Life Is Hard, The Gospel Is Easy - Monday, Aug 25, 2014

Hey family!

This week has been awesome! We were able to find lots of new investigators and extend two baptismal dates. The beginning of this week was pretty slow and all of our appointments fell through, but we kept working hard and diligently and we were able to see the fruits of our labors! We have been converting this whole apartment complex!

We gave this guy a book of Mormon, who says that him and his wife are reading it every night, but aren't ready to have missionaries come over yet. We have two less active families who live there, who we are working on reactivating, and we found an investigator there who has a baptismal date for September 20th. We also found a man named John Shepard, who was in the navy. He is a major drug addict, but we brought him over to the church to have a lesson and to share the message of the Restoration. My testimony has been strengthened in that missionaries NEED to have a member at every lesson possible. We went all the way up to Jesus Christ, and we asked him about who Jesus Christ is, and he says he wasn't the son of God, that he was just one of us. Maybe just a prophet. Or a teacher. And we tried explaining it to him, but he just wasn't getting it, until the member bore the most powerful testimony of Jesus Christ as our savior and redeemer that I have ever heard. One second, John was denying Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and thirty seconds later, he was in tears, wanting to know how he can be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. We shared the rest of the lesson, and extended a baptismal date to him, which he accepted. That lesson was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in in a long time.
 

Today, I went and got a haircut at a members house in my first ward on the mission, the Binghampton ward! Sister Canada gave me a haircut. I was really close to the Canada family. Sister Canada has two granddaughters that live with her, who both just graduated high school. One of them is preparing to go on a mission. The other one was planning on going to BYU Idaho. I remember when she applied last year, and she was so excited that that she got in! These two girls both had awesome testimonies of the restored gospel. They would have us over EVERY Sunday night for dinner, and we would go around and share our testimonies. The power and conviction that were in these two girls voices were incredible. It was amazing to see at their age, them being so converted to the Gospel. However today, Sister Canada gave me some pretty sad news. The one that was planning on going to BYU Idaho had just recently in the past few months made choices that have brought her into inactivity in the Church. This was hard to hear. The same young woman who had just a deep understanding and testimony of the Gospel was now breaking the commandments, un-enrolled in going to BYU, and is hanging out with a bad crowd. This is breaking Sister Canada's heart. I assured her that she will come back one day. I told her to have faith and hope. And related to her the story of Alma the younger, and how his father prayed day and night for him to come to the truth, which he eventually did after a visitation from the Lord.

It is so easy to fall into inactivity in the church. I would say that it is mostly due to the trial of our faith. I'm convinced that the trial of our faith is usually not one big event that deters us from our conversion, but the trial is continually and consistently doing the things every day that bring us joy and peace, and closer to our Heavenly Father. The Church is all about small and simple things. Life is hard. The gospel is easy. Do the things we need to do every day, and we will be built upon the Rock of Christ, and will be able to stand still when the rains come down and the floods come up. I love you all! And have an awesome week! 

Meeting a Muslim - Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Hey Family!

Ready for some Transfer news???? -drum role-......................nothing! Elder Talbot and I get to stay together for another transfer in the Central ward! However, after this one I think I'm out of here. I kinda want to serve down in New Mexico next transfer. Getting out of Tucson for a bit would be nice. Haha! But wherever I'm called, it will be fun. Also, this transfer one of the Sisters in the Central ward got transferred to Sierra Vista, so another sister got transferred in. Looks like there will be 3 missionaries in the Central Ward from Camas, Washington. That's right, mom, Sister Jones got transferred into the central ward. haha! Crazy. So half of the missionaries in this ward will be from the same place. haha! 

The work has been really great in this area lately. Elder Talbot and I were talking about some goals that we wanted for this area. We want to hit SOE every week. I think if we have enough faith and work hard, we can achieve it!

This week we found 2 new Investigators. One is named Alex, who when she saw us on her porch knew that God had sent us. She is solid and is really progressing. The other one was willing to talk to us. He is Muslim. And really what it turned into was a Koran and Bible bash which is unfortunate. But we left him with a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and we are going to stop buy sometime this week, and awe are praying that that sparked some interest in him.

Elder Wise and Elder Ta'Ofi at the hospital giving a blessing. 

One concern that was brought up in that conversation was the lack of a need for Christ. his theory was that when he sins, he can simply ask forgiveness from Heavenly Father, and he will forgive him, which is true. When we commit sin, we draw ourselves away from Heavenly Fathers presence, and the only way we can come back into HIs presence is through repentance and forgiveness of sins,He was spot on. HOWEVER: There has been and is and always will be a penalty and price to pay for each sin we commit. And since everyday we all fall short of the Glory of God, we have a huge price to pay. And incredible debt. Much like the U.S. debt. And to think and say that God is perfect, and glorious and everlasting, and the same yesterday, today and forever, and ALSO will just magically erase the huge price we have to pay, contradicts itself. There MUST be justice and a price to pay for every sin we commit. If there is not, then God is not perfect and will cease to be God. But He has come up with a way where he can exercise justice and mercy both together. And that is that our price has been paid for. The huge pile of debt that we would never be able to pay off has been taken care of. We will forever be indebted to Jesus Christ. He is our redeemer. The way that we show our thanks to Him is through serving him. And when we are serving Him, he really is serving us by blessing us with peace and comfort and unbreakable spiritual strength, and exaltation and eternal Glory for eternity. How can God not love His Children? He loves them perfectly. Remember Jesus Christ and what he has done for you. I try to each day as I am serving him. I love you all. I hope you have a great week.

