Fruits of Missionary work

Dear family,                   October 13, 2014

This week has been good, full of teaching and service. We were doing service for a member a lot of the day Friday, and we helped at a ranch for a part member family all day Saturday. We had transfer calls on Saturday, and both me and my companion are staying in Sheridan. So I'm not training, but I most likely will be next transfer. Most areas in the mission don't have new missionaries take over the area and train right after they have been trained. We are both glad we weren't transferred, because Jacob's baptism is this Saturday, and we are excited to be there for that special moment in his life, and in the life of his family.

This week we have been focusing on increasing our referrals, because we are desperately in need of more people to teach. Most of the referrals we did receive were less active referrals, but everyone needs help on their own personal progression towards Jesus Christ, whether they be members, less actives, investigators or missionaries. We all have our own struggles, and we all need the Atonement. We have a lot of less active people we are working with, and we meet new ones almost every day, sometimes on accident. Hope fully we can help them become closer to Christ and Heavenly Father.

That's my week. We have really been focusing on Jacob, as his baptism is so near, and we know that Satan is trying his hardest to convince him to not get baptized, so we've been there to help encourage and strengthen him. It's been amazing to see his progress, and we truly are excited for this Saturday!

Elder Ehlert

Dear Family,                                                                                      October 20, 2014

                                                             

We had another good week here in Sheridan, we packed in 14 lessons this week. It was a great way to start off this new transfer. We got quite a few member present lessons, and we have still been working with a lot of LARCs. And now we have a brand new recent convert, Jacob Campbell. He was baptized on Saturday, by Erin's dad, John Anson. All of her family came up from Colorado to be there except for one sister and her brother. Jacob's parents and sister Tori came as well, so it was good to see their support for him as well. It was a great baptismal service, and the Spirit was so strong. Normally for convert baptisms, the Confirmation takes place the following Sunday in Sacrament meeting, but we had Stake Conference on Sunday, so we got special permission to do the Confirmation right after the baptism. It was good for Erin's family, who wanted to be there, but wouldn't have been able to make our 1:30 meeting because they had to drive back to Colorado. I had the opportunity to confirm Jacob a member of the church, and it was a great experience for me. We taught him a great lesson a couple days before his baptism on the role of the Holy Ghost so he could understand more about what the Holy Ghost could do for him. The 2nd ward elders had an investigator there at the baptism as well, and she's on date for November 8th. She said she loved being there, and could barely hold back tears. Like I said, it was a good way to start out the transfer. He was our only progressing investigator, so we are focusing this week on finding. We placed 2 Books of Mormons last night, and we got 2 referrals. Hopefully we can find more people who are prepared to hear our message. That's pretty much it for this week, it was a great week, full of the Spirit and good experiences. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Elder Ehlert

St. George Beloved!

I spent a wonderful six days with my parents in what our family calls St. George Beloved.  Dad and Mom are always so welcoming to whoever comes for a visit.  Their home is filled with good humor, a peaceful feeling and gratitude expressed for their blessings.  No wonder we all like to come for a visit!   

Robert and Ethel in their cozy and memory filled "Cumorah Room" which chronicles their two missions to the Cumorah Mission, with 20 years in between.  What a treat to eat dinner with them while lounging in a recliner and watching TV.  I even enjoy Lawerence Welk, which could mean that I'm moving from middle age to the next older category!

Mom and I experienced the excitement of a JV girls Volleyball game.  Mayci made her relatives proud!

On Dad and Mom's office wall hangs a Missionary Map which displays where everyone in the family have served their mission.  I emailed it to Daniel to show him that his name is up on the top of the map, so he'd better be sure to be a "top-notch" missionary.

Back at home and cracking the whip to get some jobs done before the snow flies.  Paul risked his life washing most of the 2nd story windows while on an extension ladder and Matt helped out with this one.  Now I know why the professional bid to clean our outside windows came to almost $200.

Here are two weeks of letters from the missionfield:

Dear Family,                                                                                                         September 29, 2014

This week we were able to get our lessons back up to where we usually have them. We actually doubled the amount of lessons we taught last week. We now have 2 investigators on date for baptism, with Jacob's coming up in 2 weeks, October 18. Elder Autrey most likely won't be there, because transfers are on October 11, and I will most likely be training then. Elder Autrey is hoping he is transferred to somewhere close so he can be at the baptism. Jacob has chosen Erin's dad to baptize him, then for me to be the voice to confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost. I am excited and honored he would want me to do that for him. His parents will be coming to his baptism, as well as his sister Tori, who we haven't been able to teach much these past weeks, but she'll be able to feel the Spirit at the baptism, and hopefully it will rekindle that fire to learn more about the gospel. Our other investigator on date is Susan Love. She is about 75 years old, and her date isNovember 8th. We still need to teach her some of the lessons, but she's been reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to come to church, so we're glad she is starting to have the desire to learn more and come closer to her Savior.

We keep getting more less active members to teach, and we continue to help them as they try to return to activity. I love helping them feel Christ's love and the blessings they may have forgotten about. The Sheridan 3rd ward had a youth temple trip on Saturday, and they went to the Billings, Montana temple. It's a little more than an hour drive. They had 19 youth members go, and did baptisms and confirmations for 191 people. I wish we could go to the temple, but it's out of our mission boundaries, so we aren't allowed to go.

On Thursday I went up to Ranchester again for exchanges. I wasn't able to see the MacArthur's again, but I'm sure they are doing well. I got food poisoning from our dinner Thursday night, and I was throwing up all of district meeting Friday, and then again later that day. We stayed in our apartment for a couple hours, then I felt better and we visited Jacob and Erin.

Saturday we got up at 5:30 to go fishing with Jacob. We went to a couple spots, but no fish. Our plan was to have one person read the Book of Mormon until someone caught a fish, then pass the book, but we didn't catch anything, so we decided that each of us would read a chapter before switching. We were able to get in a lot of chapters to help him finish before his baptism. We all had our pocket knives, so we whittled sticks while we had our poles in the water and while one person was reading, the other two were carving. I made a pretty sweet canoe, and maybe I'll try to make something else sometime.

It was a good week, even though I got sick. We were able to teach a lot, and we've been blessed with so many people to visit and help. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts, I love you!

Elder Ehlert

Dear Family,                                                                                           October 6, 2014

This week has been a good one, as we have been able to get our lessons back up again. We got great support from the members, and we had 11 lessons to investigators with a member present, and 17 total lessons. We got to meet with several different people, and we went through our ward list to find more less active members outside the city. We were able to find a new investigator that way, so that was great. Her husband is a member, but he just chose not to remain active. He's grown up in Sheridan his whole life. Hopefully this week we can meet with them again. He told us to stop by anytime.

General Conference was amazing! I loved the talks, and almost all of them will help me and people we meet with. We were able to go to the Campbell's and watch all the sessions with them. We had a lot of snacks, and we played bingo, which I think really helped them to listen and hopefully learn some new things. Jacob's baptismal interview is tonight! We went over the questions with him last week, and he struggled with knowing we have prophets today. We decided to wait until after Conference, and he now knows for sure that we have prophets, and that was great. He struggled a bit with tithing, as he is trying to take care of his wife and baby girl, so we taught him tithing again. We used M&Ms like we did at tithing settlement with Bishop Brown and Bishop McMurray. I laid out 10 M&Ms, asked him to give me one back, then I gave him a cup, and overflowed it with candy. It really helped him to visualize the promise in Malachi, and he is committed to living that law now as well. We have seen such amazing changes in his life, and it has been so great to work with him. He is a wonderful friend, and we're so glad that he is choosing to be baptized.

That's my week. Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all!

Elder Ehlert