Hello fellow Floridians. At least for a few more hours. I'm glad that you enjoyed the cruise. It sounds like it was a pretty busy one. I'm so proud of you both for talking to people about the Gospel! That's great. I'm glad you made some good friends on your vacation too.
Thanks for the happy birthday wishes. I got your package. Thank you! I haven't opened the present yet, don't worry. And I appreciate you sending me the iPod and speakers. The iPod you sent me was one of my old ones that is broken. Sorry about the confusion. If you could send me the little all black one that I sent home near the beginning of my mission that would be great. It has all of my churchy music and stuff on it. Gracias.
Sooooo...PAM IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY! Yayyy. She got her cast off last Tuesday and we met with them on Friday to set up the baptism program. She got so excited while we were doing it haha. She asked me to baptize her and Elder Whitworth will confirm her on Sunday. It's going to be so awesome. She's so devoted. Reads church materials all the time. I love working with people who see the importance of obeying God's commandments.
Tonya is doing good also. Reading the BOM every day. She keeps it right by her side 24/7. She read it from 9 to 3:30 one day this last week while she was at work haha. We'll have to move her date back a little because of a few things that came up that will hold her back just a bit. But she can do it. Keep her in your prayers.
Nay is kind of falling away from us because it's so hard to get a solid appointment with him. He's always out "helping people", which is great, but it holds us back from teaching him about the truth so he can repent.
We met with Mildred on Thursday for 3 hours! We watched The Testaments with her at her home first. She was awake for 5 minutes of it. Literally. She's so funny haha. And then we read in Alma 34 and talked about how she's procrastinating the day of her repentance for 2 hours. It was a really good conversation. She's really getting the message now. We invited her to be baptized in February but she said she wasn't ready to commit yet. At the end of the lesson we asked her to close with a prayer and ask God if she needed to get baptized on February 20th. We also said that when the prayer was over we were just going to be silent and listen to the Spirit. RIGHT after we all said amen the Spirit swarmed the room. Mildred felt it so strong. We were just sitting there for probably 7 minutes just listening. And every once in a while Mildred would make a comment about how strong she felt the Holy Spirit. She also said she could see the Spirit through our faces because our countenances had changed (we thought that was pretty cool). It's the strongest and most recognizable time that I've felt the Spirit my whole mission. I literally felt like the Holy Ghost was inside of my chest. It was so great. How can people not want to feel that!?!?! They just don't understand. It's sad. But I'm so thankful for it.
So this week starts a new transfer. Elder Whitworth and I will stay together for at least another 6 weeks. Elder Parsons is leaving though and Elder Brown will be coming up with Elder Moore in our apartment. This transfer went by so fast. It's crazy. But I love you both and hope you have a great Spirit-filled week!
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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
Sunday, January 30, 2011
January 17, 2011
What's up fammm? I hope you're having a great time on the cruise. It sounds like you are so far. You're on your way to helping someone learn about Christ in the Americassss. Pretty sweet. I knew you would be up to it ;)
Things here are wundafool. We had a leadership training in Orlando on Wednesday. Brother Watson and Brother Woodruff from the missionary department came and spoke to us. It was about 6 hours of pure training. It was SO good. Brother Watson has been in the missionary department for 30 years. He's amazing. Brother Mark Woodruff saw my tag and talked to me because he knows Uncle Bobby. They worked together a long time ago with some sort of fundraising thing I think. Small world.
So we learned a lot from them and a lot of things are going to be changing in the mission. They introduced a new contacting approach to us that's going to do a lot. The culture of the Florida Orlando Mission is to state that we are representatives of Jesus Christ first thing when we contact people. But they told us about this mission that gets return appointments with 75% of their contacts. The way they do it is start with a thought-provoking question or a question that can open up a conversation about the Gospel. For example something about families or where they see themselves in 10 years or other things like that. It's a good way to not come off intimidating and just start a normal conversation. So Elder Whitworth and I are trying to think of good non-threatening questions to ask people. Could you help us out with some? We'd appreciate it. What would you want to hear someone ask you if they came to your door? Thanks.
