• Zone conference was really good. It’s like a spiritual rejuvenation. I really appreciated the movie about the Stone Cutter... I have thought about that every time I get tired or discouraged. I need to have that diligence, to find joy when there is no joy to be found.
• I learned a lot at Zone Conference. Especially about power. Missionaries have to power to do many things as long as it pertains to the will of God. And we have to be worth of that and be obedient to be able to use it.
• There is so much potential and the members here are so ready to help us. We are trying really hard to find. We are not quite getting 3 new investigators a week but we are increasing our teaching pool so for us that is great! We know we have the faith to find three; we need to work harder!
• This week we were able to put three people on date for baptism in April. We have been having good companionship studies, which help when we teach lessons. I have been studying the scriptures, and Preach My Gospel. Studying the scriptures helps strengthen my testimony, and studying Preach My Gospel helps me learn the scriptures that will be helpful when teaching investigators.
• We had a really good week. I don't have a lot to specifically report. We are working hard and the area is coming along. One thing that has stood out to me this week that while missions are a lot work and difficult at times, they are a lot of fun. It is so fun meeting people all the time. I am having some really great time!
• Thank you for Zone Conference, I love each and every one of them. Zone Conference was amazing as always! Every zone conference always gives me a renewed desire to get out and just get to work. Just to be bold and be excited about the work, so this week has been one of those, lots of good happened in just a few days. We're finding a ton of new potential and really trying to get the potential we know about to start meeting with us. So a lot happened that was good.
• This week was very good. I enjoyed Zone conference a lot. That movie about the stonecutter was very moving, and I could feel how it applied to me when his wife tells him not to go back to Salt Lake, and he tells her that it is his calling. I know that I need to have the same zeal toward my calling (Purpose).
• Things are starting to look a little better! Even though we weren't able to teach as much as we would have liked to, We got a lot of referrals and potentials to check on! I am just glad that I didn't waste time being upset or anything! Lately with anything that has happened if it was bad, like lose and investigator or something, I have always just stayed positive! Usually I would get upset and wonder why, but I really like Elder Wirthlin talk, Come what may and love it. My attitude has changes about lots of things and it has really helped to just keep smiling and keep staying positive despite what things may happen!
• The missionaries are great and they are quick to pick-up on their own mistakes and are always trying to improve their area! It's a good thing when missionaries ask how are things and then you tell them, and they say "Wow we need to fix that!" I love these missionaries and I make sure to let them know that! But things are starting to pickup and I am happy about that! People are starting to find more and put more people on date and things are on the uphill! Alright President well that’s how the week has been and I am really enjoying the mission!!! I just want to keep doing my best and giving it my all! Alright President hope you have a great day and week! Take Care!!!
• Zone Conference was great. I loved the doctrine of power and authority. One thing I haven't really thought too much on is the difference between the two. Understanding that has helped me understand my role a little more. We have the power to receive revelation for that which we have stewardship over (investigators and finding activities) and the authority to implement that revelation. We need work in harmony with the keys of the bishops and stake presidents as well. We can be guided to those seeking the gospel as we call upon the powers of heaven to guide us. I've seen that this week even. We'll probably be working on doing FHE's with the members of Midvale North. I know that there are many in our area ready and waiting to hear the gospel.
• Zone Conference was good. Chapter 1 has been my favorite chapter my entire mission. The biggest thing that I took out of it was what you said at the end, "When times get tough, it's your purpose that keeps you going." I believe that. I understand what I am supposed to be doing here, and I want to fulfill that purpose.
• Last week was great because we get a lot of referral and one of them is golden. That’s not what really stood out to me but it’s how the Lord prepares people for us to teach here in our area. It’s like what we saw in the movie of the stone cutter he did it no matter what happen because he love his families, but ultimately he love his Father in Heaven. I know that when we do this work because we love our Heavenly Father, there will be a huge different.
• My companion is a hard worker and helps me out on a daily basis. We had a really great experience yesterday; we got a lot of referrals for us to start teaching this week. And we got a referral for somebody who wants to be baptized as soon as possible. It’s crazy how prepared people are in our areas, and just like Elder Snow said back in zone conference, they have always been there, so where were we. And now we’re finding them and the feeling is GREAT! Thank you for all that you do President.
• This week was good, it felt good to be baptizing in the area, the trick is to continue solidifying all our investigators and help them to learn. E. Bednar's training really helped. I have been trying to get the companionship to ask more questions for understanding and to use the book of Mormon more in teaching themselves to learn. It's going well so far.
• We are working hard. I even push myself. lf I was sick last week but we still went out and worked when I was feeling up to par. I loved zone conference and loved talking about our true purpose and power as missionaries I plan on using it to better help my investigators feel and recognize the spirit. I also have continued marking the preach my gospel scriptures and have been working on trying to memorize them.
• Gospel study this week has been good. I've been looking up scriptures on certain topics in Preach My Gospel. I've found new scriptures to use in the lessons, as well as ones I knew about, but found out where they are at. So gospel study is getting better as I've found out what to study on each day. It's amazing to see how much easier it is if I plan what to study the night before.
• Well, our Daily Planning session is improving. It is a lot more meaningful and productive. We are covering things in our Planning session that are important to discuss, that we wouldn't otherwise discuss. So it's going well.
Monday, March 29, 2010
• I have been praying for the chance to teach and baptize a whole family. We've found them. They've been to church twice and have been seriously reading the Book of Mormon. The father of the family came to the baptism last night and felt great. We had taught him about fasting and we invited him to fast and he showed up to church fasting. At the baptism as he broke his fast by eating the refreshments he asked us what he had to do to donate his fast offerings. I was humbled to see how ready the family was and how great the power of the Lord is in preparing those that he wants in his church. They should be baptized this coming Sunday, and I am really excited for them. In addition to that the Lord has given us another family to teach that has expressed interest in being baptized, but we are working out relation ships with his mom in Mexico who is hard core catholic and we have been praying so that the Lord will soften her heart, and that he will have the courage to do what he knows is right. I Love this area and I love this work! Thank you for your faith and prayers on our behalf.
• The Work is going great, we keep looking for new investigators. We have been able to meet the standard of 3 new investigators a week but have had a difficult time turning those potentials into solid investigators. We are working hard and relations with the members keep going up. We had a very well attended baptism this past week, a mother and her daughter were baptized. We are praying that the father will soon follow but the others didn't want to wait. We hope he was touched by the spirit.
• This week went well. We taught 25 lessons this week and are working very hard. I have come to recognize the spiritual power that lies in obedience and prayer. We have been praying more specifically about our investigators and have seen a great difference since then. Despite being sick, I have had tremendous spiritual experiences this week.
• The packet you gave us to work with through the next 6 weeks has helped me to review the lessons again. And your goal for us to be familiar with the scriptures in each lesson is definitely helping me, because I'm still learning how to be quick with remembering and finding different scriptures. Also the role-plays we do as a companionship is very helpful. I'm also enjoying reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days and I've tentatively set a goal to do the same with the New Testament and Old Testament.
• The Area book is not good. It is unorganized and most of the teaching records don't have addresses nor the records of the visits. I have to clean the house today. It has not been vacummed for about 2 or 3 transfers. I am learning a lot in my studies. I pray in the morning that the Holy Ghost will guide me. Thanks a lot for everything, I will work hard make my area nicer than I found it.
• At the baptism when it was our turn to share a spiritual message while Hector changed, we shared the message of the restaouration and the Book of Mormon because there was a lot of investigators there. As i recited the first vision , the spirit visited every single soul in that room. It was something so sacred and undeniable. I felt prompted to as the congegration this, "If there is anyone in this room that has felt the spirit and desires to be baptized, please let it be known." An 11 year old girl sitting in the front row raised her hand. She will be baptized next Sunday.
• My studies are my favorite time of the day. The early morning hours are what keep me going.
• I had a really good experience this week as well. We were visiting our recent converts as always to make sure they were still doing well and so we went by Carlos, who is one of the first converts I had in this area. He was explaining about how he had fasted to get an answer and it worked and how his whole family is really being blessed right now. They have found lots of work and his father and brother who weren't baptised are really coming around. He has been dating an Rm for the last year or so and they are planning to get married in the temple this year. It was a real testimony builder for me because thats what we are here for. Just to help people be happy.
• We had a really good week! I love my companions! we work well together and it is so easy to feel and recognize the spirit. We had a miracle baptism yesterday, everything about this person was a miracle from how we found him to teaching him to him finally getting baptize in 3 weeks, we pretty much have been baptizing weekly and it makes me so happy to see the change in people! I love missionary work! Im glad the mission is trying to change to caring more about the people.
• My stake president said the following,
Good, Better, Best!
Never let it rest
Unitil your Good is better
And your better is Best!
Right now I am good, but I need to make it better, and from there turn it into best.
It is, right now, a weekness that is leading me to be humble - and I pray that the Lord will then turn it into a strength.
• The district is doing good. Something that we have to improve on its on finding. I was thinking about giving a shot to family history again. I remember we tried it over a year ago and It did not work for us, but I want to give it a shot again see how it works.
• Before being baptized I went over the interview questions with francisco. I asked him " why do you think it's important to have a prophet?" he responded with the best answer I've ever heard, he said " It's important because I know I can trust in a living prophet to tell us just what God wants us to do. In these days of trouble we need the guidance of a living prophet". I couldn't have said it better myself. On another occasion he also told us " there's people out there walking around looking for you. They are not just sitting at home hoping for the missionaries to come but they are actually trying to find you" He knows because he was one of them. He sounded like he should have been quoted in Preach My Gospel. I'm thankful for this testimony.
• Hey President how are you doing? This week was pretty good. We had an amazing lesson tuesday where the lady really felt the spirit a lot. I felt it so after the lesson I asked if she felt the spirit and she said she did. I asked if she could explain it to me and she said if she did she would start crying. After I explained the spirit a little bit. It was amazing. One of the best lessons in my mission.
• We applied the training from district meeting last past week. About setting goal and work towards to archive the goals. Now, every time when we plan in each everyday, we always look at the weekly goals page and discuss about how can we accomplish our goal. It is difficult to do that in each everyday. We started to say a prayer with more faith and put more effort on it. The Lord blesses us so much, it might not on new investigators, but blesses us with our investigators that we are teaching right now that they were be able to go to church and how progressing they are. We set goal again to accomplish our goal for this week.
• I am also getting more back on track with being a workhorse.
• Mario should be baptized this week. He's great! Don't ask me how or why, he was already that way when I was transferred here. Just like in Mountain Shadows 9, I've systematically mapped out as many potential investigators as possible, so in any area, we can most effectively visit all of the people in that area and save miles as opposed to jumping all over the area and eating gas. I don't really know if that's the best way to find people to be baptized... I've never had much luck with it. Then again, I've never had much luck randomly jumping all over the area... the best missionary work in my mission has been through member referrals and OYMs.
• Yesterday another miracle happened. Mary Schoeneck, a former investigator of mine from about 9 months ago showed up again! I had taught her in the Hidden Valley area, but at the time she just wasn't ready to receive the gospel and she dropped us. Now all of a sudden she showed up at one of our singles wards and she wants to be baptized! Her countenance has totally changed since then. She used to be unhappy and have a certain darkness about her. Now she is beautiful and full of the Spirit. She became totally lost in her life after she dropped us 9 months ago. She went back to try the party scence, but it brought her no happiness. She really hit rock bottom, and so she decided to pray in her backyard a few weeks ago and she received a very strong spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel. We taught her yesterday and she will be baptized on the 10th. She has truly experienced a mighty change of heart. The Spirit truly does change people. The Lord is so aware of all of us. It is not a coincidencethat I'm teaching her again.
• This week was kind of dificult becaue two of our baptisms fell apart suddenly. They just called and said it was off and not to talk to them. Then on friday they called back and said they had alot going on and they still wanted to be baptized so we moved them to next weekend. Its was crazy how fast it happened. We have alot of good prospects it's just a matter of contacting htem. Other then that things are good.
• It has been a great experience working with our current investigators. The more honest we are with them, the more honest and open they are with us and I truly love them. It seems here we work with less-actives more than I'm used to. Many say they are too lazy to get to church, even though it's always a street away, but when they do reconnect with the Spirit it becomes a habit again to go.
• The Work is going great, we keep looking for new investigators. We have been able to meet the standard of 3 new investigators a week but have had a difficult time turning those potentials into solid investigators. We are working hard and relations with the members keep going up. We had a very well attended baptism this past week, a mother and her daughter were baptized. We are praying that the father will soon follow but the others didn't want to wait. We hope he was touched by the spirit.
• This week went well. We taught 25 lessons this week and are working very hard. I have come to recognize the spiritual power that lies in obedience and prayer. We have been praying more specifically about our investigators and have seen a great difference since then. Despite being sick, I have had tremendous spiritual experiences this week.
• The packet you gave us to work with through the next 6 weeks has helped me to review the lessons again. And your goal for us to be familiar with the scriptures in each lesson is definitely helping me, because I'm still learning how to be quick with remembering and finding different scriptures. Also the role-plays we do as a companionship is very helpful. I'm also enjoying reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days and I've tentatively set a goal to do the same with the New Testament and Old Testament.
