It's Harvest Time (from September 24, 2012)

Hi there family. Things here are super busy. There's so much more that needs to happen here in the area that could be improved but I know that as there is faith, then there will be power to do whatever the Lord wants done here.

  We finally got rid of our 3rd wheel this past Wednesday at zone conference in Davenport so now Elder Sauer and I can really just get to work and let the truth roll on these streets. I can't wait for next transfer and we have a couple of pile missionaries leave to go home and we can literally resurrect an entire district which has been plauged by a trouble missionary. I don't know how an elder can come out here and just wait for 2 years to go by fast and not be fully engaged in the work at any time on the mission.

Zone conference was great I love big meeting like that because the spirit is so strong and I just feel so prepared to take all that was learned to my area and to the zone. I don't feel prepared at times for the responsibility of leading the zone and knowing what needs to be done in order to get things moving in certain areas. I do need some help..... how do I get the most out of my prayers? I pray for help and I'm not sure what to do after I'm done when I just asked for help. I just need to get a baptism and that will be just perfect. Dedra has been so good all week but when Sunday roles around she is not answering her phone and when we have a member talk to her the night before and get everything all set up for a ride to church not answer and it's so frustrating... am I doing something wrong? why won't it just all work out? I'm trying to have faith and let it all just go in the Lord's hands. We have people that we can teach but their just not commiting to anything. It's time to harvest but I just can't see where the elect are. I hope that I don't sound whiny but this ward here needs some serious help. Whatever is said at conference that this ward ain't doing I'm going to bring it up when we talk and help them see that there's much, much more that needs to happen. I'll tell ya what, when I'm a bishop my ward is going to be top notch. If you go 3 months without doing your hometeaching you get a personal interview with me and it isn't going to be good. In ward council we don't talk about policy and plan ward activities for the active members.... we plan for the less-active and non-members so that the church grows. I can count on me not living in Utah but somewhere far away where the church needs help. I love this work with all my heart and it kills me inside to see it taken lightly and taken for granted. I'm preparing myself to receive revelation from this conference.

I'm glad to hear each week that things on the homefront are doing good and that life isn't so bad after all. I just feel real depressed in the fall and I know that a long winter of cold and misery is just around the corner.

 

I love Illinois I love the people, I love being a missionary everyday of my life right now and I just feel that there's great things about to happen. This is the truth and I'm going to let others know it with a smile on my face.

 

I'm sorry if I'm not writing as much as I usually do but I just don't feel it right now. We also have several lessons today and so our p-day is only about 4 hours and that's going to take a toll since we don't get a p-day until next wednesday.

 

Love ya

Good Things ARe Happening!! (from September 17, 2012)

So Family I just want you to know that I'm just fine here in the hood of Peoria and that I love yall so much.

 

  We had a great exchange with the assistants this week where Elder Howard and i got to go out together and gather scattered Israel! It was great and we were able to find a family of 3 this past week and then later on in the week we taught another family of 3 with a total of 6 new investigators for the week. It made me happy and now it's time to follow up with all of them and get them on the path towards church and the waters of baptism.

 Dedra and Hyland are doing great we're going to have them meet with the bishop and see if everything is lined up for their marriage and for baptism of Dedra. We aren't sure if Hyland is legally divorced from his first wife and so that may be a problem which will prevent her from reaching her date of October 13th. She wasn't able to make it to church yesterday which was a bummer. She just finished her last Sunday of community service hours and she will now have her Sundays free for church which is going to be great.

 

  We had interviews with President Jergensen in the entire zone taking up all of Friday and half of Saturday and that was good to hear his training on Priesthood Keys being he only way to gather scattered Israel which is the purpose of the entire church and that is the missionary purpose as well. I felt a bit down on myself after an interview with him because I know that the zone is capable of so much more and a few trouble missionaries can ruin the whole flow of a district. Thank Goodness that this disease of a missionary will be going home on the 4th next month, and maybe just maybe we can get an entire district to start pulling their heads out and start getting some dates on the board.

 Also we had a great lesson with a lady named Vaughn and she is asian and has a deep desire to learn of the church and to join it in the coming future. She is not capable to be baptized until she is married in May of next year and that's quite the ways out there so we asked if we could start teaching her kids and she had no problem with that and they seemed to like us and so we have more doors of oppurtunity coming our way.

