Hello Everyone!!!
Alllllllright!!
This week has been a week of work work work! We had a lot of lessons planned for this week but every single one fell through. However, we kept positive and we actually found a lot of new investigators and we taught a lot of new people! This Sunday our investigator Andrew was confirmed in sacrament meeting!! i had the opportunity of confirming him, it was a very neat experience! He said that his mind is set and he is going to go on a mission! It will be a year from now because he has to wait a year, but he is already reading Preach My Gospel and is preparing for a mission! i do not think there is anything that has given me greater joy on my mission than to see a convert with this strong of a testimony and such a huge desire to serve a mission himself! It just makes me smile :). In the area I work in it is the Young Single Adult ward, so that means we usually only find and contact people at the apartments where young people are. Since I have been here there are only about 5 places we ever go, so I have knocked on about every door 3 times now, and everyone, member and non-member knows me by name haha. But this week we found a new apartment complex with a lot of singles!!!!!! We have already found a few investigators there! We are teaching one now named Chad and he seemed like the most unlikely person we would ever teach but he has turned out to be one the most honest and desirous investigators we have at the moment. I have definitely learned on a mission you CANNOT judge a book by its cover. The Gospel is for everyone and I fully intend and do give everyone a chance to hear the Gospel. I think this week has also been a record for the number of Anti-Mormons we have come into contact with. it just makes me sad to see, how out of their way one will go to say bad things about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However on one specific occasion we had a neat experience with one Anti-Mormon in particular, it was after we had already ran into quite a few of them so I was trying to think of new ways to talk with them. The man told us we were a cult and that we believe all sorts of weird things, but as he continued to talk I remembered about a book that was given to my family not too long ago from a member of our ward, i think it was the Loveland family. They gave us a Green Eggs and Ham book by Dr. Seuss, except they had replaced Green Eggs and Ham with 'The Book of Mormon' and changed a few sentences of it. ANYWAY, I remembered that book, and I asked the man two questions. I said "Have you ever read the Book of Mormon?" He said "No", then I said "Have you ever one to our church to see what our services our like?" he said "No"...Then I said "hmmm, well it seems like you have Green Eggs and Ham syndrome", he looked at me kind of confused but I explained and told him how he says that our church is a cult and that we believe in all sorts of things (I don't know how he came up with some...they were pretty out there), but i told him how he has never read the Book of Mormon and he has never gone to our church, I related how he is like the man in Green Eggs and Ham that said he didn't like it because he refused to try it. The whole analogy left him speechless and i invited him to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and then we left ;). I thought it was pretty cool haha. But anyway, this week has been great and it only seems to get better and better every week! I love it. I love you all and hope everything is going well! Write me! Until next week!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
May 16, 2011
Hello Everyone!
Well, this last week was the final week of this transfer! We worked very hard and we spent a lot of it getting our two investigators ready for their baptisms on Sunday. We had one of the baptisms fall through because we have to work something out with his living situation before he can be baptized. But we did have the Baptism for Andrew this Sunday! As he was going into the font we realized that something was wrong with the drain and that the water level had gone way down, they had to do it 3 times to make sure he was completely submersed in the water, he was laughing about it afterward. He has the most amazing testimony and I have grown so much from teaching him, because he has really taught me. My companion and I are staying the same this transfer however this transfer will only be a 5 week transfer compared to the normal 6 week, for our new mission president that will be coming on July 1st!! Because we had transfers I don't have much time to write in this email today but I want you all to know that I am doing well. The people down here in California are so great! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by especially when you just get lost in the work! I love you all! I will write more next week!
