Week 12: I Love to See The Temple

Monday Nov 23, 2015

First off, I love the Temple, it is so positively beaming with the spirit it is not even funny. Every time I go, I have a reconfirmation that this Church is true and has the power and authority to act in God's name. I would strongly encourage all who have not had to chance, or have been putting it off for whatever the reason, make it your number one priority to make it to the temple, and to those who have gone, make a strong effort to go as often as possible, you don't know how much you miss something until you don't have access to it, so take advantage of your access and Go to the Temple!
 
Okay, now to that other stuff which is kinda Kool but not as Kool as the temple. I'm not gonna lie to you... This week has been hard, it has tried my faith and I have spent many hours and days praying and fasting for it to get better. It it seemed to just drag on until I went to the amazing House of The Lord, and was able to feel the spirit and have a reinvigorating experience that gave me the boost to get through the week. So, I know that it might be a little bit of a downer to talk about depressing sides of life so...
 I thought I would show you this wonderful face. Elder Carter was absolutely beaming after going to the temple and he just couldn't express himself.
 














 Meanwhile...

Elder Kroll could barely go two hours without an apple ;)



















But, all in all, we had a good time, we had two zones worth of Missionaries in the Medford Temple and that caused us to have 58 people in a 47 person occupancy room, but it is ok, because the Temple President was the Fire Marshal and he didn't say anything.
Well transfers are in a week and I am positively enthused to see what is going to happen, I have heard rumors that President Russell is completely redoing the entire mission, so no one is safe lol. Plus I'm done with training this week. So, something was gonna happen to me anyway.
  
Oh I got a package this week...

It was from my Brother Austin, his wife Danielle, and their kids... Glad it wasn't actually Carrots though.

Well I guess that is all I have for this week, I love you all and you are always in my prayers. Until next time .

Week 11: A Long Time Coming

Monday, Nov 16, 2015
So the main event of this week has been something that has been about two years in the making.... After two years of investigating, a daughter of God has chosen to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized.

This is a Ward missionary, her, me, and Elder Scott.

 She is a wonderful girl and I know that she will go far in the church... I have been teaching her since I got here and missionaries for eons before that, but she agreed to be baptized and I couldn't be more proud... Her Grandma is pretty proud too.

So I guess what we can pull from this is that no effort is wasted, any effort put forth to help someone receive the gospel is effort well spent.
The week was pretty uneventful (beside the baptism) but I do have some interesting pictures of Elder Martin, who
was not amused that he got locked out in the rain....

 So....

He threatened me with a pen.

Let's just say I was scared!

We had our zone Christmas photo this last Friday, we have Sister(s) Frandsen, Wood, Hokanson, Giesler, Vance, and Newsome, and Elder(s) Lucas, Carter, Jensen, Sutton, Watson, Finlinson, Martin, Kroll, Wells, Holman, Scott, Earl, Eckman, and Fleming. I've got to say I am excited for Christmas just because I have seen the new Christmas initiative and it is awesome! Well I hope you have a great week and keep the faith, until then farewell!

Week 10: A week of Anticipation

This week we were blessed to be visited by a wonderful leader in the Church of Jesus Christ... Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Seventy came to our mission and gave us a wonderful talk. He really stressed the fact that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and how our words are His words, our actions are His actions, we are who He would be. So, we need to talk that and express that to everyone we talk to... So, that is what we have been doing just that. I'm also very excited to start the "A Savior is Born" campaign for this Christmas. It is so awesome! We as missionaries were blessed to see it early and I absolutely loved it! Basically to describe how I'm doing right now, is a "Spiritual High." My week has been great and I loved to build up of working towards Elder Nash's arrival. You have a great week and remember that you have taken Christ's name upon you in baptism covenants. I will talk to you next week.

Week 9: No Effort is Wasted

Being a missionary can be fun and exciting and everything can work out perfectly where you are teaching lessons and meeting goals set by your Mission President for every companionship to strive towards, or it can be a week where all your investigators want to do is talk, "hang out," and basically do everything other than learning the gospel. Well, as a missionary that can be kind of discouraging. Luckily, Preach My Gospel has a section just for that in Chapter 9 called, (you guessed it) "No Efforts Wasted." And it is true. If you are bringing the spirit to those people and doing all you can to help them succeed then truly no effort is wasted. You may not be able to see the fruits of your labor, but it is a cultivation for the ground for that sapling to be planted and grow into a wonderful Oak Tree.
So, what I want to give to you about this , is don't be discouraged. Whether it be in school, sports, work or church, no effort is wasted because it allows us to get better. If you take this and put it in the context of reading scriptures, you can see that even if you read a single verse a day, you will gain knowledge and answers from your Heavenly Father and eventually you will not only want to read more, but it will be easier to read more. So, always remember that NO effort is wasted.
So, I guess you may want to hear about my week. Well, here it goes: This week was kind of strange for a lot of reasons. On Tuesday, we ended up sleeping through our alarms and didn't wake up until 8:30... don't tell President! After which, we had Service helping out the Second Counselor in the Stake Presidency, upon which he fed us lunch and then we proceeded to go home and shower. While Elder Scott was showering, I decided that I better get a head start on some talks that I have to have prepared for when Elder Marcus B. Nash comes next week. So I started on those, and actually learned a lot in the process, which is where I got the No effort is wasted. Wednesday, was fairly interesting... Elder Scott was acting very depressed all day and kind of secretive, so much so that when we got back from an appointment, he said he was going to call President. So I had to give him space. When he finished, he walked up, handed me the phone and said he was leaving and gave me the keys. I was kinda shocked, then a few minutes later, he said he was joking and told me that President said to have me drive. So I am now the driver and loving every minute of it! Thursday, Elder Scott got sick so we stayed in the apartment and I again worked on my talks and finished 2/3 of them. Friday was fun... We had new missionary training followed by District Meeting and a new thing called "Power Hour" where the missionaries from your district go and tract some streets in someone's area to boost the finding in that area. After that, I went on exchanges with Elder Earl down in Roseburg! It was really fun, we dug up trees, had Chicken Alfredo Lasagna, and I learned some good do's and don'ts from a Correlation meeting with the Ward Missions Leader in Roseburg... Saturday was great. We did some fun tracking up some very steep hills and got a good calf workout in. We switched back just in time for us to be locked in the apartment for Halloween. Yes, thats right, missionaries under house arrest. Sunday was good. We had a great time during sacrament. The spirit was so strong that I was about in tears... don't laugh! Then we did a lot of tracking because most of our plans went bunk!
Well, that is all that is happening in my life. Remember that no effort is wasted and to always try your best at something, and you will succeed. Love you all. Until next week!