Week 44

What's up Family!

On Tuesday we went out with a priest in our ward here and went and taught that 19 year old kid named Guillermo and it was seriously I think the best lesson I have been a part of in my whole mission! it wasn't perfect there are still things that could of gone better but the spirit was killer strong and he was really excited about what we were telling him.  He committed him to be baptized the 28th of February, which is kind of soon and hopefully he makes it, we might have to move it back a little bit but I'm not super worried about it.  He told us he works on Sundays but if he asks for it off he could probably get it because there's not like a set schedule. SO hopefully everything goes over well with that and we can keep helping him progress. As we were leaving his house his mom came up to us and said "hey anytime you guys want you are both welcome here, this is your house now, also do you guys like Mexican food? next time you guys come over I'll make a big dinner and we can have a little lesson together" haha so it literally could not of gone better! 

Later we had another lesson with Hilber and it was a awesome.  We have been trying to get in with him and teach his wife as well, but she doesn't speak Spanish and Hilber said he wants to be taught in Spanish so every time we went over there he would immediately start speaking Spanish to us and she would kinda hid in the back because she didn't know what was going on so we have been trying to get her more involved so this time we actually got her in the room with us and we taught 2 lessons at once haha while Elder Torrico was teaching Hilber in Spanish I was teaching Ashley in English haha it was kinda funny but it totally worked! She told us that she would really like to come to church but she didn't want to go with out Hilber (an excuse we get more often then not) But Hilber said he would be willing to go but Sunday rolled around and nothing. 

We also had a lesson with our 14 year old investigator that was pretty break-through! usually when we teach her, her aunt and uncle are there and they talk a lot which is great but I think Jennifer felt a little pressured or embarrassed to talk so she was pretty quiet, but we asked if we could just talk to Jennifer and she really opened up to us and we were able to figure out her concerns and now we understand her a lot better and know how to help her, so that's going really well! She comes to church every week and participates and is one of the only like 4 young women in the Branch so she'll get there eventually.

Things are going really good here and I'm loving Georgetown! Hope everythings going good back home! Love you guys, have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

This is just like a little square building in the middle of the trailer parks and they sell some good tacos here!

Week 43

Whats up!! this week was a pretty good one!

Tuesday night we had a couple lessons fall through but we found a 19 year old kid from Mexico City named Guillermo who seemed pretty open and willing to listen! we had another appointment with him on Saturday but he wasn't home so hopefully we can get back in contact with him.

So because of the other English Elders getting closed down we picked up one of their investigators (who is from Venezuela so she should of been our investigator in the first place but she speaks English so they just never told us haha but the point is she's ours now) she actually invited us over to eat on Wednesday before we even met her.  We went over there and when we walked in i saw her boyfriend, who she lives with and is also investigating, but he was wearing a Dallas cowboys hat and playing the guitar so for me it was like love at first sight haha he's a pretty cool dude.  We were talking to her and asked her what was the reason she decided to come to America and how she ended up in Kentucky of all places and she gave an answer that i had never heard before and don't think I'll ever hear again haha she told us the reason for immigrating to the US from a pretty war stricken bad place...was to see One Direction in concert.... hahaha it was really surprising.  But they are a cool little family and I'm excited to keep teaching them. they have a few concerns but over all they really enjoyed church when they came.  We're teaching another interracial couple named Hilber and Ashley who are pretty cool.  They don't know a lot about the church but she told us she has an aunt and uncle who are serving an LDS mission in Africa so that's pretty cool. They have a 7 year old daughter and she's pregnant with another.  She's 7 months along but still hasn't given up smoking haha I'm starting to realize the challenges of English work in the bluegrass state. but they are pretty interested. Its hard because his first language was Spanish and doesn't get a lot of interaction with Spanish people so every time we come over he wants to speak to us in Spanish but his wife doesn't speak a word of Spanish so its been hard to include both of them in lessons.

