HELLo Dear Family!!

This week has been hard too:) But SOOO good. It started off with zone conference. Great experience. We talked about the work, how we need more baptisms, how to get more baptisms, and the pleasure of being able to represent Christ this season. Really good stuff. I learned a lot and it was a joy being able to see all of my MTC friends, Sis Johnson, and Eld. Cummings. Love them! (we took pictures of our zones and Sister Hall put them on.... this. www.kenanddi.blogspot.com also, you should have gotten a picture from sister Johnson of her and I.) Ya, that was really good.

I got tons of fantastic letters this week! Thank you to everyone who sent them. Especially Gail! She sent me the greatest two letters! Letters are the GREATEST!! Im sorry I havent been sending any. I've realized that Im really not supposed to be writing any other day than Pday. If Im going to record any of this it needs to be in a journal. The time at night is set apart specifically for doing that. So even though I really do love writing letters, I need to be spending that time studying the material. PMG and the BoM. Greatest things on earth! But yes, letters are the greatest!

We spent a lot of time this week driving Elders around to fix bikes. Elder Bertoch's bike got stripped, so we went back and forth to the bike shop like three different times. Im kind of sick of that place. We also went around giving blessings to the sisters. I think I gave... four this week. Im not sure if I like doing it. I love the experience of completely relying on the spirit, but every time I do it I get super dizzy from closing my eyes and trying to focus too hard. Its funny. The rest of the week was spent finding. FINDING FINDING FINDING!!!! I feel like thats all we do. BUT thats what it takes. So we will do it. We talk to people all day. Knock doors, walk streets, stop people while going 20mph on a bike to tell them about the church. Its fun. And really, really hard. 

Its been quite hard. The last week and a half we had all three of the solid investigators drop us. In some way. We had to give J to Van Nuys, the Cs are breaking up (that is really hard and I wanted to cry for them when I heard), and O told us that she would be a bad Mormon, so we probably should come over anymore (for her that means that she really doesnt want this.) Also, (this makes me happy and sad at the same time.) we spend all day.....Wednesday?? ya. finding the most SOLID referrals. We talked to like four different people that were SUPER interested, but they all lived in different areas. Except for the spanish couple that we met. They live in Tarzana, but they speak spanish. So ya... It made me really happy to have people accept our message and actually be interested in what we had to say, but ticked because none of them live here. Whatevs!:)

I did an exchange with Elder Chandler on Friday and Saturday. SOOO GOOOD!!! He is probably my favorite missionary in the mission! (Obviously my all time favorite missionary is in Spain) He was SO good! I learned a TON! He taught me all kinds of stuff about studying, finding, teaching, getting into a door and changing the approach to every individual by CAREFULLY listening to the spirit! I hope SOOO much that I get to be his companion some day! He is a fantastic Zone leader, too! Really good at teaching. He challenged me to do a bunch of stuff and I've changed a lot already. Super cool stuff! #loveElderChandler

We ate dinner last night with the Cs again. They are the greatest family EVER!  We had REALLY fantastic steak. so good. I just love being around them. They're all super funny and enjoyable. Great members of the Chuch, too. They pretty much run the ward. Great stuff.

I LOVED the emails that I got from the family. Dad's-great! Brigs-awesome! Preston's-I was trying not to cry! Actually I was trying not to cry with all of them! They made me SOOO happy!  I LOVED Brig's letter. It was soo funny! and touching! I miss him SOOO much! HA!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! A W! PRIME!! That makes me SOOO happy! Talk about best in-laws EVER!!! They are such an amazing family!!! I LOVE E. But Preston was right. Be careful with this girl. Treat her right. DO NOT screw this up.  SOO nice!!! I hope this dinner goes well!! Earn a ton of money!! AND THE PLAY!! How sweet!!! I knew it would happen sooner or later! It makes me soo happy! and SOOOOO proud! I would absolutely LOVE to see him perform! Do you have a hard part?? High notes?? Who is your....partner?? The opposite role?? Is it A? Have you actually hung out with the twins yet? Walker or Wimmer? They are really good friends. Great examples. Im So happy that you've finally found real friends! Other than your brothers, Who are the only friends, really.

  ........What else. I dont really remember. I have no time. We didnt get here until 2:00, So I've only had a little time on here. OH!! I've been singing all over the place. Im singing twice this week and Im singing in church next week. Great stuff. Im actually really excited for it.

anyway. BYE! LOVe you!! I miss YOU!! ONly 9 days!!!!!!!! YEAHUHHHH!!!!!

Spencer and Trina Johnson.  They were good friends at Northstar.  She just arrived in the mission.  

Do I Share?

Eyow yady.

So I sent you a very long letter today. Really long. It explains everything for the past little while. Hmmmmm.. I'm doing very well. This week was hard, but good. Had a lot going on. It was transfer week. LOVED it! Our new district is super cool. The old one was good, but I think this one will be better. I really don't want to waste time retelling you all of this stuff. I like the sisters. They are really cool.  This is going to be a very short email.

