Fam,
We met with the Sarmientos on Wednesday and we were able to follow up on the 7 day challenge of reading the BOM everyday and praying to know if it's true every day. The family took the challenge and it turned out pretty well. Daniel still feels like he hasn't received an answer but I've never seen him so excited to read the scriptures. He had skipped to Moroni to read what the last person to write in the BOM would include. He mentioned how struck he was by the hope that Moroni had as he was writing his portion in the book. (For some context he is the last Nephite who hasn't been put to death because he won't deny the christ. He is on the run for his life and he chooses to write about how to organize the church again.) He includes in his chapters how to confer the Gift of the Holy Ghost, how to ordain people to the priesthood, and how to bless the sacrament. Thinking about his point it made me think of the last chapter in the BOM. Moroni 10 is a profound call to his brethren the Lamanites to remember the scriptures, remember God, and to come unto Christ to gain a remission of their sins. It's a pretty powerful chapter and I was thinking about how awesome it's going to be for Daniel to read that chapter. He also had a question on why we don't drink wine during the sacrament. To answer that question we pulled out D&C 27 and read verse 2. He thought that was really interesting and continued to read to veces 3-5 about how when Jesus comes again he will "drink of the fruit of the vine" and that blew up his curiosity, he probably read it over and over again three times.
Thursday was tradeoffs. This time I went with Elder Wilkins. The new missionary study schedule is just absolutely brutal. We have our normal personal, comp, and language studies but we've been asked to do an hour and a half of putting old records into the phone and then on top of that we had been asked to extend the 12 week program from 30 minutes back to an hour. We were both dead after 5.5 hours of just study.
The morning of tradeoffs we meet with the Francos. That lesson reminded me that Elder Wilkins speaks about 10 weeks of Spanish. We walked in and I caught up with the Francos for a few minutes and I turned to him giving him a confirming nod to start the lesson and got a wide eyed blank stare in return. I continued talking with the Francos for another second or two and gave the same reassuring nod to him to start, only to get the same look back. I said the opening prayer and gave him again another reassuring nod to start off what we had planned. This time he sent the nod back to me which I then sent back to him with a smile hearing the words in my head of our President when he said, referring to giving new missionaries moments to stretch a little bit, "Let 'em hang." After another pause and another back and forth he was able to get things going and did a great job. The thing is the missionaries we work with are either the Zone Leaders or the missionaries we've spent basically our whole missions with so it slipped my mind that it is Elder Wilkins' first transfer in the field.
A few weeks ago we had interviews with President Brennan, something I always enjoy. During my mother's day call Mark asked if I had ever thought about seeing if we could change our attire to help people not be ask scared of us on the streets, so that we aren't confuse with ICE. I didn't really think about the idea much but it stayed on my mind. I spoke to President about it and he said that the quorum of the twelve have been thinking about changes to missionary work that would include a change of attire, something that has felt more and more like a needed change. This problem was bought up again this week after Elder Wilkins and I had spent the afternoon stopping by former investigators. We pulled up to one street and there were three families outside on the street, near the former investigator, enjoying the evening on their porches. We said a quick prayer, jumped out of the car to talk to everyone and literally everyone on the street quickly slipped into their homes the second they saw us. Within a minute kids where off the street, and things went quiet. Elder Wilkins and I were just stunned. We stood in the street for a second, copies of the Book of Mormon in hand, just astonished. We knocked the door we came for with no response and just kind of looked at each other thinking, "what just happened?"
Sunday we had a pretty awesome lesson with a kid named Edin. He is a referral from the Duran family. They work with an organization called the Bethany program which brings in youth from South and Central America to the United States to teach them how to be productive residents/citizens. They help the youth get a basic education, good housing, and a job. The Durans rent out housing to like 6-7 youth, which they love to do because then they are able to share the gospel with all these hard working motivated youth. It turns out to be a pretty good referral source for us. Edin has come to church three times now and really enjoys what he sees. Due to his work and school schedule, yesterday was the first day we could meet with him outside of church. We taught a pretty decent restoration lesson. He said he had prayed about which church he should be attending and really felt strongly that the church he had been attending was not true. He then attended another Christian church and felt the same things but then felt something special about our church when he came with the Duran family. Edin is a pretty awesome guy and hopefully things turn out well for him.
Sunday morning we had a really short lesson with Teodoro. He is on date for July 14 and things seem to be going well. We documented our plan for all the things we wanted to review before his baptism and will be giving him that soon. Sunday we taught the very last topic he hasn't been taught: tithing! It was an intense lesson, not for what we covered but the situation. We taught the lesson in under 20 minutes because the poor guy was wrestling his four kids the whole time. The two oldest, ages 5 and 7 where running around playing and getting dressed for church. He had his new baby on his lap feeding her while she was trying to eat the pamphlet, and he was feeding the next youngest between crying fits. It wasn't the best teaching environment but he said he'd pay his tithing.
