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!

Finding, Teaching, Opposition, Success!

Everything is going great. However, I have been a little sad since I found out one of my friends died in one of my previous areas..



We've spent a lot of time finding. It's difficult to find out here We've been working on having the members do missionary work because it is easier for 50 missionaries to have a baptism than it is for two. Along with that, Elder Holland has said that there is no more time for there to be two more churches: a missionary church and a member church. So we're working on that, as well.

We're teaching a couple of cool people also. We have one family who is taking taking the discussions. They are keeping most of their commitments. They're a super cool family.

We've been having a lot of opposition later. However, because of that, we have been having a lot of success as well. It's interesting how those two work.

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 11

We had transfers!!!! Both my companion and I are staying This is going to be my last area where I get to stay for three transfers or more. I was super shocked about that.

I'm excited to stay for another transfer. We were able to teach quite a few lessons. Most of them were from tracting. We tracted in a neighborhood with much success. It was cool. We also tracted in another area...but we didn't have as much success there.

We were able to have nine less actives at church. That was super cool.

I haven't been the best at taking pictures for the past couple of weeks, but here are some good ones taken six or less weeks ago :D

Me with one of my previous companions.

Me with my current companion.

The Month of June - Third Week!

I did not realize it was Father's Day until our branch president announced it over the pulpit. We had a wonderful sacrament meeting. The branch president's daughters spoke about fathers, and another youth spoke about her first trip to the temple. The branch president then gave a wonderful talk on Heavenly Father and fathers in general. It was good. We had dinner with the branch president's family and gave a special dinner message on fathers. We showed them a new video. It was awesome.

This week was great. Our trip to the Oklahoma City Temple was awesome. We carpooled with elders who live in a nearby area. It was a fun drive. We arrived at the temple before most everyone else. A few of us went around the temple grounds and took pictures while we waited to go inside.























I spent a long time in the Celestial Room reading the scriptures. I found some really cool stuff. I was able to see some people I know from one of my previous areas. It was really good to see them.












After we left the temple, my companion and I talked with the bus driver about his beliefs and ours. We then went to the church right across the street from the temple and had a meeting with the temple president. After that, my companion was gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to the bus driver. It was awesome.

In addition to attending the temple, we had a good week. We almost filled up our progress record, we received a couple of referrals that seem so promising. It was awesome. And we were able to have a less active come to church. It was cool.

I love my current area. Transfers are coming up, and I really hope I'm staying. I told our Mission President I would be happy to stay here for the rest of my mission, so we'll see if he'll keep me here.

The Month of June...The First Week...

FIRST WEEK!  We had zone conference!!!!! It was super cool. We got our cars inspected by a guy who was over all the mission cars in the world. He toured the mission, updating our TiWis (a black box in our car that tells us when we're speeding, turning too fast, etc....keeps us safe. A lot of missionaries don't like it, but I don't care about it. Doesn't talk to me much. Every once in a while it tells me to check my speed, but that's it :j), He also inspected our cars.



Zone Conference was absolutely wonderful. Our mission president's wife talked about the temple, because we're going to the temple this week as a mission. I will get to attend the Oklahoma City Temple. I'm super excited. The elders from a nearby area are riding with us, and I get to be the driver. It's gonna be super crazy. Our mission president's wife also showed a video on Sacrifice because we sacrificed a lot to go on the mission because we don't have an available temple in our mission, so we cannot go all the time. It was cool.

After the zone conference, we drove back to our area to have dinner with an amazing member.

The next day, the traveling assistants had an exchange with us. In our mission, we have two sets of assistants. One has their own area near the mission office. They work very closely with our mission president, and they have a model area that they exchange with different zone leaders in. The other set, which exchanged with us on Saturday, are the traveling assistants. They also work with our mission president, but they don't have an area of their own. They travel around the mission and conduct exchanges with many missionaries. Every 24 hours, they are with a different set of missionaries. They live out of a car. It's super crazy. Anyway, my companion and I split up and went on exchanges with them. I went with one of the "traveling assistants" to a nearby town. We conducted a lesson with an individual, then we tracted. We were able to hand out 5 Books of Mormon (or is it Book of Mormons?) to people. It was awesome. We had dinner at a pizza place with the branch clerk and his family. The chicken alfredo pizza was delicious.

