Bipolar weather - 3/13/17

It was sunny, pollinated, and beautiful for most of this week. 70's and 80's with no humidity! But a cold front blew (Literally blew, it was so windy on Friday) in on Friday and it snowed for a couple hours, and heavily at times Sunday morning during church. It didn't stick though. I am pretty sure that it is the first time in history that we have had pollen, salt, and brine (used to de-ice roads and bridges) on the car, at the same time! It is going to be bitter cold all this week, so bleh!

We has a less busy week. We have been struggling to get ahold of people and set up appointments all this week. We were still able to meet with and fellowship a lot of people, even if we didn't get to share a lesson. That is one aspect about the new numbers system we report that I like. We are no longer pressured to teach lessons. So, if sometimes someone doesn't want a lesson, we aren't pressured to give them one anyway, thereby pushing them away. Sometimes we need to befriend people before we are able to teach them! We are teaching the husband of a recent convert who is interested in joining the church! We asked him if he would be open to being baptized, and he said that he had been baptized already. I know that doesn't make sense, but 99% of the time when that is the answer they kinda close the door to that discussion. Not interested. But with him I think he is beginning to understand the Priesthood because he answered in a way that indicated that he is still open to being baptized at some point! Yay!

So, a while back the mission gave us a recipe that Mom might be familiar with. It is most commonly known by the name of "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I decided to try it out.

Ha ha ha, it was delicious! They aren't the prettiest (I am still learning) but they tasted amazing! I also had a bit extra dough after making the last loaf with the batter, so that explains the bite-size loaf next to the big one. It was also delicious! I am also going to make up the casserole recipe that mom sent me a while back, the Green Chili Enchilada one, sometime this week. Cooking is fun! 

Anyway, that is about it. I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Elder Ciminski

Another week on the books - 3/6/17

This week was much like last week. Lots of lessons and trying to figure out how to fit everything in. We did adjust the area split in our Ward. Our area is now huge, most likely larger that the Gilbert Mission! We had everything south of the 64 in Rocky Mount.  Now we have Tarboro, Sharpsburg, Oak City, Scotland Neck, Pinetops, and Enfield and everything in between. With only 1,125 miles we are able to drive a month we will be relying on members a lot to help us reach those outliers!

We have an appointment with our real promising Investigator tonight. We have a member going with us so hopefully it goes well. We are going to try and get him to Church so that he can get integrated ASAP, preferably this Sunday.

Along with the adjustment in the Area Split, we got several new Investigators, including the husband and roommate of the lady who was baptized by the Sisters about a Month ago. We are excited to be able to teach him and hopefully help him progress towards Baptism. We have several truly promising investigators and I just don't know what to do with myself! I have never had this before! I like it!

Our Weather has been up and down big time. We almost hit 90 one day and now we can't seem to get above 60! I wish that it would settle down. But it has been nice for moving! We have two people in the Ward who are in the process of moving and we have been helping them a lot. Which reminds me, a while back not long after I got to Rocky Mount we were helping some people move and somehow I ended up being the Tetris man. I took charge and packed the house up and organized the truck! I guess all those years of moving payed off!

We had an out-of-the-blue last minute Zone Meeting in Goldsboro last week. The second one in three weeks. Normally they happen once every 6 weeks. There was supposed to be "BIG CHANGES" coming and you know what spread through the mission like wildfire...iPads! You know what we got? NOTHING! LOL! I thought it was cruel to get everyone's hopes up like that. We did have some good training on albeit, run of the mill aspects of Missionary work, but I still got some good reminders. I just thought it was funny how they did that to us. We are one of the only missions in the US that don't have them, not sure why. It is a bit frustrating since we get digital material from Salt Lake that is meant for mobile devices, but we have to do it on a computer and sometimes it doesn't transfer well. Or we just can't do it period. Someday this mission will get them!

Anyway, I don't know what else to say. We are teaching a ton and will continue to do so this week! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Pollen on our car.

Slow week - 2/27/17

But man, did we do a lot! It just felt like forever.

