1st Pioneer Day Away From Home

Honestly, I totally forgot about pioneer day till right now. So, nothing realy feels different. But as I write this email I am reminded of sitting down as a family to make butter, rolls, and playing games that the pioneers themselves played. AAAAaaaaannnnnnnddddd, back to focus.

This week was pretty sick for two reasons:

1. I was literally sick Sexta to Today (Only a minor cold this time)

2. WE FOUND SOME AWESOME PEOPLE!!!!

Yeah, this week was definetly better. We started the week sprinting with an AWESOME and spiritually filled lesson with our most progressing investigator (Adrielly) and her friend Leandra. We taught about the Restauration of the Gospel and by the time we reached Joseph Smith seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, Adrielly was in tears because the Spirit was so strong and present. Needless to say, she recieved inspiration that A. Joseph Smith was and is a prophet called by God, B. The Church of Jesus Christ has the Priesthood Authority of God, C. The Book of Mormon is true, and D. (She told us this herself) we are disciples of Christ and hold the authority of God. It was an awesome lesson!!!

Next, me and my companion were on a road looking for a potential investgiator but we couldnt find the apt number anywhere. It was nonexistent. My companion said we should leave to find the next investigators house but I felt that our work wasnt yet done on that street. I saw a guy standing outside a shop on that same street and felt we needed to ask him about the investigator. So, I walked over (my companion a little frustrated with me - as he disclosed to me laughing after this expierience - for not wanting to go when he said we should leave) and asked aout the address first. The guy didn't know the address but asked for the name. Guess what, he is friends with the potencial investigator! So, he gave the new address of his friend and even agreed to meet with us to learn more about the church!! Woohoo! We hunted down the investgigator and found yet another potencial investigator in the process!! 

Ok, one more awesome experience to close this email. Two days ago, we were searching for yet another potencial investigator, but she was not at home. I saw a man standing on a roof, making so repairs and felt prompted to talk to him. At first I didnt want to because he was working. But, I decided to follow the promṕting anyway. I called him, he climbed down from his house, and me and my companion talk him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism by Immersion, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) and he wants to be baptized. It was amazing, because all ov a sudden, the Holy Ghost loosened my tongue and I was saying words I didnt realize I knew during the short lesson. What a miracle! I am extremely thankful for that awesome opportunity to feel th words just flow and feel what the man needed to hear.

We truly are God's children and He loves us very much. This Church is true, Joseph was and is the prophet of the Restauration, we have a prophet today (his name is Thomas S. Monson), the Book of Mormon is true, and we have the Priesthood Authority of God on the earth again.

Love you guys!

Elder Zinn.

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What up Fam!

I will respond to the question of the week right now: no, the doctors still don't know what I contracted. But I am normal (As normal as I always am).

This week, as you probably read in the mass email, we worked really hard and reaped many miracles and blessings. The Lord has smiled down upon us this week as we fasted and prayed for eah of our investigators. Each one with different needs. 

My camera broke. It does not focus on anything so I will be without pictures for a little while (sorry). Suspect it broke when a little child decided to throw it on the ground for no apparent reason. So, that was interesting, haha! He's a funny kid, he has only 6 years of age. Relatively new to life. He thought, I guess, it would be interesting to see what would happed. His theory is still unknown but the camera reacted exactly how I thought it would after I saw him do it. That is, it broke. But, what can you do, this is what I signed up for.

To my dismay, I am once more sick. This time, only a minor cold so work progressed as normal. My companion cotnracted the sickness first and I guess the germs just really hate Americans because they decided to torment me once more. But all is well. I am filled with allegria because of the success of this week. My companion and I had a rough patch yesterday but things are sorted out now. We are nearing the ended of the transfer. We begin our next (and my companions final) transfer next week. 

Untl next week!

Love yall!

Elder Zinn.

Death Weeeeek!

Greetings Everyone!

We had a really productive week! We were able to do quite a bit of work in our area this week!

This week is transfer week! My companion goes home this week! It will be strange to see him go home. I wonder who my next companion will be...

We were able to find four new investigators this week which was awesome! We found a family from the Dominican Republic that were super interested in learning more! The family consists of a single mom and four kids! They showed up to church yesterday and loved it! They are working towards a baptismal date of August 26th! Unfortunately, we had to pass them of to the Spanish sisters. Every person we find who speaks Spanish as their first language we hand off to the Spanish sisters. Oh well, hopefully they continue to progress. We also found a teenage girl named Levila! She really enjoyed the message of the Restoration. We are meeting with her tonight so hopefully it goes well!

The weather has been super nice all week! We walked around a lot this week to take advantage of it!

That's all for this week! Luv ya all!

Elder JAMES Zinn

 The Zone

Pageant 2.0

Hello everyone!

We had an insanely fast week!

