Mike's Mission - August 2007

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFF66" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03c006e0dkfegl.gif"> <div>                          <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Michael's Mission Page</FONT>      <IMG SRC="04e55390.gif" border=0 width="85" height="57" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>                     California Santa Rosa Mission  June 2006 - June 2008    |   <A HREF="http://www.theHaslams.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.theHaslams.com"><U>theHaslams.com</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#009933" TEXT="#080000" background="03dbec00ddwnzy.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Front Page"><U><B>Front Page</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="latest_news.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Latest News"><U><B>Latest News</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="photo_album.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission Photo Album"><U><B>Photo Album</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="companions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission Companions"><U><B>Companions</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>=====================</B></div> <div> <A HREF="may_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission May 2008"><U><B>May 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="april_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission April 2008"><U><B>April 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="march_w008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission March 2008"><U><B>March 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="february_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission February 2008"><U><B>February 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="january_2008.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission January 2008"><U><B>January 2008</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="december_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission December 2007"><U><B>December 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="november_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission November 2007"><U><B>November 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="october_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission October 2007"><U><B>October 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="september_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission September 2007"><U><B>September 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="august_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission August 2007"><U><B>August 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="july_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission July 2007"><U><B>July 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="june_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike_Mission June 2007"><U><B>June 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="may_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission May 2007"><U><B>May 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="april_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission April 2007"><U><B>April 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="march_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission March 2007"><U><B>March 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="february_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes mission February 2007"><U><B>February 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="january_2007.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission January 2007"><U><B>January 2007</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="december_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission December 2006"><U><B>December 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="november_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission November 2006"><U><B>November 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="october_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission October 2006"><U><B>October 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="september_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission September 2006"><U><B>September 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="august_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michaels Mission August 2006"><U><B>August 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="july_2006.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission July 2006"><U><B>July 2006</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="arrival.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Arrival in Santa Rosa"><U><B>Arrival in Santa Rosa</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mtc.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mikes Mission MTC"><U><B>Departure & the Missionary Training Center</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>=====================</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.mission.net/california/santa/rosa/index.php" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.mission.net/california/santa/"><U><B>California Santa Rosa Mission Alumni Site</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>August 2007</B></div> <div> <B>August 27, 2007 - "Hello from the Mission Capitol - Santa Rosa" - </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Michael said he was so busy all week he didn't even unpack until Sunday morning. Among the events of the week:</FONT></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Tuesday - the van ride from Davis around the horn to Santa Rosa.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Wednesday - After getting their wheels fixed (they have the truck that was in Clearlake) they did find a couple of investigators who they turned over to the Spanish speaking sisters.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="08398ca0.jpg" border=0 width="152" height="202" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="5" VSPACE="5"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Wednesday - The Elders returned home to the sounds of breaking glass and smoke pouring from their apartment, <B>they found the landlord was running into their apartment to put out a fire. </B>Elder Blankenship left a candle lit on the stove, the glass it was in broke and a fire started. The stove and the wall nearby were pretty much destroyed. Elder Blankenship felt terrible.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Thursday - Visited some of the missionaries in the zone at their apartments to get acquainted.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Friday - Zone leadership council at the mission home which is in our area. We didn't have to travel far.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Saturday and Sunday offered some regular proselyting.  