Tuesday, January 29, 2013
"The land of entrapment, come on vacation and can't leave on probation"
Hello there!
Sounds like ya'll are doing fine and dandy. Thank you for watching the tennis in my honor. Of course Djokovich ruined the fun for everybody again. Also, that's way sweet that Levi made the tennis team for Whitworth. What a guy! I don't know how the kid does it but he just beats everybody somehow and it doesn't make any sense. Levi is the man, I was infuriated everytime he beat me because I always thought I should be able to beat him. Let him know I'm pumped for him! That's sweet that Maren is going on a mission too. She'll love it and do a great job. All the sister missionaries I have met are way good and they just seem to have the spirit stronger with them than Elders. They do a bossome job. Maren will too.
So this week was a good week just like last week and we found some more investigators who are totally prepared by the Lord. They were super easy to find too. There were a few disappointments this week but that's nothing unusual. There are disappointments almost everyday with missionary life. One of the disappointments is that Cowboy told us to stop coming and reading with Malachi. He told us that they need to fix some family issues and that they need the time to resolve all of their issues and whatnot. We told him that the things we have been teaching them would help them with their problems more than anything else but he still doesn't want us to come by for a while. That was a bummer. Basically Cowboy's situation right now is that he wasn't his probation stuff with his probation officer so he's either going to jail today or he is running away up to Colorado and living life on the edge even more than he is right now. It's pretty sad and we tried to help him get his life on the right track but he just kept getting into trouble. But who knows if he'll even go to jail or run away because like 5% of the things Cowboy says actually happen. But he said some funny things to us. New Mexico is known as the land of Entrapment to some people and he said that he came here in vaction and he can't leave because he's on probation. That was one of the funniest things I've heard Cowboy say. Anyway, we also weren't able to meet with Tina this week. She kept having family emergencies going on and we kept pushing appointments back and we're hopefully going to be meeting with her tonight. She didn't come to church either. Nobody made it this week =( Shariy's appointment with Bishop apparently went well but we talked about marriage with her again and she said that that isn't what they are focused on right now. She says that Geno needs to focus on healing and they don't need to think about marriage much right now. I was super bummed when I heard her say that. Hopefully a miracle will happen and her and Geno's eyes will be opened and their hearts will be softened. But those are the disappointments for the week!
The awesome things that happened this week mainly came through finding our 2 new investigators which like I said wasn't too difficult to find them. One of them was that part-member family I think I talked about before. Their names are Casey and Meghan, Casey is the member and he is way awesome. He grew up in an active family and somewhere along the lines just kinda fell off and got into some of the worldly things. Meghan comes from a family where she was asked to go to do a dance with an LDS boy in school and her mom wouldn't let her so her family is basically way anti-Mormon. Anyway, we were able to go over to their home (which is like 100 yards away from our apartment) and teach Meghan about the Restoration. Casey had to leave early and we just continued to teach Meghan with the member we brought with us. She was just way open to everything and she talked about how she and Casey need to both love God more than eachother so that they can have a happier marriage. So we talked about exactly how she can show her love for God and her willingness to do what He asks of us and that is by being baptized by someone who holds the Priesthood. We invited her to be baptized and she said that she would as soon as she knows if the BoM is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was awesome. One of our standards of excellence is to invite all investigators to be baptized on the 1st lesson and with a baptismal date no later than the 2nd lesson and sometimes it's scary to invite them to make that commitment because you don't know how they will react. It takes some faith but it's worth it. That's kind of how that was with her. I was super nervous to ask her to be baptized and I've done it a bunch of times with other people but for some reason I was just more nervous this time but I took a leap of faith and it went great! All that really needs to happen for them is for Meghan to get a new work schedule because she works on Sundays. Once that happens things will really pick up with them! I was super excited about them. That was probably my most exciting moment of the week.