What else.... Ok. I'll talk about J. SO after I went through the temple and decided to be better, we had a District meeting. In it they talked about setting goals of the amount of people that you talk to every day. Hansen and I decided to do that. We talked to like at least 50 every day. NO one said yes, and we didn't really see immediate blessing as far as new people, but they did come. I found out that blessings come in the strangest ways. We have been teaching this less active member for a while. Sister N. She is like 65 and lives with her 93 year old mother. Her mother is really hard to take care of, so they hire a caretaker. Her name is J. J is about 30, she's got three kids. A few days after we started making those goals, we went to a lesson with sis N. and J was there. We weren't expecting it. So we taught her the lesson and set another one. We all felt the spirit in the first one, but couldn't tell if she did. The second lesson was amazing. We taught the atonement. She was crying the whole time. It was really good. I was crying too. The spirit was super strong. We knew she was going through a bunch of stuff , and at the end of the lesson I had a feeling that she needed a blessing. I kind of shrugged it off. I did, but didn't. I think I felt nervous about it. So I looked at Hansen and he raised his eyebrows..."Priesthood Blessing...?" he mouthed. I was like......WHHAAAAAAAAATTTT?!??!?!? NO WAY!!!!!!!!! (in my head of course). So I asked her. She said yes. I gave it. It felt SO great. We left and had a great day. The next time we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well. We talked about the spirit, describing it to her and asked her if she had ever felt something like that. She said that she had. Right then and there, Hansen asks her to be baptized. Again I was like.....WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!!!!!??? She said YES!!! BAPTISM!!!!!!! WOOOT WOOT!!! (norwegian cheer!) (however on earth you spell that). But ya. We found out that she lives in Van Nuys. So in the same lesson we invited her to church over there and handed her over to the Van Nuys elders. We were SOOOO sad. But we're over it. She is still coming to Christ. It doesn't matter where. AND!!!! I'm still going to have a baptism here! We just need to find another person to baptize. Whatevs.

Ya, I don't really know what else to talk about. Ok. Last night we all went to the Christmas devotional at the Stake Center. I really liked it. Elder Nielson's talk was $$!!  Ya, before that we had an hour long musical program by the youth from the stake. It was hilarious. They sounded....wonderful. some of the funniest songs I've ever heard with a bunch of awkward tone-deaf youth performing it. SOOO funny. We showed up for that right on time, but it was completely full. We had to set up chairs for the first 10 mins. We were crammed in the very back against the big portable wall/divider thing, sitting in the founding chairs. (our ward would fill their stake center three times. Crazy small.) All of the missionaries sat in the very back. This family sat right in front us. This little girl sat in front of me. About 10. Bigger. Anyway. Halfway through the program she leans forward and rips hard core! She sits up and EVERYONE looks at her. I was leaning forward with my face about a foot from her rear. She farts, I jerk back and smack my head against the hollow wall which makes this HUGE sound which stops the choir (only for about a second) and all the other heads who weren't already looking turned. Well, all of the missionaries are giving it everything they have not to bust out laughing and I'm pretty sure Hansen wet himself. I was trying SOOO hard not to laugh. This struggle for composure lasted about 5 minutes, until the little girl herself couldn't hold it any more and started laughing out loud.  Her parents started laughing and we all just broke down. It was ROUGH. But probably the funniest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. LOVED IT.

Ok. I'm going to go. Love YOU!! I miss you!

Elder Sharp #2

Does this mean what I think it means?  

Can't Get Rid of the Box?

Okay. HI!

 

So to start off, I need to clear some things up.

 

I am NOT struggling NEARLY as bad as everyone seems to think. I have gotten emails and letters from everyone I know telling me that its okay and trying to comfort me.

I appreciate that and its super nice of everyone, but I think I'm sending you the wrong message. I do miss home. A lot. But its not as bad as I've made it sound.  I've missed home, but it's okay. Every missionary goes through it at different times in their mission, right?

 

Alright. So! This week was the worst week we've had so far as far as numbers go. We found very few potentials. We've been trying to set a goal every day of talking to 50 people and we hit it every day this week. We've been working our tails off and there has been very little reward.  

We did find a new investigator the first day we started that goal, but we're not sure how promising she is. Im hoping and praying that she'll get baptized, but its not completely up to my faith. Whatevs. We've been working really hard, so someone will come soon enough. Maybe the blessing is from the new sisters. Im SOOO excited for that! They're going to be so good!!

We have done SOO much for them! We went and moved them in, we redid the ENTIRE area book for them and the ward list, we have been finding meals for them, tracting only in there area so that they'll have people to teach. A lot. So we're excited for them to actually get here. The ward can't wait. The bishop about died when he found out they were coming. He's happy. Sisters always bring success and a ward with both is even better. Im happy about it. AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We get to keep the car!!  Great huh? They found one for the sisters. HOOORAHHH!!

