Week of November 25, 2013

Another week of firsts! I experienced my first ice storm this week! It was crazy! It's so weird because it's just rain, but as soon as it hits something it freezes! It was actually pretty funny.  We talked to our district leader about whether or not we should work. Well we figured we'd try it, so we walk to the member's gym to warm up and we walk in and he looks at us and says, "What are you 2 doing?" haha then he made us get in his truck and drove us home and told us to stay inside all day and he said, "If your district leader has any problems with that, tell him to call me." haha so we stayed inside all day. It was good though-  I got to study a lot!

 

So Monday we tried a couple investigators, but they didn't have time to talk, so we tried a couple potentials and no one was home. So we tried a guy we tracted into who has been less active for a long time now. Well we taught him the Doctrine of Christ and emphasized the Holy Ghost and how that will bless his life. It's really hard to look at a guy who just looks hollow, and is obviously missing the gospel in his life, and to have him say, "I don't see me coming back guys." It's sad, but there's nothing we can do except keep reaching out.

 

Tuesday we got a media referral, so we went out and tried her. She was a really nice lady! She has a son who went to Dixie State and he was baptized there.  He's been a bishop and everything since. She said that she's not interested in converting, but she let us and the member with us in and we talked for about an hour and a half, and she's a dry Mormon. She just started reading the Book of Mormon, she makes blessing dresses (So if anyone needs one of those, let me know! Haha) and she went to her nephew's baptism not too long ago. She watches conference with her son- like she's right there! Well she had a problem with how all the leadership positions are taken by men. Like how all the apostles are men, and how the priesthood is only held by men. We explained the plan of salvation with them, and I read some of Elder Christopherson's talk with her about the essential role women play. She said it makes a lot more sense. She asked us about what our thoughts were about mentally challenged people, and what our church's opinion on them is. Well we told her that they are God's most special spirits, and they are here as an example to us. She broke down crying because one of her children is mentally disabled. It was really cool to see the Spirit work with her as we taught simple truths of the gospel with her! It was fun!

 

Wednesday we tracted and OYMed all day. Nothing happened that day really. But Thursday we got to listen to Elder Craig A. Cardon of the 70! Wow! He talked to us for just over an hour about the Abrahamic covenant, and how we are God's tools in fulfilling the promise he made to Abraham. So we learned in depth about the scattering of Israel, and a bunch of prophecies about how the Lord said he would gather Israel. Anyways it was so cool to be instructed by him!

 

Friday was the ice storm, so we didn't work. Saturday was pretty bad weather too, but it was good enough that we got to go out and tract! That night we went to the Saturday evening adult session of Stake conference. Elder Cardon and another member of the 70 (Elder Reen I think was his name, but I didn't catch it....) spoke about the work of salvation. Elder Reen called Elder Fronk and I up, and asked us a bunch of questions during his talk, and so we got to go through a mini Q&A in front of everyone! haha that was crazy! Not every day a General Authority calls you up and you get to talk to everyone on the spot! Haha but it was good!

 

Sunday the stake presidency was reorganized. That was cool! Elder Cardon and Elder Reen gave amazing talks there too! Elder Reen spoke on charity, and how fundamental it is to our progression. Just learning to love everyone. Then Elder Cardon spoke on love too, but a little differently. He spoke about loving your spouse. He said we are only commanded in the scriptures to love 2 things with all our heart. He said the first we all know. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart. But the second people mix up. It's not to love our neighbor, because it doesn't to say to love our neighbor with all our heart. It says in D&C to love your spouse with all your heart. It was cool to hear him speak on that. Haha he talked about finding a spouse and marriage in Zone Conference a bit too! Haha he said, "Good luck writing home and explaining to your families that we talked about marriage in zone conference. I wish you all the best of luck on that one!" Haha it was weird, but he said some good stuff!

 

Well that's about it for me here. Hope all is well back home! I hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for the love and support from you back home, and your prayers have been felt! Love you all!

Week of November 18, 2013

Finally a week of not all zeros! It was good to get some new investigators and members out with us this week! We also got to build a pretty big chicken coop as well with the family that was baptized a month and a half ago.... Wow. That was already almost 2 months ago. Crazy!

