Week #14--October 19, 2015

Well, I've been transferred! (2/17) And let me tell you, I am going to miss this last Ward. They said some incredibly kind things to me on Sunday, and a lot even over the pulpit! Then a family threw a huge farewell dinner with all you could eat tri-tip steak and salmon and... Yeah. That dinner made it into the journal entry. I love that ward so much and will miss the wonderful people I met there dearly.

I will also miss my companions. Elder Acox was a wonderful addition to our companionship for those last 6 weeks, and he was a great example of humility. He totally changed his attitude towards mission culture and things like that that I was pridefully worried about (lesson learned) and he just... Yeah. Humble is the best way to describe. And hard working. 

Elder Russell I won't see until I'm home since he's going home in just a few short months and we're far away. He really has changed me a lot. I'll miss his guidance and insight dearly. He just understood charity. And that was usually the center of both our goals and most of our discussions. How could we love people more, how could we show them, how could we feel the love our Lord has for us more in our lives. He gave selfless service often to me and Elder Acox, and never found fault in us. Always after an argument he would take the blame and apologize and make restitution, even if it wasn't his fault. A truly great missionary.

But onto bigger and better places! Elder Jones is my new companion, and he goes home at the end of this transfer. We're in the Parkview A ward, in Victorville. I'm officially in the desert, and apparently it's a different world up here! He's a very wise and experienced missionary. He's a small town Idaho boy (Moscow Idaho) and played varsity football all 4 years so the guy knows how to work! I'm really looking forward to hitting the pavement hard with this guy and just tearing up this area!

Thought for the week:

So there's this family in the Terra Vista ward named the Eggets (Yeah, Rebekah Egget's cousin for those of you who know her) and he's awesome. Him and his wife: super spiritually in tune. It's so cool to be around them. Anyway, he was talking about how the Gospel is like a Rubix cube. (Bear with me, this analogy is cool) A rubix cube is simple, 6 sides and 6 colors. For those of you who know how they work, it's like a 3 step process that you repeat over and over again to solve it. No matter what state that cube is in, you repeat the 3 steps and eventually it will be solved. 

He then compared that the gospel is simple. 1 plan, 1 destination, 1 Savior, one purpose, and a simple process of Faith, Repentance, making and renewing covenants and enduring to the end to solve it all. This process is all that matters. But too often, we rely on our own wisdom and our own knowledge to try and figure it out for ourselves. Have you ever tried figuring out a rubix cube without the steps? It's a mess. And the cube always ends up worse then before. As soon as we try to "Figure out" the gospel and delve into the weeds of deep doctrine and all the fluff, we assume that we can produce a process better than the one already provided. And our testimonies will suffer. The gospel is simple, and as soon as we over complicate it we end up with a weaker testimony. Read the Book of Mormon. Pray to know it's true. Act in faith on the Commandments of the prophets. It's these simple things that will get us to return to live with our Heavenly Father, even if it seems as mundane as a 3 step process you repeat over and over. 

Cool stuff, huh?

Church is true. Wish me luck in the new area. I love and miss you all!

Week #13--October 12, 2015

Hello! It's good to write you all again. The weeks seem to keep getting shorter and shorter, which is a good thing but also a scary thing. I worry I won't take advantage of the time I have here as much as I should.

Some cool things from this week: Brother Rios, (the less active guy who fasted and as an answer we ran into him) Totally came to church yesterday with his whole family! How cool is that? I was so excited to see them all I could hardly hold it in! We plan to follow up with him to see how his experience was.

It was such a powerful fast and testimony meeting too! So many powerful people bearing their testimonies born. And our bishop bore his testimony as well. And that was cool. He had a really nasty surgery a few months ago and has been in brutal pain ever since, but his testimony as so powerful. He's an awesome man.

We also met a woman at a bus stop who told us "Yeah... I've met with you mormons before... But you lost me at John Smith's dishes" .... We were very confused for a bit, and had no idea how to respond to that... Then I realized where the mix up had happened: "Oh! The plates!" Haha, we got to clear up the misconception about that, and she also believed that it really was John Smith... Like from Pocohantos (spelling?). So that was a fun conversation.

And I've been thinking a lot about mom's. One of our investigator's was complaining about her Hashimoto's disease (again... spelling?) and how it totally wiped her out most days, and how he couldn't meet with us because of it. And everyone who knows what that was has taken it as a valid excuse saying things like "Oh yeah, that would give her lots of ups and downs." or "Oh really? I don't blame her at all, that's a really tough thing to go through!" And the whole time, I was getting confused, because my Mom suffers from the same disease, and it doesn't stop her at all! 

