Old Dogs, Same Gospel

Wow. What a crazy week this week. We have been overwhelmed by seeing the Lords hand in this work. It’s been really fun. We have seen a bunch of miracles this week. We are also dead tired. :) Funny how those two seem to go together well.

Spiritual: We had an appointment fall through with a man this past week and so we decided to try and get ahold of him another day. We went over to his house, knocked on the door and his Pilipino sister-in-law answered and started to talk to us. We talked for a few minutes and she mentioned about how she stayed home and took care of her husband. We asked if we could come in and meet him. She said yes and then proceeded to tell us how she cared for her 91 year-old husband. She is only 52 and takes good care of him. It was a little strange. We came in and started to talk to him. He said that his name was Van and that he was mostly deaf and mostly blind. We were wondering how we were going to teach him. We had a pad of paper and communicated by yelling really loudly and writing one sentence statements of truth. We communicated that we were representives for Jesus Christ and when he finally understood, he stopped dead and turned to us and told us that his only desire was to know Jesus Christ.  We were stunned. He told us how he went to church for 40 years and they kept talking and talking about what Jesus did for other people but never what Jesus did for him. When we told him that we would absolutely love to come back and teach him about what Jesus has done for him he got so excited. He told us to stop or else he would just jump up on our laps. It was a touching experience to teach this man literally line by line and precept by precept. He is in a recliner and has some serious health issues. It’s hard for him to move or even to communicate. Somehow though, every time we leave, he tells us that he loves us and he is so grateful that we came. It brings me to tears to think that this 91 year-old man has enough faith and humility to be taught by someone who is 19 years-old. It’s a tough teaching job because on top of all of his old age problems, he has a 6th grade education. I love this man. Jesus Christ might be all that we have to cling to when we are old. It is so important to learn while we are young. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance. The Gospel is powerful enough to bless the lives of all people old and young. It’s just a lot easier when you are young. 

Funny: We have been taking Dhani our 16 year old Stud investigator to dinners with us recently. We were really excited to take him to a military family this week. We forget sometimes that these men have been trained by the military to be aggressive and rather intense. Long story short our dear member who is training to be a linguist but really should be an interrogator was grilling our poor investigator about faith. His scriptures were open and he was doing a good drill sergeant impression. We were mortified. We were scared that he would never talk to us again. We got out and we asked Dhani what he thought of that. He replied that it was intense but it helped and he liked it. Whew. That was close. The struggles of living in a military community are fun. :) 

Where I am at: This new mission president looks awesome. He sounds really enthusiastic and very professional. We are having so many miracles come our way. Sister Page our 89 year-old black lady is doing great! We figured out that she wasn’t reading because she couldn’t see! We fixed that right quick. Dhani is so close! Ah! Dylan is getting recruited by colleges and is still having girl troubles. We love talking to him about that. His family is getting really close as well. I love you all even if I tend not to think about you much. Just know that my emotions are still there. I love you all! 

Ammon had a fun surprise at church yesterday when his third grade teacher was on vacation in California and happened to be in Monterrey for church and go to Ammon's ward. He said it freaked him out a little (especially when she called him Ammon) but that it was fun.

Contacting and the Work of Miracles

This week was full of a lot of zone leaderie stuff. Lots of exchanges and lots of meetings, but a lot of really cool moments that I have loved being involved in. It was a cool week. I have really been trying to live in the moment and enjoy Seaside and the beauty that I am a part of. 

Spiritual: This week we have realized that our potential investigator list is getting a little outdated so we took the initiative to go out and find some more people to teach. I love love love contacting. It’s so much fun to go up to someone strange and start up a conversation with them that could change their lives. Most of the time nothing truly exciting happens. We share a quick blurb of testimony, give them an invitation, make them laugh and depart with no huge leads or new people to teach. When we do find someone however who is prepared, there is a totally different feeling about it. We were walking down the street to a potential investigators home when we noticed a car with two people inside it parked in front of us. We walked up and noticed their door was partially open. Being my dorky missionary self, we struck up a conversation with these folks in their car. After a few moments of conversation, the woman driving the car said she had to go and drove off. The man, however, got out and continued to talk to us. It was a very interesting spirit that was there. He said we could come over to his house and continue to teach him the next day. We said okay and after getting his information he walked away. The next day we went over to his house and he greeted us warmly. We sat down and started teaching him an in depth lesson about the restoration of the gospel. He really opened up to us by telling us all about his abusive father and about how his faith in Christ had helped him get through some hard time. This was a man about six feet tall and stocky, large white beard around 65 wearing shorts and no shirt. It was a powerful spirit that was around him though and at the end of the lesson he was in tears and had committed to be baptized at the end of July. It goes to show ya that you never know who is prepared. I love this gospel and I love this work that I am engaged in. This is fantastic. I love the Lord and I am so happy to serve him. Treat everyone with kindness. It doesn't matter if they are not wearing a shirt. The Lord loves them and we need to as well. 

