December 19, 2016

So this happened a couple weeks ago but I forgot to say it. So I'll make it quick cuz it's kinda interesting. There was this guy I think in Roswell (here) who basically whom someone in our ward home taught. He started getting weird. Eventually he became anti Mormon and started posting anti stuff. It progressively got worse as he claimed to be a prophet and posted his revelations online as an online preacher. Needless to say he was excommunicated. Then he died.  Sounds like Korihor doesn't it? Crazy how things that happened then still happen today. No one knew why he died, there was no background of heart attacks or anything, but his heart just stopped a few weeks after being excommunicated and died. There's lots of stories I hear about people interfering with the work at a high level and it ends up ugly. Monday: Wow, yesterday the young women put together snack boxes for the Elders as a Christmas package. We got like 20 lbs of snacks each! It was awesome! They figured we often times don't have lots of time to make stuff and want snacks as we run out, but can't afford them. They're right. So I'm super grateful for that. Also, I had eggnog for the first time. Changed my life. Tuesday: How cute, my companion's mom sent us both 12 little presents each to open for the 12 days before Christmas. I also almost was hit...again. I had to slam my brakes skid to the side and I kid you not was still only an inch away. And he part that baffled me is the lady didn't even care, she gave me the dirtiest look like it was my fault. Whatever. I considered for half a second just not skidding to the side and letting her hit me so I could have a cooler story and give her a card. Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday: We always seem to do the long outside service when it rains. We raked leaves and chopped trees for six hours in a Washington-like rain. And it was cold. We also went caroling. Pretty cool. Pretty interesting.  Sunday: Well this has been the third longest week of my life. Not sure why.

December 12. 2016

Monday: Tuesday: Apparently yet another rule is that we can't be sarcastic. Ever. Even in our own apartments or with other missionaries. Best part, right after advising this, President made a sarcastic comment. I don't think it can be done, we aren't robots. Heck, even robots say sarcastic comments, Siri sasses me all the time. But anyways, on to good news. So we had a team up today and our plans fell through, but I had backup plans...all four backup plans fell through. So we went to visit a single less active lady in our ward. Long and personal story short, she had just been going through a really hard time and felt so threatened as to carry a kitchen knife with her and call the cops. Then she, "saw a car pull up and white shirts come out." Another long story short, we were needed to comfort her in this hard time of hers and she just said that she'd been praying for something to happen or for comfort and she knew we were sent and thanked Jesus multiplied times, among some crying. It was really neat though being an immediate answer to someone's prayers and being able to show up right at her time of need. There's a spiritual thought in this too now that I think of it. So many of our plans fell through. A lot, we didn't have a dinner hour yet so we coulda gone in a little early and had a little bit longer of a dinner, but we didn't, we were obedient and showed that we were willing to continue working despite our plans falling through. Then he gave us a little miracle, after the trial of our faith. Ether 12:6 I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the etrial of your faith. This also relates to Alma and Amulek, they didn't get any miracles until they showed that they were willing to work even though nothing they tried was working before. Wednesday: Thursday: I just saw the new 2017 Youth Theme video and there's a guy who gets his mission call to this mission. Then I paused it and realized that I knew him, he came out with me and has been in my same stake this whole time. I'll attach a screenshot to this. Friday: Christmas Party! It was pretty dang lit. It was "a night in Bethlehem" and was the most legit Christmas Party I've been to. It was very successful in bringing in members who are less active or stay in the shadows. What they did is set up a market with actual wooden stands that they built and cloths at they'd use in the old days to put around them. We wore olden day clothes (I'll attach a picture of me in a olden day/ missionary hybrid). And we got pennies that we could go around and "buy" food or candle making stuff etc in the markets. It was a very detailed oriented activity. Saturday: Yes! It took me long enough but I figured out my purpose in Roswell. I had just been thinking about how we need to get more member involvement and then at a visit with a member today it clicked. Elder Wix and I both agree strongly that we need to focus on members and strengthening the ward. Now I finally feel motivated to go out and do stuff. Sunday: This was a rough week. Probably the longest week of my mission so far not counting my first week. And as for lessons and team ups and all of our goals, we've had an all time low. One lesson, the other elders here had like 9 and 7. But good news...Elder Wix is opening up a lot more and we're getting along well.

