The work is progressing. Saturday (Christmas eve was a very eventful day) Elder W (who is from New Zeland) visited with a member from New Zeland who has lost his way. They had a great visit and they took time to talk to him about his testimony of the Book of Mormon. This gentleman does believe the Book of Mormon, but not so much the prophet. Elder M challenged him to ask the Lord if President Monson is a prophet. This was a good visit and hopefully with all your prayers he will find his way again.
Also, the elders have a few baptisms lined up for the near future and they just found a new investigator to teach. When they told me this I told them that that was a wonderful Christmas Eve gift (meaning for the new investigator). Since it was Christmas Eve, the mission got together for the evening where they heard a christmas message and got to watch a Christmas video. Then they got their mail and some gifts. Elder M. commented that he got like 3 tubes of toothpaste and 4 toothbrushes from various people. He wonders if people are trying to tell him something.
We have been trying to get the Christmas spirit here for the elders. We put a Nativity Set up in the apartment, and a small Christmas tree too. We also filled some Christmas Stockings for them. It's hard to decide what get for them, because they need to keep their belongings light enough to fit in their suitcases. We just got silly stuff like deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste and stuff like that. Yea, I was one of those multiple toothbrush sources.
For Christmas the Elder W and Elder M were invited to lunch at the Stake President's home and dinner at another member's home, so they are being well taken care of. They also get to call home and talk with their family.
Christmas evening was wonderful, we got a visit from Elder U and had a great visit. He is doing well (of course) and it was awesome to see him again.
That's about it for now. Be awesome this week.
It's the Christmas season so give a gift which can last through the eternities, give the gift of the gospel. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year!
This is a blog about my experiences hosting Elders who are full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called Mormons.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. -Joseph Smith
You may recall that I told you last week that we have a brand new elder, Elder M here who is waiting for a visa so that he can go to Brazil. Well since he is brand new, the mission president has to get a copy of his driving record before he is allowed to drive and his companion Elder W is from New Zealand so he doesn't have a U.S. driving license, so they are on foot or on bike. They have a pretty big area to cover just on bicycles, so they are depending on members to give them rides to their appointments. That doesn't seem to slow them down much; neither does the waiting for a visa, Elder M is just like any new missionary working hard and totally motivated to share the gospel with anyone willing to listen. One might think that waiting for a visa gives you permission to slack off a bit while you wait, well that is not at all the case with Elder M; he is a worker.
Yesterday they told us about knocking on a lady's door. When she answered she was a bit gruff with her greeting (I guess in an attempt to get rid of them quickly). But these elders didn't give up. They asked her if there was some kind of service they could provide for her and so they helped her by fixing a light. Her goodbye was a lot warmer than her greeting. The next time missionaries knock on her door she might be a little more open to listening to what they have to say.
Speaking of light, I have a story about light that involves my nephews (again with the nephews!). We were at Walmart this week and my nephew B. asked if I would buy a playground ball - this was not your ordinary red rubber playground ball, it was a glow-in-the-dark ball. I bought it and of course, we had to play with it. So we went into the laundry room and closed all the doors and turned off the lights and covered all the cracks to get it as dark as we could get it. We had lots of fun playing with the ball. We all noticed that as time went on, our eyes got more used to the dark and we could see the ball better and better, we even got to where we could make out the outline of each other as the ball passed by.
Okay, now for the principle I am trying to get to. When we opened the door the light that flooded in made our eyes hurt, and it chased away all the darkness and then when we closed the door again, we found that it was hard to see the ball again.
The spirit of the Lord is like this, if we are immersed in the spirit, like me and my nephews were while in the dark room, we are more sensitive to the subtleties of the spirit and more aware of where you need to be. (Aha, I bet you thought I was going a different way with my light metaphor!) These elders are a great example of this. It's interesting that when I offer them rides they ask me to turn off the radio, they don't want secular and possibly inappropriate music to dull their sensitivity to the spirit.
Time for my, it's all about ME story. Today marks the tenth anniversary of the day my Dad passed away. In some ways it seems like yesterday and at other times it seems like forever. My whole family is very supportive of missionaries, my dad served a full-time mission in the southwest U.S. speaking Spanish. This was right after being released from his duties as a radioman in the Navy in World War II. Later he worked with the missionary program in ward and stake positions most of his adult life, and now I am sure he is sharing gospel truths with those who died without the opportunity of hearing the gospel message while they were alive on the Earth. I like to think that he is pleased with my decision to allow the missionaries to live in my home. Not long after my dad died my mom served a full-time mission in Oklahoma City and spent most of her time in the mission office as the secretary to the mission president. She loved the experience and fell in love with the young missionaries who served there. Now she spends her time trying to help the missionaries living in my home by doing their laundry, baking them bread and making sure that missionary birthdays are not forgotten. My parents are great examples for my nieces and nephews and I am confident they will be blessed for it.
Life is great! To paraphrase a previous post "The Gospel is true, may God bless YOU". It is the Christmas season, share what you know to those who have lost their way and are just focused on all the shopping, rushing and stressing. Christ is what CHRISTmas is all about, may we share our Savior's love with everyone we meet.