Then on Thursday we met with Tonya and the member that referred her to us, Sister Stuart. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" and then set a baptismal date with Tonya for the 12th of February. She's so cool. She said the BOM hasn't left her side since she got it. She's been reading it a bunch. Then Friday we went to the Temple with Gramps. We did initiatories and an endowment session. It was so good to do initiatories again. I haven't done them since I got endowed. There are a lot of really great blessings that I had forgotten about.
So those were the highlights of my week. Hope you have a grrrrrrrrreat week! Don't have too much fun on the cruise if you know what I mean. Ha love you!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
Things here are wundafool. We had a leadership training in Orlando on Wednesday. Brother Watson and Brother Woodruff from the missionary department came and spoke to us. It was about 6 hours of pure training. It was SO good. Brother Watson has been in the missionary department for 30 years. He's amazing. Brother Mark Woodruff saw my tag and talked to me because he knows Uncle Bobby. They worked together a long time ago with some sort of fundraising thing I think. Small world.
So we learned a lot from them and a lot of things are going to be changing in the mission. They introduced a new contacting approach to us that's going to do a lot. The culture of the Florida Orlando Mission is to state that we are representatives of Jesus Christ first thing when we contact people. But they told us about this mission that gets return appointments with 75% of their contacts. The way they do it is start with a thought-provoking question or a question that can open up a conversation about the Gospel. For example something about families or where they see themselves in 10 years or other things like that. It's a good way to not come off intimidating and just start a normal conversation. So Elder Whitworth and I are trying to think of good non-threatening questions to ask people. Could you help us out with some? We'd appreciate it. What would you want to hear someone ask you if they came to your door? Thanks.
Then on Thursday we met with Tonya and the member that referred her to us, Sister Stuart. We watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" and then set a baptismal date with Tonya for the 12th of February. She's so cool. She said the BOM hasn't left her side since she got it. She's been reading it a bunch. Then Friday we went to the Temple with Gramps. We did initiatories and an endowment session. It was so good to do initiatories again. I haven't done them since I got endowed. There are a lot of really great blessings that I had forgotten about.
So those were the highlights of my week. Hope you have a grrrrrrrrreat week! Don't have too much fun on the cruise if you know what I mean. Ha love you!
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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
January 10,2011
Mom! Dad! What's up!
I'm glad that the big meeting in Phoenix went so well. You both did a lot of driving it sounds like. I'm glad you got home safely. It's weird that you're both going to be in Florida this weekend haha. So close but so far away. No sneaking up to Daytona hahaha. Sorry Dad.
Tell Kathryn and Matt I say congratulations on their new baby! That's great. They're going to be busy with those little ones haha.
So things here are going great. A lot of things have been starting up lately with new investigators and whatnot. The Lord is definitely runnin' his bizzz up in hurr. We are doing all we can to get these people baptized so the rest is up to Him. Pam will have to wait at least another week to get her cast off. We gave her a blessing of healing so please keep her in your prayers. The Lord works miracles according to our faith so we're throwing up some mighty prayers so she can get baptized and confirmed this month. We taught Nay the Plan of Salvation this week. He loved it! When we talked about the spirit world and the kingdoms of glory he would stop us for a minute and just sit and ponder. Then he would say "Ooooh eeeee! I just learned something!" And he just kept saying "Ooooh eeeee!" Haha he's so funny. He even talked about "becoming a Mormon". He's so solid. Oh and remember Tonya? The lady that we gave a blessing to in the hospital. We taught her this week and it went really well. We went with a member, Brother Button, and had planned to teach the Restoration but when we got there the Spirit told us to teach the Plan of Salvation. We started talking to her about how she is mourning over the loss of her baby and the Plan of Salvation really focuses on the Atonement of Christ so we thought that would be a better thing to talk to her about. And it was. It went great. She'll probably come to church this Sunday. We also taught this other family of 5 (all over baptism age...sweet) and they were supposed to come to church but didn't. Too bad. But we will meet with them again this week. They're really cool too. Today at 4 we're watching Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with Mildred. I'm pretty sure I've told you all about her so I won't explain again. We taught her this week and talked about the sealing power that was promised to Peter in Matthew 16, how it was lost after the death of the apostles, and how it was restored to the earth, and how we use that power in the Temple. She finally said she's starting to get it. So today will be good cause she'll understand more about the history of the church. Then we're going to the Temple Friday morning with Gramps cause he's working there that day. We'll probably do a couple sessions and then weekly plan. Friday is our weekly planning day so I don't think there would be a better place to receive revelation for our investigators than at the Temple! It'll be awesome.
