I Have Learned...

What can I say for my last official communication as a full-time missionary? The only thing I can think of is referencing scriptures that I have thought about these last weeks that have helped me push through the rest of my mission.

Scripture #1: Jarom 1:3-4. I was reading through this scripture while we've been having a hard time finding people in my current area. I read verse 3 and thought, "That's EXACTLY how I feel."...then I read verse 4, and it struck me. I hadn't been focusing as much on the people we had already found, which have had many revelations already, "for they are not all stiffnecked." It made me think of one of the families we have been teaching. The Spirit is beginning to be in their home. It is a wonderful feeling to see them progress. It's crazy how a book written many thousands of years ago could still have relevance today.

Scripture #2: 1 Corinthians 15:55/Hosea 13:14. As I was in District Meeting one day, the last scripture came to me. I was thinking about bearing testimony on faith and repentance when this happened, which is all that Hosea is about. When I read that verse, I immediately thought of the verse written in 1 Corinthians. I turned to that real quick, then read the footnotes. I replaced one of the words in the verse with the footnote so that it reads, "O death, where is thy sting? O hell (or spiritual death), where is thy victory?" I thought about how that applies to us. As we have "faith unto repentance", we can say as Paul said.

Scripture #3: D&C 61:3. Don't remember how I found this scripture. But as I thought about this scripture, I thought of Pocahontas singing "Just Around the Riverbend".....Those were the only words I could think of to that song, but I remembered the main message. Anyway, as we choose the harder right/experiencing trials, we must remember that there are others who are "perishing in unbelief." As we share the gospel, we will feel the joy that comes through doing so.

Scripture #4: Isaiah 63:1-3....I thought about this scripture during the last part of Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk "'Abide in My Love'". What stuck out to me especially about this scripture was verse three is partially in past tense, partially in future tense. As you think about that and think about how Jesus Christ was in the place of the winepress when he suffered for our sins, it makes Elder Christofferson's and Isaiah's remarks seem cooler (for lack of a better word).

Scripture #5: Daniel 3:16-18. This scripture has had an impact on me again and again during my mission. Throughout my mission, I have had a couple friends/family members die, despite all the prayers. This past transfer, it has helped me as I thought about it with a couple of words of wisdom from a wonderful sister, whose husband died 6 weeks ago. She said, "We have faith in the Savior, not in the miracles." This matches perfectly with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego's remarks: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not,...we will not serve thy gods." Now, they were delivered from their afflictions, but some in scripture have not been for a time (namely, the women and children of Ammonihah, Jeremiah, Nephi, Mormon, Moroni, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, etc.)

Last Scripture: D&C 20:17-35. What glorious things we know about because of the Book of Mormon. Enough said. :j

Sad News From Home, Stake Conference, and a Traveling Visitor's Center...

My little baby cousin passed away. I am very sad. I found something cool earlier in my mission about such a thing. It's in the Joseph Smith, teachings of Prophets booklet Chapter 14, under the title "Parents who lose children in death will receive them in the resurrection just as they laid them down." Pretty cool stuff.

We had stake conference!!!! It was awesome. Our Mission President's wife shared a scripture that became my new favorite scripture on missionary work. She quoted Moses 6:63, then pointed out that we were created to bear record of Jesus Christ. It was awesome. We were with a member family, so they took us out to ice cream after. We also received some Fettuccine Alfredo from some other elders at that time. I was talking with a couple of other elders regarding another elder in our mission who had a little accident. He got his foot run over by a lawn mower. It was just a toe, but it was still crazy. Well, were also reminiscing about the MTC and talked about our missions after stake conference. It was cool.

An individual we know was involved in a car crash.. He crashed going at 65 mph into a dump truck piled with dirt. He broke his sternum, and I think he mangled his hand and foot. Miraculous that he didn't have more damage. We visited him at the hospital. He is doing good. The food in the hospital includes bacon, so he has to be good. :j We visited with his family. He needed it. We could tell. It was pretty good.

We are still working on finding some new investigators. Working super hard on that. We invited people to come to stake conference, to go to a scripture study class, to go to the Trunk-or-Treat, etc.

The Trunk-or-Treat was great. We put up a traveling Visitor's Center which included an 8'x12' Picture of Jesus, a smaller picture of temples and the Book of Mormon, a spinning wheel, a TV, and a Kindle. We gave out candy to a bunch of people. The members loved it. We gave it to some other elders for this Halloween during stake conference. We received a couple "potential referrals" at the Trunk-or-Treat. In short, we invited members to invite their friends to church, take the missionary discussions, etc. and they accepted the challenge.

Finding and Referrals are Cool!

