Have you heard of Sacred Heart?

Another week is gone, it's the craziest thing!  I still feel like i've just barely left home, and I'll hit my 3 month mark in a few days.  I'm grateful i still have a long mission left, I have a lot more to do out here.  I have no plan for this email, no specific ideas i really want to include (that I can think of at the moment)  So i'm just gonna write down some stuff that happened this week :)

On Sunday (yesterday)  we went to church (understatement of the year) and then when we were about down we were asked to go give a little presentation to some kids about missionary work!  Just before we got there, Elder W shifted the responsibility to Elder D and myself, and Elder D was quick to take himself out of that equation.  Little did they know, i LOVE teaching little kids!  They were about 5, there were only 3 of them, and the lesson was about how they could be missionaries TODAY!  They had little paper black name tags, pretty cute!  It was way fun, I think kids are just the best.  I didn't have any lesson plan obviously, because of the short notice, but what I came up with was 2 parts.

1) we are missionaries by EXAMPLE.  We talked about how people notice you, notice you are different and happy.  I actually thought i did a pretty good job with this, I came in and did a quick introduction, then I just started asking them about missionaries.  I asked them what they thought missionaries did, or anything else about missionary work, and they had great answers (teach, talk to people, make friends, show people the gospel, etc) and then I asked them how they knew all this, because I hadn't taught them anything yet!  They basically answered that they knew because of what they had seen!  I explained how that is like learning by example, and that is one way to be a missionary!  Then,  when people are watching your example, they have questions, and that leads to the other way you share the gospel, and that is by talking.  so we did some fun mini role plays where they each invited me to church, it was pretty cute.  In the end, they all promised to try to share something about church/the gospel/Jesus Christ this week with a friend.  One of them didn't want to commit, but I think she will :)  

 

The Michel girls went to Mutual, and Church, and are loving it (Amy even wore a DRESS and they both bring their paperback book of mormons, and they both mark them and have have tabs in it and stuff, so legit!)  Cade is planning on getting into the Scouting program, and all 4 of them (even the dad) is planning on watching General Conference!  We had such trouble getting the 2 boys to progress, and what made the difference?  Members again!  Brother Shooster went over to their house the other night and just hung out and made friends with them, and suddenly the 2 boys made commitments!  Way to go member missionaries!  Elders W and D both say that these will probably be among the most solid converts of their whole missions, and what makes the difference? MEMBERS! 

I've already had experiences where members have been difficult or impossible to work with, and can slow down the work and frustrate missionaries.  On the flipside, I also know that members who have their minds on missionary work and sharing the Gospel can do MIRACLES and do things missionaries can just never never do.  Members need Missionaries, and Missionaries need Members!

John, I have a funny story I wanna tell you, but I don't know your address, and I don't know if you even know about the blog so i doubt you read it.  It's actually not that funny.  I'm gonna tell you anyways, and hope it gets to you somehow, and that you at least smile, Because I laughed.  Oh, it's a real story by the way, not like a joke I heard.

These two missionaries in 5th ward were out proselyting, or just street contacting, I don't really know, but they were just talking to a bunch of people, and a lot of them were Catholics, and so they'd just be making conversation, asking about what church they went to, and a lot of them went to this one Catholic church, it was called Sacred Heart, and then there were a few others, but Sacred Heart was pretty popular, just a way nice church apparently, really beautiful and a lot of really active members I guess.  So they were talking, and Elder Brown asked this one Catholic where they went to church and they named some random Catholic church, and Brown was like "Oh man, well have you heard of Sacred Heart?"  Haahahahahahaa.  I just think it's way funny.  Like, he was proselyting for this other church.  I just thought it was funny, ok? 

Anyways, I'm pretty over writing this email,  Love you all!

Elder Chase Lonas