Thursday night we had a really awesome lesson with Jorge and Zaira.  We brought Francisco (owner of Franks Donuts) and it was a super great lesson.  They would be baptized but cant get work off to come to church and we've tried every trick in the book to help them get work off or find a new job or anything but this time Jorge said he was going to ask to get Sundays off and he said he would probably only get one or 2 Sundays off but hey! one or two is a good start! so I'm pretty hopeful for them! They have such solid testimonies and really have grown so much over the past year of meeting with the missionaries.

Friday we got snow! it wasn't a lot but we biked down to the trailers and got a good solid few inches of snow! we went down there at about 6 pm and when we left around 8:30 and when we came out there was another inch on our bikes seats haha so on the way back was definitely a little colder. 

Saturday a member from the branch drove up from Lexington to go teach with us which was pretty sweet! we taught a guy named Santos and it was a really good lesson. The spirit was super strong.  He's a really funny guy, total typical Mexican, talks with like 80% slang and has the high fade haircut and like designs on the back of his head haha he's awesome though, he keeps telling us that he really wants to change his life and be better so I'm excited for him.

Things are going really good here, I'm excited to see what this transfer has in store for me!

Love you guys, have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 42

What's up! 

Transfers happened this week and nothing changed so I've got at least 6 more weeks here in Georgetown! Some crazy stuff is happening her in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission! So due to the huge surge of missionaries in the summer after all the high school kids came out now the influx of missionaries is changing and the past 3 transfers they had to close 12 areas here in the mission and another 13 areas will be closed next transfer so a lot of changes happened this transfer! luckily not any Spanish Elder areas have been closed yet but I think next transfer they will close a few! I have a feeling Shelbyville will be one of those areas but we'll see!

Monday night we had a pretty cool experience, we were at an apartment complex where we had a few appointments set up and we went there and one by one the appointments started to fall through and we weren't getting in with anybody and we tried everyone we could so we started to make the sad retreat back to the bicycles when we saw the English elders step out of an apartment door and see us and begin to run towards us all excited haha they told us they just found an investigator for us and they gave him a Spanish book of Mormon and talked to him in his broken English so we went and met him right there and he's a pretty cool guy! his name is Eric and he's 6'4 which for a Mexican is like a 7 footer haha but he was pretty nice and told us we could come by and see him.  He said he is going through some hard times right now and would like to be closer to God so hopefully we'll be able to see him again and keep helping him!

Later that week in that same Apartment we had a bunch more appointments lined up and the same thing happened haha a lot of them dropped so we decided to run over to a near by apartment complex and just knock some doors and had some weird experiences but in between those experiences we found some cool people! We met a family that had been taught once by missionaries but soon moved after that and lost contact! I think they are the first Baptist people I've ever taught so that's cool haha and they fed us some pretty tasty soup!

We had a lesson with our 14 year old investigator Jennifer and while we were there her aunt made us some really good Molé which is like this type of sauce you put over chicken but its like chocolate based and spicy at the same time its really good stuff! and the next day another member made it for us again haha so I love me some molé! Sunday was church all day long haha we went and visited a sick family in the branch on the way home from church because our ride was the elders quorum president so we didn't get home until like 8 o'clock! 

This week was really good and I'm excited to keep working in Georgetown! love you guys! have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

The English elders next door to us got their area closed so we got all of their stuff haha so our apartments loaded now I'm not sure what it has to do with whats happening in this picture but I had to send this one haha 

One of the elders is going home so to burn his suit we went to a members land and threw mozoltav cocktails at it haha

Week 41

What's up!! Another week, another email! This week went really good!

Monday night we were able to get in contact with an old investigator named Santos Villon de Angeles (which in English means saints of the village of angels in English haha) but we got back in touch with him and sat down with him for a while and he told us that he has 5 kids with 3 different women, and that he's only 30 years old and he wants to change so there's a lot of work to do with him but hopefully we can continue helping him! 

Tuesday we went down to the trailer park for the first time in a while and we taught the crazy Catholic family that likes to feed us haha they're really cool and friendly but they're so set in their beliefs and not really willing to change so we might drop them soon, we'll se what happens! 

