Week 79

An 80 degree Christmas...

Dec 23 at 10:19 AM

Hola family!

So, yes, I received said pink package :)  I have already commenced in eliminating said delicious cookies :)  Thanks mom and dad.  Y'all are the best.  I also received a package from Sister Nelson, and Deej+Karolyn...I'm not opening those until Christmas though because I don't know what's in them.  I also got letter 78 and one from grams.  Possibly some other letter from mom last week.  also, a Christmas card from Nana.  Tell her I love her :)  and...I think that's it... needless to say...I feel loved :)

As mentioned in the subject line, the weather here is not Christmas weather.  It doesn't feel like Christmas at all.  At least let it be cold even if we don't get any snow, but to be in the 70s and 80s...so much so that we have to turn our air conditioner back on is sick.  The disgusting type of sick (I would never use such an undignified term as the slang sick as a missionary . . . whom do you take me for :) )

Correct on the 40 minutes to talk with y'all. 

Okay...I really don't know what to say anymore...Time just flies by and trying to differentiate it out is difficult.  Oh, we did have Christmas zone conference last week...that was fun :) 

Elder Bagley and I instructed half of the mission on how to better plan lessons within companionship study.  It went pretty well.  Then for the 2nd half of the conference, we had musical numbers from the 3 zones.  I accompanied another Elder in our zone as he played the Violin.  We played Silent Night, and Sister Bernhisel recorded, so maybe I'll be able to get that too you.  I think it sounded pretty decent...who knows though :)  People tell you what they think you want to hear ;)

The spirit definitely guides us in little ways though.  For example...there is a recent convert in our ward that Elder Mortensen knew but that I had never met.  The sisters were the ones that finished teaching with her, so they were ones that it appeared to me were working with her versus the Elders.  After she was baptized, she got very sick, but then we never saw her at church.  I had never met her . . . . . . until last week.  For the 3 months I have been here, I have never had the impression that we should go visit her, until Thursday night when we were planning for Friday.  We didn't have any direct time in the day, and it was kind of an after thought for planning, so I just wrote her name down the side of the planner on that day as a "just in case we magically have any time" plan.  Then, we also were trying to figure out who we could ask to come on exchange for Friday night to come to a lesson we had planned with a family.  A name came into my head.  Okay . . . Friday comes...we call this individual to see if he can come on exchange with us.  We talk with his wife since he's at work.  She says that he would definitely be able to do that.  He calls us back after he gets off of work to finalize times. Everything is worked out.  He picks us up.  We go to the lesson.  It falls through.  Our back up plan is to visit this other Less Active member when it all clicks.  We need to visit that other individual that is a recent convert and a less active member.  More things begin to make sense...turns out this member that "happened" to pop into my head as the individual we should call for exchange was the primary member fellow-shipper that helped this recent convert along with her conversion.  They were good friends of hers.  Now it gets better...she lives pretty far away from where we were, so he calls her to see if we can come by.  Keep in mind, no one has been able to really see her or get in her house for months.  No one picks up the phone, but we decide that we're going to go anyways.  She calls us back while we're still driving and says that she would love for us to stop by.  We had an amazing lesson where a lot of powerful testimonies were shared and the spirit was definitely felt.  It truly was a miracle, yet how did it come about.  By little thoughts and impressions that at the time, may not have felt ridiculously inspired.  Nevertheless, I am so grateful for the spirit, and the way he guides us as we live our life in harmony with the revealed truths of Jesus Christ's gospel, as we strive to be obedient and to improve, and as we act in faith, not sitting back on our heels, waiting for God to direct our every foot step. 

Oh, there's a family in our ward that I love.  They are a great family and are so diligent in doing missionary work and are committed to our Savior.  A wonderful family indeed.  A humorous side note is that his little brother knows Chris as well as dad, and probably mom ;) . . .why you may ask?? Because he served in your ward!!  Elder Ridge.  Funny story right ?? I thought you'd enjoy it :)  I did.  He said our ward is a good ward.

