mis-sion-ary (noun): someone who leaves their family for a short time so that others may live with their families for Eternity.

Monday, August 30, 2010

NEW COMPANION

So I got the call on saturday about transfers. But there is a story before it. So there is this missionary that is in our district right now(1st transfer) who is a little annoying because he acts like he is black and talks like he is black but he is super white. End of story..thats my new companion. haha. I get him tomorrow actually. He really is a good missionary when he is teaching but he just needs to tone down the black personality. He was actually in the ward that I am in now 6th ward last transfer so he was just barely here and he is coming back. When i told a lot of the members that he was coming back almost everyone said the same thing. WHY?! haha. He kind of drives the members crazy because of the cocky attitude and stuff but like I said when he needs to be serious, he is a good missionary. I will have to humble him a little. I already humbled him at basketball so i can humble him at life? yeah. His name is Elder Horner and he is from cleveland ohio. He has been out about a year now. I am going to kind of miss Elder Daniel, he was a little bit different at times but he is a GREAT missionary. I hope in 2 years that i can be as good and as obedient as he was. Elder Daniel is from Nampa, Idaho. He is a little bit excited to go home. He was not trunky at all but yesterday was his actual last day of proselyting so he is pretty excited to go. Who can blame him. But he also says he would stay another year if he could. I am way glad that I am staying because we are doing very well with the investigators that we have right now. and we have a baptism coming up! number 2 baby! here is my story.
His name is Cameron Burris and we have been teaching him since i first got here. Missionaries were teaching with him before and they never really got too far with him. His wife has been a less active member of the church for many years now. When i went to see him the first time he was like, you guys should really call before you come and was kind of not very excited that we were there and stuff. But we started teaching him the discussions all over again from the restoration and we could gradually see the change in him. During this time his wife was striving to do better as well, her sister is also in the ward and is an active member so she was helping the both of them. After a period of time the wife Elissa got her patriarchal blessing and you could tell that there was something different about her, she had a glow to her and she was a lot more happy. She would also ask questions like could she be sealed to her family if Cameron was not baptized. We said no. So you could tell that that had made Cameron think a lot more about being baptized. They go to church about every week but it is only for sacrament meeting. last week Cameron came for all 3 blocks of church and you could tell that he was so much more interested because he was involved and he had a reason to change. He has gained a testimony for himself that the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true. He called us during the week and started asking questions about being baptized and stuff and told us some concerns but eventually he said eh wants to be baptized and he set a date for september 18th. He is flying his family out to come see it. He is very serious about it and you can see that glow in him now as well. When he came to church this week everyone was saying how much different he seems and how he has that glow and how he is more open to talking to people. Cameron is awesome, he is my favorite investigator right now and will probably be my favorite member. So my message from all that is just how the gospel can definately change lives and people can notice that there is a glow about them when they do accept it. Which brings me to another point that we should show to non members how we have our values and they can see that glow in us and see that we our different. And they will start asking questions about why we do certain things, which brings us to our duty to share the gospel to everyone.
Well thats all i have for the week. have a good week ya guys and i love you!
Love Elder Gnehm.

Monday, August 23, 2010

PICTURES FINALLY




Hola familia. My companion now is really good though, he is obedient which has taught me a lot about the kind of missionary that i need to be. I hope i dont get a completely strict companion but i hope i dont get a companion that doesn't want to do anything i need a fine balance. Time is going by pretty fast though. On wednesday we had district meeting that lasted 2 and a half hours because it was a aspecial one. So this week we only got 6 lessons taught. I felt horrible turning in the numbers because i was the senior companion. I told the Zone leaders that it was Elder daniels fault and he is just really trunky and i cant get him out of the bed in the morning. haha. but then i told them the truth. I will give you my spiritual story, its funny but its also spiritual.
So on Sunday we had one of the investigators that we are teaching named Renee Alvarez come to church. She was all alone because her husband thinks that we are a cult and her kids don't want to come. So I sat by her while Elder daniel sat on the stands because he gave a 5 minute talk because he is leaving. So Renee was asking me questions like the whole time and i was expalining what was going on and stuff. One of the speakers that was talking was really old and their story about their pioneer heritage was sooo boring. I was looking around the room and half the chapel was asleep. But Renee was listening really intently because it was her first experience at a mormon church. So i'm kind of zoning off a little myself and all of a sudden Renee asks me. What does he mean by having 5 wifes) I'm like ummm did he say something about that? shes like ya. haha. So I had to explain to her in the middle of church about how the church used to practice plural marriage and how we don't do it anymore. After the sacrament a ton of the members came up to her and introduced themselves and explained ya we dont do the multiple wives thing anymore. haha. Anyways the spiritual part of this story for me is that since I grew up in the church i really have no idea what a new investigator is thinking about the church. So many things could be so weird and new to her that just seems normal to me. I've learned so far that i have been out that Utah is not a normal place and it is foreign to the rest of the world. it is its own country. I am lucky to have been able to grow up in kaysville where there are so many members and good influences around me. My testimony has really grown since I have been here about how blessed I was to be able to grow up there and in a good home.
Ok. that is my story and all for the week. I will try to send you pics on another email. I love you. have a good safe week.



The first pic here is The last day of the MTC. Elder Nielson, the one that i got along with really well is the one i'm cuddling with haha. The second picture is my companion Elder Daniel. he is the one on the left.And the third picture is ME! i thought it was cool because it looks like kingdoms of glory parking. my companion made fun of me for it but i think its awesome.
THERE ya go. you got pictures! :) haha love you.