Then the traveling assistants stayed for church. We also had a baptism of an 8-year-old, so we had to fill up a ton of buckets to fill the font....jk, the font fills up on it's own. It looks like a hot tub. The baptism was successful, as baptisms 95% of the time are. We then got in our service clothes, and helped the branch mission leader put a dock in someone's pond.

We had very wonderful lessons with our investigators. Our area is super cool!

As I was reading the Bible, I found a cool Psalm. 65:5-7 :D

The Month of May!

After our Mother's Day phone call, I searched around the apartment and around the car for my camera. I found it in the car. So, I have it now. I took a bunch of pictures, including one of my "pants burning".

Speaking of pants-burning, one of my former companions got transferred...I was super sad to hear that. He's going to miss the burning. He saw my shirt burning at my year mark, so it kinda adds to the reason why I wanted him to come. "But behold, [he is] gone, and my sorrows cannot bring [his] return." (Mormon 6:20)

So, before our Mother's Day phone call, we went to our branch president's home for dinner. His mother came to dinner with us, and we were able to have a member-present lesson on mothers for Mother's Day. It was really cool.

Our mission president is super cool. I talked with him about how I could improve in missionary work, and I talked with him about how I could open my mouth better when street contacting, because I've always struggled with that. It was cool. Our mission president's wife asked every missionary she interviewed to share about repentance. I shared something that I have been studying more on about a certain aspect of repentance because I gave a talk on that aspect, which is: storms. I talked about the storms in the Book of Mormon, and she told me to look up something in the Doctrine and Covenants Institute Student Manual . So I'm gonna do that. Super excited to do so.

I've been rereading the Old Testament, studying it more fully with the new set of scriptures you guys sent me for Easter. Right now I am in the Book of Judges. It's a good book so far.

Now for the pictures!  My parents wish I would send them more frequently!

Our last district meeting in my old area. Afterwards, we played basketball. Ties against no-ties.

A ward member and me in my last area...

...and her "demon dog", Sophie!

Saying "goodbye" to a family in my last area.

The storm shelter near our current living quarters....It pitch black in there.

I burned a pair of pants. It is a missionary "tradition" to burn some pants when you reach your eighteen month mark.

Our church's pews.

This is in Tahlequah. The movie, "Where the Red Fern Grows" was filmed here. The actor who portrayed the main character is LDS. I went here for exchanges. It was super cool, and spiritual. We taught a teenage girl about the Restoration.

We had "Braums" at the church while waiting for a ride to our next appointment.

Our weekly planning meetings have been highly effective. My companion and I have set some really good goals that we are both striving to keep.

We played Red Light, Green Light with some children in the area and connected it with covenant making and keeping. Spiritual and fun!

We also found an less active member who wants to come back. He wants to feed us dinner. It was awesome.

We went to an 7-hour long duration of meetings for stake conference. Instead of being a long day, it was absolutely cool. We met a Seventy who knew a lot about the scriptures. Enough said.

Our area is amazing. We got transfer calls toward the end of the month and I did not get transferred, but my companion did. I got one of his trainers for my new companion. I am super excited I'm staying in this area. The members are the best people you can ever meet.. They're true, they're hard-working, and some of them have to travel 50 miles to get to church. One member sees more people than we do throughout the week. Our mission leader always comes to church despite health problems. Our branch president is willing to feed us whenever we don't have a dinner as long as we give him a half-day's notice. The first counselor takes us out every Tuesday. Our area is full of the most faithful members I have seen. Whenever I see how far each of them are from the church, I marvel at how they can do it. I would be content if I stayed here the rest of my mission. Probably not going to happen, but it could.

