Every Member a Missionary

You Can Be a Missionary, Too

Man, what a depressing thought it is that I have only 21 months left. I’m getting closer and closer to figuring things out, and the closer I am to figuring things out the less time I have to practice them. But then again, why does it just have to be these two years that I am a servant of God? Why is it said that these are the only years that we shine? Something I didn’t like about the MTC was everybody always said that this is the only time to be a missionary, but I say that’s apostate. Sure, these two years of my life are unique and exciting, but this isn’t the only time in my life to be a missionary. In fact, the members are what keep the missionary work alive. It’s you guys who give us referrals (supposed to). You are the ones that have lived in the area forever. It’s your job to get to know your neighbors and be-friend people.  So, I guess what I’m saying is, serve your mission! President Hinckley said that every member is a missionary. You don’t have to have a black badge to be a missionary: study your scriptures and pray for strength and courage, and the ability to see and act on missionary opportunities. The blessings are limitless for us and the person—so get to work! 

Workin' Hard & Pioneer Week

So this week we had the Baptism of [member]. She was someone who was being taught before I came here, and we pretty much have a baptism planned for the next 5 weeks.  Like I said, Elder Torres and Elder Hernandez are great elders! I’m with Elder Clark again which is [good].  But another great week here in the beautiful Kamas Valley.  Ha, I gotta admit there was some trunky-ness in us all because there was their pioneer day celebration all week long so they have been doing rodeos all week and we walked by it a million times ha but no worries it’s all good.  Saturday night they had a demolition car derby. Man, I wish I could have seen that, but I’m pretty set on coming back to Kamas for Pioneer Week in a few years. It looks soo much fun, and its gotta be great camping here! Ohh, and we went by one of the best burger joints I have ever been too. It's called Oakley Polar King. Holy [cow]! This place was all-around good! I’m officially hooked.

Snake?!

Because of the festivities, not many people were home and that was kind of a bummer, but we know how to always laugh and have fun and it really does help soo soo much. I almost caught a snake the other day. I gotta admit it, it startled me at first because I haven’t seen one in so long, hahah. That made the day pretty funny. But we are teaching a good crowd, there are tons of people on date, and the Lord is sharing his tender mercies with us. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be a part of it!

I love you all and thank you so much for everything! Your # 1!!

The happiness that can come to us is limitless

Transfers

Hey! Guess what?! I got transferred to the complete other side of the mission!!! I am now in Kamas Utah.... haha I love it so much! It’s a lot like Preston, Idaho I think. It’s so green and pretty here. I’m about 20 mins East of Park city. In fact, Park City is in my zone! It’s so cool out here! It reminds me a lot of the Nelson cabin for some reason. But yeah, I’m in Kamas, Utah. Our area covers Woodland to Oakley or something like that. It looks a lot like the area that the Utah house is in. I really love it. We are in a car again, so I’m submitting a big music wish list for ya! Thanks!

Members

The people here are so great to us. We get so much food from the members. I miss feeling hungry sometimes, hahah. But it’s so good. The members here really have sooo much respect for the missionaries.

Companions

My New Companions are Elder Hernandez from Mexico, Elder Torrez from Mexico, and Elder Ferrin form my MTC district. Elder Torrez and Hernandez are such good teachers. I’m really learning so much from them. They are such good missionaries. I’m so glad to be in this area with them. They are improving my Spanish so much because they don’t talk in English, hahaha. And they are such funny guys! Man they are so funny. They are really hard workers and we have so many people to teach here, and there is always something that we can do because of their hard work! I’m really trying to learn as much as I can from them! Elder Ferrin has his Visa, so he leaves for Mexico sometime this week, so we won’t be double working the area anymore. This makes us even busier! It’s crazy stuff! But I love it so much!

