Saturday, June 27, 2009
I done ranned it!
oh real fast here are some pictures from the endurothon. i was the only one that carried a book of mormon.. heh it was cool anyway.. i still have it and use everyday, its the only book of mormon in the mission that has gone 13.1 miles and to the capital of south carolina! love ya!
Liahona
I had a cool learning experience about the Liahona, this past week. The Liahona didn't always work if they weren't faithful or worthy of it..
well the scriptures and prayer are a type of a modern day liahona.. we are to read them and also to pray.. and if reading and praying is doing nothing for us.. it is because we are not using our faith or are not worthy...
thought that was cool wanted to share that with you all. love ya
Well I am just more in love with this work than anything else. Perhaps sometimes the only reason the relationship means so much to me is that I know it could stand as a potential enemy to this work that I love so much. This is my life, it is my role to be out here and to serve the Lord with my all. I don't want to be attacked by anyone else as I go about it. I love my Savior! BECAUSE of my Savior and what he has done for me!! I love you mom! Don't worry about me. If the relationship with with someone special comes to an end.. I know it will only serve to make me stronger. If it stays, I know it will serve to make me better prepare to become the man I need to be after my mission! Either way the Lord has a blessing in store for me! Love you mom!
well the scriptures and prayer are a type of a modern day liahona.. we are to read them and also to pray.. and if reading and praying is doing nothing for us.. it is because we are not using our faith or are not worthy...
thought that was cool wanted to share that with you all. love ya
a quick correction.. we are ALWAYS worthy to pray and ALWAYS worthy to receive
blessings from the scriptures.. so WORTHINESS is not necessarily apart of that..
just FAITH! my bad..
Well I am just more in love with this work than anything else. Perhaps sometimes the only reason the relationship means so much to me is that I know it could stand as a potential enemy to this work that I love so much. This is my life, it is my role to be out here and to serve the Lord with my all. I don't want to be attacked by anyone else as I go about it. I love my Savior! BECAUSE of my Savior and what he has done for me!! I love you mom! Don't worry about me. If the relationship with with someone special comes to an end.. I know it will only serve to make me stronger. If it stays, I know it will serve to make me better prepare to become the man I need to be after my mission! Either way the Lord has a blessing in store for me! Love you mom!
Not a whole bunch of lots of things..
Hey fellow humans. I hope everyone is doing way good. I am really loving serving with Elder Richardson. He is happy and hard working! We are working with a good number of people right now and things are looking pretty awesome. I love missionary work. It just makes you happy.. Well I don't have much to say. Some emails and letters might be kinda cool maybe possibly? I know you are all busy and stuff but it would be kinda cool! Well I love you all and hope everyone has a good day at church tomorrow! After all it is probably the best day of the weekage! Miss you guys! I keep you in my prayers and hope becca's doing well! Love ya!
p.s. I request letters from the following!
M. Clark McMurry (abbreviated for future apostleship.)
Samus Lonzo
Tebor Smith
K. Adella Ebbert (Kathryn, also abbreviated for future calling as Church Relief Society President)
Any hizzle, such would be way stinking cool! And I'm kinda sorta a good missionary, so I'm totally gunna follow up!
LOVE YOUSES!
p.s. I request letters from the following!
M. Clark McMurry (abbreviated for future apostleship.)
Samus Lonzo
Tebor Smith
K. Adella Ebbert (Kathryn, also abbreviated for future calling as Church Relief Society President)
Any hizzle, such would be way stinking cool! And I'm kinda sorta a good missionary, so I'm totally gunna follow up!
LOVE YOUSES!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Storm!
Hey all! Hope everyone is doing well! This past week has been really awesome! I love missionary work, I love being a missionary, I wouldn't trade this for ANYTHING! I love serving with Elder Richardson, I just love that guy! He's about 6'5 or something and kinda is just one of those classic "new missionaries". Even though he came out just one transfer after me, he is just humble and happy and doesn't complain. We work hard, but can always work harder. We had a pretty fun day on Wednesday helping the Senior Missionaries couple move furniture and things and clean out the Mission Shed and then take stuff to the dump. I was just having fun for some reason, I just enjoy physical labor type stuff and it was just really cool for some reason I was just really happy. And we had a really amazing experience this week as well. It was one I will never forget.