Happy fathers day!
Eric
Monday, June 18, 2018
Sunday, June 17, 2018
June 11, 2018
fam,
Tuesday we had our first trade-offs with Elder Wilkins. I went with Elder Rencher and we had a decent day. We had a lesson with a former investigator that we set up as we were going through the records again. The lesson was okay but she had a massive aggressive dog that made it difficult to get to her door. Flashback to a few days prior Elder Magalei and I knocked the door to first make contact with the lady.
I'll add a little bit of context before we move on, Grand Rapids seems to have had a difficult time during the recession. The reason I think of that is that in the sketchier parts of town, the areas are often times filled with large homes in complete disrepair that are then often divided up into 3-4 apartments which are often filled to capacity with people. When you come to a home to knock the doors you basically knock all the doors because all could be a different apartment. It's okay most of the time. This is what Elder Magalei and I did. No one answered the front or side door so we moved to the back door. Elder Magalei knocked the door that turned out to not be locked and as his hand hit the door it swung open. To our surprise a deep growl met the opening of the door and a large dog jumped against the door that by that point was being held shut by Elder Magalei's hands. I jumped so bad. There was only a curtain and some 2x4s separating the inside of the porch from us on the outside. The dog jumped as if to jump through the curtain presumably to kill us. Its front legs made it through the barrier but the dog's head got caught in the curtain giving us just enough time to execute a dignified but very quick retreat to the car. He tried to scramble out once he got his head free but thankfully couldn't muster enough traction with his back legs. Pics down below. We called the lady and we were able to meet her a few minutes later.
Mercedes is our investigator in Holland who is pretty awesome. She has been facing a lot of opposition but seems to be handling it okay. She was reading in 1 Nephi 13 and had a lot of questions about Nephi's vision. It talked about a great and abominable church and then gives a few attributes of this church. I'm sure she was a little upset or disconcerted as she probably assigned a specific church or denomination to what was described without really reading into what it was saying. We talked about that which opened up almost a floodgate of questions that seemed to have been pent up. We answered a few and it went pretty well. It actually was kind of fun. It was all over Facebook chat and I had written out a pretty solid essay on why we go to church on Sunday but it's probably too bashy to share. But it was fun to write. We are actually going to be driving out to Holland later today and I anticipate that she will be wanting a lot of answers to some questions we told her we would cover at a later day. I'm all for answering questions but sometimes people need a stronger foundation of core doctrine before we jump into the deep end. Hopefully things go well!
Thursday I had an amazing personal study. It wasn't really about anything all that important but the spirit was super strong that confirmed to me yet again that the BOM is the word of God. I've been reorganizing the Book of Alma from chapters into years to be able to better observe the pride cycle of the Lamanites and Nephites. It's been an interesting study. You just can't really ever hit the bottom of things you can learn about the BOM. There is just so much depth that you miss when you read quickly. The scriptures are awesome. It's really too bad that most people don't really give diligent heed as they really should. You just miss out on tons of blessings if you don't break the barrier that so often keeps people from having uplifting experiences with the word of God.
"And I now give unto you a commandment to beware concerning yourselves, to give diligent heed to the words of eternal life. For you shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God". D&C 84:43-44
We had one of the new member lesson with Francesca on Friday that was SO good. The Plan of Salvation lesson really is an awesome lesson. We talked about the role of agency at every step of the plan of salvation and the spirit was just so strong. I was thinking about why it was so strong and I was reminded of a talk by Bruce R McConkie I heard a while ago. I may have already included this in an older email, so if I did I apologize. The teachers through their preparation are more capable of bringing larger quantities of living water to the lesson while the students through their preparation are more able to collect larger volumes of living water. The best lessons I've had are when the student was very ready to receive our lesson and we were very ready to share what we had. When that happens the spirit is more capable of being present and testifying of true doctrine. D&C 50:22 sets the standard of good teaching. It teaches that when we teach by the spirit of truth "he that preacheth and he that recieveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." It's a joy when that can take place.
-eric
Tuesday we had our first trade-offs with Elder Wilkins. I went with Elder Rencher and we had a decent day. We had a lesson with a former investigator that we set up as we were going through the records again. The lesson was okay but she had a massive aggressive dog that made it difficult to get to her door. Flashback to a few days prior Elder Magalei and I knocked the door to first make contact with the lady.
