The longest week ever! - 1/16/17

I took a selfie with a dog...you would not believe how ward it was.

The combination of not having church last week and the three different climates of this past week have made this week feel like an eternity! We went from the 20's and icy to 70's and humid to 40's and chilly. I don't know what to think or wear!

We had two major meetings this week. We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday that was pretty good. We got a new strategy to help members do missionary work involving Facebook. No we are not getting iPads. But in it, we have the member pull up their Facebook friends list and share something about the Gospel with them right there via Facebook. We also had interviews. All three companionship's in our District were told we were having them in Roanoke Rapids (45 minutes from us). We had our Ward Mission Leader drive us up there with his wife and the Sisters. There was only one problem, President Weed understood that we were having them in Rocky Mount! He ended up driving up to Roanoke Rapids and we had them there. Despite the miscommunication, we had great interviews. President Weed is definitely called of God!

We taught seven lessons this week. One of them was to a media referral who wanted to be baptized! He actually read the Book of Mormon when we asked him to and is excited! We set him with a date for February 11th, it is pretty close but if he is serious about it, he will make it! We taught several other people as well. The lessons went pretty well.  I feel that my teaching skills have improved since I arrived here. Other than that, nothing remarkable has happened.

We were allowed to drive again on Tuesday, so were weren't affected this week from the weather. The salt on everything is ridiculous, our car is covered with the stuff and we can't wash it! It is too cold now to do it! This snow was very early and was colder than normal. It makes me wonder what this winter is going to be like!

I did get the shoes, thank you very much!

Other than that, just be looking forward to the pictures! Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Elder Ciminski

Cold. - 1/9/17

Too cold. Today it is 26, and it feels warm. It is too cold here.

So our meeting with Elder Cook got cancelled. I understand why, they were calling for more than a foot of snow up there, and 6-8 inches where we are. At first I didn't want anything because I didn't want the meeting to get cancelled. After it got cancelled, I wanted it to be as bad as possible. Go big or go home! Might as well make it worth it! We got about an inch of sleet on top of a days worth of frozen rain...

...then another inch of snow on top of that.

I was pretty underwhelmed. But now they have scraped the roads and the cycle of melting and freezing have turned the roads into thick sheets of ice. So that makes it worth it. This is what the roads look like as of an hour ago.

It's all solid and not going anywhere. We haven't been able to drive since Friday night. As missionaries though, we are still expected to proceed and proselyte. I guess they expect us to walk or bike in this weather. A wonderful member has gone out with us everyday to ice-skate and see people. He is such a blessing to us because I am not built for this weather! 

But we did fight through the weather and were still able to see 8 people before the storm hit. No one is particularly progressing, but we are still working with several people. Some look like they COULD progress, so we will focus on them. We are also working with several excommunicated members, which is a wonderful experience. To see the people turn their lives around is amazing. 

Anyway, we are running out of time so this week is short, but I have plenty of pictures! Have a wonderful week! I love you!!!

Elder Ciminski

Salt Cars

Ice

Ice

Ice

Happy New Year! - 1/2/17

We went to the Verizon store in Tarboro this week with member to see a less-active member who works there, and while we were waiting for the member to finish with a customer, we browsed the phones. iPhones out here are not popular at all, everyone had Droids, so I am always talking them up. Then we got to talk to our member, and Brother C. had some questions about his plan (he is with Verizon) and then less than an hour later, we left with him having placed an order on a Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus 128gb. Oops. :)

This week was a good week. We started out by going to the outlets in Smithfield, the largest outlets this side of the Mississippi apparently, and got some pretty good deals.

We taught a lot this week. We had a total of 9 lessons, four of which were member presents and of those, 3 were new investigators. As always, I am very grateful to be teaching. Some of these people are showing promise, but as always, WE NEED TO GET TO THE SECOND LESSON!!!! One lady already didn't show up for the return appointment, but we did give her a chance, and her free bible. That is where most of these new investigators come from, free bible media referrals. How it works is we get a text with the information for someone in our area who has requested a free Bible or Book of Mormon (95/100 it's for a Bible) and it is our responsibility to contact and deliver them, usually with a message tying it into the Restoration. We get on average 5 referrals a week, which is more than I got in my entire time in my last area! We got 2 during my stay there, and both were sent accidentally! It keeps us busy and meeting new people so that is a blessing.

The weather here is the exact same as out there! Rainy and in the mid 50's! It's supposed to snow this Saturday, boo! We are supposed to be traveling 3 hours up to Virginia Beach to meet with Elder Cook (of the Quorum of the 12) on that day! He is reorganizing the Virginia Beach Stake and wanted to meet with us (the entire Mission). So we are excited for that! Just not for the Snow!

So we got a new Ward Mission leader (My 7th on my mission), and he is a fireball! He is so enthusiastic it is hard to not get excited too! Some of my favorite quotes from him are,

"If you want to be more in tune with the Spirit, DON'T BE FAKE!"

"Moroni's wife must have been a studette!"

He is going to be good for the ward. I am excited to work with him more!