It was in the evening and we had planned to stop by some members and get some referrals from them. The weather was looking pretty inclement, as Elder Richardson would say. The clouds were much like clouds in Texas right before huge storms so it was really cool and maybe a little calm. We knocked on the member’s door and he had to get running so we only talked for a few minutes and then got back in the car. We were at the end of a coldesack (or "coda sack") and as I started the car it suddenly got super windy and we drove for not even 10 feet when a basketball hoop was blown over into the road. I started to pull the car over and told Elder Richardson "I guess we need to contact them". So we parked the car and left the basket ball hoop in the road, so if the contact didn’t go well we could at least tell them about their basketball hoop. Anyway we got the the door and a little girl answered and we asked her if she could get her mom or dad. The father, I suppose, was in the back and told her something I think and suddenly the door just slammed shut! Right as the door slammed shut it almost instantly began to pour down heavy rain like crazy! This was really hard and really weird rain because you could see the wind blowing it everywhere and it was just really coming down. Elder Richardson and I looked at each other for a second standing in front of the door, of course I was kinda laughing or smiling a bit or something I'm sure, and then we just started running back to the car.. Then I was totally laughing and smiling! We got in the car and quickly looked at our plans decided to head to the next member we wanted to see.. We didn't drive more than like 10 feet again and the storm just got worse! I thought for a minute and realized this was an amazing opportunity to knock on someone’s door! Because who in their right mind would ever be out in a storm as crazy as this! I encouraged the situation by frantically driving and looking for some house to knock on that would be "the house". (This is all happening in a matter of minutes!) We cross a street and I see a house with a brighter light than any surrounding houses or at least, this light caught my eye. I pulled over. Shortly after we pulled over we could see the power in the house flickering off and on and then finally, it stayed off. I don't know if Elder Richardson really understood what we were about to do, it was all pretty surreal. So as the storm was continuing to pound down like crazy I asked him if he was ready and we ran out of the car into the storm up the steps to this house. We knocked on the door and a teenage boy comes to the door holding his dog in his arms looking a little frightened. We asked if his parents were home and he said no, and began to go back into his home. But we said, "here take this card its VERY IMPORTANT!" We ran back to the car totally drenched and said a prayer trying to find out where the Lord would want us to go in these conditions.. After the prayer I had noticed that the power was out in all the houses down the street. I turned to Elder Richardson and said "ok, we are looking for a house with a light on, even if its a flashlight!" So we drove on looking to see if we could find anything down the street, as we were driving we noticed a tree that had fallen into the street I was just like "Oh wow.." and Elder Richardson pointed out to me that it had fallen on a parked car on the side of the road. I thought for a minute and said "That's it Elder, that’s our light!" We parked the car in a very near by coldesack, And I told Elder Richardson to get his Book of Mormon ready and to grab a restoration pamphlet. He was more diligent than I was expecting, I had gotten out of the car and he couldn’t find a pamphlet so I grabbed a plan of salvation pamphlet and said "its ok, ready?" but he was still looking and found an unopened package of restorations pamphlets and was intent on opening it and grabbing one.. It was kinda funny. We ran to the house and found about 5 men standing on the porch watching the storm. I ran straight up on the porch which was kinda weird. Elder Richardson stood out in the rain and I started to talk to everyone, find out if everyone was alright and they invited Elder Richardson to come to the porch so he did. We proceeded to contact and to ask them if they had ever seen missionaries before and they were not the most receptive people, but they were nice and talked to us for a few minutes. It was very friendly and we gave them some pass-along cards. We didn't talk for too long and ran back to the car.. all of this still happening in a matter of minutes.. We got back into the car and kept driving down the road looking for lights. We passed one house with a screendoor that we could see the family watching out of and as we parked and ran to their door they had some light or candle in their home but we ran to the door and knocked. The father bearly would even open