December 5, 2016

Like I promised, I said I'd share the spiritual thought I gave in my white handbook. But don't think too much of it, like I said, it was on the spot and I just opened it up and read a sentence... "Like all callings in the Church, each assignment has its own importance; an assistant to the president is no more important than any other missionary." Most of us (myself especially) look at people with leadership callings with the thought that they are more important or have a higher calling that we must achieve. The gospel isn't made up of promotions, you're not climbing a ladder to get to the "highest" ranked calling. The ladder we should climb is the one to salvation. We can't look at our sides and compare ourselves because we are all at the bottom of the ladder trying to achieve exaltation. We must look up. Like in a race, turning our heads to the sides and looking at the person next to us slows us down.  A leader is not a leader if he doesn't have anyone to lead. Leaders aren't in control, they are just called to set examples. I know that being a In a leadership calling means nothing when it comes to proving how "righteous" or "worthy" or "awesome" you are. Everyone is just as important as the leader, the leaders are just the ones that are seen.  **then I look up at the clock** It's like that clock. The leaders are the hands on the clock. That's the part everyone sees and uses, but that are completely useless without the gears behind them. If even one gear is missing then it deems the leader pointless. A leader is as strong as those he works with and needs every part to be working in order to be effective and as accurate as a clock is.  When all the parts don't work in unity there is no accuracy in the direction of the hands on the clock (leaders). Without every missionary or ward member doing their part there really is no point for leadership positions. A leader is no more important than everyone else. Just as the hands on the clock are no more important than the gears. Alma 1:26 ...the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength. Wednesday:  Holy moly. I was in heaven today. We had a cataclysmic storm. We were in a tornado warning A tornado touched down a few miles south of us. I drove for the first time again in months when it hit. First it was raining pretty heavy, then the wall came...it hit us so hard and it got so stinkin windy. Then another wall hit us and I felt like I was in a tornado. It was so rainy and windy that I couldn't see the road 30 feet ahead of me and there was just leaves and sticks flying all over the place. The road filled up with water in literally less than a minute and the wind was just wicked, I guess that's what happens when a tornado touches down a few mikes away. It was soooo awesooome. Then it just as fast as it came it stopped. It just rained pretty consistently for the rest of the day and was kinda windy. By the time the storm hit us it had already produced 9 tornadoes! I'm stoked for tornado season. I'm gonna put a picture of the warning on here just cuz I'm a nerd. And I also got my new companion today. He seems like a good guy, we get along well. He's from the factory and his name is Elder Wiecks. Another thing. We visited a lady today whose son died and was a "good kid but got into the wrong stuff." Her preacher as a child said that if you die and you're unrighteousness that you're going to hell and burning essentially. She said as a child she would be scared out of her mind and get nightmares about that stuff. It pathetic and sad that churches use that to scare people into staying. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ promotes good feelings of comfort. In the scriptures it says that what promotes fear is of the devil. So many of these churches are literally teaching the gospel of the devil for their gain and using Jesus' name for gain and justification. Anyways...She whole heartedly believes that her son is burning in hell. We told her that he's not and so have past missionaries. She said that even though she feels like he's not (even though the spirit is testifying that God isn't anxious to thrust us into torment) that she will never believe that he's being taught the gospel and can repent because he's already dead. So what'd we do? We gave her scriptures out of the Bible that blatantly say that the dead will receive the gospel and can repent. She said she found comfort in that but still will never believe it (even though she believes in the Bible). Her preacher traumatized her so much as a kid that she now thinks her own son is burning. That is called the devil at his finest. That is what is prophesied when it talks about false teachers and people who sneakily deceive you while talking about Christ. Apostasy! Blasphemy! Hypocrisy! Read 2 Nephi 28. It's a killer chapter. Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Sorry it's been such a dead week. But I've been leading out the area, pretty hard. My companion and I get along, he's just quiet and monotone and I am very not so it kills me a bit. It almost puts me down, he's just so unexcited so it makes me unexcited which has made this week a drag, but it's all good cuz we get along just fine and he cracks a joke here and there. I'll just have to learn how to crank up the charisma by the end of this six weeks to pick up the slack.  Sunday: WOWZA! Crazy day. It has been raining and heavy misting consistently all day long. It's also freezing cold (I'm sure it was near snowing), windy, and dark during prime proselyting time. So even through my gloves, hat and snow coat I was sopping wet with the cold wind blowing on me as I biked for the last 4 hours of the day trying to visit people. But! We went to a member's home for dinner that we go to every Sunday and they're the best. They are very loving and love missionaries to death, and they're recent converts of about a year and a half. Anyways, we go in and they realized we were biking. They gave us new shirts (and ultimately let us keep them), threw our coats in the dryer, fed us an awesome dinner, then gave us our warm cozy coats back. Lemme tell ya, when you're about to die of frostbite and you're soaked, that is an awesome welcoming. I feel blessed to have people like that. Also a cool little story. As we were biking in the dark, cold, lone and dreary world we stopped by a less active on the way that I just wanted to meet. They open the door and the kid was crying because he was sick. But only for a second, then he started eating some food. Seeing that we were dying the mom let us in but warned us that her kid is very sick and didn't want us to catch anything. But then he started getting energized. We offered to give him a blessing, but instead we said a prayer because he was getting way hyped. So I said the prayer and blessed him with a speedy recovery. By the end of our visit he ate all his food and was running around, playing with toys, and talking with us. The mom and dad said that the last couple days he hasn't been eating or doing anything. He was crying and refusing to eat until the second we walked in the door, then he just purked up. Pretty neat.

