We had Andrew's baptism this week which was super cool. We were able to meet all of his family, and there were a lot of them. The Primary room was already pretty full, and we had only reserved the front row for his family. But then they all arrived and there were probably 20 people, half of which had traveled down from Seattle for his baptism. It was awesome to have so much support from his family! The Ward had really good attendance too. Andrew's best friend is in Peru on a mission right now, but his family came down and they gave the talks and performed the baptism. His friend's father is actually a Stake President in one of the Seattle Stakes, so it was really cool to have them there. There were 3 or 4 Elders who had served in this Ward and taught him too so they came to the baptism. Andrew is super cool, and now that he's a member, he can actually start coming out to teach with us. He plans on going up to BYU-Idaho in the winter though so he will only be here for a few months.
The best teaching experience we had this week was probably with a guy named Ben. We met him earlier in the week and set up a return appointment to meet at the church on Saturday. We called him on Saturday and he actually came, which was a good start. Then we taught him the Restoration and he really liked everything he heard and we were able to put him on date for September 25th. Hopefully he continues to work towards that, though church might be an issue. I'm only saying that because he didn't come this week, but we didn't get the chance to talk with him about church attendance, so next time we'll focus on it more.
Another cool experience, was going on exchanges with Elder Walker. We were in his area, on bikes, so that was fun. It was kind of hard, but you start to get used to it a little bit by the end of the day. We taught this guy named Tony who is really interesting. He started his prayer with "Thanks for sending these two super cool missionary elders to talk with me..." and the rest was pretty much like that. We were talking about the second half of the Plan of Salvation though and he had some really interesting insights, but he actually knew a lot, and the things we told him he really liked. We also applied it to how he needs to quit smoking and he thought it made a lot of sense the way we taught it.
For service, we actually use JustServe. It's a program the Church is starting. This Sunday a Stake representative come and talked to us and gave us a sheet with the projects available here in Riverside. Some of the projects that we as missionaries can help with because of scheduling and other requirements are: playing with cats, working with horses, gardening at the RCC community garden, helping at the food bank, and working at blood drives. So we'll probably start taking advantage of these more, and see which ones are the most fun. It's a productive way to use our time when it's so hot outside and I think it raises morale in the zone. At least I like doing service, and I feel like other people do too.
P-Day this week, we had a Missionary Olympics! We were trying to think of clever missionary activities that we could turn into events, but we didn't have the time or creativity for that, so we ended up just using a few of the usual zone activities. I guess the only thing that really made it much of an Olympics was that we split people into countries, based on where they were from or what origin their surname had. I was on Team USA with all the other Americans who weren't from Utah. I competed in the Ping-Pong event and placed first. I feel like all those hours with Ravi and my friends at college finally paid off. We got some little trophies from the dollar store to give out to the winners. We also did chair soccer, basketball, and archery (with a dollar store bow). So it was more funny than competitive but that's how all the best zone activities are.
Overall it was a super good week and we have another good one set up for this week. We have AP exchanges tomorrow, and then exchanges with ASL on Wednesday, so our week will be a little weird, but that's alright.
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby
P.S. They took our car and traded us for a truck. The truck was down in Anza/Idylwild, and it was having some problems and they didn't want the Sisters to get stuck up in the mountains so they brought it back to Riverside. So now I've driven every kind of car in the mission.
Another cool experience, was going on exchanges with Elder Walker. We were in his area, on bikes, so that was fun. It was kind of hard, but you start to get used to it a little bit by the end of the day. We taught this guy named Tony who is really interesting. He started his prayer with "Thanks for sending these two super cool missionary elders to talk with me..." and the rest was pretty much like that. We were talking about the second half of the Plan of Salvation though and he had some really interesting insights, but he actually knew a lot, and the things we told him he really liked. We also applied it to how he needs to quit smoking and he thought it made a lot of sense the way we taught it.
For service, we actually use JustServe. It's a program the Church is starting. This Sunday a Stake representative come and talked to us and gave us a sheet with the projects available here in Riverside. Some of the projects that we as missionaries can help with because of scheduling and other requirements are: playing with cats, working with horses, gardening at the RCC community garden, helping at the food bank, and working at blood drives. So we'll probably start taking advantage of these more, and see which ones are the most fun. It's a productive way to use our time when it's so hot outside and I think it raises morale in the zone. At least I like doing service, and I feel like other people do too.
P-Day this week, we had a Missionary Olympics! We were trying to think of clever missionary activities that we could turn into events, but we didn't have the time or creativity for that, so we ended up just using a few of the usual zone activities. I guess the only thing that really made it much of an Olympics was that we split people into countries, based on where they were from or what origin their surname had. I was on Team USA with all the other Americans who weren't from Utah. I competed in the Ping-Pong event and placed first. I feel like all those hours with Ravi and my friends at college finally paid off. We got some little trophies from the dollar store to give out to the winners. We also did chair soccer, basketball, and archery (with a dollar store bow). So it was more funny than competitive but that's how all the best zone activities are.
Overall it was a super good week and we have another good one set up for this week. We have AP exchanges tomorrow, and then exchanges with ASL on Wednesday, so our week will be a little weird, but that's alright.
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby
P.S. They took our car and traded us for a truck. The truck was down in Anza/Idylwild, and it was having some problems and they didn't want the Sisters to get stuck up in the mountains so they brought it back to Riverside. So now I've driven every kind of car in the mission.