Baptism

So we were definitely able to get out more this week.  It was actually pretty normal, except that we still have to go back to the house periodically for cleaning of  the wound and such.  Elder Lish is doing really really well considering that he just had surgery. Mostly you can't even tell anything is wrong at all.  His energy has also been better since he's been more careful about what he eats. I'm trying to be a little better too. It's just pretty hard because our food is somewhat controlled by budget and members... though the members are really good about complying with our dinner requests, so that's good. So yeah, pretty much the members are good, and Elder Lish is a super stud.  He just keeps trucking along and teaches me a ton every day.

The most exciting thing this week was definitely Evan's baptism. We should be printing out pictures today, and sending them, so you can probably expect to get them soon. Unless, of course, something goes horribly wrong at the wal mart photo center...

The Spirit was so strong at the baptism, and there were a bunch of people there. Evan has really been touched by all of the love that everyone shows. His seminary class got up to sing a special musical number for it and so he and I got up and sang in it too.  Probably the best part was that his mother was able to come, as well, and she was moved by the spirit that was there too.  When we got out of the water, Evan said he felt different... really good. He didn't really have words for it, but he cried into his towel a little in the dressing room, and it made me so happy to see him so happy.  Then we went into the chapel and the young men's president had all the young men get up and welcomed him in and gave him a really nice set of scriptures and everything, and he teared up a bit there too, and so did his mom and so did the young men's president and probably a bunch of other people too.  It's amazing to see how great he feels and how powerfully he  feels the spirit.  He will be ordained into the priesthood next week.  We're also going to be teaching his mom (and hopefully his siblings) starting Tuesday.  She's just been hard to get with because she's a single mother and manages at Golden Corral to provide for her family.  She is a wonderful woman, and so ready for the Gospel as well.  I have this beautiful picture in my mind of Evan getting to baptize his family, and I can't wait to be a part of helping make that a reality.

Other than that we started talking to a girl who is "talking to" a Mormon boy who works making movie trailers in L.A.  She's really open and nice and is reading Our Search For Happiness, as well as the Book of Mormon.  She's 22 but her mom was there too, and is less enthusiastic. I feel, however, that we can help her to focus on the right things to feel the spirit and come to know that the things we share are good and true.  The daughter, onthe other hand, will need less help. It's also helpful that the guy she's kind of seeing is a returned missionary, so he's really good at helping her along as well.

Those were pretty much the highlights of the week. It's also getting warm enough that the lizards are starting to come out... also the cicadas, which are a little annoying.  Something cool though, is the story of when Nephi and his brothers go back to get Ishmael to come with them and he says "...we did gain favor in the sight of Ishmael, insomuch that we did speak unto him the words of the Lord."  Then the Lord softens Ishmael's heart and the spirit moves him to follow Nephi and co.  This is a really good type of what we should do.  Most of us have done the first half, the gaining favor (a.k.a. making friends), but many haven't done the second. That would be speaking the words of the Lord unto those friends.  There are a lot of easy ways to do that; e.g. "Hey, check out this cool video [on mormon.org] about this amputee guy who rock climbs," "There's going to be this really cool chili cook off at my church. You should come get some free food," "You know Moses? Well a guy kinda like him is going to be speaking coming up in a few weeks and it's broadcast on byu tv..." etc.  When you do that, you will find that often peoples hearts will be softened to ,at the very least, learn a little more. Try it, it's pretty sweet.

Anyways, gotta go now. Talk to you next week :)

Much Love

Elder Katzakian

How I preach!

We got this drawing today in the mail from Brock.  He wrote: 

To: Cooper (and anyone else who wanted to see how I preach)

Since the very second Brock opened and read his mission call to Texas, his little brother, Cooper has said "Brock gets to be a cowboy!"  Each time Cooper "writes" Brock a letter it usually involves a picture of a cowboy.  So in honor of Cooper, Brock drew him this picture.   This brought back fond memories for me of when Brock was younger.  He used to draw and doodle all the time.  He and his dad would sit down for hours and draw together.  They have even been known to spend the entire sacrament meeting trying to out draw each other.  I have many pictures drawn by Brock that I have kept.  This will definitely be one I add to my collection!



Another week....

