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
Monday, March 5, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
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
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
Monday, February 20, 2012
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
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
Monday, February 13, 2012
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
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
Friday, February 10, 2012
Vacation Time
This week was a great and a busy week. The highlight was the baptism of Randy. I had the opportunity to baptize him which was a blessing in itself. The baptismal service was incredibly spiritual as we were also able to hear the testimony of four sister missionaries from Temple Square who met him on a tour down there. Their testimony was so strong that now another investigator of ours who is preparing for baptism this week requested a visit with the sisters at Temple Square!
The non-missionary highlight came with our monthly ZLC. This time we were told to meet at the mission home at 6:30am for a mystery drive. We went to the Miller's vacation home in Kamas, spent 6 hours discussing the needs of the mission and the rest of the time doing some extreme sledding. I won't lie, for those 24 hours I didn't really feel like a missionary. It was a little strange to wake up the next morning and return to proselyting...but return we did.
The work continues to pick up in both of our stakes. There's hardly any time to think which is good since it keeps us busy and moving forward. All in all there are still no complaints. Good companion. Good zone. Good missionary work.
The non-missionary highlight came with our monthly ZLC. This time we were told to meet at the mission home at 6:30am for a mystery drive. We went to the Miller's vacation home in Kamas, spent 6 hours discussing the needs of the mission and the rest of the time doing some extreme sledding. I won't lie, for those 24 hours I didn't really feel like a missionary. It was a little strange to wake up the next morning and return to proselyting...but return we did.
The work continues to pick up in both of our stakes. There's hardly any time to think which is good since it keeps us busy and moving forward. All in all there are still no complaints. Good companion. Good zone. Good missionary work.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Busy, Busy, Busy
Well, I've never had quite a week like this week...it flew by! My Wednesday morning/afternoon was taken training missionaries and office staff on a new referral system we have been developing for the mission. Then on Thursday we had the opportunity to take a person we've been teaching to Temple Square. I always love going to Temple Square because of the strong spirit you are able to feel as you learn about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Church in the presence of the House of the Lord. That person will be baptized this upcoming Saturday and we are excited for the opportunity.
Other than that we had great success! We found 6 new people who are preparing for baptism. As a result we ended up teaching 25 lessons and keeping very busy with the logistics of helping everybody progress. The week just breezed by. I wish every week could be so good. (I guess it can be if I keep working!)
I've also begun to see the rewards of journal writing. I've done it my entire mission but have just started using it effectively. I've begun really writing down my study notes and thoughts that I have which have really made me able to recall them and find them at a moments notice. It's also a lot more rewarding to look back and read the details of my day rather than the vague snippets I had been putting in there. There truly is joy in writing things down.
This week already looks to be super-busy again. There will be a visit by an Apostle and a meeting with mission leadership. And to think...transfer talks are beginning again!
Elder Bolling
Other than that we had great success! We found 6 new people who are preparing for baptism. As a result we ended up teaching 25 lessons and keeping very busy with the logistics of helping everybody progress. The week just breezed by. I wish every week could be so good. (I guess it can be if I keep working!)
I've also begun to see the rewards of journal writing. I've done it my entire mission but have just started using it effectively. I've begun really writing down my study notes and thoughts that I have which have really made me able to recall them and find them at a moments notice. It's also a lot more rewarding to look back and read the details of my day rather than the vague snippets I had been putting in there. There truly is joy in writing things down.
This week already looks to be super-busy again. There will be a visit by an Apostle and a meeting with mission leadership. And to think...transfer talks are beginning again!
Elder Bolling
Monday, January 23, 2012
Changing Tires
The "highlight" of our week came on Saturtay as we went to pick up some materials from missionaries. As we parked the car we noticed a nice hum of air coming out of our right front tire. A flat tire! Fortunately for the situation is was also 8:00pm, 25 degrees and snowing heavily. I've never actually had to change a flat tire but it made it much more enjoyable and memorably to do it in the snow. So much for keeping my suits clean!
The rest of the week went by pretty quickly because we stayed pretty busy. We had a baptism for one of our investigators in the YSA stake. I was called into a meeting with President Miller regarding the new referral system and will be training the mission on it this week. We also started receiving numerous ward mission process referrals. We had 4 new investigators last week and should have 4-5 more this week. The momentum is rolling! We're very excited about where our area is going.
It continues to blow my mind how fast time is moving. It's the end of January already! What the what! I look forward to each day and each new opportunity to share the gospel as a missionary because I'm truly beginning to realize how quickly it will be gone.
Elder Bolling
The rest of the week went by pretty quickly because we stayed pretty busy. We had a baptism for one of our investigators in the YSA stake. I was called into a meeting with President Miller regarding the new referral system and will be training the mission on it this week. We also started receiving numerous ward mission process referrals. We had 4 new investigators last week and should have 4-5 more this week. The momentum is rolling! We're very excited about where our area is going.
It continues to blow my mind how fast time is moving. It's the end of January already! What the what! I look forward to each day and each new opportunity to share the gospel as a missionary because I'm truly beginning to realize how quickly it will be gone.
Elder Bolling
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