hey fam,
alright before i say anything else, i just want to tell you where my next area is. THE ISLAND OF BRAVA!!!!!!!! heck ya baby! ok so brava is a small island a little ways from fogo. it has flowers, fruits, its green i hear its just beautiful. the thing is that it has been closed to missionary work for over TWO years! the work was hard there and so president took the missionaries out and for other reasons i guess too. but anyways he has been thinking and wanting to send missionaries back there for about 3 or 4 months.
well your son, brother and grandchild will be opening this island back up! that is sooooo legit, i cannot even tell you. oh wait....thats not it. did i tell you i am training too!!! oh ya haha i am going to train a cape verdean. i am soo pumped. its gonna be the best experience in the entire world. i never would have thought that something so amazing would happen to me. that's the new news and i am stoked. my new companion, elder fortes, doesnt get back to cape verde from the mtc in brazil until the 19 august so i will have to wait for him. that day we will fly to fogo and then take a boat over to BRAVA, which means WILD!! its gonna be sooo sweet i seriously cant even explain it.
i have been in the office in praia for the past 4 months and i miss being among the people. yesterday was my last day there. i left with a light back. i felt like all this stress and anxiety was just lifted off of me. its was a great feeling. the office is going down to two elders now. elder sargent and elder shelhamer. it def was a crazy transfer. lots of crazy things happened but the coolest and craziest is that i get to train, reopen and serve in the best island in the country....BRAVA!
well because i found this out on tuesday i have just been wanting to leave praia so bad. i am super pumped to just get out there on my island! haha anyways this is about the only thing cool that happened to me this week. you know just still here in cape verde chillin, preachin, and tryin to do my best. its aight. so i have been packin up my bags today. its a bit stressful that we can only take 40 pounds. but i am trying to work it out so i can make it over there.
about my area. still hard as ever, but its ok. i mean we had one kid come to church on sunday. it was his first time so that was really tight. i hope he comes this week too. we are going to pass by his house again. i get to stay with elder owens monday, tuesday and wednesday. man i love that kid, he is soo funny! so that will be sweet too.
i dont really have any cool experiences from this week, but more exciting news....I FINISHED MY FIRST JOURNAL LAST NIGHT!!! man i didnt think i was ever going to finish it. but i am really trying to write every day. aint easy sometimes but i am trying. i like the mission. i am finding seriously a new love for the scriptures. i LOVE reading the Book of Mormon more than anything. i read it for like 2 straight hours the other day. i feel like when we read the the Book of Mormon it really brings a shield around us. it's like our day to day protection from the world of evil. we read it everyday and we cannot fall. so i was reading in the Preach My Gospel book the other day and i found this quote by Elder Faust "you cannot convert people beyond your own conversion" its like we can't just walk around everyday expecting to convert or help anyone if we ourselves are not first converted. i know this is why President Hinkley "raised the bar." we need to prepare from a very young age to be ready for the great and difficult journey of a mission. every young man should serve a mission. there is no doubt of that. we learn so much out here to prepare us for the storms of life. life is the hardest thing. just living is not easy. but as we look at what we learn and the way we grow day by day by living the gospel, we see that it is all worth it. because in the end, if we do what is right, we get the biggest present in the world....ETERNAL LIFE!
i am happy. life is good. dont worry about me. i made sloppy joes today. they were good. there aint nothing else to say. keep it real.
so since i am out on brava in the next coming week, its gonna start getting harder to get my mail and junk but it will be tight still. zone conference in fogo will just be like christmas i guess!!! haha i will get everything at once. cool beans. well i am out. stay sweet
C LOVIN'
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Letter from Elder C. 7.9.2010
hi fam
manera ki nhos sta? ami sta fixe.
baptism tomorrow! woot woot!! good news no eh? her family are all members too so she actually has a chance of staying active so thats even better! my sunburn has already dissolved. neck peeled a little but it is alot tanner so thats sweet. i am pretty much black.
