November 12, 2018

Fam, 

Saturday we had a great baptismal service for two people Elder Magalei and Elder Tilley have been working with. The service was nice and simple. The highlight easily was at the end when Brother Montigny, the second counselor in the branch presidency, stood up and in front of everyone and addressed the non-member husband. I'll quote as best as I can from memory. He said at the end of his testimony, "We're really grateful for the wonderful service of the baptism of your two children. We now challenge you to do the same (insert a long pause). Take these missionaries seriously and be baptized. The invitation doesn't stop there. Be baptized and prepare, as the plan of salvation teaches us we must, to enter into the holy temple in one year to receive your endowments and then be sealed to your wife for time and eternity." It was pretty bold. He didn't seem offended but it definitely surprised me that the Presidency called him out like that in front of everyone. Bold is good sometimes. On another note we woke up to four inches of snow!

We have a cool family we are working with. We met with them this last Thursday and taught a fairly good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It went well and we had our Branch Mission Leader with us and his wife. It's really nice to have capable native speakers with us. I still am a very imperfect teacher but team work helps a lot. The restoration of truth that began with Joseph Smith really has allowed us much greater understanding of the truth. Greater peace and direction is found as we find the answers of where did we come from, why are we here and where are we going. Those truths are able to be felt by anyone which is why it's so fun to teach. As an example, yesterday we taught a lesson with a 7th day Adventist who wasn't understanding authority. We invited him to be baptized but said he already had after we had explained authority extensively. We explained why the Book of Mormon is important and he said he already knew it was true because it's the word of God, something he did not actually know for himself. We responded explaining the importance of the spirit and that if he knew the Book of Mormon was true he would first know that its message is true: that being the divinity of Jesus Christ. He would also know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet called by God, that we had authority to baptize him, and that he would then desire to be baptized. I think it caught him off guard slightly because he asked if we meant be baptized at that moment but the end result was that the doctrines we had shared finally clicked into place. The Spirit was able to at least say something that caught his attention and made him more serious about what we were proposing. There is no need to fear in this gospel because it is resoundingly true. I used to be worried when people would say, "oh well I've been baptized before," but all I know is that true doctrine carries power. 

-eric

October 15, 2018

fam,

Welcome to Michigan where the typical weather this time of year ranges from 90 degrees on Wednesday to 40 degrees on Thursday. 

Thursday we had a hilarious lesson with someone named Darryle. I found him a few weeks ago when I was on trade-offs with Elder Wilkins. I didn't even see him in his car but he rolled down the window as we walked by and yelled out to us. He made me jump pretty badly but thankfully we were able to set up an appointment. After some scheduling issues we were finally able to meet with him. We taught a decent lesson on the restoration and he received it hilariously well. We taught about the apostasy of truth that followed the death of Jesus Christ and his apostles and then shared how after the first vision of Jesus Christ angelic messengers restored the priesthood authority by the laying on of hands by those in authority to Joseph Smith. After briefly outlining the priesthood he asked energetically about all the other churches that baptize. We told him that none had the necessary authority. You could say that blew his mind.   

Saturday we had the great opportunity to participate in the baptism of Mercedes. Road work has clogged the entrance to the chapel for the last few months and apparently the workers had temporarily shut off the gas line but it hadn't been put back on. Elder Magalei performed the baptism and said the baptismal font was so terribly cold. During the actual baptism, the doors to the font were shut waiting for them to get in the water. I could hear a slight whimpering and figured it was either a good moment where the spirit was very strong or else  she had some last minute doubts. After the baptism I approached Elder Magalei and asked what had happened. He responded explaining that she was not crying or having last minute doubts but trying very hard not to scream as she very slowly entered the water. Aside from no heat, the service was nice and we had a good turn out. 

Are there prints available of the painting, "The Savior with a lamb" or "the Good Shepherd with His sheep" in the talk "Becoming a shepherd" by Bonnie H Cordon and "Our campfire of Faith" by Elder Gerrit W. Gong? They're fantastic.  

-eric 

July 23, 2018

Fam, 

Edin's baptism was an utter success.