I'll add a little bit of context before we move on, Grand Rapids seems to have had a difficult time during the recession. The reason I think of that is that in the sketchier parts of town, the areas are often times filled with large homes in complete disrepair that are then often divided up into 3-4 apartments which are often filled to capacity with people. When you come to a home to knock the doors you basically knock all the doors because all could be a different apartment. It's okay most of the time. This is what Elder Magalei and I did. No one answered the front or side door so we moved to the back door. Elder Magalei knocked the door that turned out to not be locked and as his hand hit the door it swung open. To our surprise a deep growl met the opening of the door and a large dog jumped against the door that by that point was being held shut by Elder Magalei's hands. I jumped so bad. There was only a curtain and some 2x4s separating the inside of the porch from us on the outside. The dog jumped as if to jump through the curtain presumably to kill us. Its front legs made it through the barrier but the dog's head got caught in the curtain giving us just enough time to execute a dignified but very quick retreat to the car. He tried to scramble out once he got his head free but thankfully couldn't muster enough traction with his back legs. Pics down below. We called the lady and we were able to meet her a few minutes later.
Mercedes is our investigator in Holland who is pretty awesome. She has been facing a lot of opposition but seems to be handling it okay. She was reading in 1 Nephi 13 and had a lot of questions about Nephi's vision. It talked about a great and abominable church and then gives a few attributes of this church. I'm sure she was a little upset or disconcerted as she probably assigned a specific church or denomination to what was described without really reading into what it was saying. We talked about that which opened up almost a floodgate of questions that seemed to have been pent up. We answered a few and it went pretty well. It actually was kind of fun. It was all over Facebook chat and I had written out a pretty solid essay on why we go to church on Sunday but it's probably too bashy to share. But it was fun to write. We are actually going to be driving out to Holland later today and I anticipate that she will be wanting a lot of answers to some questions we told her we would cover at a later day. I'm all for answering questions but sometimes people need a stronger foundation of core doctrine before we jump into the deep end. Hopefully things go well!
Thursday I had an amazing personal study. It wasn't really about anything all that important but the spirit was super strong that confirmed to me yet again that the BOM is the word of God. I've been reorganizing the Book of Alma from chapters into years to be able to better observe the pride cycle of the Lamanites and Nephites. It's been an interesting study. You just can't really ever hit the bottom of things you can learn about the BOM. There is just so much depth that you miss when you read quickly. The scriptures are awesome. It's really too bad that most people don't really give diligent heed as they really should. You just miss out on tons of blessings if you don't break the barrier that so often keeps people from having uplifting experiences with the word of God.
"And I now give unto you a commandment to beware concerning yourselves, to give diligent heed to the words of eternal life. For you shall live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God". D&C 84:43-44
We had one of the new member lesson with Francesca on Friday that was SO good. The Plan of Salvation lesson really is an awesome lesson. We talked about the role of agency at every step of the plan of salvation and the spirit was just so strong. I was thinking about why it was so strong and I was reminded of a talk by Bruce R McConkie I heard a while ago. I may have already included this in an older email, so if I did I apologize. The teachers through their preparation are more capable of bringing larger quantities of living water to the lesson while the students through their preparation are more able to collect larger volumes of living water. The best lessons I've had are when the student was very ready to receive our lesson and we were very ready to share what we had. When that happens the spirit is more capable of being present and testifying of true doctrine. D&C 50:22 sets the standard of good teaching. It teaches that when we teach by the spirit of truth "he that preacheth and he that recieveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." It's a joy when that can take place.
-eric
Monday, June 4, 2018
June 4, 2018
Fam,
Weeks go by really quickly. It's pretty hard not to get into a daily grind of things sometimes. The good thing though was this week was a lot better than the last.
Tuesday we had an interesting call with Mercedes. A few days prior the church published a bunch of new stuff under the church history section in gospel library and in the app there was a pop up to inform everyone of the new free media. It's super interesting stuff to read but there are a few articles that have doctrine that can be a little hard to understand, it's the whole milk vs meat kind of idea (1 Corinthians 3:2). Some time in the evening we got a call from Mercedes and she had a lot of questions about what she read. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with her talking about some of the articles she read. My favorite part was when she said a particular point was blasphemy. It was a good opportunity to correct some false doctrine. People just don't read their scriptures. Elder Magalei and I were worried about how so much meaty doctrine would effect someone who really needs the core doctrine at the moment. Ezra T Benson said something along the lines of how everyone eventually will be backed up into the wall of faith and will have to make a decision. It's a pretty powerful statement and we figured this was going to be a make or break moment for her.
