Michael's Mission - October 2006

<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>October 2006</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> <A NAME="the_call_as_district_leader"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>October 30, 2006 - </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Michael's E-mail was titled "LEAVING COW TOWN". He added that he has been assigned to the Middletown Ward somewhere northeast of Santa Rosa. He added,  "</FONT>I'm told it is very small and quite rural. I'm pretty sure they'll be putting me in a car as well. That will be nice for the winter. My new companion is from Costa Rica, his name is Elder Rosario. He speaks Spanish fluently but is called to be an English Elder. " [<B>Editors note:</B> Later it was learned that Elder Rosario was born in Puerto Rico but his family lives in the United States and he speak English just fine].</div> <bR> <div> Michael explained a bit of confusion with his new assignment, "Oh yeah, and President is making me District Leader! How crazy is that! The President will call out the new assignments for the leaders on Saturday and while I was eating breakfast he called and said I was staying in Vacaville with Elder Davis but that I was going to be DL. I was not expecting him to call at all. My stomach sank when I heard the phone ring. He called back an hour later and told me that he mis spoke and that he was going to move me." </div> <bR> <div> Michael explained that he'll be moving into an apartment that the mission is just acquiring since the Middletown Ward has not had their own set of missionaries for some time.</div> <bR> <div> Michel described the past week as, "The work here went really slow this week. Our 1 investigator, Stephon, was busy and went out of town. The Tippets we're still not sure on. We went back yesterday and just read from the Book of Mormon with them. We tried to find some investigators but it just didn't happen. We found some potentials that hopefully will turn into something for Elder Davis. Elder Davis got sick on Wednesday so we did a little exchange to get me out of the apartment for half a day. He got better that night. He just had an allergic reaction to Hazelnut."</div> <bR> <div> Elder Davis ratted me out on Saturday and told the 1st counselor that I was leaving so I had to give a 5 min testimony/talk. I told them I loved serving in their ward and was sad to leave. I talked to them about how they were doing on extending a "Hand of Fellowship" since that was the topic of the talk I gave in August. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>October 23, 2006 - </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Commenting on questions from Angela, Michael responded, "</FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >What was the most exciting thing this week? I would say that would be the simple fact that Stephon's wife Christin sat in on the lesson we had on Thursday. The only problem being that the member we had with us wouldn't let us talk. He kept talking on whatever he felt like. Hopefully we can rebound this week. Stephon came to church on Sunday finally but he's still not keeping the word of wisdom entirely. He's improved a lot but not quite there yet. Plus his wife still wants him to go to her first Baptist church every other week."</FONT></div> <bR> <div> What was the most challenging? Trying to decide if the decision I made at a lesson last night with the Tippets was a good one." As for Julie Tippets, her husband is an inactive member, they came to church too! They came and sat in the back and left before we could talk to them. They read the assignment we gave them but only 2 min or so before we went over last night. We taught the remainder of the 2nd lesson and I bore a strong testimony of its truthfulness and tried to commit her to pray to know that it was true herself, she wouldn't. She says she'll only pray if she feels like she needs to know.  My DL says she is probably scared to be held accountable for that knowledge. He's probably right too. But I was so devastated that she again refused to pray that I commited them both to read the Book of Mormon entirely, specifically in 1 year. And then left it at that. The member we brought with us didn't like that. He felt we should stay with them longer, give them another assignment and commitment to come to church. I can see his view and I can see the way I handled it. I don't know what to do. I've thought about it a lot since last night and prayed about it but I just don't know yet.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>October 16, 2006 - </B></FONT>The investigator pool has dropped quit e a bit. The Kent family has been dropped because they didn't keep any of their commitments. Brother Snyder has not quit smoking yet so we've not been able to baptize him.</div> <bR> <div> Mike reported. " <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The AP's decided to a little exchange with us this week. They came out on Thursday afternoon. Bishop took all of us to lunch first and then we went on an exchange from there. We had amazing success with the AP's. They just have been doing this work a lot longer. We taught 5 lessons with them. These lessons were all door step lessons where we teach about the Book of Mormon and commit them to read and pray about it, then have a prayer with them. That sort of sparked the work a little. We taught 4 more the next day."</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Mike concluded with, "Tomorrow will be Zone Conference and President Interviews. So I'll let you know how that goes. This transfer is already winding down. We only have 2 weeks left! Transfers are on Halloween! I don't know if I'll be leaving or not. But Elder Manning(AP) did ask if I liked being on bike or not. I told him I don't mind it, it's actually fun in a lot of ways."</div> <bR> <div> <B>October 9, 2006 - </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Since today was Columbus Day, Michael had to write a traditional letter rather than E-mail since the library was closed. Michael wrote, "Just because you find an unknown continent does not mean the library should be closed!" We had the first rain since I've been here last week. It was refreshing.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> On Tuesday we tracted a family that invited us in. They said "We've seen you riding your bicycles. What do you do? What do you share?" I thought that was cool, until they explained they were just curious. They had just left the Baptist church.</div> <bR> <div> He concluded, "My bicycle is working and my clothes are in tact, so all is well in Vacaville".</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>October 2, 2006</B></FONT><B> -</B> Michael wrote, "<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >I love Conference Weekend! It was awesome. I wrote 13 pages of notes on the talks. It's a lot different when you have to go to the stake center for the talks. It forces you to pay more attention which was good.</FONT>" He added. "<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >One of the things I've thought most about is President Faust's statement that for most of us we are not called to die for the church but to LIVE FOR IT!! Hopefully we are all living for the one and only completely true and living church!"</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Regarding the fall weather Michael commented, "No rain but it is cooling off. Supposedly this next week will have highs in the 70's and it always rains at least once by the end of October so I look forward to riding bike in the rain!"</div> <bR> <div> He described the work as, "We have lost some more investigators to the oh so common trap of not keeping commitments. It's OK though. We still have some and we picked up 3 more this week."</div> <bR> <div> Commenting on an experience tracting Michael reported, "One quick experience tracting. A guy was out edging his lawn with a gas edger that you hold in your hand. We went to talk to him and he raised it up in the air and started revving it up and walking towards us like he was going to cut us up! We stood strong and I just looked at him like "what are you thinking, you really don't know who we are". He got to about 5 feet away and then walked off. I just said 'have a nice day' and walked on to another house.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>