Hola! - 6/12/17

Our investigator is still on track to be baptized this Saturday! She had her interview yesterday and passed! She almost didn't come yesterday because many things went wrong in her life, which all it was is Satan trying to derail her and prevent her from being baptized. Once she realized this she texted us "Well Satan just lost this battle. I am coming to church today!" Her faith is amazing and is such an example to us!

We also picked up two new investigators this week. They are a mother and a son who last year lost their brother/son and are still struggling with that. We shared the Plan of Salvation and they really enjoyed that lesson. We think they are fairly promising and are looking forward to working with them more! The only reason that they didn't come to church is because they got the time of church and our return appointment mixed up! But they should be coming next week!

Other than these three stellar people not much happened Investigators wise! We did have a visiting General Authority, Elder LeGrand R Curtis Jr. He spoke to us a lot on The Book of Mormon and the blessings of serving a mission. Overall, it was a really good conference. We also found out that 87 missionaries LEAVING the mission in the next 6 months. That is about 1/2 the mission! So the entire mission is nervous for that! Haha logistics are scary sometimes.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Have a wonderful week!

Elder Ciminski

Hot week! - 6/5/17

It was quite warm all of this week. Not as hot as Arizona, but still warm. The humidity doesn't help at all either, lol. Glasses, camera lenses, YETI Tumbler lids, windows...all fogging up!

We had some pretty cool experiences this week. One happened on Saturday. We had just unsuccessfully been walking around Smithfield proper for over an hour because an appointment had fallen through and we were returning to our car when someone honked at us. He rolled down his window and asked us if we had time to chat, which we did of course, and he than said he would meet us at the chapel. He pulled away, leaving us wondering who the heck he was and how he knew what the church is. My companion and I decided that one of three things were going to happen. 1) He thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses and he was going to lead us to a Kingdom Hall. 2) He will murder us at the chapel. 3) He is a Less-active member or a former investigators and we are going to have an awesome lesson.

Number 3 is the winner! We didn't actually have a lesson though, but he was a less-active member and was going through a rough patch and we suppose he needed some upliftment. We gave him a blessing and he want on his way. He did come to church on Sunday which was a good thing.

The Spanish Elders found us a new Investigator at a Quincenera on Saturday! She is a lady overcoming an addiction of some kind. She seems pretty solid and the reason I say that is because she came to church yesterday! She had a really cool experience and has the beginnings of a testimony! The ward befriended her quickly (which is always a blessed occurrence) and I am quite excited to teach her. The reason we are teaching her and not the Spanish elders is because she speaks English. Anytime they find and English speaker to teach they hand them over to us, and we do the same for people who speak better Spanish than English.

Ou investigator with a baptism date is still progressing! She prayed this week that if joining the church is what she is meant to do that he help her out with going back to school. She had a 45,000 debt waved and is now going back to school, and being paid $250 to do it! She came to church again yesterday and is still very excited! We have a lot to teach her, but all of the tough lessons (Word of Wisdom, Tithing, and Law of Chasity) have been covered! We are so excited!

Other that that this week was normal. I look forward to writing y'all again next week! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

My companion and a snake!

Memorial Day means Libraries are closed - 5/30/17

Happy Tuesday!

So, last week we got two new Investigators! One is a former Investigator that we have picked back up. I am hopeful that she will progress! The other one is a young lady we met while walking through a neighborhood. She said that she doesn't like her preacher because he is condescending to teenagers and single moms. We are hoping to meet with both of them this week! It isn't too hard to find new investigators, the trick is to see them more than once! Speaking of, the other week we got 5 new investigators and three of them were siblings and we are going back to see them today! Their Mom (who is a member) wants them to get baptized and they all like the Book of Mormon, so we, for good reason, have high hopes for them!