We have been doing a ton of finding lately, and we had a cool experience happen. We found a nice laundromat that was super cheap compared to the one we used to go to (1.50 compared to 2.50 for both washing and drying.), so we went to it today. I sat by this older couple. I started talking with them. My companion joined in. He asked them what church they went to. They said they didn't have one. They had given up searching for one. Well, we taught them the Restoration really quickly. They liked it, accepted a Book of Mormon and said they might try it out. It was awesome.

We've been working with active members a lot more. Our mission president gave us a WHOLE stack of papers and told us to give a sheet of paper to every member in our ward. So we scheduled a lot of active members, and we taught a ton of them. We received many referrals, and have a ton of potential referrals. It was cool!

One of the families we are working with came to church! It was during the Primary Program. We introduced them to the bishop, the Young Woman's President, a family in the ward, and one of the young women who is friends with one of our prospective baptismal candidates. It was cool.

We also had two nonmembers come to church. Invited by friends. It was cool.

Mission Memories, Exchanges, and a Note!

I have been reminiscing a bit lately. One awesome mission memory happened about a year ago. My companion and I had an unsuccessful day tracting and as we were heading back home. We came across kids who weren't even 10 yet. My companion said to them, "Hey, kids! Want a good book?" One of them was like "Sure!" The other was a bit hesitant, but eventually accepted one. Later, their parents became investigators. Interesting how that happens.

This past week, we have been doing a lot of finding in our city. We actually received two referrals from some ward members.

Our investigators didn't come to church on Sunday. We had tried so hard to help them come. We'll try harder, though. We had a super spiritual lesson a few days ago.

In other news, we went on exchanges with the Assistants. It was great. The Sister Training Leaders, who we drove up with, took our minivan with the other Sister Training Leaders for an exchange. They stopped by one of my favorite familes' home during their exchange. The family hid a note that said, "Hi!" in the van. My companion found it when we were coming home. It made my week a whole lot better!. I put it in my journal.

We Need a Prophet! We Have a Prophet!

We had a week of excitement, awesomeness, cool sights, Bentonville, Muskogee (pronounced muh-SKOH-gee), etc. etc.

 

We got a call from our mission president. He asked me if I could prepare scriptures that show the apostasy happening in between Adam and Noah, Noah and Abraham, Abraham and Christ, and after Christ. So, I prepared a lot of scriptures. Here is a condensed version of what I found that evening.

• After Adam: Moses 5:12-13; 7:24-26; 8
• After Noah: Genesis 11:1-9; Abraham 1; Facsimile 1
• After Abraham: Flip to a random page of the Old Testament and you'll probably find a reference to this apostasy. My favorites are: Jeremiah 44 (I almost want to cry when I read this); 1 Nephi 7:14; Hosea; Amos; and Habakkuk 1. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are pretty cool books to read about the apostasy that happened here as well.
• After Christ: 2-3 John; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; TG, "Apostasy of the Early Christian Church"

As I prepared a ton of scriptures, EVERYTHING I read I thought of again and again. I know we need a prophet. It's crazy how much we need a prophet, and how sad it is when people reject the prophets. I instructed on that in our meetings. I bore my testimony on that on Sunday...after convincing a youth to bear his testimony (my favorite thing to do on Fast Sunday is to sit by a youth and tell them, "I'll go if you go." Works every time. Well, I have about 90% success). It really worked this fast Sunday to bear my testimony on such, because everyone was excited about Conference and so I just testified of what our needs for prophets. I also quoted D&C 21:6 which talks about the blessing of a living prophet.

 

Anyway, that's what I prepared for MLC and Zone Training. It was cool.

 

One last experience that happened: We had a lesson with a family that was uber spiritual. We read Alma 32, and we asked how they felt as they were reading the Book of Mormon. One of the family members said that he felt that swelling inside of him. We helped him identify the Holy Ghost. It was awesome

 

A couple of my former companions and me.  It was so good to see them on Transfer Day!  I miss them!

Another Transfer...But, I'm Staying!

We got transfer calls. My companion is leaving and is going to serve as an AP (Assistant to the President). I'm super excited for him. I knew he was becoming AP by the first two weeks I was with him. He is a super amazing guy. I'm going to miss him a lot. I learned so much from him.

I'm staying zone leader for my last transfer with a new companion. I'm super excited to remain a zone leader. You learn so much.

I'm super excited for this last transfer. Don't worry, I'm not getting trunky. I miss home a lot, but I'm not close to being trunky. I've changed so much this last transfer. It is amazing.

This week has been awesome. We were able to find a new investigator, help investigators progress, and set a baptismal date. We're planning on having 3-5 baptisms this transfer, which I'm excited for.