the door but we asked if they were all alright and handed them a pass-along card as well.. feeling it was about time for us to move on as the storm was slowly decreasing we headed back to the apartment to eat for little bit but headed out again. This time the storm had cleared by now and as we made it to this area we wanted to knock and the sky was beautiful with the sun setting in the background. Elder Richardson just stood their and starred at it for a minute in his raincoat. And as he walked up near me he said, kinda laughing, "heh, thats pretty cool, 'His hand is stretched out still'". And I was a little confused but looked up at the sky for a minute and it was as though the clouds were in the shape of a hand stretching over us. It was awesome!..I was like "you just quoted scripture!" and he said "yeah i know.." It was an amazing experience! We talked about it and how the Lord knew we would recognize those things and did that for us. Only two missionaries out of 50,000 and two people in one city on the earth would look up and see the clouds like that and would relate it to the scriptures. It was a wonderful night! Something I will not forget! We talked about how we didn't find anyone who would listen but know that we made an impression on many people, particularly a young boy who at the brink of a storm and his homes power going out while being alone, had two men come to his door telling him about something "Very important!".. We also took into account that there may have been people we did not contact who saw what we were doing. As well as a policeman who saw us arrive at the scene of the fallen tree before he did and drove away after asking the men on the porch if they had a rope.. All-in-all it was missionary work! It is why I am here! I love every minute of this work. I love being a missionary! There is no greater job than spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
It was in the evening and we had planned to stop by some members and get some referrals from them. The weather was looking pretty inclement, as Elder Richardson would say. The clouds were much like clouds in Texas right before huge storms so it was really cool and maybe a little calm. We knocked on the member’s door and he had to get running so we only talked for a few minutes and then got back in the car. We were at the end of a coldesack (or "coda sack") and as I started the car it suddenly got super windy and we drove for not even 10 feet when a basketball hoop was blown over into the road. I started to pull the car over and told Elder Richardson "I guess we need to contact them". So we parked the car and left the basket ball hoop in the road, so if the contact didn’t go well we could at least tell them about their basketball hoop. Anyway we got the the door and a little girl answered and we asked her if she could get her mom or dad. The father, I suppose, was in the back and told her something I think and suddenly the door just slammed shut! Right as the door slammed shut it almost instantly began to pour down heavy rain like crazy! This was really hard and really weird rain because you could see the wind blowing it everywhere and it was just really coming down. Elder Richardson and I looked at each other for a second standing in front of the door, of course I was kinda laughing or smiling a bit or something I'm sure, and then we just started running back to the car.. Then I was totally laughing and smiling! We got in the car and quickly looked at our plans decided to head to the next member we wanted to see.. We didn't drive more than like 10 feet again and the storm just got worse! I thought for a minute and realized this was an amazing opportunity to knock on someone’s door! Because who in their right mind would ever be out in a storm as crazy as this! I encouraged the situation by frantically driving and looking for some house to knock on that would be "the house". (This is all happening in a matter of minutes!) We cross a street and I see a house with a brighter light than any surrounding houses or at least, this light caught my eye. I pulled over. Shortly after we pulled over we could see the power in the house flickering off and on and then finally, it stayed off. I don't know if Elder Richardson really understood what we were about to do, it was all pretty surreal. So as the storm was continuing to pound down like crazy I asked him if he was ready and we ran out of the car into the storm up the steps to this house. We knocked on the door and a teenage boy comes to the door holding his dog in his arms looking a little frightened. We asked if his parents were home and he said no, and began to go back into his home. But we said, "here take this card its VERY IMPORTANT!" We ran back to the car totally drenched and said a prayer trying to find out where the Lord would want us to go in these conditions.. After the prayer I had noticed that the power was out