Monday, March 26th, 2018:
I spent most of the day contemplating my college decision. I
wrote about it in last week’s email. I’m still mulling it over.
We were late getting out of the door at the end of p-day because
we asked Jeremy and Vanessa for a ride and were going to teach them. But their
lesson didn’t happen tonight because they had something else come up. Another
one of our investigators, Mike, has pneumonia, which is why we haven’t seen
him. I don’t know how serious his pneumonia is, but I hope he gets well soon.
And we looked up a referral from the YSA elders, but she wasn’t interested. She
shouted through the door for us to go away in a sassy voice.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018:
I organized my study area as my area was messy. I also prepared
meals this morning, as we had too much fresh food – I’m going to give some to
Elder Taylor again. Although it wasn’t a model morning (I wouldn’t want new
missionaries to see it as an example), we still used our time well.
Our afternoon went really well. We met Katie, a junior who just
broke up with her boyfriend. She was quietly crying; I thought it was music
from her earbuds when we saw her, but Elder Vandehei noticed. We talked with
her until she got over the slump of the upset. She had been walking home from
lunch, as she did not want to stay at school. We also met Dasha, who moved here
from the Czech Republic. She agreed to go with us to church next Sunday, which was
unexpected but wonderful.
Elder Vandehei took the initiative and has searched for former investigators
to see if any are now more receptive. It’s worked really well, which has been a
wonderful example for me. We set an appointment for next week with John, one
such former investigator.
We checked in with the ministering night at the Union Park 5th
ward, as the WML’s involvement in the temple open house makes it hard to work
as closely with him during this busy time.
Wednesday, March 28th, 2018:
Today we had our zone conference for this six week transfer. We
covered Joseph Smith’s role in the Restoration and how the doctrines he helped
restore influence our understanding. Joseph Smith did well with the
understanding he helped rediscover. I believe the biggest redefinition
pertained to man’s relationship with God. The blessings I have found as I
came to understand the priesthood, atonement of Jesus Christ, and nature of God
in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are priceless, among which
is the realization that I probably would not have chosen to believe in God if I
studied Him through some other faith. The idea that we are able and
encouraged to accept all truth with confirmation by the Holy Ghost instead of
being chained in unquestionable tradition is liberating to me. I do not
know if I would have been able to accept anything as true in a religion unless
I was able to accept all of it as true. Everything needed an answer, or
at the very least a workable and satisfactory explanation for the absence of an
answer.
There was a video called “Enduring Love” about a senior couple;
the husband takes care of his wife, despite constantly shaking hands, as she is
barely able to do anything. It hit me squarely in my feelings, especially as I
thought about my own mother and her health issues.
Zone conference went late, so we only got to two street contacts
after dinner. The first set of people were working on a car. Car work is a good
contacting opportunity; guys usually don’t mind someone poking their head in to
see what’s up. That being said, this group of people was not interested. The
second set of people, Hans and Dallas, was outside Hans’ house. They both
aren’t active, but after we talked to them for a while they accepted an
invitation to listen to general conference. Time passed quickly with both
groups of people. I’ve found that people are more receptive if we take more
time to get to know them (when there is time to), but spending more time with
people means we get to meet fewer people. I don’t just want to walk away at the
first sign that someone isn’t interested. I’m still learning.
As a side note, I talked to Hans about the Chevy Spark. He told
me he spent two years researching for the most cost-effective car. It sparked
my interest as it may be a good option for me in college. Hearing people talk
about things they love is good for both the speaker and the listener.
Thursday, March 29th, 2018:
[?]
Friday, March 30th, 2018:
Tyson called and said he’s been sick for a while and wanted to
meet again. The 5th WML called about Jeremy and Vanessa, the family we met at
church a few weeks ago. We discussed their tentative baptismal date of April 7th,
and determined together that a bit more time might be appropriate. We’ll talk
to them about adjusting it when they go with us to conference on Sunday.
Between those calls, we weren’t able to do all of our weekly planning.
On our walk to dinner, a man pulled over on his moped to talk to
us. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to bash with us because he didn’t let us say
much. We figured that he probably was a
former member of the church who was still upset about something. He kept
talking about some church document that no one has ever heard of because the
church never published it and the thing it discussed was never implemented. It
was very unusual. We didn't wait long before saying goodbye (or actually walking
away, because he wouldn't let us talk.)
