Week of May 5, 2014

Well, another week went by in Del City, and it FLEW! Time is moving fast out here! Dad always told us, "Time does pass. No matter what, time passes. So what are you going to do with it?" It always made sense, but it's really coming alive how inspired that statement is. The mission is going by! And it says in D&C 58, "This is his mission, and I only give it to him once." Its dawned on me lately that it will never be the same.... So I better work hard and enjoy it! haha

 

So we're not so sure that K is going to get baptized. Financially they don't think they are ready to get married, and we can't baptize them until they're married. They have a 2 month old together, and so we don't want to break up the family for her to get baptized. So we're just praying that they'll have the faith to keep the commandments, and let God take care of them! But we'll just keep working with them until then.

 

We had an interesting experience with C and K. They had another argument and split up again. We went over to visit them and K was so exhausted that Elder Carter and I thought he was under the influence of something. But he told us that C left the night before. He told us he needed us to hold his hand so to speak, and visit him every day for about a week. So we stepped in to hear what was going on. While we were sitting there listening to him tell us what happened, a thought popped in my head to have him kneel down and pray and ask for a spiritual experience. I said a quiet prayer and asked if we had K kneel down and offer a prayer if he would be granted a spiritual experience. I felt very strongly it would happen. So we knelt down and he asked to feel God's love and to feel the spirit. We basically just sat back and watched him cry for a couple minutes, and then he didn't even look like the same person. He now had a sound mind, and was no longer super exhausted. It was unreal to see the transformation that took place with him! We told him that any time he needs it he can do that. We visited him a couple days later and he looked like such a happier person. We asked him if he had had any more spiritual experiences and he said he's had 2 since we left! It was amazing to see the change in him as his relationship with our Heavenly Father grew! Things in his relationship are also moving in a more positive direction, so we're excited!

 

We found a couple other people that we feel are solid. Last night we visited an investigator we haven't been in contact with. We felt we should try her, even though it was at a time that usually isn't good for her. We went and she was outside with her sister. Her sister had told us about a month or 2 ago that she wasn't interested in what we had to say, but she was still nice. Well the sister, J, started rattling off questions, and so we answered them. We answered her questions for about an hour and a half, then we basically taught the restoration. She said that most of the questions she asked was to see if we had a good knowledge about the Bible or not, and whether or not to listen to us. Haha she said we've passed so far! She said she is really interested in learning more, because she's been looking for the full truth, but she didn't think any church had the full truth. She really wants to take this seriously! It was a super awesome miracle because she turned us down a month ago, but now her heart has been softened and she might just find the truth she's been looking for! It was awesome!

 

The other cool miracle we had is a member invited a friend of hers to conference, and he loved it! His name is M. He's a super humble guy, and is just the nicest guy you'll find. He's looking for something, and he seems to be drawn to our church. We haven't been able to get in contact with him though. Well one night we just stopped by his house and he invited us in. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and Preach My Gospel. Haha he was full of questions. He started asking a lot of questions, and all of them were pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. So we just went through the Plan of Salvation and he said, "This all makes sense, and it answers all of my questions!" We're going to be meeting with him sometime this week hopefully. We're excited for him! He has a lot of potential!

 

That's mostly what happened around here this week. It was a good week! Elder Carter and I are excited about this next week, so we'll see what happens! Hopefully things keep picking up!

 

Thanks for all the support back home! I hope everyone has a great week and a happy mothers day!

Week of April 28, 2014

Hello Hello! So it'll be another 6 weeks in Del City coming up! I'll still be with Elder C it looks like, so that will be exciting as well!

 

This week was a really good one! It FLEW by though- it was crazy! Tuesday we were visiting one of our investigators, D. He's a nice guy! He's a seeker of truth. He gets sick of a lot of the religions out here because they teach a lot about Revelations and the end of the world, and he wants to know how he can live more like Christ. He also said he sees stickers all over the place that say,  "Invite someone to church this month" but we're the only one of any of the hundreds of churches around that have actually done it. So he's excited and progressing slowly but surely. We set a baptismal date for May 24th with him. It's a great goal to work towards.

