Hello - 5/30/16

Boy has it been humid this week! Apparently there is a tropical storm moving through the area so there is supposed to be a ton of rain.

This week was very humbling. We had almost all of our appointments fall through this week. We only had 6 lessons. But we were able to do a ton of service. I can now say that I can dissemble a hot tub!

I am helping a member of the ward get their computer backed up. All he has is some pictures so we are doing it on a 32gb flash-drive. I have a reputation in the district as being a tech guy so whenever something electronically goes awry in district meeting or a car they call for me! 

This week another person we're teaching didn't come to church. Bummer. He is going through some hard times right now with his job and money. He is trying to fix up a car that his brother-in-law gave him. In order to do that he needs money and due to his job of laying concrete and how the pay for that works (job by job basis) he is having a hard time with that. But the other week when he did come he overcame a lot to come and we are so proud of him for that! So while we may be worried about him, we aren't that worried because it does seem like he is dedicated to our message. :)

So we have ton of people who moved into the ward (about 20 YA/YSA's) for summer sales and they just keep giving us referrals! We received a total of 5 this week! We are going to try and see them before I leave. Speaking of which...

I GOT A TRANSFER CALL!!!

I am going to a small branch called Currituck (pronounced Cur-uh-tuck) on the coast of North Carolina. 

That's all for this week! 

I love you all so much!

Elder Ciminski

Hey fam. 5/23/16

We taught 14 lessons this week! And got a new investigator! He actually lives in Virginia Beach so we will have to hand him off to the Elders that serve over in his area here soon. I am very excited for him, I do believe that he will be baptized at some point and I am so excited for that, even if it isn't with me. Our other investigator also came to church yesterday! He seemed to enjoy it. This also means that he is still on track to make his date of June 11! Yay! It will be tight, but if he really wants to we will be able to do it! 

We had a specialized training this week on personal wellness that I really enjoyed, even though we played Oompa Loompa at the end. The first part was on Spiritual and Temporal Self-reliance. With it we got a talk to read and a sheet for us to budget with. I am glad to have it because it will help me to spend my money that I receive more wisely. The next class was on Physical well being. We talked about different creatures that are out for your blood, to kill you, or to infect you with one or more of a variety of diseases and viruses, or all three. I also learned that the church prefers that we don't eat Sushi as missionaries. I was bummed, but upon clarification I discovered that it is up to us and so I will just be more careful on where I eat it. I don't eat a whole lot so this isn't that big of an issue for me. Then the last class we took a personality test called The Color Code. It was insightful on how to deal with other people. My companion is a pretty even mix of all 4 colors, which are Red (Power), Yellow (Fun), White (Peace), and Blue (Intimate). I am a very strong blue, with a second red, a tad bit of white and next to no yellow. Go figure. It was fun and I enjoyed it.

It has been raining so much over here. We haven't had more than one day of sunshine in a row for three weeks now, but I love it! The clouds are always so pretty out here with every shade of blue and gray imaginable! I never get tired of looking at them!

It is hard to take pictures of them though. But here is one half-decent one.

There was a large fair near our apartment that went on this weekend called the Jubliee. They had an epic fireworks show on Saturday night they everyone went crazy for. It's like they have never seen fireworks before! 

I got some pretty good pictures of them with the Fireworks mode on my camera. Now it is over and I can't say that I am sorry. They had music and other things so loud that you could here them a mile away! 

That is all, I hope that you all have a wonderful week! From your emails it sounds like it will be an eventful one!

Elder Ciminski

More clouds.

Nice Picture

Now that missionaries can wear hats to keep the sun off. ;-)

Fun Week! - 5/16/16

So to start off with, we went to a member's house Tuesday night and they fed us ribs. I don't see what is so great about them. I also had Elk Sausage. It was good, but I still don't get the big deal about it! Unless we are talking about Seafood, meat is meat if you ask me!

We did some service on Wednesday morning then had a great lesson with an investigator. He is encouraging his wife to take the lessons soon. So that is exciting! Afterwards the Father-in-law of the people we did service for took us home and we got in a minor crash.

Everyone was alright. We were in the van. What happened is everyone came to a stop in the middle of the block for no reason and we made a hard stop (car lurching, brakes locked up, etc) and then the lady in the Honda wasn't paying attention and when she noticed we were stopped, she jerked the wheel at the last minute and only clipped us. If she had hit us square on her airbags probably would have gone off and we would have been pushed into the car in front of us. It could have been a lot worse so I am grateful for that! We ended up missing an appointment because of it! Bummer! :( But we were able to give a card to the lady who hit us and so if anything comes of it she can say that she literally "ran into" the missionaries!

