SNOWED IN!!!

January 27, 2014

Hey everyone I hope things with you all are great and that you are all FANTASTIC!!

This week has been full of CHILLY things:

Tuesday we got snowed in. Monday night we got a call from the AP's saying that we needed to stay inside because a) it was very cold and b) the roads were super icy and very dangerous. So we worked out in our apartment, had studies like normal and then the rest of the day we didn't do much. We played One in The Chamber: Nerf gun style! and man is that fun! We play 2 on 2 in companionships, which we should do 1 on 1. It is much more fun! Then I practiced my Ukulele and worked on my french. Both of those are coming slowly!

Friday was great! we had another lesson with our Investigator who is still on b-date which is so cool!!! He understands everything, and makes great comments and answers to our questions. He is so ready!!

Saturday we had a dinner with a family who gave us some tips and advice to help out with Brian our investigator. And he mentioned a couple of people who would connect with him very very well.

Sunday was very interesting. We had two dinners. One was at the wards seminary teachers house and the other was with a less active. for the first dinner we had a vennisine (i don't know how it is spelled but it is deer meat), potatoes, and green beans which were okay. They have the cutest 5 year old i have seen out here! He is super energetic like the 5 year olds and loves Iron Man!

At the less actives we had a cinnamon roll and 2 slices of pizza, and they turned out to be a pretty cool family! We did invite them to church and they said they will try to come!! :)  Now this is the interesting part: After our 2nd dinner, we got a call from some elders saying that they had a referral for us who turned out to be less than 15 minutes from where we were at. They give us the details of the lady that called. We get there and it is pitch black, very creepy neighborhood, and the house lights are all off except for the living room lights. We didn't feel very comfortable about the setting already but going to the door, you could tell something wasn't right. So, this little old lady opens the door and asks us to come in and chat for the little time we had. She explains the reason for her call which was that she was concerned for the living setting for her 6 year old grandson. In short, her son whom they are living with, basically worships Satan. So we had to get out of there! we did not feel good... We told her that because of the 3rd male rule we had to go... it was SUPER SKETCHY!!! :( 

That is it for this week and i hope you all enjoy you week! God bless you all!

Love ya!  

--

~Elder Ekberg~

BONJOUR!!

January 13, 2014
This week was a slow but good week.

Monday we had a dinner with our bishop and his wife invited her friend's family over for dinner and to visit with the missionaries. Jen is a string catholic that didn't really believe in catholicism until she married her husband. We talked to her about her family and her beliefs, then asked her if she wanted to do family history work. She agreed and said that her dad was really into that so a seed has been planted!.

 Wednesday I went on exchange with our district leader and had a great time! We checked up on a ton of Part Members and Less Actives that we couldn't find addresses to at first. While finding these people, we found someone who is looking for a church! We gave her our number and told her we would check back next week! It was great!

Thursday's dinner was interesting haha. We went to Hibatchi (?) Sushi grill with one of the counselors in the bishopric.. I had a lot of chicken bites, macaroni, pizza, and sugar donuts haha it was pretty good! No sushi for me! ;) 

Friday we had another lesson with our Solid investigator who is now doing REALLY well with the word of wisdom! He is still on the road for baptism on the 19th of Feb! so cool to see the many people God is Preparing for this mission!

Favorite Scripture: 3 Nephi 11-18: Because in these chapters, it talks about what Christ taught to the Nephites when he came to the Americas! So much Spirit in those chapters!!

Spiritual Exp: Sunday. We had a brother from the Bowie ward come and speak to us and his talk was basically about him growing up in an abusive home and how the church/missionaries changed his life. He bore his testimony of Joseph Smith and, I'm not going to lie... but I did get a little choked back. The Spirit was SUPER strong yesterday! LOVED IT!

OH! and I also am trying to pick up Francais again! I am somewhat excited!!

Hope y'all have a good week!! 

Love you all!!

Elder JT

Here are some pictures.  Story behind this....we were playing basketball and I was doing some self alley-oops and one of them was really short and I threw the ball, and my index finger hit the front of the rim and kinda split... it was really fun though! 

 I felt the wonderful impression of working on my 2 hand dunk! Well, i got it but also got scraped up from the rim.  And my French Book HAHAHA!!  Elder Duck Dynasty!!

A Pretty Great Week!

January 7 2014
I forgot to bring my planner to email today so I am really sorry if it is a short email! :( 

This week we had our first lesson with Bro. Brian Topper!! It went SUPER! In the lesson, we get to tell Joseph Smith's passage about the First Vision. And guess who got to do it?? Mhmm me! it was a great experience. I missed a few words here and there but you could still feel the spirit. Closing up the lesson was tough because 1) his wife was trying to explain everything we said to him and was starting to confuse him. and 2) because he asked so many great questions and comments! BUT when we did actually start to close, we committed him to be baptized on February 9th!! HE IS GOLDEN! I am very excited!!

 Another investigator we have is still struggling to let his wife to let him be baptized. She is a strong catholic and doesn't want him to be baptized... He hasn't believed in the catholic church. Like Brian, he has been confused on a ton of things with catholicism (?) So it's pretty tough getting him without the support of his wife. Hopefully soon she will let him! :)

Well, I've been wanting to play a ukulele and I got one! It is kind of like guitar but minus 2 strings and a little higher pitch :) I have been trying to teach myself and so far it is going pretty great! It's tough to hold because i am so big and the uke is soooooooooo small haha. but i like it :) 

I hope you all are having a great time back home or wherever you might be! The Lord will ALWAYS be with you wherever you may go! 

