November 18, 2013

My new companion is awesome. We get along super duper well. It is kind of strange how much we get along. We have a similar sense of humor which means we are laughing the majority of the day. When all the goldens introduced themselves and he said his name was Farr, I asked him asap if he was related to Kelliann. Unfortunately, he has no idea. It is spelled with an extra few letters so probably not very closely.

 I actually forgot Alex was in the Philippines until you mentioned that... I am very glad to hear that he is okay! We keep hearing all the stories of missionaries over there. Apparently, the Assistants to the President one of the missions did a rescue operation. They had to seek out all of the missionaries and get them to the airport.I feel like Alex will be doing cleanup for quite some time.

Angela is doing a lot better. We met with another member family and she really liked it. We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She really gets it. We helped her understand that baptism isn't just about joining the church, it's about receiving a remission of sin. We gave her a few dates to pray about and she was glad we gave her a few.

We are also have an investigator named George. He is a relative of a less active family here and he just gets the gospel. He is in the process of quitting smoking and drinking coffee. The family is awesome. They feed us all the time and we are probably going to give service at a soup kitchen with them on Thanksgiving. I am so excited. I've always wanted to give service at a soup kitchen and now I am in a place that actually has some.

Love you!

Elder Engelman

November 11, 2013

I am truly sorry but this is going to be a short email. We don't have much time this week because of scheduling rules now in place. We aren't allowed to be at the church for computer usage at the same time as another companionship. The Sisters in the other ward are going to be here soon so we have to leave.

Angela is doing okay. :( We taught about the Law of Chastity. Surprisingly, it went pretty well. She has told us a few times that she accepts it and would live all of the commandments if her boyfriend weren't there. So basically, we told her she should consider removing the obstacles the are keeping her from being happy and following the commandments. She seems to regress every weekend, as I have told you. I pointed that out to her and we noted the differences between the weekdays(when she reads the scriptures, meets with us, and doesn't see her boyfriend much) and the weekend(when she doesn't read or come to church and she hangs out with her boyfriend all day). She told us that she sees it too so hopefully she is going to do something to change that!

Love you,

Elder Joseph Engelman

November 4, 2013

I think I told you that Angela was scheduled to be baptized on the 10th but that isn't going to happen :( Unfortunately, she isn't quite ready and we haven't taught her everything. We still need to teach her about the Law of Chastity and I am praying that she will understand it. We didn't actually get to meet with her this week but we are meeting with her on Wednesday. Because of Halloween, we only had about three hours of proselyting time on Thursday and we were out of townuntil Wednesday night. Did I mention that I have a new companion? Elder Farrer(pronounced Farr) is super awesome. He is from Brigham City Utah and is 22 years old. Basically, he is going to be an amazing missionary as long as I don't mess him up too much ;)

He is a brand new missionary and I met him on Wednesday. Usually our transfer meeting(where we find out where we are going and who our companion is going to be) is on Tuesday. Because I am training a new missionary I didn't get to meet him until Wednesday. President Anderson has to interview each of them and decide whose companion they will be. On Tuesday, since Elder Meline got transfered, I got to stay with another missionary that is training. That missionary just happens to be in my first area, FRANKFORD!!! I got to go back and visit some members and other people. It was really strange being back but I loved it. Philly is pretty much the best place ever.

This last week, we had a bunch of crazy announcements that you probably wouldn't care about. However, one of them is pretty funny because it upset almost everyone. Everyone in the mission is supposed to send home their iPods. People were pretty annoyed for awhile until President explained the reason. Also, Elders and Sisters can't ride in the same car anymore. The age change definitely changed a lot of things. A lot of Sisters coming out are the same age as the new Elders and are pretty attractive. Not surprisingly, it has been an issue for some missionaries.

Melalueca is good for a bunch of stuff. I don't know everything. You would need to borrow the book from someone. I know that one of the things it helps with is acne. Don't have Catherine stop using proactive. Try doing both and it should help. It hasn't been totally cleared up for me but it seems like my skin is actually healthier.

Anyway...

Love,

Elder Engelman