Monday, August 16, 2010

HOMELESS GUY

Hey der. I am senior companion this week, it isn't going to seem too different because i already have been carrying the phone around and taking lead a lot. So i think it will be all good. Last week i went on splits with an Elder Palmberg Who i came out here from the mtc with. So we were to greenies going about the business. We did well. It seems weird that my comp will be going home in a couple of weeks, and then i will get a new one and i will be the one that has to know how to get around the area and know all the people. yikes.
I need to wrap it up though my companion wants to leave. I will leave you with a spiritual message.
Me and my companion were walking to a less actives last week and while we were walking we passed this guy who had a couple of sacks. he was obviously homeless and he was picking up cans to go and sell. Well the first time we walked, we walked straight past him and didn't think to much about it. We walked probably another good 1/4 of a mile before my companion stopped and said. You know what, this is gonna bother me. Lets go back and talk to that guy. So we went back and started talking to him. He was really open to us and he told us that he had been out of his job for about 3 years now. We talked to him for about ten minutes and he said that he would take some thought to it but nothing much came about it. but after i just felt pretty bad because I think the first time that we didn't talk to him was because he looked a little iffy and didn't think that he would care to here us. It made me realize that we shouldn't be judging a person by how they look. Even if they are there smoking a cigarette, they still could be prepared to here our message. It made the think that we need to talk to everyone because we dont know who the elect are until we actually talk to them.
Anyways thats all i got. k love you. have a great week.

Monday, August 9, 2010

DENVER TEMPLE

Hi, I got to go to the Denver temple on Saturday. The Denver temple is tiny compared to utah temples. We went through a session and the screen was like a twenty inch projection. I couldn't tell who was who on it. But it was really cool to be able to go to the temple and feel the spirit that is there. We can go about every 6 months. But my companion is going again before he leaves so i get to go again this month. We went there with some members who used to be temple workers. They were old and reminded me of you. haha. cuz they are temple workers. Me and my companion are doing good. We are not very much alike but we stil do the work so it is ok. He keeps me obedient which is what i need so thats all i can ask for. So last week we had a thunderstorm that was absolutely crazy. It lasted for about and hour and a half and i thought i was in hurricane kutrina. Luckily we were teaching an investigator during some of it but while we were teaching the windows were open and water came i'n like a humidifier. it felt really good. When we left the streets were practically flooded and we could barely get our car to go. We could have used a canoe to travel to streets. The thunder here is so loud here too. It feels like the lightning is like right outside the house because when it hits it sounds like fireworks are going off immediately after. Its awesome! But the person that we were teaching during the strom was really awesome. Her name is renee Alvarez and the last missionaries tracted into her. Gave her a Book of mormon and she has been reading it and stuff. When we taught her the restoration, it was awesome. She was like yeah i know that everything you have been talking about is true and that joseph smith is a prophet. haha I was like What did you just say? haha it caught me by so much suprise cuz you don't here that very often. We asked her to get baptized but she said she will have to think about it some more. I think she will definately get baptized though, she is an awesome lady. She is just really really busy. That would be awesome if she does though love you. Love elder Gnehm.

Monday, August 2, 2010

ARVADA IS HOT

HEY der. Arvada is so dang hot. haha. it is starting to cool down and the rain clouds are starting to come in the middle of the day to cool us off. but i am loving the area that i am in.
The people in my ward are pretty cool. They just got done with the trek on saturday and sunday they had an awesome testimony meeting that was dominated by youth with there experiences. As far as success goes, we are doing pretty well. It seems like the people that we teach all just want to talk because they love missionaries instead of having a spiritual lesson. I think its cuz all the last missionaries went over just to chat and gave a 2 second lesson. I am not getting discouraged at all. I think its kind of funny when people want nothing to do with us. I wish they would accept it but we cant force it on them. Haha that is funny that you were having bad vibes on saturday. My companions and i were on the far side of the ward that was completely opposite from where our house is and his tire went flat. A nail went through his tube so we had to walk from the entire end to end back to our house with our bikes. Maybe that is why you were feelingbad. So its been so hot and i have been on a bike so much that my first week i lost 5 lbs. So now i am starting to eat like a porker so i dont get too skinny. I never thought i would have to eat more on this mission. Yeah i was thinking about grandpa the other day when we were at this house with both the Woman and the Man were in Scooter chairs. Grandpa needs to get the one like this guy had it would recline completely and would haul butt. haha. But yeah i think that would be a good idea too cause i was watching this guy try to do stuff and it looked really hard and he said that he was just really ready to die pretty much. As far as sister slater its called longmont and that is where elder aamodt is at right now. My area is a pretty big town. I would compare it to layton i guess because its pretty big and it has rich on one side and poor on another side. K i will give you a somewhat spiritual message. We have been teaching a lot of less active people because we dont have very many new investigators. And so we have been trying to go to a lot the (LA)'s less actives. houses and no one was home or they didn't want to talk with us. So we went to this one guys house named Roy Ireson, and while we were teaching about the restoration i felt the spirit in the room that was really strong. Now it wasn't tell after the lesson that we left and we were riding home on our bikes and i still felt the spirit pretty strong. As i was turing on a street i was about to take the corner on the wrong side of the road but something told me that i shouldn't do that. So i swerved my bike to the right side of the road and right when i did a car turned the corner going way too fast. I know that it was because of the spirit that i felt that grew as i was teaching that it was with me to save me from getting hit by a car. . yeah that is my story for now. But yeah you can use that or not, its not really a great story haha. but ya i will email dad, hope you are doing well love you guys.