November 29, 2016

Spiritual thought: Tuesday. I crashed my bike...again. As usual, I turned it into a spiritual thing

Monday:

Tuesday:

Today in district meeting I was called up to give a quick spiritual thought on the spot. I got up there, opened up a page in our white handbooks, read a sentence, and gave a sweet 5 minute lesson on it. People said I sounded like I had been preparing. As I was talking I looked up and saw the clock and made an analogy from it. Not to be prideful, but it was a pretty sweet and applicable analogy. I impressed a lot of people apparently and Elder May said that it's something Jesus would say when he busts out his relatable and great parables. I felt pretty good XD. Maybe I'll share it's a spiritual thought next week.

________spiritual thought_________

Well. I thought my days of bike crashing were over. Nope. It's a good thing I did flips a lot because that means I fell a lot which means I fall pretty well. I was biking down this hill and I usually wait to brake and then brake hard when right before I stop. So right as I did that I realized that I was on a ton of water and mud on wet street from a leaking fire extinguisher. So I drifted and slid, but as I was sliding I wasn't worried because I thought, "oh it's ok, I've drifted before, I'll just hold it and snap back when I feel it." The snap back was unsuccessful, before I could do it I was already too low and knew it was over. So I hit the ground on the side of my back and gracefully slid 15 feet across the asphalt. In the second that I laid there all wet realizing that this is the fourth time I've hurt my dignity by crashing, I look over and there's a UPS truck right there and a few other people who witnessed my public display of humiliation. So the first thing I could think of to do is look over at Elder May (who was already laughing) and put a proud fist in the air exclaiming loudly, "Yeah!" in a deep and dramatic voice as if I had planned that whole stunt. Then he laughed some more and got out of the road and then died laughing. In the process I lost my shoe and my dignity. I also tore a hole in my sock, but not my clothes that matter. I also got pretty wet. So just like I procrastinated the usage of my brakes, many people procrastinate the day of their repentance. Quite a bit. 

Alma 34:33-34

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

We have a mentality that we can do this now and repent later. First of all, that's not true repentance. Secondly, you never know when you'll hit that wet asphalt and hit rock bottom. You always need to be ready for the wet road, whether it be dying, trials that'll stump us, or even the coming of Christ. The brakes (Atonement) are there for a reason, use them (it) wisely. If we use our brakes when we hit that patch of water, we will fall. The same applies for repentance, if we use it later after we've had our kicks or when things get ugly, the brakes will not serve its purpose. So don't procrastinate! 

