Week 90

Hola, 

The reason I sent such a down email last week was to prepare you for this one! So like this week was the best week of my mission! 

Friday and Sunday were the best days of my mission. I have worked so hard for the past 4 months in the area and I have finally seen the fruit of my labors. Although I boast it is not in my own strength. It was all the doing of the Lord. He just needed two worthy hard working missionaries to harvest in this wonderful area too work through. I love my mission the Gospel is true and it changes lives. I love the Spirit and having it so close to me, I could do nothing in this work without it. Love you guys!

THE COMP

We had a little mishap this morning. Elder Howard was just really getting into the song Peace Like a River and he just blew past the library, he didn't even realize anything until I said something to him. Man, one things is for certain, he had peace like a river. I have good news and I have more good news! The good news is AMANDA AND CAROL BOTH GOT BAPTIZED!! It was incredible. I have so much to share from both of their baptisms because they were both so remarkable. I guess our mission president calls us either the day after or the night after baptisms just to make sure it all went well, well he just happened to call on the trainer calls day and so we thought one of us were training. But we're not. We think we are going to stay for a 3rd transfer together (eternal companions right there) but we will see next week.

Both baptisms were pretty stressful. I guess that kind of sort of makes sense. It is pretty much the whole purpose of why we are out here but it all worked out. Basically people just miscommunication sometimes! Missionaries very well included. But anyways, Carol's was super stressful because we had to lift her into a pool and all that jazz. Well, all was mostly sort of okay. Honestly, it was sketchy at best... But, nobody was hurt, nobody really knew how uncertain we were but it all worked out. Basically she got put on this lift that lifted her out of her chair, then they lowered her into the water (I was pretty much holding my breath the whole time (not under water though)) where four of us held her. Let's just say she was very buoyant. Well anyways everything was pretty okay in the water, a little bit awkward sometimes (most of the time). I was right at her head, Brother Walter to my right and Elder Howard to his Right, with Brother Arnold at my left. Well, all was well and then Brother Arnold decided to let go so he could like baptize her and stuff and hold her arms right and everything. Well remember I said she was very buoyant so that wasn't the worst thing but I did have to quickly hold more of her... But it all worked out and probably wasn't as stressful as I thought. Just let me know next time you're with a large lady, that can't walk, in a pool, and you have to baptize her. Then you will understand. Haha but really it was actually super great and there are some pictures below!

Amanda's went super smooth and nothing went wrong right? Haha. No. Remember folks, we're just missionaries. (miracle workers) It all started in branch council when we gave them a program...and then the branch presidency was like "That's not the spelling you gave us earlier!" Yeah, that was our bad. In the Sacrament program we spelt her name wrong. And then this is probably the biggest problem.. Nobody told us that the font leaks.....We filled it by the 3rd hour of church but by the time she was baptized it had lowered about 6 inches. Also, we're pretty sure that our font was built specifically for 8-year old baptisms, it was already low but now it was even lower! But it worked out, Brother Drabek and Amanda just both knelt down. Interesting but it worked out! We're writing a note in the area book that the font leaks...

That was all the logistics of the baptisms but more important was the spirit that we felt. And even more importantly how they felt. I've never seen either of them happier. Here are a few quotes:

"I wanted to stay under longer"-Amanda

"I feel so warm"-Carol

"I can't wait for the baptism of fire"-Carol

"I feel so happy"-Elder Vaughn

"We are accomplishing our purpose"-Elder Howard

This was such a special week. Especially yesterday at Amanda's baptism. It was probably the happiest I have been my whole mission. Her non-member anti husband came...And the branch fellow shipped like crazy. I have honestly never ever seen a group of people reach out with so much love than the Chardon Branch yesterday. One of the coolest things was in Branch council the Branch President told the auxiliaries to assign them home and visiting teachers. We chimed in that if they need any suggestions let us know! And immediately after, brother Wicks, came to us and asked our suggestions. We said "Brother Juker" and he said okay. After sacrament meeting he came up to us and said "Yep, it's brother Juker." Just like that in 1 hour's time. The spirit worked so fast and we know it was the spirit because brother Juker was perfect. Brother Juker met sister Juker when they were 16 and dated her pretty much for 7 years all while he was not a member of the church. So he understood exactly how Amanda's husband would and will feel. So he told Kyle "You're going to feel left behind. You're going to be angry and so many other things and when you do call me." Brother Juker was telling us all of this later but it was amazing because brother Juker had so much love and empathy for him. I really wish I had the words to explain it but I don't. God understands us all perfectly and knows exactly how to place us in positions to love and help people achieve ultimate Happiness, which is to return to live with our Father in Heaven in our families.