The other new investigator that we found is a woman named Paige who happens to live in the apartment next door to ours. She moved in in November or sometime close to that and we talked to her like once or twice. One day we were heading out for the day on our steeds and she was outside walking to her car and we just thought that we should talk to her so we did and we set up an appointment to meet with her later in the week. Paige goes to this way big church that everybody goes to around here called Sagebrush. Just so ya'll know, everyone in Rio Rancho is either Catholic, Jehovah Witness, or goes to Sagebrush. Anyway, she joined that church and was baptized into it like 2 or so years ago but she has grown less and less fond of it as time has passed. She said that people just seem judgmental and stuff and it's changed since she first joined. She is a super smart woman too. We taught her the Restoration and talked about how important it is to have a living day prophet and the Priesthood authority on the Earth. A lot of people don't understand those things no matter how clearly or simply you explain it. It just all made sense to her and at certain points as we talked about this message she was just get a big old grin on her face and I just knew she was feeling the spirit even if she didn't know it. We invited her to read and pray about the BoM and to be baptized on February 23rd and she accepted all of those things. It was great! The only thing she didn't want to do at least for right now is to come to church. That's a pretty important thing. She said she wasn't ready for that yet but I know that she will get there through her faith.
This week, we were teaching a woman named Melissa and she asked us "what makes your prophet and your church different from other churches that claim to have prophets and be the true church?" There are so many differences. Through Joseph Smith the Priesthood is once again on the earth and we can be sealed as eternal families. We also have the gift of the holy ghost to lead and guide us to comfort us. It also testifies to us of truth. The prophet Thomas Monson receives revelation directly from God for our benefit. I know that all these things are true without a doubt in my mind because I have kneeled and asked God if this is the truth more than once. It took a while to get my answer but I got it and it has changed me. The elders quorum president in our ward (who is a boss) said that the biggest difference with our church and others is that we don't want or ask anybody to take our word for it. Take your questions to God and he will answer you. Go experience this great thing that we have experienced for ourselves. These things are true and have the power to change anybody's life and I know it's all true!
Peace and love ya'll!
Elder Black
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD
Greetings ya'll
Dad is 55. That's super cool because he is in better shape than any of his children and he is pretty much the most studly man I've ever met. Right up there with Ray Lewis as far as the beast factor goes. All jokes aside though, happy birthday Pa. I sent a letter a couple days ago so if it's not already there it will get there in time so don't worry. I still know when your b-day is. I didn't send any cool gifts though because there is nothing cool here to send you. Except green chili. That stuff is good but I don't really know how to send it to ya'll. You can order it online though. Anyway, I love you dad and I appreciate your example in my life. My life would be waaaaaaaaay less amazing without you. Thanks for being the man. It blows my mind.
So yesterday was MLK Jr day so we get to email today instead of yesterday. I think it's kinda cool that the super bowl will be 49ers vs. Ravens. The Harbaugh bowl. That could be pretty cool. Also, I appreciate the other updates from Jake in the sporting world. You, Cam, and Dad are the only way that I have even the slightest idea of what's going on. Thanks for filling me in. There should be a letter on the way for Jake too before his birthday. I haven't forgot about the letter so don't worry. Also, thanks Kait for the package! I already ate all of the 100 grand and the goldfish because it's so good and addicting. That package was a welcome sight. Love you lots sis, I'll write you a letter soon!
This week was super productive and awesome. We found new investigators, we taught a ton of people, and the Lord was able to work through us to help people to make progress! We have our mission standards of excellence for our mission which are teaching 20 lessons a week, having members with us at 80% of our lessons, finding 4 new investigators, and inviting people to be baptized on the first lessons. This week was the first time I've been at 20 lessons and that totally pumped me up. We found 2 new investigators which was cool also. We should be able to find some more this week as well. I know it's not all about numbers and percentages or anything but it just goes to show that the Lord has been blessing us this week. Also, numbers and goals "reflect the righteous desires of our hearts" so I hope ya'll don't think I'm number hungry. I'm just glad things are coming together and our teaching pool is increasing! More people to invite to come unto Christ=happy missionaries. But in a nutshell, this week has been one of the best weeks of my life.
One day, we had about 10 minutes before our dinner and we didn't know really what to do so we went by the missionary saying of, "when in doubt, tract!" Tracting isn't usually the most fun thing and especially that day because it was insanely cold and windy. Anyhow, we knocked on an apartment complex near ours and nobody was interested and it was about time to head back to our place to be picked up by a member for dinner. The spirit told us to knock just one more door so we did. It was way cool. The family that opened up the door were a part member family that had been living there since September and nobody in the ward knew about them. They were super awesome and friendly and invited us in. They told us we were crazy for being outside and said we could come back another time so that was way cool. The spirit really does guide us and the Lord leads this work. We will start teaching them this week and it's going to be awesome. A part member family will become an eternal family. I was super excited when we found them though. We knew the Lord would bless us for toughing it out in the cold weather.
