A Wake Up Call!

March 17th

A Wake Up Call Produces Results!

so this morning i had fun being creative with Sister Harris's email so i decided that thats how im going to do my email home now cuz it makes them more fun to read and less boring to write! so here we go! 

so Tuesday was an interesting day! we had the AP's come down and talk to me because our mission President told Elder Lunt that he has been worried about me and that Elder Lunt was the one that was going to be able to help me the most. so basically he came down and took me on a long drive and told me a bunch of mistakes ive been making and all the rules i had broken thus far on my mission... i had never been so hurt in my life. i thought that i had been a pretty good missionary thus far but apparently i am a crapy missionary. he said that basically im a terrible missionary with all the potential in the world and that i need to step my game up so that i can be trusted to get the stuff done the Lord needs me to do. kinda had like a little mini melt down and freaked out on my self.. you know how hard on myself i can get but its EXACTLY what i needed to hear. the Lord knows how to get me remotivated in a very effective way.

so the rest of  the week we spent flying around like we were crazy people and stayed pretty dang busy. im pretty tired! surprisingly i never thought that i would be so happy while riding my bike up a 45 degree incline and then no one being home when we got to the top.

i already feel a change inside of me since tuesday because normally im content as long as we are out and at least talking to families and i wasnt to worried about things but now its like if dinners are going long or if we’re just wasting time i cant handle it. also i now have no fear. its like Elder Lunt scared the fear outta me :p i can just walk up to people and talk to them like its nothing really big where as i was always super worried about being reject but as long as im trying my best i have nothing to fear! the fear should only come from wasting the Lords time which i have done to much of.

thursday i felt like one of the pioneer children cuz we just walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and then got to sister deans house then no one was home so we turned around and Walked and walked and walked and walked back into town.

we did have a little party, not really, it was Brother Queens birthday and he was turning i think 42. so we stopped in and wished him a happy birthday and gave him a card that Elder Bitton and i thought was super funny but he didnt even crack a smile.. i think he's a little dejected from us cuz of our last failed appointment with him. so we are trying to get back in his good graces before we try to teach him again!

Cool Experience of the week! we were looking for a less active lady but she didnt live there anymore.  instead an older guy answered the door said he was busy but said we needed to come back because he needs help getting back to church and quitting alcohol and he knows we can help so he said come back thursday at 12! so i was pretty excited about that! :)

love you ! Elder Rollins

Service FHE

March 10, 2013

Our bishop’s family invited Scott and I and the other parents of missionaries from our ward, to attend a FHE at their home this past monday. The focus was on service and ways we can serve others. They invited 5 other families from the ward to come and bring fun things for a gift box they were sending to the missionaries as a thank you for their service. I asked Hayes to tell me some experiences he would like me to share, as well as, thoughts and feelings about his mission. I also asked what advice he would give us pertaining to being good member missionaries. This is what he wrote:

okay so stories, not a whole lot of ones that are just super tender. its just been a really fun mission! we go out and work hard from morning til night and put all we got on the line! we had a cool experience yesterday! we were going back to follow up with an older Methodist guy. he invited us in and told us he wouldn’t be interested in learning about our church. so as we were leaving we noticed his guitar and started talking to him about the guitar and stuff. then we asked if we could play it a little bit before we took off. Elder Bitton is pretty good so he just played a little, then we asked Larry to play a little for us. he sang us some cool hymns from his church on the condition we would play and sing for him. so we kept our end of the bargain! Elder Bitton played Come come ye saints and i sang with him and it was a pretty cool experience! 

everyone there will know how much i love wrestling, right?? if so, tell them this.. seeing the people that i have come to know and love out here, take the steps to follow their savior, has been more joyous then when i won state! watching Makasa get baptized and hearing about Jillian getting baptized was more exhilarating and i felt a stronger happiness than what i felt after that state finals match! there is nothing else in this world like this work! and we are all called to do it! 

advice would be just open your mouth and share it! i know it can be scary but it shouldn't be if you're doing it out of the love that you have for the gospel and the love that you have for the people you are sharing it with, then everything will be fine. the Lord promises us he will tell us what to say when we need to say it but if we dont open our mouth, then we dont have that promise or get that blessing!

Scavenger hunt, Tire blow out, Critters in the attic, Taught a lesson, Church was cancelled

March 4, 2014

Scavenger hunt, Tire blow out, Critters in the attic, 

Taught a lesson, Church was cancelled

Monday was a huge service project so no time to email. 

so the sisters set us up to do a scavenger hunt at the church this week. they said they had something for us but they wanted us to find it and when we found it, they had taken one of the signs from the state wrestling tournament that Odessa had put up! lol probably the funniest thing that happened this week! 

tuesday i had a bike tire blow out on our 12 mile bike ride down to odessa and ended up walking the last 4 miles into town. one of the awesome sisters in our ward picked up our bikes for us.. i was joking around with Elder Bitton that each car that passed us that didnt help us was going to be cursed in the day cuz they didnt help a servant of God in need and then #100 came around and i didnt say anything cuz i knew that that car was going to help us and sure enough it was Sister Bischoff! :P so that was pretty cool. 

then we walked the rest of the way to the Barbers so that we could check out the critter in their attic! but we found nothing. so while we were there we also gave sister Adams a blessing cuz she had been feeling sick and really wanted one! Im so thankful for the priesthood and the role its played in my life!

we have our first lesson with the gorlines tonight! really cool story behind them! a member in another ward has been trying to set us up with them so finally he decided that he was just going to pick us up and take us over because he has felt that this is their time to hear the Gospel! im so glad that he did because i feel that Tim has been prepared for this! :)

other than that, its been really cold! Church was cancelled. we road our bikes cuz i went and bought some stuff to make it run right! so fingers crossed that it keep going cuz i'm gonna be puttin a lot of miles on it! 

love you! Elder Rollins

Finally, Some Wrestling!