Transfers Bring a New Responsibility!

Transfer calls came. My companion is staying, and I'm going. It will probably my last area. I really don't want to leave my current area. It's been an amazing area. I'm going to miss it a lot, though I probably will come here again. since I'm going to be in the same zone and I will be serving as a Zone Leader. I'm replacing the Zone Leader who gave the training in the recent Zone Training mentioned last week. My new companion is a cool guy.

Transfer calls were certainly a surprise. I didn't even think I was ever leaving. I had asked the Mission President to stay here for the rest of my mission during last transfers. I thought it would happen and I would either be District leader again, or Trainer for my last two transfers. But, as Isaiah says, that the Lord's thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and his ways than my ways.

We had a guessing game for who would leave and stay. My companion guessed us all right. I was 100% wrong. 'Twas fun. Anyway, this week was awesome. We had two investigators come to church. One was not one of our investigators, but someone from Pennsylvania. She got baptized on Saturday in Pennsylvania :D. The other one came and stayed for a little bit, but had to leave for an emergency. He wants to meet with us on Friday...so I will already be gone to my new area. :p. I'm a little bummed.

August is Here!

We met a lady while tracting who had a piglet as a pet. #onlyinoklahoma Anyway, we were able to hold the piglet. Its hair felt like rough cat fur, or smooth dog hair. Somewhere in between. The hair on his head was stiff. We talked with the lady. We taught her about prophets. She said she was trying to find a church to join. We talked with her, and she said she would come to church on Sunday. She didn't come. However, when we brought it up to Ward Council, the council members all listened intently. (We had to start sacrament meeting late because the missionary work this week was talked about A LOT in ward council). Afterwards, one of the Ward Council members came over to us and asked what she could do to help . I was talking to the Branch President about something, so my companion left the conversation and talked with her.

The talk I gave recently in sacrament meeting sparked an interest in the Branch President's mind about how I searched the scriptures a lot. He told me about a friend he had come by and they talked a little bit about a ton of subjects. One of those subjects was the church. His friend asked a question about Rev. 22:19 and Exodus 33:20 and the Branch President didn't know how to answer, so he asked me to write what my response would be. I haven't done it yet, because I don't know what I would write about. What I've been thinking is just to say "Search the Book of Mormon, ponder it's message and pray about it." I think that would be correct.

The branch is continually getting more excited about missionary work. There were numerous other events that happened in sacrament meeting that I can't write about. Let's just say it's cool.

We also visited a new investigator. He knew a lot about the church already, and he knows it to be true. He asked some really good questions. We answered them.

We had a good week in general. Everything was great. We had Zone Training and one of the Zone Leaders gave wonderful instruction...Probably his last. He goes home next transfer.

July is Over...

Transfers happen on Thursdays every six weeks.. The new missionaries come from the MTC on Wednesday. Transfers are on Thursday. We drive to Tulsa. A van picks us up, and drives to one of five transfer points. Bentonville, Branson, Springfield, Joplin, Tulsa, and Springdale are all the transfer points. We're closest to Tulsa, so we drive to Tulsa. Transfer week is going to be a little different from here on out. Here's how it works:

Monday: We have District meeting. No P-Day (Preparation Day) on transfer week anymore.
Tuesday: We get transfer calls.
Wednesday: It's our P-Day (Preparation Day). Our day to pack.
Thursday: Transfers.
Friday-Sunday is the same as usual.

This week was awesome.

We had District Meeting in another City than usual because our Mission President was doing interviews. We had a personal interview with both President and his wife. They were both amazing spiritual experiences. I was able to see two of my previous companions. It was good to see them.

After interviews. my companion and I talked with a member. While we were talking to him, a guy we had never seen before came in. He talked with us and wanted to be taught. We went into another classroom with him and we taught him the Restoration. He is awesome. He plays the piano really well, he likes classical music, and he wants to be a chemical engineer after he graduates high school. He knew a lot already about our church because he was taught a long time ago. He actually remembered the first part to "Praise to the Man" on the piano, although he hadn't heard it in 4 years. He played it in a different key, but he knew the first part. He really liked what we had to say, and he promised us he'd read and pray about it. It was cool. :D.

Another day we had a wonderful day with our Branch Mission Leader.

My companion and I gave talks on Families and Temples in Sacrament Meeting. It took us a long time to write them because we didn't have that many experiences with temples, and it is a broad subject. I finally talked about the history of temples to the Israelites. My companion talked about the sealing power. The branch members congratulated us afterwards for the talks.

It was a wonderful week!

Week Preceding July 18...A Crazy Storm!

