you could always put bars over all the windows and razor wire on the fences like they do here. Our branch president's wife's car was broken into this week too.
I had an pretty decent week this week. We did a reasonable amount of finding and are kind of getting into the groove that I like to be into. It is hard to adjust to every companion and help them be motivated all the time, it is easier to do w/ the young missionaries than the older ones(mission age). One thing I see in our correlation meetings is that the presidents are all there and they say "anyone want to volunteer?" and no one does. If you take the first step and schedule a time w/ a person to go by the others will follow like a domino effect. We always have to ask people on sundays what days they can go out w/ us. No one takes the initiative and steps up to the plate. You gotta set the example.
If you have questions about missionary work ask me while I am still out here, I have a lot of answers if you will put out the answers. I was very excited to see that KTM has busted out the 150, fortunately during the week I am too busy to even think about home but it is nice to think about dirt bikes once in a while. It is too bad it took me so long to get into them.
I will give you the coolest story first. They have gotten a lot less cool since I was moved away from Elder Palmer, So Saturday we baptized someone who I don't know very well, 4 weeks into the transfer but we only taught her twice. She had already been taught everything before so we basically just went and committed her to baptism and interviewed her. The next day we got a call saying one of Elder Endemann's people he had previously taught was getting baptized sunday night at 6 and we were thinking of someone to take to the baptism that was investigating the church. We thought of Chucky! He is a member referral who I taught mostly w/ Elder Bowens because he has been working a lot recently.
On the way to the baptism we joked w/ him about being baptized today, even though he was qualified and was taught everything he would always tell us "I will let you know when I am ready". So we get there real real early, saturday it took us an hour to get to couva for a baptism, sunday it took us 10 minutes. I kept wondering why everthing was going so smoothly. We got there and after a few minutes chucky said "I think I'm getting wet today." I said "are you serious?" he said yes "are you really serious?" he said yes.
We interviewed him and baptized him on the spot. He felt so good afterwards. So we had a surprise baptism of one of our investigators. He is keeping it a secret from the family he lives w/ who are members until they announce it in church. The older couple said "that will be a shock to them!" he said "I'm an electrician it has to be a shocking experience!" He is pretty hilarious and has the greatest smile and laugh of all time. Tender mercies of the Lord.
Nothing else really happened this week, we did some finding. But mostly I am trying to get the fire under my companion. He is real good at connecting w/ people, so if I can do what I am trying to do we will do amazing for the next 2 weeks. I will do my best. Pictures are coming this week, should be quite a few. If Tanya hasn't sent you her pictures of the baptism and told you that story get it from her. That was the coolest thing I have heard from home so far. Even better than the news about the 150 ktm. I will try to make next week's letter more exciting!
-Elder Risenmay
I had an pretty decent week this week. We did a reasonable amount of finding and are kind of getting into the groove that I like to be into. It is hard to adjust to every companion and help them be motivated all the time, it is easier to do w/ the young missionaries than the older ones(mission age). One thing I see in our correlation meetings is that the presidents are all there and they say "anyone want to volunteer?" and no one does. If you take the first step and schedule a time w/ a person to go by the others will follow like a domino effect. We always have to ask people on sundays what days they can go out w/ us. No one takes the initiative and steps up to the plate. You gotta set the example.
If you have questions about missionary work ask me while I am still out here, I have a lot of answers if you will put out the answers. I was very excited to see that KTM has busted out the 150, fortunately during the week I am too busy to even think about home but it is nice to think about dirt bikes once in a while. It is too bad it took me so long to get into them.
I will give you the coolest story first. They have gotten a lot less cool since I was moved away from Elder Palmer, So Saturday we baptized someone who I don't know very well, 4 weeks into the transfer but we only taught her twice. She had already been taught everything before so we basically just went and committed her to baptism and interviewed her. The next day we got a call saying one of Elder Endemann's people he had previously taught was getting baptized sunday night at 6 and we were thinking of someone to take to the baptism that was investigating the church. We thought of Chucky! He is a member referral who I taught mostly w/ Elder Bowens because he has been working a lot recently.
On the way to the baptism we joked w/ him about being baptized today, even though he was qualified and was taught everything he would always tell us "I will let you know when I am ready". So we get there real real early, saturday it took us an hour to get to couva for a baptism, sunday it took us 10 minutes. I kept wondering why everthing was going so smoothly. We got there and after a few minutes chucky said "I think I'm getting wet today." I said "are you serious?" he said yes "are you really serious?" he said yes.
We interviewed him and baptized him on the spot. He felt so good afterwards. So we had a surprise baptism of one of our investigators. He is keeping it a secret from the family he lives w/ who are members until they announce it in church. The older couple said "that will be a shock to them!" he said "I'm an electrician it has to be a shocking experience!" He is pretty hilarious and has the greatest smile and laugh of all time. Tender mercies of the Lord.
Nothing else really happened this week, we did some finding. But mostly I am trying to get the fire under my companion. He is real good at connecting w/ people, so if I can do what I am trying to do we will do amazing for the next 2 weeks. I will do my best. Pictures are coming this week, should be quite a few. If Tanya hasn't sent you her pictures of the baptism and told you that story get it from her. That was the coolest thing I have heard from home so far. Even better than the news about the 150 ktm. I will try to make next week's letter more exciting!
-Elder Risenmay
9-22-2008 He ain't reach as yet
The zone leaders came and brought my new companion Elder Endemann, he was born in Samoa and moved to california when he was 7. He reminds me a lot of Brandon Elliot, we have a whole lot of fun. It was an eventful day. Elder Endemann is real cool. He spent a lot of his life playing Rugby and Football and is a beast. He was inactive for twice as long as I was, so 6 years and had a bit of a rough life.
We had a good week, Elder Endemann has already served in Chaguanas. He recieved a warm welcome. I am real excited for the rest of the transfer, next transfer we think he is going to work east chaguanas and I am going to work west. For now he plays his sweet eukelele every night and we sing songs. Our most recent invention is "She had a barbecue stain on her forehead, she was killin me in that hindu dress, skipping rocks on the river by the hindu flags, she had no sun tan line cuz she's indian, i worked so hard for that first handshake. A heart don't forget something like that" All hindu women who are married have red marks on their forehead in their hair, and they all wear hindu dresses at church and things. So we are doing well. I did get the letters, what the problem is is from a movie. I will tell you specifically if I miss them don't worry. Things are looking up.
-Elder Risenmay
We had a good week, Elder Endemann has already served in Chaguanas. He recieved a warm welcome. I am real excited for the rest of the transfer, next transfer we think he is going to work east chaguanas and I am going to work west. For now he plays his sweet eukelele every night and we sing songs. Our most recent invention is "She had a barbecue stain on her forehead, she was killin me in that hindu dress, skipping rocks on the river by the hindu flags, she had no sun tan line cuz she's indian, i worked so hard for that first handshake. A heart don't forget something like that" All hindu women who are married have red marks on their forehead in their hair, and they all wear hindu dresses at church and things. So we are doing well. I did get the letters, what the problem is is from a movie. I will tell you specifically if I miss them don't worry. Things are looking up.
-Elder Risenmay
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