Leadership training in Charlotte!

Dobson District Missionaries  :O)

Hello Yall:)


It's been another fruitful week for Sis. Flynn and I in Dobson. The Lord has blessed us with some wonderful people to know and some amazing opportunities. It's hard work. The hardest I've done, but really great in so many ways. I'll never regret coming on a mission, never. First off, I'm heading down to Charlotte this week until Friday. There is a leadership training meeting going on for any missionary in the entire mission who is in a leadership position. So since Sis. Flynn is training me she is invited to go. We leave tomorrow morning at 5:30. Sick! We pick up and drop off Elders along the way. I'll be working with the Sisters who are on campus down there. It's gonna definetly be different! I'm not used to having more people to talk to then I know what to do with. We have a mission goal of talking to 10 people a day in a quality gospel centered conversation. We usually don't meet that out here. We knock a lot of doors or talk to a lot of people but no one talks long enough if you know what I mean. I honestly never though I would have the courage you have to have to knock on doors and talk about religion. The Lord helps us grow in ways we never imagined. Some people see who we are and almost act scared and want nothing to do with us. Normally I get kind of offended at being dehumanized, but you kinda just brush it off and find fun things to talk about in between. Like 2 Nephi 28 or 29. You'll have to read it sometime and see what it says about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. It applies extremely well to this area. But anyway I'll be in Charlotte on campus with Sis. Manuo again so that will be fun.

Jared, the man on the lawn mower, lives in Pilot Mountain which is a neighboring area to Dobson. So we went with the PM Elders to his appointment and if he wanted to continue learning then he would already know the Elders who should be teaching him. When we got there he had read 140 pages of the BoM and research mormon.org a little bit and everything. We were so happy and impressed, but don't get your hopes up because he wasn't interested. It's sad. We had a great discussion with him and he had all sorts of questions about the book of Mormon and about church organization and prophets and Joseph Smith. He had questions that lead into the plan of salvation and everything. He knows its true he's just not ready to devote so much time to learning because he thinks that after he finishes school he'll be less busy. We tried explaining that life doesn't get less busy. But he's certainly someone to go back and visit again in the future. That's what Pres. Thomas said.

He and Sis. Thomas came up to Dobson on Saturday. They spoke in our branch on Sunday. It was really great to see them! I love those 2 people. They came over to our apartment for about an hour on Saturday night after visiting all the Andy Griffith sites in Mt. Airy. Ha ha. It was wonderful to see them.

Sunday was awesome! We had 4 investigators at church! Jessie came to church:) We were so happy. She is so strong. The family that she doesn't get along with was there and she still came because she wants to be a stronger person. It was exhausting trying to help out with her busy body son. He ended up loving primary and all went well.

Travis, (i don't know if I've mentioned him) is 19 and awesome! He's really good friends with the youth of the ward and knows the gospel better then most members. He had a baptism interview a while ago but didn't go through with it. His mom is hard core baptist and didn't want it to happen. We even went to her house to see if we could clear up any concerns but she said she was too busy. So we were thinking that if Travis doesn't just do it he'll never end up going for it. After church he came up to us and said he was ready for another interview!:) He said if I wait for support from my family I'll be 45 before it happens. Pres. Thoams had talked about another person who had recently been baptized that had that same experience and I wonder if that helped touch his heart. Well I've rambled on forever! Gotta go, love yall and wish you a wonderful week. The Lord's hand is in all things!

Love, Sis.Erickson