We said "goodbye" to everyone for my "transferring" companion, which wasn't too hard. We already saw 95% of the people that he wanted to say goodbye to before Thursday, so it's super easy.

Here are a few scriptures I shared with my companion who transferred:
1 Corinthians 16:22-24, 2 Corinthians 13:14, and 3 John 14. The last one is my favorite.

On transfer day, I helped other missionaries clean a ward house while we were waiting for the next group to get here. We finished around noon. After transfers, we were able to have dinner over at the president's house the first evening my new companion was here, so he could meet his family. We then got a call from the second counselor in the branch presidency, asking as to speak in sacrament meeting. We prepared our talks, had a few solid lessons on Friday and Saturday, then spoke on Sunday. It went well. Afterwards, we had a wonderful time at the linger-longer eating Mexican food. A ton of people gave us food to take home. We had two cartons of eggs, enchiladas, and one and a half bag of tortilla chips back at the cabin. It was a lot.

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!

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."

Our Area Is Awesome!

Our area is awesome.

We were finally able to get in contact with an investigator, we had a great lesson with her, and we were able to set a return appointment with her this week...AND she came to church last Sunday. It was amazing!

We also received a text from another of our investigators.  She went to the hospital this past week...well, long story short, she wants to quit smoking! She wants all the help she can get. We gave her some advice about the Addiction Recovery Program, and we learned that her son was reading the Book of Mormon AND she came to church last Sunday, too!

Meanwhile, we went to neighboring town to contact some less actives. We were only able to contact two, but they were great lessons.

That large spider that I took a picture of laid eggs. Very scary. Don't like tons of spiders next to our apartment.

Saying Goodbye...and Star Wars!

Saying goodbye to a wonderful family :(

Saying goodbye to the Frisbee players :(

Saying goodbye to the Kickstart tower.

(Don't worry, I didn't really like the taste of Kickstarts.)

I put only one can on this 319 can tower.

Saying goodbye to FHE with the YSAs.

Saying goodbye to my district

Finally, Cool Star Wars shirt with flowers!

This and That!

We celebrated my companion's birthday, this transfer.

We have a really huge spider next to our apartment.

Finally, this is a member's dog. His name is Spencer, and he just roams around the Walgreens parking lot. He goes running with us sometimes.

Flour Ball!

This photo was taken on the Preparation Day we played Flour Ball at an abandoned water park. It was the best day. The Monett Zone is in red/black. and the Joplin Zone is in Blue. (I'm walking away from the camera.)

 

Déjà Vu!

 Guess where we went on Preparation Day!? Weird to think that this was not my first visit.  We came here during a family vacation in January 2001.

Precious Moments Chapel...July 2015  (I am second from the left)

Precious Moments Chapel Grounds...January 2001 (I am second from the left)

Precious Moments Chapel Grounds...January 2001 (I am second from the right)

An Elder on Elder Road!

The ward is doing well. We have more investigators there than we do in the YSA Branch, but we are still in a major finding phase. I'm so glad we get 1300 miles on a car this month...and I'm also glad we carpool with the Spanish elders a lot because we need to save miles as much as we can since one of the places we cover is sixty or so miles away from us.

I love being a missionary!

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)

You Won't Want To Miss This!

Last week, my sister found some pictures from a family vacation we took in January of 2001, when I was only four years old. During this vacation we visited Liberty Jail and Independence, which are LDS Church History sites in Western Missouri.

We also visited sites in and around southwestern Missouri. These pictures were taken within the boundaries of my current area. Interesting to think that 14.5 years later, I would be living near these places, serving as a full-time missionary for the LDS Church! I hope you enjoy a "blast from the past".

George Washington Carver National Monument

Precious Moments Chapel Fountain

Precious Moments Chapel Statue

Precious Moments Chapel Walkway