Keep praying for our missionaries and for those who are trying to get the opportunity to serve as missionaries. God loves them all.
Be Awesome this week!
Yesterday they told us about knocking on a lady's door. When she answered she was a bit gruff with her greeting (I guess in an attempt to get rid of them quickly). But these elders didn't give up. They asked her if there was some kind of service they could provide for her and so they helped her by fixing a light. Her goodbye was a lot warmer than her greeting. The next time missionaries knock on her door she might be a little more open to listening to what they have to say.
Speaking of light, I have a story about light that involves my nephews (again with the nephews!). We were at Walmart this week and my nephew B. asked if I would buy a playground ball - this was not your ordinary red rubber playground ball, it was a glow-in-the-dark ball. I bought it and of course, we had to play with it. So we went into the laundry room and closed all the doors and turned off the lights and covered all the cracks to get it as dark as we could get it. We had lots of fun playing with the ball. We all noticed that as time went on, our eyes got more used to the dark and we could see the ball better and better, we even got to where we could make out the outline of each other as the ball passed by.
Okay, now for the principle I am trying to get to. When we opened the door the light that flooded in made our eyes hurt, and it chased away all the darkness and then when we closed the door again, we found that it was hard to see the ball again.
The spirit of the Lord is like this, if we are immersed in the spirit, like me and my nephews were while in the dark room, we are more sensitive to the subtleties of the spirit and more aware of where you need to be. (Aha, I bet you thought I was going a different way with my light metaphor!) These elders are a great example of this. It's interesting that when I offer them rides they ask me to turn off the radio, they don't want secular and possibly inappropriate music to dull their sensitivity to the spirit.
Time for my, it's all about ME story. Today marks the tenth anniversary of the day my Dad passed away. In some ways it seems like yesterday and at other times it seems like forever. My whole family is very supportive of missionaries, my dad served a full-time mission in the southwest U.S. speaking Spanish. This was right after being released from his duties as a radioman in the Navy in World War II. Later he worked with the missionary program in ward and stake positions most of his adult life, and now I am sure he is sharing gospel truths with those who died without the opportunity of hearing the gospel message while they were alive on the Earth. I like to think that he is pleased with my decision to allow the missionaries to live in my home. Not long after my dad died my mom served a full-time mission in Oklahoma City and spent most of her time in the mission office as the secretary to the mission president. She loved the experience and fell in love with the young missionaries who served there. Now she spends her time trying to help the missionaries living in my home by doing their laundry, baking them bread and making sure that missionary birthdays are not forgotten. My parents are great examples for my nieces and nephews and I am confident they will be blessed for it.
Life is great! To paraphrase a previous post "The Gospel is true, may God bless YOU". It is the Christmas season, share what you know to those who have lost their way and are just focused on all the shopping, rushing and stressing. Christ is what CHRISTmas is all about, may we share our Savior's love with everyone we meet.
Keep praying for our missionaries and for those who are trying to get the opportunity to serve as missionaries. God loves them all.
Be Awesome this week!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Waiting on Visa
I think that I mentioned that Wednesday was transfer day. Well Elder U was transferred out and we will miss him. He is going to be a Zone Leader again. He will be awesome as a zone leader, he is such a great trainer that his trainee is now a trainer, so I have no doubt that he will do awesome in his new assignment. Elder M is the new elder and he just got here Friday fresh from the Missionary Training Center. Elder M is from California and is here temporarilly while he waits for his visa to come through. He has been assigned to go to Brazil, so he will not be here very long.
The holidays are coming and so we are decorating our house for Christmas. I have a Christmas Village set up in my entry way and have been doing it for a few years now, but this year I found some small missionaries that are almost the right size to go in it. I set them up high so that they look like they are looking over the village and to me it looks like they are planning how best to bring the spirit of Christ to my Christmas Village. I thought it was kind of a nice thing to do. Fun for me anyway.
I don't have much to report for this week. I guess that is because of transfers, so I haven't had much chance of hearing what is going on with the missionaries. Elder W spent a couple days in a trio of missionaries while he waited for his new companion to arrive, so nothing really to report.
Well it took me 3 paragraphs to say pretty much nothing, so I guess I will close this one.
Remember to be awesome this week. Do something special for your missionaries this holiday season.
As always keep on praying for our missionaries.
The holidays are coming and so we are decorating our house for Christmas. I have a Christmas Village set up in my entry way and have been doing it for a few years now, but this year I found some small missionaries that are almost the right size to go in it. I set them up high so that they look like they are looking over the village and to me it looks like they are planning how best to bring the spirit of Christ to my Christmas Village. I thought it was kind of a nice thing to do. Fun for me anyway.
I don't have much to report for this week. I guess that is because of transfers, so I haven't had much chance of hearing what is going on with the missionaries. Elder W spent a couple days in a trio of missionaries while he waited for his new companion to arrive, so nothing really to report.
Well it took me 3 paragraphs to say pretty much nothing, so I guess I will close this one.
Remember to be awesome this week. Do something special for your missionaries this holiday season.
As always keep on praying for our missionaries.
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