Week 82

Sup.

Life is good. The work here is picking up. Miracles are happening. I am to lazy to type everything out. My comp writes really good emails though so I'll have him add you. Love you guys!

Whenever you can send one is fine! are they out of stock cause everyone in England is hoping on the band wagon? haha Investigators are going well we found 4 new ones this week! My comp is cool he has his quirks like we all do but he is cool. We do well together. Love you as well.

THE COMPANION 

Well, I'm still here. Cleveland hasn't burnt down or any of the surrounding area after they won the championship. Also as far as we can tell nobody in our area is going too crazy about it all. Then again, we haven't really been outside that much today because as we were coming in this morning from Walmart, I bumped the key in the lock and the key snapped right off.... So, I panicked. And then I just played it cool. But then I just played it off like I made a big mistake. Pretty much Elder Howard was just the victim. Anyways, so then we tried pulling it out with pliers...no good. Then I found some staples and it turns out those went in but they were too flimsy to do any good. Finally we decided to go back to Walmart for a screw driver and some super glue. Apparently, you have to be 18 to buy super glue. I tried the super glue and....super no good. Then Elder Howard disappeared (he just took a nap) and I went about dissembling the lock. It went super great and then.... really really no good. I opened it up and it just exploded all over the place because there were springs doing spring things. Then I spent the next hour and a half trying to put it back together. I figured out a lot more than I thought I would but I couldn't do it all the way. We ended up talking to the manager and he was actually cool and just installed a new one for us just like that! Anyways, pointless story over, this week has been super great!

We had zone conference this last week. The opening prayer was one of my favorite parts by far. That probably sounds a little weird to most of you, but the reason I say that is because Sister Clain said the opening prayer. She was one of the 4 missionaries who survived the Brussels bombing a few weeks ago. She was actually on her way to our mission when that happened! Her prayer was amazing she was so grateful for being here and every chance that she had to be a missionary the spirit was so strong and I think it helped all of us gain such a deeper understanding of our purpose and why we are really out here.

Also at Zone Conference, we were told to avoid using "trigger" words with people. Such words as "Missionaries, Church, Gospel, Message, etc.." Needless to say....what do we say? The answer is... Families! Before I tell you our experience with this new approach I will tell you the why! The question was asked by The Assistants: "What is the message of The Restoration?" The church was restored right? Sort of right... The message of The Restoration is that families can be together forever! Yay! Well, we tried the approach without using any trigger words...It was a throwback pretty much to day 1 in the MTC. We were scrambling and bumbling all over ourselves! Eventually we got the hang of it though and one guy actually said "yes" to hearing our message! We taught him said a prayer, and set a return appointment. When we texted him later to confirm our appointment we got a text back from his mom....She said not to come back. 

Miracle time! We were tracting on Tuesday and we found a lost sheep! She was a member who moved here in November but didn't really understand that there are churches out here too! We taught her on Friday and then she came to church on Sunday. She is pretty cool, we are also going to teach her friend that lives with her. Double Miracle! 

Oh! I almost forgot! The title of this email....Big news!! Our Mission President changed our music rule! We can now listen to ANYTHING that The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings! And by anything I seriously mean anything... Show tunes and all! Merry Christmas Elder Vaughn!

Fun fact, a lady just walked over to us and gave us some "Tracts!" Woohoo! Go Missionaries. I think she might think we are wrong though...

Probably the biggest new this week is that we set a baptismal date with our investigator Carol! She is the one who hasn't been to church yet because we haven't been able to find a ride because she is 75 and has a lot of health issues. But, we found a ride for this Sunday! The spirit was super strong, we taught the Restoration over again. We asked the question "Why is the Restoration important to you?" and she gave us the best answer I have ever heard from a nonmember. "It means that we have a prophet on the earth today who can trace his authority back to Jesus Christ and he can tell us the things God needs us to know today." We kind of just dropped our mouths for a second and then Elder Howard invited her to be baptized! It was really cool. The Branch hasn't had a baptism in over a year so it was really cool!

Families are forever. I know it! I'm so grateful for my family and especially since Father's Day was yesterday I am so grateful for my dad! I love my family!

-Elder Vaughn

p.s. We're all brothers and sisters so I love you all:)