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

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.

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!

Amazing Exchange, Baptism and Confirmation!

We've experienced quite a bit lately, including snow, ice, and an amazing exchange.

Last month I went on exchange. We didn't have any appointments set, so we OTMed/tracted all day...not the most effective, but we went into a Kids Resale store. The only person in there was a lady. Music was playing in the background. I recognized the music to be "In the Dark of the Night" in Anastasia, so I told the lady that I knew this song was from Anastasia. She was so excited that I knew what it was because not a lot of people did. We talked about Anastasia for a bit, then about families, then about the church. I completely forgot to take a Book of Mormon with me when I came in, but we were able to give her a #BecauseHeLives card.

Well, 5 days after that happened, I asked another elder about the lady at the store and he told me they had closed. I was not happy about that. I've remembered to take a Book of Mormon with me since that incident.

Two weeks later we got a call from a ward member about a new referral. We met with her a week after that. We set a baptismal date two days later, and we arranged for a baptismal interview. Our district leader, asked us to exchange with him to save miles for the baptismal interview. My companion stayed with one another elder in this area while I went with the district leader to another city.

We were discussing our plans for the day, and I asked if we could check out this place where we found the lady. The district leader told me if we had time we would. So, we went to the first appointment. We then went to meet a member at a restaurant. I looked out my window as we passed the Kids Resale store on the way, and I told the district leader this was the place where I met the lady. Well, the member texted us, saying she was going to be late, and we found the opportunity to check out the "Kids" place. I went with a Book of Mormon this time. We walked in, and the same lady looked up to see who it was and said, "It's the Anastasia guy!"

Quick conversation starter! Anyway, we talked with her for a couple minutes, handed the Book of Mormon, and left. We both felt the Spirit in there....It was a wonderful day!

We baptized our new referral that Saturday. Her nonmember family showed up. I showed a couple of Mormon Messages after the baptism while the my companion and our newly baptized member were changing back into their dress clothes.

Then, my favorite part happened. On Sunday, the ward mission president confirmed our newly baptized member. It was a beautiful experience to stand in the circle and do that...I love confirmations so much. It's always the best feeling during confirmations.

My New Companion...

My new companion is from Riverton, Utah. He is an awesome district leader. He loves music. He plays the guitar and he is learning how to play the piano. He's served in my first area before, so we like to talk about the ward. He was in my first district. He's only had five areas in his mission. (I've almost had more areas than him. It's funny.) He became a district leader/trainer his last transfer, and he's been in our area for one transfer so far. He loves the mission a lot.

General Conference Was Amazing!

General Conference was amazing! My favorite talk was the one given by Elder Wiford W. Andersen, who talked about the Navajo Medicine Man and music (#NavajoPride ;j). Another elder in our district and I loved that talk a lot because we're both Navajos :D.  It should also be obvious because he talked about music (Which I still listen to 24x7).

There were a ton of talks that were mission-themed :D I loved those talks, too. It was awesome. (I kinda fell asleep during the last session, but in my defense, the pews are extremely comfortable in the chapel.)