We contacted a referral of someone in a nearby town. We shared with her a lesson on prophets, and gave her a Bible. She asked us to come back to teach her grandparents. It was super sweet. We also started inviting our members to read the scriptures more, pray more, etc. Since then, they've been able to begin to have missionary experiences cooler than we've had :D.

We had a zone training. They gave us these cool white boards that we are going to use for tracting. It talks about prophets and apostasy. It's cool :D We're practicing with them a lot.

One of our families we have been teaching came to church again this week! They are really progressing. They stayed for all three meetings! :D.....We had an extra hour so we indexed several names. I did a batch and my companion did a batch. We then went to a potential investigator's house. They weren't home, so we tried by a couple other people.

We also had a really crazy storm while driving home one day. We saw the big dark cloud coming toward us...We decided to race it back home :j.....Well, it suffices me to say that it beat us. The sky turned black and garbage was flying everywhere. We saw a semitruck that was blown over. I wasn't scared. I knew we would be safe. It was the worst storm we have had since I have been in this area. We were driving some sister missionaries to the church on our way home. When we got to the church, we asked the sisters to pray before continuing on to their home. My companion and I went into the church for a bit. Well, the sisters had a prompting to stay at the church until the storm died down. We waited for an hour, debating whether or not we had to hide in the lowest area of the church. The storm passed by and the sky didn't have a single cloud for the rest of the day. It was weird. When the storm had died down enough so that it was pretty much just rain, I told the sisters that they were probably safe now to go home. We left at the same time they did to visit a couple of people we had scheduled appointments with. We were, due to unforeseen circumstances, a little late. Well, a lot late.

Still haven't been able to take a picture of a tornado, but I must've been close this time ;j.

Missions are cool!

I get along great with my companion! He's super cool. He and I are an awesome team.

The Month of June...Second Week!

This week was absolutely wonderful. My companion and I each received a blessing from our branch president. It was a special experience. The next day, my companion and I tracted two doors. With both of those doors, we had lessons. These two individuals accepted a return appointment. One, especially, was curious about our church. We went back two times that week. As we talked, my companion tried to bring up the Book of Mormon and tried to explain it. The man still looked confused. I expounded on my companion's words. The man accepted a Book of Mormon. My companion told me later that I can explain the Book of Mormon better than he does.

Another day, we went and tracted another door. A woman answered, and my companion, instead of explaining the Book of Mormon, indicated that I could explain it better. I expounded on it, and the Bible, as the Book of Mormon is comparable to the Bible. She accepted a Book of Mormon and promised us she would read it.

Finally, during exchanges we visited a home we had tracted before. My companion and I went back and talked to the gentleman who lived there.. We introduced the Book of Mormon, and gave him an assigned chapter to read (Alma 40). He was not interested in the least bit about joining our church, or saying a prayer with us, so we were just going to start with the Plan of Salvation because of some events he had listed in his life. We went back another day and talked with him. When we entered his home, my companion and I took one look at him, and we both realized his countenance had changed. We also saw the Book of Mormon in the middle of his table. We discussed the Plan of Salvation with him. He asked many questions regarding the chapter he read. As we answered them, he asked one particular difficult question such as "What is hell?", "Who goes to hell?", etc. I sensed, when my companion started to answer the question that he was trying to explain that hell was Outer Darkness. Before he said five words, I interrupted him, saying that Hell as mentioned in the scriptures is Spirit Prison for those who had rebelled against God (for that is, usually, the definition in the scriptures). Our investigator was delighted with my answer, and by the end of an incredibly spiritual lesson, he declared, "Why doesn't everybody join this Mormon church?" We gave him the assignment to start reading the Book of Mormon from start to finish, and he actually prayed with us this time. The rest of the day was super great.

My companion is one of my best companions yet. He wants to do what's right, and he actually helps with my desire to share the gospel and to find people who are prepared. He is an amazing guy.

My understanding of the gospel comes from my love of the scriptures, as well as a gift from God. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the Bible. I read them both every day. As I read the Book of Mormon, I crave to read the Bible, and as I read the Bible, I crave to read the Book of Mormon. They are wonderful instruments, and I find many answers in their pages. As I read them (along with reading the Ensign, for it is scripture, too...especially the General Conference ones), I gain a greater understanding of many of the doctrines. I love studying the scriptures, and I study them as much as I can. In the evening time, I read the Bible. In the morning, I read the Book of Mormon. It's crazy how much you can get out of those books. I love this gospel, and this church. I love being a missionary, and I don't want it to end, but, alas, it must.

I Got Transferred...A Cabin, a Lake, a Storm, No Power!

Here is the installment from the last part of April...