thats the thing with these people. you cant get them away from there tvs. they are like the most important thing to all of them. when we are walking aroun at like 8 at night thats all you see inside houses. just everyone gathered around the tv. its a sad sight. but i guess thats what the world is coming to right? i love technology, not as much as you, you see! there aint too much new here in cape verde. man it sure seems like time is flying though. i see all these people going home from their missions. and i am like gee wiz it seems like just yesterday you had 5 transfers left. but thats prolly how it is gonna go for me. fast. hopefully. i miss wendys. but i did find some frozen chicken nuggets that taste almost as good as mcdonalds so its not saying much but they taste good to me. and i make some fry sauce. pretty much my favorite meal as of right now. ha thats funny all of you are trying to lose weight. i thought coming out here to africa would help me lose weight, but i can see that isnt the case. it sure is hard to get out of bed at 630 for me. i am not really a morning person. i started waking up so i could do some sit ups, push ups but i like waking up at 7 better. its bad i think. but that extra half hour gives me some good energy to get through the day. although i do take a nap at lunch everyday and am in bed by 1020 every night. who ever thought that. i never even thought about going to bed until 11 or 12 when i was at home. now i cant even keep my eyes open past 1030, maybe its a sign of old age. dad you know what i am talking about :)
life is just normal now. it almost feels like i am going to be doing this for the rest of my life. like this is my life. that i will be here in cape verde for the rest of my years. its been 9 months. at times it feels like it has just been a few days since i left at others it feels as if i left 4 years ago. its crazy. but one day at a time for 15 more months and i will be back home. good stuff. i dont know if there is really anything new thats going on down here but let me think here for a sec.
well i am at the internet cafe and my time is straight up out so i gotta get this sent before i lose it ..l..
love yall
elder coleman
manera ki nhos sta? ami sta fixe.
baptism tomorrow! woot woot!! good news no eh? her family are all members too so she actually has a chance of staying active so thats even better! my sunburn has already dissolved. neck peeled a little but it is alot tanner so thats sweet. i am pretty much black.
thats the thing with these people. you cant get them away from there tvs. they are like the most important thing to all of them. when we are walking aroun at like 8 at night thats all you see inside houses. just everyone gathered around the tv. its a sad sight. but i guess thats what the world is coming to right? i love technology, not as much as you, you see! there aint too much new here in cape verde. man it sure seems like time is flying though. i see all these people going home from their missions. and i am like gee wiz it seems like just yesterday you had 5 transfers left. but thats prolly how it is gonna go for me. fast. hopefully. i miss wendys. but i did find some frozen chicken nuggets that taste almost as good as mcdonalds so its not saying much but they taste good to me. and i make some fry sauce. pretty much my favorite meal as of right now. ha thats funny all of you are trying to lose weight. i thought coming out here to africa would help me lose weight, but i can see that isnt the case. it sure is hard to get out of bed at 630 for me. i am not really a morning person. i started waking up so i could do some sit ups, push ups but i like waking up at 7 better. its bad i think. but that extra half hour gives me some good energy to get through the day. although i do take a nap at lunch everyday and am in bed by 1020 every night. who ever thought that. i never even thought about going to bed until 11 or 12 when i was at home. now i cant even keep my eyes open past 1030, maybe its a sign of old age. dad you know what i am talking about :)
life is just normal now. it almost feels like i am going to be doing this for the rest of my life. like this is my life. that i will be here in cape verde for the rest of my years. its been 9 months. at times it feels like it has just been a few days since i left at others it feels as if i left 4 years ago. its crazy. but one day at a time for 15 more months and i will be back home. good stuff. i dont know if there is really anything new thats going on down here but let me think here for a sec.
well i am at the internet cafe and my time is straight up out so i gotta get this sent before i lose it ..l..
love yall
elder coleman
Letter from Elder C 7.2.2010
hello
i am stayin in the office wit sargent more six weeks. not too excited but it will be aight. we got a few baptisms comin up in july so that will be good. sure has been hard finding new people that want to listen tho. we are working on it though.
we are getting three more american missionaries on this next monday. transfers are really crazy this time around. my good buddy Elder Wardell from bountiful has been AP the two transfers while i have been in the office. everyone thought he was stayin but he is going out to sal to train so that was sad. we have to take people to the airport on monday starting at 4 o clock in the morning so that is gonna be fun! all nighter!!! then we will just be running people around all day. the missionaries get to go to sal and santo antao the two isolated islands so that is gonna be sweet for them. hopefully after these next six weeks i can get out of the office so i dont have to be here in praia for my birthday. but we will see no eh...