Spiritual #2: We also went over to teach Dylan, our 17 year old wrestling stud of an investigator this week. We needed a member to come with us so we tried a few people and finally we got a Brother Leue to come with us. We went over and we were planning on teaching him the Law of Chastity, but when we got there, there was not the right spirit for that. The first thing he said to us was "I have a girlfriend so I can’t come to church." Oh dear. Why does that mean you can’t come to church? She wants me to come to her church. Okay. We can work with that. We started talking about how we can pray to know what church was true. We asked Brother Leue how he found out that the Church was true. He said that he had the EXACT same experience that Dylan is going through now. It was so cool! He shared a story about how he was dating a girl that went to another church and how he had to pray to know. It is so cool how the Lord will put these people together. It’s amazing because this was the first time his mom listened in and liked what she was hearing and we are currently teaching her. 

Where I am at: Aside from the plethora of exchanges and a little bit of the flu residing with Elder Lopez, the work is not stopping. It’s amazing to see how things are going here. We went to Point Lobos (now one of the 20 Amazing places my kids have to see before I die) last week and are going back again this week with the whole zone. This work is great. No baptisms yet, but there are a lot of good things happening. I love you all!

Ammon did not include a funny experience this week but when I asked him if the shorts I sent him fit he said that he did not know but was glad to get them because he ripped his pants this morning watering his neighbor's plants. This is the accompanying photo. (I do not know if he climbed the fence out of necessity or because he is Ammon.)

I also asked him if he has had the flu and how he has avoided getting sick. He thinks it is all the oranges.

89 and Humble

It’s been a really good week here in the land of Seaside. The work has been going really well. It’s interesting to see how the Lord will find a way to repay you or bless you for your sacrifice. We had interviews with President on Wednesday and it took ALL DAY. It was a long day at the mission office and by the time we got home we had time for one lesson. Sigh. The next day though, we had nine lessons and five of them were member present lessons. The Lord provides! 

Spiritual: We met the most delightful lady on Monday. We had an appointment fall through so we were walking down the street and contacting when we saw this petite little old black lady who was struggling to turn her water on. We asked her if we could do some service for her. She turned around and started talking to us. She was so funny. She had a slightly receding hairline and one of the large poofy white Afro haircuts. She shuffled over and proceeded to talk to us about how none of dem youngins go out nowdays and ask for work. She was very happy that we were out and looking for work. We tried to explain to her that we were in no way asking for work but that we wanted to do service for her for free. She kept insisting that we wanted to work. We just sighed and let her keep going. She eventually started talking about church. She was frustrated at the fact that all of the kids now days don’t treat church like they are supposed ta. Oh she was so cute. She then told us how her son had just passed away a year earlier. My heart just broke for this sweet little old lady. We shared a scripture in Alma about where her son went after he died and we were touched when we looked up after and saw that there were tears in her eyes. It made me all warm inside. This gospel brings such comfort to those both in need and comfortable. We ended up giving her a copy of the book of Mormon and asking her to read it. We will be going by on Wednesday to follow up with this 89 year old new investigator. I love this Gospel. I love the Church that claim association to this Gospel. I am so grateful for a living Savior who helped me to find this knowledge and for a Loving Heavenly Father who established this for us to enjoy. 

Funny: 

Can you say Californiaized? 

Where I am at: Things are going well here. Dhani is still going strong and learning more. Found the problem. He wasn’t reading! You have to read if you want an answer! Emily is getting close as well. She is in the process of quitting her job. Dylan has had his date pushed back to the 12 of July due to the fact that he has to come to church. Things are going well and I just love it here. There is no place I would rather be. 

I love you all so much!