in all the houses down the street. I turned to Elder Richardson and said "ok, we are looking for a house with a light on, even if its a flashlight!" So we drove on looking to see if we could find anything down the street, as we were driving we noticed a tree that had fallen into the street I was just like "Oh wow.." and Elder Richardson pointed out to me that it had fallen on a parked car on the side of the road. I thought for a minute and said "That's it Elder, that’s our light!" We parked the car in a very near by coldesack, And I told Elder Richardson to get his Book of Mormon ready and to grab a restoration pamphlet. He was more diligent than I was expecting, I had gotten out of the car and he couldn’t find a pamphlet so I grabbed a plan of salvation pamphlet and said "its ok, ready?" but he was still looking and found an unopened package of restorations pamphlets and was intent on opening it and grabbing one.. It was kinda funny. We ran to the house and found about 5 men standing on the porch watching the storm. I ran straight up on the porch which was kinda weird. Elder Richardson stood out in the rain and I started to talk to everyone, find out if everyone was alright and they invited Elder Richardson to come to the porch so he did. We proceeded to contact and to ask them if they had ever seen missionaries before and they were not the most receptive people, but they were nice and talked to us for a few minutes. It was very friendly and we gave them some pass-along cards. We didn't talk for too long and ran back to the car.. all of this still happening in a matter of minutes.. We got back into the car and kept driving down the road looking for lights. We passed one house with a screendoor that we could see the family watching out of and as we parked and ran to their door they had some light or candle in their home but we ran to the door and knocked. The father bearly would even open the door but we asked if they were all alright and handed them a pass-along card as well.. feeling it was about time for us to move on as the storm was slowly decreasing we headed back to the apartment to eat for little bit but headed out again. This time the storm had cleared by now and as we made it to this area we wanted to knock and the sky was beautiful with the sun setting in the background. Elder Richardson just stood their and starred at it for a minute in his raincoat. And as he walked up near me he said, kinda laughing, "heh, thats pretty cool, 'His hand is stretched out still'". And I was a little confused but looked up at the sky for a minute and it was as though the clouds were in the shape of a hand stretching over us. It was awesome!..I was like "you just quoted scripture!" and he said "yeah i know.." It was an amazing experience! We talked about it and how the Lord knew we would recognize those things and did that for us. Only two missionaries out of 50,000 and two people in one city on the earth would look up and see the clouds like that and would relate it to the scriptures. It was a wonderful night! Something I will not forget! We talked about how we didn't find anyone who would listen but know that we made an impression on many people, particularly a young boy who at the brink of a storm and his homes power going out while being alone, had two men come to his door telling him about something "Very important!".. We also took into account that there may have been people we did not contact who saw what we were doing. As well as a policeman who saw us arrive at the scene of the fallen tree before he did and drove away after asking the men on the porch if they had a rope.. All-in-all it was missionary work! It is why I am here! I love every minute of this work. I love being a missionary! There is no greater job than spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Elder "The Man" Richardson
Hey chumps and chumpetts! This past week has been hectic but way cool we actually had a surprise baptism on Friday night! Man it was way cool! Just like any other baptism I totally wanted to cry.. I love people. Especially people who know and understand the Gospel because they want to. It was a way cool girl who has been coming to church forever like 3 years now with her less-active boyfriend, who is now her fiance and he baptized her! It was so cool, She had already went through many missionaries in the past and never really cared but she talked to us at church last Sunday and said she wanted to start taking the discussions again and we originally set the date for June 27th but that didn't work so we moved it back and that didn't work so we moved it to this Saturday and man, she was totally ready! It was a way cool experience.. At the baptism while one of the talks was being given, I noticed that I had this way huge smile on my face probably bigger than anyone else there I probably looked pretty goofy but I thought.. "Man I am so thankful to be here!"