Well, this last week was the final week of this transfer! We worked very hard and we spent a lot of it getting our two investigators ready for their baptisms on Sunday. We had one of the baptisms fall through because we have to work something out with his living situation before he can be baptized. But we did have the Baptism for Andrew this Sunday! As he was going into the font we realized that something was wrong with the drain and that the water level had gone way down, they had to do it 3 times to make sure he was completely submersed in the water, he was laughing about it afterward. He has the most amazing testimony and I have grown so much from teaching him, because he has really taught me. My companion and I are staying the same this transfer however this transfer will only be a 5 week transfer compared to the normal 6 week, for our new mission president that will be coming on July 1st!! Because we had transfers I don't have much time to write in this email today but I want you all to know that I am doing well. The people down here in California are so great! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by especially when you just get lost in the work! I love you all! I will write more next week!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
May 9, 2011
Well, I know I just wrote on Friday but it is my P-day again this week so I guess I can write about what has happened in the past two or three days since I last wrote. On Saturday we had two appointments fall through but it was okay because we were led to talk to a few more amazing people! We did however have a very important lesson with the father of our investigator Andrew that is going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday! His father said he wanted to meet with us as well so he could get a better idea of what his son is getting into, he had been exposed to some anti-Mormon things so in our first meeting with the father we helped try and clarify some of the misinformation he had. But on Saturday we were able to do a church building tour and walk him around it and talk about what we believe and how the church works, the spirit was very strong and he seemed very surprised about some of the things we shared with him, but in a good surprised kind of way. And then we walked with him around the Newport Beach temple that is right across the street, the spirit was even stronger there and he is interested now in learning more! On Sunday we announced the baptisms of Pierce and Andrew for this upcoming Sunday! They are both very excited! So are my companion and I! We are going to be seeing them everyday of this next week and will be working with them. Pray for them! This will be an amazing week! It was great to call home for mothers day! I LOVE MY MOM! I hope everyone had a good mothers day as well! I hope everything is going super fantastically for everyone! I love you all! Until next week!
May 6, 2011
Hello everyone!!!
The reason I am writing today is because my P-Day was changed from Monday to today which is Friday because we get to go to the temple today! There has been so much that has happened since the last time i wrote...I guess to start...On Thursday the 28th (my year mark) Elder L. Tom Perry came and spoke with the California Anaheim mission and the California Long Beach mission combined! It was such a neat experience to listen to an apostle of the Lord! Surprisingly enough the first 10 minutes of his talk was about marriage and I think he realized he was off topic because he eventually said "Well, that has nothing to do with what I came to speak about so lets get down to business" haha, he is 89 years old but he seems in his 40's by how lively he is! He focused on the Book of Mormon and studying it deeply. It was an amazing talk! My companion and I taught a new investigator named Andrew this week. Andrew has been going to The OCC (Orange Coast College) Institute and taking classes on the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. He is the most diligent investigator I have ever met. He even asked one day to tract and knock doors with me and my companion so we said sure. When we did, he would ask people questions as well, it was such a cool experience that I have never had before. He is going to be baptized on the 15th of may! We are super excited! He is someone I know for a surety I was meant to come here and teach him. We also have been working with our other investigator named Pierce, and he has been struggling to set a baptismal date, we decided with him that we would all fast and pray on fast Sunday that he would receive and answer about his being baptized. We had a very spiritual lesson with him before we broke our fast and he said the prayer to end our fast. The spirit was so strong and he received his answer and he will be baptized on the 15th as well!! We have seen so many blessings come from the Lord in our area and I know it is because of the faith and effort we put into the work. I am one that really trusts in the Lord with my whole heart that if we have faith and work our hardest, the Lord will follow through with blessings. We had exchanges with one of the district leaders in our zone and I got to have Elder Chang come work with me in our area for a day. Elder Chang was my trainer :). It was really neat to work with him again and realize that a lot of the things I do were modeled after him. That night Elder Chang and I were walking down the street just before we were about to go exchange back with our companions and we ran into a college student named John. I asked him if we could share our message with him and he said sure. We walked over to a nearby park and then taught him about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson we committed him to be baptized on the 22nd of may and he said yes!!!! We will be referring him to a different singles ward because he lives out of our boundaries. I have seen so many blessings it is such an amazing opportunity to be doing this work!!! I will be writing again in 3 days on Monday so I can write more. I love you all and hope to hear from you!! Until next week!