We also had interviews with President Miller this week. He asked us how we feel about our work and if we feel we are "successful missionaries." I told him that I get disappointed a lot with the people that we work with. He told me that disappointment is natural but that I can't let myself get discouraged or else my faith and my testimony will weaken. That kinda scared me but he's totally right. I think one thing I've learned a lot about in my mission so far is how to deal with disappointment. We've got to always be positive thinkers and trust that the Lord will lead us in this work. In our interviews, we also taught Sister Miller the word of wisdom in 3 minutes or less. That was a humbling experience. She told me everything that I could've done better because I really didn't a super good job. It was good though. I've also learned a lot about accepting criticism and trying to become better at everything I do. I have definitely been taught a lot.
Now I have to tell you about the coolest/most spiritual experience that I have had with any of our investigators/less-actives so far on my mission. It was with Tina who we found out is 17 and she has a 1 year old son. That's not relevant right now though. We met with her twice this week and she made so much progress it was crazy! Since she hadn't come to church yet, the first time we met with her we talked a lot about church attendance and why coming to church and partaking of the sacrament is so important. We read 3 Nephi 18 with her because that's where the Savior brings the Sacrament to the Nephites. It was mega cool and then we invited her to come on a church tour later in the week. Church tours are awesome. If we had keys to our chapel and a car we would do them all the time but we don't so thats kind of a bummer. Anyway, we had already taught Tina about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation so we decided to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we went through the church tour. It was so great! The whole time she was just talking about "butterflies" that she was feeling inside and we kept telling her repeatedly that that was the Spirit that she was feeling and everytime we told her that she would just have a big grin across her face. Towards the end of the tour we opened up the baptismal font and talked about baptism and the importance of it. We asked her how she felt about baptism on Feb. 2nd and she said that she still wants to. We promised her that that is what the Lord wants her to do. At the end of the church tour, we did something that neither of us were planning on doing because we didn't think we had the time. We sat in the foyer and asked her how she feels about the BoM and if she has received an answer to her prayers whether it is true or nor. She told us she prayed but didn't get an answer yet but she also told us that she wants it to be true and that she believed she would eventually get the answer that it is true. We read Moroni 10: 3-5 with her and told her that she met all of the qualifications for being able to receive an answer. Then we asked her to kneel right then and to pray to know if these things are true. We promised that that she would receive an aswer. So, we all knelt down together and Tina prayed and asked God if the BoM is true and then she listened to the spirit and we all did too. We listened for about 30 seconds and then Tina closed her prayer in thanks to God and then just broke down. She received her answer right then and there that this is all true. The spirit was so strong. It was amazing. All of that was purely by the spirit and Elder Jones and I were just the Lord's chosen servants to voice all that we said to Tina. I have never felt the spirit working through me quite like that. After we dropped Tina off with the member who was with us (who just got back from his mission and is the bishop's son) he said, "elders, that's what I call a golden investigator." It was so great! To top it all off, we were able to get Tina to church as well and she loved it! Now all she needs to do is get her word of wisdom issues straightened up and then she will be able to baptized. I'm so pumped!
Nobody else really progressed that much this week but Shariy is slowly progressing too. She is ready to be married and is willing to do it for the Lord but Geno isn't sure quite yet. Shariy is meeting with the bishop tonight and said that Geno might come with her as well. Hopefully he does and bishop marries them right then and there. That would be super cool. Miracles happen when we are exactly obedient and Elder Jones and I are being as obedient and hard working as possible. Sometimes being obedient isn't always convenient but being obedient will always reward us! I saw that this week for sure.
President Miller challenged us to read through the BoM and higlight every reference to Christ, his words, his doctrine, his attributes, and glad scriptures. I have been doing that and it has been a great experience. The BoM testifies more plainly of Christ than any other book on the Earth. I started doing this activity where I was currently reading in the BoM and I finished the BoM this week. I took up Moroni's promise again. Good news, the BoM is still true. With all my heart I know that and it has seriously changed my life. It will change anybody's life who is humble and sincere enough to find out for themselves if it is true. The work rolls on!
Love all ya'll and thanks for everything!