Wednesday was a super busy day for us. We would have had time for everything we wanted to do but we accidentally got locked out of the church building for an hour. Around mid day we had a video call with, Elder Rencher, Elder Wilkins, and Elder Guerrero, who is currently in St. Joseph's. We spent about an hour discussing possible area boundaries. As we were leaving the building someone pulled up into the church parking lot and asked for a tour. We consented and began a tour with him. The other Elders had to leave so Elder Magalei and I gave the tour. About half way through the guy starts to anti us and getting a little animated. Instead of really not liking Joseph Smith he really didn't like Brigham Young and the BOM. After a few minutes of being talked at we just told him we weren't going to have someone try to fight us in our own Chapel and we lead him all the way out of the church building. That gave us an opportunity to bear our testimonies about what we are doing and the truthfulness of the message we share. Not wanting things to end harshly we offered to shake his hand goodbye but he ignored the gesture and stomped off. We walked to our car as if to leave as well but we realized we had left the keys in the now locked church building. We walked to the other side of the church as if to grab something so we wouldn't look like we just locked out selves out and called the other missionaries to come save us. They where able to come an hour later, but we were able to set up a few appointments over the internet in that time.
Home field advantage is pretty nice when it comes to anti. If we had been sitting down in this guy's living room it would have been significantly harder to cut him off and leave a bad situation.
Right before I left on my mission I was reflecting on the restoration and realized that I didn't really know all that much about other churches. That bothered me a little because I felt like I wouldn't be able to authoritatively say that we were the only true church in the world. I spent time thinking that through and I remember one day I realized that I knew the Book of Mormon is true and that the LDS church was the only church to fully incorporate it as canon. With that alone I knew that this was the only true church regardless of what others say. The BOM is super not only because its an awesome story, teaches doctrine not found in the Bible, clarifies doctrine found in the bible, but because it truly is irrefutable evidence of the restoration. Unfortunately the guy who came to the church to be mad at who ever he found had never read the BoM or even prayed about it.
Friday we had a meeting with Mercedes that went super well. She talked about how she was reading all these articles and realized that this was deeper doctrine than she was ready for and decided to stop prioritizing it over reading the BOM and praying to know if it is true. It was a miracle that she was able to realize that and change her focus. In that same meeting we also were able to figure out that she was waiting to finish the BOM to ask if it was true. We invited her to specifically ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and if the BOM is true. There is no other way to gain this kind of knowledge without prayer.
Our church is different from other churches. We are the only ones who have a real claim to have the authority of God. We are the only church built upon the foundation of Apostles and prophets today with the chief corner stone being Jesus Christ today.
We've been able to have the branch missionaries come out with us a few times and that has been pretty good. Andres is a kid from Guatemala. He grew up speaking Mam and another dialect native to the area he grew up in. He learned Spanish as teenager and came to the United States. He shared his conversion story in a lesson, and its interesting. Apparently he grew up being told legends about his ancestors by his grandma. She said that all these stories had been written down in a lost book with an unknown name. He then comes to the states and meets Mormon missionaries who gave him a BOM and to his surprise he found many of the same stories his grandmother had taught him. I'm not sure about their validity but there are tons of little stories and cultural insights that members from Central/South America will mention offhandedly that relate to the BOM that really makes me want to know more about what is known of the Americas between 600BC-400AD.
Also the Saints publication is super cool. There is a lot of cool stuff in there that I actually didn't know.
So I might be incapable of sending the right address. The zip code was wrong but that shouldn't do too much harm
( mi nombre )
1650 R W Berends Dr SW
Wyoming, Michigan 49519
As a reminder I can't chat over email anymore there really isn't a way to have a continuous conversation on the same day.
Weeks go by really quickly. It's pretty hard not to get into a daily grind of things sometimes. The good thing though was this week was a lot better than the last.
Tuesday we had an interesting call with Mercedes. A few days prior the church published a bunch of new stuff under the church history section in gospel library and in the app there was a pop up to inform everyone of the new free media. It's super interesting stuff to read but there are a few articles that have doctrine that can be a little hard to understand, it's the whole milk vs meat kind of idea (1 Corinthians 3:2). Some time in the evening we got a call from Mercedes and she had a lot of questions about what she read. I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with her talking about some of the articles she read. My favorite part was when she said a particular point was blasphemy. It was a good opportunity to correct some false doctrine. People just don't read their scriptures. Elder Magalei and I were worried about how so much meaty doctrine would effect someone who really needs the core doctrine at the moment. Ezra T Benson said something along the lines of how everyone eventually will be backed up into the wall of faith and will have to make a decision. It's a pretty powerful statement and we figured this was going to be a make or break moment for her.