the water doesnt always look like that. just every once and a while it turns nasty orange like that. its really gross. its life in the wonderful country of cape verde.
today was a pretty fun p day i guess. we went up to assomada. its bout 45 minutes from praia. there is this huge tree there! and i mean huge. so we climbed up in there got some pics. then we got to take this legit ride in the back of a dump truck. we were going on these really narrow roads of cobblestone that were like half destroyed and he was just hauling up them with us screaming rollin around in the back...good times. then we decided we wanted to go monkey hunting so we went and started climbing this mountain. we asked around and some natives told us in this mountain we could find monkeys so we headed out there. we started hiking, hiking, hiking and we got to the top and only saw one monkey. a new sunburn and one wild monkey, not really sure if it was worth it but i just went along with the rest of the gang. cool stuff. i will prolly be sending of my card here pretty soon. so you can see all this new up to date sweet photos.
after almost 20 years of life i have found out one thing and it is this....
life is like an amusement park, not just one rollercoaster but a whole bunch of them, some times in our lives we are stuck on a wild rollercoaster others are more mild but we just keep ridin them until we barf and that is death.
i am on a wild rollercoaster right now in my life....pray for me so that i dont barf. :)
LOVE YOU ALL!!! MOM I MISS YOUR FOOD SO MUCH, WE WILL HAVE TO FEAST WHEN I GET HOME!!!
TAKE IT EASY,
ELDER COLEMAN
ami n´ ta papia tcheu differente a go então se nhôs ka ta entendi nhôs podi pergunta, ja oubi? n´ ta kré oubi sobre nhôs bidas então nhôs skrebi tcheu kusa pa miml, ta bom então tchao tchao
i am stayin in the office wit sargent more six weeks. not too excited but it will be aight. we got a few baptisms comin up in july so that will be good. sure has been hard finding new people that want to listen tho. we are working on it though.
we are getting three more american missionaries on this next monday. transfers are really crazy this time around. my good buddy Elder Wardell from bountiful has been AP the two transfers while i have been in the office. everyone thought he was stayin but he is going out to sal to train so that was sad. we have to take people to the airport on monday starting at 4 o clock in the morning so that is gonna be fun! all nighter!!! then we will just be running people around all day. the missionaries get to go to sal and santo antao the two isolated islands so that is gonna be sweet for them. hopefully after these next six weeks i can get out of the office so i dont have to be here in praia for my birthday. but we will see no eh...
the water doesnt always look like that. just every once and a while it turns nasty orange like that. its really gross. its life in the wonderful country of cape verde.
today was a pretty fun p day i guess. we went up to assomada. its bout 45 minutes from praia. there is this huge tree there! and i mean huge. so we climbed up in there got some pics. then we got to take this legit ride in the back of a dump truck. we were going on these really narrow roads of cobblestone that were like half destroyed and he was just hauling up them with us screaming rollin around in the back...good times. then we decided we wanted to go monkey hunting so we went and started climbing this mountain. we asked around and some natives told us in this mountain we could find monkeys so we headed out there. we started hiking, hiking, hiking and we got to the top and only saw one monkey. a new sunburn and one wild monkey, not really sure if it was worth it but i just went along with the rest of the gang. cool stuff. i will prolly be sending of my card here pretty soon. so you can see all this new up to date sweet photos.
after almost 20 years of life i have found out one thing and it is this....
life is like an amusement park, not just one rollercoaster but a whole bunch of them, some times in our lives we are stuck on a wild rollercoaster others are more mild but we just keep ridin them until we barf and that is death.
i am on a wild rollercoaster right now in my life....pray for me so that i dont barf. :)
LOVE YOU ALL!!! MOM I MISS YOUR FOOD SO MUCH, WE WILL HAVE TO FEAST WHEN I GET HOME!!!