Choices and Consequences - Monday, Aug 11, 2014

Family!

This week has been a little slow, teaching wise. A lot of our appointments fell through unfortunately. We had to drop an investigator because he was not willing to progress after 4 months of being visited by the missionaries. However, this week was very productive in that we were able to mobilize our Ward Missionaries.

We assigned them Recent Converts that they will be teaching the New Member Lessons. We will attend those lessons with them as much as possible. Every week, we will have a training, where we will show the Ward Missionaries how to use Preach My Gospel, and how and what to teach in those lessons. They are really excited for this opportunity to teach. We were also able to sit down with our Ward Mission Leader, our Bishop, and Stake President Walker and discuss the Ward Mission Process, and how we can have more effective Ward Councils. It was very successful. President Walker took notes and said he will train on it in his upcoming Bishopric training. We specifically focused on the 15 names list. Right now, the Ward auxiliaries are just throwing names on there and telling us to go find out if they exist or not, and if so, visit them! THIS IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF THE 15 NAMES LIST! These people have to be invited by auxiliary leaders and WILLING to prepare to participate in an Ordinance. And THEN the missionaries will prepare them for that. It is the members responsibility to visit and to fellowship. The purpose of missionaries is to teach doctrine and to prepare others to participate in an ordinance such as baptism, partaking the Sacrament, or entering the Temple, and not to merely visit them and hope they come to church someday. Please make sure that your ward council is doing this. The Lord said to FIRST seek to obtain my word, and THEN seek to declare my word. We need to FIRST have effective ward councils the way the Savior wants them to be run, and THEN invite people to come unto Christ. 

Elder Talbot and I are having so much fun teaching people in the heart of Tucson! In a couple weeks, we have a member of the 70 coming to visit and tour out mission. It's Elder Malm, who is from Sweeden! 

Something Elder Talbot and I were talking about this week is that serving in Tucson makes me NEVER want to do drugs or alcohol. You see people all the time making horrible decisions under the influence of theses terrible things! It's awful. We are meeting with a less active lady who lives in a very dumpy house, has 4 kids, and she has a lot of pain and sorrow in her life. She turns to drugs, and alcohol for comfort. It's terrible to see, that with another child on the way, her continually going out every night and getting high and drunk off her mind. Her actions have led her to consequences that she can't bear. She asked us "Why me? Why does God hate me? Why does he punish me like this?" God NEVER purposely punishes His Children for no reason. He allows consequences to take effect when WE make choices that detour us away from our Heavenly Father. This lady has had challenges arrive in her life, as we all will. But instead of turning to the Savior, she turned to worldly vices, which have brought even more challenges and heartache into her life. Instead of catching a hint of the pattern she puts herself through, she continues to choose to be damned.

In the scriptures, the prophets say that we break the commandments, we are damned. This does not mean hellfire and lakes of brimstone. To be damned means to have our spiritual progress impeded by our own agency. God never chooses to punish us. We punish ourselves with the choices we make. God blesses us with his love when we turn to Him and His Son. Heavenly Father does everything in his power to keep us safe. There is a reason why the Word of Wisdom is a modern day commandment. He knows better than us. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

PRIDE v. Humility - Monday, August 4, 2014

Hey family!

This week we had a baptism for Merisa Nunez! She was so excited to be baptized, and it was awesome to see her just glow afterwards.

We had lots of fun his week running into and meeting new people. I'm sure as Elder Talbot will attest, that the people of Tucson are much different than anyone in the world. Which is why we love them! Everyday is an adventure.

There was another crazy monsoon this week, and we got drenched! The roads turned into rivers, and people wouldn't slow down when they saw us on the side of the road, so they just drive right passed us and drowned us in huge waves of desert water! The rain and the lightening are crazy!

We have been teaching this lady, Carrie, who lives in our apartment complex! We met her through a member referral! (which is why she is so solid!) She is the sweetest old lady I have ever met. It's so much fun to teach her, because you can just see her absorb everything. She's gone to church for the passed 4 weeks without us even knowing it! We taught her about Jesus Christ and his gospel, and this week we will share with her the Restoration.

Elder Talbot and I are doing great! It's so awesome and strange to have all these memories from  home come back to my mind! Elder Talbot is doing great! He is learning a lot and is turning into a phenomenal teacher.

This week I had my first interview with President Passey. He's a pretty funny guy. He's a huge comedian. He gave me some advice on how to handle this ward, because it's such a high maintenance ward. But we stay busy, which is good!

This week I studied pride. It's interesting how ride leads to all sin. When we are prideful, we reject the advice and teaching of our leaders and ultimately God. Pride occurs when we care more about our social status, and what our peers think of us, rather than our relationship to God.  In the scriptures we see so many examples of pride leading people to destruction. Mormon said that the pride of the Nephites is what led them to be completely wiped off the face of the Earth. Pride is what caused King Noah, after almost releasing Abinidi, to listen to his peers, his corrupt priests, and to slay Abinidi. Pride is what caused Lamen and Lemuel to harden their hearts against their father and their little brother. Pride is what brought our Savior to be condemned, as the Pharisees were afraid, as their social status was threatened. Pride leads to destruction. It is the natural to have pride. But we are taught to put off the natural man, and be submissive, meek and humble. I think it is important to note that making sure we have no pride, does not mean that we should have a lack of confidence. We must be confident in ourselves, but above all, confident in Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father. As we do so we wont care as much as to say "What will people think of me?' rather, we must have the question continually in our mind "What will God think of me?" And as we do so, we become effective instrument sin the Lord's hands. Iove  yall and have an awesome week!