Amanda bore her testimony at the end of her baptism and it was powerful. She knows. I wish I could share it. One thing she focused on was that God has given us a choice. The Church doesn't preach that if you don't do this you will die and be sad. It says "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." Amanda then expressed that God has led her and provided her with the opportunity to choose Christ. Through her whole life she has searched and wandered. She had been given light line upon line until she was ready to choose Christ. Which she now has. Which is the correct choice. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be a part of all of this. I know that this is God's work. That he loves us all and that he wants us to be happy. 

Thank you all for all you do! I love you!

Week 89

We did a lot of finding meaning we were out in the heat all day everyday. So yeah rough week. Um for Lucas don't get him weird things he doesn't use now like the robe haha and he probably just need like 2 outfits for Prep day. yeah make sure he has a study journal and stuff like that. I sent a parcel with some skinny ties form him. and Zach can have the slinky i sent in the parcel for his birthday since I forgot. Love you here a some pics....

"Watch them grow with your eyes only please." The title of this week's email just came from a nice sign that is right next to me. It doesn't really have anything to do with anything. But this week has been pretty good! Well, it started off kind of like "WOOOAHHH ELDER! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A STORY WRITTEN ABOUT US IN THE ENSIGN!" And then it ended kind of like "Maybe next week." But actually for the most part we had a lot of good stuff happen for us this week! The highlight for me was probably district meeting, because we got to have District meeting in The School of The Prophets! It was so cool. The spirit was stronger than ever and we had some really cool experiences there. I am so grateful to have been there. Everybody who hasn't been to Kirtland and seen the sights should definitely go. Or serve a mission there because it's super the best.

We were pretty excited at the beginning of this week because we just taught a lot of lessons with members there. The first one was probably the coolest we taught a 16 year old guy that we contacted a few weeks ago. He read a lot of anti material (P.S. The anti is real! I have never had so much anti on my entire mission but being around Kirtland a lot of people know some pretty crazy things. Also there are some members that have crazy stories about the persecution they have received in Kirtland) and was pretty much going into it with the intent to have a "civil debate" with us. Well, we addressed all of his concerns (won the debate by using the spirit) and the real winner was our member who we took with us because she was his friend. Man, she really laid it down.

Well, Raphael told us that he will not get baptized until his dad dies. Darn. But, we still think he will come around soon. Yesterday in church we were sitting there in Fast and Testimony meeting and I leaned over and told Elder Howard "Tell Raphael to bare his testimony." Honestly, I was maybe just joking a little bit. But he did it and then Raphy said "OK." Oh no! I asked him what he was going to say and he asked if I was "pre-screening him" so I said yes but then he got up and bore a really good testimony on music and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir! We also got him to throw in "The Book of Mormon is a beautiful book." So it was a pretty successful experience.  

This week we are finally baptizing Carol! And I get to go into a pool! Woohoo! It should be super exciting. We are also going to try to baptize Amanda on Sunday! I say try because she has been sick this whole last week and we haven't really contacted her much....The member that contacts her for us (because her phone is broken so she has to use Facebook) told us that she doesn't want to move her baptismal date though so hopefully we will get her too! 

Things are pretty good. I'm grateful for this gospel and I know that it's true. I had a really cool experience at District Meeting that reinforced my testimony of The Restoration. I know that it happened and I am so grateful for it. It brings the greatest blessings possible to us and I know that it is real. I really do. 

Thank you for all that you do! I love you all!

Elder Vaghun

Week 88

Family!

So this week was awesome! We are doing some awesome work here this has been like the most favourite time of my mission! Me and Elder Vaughn work super well together and we are seeing so many miracles! The Members here are the best and so willing to help us out! So on Thursday we go news that we found a place to baptize Carol it should happen this week or next. Amanda was at church yesterday and her her baptismal interview tonight at 6 her date is for the 14th she is committed and was even telling people about it yesterday! SO that is going really well! There have been many more miracles this week, its crazy to think when I first got here the was literally nothing and now this area is doing so so well. I love serving here and feel so blessed that the Lord has been blessing us as we have diligently served Him is this area! Hard work is the key to success! I am a witness of it! I love you guys Missions are the best! 

Elder Howard

Well, I thought it would be fun if Elder Howard wrote this week's email! 