 

Monday we were able to get a member out with us to go give a blessing to a less active member who had her gall bladder removed on Wednesday. Her husband is unordained, so we were going to go over there with their home teachers and give that blessing, but we had them come out with us a little early so we could try some people. We tried a couple who let us pray with them and invited us back, and so we went over and talked to them. He is a baptist preacher, so we knew it would be a fun lesson. So we taught the Restoration, and he had questions for EVERYTHING. He was wondering why the people in the Americas even needed to write about the Messiah because they weren't part of the Abrahamic covenant, so we showed him how they were from the tribe of Joseph, and he wanted to know everything about the Book of Mormon and how it came to be, and he had something trying to prove the restoration wrong with anything he could. But we responded to everything with scriptures, and it was just a really cool lesson to see how there's no holes in the Restoration, especially to those who know the Bible!

 

After that we went and gave the blessing, and it was a super powerful experience. The Spirit was super strong there, and the father definitely felt it! He left the room with the sniffles (we're pretty sure he was crying) right after the blessing. He knows that he needs to be going to church, but his job hasn't let him, and he was working nights. But he told us that he had a job interview for a job with normal hours and not working Sundays, so he if he gets it he shouldn't have to work Sundays anymore! We're praying he gets it! He's someone that could be an Elder in a couple of months, and that family can go through the temple soon as well!

 

Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady who's had a rough life. She's paying child support, her father passed away not too recently, she was in the 1999 tornado here which I guess was just as bad as the recent May tornado. She also had a 3 week old baby die in that, and she was very badly injured. So yeah, she's had a rough go of it. But we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really seemed to like it. We're going back over on Wednesday to teach her more about the Book of Mormon and how we got it, where it came from, what it's for and all that good stuff. So we're excited for that lesson! Elder Fronk and I feel like she'll just latch on to the gospel and it will help her so much! So we're praying for her as well!

 

We got to visit a less active on Friday, and we watched President Monson's final talk in conference about constantly nourishing your testimony to protect you from the adversary. So we had a great chance to talk with her about how we can help her testimony be strengthened, so we're going to be going by once a week to read with her. We're excited because she's a great lady. So reconnecting her to the little things will bring that happiness back to her life and we can't wait to see that!

 

That's about all for me here. We had a good week! We have a general authority coming to the mission this week! We're excited to have him come and to learn from him! It's going to be a very good experience! Also this weekend is Stake Conference here, and they'll be reorganizing the Stake. That will be cool as well! We're excited for this week!

 

Well, hope that everything goes well this week! Everyone be safe and enjoy life! Love you all!

Week of November 11, 2013

Well, another week of not much. We had taught 2 lessons, and one of them was to a guy who let us come back out of sympathy I guess, and after we taught the first lesson he said he wasn't interested. That frustrated us a bit… But oh well. But we do have an investigator who's taking baby steps!

Haha so Jesse is Catholic. Elder Anderson (The District Leader) and I tracted into him on an exchange. We've been teaching him for a while, but mostly just stopping by and setting appointments and reading with him. Well we finally got to teach him the Plan of Salvation, and we invited him to be baptized, and he sat there for a while and said, "You know guys I'm just not ready. I like your doctrine a lot, and I have a couple concerns with the Catholic church, but I'm Catholic and I'm not ready to change yet. I haven't told my wife I'm meeting with you guys yet. I haven't even told my mom yet!" Haha he's in his 30s… But it was hilarious! But he said that he's going to read, and if he feels that this is what he needs to do, then he will show his family, and he'll have them join with him. But he said he's not even ready to come to church, and he wants to read more. He kept saying "Baby steps fellas. Baby steps." Hahaha it was like I was on the movie "What About Bob." Haha

The only other thing I can think of is that we ordained Hugo and Juan on Sunday to the office of Priest! It was so cool! At the end Hugo pointed at Elder Owen and I and said, "You guys deserve the credit because you taught me and my family the word of God, and thank you so much for what you've done for my family!" Hearing that makes everything worth it! They're on the path to go through the temple in a year, so I'll be able to go with them! Just seeing how much the gospel has blessed them has been a huge testimony builder to me! Like they were already living the commandments, they were doing all the right things, but now that they have the Book of Mormon, and the church and priesthood in their life, they have been blessed more than I can describe! It truly is amazing how the fullness of the gospel can truly bless everyone, no matter how much faith in Christ they may already have!

That's about it for me here. Sister Larsen made my day with the letter she sent me, so be sure to thank her for that! That letter couldn't have come at a more perfect time! Oh and I'm not getting transferred! Haha transfer doctrine (transfer calls) was last night. So yeah, 6 more in Newcastle! Here we go!

Well thank you for all the love and prayers! I can truly feel them in my life. Thank you so much! Hope everyone has a great week this week because we're covenant children of God so there's no reason not to have a great week! 