TAKE IT EASY,
ELDER COLEMAN
ami n´ ta papia tcheu differente a go então se nhôs ka ta entendi nhôs podi pergunta, ja oubi? n´ ta kré oubi sobre nhôs bidas então nhôs skrebi tcheu kusa pa miml, ta bom então tchao tchao
Letter from Elder C 6.25.2010
NHÔS É FAMILIA!
good news i got that little package thing with the memory cards in it. seems like the mail system has been working pretty well lately. so thats good. and yes i did get a letter from amy wright, send my love and gratitude to her and that wonderful family. the world cup is crazy here. it was actually pretty sweet. last friday we were in the barber shop getting our haircuts while USA was playing it was the game they were down 0 2 at half and came back and tied it. we were in there when they scored the second goal and everyone was screaming at eachother. they stopped cutting our hair and were just like yelling back and forth. me and elder sargent were like just sitting there smiling, "yeah thats whats up, america rules again" haha so that was a good experience. i am pretty jealous of you all going to hawaii man you get to go to the paradise islands. i wish my islands were something like paradise, but unfortunetly they are not, AT ALL!
well the week was just normal. nothing to exciting. nothing to bazarre. but just tudo normal. we having been really focusing this last week on finding new investigators because alot of the ones we have now are going to be baptized her pretty soon and we are gonna have nobody to teach. so we have been knocking doors, contacts with everyone. if a person is shy, going on a mission is a good way to get away from that. man i will talk to anyone, anywhere, at anytime now. it dont matter who. i just feel like talking to the whole world. the work has been a little discouraging though. its tough. but it is only possible with the hand of the Lord. i have seen ups and downs on my mission. i like what elder ballard said about missionary work. "if a missionary wants to be successful he can, think baptisms and you willl have baptisms." thats what i have trying to do lately. just try, try and try some more. as President Uctdorf said " try and keep on trying until that which seems difficult becomes possible, and then that which only seems possible becomes habit and a real part of you." i dont know if i already shared that with you guys. but i love it. well i really dont have much else to tell. just that the missionary life is good and that i miss ya a ton. but i turn that homesickness into hard work. at least i am trying to. President still doesnt have transfers completed yet. but i am almost 95% percent positive that i will be staying right where i am as the secretary. its aight i guess. i will love to stay to see all this baptisms go through. i think we should have 4 or 5 baptisms in the month of july. that will be really sweet.
well i am sorry it was kinda short this week but there is not a ton of new stuff to update you on.
one love
Elder Coleman
Letter from Elder C. 6/18/2010
hows life crackin
i am just chillin ya know. kickin it in the CVP. its aight. so i aint got tcheu (alot) of things to tell ya. it was pretty much just a normal week but there was something hilarious that happened that i will be willing to share and i think yall get a kick out of it.....
one day this week i think it was sunday. we had church, we ate lunch, and then we were going out to proselyte. we were walkin to our area. we hadnt walked that far when this lady stopped us. she had her hand out like she wanted me to shake it. so i did with the intention of making a contact right there, new investigator you know, it was sweet so she started talking. but she was just talking anything, this was crazy stuff! we started kinda laughing ya know because we found this psyco lady on the street rambling about how she prays every day and carries her cross with her whever she goes. she was holding me hand still from when i began shaking it 3 minutes earlier. elder sargent was busting up almost in tears. she was talking softly and then almost satanicly she said something that i didnt understand. she started talking about kissing and so it just got weird. i said we are late. we started walking away and then she said late are ya and started tickling me and then tickled elder sargent. we walked away but she followed us. she was chasing after elder sargent, he was all " run she is coming up fast!" and i looked back and she grabbed him ha he got away. so we just started running full on to get away from this completely pshyco lady. there were people laughing all around us. with looks on their faces like what the crap two church guys in ties running away from an old grandma. we got pretty far away and looked back. there she was still on the corner waving at us. i hope i dont have to see her ever again. comes to find out elder luke and his companion ran into the same lady the same day. we gave her the name of "the crazy tickly lady" so that was an experience if ya ask me! ha
besides that nothing too exciting went down this week. Neusa, that golden investigator is just as golden as ever. she has now taught us the first, second and almost the third lesson. yesterday she taught us about fasting so that was good. i almost wish she could walk and teach with us. we wouldnt even have to say anything during the lessons. that would be sweet. she has a great desire to bring her whole family unto the church as she said at the end of last lesson "i am not a member yet because i have not been baptized, but i feel like a member. i am hoping and praying that i will be able to get my whole family to come to this true church, little by little i know i can do it, right down to my mom who will be the hardes, but with the help of God i know that it can happen!" so that was pretty sweet. we actually started teaching her brother but he will be a little harder because he is a good soccer player and he always has games on sunday so he will have to give that up in order to go to church. but i have FAITH. so as of right now we are having quite a bit of success in our area we have 6 baptisms set up for the 10 of july, and Neusa on the 7 of august. it is awesome. because when i got here, we had a grand total of 2 investigators. one of whom we do not teach anymore because he likes weed, and the other is still coming to church but she needs to move out of her house, she is living with a man who doesnt want to talk with us at all. once she moves out she will be baptized but i dont see that happening any time soon. she doesnt think it is possible. so i am really hoping everything goes through with these baptisms. just like in Patim we are teaching alot of younger boys. like we have 4 with i baptism date who come to church every week, its sweet!