 

Wednesday was a bit of a longer day. Not much happened. I got to do a baptismal interview for a 14 year old girl though! The other elders in our ward are teaching their family. The dad is a member, but his wife and 2 daughters weren't, but they've been going to church with him for a long time. Anyways the youngest daughter decided it was time for her to get baptized, so we're hoping her mom and sister will want to follow her example! It was fun though. She has a great understanding for a 14 year old!

 

Thursday night was awesome! We taught 2 families. One is a family of at least 6 (there might be a couple more kids we've missed the 2 times we've been over there) and the other is a family of 5. The family of 6 has a ton of potential! We can see them becoming members of the church eventually, and we're hoping that we're the ones who get to help them with that! The other family is nice, but they aren't really too excited about religion in general so we'll see.

 

Friday was fun. I was on exchanges with Elder V. He's a great guy! We had a good time! We were able to teach K. She's doing great! She hadn't been to church in a couple weeks and right when we sit down she said, "I feel awful I haven't been to church!" We had a great lesson with her and she's still on board to be baptized on the 10th! She still needs to get married though, but we hope that will happen.

 

Saturday and Sunday were awesome! We saw C and K. They were the ones we were teaching and they split up after a fight. Well they're back together. On Saturday they were in another little argument, but we taught the Doctrine of Christ and that settled them down. We went back on Sunday and they took the Doctrine of Christ to heart! They didn't even look like the same couple! We set a baptismal date with them for June 28th, and at the end C prayed about that date to know if it was the right one. She broke down in tears and we all felt like it was the right date! It was a super powerful moment!

 

Well, I gotta get going, but I just want everyone to know that I know this is the Lord's work, and I'm thankful for the chance I have to be a part of it! Have a great week and we'll try to do the same!

 

PS  We haven't had any tornados around me yet, so nothing to worry about! Haha

Week of April 21, 2014

Hope everyone had a happy Easter! We had a good one out here! We had a great turnout at church.... Apparently there are a lot of "Easter and Christmas" only Mormons out here.... Haha but we were glad they came! We had to sit on the stage in the gym in the back actually. The chapel here is super skinny though, and the court is width not length in the overflow, so there was probably like around 275 people. It was cool!

 

We were sitting down and this black guy walked in and took a seat. After the sacrament a member came back to us with him and said, "He would like to talk to you." So we went to another room and sat down and he said his name was T and he had been to 2 or 3 other churches that morning and he got kicked out of both of them. He was walking down the street and saw ours so he came in. He said he loved the service, and he wanted to be baptized! And so we talked to him a little more and he told us a little bit about himself. He has had a rough life and he's looking for a better life. He said he feels safe and at home in our church and he wants to join. He seemed a little.... interesting.... so we'll see what happens, but it seemed like a pretty sweet miracle! Hopefully it all works out! He was a hoot though! He brought the Southern Baptist to the gospel principles class! Haha- it was great! The lesson was on the Priesthood, and he kept saying, "Amen!" The teacher asked,  "Can you get to heaven without being baptized?" and he was like "No, man,  no!" It was just too cool! He volunteered for everything too! So we had a good time with him. We hope he comes back!

 

Other than that not too much else has happened. The couple we had a super powerful lesson with a few weeks ago has gotten back together, so we're going to start working with them again on Wednesday! Hopefully their marriage will be able to hold up so we can keep working with them! We'll see though. K is going to get baptized on May 10th. She's doing extremely well and is very excited about it! We also started teaching a family that seems to be pretty humble, so hopefully they'll progress here soon as well! We have a pretty good teaching pool now of 25 investigators, and it keeps growing. We just need to see a few more progress. We seem to be dropping them as fast as we're finding them lately. Haha but we'll keep it up.

 

Well, hope everyone has a good week this week! I'm thankful for all the support from everyone back home! It's much appreciated!

Week of April 14, 2014

Hello hello hello!

So I hope all has gone as well for you as it has for me this last week! Life has truly been good! We got a car from the mission because my companion tore a couple ligaments in his ankle playing basketball a couple weeks ago. Our area is so small that we finish everything in like 2 hours, so we've been scratching our heads a lot on how to be more effective. But until he can actually walk and not have to use crutches it might be tough. But we're still seeing miracles!

I guess first of all though I better say thanks to the Relief Society for the letters! I appreciated it and I'm sure all the other missionaries did as well! Except I'm freaking out a little that I leave for a few months and they change the name of the ward. But I guess that's not the worst thing in the world.