Keep praying! The prayers are very much appreciated!

Week of November 4, 2013

So not much to report on this week in Newcastle. We had a somewhat funny experience the other day. Well I thought so, but Elder Fronk didn't. So we found out on Monday we were going to be doing an exchange, and so Elder Fronk was freaking out because he didn't want to drive! Haha so anyways Friday comes and I turn over the keys to him. 10 minutes later I got a text that said, "So you'll never guess what happened. Here's a hint, it wasn't a miracle." Haha they got rear ended. The guy was going slow so no one got hurt, and there was no damage, but it was so funny because he was freaking out about having to drive and then he got hit less than 10 minutes after he starts! Haha I got a kick out of it!

 

Other than that not much to report on. Only two experiences really. The first was on the exchange. We were teaching someone and he has been working on the word of wisdom. He had a huge piece of chew in his mouth, and we were talking about ways he could quit. Well I had a thought come to my mind (I had never met him before so I didn't know the answer) but I asked him if prayer played a role in his quitting. He thought for about 30 seconds and then said, "You know, I haven't really done that, but when I did a couple times it really helped, so I'm going to start doing that." So that was way sweet! It was just an intense experience and we had a couple more inspired question. His neighbor was sitting out there with him as well, and he said he wasn't interested. But as we continued to teach the Doctrine of Christ he got really interested, and at the end he accepted a Book of Mormon! That was really cool as well!

 

The other experience was we were finally able to teach one of our investigators! Well we couldn't really teach him because he hadn't been reading, so we read with him. We read 2 Nephi 32-33 and it was super powerful! We asked him what he thought and he said, "It goes hand and hand with the Bible. It tells me I need to pray, have faith in Jesus, and that I can have eternal life. It says what the Bible says, so as of right now it's true, but I'll read more and see if there's anything else."  It was super cool! He said he's not ready to come to church yet, and he needs more time, but it was a cool little experience!

 

Anyways that's about it. We met a survivor from the Oklahoma City bombing and that was awesome! He said the explosion threw him the length of a semi into a wall... Pretty crazy! Anyways that's all I have for you this week. Keep the faith, and know that Christ truly loves all of us! Have a great week!

Week of October 28, 2013

So this week was a pretty long one. We had everything fall through, so we ended up knocking doors for about 4-6 hours a day. It's not the funnest thing to do in the world, but gotta be productive somehow right?

 

There were a few fun things this week, like we got to go to Zone Conference and listen to President speak, and we had a member feed us! That was the first time since I've been in Newcastle... But yeah, that was fun! The coolest thing that happened this week was we were knocking doors at around 7:30, and so it's dark. We had about 8 houses left, and then we were going to walk back to the apartment. Elder Fronk suggested that we pray, and so we set a goal that we wanted to pray with 3 people, and then we wanted to set 2 return appointments. Then we told our Heavenly Father our goal and asked Him to help us achieve it. Well the next house we knocked on, prayed and set a return appointment. 2 houses later we pray and set a return appointment, and the last house the people let us pray with them, but we didn't get a solid return appointment. It was a great example to me how our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, and helps you with your righteous desires!

 

The only other thing that happened was we had a guy try to save us. It was just a weird situation, but it really built my testimony because I had to sit there and keep testifying that the Book of Mormon will help him, and that me and 15 million other people know it's true, so he should try it out. But he wouldn't and so we parted ways. Except he thinks we're going to hell..... Haha which is harsh! Heavenly Father wants all of His children to be happy.

 

Well that's about all for this week. The week was rough, but the church is still true and there's still a prophet on the earth today! We're excited for this next week!

 

Hope all is well back home! I miss the mountains... I'm sick of being lost! Haha but oh well. Have a great week and God Bless!

 

P.S. We're going golfing today, so wish me luck!

Week of October 21, 2013

This week was a much better week than last week! We were actually able to teach some people, and our other investigator is no longer in jail, so that's good! We were also able to get back in contact with the part member family and talk with them some more, so that was great! Just good to be back where we have appointments and can teach versus trying to find people to teach all day. So now we just need to take care of them!

I guess I'll start from the beginning. Monday we were able to teach a man named William. It was a good lesson, and he said he'd start reading and praying. So we're going to head by today and see if we can catch him and see how the reading is going! That was basically our Monday.