we pretty much had a complete p day today had to run to the airport for a second but no more stuff today. elder balls got transferred to sao vicente. me and elder sargent are getting along well. its good times. alright well i best be going. love yall!
Elder Coleman
i am just chillin ya know. kickin it in the CVP. its aight. so i aint got tcheu (alot) of things to tell ya. it was pretty much just a normal week but there was something hilarious that happened that i will be willing to share and i think yall get a kick out of it.....
one day this week i think it was sunday. we had church, we ate lunch, and then we were going out to proselyte. we were walkin to our area. we hadnt walked that far when this lady stopped us. she had her hand out like she wanted me to shake it. so i did with the intention of making a contact right there, new investigator you know, it was sweet so she started talking. but she was just talking anything, this was crazy stuff! we started kinda laughing ya know because we found this psyco lady on the street rambling about how she prays every day and carries her cross with her whever she goes. she was holding me hand still from when i began shaking it 3 minutes earlier. elder sargent was busting up almost in tears. she was talking softly and then almost satanicly she said something that i didnt understand. she started talking about kissing and so it just got weird. i said we are late. we started walking away and then she said late are ya and started tickling me and then tickled elder sargent. we walked away but she followed us. she was chasing after elder sargent, he was all " run she is coming up fast!" and i looked back and she grabbed him ha he got away. so we just started running full on to get away from this completely pshyco lady. there were people laughing all around us. with looks on their faces like what the crap two church guys in ties running away from an old grandma. we got pretty far away and looked back. there she was still on the corner waving at us. i hope i dont have to see her ever again. comes to find out elder luke and his companion ran into the same lady the same day. we gave her the name of "the crazy tickly lady" so that was an experience if ya ask me! ha
besides that nothing too exciting went down this week. Neusa, that golden investigator is just as golden as ever. she has now taught us the first, second and almost the third lesson. yesterday she taught us about fasting so that was good. i almost wish she could walk and teach with us. we wouldnt even have to say anything during the lessons. that would be sweet. she has a great desire to bring her whole family unto the church as she said at the end of last lesson "i am not a member yet because i have not been baptized, but i feel like a member. i am hoping and praying that i will be able to get my whole family to come to this true church, little by little i know i can do it, right down to my mom who will be the hardes, but with the help of God i know that it can happen!" so that was pretty sweet. we actually started teaching her brother but he will be a little harder because he is a good soccer player and he always has games on sunday so he will have to give that up in order to go to church. but i have FAITH. so as of right now we are having quite a bit of success in our area we have 6 baptisms set up for the 10 of july, and Neusa on the 7 of august. it is awesome. because when i got here, we had a grand total of 2 investigators. one of whom we do not teach anymore because he likes weed, and the other is still coming to church but she needs to move out of her house, she is living with a man who doesnt want to talk with us at all. once she moves out she will be baptized but i dont see that happening any time soon. she doesnt think it is possible. so i am really hoping everything goes through with these baptisms. just like in Patim we are teaching alot of younger boys. like we have 4 with i baptism date who come to church every week, its sweet!
we pretty much had a complete p day today had to run to the airport for a second but no more stuff today. elder balls got transferred to sao vicente. me and elder sargent are getting along well. its good times. alright well i best be going. love yall!