Now maybe that's too much information to share, but the point I'm getting at is that the longer I'm out on my mission the more I realize what a blessing my mother has been to me. Literally nothing can stop her from doing 10x the tasks of an average human being, and working on like half of the sleep. What a woman! And if that was the only medical issue she was dealing with, that wouldn't be nearly as impressive as if she was dealing with all the physical and medical conditions she is dealing with! But nothing stops her! 

And then I started thinking of all the amazing hard working women in my life that make everyone else in the world seem like a bunch of pansies! Both my grandmother's, my aunt's and adult cousin just to name a few. Elder Holland couldn't have picked a better topic for his talk because everything I am today I owe to my Mother and the other women in my life. Thank you so much for all you do.

Church is true, and families can be together forever. I know that to be true. With all my heart and soul. I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. Not because of any physical proof, or intellectual research, but because of the burning in my heart I receive as I read the Book of Mormon and as I pray for a witness that it is true. I know that by small and simple things, great things to come to pass and the foundation of a lasting testimony comes through the small things like daily prayer, daily scripture study and weekly church attendance. And I know that we have a solemn responsibility to proclaim these things to the world. In the words of my wise mother: "I believe that is what eternity will feel like... We will long for those who we didn't help and we'll wish we could go back and work just a little harder, accept a little quicker and love a little more." Share the Gospel brothers and sisters. Share the good word with all you come in contact with.

Week #12--October 5, 2015

Hello!

Another awesome week and a half. Especially with Conference! Boy did I need that uplifting change in pace. That was so very nice! I wish I could write all my thoughts on Conference, but my condensed notes alone spanned about 20 pages in my study journal, so I won't put too much in here :)

Update on the work: Everyone was out of town! So we only got to teach one lesson since last Thursday, and that was on splits, so it was just me and our Ward Mission Leader. His name is Jason, and he's a hard-core gamer, so I've been the only missionary that's actually been able to progress with him. So it's been super cool to work with him! One night I really wanted him to say the closing prayer, but he was too embarrassed to pray in public (Because he went less active shortly after converting at 18) so we rolled dice for it like it was a DnD game. I had faith the lord would help on a silly matter like Dice, and he did! Jason said the prayer.

Another cool experience: (There were quite a few this week) We met a man working on his car, who was 23 and had gone from living in a small South American country with a dirt poor family to being quite successful here in the States. We talked about his religious background, and he used to be Jehovah's Witness and had read the bible many times... But didn't have any faith. We asked him if he believed in God, and he replied "I work in law enforcement. In San Bernadino County alone, 7 people are killed every day... Where is your God in that?" His question was not one of anger, or malice but of legitimate heartache and abandonment. I have rarely felt the spirit so strong as that moment when I had the opportunity to testify to him that there was indeed a Loving Heavenly Father. I asked him if it had been hard to turn his life around and leave his home to live here. He said Absolutely, and I then asked if he would trade those difficulties for anything. He stopped, and said with tears in his eyes that he wouldn't. I told him that this life is like a "refiner's fire" and that we go through, just like metal, excruciating heat and brutal pounding and shaping in the hands of the Maker that we may become the beautiful creation he wants us to be. It was so cool to see his countenance change, and even though nothing else has come of it, my testimony was strengthened that there is indeed a God who loves us all.

Another cool experience: We had just visited our Ward Mission Leader and had planned to be across town, but Elder Acox suggested we should visit a less active in the complex just over from us. So we did, and on our way we saw a different less active, who had stopped coming to church when he moved into our ward. We'd dropped by a few times but he was 'too busy' and didn't want to talk.Today though, he opened up to us completely. He was a returned missionary and has been swept away by Anti-Mormon material. He was truly hurt by things that the Church said, and there was no explanation to his concerns that we could say that calmed him. But the key was that he had stopped reading the scriptures about the time he came across these doubts. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon, things he already knew and had just forgotten, and the contention left immediately, and as the subject had changed, so did the mood. The spirit was strong as we testified of our knowledge of the truthfulness of that book, and he accepted the challenge to read it again cover to cover. As he was leaving, he said "You know, today for some reason... I just felt like fasting. I guess you guys were the answer!"

This church is so true. I have more experiences, but I don't have time to write them all. I just hope you don't take for granted the power of the scriptures. Seriously. That's the key. People can create arguments all they want, and they can disprove, deny and down-play the Book of Mormon, but none of that matters. What greater witness can you receive then from God?

I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to restore the one true gospel of Christ. And what an amazing gift we have that comes with that! The opportunity to be like God and live with our families forever!

I apologize if I seemed a little bummed out the past few weeks, because I really do love this work that I'm doing.

I love and miss you all!

Church it true!

Week #11 (kind of)--September 24, 2015

So today we got to go to the temple, which was really cool, but that means we moved our next P-day to today. So you won't be hearing from me for 2 Mondays!