So for how great of a week it was there's not a ton to report on. We had a interesting experience on Thursday. We knocked on this lady's door and while we were talking to her she lost her balance and fell. She broke her hip I guess and she hit her head.... She had her Life Alert on her though! So she hit her life alert and the dispatcher said, "This is Brian from Life Alert, what's your emergency?" And she told him she fell and he was like, "Ok ma'am, help is on the way! Are you ok? What hurts?" Then she told him and he was like,  "Ok ma'am, help is on the way!" At the end of everything he said he always said, "Help is on the way!" She's ok though. It was an awkward and sad situation.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators that's been taught since last September, and she has been waiting to get married before she gets baptized. So we were talking to her and found out she's getting married this weekend, and she can't wait to get baptized! So we'll probably end up baptizing her either on the 26th or May 10th. So that was exciting!

We also had a scare this week. We saw C, a recent convert who has been on fire since his baptism in February, on Thursday and he told us he was having doubts and was really confused, and he didn't really know or think that the church was true anymore. It was a huge miracle though because he was able to come to the entire 3 hours of church on Sunday (which is huge because he is on call  24/7 and I've never been with him for longer than 20 minutes without him getting a call) and we were able to meet with him with Bro. G for about 2 hours last night. He's got things figured out now and knows that the world is confusion and the church is clarity. It was a super huge miracle!

Sunday was the bomb! Besides C being at church, we also had a super powerful testimony meeting! And a member brought a friend last week to the church to watch conference. Well her friend must have felt something because he woke up early in the morning and drove over 150 miles from his lake house to make it to church! It was awesome! The member caught us in the hall and said she wants us to teach him, and she said, "Thank you so much for the sacrifices you make to be here. M has been a close family friend since I was little and he really just needs this in his life right now. So thank you so much for being here to help him!" She was like bawling as she said that. It was so humbling! The work we're involved in is so special!

Well the last thing I'll share is a cool thing I learned from the scriptures. I've been pondering a ton about the gospel, or Doctrine of Christ. For some reason the scripture Ether 12:27 kept popping in my mind. So I flipped to it and started thinking about it. The process in that scripture is perfect. "If men come unto me I will show them their weakness." We obtain an errand from the Lord on how we can improve, and then we humble ourselves and realize that's an area we can work on. I love that it says weakness and not weaknesses, because that's exactly how I became the basketball player I am, one area at a time. I still remember that one day after practice when me, my dad, and D just worked on the form of my shot for 2 hours. I went from elbow to elbow just working on my form, the little things. Until that part of my game was consistent, we didn't focus specifically on too much else. That's how Christ works- one problem at a time. He'll give us exactly what we can handle! 

The next step is to believe that we can overcome it through Christ, and change or repent. I've been thinking a lot about how the sacrament plays a role for us as missionaries, but also for all of us as members. I was taken back to what one of my institute teachers taught us once. When we partake of the sacrament, we're renewing our covenants. However we should work one area at a time. We have a forest of trees to chop down, and so we need to take it one at a time. When we partake of the sacrament we get to seriously ponder about what our errand is, and then we get the chance to take that to the Lord and covenant with Him that you will work on that area of your life. After we do so we receive a greater portion of His spirit to help us achieve these righteous desires. I was thinking a ton about the symbolism of the sacrament. We partake of the bread and water to remind us His body was literally broken and torn, and that his blood was literally spilt so that we can improve and overcome our weaknesses. I think about that and He must be frustrated if I don't take a specific weakness I'm working on to improve because that's why he went through what he went through. It will take time, but that's why He did what He did. When that area of our lives becomes a strength over time, we can move on and start working on the next tree in the forest of weaknesses I have to chop down. I now understand exactly how the Doctrine of Christ applies in my life, and what I can do to better myself! It finally clicked with me this week on how to actually live the gospel.

Well, sorry I haven't been too consistent lately in my writing. The emailing at this library is interesting. But I hope you all have a good week! Enjoy your normal weather there. It was like 90 degrees here Saturday, then yesterday we were in a tornado watch all day and had a crazy hail storm (it was super short though). Then this morning it was like 30 degrees and sleeting/hailing. So yeah. It's been crazy here! haha. Have a good one! Love ya!

