Temples

We found a new investigator who is golden. He loves the Book of Mormon. It brings him happiness every time he picks it up and reads it. He is on date to be baptized for Oct 11th. He is excited. His name is Alec. The first time we went over at the end he said, "Is it time to pray?" We said yes and then he proceeded to say I am scared to pray, but I know that I need to pray anyways. It was a very basic prayer but you could tell that it came from the heart.

We taught 22 lessons this week. Crazy right! A normal week we would teach about 12 or something like that. We are teaching a lot of recent convert lessons and a lot of less active lessons. Something we have been instructed to do by a Seventy that visited our mission. 

I love my companion, he is a great Elder and loves the gospel. He has really changed his life to come on his mission. He has done things that I would have never dreamed of anyone doing, but he has repented and now he is wonderful. 

Our zone is a good zone too. All the other zones we had things we have had to "fix", but this zone has had none of those. I appreciate that a lot. 

Going to the temple was wonderful we got to do that on Tuesday. We saw the newest one. Every time I go I learn so many things that help me in missionary work and in my life. Interesting thing that happens all the time in the YSA stake is that about 4 times a week we get a text form a returned missionary that tells us that he wants to go out with us on splits. I have always struggled to find someone who really wants to go out with us and now there are too many that we tell them that if they have an appointment for us that we will take them. haha this is a lot different. 

So I will be going to the Saturday PM session [of General Conference] and then the priesthood session later that night. Yes, I did get to go to the temple dedication. That was really cool! I loved it and I was able to feel the spirit so strong. President Monson said in the dedication to love the temple, to appreciate the temple, and to attend the temple.  He also said that the temple is a light home that leads us to heaven. 

Elder Bednar said that when we are in the temple we are home! I thought that was cool.

Interesting thing that happened because we could not have anyone we are working with go to church that day it posed a problem. No less active members or non members were allowed to go the church that day, so what we did is just watched a sacrament meeting on TV and that counted for them to go to church. 

Rough Times, but Good

I am going to go to the temple today at 3 that is why I did not email yesterday. This past week was crazy. Lots of things happening. So at the beginning of last week we were praying and fasting for our investigators and kinda the opposite things happened that we did not want to happen. First off we have completely lost contact with some of our investigators. They disappeared. Sad. and then we were walking down the street and high school got out and we got 2 people to yell at us and one to throw something at us. It did not hit us but I think it was a rock. He swore at us and then not 2 min. later we got another person to yell ''devil" at us.

Then we got a call from one of our fellow-shippers for one of our investigators and she chastised us for inviting her friend to be baptized and told us that we don't have the Spirit with us and that we were not good teachers and the such. Then through all of this we have about 10 lessons cancel on us.

So we are a little disappointment this week and Sunday comes around and our only lesson with an investigator with a member present. We are working so hard to make it a good lesson during comp study and we get a call and one of our less active lessons canceled. Then we go out to our car to go to church and we start driving off the drive way and it has a completely flat tire. So we put on the spare and then while we are on the ground we got a text from our investigator saying that she is sick and she can't have the lesson and she will not be able to make it to church. :( So we are not able to. We get in our car and then realize that we only have about 40 miles left of gas and it is Sunday. We go to church. and our last investigator texted us about 2 min before church starts and said that he will try to make it to Church. He does not make it. So last week was kinda rough.

This week is going to be really good though we have already taught 4 lessons yesterday. We are going to go though the temple and we have some lessons with new investigators already set up. yay. Good things that happened last week. We had some good less active lessons and we were able to feel the spirit very well in those lessons. We were able to give 3 blessings last week and miracles came from those blessings. One was a healing blessing. He had just had surgery on his bladder. He had stones in his bladder. Little different and there had been lots of swellings and things. A week later his son should be getting married and he wanted to be there so bad. The wife was talking about who they are going to get to give him a blessing to him when she saw us talking to her neighbor. She called us over. We gave him a blessing and we saw him a few days later and he was up and walking and she said to us that 1 hour after the blessing he was fine. A little weak but fine. Really cool to see that.

Then the other blessing we gave were for someone the sisters were teaching. Her car broke down and she had no way of getting her kids to church and her parents left her because she came back to the church. (she was less active) She was very scared because she had no way of getting to work or anything. We gave her a blessing and then next day her car was just fine. God loves his children a lot. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in this restored church. The power to act in Christ's name. crazy right? Sometimes I think we forget what we have.

I don't mean to complain about the work. It has its ups and downs. Yesterday we taught a girl named Falisha. She is a wonderful person and we knocked on her door Sunday night and asked if we could have a lesson with her on Monday. She is a little shy. So the next day we have a lesson and turns out that yesterday she said she was very close to committing suicide because of her depression. She is going to go to a hospital in about a week. But the lesson we had was one of the most powerful I have had in a long time. Totally by the Spirit. We talked about the Atonement and Christ and how he can help you. That is when she told us about committing suicide. (We happened to be at the bishop's house at that time as well)  She was crying and of course Elder Walker was crying. haha

As missionaries we are God's servants and he leads us where he wants us to go so that is why we were lead to that house at that time. 

I know who I am

This week was interesting. Lots of things happened. We had several of our investigators text us and tell us that they don't want to meet anymore and they don't want to learn anymore. Normally when things like this happen I am disappointed, but I was reading in Preach my Gospel and it said that disappointment will decrease my faith and desire. So I decided to look at it in another way. The way I chose to look at it is that God knew that they would stop investigating the church and He knew that his missionaries would not be to happy about it. So a question arises from all of this. Why did we even start teaching them and seeing them progress only to see them leave what we were teaching them or to have trials that they are trying to over come to stop their progression?

