14. Gilbert AZ

14 October 2013

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well!

This was my first week leading the area and it went pretty well.

Monday- The highlight of Monday was going over to the C's that night with Sister A., she deeply appreciated us setting it up for her.

Tuesday- Tuesday was a bit of a disapointing day. We were supposed to go to give a blessing to a nonmember with the 1st Counselor of one of our wards. We were all riding over when we found her walking on the sidewalk heading to the park. She had completely forgotten about the appointment and we rescheduled for later that day. We were waiting at his house for her to show up at the new time but she still didnt show up. Major let down. Who knows what could have happened with her...We had kind of based our entire day around that so not much happened besides a few member and less active visits.

Wednesday was also fairly depressing. The wind was crazy here and there was dust flying all up in my eyes. Not to mention the difficulty of riding a bike when the wind is pushing so hard against you! Anywho, Elder H wiped out on the sidewalk which was pretty stinking hilarious. He's a funny guy and we get along really well.

Elder Siebers and Elder H.

That night we had the misfortune of moving J and her family out of her house. She's our prime investigator and shes moving out of the mission! What the heck!? Not all hope is lost though. We tend to stick to the fellowship and since she will continue to attend our ward we will continue to teach her.  In our last lesson with her we had a pretty cool experience. She had only read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon when she told us about a dream that she had five or six years ago. She said that she clearly remembers this dream because of the way she felt in it. She was standing in a field and she was just looking at this magnificent tree. She had no clue why looking at this tree made her feel os incredible but the dream has stuck with her ever since. Sound familiar? Now she had NO clue about Lehi's Vision or the Tree of Life, and Elder H and I really don't know what made her share this dream with us, but we are sure glad she did!!! We shared with her just a smidge of Lehi's Dream and the Tree of Life as a teaser. We assigned her to read that chapter to hopefully strengthen her testimony of the Book of Mormon. We're meeting with her tonight, so I hope it goes well.  

Lehi's Dream and the Vision of the Tree of Life

Thursday- We had interviews with President Nattress along with training. We were in the stake center practically all day. My interview went really well, I really do love President Nattress. For me, I think he's exactly what I could ever want in a mission president. He's lax. put a lot in trust in us, and is extremely loving. I asked him to give me some practical advice when leading and working an area.We just made some more member visits and less active visits that night.

Friday and Saturday were also dedicated to meeting more of the members and less active families.

The Ps are a couple that we've been visiting just about every week since I've been here. This week I just decided to go all out and bear my testimony. I think it hit  harder than anything that we had previously shared.

Sunday was fast and testimony meetings. We had so many investigators show up for sacrament meeting which was fantastic. One of the wards fasted for A, one of our investigators. . The Cs also showed up to church. That was probably the best part of it all!

I'm excited for the week ahead. We have three truly amazing wards and they really have our backs. My testimony of the gospel seems to grow each and every single day I'm out here. Whats really stuck with me the most since I've been out here is how I can be a member missionary for life. I think a lot of members just attend church as do their callings, but the most important work we will ever partake in is the bringing of others into the light of gospel.

Well, Thats all for now!

Love you all!

Elder Siebers

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