Mike's Mission - July 2007

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFF66" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03c006e0dkfegl.gif"> <div>                          <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Michael's Mission Page</FONT>      <IMG SRC="04e55390.gif" border=0 width="85" height="57" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>                     California Santa Rosa Mission  June 2006 - June 2008    |   <A HREF="http://www.theHaslams.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.theHaslams.com"><U>theHaslams.com</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#009933" TEXT="#080000" background="03dbec00ddwnzy.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Front Page"><U><B>Front Page</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="latest_news.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Latest News"><U><B>Latest News</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="photo_album.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission Photo Album"><U><B>Photo Album</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="companions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Companions"><U><B>Companions</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>=====================</B></div> <div> <A HREF="may_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission May 2008"><U><B>May 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="april_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission April 2008"><U><B>April 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="march_w008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission March 2008"><U><B>March 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="february_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission February 2008"><U><B>February 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="january_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission January 2008"><U><B>January 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="december_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission December 2007"><U><B>December 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="november_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission November 2007"><U><B>November 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="october_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission October 2007"><U><B>October 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="september_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission September 2007"><U><B>September 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="august_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission August 2007"><U><B>August 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="july_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission July 2007"><U><B>July 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="june_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike_Mission June 2007"><U><B>June 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="may_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission May 2007"><U><B>May 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="april_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission April 2007"><U><B>April 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="march_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission March 2007"><U><B>March 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="february_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes mission February 2007"><U><B>February 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="january_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission January 2007"><U><B>January 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="december_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission December 2006"><U><B>December 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="november_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission November 2006"><U><B>November 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="october_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission October 2006"><U><B>October 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="september_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission September 2006"><U><B>September 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="august_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission August 2006"><U><B>August 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="july_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission July 2006"><U><B>July 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="arrival.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arrival in Santa Rosa"><U><B>Arrival in Santa Rosa</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mtc.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission MTC"><U><B>Departure & the Missionary Training Center</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>=====================</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.mission.net/california/santa/rosa/index.php" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.mission.net/california/santa/"><U><B>California Santa Rosa Mission Alumni Site</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>July 2007</B></div> <div> <B>July 30, 2007 - "Almost August" - </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Michael explained that just as he completed his e-mail on Monday, the system kicked him off. He only had time left to e-mail his Mom and explain that he would write a traditional letter this week.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Summer is flying by, soon everyone will be back to school and some of my friends like Elder Dye will be coming home.</div> <bR> <div> Lydia Werner is our golden contact. She is studying everything she can get her hands on (including conference addresses). All we need to do now is determine a date when she can be baptized with her boyfriend in town. He is presently in Washington D.C.</div> <bR> <div> We are excited about a family we met with whom we are sharing the gospel.  They have two children ages 2 and 2 months. They also have good friends who live in Woodland who are members of the church. We met them tracting one day. Michael wrote, <I>"I'm way excited to teach them".