My new area is the greenest place I have been thus far. We are actually opening up an area that has been a dual area for a number of years. My new area has a small branch of less than 30 active members. I had an uber long drive down to the new area, I left my old apartment at 6:30 in the morning, and finally got to my new area around 4-5 in the afternoon. Long day on the road, but on the bright side I did get Sour Patch kids, Twizzlers, and some other candy....All gone in a day or two....well, maybe 4 days. Don't have diabetes, yet, so I'm good :j

My companion and I have a cabin. We live pretty much where our branch president lives. He owns a trailer park, and he built a cabin just for us to stay. It's awesome. It's pretty fun to be in a cabin...you see a ton of bugs, we have to climb a ladder to get into bed. We sleep over the bathroom and the kitchen. Our oven and stove doesn't work at the moment...our branch president is working on it. He's a really cool dude. The fridge was empty, as was expected seeing that we opened up a new area. My companion and I went on a shopping spree to grab lunch food for all meals. We have a furnace, but we don't have an air-conditioner quite yet.

The church is also very exciting. The LDS meetinghouse used to be a Baptist Church...then the Baptist Church became a mortuary, or a morgue. Then it became the LDS meetinghouse. The chapel pews have crosses on the sides. The baptismal font is also in the front of the chapel. It looks really cool. The church is one of a kind. The people really love us, though. Our branch president is happy to feed us if they are not busy....so his family has fed us each night since I came here. His family is super cool. The food is delicious, too! We then share a spiritual thought, which is great because the branch president's mother is not a member of the church. She loves the church and has been to many church history sites including the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove

Church was super exciting. A whole lot different than church usually is. We have a reverence hymn at the beginning, then an opening hymn, and we continue on the meeting. The sound speakers for the stand are actually only at the stand. So when you speak, it sounds loud to you, but to the people in the back, it's difficult to hear.

We are doing a ton of finding in this new area because we have basically no investigators. My new companion is from Utah. He has been out for six months.

Our area has a huge lake in the middle of it. We are in the middle of two towns (about 10 miles to each) leaving us with a ton of miles used because those are the two closest cities, and we have people we teach in other towns that are about 20-50 miles from us. It's actually really fun. We get to cross the lake every day. We have no choice, too. It pretty much surrounds us. We have a ton of less active members that we see, but not close enough to keep ourselves busy. We did meet some cool members one Sunday at a linger-longer (It's theme was Italian food...mmmm. It was quite delicious). They were from Orem, Utah.

I misplaced my camera after videoing the village where we live, so no pictures for a little bit. I know the camera is somewhere in our apartment or our car, though, so it's okay, it's not hopeless.

We had a tremendous thunderstorm hit close to us. It caused a tiny tornado 5 miles north of us, but no fatalities from it, so we're good. We were out of power the day after from 8:00. I was showering at the time, (The thunderstorm kept us awake because of the large amounts of rain that hit on our roof. It was the loud, so we didn't wake up to our alarms in the morning.) So, I half showered in the dark. We were without power until after 10:00 in the evening. We're linked to the power station up north, so the thunderstorm damaged something. Some of our food went bad, but it's okay. We got sick of the salami, and there wasn't much other food in the fridge. We actually had to get a ton of food on Friday ("pay-day" for us) because of the spoiling of the food. My companion took pictures of us in the night with no power, and trying to light up the cabin with two flashlights, because my camera was lost in the darkness of that night. It was super awesome, but I wasn't able to read anything for the evening, which I love to do.

We were able to meet up with an investigator with our branch mission leader. He was able to relate to our investigator in many ways, because they were of the same age group, they had experienced similar trials, and they both loved to garden. It was a really cool visit with him.

We also visited with a family and taught them two lessons. Both lessons were wonderful. We were able to teach some of the kids that were involved in a baseball team, and they provided some amazing insight. The second visit, we were able to answer some of the dad's questions about the church. He asked questions about polygamy and if the Book of Mormon was changed, etc. Some of his questions may have arisen from him reading stuff about the church on the internet. Nevertheless, he did not want to contend with us, they were honest questions, not the other kind of questions used for arguing. We were able to answer all his questions as I have experienced similar questions to his. It was a really spiritual visit.

We tried to find some good OTMing places (places where you could see a lot of people) nearby, but no luck, thus far. We were able to find a service opportunity where we helped clean up the town. It was good.

Sundays are absolutely amazing, with great church services. We were able to help a member on the computer (well, my companion helped him. It was a one-person job). I was looking through an old LDS hymnal that the member had...It was super cool. It had songs that weren't in the one we have today, the songs were named differently after the first couple words, such as, "Count Your Blessings", it was titled "When Upon Life's Billows", and "If You Could Hie to Kolob" had a completely different tune than the one we have. It was sweet.