Wednesday was a super busy day for us. We would have had time for everything we wanted to do but we accidentally got locked out of the church building for an hour. Around mid day we had a video call with, Elder Rencher, Elder Wilkins, and Elder Guerrero, who is currently in St. Joseph's. We spent about an hour discussing possible area boundaries. As we were leaving the building someone pulled up into the church parking lot and asked for a tour. We consented and began a tour with him. The other Elders had to leave so Elder Magalei and I gave the tour. About half way through the guy starts to anti us and getting a little animated. Instead of really not liking Joseph Smith he really didn't like Brigham Young and the BOM. After a few minutes of being talked at we just told him we weren't going to have someone try to fight us in our own Chapel and we lead him all the way out of the church building. That gave us an opportunity to bear our testimonies about what we are doing and the truthfulness of the message we share. Not wanting things to end harshly we offered to shake his hand goodbye but he ignored the gesture and stomped off. We walked to our car as if to leave as well but we realized we had left the keys in the now locked church building. We walked to the other side of the church as if to grab something so we wouldn't look like we just locked out selves out and called the other missionaries to come save us. They where able to come an hour later, but we were able to set up a few appointments over the internet in that time.
Home field advantage is pretty nice when it comes to anti. If we had been sitting down in this guy's living room it would have been significantly harder to cut him off and leave a bad situation.
Right before I left on my mission I was reflecting on the restoration and realized that I didn't really know all that much about other churches. That bothered me a little because I felt like I wouldn't be able to authoritatively say that we were the only true church in the world. I spent time thinking that through and I remember one day I realized that I knew the Book of Mormon is true and that the LDS church was the only church to fully incorporate it as canon. With that alone I knew that this was the only true church regardless of what others say. The BOM is super not only because its an awesome story, teaches doctrine not found in the Bible, clarifies doctrine found in the bible, but because it truly is irrefutable evidence of the restoration. Unfortunately the guy who came to the church to be mad at who ever he found had never read the BoM or even prayed about it.
Friday we had a meeting with Mercedes that went super well. She talked about how she was reading all these articles and realized that this was deeper doctrine than she was ready for and decided to stop prioritizing it over reading the BOM and praying to know if it is true. It was a miracle that she was able to realize that and change her focus. In that same meeting we also were able to figure out that she was waiting to finish the BOM to ask if it was true. We invited her to specifically ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and if the BOM is true. There is no other way to gain this kind of knowledge without prayer.
Our church is different from other churches. We are the only ones who have a real claim to have the authority of God. We are the only church built upon the foundation of Apostles and prophets today with the chief corner stone being Jesus Christ today.
We've been able to have the branch missionaries come out with us a few times and that has been pretty good. Andres is a kid from Guatemala. He grew up speaking Mam and another dialect native to the area he grew up in. He learned Spanish as teenager and came to the United States. He shared his conversion story in a lesson, and its interesting. Apparently he grew up being told legends about his ancestors by his grandma. She said that all these stories had been written down in a lost book with an unknown name. He then comes to the states and meets Mormon missionaries who gave him a BOM and to his surprise he found many of the same stories his grandmother had taught him. I'm not sure about their validity but there are tons of little stories and cultural insights that members from Central/South America will mention offhandedly that relate to the BOM that really makes me want to know more about what is known of the Americas between 600BC-400AD.
Also the Saints publication is super cool. There is a lot of cool stuff in there that I actually didn't know.
So I might be incapable of sending the right address. The zip code was wrong but that shouldn't do too much harm
( mi nombre )
1650 R W Berends Dr SW
Wyoming, Michigan 49519
As a reminder I can't chat over email anymore there really isn't a way to have a continuous conversation on the same day.
May 28, 2018
Fam,
This week was interesting. It started off rough with the transfer call I didn't want to hear, going back to the Grandville Spanish 1 area, an area that has just completely struggled for its entire recorded history. It was pretty hard for me to be excited about that so the weekend was spent thinking about what could be done differently this time than the 11 months I spent there. That call started a study on what my missionary purpose is. That study has been going well and has continued since then.
Sunday last week we got a call from President where he apologized saying that he had made the wrong transfer on accident and that Elder Rencher would train in the Spanish 1 area. I'm staying in the Grandville Spanish 2 area so my mailing address is
1650 R W Berends Dr Sw APT#6
Wyoming, MI 59519
Next transfer we'll have a new elder coming out and as it sits right now President is wanting to open a third Spanish area. We are under a pretty tight schedule to hammer out the boundaries of a third Spanish area. The problem is where it might be. Our options are tight but right now they include opening an area in Holland, kalamazu, or some reorganization of the two areas in the greater Grand Rapids area.