They have me participate in teaching the lessons so much, and a lot of the time, I won’t even know that I’m teaching the main part of the lesson until we are at the door. They are really improving my ability to act fast. They’re also so dedicated to studying. Elder Torrez gets up at like 5 a.m. every day so he can get more time to study. He knows the bible so well. It’s so fun to hear is bible bashing stories. My companions are really teaching me so much. I’m so glad to be here.

The Area

We are within 45 mins of Salt Lake. Being on the other side of the mountains is like living in a whole other world. It’s just so pretty and amazing. The people environment is so great. There is so much love for the Elders. Everybody has so much respect for us, it’s incredible.

Learning Lessons

I am really starting to understand Mosiah when he says that it is not expedient for man to run faster than he is able. My whole time in the field I have been trying to run like a missionary who has been out for more than a year, which is like trying to swim a 500 after one week of swimming—you’re gonna get freaking tired, and it’s gonna be one of the worst experiences of your life. All the stress from that was really making things difficult, and I wasn’t really happy with being on a mission. But then in personal study I was just reading about how God’s whole purpose for us is to be happy. Everything is meant to make us, his children, happy. And I have just been slowing down and trying to learn and not do. God has blessed me with teaching skills, but I just don’t know how to be the missionary I want to be. My mind is a lot more closed when I’m stressed out and that was really interfering with the spirit. But in being with my new companions, I have learned that the mission doesn’t have to be stressful and you don’t have to go a million miles an hour. Just be calm and happy. The spirit while guide you to where you need to go. I have trusted only myself way too much. I have been relying on myself so much, and that is a foolish thing to do when you have the all-knowing source on your side. I still have to work hard, and some things are going to be hard. But it’s important to remember that I’m in the learning stages of my mission.

It’s basically required of me to make mistakes, to embarrass myself by telling everybody “estoy bueno” and not “estoy bien,” (estoy bueno means something different, like something you wouldn’t expect to hear form a missionary. But I’ll let you figure out what it means to Spanish people…haha). And the other day in a lesson I told the people I have 7 kids instead of 7 brothers and sisters, hahah. It was funny. But God’s whole intent for us is to be happy, and Paul says God loves a happy giver. So I’m just still working hard while really changing my approach to the whole mission life because things have been a lot better since I have done that. It has really made such a difference, so I challenge everybody to just find the joy in every moment. Make every moment worth talking about and remembering. I promise that it will make a difference in your life. Pray for it. And if you’re not praying, start praying. That makes a big difference in itself.

Other Insights

Family, please, please, please (!) strive to have Family Home Evening, Family Scripture Study, and Family Prayers. How can I teach and require this of other people if my own family doesn’t follow? I promise that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can fix any problem with time and enduring. Always strive to have a cheerful attitude. Everyone believes that we have every reason in the world to be unhappy, but really, we have so many more reasons to be happy. We chose to come to this earth because we knew it was the best option that we had in the pre-earth life. We did have a choice, and we knew there were high risks to come here. Nut there was also the highest reward possible. So please, please, please do your best to unify the family and I promise you just as I promise many people every day, that this gospel can heal any wound—no matter how deep. But only if we permit, so open your door to the light and gospel of Jesus Christ. We levitate how much happiness we have in our lives, we choose our path, and we choose the intensity of the light in our path. So, flip the switch and stop wandering in the dark. Get over yourself and live to your full potential of happiness as sons and daughters of God. We are Queens and Kings of the most high God and the highest kingdom of them all.

Closing

Family, Glen, Katie, Jacob, Hanna, Paige, and Sophia: I love all of you so much. If I didn’t show that before my mission, or if you doubt just a little that I love you, then shame on me and I’m sorry. I promise that I’m working on repenting of that. So family, please open the windows to heaven and lighten your path as much as possible. I love you all so much; I really do. And much of the time I’m disappointed that it took me being separated from you to realize how much I love you, but I really do love all of you, and I hope that you can feel my love for you just as I feel your love for me.

