Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

(Happy dad's day to all you other dads too) 

Farewell Conference

This week was lit! We of course had our spiritual yet sad goodbye conference with President and Sister Holland. They talked a little about loving our next mission presidents with the same passion we have for them. But besides that, it was a big old Q&A on anything. The sisters, of course, asked about marriage and how to search for a good eternal companion. The reply the Hollands gave was, ‘find somebody who loves the Lord, is a hard worker, and they have to be crazy about you’. Besides family, President Holland said, ‘everybody should at least get a 4 year degree’. And me, being the deep doctrine guy, asked him what we should do during this time as it nears the 2nd coming. The reply was in line with an object lesson they had planned. The Iron Triangle of Spirituality was introduced with the sides signifying: Prayer, the Iron Rod, and Wear/Cherish the temple garment. He promised us that if we do these three things daily, EVERYTHING will be okay. We all then went on to covenant with him that we would do our best to do all 3 things daily! Throughout the week I tried my best to do all of the things, being a missionary, it shouldn't be too hard haha. We received a referral on Thursday who showed some real interest. We talked Friday, then Saturday, then had her come to the church on Sunday for a lesson with a member! This lady has a lot of things going on in her life and is suuuuper paranoid. But hey, she really wants her life to change for the good...and she accepted our help to be baptized! To top off my Sunday, we went to a presbetyrian church to watch the bishop's daughter play in a piano recital. It's lucky for the pastor that I was in a respectful mood or I would've converted everybody there. Things are finally turning out for me and I hope we don't just settle for her, but go on to find more people and just throw all of North Carolina in the waters of baptism!!! Transfers were today, and I’m going to be here another transfer with my same comp and district; so these sinners better look out, cause I'm comin’ for them! Also, Happy 95th Birthday to Gigi! Love you!!

God Has a Plan!

I'm sad to say that this has been the most unproductive week of my mission. Even though all the other missionaries have had zeros for everything like us, it frustrates me to not be able to interact with people, to not be able to go into public spaces for long, or have dinner at member’s houses. Heck, the lesson where I was supposed to help some hermanas talk to a Brazilian even fell through on Sunday. But I know that the Lord has big plans for me and I really need to be more diligent and show the Lord I'm ready for an elect person in my life. I have been praying so much for the will to dive into the scriptures, but haven't received the eagerness yet. I know it will come, I know I'll be blessed, and I know the Savior loves me.

Throughout the week, I have seen how angry the world is becoming. The scriptures talk about it raining fire and that cities will be destroyed. My entire life I believed that it would be Jesus sending fireballs out of His hands or something, but the more and more evil I've been seeing in the world, I believe it will be us that do all the destroying. With all of the protests going on, I see that people are torching up cars, homes, and local businesses. I can see people destroying government things to prove a point, but why attack their own people's things?? I have come to the conclusion that it is the devil himself that is stuck in the hearts of the rioters and it is this great anger in people that will cause the destruction leading up to the second coming.

As a representative of Jesus Christ, I testify that I have the authority and duty to call out to everybody in the four corners of the Earth to repent of their sins and come unto Him. I have been taking every chance I can to talk to somebody face to face instead of over a phone. I want to help everyone I can but sometimes that isn't enough. The path to our eternal salvation was never going to be a brisk afternoon stroll, but an aggravating uphill climb. Most people don't want to put in any effort, so they stop progressing. But I believe that we are on the 2nd to last summit, we can see our final end goal off in the horizon. It's not out of our reach, but it will still be a long final stretch. When we put our head down (prayer), get back up when our legs give out (repentance), and keep moving forward (progression), we will all eventually arrive at the destination that generations have spoken of since the fall of Adam. It doesn't matter on your earthly knowledge or strength but entirely on your faith and willingness to obey God's commandments.

Doing What We Can

This week was way better than that last one and I'm starting to get a hold of this whole United States mission grind. I still have 0 new investigators, but I have been able to teach about Jesus Christ and repentance a few times! The first time was the most memorable. I was studying by Lake Michael with my comp in the morning and got all of D&C 4 memorized (in English). We had the idea to go home, change into street clothes, and go on a hike to see some nature. At the beginning of our journey, I saw 3 guys on a dock fishing and I had the impression to go and talk with them. I asked if they've caught anything and they answered me with "what are y’all? Jehovah's Witnesses?". I laughed and said we were missionaries and they were actually really happy to talk to some "men of God". Two of them were of the Muslim religion and the other was of no religion. We began to tell them how we were there to preach repentance among all the children of men and the guy (we'll call him Reese) had many questions about how to improve his life. You see, Reese grew up selling drugs, doing time in jail, I believe he's even killed a man. But he's finally in an honest job. There are 2 things he's afraid to give up for God, breaking one of the 2 BIG commandments, and drinking. We talked and talked forever. His friend, Mohammad, was all on board with us trying to help him through these problems; and when he finally made a promise with us and his friend to stop drinking, it was our time to depart. Burnt and crispy from the sun, me and my companion went on a nice walk in the woods where we then decided to spread out and give thanks to God in quite an amazing little "sacred grove" we came upon.

We had many opportunities to serve our ward members this week, by helping our neighbors move out, moving mulch into the garden of an inactive sister, and administering to a sick sister in need of a blessing. Even though my "numbers" say I didn't have a successful week, I feel like I’ve been doing quite well!