This week we were able to go to a few appointments and things, but we couldn't really do any tracting or long hours away from the house. So no cool stories of people we found... I did read a good chunk of the old testament, though, and learned a lot from it.  I had to space it out though, because one time I just read it for about an hour and a half sttraight, and it put me to sleep.  I read a lot of the Book of Mormon, too.  Mormon, chapters eight and nine are a couple of my favorite chapters now, and the brother of jared's story has a lot more meaning.  I'm starting to really be able to see the significance of everything that is in there.  Moroni said (in Mormon 9) that they wrote in reformed egyptian to save space, because you could say more with fewer words than in hebrew, but something interesting to note is that hebrew is already a language that is known for it's efficiency and "compactness," so they must've really had to cram a lot into a little space.  That means that every single word in the book is important.  He also tells us that he saw us in vision and he "know(s) our doing."  So as the record was being abridged, into an incredibly compact language so that all of the most important things could be included, it was done with us in mind, with the intent to include the things that would be most helpful to us today. It contains counsel specific to our challenges that we face, and strategies in the battle aginst the adversary's forces today. It's a pretty important book.  Everyone should read it, prayerfully pondering how the words therin can help them to overcome their challenges, which the writers saw.

So Evan T. is pretty much super amazing. He is way sensitive to the spirit, and is getting baptized on saturday. :) He is way super excited, or "stoked out of his face" as Elder Lish says.  It's going to be great, too, because a bunch of his peers who are not members should be there, as well as his family, so it should be great.  Keep him in your prayers, because Satan will be trying extra hard this week. We're just doing our best to help him keep the spirit with him so he can avoid the pitfalls. I'll let y'all know how that goes next week.

Also, everyone should tell people about mormon.org. In the past couple months JUST IN THIS MISSION, four people have walked into church, asking to be baptized, just from reading mormon.org.  It is a powerful tool.  Do not be afraid to share it with anybody.  Don't be afraid to invite anybody to anything, really... don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Obviously, do it in a way that would be effective though... it's easier to warn your neighbors once you have warmed them.

Thank you for all of the suport and help. Good things are happening. I wish I had time to tell you more. Until next week :)

Love Elder Katzakian

No transfer for me---yet

Looks like we will both be staying here in the Stone Oak area.  So our address is the same and everything.  The president also decided he'd just do transfer calls on sunday night so that p-day could always be monday now, so that's the plan.

So this week we didn't get a whole lot done because we spent a lot of time at the hospital. Elder Lish was having some complications with his crohn's disease, so we had to be there and he actually had surgery on saturday to have an infection removed, and now has a big hole in him so that can drain, so we're going to be down for like a week... we'll be able to do a little bit, but not like door to door. We'll start easing back into the normal routine and stuff, and we shuld be back to regular work an a couple of weeks.  Pretty much that means that I'll be getting a lot of extra study time.  I'm probably just going to memorize the standard works so I don't have to carry them around any more haha.

So Abel is going to be baptized the week of the twentieth (in march), Zak will be april third, and Evan, that guy who came to church randomly last week, will be baptized on the twelfth of march. Satan has attempted to get in our way with him, but he's just too sensitive to the spirit, and is really excited.  We had an appointment with him last tuesday, but he got a concussion the night before, so he couldn't come, but then he came to church again, and we taught the lesson in priests' quorum again, and asked him if he'd be baptized, and he said yes, and that's the date we set :) and when I say we, it was me and Matthew Jones, the mission president's son.  Elder lish was at the mission home with president jones all day, resting, and matthew came with me so I could go to church and stuff.  Now we're just home, though, and I'm taking care of him. starting tommorrow he should be okay to go to one or two appointments a day... we'll see how he feels, though because we want him to heal as fast as possible, and not make anything worse.

So yeah, we're probably going to the temple on wednesday. It's been killing me to have to wait and stuff since we can only go once every six weeks... I didn't realize how much I was going to want to be there until I started to really understand the gospel and the importance of all that... It's crazy. 

 

Keep on letting me know how everything is going. Y'all are in my prayers as well :) 

Love Elder Katzakian

Another week in Texas

Transfers come up again next week.  I'm only guaranteed to be here until a week from Thursday... Same drill as last transfer. I'll be here all this week, but I'll be able to let y'all know whether I'm staying or moving next Tuesday. So yeah, anything that get's sent this week is good, but anything going out Monday or later next week should wait for my go ahead on Tuesday.

 So I am getting pretty good with my cursive writing because that's all I've been using to write in my journal and notes for studies. I guess good probably isn't the best word... but it's much better than it was haha.

We had a pretty cool story this week. On Sunday, this random kid showed up to church who we'd never seen before, so we went to talk to him, and it turns out he wasn't a member.  He just kinda found God over the summer and has been going from church to church, trying to find one to be part of.  None of the ones he went to felt quite right, and he didn't really feel very welcome anywhere... so he ended up asking around at his youth group thing, and one of the kids there gave him the address to our church, and he happened to show up at just the right time for the ward that he lived in to start.  He saw a few people he knew from school, and our awesome ward pretty much smothered him with welcome.  So he went to priests' quorum (he's 17) and we went and taught the lesson fo them.  He is also pretty good friends with a girl about his age there... so we have another lesson with him tomorrow. We should've asked him to be baptized yesterday, it went so well, but we weren't thinking... so we're going to do it tomorrow. We're shooting for the twelfth. He is super open and likes it all, and expressed a desire to make a permanent commitment. His name is Evan T. 