 

Last night we put on a fireside for the youth in the stake and their parents on sharing the gospel with their friends. It was one of the funnest things that I've done as a missionary. The youth from Bloomington was there and so I got to get them all excited to follow up with their contacts and their friends especially. We taught much of it from the New Era of this month and had some great role plays with the youth about real situations that come up in their daily life and so it was fantastic. There were about 100 youth and some 60 parents there with the entire stake presidentcy and so it was a big deal. The youth were in groups of about 6 and the parents sat on the back in rows so that the youth didn't have to worry about their parents being over their shoulders and it was a successful night and I felt like a game show host up there. Speaking just comes naturally to me I guess....if I'm prepared that is.

 

 TO answer some questions.... We were in a lesson a few weeks back and some hit our back bumper and put a scratch and dent in it so we had it in the shop for 6 days which as killer to our success in the area.

 

  ET'd means Emergency Transfered and that's not a good thing..... He will be with us until zone conference on Wednesday... it's been hard to have him

 

My wife....... you'll just have to find out once December 31 comes around of 2013 

 

Love ya

The Mission Is On Fire!!!!! (From September 9, 2102)

hello family

 

   I just want to say that I'm sorry for the pathetic email last week I've just been super swamped with stuff to do and haven't taken a real p-day in a couple of weeks.

 

  I'm currently serving with Elder Sauer (sour) who is from Wenatchee Washington. He's cool I guess and someone that I'll have to get along with. He thinks that BYU is the greatest thing on the planet and so I humble him every once in awhile with a UTAH-BYU throw down which I never lose.  He went to a year of school at BYU and was one of those awkward mormons who just went there because they were book smart enough and wanted to be somewhere where they felt comfortable. He's a long distance runner/ Piano player and never stops humming his "concert songs".... yea he basically annoys me with his straight up awkwardness...... Oh President why did you put Mr. Mormon in the Ghetto of Peoria????  I love him I really do but wow it's going to be a long 2 transfers together. He's been out 2 transfers longer then I have and he has a twin brother on a mission in the New Mexico Farmington Mission.

 

btw: our mission has 100 people with a baptismal date!!!!!

 

  So what's been going on with me?!?!?!   Last Monday I went to the Nauvoo Temple and did 2 sessions while I was there and before the first one started I got my blue slip and walked up the stairs where the people directed me and Elder Sauer was right behind me but decided to go to the bathroom and no one knew that he did and so when i sat in my seat the workers thought that all the Elders were in the room and ready and so they started to session and shut the door before he could enter and so I had a session without him which was amazing!!!!

 

 

Ok so our van got hit and we had to take into a shop to get it fixed on wednesday last week and the day before that we had zone leader council all the way in Des Moines which was way cool, those are just the best meetings. so that was like 500 miles of driving or something like that and so we were really tired and didn't get home until midnight on Tuesday. We were ready to work when we got up on wednesday morning and had lessons in the morning and had to take the car in so no time to email.

 

We had a good zone meeting and really focused on the "Prove me now herewith" with all the promises that we have been given as missionaries. We have promises from general authorities and Preach My Gospel and we are going to put our faith to the test and see what comes of it and also put the promises to the test and test the Lord with our faith in actually doing it; it was a good meeting and took up a lot of time on Thursday.

 

Friday we did as much Proselyting as we could on foot since we didn't have a car. Dedra and Hyland are going to meet with the Bishop here( who drives me crazy Tony If we think and feel alike, which we do then this bishop is on the lowest of low ranks of bishops like the one in Atlus OK) and try to get a marrage date set for them so that we can get Dedra baptized. that day we spent getting lessons put together for our exchange today with the assistants so we needed lessons to actually have and since we still don't have our van we are stuck in some areas. It was a stupid day on Saturday. So since today we start an exchange with the assistants in an hour we took our p-day on Saturday. On Saturday we did our scheduled service at the United Methodist Church's food pantry from 10-1 and then we had an appointment at 1:45 and that went until 2:30 and then we get a call from President about a trouble elder that was in Normal that is getting ET'd so we had to steal the sister's car and go the rescue 40 minutes away and get the elder out of there and get all of his stuff which was everywhere and drive his sorry %%$$## back to Peoria where we are currently babysitting him until President comes for interviews on Friday. So yea that was to worse p-day ever. and so we don't have one today and it's just flat out nuts here.   I just need a rest.