 

The Not-So-Lone Rangers

Things are going well here in Seaside. Life is full of great progress. Slow progress, but progress none the less. Our Spanish work here has really started to pick up big time. It’s very exciting to see. I find myself thinking a lot about endurance and the refining process to become sanctified. I love my mission. I am just enjoying every particle of the work and I find it so fulfilling. Definitely not an immediate fulfillment, but a progressive, comprehensive fulfillment. 

Spiritual: We met with Emily this week. This lesson was shaping up to be a little bit of a do or die lesson. We were going to tell her about several commandments that we knew she was not keeping. One of them in particular was keeping the Sabbath day holy. It is so scary for a missionary to tell someone that you love about something that they need to change. It can be a terrifying thought, but the knowledge that commandments are given to bring us as a human family and as individuals’ greater peace in this life gave us enough courage to go and talk to her about it. When we sat down and started talking to her we asked her about how she viewed commandments. She said they were a blessing. What? That was not at all what we were expecting. She explained that commandments are given to us to do something small that our Father in Heaven wants us to do in return for all the wonderful things that he has given us. We were quite relieved with that statement. We extended to her the principal of keeping the Sabbath day holy and testified of greater family unity, peace throughout the week and energy to endure. She accepted and is now in the process of quitting her job. The people that are prepared to hear the gospel are those who will leap at the opportunity to repent and come closer to the Savior. It’s touching to see the devotion that she has and that many of our other investigators have and look at my life and see what I can give up, change or add to my life to better be committed to repenting and following the Savior. This is the best thing we could ever do. Repent and come unto Christ.

Funny: Spanish lessons are fun. Sometimes we walk in, sit down and I don’t understand anything then we walk out again wearing sombreros. 

Where I am at: This Church is true. If you don’t know yet, find out. By helping people understand this, there is a lot at stake here. The more I realize this, the harder I work and the more earnestly I desire to find those that are prepared. The Lord wants a Priest Quorum in the Fort Ord Ward and so we are teaching two 16 year old boys. It’s so cool! I love talking to them about real life. (According to high school) Life is good here in the celestial kingdom of missionary work. 

I love you all!

Faith Can Sometimes Be a Little Fishy

Hi family, This week was filled with the best times and the worst times. Elder Fisher is gone replaced by Elder Lopez-Carrasco. The thing is that he is Spanish speaking so we do a lot of work in the Spanish program in the ward. It’s awesome! There is a Spanish group in our ward and there were always sisters covering it but they are over three wards so they don’t get to do a ton of work in Fort Ord. Now it’s our turn to do a ton of Spanish work. The Latino population here is huge and there is a ton of work to do. We have run into so many prepared people that we had no clue about before because of the language barrier. Now that the language is not a problem we have so many more potential investigators and several more people to teach. Those two years of Spanish are really paying off. haha I can pray and bear my testimony and tell someone that we are missionaries and talk to them for a while. 

Spiritual: We met with Dhani this past week. He is really struggling on knowing if this Church is the truth. He has had several spiritual evidences that this church in fact is true and he needs to join, but he keeps coming up with doubts and concerns that try and persuade him to think otherwise. Oh it is so hard for someone to join this church! It’s such a commitment; howbeit the best commitment that they will ever make in their life, but this is not an easy life to live. He is also concerned about the stigma that associates being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has a lot of concerns. For example his mother is against anything religion. Oh how it breaks my heart to see him where he is. He is so close! I know that this will be the best choice he will ever make. He just needs to make it. In Alma 32 when talking about faith it compares it to a seed. Seeds though take a SUPER long time to grow. It takes a while to see it sprout because it is under a bunch of dirt. It takes time and it feels like it takes longer when you are looking at it every day. We promised him that he would get an answer, but he is going to have to use faith as well. Faith is a key part in conversion. We will not know everything, but we will know enough to make a correct decision. Prayer and Diligent scripture study is what Alma tells us to do to have the seed start to grow. I know that the diligent seekers of truth will find an answer to their prayers. 

Funny: We found Nemo. One of our less active members went fishing and gave us this fish. It’s still sitting in our freezer waiting to be flushed. 

Where I am at: Elder Lopez-Carrasco is an incredible missionary. He works hard and has such a talent of loving everyone he meets. I love being with him and I am loving the work right here. President is winding down. He has about half a month left and you can tell. For MLC he started showing us pictures of his mansion that he is building on Hawaii. Oh boy. "You can’t tell us not to get trunky president!" haha He is sprinting to the end though. He is working really hard and everything is gearing up. I love this work and find out every day, especially the hard, fulfilling days, how true the church is.