Welcome Elder Ericksen, I believe, has come into the mission pre-trained! With the few exceptions of food preparation, and basic mission management, he already knows what to do!
Here are some of the many things I have already learned from him:
1. 1-10 in French
2. How to make peanut butter/mayo sandwiches
3. How to draw Jesus on a "whiteboard" only to find out it wasn't a whiteboard but the closet door
4. If someone (Hypothetically) drops a watermelon on the floor in the middle of our carpeted living room, you can make a pretty slick helmet out of it
4. If someone (Hypothetically) drops a watermelon on the floor in the middle of our carpeted living room, you can make a pretty slick helmet out of it
At the start of this week, we had no appointments at all in our areabook. Through a lengthy process, we called and set up as many as we could. Some fell through, but I am happy to report that Saturday and Sunday were so busy that we had to be incredibly punctual to make it to all of them!
We have started A/B testing for the north half of the mission (Facebook Ads). This should give us plenty of information in regards to which route we should take to gain more traffic for our zones. A member in the Riverside stake has recently been called as the "stake social media counselor" or something along those lines. She will be helping us (in the Riverside zone) to post more of our videos in diverse places. The main alternate location is instagram, because we don't have that approved (and probably will/should not have it approved) she would run those pages, while still funneling the referrals our way. Also we should be able to connect with members who have filming experience and/or equipment! Exciting!
The other great news from this week is about our friend Stephen. Stephen lives in Tennessee, but there are no local ASL missionaries in the same state as him, or even in the surrounding states. Because he contacted us, we decided to continue to teach him. As we have explained some of our basic beliefs, the spirit has impacted him strongly! Basically, everything we believe, he also does, but wasn't sure where to find a church that follows those beliefs.
D&C 123:12 " who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it"
Our lesson plan this week was to first answer questions, then to go over some points in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we explained them, we got to Baptism. Stephen stopped us and told us he had a question about that. Excitedly we welcomed his inquiry, and he shared his desire to be baptised again so he could recommit himself to the Lord and also understand the ordinance more now than when he was previously baptised. I explained that we do not believe in Re-baptism (except in certain circumstances), but we do believe in being baptised by the proper Priesthood Authority, to which he expressed a great desire to have that proper baptism! Yes, he invited himself to be baptised!!
We are finding a member who knows ASL, and also which local church he wants to attend. He might be moving soon to Utah, so we have some planning to do!
-Elder Vance
Our lesson plan this week was to first answer questions, then to go over some points in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we explained them, we got to Baptism. Stephen stopped us and told us he had a question about that. Excitedly we welcomed his inquiry, and he shared his desire to be baptised again so he could recommit himself to the Lord and also understand the ordinance more now than when he was previously baptised. I explained that we do not believe in Re-baptism (except in certain circumstances), but we do believe in being baptised by the proper Priesthood Authority, to which he expressed a great desire to have that proper baptism! Yes, he invited himself to be baptised!!
We are finding a member who knows ASL, and also which local church he wants to attend. He might be moving soon to Utah, so we have some planning to do!
-Elder Vance