Our Monday lesson with Edin we had planned to finish up some of the final preparations for the baptismal service. It turned out well. He lives with a member family who lives on a pretty sketchy street. What was funny was as we were reviewing our plans before we walked in we saw this guy walking down the middle of the street. I could see something around his neck but thought nothing of it. We continued talking and offered a prayer before heading in. As we finished the prayer the guy was walking by the car and his "necklace" was a 8-10 foot live python. It was pretty gangster. I was only able to grab a picture after he had passed with the car mirror, unfortunately it doesn't give justice to its epic-ness. It's fun to work in the hood. 

Friday was our trade off. I went with Elder Wilkins. We had a pretty open day so we just parked the car and walked for a few hours talking with people. Knowing the area so well its pretty convenient. We knocked on about 15 doors and talked with about 10 of them. They were all people I had talked to previously but never was able to teach for one reason or another. It becomes a lot easier to talk with people when you remember what they were interested in but they don't remember the two minute conversation you had with them over a year ago. As an example we talked to this one lady for  10 minutes on the Proclamation to the Family and the blessings that come when families follow the inspired counsel in that document. Unfortunately we weren't able to have a formal lesson or set an appointment but she had a better contact with the church than she had the last time we had talked with her. 

We ended the trade-off with a delicious dinner with Teodoro and his family. We presented them with a picture of the Chicago temple with the text on it saying "Eternas pueden ser las familias." They're excited to be sealed as a family in the temple and we even had them sign their names to the framed picture to continue to diligently prepare to be able to have an eternal family. 

Saturday we were checking up on the two speakers for Edin's baptism to make sure they were ready. One of the speakers had never spoken in church or anything. He was still super lost but we were able to help formulate a talk and practiced with him for about an hour. In one hour we moved from reading the guide to the scriptures entry on baptism all the way through including the summaries to the cited scriptures to an actually acceptable talk. We even taught him how to bear testimony. So many people don't know how to bear testimony. The talk "Pure Testimony" by Elder Ballard along side the "True to the faith" entry on testimony are such a good resources to help people understand what is and what isn't a testimony appropriate for a church meeting. 

"Pure Testimony" by Elder Ballard

"Testimony" from True to the Faith

Sunday was spectacular. The stake president was there to set apart the new branch presidency councilor and Elders Quorum president, something we've waited a while for. It was a great moment. I've learned the absolute necessity of faithful men and the power of priesthood keys. The Stake President served a full time mission in Portugal and tries to speak Spanish and it's nigh unto unintelligible. It's like trying to fit a round dowel into a small triangular whole but using a large hammer to force it through no matter what. But he tries and that's what counts. The New Elders Quorum president was set apart during third hour with everyone present. The stake president did the setting apart but beforehand took a moment to explain the role of priesthood keys. If you have questions on what I mean by Priesthood keys check out true to the faith "priesthood keys" under the section titled "Priesthood."  

See "Priesthood Keys" under the topic of "Priesthood

The spirit was so powerful as he, in his - what he calls - Span-guese, explained what it is and their importance. It was a special moment made better because it was shared with two recent converts who are soon to receive the priesthood and three investigating men all who want to be baptized.

About the last month or two we've been praying and fasting a lot for men to come to the Branch either through convert baptisms or new move-ins and that has started to become very fruitful. Daniel has some complications that are being resolved but he is now open that he wants to be baptized once said complications are resolved. His brother José Manuel is going to be baptized August 4th, and we've recently had two convert baptisms. One of the members also had a friend move here for the next 6 months who served a mission, has served in numerous callings including bishop and stake presidents councilor. Momentum is picking up. 

The real crazy thing is the power of one. Fransisca, through her own personal conversion has begun sharing the gospel. As fruit of that labor her son was baptized, both her brothers who live here are close or are going to be baptized, and she has introduced us to many of her friends, one of which is currently taking the lessons. As PMG puts it, missionaries "succeed best when members become the source from which new investigators are found" (PMG page 160-161). If only all shared the gospel with the same enthusiasm, or even tried. 

Edin's baptism like I mentioned was super good. We had to change the service time due to some scheduling conflicts but after a few hours of calls everyone knew and showed up on time! Another miracle. It's possible that the last two baptisms have been the only two branch activities to start on time haha. It was a spiritual feast and afterwards Edin mentioned that it was way better than he ever expected. Connor, one of the people who taught him with us, performed the baptism and I confirmed him on Sunday. 



-eric

July 16, 2018

Fam, 

The week went well. 

