Hard to find people to teach; a baptism on the 30th!; and translating Stake Conference

We were asking E McGregor why it's so hard to find people to teach now - are the Brazilians staying in Brazil because of our economy or is it because there are four elders in the area, etc.  

Last January (2011) there was some sort of change in policy toward immigrants and so TONS of Brazilians left to go back to Brazil.  I don't know the exact numbers, but I remember it being about 1/3.  Crazy.  So it can be kind of tough, especially because the area is super burn over.  Pretty much everyone knows who we are, and if they don't they're bound to ask their friends.  And there's a lot of Anti here agains Mormons.  Maybe the Mormon.org campaign will help with that  :)

But things are going relatively well with the work.  Jucy's getting baptized the 30th, so that's exciting.  Woohoo!  All that's left really is for her to quit coffee completely, but that shouldn't be terribly difficult for her since she really wants to be baptized.  Which is super exciting.

So now we're trying to find new investigators and we're really looking to the Lord to help us.  Just last night we got a return appointment with a guy named Orvando, and he seemed really interested.  So that's exciting.  We've been asking everyone if they know where Brazilians live, and that's how we found Orvando and some other potentials.  Awesome.  :)

Then he asks what we think he should do with his bike - sell it or what.  It's still like new-ish.  And chats about his return date (12/20) and that he won't really be speaker in Sac Mtg since he'll only be home two Sundays - Christmas and then Fast Sunday.

Stake Conference was on Sunday, and Pres. Tedjamulia asked me to translate into Portuguese for the branch.  So the whole branch (that attended) sat in the High Council room and we watched the TV and I translated live like that.  I tell you, it's tough without a headset, because you can't really hear the speak rvery well over your own voice, ha!.  But that was tons of fun  :)  Bro. Felsted, our branch mission leader (served his mission in Salvador, Brazil) translated as well.  So I didn't have to do the whole two hours, which was nice.

o there you go!  Love you guys bunches and hope everything is well at home!

Love,

Elder Trenton McGregor

"entertaining the masses"

Aaack!  Sorry I'm so behind.  I know it's not like me, but I think that maybe we get better quality letters when Trent doesn't feel like what he writes is being shared with everyone, so I've told him I'm cutting down what goes on the blog and to please write us without thinking of "entertaining the masses" as he writes.  We'll see how it goes...  : )
Love to all -
Sandra

Finding people to teach; and the Mormon.org campaign comes to Atlanta!

9/26/11
Hey!  How's it going?  Got the Mo-Tab CDs, which was great.  Lots of songs I didn't have before.  

Then there is lots of chit chat about ward member temple sealings, what his siblings are up to, learning to play the ukulele (we got one a couple of weeks ago), Winter semester schooling, and a fundraiser auction Bryon went to for work.  


Then he goes on about the work in his area:

Things are good in Clear Springs.  Our ever-present struggle is finding people to teach.  Our typical finding area is super burnt over, so we're going to try going to some areas a little further away to find new investigators.

So Mormon.org campaign is coming to Atlanta!  Super exciting!  It starts next week. Commercials on TV, internet ads on YouTube, billboards all throughout the greater Atlanta area.  Super cool.  They've done it in a bunch of other cities before Atlanta and the results are pretty interesting.  The number of  baptisms went up only marginally, but the quality of said baptisms greatly increased.  Also, it's not going to change much for the full-time missionaries, but for the members.  If members are mindful to missionary work, they'll have many opportunities to share the Gospel.  About 50% of adults have been approached (from previous ad campaigns) by friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc.  And were asked something along the lines of, "So why is your church doing this?"  And get this -- 98% of teenagers were asked that at least once by their friends.

So obviously we (the missionaries) want to prepare the members for this Mormon.org campaign which starts October 3.

Then lots of questions about and for Elise.  And then he closes.

There ya go.  Love y'all bunches.  Hope everything's well.

Love -
Elder McGregor