Tuesday we had gone over to see John and he was out of jail, so we got to teach him! It was really cool to see how much more calm he was this time, and how the spirit was there much quicker than last time. We asked him how it was going with stopping his smoking and drug usage and he said the two days after we left he was reading. Normally he gets up in the morning and smokes, but instead he was waking up and reading the Book of Mormon, and he said that he had no desire to smoke the rest of the day. Then he went to prison and got away from reading, and when he got out he didn't get back into reading so he relapsed. He told us that he was entering rehab though, and he was planning on getting off of drugs for good this time! So we're going to keep working with him! But we taught him the Doctrine of Christ, or Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. He really liked it, and when we talked about baptism he said he really wants to be baptized. So we made sure that he knew that he'd have to get off drugs and take care of any other warrants before he can do that. He said he just needs to pay off one warrant and he'll be clear, but he said he wants to have everything taken care of and wants to be baptized before Christmas! So we'll work with him on that! He's really starting to move in the right direction. It's just so cool to see the gospel work in his life, and how it's really filling him with the desire to change! It's been an awesome experience to see him feel the spirit and recognize it!

Later that day we had an appointment with a man named Jesse. He's Catholic, but he said he wants to learn more about our church. So we taught him and he said he'd begin to read the Book of Mormon. He's a huge basketball fan, so when I told him I played college basketball he was pretty excited, and he had me play with his son! So I got to play with his 8 year old son. It was a good way to kinda break the ice with him because he was kinda putting up a wall. You could tell he was nervous about us, but now he's more comfortable around us, which is great! So we should be working with him here as well!

Wednesday we had an appointment with a man named Lupe. He's someone who we'll refer to the Spanish elders if Lupe is serious, but the lesson went well! The coolest part about that though was how we were able to get a less active member to come out and help us teach. He was able to come feel the spirit of the lesson as he helped us translate things, and after he was talking to us about how he wants to advance in the priesthood. He came to church on Sunday and blessed the sacrament! So he's moving in the right direction! That was really cool though being able to get him out though and see him experience that!

Thursday was a lot of finding, and not a ton of success. Friday was pretty similar as well. It was really cold and rainy though, and some lady stopped her car for us and gave us an umbrella! That was really cool! That night though we stopped in the member's gym to warm up and we were talking to one of their sons who was working there. He's 15, and when we were about to leave he told us to just stay there and chill there. We told him we needed to get out and find people to teach, but if he could tell us what the 5 steps of the Doctrine of Christ were that we'd stay. Well after a lot of help from his dad he got it right. We then challenged him to teach us the Restoration. He went and got his Preach My Gospel and we showed him the points and walked through them as we taught him. It was fun because we really helped him understand things better and helped him learn how to talk to his friends about the restoration. His dad told us in church on Sunday that he felt the spirit really strong as we were there teaching his son, and that it was just an awesome sight to see his son with the missionaries. After we had taught his son Graze (that's what they call him), Griz told us that he wants to read Preach My Gospel more so he was prepared for a mission! So that was a really fun experience!

Saturday we had a really cool thing happen. We were out walking, and we were by the road where these cars were stopped at a red light. This car rolled down the window and the lady said, "Are you Mormons? How long do you do this?" So we told her for 2 years then she started telling us she was from St. Louis but then the light turned green so she had to go. So we were like "Dangit! Why'd the light have to turn green!" But not even joking about 30 seconds later we were crossing the street by a stop sign, and a car had just pulled up to the stop sign as we were crossing, and the lady inside rolls down her window and said "Are you guy's Mormons?" Haha so Elder Fronk and I walked up to her window and started talking to her. She told us her dad was Mormon and that she had a couple people trying to get her to the Mormon church. So we got her number and we're going to call her in a day or two to see if we can teach her! That was really cool though because if that first car wouldn't have stopped us then we would have already been across the street and the lady at the stop sign would have missed us! That really excited us!

Welp, that's about all from me. This week was really good! Training has been going well, and I'm loving my time with Elder Fronk! He's ready to get after it! I guess the big news is that on Wednesday Elder Fronk and I got permission to use the gym that the member owns! So now we'll be going three times a week and lifting! We went last week and I was so sore! Haha so this will be perfect!

Alright, well I gotta get going. Love you guys! Hope you have a great week! The church is true, and we are truly loved enough by God to have a living prophet on the earth today! I'm really grateful for that knowledge! Everyone be safe!