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Today was a good day. We played football in the morning with the members and I felt like a human again. It was super nice and quite fun. At night we went to eat at a super cool family's house which was really nice. Then we went about visiting someone who just had a heart attack. 

Friday:

Saturday:

Wow, we did service for about 6-7 hours today chopping up trees and whatnot. Then we went half an hour bike ride South for an appointment, they weren't there. So in a hurry we had to skip dinner and bike and hour North for an appointment with Deshawn (he's the one who just came back up from Florida). He flaked. To top it off with a cherry, my bike tire popped in Deshawn's apartment complex. Or should I say another Elder's bike that I was borrowing since my bike is messed up tire popped. But oh well, it was a great experience and we need to be thankful in our adversities.

Sunday:

Monday:

Wow this wraps up our week and we have had every single lesson fall through, plenty of tracting, and one potential investigator. So it's been a lame week. But! Elder May got called to be a zone leader. But also! Kayli got her mission call to Georgia's good neighbor Florida Spanish speaking! I'm jealous, they get way more storms there...but she gets to learn how to deal with many of the same things I deal with. Exciting! Shortly after that a big ol' rainstorm rolled through. I tried hard not to go outside to watch it, I failed. Needless to say I got very very little sleep. 

November 21, 2016

We all know it, us Mormons are the butt end of the joke, we're always the punch line. We also get teased more than most religions. And it's true, there's more anti-Mormon stuff people try to gather on us than any other religion (and all of it can be explained). Not to mention the pioneers were forced from place to place. Then there's the missionaries, yeah we get bashed with, spit on (luckily I haven't yet), yelled at, and torn apart. The member's get some heat too for being Mormon. People love us at the same time, but hey think we're weird with our lack of coffee intake etc. We get lots of love, but we also get a whole lot of crap! But it makes sense... The longer time goes on, the further and further the world gets from the gospel and God. It's obvious. So us Mormons who are trying our hardest to push against the worldly norms and staying close with God are weird in the sight of those who are of the world because we act differently. That's why we're the punch line, why we're persecuted, why we are 'weird.' Yet people still just love us, and it's because they feel our closeness with God and see our light.  Deuteronomy 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. This was said right before the Israelites were given their "word of wisdom" in which they are supposed to withhold from certain meats and whatnot. Heavenly Father knew they'd be teased for it and explained to them that his chosen ones are a "peculiar people." Well guess what? Are we not a peculiar people in the eyes of the world? Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light So the moral of the story is, don't be ashamed when you're mocked, the Lord raises up his people and they're a peculiar people. If you weren't a peculiar people than you'd just be a worldly person. If you're worldly than you aren't spiritual. If you aren't spiritual than you aren't of God.  Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Sorry, it's been the same ol' stuff this week so I haven't written much. Don't wanna bore y'all. But today we just committed our only investigator to baptism and man is he solid. I've never been so sure of someone getting getting baptized, I know for a fact he is going to. He's asking questions, reading the Book of Mormon (he even invited someone on the train to read it with an open heart and meet with missionaries because it's changing his life!!), he loves it, he believes everything we do without us even teaching him about (like there was an apostasy, there needs to be someone with authority, there needs to be more than just the Bible to clear up confusion, no s*x before marriage, word of wisdom, Commandments, everything! Before we even teach him them!) There's just one issue. We have to give him to other missionaries because he lives outside the mission barely We meet him at work, he has a friend he works with that goes to our ward. And he loves us too so it's gonna be hard letting him go, I'm pretty stinkin' upset about that... We also were knocking doors for the first time in a while and a lady opened the door to yell, "Hail Satan!" and slammed it. Interesting people you meet down here. People think we're of the devil and we worship Joseph Smith. Idk why, especially since we have the name tag and the church title "Church of JESUS CHRIST of LDS." One of the only churches with his name actually in it, but oh well. It doesn't bother me, it's just funny and fulfilling much much much hardcore prophesy.  Friday: Saturday: Sunday: Wow guys, sorry. This email was lame. Nothing special happened this week and I don't want to bore y'all with the same ol' stuff.