Sunday we had what felt like an important advancement in the Spanish branch. We've been working with a few members to help them be ready for being called to be branch missionaries. Before church we had a long meeting with the Branch President where we were able to set some goals and plans related with certain things going on within the Branch and after church we were able to set apart the Branch missionaries. As we left the setting apart of the four missionaries I felt a pretty strong impression of how important this call was to the four missionaries called. If they chose to magnify their calling I felt that it would be a step that would lead them to being able to become leaders in the Branch.
Being able to meet with people online really has helped a few people progress more than they probably would have.
The most clear example is Patricia. For a few reasons we really can't meet with her frequently. Things are different with our video chat lessons. We've had consistan lessons with her over the last few weeks and her progression has taken off. She loves to study which is super convenient for us because she actually wants to read in the BOM. She'll bring us questions and we'll organize a study for her to go through the scriptures and find her own answer. We've set the pattern with her with starting with a question, opening with prayer, searching, then writing down her answer and asking God if how she answered the question was correct or not, and continuing until she receives a witness of the Holy Ghost. She recognized the spirit she feels as her husband and she have gone through these studies. Our most recent lesson with her we left a study on Baptism with the questions being "what can I do to feel more prepared for baptism?" and "What are the blessings of baptism." She wasn't in church this Sunday so we talked with her husband who told us why. Good news is that she wants to be baptized and even asked Fred, her husband, to preform it. Hopefully we can set some dates in our next lesson.
All in all the week ended well
This week was interesting. It started off rough with the transfer call I didn't want to hear, going back to the Grandville Spanish 1 area, an area that has just completely struggled for its entire recorded history. It was pretty hard for me to be excited about that so the weekend was spent thinking about what could be done differently this time than the 11 months I spent there. That call started a study on what my missionary purpose is. That study has been going well and has continued since then.
Sunday last week we got a call from President where he apologized saying that he had made the wrong transfer on accident and that Elder Rencher would train in the Spanish 1 area. I'm staying in the Grandville Spanish 2 area so my mailing address is
1650 R W Berends Dr Sw APT#6
Wyoming, MI 59519
Next transfer we'll have a new elder coming out and as it sits right now President is wanting to open a third Spanish area. We are under a pretty tight schedule to hammer out the boundaries of a third Spanish area. The problem is where it might be. Our options are tight but right now they include opening an area in Holland, kalamazu, or some reorganization of the two areas in the greater Grand Rapids area.
Sunday we had what felt like an important advancement in the Spanish branch. We've been working with a few members to help them be ready for being called to be branch missionaries. Before church we had a long meeting with the Branch President where we were able to set some goals and plans related with certain things going on within the Branch and after church we were able to set apart the Branch missionaries. As we left the setting apart of the four missionaries I felt a pretty strong impression of how important this call was to the four missionaries called. If they chose to magnify their calling I felt that it would be a step that would lead them to being able to become leaders in the Branch.
Being able to meet with people online really has helped a few people progress more than they probably would have.
The most clear example is Patricia. For a few reasons we really can't meet with her frequently. Things are different with our video chat lessons. We've had consistan lessons with her over the last few weeks and her progression has taken off. She loves to study which is super convenient for us because she actually wants to read in the BOM. She'll bring us questions and we'll organize a study for her to go through the scriptures and find her own answer. We've set the pattern with her with starting with a question, opening with prayer, searching, then writing down her answer and asking God if how she answered the question was correct or not, and continuing until she receives a witness of the Holy Ghost. She recognized the spirit she feels as her husband and she have gone through these studies. Our most recent lesson with her we left a study on Baptism with the questions being "what can I do to feel more prepared for baptism?" and "What are the blessings of baptism." She wasn't in church this Sunday so we talked with her husband who told us why. Good news is that she wants to be baptized and even asked Fred, her husband, to preform it. Hopefully we can set some dates in our next lesson.
All in all the week ended well
May 14, 2018
Fam,
A few important things happened this week. We had Elder Magalei's birthday, Zone conference... I mean phone conference, and Mother's Day.
Tuesday was Elder Magalei's birthday. We didn't do a whole lot because we were busy but we baked him a cake. He appreciated that and we had a nice day. On another note, on April 16 I bought and planted a Chile de árbol seed in a cup filled with potting soil. I watered it and waited. The packet said that it should have germinated within 14 days. 14 days came and went and I was a little annoyed. It's almost like everything I plant dies. May 8 a bud finally popped out of the soil. To my surprise there are now two buds after having thought I planted one seed. In Alma 32 in the BoM gives powerful insight on how the word of God can be compared to a seed which can sprout up into increase faith. So I guess the lesson is that as we give place to one seed two will sprout up.
