Letter March 28, 2011

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Hey Mom,

Everything is going great. This week has been amazing, but slow all at once. This week our investigator Earlana is doing super great. She has been reading the book of Mormon every day and is recognizing the changes that it is bringing to her life. Her son Brandon has dropped us... but it is OK because we here about to drop him anyways. Earlana is going to be baptized on April 23 IF she can quit smoking by Wednesday. so please keep her in your prayers, that would be greatly appreciated. This week we were able to have some sweet lessons with some less active family's, it has been great. We were able to come in contact with Brother Houghton and to start over with the lessons with him, we were able to teach the restoration lesson. We also had a lesson with the Jackson family. We read the introduction to the B.O.M. and to commit them to continue to read from it. We followed up yesterday and they had read.. A little bit a little is better than none, so that is always good. Unfortunately we were unable to meet with Megan and Clayton this week. Come to find out, Megan is in Jail... she is the one that just moved from California... She was on probation and is living in Indiana illegally, so there is a chance that she will be going back to Cali. OOPS...  This is the last full week of the transfer and so Elder Gasser says that he is going. I will probably be staying here in Plymouth, which does not bother me it is a good place. I don't get my hopes up anymore because i have been wrong before. The Kendallville BBQ was last weekend and I was unable to go, according to Elder Luster, there was over 120 People that attended it, and it was a great success. They are teaching a ton of people now that had their interest struck there.  This week we were able to make Mormon.org Profiles, it is a huge finding tool to have.  I strongly urge you all to make one, it makes missionary work easier for all the missionaries. This week has been cold but has slowly warmed up. The days are getting longer so it is soon to get hot.  I am not looking forward to the hot and humid nasty mess, but it will be good maybe I will work off the winter fat. All is going well here I love this work, I love you all.

March 21, 2011

Hey Family,

This week has been super great, we were able to accomplish alot... in a sense? To start it off, last Monday we had a really sweet lesson with Megan and we were able to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was amazing, you can definitely see it in her eyes that she wants to be baptised again. The only bad part is, that we have been unable to meet with Clayton since we meet him. It is kinda frustrating, but with time his heart will soften. They are both doing really well, Megan came to church and was able to bring our other investigator Earlana. That was awesome. Earlana is kinda at a platto at the second, she has progressed so fast in such a short amount of time that she is really having a hard time progressing. She, for some reason, will not keep our commitments of reading and quit smoking. Well I understand the smoking, but to read for 2-3 minutes a day when you are unemployed with out a car it really shouldn't be that hard. She is progressing in a sense as well.  Tuesday we went to South Bend and had district meeting,  it went really well.  We came back and had a lesson at the library with Earlana"s son Brandon. The lesson went well for the 4th time. We have taught him the restoration lesson 4 times now!!! and he does not understand it at all. We have came to the conclusion that he is not accountable. He also has been super wish washy about the whole church thing. He is very easily distracted from all of the other churches and all that stuff. It makes it hard, but its the truth. Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Pahl from Pocatello,  he and I ran Mexican backhoes(shovels). Our land lord needed our help, so we rendered our bodies to his service. He had a sewer back up at one of his properties and we fixed it. We dug a huge hole, and got all nasty with poop! It kinda reminded me when our house did that and Josh went swimming!  It was a bad deal because the people that were living in the house didn't know that we were fixing it and every time they flushed we got sprayed. NOT fun!!! In the end it was fun to do some phyciall labor, the land lord said that he had never seen two young men work so hard in his life.. We actually got blisters on our hands... and I liked it. Thursday and Friday, nothing really happened just alot of tracting, with out alot of success. Saturday we did alot of tracting some more, then we had a dinner appointment with some members that grew up in Rexburg and was some how related to the Binghams in Blackfoot, but they did not know how, so that was pretty cool.  They love Idaho and kinda when able are going to move back. Yesterday we went to church and all that stuff and then had to head up to Niles Michigan, Elder Gasser had to preform a baptism interview for a investigator. We stayed the night up there and today we went fishing!!!!!!!!! that is why the letter is so late, once again I am the only one that knows how to fish. I caught a 2 and 1/2 pound Bass. I didn't keep it but I did manage to keep a picture of it. it was really fun.  I hope that you all have a wonderful week. I love you all.

Pictures: The tiny church house here, Jed's Bass he caught while fishing, Jared and Elder Pahl after the sewer swimming experience, and the "Sweet Blister" from running the "Mexican Backhoes."

