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

Monday, January 31, 2011

TOUGH WEEK

Hey MOM.

Hows it going, hows the weather in utah, it was 70 degrees for two days in a row last week, but not i hear that on tuesday the high is going to be 7 degrees and the low is 20 below. So yeah that is going to be absolutely miserable and I will definately be rocking the thermal G's. SO LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY CRAZY WEEK. So this last week was incredibly tough not gonna lie. So let me just tell you what happened. ok. well I will actually start with the semi good news so it doesn't sound all bad. So we taught a former investigator and he has been struggling with a wife that has left him and now they are getting a divorce. But from that experience it really made him turn to his Heavenly Father. We have helped him a lot, and we've been sharing scriptures with him and the plan of salvation. he has also been reading Jesus the Christ which he loves. So we had a lesson with him and we were just talking about all this stuff, and he says yeah i know that this stuff is definately true and inspired. and so we were asking him if he knows the bom is true and if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and he said yes to all of them. So we were on exchanges that day. And our district leader, asked the guy to get baptized, and he said not yet, i dont know enough, that will be in the future if it happens. So that was kind of a bummer, but we will continue to pray and hope that he sees the importance of it. Also about Brandy and that, we changed the date to the 12th of February, but now we don't even know if that is going to work. So her husband met with the bishop and everything went good and fine, and the bishop told us that there is no reason that he should be able to receive the priesthood, and we were like yes, sweet!. But he also said that when he stopped going to church his last ward didn't make a note of Aaron ever receiving the priesthood. But aaron remembers passing the sacrament a couple of times before they stopped going to church. So now Aaron has to look all around for a certificate that he got that says if he even has the preisthood or not. So if he can't find it then he will have to get the priesthood first and then become a priest which the bishop said might take until march. Which would be terrible because transfers are on February 14th, so we don't even know if we will be here or not. So yeah that was my pretty crappy week. But there are also good things that come out of it. Anyways, I gotta get going, don't be worried about me I'm still doing great, I still love the mission, and still love this gospel. And I love you and the fam, have a great week! LOVE ELDER GNEHM

Monday, January 24, 2011

RECORD LESSONS TAUGHT

HI there.
This week was the most busy week of my mission. So i usually average about 15 lessons a week. This week we taught 25 which is a district record. It was crazy, they were basically all less active members and investigators too. It was a good week. We just had a ton of people that were home when we went there and we called and set up a bunch of appointments. We still know that Brandy is way excited to get baptized but we think that we might have to push the date back a little bit. So we told our bishop that we have to get Aaron in quick to get an interview so he can receive the priesthood so he could baptize his wife. SO we went through a ton of trouble to get a meeting and everything. Then on Sunday, after the interview, the bishop comes up to us and says oh so we just talked about getting his records into this ward, i never brought up anything about the priesthood because the topic didn't come up. ..We're like uhh are you kidding, that is why we set up the interview, do you realize that he has to get the priesthood and baptize his wife by February 5th? But he didn't really say anything. So yeah we might have to move it back. which is pretty lame. Oh well.
You asked how I was liking the mission. I love the mission. It is the funnest and hardest but most rewarding thing that I have ever done. I still don't really like teaching. I like having more of conversations with people about the gospel because i think that having them talk and stuff is way better. But just teaching to them is kind of hard. I think that we should just get in there and say so what do you know about our church, bear my testimony talk about it with them and answer their questions. I just think they and I get a lot more out of it.
That is cool that your going to start tennis (league) again, I think that I might play a little bit of tennis today and some dodgeball and some basketball. Grandma says that the jazz are starting to blow it, what the heck is up with that. The weather here right now is pretty warm, its a little windy today though and when it gets windy you can smell greely which is like smelling the Great Salt Lake but a lot worse. Its just complete maneur and it smells rechid.
So i got a little spiritual thought. So we took our ward mission leader with us to a lesson that we had set up with a less active. I had a feeling that I should take him. So when we went there, it turns out that he knew her about 20 years ago. And they were going to church and stuff together when they were in their teens. Well we were talking to her and I was teaching about the Book of Mormon and about what it means to her. And I said I know that there is a flame inside of you and it is ready to be kindled and grow. And she started to cry, and my mission leader started in by giving experiences that they had when they were younger and she was bauling and she knew that she had a testimony and she knew that she needed to come back to church. SO i guess my thought can be about listening to the promptings of the spirit, and also I think that its important to remember that every member is a missionary and they can make a huge difference in the lives of the people we teach. We had interviews with our mission president this week and he said that this is one of the hardest wards in the mission because the members don't give referrals and are kind of selfish, and so we are trying to get the members a lot more involved to help us as missionaries out.
So thats whats been going on here.
Anyways thats about all I got, I did get your last package and i'm waiting for the next one. I love you and hope that you have a great week. LOVE ELDER GNEHM!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