Another lesson fell through, so we spent the evening contacting
people. We're doing well at street contacting people, but we should
probably invite people a bit faster so we have a little more time.
Saturday, March 31st, 2018:
We went with Tyson and his brother, Gabe, to the Saturday
morning session of general conference. I don't think Tyson realized the
timing of it, as we nearly got shut out of the session -- they closed the doors
behind us. We heard later that a considerable number of missionaries were
not let in to the session, even when they had investigators and tickets. [This
was because the Saturday morning session was a solemn assembly for the
sustaining of Pres. Nelson, the new first presidency, and the new apostles.]
We got back in time home in time to watch the afternoon session
with the Fergusons, the senior couple in our area. We tried calling
around to see if any of the other families we are working with would have us
over, but it didn't work. The Fergusons also provided lunch for us.
After conference, we had a quick lesson with a recent convert
family. They are Vietnamese; there's a hard language barrier for the
adults. We split off into two separate groups to encourage their grandson
and an eight-year-old member to become friends and so we could teach simply to
both groups. It was really difficult; I failed to account for the large
difference a year or two makes at that age and so didn't teach simply
enough. Elder Vandehei wasn't able to tell how well the three adults
understood, either. At least we had a lesson with them and started things
going with the ward now. We'll get Vietnamese resources to them. It
is far better than for them to be forgotten about. A lesson everyone can learn
from this is that even when we are unqualified or far from perfect in our
efforts, we still provide more assistance when we try to help than when we
don't.
The people having us over for dinner had to cancel, so I had a
quick dinner of canned soup. Elder Vandehei wasn't hungry. We
walked over to the Midvale East stake center in time for the Priesthood
session.
Sunday, April 1st, 2018:
Happy Birthday mom!
Happy Easter everyone!
Happy April fools day, family!
We went to the Sunday morning session of conference with Jeremy
and Vanessa. We left at around 7:50 from the bishop's house (he watched
their two-year-old daughter), had no problem getting, and got very good
seats. The "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast was great; it
was the organist's last broadcast and conference. The Mormon Tabernacle
Choir applauded him after he finished the postlude music to conference.
The conference was great; Jeremy and Vanessa loved it. They are a great
family and ready for the gospel.
For the Sunday afternoon session, we sat with our landlord's
family after a quick lunch.
After dinner, we walked around our area to contact some of the potential
investigators we found recently. Some of those have been because of
street contacting; there's no real telling who is ready and who isn't until we
talk to them.
Many people are pretty nice to us. Tonight, we found a
Catholic wife and Jewish husband saying goodbye to their LDS son and family
after an Easter dinner. The dad described himself as a "Jack
Jew" and went inside rather quickly, but the mom offered us granola bars and
water bottles. Another member, Ben, saw us walking and pulled over his
car to give us $20.
Our last house of the day was a bishop's house. The
Spanish sisters, who took a turn for dinners in the Union Park 1st ward, let us
know that a young man is staying with the family and might be interested.
We were invited in just before they shared their Easter scripture message; we
set up a lesson with Brian (the young man) for this week.
Conference thoughts:
During the Sunday morning session, President Nelson spoke on all
of my questions. He actually listed them out explicitly (as well as I
would imagine is possible) in a way that *usually* doesn't happen with
conference. In answering my questions about college decisions, he
described how to receive revelation. In answering my questions of how to
practically improve, he noted about repenting regularly, even over small
things, to change ourselves (it had never occurred to me to try to use
repentance to improve on things like focusing during a conversation, getting to
bed on time, or being aware of when I may talk too much or too little).
There was a notable number of examples regarding how to face
tragedy; understanding why we do things ("ministering"), ordinances
and covenants uniting us with God, worthiness correlating to spiritual power,
and the need of patience and understanding in involving God in our lives.
I am glad for the changes announced at conference. I am
glad for the fact that a living prophet presides over the church and how we
have been enabled to be agents unto ourselves in a greater degree. It
makes sense when considering Teaching in the Savior's Way and other
recent direction from church leaders. It is wonderful and inspiring to a part
of the Lord’s work.
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