Wednesday I went on an exchange with the district leader and it was like below 10 degrees all day but I was in a car all day doing English work but the next day was just as cold and I was back on a bike!  We had a few good lessons and a member from Chile came out with us and it was really good! 

Friday we found a new family to teach! They are the 2nd Nicaraguan family I've ever meet and both of the women happened to be named Carla haha but its Carla, her son and daughter, her father and grandfather! there's like 4 generations in this small 2 bedroom apartment haha but they're pretty interested and I'm excited to keep teaching them!

Saturday we made our way back to the trailers and finally saw Jennifer again! its been 2 or 3 weeks since we've taught her so it was good to see her again! she is close to baptism she really wants it we just have to help her find the courage to tell her parents in México! We also found another old investigator who is probably the most humble man in the world haha he lives in a single room shack with no bathroom or kitchen just a room with a bed and a small fridge and some clothes and he had a big pile of bibles and reading material from every religion possible.  He told us that he had an 'accident' and that he always heard a voice in his head tell him things were going to happen and the would happen and he's been searching really hard for the truth so were going to try our best to help him find it! 

Over all this week has been really good and were making a lot of progress here, and overall its been pretty balanced! I hope everything's going good back home, I love you guys and miss you so much!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!
Love Elder Follett

Week 40

What's up everybody! HAPPY NEW YEAR! this actually was probably the worst new years celebration in the world we played checkers and went to bed at like 9:30 haha I set an alarm to wake me up at like 11:55 to watch the new year come but it didn't go off and I woke up at like 3 and looked at the clock and said out loud "darn..well happy new year" and went back to bed haha so not super festive here in Georgetown!

This week was a pretty good week! we had some pretty good lessons! not going to lie my companion right now is definitely not the first person I would choose to live with but I'm learning a lot from him! Either by his example or maybe just having to learn more patience but either way I'm learning something haha. 

So we've been working a lot this week with a long time investigator named Enoc, his wife was actually baptized 2 years ago by Elder Torrico and his trainer when he was first here, but we've been trying really hard with him.  He is a great guy and loves us and loves to have the discussions and hear our message and pray with us but he is almost afraid to do anything.  Like super solid testimony, super nice, like this week Torrico got a flat tire on his bike so we called him and within like 5 minutes he was there to pick us up, he's just an awesome guy but he will not come to church.  He has been investigating for about 2 years and in the past he was about to be baptized and he was really excited about it but like the day before he backed out and said he wasn't ready.  He told us that he knows and understands that church is important and that its a commandment and that his life will be better and he'll be blessed if he comes to church, and he told us he's not busy on Sundays, all he does is watch TV all day, but that its not his time to come to church and be baptized yet.  Super hard! he is so humble and ready to receive the gospel, we just have to help him feel ready!

We have focused a lot more this week on finding, and have seen a lot of success we haven't been able to see some of our regular investigators as often but I'm excited to work with more people! we found a couple of really cool people this week! one in particular that I'm pretty excited about is a Mexican guy named Eduardo and he was like the perfect 1st lesson situation, he asked all the right questions and he was really impressed with the idea of having prophets on the earth again.  He told us he works Sundays and before we even asked he told us "but I'm going to ask my boss for Sundays off instead of Saturdays so I can come to church with you" haha so he is super solid! I hope everything works out and we can keep seeing him! 

We also were able to do that church tour with Jorge and Zaira and it went AWESOME! the spirit was super strong! they are coming along and one day will be ready but it'll take some more time! 

I love you guys and hope you all have a great week and a Happy New Year! 

Para Siempre Dios esté con vos!

On the way back from Louisville last Monday we drove through my old area, Shelbyville, and Elder Torrico saw these buffalo and FREAKED haha he thought they were the coolest things he'd ever seen so we had to stop and get a picture!