Elder Black
P.S. these pics are from last Monday. It was snowing super hard and it was awesome. The snow was all gone about 24 hours later =(
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Nubs
Hello there world,
How are ya'll? I'm doing great. Being a missionary is a pretty slick life, that's for sure. Dad's email to me reminded me of something I read one day as a cashier at the water park in one of John Bytheway's books. Basically he said that you are going to have companions you have nothing at all in common with but if you look at the big picture, you have one thing more important than anything, that you both have in common. That is that you have both been called to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ in the same place. That's a pretty big similarity and that's enough to keep me satisfied for sure. One of our differences however, is that Elder Jones has 9 fingers and 1 nub. He pokes me with the nub sometimes and it's really weird. He thinks it's super funny but it's not that funny to me. Oh well, we're both missionaries here doing the same work and that is all that matters.
As for some of your questions. Those pictures of Troy sum up his personality. He's a pretty funny guy and we would probably be good friends outside of the mission. I'll always appreciate that dude. As for my best spiritual and scriptural experiences for the week, I'll get to that a little later on. It was pretty cool though. I do have one question though. How is bryce perez doing on the basketball team? Is he playing at all or what's going on there?
Anyway, this week was pretty good lessons wise. We taught more people than I've taught my entire mission so far so that was pretty cool. One thing we struggle with is finding new investigators though. That's something that we need to work on a lot this week because we basically have 3 investigators (none of which are progressing at the moment) and a ton of less-active work. We have 5 referrals from Shariy that live way out the boondocks by her that we need to contact. It's just kinda hard to contact them since she lives way the heck out there but we'll get'r done. Next time we go out there we are hoping to contact them and hopefully we will see some fruits come forth from them. We also have some pretty decent potential investigators that we have appointments with this week so that should be sweet. President Miller kind of threw down on the entire mission this week and basically told us that we are all doing a bad job of finding new and more people to teach. We're gonna make him proud this week. This week we also did a ton of tracting and everybody basically hated us except for one door. Maybe that guy will come around someday. We'll see. We also met this guy who lives in the home of where a less-active guy used to live. He had a CR450 fourstroke dirtbike outside so we went and talked to him about dirtbikes and stuff and he apparently has a mormon background but is not a member. We will hopefully get to meet with that guy this week too. We're working hard for sure so the blessings and miracles will hopefully come soon because I think I'm ready to see one now at this point.
This week we met with our new investigator Tina again we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She loved it and said it made more sense to her than any other explanation about life that she'd ever been given. That just so happens to be because the Plan of Salvation is true. We told her that and she knows it's true too. Tina is solid all except for the fact that she hasn't come to church yet. She said she would make it there and we arranged for a ride to pick her up and everything but she didn't show up so that was a major bummer. It's all good though. We will get her to come next week and she will love it and all will be well. She has a really sweet spirit and she needs the gospel in her life for her and her son. She will see the blessings of the gospel and be baptized also and it will be boss to the max.
This week we threw down on marriage with Shariy and Geno again but this time it was more bold and blunt than we've ever thrown down on them. They knew it was coming so the prepared themselves. Basically, we told them that baptism is a commandment from God and it is something that Shariy really wants in her life. We told her that she is limiting the blessings she can have in her life by not being married and then baptized. She told us she knows all of that and she knows it's all true. Geno said he even knows that they need to be married so then we asked them what the holdup is. Basicallly, the conclusion is that Geno is the holdup here, and he is afraid of being married again because his last marriage ended so horribly. We told them that this marriage won't go wrong because they already love each other and this marriage would be being married in obedience to one of God's most important commandments. They both said that they know that is true as well. We told them that they need to pray about marriage and whether it is the right thing to do together and they said they would do that. A couple days later, we went back and only Shariy was there. Her words really disappointed me and broke my heart. She said "Elders, I don't think this marriage is going to happen for a very long time." I was so disappointed. After she said that I kind of felt lost and didn't really know what to say so I just didn't say anything for a while. Then it came to me. I remembered a scripture mastery in 2 Nephi 32:8-9 where it says that the evil spirit teaches us not to pray but we MUST pray always. We asked Shariy if they had prayed about marriage and they didn't so then we shared that scripture with her. Shariy looked at us and said "that scripture was for me wasn't it?" Of course, we told her that it was and that it was something that she needed to hear. We recommitted her to pray about that concern with Geno and told her that a miracle can happen and that his heart can be softened enough to except marriage. It's gonna happen. Maybe it won't when I am here but I am confident in saying that I know they will eventually be married and they will have the blessings of the gospel in their life. I am also confident in saying that I know I was sent here specifically to Rio Rancho New Mexico for Shariy and Geno. All I want is for them to embrace the gospel in their lives and someday they will.