• The Area book is not good. It is unorganized and most of the teaching records don't have addresses nor the records of the visits. I have to clean the house today. It has not been vacummed for about 2 or 3 transfers. I am learning a lot in my studies. I pray in the morning that the Holy Ghost will guide me. Thanks a lot for everything, I will work hard make my area nicer than I found it.
• At the baptism when it was our turn to share a spiritual message while Hector changed, we shared the message of the restaouration and the Book of Mormon because there was a lot of investigators there. As i recited the first vision , the spirit visited every single soul in that room. It was something so sacred and undeniable. I felt prompted to as the congegration this, "If there is anyone in this room that has felt the spirit and desires to be baptized, please let it be known." An 11 year old girl sitting in the front row raised her hand. She will be baptized next Sunday.
• My studies are my favorite time of the day. The early morning hours are what keep me going.
• I had a really good experience this week as well. We were visiting our recent converts as always to make sure they were still doing well and so we went by Carlos, who is one of the first converts I had in this area. He was explaining about how he had fasted to get an answer and it worked and how his whole family is really being blessed right now. They have found lots of work and his father and brother who weren't baptised are really coming around. He has been dating an Rm for the last year or so and they are planning to get married in the temple this year. It was a real testimony builder for me because thats what we are here for. Just to help people be happy.
• We had a really good week! I love my companions! we work well together and it is so easy to feel and recognize the spirit. We had a miracle baptism yesterday, everything about this person was a miracle from how we found him to teaching him to him finally getting baptize in 3 weeks, we pretty much have been baptizing weekly and it makes me so happy to see the change in people! I love missionary work! Im glad the mission is trying to change to caring more about the people.
• My stake president said the following,
Good, Better, Best!
Never let it rest
Unitil your Good is better
And your better is Best!
Right now I am good, but I need to make it better, and from there turn it into best.
It is, right now, a weekness that is leading me to be humble - and I pray that the Lord will then turn it into a strength.
• The district is doing good. Something that we have to improve on its on finding. I was thinking about giving a shot to family history again. I remember we tried it over a year ago and It did not work for us, but I want to give it a shot again see how it works.
• Before being baptized I went over the interview questions with francisco. I asked him " why do you think it's important to have a prophet?" he responded with the best answer I've ever heard, he said " It's important because I know I can trust in a living prophet to tell us just what God wants us to do. In these days of trouble we need the guidance of a living prophet". I couldn't have said it better myself. On another occasion he also told us " there's people out there walking around looking for you. They are not just sitting at home hoping for the missionaries to come but they are actually trying to find you" He knows because he was one of them. He sounded like he should have been quoted in Preach My Gospel. I'm thankful for this testimony.
• Hey President how are you doing? This week was pretty good. We had an amazing lesson tuesday where the lady really felt the spirit a lot. I felt it so after the lesson I asked if she felt the spirit and she said she did. I asked if she could explain it to me and she said if she did she would start crying. After I explained the spirit a little bit. It was amazing. One of the best lessons in my mission.
• We applied the training from district meeting last past week. About setting goal and work towards to archive the goals. Now, every time when we plan in each everyday, we always look at the weekly goals page and discuss about how can we accomplish our goal. It is difficult to do that in each everyday. We started to say a prayer with more faith and put more effort on it. The Lord blesses us so much, it might not on new investigators, but blesses us with our investigators that we are teaching right now that they were be able to go to church and how progressing they are. We set goal again to accomplish our goal for this week.
• I am also getting more back on track with being a workhorse.
• Mario should be baptized this week. He's great! Don't ask me how or why, he was already that way when I was transferred here. Just like in Mountain Shadows 9, I've systematically mapped out as many potential investigators as possible, so in any area, we can most effectively visit all of the people in that area and save miles as opposed to jumping all over the area and eating gas. I don't really know if that's the best way to find people to be baptized... I've never had much luck with it. Then again, I've never had much luck randomly jumping all over the area... the best missionary work in my mission has been through member referrals and OYMs.
• Yesterday another miracle happened. Mary Schoeneck, a former investigator of mine from about 9 months ago showed up again! I had taught her in the Hidden Valley area, but at the time she just wasn't ready to receive the gospel and she dropped us. Now all of a sudden she showed up at one of our singles wards and she wants to be baptized! Her countenance has totally changed since then. She used to be unhappy and have a certain darkness about her. Now she is beautiful and full of the Spirit. She became totally lost in her life after she dropped us 9 months ago. She went back to try the party scence, but it brought her no happiness. She really hit rock bottom, and so she decided to pray in her backyard a few weeks ago and she received a very strong spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel. We taught her yesterday and she will be baptized on the 10th. She has truly experienced a mighty change of heart. The Spirit truly does change people. The Lord is so aware of all of us. It is not a coincidencethat I'm teaching her again.
• This week was kind of dificult becaue two of our baptisms fell apart suddenly. They just called and said it was off and not to talk to them. Then on friday they called back and said they had alot going on and they still wanted to be baptized so we moved them to next weekend. Its was crazy how fast it happened. We have alot of good prospects it's just a matter of contacting htem. Other then that things are good.
• It has been a great experience working with our current investigators. The more honest we are with them, the more honest and open they are with us and I truly love them. It seems here we work with less-actives more than I'm used to. Many say they are too lazy to get to church, even though it's always a street away, but when they do reconnect with the Spirit it becomes a habit again to go.
Monday, March 22, 2010
• We had a fun experience. We knocked on the door of a part member family. A man answered and said "Hi Elders. Isn't it Cold out" We responded "YES Sir". his cheering deposition left and he said "Good" and Slammed the door in our faces. I couldn't help but laugh. It was a good one for sure. ha-ha. Made my day.
• The Lord has provided so much work in this Stake. It has gone from teaching four lessons a week to an average of almost ten a week this transfer. Not only that, but instead of baptizing once every other month, now we are baptizing nearly weekly. This transfer we had five baptisms, and, if half of the individuals we are going to be teaching this week accept/stay on date, we should have about eight. But, we are confident that more than half will progress towards baptism. Not only that, but I am sure that the Lord will continue to lead us to more families who are prepared to receive the Restored Gospel.
• This week went very well. We taught 22 lessons which is a new personal best. We are excited about the work and looking forward to exceed that number next week. The Lord has blessed us so much. Every time I think about our success it reminds me of how much the Lord is helping us along the way. I'm very grateful for what he has done for us so far. It’s very humbling to see how the success in this area has grown. I'm always excited about personal study. It allows me to see what I can learn to help my investigators progress towards baptism.
• Hey, the work is going great down here. We are teaching a ton more lessons and working with a lot of less actives/recent converts as well. It is amazing how much more enjoyable the work is when we are busy teaching, well it has always been enjoyable but now it is just so much more. Some weeks it works out, others weeks not so much. But we are finally teaching a lot more lessons a week, double from a few weeks ago. The number looks like it will keep increasing as well and it is going to be great! We just need to get more referrals so we can keep it up so that when the people we are teaching get baptized we will continue to teach other people and help them to progress towards baptism and entering the kingdom of God as well. Thank you so much for the training that you did in our stake this past week, it was great and everybody loved it! They are all on fire to start getting missionary work done as well!
• Anyways, we're excited to get together and eat our pizza with the other zones who hit the goal!
• This week was as busy as last week, and we are preparing several people to be baptized next week. I am thrilled beyond anything that our zone hit its goal. The reason I am so thrilled is because I know that it wasn't because of pressure from leadership, but from loving encouragement from them. This is the first time in my mission I feeling I can say that with certainty. This mission has become so much more Christlike than it was when I came in. One of the things that struck me about the last training that was presented during interviews was that the missionary leadership in the mission from the assistants down, has finally realized that the perfect formula for Baptism that had been created was not the perfect formula for the long term conversion of the people in our care taught in Preach My Gospel. I am thrilled that they are now teaching this.
• This week was better for us because we have both been more obedient in following the schedule. Thank you for the interview last Thursday it really helped me in knowing the importance of the schedule and why we have it. I always appreciate the doctrine that you always give in your lessons.
• We were able to put 2 more investigators on date now we have 11 on date but there’s a few more that we can put them on date too so we give you report next week.
• This was a great week. We had two baptisms and they went great. My favorite part of baptizing is being able to see the changes in the entire family. The father of the family is less active and we usually invite him to church but he just tells us he doesn’t feel right doing it. We used the opportunity of having the confirmations on Sunday to help the father want to come to church. Well, he came and we expected him to leave right after the confirmations were over, but surprisingly he stayed for the whole sacrament meeting. It was a great one for him to be there for. Another recent convert spoke on the importance of the priesthood. I kept looking at the father and I could tell he had some bit of interest and that it kind of got to him. Afterwards, the father was leaving but he kept thanking us for what we had done. Just goes to show that this is all about families, not people or numbers.
• I apologize for the lack of lessons last week. This was because we god new print outs of MLS sheets and we spend most of our time going over them on the list as oppose to Positive Daily Teaching. This week will be much better seeing as we've found at least 30 potentials from doing this. I'm pretty excited about following up and contacting these people this upcoming week.
• I'm starting to feel like an hour study is barely enough personally--so I realize how important it is! I am trying to take full advantage of that time now. I love to study and implement what I learn in my teaching--which I also love. Being a missionary is such a blessing and privilege.
• Just the other day we were walking to an appointment dropped and we noticed this man taking out a load of garbage. We helped him move the trash and started talking with him. We shared a brief message of the restoration and asked to if there was a time we could share this message of Jesus Christ with him and his family. He was just about to schedule a time that we could come back when I felt impressed to ask him if we could share part of our message right then in his home. Surprisingly he said, “sure come on in”. He gathered his two daughters into the living room to hear what we had to say. We taught them the message of the restoration and left them with a Book of Mormon. They were incredibly receptive and even agreed to come to church. We left them with the commitment to pray and read from the Book of Mormon. They even agreed to come with us to church! The next day we came over again and this time the mother and cousin (who is permanently living with them) Johanna (17) was there. We reviewed the message ofthe restoration with the entire family present. Soma and Johanna were far more skeptical of the message. I felt so inadequate that day, as I taught I was so much less articulate and I felt so terrible because I thought that must be the reason Soma and Johanna were less receptive. I was wrong. I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and how it affected my family, it was such a fumbling testimony and weak in words but the spirit was so powerful. I know it touched the Mom and cousins heart. They agreed to read and pray. Later that day we sent over two wonderful sisters to the home to talk with Soma and Johanna. I know that had a huge impact. They were able to connect. It is the influence of such member help that is really driving the work here. That Sunday three of the family came to all three hours of church. I sat right between them and explained things to them during sacrament. We also connected the kids with their age- another example of how member help is critical to success. I am so excited or this family!!!
• This week we have just been doing our best to find new people to teach. We have made a few investigators and are just setting up new investigator lessons with the other people. We are doing our best and are having a good time. Have a great week.
• We had an amazing week. We were able to do a lot of good. There were a couple of people we met that hated Mormons and especially missionaries. One of them told us she liked us and that she is willing to listen to us. The other Kayla was so mad when we knocked on her door. I'm serious when I say you could feel the anger from her. We got a fellowshipped to come with us and went back last night. By the end of the conversation she was crying and saying "You mean I can be forgiven?" she told us she had so many regrets. She told us that she didn't think God could love her. She told us so much and I am so grateful the Lord saw fit to leave me here to touch these sweet souls. I really hope to be able to continue helping them but if I do leave I know the Lord will provide. It is in his hands.
• This week was an incredible week for me. It was definitely a very well spirited felt week. First off, I reached an incredible goal which for the time being out, I never did. I am proud to say we hit over 21 lessons this week. I definitely learned a valuable lesson this week which is that Hard work really does pay off. We did our best this week and we met our goal. This next week is only going to make me want to do even better.
• We have been working a lot with these two who were just baptized and all went well. Our efforts paid off and we had two baptisms this weekend as planned. We have been working with a lot of others and should have some more baptism coming up this next week, if not this then the week after. Things are going very well though. I'm getting used to the area! This has almost been the area I've been in longest so I'm kind of excited.
• Definitely the highlight of the week was the baptism of Patrick Phillips, the man who we saw walking his kids home in the wagon. It was a great service. He was then confirmed the next day and received the Aaronic Priesthood after the church block. But the most memorable thing of all was towards the end of Fast and Testimony Meeting, he got up and exclaimed, "My name is Patrick Phillips, and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" He then bore a powerful testimony. His wife then got up and talked about how she hadn't borne her testimony in church in about 15 years, and how the last few months of returning to church have been wonderful for her and her family. What a great experience! I love being able to share something that makes me happy with others and seeing how it makes them happy too.
• Yesterday we finally put our new finding activity for the branch into motion. We have a lot of maps and records for many Hispanic people that live within the branch. We organized the names and addresses of these potential investigators and made specific assignments for the members to visit them. We gave a presentation in priesthood meeting, giving them their assignments and instructing them in how they can approach these potential investigators. We discussed finding tools such as Daily Dose, family home evenings, and temple tours. All of the priesthood was excited at this opportunity to participate in the missionary work.
• President Laney, I finally finished the Book of Mormon Challenge. I feel great. I learned a lot and felt a special feeling by the end of the chapters in the book of Moroni. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I also felt a feeling that the Lord was pleased with me as I was obedient in finishing it.