It was a nice refresher to go to the temple again. It's felt like so long since I last went, so it was nice to go and feel the temple spirit and see what it was like inside the Redlands temple. It was a much smaller temple than the one's I'm used to but very pretty none-the-less! 

As always, I love you all and hope you have a great week and a half!

Church is true!

Week #10--September 21, 2015

Well this week was brutal, but that's okay. Because the Atonement is more powerful than any hard week! 

So all week we did an abnormal amount of street contacting which can be difficult when people don't like you, but ah well. We did meet some really cool people and hopefully one of them will turn into a new investigator! 

We went on splits with the High Priests, and I went with the HP group leader to visit some less actives around the ward and set up some appointments. That went alright, but apparently the other missionaries and a much older high priest who had gone to visit a really solid investigator... well... the lesson went into the weeds. The High Priest started spewing deep doctrine, which confused the investigator and the investigator has started meeting with his Calvary Chapel friend (Calvary Chapel is one of the churches that teaches anti-mormon classes) and he's waning. But we're meeting with him this Tuesday so we'll hopefully turn it around!

Then we visited with a Part-member family. The parents are less active but want their kids baptized. The problem is... The family is super less active, but thinks they're active. We told them we couldn't baptize their kids until they became active in church and in the home (Family Scripture study/prayer/FHE) and they got really offended. But the line was drawn! And we invited them to become active! So we'll see what happens.

Then Lisa is out of town all week, so we couldn't meet with her this last weekend, but at least she's still progressing!

And then Neil dropped us. That was hard. He told us he was praying really hard and got the answer to stay Catholic... So we're not going to be able to meet with him as much. That one stunk.

On top of all that, we've all started getting a little sick as a companionship and we lost the phone and had to retrace our steps for the day (Wand it was a long biking day) to try and find it. So needless to say, a little discouraging of a week. 

Then this morning, I was reading in Alma 5 and just spent the whole hour studying that and making notes on that BEAUTIFUL sermon Alma gives. And I realized how selfish and self-centered I was being! Not in a self-deprecating way, but in a liberating way! I realized everyone has hard weeks, but it certainly can't get as bad as the Savior's last week. I realized how easy I've got it, with a family who loves and supports me, food, shelter, and a purpose every single day. And most of all, I get to spend 2 year completely immersed in the Atonement, so why on earth was I whining? I need to be singing the song of redeeming love! Rejoicing! I'm a missionary! I have the whole and completely restored gospel of The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Because of that knowledge, I can live forever, and more importantly I can live with my future spouse and family forever.  

I love you all! Church is true!

Week #9--September 14, 2015

(Sigh) Yes everyone. I have heard about the BYU games. There are Mormon's down here too. Showing up to ward council with everyone wearing BYU ties and full of life at 7:30 in the morning usually means I missed something. Haha, I don't want that to sound super bitter. That's not the intention. And for those of you who did send me the info about the games, don't feel bad and I'd love to hear more of it! But needless to say the Ward was buzzing about both games. And you'll be happy to hear that even though I was offered by multiple people to watch the replay's I turned them down!

But now onto this last week. It went really well! We got our new companion, Elder Acox, and he's been a fun new dynamic. Elder Russell was big on not using any Mission Culture in our discussion, or vocabulary. Things like just calling people by their last names, or calling Investigators 'Gators'... Things like that. Elder Acox is a big fan of mission culture. I'll leave that be. 

But it's been nice to have a third witness to everything we say! He adds a different dynamic to the companionship.

Neil is doing well. He is frustrating us to no end but he's doing well. He's a riot, and every time he reads the Book of Mormon he has the funniest commentary on it. "I got really happy when this Nephi guy wanted to obey the commandments and show some mercy on the drunk dude.... But then good ol' wrathful God whispers 'No, kill 'im'" Or last night when reading about the Brother of Jared: "This guy seems really important... And he doesn't even get a name? Someone must have said something and offended someone. Jared's probably the one writing this! And nobody even knows who Jared is!" Maybe that's not as funny to read as it was to live but we got a good kick out of it.

Unfortunately he's Catholic, and doesn't want to change from what's comfortable for him. He told us if he could get baptized Mormon and keep going to Mass, then that would be the ideal scenario.... It's an adventure. 

But we'll keep working with him

Lisa is progressing like crazy! She's the one who works for Disney Channel and was a Jehovah's witness for 39 years but always felt empty. And she comes to church every week and keeps getting emotional about how happy it makes her, and how she's so sad that she was missing out on so much for so long. It won't be long until she get's baptized, we're sure of it.

Then we met a young couple, one's a Less active and the other isn't a member and they're super interested. They actually called the mission office and asked for missionary's to come teach them. Those are the best kinds of days.

So those are the big 3, sorry I rambled so long.

