Another day another thousand rejections... gotta love it baby!!!!!

August 25, 2014

Hey hey hey!!!!

It's been another week! That's just crazy! I hope you're all doing well in the land of Fry sauce! It's probably never been called that, i just remembered how much i miss fry sauce... well anyway, let me tell you about my week!

Unfortunately this week has shown little to no success/improvement on last week. In fact it's actually been less productive than last week. The branch here is really small, so we've basically exhausted all their referrals, or so they say, and the area book has not been well kept, so we've been trying to clean it up, update it, and check up on everyone in that stinkin book. We struck out. With everyone. 

So we've been reduced to tracting. Whoever said tracting was the least effective way of finding people was 100 % correct. We've been tracting for a solid 4-5 hours a day, combined with trying to reactivate less actives, working with recent converts, asking members for referrals, talking to people on the street. Anything and Everything to avoid tracting. But sometimes that's all you can do. We've been getting pretty good at contacting people on the streets and at the door, but nothing seems to work. It's hard, and a little depressing. But as long as you keep at it and pray your guts out, the lord will take care of you. And so it happened with us on Saturday night. 

We had been tracting one day and knocked on the door of a lady named Andrea, she said she was busy and that we caught her at a bad time, that she had to put the kids to bed, that she already had a religion, any and every excuse she could think of. So we simply told her about how God has a plan of her called the plan of happiness and that it outlines how we can live with our families forever, then asked if there was a better time we could come back to teach her about it. She dodged it a little by saying there wasn't a specific day or time that was best for her... we told her we'd try back again some other time, she was visibly annoyed that we'd still try to come back. 

But we did so on Saturday, We saw her husband taking out the trash and walked up to him, told him that we had spoken with Andrea about our church and asked if this was a good time to visit them. And for the first time since i've been here, after thousands of doors knocked, This man invited us in. I swear, i had to physically restrain myself from getting on my knees and praising God with a loud voice that someone finally let us in!!! Instead i just smiled and said thank you. His wife was not excited to see us walk in the door, she started making excuses again about how she had to put the kid to bed and finish the dishes and all these "Anderea type" excuses. But he said it's okay, and that we'd make it quick. We chatted for a while to get to know them, I told him about Our Church, the missionaries, the Book of Mormon, and all of a sudden he asked if we had anything he could read to learn more about us! I just smiled and pulled out a Book of Mormon and explained that not only will he learn about our church from reading this book, but a whole host of additional blessings as well. He took it and committed to read it, I also gave him a restoration pamphlet, talked about that for about 30 seconds, bore my testimony, wrote our number on the pamphlet, and left. They are the coolest little family. I hope and pray they feel impressed to let us return and teach them. 

God not only answered my prayer. But the prayers of that family, whether they knew they were missing something or not, God has provided them with the opportunity to fill that hole in their lives. 

This gospel is Absolutely True. I can testify of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I Challenge anyone and everyone to prove me wrong. They cannot. Read it, Pray about it, ask god with all the sincerity of your soul if it be true. And you'll know as I do, that it is in fact the word of god. I hunger for the opportunity to bring the blessings of the gospel into other people's lives. And I pray, that someone, somewhere, will let me. 

The Church is true.

I love the Gospel.

Thank you to everyone at home who have given me the support to get out here. 

Until next week,

-Elder DeFreese

"i gave him the lesson, not that he deserved, but the one, that he needed"

August 18, 2014

Hey everyone!!!!

Well it's my first week, and my first letter in the field. You must be pretty excited to read this letter aren't you? Wondering what i might say huh? Well let's find out!

I'll start with where i've been assigned. I've been assigned to the Altoona Zone, the State College District, In the Huntingdon area. :) 

Our area is about 10 cities, that are all pretty big and spread out. My trainer and I are the only ones in this area, and the only Elders in our District. They're not big enough to be a ward yet, and they don't have enough priesthood  holders for most things. I think I counted about 60 active members this week. We live pretty close to a lot of different churches, most are on, you guessed it, Church street. ;) I'll attach a picture of a couple of the churches. 

The people: The people here do not like us. They all avoid us like the plague, and that makes it really hard to find people without referrals. The members here love us to death though. We are constantly given food to take home and we've aquired a pretty large pile. 

My Trainer: Is very obedient and very smart. He's pretty shy though, doesn't like to start the lessons, or to talk to random people on the street. So I kinda have to step up there... but that's okay, i'm learning a lot! He's really nice, and we get along really well. 

The Work: Is slow. And hard. And rewarding, Amazing, Life Changing, and Soul Saving. 

I'm learning a ton, and i'm a lucky guy to have so many examples back home to look up to. 

