Monday, February 27, 2012

weekly update 2/27/2012

Next Tranfer is March 21st. Put in your vote on the side of page!



HELLO!!!

Things are going great here! We have been greatly blessed this week! The first reason is because Sian has accepted a date to be baptized! Her date was the 24 of March. Unfortunately that date has been dropped because he Mum won’t be able to make it. So Sian is going to talk with her mom and set a date. It could even be an earlier date! Anyway she definitely wants to get baptised.

The second great miracle is that Tom Spencer was able to come to church this week. Usually he works on Sunday, but he was able to find the time to make it to church. Both he and Sarah are making some great progress. Sarah has gotten an answer that the book of Mormon is true. The only thing keeping Sarah from accepting a date is finding the strength to tell her Mum that she is investigating. We will be striving to resolve it the next lesson we have with them.

I have been struggling with the idea of tracting in the evening. A lot of people have been commenting that we are out late and that we should not be knocking doors this late. But I do it anyway because I have been blessed in the past for looking for that one last person. Last night I got a reassurance that the pure in heart are waiting to hear the message at all hours of the day. Last night we were tracting past 8pm and we came across a really nice man named Paul. He is so solid! We are really excited to teach him this evening. It was good to have another one of the “one last person” experiences again.

Elder Jensen is doing really well. He gave a great talk yesterday. When I first met Elder Jensen he did seem a bit quite but as I have been able to get to know him. I have found him to be quite outspoken.
With love,
Elder Ballantyne

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

weekly update 2/20/2012

> Hello,
>
> We have still been teaching Sian, Sarah, Tom, Sam, and Leigh. They are
> each doing great! Especially Sian as you will see in a bit.
>
> Leigh was a new investigator this week he was taught for about two
> years. The last time he was taught was about a year ago. I think one
> of the Elders that taught him was Elder Driscoll who works at golden
> corral, I think. We were walking down to Helmshore to see some people.
> On our way Leigh stopped us and asked us to teach him. At first we
> thought it might be a Chave wanting to take the mick. We went and
> talked to him anyway, and ended up teaching him on Monday. We will see
> him again this Friday.
>
> Now on to the best news we've heard all week; yesterday we were
> talking with bishop and he told us that Sian has agreed to be
> baptized! She has not accepted a date as of yet, she says she wants to
> wait until we have taught everything, and then set a date. We were so
> excited to hear that!
>
> We also saw Sarah and tom on Thursday. The lesson went very well.
> Sarah is doing really well; she has been asking a lot of questions, so
> you can tell that she is genuinely interested. Her progress is mostly
> because of the contact that she has with the Simcocks, a member
> family. Lee has been a big help in her progress!
>
> With love,
> Elder Ballantyne

Monday, February 13, 2012

weekly update 2/13/2012

> Hello everyone!
>
> First of all I will give an update with the investigators we're
> teaching. This has been a good week we had another amazing lesson with
> Sian on Monday. She has been getting a lot more open to us! She also
> came to church. With Sarah we have not been able to see her this week
> because her grandma was in the hospital. But she came to church
> anyway. We will see her on Thursday. We have not been able to see
> Tara this week either but we have made arrangements to see her
> tomorrow with a member. We have found a new investigator named same
> she is the daughter of a member down in Shrewsbury. She is very nice
> we have taught her once and look forward to taking a few YSA members
> to see her tomorrow.
>
> The ward is doing amazing; they truly deserve investigators to
> fellowship. They are like a big family! And when investigators come in
> they treat them as if they were coming ages ago. It is truly wonderful
> to see such great unity in a ward.
>
> Elder Jensen is doing great. One of the first strengths I have noticed
> in him is his punctuality. He moves things along quite smoothly. He
> also has a strong desire to be exactly obedient. We are looking
> forward for the best six weeks this transfer

Thursday, February 9, 2012

weekly update 2/9/2011

> Hello Family,
>
> It was transfers this week. And I get to stay in the beautiful land of Rossendale valley, where there is “…much fruit and honey,” (See 1 Nephi 17:5) for at least 6 more weeks! My new companion is from Cougar town, Utah. (Provo, Utah) He has been out for about 7 months. He has served in Blackpool, then up north in Carlisle, and now, he two get to experience the great land of Rossendale valley.
> The poles are now up… Will Rossendale be Elder Ballantyne’s last area? Vote now. :-P Stay tuned and find out more.
>
> This was a great week. We found a great new investigator named Karen Evans. She is a really nice lady. It started out when Elder Marjanen were street contacting. We felt impressed to knock on this house that looked like it was squished in between two other houses. Karen
> answered the door and said that Jehovah’s witnesses had just previously been. They seemed to have scared her a bit by talking about the end of the world. We then set up the appointment for Tuesday, we tried by and knocked but no one answered. Following that we knocked two more times and both times no one answered. Then we tried to calling her and yet again no one answered. Just as we were about to cross the street, to wear the member had parked his car, the door opened and there stood Karen, she invited us in and we had a very spiritual lesson. After we recited the first vision, we asked her how she felt. She said, “This whole time that you’ve been sat her teaching me about these things, I have felt very warm and relaxed.” So the
> spirit was able to calm her troubled soul. She was able to recognize the spirit and accepted the invitation to be baptized!
>
> We had another lesson with Sian this week. We taught the plan of salvation. The great thing is that in gospel principles class she got a follow up lesson on life after death. I feel like she understood it well.
>
> Things are going really great here in Rossendale valley the work is truly moving forward. I think the lord has truly recognized that the ward is in a state where they can fellowship the investigators into the ward. I believe that that is why the lord has been blessing us with success.
>
> With love,
> Elder Ballantyne


Email to Parents


Hello!
>
> This week we experiance a lot of snow we got about 8 inches on sat.
> and in the evening we didn't have any conversations with anyone
> because we spent all evening helping people get unstuck. we help 5
> people that night.
>
> For transfers i am staying in wonderful Rossendale valley. My new
> companion is Elder Jensen from Provo, Utah. Last week we didn't have
> either zone conference or exchanges. We didn't take any pictures of
> the district but we now have a new district. It's Elder Saunders,
> Elder Watts, Elder Jensen, and myself. We are all from the US of A.
.