Strive to make the gospel more relevant in your lives. I have met so many people out here who were members but then allowed themselves to lose their faith. And they lost their faith because of their choice to not do the simplest of things like pray and read the scriptures. I promise the happiness that can come is limitless. I have seen the difference in all kinds of homes according to how they live and apply the gospel. Don’t get caught up in the lies that you don’t need to do these things because remember that Satan teaches a man not to pray!

"Members are the most important source for finding investigators."

Well, another week in the field. Transfers are on Wednesday, so we will see what ends up happening for those.  I'm kinda hoping our companionship is changed from 3 greenies and one trainer to something a little more balanced.

So, this week me and Elder Stradling have been working on getting the members more involved.  I can't believe how much missionaries really depend on members for missionary work, so always remember that members are the most important source for finding investigators. Us missionaries are constantly changing around areas, so we don't know the area, and we dont know the people. I challenge everybody to get to know your neighbors so that when the missionaries come to your door and ask for referrals, you can give them something!

So me and Elder Stradling went around to the auxiliary leaders in the Oquirr Point Stake and shared a scripture with them and bore our testimonies about missionary work and how it blesses us and our families.  Then we asked them how we can help them and for referrals and then we left with a prayer.  We gave them pass along cards with D&C 18:10, 13-17 and Matthew 14:5 or something like that with our number on it.  So just remember the members are key in areas.

We went on splits sometime through out the week. Me and Elder Stradling went and stayed with Elder Jones, one of our zone leaders.  Their landlords are so messy, ha, it was driving me crazy. The whole time I was in their house I was cleaning. Thanks for that trait mom. I'm sure my wife will appreciate it, hahah! Elder Jones is English speaking and so we went around to English people, and boy, am I glad to get to work with Spanish people because English people [aren't so friendly]. That was the first time a door had ever been slammed in my face. Everybody should learn to be more like Spanish people and Polynesian cultures. They are so nice about everything, and they are soo friendly. And their families are usually closer too. I'm already making mental notes of how I want things to be in my house that I will have some day.  I don't know if anyone else thinks about this while on the mission, but I think about my future family and home A LOT. I'm always taking mental notes. But we have found a lot of Spanish families in the Oquirr Stake and Oquirr Point Stake. Now we just need to turn them into investigators.

We had a lot of people plan to come to church but only one of them showed, so that puts about 5 people back on baptism appointments--so we will see how that goes. I have been praying really hard for the members to get more involved here. We really need that.

The Spanish is coming, really, I just have to work on my vocab. I have a small vocabulary, so that is what makes it hard. I think I'm fine with grammar. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for what I'm doing. It just comes with time.

So on the bike I now can bunny hop! On flat ground I can be going and get both wheels off the ground!! WOO Hoo. That took a lot of tries! And I got a decent wheely down, too. I only had to bail one time in the few weeks I have been in the field.  I'm so glad we get to ride bikes. A lot of the time the only reason I'm happy is because I get to ride a bike and mess around and just have fun. I guess it's sad to say, but being on a bike has made things better! haha, I love biking!


So, I have decided that I really want to read through the bible because so many people think us Mormons don't study the bible, so I decided I should have a testimony of the bible, too. Everybody should read Preach My Gospel. It's great stuff. I'm learning soo much from it.  [I get a little bugged] in my companionship when they don't do things according to PMG. [In the MTC that's what they told us to teach.] Man, I loved the MTC! But at least I get to cook now, woo hoo! Man, I love cooking! But ya, that's about all for this week. I think! I will work on getting a few hand written letters out!

Thanks for the love and the prayers. I pray that God blesses those that help his missionaries!  One more piece of advice: the best thing you can do for a missionary is give them food! Or money is good too, since none of us can stick to a budget! I'm exited to see what transfers bring, but no matter what, I'm just gonna keep on working anyways! Thanks for everything. I love you all! Have a great one! Hopefully I will have something exiting to share for next week! TTFN!