Week 5- July 29, 2013

So first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!!! Can't believe you're already 10! ;) Haha no I'm jokin. But a teenager now huh? Crazy!

 

Second, thank you Grandma for the pictures! They're great! And thank you Aunt Bev for the wedding announcement! I never really got one for Adam and Stef, but it's all good. I can wait.

 

So a little more about my companion. I don't know how much I explained about him. He's from Meridian, Idaho. He's one of 7 children. His family goes boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy. What are the odds! Just kidding I already know because I got a B in stats! Haha but he plays the guitar, he crochets a blanket every day during lunch and after planning. He's a really cool guy! He gets me out and running every morning. We're now running close to 4 miles a day. It sucks! Haha but it's good for me. And I make sure I sprint as much of it as I can at the end so that I don't come back slow. Haha but he's a really hard worker and he knows the scriptures really well! He's been out for 5 months now. Lets see.... Oh he loves to eat healthy! So when we go over to members houses they usually have really healthy things for us. Even the pizza is veggie haha but it's good! He really is such a great guy!

 

So Monday we had a lesson with Daniel Griffin. We were hoping his wife would sit in on it too, but she stayed with the kids so we only taught Daniel. A family in our branch, the Carnegies who owned the Brick Oven pizza place in St. George for a while, came with us and did an amazing job at fellowshipping them and helping us teach the lesson! The Griffins really seem to like them so they'll be coming back with us tonight to teach the plan of salvation. We're really hoping his wife, Austin, sits in on it with us! He's Baptist and she's Methodist. I can't remember if I told you guys, but there are 13 Baptist churches here in Blanchard, and Blanchard isn't very big at all. Google Earth it and see for yourself! Haha so it's fun working with them!

 

Tuesday we had a lesson with Danny and Laura Lee. They live with their grandpa, David, who isn't active. He's a great guy and has a testimony, but he chose to let the girls choose where to go to church, so he took them to a bunch of different churches and they chose the Baptist church with a bunch of their friends. But we taught the restoration and it went ok. They're twins and they're 13.  Saturday we taught the Plan of Salvation. We had the pieces that we lay out to kinda help show them. We taught them that their spirits lived with God before they came here, that they're on this earth to learn, grow, and prepare to meet God, about the spirit world and how that's the place we go before we are judged, and how people who haven't had a chance to hear the gospel can be taught there. Then we talked about the degrees of glory from 1 Corinthians 15:40-42. We taught them more about baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We explained that having the gift of the Holy Ghost was like having that really good warm feeling you get when you do something good all the time. They said they would be baptized on August 31st! So we're going to work with them to get to that date so that can happen!

 

Wednesday we met with the Pitmans again. Time was cut short so we didn't get to do much, but they fed us on Saturday. We had a much better opportunity to talk to them then too. They understand the priesthood, and it's the power and authority given to man to act in God's name, and to do things such as baptism. They know that it's necessary, but they don't know who has it. We're trying to get them to understand that it's passed down to those in our church, but they think that anyone who is trying to preach the word of God can have it. So we showed them Hebrews 5:4 "No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron." I've been doing some research in personal study about how Aaron was called. In Exodus, I can't remember the chapter and verse off the top of my head right now, but it talks about how God told Moses to ordain Aaron to the office of Priest, and gave him the everlasting priesthood. We showed all of this to them, and I showed them my line of authority.  We'll keep working with them!

 

Thursday we did some tornado cleanup for a member. We used sludge hammers to knock out their deck behind their house, and we hope that we can get back out there to help build a new one! It was really fun though, and we had a really good lesson with them.

 

Friday was quite the day! So we get to district meeting and President Walkenhorst was there! We did personal interviews and he gave me so much council on how we can better get the members excited about sharing the gospel! We had a good district meeting as well. Then we saw some miracles! So we went out to Washington, Oklahoma. It's really really small. We had planned to meet with Michael and Tim, who we had met last time we went out there and set a return appointment, but weren't there when we tried them. Then we were going to go to another house that was right by theirs that we prayed with, then to another person we prayed with who was a ways away, and wasn't too interested. Then we were going to go to a less actives house and talk with them. So this was the plan.

