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.

Biking vs. Driving

We started to bike around our area. We talked to as many people as we could while biking. I liked biking. It's a lot better than driving a car because you could talk to more people. We talked to quite a bit of people. We're doing this because we have not enough solid people to teach.

We've been teaching a lot of members also to push them to do missionary work. We also passed a referral box around during sacrament meeting. We received two referrals on Sunday, so we're going to contact them. I also found cool videos on lds.org under Media Library.

The members are cool here.

We have been doing a lot of finding. We met a random guy that we OTMed. He was nice and wanted to learn more. He goes to another church that looks like a gym where they have concerts.

Anyway, we have been talking to a lot of people. We discovered how much we sit in the car a week or two ago, and we want to be active and start finding people.

I read this recently. It's super cool. Ezek. 37:1-14

A Meeting and a Conference...

This week was a great week

We had our Stake Mission Coordination Meeting. The Stake President told us to have the Ward Mission Leaders assign exchanges because this church is a church of assignment not volunteer. When he talked about it, it made sense. He is one of the most missionary-minded stake presidents that I know.

We also had Zone Conference. That was great. We learned a lot about repentance, and how to "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts", which has been a major theme in the missions around the world since we had a Worldwide Training about six months ago.

I gave my departing testimony, even though I have several weeks left, since it was my last Zone Conference. I was able to spend it with an elder who came out with me, a couple of my former companions, and all of my best friends in the mission. It was great!

We've been doing a lot of active member lessons and seeking for referrals. We're doing a lot of finding, and talking to people on the streets.

The bishop took us to see a less active member. On the way, we talked about priesthood keys, the priesthood birthright, etc. Bishop is super cool.

Exchanges, Instructing, Baptizing,...Busy!

We went on two different exchanges.

• During our first exchange, my companion stayed in our area with a new missionary. I went with the District leader, to another area. We tracted, taught lessons, etc. It was good to learn from him. While we were driving, we got a call from my companion stating they were involved in an accident. Long story short, nothing was damaged. 
• During our second exchange, we drove all the way to mission headquarters to go with the assistants. We met them at the stake center with the sisters serving in our area. The sisters were going to exchange with the "Sister Assistants" (Exactly like Sister Training Leaders, but just have exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders). I went one of the assistants and taught a lot of people. My companion went with the other assistant.

We have been asked to instruct in "Train the Trainer" (pretty much a zone conference with just trainers there), so I prepared an instruction of my own, and my companion prepared one, then we combined them together.

We had two baptismal services this week! At the first baptism, I saw a sister who was baptized in one of my former areas over a year ago. She was there with her significant other. My companion and I talked a lot with her. I also saw a sister of one of my high school friends, since their family has now moved from my hometown to Arkansas. I figured I would most likely see at least one member of their family at the baptism because the Sister Assistants cover their ward. I talked with her for a time. It was great! The second baptism was wonderful as well.





On Sunday, we attended church, then went to dinner.. The dinner was super good. We ate baked potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, steak, cookies, all of these were supersized. It was delicious. However, we ate a little more than we should of. It was good, though :D.

My new area is a city with lots of traffic. We have a large vehicle, used to carry boxes, missionaries, etc. to and from exchanges with the assistants, or other places. Being a zone leader means you are always busy. The few precious moments we aren't busy, we spend tracting or OTMing, which we have only done about an hour of this past week. It's super fun!

Week Preceding July 25...Birthday Celebration and More!

On my birthday...I actually forgot it was my birthday until 9 in the evening when other elders called me and sang Happy Birthday to me in four different languages. The Mission Mom also called and said that she would sing Happy Birthday to me however I wanted. I told her to do it in a country accent, and she did. She's super funny.

We did a lot of work on my birthday, and we went to a Pioneer Day Celebration in a nearby town. It was fun.

Other than my birthday, our most momentous day was Saturday. We went to Subway for dinner at Walmart. We met a family that was LDS just passing through from Dallas. We OTMed a lady at Subway, who took a picture of my companion and I eating our sandwiches. We also met a recently activated member, and someone who cuts my companion's hair.

We then attended a wedding of two of our investigators. Our Branch President married them. It was cool. There was popcorn at the reception, so it was great :j.

Something that I've been thinking about a lot this past week is how God makes everything possible. So, I've found a couple of cool scriptures about that. I've been sharing this lesson a lot because it has weighed on my mind a lot.