Week of March 31, 2014

What a week! We've had a super solid last couple of weeks! Sorry I haven't sent out the email for the last while. The schedule is tight and emailing time is limited, but I have a couple minutes to give a rundown on this week!

 

This week we were able to get in and teach a couple. She had referred herself through mormon.org a few months ago, and it's just been really hard to get in contact with her. We finally did and her husband was home. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and at the end of the lesson she said, "This just makes so much sense. Everyone should teach this!" Then she looked at her husband and said, "I think we should give this a try. Actually not a try- we need to give this our all. We need to do this." But her husband said he wasn't ready to make a commitment. We felt really strongly to open up to Mosiah 18 and so we read that with him. Then we went back through and said, "You're willing to bear others burdens. You already mourn with those who mourn, you comfort those in need of comfort. You stand as a witness of Christ. So why not enter this covenant so he can give you a greater portion of His spirit?" He started crying and said he'd be baptized, and that he's been waiting his whole life to hear that! It was super powerful!

 

Ok Wednesday was probably the funniest day of my mission! We totally lived "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" haha because it was still raining and all of a sudden- Elder Carter and I both saw it- a bagel just falls from the sky and lands like 15 feet away from us. Haha it fell from like way over 20 feet in the air! Haha it must have fallen out of the tree or something, but it fell a long ways! We both just started laughing way hard. Then we were walking to Hungry Howies (That's right! They have it here!!!!) and we took this shortcut through a field, and it was next to this river. Well there was this random person in the river, and then he saw us and he just started running at us. Haha we just keep walking, looking like "should we be scared right now?" And there was this pipe like 2 feet wide, if that, that we had to cross and it was super windy, and there was a person running at us, so we hurried up and crossed and thank heavens I didn't fall in because I almost did!  But the person ran past us. And it looked like he had a spear, but it was just a fishing pole. It was a false alarm, but a super scary one! Haha

 

Thursday we had a zone conference, and our mission president did a great job on talking about the atonement! It was super powerful! Friday-Sunday we basically just taught new investigators. We had a couple of great lessons with people, and we were able to talk with a couple of families! We're super excited for this next week as well! Thanks for all the prayers! Hope everyone has a great week!

Week of March 17, 2014

Transfer doctrine came in last night and I'll be here in Del City for another transfer! I'm excited- it should be a good time! My companion is heading out though, so I'll have to take control of the area, but it shouldn't be too bad.

 

So this week was fun! We got to go to the temple on Tuesday which was super nice! That was my first time going since my first transfer out here, so like since the middle of July. So it was really good to get back there. I learned a ton from that- it was awesome!

 

Wednesday was pretty good. Most everything fell through, but we were able to teach a couple people a quick spiritual message. It was fun! We had a good day Thursday too. We stopped in and an investigator finally had time to meet with us so that was nice! I studied a ton about the Holy Ghost for my training this week. I realized how often the Holy Ghost is with us, and I really reflected on how the Holy Ghost works in my life. I was able to pinpoint and listen for the Holy Ghost a lot more during my study time and during any downtime I had. When we can recognize how the Holy Ghost plays a role with us, we can then help others (friends, children, family etc.) recognize how they feel it. I was always frustrated because usually at church they described it as a "burning in the bosom" or something similar. I spent a lot of time looking for the spirit to work with me like that, so I probably missed a lot of experiences. It's important to figure out how the spirit works with each of us. Then we can go about being "wise, yet harmless" (Alma 18:22) meaning that we can help them understand how the Holy Ghost is working with them without being manipulative. That's been a huge benefit to me out here!

 

Friday I did my first baptismal interview, which was great! The guy has been married to an LDS woman for 8 years, and has always been very impressed with the church. He's a fugitive investigator, and does a ton of stake outs and such. Anyways he told me that he always believed there should be multiple glories of heaven, and when he heard that and that he could be with his wife forever, he knew this is where he needed to be. He is going to be an awesome member of the church! I get to do another one here on Wednesday. It's a great experience to see people find the gospel and act upon it.

 

After the interview I was on exchanges. I was with Elder Hoddy. He's a really hard worker! Anyways we saw a few small miracles. We were trying a member family, and we couldn't find the address so we just knocked on a door, and turns out it was a less active member who they didn't have the records for, and she wants the missionaries to come teach her again! And then right after we tried a less active member, and turns out her fiance wants to take the discussions as well with his son! It was pretty sweet how the Lord put us where we needed to be, not where we wanted to be. It wasn't in our area, but still cool to see the little miracles.