• We had a pretty sweet experience. I read the experience in one of the weekly newsletters about the companionship that decided to follow the savior’s example of thanking the Lord for something yet to happen. I decided to try this out. We had a fair few baptisms last month. but only one baptism was scheduled for this month. So I prayed and thanked Heavenly Father that we have at least 3 baptisms this month. We now have 4 baptisms scheduled for this month :It blew me away...but why am I surprised? The Lord gave the promise that if we ask it shall be given.
• On Saturday it was really nice to be invited to attend ZLC. I was very grateful to be able to ponder more on the importance of our study time. I can honestly say that I have never chosen to not study. I haven’t taken it as serious as I should though. This is precious time! I have learned more in one year than in my whole life. I am grateful also that you taught the importance of prayer. As a missionary prayer can become just part of what you do. I have had the chance to reflect on how "meaningful" and "sincere" my prayers are. It is so important to have individual prayer not just your prayers as a companionship. I am so grateful for these insights you shared.
• The other day, we came across a family I taught over seventeen months ago at a different residence in the Cobble Creek 5th ward. It was a pleasant surprise to see him after so much time and to see that we both remembered each other. I hope that his family will be baptized soon. I think that one of the strongest testimonies that we can bear is that the gospel will bring more happiness than any other course in life. I have spent a fair amount of my mission testifying to people that our church is the only true church with the only true baptism, and that they'd better suck it up and accept it. This is true, but not very compelling, so I've decided to stop attacking false doctrine and beliefs so much and just testifying that I know they will be happier. That generally is more persuasive and leaves a better impression. I wish I had known that sooner.
• We had a miracle week and I feel so blessed to have people in our path every day. We were teaching this boy who is 13 years old for 3 weeks and he keeps all the commitments and commandments. But he didn't believe that God exist. We were teaching the doctrine and giving simple example and he prayed a lot, but no result. But he had a strong desire to be baptized. We prayed to heavenly father for help to let him know that there is God. 1 hour before the interview. We had no idea if he will pass. But he passed!!! He got baptized and he bored his testimony with his sincere heart said that he believes in God and knows that god is real. I was really surprised because I could tell that he got his answer and he gains his strong testimony. I know the power of prayer is real. I know heavenly father provides a way. WE also invited investigator to the baptism. After that she told us that she is getting baptized in 2 weeks too. It was a beautiful baptism I have ever seen. Yesterday was full of miracles. This stretched mytestimony that the gospel is true and God is loving father and knows everything. According to our faith, miracles happen. I am so grateful for the missionary work that I can do for our savior. Without the spirit and guidance of Holy ghost, I am really nothing and useless. I am so grateful this wonderful moment.
• The Lord has provided so much work in this Stake. It has gone from teaching four lessons a week to an average of almost ten a week this transfer. Not only that, but instead of baptizing once every other month, now we are baptizing nearly weekly. This transfer we had five baptisms, and, if half of the individuals we are going to be teaching this week accept/stay on date, we should have about eight. But, we are confident that more than half will progress towards baptism. Not only that, but I am sure that the Lord will continue to lead us to more families who are prepared to receive the Restored Gospel.
• This week went very well. We taught 22 lessons which is a new personal best. We are excited about the work and looking forward to exceed that number next week. The Lord has blessed us so much. Every time I think about our success it reminds me of how much the Lord is helping us along the way. I'm very grateful for what he has done for us so far. It’s very humbling to see how the success in this area has grown. I'm always excited about personal study. It allows me to see what I can learn to help my investigators progress towards baptism.
• Hey, the work is going great down here. We are teaching a ton more lessons and working with a lot of less actives/recent converts as well. It is amazing how much more enjoyable the work is when we are busy teaching, well it has always been enjoyable but now it is just so much more. Some weeks it works out, others weeks not so much. But we are finally teaching a lot more lessons a week, double from a few weeks ago. The number looks like it will keep increasing as well and it is going to be great! We just need to get more referrals so we can keep it up so that when the people we are teaching get baptized we will continue to teach other people and help them to progress towards baptism and entering the kingdom of God as well. Thank you so much for the training that you did in our stake this past week, it was great and everybody loved it! They are all on fire to start getting missionary work done as well!
• Anyways, we're excited to get together and eat our pizza with the other zones who hit the goal!
• This week was as busy as last week, and we are preparing several people to be baptized next week. I am thrilled beyond anything that our zone hit its goal. The reason I am so thrilled is because I know that it wasn't because of pressure from leadership, but from loving encouragement from them. This is the first time in my mission I feeling I can say that with certainty. This mission has become so much more Christlike than it was when I came in. One of the things that struck me about the last training that was presented during interviews was that the missionary leadership in the mission from the assistants down, has finally realized that the perfect formula for Baptism that had been created was not the perfect formula for the long term conversion of the people in our care taught in Preach My Gospel. I am thrilled that they are now teaching this.
• This week was better for us because we have both been more obedient in following the schedule. Thank you for the interview last Thursday it really helped me in knowing the importance of the schedule and why we have it. I always appreciate the doctrine that you always give in your lessons.
• We were able to put 2 more investigators on date now we have 11 on date but there’s a few more that we can put them on date too so we give you report next week.
• This was a great week. We had two baptisms and they went great. My favorite part of baptizing is being able to see the changes in the entire family. The father of the family is less active and we usually invite him to church but he just tells us he doesn’t feel right doing it. We used the opportunity of having the confirmations on Sunday to help the father want to come to church. Well, he came and we expected him to leave right after the confirmations were over, but surprisingly he stayed for the whole sacrament meeting. It was a great one for him to be there for. Another recent convert spoke on the importance of the priesthood. I kept looking at the father and I could tell he had some bit of interest and that it kind of got to him. Afterwards, the father was leaving but he kept thanking us for what we had done. Just goes to show that this is all about families, not people or numbers.
• I apologize for the lack of lessons last week. This was because we god new print outs of MLS sheets and we spend most of our time going over them on the list as oppose to Positive Daily Teaching. This week will be much better seeing as we've found at least 30 potentials from doing this. I'm pretty excited about following up and contacting these people this upcoming week.
• I'm starting to feel like an hour study is barely enough personally--so I realize how important it is! I am trying to take full advantage of that time now. I love to study and implement what I learn in my teaching--which I also love. Being a missionary is such a blessing and privilege.
• Just the other day we were walking to an appointment dropped and we noticed this man taking out a load of garbage. We helped him move the trash and started talking with him. We shared a brief message of the restoration and asked to if there was a time we could share this message of Jesus Christ with him and his family. He was just about to schedule a time that we could come back when I felt impressed to ask him if we could share part of our message right then in his home. Surprisingly he said, “sure come on in”. He gathered his two daughters into the living room to hear what we had to say. We taught them the message of the restoration and left them with a Book of Mormon. They were incredibly receptive and even agreed to come to church. We left them with the commitment to pray and read from the Book of Mormon. They even agreed to come with us to church! The next day we came over again and this time the mother and cousin (who is permanently living with them) Johanna (17) was there. We reviewed the message ofthe restoration with the entire family present. Soma and Johanna were far more skeptical of the message. I felt so inadequate that day, as I taught I was so much less articulate and I felt so terrible because I thought that must be the reason Soma and Johanna were less receptive. I was wrong. I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and how it affected my family, it was such a fumbling testimony and weak in words but the spirit was so powerful. I know it touched the Mom and cousins heart. They agreed to read and pray. Later that day we sent over two wonderful sisters to the home to talk with Soma and Johanna. I know that had a huge impact. They were able to connect. It is the influence of such member help that is really driving the work here. That Sunday three of the family came to all three hours of church. I sat right between them and explained things to them during sacrament. We also connected the kids with their age- another example of how member help is critical to success. I am so excited or this family!!!
• This week we have just been doing our best to find new people to teach. We have made a few investigators and are just setting up new investigator lessons with the other people. We are doing our best and are having a good time. Have a great week.
• We had an amazing week. We were able to do a lot of good. There were a couple of people we met that hated Mormons and especially missionaries. One of them told us she liked us and that she is willing to listen to us. The other Kayla was so mad when we knocked on her door. I'm serious when I say you could feel the anger from her. We got a fellowshipped to come with us and went back last night. By the end of the conversation she was crying and saying "You mean I can be forgiven?" she told us she had so many regrets. She told us that she didn't think God could love her. She told us so much and I am so grateful the Lord saw fit to leave me here to touch these sweet souls. I really hope to be able to continue helping them but if I do leave I know the Lord will provide. It is in his hands.
• This week was an incredible week for me. It was definitely a very well spirited felt week. First off, I reached an incredible goal which for the time being out, I never did. I am proud to say we hit over 21 lessons this week. I definitely learned a valuable lesson this week which is that Hard work really does pay off. We did our best this week and we met our goal. This next week is only going to make me want to do even better.
• We have been working a lot with these two who were just baptized and all went well. Our efforts paid off and we had two baptisms this weekend as planned. We have been working with a lot of others and should have some more baptism coming up this next week, if not this then the week after. Things are going very well though. I'm getting used to the area! This has almost been the area I've been in longest so I'm kind of excited.
• Definitely the highlight of the week was the baptism of Patrick Phillips, the man who we saw walking his kids home in the wagon. It was a great service. He was then confirmed the next day and received the Aaronic Priesthood after the church block. But the most memorable thing of all was towards the end of Fast and Testimony Meeting, he got up and exclaimed, "My name is Patrick Phillips, and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" He then bore a powerful testimony. His wife then got up and talked about how she hadn't borne her testimony in church in about 15 years, and how the last few months of returning to church have been wonderful for her and her family. What a great experience! I love being able to share something that makes me happy with others and seeing how it makes them happy too.
• Yesterday we finally put our new finding activity for the branch into motion. We have a lot of maps and records for many Hispanic people that live within the branch. We organized the names and addresses of these potential investigators and made specific assignments for the members to visit them. We gave a presentation in priesthood meeting, giving them their assignments and instructing them in how they can approach these potential investigators. We discussed finding tools such as Daily Dose, family home evenings, and temple tours. All of the priesthood was excited at this opportunity to participate in the missionary work.
• President Laney, I finally finished the Book of Mormon Challenge. I feel great. I learned a lot and felt a special feeling by the end of the chapters in the book of Moroni. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I also felt a feeling that the Lord was pleased with me as I was obedient in finishing it.
• We had a pretty sweet experience. I read the experience in one of the weekly newsletters about the companionship that decided to follow the savior’s example of thanking the Lord for something yet to happen. I decided to try this out. We had a fair few baptisms last month. but only one baptism was scheduled for this month. So I prayed and thanked Heavenly Father that we have at least 3 baptisms this month. We now have 4 baptisms scheduled for this month :It blew me away...but why am I surprised? The Lord gave the promise that if we ask it shall be given.
• On Saturday it was really nice to be invited to attend ZLC. I was very grateful to be able to ponder more on the importance of our study time. I can honestly say that I have never chosen to not study. I haven’t taken it as serious as I should though. This is precious time! I have learned more in one year than in my whole life. I am grateful also that you taught the importance of prayer. As a missionary prayer can become just part of what you do. I have had the chance to reflect on how "meaningful" and "sincere" my prayers are. It is so important to have individual prayer not just your prayers as a companionship. I am so grateful for these insights you shared.
• The other day, we came across a family I taught over seventeen months ago at a different residence in the Cobble Creek 5th ward. It was a pleasant surprise to see him after so much time and to see that we both remembered each other. I hope that his family will be baptized soon. I think that one of the strongest testimonies that we can bear is that the gospel will bring more happiness than any other course in life. I have spent a fair amount of my mission testifying to people that our church is the only true church with the only true baptism, and that they'd better suck it up and accept it. This is true, but not very compelling, so I've decided to stop attacking false doctrine and beliefs so much and just testifying that I know they will be happier. That generally is more persuasive and leaves a better impression. I wish I had known that sooner.
• We had a miracle week and I feel so blessed to have people in our path every day. We were teaching this boy who is 13 years old for 3 weeks and he keeps all the commitments and commandments. But he didn't believe that God exist. We were teaching the doctrine and giving simple example and he prayed a lot, but no result. But he had a strong desire to be baptized. We prayed to heavenly father for help to let him know that there is God. 1 hour before the interview. We had no idea if he will pass. But he passed!!! He got baptized and he bored his testimony with his sincere heart said that he believes in God and knows that god is real. I was really surprised because I could tell that he got his answer and he gains his strong testimony. I know the power of prayer is real. I know heavenly father provides a way. WE also invited investigator to the baptism. After that she told us that she is getting baptized in 2 weeks too. It was a beautiful baptism I have ever seen. Yesterday was full of miracles. This stretched mytestimony that the gospel is true and God is loving father and knows everything. According to our faith, miracles happen. I am so grateful for the missionary work that I can do for our savior. Without the spirit and guidance of Holy ghost, I am really nothing and useless. I am so grateful this wonderful moment.
Monday, March 15, 2010
• For about the past month I have been praying every night for integrity because it is something I have learned from you as I have been on my mission. I have seen a high increase in my integrity throughout the month of February. I have always stressed obedience on my mission. The good thing is that I always learn from the choices that I make, and I am thankful for repentance. Even small mistakes make me feel remorse, which is a good thing.