Me and one Crazy Elder from CALI

Week 39

What's up suckas! first of all I just wanna say thank you so much for all the Christmas and Birthday goodies and wishes! its managed to be a pretty good Holiday season here in my old Kentucky home haha so thanks so much! So on Friday for my birthday it was a pretty normal day, we had a English family sign up to feed all 6 of the Elders here in Georgetown so we went over with the car elders and were waiting on the couch talking to the family and then the other elders and the father walked in and they had all these balloons and huge presents and i was super confused because i didnt tell anybody that it was my birthday but it turns out, the balloons and cake and presents werent for me haha the family also had a couple from the ward over and they had just recently adopted a baby boy a few months ago and the 26th was his 1st birthday haha so at least I got to eat cake and ice cream! it was pretty funny.

This week was really fun, but the work was pretty slow haha a lot of our investigators who we normally meet with a few solid times a week that we just couldn't meet with, either they're out of town or they have family in town so this week was just a little crazy haha not super productive but it was still a great week! So a few years ago the English elders here in Georgetown baptized a kid named Jesus and we have been teaching his mom for a few months now and one day we were just knocking doors like we usually do and the bishop of the English ward called us and told us that Jesus's brother was in the hospital in Lexington and his mom was staying there with him so he asked if we could go down with him to visit them and give them a blessing (because bishop doesn't really speak Spanish) so we dropped everything and went down to the University of Kentucky hospital in Lexington and talked to Joséfina and Guillermo and it was pretty cool to be able to give him a blessing.  They said he has something wrong with his blood like he started coughing up blood at work and something to do with his liver so he's going to be in the hospital for 2-3 weeks so we talked to them for a little and gave them a Book of Mormon to read which was good.  we hadn't really been able to make a head way with Guillermo before but he seemed to listen pretty intently to us haha so hopefully one day he'll listen to the missionaries. 

We got to teach our investigators Jorge & Zaira finally, it had been a few weeks since we've seen them so it was good to finally hear from them again. we set it up and we are going to meet them at the church building here in Georgetown and have a little tour of the church so that'll be good! 

This week was a lot of fun and super different and honestly I'm kind of excited to get back to the normal routine of missionary work! I love you guys and hope you have another great week! It was awesome getting to talk to you!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Love Elder Follett

Christmas morning hike in Sadieville!  Pretty sure this was somebody's property but oh well, haha!

 Sadieville River

Go Pro on the Teeter Totter

Week 37

Whats up family! This week has been a pretty good one! Tuesday morning we drove down to Louisville and picked up my new companion Elder Marco Torrico, from Lima Peru and its been pretty fun! a little different but still we've had lots of fun!

Me and my companion Elder Torrico (aka Bruno Mars)

Wednesday we went on down to the trailer park and visited with Jennifer and we had a pretty good lesson with her! She is really excited to be baptized but is still pretty scared to call and tell her parents in México but we're working on it! we were talking and we asked her why she wants to be baptized and she told us that she had a dream that Jesus told her that she needed to be baptized and to read the book of mormon so i think she's recieved a pretty powerful witness that its true, we just have to work out some of the kinks before we can do it so thats good, im pretty excited about that!

Thursday we had a lesson with Jorge and Zaira and they're doing awesome as well they are super solid and are reading from the book of mormon everyday and they are teaching their 3 todlers how to pray and they know that this is the true church, the only problem is that they haven't been to church yet haha Jorge works 7 days a week so next time we visit them we are going to take them to the chapel here and give them a little tour and hopefully that will spark their interest in coming to church on sunday!

Friday we contacted a hispanic lady and she told us she wasnt really interested so we asked her if she knew anyone that was and she pointed out a specific door and so we went and found a single mom named Blanca who has been through some hard times so she was pretty receptive to our message and we came back the next day to visit her and teach her about the book of mormon and the restoration and we asked her if this was pretty new to her and if it was hard to believe and she told us well yeah it is new but its not so hard to believe, God can do whatever he wants! She has great faith, i think she'll just need some time to digest everything!

Sunday we had church all day but at the end of the day we finally got back in contact with Ausencio! (not aurelio haha) but yeah we found him again after 2 weeks of not seeing him and he told us he's read the first three chapters of the book of mormon and said "this is pretty interesting" haha so im excited to come back and visit with him! last night we had a prayer with him and kinda just chatted about the Book of Mormon and baptism and it went really well, he is super prepared!