COOL KIDS IN OUR AREA


UPCOMING BAPTISM

FAMILIA.
Hey, i still haven't gotten the package, so hopefully i will get it sometime this week. The people in the mail office are really old and they are new, so they are kinda slow with mail, so who knows if i will ever get it. No i definately don't need candy, we have way too much to eat, something that i have gotten a huge crave from lately is chex mix sweet and salty, thats the good stuff right there. I went yesterday with a couple of missionaries to a vitamin shoppe and they were getting fat burners haha so probably in a couple more months i will really need those, i work out every morning but we get fed so much that its just impossible to lose weight, so its a good thing that i came out skinny.
So i have some good news. brandy is getting baptized on february 5th. It was really awesome. My companion set her for baptism and she was so excited. and then when our member told her that maybe her husband good get the aaronic priesthood and baptize her, her face lit up and she had the biggest smile on her face. It was pretty cool Her husband has been less active for about 14 years though, so hopefully nothing will get in the way of him having the priesthood before then, or she will have to wait,which would be a bummer. But oh well. I'm still excited for a baptism baby!! It will be the first adult convert baptism in two years in this ward. We have been making small progress with our other investigator, she's had missionaries there for about 5 years, so we call her an eternal investigator. But she recently got a testimony of the BOM and her husband who is less active is starting to come back to church, so hopefully now that he is going, she will go with him, because church is the thing she doesn't know about.
That is such a bummer about alicia and gordon though, dang.
Do you want to ask tyler a question for me, ask him if he knew an elder carl goakim Isaksen, isaksen is the last name. But his brother is here in denver, and carl went to the santa rosa mission around the same time tyler was there, so ask him if he knows who he is. Also do you want to get a ton of old pictures of family friends and pics of me and stuff. That you could send to me. By actually prints. Cause i have a photo album and i have like no pics of the family or of the life back at home so could you try to do that for me. I will take as many as you can give me.
It hasn;'t been snowing very much lately, it snows one day but then the next two days it is all melted. Weather in colorado is way different from utah. It will be negative ten one day then the next day its 55. Its good though, cause you get some snow but then it melts and its basically spring in mid january. make sure you let me know where walker gets his call too!
Sorry but its gonna have to be a short letter cause i am emailing on tuesday cause i couldn't yesterday, so i can't spend too long. So i gotta go. I love you. thanks for the package. have a good week. LOVE ELDER GNEHM

Monday, January 10, 2011

GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR

HEY!
That is so crazy about charlies mom. That is really sad I wrote charlie just a minute ago and gave him some sympathy and stuff. Hopefully she will be fine. How long until she should be fully recovered? have you and dad been snowmoniling at all this winter. I want to go so bad. but oh well only a few more months. more than a few but whatever. haha thats funny that hunter got a ton a free tickets, what did you buy with those tickets. You could get a bb gun with 600 tickets. I never did get that picture of hunter so you might have to send it again.. I got the picture of those elk in wyoming. Holy cow, that is absolutely crazy. I almost wish that i was in wyoming just for that reason. But at the same time i want nothing less than to go to laramie in the winter.
We didn't set brandy for baptism haha i told my companion that i wanted him to do it beacuse he hasn't ever set anyone. SO while we were in the lesson we had a really spiritual part and i nudged my companion to make the commitment and he waited like 10 seconds so they started talking about something completely different so we never did ask her. But we have an appointment with her on wednesday so hopefully we will do it then. They have been reading the book of mormon almost every day and they are golden. So i definately think she will be dunked. We made some progress with another investigator also. She knows that the BOM is true but she doesn'tthink the church is true, which makes no sense because she has never been and is scared to go. But her husband is less active so we think that if we get him to church she will follow. SO yesterday we went to breakfast with them and the husband went to church with us, so hopefully next week she will follow. We also have another investigator that we are teaching andwe haven't seen him since before christmas so hopefuly he has been reading and stuff.
Did you ever get that picture from that lady in my ward. I told her to send another one that we took so i hope that this one got to you. It snowed yesterday about 6 inches. It was actually quite a bit. Our zone leaders wanted us to come in but we kept working because i didn't think that it was that bad. I think that it snows a lot harder in utah. The snow hear is like more flaky and so it doesn't even bother me at all when i am walking. and that jacket that i bought keeps me pretty warm so i don't usually get to cold unless the wind blows, then i'm freezing. I need to buy gloves though. yes we are still on bikes/ walking. We walk usually because the roads are too slippery for bike. ..
Oh yeah so i forgot to tell you guys but for some reason lately i was thinking that i want to be a physical therapist, so you should find out what i have to do to be an awesome pt!
We have been teaching a lot of our members about every member being a missionary because we want referrals and don't want to tract. But unfortantely we don't ever recieve referrals from emembers. But we will keep looking for more and more people to teach and share the gospel with.
Anyways i gotta run. I love you hope that you have a great week!send me some more pics! LOVE ELDER GNEHM