I also know that this work is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is how God speaks to us, it answers our questions, and it comforts us in times in our lives when we need comfort. Joseph Smith is and was the Prophet of the Restoration. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. I know that God lives and that He is our loving Father in Heaven. I know that I am exactly where I need to be sharing this message to all who will hear it. I love it. I remember one day back in the ML singles ward Elder Zubek got up and bore his testimony and said something to the effect of "according to the world I'm not doing anything fun or worthwhile but I am the happiest person I've ever been and I'm having the most fun I've ever had in my life." I second that. This has been the greatest thing that I have ever been a part of and I haven't been at it for very long. My life is solid right now.
Thanks to all ya'll for everything. Thank you mommy for the pictures too! I appreciate it! I love all ya'll. Thanks for the prayers that have been coming my way!
Peace and Love,
Elder Black
It's 2013!
Howdy Ya'll
So it's another year, another transfer, and another companion. My companion is Elder Jones from Newton Utah so basically Logan. He is nuts. We are very different in every sense of the word different. His hobbies are pretty much everything that aren't my hobbies and my hobbies are pretty much everything that aren't his hobbies. He is just a really interesting guy and this transfer could get pretty interesting with him. He's also not in the best biking shape and sometimes needs to walk up the hills. But he is my companion nonetheless and will remain so for at least 6 weeks. I think as long as we are completely focused on our purpose all the time we should do some pretty good work together but if not I don't know how it'll turn out. I hope and pray for the best, that's for sure. It has also been interesting being the only one who knows the area at all. Even though I am the junior companion in this companionship I have totally felt like the senior companion this week since I have been making all of the plans and whatnot and I know who lives where and stuff. This very well could be the most stressful week I've ever had in my life because I am just not very good at making decisions and planning stuff but it will be ok. The Lord will help me and the Lord will help Elder Jones and the people whom we are serving. That's what it's all about. I will admit that I was pretty sad to see Elder Jacobs leave. He is now Troy. Not Elder Jacobs anymore and he is now attending UVU. Today is actually his first day of school so that is nuts. He really jumped back into life. That's for sure.
Anyway, I was pumped to see those pictures of your sweet snowman. What was his name? I wish I could've made a sweet snowman too. That would have been for the best but our snow melted like 2 hours after we took our jump for joy in the snow pics. It's all fine and dandy though because I would imagine it would be pretty difficult to bike in the snow. I haven't every really tried that out before. It's getting cold though. Last night it was like 12 degrees and we didn't have a member out with us so we were freezing but it's all good. My sweaters, coats, gator, and gloves are keeping me warm! Dad had a sweet scruffy look going on there! Someday I will be able to pull off a sweet scruffy look like that but I probably won't be as buff as dad so it won't be quite as cool. All those pics made me way happy to see. My one request that I have at the moment is for ya'll to send me pictures because the only pictures I've got are those 3 family pictures you sent me a couple months ago, a picture with a member in our ward, and the Bruneel's Christmas card. Every other missionary has like 89078689879 pictures. So that is my only request at the present time.
This week was crazy though. And like I said it was probably the most stressful week of my entire life. It was hard. This week I've relied on the Lord probably more than any other time of my life and I have received help and strength for sure. One of the many blessings we received was a solid new investigator. She was a referral from missionaries in another ward in our district and we went over to her house about a week ago and she said she was definitely curious and looking for answers in her life. we told her that we believe we had solid answers to her questions (like where there are so many different churches and why they teach way different things). So, later that week we went over and we taught her about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was boss. The spirit was mega strong and after we related Joseph Smith's first vision we asked her how she felt. She said she felt something different. Something happy that she'd never really felt like that before. We told her that that was the spirit and that she could have that feeling all of the time if she is baptized and confirmed by someone who holds the Priesthood authority from God. She agreed to baptism on Feb. 2nd and we hope that she will make it. We also invited her to read from the BoM to know if what we taught her is true and she said that she would start reading it as soon as we left and she did! It's so awesome to see people excited about this message we share. The only disappointing thing is that she didn't come to church. Actually, none of our investigators came to church so that was a major bummer but that's all right. We'll get them there next week.