We had a lesson at the chapel with one of our more promising investigators. My companion has taught her from the beginning and he was on fire! Spiritual fire, that is! She has never come to church or committed to be baptized and that was our goal for this lesson. We had her tour the chapel and ended it in the chapel. After explaining the purpose of the Gospel and our Church my companion took the reigns. He testified very powerfully about the importance of baptism and told her why we wanted for her to be baptized so badly, because we loved her and knew that this is the best thing that she could do to help her with her current trials! She then promised she would come to church (and she did) and is now on date to be baptized on June 17th! It was one of those times that I just stepped back and let my companion talk because I knew that if I tried to, I would goof it up! I am glad he is so in tune with the spirit because it has helped us a lot since we have been together!

On a bit or a more disappointing note, that lady that we met with at Starbucks dropped us. She texted us early in the week about how she appreciated us and had "mad respect" for us, but this church wasn't for her. Such is the life of a missionary. Lots of lows and some pretty spectacular highs!

We had a bit of severe weather this week. We have been having a lot of thunderstorms and tornados since February was in the 80's for the whole month. A town less than an hour from us had a tornado that caused a lot of damage, but no casualties. Then on Tuesday we got a tornado warning on our phone. They had a funnel cloud about an hour south of us that was heading north! In the triangle that was the projected path we were in the middle of it! Luckily nothing happened and other than a lot of anxiety, we were fine. Lots of rain though!

This week we are having interviews with President Weed which I am looking forward to. Other than that this is about it! I am able to send pics this week so be looking for those! Have an awesome week! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Hey! - 5/22/17

So, I cant send home pics this week. Library computers bite sometimes.

This week was good! We got 5 new Investigators! One of our Investigators in particular I am excited for. We found her when we were in Selma, NC and we saw that she had put her car into a ditch. I may have mentioned her last week. But after talking to her we set up an appointment and met her this week at a Starbucks (a bit out of the ordinary but we are going to try and meet with her at a chapel with a member in the future) and the lesson was amazing! We went over the Book of Mormon and the restoration and she just soaked it all up! Her comprehension was amazing and she seemed to be really involved and enjoying what she was learning! Even though there was the smell of coffee (which I happen to enjoy) and the sound of blenders tried to drown us out, the Spirit was strong when we testified and she seemed to feel it! We set up a church tour with her and committed her to come to church, neither of which happened. I was so bummed, more than usual, but we are going to try and get back in contact her this week. We think that she might be a bit unsettled with her being the only female at our lessons, so we are going to try and solve that problem by maybe bringing a couple in the future, or solving it some other way. We don't know yet, but what we do know is that we are very excited and believe that she is elect! I hope it all works out!

The other investigator came from finding on our own efforts and the last three came from a part member family. The Mom is a member and the Father is not, nor is he interested in becoming one, but the kids, who are 16, 12, and 11 and very interested. We are hopeful for them, they seem sincere! There is a lot happening out here and it keeps us busy!

I gave a talk yesterday on fellowshipping. It didn't go as well as I would have liked it to. I got too nervous I think, but now I know for next time!

The weather has been super warm and humid this week. It is supposed to be cooler this week. Excited for that! It makes proselyting easier!

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing y'all next week! I love you!

Elder Ciminski

Hello! - 5/15/17

So, talking to the fam was the highlight of my week! But some other pretty cool things happened as well!

My new companion is from Utah (surprise) and is a very good and hardworking missionary! I think that we will get along just fine. :) One thing that I like about him is that he is very in tune with the Spirit. There was several times this week that he received and followed a prompting that ended up with us being blessed for it! One in particular that I would like to share happened on Thursday. We had just finished at a dinner and he felt that we should go and try and contact a referral. We have used a lot of miles already this month so I was a bit apprehensive when I found out it would mean 10 miles round trip. I decided to trust him and we went for it. The referral wasn't home, so a bit disappointed we headed home. On our way back I saw on a side street a car that had gone into a ditch at a severe angle and was stuck. We flipped around and went to see if there was anything we could do to help. The lady whose car it was ended up being very nice and talked to us even after it was clear there was nothing that we could do. We shared briefly about The Book of Mormon and the Restoration and left her with some materials and our Contact info. We got a text from her later on that night that she had read the whole "chain" that was written in the Book of Mormon and had some questions about the Urim and Thummin, our position on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the like. We are now going to meet with her sometime this week (hopefully). So if my companion hadn't followed the prompting, we wouldn't have met her! Pretty cool!