I believe that things like this occur, because if they did not then we would not know how to deal with it in the world outside of an "Elders life." So I chose to look at it that God will take care of these people and he will have them remember what we have taught them and eventually they will have another chance to accept it and now they will know exactly what is expected of them in the Church of Jesus Christ.

I fasted for a miracle yesterday so that I would know that I was on the right path and that God would show me in something that happened in that day. At about 2:30 we get a phone call from a Mom who has a less active son in our area and she really wants him to become active. We had been trying to contact this individual for several days and we saw their Dad outside doing yard work and we stopped by and asked if we could help. He lives in Draper and was just down there taking care of the property. We talked to him a little. (He refused to let us do any of the yard work) and he told us about his son and then we gave our phone number to him, and told him to call if we could help with anything. So back to the phone call at 2:30 on Sunday the Mom called and was so grateful that the YSA missionaries were trying to see her son and then she asked for the bishop's phone number and the ward information. That was the answer to my fasting that day. God showed me that even in small things I can bless people all around even if it is not in a baptism, but simply to calm a Mother's heart and know that someone cares for her son.

By the way Mom I have had too many companions that have not been focused at the end of their mission and I have seen what it does to the area and the companion. So I will not be doing that. Talking about home does not distract me.

The Church of Jesus Christ by Janice Kapp Perry

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (That is who I am "true blue though and though")
I know who I am. (Elder Walker)
I know God's plan. (Lesson 2 in Preach My Gospel)
I'll follow him in faith. (This has to do with the next phrase)
I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. (First principle in the Gospel of Jesus Christ)
I'll honor his name. (keep my baptism convents)
I'll do what is right; (Keep the commandments)
I'll follow his light. (it is much easier to follow a light then the dark)
His truth I will proclaim. ( I am a missionary!!!)

(This is the song that came into my head when I started writing that sentence.)

(The things after each phrase is the first thing that came to my mind as I read each phrase)

I do know who I am. I know what I am doing right now and I want you to know this as well. 

I do appreciate your concern. Some missionaries it does effect, so I am not trying to say that I don't appreciate it. Just realize that I am working hard and I now know how to be a better missionary than I ever had on my whole mission. I know how to rely on the Spirit and how to rely on God. That is what I will do as my mission comes closer to the end. I get reminded everyday by members that I only have a few months left so I have had to find someway to deal with it. haha

Being a zone leader is a lot easier (and fun) when missionaries are doing what they are meant to do. Then you are just a guide and friend. When a missionary doesn't follow the white handbook that is when being a zone leader becomes hard. I think about that when it comes to any leadership position in the church. Bishop, Elders Quorum president, Ward mission leader... the blessing is that no matter what is going on the Lord is sustaining you! Plus the whole ward has sustained you as well.

YSA Stake

I cover the young signal adults wards. They just split the stake so I am now over about 15 other stakes. I cover one of the largest areas in the mission. Our last stake got white washed. [White washed: both missionaries are transferred out and two new missionaries to the area are transferred in]. Kinda sad we were having lots of success there and now it is kinda dull. Well the Lord knows what is going on. My companion is great. Elder Small from the Bua Island of Fiji. He is a great elder that made lots of changes to be able to be out here on his mission. I love him. We switched zones. Kinda sad as well, but cool news is that I am now over one of my old areas. So I know one part of my area really well. Jordan Oaks.

The YSA is a different mission. You have people your own age that you are teaching and working with. A lot different then what I am used to. We are having success here though. We have 3 people on date to be baptized on the 20th of September. Yay! One has a crazy story. So 2 weeks ago one of our investigators named Tee did not even believe in God and now he said he was praying one night because he wanted a change and he took a walk and was praying to God. And the heavens opened up and he said he felt it embrace him and at that time he knew there was a God. So he did research online. (Never a good thing especially about the Mormon church) and then he asked one of his coworkers that he did not know very [well] and asked him what religion he was. Well God works in mysterious ways. He was Mormon and told him about the church and just so happened to have a Book of Mormon on him and gave it to him. Then the family elders knock on his door 5 days latter, and then we as YSA get a referral from the family elders telling us to go over there and teach. Great lesson. He already knew all about Joseph Smith and he told us he felt like cheating because he already knew all of what we were telling him. Golden! but we ask him for referrals and he later asks his brother if he wants to meet with us and then he gets this nasty 8 page text from him telling him about how we are not Christians and how those Mormons are liars and the such. It made him really sad to see his brother act that way so we had to have the lesson at his now fellowship's house. Lesson went well and we talked about some of the anti stuff his brother gave him and he told us that he had already done his research on all of it and he knows that this church is true. So this Sunday he was trying to go to church and his brother was waiting for him down stairs and he was scared to go down there so he had is sister distract him while he crawled out the window and got in his car and drove off. Then we meet him at church and he is scared because he thinks he is late (he was about 15 min early), but he wanted to prepare him self. Way cool guy! He is in 2nd Nephi and he has gone to the Ogden Temple open house. He loves the temple and when he was waking around (again with his fellowship) he said he felt like he was in a museum where you were not allowed to touch anything but he wanted to touch everything. Funny he saw a drinking fountain and he asked his fellowship if it was ok to drink out if it because it looked so beautiful. He is a funny guy. Then in gospel principle class they were talking about spiritual gifts and about getting them. Now interesting thing is that he was sitting next to us and sharing all of his insights with us, because he was too shy to raise his hand. He is not a very social person.

The best thing about the YSA is that everyone is the best fellowship ever, half of them are all recently returned missionaries and so they know exactly how to help us.

Funny thing about the YSA is that you have a lot of less actives that want to come because they want to find someone to date. Like I said earlier. A little different environment.