Malachi is not really progressing. He still won't read and pray about the BoM and I don't think he really understands the importance of it. That's disappointing. We have tried really hard for him to understand all of this and it's just not coming. It will come in time though. Also, we weren't able to talk to shariy a whole lot about marriage either and that was a bummer. Geno was never there and we need to sit them down and tell them what's up and what needs to happen. I hope they will both understand that this is what God wants them to do when we sit them down and talk to them about it this week. We probably will tomorrow night so hopefully that goes well.
Anyway, we've got to get going but I'd just like to bear my testimony to you all. I know that the Lord lives. If we turn to Him and pray for strength the Atonement can lift burdens in our lives. I have come to realize that this week more than any other week in my entire life. God lives and He loves us and that is why He sent His son Jesus Christ so that we don't have to go through life utterly alone and lost. This is the greatest truth that anyone can come to know of. I love all ya'll and am so grateful for your support through your prayers and letters. Ya'll are awesome.
Peace and Love,
Elder Black
So it's another year, another transfer, and another companion. My companion is Elder Jones from Newton Utah so basically Logan. He is nuts. We are very different in every sense of the word different. His hobbies are pretty much everything that aren't my hobbies and my hobbies are pretty much everything that aren't his hobbies. He is just a really interesting guy and this transfer could get pretty interesting with him. He's also not in the best biking shape and sometimes needs to walk up the hills. But he is my companion nonetheless and will remain so for at least 6 weeks. I think as long as we are completely focused on our purpose all the time we should do some pretty good work together but if not I don't know how it'll turn out. I hope and pray for the best, that's for sure. It has also been interesting being the only one who knows the area at all. Even though I am the junior companion in this companionship I have totally felt like the senior companion this week since I have been making all of the plans and whatnot and I know who lives where and stuff. This very well could be the most stressful week I've ever had in my life because I am just not very good at making decisions and planning stuff but it will be ok. The Lord will help me and the Lord will help Elder Jones and the people whom we are serving. That's what it's all about. I will admit that I was pretty sad to see Elder Jacobs leave. He is now Troy. Not Elder Jacobs anymore and he is now attending UVU. Today is actually his first day of school so that is nuts. He really jumped back into life. That's for sure.
Anyway, I was pumped to see those pictures of your sweet snowman. What was his name? I wish I could've made a sweet snowman too. That would have been for the best but our snow melted like 2 hours after we took our jump for joy in the snow pics. It's all fine and dandy though because I would imagine it would be pretty difficult to bike in the snow. I haven't every really tried that out before. It's getting cold though. Last night it was like 12 degrees and we didn't have a member out with us so we were freezing but it's all good. My sweaters, coats, gator, and gloves are keeping me warm! Dad had a sweet scruffy look going on there! Someday I will be able to pull off a sweet scruffy look like that but I probably won't be as buff as dad so it won't be quite as cool. All those pics made me way happy to see. My one request that I have at the moment is for ya'll to send me pictures because the only pictures I've got are those 3 family pictures you sent me a couple months ago, a picture with a member in our ward, and the Bruneel's Christmas card. Every other missionary has like 89078689879 pictures. So that is my only request at the present time.
This week was crazy though. And like I said it was probably the most stressful week of my entire life. It was hard. This week I've relied on the Lord probably more than any other time of my life and I have received help and strength for sure. One of the many blessings we received was a solid new investigator. She was a referral from missionaries in another ward in our district and we went over to her house about a week ago and she said she was definitely curious and looking for answers in her life. we told her that we believe we had solid answers to her questions (like where there are so many different churches and why they teach way different things). So, later that week we went over and we taught her about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was boss. The spirit was mega strong and after we related Joseph Smith's first vision we asked her how she felt. She said she felt something different. Something happy that she'd never really felt like that before. We told her that that was the spirit and that she could have that feeling all of the time if she is baptized and confirmed by someone who holds the Priesthood authority from God. She agreed to baptism on Feb. 2nd and we hope that she will make it. We also invited her to read from the BoM to know if what we taught her is true and she said that she would start reading it as soon as we left and she did! It's so awesome to see people excited about this message we share. The only disappointing thing is that she didn't come to church. Actually, none of our investigators came to church so that was a major bummer but that's all right. We'll get them there next week.
Malachi is not really progressing. He still won't read and pray about the BoM and I don't think he really understands the importance of it. That's disappointing. We have tried really hard for him to understand all of this and it's just not coming. It will come in time though. Also, we weren't able to talk to shariy a whole lot about marriage either and that was a bummer. Geno was never there and we need to sit them down and tell them what's up and what needs to happen. I hope they will both understand that this is what God wants them to do when we sit them down and talk to them about it this week. We probably will tomorrow night so hopefully that goes well.
