March 20, 2017

I was reading in my personal studies Ether 2 when the brother of Jared builds the barges and realizes he needs light in them. So he goes to the Lord and asks what to do. He responds in verse 23 with And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire. So He's basically saying, "Well you can't build windows, and you can't make a fire, so what do you think we should do?" He asks the brother of Jared to think for himself. We can't have our hands held all throughout the days of our probation, we wouldn't learn anything. We are here to learn and grow and eventually progress eternally which includes becoming as God is now. So if we are truly in preparation for that, we need to be big boys and girls and use our agency to make big big boy and girl decisions. However, we are still very imperfect, so we need guidance and advice. Just like he was told he couldn't make windows or fire, we are told things to help us return to him.  Eventually the brother of Jared comes up with the bright idea (Get it? Bright idea...) of having the Lord touch the stones to light them up. There's a spiritual thought in that itself, but that's for another time. He still asks for the Lord's guidance when he comes up with an idea. Like this, we must too ask to make sure we are still on the right path. Not only will it ensure that we are on the right path, but it demonstrates humility too. Monday: Man what the heck happened to spring? Things are blossoming and everything was going good. Then today it all changed and we biked in this mid-30s half rain half sleet half mist garbage on the way home from another fallen through appointment. It froze me to the bone, and it's only getting colder... Other than that it was just another lovely P day. Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: We had a cool little miracle today. I was on exchange today and while we planned this morning we felt like we should go see someone who moved in recently, she was in the opposite direction of where we were originally going to tract, but it was ok. So we went and knocked on her door, she didn't answer so we left a note with our number. While tracting she texted us saying we were sent by the Lord and she did need help, a blessing. So we went over and she told us the night before she had been crying over something and prayed for a blessing of comfort to come around. First thing that morning we were there. Here's the cooler part, remember I said I was on exchange? Well the person I was on exchange with is from Brazil and this lady was also from Brazil, so he gave her the blessing in their native language, Portuguese. Friday: Saturday: Sunday: Is this what it feels like to be a missionary? The past few days Elder Summers and I have just gone through all our investigators being straight up with them and weeding out a lot of people. We dropped quite a few people and have a good bit of tracting planned for this next week, we are down to the lowest Elder Summers has seen in his whole mission (I've been that low a couple times) and we still have a couple more to weed out in the next couple days. It was 7:30 and we were heading up to someone we usually see on Sunday nights and we'd planned on seeing if he would needed to be dropped too. On our way we wanted to see some potential investigators that were nearby (these are they we knocked into last week on the second door), they hadn't responded to our text though so we were a little nervous they got anti'd. We stopped by anyways and they let us in, they were happy to have us! Last time we didn't finish the restoration with the guy and the girl came in late, so we taught it more in depth and the spirit was strong. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in on a mission. She said she started getting goosebumps when we started talking about how that authority is on the earth today and was passed down from Joseph Smith. Then as we were wrapping up we started talking baptism, she started crying! That's the first time I've seen someone cry in a lesson in my whole mission. They both accepted a baptism date. On top of that, the last time we came over we left them a restoration pamphlet. The very next day she went to her Dad's house in Winder and saw a restoration pamphlet on the table. They talked and the Winder Elders are teaching her own Dad! Afterwards we went to Antwain's place, he accepted a date last week, but we needed to make sure we didn't need to drop him. We weren't sure how serious he was and he met with missionaries a lot a few years ago. We got in and he told us he's been thinking lately. He'd been thinking about his baptism and how he needs to start taking these steps if he's serious. He asked what he needs to do. He'd been taught all the lessons a couple years ago, so we went over the baptism interview with him and he's ready to start taking the steps to it.

