Monday, March 2, 2015

Another week in Rhinelander

Hello,
 
This week was fun. We had two exchanges this week and it was a ton of fun. Not too much to report about other than my companion got sick. So Sunday we ended up leaving church early because the ward mission leader asked us too. But other than that noting really happened other than the normal knocking doors and teaching people.  Hope you all have a great week 

Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Monday, February 23, 2015

Zone Conference, wait my last one :(

Hey Hey Hey,
This week was a weird one. We did a lot of work but not too much results until 2 investigators just showed up to church! Crazy miracle!! Something really cool we had Zone Conference this week and it was really cool I really enjoyed it. We talked a lot about goals and the Plan of Salvation. Which was really cool to better understand some of the principals from the plan of salvation and now to be able to apply what I've learned. I am so excited for the next few weeks. I hope you are doing good, and have a nice week

Love you  all,
Elder Robert Pike


Every week I write to Elder Pike I send him a list of questions.  I usually always ask how the weather is.  Today he said Rhinelander isn't bad, it was really cold this morning  -22.  Oh my goodness glad to be in Las Vegas.

Valentines means slow week

Well I hope you had a good Valentines day, mine was pretty good. We got McDonalds for dinner and the shamrock shake machine was having troubles. So I ended up waiting for about 20 minuets for my shake plus I got it for free and a free large fry too, it was worth the wait.


-- 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Monday, February 9, 2015

I'm staying!!!!

Hello,

Wow I am staying and so is my companion! Elder Williams and I are staying together, I am going to be the 3rd missionary he sees off on his mission. It has been a crazy week we have found some new people and then they didn't show up to the appointment but that is nothing new. We had Interviews with President Cutler on Thursday, which was awesome. I really like him a lot and I am excited to have one more transfer with him. Oh and he told me something really cool so my mission got extended one week to match up the Spanish, Hmong, and English missionaries and so that week gives me the opportunity to see another Apostle on the 21st of March and then a few days later I will be home. Man this was a weird week. Hope you all have a good one this week.


Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

What a Birthday!!

Hey, 
 
This week was really cool my birthday was Wednesday and we had some cool miracles happened that day we got in contact with a referral, Kimberlin, and taught her the restoration and extended a baptismal date and she excepted. We had dinner with a non member family that are very spiritual but are looking slowly for a new church they don't think the Catholic church is for them anymore but they are trying to keep their son in catholic school until high school but they are open to hearing what we have to offer. We had an appointment with a family that was referred by some really strong members here and had an awesome lesson with them about where the Book of Mormon came from by using a map to show it. Then it was really cool we Sunday was really cool we followed up with Kimberlin and she had been reading from the Book of Mormon and said she had seen her faith grow. Then we talked with the member who gave us the family as a referral and she had talked with them and they told her that really enjoyed what we had to say and that she really wants to come to church. Thanks for all the birthday wishes I really enjoyed them. I hope you have a good week,
 
Love you
Elder Robert Pike

The Hodag stole the keys!

Hello there, 

This week was an interesting one. We didn't have our truck for a few days so we did a little bit of walking all over. So Monday we had a couple lessons in the morning that went really good. We had the Bishop up here come to those and he was awesome. Tuesday we had district meeting here in Rhinelander and we had a running bet the first person to fall had to buy DQ and Elder Hyer fell so we cashed in after we visited the Hodag. Oh this is the important part I should tell you what a Hodag is, it is a 7 foot long by 30 inches tall beast with large tusks and spikes/ horns all over it, it was spotted by a logger hunting in the woods. And so if you can read the paper about it, it says that the Hodag is accused of stealing peoples keys, like ours. Wednesday we went out and contacted some people and then came home to wait for the assistants to get the keys and then they were going to give us a ride to the truck but they didn't have any room to give us a ride so we then had to, all of Thursday morning and early afternoon try and get a ride to the truck. We finally got it back about 3:30 and then had to drive an hour and a half to a dinner appointment and we barely made it. The sucky part is Elder Williams wan't feeling good afterwords and we went home and he tried to sleep it off but couldn't and the Friday he felt like crap still so we needed to go and get a spare key from Wausau so we did and that took almost all day. Saturday was fun because it was the first day in the week that we had a car and my comp wasn't sick so we went out and worked and were able to talk to some really cool people. Sunday was great, Dave was confirmed and was given the Priesthood, plus I gave a talk on the Atonement and the Sacrament it was a great week even though we didn't have a car for a few days. Well I have to get going I love you and have a great week.
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Well what a week!