 

What ended up happening was we parked our car at the member's house we were going to go to after the less active. They weren't home, so we went to Chuck's house (next to Michael and Tim). He was sick so we went to the less active's house. We had a great conversation with him, and he's working with a friend trying to get them ready for the discussions! We decided to try one more less active, and we talked to her and she gave us some raw honey from Daytona Beach, because they just got back from there. Then after that we went and caught Tim pulling out of his driveway. We flagged down his car and talked to him and set a return appointment. Next we walked right by our car and all the way out to that house that didn't seem too interested. We got about half way and we thought, "If we get the car we can just drive home after this," but we didn't. So we walk up and the car wasn't there. If we would have had the car we would have driven home and that would have been that. Instead because we walked all that way we knocked, and a lady named Jannette answered. We prayed with her and then she asked for the church's address and meeting time and for our number, and is letting us come back! We almost missed that blessing but because we knocked anyways we were blessed!

So on the way back to the car these guys, from about 100 yards away, wave and yell "Y'all Mormons?" So we decided to walk down and talk to them. There were 4 guys who were drinking and talking. We started talking to them and the asked us about the Word of Wisdom. We explained what we don't drink and why. One asked where we're from and when I said Utah and he said, "Aren't Normons big out there? The ones with more than one wife?" All his friends started laughing and said, "Who are Normans? It's the Mormons that do that!" So we cleared that up. The same guy said, "So if this were the door, show us what you would normally do." So we prayed with them, and we had a great prayer. Then they asked us what the difference between us and the Baptists are. We taught them the entire restoration! 3 of them asked for a Book of Mormon, and they all had us put our number down in it, and then they gave us their number and they want to meet with us again!

We had one more cool experience. So there's these people that Elder Owen had talked to before I got here and they told us that if the gate was opened then they were home and we could go see them, but if not then they weren't home or they didn't want to be bothered. So yeah the gate has been closed ever since I guess. Well we went to check it out because we were in the area (dropping off a couple Books of Mormon to a couple who are Penticostle preachers and they wanted one!!) and so we went to see if it was open. Well it was so we went back and we had a pretty good lesson with them! We'll keep on trying back but it was really cool!

Well hope all your weeks were as good as mine! I'll talk to you guys next week!

Week 4- July 22, 2013

I don't even know where to start....

 

So I guess we can start by saying Friday marks my 1 month mark! Crazy huh?

 

Next order of business is to say congratz to Adam and Stefani (Yup I remember her name now!)! She's going to be a wonderful addition to the family and I'm glad to have her! I can't believe its already happened! I was actually out with a temple sealer on Friday and I asked if he had any advice I could tell them to sound smart. He said, "Tell them once they get back from their honeymoon to go back to the temple ASAP! If they do sealings 4 or 5 times right after the wedding then they'll really understand what they're getting into. They don't pay attention the first time because they're so focused on having a new spouse! When they understand what they're getting into they'll have a great marriage." So there ya go! That's what I got for them. Haha 

 

Ok well this next part might kill you (it almost killed me!) and I might have Elder Owen send you an email to attest to this, but I ATE AN OMELET!!! That's what one of the members was having for dinner last night, so that's what I ate! It was actually a testimony builder for me! I prayed like 10 times that our loving Heavenly Father would help me finish it, and that the taste wouldn't be too bad. I put salsa, bbq sauce, salt and pepper on it and I had her put everything in it so that the egg wouldn't taste. Didn't work. But yeah there ya go. I ate an omelet. It was probably a 2 egg one too.

