Week 38 - Heating up in Parlier

  Since I take our dog on a long morning walk each day, I am in the habit of checking the weather app on my phone to see what the temperature is, then I know how to dress for the weather. I have started looking at Hayden's weather in CA some days and couldn't believe that his area was expected to have high temperatures between 95-99 degrees late last week. We have been stuck in a rainy pattern and it is cold and grey and last week our high's were only in the 40's. So, I asked Hayden about the heat, and this is what he wrote back. Then I will paste his main email.
  We were also able to coordinate his Mother's Day call, I am looking forward to hearing his voice on Sunday and hoping that he will be able to Skype or FaceTime so that we can see him too!

  "Biking has been nice some days but Wednesday and Thursday were miserable. At one o'clock the sun was relentless, and I was completely wet/damp from sweat until 3 or so..... on the flip side, time passes so quickly on a bike. The weeks go by faster than ever!"

  "Well this area is great. But there is much to do, so I'm really trying to improve my skills. Elder Ennis and I are working together on how we can improve our teaching to our investigators. We found another 6 investigators this week. Ask the Orchard Park Missionaries how many they find each week, usually 6 is pretty high! So Parlier is indeed a fruitful field. However, we suffer because we only have a branch. There are not many available members for member-present lessons, which truly do make the difference if an investigator progresses or not!

  Our Zone Leaders gave us a talk last week which Elder Ennis and I have labeled "condensed awesome," but would be called a "Fire!" talk as the kids say these days. It's a general authority visiting a mission and giving them advice. He explains several ways that we can improve our teachings.

  I really don't know what to write. This week has been a lot of focus on improving my abilities! The time goes by so fast on bikes! Elder Ennis has led the charge to stop literally anyone we see on the streets, and I've joined with him on that mentality. We usually make 2 appointments for the next few days just biking to our next lesson! Talking with so many people makes the time fly.

  We had interviews with President Clark this week. He didn't say a whole lot in our interview. He just told me to keep being a good missionary and asked if I missed Echo. I hadn't really thought about it until he mentioned it! I'm focused on Parlier now!

  He trained us that we need to visit Less-Active church members and help them come back, and by doing so they will lead us to their friends who are prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That was a training he got last week from Elder Nelson, the one in charge of the executive missionary council!!!

  I pondered about Joseph Smith this week and all of his life, what he did to restore the true church, following revelations from God. Finally, he gave his life for the cause, sealing his testimony with his blood. I read Doctrine & Covenants 135 and then the hymn "Praise to the Man" and teared up with the great sacrifices he made. 

  To the family---what is the movie that shows his martyrdom? It ends playing "Praise to the Man" as he runs for the window and gets shot. If it's a short clip, we might show it to select members we teach...

--Elder Schaff, with time up!