Week 68: Happy Halloween

The most powerful thing you can do is believe in yourself.

This past week, for our P day we ended up going down to Edmond and playing football and soccer on the UCO practice field. We had exchanges with the district leader on Tuesday so we just stayed the night there. It is fun to do missionary work on the campus because you have so many people around you and they are more willing to listen most of the time.

Back in Cushing, we have been doing a lot of knocking and have had some good opportunities to find people who are actually looking for truth. We have two people who are interested. Inetta, who is a former Jehovah Witness who no longer believes in that but is really curious about us. She had neighbors in Arkansas that were members of the church. They seemed to have planted a seed that has now started to grow 40 years later. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was really excited about all of it. "These things just make sense and I thought it should always have worked that way." She told us after it all. Brooke Matteson committed to being baptized in our lesson this past week. She and her mom are going to pray about the day of the baptism and then get back to us on that.

One of the members in our ward got a doe this past week. We visited him when he was butchering it. He ended up giving us the heart to cook. It was really tough and chewy but didn't taste too bad. I never imagined I would eat a deer heart but I guess it is normal for other people.

Elder McMinn
  

"The purpose of the gospel is ... to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature."

-David O. McKay

"For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment may we choose a positive attitude."

-Thomas S. Monson

Week 67: Cushing Life

We have a good list of people that we are teaching. We were able to have a lesson with a girl named Brooke Matteson. She really understood the restoration lesson because it turns out that she had been going to primary up until the time before she turned 8. Then they had a family situation so baptism just slipped through the cracks. We are still teaching the Laws and we are going over the lessons with them again but this time we are going to be focusing on the Bible this time. 

We have been doing a lot of tracting this week. We have been trying to find a lot more people. We have been knocking a lot which actually has been a lot of fun. Cushing is a good area.

Elder McMinn

"The Lord never asks the impossible. Often the difficult, but never the impossible."

-David B. Haight

Week 66: It's Getting Cold in Oklahoma

The weather out here has been dropping. I know it as not as cold as up north but 38 is pretty cold for me. The common phrase we have heard is... "You guys have chosen a terrible day to come outside and do this." Well, we don't pick our days, so oh well.

Things have been going really well out here in Cushing. We have 9 set appointments this week and have a lot of promising new potential investigators so that is nice to work with. We have had 4 more Book of Mormon referrals but they are a good drive away so the ward has been willing to step up and help us out. I am thankful for that.

It's been another good week in Oklahoma!
Elder McMinn

Week 65: Referral Story

Ok so cool story time. We got a Book of Mormon request for a girl named Crystal Bray and she lives right next door to a part member family that we go teach every week. When we went over there Crystal wasn't home but we walked up to the yard on a dirt road and we could see two guys sitting out in lawn chairs. These were big guys with big beards so I was honestly a little intimidated walking up there but before we were close enough to talk to them one got up and grabbed two more lawn chairs for us to sit down in. Their names are Tony and Bill. We were talking to them and they have been trying so hard to find the truth and they aren't sure if their church has it. We handed Tony the one Book of Mormon we had and he had already been flipping through it and found a passage that we highlighted that caught his attention and while we were teaching about it he comes out and says... "This passage I was reading right here about children being baptized is absolutely true. I know it. I don't know how but that makes sense." Tony and Bill now want 8 Book of Mormons for their whole family and they want us to come over and talk more about our church next time we go over to visit the part members, the Laws.  

It was a good week with a tender mercy of finding some new investigators.

Elder McMinn

 

Week 64: Back in Cushing

Work has not been too out of the ordinary. We have been seeing the same people and they are all making small progress. We got a referral this week. He seems like he is going to make progress. His name is Jamaal. He had been taught a little bit before and has had missionaries over for dinner in the past so there is some good potential with him. 

We went over to the Laws this week and they are doing great. The husband who used to be the one who was half interested is now the driving force and the wife who is not a member has slowly been falling back so we need to pick them both up. I love that family so much. We have been trying to hit the part member families hard. There seems to have been some success with that in the past so we are trying that and a lot more door knocking so that has been going well. We also are trying new towns out and seeing what we can do there so that has been good. 

Elder McMinn