Tuesday we meet with someone who had been recorded in our records as having been interested but never taught from about 5 years ago. We had been calling all the potentials as we were putting them in to our phone. Most people don't pick up but we had a pretty good conversation with her over the phone and set up a time to come by and do some service. We got there and she explained her story. No money, no food, no family, she can't even work, and the city told her she needed to fix some things in her home or she could lose the house. She had got a notice from the city and was at wits end, prayed to God asking for him to send honest people who could help her. She said as she closed her prayer we called. We talked and at the end of the conversation and we asked if there was any service we could do for her. She jumped on the offer and invited us over. We brought the Pectols, who after our visit took her grocery shopping. We are working on a plan to help her out. It always feels really nice to so clearly be an answer to someone else's prayer like we were.

Teodoro had a great spiritual baptismal service with a attendance almost higher than our sacrament services. We pulled out all the stops and called/invited everyone personally and asked them to come 10 minutes early. It actually worked, a true miracle if I've ever seen one. It started at 7 and ended just after 8. We had a bunch of refreshments and at about 9:05pm I realized we hadn't asked anyone to clean up and everyone was still there. Thankfully a few members volunteered to stay, clean, and lock up. Everything went smoothly except the fact that the plug in the baptismal font doesn't tighten and leaks. As the service began I realized we hadn't turned the water back on to add more warm water and to fill it back up to compensate for the leaking. By the time we got to the baptism it had drained to below his knees! Elder Guerrero performed the baptism and was successful in getting him all the way under the water, but that was an un- welcomed surprise. 

Edin was interviewed the same day as Teodoro's baptism and things went well. I spoke to him after Teodoro's baptism and he said he was even more excited to have his own baptism. 

Sunday afternoon we stopped by to see an investigator who is a little hard to get in contact with. His vision is so impaired that he can't really use his phone, can't drive, and works 13 hours a day (8am-9pm: basically the entire missionary day....... ) 6 days a week. We had a good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It went super well. He asked the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Instantly I was reminded of the interchange between Aaron and King Lamoni's father  in the Book of Mormon when he asked,  "What shall I do that I may have this eternal life of which thou hast spoken?" (Alma 22:15, the whole chapter is good but verse 15 has the question) Like I said it was a super good lesson. It can be really easy to under appreciate the knowledge we have of the plan of Salvation, we focused our lesson around physical and spiritual death and how they are overcome. He was just blown away. We hope to teach the rest of his family our next visit. 

-eric

19 March 2018

Elder Sterling Fillmore at the Chicago Temple during his mission in the Michigan Lansing mission. He was one of Eric's YM leaders.

fam,

This week was pretty interesting. On Thursday we had a really good member lesson with the Miranda family and had lunch right after. Well right before I left for my mission I got a note from a former young men's leader by the name of Sterling Filmore saying that he had also served in this same mission. I later forgot about that message but it all came back into focus when during our meal Hma Miranda starts joking and pulling out old photos of past Elders that served in the branch. She's just throwing us photos as she's talking about each on and I saw one with a face that looked familiar. Looking closer I recognized the Elder to be that same Youth Leader I had! It was pretty funny and we grabbed a photo. 

Wednesday we had a good zone leader trade off. We'll as good as a knock-a-thon can be. I think the last three transfers we've been moving away from the very well set and ingrained mission tradition of only using knocking as the mode of finding. It's been pretty successful as we are almost entirely working through members, though slow, we teach more solid people. The added blessing is not having had knocked a door in like two transfers. With Elder Clark we knocked for like 6 hours and just about everyone we talked with did not speak English. We even were in a nicer area but like two people spoke English. We got invited into this one home and just could not communicate with this guy who was about our age. We grabbed his information and asked if he wanted to learn English. For the fourth time we just could not understand his name and asked him to write his name in our planners. The plan seemed good up until he wrote his name in a non-English alphabet haha. Luckily it's not my area. 

Friday we had a miraculous lesson. Teodoro is an awesome guy who has been coming to our branch since I've been here. Finally he is getting baptized. He was being taught initially and once he was ready he for baptism his future wife got pregnant and didn't want to get married until after the baby came. Well the baby came and we had a dinner appointment with them with full intentions of setting wedding dates and baptism dates. We had no idea how but felt like it was the right thing. Half way through our dinner appointment the Relief Society president shows up and joins us. Apparently they called her and asked her to stop by to reserve buildings for their wedding, baptism a few weeks later for Teodoro, and the baptism of their oldest daughter a few weeks after that. So things went really well. I'd say my most productive dinner appointment yet. We set goals for him to get the priesthood in time for him to baptize his daughter and to go over the missionary lessons one more time. I think the wedding is planned for July if I remember right.