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

STAYING IN THORNTON

My District

whatsgoin on? Just to let you know, i did not get transfered, Elder Goesch and I are still together in East lake. Our entire district is the exact same except for one person. Haha so this next 6 weeks is going to be completely the same as the last 6. Which isn't bad in any way. My new years was alright, nothing special, we had dinner at 5 and we had to be in at 7 so we just watched the Joseph Smith movie and the mountain of the Lord and legacy. mountain of the lord is actually really cool because the things that they had to go through to build the salt lake temple were crazy. You guys should watch that one, it is on the same DVD as the Joseph Smith movie.
Is it pretty chilly willy in utah right now? Friday the high here was 10 degrees and when we were walking at night it was about 5 below. So yeah needless to say my hands were freezing, but it is the rockies. (you've been wearing two pairs of gloves this entire time, yeah its the rockies) haha. classic, and I can say that because i'm there. On thursday it snowed about 7 inches and it was miserable but now it is warming up to about 40 degrees and the snow is almost melted away now.
I wish that i could go to the temple so bad, i havent been in 5 months, and we had a lesson in elders quorum about attending the temple often, and we can't because we can only go once every 6 months, so its a bummer. But luckily I get another temple trip in february so i'll go then.
No your not the only mom that cries when you talk on the phone but it doesn't make it right. My comps family didn't shed a single tear, next phone call i want it to be dry.
NO that picture of me and my comp isn't the one that the Johnsons were going to send. I didn't see her at church so i couldn't ask her but i will try to call her this week or go over there sometime. This picture is when we were at christmas breakfast at the carlson. My companion is about an inch taller than me and about 70 pounds more than me. haha he is a big boy.
As far as our investigators go, we haven't really been able to meet with them over the last week because of the holidays but we did have one of our investigators come to church and her husband is a less active who is starting to come back as well and he bought her the standard works for christmas with her name on it so that is really cool, they are pretty gung ho. We are hopefully going to set her with a baptismal date this week so pray especially hard for me and her name is brandy adams.
So get this yesterday we were eating dinner at the ward mission leaders house their name is the powers. And sister powers mom and dad were there and so i was like like hi i'm elder Gnehm. And she's like oh you have family in Wellsville don't you. I was like haha uh yeah. So apparently she is Susan Gnehm's Aunt. I think her name was Dorothy Smith but that might be completely wrong. But still i think that is a pretty cool thing and a small world. haha so me and Sister Powers are somewhat related which is pretty cool, they are one of my favorite families in the ward. So you might have to ask Susan if she knows her, she lives in loveland colorado.
I did get tyler and jess' package, I got some denver slippers, some christmas lights, a thing that hunter painted and a tie. It was pretty nice.
I guess i will talk a little bit about the joseph Smith movie as my spiritual message. So we watched that movie last week and it really is crazy all the persecution and the trials that they had to go through. The strength and the faith that the pioneers and saints must have had is ridiculous becase they were able to push through their afflictions. One of my new favorite scriptures scomes from doctrine and convenants when Joseph Smith is in liberty Jail and he has been in their for a while now and he just says O God who long shall thy hand be stayed, because of all the evil that is happening against the saints. And the scripture that i love says something like, my son, peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and if thou shall endure it well, God will exalt thee on high. And it makes me think of when things are going really tough, that you just want to give up and quit but God promises that if you endure these trials that you will be exalted. So it just makes me think of sin and instant joy is way less important than having eternal happiness and joy.
Anyways I hope that you have a good week i'll be looking forward to your package. LOVE YOU
LOVE ELDER GNEHM!