Faith, the Final Frontier

Things are going well here in Almaden. This is the Land of the Beautiful people. It’s a good place though. Very wealthy but missionary work is still happening. I am loving my assistantship call and I am excited to teach and train more and more. It’s a different breed of missionary work here. It’s much less blunt contacting and more and more following the Spirit. It’s been a really good area so far. We have two baptismal dates and we are excited to get more. 

 Spiritual: Following the spirit is a tricky thing to do. Often times when you are following the spirit you don’t always know that when you are in action that the course that you are taking is the perfect course for you to take. For example, here in Almaden we get a lot of leaves falling down. This past Tuesday we saw that we did not have set plans. Just a lot of drop by visits. We decided to go and rake some leaves for service. This idea was definitely prompted by the Holy Ghost because the idea came out of nowhere and it immediately prompted us to action. We grabbed some rakes and went on our way. We just drove and occasionally yelled out turns. When we came to a house with a lot of leaves, we would stop and do a mad raking expedition. It was really fun. When we were doing that we really didn’t see any fruits of our efforts. So, how did we know that what we were doing was right and in harmony with what the lord wanted us to do? The only person we were able to talk to was a lady that came out of her house and told us not to worry about the lawn. She had gardeners who would come by and do it. It was a little disheartening. So why did we keep on doing it and how did we know that raking leaves was something the Lord wanted us to do? The real honest answer was that we didn’t know for sure but we had faith and believed that we were doing what the Lord wanted us to do. We were doing good and it felt right so we went forward even when we didn’t see any immediate fruit or results. We need to remember this principal. When we do good and we don’t think of ourselves then we can press forward with faith believing that the Lord wants us to do good and be good. Part of having faith is not knowing for sure that what you are doing is perfect, but knowing that it is good and that it is in harmony with all the principals that you have been taught. This applies to service, to blessings, to teaching the gospel and to any facet of life you can think of. The principal of believing based on correct principals is a hard skill to master but it results in miracles and greater spiritual power. Fortunately for us we did get the chance to see the fruits of our labors. It was amazing. We went to visit a less active member and his house happened to be one of the houses that we raked the leaves for! It was so cool! He was really flattered that some unknown entity loved him enough to rake leaves. He was very touched. We never told him it was us but it had definitely softened his heart. It was a special gift from God to let us know that we were doing His work.

Funny: 

Where I am at: I love this ward and I love the work. Things are going well. We are excited for Thanksgiving. I am happy healthy and well. Love you all!

Elder Black

Faith to Act

This past week has absolutely been the CRAZIEST WEEK OF MY MISSION. I have never had so many perks to the job but also so many responsibilities. Yikes! With great power comes great responsibility right? (It says that somewhere in the scriptures I am sure. ;) This week started with a surprise temple trip with the outgoing missionaries and ended with me holding the microphone for Elder Bednar. Holy Cow. It’s been a crazy little run! In between there have been solo car rides, lunch with president, driving  the transfer van, late nights and so much more. If it sounds like I am being an extremely disobedient missionary, I am sorry. I am not. Promise. It’s part of the job. It’s crazy. I love it though. There is always something going on. It’s been really fun. I love love love getting to know president and his family and I have loved being here and seeing a different side of the mission.

Spiritual: This week we were able to teach Jackie. She is an 80 year old tax lady who did taxes for a member and then the member invited her to come and watch Meet the Mormons with her and then invited her to take the missionary lesson. She agreed so we have been able to teach her and it has been fantastic. We taught her the plan of salvation this last week. After teaching her it was impressed upon my mind something that Elder Bednar taught us this past week. He taught us a lot about how to learn and a new style of teaching. The pattern went like this. He had us read three talks and prepare then he stood up and told us how the spirit is the real teacher and not to write anything down that was spoken. Only write down what the spirit whispers to you. I loved that idea. He then simply asked the question "What did you learn?" He then asked a few follow up questions about each statement and would expound on certain points from time to time. The spirit was so strong and we all came out learning new things from the spirit. It was incredible! One of the things that he talked about a lot and that sunk into my heart was the concept of faith being a principal of action. This is best reflected in Joseph Smith going to the grove and not asking what church was true but what church he should Join. The principal of faith being that you pray to act. Elder Bednar invited us to not anymore ask people to read and pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true, but to read and pray to know if they should join the church having the pure intention to act on the knowledge that they receive. Jackie really impressed me with her intent. When she prayed, she prayed with the intent to act. She was truly finding out if this was the path she needed to take and then she was completely willing to act on that answer. I fell in love with the pure example of faith that this 80 year old tax lady demonstrated. It’s been more and more of my focus to key into this concept of asking to act or in some cases acting and relying on the Lord. I would invite you to pray with the intent to act. If you want help on a test, pray then get up and work. He will help you! He lives. He has all power and the best part of it all is that he actually LOVES US. That means that He is willing to help us when we have faith in Him. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Funny: We had both the new missionaries and the old missionaries stay at our apartment this week. It was quite the experience. When we walked into the apartment with the outgoing missionaries they were jumping around and were being really loud. Someone was showing how to do Karate and there was a lot of yelling. The next day when the newbies came in, we walked in and they were all sitting there reading scriptures. It was so cute. I love it.

Where I am at: Almaden! This is a VERY affluent area. There are a lot of really solid members and a lot of good people here. It’s really been cool to serve here so far! The hard part is just juggling our time to make sure that we still do missionary work. We have made a goal to baptize here. It’s going to be amazing. I am really excited. There are a lot of really good things happening here. It’s strange to have your mission president in your ward, but it’s pretty cool as well. I love where I am at. Things are going so well. I am learning a lot. It’s a new experience for me for sure. I love you all!