December 18, 2017

fam,

False doctrines everywhere. We had probably my most intense trade off Tuesday. Just about everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We lost our phone at a lesson in the morning and then later on in the day before we had to leave for our other planned lesson for the day we realized we couldn't find the keys. We tore the apartment apart looking for the keys until we decided to pray and figure some things out. We prayed and meditated for a minute and I felt that the other Elders had walked off with our keys.

Listen to the spirit when it tells you things because I didn't, and he is always right. We continued to look and look and look to no avail. After another 20 minutes or so I felt the same thing again and listened this time. We knocked on our neighbor's door and used her phone to call the other Elder's phone only to find out that the Elders actually had walked off with our keys by accident. The highlight though was a very in-depth T-boned lesson coming from a member explaining that Mexico City was the city of Zarahemla from the BoM. It's not. One thing I struggle with is stopping people when they really shouldn't be talking in lessons. 

We've been enjoying many days of snow in a row. We had about a foot after a few days. Surprisingly, Wyoming has not done hardly anything with respect to snow removal. There was no attempt of any preventative snow build-up measures. There were plenty of plows removing snow in parking lots but nothing from the streets. We had about 5-6 inches on the roads. The Malibu, while a comfortable, good-looking car, does not perform all that well in the snow. Unfortunately Elder Magalei slid our car into another car. But it's only a small dent and no one was hurt. 

Thursday we had our district meeting, interviews and lunch with President. It was a really good morning of meetings. Lunch paid for  by someone else is always a great thing. I also got the word that I will most likely transfer out of my first area next transfer. We'll see. I'm interested to see what's going to happen. Elder Wall, the former zone leader/English missionary serving with us, is going home mid transfer so we will be trio-ing for a little bit after the 28th. I anticipate either a trio for the next few transfers or else Elder Waters is coming back. 

Saturday the other Spanish Elders had a great baptismal service for someone they were teaching. The Branch Christmas party was right after which was fun. We were actually able to do some good missionary work during the party. We had two investigators come and it was pretty enjoyable. Branch parties really represent. We get way more than Sacrament meeting attendance at our parties. 

Sunday we had a great first lesson with someone we knocked into. The day before we spent some time door knocking and everyone we talked with we were able to set a return appointment which was miraculous. We got there and she basically carried a drunk friend into their house which was awkward but once things settled down it was actually a great visit. Near perfect actually. It's really nice to be able to invite the spirit into people's home for two reasons. First and most important, people need to first feel the spirit. Then they can act in faith on that feeling.  Second it really helps smooth out any imperfections in our teaching. For some reason I had this weird vibe that the lady was already a member. Unrelated but she found out about the church from "Johnny Lingo" and "The Other Side of Heaven". Super random. Haha. 

Johny Lingo video link

Trailer to "The Other Side of Heaven"

3/25/17 Wards/Branches, Baptism, Racoons, Malibu

Family and friends,

Apparently our last P-day in each transfer is on a Saturday, idk I don't make the rules, but here we are.

Elder Rencher, from our district has been keeping statistics on church attendance during the past few weeks. This last Sunday was a little crazy based on how many people showed up. In order from my first week until now, church attendance was 64, 58, 67, 80. A few members brought their friends, and we had more less-active members than ever. Sadly, the member's friends live in the area of the other companionship in the district. That Sunday the idea of the Spanish ward was planted into our minds. Apparently the branch has grown significantly over the last year. When it started, only around 13 people or so would show up every week. We average around 5 times that now. Last night Elder Guerrero felt really strongly that we were called specifically to this mission to build and turn this branch into a ward. We used the little free time we had to set some goals and outline what needs to be done to make this goal. 

Find out about wards and branches here

From what we know, we need 15 worthy Melchizedek priesthood holders who are willing to fill the church leadership positions. We are currently at around 9. The most important thing we can do is strengthen the members and get their help in our mission efforts. Strong members build strong members. There are a few men who are mostly active that we can work with to make this goal happen. This is the benefit of the area I was called to, this is the only Spanish branch in the state so I'm staying for quite a while. The president was at the baptism we had today and talked about the progress this branch has had. When I first got here 6 weeks ago he also told me that I'll be in this area for more than half my mission. So while it seems like a lot of time, there is a ton of work to be done. This week we set some insane weekly goals. We'll see how that goes. It truly feels like the Lord wants a strong Spanish ward.