Hey,
 
This week was an awesome! One we had bunch of cool things happen and one not so cool thing. This week started off really good we had a good district meeting about goals but unfortunately I don't feel we are living up to our potential there but oh well, it's not my call. Then I went on exchanges with an Elder who has been out a little longer than me. We had fun and were able to get in contact with some people that they haven't seen for a while. Then Thursday was pretty cool we went and did some wood stacking and the drove down to Tomahawk to exchange with the zone leaders and we came up. Then went to a less actives house and had a great lesson and then we talked a lot about his mission and how he desires to come to church but has major migraines and doesn't want to go because of the pain but we are going to keep working with him. Then Friday Elder Arnold and I went and taught Dave and Elder Arnold Interviewed him and he passed and that was awesome we had a great time. We went and did some service for a member in preparation for the Ice fishing  trip. Then Saturday we went ice fishing and had a ton of fun, we didn't catch too many between the 30 of us. They caught about 12 northern pike. We played some football and ate some good food but then as we were leaving I was looking for our keys and they weren't there so we went back out to the ice and looked for an hour or so and had no luck finding them. Which sucks we are in one of the biggest areas in the mission with out the ability to get around for a few days while we wait to get the spare key from Milwaukee. But on the good side again Dave got baptized on Sunday and everything went great and he is excited for this next Sunday to get the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Well I hope you are having a great week.
 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Rhinelander

Well hello there,
 
This week was pretty good we ended up have a big surprise come up, a friend to a member (Dave Smith) who has been coming to church for the past few months wants to be baptized this Sunday. He is really cool because he has such a strong desire to follow Jesus Christ and his commandments. I am excited for his baptism and for the blessing that he is in my life to teach him. We are truly excited to start this year with the blessing of a baptism and we are going to work hard and have a baptism every month here in Rhinelander even after I leave. I am so excited to keep working hard I truly love Wisconsin and the spirit I have felt since being here serving the Lord.
 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Christmas, A Baptism and a Transfer

Well Merry Christmas,
This week was and interesting one with Christmas right smack in the middle and the fact that transfers are on New Years Eve it makes life really interesting. Christmas day was so much fun we had breakfast with the Sabourins and then called home and played some apples to apples so much fun. Then we went to the Burdnickis and had some lunch and talked for a while. Then we went over to the Andrus family and played some games and talked a lot and too one of their daughters about her mission, she returned 2 Thursdays ago. All in all a good week because the best gift I got was on Saturday Gabe, the Brown's grandson, got to enter the water of baptism .It was awesome! I am going to miss him. He is so funny. Then we had a little extra time this week and we stopped by a members trying to find out about one of their friends that came with them to church last week and ended up talking with the member for about an hour about how he could help us in the missionary work and other stuff. He is so cool and I wouldn't have even guessed it because he is so quiet compared to his wife. Well as i mentioned transfers I am going to Rhinelander. It is near Wausau I am excited to leave but i would really like to stay but it's the Lords will. I hope you have a good week.
 
Love you,
Elder Robert Pike

 

Dinner appt.

Pictures from one of the dinner visits.




 
I think he converted them too!!!!  :)
 

I'm dreaming of a White Chirstmas just like the ones I've heard about

Hello all,
Merry Christmas all!!! Well for the past two weeks we have been fairly busy we had to do some service last week  Today we helped with a funeral joy oh joy, so that is the reason for the late email this week and the lack of an email last week. But the past two weeks have been good we have been helping Gabe prepare for baptism this Saturday. He is awesome and is going to be baptized Saturday so what a great gift for Christmas the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so excited for him and their family I love them so much they have truly come a long way. I know I am going to miss them when I leave. I am sorta excited for Christmas I am happy for the day but 3 months and a day from it is when I'll be home and that is kinda sad to think about because I love the people here so much and I know I am going to miss them a ton. But you know what I can and will be a missionary when I go home. I love you and hope you have a Merry Christmas. 
 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Still in Green Bay!!!