Also, Amanda is super cool and is going to be baptized pretty soon. And! Remember Raphy? Well he's super Catholic and he goes to church but then he goes to Catholic church after, he totally believes that our church is true and The Catholic church is not! He is a talker and when he talks it usually doesn't have anything to do with anything, well, yesterday after church he said he felt the spirit during the talk! So we knew we had to take advantage of that so we went to see him later that day and as we asked him about it he just started talking about nothing but I had such a strong impression to just let him talk and so then 10 minutes later he told us he believes we are the true church! It was awesome! The only problem....is that he told us he wont get baptized until his super Catholic dad dies.. (he's 91 folks) But we committed him to talk to his dad about it today. (he's like 53 by the way) 

All is well in Chardon, things are actually super well and I'm really happy and so thankful that I get to serve a mission. The church is true and more importantly Jesus Christ is our Savior. He stands today on the right hand of God and is so aware of everything we go through. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I've heard a lot more stories of him serving here in Kirtland and it just has strengthened my testimony that he was a prophet of God. I know it. God lives and loves us and wants to hear from us every day! I love you all and know you can all have great weeks!

-Elder Vaughn

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adam Howard <adam.howard@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 11:43 AM
Subject: This weeks special addition: #Talk2Ten
To: adam.vaughn@myldsmail.net

Well, maybe this week was actually a really good one. So to start it off we had failed to budget our miles accordingly so there was a lot of biking and walking and getting rained on. But the work of the Lord is moving forward in this Chardon area.

So Tuesday we had a good day planned had so great lessons and it was like an average day in the life of a missionary the real good news came was when our zone leaders told us we were going to blitz their area which means both companionships work in the same area which meant we didn't have to plan a whole day in our area which was looking like a lot of tracting in super hot weather. After the exchange we were able to review what we learned and surprisingly enough... not really but Elder Vaughn and I took away the same principle and that was talking to everyone! Like all the time no exceptions or accuses! So as the week progressed we have repented and literally talked to everyone! In our zone meeting the next day we were given the #Talk2Ten challenge? Where we are to talk to ten people every day outside of tracting and teaching appointments. Which fueled our goal to repent and talk to everyone! 

Thursday we had our Branch President come teaching with us. He is a stellar guy and an awesome teacher! He taught us some pretty great things about tithing. So with him we taught Carol, so earlier in the day we got a call from Brother Arnold our Branch mission Leader who Told us he found a place to baptize Carol. So that was like the most amazing news Carol is finally going to be baptized! 

The next days were good but that's when the rain rolled into town... We had planned to be walking and biking. So as we are tracting on this one road we see a guy just cleaning his truck (before the big rain/thunder storm) And as we contact him, he has a little yappy dog, my mission has made me hate dogs and this is why as I gave him the card his little yappy dog bit me! and tried to eat my leg! It was horrible I let out this high pitched panic scream in fear of my leg being eaten and the fact that it totally caught me by surprise. So I got made fun of by my companion for a little bit until later that day when the thunder storm began, after taking shelter under a tree for like 15 minuets (smart I know) we made our way to the nursing home where Carol lives to play chess with our buddy L.C. until the storm passed as my companion if quite frightened of the weather. 

Week 87

Hola!

So this week was great! It was slow at times but all in all things are going so well! Carol is just dying to get baptized! we just have to figure out how we are going to do it and do it as safely as possible so out Branch Mission Leader is working on it. Amanda our Investigator got married yesterday. She just really want to be baptized and is so ready and willing to do what it takes. Me and my companion get along well and do work! I love this branch and the members here we receive so much support! We are getting a lot of anti material thrown at our investigators though and then they bombard us with questions and its so so so dumb! So we dealt with a lot of that this week! 

Yes the treats are almost all gone and my companion doesn't like chocolate so I have been chowing down with no guilt of not sharing! haha Love you guys! and Glad you had a happy birthday Mum!

Elder Howard

Week 86

So. My week was kinda legit! and crazy! 

So we are making a lot of progress with this area! Like wow I am so glad the hard work is bring forth fruit. So I guess I'll share just a couple experiences about this week....

So on Saturday. We biked 25 miles as we contacted LA's and tracted on the country roads. One of the LA's was not interested and was rude so we left, we decided to knock the next couple houses on that long country road and the next two people we talked to were even more rude and super angry and almost set there dogs on us unless we left the property within a matter of milliseconds haha so we figured Heavenly Father didn't want us knocking on this street. So as we road like 5 more miles stopped by another LA member who was a lot nicer we continued on our route kinda afraid to knock on any doors as we road I offered a prayer to Heaven Father asking him to guide me to a house to knock on and to have to courage to just do it! so as we are trudging on our bikes up this hill I see a mail box and receive the prompting to stop here. Our door approach is family history so as we are talking to the woman on her door step and after asking questions about her family history which she didn't seem to interested to answer until she told me where in England her ancestors are from.... oh yeah you guessed it Leicester! she pronounced it a little wrong so I corrected her haha and told her that's where I was born, she was like way more receptive. It was such an amazing miracle! 