We are no longer tracking lessons, but we did teach a lot this week! We got three new investigators! All of them are pretty solid! Two of them were taught before and were very open and honest on why they stopped meeting with the missionaries and what their concerns were. We are going to try and get them to resolve those concerns and help them get into the waters of Baptism! One is struggling with the need to be Baptized again, and the other simply needs to marry his sweetheart of 26 years that he has been living with for all that time! The best part about him, was that even though his wife (I will call her that) is not interested at all in our message, she was shouting from the next room while we were talking about it things like "Yeah! Tell them why you can't be baptized!". It was awesome! Our third investigator is in the military and was very interested in our message! His Army buddy in Utah referred him and while we were teaching him he was genuinely engaged and asking actual questions. Not the same, rote ones that we get from 90% of the people we teach. We are SO excited for all three!

The weather has been so warm that we had an impressive lightning storm on Saturday night! Also, all of the trees are blooming, which is very pretty but there is pollen everywhere! Coating the cars and everyone's (except mine) allergies are kicking in. So some people are getting the Flu and allergies at the same time! Not fun! There are still people getting sick left and right. They swabbed positive for over 200 cases of the Flu at the clinic where a member works. But at least there is color everywhere again!

Since Elder Arnold came over a year ago, every area has has been divided between the two companionships in the ward. The way it was in our ward is the Sisters get 80% of the active members and most of the newer (and therefore nicer and safer) neighborhoods. It has just been changed so that it is a bit more even. We are excited for the opportunity to have more in-home meals with members (right now most take us out to eat) and get to know more members.

That is about it for this week. I do have some pics though! Be looking for those!

I love you all!

Elder Ciminski

Beautiful blossoms on the trees.

Just don't park under them when the birds are out!

Roller Coaster Week - 2/20/17

I got the Flu...again. I was out for most of Tuesday. Last time I was sick for about 2.5 weeks because I didn't let myself rest. This time I decided that I wasn't going to do that and rested Tuesday starting at 3. I felt a lot better on Wednesday and other than a runny nose, have been fine the rest of the week. The weather has been quite warm this whole week. Felt pretty nice.

We had a lot of appointments fall through this week. Seems like most of the Ward is sick as well.

We got a new investigator! She is very nice and ate up what were were teaching her. She was a bible referral and apparently between us setting up the appointment and the actual appointment, she got a lot of anti-material. The whole time she was saying things like "That isn't what they told me", "They were wrong about that!", and the like. Even if she doesn't go very far, we were able to clear up a lot of misconceptions she had.

We also had our Zone Meeting in Goldsboro. On our way back, we almost got into a pretty bad car wreck. We were riding with our Ward Mission Leader and his wife, as well as the Sisters also serving in the ward. The van behind us rear ended the large truck in front of us so hard that it lifted the truck all the way off the ground. Then the car behind the one immediately behind us got involved as well. Thanks to our Ward Mission leader and his quick thinking and listening to the Spirit we were able to avoid it. We are very grateful for that!

The next morning the Sisters serving in our ward had a wonderful baptism! It was for a young married woman who was very prepared. Her husband is meeting with the missionaries and her close friend too! She is already being an awesome member missionary!

We also saw two deer get hit (more accurately, hit) two cars. In broad daylight. In the middle of town. One hit a trailer, and one hit a Camry, busting both driver side windows. We stopped to see if we could do anything, but everyone, other than some cuts from the glass, was fine. It seems like the deer are confused by this early warm weather because they are all committing suicide on the roads! I have seen 12+ dead deer in the past month, but these two are the only ones that I actually saw die. Bleh.

Other than that this week was great! I look forward to hearing from y'all next week!

Elder Ciminski

Dead deer everywhere.

Crazy Week - 2/13/17

We had a baptism! Hahaha, yeah, it was a surprise to us too! Brother Lovett (whose health is failing) was baptized Saturday night. Bishop had a prompting to have it done on Saturday, so he told us and we made it happen! Everything fell apart at least twice in the planning process, but it all worked out! We are going to continue to meet with him as often as possible to go over the recent convert lessons. If it wasn't meant to be, then it wouldn't have worked out!