So I'm going to invite you to do something:
I'm studying the Doctrine and Covenants right now and this morning I was reading in Section 15 where the Lord is telling John Whitmer what his duty is concerning the work. John Whitmer was just a normal man living a normal life. What the Prophet Joseph Smith was doing was just introduced to him. He felt that it was important so he wanted to know the Lord's will about what he should do. The Lord revealed Section 15 through Joseph Smith and verse 6 reads "And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen." Out of ALL the things that John Whitmer could have been told, Christ told him that declaring repentance and bringing souls unto Him would be of most importance. As I pondered this I was thinking of the duty that it is for EVERY member of Christ's church to help bring souls back to the kingdom of the Father. I want to invite you to take two copies of the Book of Mormon on your trip to Florida and the Caribbean to give to two separate individuals or families. You asked me to pray for you to find some people to help recruit into the business. I definitely will. I'll aslo pray that as you take on this venture to share the Book of Mormon with some of God's children you will be blessed with the opportunity to find people to recruit into the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. As an ordained minister of this Gospel and as a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I promise that if you exercise your faith and pray for an opportunity to give these books away, you will be blessed with such a privilege. You may feel like you’re going into a dark room with little or no sight. But if you muster up some courage and take a step of faith into that room, God will turn the light on.
I love you!
–
Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
I'm glad that the big meeting in Phoenix went so well. You both did a lot of driving it sounds like. I'm glad you got home safely. It's weird that you're both going to be in Florida this weekend haha. So close but so far away. No sneaking up to Daytona hahaha. Sorry Dad.
Tell Kathryn and Matt I say congratulations on their new baby! That's great. They're going to be busy with those little ones haha.
So things here are going great. A lot of things have been starting up lately with new investigators and whatnot. The Lord is definitely runnin' his bizzz up in hurr. We are doing all we can to get these people baptized so the rest is up to Him. Pam will have to wait at least another week to get her cast off. We gave her a blessing of healing so please keep her in your prayers. The Lord works miracles according to our faith so we're throwing up some mighty prayers so she can get baptized and confirmed this month. We taught Nay the Plan of Salvation this week. He loved it! When we talked about the spirit world and the kingdoms of glory he would stop us for a minute and just sit and ponder. Then he would say "Ooooh eeeee! I just learned something!" And he just kept saying "Ooooh eeeee!" Haha he's so funny. He even talked about "becoming a Mormon". He's so solid. Oh and remember Tonya? The lady that we gave a blessing to in the hospital. We taught her this week and it went really well. We went with a member, Brother Button, and had planned to teach the Restoration but when we got there the Spirit told us to teach the Plan of Salvation. We started talking to her about how she is mourning over the loss of her baby and the Plan of Salvation really focuses on the Atonement of Christ so we thought that would be a better thing to talk to her about. And it was. It went great. She'll probably come to church this Sunday. We also taught this other family of 5 (all over baptism age...sweet) and they were supposed to come to church but didn't. Too bad. But we will meet with them again this week. They're really cool too. Today at 4 we're watching Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with Mildred. I'm pretty sure I've told you all about her so I won't explain again. We taught her this week and talked about the sealing power that was promised to Peter in Matthew 16, how it was lost after the death of the apostles, and how it was restored to the earth, and how we use that power in the Temple. She finally said she's starting to get it. So today will be good cause she'll understand more about the history of the church. Then we're going to the Temple Friday morning with Gramps cause he's working there that day. We'll probably do a couple sessions and then weekly plan. Friday is our weekly planning day so I don't think there would be a better place to receive revelation for our investigators than at the Temple! It'll be awesome.