We had a couple families in church yesterday.  One of them has come a few times and they really enjoy it, but they have difficulty getting up so early. . . they have been making progress though because at least now they are coming some, but they never make it to Sacrament meeting.  However, in 2 weeks, our time will change to church at 1:00pm, so people won't have that excuse of it being too early anymore.  They are a great family though, and I hope they will continue to progress forward.  It may be difficult at times, particularly because they need to get married, but there is nothing that the Lord can't do.  I've definitely learned not to doubt.  :)

Well, look forward to chatting with y'all on Wednesday, albeit it will be weird, but there's nothing we can do about that. 

Again, and always, I love y'all

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 78

By George!

Patrick Thornton

Dec 16 at 10:21 AM

Good morning ladies and gents,

First off, I received a letter from mom last week I believe and...I think that was it...maybe...gees, I can't remember that long ago.  Yet...it feels like yesterday....a paradox we have here :)

Also, for dad.  Yes, we have a couple of baptisms planned for January.  Hopefully, they happen.  Satan's been working really hard on people...pretty much all our investigators are experiencing some sort of crazy opposition...There is 1 investigator we have who wants to baptized, loves the Book of Mormon, is awesome, and wants to get married to her fiance who's a member.  Sounds good so far, right??  Well, let's continue...they go to the courthouse to get a marriage license all on their own and when they get there...they learn that his passport is expired...aka...they can't get a marriage license.  They don't have a lot of money, so now they have to figure out a way to renew his passport.  Who knows when that will be able to happen because sending things to Micronesia takes a long time, and if they choose to use the embassy up in New York, it cost more money.  So frustrating.  I'm glad that y'all are seeing success there in your ward.  That's always good.  :)

Sounds also like y'all have been having real winter...lucky...it's pretty cold here in the mornings...for North Carolina I guess...so that's always fun when we run, but it's supposed to be in the 60s or something this week...that's disgusting. 

Let's see...oh, the temple on Saturday!  Can I just say, amazing??!?!?  It was so great to see them again.  I love them so much.  So we drove up to Holly Springs Saturday morning, just south of Apex where the temple is and we switched Elder Bagley for Elder Moses.  Then Elder Moses and I went to the temple.  We get there about 10 minutes before guests were supposed to arrive...and Elder Moses realizes that he doesn't have his temple recommend.  So we have to high tail it back to Holly Springs in order to only be a little bit late.  We get there again, and are running through the parking lot when we see one of the members of the Morehead City Ward.  He says we're not late ;)  So, we slow down.  Everything was a little behind, so that was good.  We got to see and talk to a few of the members from Morehead City and catch up with them.  It was great.  I'll have to get pictures for you, but Elder Moses has them on his camera...The Sealing was amazing though.  They look so great together.  First sealing ever...good stuff.  After the sealing, everyone went up to congratulate them and I gave Stephen the biggest bear hug in the history of biggest bear hugs...so big it made grizzly bears in Alaska jealous.  And then we got to Courtney and she said in a dismayed tone of voice "I can't hug you :("  So I gave her a mean hand shake :)  It was great to see them again.

Then that night we had the ward Christmas party.  That went pretty well. 

President and Sister Bernhisel came on exchange with us (ie. came to teach a couple lessons with us) last week too.  That went really well.  I love them :)

Okay, do I have a miracle story for y'all.  Please sit back and enjoy the popcorn.  Okay...So We didn't fill up with gas at all when we drove up to Raleigh and back. No big deal.  We made it. 

End of story...

Just kidding, if that was the end of the story that would have been a worthless popcorn opportunity...