Wednesday we went out to Mercedes. It's kind of a weird situation. We meet her about 10 weeks ago after a member of the Holland ward brought her to our branch. With the help from the Pectols we were able to set up a lesson with her, and we just had an absolutely fantastic lesson with her. She lives about 40 miles away which makes it really hard to stop by to see how she is doing so we kept pretty good contact with her over the phone. For various reasons she had to cancel a few lessons with us and then she dropped us after about 3 weeks of back and forth. We weren't able to figure out why and so we kind of had to leave it at that. Flashforward to last week she comes to church and we were able to talk and set up another lesson. So within those few weeks of no contact she had been reading in the BoM, watched General conference, watched the longer Restoration video, Legacy and some other church history movie all on her own volition. It was quite the surprise, nigh unto miraculous even.
Later the same night we had a lesson with the Sarmiento family that went well. We had left them The Family - A Proclamation To The World, a document put out by the church in like 1995 which obviously is about the family, to read. We had a good discussion on how homes centered on the gospel are stronger in all aspects of life. Daniel really impresses me with his ability to just capture understanding when he applies himself. A few lessons ago we left him and his family a question to study for which has really kick started his reading. At this lesson we started off by asking everyone what they had learned. Daniel clearly had a very solid understanding of the paper we left. In my experience there is a significant variance of the amount of information people can take in at one time, and for Daniel that level is pretty high.
Thursday was z(ph)one conference. It was an enjoyable zone conferance, and I have a smart phone now and no longer the terrible blue brick!
Sunday was Mother's day. It was fun to talk with the family. As we walked to our car to drive to church Elder Rencher and I both realized that our Skype calls home would be the last one during our missions. The next time we will see each other will be when we come home... Scary. Elder Magalaei swiftly made a joke about how old we were. Although the room I was in wasn't the same as my first two phone calls, don't worry, it was still the same home. At the end of this transfer, this Monday, so my next P-Day is this Saturday. I'll have been in this branch for about 16 months, 6 of those months with Elder Magalaei and about 8 months with Elder Rencher.
Ah. New rules regarding technology:
1) We have Facebook! But we can't chat with friends and family unless we have approval for missionary business
2)We can write letters, but back and forth chatting is no longer allowed. This one hurts but apparently it comes from the area authority over President Brennan.
May 7, 2018
fam,
Monday we spent the day moving. This is the new official address. We will still have a mail key until our old apartment is renovated so no worries about losing mail!
1650 R W Berends Drive SW Apt #6
Wyoming, Michigan 49519
Senior couples have a special effect on people that younger missionaries I think struggle to have. By the very virtue of their age people will more automatically look to and trust them. Most recently that was witnessed to me when we met with a less active member we've tried to make contact with the whole time I've been in Michigan. The Pectols on their first stop by were able to talk with her and have a great visit where they were able to really connect with her. The Pectols set up a dinner appointment for us to come by and share a message. We arrived at the right day and time and we just had a great visit.
Our Tuesday we had a lesson with Antonia. We read through 3 Nephi 11, which is the chapter when Jesus begins his personal ministry in the Americas. As we read through one thing that struck me was the order of what Jesus taught. The first thing he does is he makes note of his obedience to the Father and the mission he had just completed. He then goes on to invite all to gain a personal testimony of his resurrection and the goes on to teach baptism. We talked about this with Antonia and how we can apply this to ourselves. Step one is obedience to what God has asked us to do. As we obey we can then gain a personal witness for our selves. We then are expected to act. In the instance of 3 Nephi 11 it was to be baptized but for anyone at any point of life we are expected to act on the testimonies we've received.
Wednesday we had a great visit with Daniel. We weren't really sure what we were going to do with him and his family during morning planning so we decided to leave it open and think about what we could do a little later on. We still had a lot of moving to do from the old apartment to the new one, which was a distance of about 300 yards or so, so that consumed the majority of our day. Moving is a little more tough when you don't really have boxes or a truck/trailer so we just made a ton of trips back and forth. With less than an hour before our next visit we sat down and thought about what we could share with Daniel. After praying for guidance and counseling we all felt a lesson about baptism focusing on repentance would be the right thing. We had a nice visit with the family and after we said the opening prayer. After that prayer Daniel said he had been doing a lot of thinking about baptism and wanted us to talk about repentance, he than caught him self and cut himself off and said, "no actually you probably have something planned for today." We looked at each other for a second laughed and told him that was exactly what we had planned for today. We had a pretty good lesson and talked about somethings he and his family can do to better prepare for baptism. It's really nice when you seek revelation on what to do and you think you have something that feels right and you go for it and it turns out to be exactly the right thing for that moment.