Genesis 18:13-14 Abraham and Sarah; 1 Samuel 17 David and Goliath; Matthew: 19:26; and 1 Nephi 17:50-51 Nephi building a ship.

There was more that I found from scriptures since the Restoration, but there is a lot, so I'll end there.

I have seen the hand of the Lord in my mission, and more particularly so this past week. I have seen people change, and I have seen myself change. It is super awesome :j.

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.

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!

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.

Interesting Visit...

We OTMed an old guy in his yard. He let us inside the gate, and we talked to him.  He prayed a prayer with us...a specific prayer that he said would "gain us salvation". We started talking to him. Turns out that he's a hardcore priestcraft guy. It was crazy. He said that God has been given him 11 churches to pastor. He says that he's one of the only priests in the world and that the line of authority goes from Jesus to priest to prophet. He thought that every time he entered into a church that Jesus would tell the pastor of that church to turn the church over to him. Well, he shared some "walking on water testimonies" (his words), of which, we know that not a single one of them was true, but one. 

On Sunday he came to our church!!! It was really weird. He prayed his "salvation prayer" with two teachers in our ward. They tried to hold a class, but this man shared these exact same "testimonies" to them. He then went on about the financial stuff of different churches. Well, the teachers tried everything they could to show him what awesomeness this church brings, but he wouldn't listen. He kept on thinking the bishop would turn the church over to him! Anyway, obviously, that didn't happen, but he now thinks he has 12 churches to pastor (which, we found out Sunday, he's been kicked out of at least 10 of them.).

New Area = New Responsibility

It's been a little stressful to be senior companion, but I'm doing great. We're doing a lot of tracting, finding a good place to OTM, etc.

Our "new" ward covers half of the stake. We have a large area, and a small stake. 

My companion is awesome. I've been teaching him how to play chess in the nighttime. It's great.

Attending the "Festival" = Potential Opportunities!

We went to an adjoining city to see a member of the YSA Branch dance. (He is a great dancer). They danced in the middle of the street. Well, we discovered that it was this huge festival-like thing that they do every third Thursday during the summer. We saw that it was a major OTMing opportunity for the YSA Branch, so we're going to come back next month to OTM people.

Tracting and OTMing!

Our area has been doing really well. We've been tracting a lot to reach my companion's goal. I also have a goal to OTM ("Open the Mouth") to 5 people a day...which is really hard to do in our city because everything is in an adjoining city which is 20 minutes away.

We're trying to find a good OTMing activity here in our city, so we don't waste miles on OTMing (we only have 1325 miles for this month, so we're trying to use it wisely).

We received a ton of potentials for this week that we need to come back this week, so I'm very excited.

Change Is a Part Of Life...

We're all sad that President Shumway is leaving.

President and Sister Shumway
(image via deseretnews.com)

We're excited for President Loveland to come.

President and Sister Loveland
(image via deseretnews.com)

We're very excited for the Arkansas Bentonville Mission.

Following is President Shumway's information/thoughts about the creation of the "new" mission:

"...the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission will officially cease to exist on July 1st, 2015. The Mission Home will be moved from Tulsa, to Bentonville, Arkansas which means the name of the mission will also change. The Oklahoma Tulsa Mission will become the Arkansas Bentonville Mission. There are no boundary changes. The Mission retains all of it's stakes and wards as presently constituted.

The First Presidency approved this change just a little over three weeks ago and so Sister Shumway and I are busily trying to close down the home in Tulsa and move furniture and office equipment to our new home in Bentonville.

This has been a long and complicated process but we have felt the Lord's hand, and His promptings, as each phase was completed. This new and more central location will mean much less travel for the Mission President and it will be much for efficient for the communication challenges that naturally exist in such a geographically large mission.

Our thoughts and emotions are tender as we think back on the 50 year history of the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. This mission home has welcomed thousands of missionaries through it's doors. And it has bid an emotional and tearful goodbye to that same number. We are honored to be here at this time and we are well aware of the obligation we have to end strong as we remember the efforts given by everyone who has served and labored here in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission.

At the same time, we are excited to work towards the motto of, "End Strong, but, Begin Stronger." We will try and create as much momentum as we can so that the new Arkansas Bentonville Mission will carry on the tradition of hard work and obedience established by so many." (May 24, 2015)

The Beginning of the End...of the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission!

This week has been absolutely spectacular!

