Transfers and Success

Time continues to march on and our missionary district of five companionships, continues to baptize people. As we said before, two sets are Spanish Speaking and two sets (us included) are English speaking only. Our fifth conpanionship is our bi-lingual Zone Leaders. There have been some very great Elders here in this district of our mission who have done very well. At our last district meeting they decided we must have another picture before anyone gets transferred.

Our district on 13 May 2011, Back row: Elder Sheeley, Elder Trudo, Elder Viehweg; Front row: Elder Alonso, Elder Howlett, Elder Nilsson, Elder Payne; Seated: Sister Howlett

Our district leader, Elder Nilsson from Georgia did a great job training us and helping us grow together. He insisted we get another picture of our district before our meeting ended because transfers were coming up this week. It is a good thing he did that, because he and Elder Alonso who is from Mexico were both transferred to Colorado. However, we were not transferred.

It seems that lots of churches and people here in Garden City are trying to destroy the faith of our new members or prevent people from becoming investigators of our church. However, we have had a success story this week that has really helped excite us to keep working hard.

A recent convert named Gill has had a lot of pressure from family, friends and other sources to pull him away. He was getting ready to receive the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday but he was wondering if it was really the right thing to do. Part of his problem is that he doesn't understand the language of the Bible or the Book of Mormon well and when he reads it he feels he doesn't get anything out of it, so he quit reading it.


Gill is a great Mexican/American convert who speaks very good English and has recently been ordained as a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We were asked to teach him the new member lessons, since our ward missionaries are two women, and they are not supposed to teach the men converts. So we have enjoyed doing the teaching. After teaching Gill the Restoration and about the Priesthood, we heard he had begun to doubt if he wanted to continue learning about the Church or even be ordained to the Priesthood. On our next appointment we were able to use a power-point presentation on the Plan of Salvation with pictures and text, which Elder Howlett had prepared in Germany to teach an African Family who spoke English. After perfecting the presentation a bit we presented it to Gill where we all took turns reading the text.

Gill understood it very well and really liked it. He had recently gotten the internet hooked up in his home so he could get on and do some surfing. Elder Howlett set up short-cuts so Gill could click on a site for the Scriptures, one for General Conference talks, another for lds.org and mormon.org. Gill was so thrilled to be able to find sites to listen to the scriptures or watch a session of General Conference. As we left his home that day we asked if he would like a ride to Church the next day. He said he would call us if he needed one. Sunday morning as we were getting ready for Church we got a text message from Gill telling us not to worry about him, he already had a ride to Church. Yeah! We were so excited to read that. Gill had taken the step to get his own ride to church and that day he was sustained and ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of a Priest. We were so thrilled for him! He can be a great asset to his family and his people.