 

Thanksgiving was good. Not even close to a sharp thanksgiving, but still good. We ate at the c's. They totally remind me of my family.  I love them. They're great! I like each one of the brothers. One is the most pretty boy man I have ever seen. That means something for me to say that. (being a pretty boy myself.)

 

We moved like three different people this week. It was a bust. We had to move a freaking PIANO up three flights of stairs. I hurt my back and hansen got stabbed by the railing. I was SOO mad. Who brings a piano from new york to put in a third story apartment?! Seriously?  Thats. all.

 

Other than that its been a good week. Hard. and really unsuccessful, but really good. We're REALLY excited about this next transfer. Its going to be SOO good!

 

OH YA! THE TEMPLE!!!!!! I wrote Lauri about it but I guess I should write about it. It was the largest and most beautiful temple I've ever been through. There were like.... five different rooms!! So cool! I loved it! We took a few pictures out front.   I loved it. It changed the whole experience for me to be in a different temple. Ya. I learned a lot. Especially being there with elder Hansen.  He answered a lot of questions that I had. He also showed me the scriptures I can look at to learn anything I want to about it. I LOVE my companion. I honestly think Father found the one person who could help fill the gap from my lack of brothers. Its nice. I am going to hate my life after this transfer is over.  

 

Okay. I have to go. I love you! I miss you and pray for you ALL the time.

Elder Sharp 2

Thanksgiving week- last week's email

Hi!! This week has been a little crazy, so I havent been writing many letters to anyone.

Ok, this week was super hard. We've been walking around, talking to everyone, knocking on doors, doing everything we possibly can to try and find people and nobody is interested. In my patriarchal blessing it tells me that I will be praying and searching for people to teach, because we cant find anyone. I will be wondering where these people that the Lord had prepared are. Inspired. Its totally true. NOBODY wants to talk about religion here. Noone cares. We've been working hard and doing all we can but no baptisms. We'll find them, though. They are out there, we just need to look in the right places. Pray for us to find people, will you?

So they are splitting the area. Fun. Its super complicated right now. They are still working on the line for the new sisters and trying to figure out the cars. We have a car right now, but we are the only elders in the district with one. We have to drive everyone else around give people rides. They are probably going to have to move us to bike though, so that the sisters dont have to. But if we go to bike we wont be able to give anyone else a ride. We wont to zone activities and it will complicate things a ton. But we will deal with whatever happens. I like bike.

Mom! I dont know what to write!
I love Hansen. He's the best! He is a great example to me and he is a very good missionary. Transfers are this next week and I think we're both staying. They usually keep trainer and greenie together until you're done training. But Im sure he's going to be made Zone leader or AP pretty soon. He is one of the most loved and popular missionaries in the mission and Pres loves him. Not that its all based on that. Its a calling, but if it wasnt...

Alright. So I told you that I didnt sing much. That is true, but I meant that I dont really perform at all. We sing in the car and a tiny bit at home, but not much else. And I have no problem singing with Hansen. He sings with me most of the time. Or sings by himself. He's actually really good. We just have very different styles of music. He likes folk and stuff and I like classical. He used to sing and play in coffee shopps back at home. Anyway. When we spoke at church he started off his talk by telling the whole ward that I love to sing and inviting them to force me to sing for them any time and place. "He loves it and would be happy to do it for you any time you'd like!:D" I thought I was going to kill him and wet myself for laughing so hard. It was just so unexpected. That was last week. two weeks ago. I dont really remember. But this sunday I got asked to sing at two different ward parties. One for this old group and another one other one. I dont remember. I have to talk to that woman again. It wasnt set in stone. But ya. I will be singing quite often for the holidays. I also was asked to go with the elders quorum to go caroling. Hansen will get to play all he wants. Im actually kind of happy. Ill have an excuse to practice at home. Cool. It will be cool. Ill tell you about that.

Ya, not much else going on. We had almost every dinner forget about us this week. Some just brought us pizza and some just gave us money to go buy food. Thats how its going to happen tonight. Which isnt really that bad, because we then get to choose anything we want. Which is usually pizza anyway. Whatevs.

Megan brower had her primary class write me a bunch of letters. That was cool. It was last week, but I wrote them all back this week. It was kind of cool to have all of these little kids write me. Apparently all of the girls thought I was really cute and asked megan for a bunch of pictures. I would be really excited about that if they werent nine. You know.

So I wrote about it to preston a little bit. There is a family in our ward named the c's. There are five boys. They grew up here. They all went to school other places, but moved back to be in their ward. Its the coolest! Its like the Sharp boys grew up and were all in RC2. Crazy! They all have high callings. Bishopric, HIgh councel, Elders quorum pres, stuff like that. Their family like....holds the ward together. They make it up. Anyway, being around them makes me have so much love for my brothers. I am SOOO excited for when we all have our own families and start doing our own thing!! Its going to be the best!! Im so stoked for that!!

OK! Got to go. Love you!!!! I miss you!!
Elder Sharp