 

We also visited a member family and had a great discussion on focusing on the little day-to-day conversion experiences, and not basing our conversions on huge "Saul-Paul" conversions. President Uchtdorf gave a great talk and Mormon message about not waiting on the road to Damascus for a conversion like that, but continuing on in faith and hope, and noticing the small daily spiritual experiences that let us know He's there, and aware of what we need. Anyways that's something I've been doing with my journal is taking the time to write little spiritual moments I had, even if they're just for a second.

 

Sunday was an awesome day at church. It was one of those meetings where the spirit was there, and so the spirit taught me a lot of things that weren't being said by the speakers. It was cool! The talks were on temples though, and it brought to my memory a scripture in Revelations 11:1-2. It says, "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

"But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."

 

I thought about that and what we talked about in institute one day. The measurements are covering the temple, and the inside. Anyone can walk the temple grounds. It's living so that we have a temple recommend, and that we can enter into the temple that saves us and protects us.

 

In Elders quorum we talked about not putting off repentance. Everyone was talking about how important it is to repent, because we don't know when our time will come. I think that's true, but we learn in the scriptures that "wickedness never was happiness" (Alma 41:10) and so if we put off repentance, all we're doing is putting off happiness. The quicker we align our will and our lives to God's will, the quicker we'll be happy. Just a couple of the many things that ran through my head this week.

 

Well, I'm ready to get the new transfer started here in Del City! I hope that it keeps picking up like it has been here recently. Hope all is well back home! Have a great week!

Close enough to see where Kevin Durant plays!

Week of March 10, 2014

Hey Hey Hey!

 

This week was a good one! The mission life picked up a little this week! I've for sure felt the spirit of your prayers this last week, so thank you all for the prayers for the missionaries!

 

I guess the best place to start the weekly recap would be with last Monday. We went and tried a former, who was 3 days away from getting baptized, but then he started smoking again and his life went down hill from there. He basically dropped off the face of the earth. Well we tried him and he was there and let us in. We were going to just talk about the restoration, maybe try to get him reading from the Book of Mormon again so we were going to read a bit with him, but as soon as we started talking the Spirit told us to just talk about baptism, so that's what we did! We basically just said, "Hey we know you're going through a lot of problems, but you know these things are true, and you need to get baptized. The gift of the Holy Ghost will solve the problems you've been having." And we just testified of that, then set a baptismal date with him! Haha it was super awesome! He had a moment for about 9 months after his baptism fell through where he just had no relationship with God because of all the trials he went through. But he's ready to get back into the swing of things, and he's ready to get his relationship back. We're super excited for him!

 

That was probably the most spiritual part of the week. On Tuesday we went and visited an investigator that I hadn't met before. He was finally home and so we knock on the door and he answered with his gun out. Haha I guess he's paranoid, so he always answers with gun, but yeah it was pretty cool! Haha it wasn't really scary I'd say because he's a nice guy and super friendly to missionaries, but still gets the heart pumpin. Haha We also visited a member who served a mission and he served in Alabama. He was a Protestant convert so he has a different perspective. So every time he'd say, "Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that He died for you? Do you believe if you pray that He'll answer your prayers? If He told you that this book (hold up a Book of Mormon) was true, would you quit your church and come join the true church of God?" The way he delivers it is priceless! So I might have to try that one of these days. haha

 

On Sunday we didn't have any investigators come to church, but we did have a less active who hasn't been to church since Vietnam come! He drove tanks and has struggled forgiving himself for what he did, and he's the kind of guy who chased of missionaries and cussed out missionaries and stuff for years, but over the course of the last 3 months or so has let missionaries come over, and has been truly repentant and is ready to return! It's awesome!!! Just built my faith never to give up on anyone, because we don't know when they'll come back! 3 Nephi 18:32 Christ teaches the same principle. "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them." Christ can heal everyone! And by going out and visiting the people who have fallen away, doing our home and visiting teaching, and just being a good neighbor, we can "be the means of bringing salvation unto them." That's such a cool thing to be a part of! That was a huge miracle that happened this week.

 

Thank you all again for your prayers! I really appreciate the support! Keep them comin! Haha hope all is well with everyone back home. Love you all!