Week 44

Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 10:48 AM

Well, hola, family,...

The best news of the week, is NO, neither of us is getting transferred!!!!!! I'm not gonna lie, I thought I was a goner for sure, but looks like the Lord has other plans in mind and/or he just loves us so much that He'll bless with our righteous desires as long as it doesn't affect His overall plan :)

So, 6 more weeks in Southport.  Weird thing is, is after this transfer I'll have been in SP as long as I was in MHC, but it definitely doesn't feel as long.  Time flies.  So we have 2 really solid investigators that we are ridiculously excited about.  They should both be getting baptized next month.  They were both at church yesterday, which was great.  I'm so glad I'll be able to be here for their baptisms.  I was very sad that I was going to miss them, but hizzah! I won't :) :)  

I got a letter from Christian this week and I think I got one from mom...but that's it because our mail started getting held midweek for transfers.  I'm really not sure what to say...last week was a good week overall though.  We're crazy busy all the time...there's not enough time in the day to get everything done.  The outage thing is behind schedule by about 1-2 more weeks...and then a couple of weeks after this outage is over, they have to shut down another section for 2ish weeks because something crucial broke in it while they were working on the other one...fail.  Elder Mickelsen is only going to know this place in outage. ;)  It's definitely a unique challenge.  It's crazy sometimes, but we're working hard and the Lord is blessing us.  A young man is leaving for the mtc this Wednesday.  He was supposed to be flying directly to Brazil, but his visa hasn't come in yet; it made his mom happier that he wasn't flying from Wilmington to Sao Paulo or whatever though.  :)  

We just got a new Elders Quorum President, which should be really good.  He's solid and will do great things for this branch...once the outage is over...;) haha :)  

Oh, I have a really funny pun again that I came up with during my studies when I was reading in 1st Nephi 22:1-3.  Basically, Nephi and the bros had been doing a family scriptures study from Isaiah and Nephi read a few chapters.  When he finished those chapters, his brothers came up and asked him to give them an explanation of what they had just read (as I would have probably done if I were in their shoes) or should I say...they asked Nephi to give it to them in Lay-man's terms!!! Bahahahahahahahahahaha :) :) :)  That's hilarious if I do say so myself. :)

So what else...Chris did well at state it sounds like.  What a stud.  

Not much else to say.  Seriously though, missionary work, (and life in general) is a constant battle of not getting stuck in ruts, fail routines, or on plateaus.  It's very difficult, and I'm not becoming who I need to become nearly as fast I would like.  Weaknesses stink, but we know why we have them (see Ether 12 :27).  Time for some major humbling and faith exercising. ;)

Anyways, I love you all.  Thanks for all the support and love.  I'm gonna send a few pics :)

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 43

Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 10:23 AM

hey y'all :)

Howdy family,

So, this past week has been a pretty good week overall.  We had our activity zone conference on Tuesday, which was way delicious.  Not only did we get ridiculously inspired counsel and guidance from my fantastic mission president, but were able to play some sports and stuff with all the missionaries for a couple of hours and it was a beautiful day.  Overall, it was a blast!  There are so many missionaries that I look up to here in NCRM.... the two current Assistants to the President are absolutely fantastic.  I love them both.  It's definitely sad to see all these missionaries I look up to go home though.

Transfers is next week.  I'm really hoping I stay another transfer here.  We are working very hard and should see the fruits of our labors in the next month or so, but Elder Mickelsen and I get along too well for us to stay together for 3 transfers, so most likely I will be going...but you never know :)  Either way, wherever I go is exactly where the Lord needs me to be, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else :)

Okay, so in an effort to burst the bubble that I created last week, the miracle story...yeah...that blew up...we decided we hate Satan.  Agency...it's a love hate relationship...but besides that we saw many other good things happen.  We set up an appointment with this less active who we thought had moved, and it was powerful.  He hasn't been to church since he was 15 when his parents split and he went with his dad, who didn't go to church..so it's been about 35 years and we went by and it was a super powerful experience.  He is way humble and way ready to return to church.  When I witness these experiences, I'm reminded of the fact of "that's why we're serving missions...to help the people who want to be helped."  Sometimes, all that someone needs is an invitation...as Preach My Gospel says, People will not likely change unless invited to do so.  In other words, for member missionary work, we can't wait for the people to come to us, we need to reach out to them and simply invite, for the success is completely found within the invitation.