Over all this week went pretty good and im super excited to keep working here in Georgetown! the weather here has been a lot nicer! still cold but not nearly as bad as it could be!

Love you guys, hope you have a good week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!
Love Elder Follett

Week 36

HEY! What's up! this week went by super fast again! We got transfer calls!! Elder Henderson is getting out of here and going to Louisville and my new companion is from Peru and his name is Elder Torrico! I'm sad to see elder Henderson go but still super excited! Elder Torrico only has a few months left on his mission and he had never been to the U.S. before his mission so Spanish was his first language so I'm going to try and improve my Spanish as best as I can! I'm super excited! the new mission president is really changing things a lot! He's been here for a few months but he's just barely starting to change everything the way that he wants it! like 2 of the area's have been changed into a "zebra area" which means that there is a Spanish elder there with an English elder and they do both Spanish and English work! he's white washing one of the areas of Spanish elders (which means he's taking both missionaries out of the area and sending in two new ones) and our Zone Leaders said eventually Spanish elders wont share an area with English elders and only do Spanish work, they will have the areas most populated with Spanish people and do all the English work there as well, so times are changing here in the GKLM! 

This week was pretty good! Elder Henderson was a little sick at the beginning of the week but we still managed to have a decent week! we taught a couple of pretty good lessons. We weren't able to get a hold of Auerelo this week but were going to try and find him next week! I was able to talk to elder Torrico a few days ago and he told me he doesn't have a bike so its going to be pretty interesting to see what happens haha hopefully we can find one at the mission home on Tuesday maybe when were in Louisville! on Friday we had a zone conference and a guy named Elder Erich W. Kopischke of the first quorum of the Seventy came and talked to us and it was a pretty cool zone conference! it was pretty long but it went really well and I learned a lot! I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned about missionary work, and I know I talk about it a lot, but is its not about how many people you baptize or what leadership callings you have, and being obedient is not about saying how obedient you are, but its all about sacrifice.  As a missionary you sacrifice 2 years and doing a lot of stuff you like to do, and sometimes it can be pretty hard, but in the long run it is so worth it. He read us a scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 97:8 " Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me." and he told us that you will know your mission was successful when you are sacrificing things you care about to be obedient and he told us just like the scripture said that the lord will except our sacrifice.

It seems pretty easy to do missionary work when you put it that way haha so im excited to see what happens with this new companion! He has actually already served in Georgetown, the very first 6 weeks of his mission so he already knows the area and the members here so that's good! 

With our 14 year old investigator named Jennifer we made some good progress this week! she told us straight up that she wants to be baptized and just not tell her parents in México haha and we can technically do that because her Aunt has legal guardianship over her but we all decided that it wouldn't be right! so we are working with her to be able to call her Parents and tell them "I know this is true and I'm going to get baptized" so we are going to keep working with her a lot! 

Also a pretty funny story this week so every Saturday night the whole Zone does a conference call and they send in a request to the missionaries praying and they will pray about it and as a joke elder Henderson texted "pray elder Follett will get a package soon...no just kidding pray for....." and then said what we really needed divine help with, so the sister was praying and she got to our part and said what we needed and I sighed in relief because she didn't pray for me to get a package and she finished the prayer and said "and please bless Elder Follett in Georgetown Spanish to get a package this week, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." and I was super embarrassed haha the whole zone heard that and were all pretty confused and elder Henderson got a good laugh, BUT on Friday I got a knock on the door and the UPS lady had THREE huge packages all addressed to elder Follett! haha I was pretty surprised but happy! So thanks for the 2 Christmas packages, I haven't opened them yet don't worry!                                            

                                                                 My Miracle packages!