 

There have been a couple of other cool things that happened. I dunno if I told you about last week but we were eating breakfast at Tiffany's (I dunno if its the same place thats in St. George, but it was really good!) and it was after district meeting so there were 8 of us there. Well some guy paid for our meal! And we asked if it was a member from our church and they said it wasn't.  They think he goes to the Baptist church right there. That saved us some money! There are a lot of really good people here that really respect what we do, and are even supportive. There's also some who aren't though.... Haha I had a hilarious experience. So I went on the exchange with our District Leader and it was about 8:40 and we were standing outside their place. He asked me what I wanted to do and I said we might as well knock some doors. He told me there was a house that had a mormon.org card taped to the window with a circle around it and a slash through it. He said he's wanted to try that house so we did! Haha We knock and the peep hole goes dark, then light again. Like right after it went light and we didn't hear the door being opened Elder Evans knocked again. This really old guy opens the door and we ask "How are you today?" He said "Fine. Get out of here!"  He went to slam the door but because of his old age the door didn't make it all the way shut. We were both laughing at that point because that's what we expected. Anyway he started hitting and banging on the door so that it would shut and after it was shut he hit the door like 3 more times.

 

But I should probably tell you about our good experiences and what's going on. So on that exchange I wanted to work on OYMing (Opening your mouth, or talking to everyone you see). We saw an older guy sitting out in his lawn and we walked up and started talking to him. He told us he had a preacher come over and save him a while ago, but he said we could pray with him. We prayed with him and just started talking to him, and asked if missionaries could come visit him (he lived out of the area, he was just visiting). He said he was already saved and so it was ok. We kept talking to him though and he was telling us about the tv show called The Bible and how he and his wife loved that show. We talked about the Bible and then he just randomly said, "I've always wondered if there was a waiting period between death and heaven." We looked at each other and said "We can answer that!" We read out of Alma to him and showed him the map of the plan of salvation. It was a really cool talk! He asked us if we believed we had to be baptized and we told him a little about that. Anyway by the end of the conversation he took a Book of Mormon, gave us his address and phone number, and told us to send some missionaries his way! It was a really cool experience!

 

Another little finding thing was we were out Saturday night at about 8:30. It was another situation where we could have just went in for the night but instead we went looking for an 8:59 miracle. We were out walking and we saw a kid shooting around. I told him I was a college basketball player and he says he thinks he remembers watching us playing OSU. We played one on one and we invited him to come play with us on P-day today! We told him about what we do and who we are and he was very interested. He's only 14, but he and his 18 year old brother might be interested! We're going to talk to them more today if they show up, but we're hoping something will come of it! 

 

We have a really cool opportunity tonight as well. Elder Owen and his last companion found a family out tracting, and they asked if they could say a kneeling prayer with her family. Long story short they wanted to, but they cancelled their appointment and haven't really set up an appointment since. Well on the exchange Elder Owen and Elder Garner knocked on their door. Their whole family was there (they're a younger couple. They have a 5 year old and a 3 year old is our guess) and they let them in to say a kneeling prayer. Elder Owen said that hasn't happened yet to him and it was an awesome experience. I've been with him to their place once to see if we could pray with them and this lady looks like she's already Mormon. She just has that look about her ya know? Anyway I guess their home is very family centered and very Mormon looking is how Elder Owen puts it. Well they prayed and had an amazing experience, and they wanted to set an appointment so we're going back tonight! We're honestly so excited to go over there!

 

We have a couple of other people who are real close to letting us teach them. We've had a lot of appointments this week but almost every single one fell through. We're finding that the branch is starting to be very missionary minded, and within the next while we should have a lot of people to teach! We're really  excited for that! Things here are progressing pretty slowly, but it's going to be big when it happens!

 

So we did have a baptism on Saturday of an 8 year old boy named Ryan. His parents are less active and so they had the missionaries teach him. It was really cool because I got to be one of the witnesses and one of the people who got to take part in giving him the Holy Ghost! That was such an awesome experience as well! There's another youth baptism this week and so we're going to see if we can get a couple investigators out to see it.

 

Well, it's been a great week, and a way busy week. This week will be a handful as well, but we're lovin it and we can't wait! Hope all is well back home, and that ya'll have a good week! I love hearing how the ward is really been missionary minded lately, and is working with the youth- that's awesome! Teaching can be awkward and hard sometimes, but my companion and I always say "Embrace the awkward!" It's actually helped a ton and we've met a ton of great people because we were willing to be a little awkward. Oh and be sure to tell the Hanks and their Primary class thanks for the letters! They were great and I really enjoyed them!

 

Well have a good one! Love all ya'll and hope you guys have a great week!

