First week of 2017

This week has been pretty good. We have had a lot of fun, and there
have been a few big changes in the mission.

We have been I guess in a way sifting out the noncommittal
investigators. It sounds kinda harsh and sad, because there are quite
a few people we won't be visiting very often any more, but it's good
because it makes way for investigators who are prepared and ready for
the gospel. We also have a new investigator named Kelli. She is the
daughter of a member, and she is going to be baptized on the 28th. It
seems like all of the other investigators we have had on date for
baptism seem to become less committed to meeting with us once we set
some expectations from them, but Kelli is really excited to get
baptized, and she has been praying and reading her Book of Mormon a
lot. It's really exciting.

We have also had some fun this week. We were driving to an appointment
and we saw a Christmas tree on the side of the road. When we were
driving home, we put the tree in the trunk of our car and took it over
to the other Elders apartment here in Beaumont. We have a key to their
apartment, so we went in and put the tree in their living room.
Needles got everywhere and made a huge mess. It was really funny.
They took the tree and put it outside when they found it, so the next
day we picked it up and we put it back in their apartment in a closet
that they hardly ever use. We vacuumed up all the needles and left no
trace. It took them a couple days, but eventually they needed
something from their closet and they opened it up to find the
Christmas tree there. Haha it was pretty funny (at least for us) :)

We also had a zone meeting this week and we got some crazy news. So
our mission standard for 2016 has been to get 5 lessons with a member
present, get 5 investigators progressing towards baptism and 5 new
investigators each week. We also have to invite 14 people to baptism
each week. This year we raised the bar again (since it used to be
3-3-3 for 2015). Now we need to do a 7-7-7 so 7 member present
lessons, 7 progressing investigators, and 7 new investigators. It's
pretty tough to get the 5-5-5 so it will be crazy to get the 7-7-7,
but it's come from inspiration, so we know it's possible. We also have
been promised that we can baptize 2 people each month. This was raised
from 1 person a month. Our goal for 2017 is to baptize 888 people this
year. Last year we baptized 435 people, which is the highest yet. But
if every companionship baptizes only 1 person each month, we will
reach 888 baptisms this year, so we know it's possible.

Things are looking to be pretty good this year in the mission!