Elder Coleman
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Letter from Elder C. 5.11.2010
sup fam
not much kusa happened this week. it was kind of a harder week. every week has its ups and its downs. the up for this week is.....are you ready.....9 INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH!!!!! tell me you love me! haha it was really amazing. miracles happen before my eyes everyday. the down for the week is that all those investigators that showed up in church either have problems or we havent been able to talk to them this week. but you know we just keep plugging along. i find it very interesting the way this country works. its almost as if time does not even exist. but time does exist for me, its not alot of time either, its time of only 2 years, which about half of that is gone, to do every thing that God wants me to accomplish here in cape verde.
when times get hard i have to just remember who it is that sent me here. just like in the amazing talk that Pres. eyring gave in preisthood session this last conference. "when times get hard or i get tempted i just say to myself, REMEMBER HIM" oh what a blessing it is that we have to be members of the true church upon this earth. we have the restored church, we have the book of mormon, we have repentance, we have all the saving ordinances we need to gain salvation. to ultimately live with God again. to me, all this is truly a blessing. to serve my mission in cape verde is also a blessing, somedays it doesnt seem like it, but as i try my hardest in the work and remember really who it is that sent me here on these islands, i too feel blessed to be here.
so anyways...
i havent seen much rain here in cape verde yet, but they say the rainy season is coming, but i think its just getting hotter and hotter everyday. the sun burns down to my inner soul it feels like.
people are going crazy over the world cup, not because its the world cup or anything but simply because its soccer. they love their futébol
we have a branch president, who is like a bishop but they still dont have a stake here in cape verde. just branches and districts.
kids that come to church....the majority of the church in cape verde is made up of younger people. but actual kids in my branch prolly a good 30 or 40 that are active.
ever since i got in praia i pretty much well stopped using my contacts. just wear glasses everyday. even if i put new contacts in every day it would hurt. so i gave up on them...
i dont got any cool stories this week. but just one thing thats awesome. the stick shift is coming really well! its only hills that i am having problems with now. so after i conquer them i will pretty much well be pro!!!!!
welp love yall, stay strong, never give up!
Elder Colémon
not much kusa happened this week. it was kind of a harder week. every week has its ups and its downs. the up for this week is.....are you ready.....9 INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH!!!!! tell me you love me! haha it was really amazing. miracles happen before my eyes everyday. the down for the week is that all those investigators that showed up in church either have problems or we havent been able to talk to them this week. but you know we just keep plugging along. i find it very interesting the way this country works. its almost as if time does not even exist. but time does exist for me, its not alot of time either, its time of only 2 years, which about half of that is gone, to do every thing that God wants me to accomplish here in cape verde.
when times get hard i have to just remember who it is that sent me here. just like in the amazing talk that Pres. eyring gave in preisthood session this last conference. "when times get hard or i get tempted i just say to myself, REMEMBER HIM" oh what a blessing it is that we have to be members of the true church upon this earth. we have the restored church, we have the book of mormon, we have repentance, we have all the saving ordinances we need to gain salvation. to ultimately live with God again. to me, all this is truly a blessing. to serve my mission in cape verde is also a blessing, somedays it doesnt seem like it, but as i try my hardest in the work and remember really who it is that sent me here on these islands, i too feel blessed to be here.
so anyways...
i havent seen much rain here in cape verde yet, but they say the rainy season is coming, but i think its just getting hotter and hotter everyday. the sun burns down to my inner soul it feels like.
people are going crazy over the world cup, not because its the world cup or anything but simply because its soccer. they love their futébol
we have a branch president, who is like a bishop but they still dont have a stake here in cape verde. just branches and districts.
kids that come to church....the majority of the church in cape verde is made up of younger people. but actual kids in my branch prolly a good 30 or 40 that are active.
ever since i got in praia i pretty much well stopped using my contacts. just wear glasses everyday. even if i put new contacts in every day it would hurt. so i gave up on them...
i dont got any cool stories this week. but just one thing thats awesome. the stick shift is coming really well! its only hills that i am having problems with now. so after i conquer them i will pretty much well be pro!!!!!
welp love yall, stay strong, never give up!