Week 3- July 15

So the first few days in Oklahoma have been amazing! Blanchard is such a great place! I'd love to start by giving mom something to think about. I've seen 3 armadillos that had been run over in the middle of the road! Haha the best armadillo is one you can't see, and the second best armadillo is a dead one- am I right? Haha  I really want to see one live! That and fireflies. I wanna see those too!

 

The next biggest area of concern- they feed us very well out here! But let me tell you some of the things that I've eaten that might floor you, so sit down if you aren't already! I've eaten a roast beef, ham, and turkey sandwich, strawberry shortcake, lasagna, beet salad, and some kind of wheat salad thing. The members of the branch here feed us every night, and non members love having us over for dinner too! So yeah, I think I just surprised you more than a little ;)

 

That leads to the next concern. So I've been running 3 miles with my comp every morning! So I'm staying in shape as well. He ran cross country in high school and loves to run, so we'll go run every morning. I do pushups at night. And for P-day we all get together and play 2 hours of basketball!!!!!! So yeah, God answers prayers! haha Oh and our area got a brand new car! It's a 2013 Ford Fusion and it had about 200 miles on it, so it was brand new! Our area is huge and it's never had a car before, so our missionary work will be so much more effective now.

 

This last week has been unbelieveable. I'll try not to leave too much out here. So we were assigned on Wednesday to take a list of records that they church doesn't know if the member still live at the address because the people are inactive. So we went to all the addresses and all of them either weren't home or weren't members anymore. One that wasn't home we left a phone number of the branch president. The guy ended up calling the branch president, which we didn't expect, and came in and met with him for a good 2 hours, and he wants to get active again and he was at church yesterday! That was really cool!

 

Thursday not much happened. We knocked a ton of doors but no one was home. So it was a little disappointing but not too terrible. Friday was district meeting and we asked for some ideas on how we could better find people. We got a few ideas and on the way back we stopped in a town called Washington, and decided to knock some doors and try these ideas. (Blessing 1 of a car) So we parked the car and set some goals. We wanted to Heavenly Gift 5 people, and get 1 set return appointment. Heavenly gifting is when we introduce ourselves and say,  "We're representatives of Jesus Christ and we were wondering if we could say a prayer with you. Is that ok? Is there anything you need that we could pray for?" then we pray and ask if we can come back and share a message about prayer and Jesus Christ.

 

Anyways we prayed and told God our goals and asked if he would help us accomplish them. The first 2 doors we knocked on we prayed with, and the first one set a return appointment with us! Then we had a nice long dry spell of about a half hour. We were so thirsty because it's been about 100 degrees with about 40% humidity. We were on our way to a member's house to grab a drink. We decided to knock one more door and the guy said that he wasn't interested, but he offered us a water bottle! We went for another half hour and there was nothing. We only had 30 minutes before dinner, but we decided to knock 3 more houses. All 3 let us pray with them! The second house told us that they really needed a prayer, and one lady started crying when we offered it. It was so touching to see the love our Heavenly Father had for them, and how we were able to bring so much hope to them with just a simple prayer. So yeah that was an amazing experience.

 

Sunday the weirdest thing happened. We were at church early and decided to go talk to the guest speakers. They're from Norman and so they're in our stake, but not our branch. We introduced ourselves and I guess one of the guys just moved from St. George! Not only did he move here from St. George, he was in the same ward as the Spilkers! He said he loved bringing his kids to watch me and Brandon play basketball. He gave us a referral right then and there-  it was really cool! He said he'd love to come teach her with us too! So yeah that was a cool experience! I guess the guy who used to own the Brick Oven in St. George is in our branch too. Small world! But we ended up getting 3 referrals just yesterday! The branch is starting to be very missionary minded, and that's honestly the best way to find people. So don't be afraid to give referrals! We love them!

 

Well that's most of what happened this week. We gotta go get everything ready for the week. Blanchard is great, the church is true, and God answers prayers! I love you guys and I hope this is a great week! Have fun at the wedding! 

Week 2- July 8

This is a list of 5 things I learned while I've been at the MTC.