Anyway, we've got to get going but I'd just like to bear my testimony to you all. I know that the Lord lives. If we turn to Him and pray for strength the Atonement can lift burdens in our lives. I have come to realize that this week more than any other week in my entire life. God lives and He loves us and that is why He sent His son Jesus Christ so that we don't have to go through life utterly alone and lost. This is the greatest truth that anyone can come to know of. I love all ya'll and am so grateful for your support through your prayers and letters. Ya'll are awesome.
Peace and Love,
Elder Black
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
December 31
PHowdy ya'll!
First of all, that's super crazy that Brittany and Chelsea are both already engaged. I heard that Chelsea was getting married but not brittany and now I am just astonished. It's crazy. I agree with Tyler's viewpoint. That's crazy. What is happening to my world? Everything is going to change real quick. When I read what you said about what Tyler said I almost busted up laughing. I miss that kid. He's a stud. I miss Levi too. It was awesome dominating kids in tennis back in our glory days like 5 months ago. You should tell those kids to write me a letter or something but not come visit me because that's not smiled upon but I'm sure ya'll knew that.
Every morning when I wake up I say my prayers, go to the bathroom, drink some water and then walk to our front door and look out our little peep hole. This morning I looked out the peephole and what did I see? SNOW! It was actually enough to cover most of the ground and make snowballs! It was super sweet and I literally leaped for joy. The sad thing is it will all be melted in like 3 hours but it was boss. Boss to the maximum amount. I am so happy about that!
Anyway, tomorrow is transfers. I am staying here in Rio Rancho and I did not get a call by president telling me that I am training or district leader or anything like that. Hallelujah. I am not ready for either of those things. Also, there was a dying missionary who had his departing interview a couple days ago in President's office and he took a gander at the transfer board and told everybody the transfer news and what is going to happen basically throughout the whole mission. So I basically know everything that is happening in our zone and I know who my new companion tomorrow will be. I'm not gonna tell you his name or anything though. All I will tell you is that I think it should be a sweet transfer with him because I hear he is a crazy hard worker and we are gonna work smart and hard and make some legit things happen here in the Star Heights ward!
This week was pretty good though. In our little white handbook it says to take advantage of holidays and sundays because families will be home and whatnot and that it's the best time to proselyte. My analysis is that the handbook just says that so missionaries aren't being lazy and sitting around because this Christmas and New Years week has for sure been one of the slowest weeks we've had so far. It was pretty disappointing especially since the week before we had sweet week and taught more lessons in one week than I've ever taught. That week was boss. This week was slightly boss but as for how many people we were able to see and teach it was a pretty slow week.
One of the highlights of our week was one of the times we were able to meet with Shariy. On this particular visit we were reading from Alma 34 (which is basically the coolest chapter in the BoM for sure) and it was going really well. Then Geno showed up. He had just been at a funeral for his uncle who had recently died and he told us some really neat spiritual experiences that he had this past week involving the death of his uncle and whatnot. He started crying and then started reading from Alma 34 with us and some things really stood out for him while he was reading. Geno received some revelation and recongnized the power behind the BoM on that day and realized what it can do for anyone who will carefully study it and pray about. I think this will be a turning point for the Shariy and Geno. We set a baptismal date with shariy for the 9th of Feb and when we invited her to baptized on that date she said that she was thinking a lot about baptism and the month of February stuck out to her and that that is when she thinks she should be baptized. Shariy and Geno also had some really good conversations and Geno told her that he might be ready to baptized when she is ready. They still need to be married though. My new comp and I are going to drink some boldsauce this week and tell them what needs to happen and what they need to do. We will ask how we can help them to be married and it will be amazing. Miracles happen especially when we are exactly obedient to what we are supposed to do and that's what we are going to do.
Also, we reset a baptismal date with Malachi because he is just not ready for baptism. He really wants to be baptized but he hasn't read or prayed about the BoM and Joseph Smith. His new baptismal date is on Feb. 1st. He should be able to make it by that date. Miracles happen, I know that they do.
I know that this is the Lord's work and He is in control of it. I am more sure of it each and everyday and my excitement also grows for it each and everyday. The fact that the BoM is the word of God is something that has changed my life and can change everybody's life. At this time of year I am more grateful than ever for the Savior and His Atonement. Only through Him can we become perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. This is the greatest truth that we can find in this life. I love this gospel, I love the Savior, and I love all ya'll!