We do have a couple of investigators and may be able to set some baptismal dates soon.</div> <bR> <div> Michael said, <I>"We've got lots of work to do here. We have the largest zone with the worst numbers. Right now we have no baptismal commitments. That will change".</I></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> <A NAME="to_santa_rosa"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>August 20, 2007 - "Good News and Bad News" -</B></FONT> We'll Elder Haslam is on the road again. Now he is off to Santa Rosa (the capital of the mission).  He will become the senior Zone Leader of the Santa Rosa zone, which is the largest zone in the mission with 11 companionships and 22 missionaries.  Michael describes his new companion Elder Blankenship as "<I>having the best attitude and humor of any missionary in the mission.  He's also an amazing artist so we might work with that a little bit"</I>. He described his new area as, <I>"It will be a tough area.  It's probably the 2nd or 3rd most wealthy area of our mission.  It's also the area that President Stoddard lives in.  Yeah, the mission home is not far away any more.  I guess he figures he needs to keep a better eye on me.  This will be a good challenge for me". </I>Additionally he said this time he is not whitewashing the area. That completes the good news.</div> <bR> <div> Explaining the bad news Michael wrote, <I>"I have to leave Davis.  I don't want to leave the area that I just whitewashed and got things going.  Even the zone is doing a million times better than it has been.  We finally baptized someone on the last Saturday of the transfer.  We also have more people committed this week than we have the last couple of months.   And on top of it,  the couple we are teaching are going to feed us this week and they are going to come to church this Sunday!  I hope that they are going to get baptized! I won't get to be there for it but I'll be sure to get the pictures for it.  Also Lydia Werner is going to finish the lessons this week and next week she leaves for Washington D.C. She will also be baptized out there. I'm sad to leave these great missionaries.  We were just starting to gain their trust and one member even invited her friend to church and she is very interested in the church.  So as you can see I'm going to miss out on a lot. This past week we worked really hard and were able to find a couple new investigators and a lot of new contacts (potential investigators).  Also, every week from now on will bring more and more students in to town.  The new leases are starting to take effect so we'll see a lot more new move-ins.  </I>That completes the bad news.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>August 13, 2007 - "One Week Spiritually Fed" - </B></FONT>Michael just completed his August "All Mission Conference" and he was on a spiritual high when he wrote on August 13th. Michael wrote,<I> "OK, my week was awesome.  Tuesday we got to do some work, but we had President Interviews that day and after those he took us out to Cold Stone for some ice cream.  Yeah, he's got the money for that and he said that he needed something before his 2 hour drive to Santa Rosa.  After the interviews we said goodbye to Elder Dean.  It was pretty fun to have him with us and it was kind of weird when he left.  Wednesday we didn't get much work done because we had to drive down to Santa Rosa to be at the High Council room by 2:30p.m. and meet with all the zone leaders and Elder Maynes (of the Seventy).  It was a great Zone Leader Council.  Basically Elder Maynes was evaluating the mission and deciding what he needed to discuss the next day.  It was great that he didn't have his own agenda.  He first evaluated and then he prepared his plan for the all mission conference.  He had some great insights and suggestions for us.  Some of which was to move our goals from per transfer to per month.  Others were, work on finding.  Always stay connected to your purpose to find, teach and baptize.  He said that we sometimes get taken off on tangents and lose our focus.  He mentioned also that we need to establish a celestial culture.   We need to follow the rules and guidelines of preach my gospel and be sure to set the high standard in the leadership and move it down to include everyone.  He mentioned that in the world and in our mission we have false traditions.  He urged us to pull out those false traditions and just shoot them down one by one.  He also got into some deeper doctrine on the resurrection and the kingdoms of glory showing that there is no sin in any kingdom and that the only difference is that they did not abide a celestial law and so their bodies cannot take a celestial glory.  He finished with his testimony and, oh at the beginning he talked of Joseph smith as the first investigator and God and Christ as the first [missionary] companionship, pretty cool huh"?</I></div> <bR> <div> Back in Davis on Sunday a meeting was held with the Woodland California Stake. Michael wrote, <I>"Sunday we had a stake correlation meeting with all the bishoprics and Stake Presidency and President Stoddard.  It was pretty intense again to be in that room.  I asked them [following up on Elder Maynes instruction] if they saw any false traditions that they felt needed to be stamped out.  I didn't get much response so I guess we're doing pretty good.  They did mention haircuts.  Why?  My boy Elder Strobel buzzed his hair and his companions hair as well.  I told him after I saw it that it was too short but he thought it was OK".</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>August 06, 2007 - "Up and Down Week" - </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >On the up side</FONT><B> </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Michael wrote he was excited about two things rights now:</FONT></div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">the all-mission conference with Elder Maynes on August 9th.</div> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">the new family he is sharing the message of the gospel with</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">On the down side he expressed frustration with the fact that among other investigators in his zone, there is no one committed for baptism. He wrote to his mission president to ask for ideas on how to improve things. President Stoddard called to say, "he went through some basics and I told him we were doing that.  He responded that he wanted us to just keep working hard and that he didn't want to see a 0!"</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Lydia has not yet committed to a baptismal date, she'll probably move to Washington D.C. to join her boyfriend and get married there.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Michael complained that in this college town he sees two problems (1) a lack of modesty among females, and (2) abandoned bicycles everywhere!</div> <bR> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f000000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Elder Dean our temporary missionary is returning home tomorrow (August 7)..</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>