The reason I am writing today is because my P-Day was changed from Monday to today which is Friday because we get to go to the temple today! There has been so much that has happened since the last time i wrote...I guess to start...On Thursday the 28th (my year mark) Elder L. Tom Perry came and spoke with the California Anaheim mission and the California Long Beach mission combined! It was such a neat experience to listen to an apostle of the Lord! Surprisingly enough the first 10 minutes of his talk was about marriage and I think he realized he was off topic because he eventually said "Well, that has nothing to do with what I came to speak about so lets get down to business" haha, he is 89 years old but he seems in his 40's by how lively he is! He focused on the Book of Mormon and studying it deeply. It was an amazing talk! My companion and I taught a new investigator named Andrew this week. Andrew has been going to The OCC (Orange Coast College) Institute and taking classes on the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. He is the most diligent investigator I have ever met. He even asked one day to tract and knock doors with me and my companion so we said sure. When we did, he would ask people questions as well, it was such a cool experience that I have never had before. He is going to be baptized on the 15th of may! We are super excited! He is someone I know for a surety I was meant to come here and teach him. We also have been working with our other investigator named Pierce, and he has been struggling to set a baptismal date, we decided with him that we would all fast and pray on fast Sunday that he would receive and answer about his being baptized. We had a very spiritual lesson with him before we broke our fast and he said the prayer to end our fast. The spirit was so strong and he received his answer and he will be baptized on the 15th as well!! We have seen so many blessings come from the Lord in our area and I know it is because of the faith and effort we put into the work. I am one that really trusts in the Lord with my whole heart that if we have faith and work our hardest, the Lord will follow through with blessings. We had exchanges with one of the district leaders in our zone and I got to have Elder Chang come work with me in our area for a day. Elder Chang was my trainer :). It was really neat to work with him again and realize that a lot of the things I do were modeled after him. That night Elder Chang and I were walking down the street just before we were about to go exchange back with our companions and we ran into a college student named John. I asked him if we could share our message with him and he said sure. We walked over to a nearby park and then taught him about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the lesson we committed him to be baptized on the 22nd of may and he said yes!!!! We will be referring him to a different singles ward because he lives out of our boundaries. I have seen so many blessings it is such an amazing opportunity to be doing this work!!! I will be writing again in 3 days on Monday so I can write more. I love you all and hope to hear from you!! Until next week!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
April 28, 2011
Today is Elder Joshua T. Ellis' 365th day in service as a Missionary!!! His 1 year mark and for me (his Dad) tomorrow begins his count-down from 365 days. Not that I miss him at all or anything. So I am posting a "Blast From The Past" picture just for fun ;)
Monday, April 25, 2011
April 25, 2011
Hello Everyone!!!
This past week went very very well!! In our zone altogether we had two baptisms! One of them was a big miracle, she is a lady who is 65 and has been going to church her whole life, she has not been baptized because she has an extreme fear of water, because when she was young she almost drowned. This past week the elders and the ward helped her to finally make the decision to be baptized and within 3 days were able to practice and prepare to help her be baptized and she was! We started out this week by going on a three day exchange with a companionship in our zone. I worked in our area with Elder Toland, he is a great elder. We worked pretty hard and had one day of back to back lessons, probably one the most busiest days of my mission so far! Every hour of our day had a lesson and dinner was a backup plan ;) (that tends to happen a lot). On my mission there have been a few times when I have a very special spiritual feeling or experience and one happened this week. We were talking to a lot of people that were outside in this particular neighborhood, and while we were walking around a man came up to us and said "How much do you know about the Mormons?" and it turns out he was a member. But he referred us to his less-active son who lives in the complex we were at. We went and visited the son and he invited us in, we talked to him for a bit and then set up a time to meet with him again. The next night we went back and taught him and his non-member girlfriend. During the lesson I had a strong feeling that I know him and I remembered him. Something I can't quite describe but it was very special to me. I am excited to help him get back on his feet in the Gospel again. This week was a lot of just plain hard work and talking to everyone and I have seen so many blessings come our way. I can't believe my year mark is in three days! I was reading a talk this week by Elder Marion D. Hanks and it was about finding joy through Christ. He focused on something I haven't really put much thought into before. But he said "We all know we need God. We love him and we absolutely rely on him." Then he said "But I find that rarely do we consider that God needs us. Each and everyone of us." I know that we really are all children of God and because of that, everything we do in this life has an impact on others. We should never think less of who we are. God is on our side and we can always come off conqueror! I love this work, and I love all of you! I hope all is going well! Until next week!