March 13, 2017

I apologize, this isn't the longest or most insightful spiritual thought I've ever done, but I can't blow the roof off every time right? I'm kidding!  That's incredibly prideful. But it's not as long as they usually are, short and sweet thoughts are always good too. D&C 82:10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. This is just something kind of cool that I realized. The Lord makes covenants with us and he always keeps his side of the deal. He absolutely has to, he's perfect. If he didn't keep his side of the deal then he wouldn't be perfect, if he wasn't perfect he would cease to be God. But he is God and he is perfect so he will keep his end of the deal. So if we do our part of the deal, he absolutely has to give us the promised blessings. However, if we do not keep our end of the deal then we don't have his promise. Luckily for us he's merciful too and therefore through the Atonement, he can still bless us even though we usually don't fully live up to our end of the deal and it will still be done in justice. However, if we live it fully then there is no maybes about it, we will receive his end of the deal. Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Finally, after 7 1/2 months in the field we finally took someone's cigarettes. It's the guy I talked about last Saturday if any of you remember. We cut those suckers up and soaked them and threw 'em away. Thursday: Friday: Saturday: So today we had a lot of tracting planned and a lesson, but as we left the tube in my tire popped. After about half an hour of construction work on my bike and patching, I pumped it back up. Then it popped again. A hole popped through the patch itself. Walmart patches...We looked more and we found a tire tube in our garage, sweet! It didn't fit. Desperately, we called a member for a ride as we were about to be late to the lesson. Afterwards we got a ride again and went to Walmart so I could buy a tube. I bought it, installed it and all that good stuff. But here's the punchline. As I went to put the pump back with all the other bike stuff right after installing my new tube, I look down, and there in the open lies an unopened box containing a tube. In fact, it was the exact same box, tube, and size that I had just bought and opened two minutes earlier. There was one there the whole stinkin' time. Sunday: On Saturday we had our plans for tracting ruined since my tube exploded just as we left to go do so which threw our whole day upside down. Today we finally could go find some more people to teach. The first door we knocked on was Hispanic family and they let us right in. We were like YES!! We got to talking and getting to know the lady, her daughter started showing us all these paintings and puzzles, her husband coaches a soccer team, they offered us food. We thought, "Man, is this what it's like to be a Spanish missionary?" As time went on I started piecing some unusual things together...They let us right in, were a little too welcoming, they didn't even ask why we were there after our long conversation, she said she used to be catholic, but she was baptized at 11, and I know for a fact that Catholics are baptized at birth and it's almost unheard of an 11 year old Catholic baptism. I thought, "Either they're members, or more likely baptists who just got baptized." So I asked carefully worded questions to find out if they were in fact members without making a fool of myself. When she said she was baptized in the Mormon church at 11 we about pooped our pants. What the crap? We just spent about all our tracting time talking about Jesus and stuff with the mom while she was getting things together as if she were an investigator! I assumed they went to the Spanish branch. We pulled it off well as if we knew the whole time. We asked to share a spiritual thought before we left and the kids walked in. It was then that I realized how foolish I was. They're in our ward...We have like 50 people and they make up 8 of them! They sat in front of me today in Sacrament! The guy sat next to me in Elders quorum! That's how bad I am at recognizing faces!!!!! You don't know how hard it was to hold a straight face like we knew the whole time and not bust up laughing. So the day goes on with more unexpected occurrences and our tracting time is yet again gone with the wind. It went from a total of 7 tracting hours this weekend to nothing. But! Our appointment didn't show up and another person we planned on seeing "wasn't there" (she was, we're dropping her). It was 8:00 and we had nothing planned, tracting! The second door we knocked on we talked and taught the whole first lesson, got a number, and they want us to come by again! We told him we felt like we should go there and he got excited and said he'd missed church today and his girlfriend left to a prayer thing that he wanted to go to, but we were able to come give him the word. Then his girlfriend came back (we'll have to get them married) and she was cool with it too. After only two doors! Finding someone like that would usually take a good 5 hours. Now we just have to shelter them from anti, they go to a rather large baptist church and pastors aren't fond of us taking their paychecks. Ok not all of them are like that, but when you get to the roots of it... And daylights saving is AMAZING!!! People don't get mad at us when we're knocking at their door at 8:00 and we don't bike in the pitch dark for three hours.