I opened my birthday package today, and that was the best way to start off a P-Day in the history of forever!!! haha 

I don't get to see Pittsburgh much. But the area i'm in is much prettier than Pittsburgh. This state is the most green place on the face of the earth! You can't look anywhere without seeing a thousand trees. 

Well unfortunately i gotta go! People to see, lessons to teach, lives to save! 

-Elder DeFreese

1-4. Overlooking Pittsburgh. Day 1. On the way from the airport to the mission home.
5. Trainer
6. Apartment
7-8. Churches on Church street

Hey Hey Hey!

August 9, 2014

Hey everyone!!!

Well it looks like i'll be heading out on Monday! I can't believe it's already here! 

I'm e-mailing you today because my p-day is on Monday, and my flight leaves at 7:45 am so i'll probably be leaving the MTC by 5 am or something close to that. 

I guess i'll start off by answering some of the questions i've been asked through e-mail/letters this week...

1. What are your duties as a Zone Leader?

Part of my duties include interviews with the District Leaders to find out how their District is doing. I also Lead any Zone Meetings, which we seem to have at least 3 a week here. I also gave the new missionaries that came in on wednesday their orientation, and a tour of the campus. And lately i've been trying to deal with an issue between two of the sisters in my zone... normally i would pass this off to the sister training leader, but she's part of the problem.... so that's been fun... and I'm not sure what else, there are little things that come up throughout the day that i have to take care of. But i recently held my own meeting with everyone in the zone to have a sort of Companionship Inventory, with all of them... it started off badly, but by the end, we are definitely the tightest zone on the whole campus, no doubt.

2. How's the food? 

The food is... not that good... It always looks and sounds good, but i firmly believe that they suck the flavor out of everything with a syringe before they serve it. Its rarely good, it's usually disappointing, and occasionally it's bad. But luckily they bring in Papa Johns every Friday, so we have that beacon of light to hold on to at least haha... 

3. What is my favorite part of the MTC?

Either Brother Sebesta (my teacher) or doing role plays. 

Brother Sebesta is really really good. he's kinda weird, but cool. if you ask him a strait question, he'll likely answer it with another question designed to make you frustrated and feel stupid... but then you find the answer on your own, which is the whole point of the MTC. 

The role plays i was told would be really stupid and annoying, but i was also told to take it seriously... luckily i got a companion who takes it just as seriously as me, and because of that, we have learned a whole bunch of stuff!!! My teaching skills have improved rapidly! which is good because they weren't that great to start out with... 

4. How was I chosen to be a Zone Leader?

We had a meeting with the Branch President and his counselors on my second day. They gave us a simple paper with a few questions on it, we were told to stand up and answer the questions, following the sheet in order, and then sit down... pretty simple right? But They were looking at how the other missionaries reacted when you spoke, (whether or not they all turned to listen to you), they were looking at how you present yourself, (posture, hands in pockets, button undone on jacket when standing, etc), They were looking at how well you spoke, how long you took, whether or not you were nervous, and other things like that.... They didn't tell us until after that that was what they were looking for, but i kinda guessed as much since they got out a sheet of paper to take notes while we spoke. I had to go first so i didn't have any idea how i should do some of the things on the paper, but i guess i did okay since everyone tried to copy the way i did it. After that we had a simple interview with one of the counselors, and then they announced who was chosen for what. 

5. Do I have exercise time? 

Yes i do, about 5 times a week I get 45 minutes to do whatever i want in the morning. I always go play basketball :) My district is all pretty athletic, but they all underestimated me from the beginning. Which was perfectly fine for me, they put some of the easier guys on me at first, after i was done with them they tried putting the best on me. he's better than me, but is still surprised  when i pull out some of my old moves haha. it's really fun! too bad i didn't realize the last time i went would be the last time... i had to use my gym time today to write this, and i leave on Monday, with no gym on Sunday... I decided to play some volleyball just to mix it up, but if i had known it would be my last, i would've played B-ball...

6. How many are in the Zone?

I have about 30 in my zone...

Well i gotta go!!! 

Talk to you from the airport! (mom) haha

-Elder DeFreese

Spirit Prison... ;)

August 4, 2014
Hey everyone!!!

I am so jealous of you right now... you get to read an e-mail from ME?!?!?! hahaha super humble right? 