Love you all!! 

Questions for the week:

Favorite spiritual experience:

-When I asked Brian Topper to be baptized. I felt the spirit so strong and it just... happened i guess you could say!! 

Favorite p-day activity: 

Lately we have just been around Waldorf, MD because we dont have a ton of miles now from driving to the VC three times at the beginning of the month... :( so we go to the gym, shop if we need to and go play basketball. We played ball today and I worked on a two-handed slam! i haven't quite gotten that down but it is coming slowly but surely :)

Transfers!!

Not sure whey Elder JT titled his letter with 'Transfers'.  His companion and the Zone Leaders all stayed- 

If you have a moment, send him a quick email to say hello- 
jonathon.ekberg@myldsmail.net

Also- he is using Facebook for proselyting.  He posts inspirational thoughts, videos etc...  make sure you send him a friend request.  He is able to teach a couple of people through email messages and it is going well.

So great to hear from him.  Enjoy!!
*****************************************

Yo yo yo homies!!! hahaha 

This week has been pretty great! On New years eve, the whole mission get the chance to do a temple trip! The DC temple is....... GORGEOUS! It has i think 7 floors? I think I am wrong though so don't take my word for it haha. But the temple session was really really really spiritual. Had some great answers to my prayers so that was my spiritual experience for the week! :)

New Years Day was great as well! One of the 1st ward's investigators invited Elder Gardner and I over (again) to have lunch and play football and hockey! We didn't get to play hockey though because we had a service appointment and then dinner after which the 1st ward was invited to that! Our service was to help Bro. Moyers put together a couple of these new Gladiator (brand) metal cabinets. We were also going to hang them but we ran out of time... For dinner we had deer chili and I have no idea what the other thing we had but it was like macaroni with deer meet chunks. SUPER GOOD!!

Thursday was the best day of the week!!! WE PICKED UP A NEW INVESTIGATOR!!! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo Happy!!! His name is Brian and his wife is a member. He is catholic. After our dinner with this family, his wife, just out of the blue, asks him: "Hey when are you going to take the missionary discussions?" He looks at us and asked us how long do they take. We said well the fastest time we could do it is in 5 days! But we go off of your time and he agreed to the next 5 Fridays! Brian had a question about why Catholics baptize babies when they are born and we read something in Moroni 8 and he is like: "I understand now!" Brian then asks Elder Gardner how many people he has baptized and he said 5. Brian looks at me, asks the same question and i respond: "Well i haven't yet but you might be my first! Wait, you WILL be my first!" He was like "I'm cool with that!" SUPER COOL! :D

Then today, we played basketball as a whole mission and we have some pretty good ballers out here! It felt super great to be able to dunk again! I am slowly gaining back my vertical power so i can throwdown with 2 hands again!! :):) 

Favorite scripture from your study this week

---Alma 48 because it is an awesome war chapter! :)

biggest challenge this week

---finding new people to teach. no one wants to hear the message no matter how hard we are trying. but we never give up!

Why you love your companion

---he is a great trainer and is good at ball too! he is very friendly too!

Hope you all had a fantastic New Years! 

Love you all!!

A picture of me and Elder Paul- he is one of my MTC missionaries- a great reunion at the Temple!!

Happy New Year & Merry Christmas!

This week was very uneventful due to the holiday. so this is going to be short and i apologize for that! 

Christmas day we went up to the VC and had a freaking party!! We watched Monsters University which is pretty entertaining after amonth and a half of no entertainment! LOL and we went to the Chapel just around the corner and had lunch and watched all the zones perform a little "skit" we put together. our skit was the best. one elder showed his tap dancing skills, another showed his staff twirling skills and the last elder did a freestyle rap with a sister playing the piano and and elder beatboxing with him! IT WAS SICK!!! well sorry for the shortest email in the books this week, it's been super dooper slow!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY VERY MUCH AND I HOPE YOU HAVE AN AWESOME NEW YEAR!!!!!

Favorite meal for the week

-Pork roast and Funeral Potatoes!

What did you do on Christmas Eve

-We didn't do anything other than some people to go check on and then our dinner appointment. They gave us a tie each, and then 2 bags of groceries. It was really nice!

What did you do on Christmas Day

-We traveled up to the Visitors Center and basically had a party! We watched Monsters University (GO SEE IT), then we went to the chapel around the block and had a big mission lunch! there was turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, salad, and PIE!!! :) and then in the evening we went to one of the 1st wards members home for dinner, dessert and games including hockey in the basement!!

What did you get for Christmas?

-I got a tie clip, Washington DC keychain from family, protein powder (early gift), and then pringles, big bag of candy, Sparkiling cider from a members house, and 4 gift cards. 2 were two subway and then BK and Amazon.com!

What are you planning for New Years?

-Not really sure.... probably going to be inside for most of the day :/

What did you notice spiritually about Christmas this year compared to other years and why

-spiritual growth on my part. i am becoming more confident in speaking. not much but testifying of the truth is coming along good!

Favorite scripture you studied

-I will get back to you on that. My planner is back home haha 

-- 

~Elder Ekberg~