March 6, 2017

Monique Sanders <sandersclan.01@gmail.com>

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Mass email

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Seth Sanders <seth.sanders@myldsmail.net>	Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 11:38 AM
To: sandersclan.01@gmail.com
Well if y'all read my mass emails you know that this last transfer in Fort Yargo has been pretty difficult, especially the past few weeks. But there's a scripture that I really like that I'd refer myself to found in D&C 121:7-8. 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Though this scripture is generally referring more towards the eternal picture, it applies to a temporal picture as well. A part that stands out to me is, "...if thou endure it well..." So I figured that if I just keep going and work hard here, enduring it well, that eventually something will come out of it, whether it be here in Fort Yargo, my next area, or life in general. So that's what I've been doing. Working hard and doing what I feel is best for the area. As you read on through my week (if you get that far) you'll see that it has been a stellar week. The best week this area has seen for as far back as I can see, so about a year or more. It's cool to see that as we endure our trials well that we'll be blessed and they don't go unnoticed.  Also, just to add...the last two elders to be here have also worked their hearts out with seeing little success. They didn't see much happen here, but I saw my last companion, Elder Knight, on Thursday and he was having a baptism this Saturday and has another one soon to come. He was blessed in his next area. Elder Tessyman, the guy before me with elder knight, worked hard here without much happening and he was transferred to another area in which he too is seeing much success.  So it seems to have a pattern directly correlating with how well we have endured our trials. We have three options.  We can quit when things get hard, the problem with that is that if you quit, things will still be hard, the only difference is that you won't be moving forward and will never overcome those trials and enemies. You'll just drown and sit at the bottom in misery. We can go through life grudgingly and hopelessly putting in half-effort to overcome trials. The problem with that is we'd just be enduring, not enduring well. If you're in a current and you swim lightly towards the shore, you'll stay in place and struggle forever. We can trust in the lord, work hard, and manage our problems. This is the only way we can get over things. It may not even necessarily be in a short time or in this life at all. But as long as we endure it well, we know we can at least be promised peace and triumph over all things in the next life. If not...you don't have that promise and you'll just sit in your problems for the rest of your life. Number 1 isn't an option. Number 2 is a lousy option. And number 3 is the only option we can choose if we're to make it through our problems. That's just a little something I've realized this week and wanted to share it. Monday: Woooooow, Kayli is a missionary now... What's happening? Never thought this day would actually come.... Today we were biking away from a missed appointment and Elder Summers said he felt like we should go back to the neighborhood (the projects (and it's dark)) but we didn't know why so we strolled around. Then Elder Summers found the door we should knock on. I say hey, that's familiar. So we looked at our map and it was a new investigator of ours' place (not sure how I didn't realize that). He wasn't there, but another guy was who Elder Knight and I talked with a couple weeks ago. We talked about the gospel and stuff and have a return appointment, so it was pretty cool! Tuesday: We went to a dinner appointment and they weren't going to be ready for at least another 30 minutes, so we told them no worries and that there were people we wanted to visit around the area anyways. So we went out to see a potential that we'd met the other day who said to come back later so he and his wife (I think) could hear us, heck yeah! He's an older guy and so is she. They let us right in and we got acquainted and whatnot. Get this...they trained their dog to flippin sneeze every time he needed to go outside! What the crap?? So they asked their dog, who is incredibly INCREDIBLY FAT if he needed to go outside and the poor thing started sneezing uncontrollably for like three minutes so they had to let him outsides. Haha it's so funny! When we got into the lesson it was awesome! We tied it to what we were talking about with them and the lesson went very smooth. The spirit was definitely guiding it because it was our first real lesson together and usually those get awkward. When Elder Summers quoted the first vision it got really strong. Then after a short pause the lady (Rebecca) said, "where's your church again? Can you give me the address?" Haha it was great. I couldn't exactly tell, but it almost seemed like the guy (Richard) started getting teary-eyed. During the lesson the members called us because it'd been half an hour since we were supposed to be back. We went to dinner and they were just finishing up. Afterwards we shared a little spiritual thought and it seemed to go pretty well. Then we went to another lesson with a guy we meet with sometimes. He's not a member but his whole family is and he goes to church every week for about a year, there's just complexities. As we were leaving he told us he was sitting on his porch and overheard his neighbors who just moved in talking about trying to find a church to attend, so we're going to try to swoop in by tomorrow. So it was a really good night. Wednesday: Holy crap. Last night I didn't fall asleep until 4:00 in the morning. Yesterday I was so tired that I fell asleep for a second at a red light, so I was looking forward to that sleep. Nope, I just sat there in bed as my eyes burned off like an insomniac. Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Dang today was legit!! Things went as planned for the most part. We stayed within a mile radius and taught lesson after lesson after lesson. This afternoon we taught 4 1/2 lessons. First we went to help an investigator of ours that we've been working with on and off for six months or so. He's been starting to come back to church lately and we're working on his 50+ year problem of smoking. We gave him a promised blessing the other day. He's cut smoking in half and was saying he's felt more at peace than he has in a long long time. Next we go to another person's house and teach them, nothing cray happens. Next we go to an investigator's house that we've been trying to get to church but his parents have been holding him back for the past year. A few weeks ago his mom overheard us and realized we didn't handle snakes and stuff. So she started asking questions and he told her to sit in with us, so this week she sat in with us. It was really awesome, she started opening up and we're going to talk to her more too. Then we head over to another guy we just met last week. We had a short lesson with him and extended the big B invite. He said if he came to know it's true he'd be willing, sweet! Then on our way back we felt we should try a potential investigator once more that Elder Knight and someone else found, even though we tried a few hours earlier. It went awesome, we taught a lesson and she really wants to meet with us. She'd met with missionaries years ago and was really close. She's excited to start meeting again. Then we had the lesson I was most excited for (I talked about them on Tuesday), it was a 6 mile bike ride in the cold and dark. We get there...no answer. So we rang the door bell...no answer. We could hear a tv inside and a light was on...By now we're nervous, we just biked far in the cold dark, so we called. What happened next surprised me...there was no answer. So we biked back. I don't think it's because they're not interested, we talked to them on Friday and they were happy to have us, they're just old and it was late. Overall a good day though! Sunday: Maaannn. After a strategically planned week and a lot of blessings, it's been done. There's something called a standard of excellence, ours is 3 new investigators, one at church, and one on date for baptism. Fort Yargo hasn't hit a single standard in at least 8 months. This week, with the help of the Lord, we hit a double standard. Meaning six new investigators, two on date, and two at church.   There isn't much rhyme or reason to these pictures from this week, but I figure I'll just send the ones I took anyways. 1. Just me standing on a Handlbarless Segway  2. A little cocoa missionary and a little macadamia missionary figurine that we're mimicking 3. I took this picture because Elder Bastos wanted to take a picture because we look super good