Well I really should've written down some of the questions people had for me, but, well, i didn't... hahaha so I guess i'll just start with a little bit of MTC life :)

From the minute I wake up, until the minute my head hits the pillow at 10:30 it's go go go all day long at 90 miles an hour, with no time for anything other than class, study, eat. class study eat, that's all i do..... for the rest of my life... lol 

So i get up at 6:30, go get in line for a sac breakfast at 7, eat it as were walking to gym, school everyone with my mad b-ball skills till they all give up ;) , then go back to the rooms, shower get dressed, go to class, personal study for an hour, Companion study for an hour, Doctrinal study for an hour, then lunch, we hurry to the cafiteria, (not sure how to spell that...) scarf some medioker food down, hurry back to class for some role playing. then we have class for about 2 hours where we learn something new from PMG, then we get 5 minutes to finalize our lesson plan to teach our investigator. then we get about 30 minutes to teach him, then study our faces off until dinner, which we hurredly eat, then go back to class to study, and study, and study... then we study some more before going back to the room at 9:30, where we can then go to the bathroom, clean up our room, iron some clothes fortomorrow, do a half hour planning session for tomorrow with our companion, write in our journal... etc until 10:15... doesn't sound like enough time right?? well it's not... then we get ready for bed, and lights out is at 10:30. (longest sentence ever...)

I Love the letters you all wrote to me! and if i ever get any time i'll read them!! jk sometimes if i'm fast i can read 1 of them at night, so i've still got a few to go. maybe i'll have time today cuz it's p-day? best day of the week so far for sure haha

My companion Elder Smith is pretty cool i guess... he is really inconsistant though... he's either really rude and disobedient, or he's super self righteous and tells you how you're doing everything wrong.. it's a challenge for sure... 

But looking on the bright side i can say with confidence that it could be worse haha 

the days here are really weird as far as time goes.. on the one hand the long hours of study during the day, make the days drag on, and on, and on.... but the amount of change you go through in such a short amount of time, makes it feel like life is flying bye... it's crazy to think it's only been 6 days since i left home, yet it also feels like it's been an eternity since i've had a good nights sleep... haha

the MTC is like taking a drink from a fire hose. there is sooo much thrown at us and there is no way in the world we can soak it all in. but since you're trying your best all day everyday, you grow soo flippin fast. 

for example, My companion and I were given an investigator (teacher role playing) who is known to be increadibly hard on the missionaries. and were informed on our second lesson that a couple districts would be watching us through a 1 way window so they could take notes on their future zone leaders, (we were the official ZL's on Sunday but everyone was informed it would be us on Friday) it was increadibly terrifying as it was only our 2nd lesson with him and he was BRUTAL to us on the first lesson. Plus the added fear of everyone watching and taking notes... 

My companion and I were soo nervous before we walked in, we both almost threw up. But I could tell he was way more nervous than me, so i took charge of the lesson right from the get go, and we seemed to fall into a rhythm. I felt the Spirit so strong, i was remembering the most perfect scriptures at the best times and i knew all the answers to his questions. Because of the spirit we avoided some of the traps he set for us and before you know it, i was prompted to ask him to get baptized.... He accepted! hahaha after that it seemed like we were on fire, and he just couldn't deny any request we made! we left that room having him committed to read the Book of Mormon and Pray about it, to read the Restoration Pamphlet, To kneel and pray out loud with us at the end of each lesson, and to be Baptized on September 25th!!!  hahaha it was SOOOOOO rewarding to see that all of our study and prayers paid off. Everyone was really happy for us.  

The Church is true, what more do you need to know??

I call this place spirit prison, but it's not bad at all when you have a moment like that... 

It feels like the MTC is both trying to train you to be the best person you can be, and crush your spirits at the same time. I always think of the MTC like the huge russian guy from Rocky 4 when he tells Rocky "I will Break you"... Bad news for the MTC... Im Rocky.... and we all know how that movie ended ;) 

haha well i gotta go eat lunch now... 

I love you all, and just remember that i know the Church is true.

Elder DeFreese

 

 

July 31, 2014

I'm Alive!!!!

Hey everyone! Not sure who all will get this but I first need to explain that this is not my p-day/weekly letter. This is a simple note to explain that I arrived safely and whatnot. 

So far, the MTC has kicked my butt... hard...

We have every single minute of every day planned and it feels like it's been an eternity already. We are awake for 16 hours of the day, and they give us about 18 hours worth of stuff to do... so i was feeling pretty overwelmed today. And just as I was about to head off to the room, we had interviews with the Branch President and my Companion and I were named Zone Leaders... on our 2nd day... oh boy....

Please pray for me, the coming days will not be easy on my Companion and I. 

This gospel is true, I learn more and more every 5 seconds and I love it more and more every 3. 

I love you all, I miss you all 

Talk to you on Monday. (p-day) 

My MTC mailing address is:

Elder Braden Christopher DeFreese
AUG11  PA-PIT
2009 N 900 E Unit 163
Provo UT 84602

Elder DeFreese