Week of October 14, 2013

Well, this week was the L family baptism! It was just the coolest experience ever! They are such an amazing family, and they have amazing blessings ahead of them! It was an extremely exciting time for us, for them, and for the branch. We weren't expecting too many people to show up, but they completely filled up the Relief Society room, and after I got changed into some dry clothes and came back in for the end of the baptism program there was standing room only for me. It was so cool to see how many people came and supported them in this decision! It was the Blanchard branch's first family convert baptism, and it was the last one for them as a branch because during sacrament meeting it became a ward! The members here were so excited! One of the senior missionaries here was just beaming with excitement! I thought it was about to turn into some the scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where the grandpa finds out they got a golden ticket and got up and started dancing. Haha he was really excited!

Sacrament meeting was really fun! Doing the confirmation was a blast! It was just such a cool experience being able to be a part of this family's journey, and I can't wait to go through the temple with them in a year to watch them be sealed! That will be such an amazing experience!

So the rest of the week was really slow. We set a couple of appointments for this week, so we'll see if we can keep them. It's interesting out here because people will set like 5 appointments with you before they finally just say they aren't interested. It makes it frustrating, but oh well. We'll see how this week goes!

We had a few really funny experiences. We went to see our investigator, and while we were locking up our bikes and walking into the trailer park where he lives, 3 cop cars pull in, pull up to his trailer and arrest him. So with nothing else to do really we just knocked on the doors around it. We were about to quit knocking but we just felt like there was someone who was prepared, so we figured we'd just knock the rest of them. Well we finally get to the last row of trailers, and we knock the first 2 and no one answers. Then while walking to the third one a guy wrecks on his motorcycle (nothing serious) and so we run over to lift the bike off of him. We tried talking to him, but he said he had to go and then just left. So we were walking some more and there was a guy working outside and so we went up to him and talked to him for about 20 minutes and he kept telling us how he wasn't invited to a birthday party a couple of trailers down. Haha so we tried to give him a Book of Mormon but he said he wouldn't read it and tried to convince us the Sabbath was on Saturday and that all the religions are doing it wrong... So we just kinda left and started walking back for lunch.

So on our way back there was a trailer with 3 confederate flags on it, and a lady is outside working on her porch. So we walk up and ask if we could help, but she said she had it. So we asked if we could pray with her, and she let us. After we prayed with her she told us she used to have a "Mormon Bible" and asked what it was about. So we gave her one and read the first paragraph with her, and we asked if she would read the last 2 paragraphs for us and she said, "Where it says 'We invite all men everywhere'? I already read it while you read that paragraph. It sounds interesting!" So either I'm a really slow reader or she's just ridiculously fast... Or both. Haha but yeah she's a speed reader! We had her turn to Moroni 10 and read vs. 4 and 5 and she read them out loud and said, "Wow that's powerful!" And we said, "You're right! It really is!" And she just like sped read the rest of the chapter and she kept on saying, "That's true... That's true... That's true..." Haha it was so cool! She said she'd read it and she might have finished the entire Book of Mormon by the time we got back to the apartment for dinner! Haha

The other funny experience was we knocked on a door and a guy came and we asked if we could pray with him and he started telling us him and Jesus are as close as he can get right now. Then he told us that if you take the meaning of the names of the people in Genesis 5 it makes a message, which actually was pretty cool! And then he told us that Jeremiah 10:1-5 prophecies that we'll all worship Christmas trees, and how they're Pagan and evil and a tool of the devil to trick us into worshiping him.... I don't know anyone that worships the Christmas tree... And then he told us that giants built the pyramids and the tower of Babel and that in Genesis 6 it talks about giants are made when the sons of God (angels) mate with daughters of men (regular women) and how it produces supernatural humans, that are giants, but they're also abominations and all this weird stuff. Haha Elder Anderson and I (we were on an exchange) were like, "How is this making you and Jesus close?" Haha but we asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon, and he said he's heard of it, but has never read it. We gave him one and he asked us if there were any prophecies about or in the Book of Mormon and so we told him the Book of Mormon prophecies about a ton of things, but the Bible prophecies of the Book of Mormon in Ezekiel 37:15-17. We read it with him and he really liked it! So yeah, we're going to go back over there to see what he thinks of the Book of Mormon! It was funny though.  While we were explaining the Book of Mormon and how it takes place in the Americas he went off for about 10 minutes about how there's evidence that giants lived in Ohio and how there's mounds that prove it. Haha I thought to myself "No, we aren't talking about Lebron James!" Haha but I resisted! Anyways it was a fun experience!

Well, that's about all from Newcastle this week. Hope everything is going well with you back in the real world! Keep the faith, the church is true! Love y'all!