Letter to Steve, March 14, 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Steve Bair <stbair@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 8:03 PM
Subject: Fwd: Newsletter, March 13, 2011
To: "Mrs. Lori Kae Bair" <taberrose@gmail.com>

Hey Dad,

I am doing great... besides the ear and sinus infection. I am doing great. We have had a great week, we have had a couple new investigator's added to our teaching pool. It has been awesome, they are all super cool, and very interested we think at least. We found Megan and Clayton last Sunday. We had a very awesome lesson with them, they are from California and are doing great. They were a head quarter referral, and are super solid. Clayton is a welder and so  am able to connect super well with him.  Megan is an ex- com member and she so desires to be back into the church.  She has such a sound testimony of the Gospel and the  book of Mormon. It is truly amazing. Then we have a lady Dawn De Bow, well she is definitely different she is a wicken... I don't know if you know much about wicken but it is witch craft. She was once a christian and turned against God because most of her family had died with in a couple of months.  We were able to have a couple really spiritual lessons with her this week. We talked about the atonement  and talked about the plan of salvation. deep down she knows that is it is true, she just has so much anger and hate that she is not willing to give God a second chance. We will definitely keep working with her and helping her feel and recognize the spirit. Next we have a guy named Jerry.  Jerry is awesome, he says he is schizophrenic, but if he really is he hides it really well he is a very humble man and willing to try to find the truth an no matter what the circumstance. He had read 14 chapters out of the book of Mormon and prayed about it in a matter of 3-4 days, he is doing awesome. He is a little rough around the edges, but with a little polish he will be awesome. Brandon Brent and Earlana are all doing super great  Earlanas baptism date had to be postponed because she is still unable to quit smoking and living the word of wisdom.  She is definitely making an effort to give it up, we pray for her. Brent and Brandon, have been a different story.  We will go running with them 1 a week, and get them to open up to us, and slowly we and getting the vibe that they are not accountable.  It is kinda frustrating because at times they seem to be doing really well but at other times they don't understand anything. With time we will be able to help them. that is about all for this week. I love you Dad

Elder Bair

March 14, 2011

Hey Mom,

All has been decent, except  I have an ear and sinus infection, I was prescribed  amoxicillin and some nose spray that really hurts bad, but seems to be working. I did use my debit card for that, the receipt is in the mail for you.

That's great that Josh and Di were able to move in to their home that is awesome. Its even cooler that it is right on the river to go fishing.

 

Everything has been going great here.  We had a very eventful week, we have been having a lot of very spiritual lessons this week.  It has wore me completely out, I might even take a nap today.   It has been totally worth it. Our investigators are  all doing very well and are progressing nicely.  It has been awesome to be able to help them all of the possible ways that we are able to. The branch is coming together nicely also yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and I kinda rebuked them? I guess, but I was able to get the point across that they need to do their part to become a ward. This Saturday is the Kendallville BBQ, I have an interview with President Collins Wednesday, hopefully I will be able to get permission to attend and help out with that, everything has been great. Ilove you all.

Elder Bair

March 7, 2011

Hey Mom,

How are you doing? I am doing great! Plymouth has been amazing this week.  It has been great. I have been able to go on some exchanges in different areas this week. I was able to go up to Michigan, it was amazing it was so much different type of people. They are about 10 percent times smarter. It was awesome. Also on the exchanges I was able to walk around on notra dame campus. That place is awesome. They have a giant mural of Jesus playing football, it is super awesome. Yesterday we were able to receive two new investigators they are awesome.  They are from California somewhere. They are super awesome. That makes a total of five pretty solid investigators. They are all awesome. This morning we went running with out twin gators. WOW I am out of shape. It boggles my mind we were able to have a really good conversation with them as Elder Gasser and I ran with them, we think that we are going to run every other day with them. Hopefully it will soften the ones heart enough to be able sit in the lessons with us. Also I will be able to loose some weight.  We have 2 with a baptism date for March 30 hopefully they will be able to make it.  My new zone is awesome I have like 5 people from Idaho.  One is from Firth, Elder Esplin, 1 from Idaho Falls, Elder Tapp, 2 from Pocatello, Elder Tomas and Elder Pahl, they are all very awesome they make it all worth while. The south bend zone doesn't know what has happened, they are being hit by a Idaho storm. Its awesome. I love them all.   I love Elder Tomas I knew him a little bit through Stephanie, we have become great friends as well as the rest of them. I love the work so much it is amazing I love this gospel and this work. I love you all and keep up the good work.

Love Jared

I just want to thank you all for the videos of the family, it really means a lot to me.  I love you all with all my heart and thank you for all the support.