So like I said we had a baptism today. It's been along time since I've gone to one, which is too bad, because the spirit was so strong. We are working on Latino time, so it started almost 40 minutes late, and people were filtering in slowly almost the whole time. Berta was working with the other missionaries, and we weren't able to get any of our investigators out to it which was too bad. We invited everyone we met this week. A few people talked and it really was a great opportunity to see how far I've come in Spanish, I understood 95% of what was said, but missed a few jokes. I also translated a little for the zone leader and Assistant to the president that came to our baptism. 

Monday we had an awesome lesson with our Golden Family. I'm pretty sure their last name is Soreano, but I'm not sure. We found Natividad walking to a park to play soccer with his son. We had a really great lesson with him where we talked about the restoration and I led out that lesson. The spirit was pretty strong, and we could see that Natividad felt the same. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read the intro and Joseph Smith's testimony. He said he would. We taught another lesson with him on Thursday. We brought the Rosales family with us and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. We had them teach a little and they gave testimonies on how the gospel has changed their lives. The Rosales family just clicked with Natividad and his wife, We really hope they will come to church tomorrow. Our lesson also on Thursday Natividad was talking about when we first talked to him he saw a light in us and felt something in his heart that was different. In the lesson I was thinking, what the heck that's so freaking awesome. He went on to say that when he was reading the intro, and the lessons we've had with him he feels that same thing. Elder Guerrero and I were looking at each other thinking this isn't happening. Natividad is so ready. We haven't put him on a baptismal date yet, but he is starting recognizing the spirit and is reading the Book of Mormon with an open heart. It is so cool to watch people accept the plan God has for them.

That same day we had a lesson with a less active who's husband we were able to pick up as an investigator. We talked about the restoration with him and he really is starting to show a little interest. He comes to church but is a little hesitant to join another church. He seems like the kind of man who isn't going to make a decision without knowing all he can know, which is awesome especially because he is finally showing interest. We had an Hermana from the branch come with us to the lesson and she taught really well. I asked how the message of the restoration of Christ's church has blessed her family and she gave a really nice testimony on how she can receive guidance to raise her family and the blessings that come from it. The less active lady that was there went on this tangent that I was only able to get the theme of, which was something about her daughter and a picture that shouldn't have been possible, we brought the lesson back, and Pedro really seemed receptive to what we said and also really felt the spirit. We finished the lesson and Hermana Sifontes gave a really powerful testimony on the Book of Mormon, it was crazy. 

Members are such powerful examples and when they bear their testimonies it's incredibly powerful. We left with a prayer and commitments to read the intro and J. smiths testimony.

Introduction to the Book of Mormon

The last three nights we've been woken up by an intruder. The first night Elder Guerrero woke me up thinking someone was breaking into the apartment. We live on the third floor and the noise was coming from our balcony. He grabbed my flashlight and we saw a raccoon pulling aside the plastic siding and trying to dig through the 2x4. 

I checked the damage that morning and there is a solid 6 inch diameter whole behind the siding into our wall from the outside. In our studies in the morning we started hearing the little guy walking around above us which was a little funny. We really need to report this. The next day in the early morning around the same time, not thinking straight I had the bright idea to poke him with our broom and scare him away so that he wont come back. He hissed really loud at me and started climbing down really fast to come and get me. I closed our glass door and he clawed at it for a minute and retreated like a little coward. Our apartment is on a little man-made lake and we have a bunch of wildlife that stops by. We have a squirrel that comes by for bread at 9 am every day, and the lake we have outside our balcony has a bunch of geese and ducks.

Thursday we got the news that we won a 2017 Malibu like we wanted. We are going to go pick it up next week. Elder Guerrero and I switch who drives each day, but as long as we don't move our car fast day I'll be driving it back from Lansing. I'm excited for that. 

Also some bad news. Our investigator who's son died is kind of stuck in the Dominican republic. He only brought enough money to get back and was robbed at gun point and was attacked. From the little we know he is doing well aside from the being stuck part. Our missionary phones wont call out of country so its really hard to impossible to contact him, but Luckily he is with family and should be back in two or so weeks.