We had an awesome fireside last night. President and Sister Baker were there and they testified of the Restoration and of Christ and his Gospel the whole time. The fireside was for less-active and new/returning members. We invited a total of eleven people, but only two came. The other nine missed out because it was so awesome! The Spirit was so strong and the two ladies we brought had an amazing time. They loved it so much! They didn't even want to leave at the end. They were the last ones to leave. I am so glad that they enjoyed themselves!

We are pushing back our baptism date. The new one is TBD. They are barely filling the requirements and we don't want to baptize him if they are not.

We met again with another investigator and reset him for a date again. We are hoping he will make it! He seems sincere and I honestly believe that if he comes to Church and feels of the spirit he will make it. And read the Book of Mormon, Those two things have the power to convert anyone. Well, really The Book of Mormon. Church is a bonus!

We also got caught in a storm that was like a monsoon! I had my umbrella but my companion did not so he got wet. Only my knees down got wet, everything else was fine! :D

Anyway, hope y'all have an awesome week! 

With love,

Elder Ciminski

My companion getting wet.

Huge dogs we saw.

The storm that rained on us.

Hey! - 5/9/16

We were able to see our investigator with the sweet car this week. We have been trying to get into him because we felt that he had great potential and we finally got in! We had a great lesson and we have another one set up for Wednesday! Other than that is has been a slow week. 

Last night after we hung up I had to wait for my companion to finish (he got started late due to technical difficulties) and so the members and I played Phase 10 (I feel like Mom and Heber would get a kick out of it) and after we ate, we met Nash, their dog.

He gets so excited he pees (on the Phase 10 cards!), but only if he has to pee already. He is also terrified of vacuum cleaners. I think he is adorable!!!!

Last night before bed I was reading my patriarchal blessing and I had the distinct impression that I could be doing better as a missionary. This impression, along with a recent training that we had on removing distractions, really made me think that I need to improve! Like it says in 1 Nephi 3:7, "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." So I know that I can do it! So this will be my focus this week!

My email is also short due to the call yesterday so until next time,

Elder Ciminski

Accident

​Second time this has happened. We are coming back from zone meeting and seconds before we arrive (the picture was taken when we are leaving. We only stay around until the authorities arrive) on the same off ramp someone hydroplanes and goes off the road. Both times though the drivers were fine and no-one was hurt. 

Cool building in Smithfield.  I wonder what they sell?

I discovered my camera can do long-exposure pictures.  Up to 15 seconds, pretty cool!


Another Timelapse

Hello!! - 5/2/16

So, you will never guess who moved into the ward for the Summer!

Elder Peery! From my Mini-Mission! He went home in October 2015 and is now married to his high-school sweetheart! He is out here for the summer to sell security for Vivint (speaking of which they can basically turn your house into a smart house. It is pretty much the coolest thing ever!) Small world! But he had us over for dinner last night (his wife went to Toronto Canada btw) and they were talking about their missions and I was so inspired by both of their stories. They were both great missionaries, I can tell. But after leaving their apartment and going back out to work I wanted to be more like them so while I was biking I was in the lead and I was praying to know where to go. I felt let to a specific subdivision and then a specific street. Then I felt like being on only the left side. So we started knocking. We only hit like 15 doors, but we had two amazing conversations with two different people on the street. One lady was from New Zealand and the other lady was Catholic and was super interested until her husband showed up. But we still taught about the Book of Mormon briefly to them and committed them to read and pray about it! So even though nothing came of this experience, it just showed me that Heavenly Father does care about us and the work individually. :)

Yesterday we had a less-active that we have been working with come to church and one of our investigators! The investigator is 9. We had to arrange a ride for him to get to church so we got his primary teacher to pick him up and from what we can tell, he had a great time.

I got to drive a bit on an exchange this weekend. We went to Chipotle because we both love it. It was amazing. I loved it. A pleasant treat.

We had quite the Fast and Testimony Meeting yesterday. President and Sister Baker, Elder Dudley, and Bishop Dudley all bore awesome testimonies as well as several other ward members. It was great and I am especially glad one of our investigators was there. Some of the testimonies applied to what she is going through and she seemed to really enjoy them.

At Wal-Mart I found out that there are gallon jugs of Arizona Fruit Drinks for $2.50.

4 of those are mine. :D :D :D

Anyway, I hope that this week goes well for us out here in Virginia and well for you all back home. 

Hasta la Vista,

Elder Ciminski

Timelapse. I really like this one. I take them during free-time which means meals.

Church boards, we some pretty good ones sometimes. 

My breakfast.

I tried it with Sourdough bread and Bush's Baked Beans and it was pretty good! Apparently they eat it in Britain. So apparently they know something we don't about food or my standards have really lowered.