• This week went great. We taught 24 lessons which is a new personal best. The work is moving forward and God is preparing people for us to teach. Our investigators are doing very well.
• "This Sunday, we brought several less-active people to three sacrament meetings. We met a less-active English speaking lady last week and she said she'd go to church if we did, so we went with her and her mother at nine in the morning. Then at eleven, we went with Patricia Martinez to the english ward she started attending a couple years ago when she angrily walked out of the Spanish branch. She hadn't been in over a year, and while she was there, she decided to give her testimony which I feel would take a lot of courage after not having been there for so long. Afterwards, several of the members including the bishop spoke with her and her neighbor who has been working with her for so long was crying and hugging her. You'd think she'd won an Olympic medal..."We really are working hard and trying to get investigators to progress, but in the meantime, to stay occupied, we are working with less-active members, even less-active members from English wards (Elder Newhouse isn't complaining too much) and we are having a lot of success there. Just hope that we can have some people baptized soon.
• Things are going well, we are working hard. I'm glad to get the motivation from interviews, I needed that. We are getting better at it.
• We have a lot of potential this week, and things look like they are going to be better than last week. Also thanks President for the interview, I know I have things to work on (as always) and I'm still striving to be better.
• To help me with my accountability and improvement as a missionary, I'm going to commit this week in my letter to improve how we plan. The past few weeks have been back and forth in having a quality planning and a poor planning. I've witnessed in the past that the better plan you have for the day/week, the better day/week you have. Even though things have been going well here, using our time more effectively can help them improve even more.
• So last Monday I had a cool experience. We went to an appointment at 6:00 and we found out he was going to be busy until 8 so we rescheduled for that. When I was thinking about what to do right then I prayed and asked what we should do. I immediately got a thought to go check a referral. We went there and we taught them the 1st lesson right then and put them on date. Afterwards I realized that we were doing exactly what were supposed to do and I immediately prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for that prompting that led us to that unexpected lesson. It was an answer to a prayer and it came quickly. It was evidence that God answers prayers and can answer them fast than you think he will.
• This week was so crazy. so many baptisms in one week it was great but we were running all over the place. I am loving the Mission so much. The area we are serving in is amazing and the Members are great. The members help so much and really take care of you well. I really hope we can meet our goal of 30 lessons soon. We are trying so hard for it.
• Sunday was amazing. Three weeks ago we had the baptism for Robby Rindaldi. Since being baptized he has remained active, and received the Aaronic Priesthood. Yesterday he was able to exercise his Priesthood, and put a congregation of about 100 or more people under covenant with God. When he gave the blessing he gave it with so much conviction. The Spirit truely has converted him to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All he talks about when he comes over his how he can't wait for his kids to go on a mission, and do the same things we are doing. He also said he would like to tell ever young man before he leaves on his mission, "You have no idea what you are about to do for the lives of people". Our prayer this week is that we will be able to make this area a model area.
• The Last few weeks have been a little difficult finding people to teach. It's so hard not to get discouraged when your numbers are awful when the members don't go out with you. At times I feel like I have to worry about everyone and try to solve everyone's problems. I worry about Recent converts, and investigators. It can be kind of draining emotionally and physically. I really worry about some of my recent converts and I am trying to do everything I can to make sure that they stay active so that they will go to the temple. I WANT TO SEAL FAMILIES!!! So I keep telling myself that I have to do everything in power so that my fruit will remain. I really love my recent converts and I want them to progress and fully enjoy the blessings of the gospel. I get really sad when I don't see them at church. So this Sunday I made sure that everyone that I helped get baptized was at church. I worked so hard but EVERYONE was at church last Sunday :) It made me so happy to see all of my recent converts at church. I will take care of these precious souls because they are dear to me.
• This week was better for us because we have both been more obedient in following the schedule. Thank you for the interview last Thursday it really helped me in knowing the importance of the schedule and why we have it. I always appreciate the doctrine that you always give in your lessons. have a nice week.
• Everything is going pretty good. This week has been really good. We had an awesome baptism last night. After it was done the father of the family bore his testimony and just said how grateful he was to make this step with his family and the joy he felt in his life. It was really good to see that family progress and do all that they needed to do to get baptized. They are going to be very strong members and I cant wait to see them go through the temple and be sealed.
• We had two great baptism this last week. The thing my companion and I are going to do is organize and teach the new converts how to teach the lessons from PMG and we are going to take them out with us to teach. We are going to do this for a couple of reasons.
1) to strengthen the new converts in their testimony and knowledge of the gospel
2) To help us have more members at lessons and fellowshipers for our investigators
As I told you in our interview, our biggest problem in this area is getting members at our lessons. My companion and I have prayed and we feel that gather the new converts together and bringing them with us will help us to further the work in this area.
• The work is going great up here, We have foud two new families that are willing to meet with us and this ending week even though we couln't acheive our goals, it was a wonderful week. Two of the 6 people that we have planned got baptized and the baptisms were awesome, you could feel a really strong spirit there. One of the people who got baptized was really prepared and yesterday his baptism was a great expiritual experience for me, I almost cry -something that is not very usual on me- when I was talking about the holy ghost. The truth is that I never met someone that was so, so prepared to be baptized. Not even my family or I were that prepared when we got baptized. Now I have gain a testimony that truly there is people that is waiting for us to knock on their door to receive the restored gospel and follow our lord jesus christ throug baptism.
• Our week was slow, but good. Many of our investogators weren't able to see us this week so we did very little teaching, but some other good things happened. We had a great dinner with an inactive family. For some reason we really clicked with that family. I really feel that they are a family that I was meant to meet here in the mission field. The wife was even a little teary eyed when we said goodbye. I am grateful for that evening. I was feeling a little discouraged to that point so it was a great boost. On my mission I have noticed that when I am feeling a little down about things Heavenly Father will bless me with an experience that will boost my spirits and let me know that He is still there. I am so grateful!
• The work continues to progress... We contacted a referal today who wants to talk about how families can be together forever. We dropped a copy of Together Forever off, and although he wanted to talk to his wife and watch it before making an appointment, we played a bit of basketball in their driveway with him and his son, and built a really good relationship to the point where he said "you elders can come back anytime, you're always welcome here", and yes they're non members! I can see some great progression happening there!
• This has been one of the most rewarding weeks of my mission. David White got baptized. It was amazing. I have only cried at two baptisms on my whole mission and this was one of them. It hit me when he was walking into the water that that was the moment that we had been working towards for so long. We met this amazing family in November and David had many things to overcome before he could get baptized. The first time we met with him he accepted a date for the next Saturday, but it obviously did not work out and we have been fasting and praying ever since. When we were taking pictures before the baptism his wife said, "Do you know what is so amazing about this? This is one step closer to having an eternal family." I can't even imagine how much she has gone through with David to get to this point. I can't wait to go to their sealing next year
• Just working on using our finding tools, besides that I feel wonderful. I refuse to let the adversary have a part in me. I love God and the Savior and I want to have His Spirit with me so I can invite all I can to come unto Christ. I will magnify my office unto the Lord and strive to build others up, if they like the structure of their building that's fine... The rain will still decend and the winds will still blow, in time all will come to know. some more new investigators.
• This week went great. We taught 24 lessons which is a new personal best. The work is moving forward and God is preparing people for us to teach. Our investigators are doing very well.
• "This Sunday, we brought several less-active people to three sacrament meetings. We met a less-active English speaking lady last week and she said she'd go to church if we did, so we went with her and her mother at nine in the morning. Then at eleven, we went with Patricia Martinez to the english ward she started attending a couple years ago when she angrily walked out of the Spanish branch. She hadn't been in over a year, and while she was there, she decided to give her testimony which I feel would take a lot of courage after not having been there for so long. Afterwards, several of the members including the bishop spoke with her and her neighbor who has been working with her for so long was crying and hugging her. You'd think she'd won an Olympic medal..."We really are working hard and trying to get investigators to progress, but in the meantime, to stay occupied, we are working with less-active members, even less-active members from English wards (Elder Newhouse isn't complaining too much) and we are having a lot of success there. Just hope that we can have some people baptized soon.
• Things are going well, we are working hard. I'm glad to get the motivation from interviews, I needed that. We are getting better at it.
• We have a lot of potential this week, and things look like they are going to be better than last week. Also thanks President for the interview, I know I have things to work on (as always) and I'm still striving to be better.
• To help me with my accountability and improvement as a missionary, I'm going to commit this week in my letter to improve how we plan. The past few weeks have been back and forth in having a quality planning and a poor planning. I've witnessed in the past that the better plan you have for the day/week, the better day/week you have. Even though things have been going well here, using our time more effectively can help them improve even more.
• So last Monday I had a cool experience. We went to an appointment at 6:00 and we found out he was going to be busy until 8 so we rescheduled for that. When I was thinking about what to do right then I prayed and asked what we should do. I immediately got a thought to go check a referral. We went there and we taught them the 1st lesson right then and put them on date. Afterwards I realized that we were doing exactly what were supposed to do and I immediately prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for that prompting that led us to that unexpected lesson. It was an answer to a prayer and it came quickly. It was evidence that God answers prayers and can answer them fast than you think he will.
• This week was so crazy. so many baptisms in one week it was great but we were running all over the place. I am loving the Mission so much. The area we are serving in is amazing and the Members are great. The members help so much and really take care of you well. I really hope we can meet our goal of 30 lessons soon. We are trying so hard for it.
• Sunday was amazing. Three weeks ago we had the baptism for Robby Rindaldi. Since being baptized he has remained active, and received the Aaronic Priesthood. Yesterday he was able to exercise his Priesthood, and put a congregation of about 100 or more people under covenant with God. When he gave the blessing he gave it with so much conviction. The Spirit truely has converted him to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All he talks about when he comes over his how he can't wait for his kids to go on a mission, and do the same things we are doing. He also said he would like to tell ever young man before he leaves on his mission, "You have no idea what you are about to do for the lives of people". Our prayer this week is that we will be able to make this area a model area.
• The Last few weeks have been a little difficult finding people to teach. It's so hard not to get discouraged when your numbers are awful when the members don't go out with you. At times I feel like I have to worry about everyone and try to solve everyone's problems. I worry about Recent converts, and investigators. It can be kind of draining emotionally and physically. I really worry about some of my recent converts and I am trying to do everything I can to make sure that they stay active so that they will go to the temple. I WANT TO SEAL FAMILIES!!! So I keep telling myself that I have to do everything in power so that my fruit will remain. I really love my recent converts and I want them to progress and fully enjoy the blessings of the gospel. I get really sad when I don't see them at church. So this Sunday I made sure that everyone that I helped get baptized was at church. I worked so hard but EVERYONE was at church last Sunday :) It made me so happy to see all of my recent converts at church. I will take care of these precious souls because they are dear to me.
• This week was better for us because we have both been more obedient in following the schedule. Thank you for the interview last Thursday it really helped me in knowing the importance of the schedule and why we have it. I always appreciate the doctrine that you always give in your lessons. have a nice week.
• Everything is going pretty good. This week has been really good. We had an awesome baptism last night. After it was done the father of the family bore his testimony and just said how grateful he was to make this step with his family and the joy he felt in his life. It was really good to see that family progress and do all that they needed to do to get baptized. They are going to be very strong members and I cant wait to see them go through the temple and be sealed.
• We had two great baptism this last week. The thing my companion and I are going to do is organize and teach the new converts how to teach the lessons from PMG and we are going to take them out with us to teach. We are going to do this for a couple of reasons.
1) to strengthen the new converts in their testimony and knowledge of the gospel
2) To help us have more members at lessons and fellowshipers for our investigators
As I told you in our interview, our biggest problem in this area is getting members at our lessons. My companion and I have prayed and we feel that gather the new converts together and bringing them with us will help us to further the work in this area.
• The work is going great up here, We have foud two new families that are willing to meet with us and this ending week even though we couln't acheive our goals, it was a wonderful week. Two of the 6 people that we have planned got baptized and the baptisms were awesome, you could feel a really strong spirit there. One of the people who got baptized was really prepared and yesterday his baptism was a great expiritual experience for me, I almost cry -something that is not very usual on me- when I was talking about the holy ghost. The truth is that I never met someone that was so, so prepared to be baptized. Not even my family or I were that prepared when we got baptized. Now I have gain a testimony that truly there is people that is waiting for us to knock on their door to receive the restored gospel and follow our lord jesus christ throug baptism.
• Our week was slow, but good. Many of our investogators weren't able to see us this week so we did very little teaching, but some other good things happened. We had a great dinner with an inactive family. For some reason we really clicked with that family. I really feel that they are a family that I was meant to meet here in the mission field. The wife was even a little teary eyed when we said goodbye. I am grateful for that evening. I was feeling a little discouraged to that point so it was a great boost. On my mission I have noticed that when I am feeling a little down about things Heavenly Father will bless me with an experience that will boost my spirits and let me know that He is still there. I am so grateful!
• The work continues to progress... We contacted a referal today who wants to talk about how families can be together forever. We dropped a copy of Together Forever off, and although he wanted to talk to his wife and watch it before making an appointment, we played a bit of basketball in their driveway with him and his son, and built a really good relationship to the point where he said "you elders can come back anytime, you're always welcome here", and yes they're non members! I can see some great progression happening there!