Anyway that was a cool experience.. pretty much everything is cool in missionary experience, you just have to make it cool! Anyway.. oh yeah, Elder Richardson. He is my new companion in the office! He is way cool, and I am Senior comp now.. for the first time. I really enjoy it to be honest, I can really work the way that I feel is important, and when we had our companionship inventory this morning he said something so nice! He said, "[You are the most motivated missionary I have served with and you are super obedient and know how to do things and want to get things taken care of.]" Man that felt so good to hear.. Not that its true there are many missionaries I wish I was more like who will be Bishops the second they get home.. But man I really appreciated that. So I am really excited to be working with him. He continues my mission trend of having great companions! Elder Robinson is finding A LOT of success in his new area.. coming up on 29 new investigators in this past week alone, and some on date for baptism.. Those numbers are just insane.. Our mission standard is 14 new investigators a week, and I have only gotten that maybe 2 or 3 times my mission! Anyway I will try and send off some pictures and stuff! I love and miss you all! Hope everyone is doing so way good and hope everyone knows that I pray for ya!
I guess a funny story.. Umm Elder Richardson and I went out yesterday and taught a doorstep lesson to this kid who was kinda creepy and strange but seemed to listen and participate in the Lesson.. anyway.. He came out of his house in shorts, no shirt on and just kinda interesting. He stared like right at us the whole time and talked in a interesting tone. More than halfway through the lesson he walks slowly and kinda backwards back into his house while i am talking to him.. and closes the screen door but still stands there looking at us.. and honestly this was one of the few times I actually got a little scared on my mission.. I was thinking.. "what on earth is going on?!" and so I stepped back a little and looked back behind me to see if someone was coming up or something and there was no one so I looked back at him and gave him a confused look and he said something like "because the fire ants and stuff" (he was wearing flip flops).. anyway that was way weird.. but that's the best story I got right now aside from the baptism! Anyway!! LOVE YA!
Anyway that was a cool experience.. pretty much everything is cool in missionary experience, you just have to make it cool! Anyway.. oh yeah, Elder Richardson. He is my new companion in the office! He is way cool, and I am Senior comp now.. for the first time. I really enjoy it to be honest, I can really work the way that I feel is important, and when we had our companionship inventory this morning he said something so nice! He said, "[You are the most motivated missionary I have served with and you are super obedient and know how to do things and want to get things taken care of.]" Man that felt so good to hear.. Not that its true there are many missionaries I wish I was more like who will be Bishops the second they get home.. But man I really appreciated that. So I am really excited to be working with him. He continues my mission trend of having great companions! Elder Robinson is finding A LOT of success in his new area.. coming up on 29 new investigators in this past week alone, and some on date for baptism.. Those numbers are just insane.. Our mission standard is 14 new investigators a week, and I have only gotten that maybe 2 or 3 times my mission! Anyway I will try and send off some pictures and stuff! I love and miss you all! Hope everyone is doing so way good and hope everyone knows that I pray for ya!
I guess a funny story.. Umm Elder Richardson and I went out yesterday and taught a doorstep lesson to this kid who was kinda creepy and strange but seemed to listen and participate in the Lesson.. anyway.. He came out of his house in shorts, no shirt on and just kinda interesting. He stared like right at us the whole time and talked in a interesting tone. More than halfway through the lesson he walks slowly and kinda backwards back into his house while i am talking to him.. and closes the screen door but still stands there looking at us.. and honestly this was one of the few times I actually got a little scared on my mission.. I was thinking.. "what on earth is going on?!" and so I stepped back a little and looked back behind me to see if someone was coming up or something and there was no one so I looked back at him and gave him a confused look and he said something like "because the fire ants and stuff" (he was wearing flip flops).. anyway that was way weird.. but that's the best story I got right now aside from the baptism! Anyway!! LOVE YA!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
13.1
Hey all. I can't write much today.. I'm just way tired. We headed off to do the "Endurathon" this morning and went with the whole zone to run to the capital, which was a half marathon. So I am way tired. And yup, I did the whole thing.. not that I ran the entire time but as much as I wanted to really, and finished it. That was fun... anywho. The work continues. Transfers are on Wednesday and we will see what happens! I love you all!
oh we ran 13.1 miles, that's what that is.
oh we ran 13.1 miles, that's what that is.
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