9/12/16

Hmm...  So says the lion "from whence came the sparrow?"  And the sparrow doth respond "from whence I came no man knoweth, but if thou wouldst ask my brother, he would make known unto you that which was not known before".  Therefore the lion journeys to find the brother of the Sparrow. Upon finding the sparrow’s brother, the lion enters into a state of confusion, for the Sparrow's brother was not a Sparrow like unto his brother, but he was a horse.  The lion says "horse, I beseech thee Knoweth thou from whence came thy brother, the sparrow?"  The horse says "Nay."

This is what Elder Donovan sent me and said to use as my opening pitch haha

Dear mom,

So this week has been insane!! We had to deal with a lot of Cancels, but you know that's fine.  We just need to work harder to make up for that.  What made the week crazy and amazing was the Mission Tour we had.

So the mission tour happens once a year and they do it twice; one for all the missionaries in Colorado, and then one for all the missionaries in Wyoming.  So I have some pictures from that.  I'll explain more in the email to everyone, but we had a 70's member come speak to us for 7 HOURS!  Yes, it was long but way helpful with the advice and all that was shared.   And guess what?  I got to have an interview with Elder Grow, of the quorum of the 70.  He wanted to interview a greeny, a District Leader, a Zone Leader, someone almost done, and a few others.  I was the new guy he picked, so that was way cool.  He asked about all of you and then at the end of the interview he asked if I'd ever had an interview with a general authority.  I said “no,” and then he said he wanted me to tell you that, “I looked into your son’s soul and saw a very motivated, righteous, good-hearted young missionary.”  That was so cool hearing that from him, it totally made my week.

So how my week went…  Monday for P day we drove to Laramie. I kind of wasn't supposed to, but we were trying to pick up Elder Prescott's IPad and see the other missionaries.  So it was fun playing basketball with all of them, and being in an actual city.

So Tuesday was a really good day.  We first had our studies and then got in 2 hours of service at the Rec Center which was fun.  After that was had lesson after lesson and got in 6, so I was very pleased with the work we put in.  All in all it was a great day.

Wednesday was a little tough because every single lesson we had planned cancelled, but what was cool was that an investigator of ours, (Josh, the pastor at another church that wants to learn more,) called us and asked us if we wanted to join his flag football league at the Rec.   We said if we could get lessons in and it didn't interfere, then “yes.”  So yes, we are getting a chance to play football.  So it looks like I need to get some cleats from Ross, haha.

Thursday was a busy day of writing talks and driving.  We were told to write four different talks because at the mission tour we were having on Friday, random Elders and Sisters were going to get called up to speak.  We were supposed to have a variety in case someone wrote the same talk as us.  After that preparation and our dinner, we drove out to Laramie to meet the other Elders gathering there.

Friday we had the mission tour in Cheyenne which is where we listened to different speakers for pretty much all day.  We listened to talks on how to be a better missionary and how to be more helpful to people.  It was very insightful.  I actually got a chance to meet with the speaker for a little bit too, and that was very cool.  He was such a wise, intellectual guy.

Saturday we spent most of the day driving back, and by the time we got back it was dinner time.  We were fortunate to get a lesson in with Jason May, a recent convert, afterwards.

Sunday night we had a lesson with Carmen and I invited her to be baptized.  She accepted and is so excited, and her date is next Saturday! This is going to be legit.  I'm so happy for her.

All in all, this was a very fun week and I was able to recognize lots of different blessings and I am very happy right now.  I hope you all are doing well too. If any of you have pictures of us together, please send them.  It's like receiving therapy, haha.  Anyway, I love you all!

Elder Litster

PS.  So we are getting another 30 missionaries on October 4th, and I found out that one is from Camarillo and another is from Thousands Oaks.  And, there's a sister I came out with that is from Ventura, her name was Hermana Zimmerman. (She is called Spanish speaking.)  And, there is someone else from Ventura so my goal is to find out who these people are, because you know, Ventura County Pride!  Haha, I'm totally playing, but I just thought that was interesting.

Our District

Our Zone with Elder C. Scott Grow