</I></div> <bR> <div> The zone is doing well (according to the "key indicators"), hopefully our efforts will result in some more commitments for baptism.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Our "two week missionary", </I>Spencer Dean from Fairfield has done very well. He adapted to missionary life and is talking to people. We refer to him as our "foster child". However, working in a threesome is always difficult.</div> <bR> <div> It was great to hear about the mission calls for Andrew, Tyler and Chris back in the home ward.</div> <bR> <div> We are looking forward to the all mission conference on August 9. Elder Maynes is going to visit and will speak to the zone leaders the night before.</div> <bR> <div> Michael concluded with, <I>"I finished the Book of Mormon for the 8th time (4th time) on my mission. It will draw you closer to God than any other book".</I></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>July 23, 2007 - "Almost Pioneer Day" - </B></FONT>Michael's e-mail opened, <I>"OK, so Pioneer day doesn't mean anything here in California but I'm excited for you guys to experience it".</I>  </div> <bR> <div> Michael said that the work seems pretty good in Dixon,<I> "I went on exchanges  to Dixon and that area continues to have amazing things happen.  They had an appointment with an investigator that night and we were trying to get a member with us and I thought, why not bring her to our dinner appointment and then teach her after that?  So that's what we did!  It was an awesome experience to see members excited to be involved in the conversion process and be able to help even in that small way.  So if you know the missionaries there and they're looking for fellowshippers, just tell them that you'll feed them and their investigators.  They have some great investigators and they found some more this week.  I don't know what it is but Elder Savory said that the ward is just ready for it so the Lord is providing it for them".</I></div> <bR> <div> As for the work in Michael's own area, he added, <I>"We taught a media referral this week , Lydia.  She has a boyfriend who is a member that moved to the east coast and she is following him in about a month.  But we taught her anyway and I know she'll be baptized, but I also know that it won't be in Davis.  I'm 90% sure of that anyway.  We are going to commit her on Tuesday but we probably will tell her to pray for a date because I know that if we give her one she'll probably tell us, "I want my boyfriend to be there".  We'll see how it goes though.  She came to church yesterday and she read the parts that we gave her and was asking for more!!!  She's the best investigator I've had since Valerie Ward". </I></div> <bR> <div> Michael then reported something that I've never heard of before.  Young men from the Fairfield and Vacaville stakes are going to work full time with the missionaries for two weeks. Michael described it as follows:<I> "The Fairfield and Vacaville stakes are sponsoring a "mini mission program"  for the priest age young men to go out for two weeks and serve full-time.  They're set apart and everything.  And you probably guessed it, they assigned one to us!!! In fact the first one out of Fairfield!!  His name is Spencer Dean and he is an awesome kid.  We got him this morning and he played b-ball really well with us and is just ready to work so it will be fun.  It will be weird to be in a threesome again but will make it easier to visit people since we already have a third man with us".</I></div> <bR> <div> Michael added that he is looking forward to an all mission conference on August 9th.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>July 16, 2007 - "First Week in Davis - Hectic" - </B></FONT>Michael explained that the prior week was "just crazy". He explained that, <I>"What you might not have calculated is just how crazy things were going to be the first week of the transfer.  We spent a lot of time on Tuesday trying to fit 4 peoples luggage and 5 people into two Toyota Corollas.  Then juggling who's riding where and with whom.  It was pretty crazy.  Everyone got to their pads OK though".</I></div> <bR> <div> Commenting on the new area he was assigned to Michael reported, <I>"This area is bigger than any of my previous areas.  ( looking at # of streets and population). We also have very transient wards. The singles ward is always changing and right now a lot of people are back home for the summer so it's a little smaller.  We also don't know who on the ward lists were still in town.  So we got some new ones yesterday.  It really is like the sands of the sea.  Everywhere you go you can find apartments.  And apartments behind those so we definitely won't run out of places to tract. We also weren't handed any real investigators".</I> Thus as Michael expected last week, the Whitewasher gets to start from scratch again.</div> <bR> <div> Michael added, <I>"More good news, the wards are awesome member work wards.  The married student ward has something like 6 couple ward missionaries and a very proactive ward mission leader.  The singles ward also has a great ward mission leader and plenty of people who are willing to go teach with us.  Now it's just a matter of FINDING them.  That's the hard part.  We have some good potential by virtue of some media referrals.  We get about 1 per week here I'm told so that's exciting.  I think I've only had about 4 my whole mission so far so it will be nice to have some more".</I></div> <bR> <div> Regarding his responsibilities as zone leader Michael wrote, <I>"We had a lot to do with zone business this week.  Wednesday we were closing an apartment.  Thursday we did zone visits to everyone's apartment to build trust.  Friday we had a ZL/DL council meeting in Fairfield.  So it's kept us busy and unfortunately out of our own area.  We'll see how things go this week.  We're pretty much done with the craziness I think".