With some Murray friends at the Elder Bednar training in Oakland. 

 Ammon and Elder Giles at Super Missionaries for Halloween.

Testimony and Accepting Changes

Hi family!

Yep. Unexpected transfer. NOOOO!!!! I am not too happy about leaving Blossom Valley but I am excited for the next adventure that the Lord has in store for me now. The work here is absolutely EXPLODING. There are so many amazing things happening here. It’s so cool how the work has really picked up. It’s amazing to also feel the love and support of the members as they realize that the Lord is hastening his work here and they want to get on board.

Spiritual: This week was actually really powerfully spiritual. I was able to go down to Monterey and see the baptism of Alex Horner. It was amazing. He asked me to confirm him a member of the church. What an incredible experience. I felt so loved. It was incredible to see how the Lord has really touched his life. He has been through a long search and it was so fulfilling to see him embrace the gospel and change his life. I want to talk about testimony today. At the outgoing fireside last night, there were a lot of missionaries who bore powerful testimonies about the divinity of the Savior and the power of his infinite atonement. It is absolutely enriching to be overwhelmed by so many heartfelt expressions of belief and trust. A testimony is a declaration of a belief in a certain principal of the gospel. You have a testimony of keeping the word of wisdom for example. You can have a testimony of the reality of the Book of Mormon being the word of God, but how much do we really trust that testimony? Did all of those miracles really happen? Did all those prophets really live? I know that the Book of Mormon is all the way true. One of the fruits of this gospel is the power that members of the church have. From priesthood power to the enabling power of the atonement. It’s all true, real and very powerful. I am a firm believer in miracles. Unexplainable events that happen throughout the course of our existence. Those events happen so frequently in this gospel. They happen due to the witness that we all receive from the Holy Ghost confirming to our hearts that the Book of Mormon is true and that President Thomas S. Monson is Gods prophet on the earth today. The witness is real and the miracles and fruits that come with it are real as well. I want to bear this testimony and testify that these have happened in my life. The witness and the miracles. This is real. It’s all true.

Funny: I got bitten by a cat. Twice. I do not like them.

Where I am at: This is an exciting time here in the mission. Elder Bednar is coming next week and the rumor is that Ipads are coming soon. There is a sense of change in the air. I am very sad to be leaving Blossom Valley. It’s cool to know that the Lord needs me somewhere else though. I love being in this work. I feel like I have learned more about myself and what my personal purpose is in life and how I can work to accomplish that work. It sounds really vague, but I really have learned a lot. I love the Blossom Valley ward and it holds a special place in my heart now. I love you all! 

I Am That Man

Blossom Valley ward is so great. The roads are not so great. Combination of four flat tires this week between Elder Giles and me. Bike repairs and more bike repairs. I am learning a lot about how to fix bikes. :) It must needs be that the evil one doesn’t want us out doing the Lords work because it is going so gosh darn well. It’s really going great. We had 7 investigators at church this past Sunday. Three with a baptismal date and more to come for sure. Things have really picked up in this part of the work and I am very happy to be here. I have been learning a lot about myself and what I am like.

Spiritual: Let me tell you a little bit about the California mindset. There is a very common mentality that happens in Cali when it comes to religion. There is an idea or a mindset that revolves on the premise that you just be "good" to people because that is what God wants us to do. The philosophy is that it really doesn't matter your flavor of following Jesus, what matters is that you are a good person be it you are Buddhist or Confucius or anything else. While being good is important there is more power and more potential that comes from knowing for certain what is right and what is wrong. It gives you identity and self-worth to know what team you are on and what power you support. Everyone has the light of Christ in them. Everyone has this little spark where they know the difference for the most part between Good and Evil. For example, murder is wrong in any country or any civilization today. The world knows the difference or at least has a head start to knowing the difference between good and evil. The gospel gives us not only the clarification or what is right and wrong, but through having faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we can have power to overcome the wrong and choose the right. We were visiting a less active member and we met her friend there. He expressed his confusion about religion and how there were so many different paths and ways to live life. He told us about the religions that he had studied and how through it all he had just decided to let life take its course. He saw that the main point of all the religions that he had studied was to be a good person. While that was true I wanted to take him and shake him. Being a good person is good, but the way with the most power and potential is the way through Christ. It is only through Jesus Christ and His atonement that we are saved. Because He did that we can take hold of the knowledge of good and evil and through that we can choose to have Christ help us through our hard times and our pains. It is through Christ that we obtain power to change. It is through Christ that we obtain forgiveness from our sins. It is through Jesus Christ that we become even as He is. He lives. He has the power to change us. Through faith in him, we can do all things.

Funny: We were biking down the street one day and a man on the side of the road starts yelling at us and telling us something. I pulled the bike over and walked up to him and started to chat. He obviously wasn't all the way there. We sat there and talked to him a bit then he told us some rather unnerving news. He said "Did you hear that there was a naked man at the mall?" We replied "No! Really?" "Yes. There were all these women looking at him. It was kinda strange. All these people looking at this one naked man. Do you know who this naked man was?" "No sir. We don’t know who that naked man was." He paused. Looked us dead in the eyes and replied with a confident grin "I. AM. THAT. NAKED. MAN." "It’s been lovely talking with you sir, we need to be going now but have a great day!" End of conversation.

Where I am at: Halloween was awesome. The Odell family made sergeant peppers sandwiches and cherry chocolate cake. Oh it was so good. We even got to answer the door for the trick or treaters and hand out pass along cards. It was so wonderful. I love this area and all the members. Things are going great! I love you all!