• This has been one of the most rewarding weeks of my mission. David White got baptized. It was amazing. I have only cried at two baptisms on my whole mission and this was one of them. It hit me when he was walking into the water that that was the moment that we had been working towards for so long. We met this amazing family in November and David had many things to overcome before he could get baptized. The first time we met with him he accepted a date for the next Saturday, but it obviously did not work out and we have been fasting and praying ever since. When we were taking pictures before the baptism his wife said, "Do you know what is so amazing about this? This is one step closer to having an eternal family." I can't even imagine how much she has gone through with David to get to this point. I can't wait to go to their sealing next year
• Just working on using our finding tools, besides that I feel wonderful. I refuse to let the adversary have a part in me. I love God and the Savior and I want to have His Spirit with me so I can invite all I can to come unto Christ. I will magnify my office unto the Lord and strive to build others up, if they like the structure of their building that's fine... The rain will still decend and the winds will still blow, in time all will come to know. some more new investigators.
Monday, March 8, 2010
• Our area is busy. We are working full steam, we had 32 lessons this week and last week, and praying hard for our investigators. Each week we plan what we should pray for for our investigators, then each night we pick 3 or 4 to pray for so that we can keep our prayers sincere. We have seen miracles happen from this. We are beginning to realize that keeping our area book completely up to date actually takes several hours a week. We have made a resolve to do it though, and have been working for the past three weeks to get it all the way current. We have found that white out tape greatly expedites the process. We can remove old information for individuals without re-writing entire forms. What is really exciting is that we are seeing blessings come from doing it. It seemed almost impossible before, as we were focused on helping our investigators, and teaching 3-7 lessons a day worth of updates. Then updating our ward mission leaders each night. Not to mention our brains are a little fried by the time we get home at night.
• Things are going really great right now. The work is finally starting to pick up thanks to the training you did about a week and half ago. The stake president has really caught the fire and so everyone else has caught it along with him. We are getting a lot more referrals and from those referrals, a lot more potential investigators and then new investigators once we start teaching them. All the people we are currently teaching have accepted to get baptized. A lot of people just have problems setting up a date because of their work schedule or whatever. But we have been praying for solutions for each investigator individually and things have worked out. Heavenly Father is truly answering our prayers and has guided us to the "elect" who are willing and ready to receive the gospel. As well as some not quite ready yet, but are getting there as they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It amazed me how much the Lord can change someone's heart as soon as they humble themselves enough to let Him intotheir lives. People who were once caustic and anti, now are willing to meet with us and to try it out to see if they can get the answers they are searching for. Our numbers have been going up and they are likely to continue going up for this week!
• This week we did have the baptism of Joe Archuleta. I taught his wife back in September, and she got baptized Sept. 27. He took one lesson, but decided he had already been baptized and didn't want really anything to do with us. As he was walking out of the font he looked back and winked at his wife. She was crying and so was he. They are so happy together. It is so good to see families come together. They are some of my favorite people I have had the chance to teach! Things are going good. I continue to be ever so appreciative of my companion. She helps me be better, and more faithful. I love her. I admire the faith that she has. I am very optimistic about the coming week!!
• This week has been good. I gotta figure out why we aren't teaching so many lessons with a member. I'm not exactly sure why, we have a good teaching pool.The branches are still awesome, they help a lot.The president is also following up with everyone with the 15 names (the far majority of the names are less actives).
• Oh, and for the first time i've finished the book of mormon.
• So things are good, March should be an amazing month. We met a family that has been working on their non-member friends for 6+ years. When we walked into their home, they said they had been waiting for the right missionaries and they said that we were them. Thats exciting!
• We got a ton of calls from the leadership in one of our wards and a young man just walked into the church and wanted to be baptized! His name is Michael Woods and we'll keep you undated on that situation.I learned that perserverance pay off in the end.
• We have started to teach some active member lessons, which I think will bring us a lot of referrals, and help us get to know the members a lot better. I think it will be great. Not too much else, but we are looking forward to a few baptisms in the next few weeks.
• Last week was quite depressing but this week was awesome! I know it was because i excersized my faith. As i finished the Book of Mormon challenge i noticed the last chapters really emphazised faith-Alma32 Moroni 7 Ether 12. I came to realize that i did not have enough faith to request the great miracles i was expecting. I always heard, "It's all mindset" but i never understood it untill this week. President, i have seen miracles this week. I have promised blessings in the name of Jesus Christ and they have come to pass yet I am barely learning what faith is.
• I finished the Book of Mormon Challenge, and when I knelt down and prayed to try Moroni's promise, the only feeling I got was...Read it Again! So I've already started.
• I really enjoyed learning from Elder Ballard this past weekend. the spirit that was with that man caused me to reflect on the nature of my own calling. President, it is my personal concern that we as missionaries sometimes forget just how real and sacred our call is. I made it a personal goal of mine to always be worthy of the spirit by be ever conscious of my thoughts, words and actions. I've made this goal because upon reflection of my feelings after hearing an apostle of the Lord, I concluded that I felt and was taught the spirit. I want my investigators to say the same thing after a lesson with us.
• I forgot to tell you last week about what i learned at zone conference. Sorry about that. I really liked the final session that you gave about accountability. What you said about being accountable to the Lord is very true. Alot of the times we think of being accountable to leaders and even to ourselves, but we forget about the Lord. We forget that ultimately we have to be accountable to Him.
• Well the long months of work are starting to pay off for the area. We have baptized three weeks consecutive and we look to make that several more. Right now on paper it is looking at 6 consecutive! We are happy about that. We should have more on date right now but a few fell off by not attending church. Thatwill change though this week.
• This week we visited a family that just finished going through a divorce. The mother left and now its just the young father and his 5 children. We stop by and shared lesson 1 and talk to him about becoming worthy and baptizing his 2 children of age. He said he wants to go through the temple and be worthy to baptize his daughters by April 24th. Its was just amazing to see how this man decided to change his life for the better after such a tragic event. He knows he can do it too. Its just an amazing reminder to me that the ultimate goal of teaching these families is to get them to the temple.
• We actually taught 24 lessons this week!... We're trying to get each investigator family at least one fellowshipper family, which is going well. We just can't be the only support and contact with the gospel the investigators have. They really DO need a friend and support in the change they are making. I wish more people understood this. I've noticed they my teaching has improved dramatically in the previous weeks; that's one of the reasons I really like training; I become a better missionary. It teaches me more faster than any other time on my mission.
• Gertrude was baptized this week! The spirit was so strong there. I know that her family was able to feel it and kept praying that they would have the desire to find out for themselves as well if this church was true. She was so happy the entire night and I know it was because she felt the spirit as well and that she knew she was making a very good choice. There was so many people from the ward there! Honestly there was at least 30 people there. That ward is so supportive of her and her family. I know that their influence and fellowshipping has been a major role in her decision to become a part of Christ's true church. She is truly going to bless her family now that she is a member. We are really excited to continue teaching her husband and 2 children.
• Studies always fill me and when i'm filled then I can have others come to drain me. Then I fill right back up. This is tough President, a mission. I'm glad i'm being given strength. I Will have four on date this week. I know I will. I am willing to work hard for it. I believe in the prayer of Faith.
• We are continually trying to teach 21 lessons for the week, and focusing on finding new investigators. Sometimes I wish there was a switch you could flip on, and make anyone be receptive to what you are saying. I'm not sure why the Lord prepares people at different times. But, as we continue to be diligent I know the Lord will bless our area.
• In ZLC I learned something very valuable. While discussing ways to solve problems, the thought came to my mind "this could all be solved with an increase of humility." This being my first ZLC, I didn't speak up..so I was surprised when Humility was written on the board. What I learned in ZLC is that a lot of the issues discussed regarding the mission can be be resolved more quickly and efficiently when we focus on implementing gospel principals and Christ-like attributes into the hearts and lives of the missionaries.
• You know President,I think that I've finally figured it out. It really doesn't make a difference to Heavenly Father whether we bring someone to Christ for the first time, or if we bring them back to Christ. I really get it now. We're working with two less-active families that have eight year olds that they want baptized. In of the families only the father is active while his wife, daughter (22) and son (19) are all less-active. After teaching at their home for only one visit,the wife and daughter attended church with the husband. When we visited their home again yesterday the daughter said that since we came by a week ago she has had a desire to get active in the church. The mother confessed that she has a testimony, but that she struggles with obedience. The Spirit has begun to make a mighty change in that family. As missionaries, I guess that we really do bring the Spirit into the homes of those we teach. It may sometimes not be noticeable to us, but it is definitely notice.
• As I said though, it was a good week on the conversion front. That investigator's mom continues to really love returning to church, and the man who got baptized in our area last week received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. After the ordination, he said, "I really felt something special," a comment that hadn't been made when he was baptized or confirmed. I love how the Spirit can testify to us! Also, the bishop of the man we are going to baptize this coming week told us yesterday that he plans on presenting him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood immediately after he is confirmed. Speaking of that man, after church yesterday we saw him, his wife and twin daughters walking home from church together, he pulling a wagon with his daughters in it. At that moment, I pictured them at the temple in a year, being sealed as a family. All in all, though it was a bit of a frustrating week, there were a few choice experiences that made it all worth it. It was another testimony to me that we aren't here just to see people get baptized, but to help them get to the temple.
• Things are going really great right now. The work is finally starting to pick up thanks to the training you did about a week and half ago. The stake president has really caught the fire and so everyone else has caught it along with him. We are getting a lot more referrals and from those referrals, a lot more potential investigators and then new investigators once we start teaching them. All the people we are currently teaching have accepted to get baptized. A lot of people just have problems setting up a date because of their work schedule or whatever. But we have been praying for solutions for each investigator individually and things have worked out. Heavenly Father is truly answering our prayers and has guided us to the "elect" who are willing and ready to receive the gospel. As well as some not quite ready yet, but are getting there as they read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It amazed me how much the Lord can change someone's heart as soon as they humble themselves enough to let Him intotheir lives. People who were once caustic and anti, now are willing to meet with us and to try it out to see if they can get the answers they are searching for. Our numbers have been going up and they are likely to continue going up for this week!
• This week we did have the baptism of Joe Archuleta. I taught his wife back in September, and she got baptized Sept. 27. He took one lesson, but decided he had already been baptized and didn't want really anything to do with us. As he was walking out of the font he looked back and winked at his wife. She was crying and so was he. They are so happy together. It is so good to see families come together. They are some of my favorite people I have had the chance to teach! Things are going good. I continue to be ever so appreciative of my companion. She helps me be better, and more faithful. I love her. I admire the faith that she has. I am very optimistic about the coming week!!
• This week has been good. I gotta figure out why we aren't teaching so many lessons with a member. I'm not exactly sure why, we have a good teaching pool.The branches are still awesome, they help a lot.The president is also following up with everyone with the 15 names (the far majority of the names are less actives).
• Oh, and for the first time i've finished the book of mormon.
• So things are good, March should be an amazing month. We met a family that has been working on their non-member friends for 6+ years. When we walked into their home, they said they had been waiting for the right missionaries and they said that we were them. Thats exciting!
• We got a ton of calls from the leadership in one of our wards and a young man just walked into the church and wanted to be baptized! His name is Michael Woods and we'll keep you undated on that situation.I learned that perserverance pay off in the end.
• We have started to teach some active member lessons, which I think will bring us a lot of referrals, and help us get to know the members a lot better. I think it will be great. Not too much else, but we are looking forward to a few baptisms in the next few weeks.
• Last week was quite depressing but this week was awesome! I know it was because i excersized my faith. As i finished the Book of Mormon challenge i noticed the last chapters really emphazised faith-Alma32 Moroni 7 Ether 12. I came to realize that i did not have enough faith to request the great miracles i was expecting. I always heard, "It's all mindset" but i never understood it untill this week. President, i have seen miracles this week. I have promised blessings in the name of Jesus Christ and they have come to pass yet I am barely learning what faith is.
• I finished the Book of Mormon Challenge, and when I knelt down and prayed to try Moroni's promise, the only feeling I got was...Read it Again! So I've already started.
• I really enjoyed learning from Elder Ballard this past weekend. the spirit that was with that man caused me to reflect on the nature of my own calling. President, it is my personal concern that we as missionaries sometimes forget just how real and sacred our call is. I made it a personal goal of mine to always be worthy of the spirit by be ever conscious of my thoughts, words and actions. I've made this goal because upon reflection of my feelings after hearing an apostle of the Lord, I concluded that I felt and was taught the spirit. I want my investigators to say the same thing after a lesson with us.
• I forgot to tell you last week about what i learned at zone conference. Sorry about that. I really liked the final session that you gave about accountability. What you said about being accountable to the Lord is very true. Alot of the times we think of being accountable to leaders and even to ourselves, but we forget about the Lord. We forget that ultimately we have to be accountable to Him.
• Well the long months of work are starting to pay off for the area. We have baptized three weeks consecutive and we look to make that several more. Right now on paper it is looking at 6 consecutive! We are happy about that. We should have more on date right now but a few fell off by not attending church. Thatwill change though this week.
