D&C 121-123

Hello,

This has been an enlightening week, I have been trying all kinds of new things. I even learned how to share something on Facebook this week... it was a miracle! 

We have been working hard to find creative ways to move the Lord's work forward because He most definitely has a purpose in this whole situation. We've learned how to utilize video calls, fiddled a bit with family history, and most assuredly have had good practice making and sending videos to people. Teaching through messages is great, you can retake a video as many times as you need to get it right! Members have been very generous as well, especially with food. Our kitchen is LOADED. We even had two dinners the other day, not to mention bags of treats, plates of cookies, the whole nine yards. Not to mention lots of good exercise time!

On a different note, it has been an incredible blessing to be able to study more thoroughly, truly develop the ability to pray with sincerity and to draw closer to the other missionaries. Those simple skills have had time to grow and develop, and I know they are laying a spiritual foundation for my future growth. This is a great time for all of you to work on developing those abilities too! Learn to study, to truly pray, and build relationships through whatever means possible.

In closing, I've also come to recognize that this is an excellent time for Satan to utilize some of his deadliest tools against us, idleness, and excuses. What a terrible combo! It would be simple to take this time and say,

"Well, can't do much, so why do anything?"

... leading to weeks of lounging, boredom, and complete slothfulness. This is the time that the natural man will do all he can to keep your spirit from thriving. You have an excellent opportunity to try new, or develop old talents. Time to grind our past goals and find further attributes you desire to attain. This is most importantly a time to draw near to the Savior.

So, please, take the time to set some goals, to focus your minds, and take advantage of the time the Lord has provided. "All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."

Mission Update

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you for all your prayers, the most important thing right now is keeping all the missionaries safe and well. We are trying to keep them happy and inspired. Please continue to pray for us at 9:45. We are still seeing miracles and we believe that more people will be looking for hope in their lives and wanting Christ in their homes.
We humble ask for your consideration of the following request: we are concerned with the spiritual, mental and emotional health of the missionaries. Busy is a blessing. We would like to have our young missionaries teach the lessons via technology to as many good inactive members and nonmembers both. We feel this would bless missionaries and people of interest allowing both to have a meaningful social interaction allowing the virtue of the word of God to have a powerful effect upon the minds(and hearts) of the people. This will help us be better teachers as we receive good feedback on how to improve.
As you might guess, things change every day. Here are some answers to your questions.
1. No hand shakes or hugs.
2. They are no longer allowing door to door contact.
3. “Stay at home” is in effect in some area, they can still go to the stores, doctors.
4. Missionaries will receive more money on their missionary card because they are getting less meals from members.
5. The historical sites are closed.
6. They will be using technology to teach from their apartments, we are asking you to help them stay busy by inviting family and fiends to skype into lessons with them.
7. We have put together boxes for any missionary that is quarantined with two weeks of food and medicine.
8. Missionaries can now call on Mondays and a short call on Fridays to check in with you. Please keep all calls positive, happy and inspiring.
9. We are doing a Sunday devotional each Sunday, the district and zone leaders can help the sisters receive the sacrament.
10. We will email you each week for now with new information, God bless each of you.
11. We have asked each ward to reach out to the missionaries and check up on them, make sure they are well and have what they need.
We love you and your faithful missionaries, they are working in tremendous faith. We are so thankful to be enlisted with each of you till this conflict is over.
President and Sister Love

91-DIVOC

Hello. I have some updates.

Over the last week, there have been many changes and things are getting very real here in Missouri. We've gone from no church to quarantine real fast. Missionaries are heading home, and I'm not quite sure what will happen next! One thing that I do know is that for at least the next 30 or so days, I will be inside the apartment doing missionary work. I look forward to a lot of wonderful studies, plus some other creative uses of my talents. Pray for us! 

If you're worried, we are being well taken care of and things will be alright. It is crazy to think about those changes that will take place in the mission within the next few months as missionaries go home early and missionaries that are reassigned come here. It will be a different mission, so it'll take a lot of focus to try and keep the culture of our great mission going.

If you've got any ideas of things to keep me busy, please send them! Also, if you have any recipes for things we can cook, those would be gladly excepted as well. Good luck to all of you!

Happy St. Patty's!

Welcome, from the infected mission field! 

I'm here to answer all of the many questions that everyone is asking, so here we go.

1. I am not quarantined

2. We are still able to do all types of missionary work, but we are advised to tract as little as possible.

3. There is plenty of food in our apartment.

If you have any other questions, I'm sorry but I probably won't answer them.

This has been a great week of self-evaluation. I've had some incredible experience receiving revelation on obedience and the ways that I can improve personally. At this time I've decided that I want to start working to consecrate any fear that remains. With all that is going on, it will require a more on my part to be on my best game. 

On a different note, despite the new difficulties we face, there have been tons of miracles happening! One example of many was actually today as we finished our shopping. On our way out there was a woman who came up to us and asked if we were missionaries. She said that she had been meeting with some but that she had a visitor who had pushed them away against her desire. She asked if we could get the missionaries to come back and visit. We said, "Of course!" 

Have miracles ceased? I say unto you...

It's been another great week!

Probably the highlight of the week came through another lesson that we had with Fred and Ose. As usual, they were excited to have us and graciously welcomed us into their home. As we sat down, Fred told us that he wouldn't talk the whole time so we could teach. As we were giving a brief overview, Fred told us that he'd always had questions about what happened after the apostles had died. Luckily for us, we had an answer for him. It was an excellent lesson, especially because Fred knows scripture well, so as we flipped through the Bible the bigger picture really started to come into view for them.

It's always I credible to be able to teach without using simplified language and having people truly put together the things we teach as we utilize scripture. I love to be able to teach and help others to come unto Christ by sharing my sincere testimony and teaching divine truths I've come to know through the Spirit.

One last thing, in prep for Conference I've been listening to The Joseph Smith Lectures, and I would definitely recommend that to anyone who has a desire to prepare for conference.

See you next week!

Great to be a Missionary!

Well, its definitely been a week, and boy has it gone fast. It's hard to say exactly what's been going on, but I'll try and relate a few of the exciting things that have been happening.

First of all, Tuesday was MLC(Mission Leadership Conference) but it was a little different than normal. This time around we had all of the District Leaders of the mission join us, so that means there was more than double the number of missionaries there. We were able to receive training and counsel on how to improve leadership. It was an excellent opportunity to find some things I could really work on.

Later on in the week we met a man who was supposed to be a Book of Mormon referral, but when he came out to greet us he told us that someone "was playing some sick joke on us." That they were. He ended up being very antagonistic to our message, but he was also very crazy. We testified to him and carried on our way.

Yesterday we were able to continue working with a family. They were the ones that had been a previous miracle, but even more so in the last couple weeks. They had a daughter who was pretty against religion, but upon interacting with some church members at work, she realized she wanted to know why they were different. She's now involved in teaching and reading the Book of Mormon!

In conclusion, there are a variety of experiences and trials that make up the missionary experience. I often find myself saying, "Isn't it great to be a missionary?" It sure is.