April 4, 2022
Bringing Church to Our People🏰
Last Monday was pretty fun! We got up around 6:30am and drove to the beach for a zone p-day. We made it just in time to see the sun rise! It was gorgeous! Even prettier than the last time we went. After, we went and got breakfast. I got a Belgian waffle. For lunch, I made some good ole mac and cheese. It is pretty sad when you start craving it from a box. We went to dinner at the Goodsells’ house. They are super nice and have an adorable baby. They made us cafe rio chicken for tacos. It was really good. We shared a spiritual thought with them and as we were about to leave they asked us if we needed anything. Then Brother Goodsell asked, “Do you need any toilet paper?” There was a long pause. I have never been asked that on my mission. We responded, ‘Yes!” We were out of toilet paper and forgot to buy more. He told us that he had been asked that on his mission and it was when he needed toilet paper. He said that we were the first ones to ever say yes to his question. He had been asking missionaries for years. Well, there’s a first time for everything!
Tuesday morning, we met with the elders to plan the MTC activity and then I practiced the piano for Zone Conference. Afterwards, we called Roberth. We read some of the Book of Mormon with him and set up a lesson in person. After that, we had a lesson with Jenny. She is going to have her baby next week! She is super excited. We taught her about prophets and she said she is going to read the pamphlet. Then we had another call with Charles. Slowly he is attaining the things we are teaching! After that, we went and knocked on this house. A lady opened the door and before I could ask to come in said, "Pasen!" I love when this happens! Her name is Ana and she really wants to have God more in her life. We are going to start teaching her and her 11 year old son. For dinner, we went to the Lynchs. They fed us breakfast for dinner. French toast, eggs, and bacon. It was delicious. I learned a new way of eating French toast. Put butter and brown sugar on it. The first piece I made the mistake of dumping syrup on top of that. It was very sugary! Then we went and taught English class.
Wednesday we had Zone Conference! It was awesome! I played the opening hymn and it was a miracle I didn’t mess up. Sister Monson taught us about the power of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon and the Spirit are the biggest factors in conversion. She gave us each a Book of Mormon and invited us to read it and mark every time it mentions Jesus Christ and teachings regarding the doctrine of Christ. I am super excited to do it this way! Then President Monson gave us a training on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He went through a lot of scriptures and explained certain words. Here are a couple examples:
Mark 14:33 "sore amazed" -The definition of sore amazed is awestruck or astonished. Jesus knew it was going to hurt, but he didn't fully know the amount of pain, sadness, and guilt he would feel.
Alma 7:12 "succor" -Succor: to run to; provide relief; give assistance. He does it quickly. The Atonement works immediately. He did it so he would know how to help us.
2 Nephi 9:7 "infinite" -It can be used an infinite amount of times. There is no limit on forgiving and being forgiven. It is also infinite chronologically. ⬅️past & future➡️.
Luke 22:42 "not my will, but thine be done." -Complete submission. He didn't want to do it, but he did. He loved his Father enough to allow his will to be swallowed up into the will of the Father.
There were more examples but I'll stop there. It was good to learn new things and have other things be brought back to my remembrance. After that, we had lunch. I think it is the best one I have ever had after a zone conference. Fitting because it was my last one. Then we did role plays for the next three hours while President interviewed everyone separately. We practiced inviting members to be in lessons, teaching a five minute restoration, and inviting people to church with D&C 59:9-16. Then it was over, and I hadn’t been interviewed. We said the closing prayer, and started to clean up. Then I had my closing interview with President Monson. We talked about how to receive answers to prayers, what my plans are for the future, and marriage… Didn’t really like the last topic. I am doing something called MyPlan that is pretty much a course for finishing your mission. I liked the first week, but I’m not looking forward to the weeks on dating and marriage. To close the interview, he gave me a blessing. It was really neat. After that, Hna. Williamson and I drove to the church for a MTC activity that the youth were doing. We were giving a lecture and doing more role plays. We were there early so we practiced it and then presented. It went very well. It reminded me of the stake MTC activity I did when I was in 7th grade. It was a wonderful experience. Hopefully this activity touched the youth and inspired them to share the gospel.
On Thursday, we did our first service that we have done in this area. We went and helped with a soup kitchen. We counted and put raw shrimp in bags. Then we cut fish and put it in bags. It was fun but didn't smell too great. Afterwards, we went and visited Juan's house. Juan wasn't there but this other guy Angel was. Funny thing is we had met him outside of a tienda and gave him English class info. We went inside and got to know him and his wife. They were taught by missionaries a long time ago and have lots of questions. We had a call with Charles and then went to our lesson with Roberth and got ice cream! We went to Kilwin's ice cream! I haven't had that since Charleston. We taught him about the premortal life as his ice cream was dripping everywhere! For dinner, we went and ate with Bob and Bev! They are so awesome! Sadly, they are going back to Montana for the summer next week. They fed us hamburgers, salad, lima beans, pickled beats, and chips. It was really good. Then we had ice cream for dessert. They bought just vanilla because they saw me the other time picking out the chocolate chips...when I wasn't eating chocolate. Dang, I thought I had done it inconspicuously. But it was sweet that they wanted to please me. So they said the chocolate we were going to get was the sprinkles. It was pretty funny. After that, we had a great lesson with Nicol. She fed us some of that cookie stuff again. After three desserts, I felt like I was going to throw up. We told her about General Conference and explained about a living prophet. She said we could come watch it with her! She wrote down, "Leer el Libro. Importante!" with a smiley face to remember to read the Book of Mormon. On the way to English class we called Jose Ramos and taught him about the ten commandments.
On Friday, we finally had a lesson with Aurelio! He gave us ice cream too. A lot of ice cream to have in two days. He said that he was struggling because he lost his first job that he worked in the morning. But he got a new one! He is working cleaning a gym and is super excited! He said he is going to get the time to come to church and that everything will work out. As he was telling us this he started to cry. He said he was crying out of joy and gratitude. It was sweet.. He also told us that he still wants to be baptized. Now we just have to get his wife's permission. We did a video call with her and she is super nice. Just confused about what is going on. Aurelio wants us to teach her so she can know why he wants to be baptized. Afterwards, we drove up to Hardeeville and visited this house. We were looking for a guy named Enrique. A man opened the door and said that his name was Dilson. He said that there was an Enrique who lived there… Luis Enrique. Not the member we were looking for, but it was awesome! We are going back to teach Dilson, Luis, and Gerson. (During this Dilson, a baber, was cutting Gerson's hair) That was totally unexpected. After that, we went over to Carla's house. On the way we stopped at a tienda and this guy gave us some weird dried fruit. Needless to say, it was pretty gross. Tasted like a dried sugar coated sweet potatoe. At Carla's when they finally settled we taught them about the Great Apostasy. Her son Elias brought his friend Ziandre and we taught him too. He is 13 and has really good questions. He wanted a pamphlet in English and Spanish. To end the night, we had dinner with Cristian. We were early, which was awesome! I got these grilled chicken nachos that were delicious. I would totally recommend them! We talked about Jesus Christ. Probably will have to review that a little because the music started blaring for Karaoke night. We gave him a pamphlet and invited him to watch General Conference.
Saturday morning we watched the first session of General Conference at the Lynch’s house with Donovan. It was the only full one we watched in English. Donovan loved it and was taking notes on the little notebook that we gave him. I really liked when Elder Bodnar talked about heeding not what the wicked may say. To heed means to take notice or pay attention. We are going to not pay attention to what others are saying about not being righteous or making good decisions. We will keep our standards high. In between sessions, we went and visited Barbara. They said she wasn't home and was at therapy. Didn't really believe that, but hoped that. Didn't have time for much else, so we drove home. We watched listened to 30 minutes and watched 30 minutes of the first hour in English. Roberto could only have us come over half way through it. So we watched the last half with him in Spanish. Super cool because Elder Aidukaitus spoke! We saw him a couple weeks ago when he spoke to us at our half Mission Conference. I really liked how he talked about the gathering of Israel on both sides. Temple work is missionary work, just in a different form. We need both! After that, we drove to Jose Ramos's house to watch the Women's session with his family. They fed us pizza and wings which was perfect because I was starving! We gave Jose a notebook and he took notes! He loved it and said he learned so much. I loved the talk by Sister Rebecca L. Craven. Especially when she said if we want the church and the teachings of Jesus Christ to come out of hiding, we need to come out of hiding. We can't expect others to preach the gospel for us. Everyone needs to open their mouth and share it with others.
Sunday morning we were able to do our studies! We made brownies and then went to Rafael's house for the first session of conference. Aurelio and Roberth came!! They both took notes and loved it! Astrid and her family watched it too. We had brownies, fruit, tamales, spinach artichoke dip, and chips. I loved the talk by Elder Gary E. Stevenson. He talked about love, share, and invite. It is something that we have been doing in my mission. We first love others and show them that we care. Then we share the gospel with them, and invite them to come and see. Sometimes it is 90% love and 10% share and invite. It depends on the person and what they need. In between sessions, we stopped by Maria and Kailer's house. It had been a while since we had seen them. Lola showed us their baby bunnies and let us hold them. The fit in the palm of my hand. Kailer told us he had read 14 pages in the Kids Book of Mormon!! He told us about what he read and explained the stories to us. His parents hadn't read, so we read the first chapter with them. We invited them to church and they seem like they really want to come. We are going to give them a church tour. After that, we raced over to Nicol’s house for the last session. She didn't answer the door, and so we were worried she wasn't there. We called and she said she was in the shower but would be right out. While we waited, Hna. Williamson listened to it in English while I picked flowers and tried to catch some lizards. Nicol let us in and we set everything up. She had made us bacon wrapped hotdogs. We brought some brownies for dessert. She also popped some popcorn and we put hot sauce on it. Never tried that, but it is actually pretty good. She had lots of questions and we answered them. During Elder Oaks talk, she said that he was talking about what she learned from our lessons (the Celestial kingdom). After it was over, she told us that she is going on vacation for a couple of weeks. Jesús has work in Charleston and she doesn't want to stay home alone, which makes sense. The sad thing is she will be gone for her baptism. She didn't realize that, but we told her we can move it back. We said we have more things we need to teach her first. I liked Elder Uctdorf's talk a lot. He talked about the widow's mite. Am I going to give all that I have? As well as a quote from another talk, "Jesus Christ is the way, the life, and the truth."
Hey everyone!
Last Monday was pretty fun. I took a little nap and then we went to downtown Bluffton. We have been wanting to go walk there and see the stores. It is so adorable! I got Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for the first time. It was very chocolatey and yummy! Later that night, we went and visited the Avilas. They were actually home and let us in. Their dog doesn’t really like us and tries to eat us every time we go over. They put a hat on their cat and he fell asleep in my arms. We taught them about the plan of salvation. Afterwards, we and had a lesson with Roberto. It had been a very long time since we had one. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He said he is going to keep it!
Tuesday morning we had DCM and ZCM. In ZCM the discussion was on sacrifice. We read 1 Kings 17:12-16. This widow sacrificed the rest of her food and gave it to Elijah. Because she did that her meal and oil didn’t run out. She was given more than she gave up. I gave the discussion on helping people keep commitments. This topic has been talked about 3 times over the past 6-8 weeks. Apparently, we needed to hear it again. Keeping commitments is helping them to keep covenants in the future. After that, we visited some more people out in Ridgeland. We found this awesome tienda and a lady we are going to teach. We were able to give out a lot of english class cards. Then we had a great lesson with Roberth. We read the Book of Mormon with him. Right after that, we had a lesson with Nicol and Jesus. We introduced the Book of Mormon to Jesus. They said that they are going to read it! Then we had a lesson with Tami. It had been a really long time. Her TV was on as usual, but with the weather channel. We were getting a tornado warning. A possible tornado had touched down 30 minutes away. Turns out we don’t know if it did. It might've just booped the ground and disappeared. We shared a thought about sacrifice, the same thing from ZCM. Right after that, we had dinner with the Lynches. We were waiting outside for a minute and it started pouring so hard. It was ridiculous! We ate chicken enchiladas, rice, chips and salsa with them. English class didn’t have a great turn out. Hispanics really don’t like driving in the rain.
On Wednesday we went on exchanges!! I went to West Columbia with Hna. Bennion and Oyler!! It had been ages! Legit all of our lessons canceled or they weren’t there at the house. We taught a cute brother and sister. They have lots of questions! The primary activity we were going to run and our dinner got canceled. So we went to Manny's!! I totally forgot about it, but Hna. Oyler was a dear and remembered it for me. I got an elote and Mango colada. It was delicious. Right when we left it started pouring rain. This guy came over to the car and knocked on the window. I rolled it down and proceeded to get my right arm jacket and all soaked. He wanted money, all I had was a banana. So, I gave him that. Then we went and visited this kid named Alex. I had visited him on exchanges about 3-4 months ago. He wants to be baptized and his whole family that are members are backing him up!! It was awesome! We left and there was so much lightning and thunder. It was super cool! The sky was lighting up with purple white lighting. To end the night, we went to the church to do some things on the computer. They made spreadsheets and filled in information while I did some MyPlan.
Thursday morning we had a meeting at 9am with the Relief Society. I just sat and listened because I didn't know anything about their ward. But I got a lot of good ideas from it. Had a hard time staying awake during the hour and fifteen minutes. Then we unexchanged after a long drive. We were standing talking when Hna. Denmark let out a scream. There were caterpillars crawling on her foot. The were all over the ground. I caught like 7 of them. Also, the gas station that we went to had a part burned and melted. Turns out a truck lit on fire and it made on of the gas things go up in flames. Also, a very important thing to mention is that it was Hna. Willson’s 20th Birthday!!! Feliz Cumpleaños! On the way home we stopped in Ridgeland to visit a member. They moved, but we met a nice lady. We are going back to visit her. We got a text from Nicol that said she found out what kind of baby she would be having. We called her and she said that we could come over. They finally told us… a👦🏽! Jesus was busy for a minute so we started teaching Nicol about the law of chastity. She said that she broke it, but is glad that they are going to get married. She is just so accepting of the things that we tell her! For dinner we went to a Greek restaurant with the Freemans. I got this pork cabob, rice, and potatoes. It was good, but everything had an underlying taste of lemon. During dinner we had this interesting conversation about bulking and exercising. I asked, “What is more important, the gospel or bulking?” Elder Noble responded, "Well, Jesus Christ grew in all ways." Wasn’t expecting that retort. After that, we had english class. We had plans to go to Rafael’s house after it was over. We were about to leave when Roberto brought in a giant platter of fruit, then Donovan with a watermelon made into a basket with spicy fruit, and Angel with a cake and flowers. We had a mini party that none of us knew was going to happen! It was super fun, and our english class students stayed, ate, and sang to her. Then we went to Rafael’s house and had another mini fiesta. We ate some chicken tacos and all the other stuff from the class. We did this all around a fire outside. A catapiller was on Roberth, so I got it off his jacket. It left a stain there, and Roberth said a not very good word. I was super shocked and chastized him. As I was doing this the fire behind me swelled and cracked, shooting sparks all over. His eyes got huge, and he said he wouldn’t do it again. It was hilarious and cool. Before we left we all sang Count Your Many Blessings. Hna. Williamson’s phone died so we found our way home by prayer and landmarks. When we got home she opened up my present. It is really hard to shop for someone when they are with you ALL the time. I couldn’t really hide it.
On Friday we had lunch with Margaret. We went to First Watch. We got soup and sandwiches. It was really good. She gave us these towels that said something and she didn’t realized what it meant. She explained how it related to us and we just smiled and nodded. When we left we couldn’t stop laughing. The thing that it said was totally not what she thought. (It is funnier not written) Then we stopped by the library to print off old fashioned english class cards. We visited some people and they weren’t home. We met a guy named Marlo outside. He is super nice and we are going to start teaching him. Sadly he lives on the island so we are going to have to pass him off to the elders. I made a joke about stealing one of his friends cats. Said they wouldn't miss it and he said they would. Jesus missed the 1 out of the 100 sheep and went to go find it. I got shot down and it was even with the scriptures!🐱 Then we met this lady outside in a parking lot with her daughter. Her daughter absolutely loved us from knowing us for 5 seconds. We are going to go visit them later in the week. After that, we had a lesson with Ana and her husband Jose. They loved the first vision and were in awe about it. We are super excited to keep teaching them. They don’t even know how much the gospel with bless and change their lives. For dinner, we went to some of Hna. Williamson’s friend’s house. They said if she served out her she could visit them and we did. They aren’t members and they have never met missionaries or allowed them in their house before. We ate spaghetti and got to know Amy, her brother Brad, and their mom who has Alzheimers. They are just the sweetest. They said that we could come over again!! Then we went to our lesson with Cesar and Angel was there. We taught them about our purpose as missionaries and why we give commitments. Angel said that short lessons are going to do nothing and that we need to go to church. We were like you are correct and invited him to church. Afterwards, we went and saw Elisandro. We hadn’t seen him in ages because he can’t drive right now. He fed us and the elders a second dinner of chicken sopes. Elder Forseburg ate 10 of them! For dessert we had this layered cake. When we went out the the car, the elders gave Hna. Williamson her present. It was wrapped in bubble wrap and duck tape. She had a blast opening it and loved that one of the things was apples.
Saturday morning we helped set up a Primary activity with the elders. Then we helped run a couple of the games. It was fun. After it was over we ran to Walmart to buy a present for Erika’s baby shower later and ingredients for dinner with Nicol the next day. During lunch, I studied on the stairs while Hna. Williamson was jump roping outside. A Hispanic started talking to her and now we are going to teach him. He wants to come to church! Hna. Williamson said that she just felt like she needed to jump rope and that happened! After that, pretty much all of our lessons canceled, even the church tour we had planned with Maria and Kailer. It was hard, but we invited a ton of people to church. Then we went to Erika’s baby shower at 7pm. She is having a girl👧🏽! We met her friend Gina who is awesome. We talked to her for 45 minutes while we waited for Erika to arrive. We ate some catrachitas which are fried tortillas with beans and cheese on top. Erika arrived and then we had this chili. Then we left, but we are going to have lunch with Erika and Gina sometime. Gina loves the Lord and will hopefully accept a message!
Sunday morning we had choir practice for the musical number we will be doing on Easter Sunday. I bore my testimony in the english sacrament meeting. When I walked up I noticed Astrid and her kids sitting in the second side pew! After I finished I went and sat by them. Astrid told me after that it meant a lot to her and showed her that God was aware of her. I remind her of a Sister missionary that she was really close to who served here a couple years ago. She is very sick and doesn’t have much longer to live. Astrid told me that I was wearing a similar outfit and hairstyle of what the sister wore on her last Sunday in that area. I’m just glad that Astrid is recieving help and assurance during this difficult time. Then we had a bomb relief society lesson. The spirit was so strong and I learned so much! I was taking notes like crazy. We met one of the elder’s investigators. Turns out she lives in our apartment complex one building over. Then we had the Spanish meeting. Before it started we noticed that we had a missed call from Nicol. We called back and she said she was coming to church. We met her outside and she came in with us! Giant miracle. We have been praying for this to happen. Also, Jonas showed up and we weren’t expecting that. He said that he got up at 5am so he could finish everything he needed to do to be there. I bore my testimony and shared what I learned from General Conference. Roberth also came to church so that made us super happy. After church was over, we raced home to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Then we had a lesson with Maria, Kailer, and his dad. We taught them the first part of the plan of salvation and the kids had such great questions for example: Where did God come from? How did God get His body? Kailer just soaks up what we teach him and Lola follows his example. We are just hoping that the parents will show more desire and interest. After that, we had a great lesson with Ana and Jose. We went over Joseph Smith and the restoration of the priesthood. We read out of the pamphlet to help them understand. They loved it and don’t have any questions. Then we drove up to Ridgeland and gave out some english class cards. We found a family that we are going to visit later this week. For dinner, we went over to Nicol’s hosue. She made us tacos with really spicy salsa. I have learned by experiences that really spicy salsa upsets an empty stomach. We went over more of the law of chastity with her and she was connecting the dots. To end the night, we had a lesson with Roberto and Brother Lynch. We taught him about the law of chastity. He asked his hypothetical questions, but in the end he understands that it is important. We helped him understand a way to pray for guidance in making decisions. Brother Lynch shared a powerful testimony about temples and brought the spirit into the room. Roberto told us that he wants to continue learning and be baptized. He wants to push back his date to next month for when his family is in town so they can come. He also invited his friend to come over and meet with us this upcoming Saturday. He is turning into a little missionary!
I just wanted to share a quote from General Conference from the talk Valient Discipleship in the Last Days.” It says, “God won’t force us to do good, and the devil can’t force us to do evil. Though some may think that mortality is a contest between God and the adversary, a word from the Savior ‘and Satan is silenced and banished. … It is [our] strength that is being tested—not God’s.’ In the end we will therefore reap what our lifelong choices have sown.”
Have a great week!