I got letters from Nelson, mom 42, two from grandma, and Kayla Nelson.  Also got a package from the fam.  Gracias amigos.  :) :)  

So, we had a sad experience that other day.  We were biking along when I saw this individual in a car with the door open, so I biked over and started talking to him.  He and his buddy were just about to leave, but he seemed nice and semi interested-ish; he had talked to missionaries in the past and he said they had shared the message with him.  I asked if they had ever talked about the Book of Mormon.  He said no.  (red flag of lies, I would say, but as missionaries we play dumb... a lot...)  So, I explained it briefly and asked if we could give him one.  He took it, and then they left.  We went on our merry way and about 15 minutes later, as we were biking up to the intersection, I saw some things on the ground that we were kind of fluttering in the wind. As we got closer, I was like "is that a copy of the Book of Mormon?!?!" yes it was...and I'm not gonna lie, it kind of broke my heart...apparently, and we're assuming it was this individual mentioned above since he was the only person we had given a Book of Mormon to that day so far, he has zero respect and no guts, if he really didn't want it, he could have just said no, but instead he takes it, rips it into 5 or so pieces and chucks it out the window...it hurt me inside to see that precious book treated and disrespected in such a disgusting way.  We gathered the pieces together and put it in Elder Mickelsen's backpack...I plan on trying to tape it back together...

but...

on a happier note, I really feel that I'm starting to become the missionary my Father needs me to be.  My mission, after some realizations, is starting to sink deeper into my heart and leave my head...it's becoming heart knowledge more than head knowledge, and that's what needs to happen if this work is to be done in the Lord's way.

Thanks for everything you all do. I love y'all so much. Thanks for being the best

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 42

Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 11:32 AM

Hello dear family and friends,

So, family, how-de-do?  I am doing well.  Conference was absolutely fantastic!!!  Seriously, it was better than Christmas.  Listening to the last session is like opening the last present on Christmas morning, knowing it will be the last for a while.  So, I forgot my camera today, so you'll just have to deal with no pictures again ;)  But I did get letter 41 from mom and lots of gorgeous pictures.  Not kidding.  It looks absolutely fantastic.  I love it.  Makes the house look 55 years younger, and it just looks great overall.  So good.  Those before and after pictures...you should sell those to the flooring company you used, so they can use it on their commercials to get the ohs and ahs from the crowd. ;)

I also got a letter from Grandma, and Last week, I forgot to say I got 40 from mom as well.  Good stuff.  To answer a few questions...we watched conference at a member’s home. Since they don't broadcast it at our building, it wasn't even an option.  But the members we were with are great.  We love them :)  We didn't have any investigators at church per se, but a few did watch conference and absolutely loved it.  Good stuff. :)  Transfers is the week of April 22ish, and I hope that I get to stay another transfer with Elder Mickelsen.  One we get along ridiculously well still and we should be having a couple baptisms that transfer, but I'll go wherever the Lord needs me to go.  It's a possibility that I go either direction.   Also, it's crazy that Michael comes home in less than a month.  That's intense is all I have to say :)

Anyways, this past week has been pretty good.  Time continues to fly by.  We've definitely seen some miracles.  We have this one investigator who is a miracle.  So long story short, she is an Abish of the now.  She had a death, resurrection experience, where she basically died, but was allowed to come back.  And she had this amazing experience "dead" where she basically saw Lehi's dream.  She was telling us about this experience and all, and Elder Mickelsen felt inspired to leave her with 1 Nephi 8.  She didn't read it before we came back, but as were reading it with her a little bit, she was like "I know that field.  It's real, and it's huge" and she had seen a river and a tree.  It was amazing to witness.  Her desire is huge and angels definitely preceded our arrival and prepared her mind for the message.  She said that we had got her.  In a sense, since she was way intrigued with the Book of Mormon now.  The other crazy part to this story is that she was a referral from a lady that we just knocked on her door after we prayed about which couple of doors to knock on.  So when we told this investigator of ours who sent us, she didn't really know who we were talking about, and when we went back and talked to the lady whose door we knocked on, she really didn't even remember sending us.  Crazy, right?!?!  This is truly the Lord's work, and we'd better do it His way or absolutely NOTHING will ever get done.  

So, about conference.  2 HUGE themes/topics I noticed were member missionary work and exact obedience.  So powerful and true.  Elder Holland's talk was beautiful as usual.  Elder Bednar (my favorite apostle if we can have favorites ;) ) had a really good one as well.  Elder Mickelsen and I really enjoyed Elder Cook's talk about personal peace versus world peace.  So powerful.   I love it. :)   Two of my favorite quotes are not stuffing a bird through the beak and President Clayton's about how the commandments are not a buffet from which we can choose only the most appetizing and appealing.  So good.  President Uchtdorf's talk about light and darkness was metaphorically powerful.  I'm pretty sure we could find like a thousand levels to that talk...all with different meanings and implications.  Here's something I noticed...President Monson ended 2 of his addresses with quoting the Savior's invitation to "Follow thou Me"...hmmmm...must be important.  Elder Hales’ talk was also great.  It highlighted another theme of the conference, that even though the world's standards and morals are shifting and sliding, the doctrine and standards of God and the church do not and will not ever move or change.  