• This week we visited a family that just finished going through a divorce. The mother left and now its just the young father and his 5 children. We stop by and shared lesson 1 and talk to him about becoming worthy and baptizing his 2 children of age. He said he wants to go through the temple and be worthy to baptize his daughters by April 24th. Its was just amazing to see how this man decided to change his life for the better after such a tragic event. He knows he can do it too. Its just an amazing reminder to me that the ultimate goal of teaching these families is to get them to the temple.
• We actually taught 24 lessons this week!... We're trying to get each investigator family at least one fellowshipper family, which is going well. We just can't be the only support and contact with the gospel the investigators have. They really DO need a friend and support in the change they are making. I wish more people understood this. I've noticed they my teaching has improved dramatically in the previous weeks; that's one of the reasons I really like training; I become a better missionary. It teaches me more faster than any other time on my mission.
• Gertrude was baptized this week! The spirit was so strong there. I know that her family was able to feel it and kept praying that they would have the desire to find out for themselves as well if this church was true. She was so happy the entire night and I know it was because she felt the spirit as well and that she knew she was making a very good choice. There was so many people from the ward there! Honestly there was at least 30 people there. That ward is so supportive of her and her family. I know that their influence and fellowshipping has been a major role in her decision to become a part of Christ's true church. She is truly going to bless her family now that she is a member. We are really excited to continue teaching her husband and 2 children.
• Studies always fill me and when i'm filled then I can have others come to drain me. Then I fill right back up. This is tough President, a mission. I'm glad i'm being given strength. I Will have four on date this week. I know I will. I am willing to work hard for it. I believe in the prayer of Faith.
• We are continually trying to teach 21 lessons for the week, and focusing on finding new investigators. Sometimes I wish there was a switch you could flip on, and make anyone be receptive to what you are saying. I'm not sure why the Lord prepares people at different times. But, as we continue to be diligent I know the Lord will bless our area.
• In ZLC I learned something very valuable. While discussing ways to solve problems, the thought came to my mind "this could all be solved with an increase of humility." This being my first ZLC, I didn't speak up..so I was surprised when Humility was written on the board. What I learned in ZLC is that a lot of the issues discussed regarding the mission can be be resolved more quickly and efficiently when we focus on implementing gospel principals and Christ-like attributes into the hearts and lives of the missionaries.
• You know President,I think that I've finally figured it out. It really doesn't make a difference to Heavenly Father whether we bring someone to Christ for the first time, or if we bring them back to Christ. I really get it now. We're working with two less-active families that have eight year olds that they want baptized. In of the families only the father is active while his wife, daughter (22) and son (19) are all less-active. After teaching at their home for only one visit,the wife and daughter attended church with the husband. When we visited their home again yesterday the daughter said that since we came by a week ago she has had a desire to get active in the church. The mother confessed that she has a testimony, but that she struggles with obedience. The Spirit has begun to make a mighty change in that family. As missionaries, I guess that we really do bring the Spirit into the homes of those we teach. It may sometimes not be noticeable to us, but it is definitely notice.
• As I said though, it was a good week on the conversion front. That investigator's mom continues to really love returning to church, and the man who got baptized in our area last week received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. After the ordination, he said, "I really felt something special," a comment that hadn't been made when he was baptized or confirmed. I love how the Spirit can testify to us! Also, the bishop of the man we are going to baptize this coming week told us yesterday that he plans on presenting him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood immediately after he is confirmed. Speaking of that man, after church yesterday we saw him, his wife and twin daughters walking home from church together, he pulling a wagon with his daughters in it. At that moment, I pictured them at the temple in a year, being sealed as a family. All in all, though it was a bit of a frustrating week, there were a few choice experiences that made it all worth it. It was another testimony to me that we aren't here just to see people get baptized, but to help them get to the temple.
Monday, March 1, 2010
• Like I mentioned before this has been one of the msot amazing spiritual weeks of my mission. We have been guided by the hand this entire week, and it has been absolutley amazing. I have never had such meaningful amazing prayers in my entire life. We have this week taken a new approach to praying. When Jesus raised Lazarus, he thanked God for hearing him, before anything happened. We have been doing the same. Instead of vaguely asking for a random blessing, we thank him in all of our prayers, for what he has provided us, even though nothing had happened yet. on Monday we thanked him for one new investigator, and that night we were led, and foun one new investigator. On thursday we thanked him for the three investigators that he had given us, and he gave us four. On Friday we thanked him for the two investigators he had given us, and he gave us two, at the last hours of the day. on sunday we thanked him for the new investigator that he had prepared, and he led us to that person. We shared this method with the Zone Leaders, they applied it twice, and have been guided to those people both times. We have done this ten times, and ten times the lord has provided. This has been one of the msot amazing scriptures, I find myself in awe knowing how we are beeing guided, and held by the hand. It has been an amazing week, full of lessons, and spiritual experiences, that i cant begin to number. I am just thankful for the opportunity to strengthen my testimony, and see the hand of God at work.
• This week was so rewarding, when we witnessed a family accepting the gospel in their lives, the Murillo family. We found this family through one of our converts, Maria Romero. She's the sister of the wife in that family, so after she was baptized she wanted to share that happiness with her sister, and this miracle happened, she and her family accepted the true church in their lives. We have two investigators on date now but we have set a lot of appointments with potential investigators so you'll have better news from us pretty soon. Have a great week!
• We have had a lot of success this week with members, nonmembers, less active, and part member families. This week we went to a lot of less active member's homes for dinner. We tried really hard to locate and resolve concerns and invite them to come back to church. It was really exciting to see some less active members come to church this Sunday that haven't been to church in forever. It makes you feel like you're actually making a difference. We also had some success with nonmembers. We got a call earlier this week from a lady who said she had a referral for us if she felt we were good missionaries! She is the sister-in-law of the referral family. She has been trying for years to bring them the gospel. She told us how she felt they were ready for the gospel but had some bad experiences with missionaries. Each run in with missionaries had been spaced by a couple years and she wanted us to realize the gravity of them trying again. One set had been offensive, one set missed an appointment, one set she felt was stupid, etc... After talking with us for a while she decided to have us meet them for a lesson. We prepared the best we could and were right on time. We even did an opening song on their piano. We really didn't know how they were responding to our lesson until about half way through the lesson the mom burst out laughing right in the middle of me speaking!! I felt really bad because I thought she was laughing at me. After her sister-in-law demanded to know what was funny she said, “You knew I had a bad experience with missionaries so this time they sent the best ones they have!”. Wow that was not at all what I expected. Their whole family came to sacrament on Sunday.
• What I learned from Zone Conference is no man that wasn't preordained would have never been able to accomplish the work that Joseph Smith did. He endured many things so that the restoration of the gospel could come forth. Joseph Smith may have not been a perfect man, but he was valiant and had faith beyond my own. I felt my testimony grow from the knowledge that no man could go through what he did if it was of his own design, he would have stopped, the church would not grown as it did, and if the truths that were revealed to him and that have come by revelation since were not truly the word of God the missionary work that we do would not be as successful as it is. What am I going to do... bear testimony with more conviction about the restoration. I do not know if my faith is strong enough that I would be able to lay down my life, but I will continue to grow my testimony so that it can be at least unshaken. Through study of JS-H and the Book of Mormon at the same time you come to realize that people are still l the same and the devil uses the same tricks just with different things.
• I really liked zone conference this week. Leading up to it, I prayed and studied all of the material I had on Joseph Smith in PMG and read multiple times JSH. I really prayed to increase my testimony of him. During the guest speaker, I felt a constant burning in my chest. I know that the prophet is true. I knew it before, but I have a firmer conviction when I now bear testimony of him. I learned a lot more about the towns and places that certain events happened. I have never studied or been interested much as to where exactly Alvin died or where the monument to Joseph Smith is. Now that I am more familiar with his history, I want to study more and know exactly what events happened where. I am going to go through the list of scriptures this week that were given to us in order to more fully develop my testimony and knowledge of Joseph Smith.
• This past week was pretty awesome. One of our stakes had there conference during the weekend. Something I have dreamed about my whole mission was to meet an Apostle? Elder Ballard came with Elder Huntsman of the seventy to do the stake conference. It was amazing. We sat in the very first row along with our recent convert that was bapized last week. Afterwards he signaled for my companion, and I to come up to shake his hand. It was so surreal. I couldn't belive it. Then on Sunday morning we walked out of the bathroom, and there he was again. He came up to us said hi, and we shook his hand again. When you meet an Apostle there isn't a huge miraculous feeling. You do recieve a feeling of comfort, and you know that he is a Prophet of God. It was a pretty cool experience. Date Febuary 16th, 2010 Signature Elder Chris Bowen
• Zone conference was amazing. I can always feel the Spirit strongly testify to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Everytime I hear about the life and mission of Joseph Smith, it feels like the Holy Ghost is teaching me for the first time. Friday morning for personal study, I took time to read Doctrine and Covenants 135. We talked about what we can do to take what we learned into our area and we really decided that we need to testify more frequantly and more boldly and more powerfully of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
• At Zone Conference I learned so much. I have always known Joseph Smith was a prophet but this really confirmed it to me. He was a great man and he did so much for us that with out his sacrifice we would not be here. After listing to to Brother Jessie talk about his life it made me want to read the books and really get to know what the Prophet went through. It opened up my eyes to who Joseph smith really was. Thank you for having this conference. It was amazing.
• Zone Conference last week was an amazing experience. I learned many things, chief among this was the importance of Joseph Smith. I learned how all we do as missionaries, and the whole church, hangs on the truth of the First Vision. I will make sure to stress the importance of this with every investigator. I've also learned how we are to baptize to seal. I never thought of it in that light until I saw the slide show in the afternoon session. I know now that when we baptize someone, the goal is for them to go the the Holy Temple and receive all the saving ordinances contained therein.
• This conference was amazing. When I heard that the theme for conference was the prophet Joseph Smith I was really excited. I truly love the Prophet Joseph Smith and I was really excited to read again JSH and to list the ten reasons why I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. One of my Favorites songs is Joseph's Smith first Prayer. I really wanted to take this opportunity and do everything I could to gain a stronger conviction of the prophet. As I prayerfully study JSH added knowledge and conviction of his calling was testified once again. Writing down the ten reasons why I knew the prophet Joseph Smith was a prophet of God at first seemed difficult but as I continued to study and ponder the reasons started coming. There were so many reasons why I knew that the Joseph was a prophet. My love and appreciation for him grew stronger. Because I was prepared and ready to learn the Lord was able to teach me new things of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love how we were given the maps of historical events that happened in Joseph's life. And how we were able to hear details and stories of his life. I was able to get to know him as an individual. I had the opportunity to role play the restoration in one of the workshops and hearing myself testify and recite the first vision strengthen my testimony. I know that Joseph was called from God leaving Zone Conference I made a promise to the Lord that I would proclaim these things with more power that I would do everything to help others know that God called a prophet in 1820.
• The Zone Conference was amazing. It was great to hear from the man who worked on the Joseph Smith Papers and hear his insights about D&C 1, 67-70. I learned also that Lucy Mack Smith's mom went to the grove to pray and Joseph Smith followed her example. The overall theme I took from it is to remember the sacred story that we're teaching people and not to be mechanical about the first vision. I felt inspired by the sacrifices and challenges that Joseph went through. I was encouraged by the insight about the first vision and how Joseph Smith overcame Satan. I'm going to learn who Joseph is and strive to have more conviction in my teaching.
• Zone Conference:
Learned- I learned that I have a deep rooted passion for Joseph Smith and all he did! NO ONE can tell me he is not a prophet! He has lived closer to Jesus Christ than any other person and I am grateful for all he did!
Felt- I felt my testimony grow stronger as we talked about Joseph Smith! My favorite work shop was Elder Englund's and Dixon's training! I felt my chest actually feel like it caught fire and I jumped at the opportunity to share my testimony when they invited us to!
Do- I have made one of the most amazing lessons for one of our investigators about trials and it all revovles around Joseph Smith! I used the Jospeh Smith manual and the things he went through applies right to our investigator and I feel she will really benefit from the lesson we prepared I can't wait to teach her it today!
• I learned a lot about Joseph Smith a lot in the zone conference. Like what I said in my testimony that I didn't really study A LOT about Joseph Smith untill I came to United State. I always knew the gospel and the church is true but I learned that the restoration is really important because if we have a testimony of Joseph, everything become true. My appreciation to Joseph is increased from this conference. He felt alone, he had no body around him. He kept the truth and died. He did it for people and for us. I truly know that he was choosen and it was the right time to restore the gospel from God. I am so greatful for his record and experience because if he didn't follow god's will, we wouldn't have the gospel, the fullness of the gospel. I really feel peace in my heart and feel the spirit everytime I think about him. This is so important. I want to share about restoration as much as I can to testify that he was a prohet and he saw god and Jesus. Because of this we have the Church of Jesus Christ. I want to plant the seed in every investigators about Joseph Smith and also to inactive members too. I am so greatful for the zone conference. Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn about him.
• This week went very well. As you can see from the key indicators we found four new investigators this week. The Lord was really guiding us to those who would accept His message. I could definitely see His hand more in the work this week. It helped with the greater focus we had on planning after zone conference. Planning doesn't restict what we can do during the day, but lets us know what would be effective in the Lord's sight. It is the Lord's work, so when we ask for His direction, it is so much better.