After we helped him, we had a lesson with the assistant branch mission leader and his daughter. We then had dinner with the branch president and his family. We had delicious grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. We watched the John Tanner story with them. Finally, we went to help the Branch President finish working on our stove...well, he hasn't finished it quite yet. The flames are still too high.

General Conference Thoughts...and Other Things!

My parents are still trying to get "caught up" on my missionary blog. Here is the installment for the first part of April.

General Conference was amazing!!!! I loved every minute of it. I had just gotten another study journal as a gift, so I started writing notes on General Conference. It was so cool. My questions that I brought got answered, and my answers got questioned, etc.

I loved President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk in the morning session of Sunday, and President Henry B. Eyring's talk at the VERY beginning of conference. :D

Hehehe...so we were going to go to the church to watch the Saturday afternoon session, and entered the church around 2:55 (1:55 for you guys). Well, the video to set up General Conference wasn't set up. My companion and I started to flip. We said a prayer, and called a couple people a couple of times. Didn't work, so we decided to just barge in on a family to watch Conference with them...if they were home. So we traveled there and knocked on their door around 3:07 or so, and they beckoned us in. We enjoyed Conference with them :D. It was cool.

Someone quoted the last part of Part III of Handel's Messiah in the Conference...Last session, somebody who wasn't an apostle. It was so cool! :D

I did two baptismal interviews. The sister missionaries are amazing. We were trying to get our investigators to a baptismal date, but we weren't able to visit with one, and another hadn't been keeping commitments. We got a new potential from going to his house. He started to read the Book of Mormon. Other than that, we tried to reactivate less actives, get one member to quit smoking, and set up exchanges with elders in another town. It was really fun :j.

Easter...and Other March Happenings!

The month of March was phenomenal! We were really busy, and the time went by really fast. We did a ton of service, visited quite a few people, and I interviewed baptismal candidates.

First, and probably the most amazing thing, we went to give a sister a blessing because she was pretty sick. It was a very spiritual experience. Afterwards, we sat and talked with her for a bit. It's been awhile since that experience, but she has not smoked since that blessing. We, along with the bishop and others in the ward, were excited about that. I think the coolest thing is that we had a specific ward fast for people with physical needs such as addictions, ailments, etc. It was awesome. The bishop told this sister he will give her a temple recommend at the end of April, if she will continue to give up smoking. She's so excited. I love it. I'm super excited for her. She gave all her cigarettes to one of her friends. She wants me to come with her when she goes for her endowments so that she can be sealed to her husband, who passed away a couple years ago. The temple is going to be awesome. I'm super excited to go. The only problem is transfers are the middle of April, and that’s before she's scheduled to go to the temple. Based on my luck, I'm going to be transferred. I hope I'm not transferred too far.

During Missionary Coordination Meeting, we found that our ward was excited about everything we did. They wanted to know a lot more than they used to in ward council.

We found another investigator while we were serving in the pantry.

We traveled, with a member of the ward, to an adjoining town to contact a couple of new member move-ins. One of these was a family, of whom their address was wrong. Nevertheless, we found them, and they wanted to learn more. We were also able to meet the zone goal that day, by getting five contacts...and more.

Our whole zone fasted for another goal we had set: at least one baptism in each one of our areas on April 9.

Our whole district did very well on indicators. VERY well.

I interviewed two baptismal candidates. I love interviews. They're very cool experiences.

I went to our mission headquarters during the month, since our mission president held a leadership conference and invited the district leaders. We drove from our area to an area about one hour away to sleep in the zone leaders’ apartment. Then at 4:30 a.m., we woke up, got ready, and I drove another 205 miles to the conference. It was a struggle to stay awake in the meeting, but we learned so much from it. After the meeting, I drove three hours to meet/switch back companions. My companion drove the final 100 miles to our apartment while I slept.

We tried to apply the things that I learned at the conference to our area and the work we're doing. We received two new investigators through our efforts. One of them said he would study the Book of Mormon. It was great.

We had dinner with the bishop’s family. We had venison steak, homemade macaroni and cheese, and green beans. It suffices me to say it was delicious. We helped clean their yard after, and we saw bishop’s wife pick up a decaying dear head/neck....Smelled very interesting.

We had a zone conference in a city that is a distance of 300 mile round-trip, so we were officially out of miles. We couldn't do anything about it, though. The car had to go to the mission conference, then the zone conference, so that's already more than half of our allotted 1,250 miles!