For the new year, we did nothing. I am glad we did nothing because then I was able to clean and start the new year off right! My Companion and I both got bottles of Martinelli's and we enjoyed those. I am still working on mine, but he drained his the night of! I am excited for this new year though, and all of the possibilities in it!

Have a wonderful week! The Church is true, and live true!

Like my rhyme?

Love y'all!

Elder Ciminski

Mended my sweater myself!

Out with the 2016 calendar.

Merry Christmas! - 12/26/16

It is now time to put away the Christmas music!

Anyway, this week was a slow week for us because of the Holiday. It was difficult to see people because everyone was busy preparing for the holiday and with their families. We did get to help people prepare for the holiday! A member of our ward got a massive trampoline and needed help setting it up, so we helped him! It took about 3 hours with 4 of us working on it! But it is the nicest trampoline I have ever seen (if there is such a thing). We also went caroling with the other members of our District to some members of the ward who needed some extra love. I'm very glad we did that because I feel that the people we visited really needed it. So while our lessons may have been 1/2 of what we normally see, we were still able to go around a do some good. I hope that things start to get back to normal this week.

I enjoyed Skyping with y'all yesterday.  A lot!

Y'all looked great! I can't wait until Mother's Day to see y'all again!

After we hung up we stayed at the Bishop's until 6 our time, eating and visiting. Other members with their children were there as well. And the Bishop's family too of course!! The Ward here is so nice to us, I am very grateful for that!

That is all for this week. I look forward to hearing from y'all next week! Ciao!

Elder Ciminski

Brother Stroman and us.

All the gifts from the ward - they treat us so nice!

The weather has been a roller coaster. - 12/19/16

And I never know what to expect!! We woke up to a layer of ice on everything on Saturday, but it was 75 on Sunday, and now it is 35 and expected to freeze all the rain we got today, tonight. I am ready for Hawaii!

Anyway, until then we have been working hard. We taught 10 lessons this week, 8 of them with less-active members! It is wonderful to be teaching so much. I hope that we will be able to see it continue! We are still struggling to retain our investigators, and we have extremely limited times to find new people. We try to not be out and seeking (tracting, walk and talk, contacting new people, etc) after dark. It just isn't safe. Despite that, we are staying busy. Getting creative! We try and set appointments in the evenings so that helps too! We are telling EVERYONE about the Church's Christmas initiative. Not sure how many people are actually looking at it, but hey, it's not on us! I hope that y'all have been doing it!

Other than that this has been a pretty boring week! We are trying to see people before they head out of town for the Holiday, and that is hard. We haven't been able to get in contact with our investigator for a while, and apparently he is gone now until the 6th. So that's a bummer. He requested that we not send him our daily scripture anymore so we probably won't be teaching him anymore. :(

I don't know what else to write, but Merry Christmas!!

Elder Ciminski

Compared with Arizona it's kinda bleak sometimes.

The weather outside is frightful.... - 12/12/16

My friend, Elder Martinez

You have got that right! This winter, like this summer, looks like it will be an extreme one! In fact, on Saturday, water froze as the day went on, not melted!

See??

That isn't stopping us! We still did service on that day for someone in the ward. We were cleaning out his shed and throwing away most of the stuff that got flooded from the Hurricane. If you look at the picture, you can see the waterline on the door. There is still a lot of people who are trying to clean up!

We had our ward party this week. It was nice. They had a nice Christmas program that was enjoyable, and to top it all off, we had several people that we are working with there! That is what made it special! 

We found two new investigators this week. It is nice to be finding so many new people! We do have a problem with most of the new people, we can't meet with them for a second lesson! They are normally cancelling or just not showing up for their return appointments. We are working on a way to try and get back up with them so that we don't have a ton of people with only one lesson taught! We are also trying to work with a lot of less-actives, and all of these efforts got us 6 lessons this week according to the new Key Indicator system. The work is moving!

I love you!!

Elder Ciminski

December! - 12/5/16

December is here! Kinda crazy to think that the year is almost over! I need to start thinking about a new calendar!

Life keeps on going on for us out here. We had a lot of appointments cancel this week because people are sick with the flu. We still taught 8 lessons even though I had the flu for a bit! 5 of them were RCLA's and 3 were Member Presents! The mission had a change up in how we report our numbers so lessons taught to an investigator without a member (otherwise known as "Other Lessons") don't count anymore. We also don't count referrals anymore either. That will take a bite out of our numbers because last week, 1/2 of our lessons were other lessons! This change is supposed to make us focus on working with members more (which is always a struggle) which will bring blessings I am sure.

We had to push back our date with our investigator because he will be out of town from the 18th to the 6th, and with a baptismal date on the 7th that just won't work! We still have a lot to teach him and there just isn't enough time. That, and he has to be interviewed at least a week before his baptism so that would be a problem as well. He is still enthusiastic so we will be working on getting him reset with a date.

I have had enough of it getting dark so early. It is 4:26 as I write this and it is almost entirely dark. Makes proselyting hard!

Anyway, that is about it! We are still chugging along and doing out best! Have a great week!

Love y'all!

Elder Ciminski

More damage from Hurricane Matthew - there is still a lot to clean up.