So I'm going to invite you to do something:
I'm studying the Doctrine and Covenants right now and this morning I was reading in Section 15 where the Lord is telling John Whitmer what his duty is concerning the work. John Whitmer was just a normal man living a normal life. What the Prophet Joseph Smith was doing was just introduced to him. He felt that it was important so he wanted to know the Lord's will about what he should do. The Lord revealed Section 15 through Joseph Smith and verse 6 reads "And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen." Out of ALL the things that John Whitmer could have been told, Christ told him that declaring repentance and bringing souls unto Him would be of most importance. As I pondered this I was thinking of the duty that it is for EVERY member of Christ's church to help bring souls back to the kingdom of the Father. I want to invite you to take two copies of the Book of Mormon on your trip to Florida and the Caribbean to give to two separate individuals or families. You asked me to pray for you to find some people to help recruit into the business. I definitely will. I'll aslo pray that as you take on this venture to share the Book of Mormon with some of God's children you will be blessed with the opportunity to find people to recruit into the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. As an ordained minister of this Gospel and as a representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I promise that if you exercise your faith and pray for an opportunity to give these books away, you will be blessed with such a privilege. You may feel like you’re going into a dark room with little or no sight. But if you muster up some courage and take a step of faith into that room, God will turn the light on.
I love you!
–
Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
Sunday, January 9, 2011
January 3, 2011
Heyyy! Thank you for those pictures. You both look so good! I keep saying that but its true ha-ha. So you're back in the freezing cold in Utah...bummer. You had so much fun in Hawaii. You did so many awesome things. The lava place looks amazing.
Our week was pretty good. We did a lot of work trying to visit old media referrals that never got updated. Media referrals are just when people order the BOM or DVDs and stuff. There's a referral system and we have to update them when we try to visit them and there were some really old ones that we went to see and updated. We got a return appointment with one so that was good.
Another cool thing that happened was we were tracting and there was this tiny apartment complex in a neighborhood and it looked like no one lived there because there was only one car with cleaning supplies in the back (we thought it was a janitor or something). So we were starting to pass it and as we were walking past it the Spirit told us to go knock the door that the truck was in front of. We didn't listen. Then it told us to go back again. Kept walking. Then the Spirit was like "FREAKING GO BACK NOW!" So we did. Hahaha. And this guy named Nay answered and we told him a little about the BOM and set a return appointment. We taught him a few days later and the Spirit was SO strong in the lesson. He's a really cool guy. When we were reciting Joseph Smith's experience in the grove, as we said "I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description..." the Spirit like shocked him ha-ha. He shook and said "Oooh" hahahaha. It was sweet. So that was good. Then we go back two days later and read the BOM with him. So we sit down, pray, and say that we're going to read together maybe the first chapter or two. We told him we could each read two verses as we went along. So he starts reading. And keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going. He read the first 5 chapters by himself out loud! That's 1/5 of 1st Nephi. Elder Whitworth eventually had to say "Can I stop you there?" ha-ha. And Nay was like "Man it's just starting to get good!" So he was loving it. We tried to set a date with him but he said he'd pray about it. But at the end of the lesson we all knelt in prayer and he offered such a great prayer. Just straight up asked if the BOM was the word of God. Most direct and clear prayer of my whole mission. We can't believe we almost skipped his apartment!!! I'm so thankful and humbled by the Spirit. We couldn't help Christ with His work without it.