 

I did get the package for me birthday, thanks so much i loved it. and now I have 2 of those humpday camels, because my future wife sent me one a week before I opened your white package with the other one in it. Basically we have our colors picked out and everything for our white wedding on December 31, 2013.  You're invited by the way. Just bring enough sunscreen, because I here that Houston Texas is warm that time of year. That's our "Cinderella Castle"

 

Start Your Engines!!!!!!! (from August 27, 2012)

My Dearest Family

 

  It is such a blessing to be on a mission at this time. Never in my whole mission have i seem such yelling and jesters towards us as missionaries due to the situations that are happening in national news. Indeed it is safe to say that Peoria Illinois is one of the most dangerous cities to be in at night if your in the south side ( which is where I serve). I love the people here, don't get me wrong, but the stabs and pokes at our faith at times is hard to bare. Remember this is the city that I had a gun to my face nearly a year ago, but I almost see that as a blessing. If that moment wouldn't have happened I wouldn't be as strong or fearless to say walking down these streets and declaring in to most straight forward language I know that "Jesus is the Christ, and now more then ever has he a message for you". I want you all to know that I love you and I think frequently about the love that has been shown by you my entire life. I need your help, please pray for my protection and for us to be successful as we try to find God's children that are being reared deep in enemy territory. Tony knows what I'm talking about. I take 3 Nephi 22:13-17 very seriously. Most of all verse 17 is very much applied here. I know that this is all testing of faith and a challenge that I had to come back to and not be afraid of. Why did I come back to Peoria? I was ment for this city, I was ment for the people, I was ment to preach the gospel to God's children here long before the world even started. I want to quote the part of a talk given by Hyrum Smith of Centerville Ut.

 

Brothers and sisters, I would like to suggest to you today that the gospel of Jesus

Christ was restored in 1820 because that’s the only time it could have survived. There

is a more pointed question that needs to be asked. Why were you born when you

were born? Why weren’t you born in 911, or 1215? Is it because some computer in

the cosmos blipped and you came out now? I don’t buy that. I believe you were born

in this dispensation, with the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today, because you

were somebody before you got here. If you had any idea of who you were before you

got here, the hair would stand up on the back of your neck. Joseph Smith said on one

occasion, “If I were to tell you who I am, you’d slay me for blasphemy.” Wisely

never told anybody who he was, but he knew.

On one occasion

, President McKay, president of the Church, several years before his

death, on a Sunday evening, didn’t have anything to do, so he took his wife, said

“Let’s go to a fireside.” They went down to a stake center. There were lots of cars in

the parking lot so he walks in and their stake president was speaking to a group of

young people your age. Eight hundred of them. President McKay and his wife. 

Hyrum W. Smith

8

walked in. The stake president about swallowed his tie. Walked down to about the

eighth row. He said, “Don’t get excited. I want to hear what you have to say.” The

president continued with his talk. About halfway through his talk, he stopped and

said, “You know, young people, I feel impressed to tell you that before the world was,

before the world was, in that war in heaven, each of you in this room served as

captains and generals in the Lord’s army.” And then he went on with his talk. It had

nothing to do with what he was talking about. As he finished his talk, he looked

down at President McKay and noticed President McKay was drilling him with his

eyes. His heart stopped. He sat down and thought, “Boy, what have I said?” The

closing prayer ended. He jumped up and ran down to President McKay. Looked up

to President McKay – everybody looked up to President McKay, he’s a great big guy

– and he said, “You know, President McKay, I got a little carried away in my talk

tonight. Did I say anything that was inappropriate?” He said, “No, you didn’t say

anything that was inappropriate, you were just inaccurate.” “Well, what did I say?”

He said, “There were no captains here tonight. They were all generals.” And he said,

“Don’t you ever forget it.” And he turned around and walked out.

I know and I feel it that I have a great work that needs to be done here in this area. It was something that I promised our Heavenly Father that I would do before the world was ever created.

I love you all and I'll talk to ya next week!