Monday, December 14, 2015

O Little Town of Bethlehem ....

Hi everyone!

Here's what happened in the OPM this past week ...

Tuesday
Tuesday was our P-day and we went downtown with some of the Sisters and another companionship of Elders and played glow in the dark mini golf! It was awesome. Downtown Portland is crazy. In the evening we had dinner with Dennis and Jackie McDonald and two of Gayle's daughters, Tamra and Shannon! If you remember, Gayle was the new convert who recently passed away, and now two of her daughters are starting to look into the Church and learn more. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them and talked about eternal families. One of them said that they want to start taking the lessons, but the other is moving soon so she is busy with that. BUT, she is moving to our Ward so we will be helping her with the move and can make that connection!

Wednesday
Wednesday we had lessons with a couple of our new investigators! We are taking it slow with them and just shared a Christmas message with each of them, but we did get return appointments! The huge "Joy to the World" event for our Stake started! They decked out the entire gym to make it look like the streets of Bethlehem, and everyone is welcome to come look at it! They have choirs and groups doing musical performances throughout the day, it's awesome. So we go there and show people around and help set-up or talk to people. That was Wednesday, Thursday, and some of Friday. We also took some sweet pics at the photo booths haha. 

Nativity photo booth with Elder Davies 

Stake Center - Joy to the World

Stake Center - Streets of Bethlehem

Stake Center ...

Stake Center ...

Photo booth with Elder Giles and Sisters Staley & Russell

Tyler with the Sisters, Elder Giles and Sister Scott

Photo booth - Tyler is Mary :) 

Nativity ...



Friday
Friday I went on an exchange with our Zone Leader, Elder Bishop, and I went to their area. Elder Bishop is 27 and he played baseball in college so it was cool talking to him about that. We tracted and taught a couple lessons in his area, but nothing too exciting. We got along pretty well!
Tyler & Elder Bishop

Saturday
Saturday I was back in Moreland and Elder Giles and I went over to Tamra's house to help her put up Christmas lights. While we were doing that, it started pouring rain but we finished anyway since we had to go somewhere soon. After we finished, it looked like we had gone swimming haha. From there, we went to a lesson with our new investigator, Gwendilynn! We knocked on her door a couple weeks ago, she told us to come back, but we hadn't been able to catch her at home until now. We went over there with a member and she let us in. So it was our first sit down lesson with her and it went really well! She's an older black woman with dreads and she's from downtown LA. She works at a perfume shop at a club in downtown Portland. She is such a nice lady, with an incredibly strong testimony in Jesus Christ. So we focused on how we are Christians and believe in Christ as well. We didn't want to push the Restoration or Joseph Smith on her because we planned to just make our discussion Christ-centered, but the entire time I kept getting the prompting to give her a Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson, I finally pulled one out of my bag and I asked her if she has ever heard of or read from the Book of Mormon. She said no but that she has wanted to! I gave it to her and she said that she is going to read it and that we can come back on Saturday and see how she liked it. It was an awesome first lesson! Spirit was strong!

Sunday
Nothing too exciting happened Sunday other than church meetings and then in the evening we had a lesson with Gilbert! And guess what?! He is having his baptismal interview on Thursday!!!! We had a great lesson with him and at the end he said, "let's schedule the interview."  He has to get a special interview for certain circumstances, but we hope all will go well and we are praying that it will work out! Beyond excited!!

Miss you all! Have a great week!!

Elder Hill


Tyler's Hints & Highlights this Week!

* Haven't seen the sun in a week and a half. It has rained every day for like 2 weeks:(

* Scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 7:6-8:

6 I gave my back to the smiter, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 

7 For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

8 And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth. 

This is one of my favorites because it tells us to be humble but to always stand for what we believe in and to never compromise, and the Lord will help us do that.

*We took Christmas card pictures with Jeff




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