I am no longer going to be in the Only True Mission (effective July 1st). Before I get into the details of this, let me start at the beginning (or rather, a little closer to the beginning.

Our outgoing mission president has set some mission-wide goals for his last ten weeks. We are on week 4 right now. The goals are as follows:

Week 1: Two new invitations for Baptism including a "Map to Baptism" in each area (180 new Baptism dates in the mission. The record is 300 in a week).

Week 2: Use the "My Family" booklet at least 3 times every day (1,890 uses in the mission this week)

Week 3: One Active Member Lesson/day + 2 referrals/day (630 AML and 1,260 referrals)

Week 4: Three new investigators this week. (270 new investigators. Record: 300)

Week 5: 100% Member Present Lessons + Two new Baptismal Dates (180 dates set)

Week 6: Five OTMs daily. Finding Hour: 4pm-6pm (3150 OTMs for the week)

Week 7: Standard of Excellence in EVERY AREA (20 lessons, with 12 of them member present, 4 RCLAs, 4 Others; 2 baptismal dates; and 2 new investigators)

Week 8: Three Investigators at church (270 new investigators at church....it would break the record.)

Week 9: Two New Baptismal dates for the week.

Week 10: Double the Standard of Excellence in your area.

We are working A LOT to try to prepare for these next 6 weeks. It is intense! It has been very fun, too.Our ward is doing very well.

Our outgoing mission president is going to end his mission very strong, and with enough momentum to help our incoming mission president with the mission.  BUT not only that, our outgoing mission president is going to end the OTM mightier than it has ever been, and the Only True Mission is going to begin Almighty's Best Mission with a fantastic start.

I am so glad to be able to end the mission strong, and I am going to begin this new mission even stronger. The Arkansas Bentonville Mission is going to be a new beginning for each of the 200 missionaries here. It is going to be magnificent.  I am so excited to be a part of this. So excited.

My companion and I are trying to work together to become more united to end this mission, and it is going to be so cool. I cannot wait for the Arkansas Bentonville Mission to begin.  To add to my excitement, I saw my first fireflies in the mission yesterday!!!!! It was so amazing :D.

I am so excited for this whole thing.

Almost Heaven On Earth!

I love this place.  It is beautiful. It has a ton of lakes everywhere, and beautiful hills. My former area had a ton of caves everywhere. There are a couple of bike trails just outside of town that I really want to go to some p-day, if I'm not transferred. There is a train track that runs through the middle of the town. It is amazing.

There are raccoons, opossums, armadillos, deer, etc. It is the closest you can get to Heaven without being in a temple on earth. All this town needs to be translated is a temple here.  It's that beautiful.

Our town has an extremely amazing investigator.   The guy that stopped us while we were riding our bikes? Well, his family is amazing! They felt the Holy Ghost, they believe that our church is the best way to help their family, they want to change, etc. They are INCREDIBLE. It's exactly what our area needs right now. I'm so excited for them. They are going to go far.

The Oklahoma Tulsa Mission held mini zone-conferences. We went to a nearby city for ours, where I saw many of my friends in the mission. President and Sister Shumway also held a Stake/Zone Conference a couple of days later. That was awesome.

The youth in this area are amazing! They do a ton of missionary work. They're almost out of school, so we're planning on going on a ton of exchanges with them, since 75% of them have a mission call. They also find a lot of freaky stuff. They found a small, very dark cave.  They also found a house that looks like it has been set up for an apocalyptic world recently.

One of the missionaries serving from our branch is coming back from his mission on Transfer day! I may not be able to meet him, if I am transferred.

Still a Missionary!

A sister missionary in our mission died in a car crash shortly before I came on my mission. She is still assigned as a missionary in the spirit world. It is so amazing. This mission is the best in the world. It was her time to go. She is still assigned to this mission, too....I think that is so cool. I have seen the power that her testimony gives. It is amazing.

OTM Means Three Things!

OTM is the only thing we abbreviate in our missions, because it stands for the three things. Oklahoma Tulsa Mission, "Open Thy Mouth", and the "Only True Mission". All of these are extremely true.

My mission president and his wife are FANTASTIC! My companion is AMAZING! The ward members here are AWESOME! They really help in missionary work.

We did a service project recently that was cutting trees down! It was awesome! I almost got hit by a tree one of the times, but I didn't, so I'm okay :D. We have yet to use our bikes in the mission because of the weather and the place where we do go tracting is close by.