Hey,

This week went pretty well! We started using a survey to get into peoples homes and were able to teach 19 lessons tracting! Gabe is doing so great, he is so excited for his baptism!! It's been fairly warm this week it has stayed around 30 during the day and has been sunny. Today is a little colder and snowing. I was asked 5 times this week how many wives I have haha. We have been using the churches 'He is The Gift' program a lot and it's great!! Just this week we passed out 70 pass along cards for the 'He is The Gift' movie. It's a great none threatening way to get people onto mormon.org and exploring! We hope that we will start getting more investigators through this program!  Find somewhere to share it this week its a great tool!!! Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Love  you all,

Elder Robert Pike

Leaves

Hey all,
This week was sooooooooo long, not a lot of people were home two reasons, this is the week of deer hunting with guns and it was Thanksgiving. So pretty much not a lot of people were home. Hey but on the good side of things we were able to have some success out tracting on Saturday and had a few people say that we could come back so that was nice. This Thanksgiving we did have as many members to visit this year but we did see two members we had a good chicken dinner at one house and at the other we ate just some snacks, but it was great. Then on Friday the ward had a turkey bowl and it was a lot of fun even though only 6 members showed up we also had 6 missionaries, including us, so not the biggest one but it was fun. On Sunday we received some sad news about Amada and we are going to have to move her baptism again her case keeps getting screwed up, and now her lawyer has an conflict of interest, he worked for the cop that is accusing her on false charges, so she could use some extra prayers if you can do that for her that would be awesome. Well we are going to see crazy miracles this week hope you are having a good one too.
 
Love ya
Elder Robert Pike
 







 
 

Green Bay

Hello again,
Sorry I forgot to write last week. I ran out of time before we had a lesson to email all of you but nothing to exciting happened last week any way, except that we got to have a 1-6 week training on last Friday but other than that it was a pretty normal week. This week we went on exchanges, yes I know it is weird the last day of the transfer but none of us were getting transferred and Elder Peterson had a baptismal interview with the Sisters investigator so he had to come down anyway, so we did exchanges. Exchanges were so much fun we had a dinner appointment and then contacted a few people and then Wednesday we went to visit a less active who owns a bakery and got some good doughnuts. It was awesome. Then later on Wednesday night we had correlation and I almost exploded! I did all that I physically could to prevent myself from killing our ward mission leader, need less to say we got taco bell that night. Than we got a 4 referrals from this sister missionary in az and we contacted 3 of them and found that one is not in our ward. We were able to get in contact with all of them and 2 of the said we could come back. It was awesome. One of them has actually met with the missionaries before they were neighbors of the Krehbiel family here in Green Bay and they said that we could bring them over and we could share more with them. Everything is going great here. The Browns are awesome and Amada is doing good. She is coming along just fine we are hoping and praying that her case is dropped so she and Gabe can get baptized after Christmas. I hope you have a great week.
 
 Love ya
 
Elder Robert Pike

Sisters sought revenge!

So the sisters tried to get back at us this week for the pranks we have pulled on them and this is what they did.


​We drove with it all night. On a more spiritual note the Browns are doing great and are going to the temple this week to do baptisms for the dead so excited. Another cool thing my mom being the nicest person in the world bought them quads with their names engraved in them. I have to go I love you all
 


.
P.S could you all pray for my family my grandfather passed away last night I know he is in a better place and I am happy for him, I just worry for my family and I know they need all the support that you provide.

Good Halloween

Hello all,
I hope you all had a great Halloween. I know we did. This last week we had an awesome Zone Conference where they talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it leads to our conversion. It was such a spiritual experience to learn and grow from our leaders and from a member who was converted by purchasing a copy of the Book of Mormon from Goodwill for 50 cents. It was awesome to hear the testimonies of the missionaries and him. I am challenging you all to send me in a separate email of your testimony, for those of you that read my blog my email is robert.pike@myldsmail.net Hopefully I will be able to hear from you too. Then we had a scary lesson with Amada and the Browns where she told she might be get kicked out and and other things and we were scared but now we are going to be meeting with her everyday so we can help her even more. But everything seamed normal on Sunday so we are praying that everything still goes well. Saturday was awesome and we were able to help 3 members of the ward with work around their houses, raking leaves and stuff like that. It was awesome we are getting to know the members even better. I love service! And Sunday was awesome I loved it. Testimony meeting was weird and full of random 5 minuet pauses, but it was great but the best part of yesterday was the CES devotional by Donald L Hallstrom that was amassing! He talked a lot about how we can sure up our foundation of our testimony, it was amassing. I really like the part about how he related our testimonies to the foundation of a mighty and majestic temple. It is a great talk and I would like it if you would watch it. Here is the website https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/ces-devotionals/2014/11?cid=HPSU110214549&lang=eng.
 