It was a bit hard to leave Rocky Mount, believe it or not. I am going to miss all of the great people I met there! But Facebook was created for a reason and I look forward to reconnecting with them when I get home. Speaking of, when introducing myself to dozens of people yesterday, the question almost always came up "So, how long have you been out?". In order to prevent people from prejudging me, I have almost always answered "A bit over a year.". lol. So far it is working. Except other missionaries keep coughing and saying "cough19monthscough" lol. I just don't want people to think that I am checked out, like other missionaries can be. I am here to work! I have been with people who didn't work and it's miserable.

Anyway, the weather is continuing to be bipolar. 50's and misty rain to 80 and humid. I do have some awesome pics to send to stay tuned! I love you all!

Elder Ciminski

I went into our bedroom to grab something and saw Bambi, so I made a noise, ran and grabbed my companion and my camera, came back in and Bambi had gotten startled by my opening of the window, and ran way over there. But it was still pretty cool. :) Animal planet over here!

Fun Week! - 5/8/17

Mike got baptized! It was a small service with some of his closest friends in the ward there. We broke the mold a bit and only had one talk on conversion, and it was an amazing talk! A convert of a bit over 10 years gave it and related it to Mike perfectly and we all felt the Spirit. Then he was confirmed by a young man preparing for a mission yesterday after our regional Stake Conference. We were able to participate in that and the Spirit was there, stronger than any other baptism I have had so far! The entire ward is very excited for him and his wife! We hope that they get integrated quickly so that they feel like a part of the ward!

I got transferred to Smithfield... NC! That's different than Smithfield VA which was my first area. I am excited to see the new place! I am still in the Goldsboro Stake so I am not going too far. Also, this is the place with the Outlets Mall.  It is going to be a bummer to leave this District though. We have all become pretty good buddies. Sadly, all good things have to come to an end and we have to move on.

We did get some severe weather last week! Lots of rain and even some Tornados! The plus side is that as far as we know no people or property was impacted and the weather has cooled off a ton! So we are enjoying the 60's and 70's for the better part of the week!

Other than those two things I don't know what else to say. We are teaching and trying to find new people. There is nothing new or exciting to report. I do have some pics and videos so be looking for those! I love you! I wish there was more to write!

Elder Ciminski

This week - 5/1/17

Our investigator is still on track to be baptized this Saturday! He had his baptismal interview last Friday and he passed! Now this week we need to come up with the program and get all the logistics figured out! We are very excited and a bit stressed. We still have some things to teach and some stuff to do! Perhaps the best part is that a year from this Saturday he and his wife will be able to get sealed in the Temple! That is what this Gospel is all about, Eternal Families!

We also got a new investigator yesterday who seems pretty promising. We went to contact a referral that was next door, and when running through the usual round of questions she told us that she had a new neighbor and that she wasn't sure if they had been saved or not. So we went over and taught her about the Book of Mormon! She seemed to really like it and we have an appointment to go back on Tuesday!

We had a lot of rain on Monday and into Tuesday that is causing some flooding. Nothing too bad. The Tar River only swelled 21ft, compared to Matthew's 36ft it isn't that bad. But it is still crazy to watch the waters rise and come up through the storm drains, since they run to the river. No one we know personally had their home flooded, but we know of some people. We did see several cars that were flooded. We are apparently supposed to get some severe weather tonight, hopefully not too much more rain! The river was supposed to crest last night and it should be receding now.

That is about it for this week! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Ciminski