We received four referrals from different individuals. We tried to contact them...but two of them are far away, and due to our crazy mile situation, it was difficult. We did our best. If they become investigators, we'll have up to nine promising investigators in four different towns that are at least 15 miles away from each other.

I spoke in sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love talks. We spent the evening with a family in the ward. We played Clue, and I related Clue to the Book of Mormon through the murder mystery of the chief judge in Helaman 8-9. It was awesome. The family gave us some Easter Baskets with a journal and an address book. They put their address and their number in it. It was pretty amazing. It was a really awesome day!

My Easter gift from home - a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD!

A good Easter scripture is: "If God be for us, who can be against us?...Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again. Who is at the right hand of God, Who makes intercession for us." - Romans 8:31, 33-34. (I got it off of Handel's Messiah.)

We saw a snake in attack position. I took a couple of pictures of it before it slithered away.  We were on exchanges in a town about an hour away.. We taught twelve lessons that day. In addition during that week, my companion and I were still able to teach twenty lessons in our area. It was great!

Our friend, the snake!

Exchanges are fun!

March was an awesome month!

Catching Up! The Rest of February...

One week, we only had an hour of church due to the weather. It snowed a lot for Missouri weather...for Utah, it would be just an ordinary day. We had only a third of the usual churchgoers come, and two out of three speakers show up for sacrament meeting. It was fun. We received treats for Valentine's day from some of the members.

Also, I found some music on my flash drive that I didn't realize was there!!! It was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's album entitled, "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing"...I love it. It's amazing.

Transfer calls came! My companion and I are staying here. That means this area is going to be the longest time I've served in anywhere. I'm still district leader, and most of my district is staying the same. Two of the sisters and one elder are being replaced. I've been missing the elder who has been transferred and another elder who has returned home. 'Twas very sad. Later, I found out that some of the people who were previously in my district were going to the other district...I told them how much I would miss them, and also gave them this farewell scripture: Mormon 6:20...It's funny.

Our area is doing well. One investigator came to church for ward conference. We found another non-member at church who is interested in learning more. That was exciting.

This next transfer is going to be wonderful. We're going to go to the temple this transfer for Baptisms for the Dead, of which I am excited for. We're going to be working extremely hard to get the people we are teaching to quit smoking.

We did a ton of work in an adjoining town. Then, we drove to another town to be picked up by the zone leaders so we could all drive to a larger city in order to be picked up by a bus that drove us all the way to Tulsa, OK. On the way there, we watched "The Cokeville Miracle", a movie that is awesome. The first half of the movie I could not sleep because I was stressed out by the movie (If you have ever seen it, you should know why), I was glad I stayed up, though, because the movie turned out to be really good in the end. When we arrived in Tulsa, we listened to Elder D. Todd Christofferson. He's a really funny guy. I don't remember him ever being that funny in General Conference. Some missionaries asked him questions that appeared to be difficult, and things they were genuinely concerned about. Elder Christofferson gave answers in the form of very short phrases, ten words at most. They answered the missionaries' questions clearly. After that, he would then expound on why he gave that answer a little more. It was really cool. After that, we got on the buses, and started our journey back to our area, watching "Ephraim's Rescue" on the way. After making a few transfers from bus to other vehicles, we arrived back at our area in the evening. We taught two more lessons before we retired to our apartment.

We have also been helping a lot at the food pantry in our area. It was awesome. I love those guys. We were able to talk about what we do as missionaries to some of the people who served there. I love talking about why I'm here. Their eyes widen when we say we don't get paid while we're out here...especially when we tell them we have to pay our way here. It's always funny. When we were working one day, a man opened up a bunch of boxes and found some whole wheat flour in huge bags. He said, "Ah, the Mormons donated that." I looked and found the name "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" on the bags. It was a ton of flour. Most of the people who heard the man's statement were surprised at how much flour was donated. It was pretty awesome. The man then remarked how good the Mormons were. 'Twas awesome.

My companion dry cleaned his new suit. After he did so, he found that the suit he had bought (for $4.50) was too large for him....It looked so funny :j. He gave it to an investigator we had. It fit perfectly. Our investigator has been coming to church repeatedly. It is pretty cool. We have to recommit him every week, because he has a memory problem. We teach him the same lesson over and over until he remembers it. We taught him the Restoration, my favorite lesson, many times, teaching it differently every time. We showed him Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration, asked him questions, etc. We're now on Plan of Salvation and also teaching him small bits of Lesson 4, :j. 'Tis fun. We have also started teaching a less active family.