Okay, so to continue...what day usually follows Saturday.  Sunday...Who's name is 2nd largest on our name badge...Jesus Christ.  What should we not do anyways, but especially as representatives of Jesus Christ on Sunday...buy Gas.  Well, good, because church isn't very far away...dunh dunh DUNH!!!!!  Guess what, we had forgotten that we have to drive to Lumberton 26 miles away to do an interview...our estimated range left on the car...20 miles...hmmm...uh oh...So, we ask a member if they have any gas that we could use so we don't have to buy gas on Sunday. They have a little.  We put it in...check the range...20 miles...oh boy.  She had asked another member down the street if they had some ...they had a little...we go there, and as he is putting the gas in, we dump it down the side of the car because of the new car safety guard in the gas intake place (I'm not a car person ok?! Give me a break :) I don't know car thing names)  So, we figure out a way to get the rest of what he has in the car.  Now, we are already going to be late to the interview and I don't want to have to go try and figure out what other members have gas for us to use...so, I turn on the car, its says 55 then 60.  I'm like, Elder Bagley, let's go.  We're going for it.  We leave for Lumberton...part way there, I ask Elder Bagley to say a prayer.  He does.  I feel calm and confident that everything we be alright.  I know we didn't plan ahead as well as we should, but we did what we could to try to rectify the situation without breaking the sabbath (not a good idea to do also right before you give an interview where you ask them about keeping the sabbath day holy).  I trust that Heavenly Father will reward the trial of our faith.  We drive about 10 miles or so, with no change in range...I'm slightly afraid it's not registering correctly.  Then, believe it or not...it goes up to 65...what!?!?!? How does that happen.  It starts at 60...then 10 miles later it bumps up to 65.  We drive the 20 miles to Lumberton and it ends at 55 when we get to Lumberton.  Wow...miracle continues.  We drive home and again, it ends on 40 after a 26 mile trip.  We traveled almost 50 miles on the range of 20 miles...how you might ask...God I will respond.  Then, the day's not over yet.  We get a text and we have to go help this lady move...we do...I can't tell you how conservative on acceleration and neutral-using I am at this point.  We help her move and then we have to drive another 20 miles round trip to a lesson that night.  Our thing says 25.  We should be good.  But then we get stuck in traffic...Yep, there goes some more gas...We get to our lesson...and ...

we get home...with less than 5 miles left on the car...and then this morning we made it to the gas station.  This was such an incredible miracle that when we got home, we knelt in prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for watching over us and keeping safe.  I love my Father and His Son, and They love us.

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 77

Amigos...

Dec 9 at 10:01 AM

Hello family and friends,

 Well another week has gone poof into thin area (or was it thick air?? It depends on the humidity I guess...what does thin air even mean???)  Anyways,  to begin, we had a lot of really good things happen last week...obviously with our fair share of opposition, but what's life without opposition, let alone missionary work :)

I received a letter from Rachel, and I also think I received one from mom and grandma last Monday after I wrote...that was a long time ago, sorry I can't remember for sure :)  oh, and I also did get a party invitation from Angela and Trevor for Grandma's party with some pictures :)  That was nice :) 

Regarding Christmas, I have no idea yet...you see, things seem really far away until before I know it, bam!  They're here.  Kind of like Chris's mission call...among other things.  I'll  try to figure that out soon...we hopefully will be skyping.  We just have to find somewhere to do it. 

I can't believe how much snow y'all are getting!  That's not fair.  Finally down here, at least it's getting cold.  On Friday, it was like 80 degrees!!! Are you kidding me?!?!  That's not December weather at all.  Now we're down in around the high 30s which is better than a sharp poke in the eye even though it rains instead of snows.  :(  

Christmas devotional was definitely Good.  I played the name drop card with Elder Rasband to Elder Bagley.  Yeah, I ate lunch/dinner with him :)  Not a big deal ;)

Oh, have I mentioned that this Saturday, I will be going to the Raleigh Temple to be a part of Stephen's sealing and marriage!!!! Stephen, if you don't remember, was the individual we baptized a year ago October in Morehead City!!!! I am so ridiculously excited :) 

We had some great lessons last week.  A lot of opposition in some areas, but some miracles in others...and it's truly incredible to see the Lord uses opposition to create miracles and growth.  Let me explain.  We have an amazing investigator family that was doing fantastic until she came down with bacterial pneumonia and had to go up to Chapel Hill for treatment. -- opposition-- Well, we found out that some missionaries in  Chapel Hill "happened" to be right  there visiting someone else near this family we're teaching, and the father saw them and asked them to give his wife a blessing, which they did.  I feel the spirit so strongly just typing that story up.  It's truly amazing to see the Lord's hand in everything.  I know that that experience had to have strengthened that family spiritually to know that people over a hundred miles away have the same authority and same power and same spirit as the people she was meeting with in her house.  We had given her a blessing for something else when we first met her that greatly blessed her.  Opposition leads to miracles when influenced by the Lord.