Peace and Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the pictures are me with mleap for joy because of snow, me and my dad with our ultra fat MEGA windsor knots and the last picture is a pretty horrible picture of the missionaries in rio rancho. That's me and Elder Jones being excluded.
First of all, that's super crazy that Brittany and Chelsea are both already engaged. I heard that Chelsea was getting married but not brittany and now I am just astonished. It's crazy. I agree with Tyler's viewpoint. That's crazy. What is happening to my world? Everything is going to change real quick. When I read what you said about what Tyler said I almost busted up laughing. I miss that kid. He's a stud. I miss Levi too. It was awesome dominating kids in tennis back in our glory days like 5 months ago. You should tell those kids to write me a letter or something but not come visit me because that's not smiled upon but I'm sure ya'll knew that.
Every morning when I wake up I say my prayers, go to the bathroom, drink some water and then walk to our front door and look out our little peep hole. This morning I looked out the peephole and what did I see? SNOW! It was actually enough to cover most of the ground and make snowballs! It was super sweet and I literally leaped for joy. The sad thing is it will all be melted in like 3 hours but it was boss. Boss to the maximum amount. I am so happy about that!
Anyway, tomorrow is transfers. I am staying here in Rio Rancho and I did not get a call by president telling me that I am training or district leader or anything like that. Hallelujah. I am not ready for either of those things. Also, there was a dying missionary who had his departing interview a couple days ago in President's office and he took a gander at the transfer board and told everybody the transfer news and what is going to happen basically throughout the whole mission. So I basically know everything that is happening in our zone and I know who my new companion tomorrow will be. I'm not gonna tell you his name or anything though. All I will tell you is that I think it should be a sweet transfer with him because I hear he is a crazy hard worker and we are gonna work smart and hard and make some legit things happen here in the Star Heights ward!
This week was pretty good though. In our little white handbook it says to take advantage of holidays and sundays because families will be home and whatnot and that it's the best time to proselyte. My analysis is that the handbook just says that so missionaries aren't being lazy and sitting around because this Christmas and New Years week has for sure been one of the slowest weeks we've had so far. It was pretty disappointing especially since the week before we had sweet week and taught more lessons in one week than I've ever taught. That week was boss. This week was slightly boss but as for how many people we were able to see and teach it was a pretty slow week.
One of the highlights of our week was one of the times we were able to meet with Shariy. On this particular visit we were reading from Alma 34 (which is basically the coolest chapter in the BoM for sure) and it was going really well. Then Geno showed up. He had just been at a funeral for his uncle who had recently died and he told us some really neat spiritual experiences that he had this past week involving the death of his uncle and whatnot. He started crying and then started reading from Alma 34 with us and some things really stood out for him while he was reading. Geno received some revelation and recongnized the power behind the BoM on that day and realized what it can do for anyone who will carefully study it and pray about. I think this will be a turning point for the Shariy and Geno. We set a baptismal date with shariy for the 9th of Feb and when we invited her to baptized on that date she said that she was thinking a lot about baptism and the month of February stuck out to her and that that is when she thinks she should be baptized. Shariy and Geno also had some really good conversations and Geno told her that he might be ready to baptized when she is ready. They still need to be married though. My new comp and I are going to drink some boldsauce this week and tell them what needs to happen and what they need to do. We will ask how we can help them to be married and it will be amazing. Miracles happen especially when we are exactly obedient to what we are supposed to do and that's what we are going to do.
Also, we reset a baptismal date with Malachi because he is just not ready for baptism. He really wants to be baptized but he hasn't read or prayed about the BoM and Joseph Smith. His new baptismal date is on Feb. 1st. He should be able to make it by that date. Miracles happen, I know that they do.
I know that this is the Lord's work and He is in control of it. I am more sure of it each and everyday and my excitement also grows for it each and everyday. The fact that the BoM is the word of God is something that has changed my life and can change everybody's life. At this time of year I am more grateful than ever for the Savior and His Atonement. Only through Him can we become perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. This is the greatest truth that we can find in this life. I love this gospel, I love the Savior, and I love all ya'll!
Peace and Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the pictures are me with mleap for joy because of snow, me and my dad with our ultra fat MEGA windsor knots and the last picture is a pretty horrible picture of the missionaries in rio rancho. That's me and Elder Jones being excluded.
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
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