1- The Church is true! I kinda already knew that, but there's something about the Spirit here that confirms it. Elder Merrill and I were talking about how the church was prepared and how there is no question that God had a plan and that He prepared a way for the gospel to stay forever.

2- If you are living how you're supposed to, the Spirit will constantly put thoughts in your mind. Looking back on my life I have had so many times when I acted on a prompt of the Spirit and I didn't even realize it. Adam helped me understand that all righteous thoughts and desire to do good is from God through the Spirit. Elder Bednar said, "If any of you guys are wondering whether thoughts are your own or if it's the Spirit, here's the answer. Stop worrying about it! If you are being  a good boy or girl then you will always be guided by the Spirit and simple thoughts you act on can be a tremendous impact on others." This is so true so I've been trying to work on that.

3- This is a special time to be a missionary. It is time for us to go to every nation, tongue, and people and go get the W! This is God's work and no force on earth can stay it!

4- Families are the reason we are here, the reason we are happy, and the reason we baptize. Being sealed to your family is why we are here. It is how we obtain joy and how we become like God. The pioneers gave everything just so they could have the chance to go to the temple and be sealed to their families. We teach to baptize and we baptize to be able to seal in the temple.

5- The doctrine of Christ is the deepest part of our religion. Like Adam said, "The doctrine of Christ is the center of our religion. Much like a pond, the center is the deepest." I learn so much about the scriptures every day. We are blessed to have them in our lives!

Week One- July 2

I learned sooooo much this week! I have just been learning learning learning! I'm not going to lie its been a tough day or so as far as teaching goes. It's weird because you know my feelings toward acting, but these role plays have been doing wonders to help me learn how to teach! Elder Brotherson (my companion) and I were even upset when our TRC investigator didn't show up to the appointment we had set up. We were so excited to teach him, and it's not even real! haha Another frustrating thing is the investigator that we had taught twice before is stuck because he can't believe that God loves us, and that we are his children. It's hard because we want him to understand that before we go on. So it's been hard, but I've learned so much that I'll be able to apply throughout my life!

It's really weird being with a group full of guys straight out of high school. Oh and Mom ready to have your socks knocked right off? I totally got a "commendable" on my part of the room! I make my bed every morning, and my desk space is way super organized (is that a double positive? Oh wait no that's a catch 22?;) )! It's funny because I'm the only one who uses the desk space, and that's mostly because that's just how it was in college. Haha

The district I'm in is amazing! Everyone knows so much about the gospel. We have had some amazingly deep conversations. God really does prepare a way for His work to go forth! It's crazy!

I'll leave you with a couple fun things that I've learned. First, I learned from a video of Elder Bednar (no I haven't seen any apostles yet) about the True Character of Christ. It was amazing because he talked about how Christ always turned outward and focused on others when everyone else would focus inward. He described the natural man as the Cookie Monster. "I want cookie now!" Haha so substitute anything you want for cookie! But yeah he talked about how when we learn to always focus outward, that will help us grow. "When we are always helping others, we'll find ourselves, but we will never find ourselves where we are looking." Another thing I learned is the importance of prayer. The Bible Dictionary tells us that prayer aligns the will of the children with the will of God. Isn't that beautiful? Prayer is so much more than talking to God. It's what allows us to receive all of the blessing He will give us and to help us do things His way. If we do things His way, well lets just say His way will never be the wrong way. One last thing is that God will perform miracles not to increase our faith, but to confirm our faith. Miracles don't build faith. It's interesting because a speaker promised us that if we had a question we wanted to know, we could open to ANY page in the Book of Mormon, and we will find the answer. I tried that with this principle, and it works! I wanted to know how to feel God's blessings because our investigator isn't feeling the blessings when he prays. I started from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, and in Nephi it shows multiple times in the first few chapters that because of the faith of Nephi, God was able to bless him. Look at when he wad bound by his brothers. He said, and this isn't a quote, just kinda what he said. "Heavenly Father, I KNOW you can help me break these bands. Help me break these bands so I can live." The scripture says that the Lord blessed him according to his faith.

I've seen so many people I know here and they're all doing great! 

CTR everyone!