Weddings and Baptisms!

This week we saw the marriage and baptism of one of our investigators. He had been waiting for marriage papers to come in so that he could do that before baptism. It was a special event. They have had many challenges to overcome and so has their family. Their family has all found the gospel in just the last year. They each bore their testimony of how it has changed their lives and how they know the Church is true. It was moving and gave more meaning to the work we do to see the changes in peoples' lives.

We had three other baptisms last week and each of them were special in their own way. I will say that it is extremely hectic to plan four baptisms in one week. We certainly love the work, but next time I hope they spread out to one each weekend -- because there are a lot of logistics to get out of the way for a baptismal service! Either way, I'm not complaining about the logistics of things -- it was a blessing to be a part of it.

Transfers are in just over a week and we are expecting some big changes. With the new mission, we will be adding lots of missionaries. The idea is that instead of one companionship covering two stakes that one stake will be covered by two companionships. That will mean that areas will be split, zones changed, and missionaries moved. It will make things very exciting and eventful as we move towards the July 1st "split date" of the Salt Lake City South and Central Missions.

Elder Bolling

Elder Nelson Comes to Sandy!

Last night the Sandy West stake had the opportunity to hear from Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear the words of an apostles of the Lord. What made it even more special was when our stake president invited us to sit on the stand...directly beside Elder Nelson! Surprise! His remarks were directed towards the youth and we also brought some of our investigators. They got the chance to speak with him about their baptisms and it was an incredible spiritual experience for each of them. We were also able to locate two new people to teach from the meeting since some teenagers brought their friends to see the event.

We are anticipating 5 baptisms next weekend. Sadly, our baptism for this week was pushed back but it is still happening on March 24th. It will be a wonderfully busy day as we will see 5 (maybe six) people make a covenant with their Father in Heaven. The most rewarding part of missionary work is seeing the changes in people as they prepare for baptism.

The challenge once again becomes finding new people to teach since 5 people will be baptized. We will focus on that this week in the hopes that our April will be as fruitful as March.

Elder Bolling

The Work Moves Forward

This week was a very rewarding week. We got to see the baptism of one of our investigators. It was very special. She was 9 years old but has had a very troubled past and as a result has some emotional difficulties. She had been attending counseling for 5 years because she would not talk to strangers or adults. As we came in and taught her to pray with her mom and read one short verse from the Book of Mormon each day, she slowly started opening up. Not just to us, but to everyone! She even ordered her own meal at a restaurant. It seems small -- but it's huge to her and her family. As a result of the baptism her mother bore a strong testimony of the gospel and has started coming back to Church. All souls, even 9-year olds, have a great opportunity to do wonderful things.

We continue to work with our zone to find ways to help them have additional success. We are anticipating another increase from the month of February. As we continue working closely with everybody that success will come. The most challenging part is realizing that even though you want people you work with to develop on their own they really do need that focused attention to reach their potential. "Coasting" along never gets anybody anywhere. At times it can be a large time commitment but it is always worth it when you see the reward at the end of the road.

The weather has also warmed up. Beginning in April we won't have to wear suit coats -- and the 65 degree weather the last two days had started to get me excited for that! Spring and summer are my favorite times of year and I am very excited to see winter depart.

Elder Bolling

Creation

This week our mission had some exciting news! On July 1st, the Salt Lake Valley will be giving birth to two new missions - the Salt Lake City West and Salt Lake City Central missions. The Salt Lake City Central mission will be carved out of our current mission boundaries and will be initially composed of 100 of the SLCS missionaries. What does that mean? There's a chance I might have a new mission and mission president in four months!

The process is exciting. We will be doing many "pilot" programs to see what will work for the new missions when they are created. Now there will be 8 missions in Utah. The new mission will start off smaller with only 100 missionaries while the SLCS mission will still have 200 missionaries. The idea is that each stake will have its own set of missionaries and some stakes where the work is moving quickly will see 2-3 companionships. The work is certainly moving forward in Utah. I am incredibly excited to be on the "cutting edge" of revelation concerning missionary work. Over the next few months we will be infused with more missionaries to build us up until the "split" happens on July 1st.

In the meantime, the work goes on in Sandy. We are looking at baptisms every week in the month of March. We are planning to do all that we can to make sure that happens. All of the families we are teaching mean a lot to us and we are so excited to see them make the covenant of baptism.

Elder Bolling

Transfers. Changes. Opportunities.

Well, yet another transfer has come and gone. No changes for me...but 6 of the 10 companionships in our zone have changed. We also have a new district leader. All of these changes seem to be positive things and we are looking forward to a good transfer. Our zone had a better month in February than in January and that momentum will hopefully continue onward and upward!

The week was busy. As far as our area is concerned, we had a baptism for a girl we were teaching. It was a wonderful experience and I was grateful for the opportunity to not only touch her life but to impact her family. That experience showed me that the impact we make as missionaries is not just on those we teach but rather it trickles down to their entire family. We also got identification for another investigator who needed it so he could get married to his fiance. With that in place we should have another baptism this Saturday.

As we do each and every month, we will have a Zone Leader Council this week. It blows my mind that it's coming up so soon - but I enjoy the opportunity to meet with others in the mission and discuss ideas to help our areas move forward. I'm also excited to see our new Assistant to the President, Elder Pence. He was my first Zone Leader in the mission and I am most excited to work with him in his new position. Fun times in the mission!

Elder Bolling

Zone Conferences and New Investigators

This week was our quarterly zone conference. In our mission, zone conferences are led by President Miller and the Assistants with the zone leaders providing much of the training. This training with a 6-hour training focusing on our purposes as missionaries. It was a great opportunity to learn from one another and regain a focus on spreading the gospel throughout Salt Lake City. I truly enjoy the opportunities to train. Like most people say, I feel like I get much more out of training others than the people I'm training do. I always leave with new insights and ideas on what is needed to be most successful.

The general theme was that we needed to find more people to teach if we were going to have success. We started implementing that into our day to day actions and had lots of results. We tracked down some names that we couldn't easily locate and ended up finding two people who were open and ready to hear the gospel. Then we went and visited some different members who we hadn't seen before. From that we found a family of five whose parents are extremely interested in coming to the Church. It was great to be able to train on a subject and then immediately see results from it.

Transfers are also coming up on Tuesday. Whoa! I don't think my companion and I will be moving...but then again...crazier things have happened. I have yet to have a companion for longer than 10 weeks so we'll see what happens. Either way there will at least be some changes in our zone as some of our missionaries go home on Wednesday.

Elder Bolling

You Can't Win 'Em All

One of my favorite phrases to say to missionaries has always been "you can't win 'em all". I have no idea where it started but it's become part of my training. Don't get down on yourself if you have a bad day or a bad week...because you can't win 'em all. This week was that way for us. The biggest disappointment came when one of our investigators did not get baptized. She really wanted to and knows the Church is true but decided against it after her parents did not respond favorable (in the slightest) to her telling them the night before.

So...baptism Saturday was a slow day. No baptism. Many of our lessons cancelled. However, it was a test of our faith. As we were preparing to drive home we entered our townhouse complex when I asked if we could go my one more referral we had received. We knocked on the door. The dad answered who said he hadn't been to Church since he was a kid. Both of his kids told him they'd really like to go and learn more about it. He agreed that we could come over and agreed to come to Church. So...while it was a slow, slow day we found a new family to teach!

Not to sound negative, though, it was still a great week. A lot was accomplished and we stayed busy. We're still planning on four baptisms this month which equates to one per week. That's not too shabby. So while we can't win 'em all, we're still doing pretty well.

Elder Bolling