Elder Colémon
Letter from Elder C. 5.4.2010
dear family,
if i could explain in words what i feel right now i wouldnt hesitate, but my feelings are simply not describable. something changed in my work and in my life. something big. something that i can never forget. something that is so simple, but definetely changed my life forever. i dont know why it took so long for me to achieve it or where it has been all these 19 almost 20 years of my life. i, for myself have found the secret to life. it wasnt easy. and i know it still wont be easy. but if everyone could feel what i feel, the world would be a different place. without war. without sadness, mourning or frankly anything negative. as i have walked the first 19 years of my life. i have learned. i have fallen. i have stood back up. moved foward. made mistakes. tried to changed. fell again. made more mistakes. never gave up. just kept moving forward. something happened. i found the light of the world for myself. i found our beloved savior jesus christ. i know that he lives. that he died and ressurrected for us. so that we too can live forever. "he is risen", as president monson talked so lovingly about this last confernce. i have no doubt that he is my brother and my redeemer. i always thought i KNEW this. but i have never FELT it like this. AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, I TESTIFY THAT HE LIVES AND THAT HE LOVES US!........
three weeks ago me and elder balls showed up in church with high expectations that we would have plenty of investigators there, because it followed a very hard week of contacts, knocking doors and teaching new people. as the hours of church passed we were sad to see that it was only one investigator that had been coming for several weeks already had showed up in church that day. there was a woman, no older than 25 years old, that we did not recognize. we went up to talk to her, to find out who she was. she said she had heard about our church, and recently being rejected by the catholic church, she decided to give our church a chance. in church that day, there was muched talked about the atonement. she asked if we could come by her house to explain more about that word. we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and marked a day with her.....
five days later we went to her house and taught her. it was a normal lesson. we taught about the atonement. marked a next appointment and left.
she didnt come to church sunday...
we went to our next appointment we had with her this last week. i was now with elder sargent. we went to her apartment. we were 20 minutes late. we didnt think anything of it. knocked on her door. she came to the door with a smile on her face. "i have been waiting" she humbly said. we sang. we prayed. elder sargent began to talk. to see if she had remembered anything about the last time we talked. he didnt get any farther than asking her how she was when she cut him off saying, "i read the entire pamphlet, can i read each part and then explain it to you guys?" shocked both of us said, "OF COURSE!" as she began to go through each step of the plan of salvation, explain and then ask questions she had, i grew a greater love for the savior. i gained a personal testimony that he is our savior and that he is preparing those he knows will except the message. i am serving in a country were people have very little schooling, if any. its a great chanllenge to teach these people in portuguese when they grew up speaking creole, a completely different language. not ever had i even DREAMED that we would find an investiagtor such as her. she taught us. it was the most amazing experience ever! there was a great spirit in that room. and ever since i walked out of that lesson i have simply felt different. who would have ever thought something so simple could have such a dramatic change on a person. i cant tell you how greatful i am for this experience.
familia, i love you all very much. i hope that you all can realize, the same way that i did, that christ lives! that he loves us. and because of him all of our past mistakes can be wiped away. just as it is taught in the scriptures, " though it is as scarlet, it can be made white as snow," i testify that this is true, because i have used the atonement in my life. it has changed me. and i know now no matter how hard times get i will always have someone to lift me up.....we are NEVER alone!!!!!
the mission continues to be an experience beyond anything, i am learning and growing so much. i hope that we can all learn from the experiences God places before us, that is my prayer! i am now serving with elder sargent, from black foot idaho. he is an amazing companion and i have loved the first two weeks we have had serving together. he is humble and is helping me become the same way. it is true when we are taught that we can learn from everyone around us, if only we let it happen. i was very grateful for the package i recieved from you. we actually made blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning, quite delicious if you ask me. we are gonna go buy some chicken to try out some of the other things in the magical box from america. thank you so much for all that you have done and continue to do for me, an imperfect but improving son, brother, brother-in-law, uncle and grandchild. i love you and you are continuely in my prayers.
a wise man once said "if we do four things in our life we shall find happiness in all things....
read your scriptures
say your prayers
go to church
keep the commandments and keep trying"
(that wise man, is me by the way hehe.....)
much love from your elder half way around the earth in the middle of the sea.....