Then New Years we just partied way hard and stayed up all night. Except not at all! We just had a normal day hahaha. But at about 7PM we went over to a member friend's house and were there till we had to go home. I gave them a light show though and that was fun ha-ha.
Today is zone P day so we went to the beach and played football. It was so cold before the sun came up ha. Then we just got back from Cracker Barrel. We're about to go watch Toy Story 3 and play dodge ball so it's going to be great. Pam is still doing awesome. Keep her in your prayers so she can be healed. I LOVE YOU! Have a great week!
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
Our week was pretty good. We did a lot of work trying to visit old media referrals that never got updated. Media referrals are just when people order the BOM or DVDs and stuff. There's a referral system and we have to update them when we try to visit them and there were some really old ones that we went to see and updated. We got a return appointment with one so that was good.
Another cool thing that happened was we were tracting and there was this tiny apartment complex in a neighborhood and it looked like no one lived there because there was only one car with cleaning supplies in the back (we thought it was a janitor or something). So we were starting to pass it and as we were walking past it the Spirit told us to go knock the door that the truck was in front of. We didn't listen. Then it told us to go back again. Kept walking. Then the Spirit was like "FREAKING GO BACK NOW!" So we did. Hahaha. And this guy named Nay answered and we told him a little about the BOM and set a return appointment. We taught him a few days later and the Spirit was SO strong in the lesson. He's a really cool guy. When we were reciting Joseph Smith's experience in the grove, as we said "I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description..." the Spirit like shocked him ha-ha. He shook and said "Oooh" hahahaha. It was sweet. So that was good. Then we go back two days later and read the BOM with him. So we sit down, pray, and say that we're going to read together maybe the first chapter or two. We told him we could each read two verses as we went along. So he starts reading. And keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going. He read the first 5 chapters by himself out loud! That's 1/5 of 1st Nephi. Elder Whitworth eventually had to say "Can I stop you there?" ha-ha. And Nay was like "Man it's just starting to get good!" So he was loving it. We tried to set a date with him but he said he'd pray about it. But at the end of the lesson we all knelt in prayer and he offered such a great prayer. Just straight up asked if the BOM was the word of God. Most direct and clear prayer of my whole mission. We can't believe we almost skipped his apartment!!! I'm so thankful and humbled by the Spirit. We couldn't help Christ with His work without it.
Then New Years we just partied way hard and stayed up all night. Except not at all! We just had a normal day hahaha. But at about 7PM we went over to a member friend's house and were there till we had to go home. I gave them a light show though and that was fun ha-ha.
Today is zone P day so we went to the beach and played football. It was so cold before the sun came up ha. Then we just got back from Cracker Barrel. We're about to go watch Toy Story 3 and play dodge ball so it's going to be great. Pam is still doing awesome. Keep her in your prayers so she can be healed. I LOVE YOU! Have a great week!
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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
December 27, 2010
Heyyy! It was so good to talk to you guys on Christmas! I loved every minute of it. Thanks for those pictures too. You are so funny in your Christmas PJs hahaha. So I don't have much to say because I already told you a lot of stuff over the phone. But thanks for calling Braunson Summers. I’m glad you were able to talk to him. So Pam went to the doctor today for her foot and they are going to put it in a cast so she can't get baptized this Saturday. But she said she wants to go for the 11th. So pray that she will be able to be baptized by then please :) thanks. This morning we went to this place in Deland called Blue Springs state park. It’s a place with a bunch of manatees. It was pretty cool. Manatees are huge ha-ha! Sorry this is short but I gots to go. I LOVE YOU! Have fun for the rest of your stay in Hawaii. I don't know when you go home but I’m probably just going to send your package out to Utah today. I’m sending two memory cards with it also so you can look at all my pictures. But could you also save them all on a CD or something so they're backed up on a hard copy. And then you can erase them off the cards and send them back to me. I’d appreciate that. Bye bye! :)
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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
--
Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh
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