So to preface this picture and why it was a great Halloween we pulled a prank on the sisters. The sisters are in charge of our dinner calendar and we asked what day we had a dinner with the Elkins family. They told us the day and said that it would cost us an arm and a leg so we go them an arm and leg. But we didn't make it that simple we told them to leave their trunk of their car open but they didn't so we took their keys and tied the arm to the trunk so when they opened it the arm would pop out at them. It worked out better than we had planned. The Sister holding the arm and leg is Sister Johnson and she was scared really good. She oppened it and screamed and ran while her companion for the day dropped her coat and ran away fast. The best part of the prank we had the members that we had dinner with involved and they watched. Brother Elkins said "it worked perfectly" it was awesome and sister Johnson being such a good sport took a picture with the arm and leg.
 
Love  you all,
Elder Robert Pike

Well another week

Hello there,
This was a great week. We had some really great lessons with Amada and her son Gabe this week. Gabe is 7 and turns 8 in December so we are preparing him for baptism on the 27th of December and what is going to be really cool if all goes right Amada will be baptized on the same day! I am so excited and so are they. They both really want to be baptized. Tuesday Amada felt like everyone was accusing her of stealing things and she didn't, and we were able to calm here down.  Wednesday we talked with the Browns and they said that she said " that I fell so much better after meeting with them today" she is so awesome she has gone through so much and still is pressing forward. So Thursday was a rough day for Amada her roommate stole here parents old license plates and got into trouble and the cops came to the Browns and the deputy was trying to accuse her of doing it but Amada has everything to lose so she wouldn't have done it plus in her own words she "is a hermit". When we came up to the house she had just pulled out a cigarette and started to smoke but only took two hits off of it. I was so impressed, she has come so far she has gone from smoking more that a pack a day to smoking maybe 2 cigarettes a day. Tomorrow she is going to quit for sure. This week has been stressful for them but they are enduring well and it is going to be awesome to see their progression and hopefully I am able to next year to join them in the temple so they can be sealed to each other. I love their family so much. I hope you are doing well and have a great week. 
 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike
 
P.S. We had trunk or treat this week. We decorated the Sisters trunk and passed out candy.
 
 
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GREEN BAY!!!!!!

Hello,
How are you doing today? I would really like to know the answer to that question.  This week we got out and worked through the rain. and then we did some service and then we had church that was all.
Last  Monday we got to go to Lambeau field, it was fun. I will show you pictures. Tuesday we went to Shawano and had district meeting, it was fun, and after we gave a blessing to some less active non members. Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with our EQP and Brett was awesome. He is now reading from the Book of Mormon daily. Thursday we taught Amada and now she is using 15 step program to quit smoking. We had dinner at the Browns but they didn't cook Sister Johnson made us all some fried chicken it was good. Friday we had an awesome lesson with this lady. We drew up a map of the earth and then told the story of the Book of Mormon. She than said she believed all that we said and we are going to go back this week. Saturday was full of service we helped members clean their yards and rake leaves. We planed on getting done around noon and didn't finish until 4pm. Next Saturday we are going to split wood. Sunday was okay we had Ward council and I wanted to scream at the lack of participation for the ward goals for the next year. Church was good though. I hope this week is better we are hoping to see miracles here in Green Bay as the ward works together to meet their goals.
 
Love you all,
Elder Robert Pike


My future view and hopefully it will be on a Sunday.
 
 
 

A new week and a new companion.

Hey
So this has been a weird week but it has been fun and exhausting at the same time. So on last Monday we played sports at the church for a while. Tuesday was weird Elder Wise packed and I cleaned the apartment. We went and contacted some people. We saw the Browns and then started our long trip to Milwaukee. First stop was in Manitwoc to pick up the ZL's van then we went to Sheboygan to pick up the Hmong Elders and then it was off to Misquigo Lakes to drop them off and finally we made it to West Allis to stay the night. By the way we got there at 10pm. Then Wednesday was long too. We were at the church at about 7:45am and then I was trained about training, I met my new companion Elder Haueter. He is from Magna Utah. After all was said and done in Milwaukee we left at about 2:30pm and drove up to Oshkosh to drop of fthe Sheboygan Elders and then did the long hour trip to Manitwoc and then the hour drive back to Green Bay. It was great I love my new missionary a lot. We haven't had too much time to go out and work but we have had some great service opportunities in helping some ward members. Friday we were able to see Meet the Mormons it was awesome! I loved it I hope you are all able to watch it. I can't believe how great it was. I hope you are having a great day.
 
Love you,
Elder Robert Pike