Not much to say

uh... not really sure what to say about this week. We've been pounding down the area books and getting them cleared out. We now can focus a little more on the finding through tracting aspect and through the members as well in one of the wards. I'm really glad that we've been clearing out the books because they're getting ready to put one set of elders in each ward for the whole mission starting when the split of the missions happen in July, so now who ever gets the split doesn't have 3 year old information in them and they can start from the newest stuff. It's been good.

No real stories to tell from this week. We taught J. and his family about FHE and how it can be a blessing if they use it to turn off all the technology in the home and just spend it as one on one time. It was strange talking about the blessings of FHE since I was practically never there in high school, but I do know what it did for me in the singles ward. They committed to it and hopefully they'll do it tonight.

G. is progressing well. We locked down a date for her baptism so that her kids could be there for both the baptism and the confirmation the next week in church.  She wants her kids to be baptized as well, just after she goes through it herself. We haven't started to tech the kids yet. Her date it May 19, 2013 and the confirmation will be May 26th. I'm excited for her. I've seen a real increase of light in her life. The way she described the truth of God is that the more you learn the more it refines you, so it makes sense that to be Mormon there's a lot more than other religions for personal refinement for qualifications to become a member and also enter into the temple. It was cool. We taught the Plan of Salvation.

Not much else to say... gonna go play tennis today. I'll send some pictures to you guys to make up for the lack of content.

Me using a machete to cut back blackberry vines and bushes. I got a couple scratches on my face and arms from that.

Weird Week

K so this week was weird. We had significantly less stats this week, but I feel like we got a lot more done. All of the lessons that we had this week were kick butt lessons where the Spirit was very strong and moving for all present. Also we got a ward clean up list that we've been actually able to make contact with the people. It's crazy because usually people in West Linn are only ever willing to open the door from 5:30 to 7:45. It's been a blessing to be able to contact all these people and finding out where they are in life no matter what time of the day we go to find them. We've also been able to take our massive potential investigators list and cross off handfuls of people each day, because they've finally opened the door! All this means that we might have some more time for tracting in a few weeks! Tracting is the best.

So miracles from this last week:

We tried to contact some part member families and found out this one particular one had moved. That's usually the story around here. If you haven't seen them at church, chances are they've joined another church, or moved. usually moved. But instead we talked to this lady who told us that the person we were looking for had moved a year previous. We talked to her about the book of Mormon and told her where is came from. She asked who wrote it and we told her the prophets that we actually in the book, but it was translated by Joseph Smith from reformed Egyptian. She said she would be interested to read it. So we gave her a copy.

We thought that was the end of that, but then at priesthood session the young men's president (who's a BEAST! He could have played pro football of basketball) came up to us and said that apparently while we were trying to contact someone else we ended up giving a Book of Mormon to one of his good friends and she had texted his wife about it for a while. This was a double miracle in disguise because this guy has tried to give us advice on how to do missionary work in the past. He practically accused us of doing it completely wrong. But at the end of that he told us good job and that we were really building the kingdom of God. It was sweet. So he's now working on two different people to give to us as referrals. But with everything in this area, it takes lots of time to make any progression with investigators.  That's why God gave us eternity, right? ha ha. I can definitely say that I've become much more patient in this area. If you're not patient here, all you're going to get is a bucket full of frustration thrown over your head each day. ha ha.

We taught J. about tithing this week. I knew it wold be a touchy subject because of the fact that he just lost his job AND he's trying to go back to school, but I knew he needed the blessings that come from Tithing. As we taught we could feel the Spirit building the whole time. J told us that he's had a hard time with that ever since a certain event that cause him to go less active 4 years ago, but that he'd been thinking about it lately. We continued to testify, and eventually promised some very specific blessings by the Spirit. It's incredible to see how the Spirit works. I feel like I know just a tid bit of how Paul felt when he saw the boy fall from the balcony and then feel compelled to raise him from the dead because of his love for him and then have it confirmed by the spirit. Charity is the start of miracles. It does so for many reasons, but it also prevents "a multitude of sins." My Companion confirmed that promise because he felt the Spirit as I made the promises, and I've never seen J. so sober and receptive during a lesson before. I only hope it moves him to action.

Conference was fantastic. I learned a ton about the things that I've been wanting to know more about (peace, comfort, healing; which are 3 totally separate things btw). I kind of got to the point of spiritual overload half way through the 5th session. I need to listen to elder Christofferson's talk again because I just couldn't soak any more in.

I love you

Hard to Explain

So This last week is a little harder to explain. Either the work is dying or it's growing. I can't really tell. We don't have too many people that we're teaching consistently but the miracles never seem to cease.

J. came to church again yesterday and was much more awake and happy for it. Both of his kids were there and his 12 year old son may or may not have been interviewed for the Aaronic priesthood. Either way, it's a huge stepping stone for J. because for the next 10 weeks he's taking a CNA course that goes from 8AM-4PM every Saturday and Sunday, and he's also starting school again Tues-Thurs. He lost his job, but he's never been happier because it means he can get unemplorment and focus all his work into becoming a nurse as fast as possible. I love this family. B., his son, has been wanting to go to scouts for forever, he's just always wanted his dad to take him. B. is always the one that's asking for a spiritual message. I'm not sure why, but I'm pretty sure that he sees the difference in his dad when we teach each lesson. We've been going over there a lot more in the last two weeks. Jason needs the friendship and the support. He makes it way easy too. We can always find an excuse to go over to his place because we're teaching his next door neighbor, or at least trying to. We're going to go play rugby with the whole family later today. Rugby is the Portland mission sport for sure.

Other than that we moved another investigator across the river into another set of elder's area. She's going there so that she can get her kids back. She's a recovering alcoholic and smoker. It's a way good thing. I didn't know her very well though. She was probably our most solid investigator despite the fact that she just got out of jail. ha ha.

OOOOOOH MY GOSH I can't believe I almost forgot. Elder Udy found this less active tracting with Elder Manwill before I got transferred here. She's AMAZING! she loves having spiritual conversations and she's HUGE into knowing whether or not the things that are being discussed are truth instantaneously just by the way she feels (the Spirit).She always says correct principles but she just uses different words. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that Buddhists from China pilgrimage to her house all the time? They think she's Buddha, but she's always asks "Divine" (God) if she should do things. She asked if she should let them call her Buddha and she says that "Divine" says not to. She doesn't have the authority to be in that role, she says. She is crazy, but she loves it when we come by. we're going to ask her if we can teach her the lessons when she comes back from a month vacation to Arizona. She said that she really wants to watch conference though! 

 

I've been learning a lot this last week about Charity and Peacemakers and also the worth of souls. God wants EVERYONE to come unto Him, not just people of the faith and not just people that have no idea that He is. I know that we can be the answers to a father's years of prayers as servants of the Lord, but you don't have to be a missionary to be a servant of the Lord. I know that the Spirit will ALWAYS be with you if you are with you, and will not only confound the wisdom of the wise, but also your own wisdom if you listen to him earnestly. I also have been learning a lot about how our conscious effort in agency makes all the difference in our lives. We are not supposed to be victims of our circumstances, only reflecting the light that is given to us, but like the sun we are to use our agency to create our own light and become effulgent. That light will emanate from you and inspire others to action.  This gospel as given in 3 Nephi 11 and 2 Nephi 31, if lived correctly will make you happier than any other course of action you could ever take.

And I am happy!