April 29, 2013

It sounds like you've had a busy week, with everything you had going on Saturday and the half marathon.  If you start training in a couple of months you might be able to do it faster next year.  Don't train too hard.

My running is going ok.  I don't really time my runs.  I can tell that I'm less tired.  I think I put on about 5 pounds so nothing too much.  Not eating as much at dinner appointments is a good idea, but sometimes the food is just so good.

This Friday one of the families is going to feed us some of her rabbits.  I'm kind of excited for that.  She also said that we can come over and help her butcher her chickens when they are ready.  I thing we are going to have some fun with that.

I'm not a fan of the rain.  It does rain everyday.  The only way people say they can deal with it is by the summers and they say 75 is hot.  They don't like to stand in the sun on a nice sunny day.  I find that to be funny.  I think 75 is real nice.

I do enjoy doing service, especially the hard stuff.  This week we scooped poop and split wood.  We will be doing that again this week.  We will be helping another companionship in our district split wood for a less active member.  I'm excited about that.  We've also helped out another less active member clean out their flower beds and clean up their yard.

One day this past week while on exchanges we were out tracting and no one was answering the door so my companion I was with had the idea to pray, so we stopped to say a short prayer.  After our prayer we continued tracting and the next 7 or 8 houses answered the door so that was cool to see how little prayers work.

Elder Crane was able to give me a haircut.  The last time I had it cut was 2 months ago.  I should be good for a while.

I love you,

Love,
Elder Poling

April 22, 2013

This week was alright.  I seem to get stressed towards the end of the day when I get tired and my companion wants to go way out in the boonies and find an old farmer.  It has paid off though.  We have found 5 new investigators this week.  Two are 7th Day Adventist (there are a lot of them here) and the others just go to  a non denominal church.

The part member family we tracted into came to church yesterday but only stayed for Sacrament meeting.  They did say they enjoyed it and want to come again next week.  We also had another investigator at church this week.  She made some friends after church.  She also said that she wants to come back.

We had a lesson with a guy that we have been teaching, we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel.  He took the lesson really well.  We put him on date to be baptized but then he called us during the week to tell us that we are moving to fast for him and that he wanted more time to think about it.  I found out that his cats have a thing for me.  We teach him outside and while we  were teaching him a cat keeps trying to crawl up my leg and was getting pretty close to my crotch.  I think I have a few claw marks up and down my leg from the cat.  =(.

I have exchanges this week with a greenie.  I think I have found some service that I can go and do with him.  The family we had dinner with last night said they could use some help splitting some wood.  I've been wanting to do that for a while now.

Elder Burgess and I have decided to get up and go for a run in the mornings 3 times a week.  We only run for about a mile.  I can tell that I am out of shape.  I've been able to run farther without stopping and having to breathe real hard, so maybe I will be able to loose some weight.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.

I love you,

Elder Poling

April 15, 2013

The beginning of the week was easy.  It took Elder Wolfgramm a while to pack so I just laid around and talked to him while he packed.  We went to a couple of people in the area so he could goodbye to them.  Wednesday I got my new companion.  He's from Samoa.  He's a real hard worker.  He's also a little OCD about somethings.  He likes to have things organized.  He has even organized my things.

Our investigator that was almost baptized they are remodeling their house so we are kind of waiting for them to get enough done so they feel comfortable with us teaching them in their home.  The other investigator is way cool and very open to listening to us.  I've offered service to both.  To help with the remodel  and to help work on the others car and shine his 66 Mustang.

We did put another investigator on target for a date of May 11 for baptism.  He does need to quit smoking and some other Word of Wisdom problems he has.  He will work with him.

Love,
Elder Poling

April 8, 2013

This week seemed longer than usual for some reason.  I'm not sure why.  We did some service with another companionship one day and we split wood with a maul by hand.  That was real fun but it also takes a lot out of you.  I think we split 10 or so huge stumps that were probably 4-5 feet across.  That took a lot of work.  We then went and did usual missionary stuff the rest of the day. It was hard because we were both so tired from chopping wood.  We scooped poop on Friday and then went and helped the people cut down a few trees.  All we had to cut down the trees were a machete and an ax.  I used the ax.  My back is so sore and my hands are all torn up and have huge blisters from all the swinging that we did.  I've never had my hands be so sore like this before.  When I go and shake peoples hands it would hurt.

We were able to watch all the sessions of conference.  It made Saturday go by pretty quick.  Sunday seemed longer than usual.  Our dinner appointment fell through Sunday.  The family we had the appointment with ended up going to Salt Lake for conference, so we did eat much yesterday.

We did do some tracting yesterday after conference.  It poured on us.  It rained so hard that I go wet through my rain jacket.  I'm going to have to spray some water proofing on it.  We were SOAKED.

We got our transfer call yesterday.  I'm staying here but my companion will be transferred.  My new companion that I will get Wednesday is from Samoa.

They will not split the area yet, so we will really have to try and push for some kind of work in the ward that struggles.

I love you.

Love,
Elder Poing

Most days in WA

April 1, 2013

Happy Easter to you.

Sunday was pretty good.  We had a couple of real good talks in both wards about the Atonement.  The best one was from the family we are staying with.  He talked about how our existence is like a 3 act play.  He talked about how well we all did in act 1 (premortal life).  We are now in act 2.  We don't remember act 1 but we know it was good.  He also talked about how well we do in this life will determine how well act 3 or Heaven will be for us and that we are setting the stage for what is to come.

We had dinner with our host family.  They fed us steaks, which I got to grill.  We also had rolls and baked potatoes.

While we were on our temple trip, the family that took us invited us over for the evening, so we went there with another companionship.  I got to hear how well the Thunder are doing.  When we left to go back to our car (the other companionship drive), my companion realized that he didn't have his keys and that he had left them at the members house.  They live about 20 minutes from where we parked our car.  It was an interesting night.

The temple was great.  I didn't realize how big the Portland Temple was.  They say it is a medium size time.  I guess all temples are huge compared to the OKC Temple.  It was a neat experience.  My zone all went to the temple except one companionship because one of the elders had food poisoning from eating at Red Robbin.  He is doing much better.

We did find one new investigator while we were out tracting.  He was impressed at how far we had walked and wanted to hear our message so he said we came come back.  We did find out that most of his friends are members and thinks very highly of them.

Love,
Elder Poling