Another elder in our area met the daughter of the individuals who moved into our mission boundaries from my hometown. He was in their city for the last week of the transfer. The daughter asked him if he knew a "Brian Bettinson", and he said he did. She then told him to say Hi to me...He did that when the subject came up of friends moving. XD. It was pretty awesome.

We had a really amazing February!

Awesome Weeks!

The past few weeks have been awesome. I can't really use any other adjectives. We saw the Lord's hand many times, of which I will give a few examples :j.

1) My companion and I, after all we could have done, went to a local store to OTM people. While we were in the camera aisle, a woman OTMed us, wanting to know who we are, what we were doing, etc. We answered her questions, and told her snippets of what our church believes, etc. She wants to meet with us to learn more.

2) My companion and I encountered a young kid, who passed by us while we were attempting to make a visit to a less active. My companion had an impression we should talk to him, so he led the discussion we had with him. The kid lied a lot, but that's what you get when you OTM someone in the dark of the night. He talked about being Satanic (we could totally tell he was lying about most of this subject, so don't worry, we're safe), that discussion moved to him being Atheistic...and eventually he said he believed in a God. It was a good discussion.

3) While we were doing service at a food pantry, I started talking to this guy who was seeking assistance from the pantry. I talked with him, and a couple of people around him, and we discussed many things, including our church. A few days later at church, my companion nudged me, and asked who a certain guy was. I couldn't see him clearly, so I shrugged my shoulders. After sacrament meeting, a ward member came up to us, and asked us to talk to a guy in the foyer. We went to the foyer and I recognized this guy from the pantry. We talked with him and taught him a lesson. We answered some of his questions, and gave him a Book of Mormon and we're going to continue to meet with him...I am totally excited!

I loved this past week a lot. I'm excited. We're going to have an awesome week, this coming week, too. The best thing about this week, was that I really was not looking forward to anything. Every day, when I woke up, I didn't feel like doing missionary work at all. I was just not looking forward to the same old thing. Well, as I pressed forward through it...I received a ton of help for all of it, I saw a lot of cool stuff...It was wonderful.

December Review!

December was amazing!

I love my current area. It is an awesome place.

This month was great! Especially when we started handing out "A Savior Is Born" cards. We definitely received a ton of potential investigators during December through them, and even a couple of investigators. We OTMed more than we have done in the past. The ward members invited us to go carolin', to Christmas parties, etc. We have been trying to serve the members as best we could.

December was such a fun month!

Christmas Came and Went!

The whole Christmas thing went awesomely!  I played a piano solo of "Oh, Holy Night" at the Christmas All-Mission Conference.

I received the Christmas packages from home...including the Christmas tree. I now have two Christmas trees! The sister missionaries that are in the apartment I was living in last December found my Christmas tree from last year, so they gave it back to me at the mission conference! I was so excited.

We're trying to find a lot more people. It was an interesting week. We have a couple of promising potentials. We're still trying to find more, though.

We've received eye-pads....You know those Minion notebook things shaped like a minion-eye? They're called eye-pads. We have those.  We don't have actual iPads, yet. Don't know when those are coming.

We went Christmas carolin' on Christmas Eve :j. The Christmas Zone Conference was great. I love the missionary life.

Finally, I got to Skype with my family on Christmas Day!  The audio was not working properly, they could hear me, but I could not hear them.  So, we used Skype for the video, and the cell phones for the audio.  It was so good to see each other, and hear each other's voices.  (Weird, but good!)...and I got to meet my family's foreign exchange student.

This and That!

My mission is the last mission to get iPads, I think. My trainer heard that they were getting iPads at the beginning of his mission...well, he's home from his mission now. So, It's been over two years.

We had a mission conference on Monday, December 21.

We had a baptism a couple of Saturdays ago. It was an awesome baptism. I don't have a picture yet, but my companion will email the picture to me sometime. It was really fun. I played the piano for it :D.

We had a zone conference in Springfield. I was able to see some former companions, and a bunch of my other friends in the mission.

I'm totally excited! We have a few solid potentials. :D. The branch president and his family are amazing. We went a-carolin' around the neighborhood, and we gave away a ton of ham to members in the branch.

An Investigator + Some Lessons = A Baptism!

We had a lesson with one of our investigators about the law of chastity at the church. We then went to a ward member's home and had another lesson about the laws of tithing, the fast, and the Word of Wisdom.

Our investigator has applied to Brigham Young University (BYU) and she is really absorbing the gospel.  She has read from 1 Nephi to 3 Nephi in three days. She is amazing.  Her baptism is on Saturday. I am so excited!

*My parents received this text from one of the members today:  "We wanted to thank you for raising such a wonderful son. The last few weeks he and his companion have taught our friend. Today was her baptism! We hope you enjoy these pictures."