February 24, 2014

Finally Some Wrestling! 

well. yah they (the youth) will love me, i’m basically one of them with a little bit better understanding of the gospel and a call the preach the good word!

miles are a little tight this week lol so i feel like we are going to be biking quite a bit in the upcoming days! :) so we were invited to one of the girls, Lauren’s, birthday party tonight and we are pretty stoked to go! this family is amazing! they have been going through so much lately. the father had a stroke in august. they have been helping him out with recovering and his recovery has been remarkable. the mom and the daughter are members but the father and the son aren’t. matt, the dad, keeps me very informed with the wrestling thats been going on in Missouri! its really cool and fun cuz he understands wrestling and is a huge fan! he goes to all the matches and lets me know how Oak Grove is doing! state was this weekend and he was down there so we didnt get to see him a whole lot cuz it was in columbia at Mizzu (Missouri University) and he stayed down there with his dad! but when he got home, we went over and he told me all about the wrestling. they crowned 2 - 4x state champions and Oak Grove won the state title again. my goal for this week is to find the head coach’s house, knock on his door and baptize him! :P but while we were there, we set up a chair for sister queen cuz matt couldnt cuz of the effects of the stroke. :/  by the time we were done she was super giddy and just about in tears :) i love this family so much they are amazing and you'll probably hear more about them in the future!

so the other day we found a trailer park in bates city population 219 and decided to look around to see if we could find anyone in need of the Gospel or of service because our zone leaders challenged us to get 10 service opportunities a week! so while we were knocking doors this guy opened the door looked at us and asked us if we wanted to come in. when we came in he started telling us his life story and telling us that he knows he needs to come to church and he's been told that he needs to go back but hasnt been able to get himself to go. so we talked to him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and he said that he has already read it and holds it as the same as the bible. so we kept talking to him and he wants us to come back and to meet his daughter and he wants to come to church with us next weekend! :) its amazing what can happen and you never know who needs you or your help. so keep going out and being an example of our savior. take upon his name and honor it by living the Gospel and by sharing it through your actions!

love you Elder Rollins!

Push Through! Work Harder!

February 18, 2014

Push Through! Work Harder!

so this week was interesting! we were given training by Elder Martino of the 70 and he was awesome! he has inspired me a lot! and now im ready to keep pushing through and work harder in this area! we are going to be working with our wonderful members more closely and helping them learn how to do missionary work. 

we have gotten a little more accomplished this week! but we still have a long way to go! we had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament meeting on missionary work and Elder Bitton went a little long so i had to cut mine short, i was kinda sad but it made my talk more powerful, i feel, because i just focused on all the main things and less of the flowery stuff! and i think our talks helped inspire our members cuz they are being a little more open to us! 

then yesterday, we threw a big youth activity, you know like the ones back at our old house i used to throw and the kids loved it! we played games and sports and a couple of kids brought some of their nonmember friends and they all said they had a good time! we gain a better relationship with  the youth and i think that'll help with getting the parents to trust us as well

pics next week sorry i didnt have any this week!

Just Pictures This Week. :-)

February 10, 2013

Just pictures this week!

"my tie looks fake!"

"its not like the ones at home but its still kinda pretty!" :)

"one of the best gifts i could ever receive!" :)

These are the Sister Missionaries in his ward. 

Sister Harris

Sister Adams

Cold, Cold and More Cold

February 3, 2014

Cold... Tracting... More cold... and More cold...

our goals are interesting i think that when the new transfer starts we will be re-evaluating our goals so that we can extend some and make them something that we can strive a little bit harder to attain! 

finances are pretty good i can get basically all i need and i took some money out of the account this past week so i could have a little bit of cash on me

 hope you dont mind! 

ive been doing push ups and pull ups everyday, my upper body is fit but i cant keep my legs up.... its quite frustrating trying to keep my legs strong and good sized without any weights.

yes we are getting to know the ward well... i think thats going to be the best way to help move this area along because we are getting nowhere with trying to work tracting and less active members. its a really tight knit community so i think the best way for us to go at it is to help the members get excited and to teach them how to share the gospel!

you probably think this is snow. well its not... its actually ice!

this is what my week consisted of! cold.... tracting... more cold..... and more cold... not much happened, it was a long week and i have learned a lot of patients and humility through it all! 

Proverbs 3:5-6 

 5 ¶^aTrust in the Lord with all thine ^bheart; and lean not unto thine^cown ^dunderstanding.

 6 In all thy ways ^aacknowledge him, and he shall ^bdirect thy^cpaths.

love you 

Elder Rollins