Overall, great weekend.  It's starting to warm up again, which is nice, but that means that gross humid heat is right around the corner.  ah yeah :)  Thanks for being the best family in the whole universe.  I love you all so much.  Stay safe and happy.  Know that I know my Redeemer lives.  I love Him and my Father so much, but They love us even more than we can understand.  His plan for our salvation is the best plan ever.  Love the Gospel of Christ...but more importantly...live it.

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 41

Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 9:50 AM

Re: HAPPY EASTER

Hey family and friends, 

So, I just received word that I am getting emergency transferred this Tuesday and am being moved up to Durham to be a zone leader.  Apparently the zone leader combo up there wasn't working.  Crazy stuff, right?  But that's mission life, I guess. Elder Mickelsen is doing fantastically well, so he'll do fine.  Besides that, this past week hasn't been too exciting. 

We had a couple of investigators in church.  For sacrament meeting, two relatively recent converts shared their conversion stories, which were really good and powerful.  Then, I gave my third talk so far in Southport :)  But it was good.  It basically was on the Atonement, and I focused it around 2 Nephi 2:21-27.  I absolutely love that chapter.  But I ABSOLUTELY love verse 27.  Probably my favorite verse in the scriptures at this point.  I spoke for about 25-30 minutes.  I'll tell you what, since being a missionary, giving 30-40 minute talks has become no big deal.  It's crazy to think about.  Oh, I also played the song that the primary kids sang in sacrament meeting. And then for Sunday school, the youth combined with adults and we taught that entire lesson too.  I guess it was missionary Sunday.  Either way, lots of the regulars were gone but we had a lot of visitors.  Anyways, we did a lot, the two of us, but Elder Mickelsen basically taught the entire Sunday school lesson because he had done most of the prep for it, and I had just finished giving a 30 minute talk.  :)

Okay, I have a story regarding the importance and necessity of EXACT obedience.  Once upon a time, we got a media referral for a lady who was moving into Southport area; the missionaries had been working with her where she moved from, and they helped her pack and move.  We were excited.  Well we helped her with a few things over the course of the month but didn't really teach much since she was still getting settled in.  Well, long story short, the missionaries in her past home decided that rule of not going into a home where you're alone with a lady didn't really apply to them, so they decided to forego that rule and just waltz in her house despite no adult male being present...oh how they may have thought that was easier then, but when she got here and invited us in, we were like "ummm...we can't do that if there isn't a man here" so whenever we had to go over there, we brought a man.  Well, that, in combination with who knows what else, "turned her off" because she had never heard that rule before and didn't really like us bringing people with us all the time.  We tried to explain to her, but she wouldn't listen.  1 investigator...lost.  I felt like Alma when Corianton decided to be a complete bum and go chasing after Isabel, which caused the people not to listen to the word Alma and the others were preaching.

Next, I think I only got a letter from grandma last week.  

I honestly don't have much else to tell you.  I do want to thank you (my parents) for the phenomenal example you set for me in terms of everything!! but in particular, I want to mention tithing.  We were having this discussion with a less active who said he couldn't pay his tithing...and that kind of thought process would never cross my mind.  One thing I attribute part of it to is how mom always made sure we understand that the Lord was blessing us for paying our tithing.  I don't care if it appears that I'm going to have to starve and live in the gutter, I will never not pay my tithing.  Ever.  I wish I could instill that testimony and desire in everyone, but that would be counter-intuitive to our Loving Heavenly Father's glorious plan ;)

So, one other thing...on Saturday we seemed to have found a large chunk of people that didn't care at all for the wonderful message we share   We talked to this one lady and she had some interesting "doctrine".  This lady didn't believe in baptism.  She actually had a lot of the other principles of life pretty close such as having to live a Christian life (even though she was slightly contradictory  at some points in thinking you were no better of a person if you were sitting at your house or out helping people nevertheless, when people are placed in your path you should help them...confusing, right?) anyways, she didn't believe in baptism.  She thought baptism was an old school old testament thing they did, and when we were talking about Christ being baptized, she said that the reason he was baptized was because he wanted to help John the Baptist know that John was doing good things.  

Anyways, every mission has its unique challenges, but I hope that you all have a wonderful week :) oh, and by the way, the first part about the emergency transfer and going zone leader...April Fools!!!!! hahahaha. Got ya! :) :) :)

Love,

Elder Patty