Overall this week has been pretty good and I'm really excited to keep working here and see what happens! I love you guys a lot! Have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Love Elder Follett

Trying to fix Elder Henderson's Bike

Missionary work at it's finest. 6:30-7:00 every morning we're exercising! mostly "stretching" because were so exhausted from biking haha but to explain the shirt, we found a sleeveless white collared shirt and the little sleeve cuffs still with it so this is what happened!

Week 35

Whats up family! another week down! i cant believe tomorrow is already 8 months! time really is going by quick! this week was a pretty good week, a little slower with the holiday and everything but we still managed to have a decent week!

We found a potential investigator on saturday and came by and visited with him on monday night and were met with a little resistance haha.  He is from Mexico and has lived in the states for like 10 years maybe (still speaks very little english) but how we found him was we talked to two white ladies on their poarch and asked if we could pray with them and they were pretty rude and said no so like always we asked if they knew if any of their neighbors were hispanic and the pointed next door so we went and knocked the door and as we were waiting the ladies said hey he's right over there and pointed across the apartment parking lot, but before we could walk over the door opened and a pretty large young hispanic kid answered the door and we said (in english) hi how are you? and he responded "we're jehova's witnesses in this house" and then shut the door haha so we walked over to the guy the ladies pointed out and he was changing the oil in his old beat up car and talked to him and he was very nice and receptive and told us that he used to be Jehovas Witness and we gave him a book of mormon and he was super nice and without us asking he told us, yeah i'll read this book and ask you guys questions about it on monday when you come haha so he is awesome! on monday we came over and knocked the door and the big JW kid answered the door again and looked really surprised to see us again but we asked if Auerelo was there and we went and got him and we heard him say to him in spanish "tell them to go away" haha but Auerelo came to the door anyway and let us in and was super nice and we talked and had a really good lesson with him and he told us how he was a jehovas witness but was "dis-fellowshipped" so he wasnt allowed to talk in church or participate or be baptized or anything so he was really looking for a church that would accept him even though he wasn't perfect so he was really receptive to us and everything we told him he really stuck to and enjoyed, its almost like his time studying with the JW church like prepared him to meet with us and accept our message! it really reminded me of the verse in Alma 32 which says "And now when Alma heard this, he turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word." it was a really cool experience! so the resistance i was talking about haha while we were teaching him the people that he lives with (im assuming their family somehow) the whole time were playing JW videos really loud and being really rude and while we were praying the were like yelling really loud and just being really rude and hostile so next time we teach him we are going to try and get him to come to the church building here in Georgetown and give him a little tour of the building and teach him some more so hopefully that will work out!

Tuesday and Wednesday went pretty well, we taught a few of our investigators and it went well. Thursday was pretty crazy haha so in the morning we biked over to the church and played basketball with a few missionaries and a member from lexington which was fun! after that we went and had our first dinner at 12:30 and went straight from that to another dinner at 3 o'clock and lets just say we were pretty full after! after that we all went home and just hung out and played cards and it was over all a pretty fun day! not really the same without family but we had a good time!

Saturday night we biked down to the trailer park to visit our 14 year old investigator but she wasnt there so we went over and met with that family i told you about that likes to feed us and we knocked on the trailer door and it opened and there was probably about 30 or 40 Hispanics just all crammed into this little trailer all talking and singing and eating and drinking and we saw our investigator and he was like "HEY HERMANOS!!!" haha so aparently it was his sons 4th birthday and Hispanics are similar to Italians in the sense that they know how to party haha like it was crazy in there and Alberto, who knows we don't drink offered us a water and we took one and a cousin of his was like hey you guys don't want beer? and we told him no we dont drink! and he was like "ooohhhh right! how bout a tequila?" haha so we only stayed long enough to eat some tacos and chicken with molé and some birthday cake and then we were out of there haha Sunday was about 9 hours of church between meetings and going to the english ward in the morning and driving to Lexington for the spanish branch but it was a pretty good day!

Glad everything is going well back home and look forward to skyping with you guys in a few weeks! Love you! have a great week!

love Elder Follett

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

the AMEN house! we volunteer here once a week and this week was pretty crazy with all the donations because of thanksgiving! this pile of clothes got about twice this size!