Oh! Also, Elder Fallabela came and visited the mission. And that was amazing! He's a member of the Seventy and had such an incredible spirit about him. I was also asked to arrange and put together the special musical number for that conference. So I guess that was cool. It only took 6 weeks before they figured out about my skill set and informed me "Yeah, you'll probably be doing most of these special musical numbers. 

I'll send the audio to that when I get it. It's not great, but it's pretty good.

Anyway, Elder Fallabela. He talked a lot about the Atonement and how powerful it was. It was such an amazing experience because we walked through the process of conversion and the Atonement's hand in every phase. He had us study Alma 17-22 and Mosiah 2-5 in preparation and we discussed the points of conversion and the signs of conversion. It was cool to sit with 80 or 90 missionaries, each one with different things that stood out to them. Thing's I wouldn't have noticed at all were brought up and were so cool.

Then my favorite part was when he talked about people who know the Bible. He said (And this is not word for word, just the jist of it) "You will come across many people who know the Bible a lot better than you. They will know their references and facts a lot better than most of you ever will. And it may be discouraging when they yell and counter everything you say and believe. But you have something they don't. You know about the Atoning Sacrifice of your Savior Jesus Christ. They don't know anything about that. Ask them! Watch them stumble! And then bear Testimony. Because again, another thing you have on them is you have the knowledge of the fulness of Christ's Gospel and a very personal relationship with your Savior. And there is nothing they can say that can beat that." 

Now that was cool to me. I love my Savior so much. He has done everything for me. He is everything to me. I'm grateful for this opportunity that I have to immerse myself in his teachings and his love. I encourage all of you to continue/start feasting on the words of Christ and crying to him in fervent prayer.

I am SO happy here. I honestly can't imagine what life would have been like if I would have made the decision to stay and not come out here. BYU games and dating and board games and naps and theme parks will still be there when I get home. I'm learning that a little more every day. And 2 months are already gone from my short 24, so I plan to make the most of every possible second. Even if it means I continue to be exhausted and sore and tired and sweaty everywhere I go. I encourage any of you, my friends who are considering whether or not to go on a mission, to just do it! You will realize it's hard work, and it's brutal emotionally, physically and spiritually, but it is so worth it.

Wow that was a novel. If you honestly made it through the whole thing, I owe you Ice Cream or something. I love you all, I miss you all. 

Church is true!

Week #8--September 8, 2015

Welp! I apologize for getting this out a day late, but all the library's were closed on Monday due to the Holiday. Plus it was transfer day which meant moving and meetings for hours. 

So yeah! First transfer done! Each transfer is 6 weeks, and there are 17 in a mission. So 1 down, 16 to go. It really flew by so fast! Like, so fast. I'm staying in the Terra Vista ward in Rancho, and Elder Russell is staying as well but we're getting a third missionary for a tri-panionship! So that will be a fun new adventure!

His name is Elder Acox, and he looks a lot younger than both Elder Russel and I, but he's actually 25. So that's funny. He was not excited to be our companion at first, and was really kind of mad. Apparently we're known throughout the mission as being 'Pharisees' because we take the rules 'too' seriously, and we're 'too' obedient. (I'm sorry, didn't realize obedience was a bad thing. You know who else was really obedient? Jesus. True story) But after a little bit, he realized that although we like to work really hard and constantly strive to obey every rule, we're still really funny and a lot of fun to be with. 

I don't have a lot of time to e-mail today, like less than an hour so I apologize if my answers to some of you are really short. I'll try and write you better one's next week.

Both Neil and Lisa (Disney Channel worker) came to church! Neil didn't like Testimony meeting very much because he felt uncomfortable... Don't know what that's about but we're working with him. And Lisa absolutely loved it! So we're planning to set a baptismal date with her this weekend. The ward loves how much work we're doing and tell us a lot. This ward hasn't seen a baptism in almost 2 years, so it would be cool to get a few before we leave.

And the community notices us too! Keep in mind our area is the biggest English ward in the City, so there are tons of people, but people always comment on how they see us everywhere. And not just missionaries, "The big one and the small one... And the big one's always a ways behind!" So they're recognizing us in particular, which is cool. People are always watching everything we do as members of the Church, and we all represent Jesus Christ in our actions. That's part of the baptismal covenant! We literally take his names upon us.

I've been thinking a lot about the power of prayer, and especially prayer with faith. I was reading in Mosiah 27, where Alma the Younger is visited by the Angel, and the Angel tells him that he has not come because of Alma's wickedness, or to protect the church like I'd always thought, but because of the prayers and faith of the people. Prayer is powerful. 

And not just prayer, but fasting. We had the opportunity to fast as a mission for one purpose. "To Help us prepare to find those who are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel". And imagine 200 or so faithful missionaries sacrificing and praying in faith for each other and for those who are ready to hear the word of the Lord. Pretty powerful image.

I love you all and miss you! And this church is true! I know it. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is the one true church.