A good part of our investigators dropped us this week :(. That's OK though, because we have been making a large emphasis in our area of working with and finding the elect! We are still working with Rita! She came to church again this week which was awesome! We moved her date back until August 26th to give her a bit more time. We taught Rita the Plan of Salvation which she really enjoyed.

While we were finding this week, we ran into a guy named Boni who just pulling into his driveway! When we sat down to teach him, he told us that he felt prompted by the Spirit to leave his soccer practice early which was when we ran into him! He said in his African accent, " You might not believe it, but that was a sign from God that I need to meet with you"! We were like, " WE BELIEVE THAT ALSO"!!! He then pulled out a Book of Mormon from his bookshelf and told us how he knew it was a true book! He had been given a Book of Mormon by a friend years ago and has been reading it ever since! The only lame thing about this whole situation is that we had to hand him off to the YSA elders because Boni is 19. Every investigator we find between the ages of 18-30 we have to hand over to the YSA elders. Hopefully we will be able to see Boni progress!

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to the Nauvoo Pageant! I went last year, but this was my companions first time. The Pageant was soooo awesome though! We had a really good time even though we were basically swimming with how humid it was!

That's pretty much this week! LLLLOOOOVVVVEEE YOU ALLLL!

ELDER ZINN!

 Elder Peden and I together have gotten food poisoning more than the rest of the mission combined!

Dor!!

What a week. Very tiring for a couple reasons:

Reason 1: I was really sick for three days (to the point I was sent to the hospital)

Reason 2: Despite the delay, we worked hard and were rewarded!

And my week went like this:

P-Day was great. We played bowling with our zone leaders and hung with them for the rest of the day. I finally recieved a violin. It looks beautiful and even sound really nice. It was only about 300$ USD but the quality is pretty nice. 

Terça-feira: Starting to feel sick. A minor headache but advil was sufficient for the day. We found a new investigator and taought him about the pĺan of salçvaction. He was very interested! We will return next week.

Quarta-feira: I began expieriencing a LOT of pain of the head and the body. Me and my companion stayed in side for  most of the day. But I was determined that an appointment would be made that evening. So, I took a few pills until the pain was light enough to bare and we taught an investigator and he LOVED the message. Huge blessing.

Quinta-Feira: Basically dieing at this point. That night my fever broke 102. The pills are not doing anything.

Sexta-Feira: I developed red bumps on my chest and my fever was still high. We called the wife of the mission president who told us to go to the Hospital as soon as we could because I probably had dengue. At the hospital, the doctors took two tests of blood (TWO PUNTURES INTO MY ARM!!) and found that I did not have dengue. So, the doctor said to me, "We are going to try a couple medications and see what happens." With that, they punctured me YET AGAIN and pumped my body with a liquid medication. Nothing changed. They tried a different medication YET ANOTHER PUNCTURE. This one caused my bumps to disappear and my headache was almost non-existent. I was sent to home with multiple bandages, tylenol, and a very tired body.

And now, because of our patience in time of pain, we have been blessed with two solid investigators who, we believe, will progress quickly and firmly. I am fine now, normal (Well, as normal as I usually am), and ready to work hard this week. We are VERY optomistic!!

Love,

Elder Zinn.

Dandelions

Some see weeds. Others see wishes.

Beauties of Preston

After dropping David off at the Helena airport, the kids and I loaded up the car for our next road trip. My parents feel that they are used only as a pit stop, but they are wrong. We enjoyed chasing down trains and putting money on the tracks, getting frappes at Caspers and cookies at Pepperidge Farm, playing games like Whoopee, visiting cemeteries, catching snakes, and celebrating Kirsten's birthday. The only bad part of our visit was Loni and I getting eye conjunctivitis.

Ranch: Week 2

More family joined us this week. David flew in Sunday and Douglas and Malena drove up Monday; just in time for the July 4th celebration. The pre-Independence Day activities included, basketball, riding ATVs, sparklers, and fishing. On the 4th, we spent much of the day in preparation of the firework show. Some fishing and target shooting was squeezed into the busy day. A family from the Helena 4th Ward made us an amazing bbq'd dinner. The firework show was amazing. Each year it seems gets better.

The next morning, Justin hitched a ride with his Uncle Douglas back to Utah. His allergies were so bad that he hadn't slept much for 3 days. Exhaustion won. The rest of us cleaned up the debris left behind from the fireworks. Then we drove to Philipsburg, a charming little mining town full of little shops begging to be explored. We, along with Mom and Dad Zinn, took some "old fashioned" pictures. Then David, took the kids panning for gold and gems. They found quite a few nice looking sapphires; much to Daveo's delight. That boy loves gems. I was told that he was the one finding most of them. I guess he has a good eye for spotting out treasure.

The rest of the week was spent exploring, more fishing, catching bugs, hanging out with cousins, and watching more thunderstorms roll through. One afternoon, I noticed Loni hanging clothes, including underwear, on a bush the grows near the trampoline. Her mini Frozen backpack was stuffed with her clothing.

July 2-8