This past week went very very well!! In our zone altogether we had two baptisms! One of them was a big miracle, she is a lady who is 65 and has been going to church her whole life, she has not been baptized because she has an extreme fear of water, because when she was young she almost drowned. This past week the elders and the ward helped her to finally make the decision to be baptized and within 3 days were able to practice and prepare to help her be baptized and she was! We started out this week by going on a three day exchange with a companionship in our zone. I worked in our area with Elder Toland, he is a great elder. We worked pretty hard and had one day of back to back lessons, probably one the most busiest days of my mission so far! Every hour of our day had a lesson and dinner was a backup plan ;) (that tends to happen a lot). On my mission there have been a few times when I have a very special spiritual feeling or experience and one happened this week. We were talking to a lot of people that were outside in this particular neighborhood, and while we were walking around a man came up to us and said "How much do you know about the Mormons?" and it turns out he was a member. But he referred us to his less-active son who lives in the complex we were at. We went and visited the son and he invited us in, we talked to him for a bit and then set up a time to meet with him again. The next night we went back and taught him and his non-member girlfriend. During the lesson I had a strong feeling that I know him and I remembered him. Something I can't quite describe but it was very special to me. I am excited to help him get back on his feet in the Gospel again. This week was a lot of just plain hard work and talking to everyone and I have seen so many blessings come our way. I can't believe my year mark is in three days! I was reading a talk this week by Elder Marion D. Hanks and it was about finding joy through Christ. He focused on something I haven't really put much thought into before. But he said "We all know we need God. We love him and we absolutely rely on him." Then he said "But I find that rarely do we consider that God needs us. Each and everyone of us." I know that we really are all children of God and because of that, everything we do in this life has an impact on others. We should never think less of who we are. God is on our side and we can always come off conqueror! I love this work, and I love all of you! I hope all is going well! Until next week!
Monday, April 18, 2011
April 18, 2011
Hello everybody!
Ok, where do I start...This week all of the missionaries had their interviews with the mission president. My companion and I being the Zone leaders had to prepare a training lesson for all the other missionaries at the building while the interviews were going on. We worked pretty hard on the lesson and it turned out very well! All the missionaries loved it. And our topic was on asking questions. I have realized that asking questions is easy, but asking the right questions or even good questions is very difficult. We had another stake report with the Newport stake this week. A stake report is when my companion and I meet with the stake presidency and give a report with everything missionary wise that has been going on in the zone. This was my second time around so it went much more smoothly for me. The man that was presiding is the 1 counselor of the stake presidency and his name is President Watkins. He is such an amazing man! I could literally just sit all day and listen to him talk about the Gospel because he has such a strong testimony and desire for missionary work! This week I have really been focusing on improving my contacting and teaching, and not over thinking anything. The Lord has been helping and blessing me so much! I know the Lord put me in this area for a reason because I am learning the most here. I have found that the reason that sometimes situations seem like they are laser guided toward our weaknesses or strengths is because they are. The lord knows where we will best learn and who will have the biggest impacts on us. I know the Lord knows each and every one of us. He loves us all. One other cool thing that has happened lately is that my companion and I were at the stake center the other day and a man was cleaning out the library. He asked us if we wanted the old ensigns that were in there because they weren't keeping anything over 3 years anymore since it is all online. We said yes and recently I have been reading general conference addresses from 1972 and they are AMAZING!! I get to look at super young pictures of Elder Thomas S. Monson ;), and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. I love this work! I hope all is well! Until next week!
Ok, where do I start...This week all of the missionaries had their interviews with the mission president. My companion and I being the Zone leaders had to prepare a training lesson for all the other missionaries at the building while the interviews were going on. We worked pretty hard on the lesson and it turned out very well! All the missionaries loved it. And our topic was on asking questions. I have realized that asking questions is easy, but asking the right questions or even good questions is very difficult. We had another stake report with the Newport stake this week. A stake report is when my companion and I meet with the stake presidency and give a report with everything missionary wise that has been going on in the zone. This was my second time around so it went much more smoothly for me. The man that was presiding is the 1 counselor of the stake presidency and his name is President Watkins. He is such an amazing man! I could literally just sit all day and listen to him talk about the Gospel because he has such a strong testimony and desire for missionary work! This week I have really been focusing on improving my contacting and teaching, and not over thinking anything. The Lord has been helping and blessing me so much! I know the Lord put me in this area for a reason because I am learning the most here. I have found that the reason that sometimes situations seem like they are laser guided toward our weaknesses or strengths is because they are. The lord knows where we will best learn and who will have the biggest impacts on us. I know the Lord knows each and every one of us. He loves us all. One other cool thing that has happened lately is that my companion and I were at the stake center the other day and a man was cleaning out the library. He asked us if we wanted the old ensigns that were in there because they weren't keeping anything over 3 years anymore since it is all online. We said yes and recently I have been reading general conference addresses from 1972 and they are AMAZING!! I get to look at super young pictures of Elder Thomas S. Monson ;), and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. I love this work! I hope all is well! Until next week!
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