elder coleman
if i could explain in words what i feel right now i wouldnt hesitate, but my feelings are simply not describable. something changed in my work and in my life. something big. something that i can never forget. something that is so simple, but definetely changed my life forever. i dont know why it took so long for me to achieve it or where it has been all these 19 almost 20 years of my life. i, for myself have found the secret to life. it wasnt easy. and i know it still wont be easy. but if everyone could feel what i feel, the world would be a different place. without war. without sadness, mourning or frankly anything negative. as i have walked the first 19 years of my life. i have learned. i have fallen. i have stood back up. moved foward. made mistakes. tried to changed. fell again. made more mistakes. never gave up. just kept moving forward. something happened. i found the light of the world for myself. i found our beloved savior jesus christ. i know that he lives. that he died and ressurrected for us. so that we too can live forever. "he is risen", as president monson talked so lovingly about this last confernce. i have no doubt that he is my brother and my redeemer. i always thought i KNEW this. but i have never FELT it like this. AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, I TESTIFY THAT HE LIVES AND THAT HE LOVES US!........
three weeks ago me and elder balls showed up in church with high expectations that we would have plenty of investigators there, because it followed a very hard week of contacts, knocking doors and teaching new people. as the hours of church passed we were sad to see that it was only one investigator that had been coming for several weeks already had showed up in church that day. there was a woman, no older than 25 years old, that we did not recognize. we went up to talk to her, to find out who she was. she said she had heard about our church, and recently being rejected by the catholic church, she decided to give our church a chance. in church that day, there was muched talked about the atonement. she asked if we could come by her house to explain more about that word. we gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and marked a day with her.....
five days later we went to her house and taught her. it was a normal lesson. we taught about the atonement. marked a next appointment and left.
she didnt come to church sunday...
we went to our next appointment we had with her this last week. i was now with elder sargent. we went to her apartment. we were 20 minutes late. we didnt think anything of it. knocked on her door. she came to the door with a smile on her face. "i have been waiting" she humbly said. we sang. we prayed. elder sargent began to talk. to see if she had remembered anything about the last time we talked. he didnt get any farther than asking her how she was when she cut him off saying, "i read the entire pamphlet, can i read each part and then explain it to you guys?" shocked both of us said, "OF COURSE!" as she began to go through each step of the plan of salvation, explain and then ask questions she had, i grew a greater love for the savior. i gained a personal testimony that he is our savior and that he is preparing those he knows will except the message. i am serving in a country were people have very little schooling, if any. its a great chanllenge to teach these people in portuguese when they grew up speaking creole, a completely different language. not ever had i even DREAMED that we would find an investiagtor such as her. she taught us. it was the most amazing experience ever! there was a great spirit in that room. and ever since i walked out of that lesson i have simply felt different. who would have ever thought something so simple could have such a dramatic change on a person. i cant tell you how greatful i am for this experience.
familia, i love you all very much. i hope that you all can realize, the same way that i did, that christ lives! that he loves us. and because of him all of our past mistakes can be wiped away. just as it is taught in the scriptures, " though it is as scarlet, it can be made white as snow," i testify that this is true, because i have used the atonement in my life. it has changed me. and i know now no matter how hard times get i will always have someone to lift me up.....we are NEVER alone!!!!!
the mission continues to be an experience beyond anything, i am learning and growing so much. i hope that we can all learn from the experiences God places before us, that is my prayer! i am now serving with elder sargent, from black foot idaho. he is an amazing companion and i have loved the first two weeks we have had serving together. he is humble and is helping me become the same way. it is true when we are taught that we can learn from everyone around us, if only we let it happen. i was very grateful for the package i recieved from you. we actually made blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning, quite delicious if you ask me. we are gonna go buy some chicken to try out some of the other things in the magical box from america. thank you so much for all that you have done and continue to do for me, an imperfect but improving son, brother, brother-in-law, uncle and grandchild. i love you and you are continuely in my prayers.
a wise man once said "if we do four things in our life we shall find happiness in all things....
read your scriptures
say your prayers
go to church
keep the commandments and keep trying"
(that wise man, is me by the way hehe.....)
much love from your elder half way around the earth in the middle of the sea.....
elder coleman
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