</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> <A NAME="transfer_to_davis"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>July 09, 2007 - "Elder Michael 'The Whitewasher' Haslam" - </B></FONT>Surprised? No, Michael is the master "Whitewasher". To whitewash in missionary lingo means to go into an area where all of the prior missionaries have left, thus leaving the new missionaries with no "recent history" to go on. Sure the previous missionaries leave their notebook with information on any investigators that they were teaching, but little else. This time Michael is not moving far. He remains the senior zone leader in the Davis/Woodland zone. His new assignment is with the singles and married student wards at the University of California Davis. His new companion is Elder Strange. Michael got to know him when they both served in Vacaville. Of Elder Strange he wrote, "<I>He came out one transfer after I did.  We got along real well.  He was trained by Elder Dane Davis.  He is from Pennsylvania.  Some city close to the Amish country.  He is also a baller.  He played in High School and did really well.  He's got a good shot that's hard to contest and can drive pretty decent as well.  He will also be my first companion that is taller than me.  He's about 6'3''". </I>Elder Strange has experience in singles wards. Michael said,  <I>"He'll teach me that [how to work singles wards] and I'll teach him how to be a zone leader.".</I></div> <bR> <div> Elder Price is moving on as the solo zone leader in the Lakeport zone. Elder Bennett (Michael's trainer) is going home to Otoe, Nebraska. Spanish speaking sister missionaries are moving into Michael's apartment in Winters. They will be working in the Winters and Dixon Wards. [This sounds good since Michael said 50% of the residents of Winters speak Spanish].</div> <bR> <div> Of Winters Michael wrote, <I>"Everyone is sick of seeing us and frankly I'm having a hard time talking to the same people 4 or 5 times!!!  The Bishop told me yesterday that they are calling a new Ward Mission Leader too!  I wish I could have tried again with a new Ward Mission Leader but the time is past and Winters will be closed to English work for a few months at least. I'm sad to leave Winters in the sense that I wanted to see success here and I wanted to help the members here.  They're awesome, but they don't work on missionary work very well.  I did the best that I knew how and I worked as hard as I could but there just isn't work for us here.  Even the less-actives started to not want to meet with us anymore".  </I></div> <bR> <div> Regarding changes in the zone Michael said, "<I>They are making a lot of changes in the zone.  This includes three whitewashes and closing an area.  Plus three missionaries are going home.  So I'll have a totally different zone to look over.  It should be a lot of fun.  The zone will have a lot of sisters.  In fact there will be 8 companionships, 4 sister, 4 elder.  One of the District leaders is a DL over 3 sister companionships.  Talk about a rough job".</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>July 02, 2007 - "Persecuted for the Cause of Christ" - </B></FONT>As Michael's title indicates, <I>"it's been a little rough".. </I>He describes his investigators like this:</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Sister Seacrest - "W<I>e taught her all about Jesus Christ and who he really is and what he really did but she just believes what she wants and won't open her ears to hear".</I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Janae - <I>"She had miracles happen and she has just pushed them aside as coincidences and won't acknowledge God's hand in it.  She also told us to make a note that no other missionary should return to her house when we're gone.  She only likes us!  That's a big problem".</I></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Brother Ramsey - <I>"I asked him if he knew what the purpose of life was and he didn't know.  I asked if he wanted to know and he said that he didn't care.  So I left the scriptures and he can look them up if he wants".</I></div> <div> The recent convert who moved up from Fairfield was ill during the week and they did not get a chance to meet with her.</div> <bR> <div> Michael reported that they decided to try something different.<I> He said, "We got tired of Winters people that we've talked to 3 times </I><I><B>[and have been rejected 3 times]</B></I><I> so we decided to travel to Dunnigan, a small town of 700 or so 30 minutes north of us.  We know that missionaries haven't been there in years so we figured we might as well check it out and see if the town is ready for missionaries.  We tracted out the entire town, all 4 main roads, and got slammed.  Not one person was interested in learning more.  We went up on Saturday and got there at 10:45, tracted until 1pm then tracted from 2pm to 6 and literally found nobody.  It was quite literally like the scriptures where Nephi travels to the land northward and is rejected and returns to the land of Zarahemla".</I></div> <bR> <div> Michael reported a final experience for the week back in Winters. He said, <I>"Then last night we were walking around town and a girl yelled out her door 'Jesus hates you!'  I turned around and said  'What'? And she shut the door and hid in her house. </I></div> <bR> <div> Michael indicated that he has an interview with President Stoddard tomorrow. He expected the President to ask about his opinion of keeping missionaries in Winters. Michael says, <I>"I will tell him that I prayed about it and then started my study and the first verses I read were in Helaman 7:1-3.  That was an answer to me". </I></div> <bR> <div> [ Helaman 7:1-3 reads -   </div> <div> 1 Behold, now it came to pass in the sixty and ninth year of the reign of the judges over the people of the Nephites, that Nephi, the son of Helaman, returned to the land of Zarahemla from the land northward. </div> <div>   2 For he had been forth among the people who were in the land northward, and did preach the word of God unto them, and did prophesy many things unto them; </div> <div>   3 And they did reject all his words, insomuch that he could not stay among them, but returned again unto the land of his nativity.] </div> <bR> <div> He concluded with a challenge to his family, "<I>So help out the missionaries.  Find a way to share the gospel.  Pray for opportunities.  Pray specifically for those who you know and love and care about.</I> <I>Do whatever you can.  It's not easy but if you want to you can be an instrument in God's hands.  'The Lord sends prepared people to his prepared servants'.</I></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>