• Finally we had the miracle we have been waiting for! We were tracting in Stillwater apartments, I and had to go to the bathroom. I had never gone into the apartment office before, but we decided to go into the office to use their bathroom. As soon as we walked in, a member walked up to us and said that someone came to church this past Sunday, they befriended her, and she expressed desire to be baptized. They didn't know where she lived, only the whereabouts. So we tracted her out and found her! Meiling will be baptized this Saturday.
• Weekly Scripture: Missionary work in a nutshell. We have a lot of freedom as to if we work or slack off, there really isn't "anyone" watching our every move, but the joy in missionary work is only found when we have the desire to work every minute of everyday. When not teaching making new contacts or making contact with your investigators. Just as the scripture says we will not see our reward if we are not actively engaged because our reward is not from Heaven anymore.
• D&C 58:26-33 - We have the responsibility to work as hard as we can to further the work of the Lord. If we desire blessings, we must go forward. It is hard to recognize the tender mercies given to us if we do not even try to press on. To receive and recognize blessings, we must be prepared to continue with our work whether we are blessed in it or not. If we have the faith to go forward, we will receive support from on high.
• One thing I learned at zone conference is that being too organized can be a problem. If there is one thing I've been diligent at, it is updating the area book. I have lists and pages of every single hispanic family we know or have heard about in the area and I slave away at keeping it updated. However, I realize that the next set of missionaries may not be so diligent, and there is a probability that they may either ignore or even lose the information I've obtained, and that future missionaries will gather it again anyways. Yes, we should be diligent in updating, but we can spend too much time doing unimportant things... the paper records are important, but more important is activating and converting the people represented by them.
• This week has been an absolute crazy week! It seems like it just gets busier and busier and I can feel myself just starting to burn out!!! I am tired everywhere I go and I feel weaker everyday! Guess that's how I know I am ful-filling my purpose as a missionary! I remember someone said something an apostle or prophet said, something like when you get off the plane when you get home you should collapse when you in exhaustion when you get off or something like that, well at this rate I will probably pass out when I get off!!! haha but it has been rewarding! we are being blessed with people to teach and our prayers are being answered! Something I found out about sacrifice. When you are being 100% obedient, It is really HARD to find something to sacrifice!!! I think obedience is the perfect sacrifice! Anyway I feel drained and I hope I can find those bits of energy and just pull them out because I need them!!! haha alright President the zone is starting to get better unity wise.
• Zone Conference was directed towards me, b/c I felt I needed to re-enforce my testimony on the Prophet Joseph Smith and on setting goals. It made me realize the importance of having goals and how I can better develop them after the mission. I also have to take better care of the area book and update it which im working on now. It helped me grow my testimony.
• This week was so rewarding, when we witnessed a family accepting the gospel in their lives, the Murillo family. We found this family through one of our converts, Maria Romero. She's the sister of the wife in that family, so after she was baptized she wanted to share that happiness with her sister, and this miracle happened, she and her family accepted the true church in their lives. We have two investigators on date now but we have set a lot of appointments with potential investigators so you'll have better news from us pretty soon. Have a great week!
• We have had a lot of success this week with members, nonmembers, less active, and part member families. This week we went to a lot of less active member's homes for dinner. We tried really hard to locate and resolve concerns and invite them to come back to church. It was really exciting to see some less active members come to church this Sunday that haven't been to church in forever. It makes you feel like you're actually making a difference. We also had some success with nonmembers. We got a call earlier this week from a lady who said she had a referral for us if she felt we were good missionaries! She is the sister-in-law of the referral family. She has been trying for years to bring them the gospel. She told us how she felt they were ready for the gospel but had some bad experiences with missionaries. Each run in with missionaries had been spaced by a couple years and she wanted us to realize the gravity of them trying again. One set had been offensive, one set missed an appointment, one set she felt was stupid, etc... After talking with us for a while she decided to have us meet them for a lesson. We prepared the best we could and were right on time. We even did an opening song on their piano. We really didn't know how they were responding to our lesson until about half way through the lesson the mom burst out laughing right in the middle of me speaking!! I felt really bad because I thought she was laughing at me. After her sister-in-law demanded to know what was funny she said, “You knew I had a bad experience with missionaries so this time they sent the best ones they have!”. Wow that was not at all what I expected. Their whole family came to sacrament on Sunday.
• What I learned from Zone Conference is no man that wasn't preordained would have never been able to accomplish the work that Joseph Smith did. He endured many things so that the restoration of the gospel could come forth. Joseph Smith may have not been a perfect man, but he was valiant and had faith beyond my own. I felt my testimony grow from the knowledge that no man could go through what he did if it was of his own design, he would have stopped, the church would not grown as it did, and if the truths that were revealed to him and that have come by revelation since were not truly the word of God the missionary work that we do would not be as successful as it is. What am I going to do... bear testimony with more conviction about the restoration. I do not know if my faith is strong enough that I would be able to lay down my life, but I will continue to grow my testimony so that it can be at least unshaken. Through study of JS-H and the Book of Mormon at the same time you come to realize that people are still l the same and the devil uses the same tricks just with different things.
• I really liked zone conference this week. Leading up to it, I prayed and studied all of the material I had on Joseph Smith in PMG and read multiple times JSH. I really prayed to increase my testimony of him. During the guest speaker, I felt a constant burning in my chest. I know that the prophet is true. I knew it before, but I have a firmer conviction when I now bear testimony of him. I learned a lot more about the towns and places that certain events happened. I have never studied or been interested much as to where exactly Alvin died or where the monument to Joseph Smith is. Now that I am more familiar with his history, I want to study more and know exactly what events happened where. I am going to go through the list of scriptures this week that were given to us in order to more fully develop my testimony and knowledge of Joseph Smith.
• This past week was pretty awesome. One of our stakes had there conference during the weekend. Something I have dreamed about my whole mission was to meet an Apostle? Elder Ballard came with Elder Huntsman of the seventy to do the stake conference. It was amazing. We sat in the very first row along with our recent convert that was bapized last week. Afterwards he signaled for my companion, and I to come up to shake his hand. It was so surreal. I couldn't belive it. Then on Sunday morning we walked out of the bathroom, and there he was again. He came up to us said hi, and we shook his hand again. When you meet an Apostle there isn't a huge miraculous feeling. You do recieve a feeling of comfort, and you know that he is a Prophet of God. It was a pretty cool experience. Date Febuary 16th, 2010 Signature Elder Chris Bowen
• Zone conference was amazing. I can always feel the Spirit strongly testify to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Everytime I hear about the life and mission of Joseph Smith, it feels like the Holy Ghost is teaching me for the first time. Friday morning for personal study, I took time to read Doctrine and Covenants 135. We talked about what we can do to take what we learned into our area and we really decided that we need to testify more frequantly and more boldly and more powerfully of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
• At Zone Conference I learned so much. I have always known Joseph Smith was a prophet but this really confirmed it to me. He was a great man and he did so much for us that with out his sacrifice we would not be here. After listing to to Brother Jessie talk about his life it made me want to read the books and really get to know what the Prophet went through. It opened up my eyes to who Joseph smith really was. Thank you for having this conference. It was amazing.
• Zone Conference last week was an amazing experience. I learned many things, chief among this was the importance of Joseph Smith. I learned how all we do as missionaries, and the whole church, hangs on the truth of the First Vision. I will make sure to stress the importance of this with every investigator. I've also learned how we are to baptize to seal. I never thought of it in that light until I saw the slide show in the afternoon session. I know now that when we baptize someone, the goal is for them to go the the Holy Temple and receive all the saving ordinances contained therein.
• This conference was amazing. When I heard that the theme for conference was the prophet Joseph Smith I was really excited. I truly love the Prophet Joseph Smith and I was really excited to read again JSH and to list the ten reasons why I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. One of my Favorites songs is Joseph's Smith first Prayer. I really wanted to take this opportunity and do everything I could to gain a stronger conviction of the prophet. As I prayerfully study JSH added knowledge and conviction of his calling was testified once again. Writing down the ten reasons why I knew the prophet Joseph Smith was a prophet of God at first seemed difficult but as I continued to study and ponder the reasons started coming. There were so many reasons why I knew that the Joseph was a prophet. My love and appreciation for him grew stronger. Because I was prepared and ready to learn the Lord was able to teach me new things of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love how we were given the maps of historical events that happened in Joseph's life. And how we were able to hear details and stories of his life. I was able to get to know him as an individual. I had the opportunity to role play the restoration in one of the workshops and hearing myself testify and recite the first vision strengthen my testimony. I know that Joseph was called from God leaving Zone Conference I made a promise to the Lord that I would proclaim these things with more power that I would do everything to help others know that God called a prophet in 1820.
• The Zone Conference was amazing. It was great to hear from the man who worked on the Joseph Smith Papers and hear his insights about D&C 1, 67-70. I learned also that Lucy Mack Smith's mom went to the grove to pray and Joseph Smith followed her example. The overall theme I took from it is to remember the sacred story that we're teaching people and not to be mechanical about the first vision. I felt inspired by the sacrifices and challenges that Joseph went through. I was encouraged by the insight about the first vision and how Joseph Smith overcame Satan. I'm going to learn who Joseph is and strive to have more conviction in my teaching.
• Zone Conference:
Learned- I learned that I have a deep rooted passion for Joseph Smith and all he did! NO ONE can tell me he is not a prophet! He has lived closer to Jesus Christ than any other person and I am grateful for all he did!
Felt- I felt my testimony grow stronger as we talked about Joseph Smith! My favorite work shop was Elder Englund's and Dixon's training! I felt my chest actually feel like it caught fire and I jumped at the opportunity to share my testimony when they invited us to!
Do- I have made one of the most amazing lessons for one of our investigators about trials and it all revovles around Joseph Smith! I used the Jospeh Smith manual and the things he went through applies right to our investigator and I feel she will really benefit from the lesson we prepared I can't wait to teach her it today!
• I learned a lot about Joseph Smith a lot in the zone conference. Like what I said in my testimony that I didn't really study A LOT about Joseph Smith untill I came to United State. I always knew the gospel and the church is true but I learned that the restoration is really important because if we have a testimony of Joseph, everything become true. My appreciation to Joseph is increased from this conference. He felt alone, he had no body around him. He kept the truth and died. He did it for people and for us. I truly know that he was choosen and it was the right time to restore the gospel from God. I am so greatful for his record and experience because if he didn't follow god's will, we wouldn't have the gospel, the fullness of the gospel. I really feel peace in my heart and feel the spirit everytime I think about him. This is so important. I want to share about restoration as much as I can to testify that he was a prohet and he saw god and Jesus. Because of this we have the Church of Jesus Christ. I want to plant the seed in every investigators about Joseph Smith and also to inactive members too. I am so greatful for the zone conference. Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn about him.
• This week went very well. As you can see from the key indicators we found four new investigators this week. The Lord was really guiding us to those who would accept His message. I could definitely see His hand more in the work this week. It helped with the greater focus we had on planning after zone conference. Planning doesn't restict what we can do during the day, but lets us know what would be effective in the Lord's sight. It is the Lord's work, so when we ask for His direction, it is so much better.
• Finally we had the miracle we have been waiting for! We were tracting in Stillwater apartments, I and had to go to the bathroom. I had never gone into the apartment office before, but we decided to go into the office to use their bathroom. As soon as we walked in, a member walked up to us and said that someone came to church this past Sunday, they befriended her, and she expressed desire to be baptized. They didn't know where she lived, only the whereabouts. So we tracted her out and found her! Meiling will be baptized this Saturday.
• Weekly Scripture: Missionary work in a nutshell. We have a lot of freedom as to if we work or slack off, there really isn't "anyone" watching our every move, but the joy in missionary work is only found when we have the desire to work every minute of everyday. When not teaching making new contacts or making contact with your investigators. Just as the scripture says we will not see our reward if we are not actively engaged because our reward is not from Heaven anymore.
• D&C 58:26-33 - We have the responsibility to work as hard as we can to further the work of the Lord. If we desire blessings, we must go forward. It is hard to recognize the tender mercies given to us if we do not even try to press on. To receive and recognize blessings, we must be prepared to continue with our work whether we are blessed in it or not. If we have the faith to go forward, we will receive support from on high.
• One thing I learned at zone conference is that being too organized can be a problem. If there is one thing I've been diligent at, it is updating the area book. I have lists and pages of every single hispanic family we know or have heard about in the area and I slave away at keeping it updated. However, I realize that the next set of missionaries may not be so diligent, and there is a probability that they may either ignore or even lose the information I've obtained, and that future missionaries will gather it again anyways. Yes, we should be diligent in updating, but we can spend too much time doing unimportant things... the paper records are important, but more important is activating and converting the people represented by them.
• This week has been an absolute crazy week! It seems like it just gets busier and busier and I can feel myself just starting to burn out!!! I am tired everywhere I go and I feel weaker everyday! Guess that's how I know I am ful-filling my purpose as a missionary! I remember someone said something an apostle or prophet said, something like when you get off the plane when you get home you should collapse when you in exhaustion when you get off or something like that, well at this rate I will probably pass out when I get off!!! haha but it has been rewarding! we are being blessed with people to teach and our prayers are being answered! Something I found out about sacrifice. When you are being 100% obedient, It is really HARD to find something to sacrifice!!! I think obedience is the perfect sacrifice! Anyway I feel drained and I hope I can find those bits of energy and just pull them out because I need them!!! haha alright President the zone is starting to get better unity wise.