The next has to deal with our new Investigator Her name is Amanda she is super awesome! She just came out of the woodwork last week she approached us on the street ans asked for a Book of Mormon and she almost got baptized 6 years ago but wasn't ready then. She is now though. We have taught her 3 times this week and she has committed to baptism. She was planning on coming to church Sunday so we were waiting for her before sacrament meeting but she never came. We were super sad, then...... like 20 mins before sacrament ended we got a text like "hey my alarm didn't go off is it still worth it to come to church?". Well there is still two hours left so yeah! haha so she came with her 4yr old. They both loved it and she knows the church is true! But there is opposition in all things.... yes even this. She has a boyfriend who she lives with and they have a kid together and he is super against the church he has no good reason but he is. So yesterday evening we taught her about eternal families and that is what she wants and with her current situation it doesn't look likely or possible so she is doing everything she can to get her boyfriend on board and he won't so she is going through a ton right now but she told us if it cam down to it she will choose the gospel over her boyfriend. She Has an amazing testimony and such strong faith please pray for her!

But yeah that's my week. I love this Gospel. I know it is true, and nothing in this world will ever shake me from it. 

Elder Howard

Played Risk with some of the youth in the Branch haha and we have a member dinner tonight and a couple lessons!

Week 85

Hey!

Can you send me that picture? haha Brother Juker showed it to me and I told him he had to email it home! They are a great family! Glad to hear things are going well! I just want treats for my B-day. I want to get fat. 

This week was good we set 2 new baptismal dates and yeah things are progressing! This week so funny/cool experiences. So we were asked to visit a member in an assisted living place and it was super high tech and we didn't go in the right way and I tripped the alarm and yeah it was bad but all worked out.... the older lady we went and visited as elder Vaughn shook her hand she didn't let go so they held hand for like a solid 5 minuets till we left it was soooooooo funny! A miracle we had this week was on Wednesday. were were walking on the street and were stopped by a lady in probably her mid 20's and she said it was a sign she had seen us walking in that neighborhood that day. She has been receiving promptings all week that she need God back in her life and she knew who we were because she has investigated the church about 5 years ago! So that was great! the Lord really does place us exactly where we need to be! Well I love and miss you guys! be safe!

Elder Howard

THE COMP

Hello everybody! This week has been pretty good! On Saturday we got to go to a musical! That's right everyone, a musical! It was a church musical. The whole Kirtland Ohio stake put it on it's called "This Is Kirtland!" It's just about Kirtland and the things that happened here, except it kind of forgot all the persecution and bad things that happened. But that's okay it was really happy and fun and pretty good. Joseph Smith did a backflip so that was pretty cool.

We've been tracting the Amish a lot lately... It's been interesting. It's pretty funny when we tell them where we are from because I say Utah and they get really excited, which usually isn't people's first response, and then when Elder Howard says "New Zealand" they just kind of look confused. Most of them just don't know where it is! Anyways, they're really nice and they let us teach them but it's mostly out of generosity, they usually don't really listen to what we are saying. That's okay though. Elder Howard has a pretty good idea to monopolize the Yoder Toder business in a few years and then he will only employ Members of the Church so that they can slowly convert them. It will put himself out of business but I think we can all agree it's for the greater good.

Miracle at church everybody! A former investigator just showed up! He is pretty cool we met with him later and set a baptismal date! It was all good, except when he spat chewing tobacco into the church garbage can. He said he knows he has to quit though so that's always good.

We also set a baptismal date with our investigator Tiffany! She has really good fellowship with a family in the ward and she lives with a member. (their the ones that we tracted into and found the lost member)

I forgot to mention the highlight of The Fourth of July... We were cleaning up and there was a little kid pool on the cement next to the garage. So we were carrying chairs into the garage (ask an English person to say that) because it was raining and Brother Pitts (Cool member that plays basketball with us sometimes and is just cool) fell into the pool! Oh man we were all laughing so much. It was classic.