Thursday we had our zone leader trade offs. It was fun. Elder Magalei and I went with Elder Guerrero and had a pretty good time. Our trade off ended pretty interestingly. The story goes that the Zone leaders knocked into one guy who offered to feed them and over dinner talk about the differences about their respective churches. Turned out the guy just wanted to debate. Of all the anti experiences I've had this one was atypical. In an attempt to keep things getting heated we watched the "Mormons at a Glance" video on LDS.org which worked pretty well. What made the "lesson" different was that they weren't as fired up or angry, as someone who wants to argue normally would be, but excited. There must be something about sitting in front of some missionaries you don't agree with being practiced and prepared to run them through a ringer that is so exciting. I'm not really sure we even answered a single question. Questions and answers where thrown out for a bunch of the typically misunderstood doctrines or practices of the church as they "[endeavored] to prove by the scriptures" that we were wrong, but it was okay because "in this thing they did err, having not understood the scriptures" (3 Nephi 1:24). The worst thing about when people just want to argue is that the spirit can't be present as it could be when someone might be searching for direction in their life. My best lessons have been lessons when my companions and I were prepared and the investigator(s) were sincere and open. The upside to the visit was that they gave us the extra pizza they bought for dinner.
Monday we spent the day moving. This is the new official address. We will still have a mail key until our old apartment is renovated so no worries about losing mail!
1650 R W Berends Drive SW Apt #6
Wyoming, Michigan 49519
Senior couples have a special effect on people that younger missionaries I think struggle to have. By the very virtue of their age people will more automatically look to and trust them. Most recently that was witnessed to me when we met with a less active member we've tried to make contact with the whole time I've been in Michigan. The Pectols on their first stop by were able to talk with her and have a great visit where they were able to really connect with her. The Pectols set up a dinner appointment for us to come by and share a message. We arrived at the right day and time and we just had a great visit.
Our Tuesday we had a lesson with Antonia. We read through 3 Nephi 11, which is the chapter when Jesus begins his personal ministry in the Americas. As we read through one thing that struck me was the order of what Jesus taught. The first thing he does is he makes note of his obedience to the Father and the mission he had just completed. He then goes on to invite all to gain a personal testimony of his resurrection and the goes on to teach baptism. We talked about this with Antonia and how we can apply this to ourselves. Step one is obedience to what God has asked us to do. As we obey we can then gain a personal witness for our selves. We then are expected to act. In the instance of 3 Nephi 11 it was to be baptized but for anyone at any point of life we are expected to act on the testimonies we've received.
Wednesday we had a great visit with Daniel. We weren't really sure what we were going to do with him and his family during morning planning so we decided to leave it open and think about what we could do a little later on. We still had a lot of moving to do from the old apartment to the new one, which was a distance of about 300 yards or so, so that consumed the majority of our day. Moving is a little more tough when you don't really have boxes or a truck/trailer so we just made a ton of trips back and forth. With less than an hour before our next visit we sat down and thought about what we could share with Daniel. After praying for guidance and counseling we all felt a lesson about baptism focusing on repentance would be the right thing. We had a nice visit with the family and after we said the opening prayer. After that prayer Daniel said he had been doing a lot of thinking about baptism and wanted us to talk about repentance, he than caught him self and cut himself off and said, "no actually you probably have something planned for today." We looked at each other for a second laughed and told him that was exactly what we had planned for today. We had a pretty good lesson and talked about somethings he and his family can do to better prepare for baptism. It's really nice when you seek revelation on what to do and you think you have something that feels right and you go for it and it turns out to be exactly the right thing for that moment.
Thursday we had our zone leader trade offs. It was fun. Elder Magalei and I went with Elder Guerrero and had a pretty good time. Our trade off ended pretty interestingly. The story goes that the Zone leaders knocked into one guy who offered to feed them and over dinner talk about the differences about their respective churches. Turned out the guy just wanted to debate. Of all the anti experiences I've had this one was atypical. In an attempt to keep things getting heated we watched the "Mormons at a Glance" video on LDS.org which worked pretty well. What made the "lesson" different was that they weren't as fired up or angry, as someone who wants to argue normally would be, but excited. There must be something about sitting in front of some missionaries you don't agree with being practiced and prepared to run them through a ringer that is so exciting. I'm not really sure we even answered a single question. Questions and answers where thrown out for a bunch of the typically misunderstood doctrines or practices of the church as they "[endeavored] to prove by the scriptures" that we were wrong, but it was okay because "in this thing they did err, having not understood the scriptures" (3 Nephi 1:24). The worst thing about when people just want to argue is that the spirit can't be present as it could be when someone might be searching for direction in their life. My best lessons have been lessons when my companions and I were prepared and the investigator(s) were sincere and open. The upside to the visit was that they gave us the extra pizza they bought for dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)