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!

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.

Catching Up - News from September 8

Well, I'm getting transferred.  I already learned that one of us was being transferred while the other trained. My companion is training and I'm transferring out. I'm going to a dual area in Missouri, it is in the same zone as my first area...totally excited for that. I'm definitely going to miss this area. It's been a very wonderful place.

I found out that a family in our stake at home are moving to Arkansas, and they are going to be in our mission president's ward. It's awesome!

Well, what happened this week:

• We tried to contact Less Actives that we've already contacted...but we weren't able to set up appointments with them. Their schedules are crazy.
• We did, however, set up appointments with our few investigators.
• We notified an individual about the Addiction Recovery Program...she's in the process of quitting...very sad that I won't be able to see her or another one of our investigators baptized.  Oh, well. I already have a testimony of transfers, so I know that I'm supposed to leave.
• This Sunday, I told the young men and the leaders that I was leaving.
• We taught Gospel Principles for my last Sunday. It was amazing, and I was able to leave our investigators with my departing testimony. It was a really cool experience.

This next week will be spent packing, saying goodbye, picture-taking, etc. I'll send the pictures to y'all!

Meeting With Families!

We tried by a ton of less actives and such this week also. We have had huge success.

First, we met with a family for dinner.  The father of the family wanted us to talk to another family, whom we had ran into last Sunday and talked to them...wasn't a good time, they said. We thought they weren't interested....Well, we didn't think much of it. We would've contacted them...probably this week.

The day after, we called another member and asked him if he could help us find a dinner. He said he would help us.

Well, the very next day we receive a call from the mother of the family who told us that it wasn't a good time. Their water line broke at 11 the night before, and she wanted our help to fix it. We went and helped her fix it. It took 3 hours longer than we thought, but we ended up fixing it. Afterwards, we weren't able to share a lesson with them...we were a little bit pressed for time. Well, they offered to feed us dinner if we didn't have anything. We accepted and called the other member to tell him we had a dinner now.

We had dinner with them, and we were able to share an amazing lesson with them in their house. Their granddaughter is active, and she helped by bearing her testimony.  It was an amazing lesson. They're extremely nice.

Another day, we were heading over to the stake center because our mission president wanted us there for the EFY (Especially for Youth) Fireside. We went three hours early so that we could contact less actives/investigators/former investigators/etc.

We weren't able to contact all of them. The ones we did contact, however, were awesome. One individual we visited with lives in a trailer park. We talked with him for a while. He was very interested in getting back to church and he was very interested in getting a copy of the Book of Mormon. He hadn't been to church since grade school. We gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him a little bit to get him pumped to read it.

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.