A few weeks ago we found a family with 9 kids! Yeah! 9 of them! That has Future Mormon written all over it! Well anyways, we stopped by again super excited and we had been praying and even fasting that we would be able to teach and baptize this family! I was so excited and a little nervous. The kids answered the door and we just talked with them for a while and it just built our excitement because they were so cool! We got talking with the mom and......Not interested at all. We tried everything! And we were just trying as hard as we could it was probably the most effort either of us had put into a contact but it didn't work out. I was crushed afterwards. I honestly felt like crying because we wanted so badly to bring this family into the Gospel. We knew we had what they needed and we had fasted and prayed and everything! We got back in the car and I was feeling so sad. Well I turned on the car and we were listening to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD "Peace Like a River" and track 6 is super good, I don't know what it's called but I love it. Anyways, right when I turned on the car the Choir sang "This is my Father's Work, why should my heart be sad?" And it hit me like a peaceful river. This is my Heavenly Father's work. It's not that families time right now but that doesn't mean they won't come in someday. He had something else for us to do that night and so we kept going. The Lord put is where we needed to be and I know that everything will work out. I know that this is My Father's work. Disappointment may come, but I don't need to let my heart be sad! "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." -Elder Holland. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve! I'm not perfect, not even close! But I know this is The Lord's Work because he is able to use even me to bring others to him! He is willing to work will any and all of us. His love is perfect. His Grace is Sufficient. I know this and I'm excited to keep on going!

I love you all!

-Elder Vaughn

Week 84

Hola!

So. Glad you guys are doing well in England. Are you sad to go or have you had enough? haha I do remember chasing the poo haha Um well I like chocolate and probably like just some English sweets? idk. do I still get a Leicester City shirt? 

So this week. It was slower than last we had one of our new Investigators come to church and yeah she liked it. We haven't found any new Investigators this week but are going to this week. It rained yesterday on the 4th so we had a bbq in the rain. My comp singed his eyelashes and brows cooking the meat haha I am tired all the time we work super hard here because if you don't nothing gets done haha so yeah I need energy! But things are going well we are teaching people about the truth what could be better? Anyways I love you all and miss you a ton!

Elder Howard

Here is our zone as you can see we are out numbered. 

THE COMP

Happy 4th of July! This was the 5th time that Elder Howard, from England, has celebrated the 4th of July. He was grumpy all day (just kidding) and was really excited when it started raining at the Barbecue we were at. So, you know how it's kind of just like the thing to do to say "Is there anything we can do to help?" when you're a missionary and at someone's house? Well, I did yesterday and then I singed my eyebrows.... Yeah, they asked me to grill and I of course said "Yes." I didn't want that responsibility! If there was something wrong with the meat, it was my fault! (There wasn't) So the grill I was using was pretty old and they had Aluminum foil covering the grill part things (the part that makes your hot dogs have black lines on them) So I guess the hamburger Grease just kind of kept getting lit on fire or something because when I opened the Grill for the first time a GIANT FIREBALL FLEW INTO MY FACE! Just kidding, it wasn't that intense. But a little fireball did kind of sort of fly into my face and singed my eyebrows. It kind of just looks like I dyed all of the tips of my hairs on my eyelashes and a few eyebrows like a golden brown. It will probably be the trend soon.

This week has been pretty good! We keep meeting with our investigator Raphael who is super Catholic but also really likes Mormons, The Book of Mormon, Church, The members, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, pretty much he just loves all things Mormon. He also thinks The Book of Mormon and the Church is true... But he won't join because he is afraid of upsetting his 90 year old parents. We'll figure something out.

We should be having a baptism pretty soon with Carol! But, the Logistics of it is all super hard.... She won't fit in a baptismal font so we have been visiting some pools (I usually have to hold Elder Howard back from just jumping in) to see if they have a chair lift and just other general logistics. We even had to call our Mission President. Carol is super cool though. She was feeling kind of lonely on Sunday and she prayed and asked Heavenly Father to send us. Well guess who stopped by later that day! Us! 

So, it turns out whenever our Mission President tells us to do something it works. The other day at Zone Training Meeting we were told to try and use "Family History" as a door approach. How in the world is that supposed to work! Well it super does work. We were talking to this one lady and we brought it up and she just went off for like 10 minutes about her family history and was super interested in learning more about Family History! Also, that's in Preach My Gospel so that's cool too.

The 4th of July is really cool because really, one of the main reasons that America needed to become a Country was so that The Restoration could happen! That fact has helped Elder Howard come to grips with it a little bit. But really, this country was built on the foundation of Faith. Faith that coming to a new land would enable people to have the freedom to worship and live the way that they felt was right. That freedom allowed a 14 year-old boy to ask a question. That question has led to one of the most significant events in the History of the world! That is why I am here today. I am so grateful for this country and for the Gospel! I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July! I love you all so much!

-Elder Vaughn