We also have another kid set with a date. His mother is just becoming more active and wants him to be baptized as well. We had a lesson with him yesterday, too, and he's looking at april third, so that all his family can be there. He's zak.

Those were pretty much the best things that happened this week, but we did have some other good goings on. There's a man from Mexico named John, who we met with.  He and his wife, Fabiola,just got home from their honeymoon. They had met with the missionaries before, but it was hard to get anything solid done because they were planning their wedding and such.  We are going to commit him and fabiola to a baptismal date this week as well.

Also still keep Chandler in your prayers,along with Abel and Toby M..  We had issues lining up schedules this last week, but there is a lot of potential there.

 

Anyways, I've got to go now. Hope everything is going well out there :) Love Y'all

Love Elder Katzakian

Amada Familia

Amada Familia,

 

yeah, things are going pretty well here. This week didn't have the appearance of being a very good one, but we learned a lot. We actually did get in to a pastor's house (without knowing who he was) and then he proceeded to tell us that he had read doctrine and covenants, and here were the problems he had with it. It was a little funny.

 

 We've got dinner with a pretty cool family today, and apparently we're getting valentines cake or something like that... Should be pretty awesome.

 

Time is moving so incredibly fast out here. I don't even understand how we are able to get anything done because there is never time for anything. My list of things I'd like to do and study just keeps getting longer. The work never slows down haha.

 

I had briscket for the first time, too. It's not bad. They don't really have tri tip down here ever, and that was something that I saw all the time at home.

 

So, if anyone has any good ideas of ways to find people between eight and nine o'clock, that'd be really cool. All we can think of is knocking on doors because everyone is just at home then, but that pretty much just gets us yelled at and ruins people we might've had a better chance with during the day because it's getting kind of late then...

So yeah, I dunno really what else to say. Nothing super exciting happened this week. We worked really hard and everyone fell through. We are still meeting with Chandler and Toby. They're looking pretty good. There's also a boy who's mother is just being reactivated, so we're going to teach him. His father doesn't want missionaries in the house, but is okay with us meeting elsewhere... So that's what we'll do.

 

That's pretty much it. Hope y'all are having a wonderful time, and I can't wait to write again next week :)

 

Haha I've also definitely picked up "howdy" and "y'all."

 

Love Elder Katzakian

I saw my first gecko in Texas!!

We had a day with a high of like twenty nine degrees, and the humidity was at ninety percent at one point... What's up with that?

  

So this week we got a couple of good referrals. We pretty much had to start from scratch on our teaching pool because nobody was progressing or doing anything, and these guys were really great. One's name is Chandler and he's dating a mormon girl in Salt Lake. He is a landscape designer, and works in the building. He also owns some cattle on a ranch a little ways away. He is Methodist by faith, and very firm there, and has a couple little problems with the Church of Jesus Christ, but is open and willing to learn and pray about it. He concedes that he may not be right, and is very open and excited to learn because he feels he owes it to his girlfriend and to the church in general to at least give it a shot.  The other man is Toby. His brother-in-law's family is mormon, and he considers them family. He feels that he should learn more about it because it's part of his family now, and also notes that every Latter-Day Saint he's ever known has been an upstanding person, so it's got to have something to do with the religeon. They both are excited to learn, and want to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true, because that would be a significant peice of information. Toby actually is starting from the title page and wants to read the whole thing. So that's all basically super awesome :)

 

Our new place is pretty cool. We get our own room, bathroom, and basically the upstairs loft to study. Brother Glory (the owner) has travelled a lot with the air force, so he has a bunch of cool decorations from around the world, but mostly Japan.  It's sort of funny becaus eI was looking for a frying pan to cook some eggs, but he basically just has woks. That's cool though, because they are great for cooking, which I do from time to time (not often, though, because it's pretty time consuming if you're cooking anything good). 

 

Yesterday was stake conference here, and it was a regional broadcast by President Monson, Elder Ballard, and President Monson's daughter (who's name escapes me at this time...). They pretty much talked about keeping the doctrines simple; so faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Lot's of people get way into other things and forget these basic principles. Everything else in the church is basically just garnish upon these things, for that is Christ's gospel. President Monson also talked about rescuing those who are lost. There are so many people who just need the warm hand of fellowship to be extended, and they will come back into the fold. Though the Gospel has left their lives, it isn't necessarilly gone from their hearts.  Remember those who have strayed, and be their friends so that you can invite them back into Christ's fold.

 

Running pretty low on time now... Let me know if you've got any specific questions or anything you want to know. Talk to you next week :)

 

Love,

Elder Katzakian