Week 2 in Lenoir City

Buenos!

We had another great week here, and we are settling in well here in Lenoir City. This week we kind of got off to a slow start, but we really saw the Lord helping us to reach our goals this week. By the end of the week, we were able to meet almost all of our goals, and we actually exceeded a lot of them. Another great thing this week was zone meeting. President Griffin roasted us during his training, but it was a really good roasting, he basically called us all to repentance. It was good though.

Another highlight from this week was one of our new investigators, J. She's a really cool teenager, who loves the Bible, and she seems like she could be really solid. Another awesome thing from this week is that we were able to set a baptism date with R! He has been a long-time eterni-gator (he's been to church over 40 times), but we had a great lesson with him about baptism and he committed for the 7th of January! So we are really excited for him.

Sorry I don't have that much time to write this week, but my ponderizer for this week is Mosiah 2:20, "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another." Of course, it's Thanksgiving this week. We have so many blessings from God, we should be giving Him all the thanks and praise we can render. I hope y’all have a great Turkey Day! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Sweater Weather

Buenos!

Greetings from Lenoir City! Yup, I'm now in the Loudon Branch, which covers two small cities, Loudon and Lenoir City. We share the area with a pair of sisters, so they cover Loudon, and we cover Lenoir City. The new area is great; it reminds me a lot of my first area in Smyrna. It's a pretty small town, but there's a good number of Hispanics here, so that's good. One of the things I noticed right off the bat is that it's way colder here! Down in Georgia it was still in the 70's and 80's, but I've had to break out the sweaters this week. My new companion is Elder C! He's only been out for a few weeks, but he's ready to work hard! He is 18, right out of high school, and he is from Modesto, CA. He played water polo in high school, and wants to study nursing after the mission.

Well, for my last few days in Dalton, we put in some good work and said good bye to lots of members. On Tuesday night, the T family took us out to dinner, and I tried cow tongue! It was a little squishy, but good. Then, we shipped out Wednesday morning to Lenoir City! These first few days we've just been trying to figure out the area. We don't really have any investigators at this point, so we are basically starting from scratch. So, this week we did a lot of finding, mixed in with trying to meet a lot of Less-actives. One success from this week was our visit with a less-active family, the R family. We got to teach them, as well as Sis. R's boyfriend, R (who isn't a member). Then, they were all able to make it to church the next day! It was great!

My ponderizer this week is Romans 8:16-18 which says, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Sometimes we receive different trials in our lives, new assignments, different challenges. But, we are joint-heirs with Christ if we hold out faithful. If we will endure the hard times, God promises us unimaginable blessings. I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Last Dinner in Dalton 

with the T family

The third from the left is the cow tongue!

Goodbye Bishop T

Last Sunset in Dalton

With his new companion Elder C

His new district

In Lenoir City

The Times They are A-Changin'

Buenos!

Well, just as quickly as our trio started, our trio is coming to an end this week. But, this time, I'll be moving! We got a call Sunday morning informing us that I am being emergency-transferred to Loudon, TN!! I'm a little sad to be leaving Dalton so abruptly, but I'm excited to see what's in store in Loudon. My new area is just a little southwest of Knoxville, and it's only about 15 minutes away from the mission home. My new companion will be Elder C! I don't know much about him, other than that he is really new to the mission field, he's only been out for about 4 weeks. So, we will be re-opening the area in Loudon, and I also will finish training him. It should be exciting! I'm so glad for the chance to serve in Dalton, I loved it here. But, I'm excited to see what happens next in Loudon!

This week was a good one. We were able to teach a lot of people,  but there were three lessons from this week that stood out. One was with a former investigator that we recontacted, R. He wasn't that interested in the past, but he is really looking for the truth now. We had a great lesson with him about baptism, and he committed to be baptized in December! We also had a great visit with K. She recently quit her job so that she could come to church on Sundays, and lately her boss has been offering her different things to try to come back. But, K has been showing so much faith, and she told us that there was no way that she'd be working on Sundays. It was such a huge step for her and she finally came to church this week, so that was awesome! Lastly, we had an amazing visit with a new investigator, L. We were going through the Restoration with her, and the spirit was incredible throughout the whole lesson. Then, when we shared the first vision, the spirit was so powerful! I think it was the most powerful experience that I've had with sharing the first vision, and L committed to be baptized! Whoo!