• Zone Conference was directed towards me, b/c I felt I needed to re-enforce my testimony on the Prophet Joseph Smith and on setting goals. It made me realize the importance of having goals and how I can better develop them after the mission. I also have to take better care of the area book and update it which im working on now. It helped me grow my testimony.
Monday, February 22, 2010
• Here's what I learned at zone conference:
• Mark 9:23-24. I have always loved this scripture, but reading it again, I realized that I need to have that belief in my investigators and know that truly ALL things are possible when I have enough faith. I have seen that with Gertrude. I need to constantly work and pray to overcome my unbelief.The other thing that really stuck with me is that I am accountable to Christ. He is the one I am trying to please. Although I report numbers and the people we are working with to others, the only person I am really accountable to is Christ. I am doing what I am doing for Him.
• I also enjoyed zone conference. I especially enjoyed the parts when we talked about accoutablity. We are free to choose to do what we want here in the mission field, but the Lord can only bless us if we are accoutable.
• AT zone conferece, i learned how to plan better and the importance of Daily planning.
• I also enjoyed zone conference. I especially enjoyed the parts when we talked about accoutablity. We are free to choose to do what we want here in the mission field, but the Lord can only bless us if we are accoutable.
• I liked Zone Conference though, really learned about how important planning is, and how most missionaries, if not all, don't do it properly.
• I really enjoyed Zone Conference last week. Accountability is just what a lot of our companionships need right now. Daily and Weekly planning help us remain unified and allow us to work harder. This is something that we sorely need to improve. Conferences always bring in the spirit.
• Thank you for Zone Conference, and just like you said, if you pay atention you will have answers to your questions, and you answered some of mine. Thank you for helping me feel better, and lift up my head and work.
• On a brighter note, I LOVED ZONE CONFERENCE. it was a s if you answered my all time mission question. Why did i come to Utah? I know that i came here to be obedient and i am so grateful to be here and be tutored by the Lord himself through experiences and trails. I know that this is where i am supposed to be and i am working on my faith so that we can be able to find spanish speaking families in our area that are interested in the gospel.
• We've been teaching a family named the Balladares. Brother Balladares is from Nicaragua and hasn't been to church in a while, and Sister Balladares wants to learn more and has come to church two weeks in a row, the second week she brought a neighbor. It was great, we just knocked on the door, she saw us and said that she'd be at church on Sunday, and she was! Turns out she'd been praying right before we came by; I've heard of that happening before, but it's nice when it happens to us.
• My scripture of the week is Moroni 9 : 6. It's when Mormon realized that no one was listening to the gospel and everything was going to be destroyed, but he still said "...notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."I think it's cool that even though he knew it was a lost cause, he kept at it. (Don't worry, we don't have a lost cause...)
• I'm very grateful to serve here and consider it a huge blessing from the Lord. What I learned from Zone conference that touched me was when you talked about how the Lord is preparing us to minister to our family. I hope that I'll be able to help my dad become temple worthy again when I get home. I also took from it to be diligent in making worth while plans helps us to prepare. I know personally that the Lord does bless us as we make plans and follow the Spirit he goes before us to prepare the hearts of those we plan to contact. I love helping people come unto Him. I'm truly happy.
• Zone Conference was great! I learned of all the things I had to repent of! I have a lot of work to do. For a long time, I've been trying and trying to please you. You are like a 5th father to me (because we have our Heavenly Father, we are the Children of Christ, we are adopted into Abraham's seed and my biological father)... But when you said you didn't want us trying to please you, but the Lord, that really hit me.
• I learned a lot at Zone Conference I learned to organized the area book and to write the names of the potentials on the list.
• I finished the book of mormon on saturday it was a great finish as I ended the challenge I have learned so much. I have started going throught preach my gospel and marking every scripture in there in my scriptures its been great as I relearn them.
• i really enjoyed zone conference. spirit felt great there. especially during the humanitarian video clip you showed, i was holding back tears, cause i know what the church does for the world is of God. The things i learnt at conference is what i needed to know for what lies ahead of me, so im gratefull for what the spirit taught me that day.
• Thanks to the Zone Conference we had a very enlightening weekly planning and companionship inventory. The training given was exactly what i needed. I was feeling quite lost and not knowing what to do but I was not focusing on what i could do to better the work and just what i could do just to better the companionship. I realize that if i focus on the work and do what I can in that sense, everything else will fall into place if it is the Lord's will.
• Zone Conference was great. Mainly what impressed me the most what the video clip from Pres. Eryn called Ripples, he said: " And you what kind of impact are you having on others."
• Thank you so much for all that you said during Zone conference. It really was what I needed to hear. I know that god is with us and wants to help us. I am optimistic about the coming week. I know that as long as we are as obedient as we can be, the blessings will come.
• Zone Conference - Improve my GPA (Goals, Planning, and Accountability).
• Thank you so much for zone conference this past week and for coming to train the Stake that we work in. People have already started to give us more referrals and everyone we visit who was there is excited about missionary work and the success they expect to have because of what the Lord has promised them. This next week looks to have huge improvements in the number of lessons that we have been teaching and we are being asked by bishops to hold them accountable for everything you taught Thursday night. My companion and I will!
• For gospel study I am going through PMG and doing all of the Activity boxes that are meant12 for personal study.
• In zone conference I was impressed when Elder Wirthlin touched on the principle of compensation. It made me realized that the Lord can be pleased with my performance in the present situation even when the outward results might not show the dilligence and faith put forth. Eventually they will. Whether on the mission or in life.
• Zone confrence was amazing. I learned how the first vision showed the eternal nature of families. Also my testimony of Joseph Smith was strenghtend. I am now starting to get up at 6 am so i can get an extra half an hour of studing in.
• Reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days has renewed my resolve to share the message it contains with all I see. And the assignment to write 10 reasons why we know Joseph was a prophet of God caused me to sincerely consider my feelings on the subject.What I learned from this previous Zone Conference was just how glorious it is to have a prophet on the earth. As I ponder on what the meaning of a prophet is, I marvel at the fact that Joseph Smith was a literal mouthpiece of the Eternal Father. To me, the fact that Christ would call another prophet to lead and guide us is yet another witness of his boundless love. My renewed conviction I have received from this Conference is to put myself to more sincere study and more frequent prayer about these matters. I've reached the conclusion that if I am going to challenge my investigators to read and pray to discover the reality of our message...I need to have an unshakable, unchangeable testimony of these things.
• Zone conference was amazing! I learned alot about the prophet Joseph and his life. I also loved the activity that we did in writing the 10 reasons that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Doing this helped to strengthen my testimony of him and his work. I am going to strive harder to help my investigators to learn more about the Prophet Joseph and help them to find out for themselves just like I have that he is a prophet of our father in heaven.
• Mark 9:23-24. I have always loved this scripture, but reading it again, I realized that I need to have that belief in my investigators and know that truly ALL things are possible when I have enough faith. I have seen that with Gertrude. I need to constantly work and pray to overcome my unbelief.The other thing that really stuck with me is that I am accountable to Christ. He is the one I am trying to please. Although I report numbers and the people we are working with to others, the only person I am really accountable to is Christ. I am doing what I am doing for Him.
• I also enjoyed zone conference. I especially enjoyed the parts when we talked about accoutablity. We are free to choose to do what we want here in the mission field, but the Lord can only bless us if we are accoutable.
• AT zone conferece, i learned how to plan better and the importance of Daily planning.
• I also enjoyed zone conference. I especially enjoyed the parts when we talked about accoutablity. We are free to choose to do what we want here in the mission field, but the Lord can only bless us if we are accoutable.
• I liked Zone Conference though, really learned about how important planning is, and how most missionaries, if not all, don't do it properly.
• I really enjoyed Zone Conference last week. Accountability is just what a lot of our companionships need right now. Daily and Weekly planning help us remain unified and allow us to work harder. This is something that we sorely need to improve. Conferences always bring in the spirit.
• Thank you for Zone Conference, and just like you said, if you pay atention you will have answers to your questions, and you answered some of mine. Thank you for helping me feel better, and lift up my head and work.
• On a brighter note, I LOVED ZONE CONFERENCE. it was a s if you answered my all time mission question. Why did i come to Utah? I know that i came here to be obedient and i am so grateful to be here and be tutored by the Lord himself through experiences and trails. I know that this is where i am supposed to be and i am working on my faith so that we can be able to find spanish speaking families in our area that are interested in the gospel.
• We've been teaching a family named the Balladares. Brother Balladares is from Nicaragua and hasn't been to church in a while, and Sister Balladares wants to learn more and has come to church two weeks in a row, the second week she brought a neighbor. It was great, we just knocked on the door, she saw us and said that she'd be at church on Sunday, and she was! Turns out she'd been praying right before we came by; I've heard of that happening before, but it's nice when it happens to us.
• My scripture of the week is Moroni 9 : 6. It's when Mormon realized that no one was listening to the gospel and everything was going to be destroyed, but he still said "...notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God."I think it's cool that even though he knew it was a lost cause, he kept at it. (Don't worry, we don't have a lost cause...)
• I'm very grateful to serve here and consider it a huge blessing from the Lord. What I learned from Zone conference that touched me was when you talked about how the Lord is preparing us to minister to our family. I hope that I'll be able to help my dad become temple worthy again when I get home. I also took from it to be diligent in making worth while plans helps us to prepare. I know personally that the Lord does bless us as we make plans and follow the Spirit he goes before us to prepare the hearts of those we plan to contact. I love helping people come unto Him. I'm truly happy.
• Zone Conference was great! I learned of all the things I had to repent of! I have a lot of work to do. For a long time, I've been trying and trying to please you. You are like a 5th father to me (because we have our Heavenly Father, we are the Children of Christ, we are adopted into Abraham's seed and my biological father)... But when you said you didn't want us trying to please you, but the Lord, that really hit me.
• I learned a lot at Zone Conference I learned to organized the area book and to write the names of the potentials on the list.
• I finished the book of mormon on saturday it was a great finish as I ended the challenge I have learned so much. I have started going throught preach my gospel and marking every scripture in there in my scriptures its been great as I relearn them.
• i really enjoyed zone conference. spirit felt great there. especially during the humanitarian video clip you showed, i was holding back tears, cause i know what the church does for the world is of God. The things i learnt at conference is what i needed to know for what lies ahead of me, so im gratefull for what the spirit taught me that day.
• Thanks to the Zone Conference we had a very enlightening weekly planning and companionship inventory. The training given was exactly what i needed. I was feeling quite lost and not knowing what to do but I was not focusing on what i could do to better the work and just what i could do just to better the companionship. I realize that if i focus on the work and do what I can in that sense, everything else will fall into place if it is the Lord's will.
• Zone Conference was great. Mainly what impressed me the most what the video clip from Pres. Eryn called Ripples, he said: " And you what kind of impact are you having on others."
• Thank you so much for all that you said during Zone conference. It really was what I needed to hear. I know that god is with us and wants to help us. I am optimistic about the coming week. I know that as long as we are as obedient as we can be, the blessings will come.
• Zone Conference - Improve my GPA (Goals, Planning, and Accountability).
• Thank you so much for zone conference this past week and for coming to train the Stake that we work in. People have already started to give us more referrals and everyone we visit who was there is excited about missionary work and the success they expect to have because of what the Lord has promised them. This next week looks to have huge improvements in the number of lessons that we have been teaching and we are being asked by bishops to hold them accountable for everything you taught Thursday night. My companion and I will!
• For gospel study I am going through PMG and doing all of the Activity boxes that are meant12 for personal study.
• In zone conference I was impressed when Elder Wirthlin touched on the principle of compensation. It made me realized that the Lord can be pleased with my performance in the present situation even when the outward results might not show the dilligence and faith put forth. Eventually they will. Whether on the mission or in life.
• Zone confrence was amazing. I learned how the first vision showed the eternal nature of families. Also my testimony of Joseph Smith was strenghtend. I am now starting to get up at 6 am so i can get an extra half an hour of studing in.
• Reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days has renewed my resolve to share the message it contains with all I see. And the assignment to write 10 reasons why we know Joseph was a prophet of God caused me to sincerely consider my feelings on the subject.What I learned from this previous Zone Conference was just how glorious it is to have a prophet on the earth. As I ponder on what the meaning of a prophet is, I marvel at the fact that Joseph Smith was a literal mouthpiece of the Eternal Father. To me, the fact that Christ would call another prophet to lead and guide us is yet another witness of his boundless love. My renewed conviction I have received from this Conference is to put myself to more sincere study and more frequent prayer about these matters. I've reached the conclusion that if I am going to challenge my investigators to read and pray to discover the reality of our message...I need to have an unshakable, unchangeable testimony of these things.
• Zone conference was amazing! I learned alot about the prophet Joseph and his life. I also loved the activity that we did in writing the 10 reasons that I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Doing this helped to strengthen my testimony of him and his work. I am going to strive harder to help my investigators to learn more about the Prophet Joseph and help them to find out for themselves just like I have that he is a prophet of our father in heaven.
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