February 27, 2017

We're each given certain gifts and responsibilities from God to build the kingdom. We have the Holy Ghost to always be with us, guys can have the responsibility of the priesthood to bound things in heaven and earth, girls have the responsibility of raising children that God has entrusted them with. These are big things. How are we using these gifts and responsibilities? Imagine you work in the log transportation industry. Everyday you have to haul logs all the way from the nearest town with your bare hands....And you're in New Mexico. Now imagine your boss surprises you with a brand new truck to help you. How would you use it? Will you get logs or a jug of milk to throw in the bed? Imagine you came back with a single log in the bed when it has capacity for fifty, how would your boss feel? Do you ink he'd let you keep using the truck? No, he's going to give it to someone else and take it from you. Now how would Heavenly Father feel if you were using the gifts and responsibilities given to you at their minimal potential, putting in the least amount of effort possible? Do you think he'd be pleased, let you keep the gift or reward you for it? Phhh no...He trusts us with these so that we can help in building the kingdom and preparing the way for Christ's second coming. Monday: Tuesday: Got my new companion. His name is elder Summers. I really like him, we get along well and even have the same taste in music. Best of all, he's not from Utah! He's from Chandler, Arizona. Wednesday: Today we had something kinda cool happen. Earlier a member called us asking about a couple less active members and if they'd be ok with being offered to have their kids picked up for activity night. There was one I didn't know anything about. Later that day we had enough time to knock on about two doors. So we prayed to ask which to knock on. The first door the guy wasn't really interested. The second door was this family that the member asked about earlier. Of all the hundreds and hundreds of houses in all of Winder, Bethlehem, Carl, Aubrun, and Stahtam, theirs is the one we knocked on. We didn't even know it was them or that they were members until we got to talking. Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Sunday: