Monday, December 17, 2012
Elder Black visits Santa
I love this picture! What a cute kid! I just wish he had his Ernie the Elf suit :) love seeing his cute happy face! Love this missionary so much!!!!!
December 17
GREETINGS
Howdy ya'll. First of all I would like to inform you that yes I will be able to skype on Christmas and Bishop Caldwell's house. His skype address is brian.caldwell473 so you'll need to send him a request-a-majig-thing. We don't know for sure what time it will happen yet because they have a son who is also on a mission and we're probably gonna work around when he is skyping and stuff. We should have a time for sure by next Monday but if not I'm sure the necessary arrangements will be made. Father, I'm super jealous that you have already been skiing. That's one of the things I'll miss quite a bit. I'm definitely jealous about surfing too, that sounds like something I'm going to have to do someday for sure. Make sure you dedicate your greatest run of the day each day to me.
We had an awesome Christmas Zone Conference this week which was at the Rio Rancho stake center so we didn't have to travel anywhere really. It was really great. President and Sister Miller did a training on how we can make relating the first vision with our investigators (and anybody) a very sacred and spiritual moment. They did a roleplay with some of the Elder's and had us all say prayers in our hearts for them to bring the spirit into the room as they taught some sister missionaries. The spirit was so strong. Half of the mission all praying for the same thing makes a pretty awesome experience. I also got to see a lot of the missionaries who came out into the field with us. Elder Kendall is in a bike area and has lost 30 pounds since the MTC so he's looking sharp. It was really cool though. We got fed awesome food, gained weight, and felt the spirit in grand abundance. Now that's what I call a killer triple combination. Not a cool triple combination, a killer one. Remember that. We have two Christmas trees. They young men in the ward came over to our apartment and decorated a tree so we had to hide our other tree in the back room so that they couldn't see it. It was pretty funny. So now we have a tree in our front room and the other one is in the kitchen. I don't really know why it's there but that's where it is. We might give it to the ZLs. Remember how in Mazatlan we eat at Pancho's and they feed you those stuffed jalapenos? Well, a couple nights ago we ate a stuffed green chili. They pretty much look exactly the same but green chili has way better flavor. I have not received any boxes yet but I will be impatiently waiting for those to arrive.
Anyway, it snowed really hard one night here in Rio Rancho. We were down in the ghetto and it was time to go home and we started biking up the hill home and all of a sudden it just dumped on us. Mother nature destroyed us and annhilated my face with the snow. It stung. I couldn't look straight ahead it was that bad. We were planning on biking up the whole hill and not getting a ride but when we were covered in snow we decided to stop at the John's and get a ride the rest of the way up. I love snow, but not so much when you have to bike in it.
This week was a decent week as far as the work goes. One of our highlights was teaching a part member family named the Harney's the night we had our zone conference. Chris is the member and he has a solid testimony of the BoM but because of work he hasn't been able to attend church for quite a while. In January his work schedule will change and he will be able to come to church every Sunday so I'm way pumped for that! His wife Justyne is very Catholic and knows her stuff about Catholicism. Catholics are either hardcore or don't go to church ever but she she is staunchly Catholic. Anyway, they've been married for like 2 years and they're in their early twenties and have their first kid on the way. The first time we saw Chris we asked him if he would be willing to hear the lessons and he said he would be glad to but then he warned us that Justyne is Catholic and might not want to hear us out but when we went there she was all for listening. We brought a member with us who was a former Catholic and I'm not kidding when I say this but this dude could probably logically, scientifically, theologically prove that the church is true. That doesn't really matter but this guy is just crazy and knows pretty much everything. Anyway, to get back on track the spirit was definitely there as we talked about the Restoration of gospel and the first vision. I know that everyone felt it there for sure. We asked Justyne what it would mean to her if Joseph Smith was prophet and the BoM was true and she basically told us that she is content where she is at. Elder Jacobs and I apparently drank some bold sauce that morning because we said some of the boldest things I've ever heard either of us say. One of the things we told her was that we know for sure that this message is true and that. It's either the biggest lie ever or the greatest truth to ever come to the Earth and we made sure she knew that. Then out of nowhere, Chris bore a super powerful testimony about the BoM and how everytime he picks it up and reads from it he knows it is true. Chris wants his wife to know that this is true as well. We're not sure where this all will go but I'm so excited to work with the Harney's. They are gone till about January but it will be awesome. That was one of the coolest lessons we've had but I don't think my description really did it justice.
As for the Malachi and Cowboy situation, this week nothing much happened there. We tried by their house almost everyday during the week and they were never home until Saturday night. All we had time for was to re-invite them to church and they said that they'd be up and ready. We had arranged for a member to go and pick them up yesterday morning and when he got there and knocked on the door nobody answered... Later that night we went back over and they both said they were really sorry but they slept in. Malachi was pretty sad and the first thing he asked us was if he could come to church with us next week. Of course he could!
I forgot to mention that we both spoke in church yesterday too. We spoke about giving and receiving gifts so naturally as missionaries, we talked about giving the gift of the gospel to others and receving spiritual blessings for that. We invited like 10 people to come to church and hear us speak and they all said they would come and that they were excited to come but in the end only Shariy showed up. Gordon was super sick so he wasn't able to make it. We taught Gordon the word of wisdom this week and he knows that he needs to quit smoking and he really wants to. Gordon loves the BoM and has his copy of it all marked up. He's the man. We also kind of touched on the law of chastity a little bit but we definitely need to go over that more in depth with him.
We had a lot of other cool things this week too but I don't have much more time. We're gonna go play some tennis and bball. I'm excited for tennis but I'll probably be horrible. This week I was reading in 3Nephi and what really impressed me was chapter 19:28-29. It's when Christ prays for those who have been given out of the world as His servants. I know that Christ pleads for all of us and wants what is best for us. He wants us to feel the power of the Atonement which makes it possible for us to become like Him and our Heavenly Father. I know the Savior lives. I know our Father in Heaven loves us and answers our prayers and pours out so many blessings on us that we can't even notice them all. I love the gospel and I love this church. I'm so grateful to have been born into it!
Now it's time to go smash the ZLs in tennis!
Elder Black
Howdy ya'll. First of all I would like to inform you that yes I will be able to skype on Christmas and Bishop Caldwell's house. His skype address is brian.caldwell473 so you'll need to send him a request-a-majig-thing. We don't know for sure what time it will happen yet because they have a son who is also on a mission and we're probably gonna work around when he is skyping and stuff. We should have a time for sure by next Monday but if not I'm sure the necessary arrangements will be made. Father, I'm super jealous that you have already been skiing. That's one of the things I'll miss quite a bit. I'm definitely jealous about surfing too, that sounds like something I'm going to have to do someday for sure. Make sure you dedicate your greatest run of the day each day to me.
We had an awesome Christmas Zone Conference this week which was at the Rio Rancho stake center so we didn't have to travel anywhere really. It was really great. President and Sister Miller did a training on how we can make relating the first vision with our investigators (and anybody) a very sacred and spiritual moment. They did a roleplay with some of the Elder's and had us all say prayers in our hearts for them to bring the spirit into the room as they taught some sister missionaries. The spirit was so strong. Half of the mission all praying for the same thing makes a pretty awesome experience. I also got to see a lot of the missionaries who came out into the field with us. Elder Kendall is in a bike area and has lost 30 pounds since the MTC so he's looking sharp. It was really cool though. We got fed awesome food, gained weight, and felt the spirit in grand abundance. Now that's what I call a killer triple combination. Not a cool triple combination, a killer one. Remember that. We have two Christmas trees. They young men in the ward came over to our apartment and decorated a tree so we had to hide our other tree in the back room so that they couldn't see it. It was pretty funny. So now we have a tree in our front room and the other one is in the kitchen. I don't really know why it's there but that's where it is. We might give it to the ZLs. Remember how in Mazatlan we eat at Pancho's and they feed you those stuffed jalapenos? Well, a couple nights ago we ate a stuffed green chili. They pretty much look exactly the same but green chili has way better flavor. I have not received any boxes yet but I will be impatiently waiting for those to arrive.
Anyway, it snowed really hard one night here in Rio Rancho. We were down in the ghetto and it was time to go home and we started biking up the hill home and all of a sudden it just dumped on us. Mother nature destroyed us and annhilated my face with the snow. It stung. I couldn't look straight ahead it was that bad. We were planning on biking up the whole hill and not getting a ride but when we were covered in snow we decided to stop at the John's and get a ride the rest of the way up. I love snow, but not so much when you have to bike in it.
This week was a decent week as far as the work goes. One of our highlights was teaching a part member family named the Harney's the night we had our zone conference. Chris is the member and he has a solid testimony of the BoM but because of work he hasn't been able to attend church for quite a while. In January his work schedule will change and he will be able to come to church every Sunday so I'm way pumped for that! His wife Justyne is very Catholic and knows her stuff about Catholicism. Catholics are either hardcore or don't go to church ever but she she is staunchly Catholic. Anyway, they've been married for like 2 years and they're in their early twenties and have their first kid on the way. The first time we saw Chris we asked him if he would be willing to hear the lessons and he said he would be glad to but then he warned us that Justyne is Catholic and might not want to hear us out but when we went there she was all for listening. We brought a member with us who was a former Catholic and I'm not kidding when I say this but this dude could probably logically, scientifically, theologically prove that the church is true. That doesn't really matter but this guy is just crazy and knows pretty much everything. Anyway, to get back on track the spirit was definitely there as we talked about the Restoration of gospel and the first vision. I know that everyone felt it there for sure. We asked Justyne what it would mean to her if Joseph Smith was prophet and the BoM was true and she basically told us that she is content where she is at. Elder Jacobs and I apparently drank some bold sauce that morning because we said some of the boldest things I've ever heard either of us say. One of the things we told her was that we know for sure that this message is true and that. It's either the biggest lie ever or the greatest truth to ever come to the Earth and we made sure she knew that. Then out of nowhere, Chris bore a super powerful testimony about the BoM and how everytime he picks it up and reads from it he knows it is true. Chris wants his wife to know that this is true as well. We're not sure where this all will go but I'm so excited to work with the Harney's. They are gone till about January but it will be awesome. That was one of the coolest lessons we've had but I don't think my description really did it justice.
As for the Malachi and Cowboy situation, this week nothing much happened there. We tried by their house almost everyday during the week and they were never home until Saturday night. All we had time for was to re-invite them to church and they said that they'd be up and ready. We had arranged for a member to go and pick them up yesterday morning and when he got there and knocked on the door nobody answered... Later that night we went back over and they both said they were really sorry but they slept in. Malachi was pretty sad and the first thing he asked us was if he could come to church with us next week. Of course he could!
I forgot to mention that we both spoke in church yesterday too. We spoke about giving and receiving gifts so naturally as missionaries, we talked about giving the gift of the gospel to others and receving spiritual blessings for that. We invited like 10 people to come to church and hear us speak and they all said they would come and that they were excited to come but in the end only Shariy showed up. Gordon was super sick so he wasn't able to make it. We taught Gordon the word of wisdom this week and he knows that he needs to quit smoking and he really wants to. Gordon loves the BoM and has his copy of it all marked up. He's the man. We also kind of touched on the law of chastity a little bit but we definitely need to go over that more in depth with him.
We had a lot of other cool things this week too but I don't have much more time. We're gonna go play some tennis and bball. I'm excited for tennis but I'll probably be horrible. This week I was reading in 3Nephi and what really impressed me was chapter 19:28-29. It's when Christ prays for those who have been given out of the world as His servants. I know that Christ pleads for all of us and wants what is best for us. He wants us to feel the power of the Atonement which makes it possible for us to become like Him and our Heavenly Father. I know the Savior lives. I know our Father in Heaven loves us and answers our prayers and pours out so many blessings on us that we can't even notice them all. I love the gospel and I love this church. I'm so grateful to have been born into it!
Now it's time to go smash the ZLs in tennis!
Elder Black
December 10
Howdy Ya'll!
I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.
This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!
We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!
As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.
Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.
Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily
I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.
This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!
We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!
As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.
Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.
Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily
December 10
Howdy Ya'll!
I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.
This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!
We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!
As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.
Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.
Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily
I haven't eaten anything super amazing yet but I am growing more fond of this green chili business. I'll show you a picture of a typical New Mexican breakfast for missionaries with no money. It's awesome. New Mexico is basically the only place in the world that you can get green chili so the green chili and the balloon fiesta are pretty much its only claims to fame. It's awesome though. I don't like ovaltine as much as Nesquik. Nesquik is more chocolatey and MUCH more satisfying, ovaltine doesn't even deserve to be capitalized like Nesquik does. Anyway, I have a question. Grandma sent me a letter and I threw away the envelope so I don't know their zip code. If you could let me know, that would be greatly appreciated.
This week was quite the week. At the start of the week I went on exchanges again with a missionary newer than myself and it was in our area again. This missionary kind of doesn't really want to be on his mission so my goal was to pump him up about missionary work and ever since he has seemed to be in higher spirits than before. I decided that we were just gonna work super hard all day and that's what we did. We had basically no appointments, we dropped by almost everyone of our potential investigators within a reasonable range, and didn't accomplish much that day but we worked hard and had fun. We did a lot of tracting also and that's where we met a lot of rude people but honestly I think meeting really rude people is kind of entertaining. This one man opened the door and we gave one of our different door approach missionary shpeels (if that's a word) and then he just angrily looked at us and said "i'm already saved, are you?" We told him that we believe we definitely could be saved by living the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through prophets in our age. Then he asked us what bible we read and we said King James and then he told us it must be the "new" King James bible (which does exist) and we told him we read the normal one. Then he didn't really know what to say and just shut the door on us. We thought it was funny and we just started laughing afterwards. People have some interesting beliefs and it's interesting to see how the Great Apostasy has created so many different interpretations and ideas of the truths of the gospel. That was something that I learned this week. Basically, every religious belief or idea can be traced back to the truth. Funny how that works eh? Maybe it's because our church is the true church!
We had some really great things happen this week also and some things that are impeding the progress of certain investigators. Cowboy's family made some pretty awesome progress this week. This week we met with Cowboy twice and these are the only times that we ever brought members with us to lessons with him. Bringing members with us to lessons adds so much to the quality and spirituality of a lesson. We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that went really well. I can tell that Cowboy really wants what is best for his family and he knows that for his family to be happy he's gotta be the one who makes the changes. He seems to be doing better with his drug addictions as well. Anyway, we invited them to our ward Christmas party on saturday and they really wanted to come. Tanya couldn't because she works Saturday and Sunday which makes things pretty difficult. Things happened and Cowboy wasn't able to make it but we were able to bring their 9 year old son Malachi to the party with us and he loved it. Malachi made some friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. On Sunday, Malachi came to church with us also. At first he was a little apprehensive and nervous about the new atmosphere of church. He didn't really want to go to primary but he went anyway and at the end of it all he had a really great time and loved it at church. After church he asked if we'd bring him with us again. It was sweet. Later that night, we invited Malachi to be baptized and he was literally jumping up and down and it was super sweet. Cowboy seemed to be happy for Malachi as well. Cowboy won't be able to be baptized for at least a year because he is on probation but he thinks a year is probably the time that he'll need to prepare for baptism anyway. Malachi is on date for baptism on the 29th of this month so that is totally sweet!
As for Geno and Shariy, we invited them to be married again and we had a very great lesson with them. We read the Family Proclamation to the World with them and they both understand the importance of marriage and that it is a commandment. However, the response we got was yet again not what we had hoped for. They both said that they need some time to prepare for marriage and they are both unsure about it. We believe that we have finally found the reason why they are scared about marriage as well. Geno has never divorced the woman he was/is married to. That's a problem and apparently it can take quite a while to have a divorce go through and be legal and whatnot. That's a major bummer. We were hoping to at least have them married before Elder Jacobs dies but it's not looking that will be possible. Especially if they don't even know if they really want to be married. Missionary work is stressful. On the bright side though, we started teaching Shariy's grandson and he is now also on date for the 29th. We are not entirely sure if he will make it by then because he is afraid of going to church. The Catholic church told him that he is going to hell and we are pretty sure that it is because he is gay. It's a bit of an awkward situation but if he comes to know this is the path for him he will be able to resist his temptations in life and find strength through those trials. Gordon is awesome though and really wants a "new" life and he knows that baptism is the avenue that will get him there. I've come to realize that even if people receive spiritual witnesses of the truth of the things we teach, Satan is still pretty powerful in keeping people for progression. Missionaries are there to help people through this process and there is a reson that it's called Missionary WORK.
Anyway, it's been a good week. This morning I read in 3 Nephi 9 and I really like verse 14. Read it. 'Tis good stuff. I love reading about the Savior and the love He has for all of us. I especially love reading about His ministry in the Americas because I know it's true. It verifies His divinity that the Bible testifies of. I really KNOW that He lives and loves and that through Him we can inherit the Kingdom of God and live in His presence with those we love. The gospel is great. It heals people and provides them with strength that they need. I never want to take my knowledge of the truth for granted ever again in my life like I have before. I Love the Savior and I love all ya'll.
Peace and Love ya'll!
Elder Black
P.S. pic- typical NM breakfast (MMMM green chili)
Double P.S. pic- one of the hills we bike up daily
December 3rd!
Greetings from the land of Enchantment (or entrapment as others call it)
To answer questions, the most exciting thing to happen this week was probably that we started working more with some part-member families. Nothing has really happened with Geno and Shariy (I'll tell you why later) but we got some pretty solid referrals to contact so I'm excited to see where that will go! My favorite scripture I read this week was one I read this morning, It's 3 Nephi 5:13 and Mormon is talking about his role and what his purpose is. It's the same purpose as mine and it's the same purpose every member of the church has! I just really liked that one. I liked reading about Samuel the Lamanite this week and his great prophecies about the coming of the Savior. It fit in perfectly with everybody starting to get excited about Christmas and whatnot. I don't know if you were able to see the Christmas devotional last night but it was very good. They focused a lot on being giving and sacrificing for others and being a gracious receiver. I think that is something that we all need to work on. The natural man is selfish and the Christmas season is one of the best times to put off the natural man by remembering the true spirit of Christmas and serve others just as our Savior has served us!
I do have one more request actually of something you could send me. If you could send me some size 8 basketball shoes that would be great. We play a ton of basketball down here in the Querque and my tennis shoes have like no traction or anything. If that is possible for you to send I would greatly appreciate it.
Anyway, this week and last night in particular we had some interesting things happen. Earlier in the week, Geno and Shariy's grandson Gordon were helping a woman put up their Christmas lights and on their way back a ladder fell out of the back of their truck. Geno got out to put it back in and Gordon backed up the truck, nailed Geno, and as a result Geno now has a broken arm. Not good stuff. It didn't help our lessons with them this week either because he's all strung out on his meds or just in a lot of pain so it's hard for him to focus. Pretty unfortunate but it is ok, he should be well enough this week so we can have some good lessons with them and hopefully the spirit will be able to make known the importance of marriage to the both of them. The goal is for them to be married and baptized before the end of the month when Elder Jacobs dies. It's a good goal and it might be hard but I think that it can happen and I pray that it will.
This week we were able to meet with Michael again finally! I was on exchanges with Elder Armstrong who is even newer than me and we had a really good lesson with him. We read Ether 12 with him which talks a lot about faith and talks about how are weaknesses can become strengths. The spirit helped Michael to understand what it was saying. He said he never really knew what that meant but it made a lot of sense to him. Michael has a really strong testimony and it's cool to see him grow and to see his desires change in life. He wants to quit smoking and I know he can! He will do it because he knows it's something that will really help him to come unto Christ and be a better person. He went to church in his home ward with his dad so that is good! We're going to teach him the stop smoking lesson next time we see him and that will be awesome!
We also met with Cowboy again this week and that went well. We brought a member with us who is really supportive of Cowboy and the changes that Cowboy wants to make. The thing with Cowboy is we aren't really sure how sincere he is sometimes. I really think that he is trying to change his lifestyle and one of his great motivators is his family. His biggest fear is of losing his wife and kids and he would do anything to have them in his life. We watched a Mormon message about the atonement with him and how if we use it in our lives that burdens can be lifted from our lives. Cowboy made the comment that he can't do it without the Savior and he is absolutely correct. Trusting in the Savior and utilizing the Atonement is the ONLY way that we can make lasting changes in our lives and become what are supposed to be. We invited Cowboy to church and he said that he would come if he could get a ride and we found him one but his kids woke up in the morning sick so he wasn't able to make it. He promised that he would be ther next Sunday and I really hope he actually comes! This journey for Cowboy could take years but I am happy that I have been the Lord's instrument in helping him start his journey. I have learned a lot about Cowboy and I've learned a lot about the Atonement from him. I've seen him grow and it is great! I remember a missionary in my district in the MTC asked us once, "is it better to be 2 feet from Christ and walking away from him, or 1,000 feet away and walking towards Him." Walking towards Christ is what brings happiness in our lives and true peace. I know that is true. In the short time I've been a missionary I have changed from believing in the restored gospel and in Jesus Christ and His Atonement to knowing it is all true. I know it and I feel the spirit confirm this to me each time I bear my testimony. My testimony has grown so much just by simply bearing my testimony. I love it. I love the gospel and I love all ya'll and am extremely grateful for your support!
Peace and love,
Elder Black
P.S. have fun in Hawaii
Double P.S. you've asked for a picture of me so here's the goofiest picture I could find you
Triple P.S. The other picture sent to you is a picture of the Rio Rancho/Santa Fe zone at zone conference last month.
To answer questions, the most exciting thing to happen this week was probably that we started working more with some part-member families. Nothing has really happened with Geno and Shariy (I'll tell you why later) but we got some pretty solid referrals to contact so I'm excited to see where that will go! My favorite scripture I read this week was one I read this morning, It's 3 Nephi 5:13 and Mormon is talking about his role and what his purpose is. It's the same purpose as mine and it's the same purpose every member of the church has! I just really liked that one. I liked reading about Samuel the Lamanite this week and his great prophecies about the coming of the Savior. It fit in perfectly with everybody starting to get excited about Christmas and whatnot. I don't know if you were able to see the Christmas devotional last night but it was very good. They focused a lot on being giving and sacrificing for others and being a gracious receiver. I think that is something that we all need to work on. The natural man is selfish and the Christmas season is one of the best times to put off the natural man by remembering the true spirit of Christmas and serve others just as our Savior has served us!
I do have one more request actually of something you could send me. If you could send me some size 8 basketball shoes that would be great. We play a ton of basketball down here in the Querque and my tennis shoes have like no traction or anything. If that is possible for you to send I would greatly appreciate it.
Anyway, this week and last night in particular we had some interesting things happen. Earlier in the week, Geno and Shariy's grandson Gordon were helping a woman put up their Christmas lights and on their way back a ladder fell out of the back of their truck. Geno got out to put it back in and Gordon backed up the truck, nailed Geno, and as a result Geno now has a broken arm. Not good stuff. It didn't help our lessons with them this week either because he's all strung out on his meds or just in a lot of pain so it's hard for him to focus. Pretty unfortunate but it is ok, he should be well enough this week so we can have some good lessons with them and hopefully the spirit will be able to make known the importance of marriage to the both of them. The goal is for them to be married and baptized before the end of the month when Elder Jacobs dies. It's a good goal and it might be hard but I think that it can happen and I pray that it will.
This week we were able to meet with Michael again finally! I was on exchanges with Elder Armstrong who is even newer than me and we had a really good lesson with him. We read Ether 12 with him which talks a lot about faith and talks about how are weaknesses can become strengths. The spirit helped Michael to understand what it was saying. He said he never really knew what that meant but it made a lot of sense to him. Michael has a really strong testimony and it's cool to see him grow and to see his desires change in life. He wants to quit smoking and I know he can! He will do it because he knows it's something that will really help him to come unto Christ and be a better person. He went to church in his home ward with his dad so that is good! We're going to teach him the stop smoking lesson next time we see him and that will be awesome!
We also met with Cowboy again this week and that went well. We brought a member with us who is really supportive of Cowboy and the changes that Cowboy wants to make. The thing with Cowboy is we aren't really sure how sincere he is sometimes. I really think that he is trying to change his lifestyle and one of his great motivators is his family. His biggest fear is of losing his wife and kids and he would do anything to have them in his life. We watched a Mormon message about the atonement with him and how if we use it in our lives that burdens can be lifted from our lives. Cowboy made the comment that he can't do it without the Savior and he is absolutely correct. Trusting in the Savior and utilizing the Atonement is the ONLY way that we can make lasting changes in our lives and become what are supposed to be. We invited Cowboy to church and he said that he would come if he could get a ride and we found him one but his kids woke up in the morning sick so he wasn't able to make it. He promised that he would be ther next Sunday and I really hope he actually comes! This journey for Cowboy could take years but I am happy that I have been the Lord's instrument in helping him start his journey. I have learned a lot about Cowboy and I've learned a lot about the Atonement from him. I've seen him grow and it is great! I remember a missionary in my district in the MTC asked us once, "is it better to be 2 feet from Christ and walking away from him, or 1,000 feet away and walking towards Him." Walking towards Christ is what brings happiness in our lives and true peace. I know that is true. In the short time I've been a missionary I have changed from believing in the restored gospel and in Jesus Christ and His Atonement to knowing it is all true. I know it and I feel the spirit confirm this to me each time I bear my testimony. My testimony has grown so much just by simply bearing my testimony. I love it. I love the gospel and I love all ya'll and am extremely grateful for your support!
Peace and love,
Elder Black
P.S. have fun in Hawaii
Double P.S. you've asked for a picture of me so here's the goofiest picture I could find you
Triple P.S. The other picture sent to you is a picture of the Rio Rancho/Santa Fe zone at zone conference last month.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
November 13 and sprained ankles
So Josh messed up his ankle on P-day. It looks a little scary! Please send extra prayers and happy thoughts his way! We're hoping it doesn't give him ongoing trouble. Poor kid :(
Howdy ya'll,
Yesterday was Veteran's day so the library was closed.
Thank you for the package and please let Belltower Inc. that I am very pleased with his handiwork. It's pretty boss. Yes, I still have a desire for the onesie if you can make that happen. Also, a neck gator would be greatly appreciated as well. It has been insanely cold here the last couple of days and I am dying slowly in the cold weather. It got to freezing temperature and it doesn't help that it is always insanely windy here too so when we ride down the hill and get to where we need to be my face and fingers are frozen. I need to invest in some gloves pretty soon. Also, I thought I would let you know that last P-Day playing football and I screwed up my ankle pretty bad so let Jake know that I feel for him in the ankle department right now as well. It got pretty bruised too. It looks like there is a growth off of the side of it but that's just because it is swollen. Yesterday we played basketball but I probably should've sat it out. Now it's bruised again but I can walk on it and ride a bike with little to no pain at all so it is nothing to worry about. As for the politics, most people down here are liberal so they are happy with the way the election went. President told us we should vote but I didn't get the absentee ballot from you in time but it's fine so don't worry about that.
Interviews with President and Sis. Miller went great also. They are really awesome people and they really care about all of us missionaries. Sister Miller said I taught the Atonement well to her so I was relieved. Speaking of the Atonement, can you send that humpty dumpty poem? That's how I taught the Atonement but that poem is so money so I would like to have that in my possession once again. We also had a trainer/trainee meeting in the Querqe at the mission home with President and Sis. Miller also and that was great. They talked a lot about how we measure our success as missionaries. Our success is measured by our commitment to find, teach, and baptize God's children and strengthen the units where we are serving. Some of the other greenies have baptized people already so that was pretty cool to hear their stories and it makes me want to have my own stories like that as well. We're working hard and hopefully we can find, teach, and baptize some people in the near future!
Anyway, this week has been the slowest and least successful week I've had so far and it was pretty disappointing. We were working hard but things just weren't happening the way that we had hoped they would happen for us. We were able to meet with Shariy a couple of times though so that went pretty well. We have been praying to know what we need to do to help her to be married and we were able to learn of her main concern about marriage. She is afraid that Geno might not want to be married or might not understand the importance of it. It's been made known to us that we need to work a little harder with Geno and involve him more when we meet with Shariy. Geno doesn't really know what's going but when he hears the message of the restored gospel I think his heart will be softened and he will have a desire to be baptized and live the law of chastity also! I know that it can happen and I've been praying for it. Miracles happen all the time so why not hear with Shariy and Geno? It will happen.
We have to get going here because we have a lesson with Shariy in about 20 minutes so I'm sorry but this is all I really have to share! I know that the Lord lives and he speaks to us through a modern day prophet and through the scriptures as well. This morning, more than ever I felt like the Savior was speaking to me as I read about Him and His teachings. The spirit teaches us of truth and allows us to feel of the love of God and the peace, joy, and happiness that we all desire. The gospel brings all of these gifts and feelings and I am very proud to be a bearer of this message in the place where I am supposed to be. The gospel is true, no doubt about it.
Peace and love,
Elder Black
P.S. Favorite scripture that I read this morning was D&C 6:34-37.
Howdy ya'll,
Yesterday was Veteran's day so the library was closed.
Thank you for the package and please let Belltower Inc. that I am very pleased with his handiwork. It's pretty boss. Yes, I still have a desire for the onesie if you can make that happen. Also, a neck gator would be greatly appreciated as well. It has been insanely cold here the last couple of days and I am dying slowly in the cold weather. It got to freezing temperature and it doesn't help that it is always insanely windy here too so when we ride down the hill and get to where we need to be my face and fingers are frozen. I need to invest in some gloves pretty soon. Also, I thought I would let you know that last P-Day playing football and I screwed up my ankle pretty bad so let Jake know that I feel for him in the ankle department right now as well. It got pretty bruised too. It looks like there is a growth off of the side of it but that's just because it is swollen. Yesterday we played basketball but I probably should've sat it out. Now it's bruised again but I can walk on it and ride a bike with little to no pain at all so it is nothing to worry about. As for the politics, most people down here are liberal so they are happy with the way the election went. President told us we should vote but I didn't get the absentee ballot from you in time but it's fine so don't worry about that.
Interviews with President and Sis. Miller went great also. They are really awesome people and they really care about all of us missionaries. Sister Miller said I taught the Atonement well to her so I was relieved. Speaking of the Atonement, can you send that humpty dumpty poem? That's how I taught the Atonement but that poem is so money so I would like to have that in my possession once again. We also had a trainer/trainee meeting in the Querqe at the mission home with President and Sis. Miller also and that was great. They talked a lot about how we measure our success as missionaries. Our success is measured by our commitment to find, teach, and baptize God's children and strengthen the units where we are serving. Some of the other greenies have baptized people already so that was pretty cool to hear their stories and it makes me want to have my own stories like that as well. We're working hard and hopefully we can find, teach, and baptize some people in the near future!
Anyway, this week has been the slowest and least successful week I've had so far and it was pretty disappointing. We were working hard but things just weren't happening the way that we had hoped they would happen for us. We were able to meet with Shariy a couple of times though so that went pretty well. We have been praying to know what we need to do to help her to be married and we were able to learn of her main concern about marriage. She is afraid that Geno might not want to be married or might not understand the importance of it. It's been made known to us that we need to work a little harder with Geno and involve him more when we meet with Shariy. Geno doesn't really know what's going but when he hears the message of the restored gospel I think his heart will be softened and he will have a desire to be baptized and live the law of chastity also! I know that it can happen and I've been praying for it. Miracles happen all the time so why not hear with Shariy and Geno? It will happen.
We have to get going here because we have a lesson with Shariy in about 20 minutes so I'm sorry but this is all I really have to share! I know that the Lord lives and he speaks to us through a modern day prophet and through the scriptures as well. This morning, more than ever I felt like the Savior was speaking to me as I read about Him and His teachings. The spirit teaches us of truth and allows us to feel of the love of God and the peace, joy, and happiness that we all desire. The gospel brings all of these gifts and feelings and I am very proud to be a bearer of this message in the place where I am supposed to be. The gospel is true, no doubt about it.
Peace and love,
Elder Black
P.S. Favorite scripture that I read this morning was D&C 6:34-37.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
November 5th
Howdy!
To start, yes mother our area is probably the most ghetto area in the city of Rio Rancho. Don't be worried, the Lord will protect us because we are doing His work. Our apartment is pretty nice and we do not share it with any other Elders, but when we bike down to the hill where most of our work is, that is where it becomes more and more ghetto =) Yes I have been getting the emails from the siblings as well so you don't need to worry about that. Father, that's crazy that Justin Barcia won. Wasn't he in the lights class last year? GO DUCKS! GO PACKERS! WIN THE 'SHIP!
This week has had its pros and cons. One of the main things I learned this week is that even if you are guided or led by the spirit to go somewhere or to talk to a specific person, they still have their agency which oftentimes is a bummer. Anna, who Elder Cloward and I tracted into on exchanges was not there for our appointment that we had and then didn't answer the phone so that was disappointing. Also, the same exact thing happened with Hannah. Roxy and T.J. live super close to us but sometimes it has seemed like they are avoiding us. T.J. is more willing to talk to us than Roxy though. That's what it seems like anyway. They are never home when they say they will be. The other family we had set an appointment with were named Ramon and Elaine and they also were not home when they said they would. Something funny happend though too. There was a family named the Halls who Elder Jacobs was teaching before I existed and they said they couldn't meet with him anymore because they were moving to New York. Well, we saw them driving their car one day and then we decided to go by and see them and they said our religion isn't for them. The things people say sometimes...
On the bright side, we have found quite a few new potential investigators that we are planning to meet with tomorrow. Tomorrow is a very busy day and we have plans for almost every single hour of the day. I also have my first interview with Pres. and Sis. Miller tomorrow and we are supposed to teach sis. miller the atonement as if she were a 9 year old. That's going to be a tricky one because I have met/talked with hardly any little children but it should be a good learning experience! I am excited for tomorrow especially because a while back we received a media referral from Temple Square for a woman named Sally that we will finally be meeting with. On the referral it said that she wanted a copy of the BoM and to meet with missionaries so that should be fun!
Shariy (our only progressing investigator) is doing well but I hope this marriage ordeal doesn't prove too difficult for her to overcome. She is just really scared of marriage because of her previous marriage that went south after about 30 years. We had a member come out with us named Bro. Witt and he is just about our only really supportive member in our ward besides the bishop. He is awesome though. We watched the John Tanner story with Shariy which is about a 15-20 min. video and basically, John Tanner is a great example of how through faith and putting your trust in the Lord, you can accomplish whatever you are supposed to accomplish. Shariy was amazed by John Tanner's story and it was really good for her to see such great miracles that can be wrought by faith. We asked her to exercise her faith and to ask the Lord if being married to Geno so she can be baptized is something that He wants her to do. This is where Bro. Witt showed his bossness. He told Shariy that he felt impressed to invite her to fast about the issue as well and he invited her to do that and she said she would. Then, we all told her that we would all fast with and for her. She came to church yet again (5 times in a row!) and she just seemed really happy about it. I can't wait to ask her about how her fast went!
We also met with Michael in the heart of the ghetto a few more times this week. We talked a lot about his good memories being raised in the church and all the fun things he did and the happiness that he misses in his life. He gets really emotional talking about all of that. It's kind of funny because he's pretty convinced that the 2nd coming could be happening pretty soon. Whatever motivates him to start coming back to church and changing his life around is a good thing right? Anyway, he came to church and it was so awesome! A bunch of the ward members came up to him and gave him hugs and told them they missed him and that they were so happy to see him. That was some awesome support and he was feeling the spirit so strongly at church. I loved it. Michael also was 1 of 3 individuals who volunteered to come and clean the church on Sunday. He's just a boss.
Last night, we were supposed to meet with Cowboy and his family (and they were also supposed to come to church) but neither of those things happened so we visited a member who lives nearby (in the ghetto by Michael). We watched a Mormon Message with him and he just started crying. We didn't really even know what we were doing there but that is another one of those small instances where we were guided by the spirit to help invite someone to come closer to Christ. I thought that was pretty sweet.
Oh! I also went up to Santa Fe on Friday for zone meeting so I thought I'd let you all know that I have been up to Santa Fe now. It looks weird. There are these weird green tree looking things but they don't have trunks so they're just sitting there on the ground. Our zone leaders are great though. There names are Elder Chalk and Elder Turnbow and they are super awesome examples to me and they are just full of the spirit all the time. It's awesome. We learned about how to teach people so the people KNOW what we are saying and understand it too, FEEL the spirit and our love for them, and DO things that help them gain the desire to have faith unto repentance and then to be baptized and have the Holy Ghost with them! It was awesome and I learned a ton!
Anyway, this all I have for ya'll. I also have sweet pictures of the moon and a glorious sunset. The sunset is glorious, but the gospel is more glorious. I know that this is the true church, the BoM is the word of God and Joseph was a prophet. I know the spirit guides us and teaches us important things that we need to know and feel. I know these things more and more everyday. The Savior loves us and loves all ya'll!
Peace and love!
Elder Black
To start, yes mother our area is probably the most ghetto area in the city of Rio Rancho. Don't be worried, the Lord will protect us because we are doing His work. Our apartment is pretty nice and we do not share it with any other Elders, but when we bike down to the hill where most of our work is, that is where it becomes more and more ghetto =) Yes I have been getting the emails from the siblings as well so you don't need to worry about that. Father, that's crazy that Justin Barcia won. Wasn't he in the lights class last year? GO DUCKS! GO PACKERS! WIN THE 'SHIP!
This week has had its pros and cons. One of the main things I learned this week is that even if you are guided or led by the spirit to go somewhere or to talk to a specific person, they still have their agency which oftentimes is a bummer. Anna, who Elder Cloward and I tracted into on exchanges was not there for our appointment that we had and then didn't answer the phone so that was disappointing. Also, the same exact thing happened with Hannah. Roxy and T.J. live super close to us but sometimes it has seemed like they are avoiding us. T.J. is more willing to talk to us than Roxy though. That's what it seems like anyway. They are never home when they say they will be. The other family we had set an appointment with were named Ramon and Elaine and they also were not home when they said they would. Something funny happend though too. There was a family named the Halls who Elder Jacobs was teaching before I existed and they said they couldn't meet with him anymore because they were moving to New York. Well, we saw them driving their car one day and then we decided to go by and see them and they said our religion isn't for them. The things people say sometimes...
On the bright side, we have found quite a few new potential investigators that we are planning to meet with tomorrow. Tomorrow is a very busy day and we have plans for almost every single hour of the day. I also have my first interview with Pres. and Sis. Miller tomorrow and we are supposed to teach sis. miller the atonement as if she were a 9 year old. That's going to be a tricky one because I have met/talked with hardly any little children but it should be a good learning experience! I am excited for tomorrow especially because a while back we received a media referral from Temple Square for a woman named Sally that we will finally be meeting with. On the referral it said that she wanted a copy of the BoM and to meet with missionaries so that should be fun!
Shariy (our only progressing investigator) is doing well but I hope this marriage ordeal doesn't prove too difficult for her to overcome. She is just really scared of marriage because of her previous marriage that went south after about 30 years. We had a member come out with us named Bro. Witt and he is just about our only really supportive member in our ward besides the bishop. He is awesome though. We watched the John Tanner story with Shariy which is about a 15-20 min. video and basically, John Tanner is a great example of how through faith and putting your trust in the Lord, you can accomplish whatever you are supposed to accomplish. Shariy was amazed by John Tanner's story and it was really good for her to see such great miracles that can be wrought by faith. We asked her to exercise her faith and to ask the Lord if being married to Geno so she can be baptized is something that He wants her to do. This is where Bro. Witt showed his bossness. He told Shariy that he felt impressed to invite her to fast about the issue as well and he invited her to do that and she said she would. Then, we all told her that we would all fast with and for her. She came to church yet again (5 times in a row!) and she just seemed really happy about it. I can't wait to ask her about how her fast went!
We also met with Michael in the heart of the ghetto a few more times this week. We talked a lot about his good memories being raised in the church and all the fun things he did and the happiness that he misses in his life. He gets really emotional talking about all of that. It's kind of funny because he's pretty convinced that the 2nd coming could be happening pretty soon. Whatever motivates him to start coming back to church and changing his life around is a good thing right? Anyway, he came to church and it was so awesome! A bunch of the ward members came up to him and gave him hugs and told them they missed him and that they were so happy to see him. That was some awesome support and he was feeling the spirit so strongly at church. I loved it. Michael also was 1 of 3 individuals who volunteered to come and clean the church on Sunday. He's just a boss.
Last night, we were supposed to meet with Cowboy and his family (and they were also supposed to come to church) but neither of those things happened so we visited a member who lives nearby (in the ghetto by Michael). We watched a Mormon Message with him and he just started crying. We didn't really even know what we were doing there but that is another one of those small instances where we were guided by the spirit to help invite someone to come closer to Christ. I thought that was pretty sweet.
Oh! I also went up to Santa Fe on Friday for zone meeting so I thought I'd let you all know that I have been up to Santa Fe now. It looks weird. There are these weird green tree looking things but they don't have trunks so they're just sitting there on the ground. Our zone leaders are great though. There names are Elder Chalk and Elder Turnbow and they are super awesome examples to me and they are just full of the spirit all the time. It's awesome. We learned about how to teach people so the people KNOW what we are saying and understand it too, FEEL the spirit and our love for them, and DO things that help them gain the desire to have faith unto repentance and then to be baptized and have the Holy Ghost with them! It was awesome and I learned a ton!
Anyway, this all I have for ya'll. I also have sweet pictures of the moon and a glorious sunset. The sunset is glorious, but the gospel is more glorious. I know that this is the true church, the BoM is the word of God and Joseph was a prophet. I know the spirit guides us and teaches us important things that we need to know and feel. I know these things more and more everyday. The Savior loves us and loves all ya'll!
Peace and love!
Elder Black
Sunday, November 4, 2012
October 29!
Howdy ya'll!
First of all, I want to let you all know how stoked I am that USC lost because I really don't like USC at all. The beavers losing is good too though but not quite as good of a thing I suppose. It's also good to hear that the Packers are dominating again and it also sounds like the world series is pretty boring this year. Who won the Monster Cup in Vegas? My guess would be Villopoto but what do I know? Is football season halfway done already? That's crazy if that is the case but I'm pretty sure the Ducks and packers will both be champions. That's how it should always be. I haven't heard much about how Cam, Kiley, and Kait are doing. Fill me in please. Also, your idea with the package is fine. Thank you!
Anyway, this week was a pretty interesting one. Remember that crazy less-active member I told you about that told us that we need to learn how to have the spirit with us and that we need to pray to Jesus and not God? Yeah, we had another interesting experience with her this week. She started talking to us about politics (no bueno) and asked us if we have voted or anything. Elder Jacobs has voted and she asked him questions like who he voted for and stuff and she basically was just trying to get us in a position to argue with us. She said that Elder Jacobs could have been electing the anti-christ since he wasn't really an informed voter and things like that. He admitted that that maybe it isn't the best idea to vote if you don't have any idea of what's going on but we were told by Pres. Miller that we should vote. She told us after that how messed up the church is for letting something like that happen and then I pointed out that the church takes a neutral stand on politics and doesn't tell us who to vote for or anything like that. She told us that's wrong. She also told us that she basically left the church because in sacrament meeting she couldn't hear people bearing their testimony because of babies crying and stuff like that. People are crazy.
We learned that Shariy has NOT been baptized before and is therefore not a member of the church. She set up an appointment with the bishop this week and he told us that he is gonna make sure she leaves their meeting knowing that she needs to marry Geno so she can be baptized. Bishop Caldwell is the man. All of our ward leaders are supportive and helpful but the members bail on us pretty frequently for help with coming to lessons with us and dinner and things. Bishop Caldwell is going to change that though because he is awesome. He has a son on a mission in upstate NY whose mission president told him that with the new announcement on missionary ages their particular mission is expecting 250 more missionaries. Crazy. Also, his mission president said that there are 50 new missions to be opened up across the world. Crazy. Also, our bishop told us that before the announcement there were 300 missionary applications sent in each week, now there has been about 4,000 a week since that announcement. Crazy awesome. A marvelous work is coming forth all right! That's cool to hear that people are starting up on their papers earlier now. Missionaries are going to be all over the place in much larger numbers!
This week I went on my first exchange and I was really nervous for it because I was the one who stayed in our area so I was large and in charge. The missionary that was with me is Elder Cloward and he has only been in the field one month longer than myself so it was the two newest missionaries in our district in the area of the least experienced missionary in the district... We didn't really have any set appointments or anything during that time so I really had no idea what we were going to do and Elder Jacobs didn't really help me out too much with ideas or in the planning department. We tried visiting a lot of potential investigators that we had been trying to teach because we are running out of people that are willing to meet with us. So we went over to this girl's apartment near where we live named Hannah. She had been taught once before and said that she didn't want to meet with the missionaries again. Elder Cloward and I went over there and we asked if there was a time we could meet with her and she told us Wednesday so we finally have an appointment with her which doesn't seem like a huge deal but it was pretty awesome. Then we went over to another potential investigator family that we had tried to get appointments with many times and they finally allowed us to set up a time with them on Friday and that was way legit also. At about 8:30 at night, we had run out of people to visit and we had nothing planned so then I brought up the hated "T" word. Tracting. Nobody likes tracting because it means your members aren't helping you enough! Anyway, we knew that that was all that we could do so we knelt down and asked the Lord to guide us to where we needed to be and we went on our way. We walked out of our apartment complex and Elder Cloward said we needed to go straight so we did. Then we came to an intersection and he said we needed to go straight again so we did, and then we went straight again. Elder Cloward saw a house with a red truck in the driveway and he said that was the house we needed to go so we went up and knocked away and we met a girl named Anna! She is catholic and has a couple of Mormon friends in her jiujitsu (don't know if that's how it's spelled) class. She said our religion is interesting to her but she isn't sure if it's for her because she is catholic and then the spirit told us to tell her that we don't want to take away from her beliefs, but that we feel we can add to her beliefs. We bore testimony that our message can bless her life and she told us to come back on Wednesday. It is so awesome when the spirit guides you to the place that you need to be. I know that is what happened and it happened for when we found Roxy and T.J. also!
The next day we met with a less-active guy named Michael who grew up in the church and has a very strong LDS family that lives in another ward. He has an 18 month old daughter and lives in some very humble circumstances. He's about 21 or 22 years old. About the time that he was planning on going on a mission he had a cousin come to town that was a bad influence and got him doing all sorts of drugs and stuff that he knew he shouldn't do. He really loves his daughter and feels horrible about the decisions he made. He wants his daughter to grow up in the church and be one of those young women who live happily and marry in the temple instead of one of the women running around his neighborhood getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. He said his greatest desire is to go back to church and to get his life back in order so he can provide his daughter with the life that he had as a kid. We told him that he can make all of this happen through the Savior because the Savior knows him and what he has been going through and what his wants and needs are. Michael knows that is true and he said he would come to church but he didn't have a white shirt so we gave him one. He is a really awesome guy and we were really excited to have him at church yesterday. Sadly, he didn't make it because he got in an argument with his girlfriend about their daughter. That was pretty disappointing but I know he will get to church soon!
I know that the Savior is real and he loves each and everyone us individually. He didn't just die for us. He suffered for us. Pretty much every horrible feeling you can ever feel he felt for each of us. That is why through Him and only Him we can change our nature and be forgiven of our sins. We can be made whole through Him. The Atonement can help Michael (and everyone) get their lives in order! That's all I've got for the week!
Peace and Love!
Elder Black
First of all, I want to let you all know how stoked I am that USC lost because I really don't like USC at all. The beavers losing is good too though but not quite as good of a thing I suppose. It's also good to hear that the Packers are dominating again and it also sounds like the world series is pretty boring this year. Who won the Monster Cup in Vegas? My guess would be Villopoto but what do I know? Is football season halfway done already? That's crazy if that is the case but I'm pretty sure the Ducks and packers will both be champions. That's how it should always be. I haven't heard much about how Cam, Kiley, and Kait are doing. Fill me in please. Also, your idea with the package is fine. Thank you!
Anyway, this week was a pretty interesting one. Remember that crazy less-active member I told you about that told us that we need to learn how to have the spirit with us and that we need to pray to Jesus and not God? Yeah, we had another interesting experience with her this week. She started talking to us about politics (no bueno) and asked us if we have voted or anything. Elder Jacobs has voted and she asked him questions like who he voted for and stuff and she basically was just trying to get us in a position to argue with us. She said that Elder Jacobs could have been electing the anti-christ since he wasn't really an informed voter and things like that. He admitted that that maybe it isn't the best idea to vote if you don't have any idea of what's going on but we were told by Pres. Miller that we should vote. She told us after that how messed up the church is for letting something like that happen and then I pointed out that the church takes a neutral stand on politics and doesn't tell us who to vote for or anything like that. She told us that's wrong. She also told us that she basically left the church because in sacrament meeting she couldn't hear people bearing their testimony because of babies crying and stuff like that. People are crazy.
We learned that Shariy has NOT been baptized before and is therefore not a member of the church. She set up an appointment with the bishop this week and he told us that he is gonna make sure she leaves their meeting knowing that she needs to marry Geno so she can be baptized. Bishop Caldwell is the man. All of our ward leaders are supportive and helpful but the members bail on us pretty frequently for help with coming to lessons with us and dinner and things. Bishop Caldwell is going to change that though because he is awesome. He has a son on a mission in upstate NY whose mission president told him that with the new announcement on missionary ages their particular mission is expecting 250 more missionaries. Crazy. Also, his mission president said that there are 50 new missions to be opened up across the world. Crazy. Also, our bishop told us that before the announcement there were 300 missionary applications sent in each week, now there has been about 4,000 a week since that announcement. Crazy awesome. A marvelous work is coming forth all right! That's cool to hear that people are starting up on their papers earlier now. Missionaries are going to be all over the place in much larger numbers!
This week I went on my first exchange and I was really nervous for it because I was the one who stayed in our area so I was large and in charge. The missionary that was with me is Elder Cloward and he has only been in the field one month longer than myself so it was the two newest missionaries in our district in the area of the least experienced missionary in the district... We didn't really have any set appointments or anything during that time so I really had no idea what we were going to do and Elder Jacobs didn't really help me out too much with ideas or in the planning department. We tried visiting a lot of potential investigators that we had been trying to teach because we are running out of people that are willing to meet with us. So we went over to this girl's apartment near where we live named Hannah. She had been taught once before and said that she didn't want to meet with the missionaries again. Elder Cloward and I went over there and we asked if there was a time we could meet with her and she told us Wednesday so we finally have an appointment with her which doesn't seem like a huge deal but it was pretty awesome. Then we went over to another potential investigator family that we had tried to get appointments with many times and they finally allowed us to set up a time with them on Friday and that was way legit also. At about 8:30 at night, we had run out of people to visit and we had nothing planned so then I brought up the hated "T" word. Tracting. Nobody likes tracting because it means your members aren't helping you enough! Anyway, we knew that that was all that we could do so we knelt down and asked the Lord to guide us to where we needed to be and we went on our way. We walked out of our apartment complex and Elder Cloward said we needed to go straight so we did. Then we came to an intersection and he said we needed to go straight again so we did, and then we went straight again. Elder Cloward saw a house with a red truck in the driveway and he said that was the house we needed to go so we went up and knocked away and we met a girl named Anna! She is catholic and has a couple of Mormon friends in her jiujitsu (don't know if that's how it's spelled) class. She said our religion is interesting to her but she isn't sure if it's for her because she is catholic and then the spirit told us to tell her that we don't want to take away from her beliefs, but that we feel we can add to her beliefs. We bore testimony that our message can bless her life and she told us to come back on Wednesday. It is so awesome when the spirit guides you to the place that you need to be. I know that is what happened and it happened for when we found Roxy and T.J. also!
The next day we met with a less-active guy named Michael who grew up in the church and has a very strong LDS family that lives in another ward. He has an 18 month old daughter and lives in some very humble circumstances. He's about 21 or 22 years old. About the time that he was planning on going on a mission he had a cousin come to town that was a bad influence and got him doing all sorts of drugs and stuff that he knew he shouldn't do. He really loves his daughter and feels horrible about the decisions he made. He wants his daughter to grow up in the church and be one of those young women who live happily and marry in the temple instead of one of the women running around his neighborhood getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. He said his greatest desire is to go back to church and to get his life back in order so he can provide his daughter with the life that he had as a kid. We told him that he can make all of this happen through the Savior because the Savior knows him and what he has been going through and what his wants and needs are. Michael knows that is true and he said he would come to church but he didn't have a white shirt so we gave him one. He is a really awesome guy and we were really excited to have him at church yesterday. Sadly, he didn't make it because he got in an argument with his girlfriend about their daughter. That was pretty disappointing but I know he will get to church soon!
I know that the Savior is real and he loves each and everyone us individually. He didn't just die for us. He suffered for us. Pretty much every horrible feeling you can ever feel he felt for each of us. That is why through Him and only Him we can change our nature and be forgiven of our sins. We can be made whole through Him. The Atonement can help Michael (and everyone) get their lives in order! That's all I've got for the week!
Peace and Love!
Elder Black
Thursday, October 25, 2012
October 23rd :)
I have to say I pretty much have been waiting on pins and needles since Josh's email didn't come yesterday! Now I can breathe a sigh of relief....silly mom I know. Anyway, have a terrific Tuesday everyone! Thanks for your support for the missionaries! It means so much to them and to their mamas! :)
Howdy ya'll
I'll try to answer questions first so I don't miss out on anything. The bike is good. Elder Hopkinson won't let me pay for it though so I figure I'll just return the favor and give it to somebody else when the time comes. Yes mother, you can do what you're doing with sending me emails by mail. That way there is at least one day in the week that I get mail! Yes, I have received the box, the pictures, and other things as well. If you ever get around to sending another package I request that you send those puma soccer cleats that don't fit Cam because we play flag football mostly on p-day and also I request (you're gonna think this is weird) a pair of onesie garments for onesie wednesday. My dad says I need a pair so I better listen right? Right. So those are my only requests and I probably won't need/want much more for a while! I forgot my camera but I was gonna send a picture of my dad and our sweet watermelon that was given to us. I'll take pictures of the hilly terrain of Rio Rancho too. Something funny about Rio Rancho is that the highest point of the city is the dump. We went there for service and it was awesome! Also, I am glad to hear the Packers are getting things going and that the Ducks are still undefeated. I heard that the Yankees got schooled. Everybody who is a baseball fan here was really happy about that.Thank you for the sports updates Jake and Cam. Jake, you should be receiving your letter sometime this week or next week. I have like 10 minutes in the morning while Elder Jacobs is showering and that's when I try to respond to letters so it probably takes like 3 days to finish a letter. Family can email though too. Anyway, I hope that is all the things that ya'll have asked about.
Well, this week wasn't so glorious... at all. Appointments fell through and some people's doors that we knocked on were really rude. "Don't knock on any of the doors on this street, everybody is sick of you guys! Tell the other ones not to come here either!" Yeah that was kinda frustrating. Probably the most frustrating thing of all is that we couldn't meet with T.J. and Roxy! Both times we had scheduled meetings with them something was going on so that was disappointing. But on the bright side, in the brief moments that we spoke to T.J. he said he has read from the BoM and is hoping to find the answers to his questions in it. He will find the answers for sure! I know he will, and Roxy will too!
We did have one really super awesome experience though! There is a less-active family called the Elsmore's and we don't visit them very often but everytime we do sis. elsmore says that she really needed us to be there. Her grandpa is dying and he lives in Las Cruces and there are a lot of family members down there in Cruces that don't go and help take care of the grandpa at all but she makes the drive down there pretty often with her little daughter and she just feels like she is the only person doing anything to help at all. She is also really sad that he is dying and even with her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation she is scared that she might not see him again. Elder Jacobs pulled out his bossness and shared a sweet scripture in the BoM and she knows that her grandpa was a good man and will be resting in paradise so that really comforted her. She started crying. When people cry and you are a missionary a lot of the time it is a good thing because it means they are feeling the spirit. The spirit was very strong in the room and I just felt full of joy and that I was really helping someone! I almost shed a tear bearing testimony that I know the Plan of Salvation gives us all comfort and that it is true. Then she asked for a blessing because she is really stressed and being part of blessings is always awesome! Bro. Elsmore gave the blessing and it was soooo awesome to see them feel the spirit together. Now they need to get their butts in gear and in church EVERY SUNDAY!
Speaking of church, I had my first almost normal church meeting in month and it was great! It was ward conference and our investigator until proven member Shari came so that was awesome! She always has really good questions to ask and she is really excited about learning more about the gospel. If she isn't already a member she will be pretty soon. She just needs to marry Geno. We try to talk to Geno sometimes so that we can talk to them both together about marriage. I can't wait for her to be baptized. I just wish everyone was as ready to receive the gospel as she is! That would be really convenient. I was talking to one of the other missionaries in our district and he said that the reason we call it missionary work is almost everybody will have problems like word of wisdom and law of chastity. We have to work hard to get them to the point where they are willing to give those kinds of things up. It's crazy stuff but it's worth it. I think the thing I've learned about the most so far actually being in the field is that if you don't love the people where you are serving no matter what, you won't be able to lose yourself in the work. I really pray to develop more and more charity all the time.
I read about Moroni today and it really inspired me. If everybody was like him, Satan would n't have any power over anybody. That was very inspirational to me and I'm trying to be a mini Moroni. The church is true! It's either the greatest hoax of all time or it's the greatest blessing of all time! Guess what? It's the greatest blessing of all time! Everyone can receive that witness through the power of the Holy Ghost. Moroni told me.
Ya'll will hear from me next week!
Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the internet went down in the library yesterday so that's why you got this today.
Howdy ya'll
I'll try to answer questions first so I don't miss out on anything. The bike is good. Elder Hopkinson won't let me pay for it though so I figure I'll just return the favor and give it to somebody else when the time comes. Yes mother, you can do what you're doing with sending me emails by mail. That way there is at least one day in the week that I get mail! Yes, I have received the box, the pictures, and other things as well. If you ever get around to sending another package I request that you send those puma soccer cleats that don't fit Cam because we play flag football mostly on p-day and also I request (you're gonna think this is weird) a pair of onesie garments for onesie wednesday. My dad says I need a pair so I better listen right? Right. So those are my only requests and I probably won't need/want much more for a while! I forgot my camera but I was gonna send a picture of my dad and our sweet watermelon that was given to us. I'll take pictures of the hilly terrain of Rio Rancho too. Something funny about Rio Rancho is that the highest point of the city is the dump. We went there for service and it was awesome! Also, I am glad to hear the Packers are getting things going and that the Ducks are still undefeated. I heard that the Yankees got schooled. Everybody who is a baseball fan here was really happy about that.Thank you for the sports updates Jake and Cam. Jake, you should be receiving your letter sometime this week or next week. I have like 10 minutes in the morning while Elder Jacobs is showering and that's when I try to respond to letters so it probably takes like 3 days to finish a letter. Family can email though too. Anyway, I hope that is all the things that ya'll have asked about.
Well, this week wasn't so glorious... at all. Appointments fell through and some people's doors that we knocked on were really rude. "Don't knock on any of the doors on this street, everybody is sick of you guys! Tell the other ones not to come here either!" Yeah that was kinda frustrating. Probably the most frustrating thing of all is that we couldn't meet with T.J. and Roxy! Both times we had scheduled meetings with them something was going on so that was disappointing. But on the bright side, in the brief moments that we spoke to T.J. he said he has read from the BoM and is hoping to find the answers to his questions in it. He will find the answers for sure! I know he will, and Roxy will too!
We did have one really super awesome experience though! There is a less-active family called the Elsmore's and we don't visit them very often but everytime we do sis. elsmore says that she really needed us to be there. Her grandpa is dying and he lives in Las Cruces and there are a lot of family members down there in Cruces that don't go and help take care of the grandpa at all but she makes the drive down there pretty often with her little daughter and she just feels like she is the only person doing anything to help at all. She is also really sad that he is dying and even with her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation she is scared that she might not see him again. Elder Jacobs pulled out his bossness and shared a sweet scripture in the BoM and she knows that her grandpa was a good man and will be resting in paradise so that really comforted her. She started crying. When people cry and you are a missionary a lot of the time it is a good thing because it means they are feeling the spirit. The spirit was very strong in the room and I just felt full of joy and that I was really helping someone! I almost shed a tear bearing testimony that I know the Plan of Salvation gives us all comfort and that it is true. Then she asked for a blessing because she is really stressed and being part of blessings is always awesome! Bro. Elsmore gave the blessing and it was soooo awesome to see them feel the spirit together. Now they need to get their butts in gear and in church EVERY SUNDAY!
Speaking of church, I had my first almost normal church meeting in month and it was great! It was ward conference and our investigator until proven member Shari came so that was awesome! She always has really good questions to ask and she is really excited about learning more about the gospel. If she isn't already a member she will be pretty soon. She just needs to marry Geno. We try to talk to Geno sometimes so that we can talk to them both together about marriage. I can't wait for her to be baptized. I just wish everyone was as ready to receive the gospel as she is! That would be really convenient. I was talking to one of the other missionaries in our district and he said that the reason we call it missionary work is almost everybody will have problems like word of wisdom and law of chastity. We have to work hard to get them to the point where they are willing to give those kinds of things up. It's crazy stuff but it's worth it. I think the thing I've learned about the most so far actually being in the field is that if you don't love the people where you are serving no matter what, you won't be able to lose yourself in the work. I really pray to develop more and more charity all the time.
I read about Moroni today and it really inspired me. If everybody was like him, Satan would n't have any power over anybody. That was very inspirational to me and I'm trying to be a mini Moroni. The church is true! It's either the greatest hoax of all time or it's the greatest blessing of all time! Guess what? It's the greatest blessing of all time! Everyone can receive that witness through the power of the Holy Ghost. Moroni told me.
Ya'll will hear from me next week!
Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the internet went down in the library yesterday so that's why you got this today.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
First week in The Querque and finally some pictures!
HOWDY
First of all, whoever said it DOESN'T get cold here, I'll NEVER wear a suit, and I'll ALWAYS be under the warmth of the sun was a liar. We've had some pretty killer cold days, I've worn a suit (and needed it) everyday, and the sun has been absent sometimes. Also, it looks a lot like Moses here except the Sandia mountains are right there and that's pretty sweet. They're pretty big and awesome and we have a sweet view not far from our apartment that we can look over the entire area of the Querque and it goes right up to the mountains. I have some pictures but apparently I'm not smart enough to upload pictures and show you. I had to break out the sweet sweater 2 nights ago or else I would've frozen to death. It's good though because that makes up for the very hilly terrain of the star heights area of rio rancho, the coldness makes it so I don't burn to death! We live in a pretty nice apartment at the top of the giant hill so when we need to go back there we ride up the hill and my legs start burning. I am gonna have massive legs by the time I am done in star heights. By the way, I think there are only 2 companionships in our whole zone that are on the bikes but I personally like it. We get rides from other missionaries to the grocery store and to the library to email so that's all right. Elder Jacobs has been in this area for 3 months already so by the time I'm done being trained he will have been here for 6 months. He thinks that I'll probably stay and he will end up somewhere else.
Elder Jacobs is pretty cool though. He's funny and he knows what he is doing. On my first full day we just went around visiting people and we didn't really do much teaching at all. Just that law of chastity lesson. I asked him why we weren't teaching much and he said something dad has told me a couple of times. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I felt stupid because I just wanted to get out and start teaching and just getting in to missionary mode. It doesn't work like that though. There are these 8 fundamentals lessons that you're supposed to study along with PMG and one of the fundamentals is to teach people, not lessons. That's probably the thing I've gotta work on the most. I just get so worried that I'm gonna miss an important principle in the lesson and that becomes my main focus instead of focusing on what the person we are teaching really needs to hear. But it's awesome. I've met a lot of people already that need the gospel in their lives and I hope I can help them!
One of these people is Sherie. I think she's probably 50 years old or something like that and has grown up here in this area. She is the one that we taught the law of chastity to. She has been living with the same guy named Geno for about 9 years and she really just needs to get marriedbut she's afraid to be married. She was married for 30 years before and then all of a sudden that fell apart and she was being abused and whatnot so she is scared to be married again. We're trying to help resolve those concerns for her and to help her make that step and be married to Geno. Geno is a good guy but he's only been part of a lesson once. Anyway, Sherie knows the church is true and she really wants to be baptized but that is her hurdle to get over and we're trying to help her with that. Something really interesting happened yesterday though. We invited her to a baptismal service on saturday night and she went without letting us know which is fine and dandy but when she went all these floods of memories hit her and she remembered that she was baptized long ago! She isn't sure if it was in another church or not though. It's possible though because the spirit brings all things to remembrance and the spirit is definitely present at a baptismal service. Anyway, we had membership records sent for so we can know for sure if she is already a member or not. Investigator until proven member though, right?
Another man we are teaching calls himself Cowboy. One day we were riding our bikes along the road and he was walking his massive pit bull and yelled at us to stop. He just got out of jail about 3 weeks ago or something like that and he thought he should stop us because we could maybe help him out. Cowboy lives with his wife Tanya and he has quite the history. Cowboy is a recovering meth addict and has been to jail a plethora of times and he really feels ashamed for the things he has done in his life to hurt his wife and children. They have 4 kids that live with them. One is a teenager and pregnant, one is 9 and there are 2 little babies. The last time he was in jail his wife was working on divorce and stuff and it almost happened but Cowboy begged and pleaded for her to not divorce him and she gave him another chance. Cowboy really loves his family and his biggest fear is losing his wife and kids because they are all he's got... and his massive pit bull. Anyway, Cowboy asked if we could get him some counseling and we set him up with the addiction recovery plan. Addiction recovery basically focuses on the atonement and he really wants it to help. He said he hasn't done meth for 5 months but he has a lot of other addictions as well and we're working on that with him. I can tell that he really wants to change and it'll take a lot of work but all things are possible through the Lord! They want to be baptized but all those problems will definitely need to be resolved first.
2 days ago, we had a really crappy day. We went and met with a less active lady who is 70 years old and apparently she was never really converted to the gospel. She told us that when we pray we should be praying to Jesus and not to God. She also has a really huge problem with little kids getting up in testimony meeting and bearing their testimony without really understanding. She practically gave us a sermon and she is pretty dang insane. We tried to help her understand that we don't pray to Jesus and one of the reasons is that even Jesus prayed to God. He didn't pray to himself! But she wasn't having any of it and she just chooses to believe certain parts of the scriptures but some things she says aren't true. She told us we need to learn to have the spirit with us also. She's nuts. After that lesson we met with Cowboy and it just didn't go as well as we had planned. He tends to lose focus and he really wasn't focused on that day. That was basically our day. We had gone and visited a bunch of other people but nobody was home and by the time it was 8:00 we had nobody left to visit. Even though my past tracting experiences haven't gone well I felt like we should just walk from our apartment and knock on some doors. We said a prayer and off we went. I felt like we should take a left and we took a left and knocked on 3 doors. Nothing. Then the next door we knocked on we met a lady named Roxy. She was very nice and let us in and she asked us what we were doing out in the cold because it was wicked cold. We told her we were messengers from Jesus Christ and she was interested. We asked her about what her experience with religion is and whatnot and she said she was raised catholic but doesn't like what she's heard on the news about catholic priests and she has looked in to almost every religion because she wants a religious structure for her kids to grow up with. She was also kind of curious as to why there are so many churches so naturally, we taught her about the Restoration and the BoM and read the last 2 paragraphs in the introduction with her. Those paragraphs are golden by the way. She really liked that we didn't want her to take our word for it about Joseph Smith and the BoM. We also asked her that if she comes to know these things are true if she will be baptized on nov. 10th and she said yes! It was sooooooooo awesome and it pumped me up. The next day we talked to her boyfriend and the same things happened. The only problem is... they have kids and have been living together for 11 years and not married. Everybody here either has a chastity or word of wisdom problem it seems. Russel M. Nelson said that if you have problems you can ask the missionaries to help and they can help you! I know that we can and I really hope we can prepare them for baptism!
Anyway, that's my week. I have some questions though. I heard that OSU is undefeated, is that true? If so, Oregon must put a stop to that. Is Oregon still undefeated? What about the Packers? Who's in the world series? All my questions are sports questions mainly. We had stake conference so I didn't meet a bunch of members yet but that's cool that the John's emailed you mom! They are a way cool family. In the MTC I walked by a door that had new missionaries in it and I said welcome elders and then one of them yelled at me by name and I walked back to the door and lo and behold, Austin Burke in all his might and glory stood before me. We took a picture in the lunchroom but I didn't have my camera. It was awesome!
That's all I have for now! The other missionaries take an eternity to email so that's why this one is so long if you're wondering. We're gonna go play some basketball and p-ball (dodgeball with tennis balls) soon so I'll catch ya later! The church is true. Don't forget it! EVER! This gospel will help you receive exaltation!
Love all ya'll
Elder Black
Pictures:
1.) raising elder zirker from the dead
2.)Apostate missionaries
3.)District with bro. anderson
4.)Sandia mountains
5.) Elder Phillips!
6.)MTC district
7.)With bro. Sebesta
First of all, whoever said it DOESN'T get cold here, I'll NEVER wear a suit, and I'll ALWAYS be under the warmth of the sun was a liar. We've had some pretty killer cold days, I've worn a suit (and needed it) everyday, and the sun has been absent sometimes. Also, it looks a lot like Moses here except the Sandia mountains are right there and that's pretty sweet. They're pretty big and awesome and we have a sweet view not far from our apartment that we can look over the entire area of the Querque and it goes right up to the mountains. I have some pictures but apparently I'm not smart enough to upload pictures and show you. I had to break out the sweet sweater 2 nights ago or else I would've frozen to death. It's good though because that makes up for the very hilly terrain of the star heights area of rio rancho, the coldness makes it so I don't burn to death! We live in a pretty nice apartment at the top of the giant hill so when we need to go back there we ride up the hill and my legs start burning. I am gonna have massive legs by the time I am done in star heights. By the way, I think there are only 2 companionships in our whole zone that are on the bikes but I personally like it. We get rides from other missionaries to the grocery store and to the library to email so that's all right. Elder Jacobs has been in this area for 3 months already so by the time I'm done being trained he will have been here for 6 months. He thinks that I'll probably stay and he will end up somewhere else.
Elder Jacobs is pretty cool though. He's funny and he knows what he is doing. On my first full day we just went around visiting people and we didn't really do much teaching at all. Just that law of chastity lesson. I asked him why we weren't teaching much and he said something dad has told me a couple of times. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I felt stupid because I just wanted to get out and start teaching and just getting in to missionary mode. It doesn't work like that though. There are these 8 fundamentals lessons that you're supposed to study along with PMG and one of the fundamentals is to teach people, not lessons. That's probably the thing I've gotta work on the most. I just get so worried that I'm gonna miss an important principle in the lesson and that becomes my main focus instead of focusing on what the person we are teaching really needs to hear. But it's awesome. I've met a lot of people already that need the gospel in their lives and I hope I can help them!
One of these people is Sherie. I think she's probably 50 years old or something like that and has grown up here in this area. She is the one that we taught the law of chastity to. She has been living with the same guy named Geno for about 9 years and she really just needs to get marriedbut she's afraid to be married. She was married for 30 years before and then all of a sudden that fell apart and she was being abused and whatnot so she is scared to be married again. We're trying to help resolve those concerns for her and to help her make that step and be married to Geno. Geno is a good guy but he's only been part of a lesson once. Anyway, Sherie knows the church is true and she really wants to be baptized but that is her hurdle to get over and we're trying to help her with that. Something really interesting happened yesterday though. We invited her to a baptismal service on saturday night and she went without letting us know which is fine and dandy but when she went all these floods of memories hit her and she remembered that she was baptized long ago! She isn't sure if it was in another church or not though. It's possible though because the spirit brings all things to remembrance and the spirit is definitely present at a baptismal service. Anyway, we had membership records sent for so we can know for sure if she is already a member or not. Investigator until proven member though, right?
Another man we are teaching calls himself Cowboy. One day we were riding our bikes along the road and he was walking his massive pit bull and yelled at us to stop. He just got out of jail about 3 weeks ago or something like that and he thought he should stop us because we could maybe help him out. Cowboy lives with his wife Tanya and he has quite the history. Cowboy is a recovering meth addict and has been to jail a plethora of times and he really feels ashamed for the things he has done in his life to hurt his wife and children. They have 4 kids that live with them. One is a teenager and pregnant, one is 9 and there are 2 little babies. The last time he was in jail his wife was working on divorce and stuff and it almost happened but Cowboy begged and pleaded for her to not divorce him and she gave him another chance. Cowboy really loves his family and his biggest fear is losing his wife and kids because they are all he's got... and his massive pit bull. Anyway, Cowboy asked if we could get him some counseling and we set him up with the addiction recovery plan. Addiction recovery basically focuses on the atonement and he really wants it to help. He said he hasn't done meth for 5 months but he has a lot of other addictions as well and we're working on that with him. I can tell that he really wants to change and it'll take a lot of work but all things are possible through the Lord! They want to be baptized but all those problems will definitely need to be resolved first.
2 days ago, we had a really crappy day. We went and met with a less active lady who is 70 years old and apparently she was never really converted to the gospel. She told us that when we pray we should be praying to Jesus and not to God. She also has a really huge problem with little kids getting up in testimony meeting and bearing their testimony without really understanding. She practically gave us a sermon and she is pretty dang insane. We tried to help her understand that we don't pray to Jesus and one of the reasons is that even Jesus prayed to God. He didn't pray to himself! But she wasn't having any of it and she just chooses to believe certain parts of the scriptures but some things she says aren't true. She told us we need to learn to have the spirit with us also. She's nuts. After that lesson we met with Cowboy and it just didn't go as well as we had planned. He tends to lose focus and he really wasn't focused on that day. That was basically our day. We had gone and visited a bunch of other people but nobody was home and by the time it was 8:00 we had nobody left to visit. Even though my past tracting experiences haven't gone well I felt like we should just walk from our apartment and knock on some doors. We said a prayer and off we went. I felt like we should take a left and we took a left and knocked on 3 doors. Nothing. Then the next door we knocked on we met a lady named Roxy. She was very nice and let us in and she asked us what we were doing out in the cold because it was wicked cold. We told her we were messengers from Jesus Christ and she was interested. We asked her about what her experience with religion is and whatnot and she said she was raised catholic but doesn't like what she's heard on the news about catholic priests and she has looked in to almost every religion because she wants a religious structure for her kids to grow up with. She was also kind of curious as to why there are so many churches so naturally, we taught her about the Restoration and the BoM and read the last 2 paragraphs in the introduction with her. Those paragraphs are golden by the way. She really liked that we didn't want her to take our word for it about Joseph Smith and the BoM. We also asked her that if she comes to know these things are true if she will be baptized on nov. 10th and she said yes! It was sooooooooo awesome and it pumped me up. The next day we talked to her boyfriend and the same things happened. The only problem is... they have kids and have been living together for 11 years and not married. Everybody here either has a chastity or word of wisdom problem it seems. Russel M. Nelson said that if you have problems you can ask the missionaries to help and they can help you! I know that we can and I really hope we can prepare them for baptism!
Anyway, that's my week. I have some questions though. I heard that OSU is undefeated, is that true? If so, Oregon must put a stop to that. Is Oregon still undefeated? What about the Packers? Who's in the world series? All my questions are sports questions mainly. We had stake conference so I didn't meet a bunch of members yet but that's cool that the John's emailed you mom! They are a way cool family. In the MTC I walked by a door that had new missionaries in it and I said welcome elders and then one of them yelled at me by name and I walked back to the door and lo and behold, Austin Burke in all his might and glory stood before me. We took a picture in the lunchroom but I didn't have my camera. It was awesome!
That's all I have for now! The other missionaries take an eternity to email so that's why this one is so long if you're wondering. We're gonna go play some basketball and p-ball (dodgeball with tennis balls) soon so I'll catch ya later! The church is true. Don't forget it! EVER! This gospel will help you receive exaltation!
Love all ya'll
Elder Black
Pictures:
1.) raising elder zirker from the dead
2.)Apostate missionaries
3.)District with bro. anderson
4.)Sandia mountains
5.) Elder Phillips!
6.)MTC district
7.)With bro. Sebesta
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Address!
Just in case you didn't catch it, Elder Black's address in the querque is:
615 Vancouver Rd SE Apt. M
Rio Rancho New Mexico, 87124
And here's a cute pic from family pictures of Farmer Elder Black :)
615 Vancouver Rd SE Apt. M
Rio Rancho New Mexico, 87124
And here's a cute pic from family pictures of Farmer Elder Black :)
First letter from the field!
Hey Everyone....this is the mom. I guess any letter you may have sent to the mission home won't get to Josh, but his mailing/package address is in his email below. Thanks for all of our support, friendship and kindness to Josh! You have all made such a difference in his life! And.....away we go! Looks like he is off and running and happy doing it! :) No pictures, because apparently he is picture upload illiterate and they didn't attach correctly. Isn't that what trainers are for? Ha.
Thanks again,
Mama Black
Hello there everyone!
I have finally arrived in New Mexico and it's pretty cool here. It looks like Moses Mistake (as one of the senior missionaries told me it's called it) but it's got mountains, volcanoes, and a lot more trees. I haven't really taken any pictures of it yet but it's pretty cool. When we flew in to the airport we walked out not too far and there was president and sister Miller with the AP's Elder Nauman and Elder Rico. We had a little spiritual thought right there in the airport and then we headed out to the mission home in the Querque, we call it the Querque so it sounds like kirk not kirkeee. Make sense? Anyway, when we got there we were fed some delicious taco salad and had some training given to us about money, vehicles, cleaning and then actual missionary work. We learned about contacting people and then we we went out with experienced missionaries and knocked some apartment doors! I was with Elder Rogers, he was a field goal kicker at the U so I guess he's a stud. The first door we knocked was a Buddhist lady. She believes in the universe but hey! So do we! She wouldn't budge though and she just believes in the universe apparently. The next door was some native family and they practice indian traditions and whatnot. They said they would call us back but they wouldn't let us have their phone number so that probably isn't the best sign. The next door was a tall black man and he has met with the missionaries before, he doesn't know what he believes so we took his information and the missionaries in that area will be meeting with him. I was super nervous when I had to actually do the talking but I'll get used to it!
After that, we came back and ate dinner which was sweet and then had testimony meeting with all of us 16 newbs and that was a really spiritual experience for me. It was awesome to hear what people know to be true and to all grow in our testimony together. Then Pres. and sis. miller shared their testimonies and they are two of the most spiritual people I've ever met. Pres miller was great and we had our interviews with him afterward, he asked me my concerns about the mission and then gave me an assignment to study and that will really be awesome. I can already tell how much love he's got for me and every other missionary here. There are like 170 missionaries in our mission by the way.
After all that stuff, we went to the AP's apartment and we stayed there for the night. 11 of us were with them and the rest were with another companionship but it was crazy cool. The AP's are studs and I want to be like them so I need to study like crazy and listen to the spirit all of the time instead of just some of the time. That's what I need to work on but hey, we've all got things we need to work on! In the morning we had to wake up wicked early so we could be at transfer meeting at 6:30 and there we were assigned our new companions and our first area in the field! My companion is elder Jacobs from Salt Lake valleyish are and he's a wrestler. He's been out about 15 months I think. I haven't taken any pictures or anything with him yet because we've been busy doing greenie things. My area is in Rio Rancho so basically I'm in Albuquerque but my area is the Star Heights area. It's pretty hilly and I am on a bike. I've got a bike already from another missionary and I'm not sure what he wants me to pay yet but that will be figured out eventually I suppose. My first lesson that I'll teach in the field is in about 3 hours and we are teaching the Law of Chastity. In the MTC you don't really get to teach lessons like that. I pretty much only have taught the first 2 lessons ever so it is gonna be an interesting experience and I'm kinda nervous but here I go! All the experienced missionaries think it's hilarious that that's my first lesson but oh well.
A few important things. Could you send the blue suit to me? Our mission rule is that we wear suits everyday from october to april unless it's 75 degress or over so I need that and I might need another small duffle bag or something because I've got more material than I have room for in all my bags and whatnot. That's all I really can think of though so besides that we're golden.
My address is:
615 Vancouver Rd SE Apt. M
Rio Rancho New Mexico, 87124
If you sent anything to the mission home by chance it wasn't there today or yesterday so that means I won't see it for probably about a month because that's just how it works here. For some reason they don't forward your mail from the mission home so you can't get it until the next time you're there which will be in about a month for me. So if there's anything important to tell me in letter form just feel free to send another one to my address. Packages can be sent there too.
That's all I have for you so far! I'll let you know how the law of chastity lesson goes and everything else. I know the church is true and that Christ truly suffered for us so we can return to live with God and our families forever. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet and that is so cool that we have a prophet today.
Love all ya'll!
Elder Black
Thanks again,
Mama Black
Hello there everyone!
I have finally arrived in New Mexico and it's pretty cool here. It looks like Moses Mistake (as one of the senior missionaries told me it's called it) but it's got mountains, volcanoes, and a lot more trees. I haven't really taken any pictures of it yet but it's pretty cool. When we flew in to the airport we walked out not too far and there was president and sister Miller with the AP's Elder Nauman and Elder Rico. We had a little spiritual thought right there in the airport and then we headed out to the mission home in the Querque, we call it the Querque so it sounds like kirk not kirkeee. Make sense? Anyway, when we got there we were fed some delicious taco salad and had some training given to us about money, vehicles, cleaning and then actual missionary work. We learned about contacting people and then we we went out with experienced missionaries and knocked some apartment doors! I was with Elder Rogers, he was a field goal kicker at the U so I guess he's a stud. The first door we knocked was a Buddhist lady. She believes in the universe but hey! So do we! She wouldn't budge though and she just believes in the universe apparently. The next door was some native family and they practice indian traditions and whatnot. They said they would call us back but they wouldn't let us have their phone number so that probably isn't the best sign. The next door was a tall black man and he has met with the missionaries before, he doesn't know what he believes so we took his information and the missionaries in that area will be meeting with him. I was super nervous when I had to actually do the talking but I'll get used to it!
After that, we came back and ate dinner which was sweet and then had testimony meeting with all of us 16 newbs and that was a really spiritual experience for me. It was awesome to hear what people know to be true and to all grow in our testimony together. Then Pres. and sis. miller shared their testimonies and they are two of the most spiritual people I've ever met. Pres miller was great and we had our interviews with him afterward, he asked me my concerns about the mission and then gave me an assignment to study and that will really be awesome. I can already tell how much love he's got for me and every other missionary here. There are like 170 missionaries in our mission by the way.
After all that stuff, we went to the AP's apartment and we stayed there for the night. 11 of us were with them and the rest were with another companionship but it was crazy cool. The AP's are studs and I want to be like them so I need to study like crazy and listen to the spirit all of the time instead of just some of the time. That's what I need to work on but hey, we've all got things we need to work on! In the morning we had to wake up wicked early so we could be at transfer meeting at 6:30 and there we were assigned our new companions and our first area in the field! My companion is elder Jacobs from Salt Lake valleyish are and he's a wrestler. He's been out about 15 months I think. I haven't taken any pictures or anything with him yet because we've been busy doing greenie things. My area is in Rio Rancho so basically I'm in Albuquerque but my area is the Star Heights area. It's pretty hilly and I am on a bike. I've got a bike already from another missionary and I'm not sure what he wants me to pay yet but that will be figured out eventually I suppose. My first lesson that I'll teach in the field is in about 3 hours and we are teaching the Law of Chastity. In the MTC you don't really get to teach lessons like that. I pretty much only have taught the first 2 lessons ever so it is gonna be an interesting experience and I'm kinda nervous but here I go! All the experienced missionaries think it's hilarious that that's my first lesson but oh well.
A few important things. Could you send the blue suit to me? Our mission rule is that we wear suits everyday from october to april unless it's 75 degress or over so I need that and I might need another small duffle bag or something because I've got more material than I have room for in all my bags and whatnot. That's all I really can think of though so besides that we're golden.
My address is:
615 Vancouver Rd SE Apt. M
Rio Rancho New Mexico, 87124
If you sent anything to the mission home by chance it wasn't there today or yesterday so that means I won't see it for probably about a month because that's just how it works here. For some reason they don't forward your mail from the mission home so you can't get it until the next time you're there which will be in about a month for me. So if there's anything important to tell me in letter form just feel free to send another one to my address. Packages can be sent there too.
That's all I have for you so far! I'll let you know how the law of chastity lesson goes and everything else. I know the church is true and that Christ truly suffered for us so we can return to live with God and our families forever. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet and that is so cool that we have a prophet today.
Love all ya'll!
Elder Black
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Sister :)
I got my own personal letter from Josh :) I thought I wanted to keep it to myself but I'll be less selfish and share a blurb from it. I love this kid and I'm thankful for him too! Thanks for the blessings baby bro!
Week 2 at the MTC!
Hello there everybody!
I have survived week number 2 without any injuries or anything like that from all of my intense 4 square battles. Cam was right, 4 square is actually way intense and totally worth it. A lot of people in gym time will play and we have some pretty crazy duels doing it. Just so you know, I was a champion twice this week. I also play some of the real sports in there too like basketball and volleyball. There is this one kid in my gym time that dominates at both volleyball and basketball so that's pretty sweet. He's nuts.
This week was a lot harder than last week for me. I've had my slumps and been pretty discouraged at times but I'll get over it. My zone leader Elder Wilson who is going to Thailand was just like, "Elder Black, the only way to grow and become a good missionary is by getting whooped." It's true too. Last week was so awesome and I was just on a spiritual high having a ton of success teaching our investigators but this week it was just a lot harder and we weren't having success. But don't worry about me because I'm a Black and we do hard things all the time.
I'm glad to hear that the ducks and packers are winning their games. That sucks about losing to the seahawks though. Some kids in my district are seahawks fans and they thought the whole situation was hilarious but that's ok. Hopefully oregon and the packers are champions this year. If that happens I'm sure it will be directly related to my righteousness out here. Just kidding. That's not really true but I hope they win, that would be really cool.
We had some really cool devotionals. We had this guy come speak to us named Elder Jensen and he has seen more mission calls made than anyone in church history. The apostles rotate to do the call making and he is the one that is always there no matter what so that was pretty cool. He basically told us that we have to be our own first convert before we can expect to bring about conversion in other people's lives. I thought that was really cool and it motivated me to work a lot harder. Sometimes our district can't stay focused in study time so we leave and go somewhere else or we just try to calm each other down. Our teachers Bro. Sebesta and Bro. Anderson have been really hitting it into our heads that we need to be having revelatory experiences when we pray and study. Bro. Sebesta said "prayer unlocks the door by which the floodgates of revelation can be opened." What I learned from that is that I need to pray more and a lot more sincerely if I want to receive answers for myself and my investigators. I thought that was something really cool that I needed to hear. We also watched a talk by Elder Holland on Sunday and it was basically saying that if you don't work hard on your mission and make it the biggest growing experience of your life, your life won't be what you want it to be. You know how Elder Holland is. Intense. Another cool thing that he said is that missionaries have apostolic right to preach the gospel and that's given them by the quorum of the 12. Apostolic keys with a lower case "a." That's really cool though, I've been called of God and given the privilege and duty to serve Him and preach His gospel and invite people to come unto Him. That just motivated me a lot to be the best missionary I can be no matter what. And if I get discouraged or anything, I just think about Grandma's advice, "If you have a bad day, just remember tomorrow is a completely new day." Best advice ever and it's what is getting me through here.
I tried to upload pictures to attach to this but it isn't working because my camera doesn't have enough juice in it to stay on so I'm really sorry about that. I have about 57902345890278907 pictures too =(
Anyway, we're flying out of here on the 8th next monday. Our flight leaves at 9:50 so you can expect a phone call sometime before then. I'm excited to leave and be in New Mexico finally. Even though I've only been here about 2 weeks i'm starting to get anxious to leave. I want to do all the cool missionary things that missionaries do in the real world instead of this confined space that you can never leave except for the temple or soccer. I can't wait to find people and teach them about the great love that God has for them and His plan for them to return to Him. Don't get me wrong, the MTC is great but I am glad I'm not staying here 12 weeks like the missionaries to Thailand have to stay.
I know the church is true and the BoM is the word of God. Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and translated the BoM. Christ suffered for us so that we can experience peace in our lives if we but come to Him. This is all true and so real and I won't take my knowledge for granted. My favorite scripture for the week is Alma 32. Read it. It's awesome.
Talk to you soon and I will return with honor,
Elder Black
I have survived week number 2 without any injuries or anything like that from all of my intense 4 square battles. Cam was right, 4 square is actually way intense and totally worth it. A lot of people in gym time will play and we have some pretty crazy duels doing it. Just so you know, I was a champion twice this week. I also play some of the real sports in there too like basketball and volleyball. There is this one kid in my gym time that dominates at both volleyball and basketball so that's pretty sweet. He's nuts.
This week was a lot harder than last week for me. I've had my slumps and been pretty discouraged at times but I'll get over it. My zone leader Elder Wilson who is going to Thailand was just like, "Elder Black, the only way to grow and become a good missionary is by getting whooped." It's true too. Last week was so awesome and I was just on a spiritual high having a ton of success teaching our investigators but this week it was just a lot harder and we weren't having success. But don't worry about me because I'm a Black and we do hard things all the time.
I'm glad to hear that the ducks and packers are winning their games. That sucks about losing to the seahawks though. Some kids in my district are seahawks fans and they thought the whole situation was hilarious but that's ok. Hopefully oregon and the packers are champions this year. If that happens I'm sure it will be directly related to my righteousness out here. Just kidding. That's not really true but I hope they win, that would be really cool.
We had some really cool devotionals. We had this guy come speak to us named Elder Jensen and he has seen more mission calls made than anyone in church history. The apostles rotate to do the call making and he is the one that is always there no matter what so that was pretty cool. He basically told us that we have to be our own first convert before we can expect to bring about conversion in other people's lives. I thought that was really cool and it motivated me to work a lot harder. Sometimes our district can't stay focused in study time so we leave and go somewhere else or we just try to calm each other down. Our teachers Bro. Sebesta and Bro. Anderson have been really hitting it into our heads that we need to be having revelatory experiences when we pray and study. Bro. Sebesta said "prayer unlocks the door by which the floodgates of revelation can be opened." What I learned from that is that I need to pray more and a lot more sincerely if I want to receive answers for myself and my investigators. I thought that was something really cool that I needed to hear. We also watched a talk by Elder Holland on Sunday and it was basically saying that if you don't work hard on your mission and make it the biggest growing experience of your life, your life won't be what you want it to be. You know how Elder Holland is. Intense. Another cool thing that he said is that missionaries have apostolic right to preach the gospel and that's given them by the quorum of the 12. Apostolic keys with a lower case "a." That's really cool though, I've been called of God and given the privilege and duty to serve Him and preach His gospel and invite people to come unto Him. That just motivated me a lot to be the best missionary I can be no matter what. And if I get discouraged or anything, I just think about Grandma's advice, "If you have a bad day, just remember tomorrow is a completely new day." Best advice ever and it's what is getting me through here.
I tried to upload pictures to attach to this but it isn't working because my camera doesn't have enough juice in it to stay on so I'm really sorry about that. I have about 57902345890278907 pictures too =(
Anyway, we're flying out of here on the 8th next monday. Our flight leaves at 9:50 so you can expect a phone call sometime before then. I'm excited to leave and be in New Mexico finally. Even though I've only been here about 2 weeks i'm starting to get anxious to leave. I want to do all the cool missionary things that missionaries do in the real world instead of this confined space that you can never leave except for the temple or soccer. I can't wait to find people and teach them about the great love that God has for them and His plan for them to return to Him. Don't get me wrong, the MTC is great but I am glad I'm not staying here 12 weeks like the missionaries to Thailand have to stay.
I know the church is true and the BoM is the word of God. Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and translated the BoM. Christ suffered for us so that we can experience peace in our lives if we but come to Him. This is all true and so real and I won't take my knowledge for granted. My favorite scripture for the week is Alma 32. Read it. It's awesome.
Talk to you soon and I will return with honor,
Elder Black
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Hogwarts
In Elder Black's letter home he told us that the MTC is like Hogwarts but he didn't have time to tell us why. Well thanks to Liza, now we know! Sounds like a pretty cool place if you ask me! 
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
First Letters!
We got Elder Black's first p-day email today! We all are so glad to hear from him and know he's doing great! Where i work, we have a patient who had to come home from his mission to have knee surgery, and he told me that all Josh had to do was get through his first Sunday in the MTC and then he'd be golden. Well, we got a letter from Josh that he wrote on Thursday of last week and he already sounded great! He said he was "already catching the fire." How cool is that? i'll post that one when get a copy from my mom. My little brother is a super missionary, and i am so proud of him! i am so glad that he is doing well, and we don't have to worry about him. He is going to be just fine :) He's doing the right thing and i know that Heavenly Father is watching over him, helping him learn, and i know he is so proud of him too! Enough of my babbling, here is what you've been waiting for, Josh's first email home:
Familia,
Today is P-Day finally so I"m finally getting a chance to get back to ya'll and thank you for all of your generosity! First item of business is to thank all of you who sent me those sweet dear elder letters. Those were awesome and kept me going and stuff so I'm really grateful for that! I love you all very much. Specifically thank you Kait for the package and the food. I'm a pretty popular elder on my floor now with all those cheetos. Everybody loves them here! I took some pictures of my glorious hallelujahs when receiving the package.
You're probably wondering why this letter is titled "HOGWARTS." I will tell you why in just a second because you're probably just dying to know who my first companion is. I'll describe him first. He is from the Columbia Basin, he has reddish hair, and went to FMS with me! You guessed it! Elder Evan Kendall is my first companion. At first when I found that out I was a little disappointed because I wanted to have some sweet comapnion from like New Zealand or something boss like that. But then it hit me, and I just thought "Elder Black, he is supposed to be your companion for a reason" and it's been really cool having someone here with me that I know really well and we've been good companions. When we teach lessons he's always really spiritual and he gets really emotional and then I get emotional. He's a powerful companion and I love him. I also love my district! We're all pretty different people but we all bond well together and it already feels like we're one big happy family now. Our district includes me and Elder Kendall, Elder Zirker from Mattawa, elder Gawrich from South Carolina (those 4 are my roomies) Elder Nelson from Bountiful, Elder Satterlee from some ghetto place in Utah, Elder Coughlan from Firth, Idaho (he's a duck fan) Elder Foster from Cedar Rapids Iowa (he's now our zone leader) Elder Miles from Utah somewhere (district leader) and Elder Bowler from Arizona somewhere. I'll try to pull up some pictures and stuff but I forgot my cord and I don't know if I can post them just with my SD card so we'll see here in a bit.
Anyway, none of ya'll need worry about me. As Cam would say, "it's not always rainbows and unicorns" but a lot of the time it has been. I also probably sound really happy right now because we just got back from the temple but I'm not faking how I feel either. It's great here. I have amazing teachers who really love all of us and are inviting us to come unto Christ so that we can invite everyone around us to come unto Christ. One of the coolest things we do here is teach investigators that are actors. Most of them are converts to the church but I've heard some of them aren't even members but I think that's a lie. Anyway, it's amazing what it feels like when we teach. Even though they're already members for some reason it's impossible for me to think of them as members and it feels so real. When we teach we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries which is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. You'll probably hear that a lot and to those of you I've sent letters to today I'm pretty thats somewhere in those letters too. Anyway, I love it. I'm not a great teacher by any means but when I feel prompted by the spirit to say something and I say it I just feel the Savior's love for me and for who we're teaching. My teacher's names are Brother Sebesta and Brother Anderson and they have helped me understand that any oppurtunity to teach someone is helping them come closer to Christ and it doesn't even necessarily have to be an investigator.
I'm running out of time and I don't think I'll have time to upload any pictures. I'm sorry mom =(
I forgot to tell you why this is like Hogwarts but I dont really have time for that either because I need to ask for some things. Can you send me a sweet scripture case? All the ones here are lame leather ones that I think are dumb and I don't want. Also, a shoe shining kit would be nice with black and brown polish.
Well, this is all I have time for so I'll share my testimony real quick! I know that my Savior lives and he loves each and everyone of us. I know that this is the true church and that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw and that the BoM is the word of God. I hope you all know that too because it's amazing.
I love all of you and I will return with honor in 700 something days,
Elder Black
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Send some love!
As Josh's big sister, I want him to be taken care of and to know he's missed and not forgotten. I never really thought I was protective but maybe I am? All I'm asking is to please send some love! Write him letters, they don't have to be long and send packages if that works for you. If you need help on what to send just ask me or my mom :)
And if neither of those things work for you then please just pray for him. That works too :)
His address at the MTC is:
Elder Joshua Phillip Black
MTC mailbox #144
NM-ALB 1008
2005 S. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793
And you can also use dearelder.com to set up an account and send letters to Josh for free, while he's in the MTC after he's in Albuquerque there's a little cost. If you send one before 10am he should get it the same day :)
And if neither of those things work for you then please just pray for him. That works too :)
His address at the MTC is:
Elder Joshua Phillip Black
MTC mailbox #144
NM-ALB 1008
2005 S. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793
And you can also use dearelder.com to set up an account and send letters to Josh for free, while he's in the MTC after he's in Albuquerque there's a little cost. If you send one before 10am he should get it the same day :)
And he's off!
Well, before Josh left for his mission he asked me, Kait, his big sister if I would manage his Facebook while he was gone. Well, even better, I started him a blog. I will post updates from him here :) I've never blogged before so if this thing is a mess, just be patient with me or feel free to help me out!
Here's what went down on Josh's last few days before heading to the MTC:
-We got to spend some good quality family time together before Josh went off. We had a big family dinner at Grandmas house on Sunday, let me tell you, there is nothing better. The people and the conversation are always amazing. There is something about her house that just makes you feel good. Not to mention the food is always the best EVER! Josh was so happy to have some of his Moses Lake buddies that go to BYU, come out and have dessert and say goodbye. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. How comforting for Josh to know that his friends support him. Seems like he has really great friends. Thanks again you guys! Josh also got to play some football with Dad, Jake and Jason.
-Josh played some tennis with Dad and Jake and went to the Timpanogos temple with our parents.
-On Josh's last night with the family we got family pictures done. Good thing he has always been a cheese ball and likes his picture being taken ;) I think my other brothers would protest. Cam and Kiley came from Rexburg to join the festivities and Cam shared some brotherly, missionary advice. Afterward we had a fun dinner at Kneaders.
-The next morning we had another awesome meal at grandmas before we took Josh to the MTC. Our uncle Danny and cousin Jimmy came out to say goodbye that morning. We took some pictures then caravanned to Provo... Mom, Dad, Jake and Josh, followed by me and Jason, and Cam and Kiley bringing up the rear. We said goodbye in the parking lot, it was hard to do but it definitely was the right thing. We left Josh in an awesome place to go change lives and do amazing work.
It is hard to say goodbye. I love that kid so much! Having lived away for years it shocks me to see how grown up he keeps getting. Yes, sometimes I still expect him to be a little boy, running around pretending he was Mario or a dog named Ralphy. But the truth is, he's grown up to be an amazing young man. He's a great example to me and everyone around him. I'm sure he will be an inspiration to the people of Albuquerque! I'm so proud to be his big sister. How lucky am I?
Here's what went down on Josh's last few days before heading to the MTC:
-We got to spend some good quality family time together before Josh went off. We had a big family dinner at Grandmas house on Sunday, let me tell you, there is nothing better. The people and the conversation are always amazing. There is something about her house that just makes you feel good. Not to mention the food is always the best EVER! Josh was so happy to have some of his Moses Lake buddies that go to BYU, come out and have dessert and say goodbye. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. How comforting for Josh to know that his friends support him. Seems like he has really great friends. Thanks again you guys! Josh also got to play some football with Dad, Jake and Jason.
-Josh played some tennis with Dad and Jake and went to the Timpanogos temple with our parents.
-On Josh's last night with the family we got family pictures done. Good thing he has always been a cheese ball and likes his picture being taken ;) I think my other brothers would protest. Cam and Kiley came from Rexburg to join the festivities and Cam shared some brotherly, missionary advice. Afterward we had a fun dinner at Kneaders.
-The next morning we had another awesome meal at grandmas before we took Josh to the MTC. Our uncle Danny and cousin Jimmy came out to say goodbye that morning. We took some pictures then caravanned to Provo... Mom, Dad, Jake and Josh, followed by me and Jason, and Cam and Kiley bringing up the rear. We said goodbye in the parking lot, it was hard to do but it definitely was the right thing. We left Josh in an awesome place to go change lives and do amazing work.
It is hard to say goodbye. I love that kid so much! Having lived away for years it shocks me to see how grown up he keeps getting. Yes, sometimes I still expect him to be a little boy, running around pretending he was Mario or a dog named Ralphy. But the truth is, he's grown up to be an amazing young man. He's a great example to me and everyone around him. I'm sure he will be an inspiration to the people of Albuquerque! I'm so proud to be his big sister. How lucky am I?
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