The other crazy thing from this week was that we got a new bishopric! They released bishop Torres after 7 years, and they called one of the counselors of the stake presidency as the new bishop! We got to hear great testimonies and it was a very spiritual meeting. To top it off, our regular pianist was working, and nobody else in the ward plays, so I was asked to play piano during sacrament meeting! Haha, I only played the melody, but it turned out alright.

My ponderizer this week is Mosiah 8:18 which says, "Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." This last week was a great example of how we can exercise faith to see miracles. This week we kinda got off to a slow start, and we weren't sure if we were gonna be able to meet any of our weekly goals. But, with faith, and a big weekend push, we were able to hit nearly all of our goals, it was awesome. I know that the Lord blessed us with other miracles this week too. Once again, I'm sad to leave Dalton, but I'm also excited to see the miracles that'll come in Loudon! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

A couple weeks ago, they helped at a water station

for a local half-marathon.

He said it was really cold!

Last p-day was Halloween, so that night they hung out as a

district, carved pumpkins and played games

The end of the terrific trio!

Saying goodbye to Dalton

In the Mouth of Two or Three Witnesses

Missionary work at the fair

Buenos!!

Well, if you weren't able to guess from the title, we're in a trio now! Our new companion is Elder R!! His last companion just went home due to health reasons, so Elder R was emergency-transferred down here to Dalton, and we are so excited to have him with us! A little bio on our new comp: He is from Phoenix, AZ, although his family is from El Salvador (so, he's a native Spanish speaker, which is awesome), and he's been out for 18 months now, which means he's the only companion I've had who's been out longer than a year. The other cool thing is that Elder R was one of the missionaries in the Cookeville Zone when we transferred over from the Nashville mission to Knoxville, so I already know him pretty well! We will be in a trio for the next couple weeks until the transfer ends, and we are super excited!

This week was a doozy. We were crazy busy, but we were able to get a ton of things done. We started off the week with Zone Meeting/Interviews with President Griffin, which was awesome. I always love the trainings we get from President, and during our interview, he told me some things which were exactly what I need to hear at that time. The rest of the week, we were just grinding, and we were able to get in with a lot of our investigators, and we also found a lot of new people. On Wednesday, we had a Trunk or Treat at the church, and our investigator H came with his whole family! It was awesome. On Friday, the fair was in town, so, what do the missionaries do? Go OYMing of course! We went in with a giant stack of pass-along-cards, and we didn't leave until we handed them all out. It was super fun!

Being in a trio has definitely added a new dynamic to our companionship. But, it's awesome because we can get so much more done if we have members going on splits with us. For example, Thursday night is our shepherding night and we had three members come to the church, so we were able to go on a three way split! Elder R was able to go see some less-actives, and meanwhile, I was able to go see one of our top people, D. We had a great lesson with her about eternal families, and it was like a light clicked in her head. Even with all the times she's been at church, with all the lessons she's had, it was like she never understood that families can be eternal! It was so awesome, and she was super excited. While that was going on, Elder M was able to go see one of our investigators, E. The members that we brought were absolutely perfect for her, the lesson was amazing, and E accepted a baptism date for the 26th of November! Whoo! It was an awesome night, and we are looking forward to all the great things that we can accomplish as a trio.

My ponderizer this week is 2nd Timothy 2:21-22 which says, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." This week I've been re-studying Christlike attributes, and I thought that this scripture went great with that. As we flee from sin, and develop Christ's qualities, we will be purged from our sins, we will be vessels of the spirit, and we will be instruments in the Lord's hands to bring about his wonders. I hope y'all have an awesome week! Happy Halloween! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell 

More from the fair

Zone conference

A random Coke machine at a park

Planning meeting claims more victims!