Other than that very exciting event, it was a normal week. We taught 6 lessons, 5 of which were to Less-active members. We are still trying to get a fire underneath them. Ben Crusenberry got the Melchizedek priesthood yesterday! He has been waiting for a while to get it now and he is now an Elder!

Our weather has been so weird. It was above 80 yesterday and everyone is getting sick. Whatever is going around is taking people out left and right! Our pianist for Saturday was fine that night, but woke up on Sunday sick as a dog! Both my companion and I are sick as well. It is miserable!  But it has been so warm overall. We haven't had one day where it didn't warm up to at least 50 since that snow/ice storm last month. All the flowers are blooming and pollen is triggering peoples allergies! We have even had some thunderstorms!  Crazy!

Other than this, I don't remember what happened this week. Just the same ol' same ol'.

Elder Ciminski

When life gives you lemons.... - 2/6/17

We got a flat tire this week. We ran over a screw. Then, this morning when we went to get it fixed, we found out we had a second screw in another tire. They also forgot about our appointment, and it was time for an oil change. So our appointment turned into 2.5 hours. Luckily, the mall was across the street and we got to walk around it. At least we didn't get another flat from the second screw!

We were able to see 8 people this week. Most of them less-actives. Sadly, most of them are not progressing. It's frustrating, but we are going to keep trying. Maybe we need to mix up our methods a bit. If something isn't working, you probably shouldn't keep doing it. One person came to our scripture class on Thursday night, and seemed to enjoy it. While I thought that he was early to mid 20's, he is old enough to have a 16 year old son. So I botched that one! He is still wanting to be baptized. We are struggling to meet with him, but we reset his date far enough back so that we have some breathing room!

We had a Stake Conference yesterday. We traveled to Goldsboro to see it and it was enjoyable. There was some good talks on Miracles and Motherhood, among other subjects. The highlight was our good friend Ben Crusenberry was sustained to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! We are so happy for him!

We had exchanges this week. I went up to Roanoke Rapids and had a good time. We weren't able to see anyone though.

So, the Sisters in our ward have a recent convert who is a State Trooper, who was trained in Currituck! She rented a room from a family I know there and was trained from another member there! Small world!

Until next week,

Elder Ciminski

Poetry - 1/30/17

So, our new Ward Mission leader has a poem he quotes that I love! It is by Edward Markham and goes like this:

They drew a circle that shut me out.
Heretic rebel, A thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that brought them in.

It is our motto of sorts for the work that we are doing here in Rocky Mount. We also got 4 new Ward Missionaries yesterday.  Enthusiasm is a great attribute in Missionary Work! Something I am trying to get more of!

We saw 9 people this week, which makes up for the few people we saw last week! We also got a new Investigator, who will actually be passing away soon. We are going to try and help the member wife during this undoubtedly difficult time. We also gave a blessing of comfort to a lady who will also probably will not last much longer. We have visited her several times over the several months I have been here. But thank goodness for the Plan of Salvation! It may not ease the pain of losing someone, but it gives us hope! And that can be invaluable!

We have to move the baptismal date back to March 4th. I feel that Satan might be working on him, which is a good thing in a way since that means he may be gaining a testimony! Satan wouldn't waste his time with someone who is unlikely to make changes in his/her life for the better!

We went fishing this morning. It was not quite what I expected. It was also quite cold. The wind was miserable. But now I can say that I have fished! An Elder ate one of the LIVE minnows we had for bait. BLEH!!!!! No one caught anything. Too cold, I suppose!

We got a new schedule this week.  The main differences are that there is 10x more flexibility and we plan in the morning now. We are doing a trial run this week, today is the first day of the new schedule. I will tell y'all my thoughts on it next week!

Transfer calls come this Saturday! I have absolutely no idea what will be happening. So stay tuned!

I love y'all! Have a great week!

Elder Ciminski