2 more quick stories,

1) We had 1 investigator that had been doing really well, and then he stopped progressing because his friend had invited him to another church. He was still willing to meet with us though, but we really weren't sure where to keep going after a couple of lessons. Last week, when we taught him, before the lesson, I had been slightly frustrated with him; we really didn't know where to go, and my hope and faith were waning with him.  However, Heavenly Father taught me a valuable lesson surrounding Faith, Hope, and Trust in our Father and our Savior. I realize now that I had allowed my Christlike hope and faith to dwindle. In that lesson, we followed up on his fasting to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He said it went well, and when we asked him if he felt like God was answering his prayers, he told us that the Book of Mormon is true, that it's the word of God. We were stunned! We really didn't know what to say right away. He also voluntarily voiced his true concern regarding the 3 kingdoms of Glory, which we were able to address with the scripture in 1st Corinthians.  Following that explanation, he said that that was the only thing doctrinally that we had shared that had been causing him to be hesitant.  Why I didn't act out of Christlike hope, knowing that He can accomplish and do anything, escapes me, but just when we thought we were teaching Josh, Heavenly Father was teaching all of us. 

2) Another couple of investigators that we have teaching for while have started to make some slow progression.  Last week, they came to the 2nd and 3rd hours of church.  We followed up with them on church this past week and their experience there.  We ended up not teaching any of the lesson that we had planned because the spirit led the lesson another way.  Aleisha expressed to us how she felt this urge to share her testimony in Relief Society at the end, and then she described how she had this unexplainable good feeling after church that lasted for 2 days.  She's been to a lot of churches and said that she doesn't feel that way when she goes to other churches.  It was powerful.  She also is in Jacob in reading the Book of Mormon and is loving it.  She shared her belief with us that she believes it to be true.  Not only that, we were witnesses to the fact that through the Book of Mormon, the spirit is teaching her truths.  She is showing so much growth and is becoming spiritually self-sufficient.  She said that before she started reading the Book of Mormon, she didn't understand baptism and never really had the desire to be baptized, but now after reading 1 and 2 Nephi, she understands it so much better and wants to be baptized.  That came from nothing we did.  That was purely because the spirit of the Lord is amazing and powerful.  It leaves impressions and imprints on our soul that man cannot replicate.  I love this work so much.  I know it is the work of the Lord, and despite trials and opposition and difficulties in other areas, there is never a reason to not be happy. 

Thanks for everything, y'all.  I love you so much.

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 76

December, eh? Where did you come from ;)

Dec 2 at 10:09 AM

Good morning, dear family and friends.

To begin, I received the most exciting piece of mail today.  My license renewal.  :) Hurrah for Israel!  Last Monday, after emailing, I did also receive the letter that had the wedding pics in it.  Thanks for those.  :) 

I'm glad that the work is going well in your ward.  That's always good.  How could it not go well though with such a fantastic Bishop!?! ;)  We only had 1 Thanksgiving dinner; it was delicious despite being anticlimactic.  It really didn't feel any different than any other dinner.  Holidays...weird stuff on a mission...we did go and play in a turkey bowl that morning with the ward members.  That was fun.  :)  We also taught a lesson on Thanksgiving to some investigators of ours.  Other than that, pretty normal of a day. 

8pm black Friday shopping.  That's the biggest lie I've ever heard...what is wrong with all these people out there...since when was 8 o'clock Thursday, Friday?  Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about anymore :) 

Yes, I will be here in this area for Christmas...Transfers is New Years Eve. 

We had a really powerful lesson with the Berry's last night, our recent convert/returning less active family about putting God first in our lives and trusting in Him, particularly in reference to doing family scripture study and going to church as a family.  It was really good.  Nothing really that we had planned, but that's okay.  Here's what I've found and know to be true.  If you go into a lesson or a talk without plan, planning on just "winging it by the spirit," you will fail.  If you had the time to prepare and you didn't, you won't be guided by the spirit.  The Lord doesn't reward stupidity.  If, however, you prayerfully plan a lesson or a talk, and then in the moment, feel that you need to go a different direction or discuss a different subject, you can have complete confidence that the spirit is guiding you and the lesson.  Why?  Again, the Lord doesn't reward stupidity or laziness.  If we do everything we can, the Lord will always fill in the rest as well as supercharge that which we have done on our own.

We had a leadership council meeting on Friday.  Good stuff.  Lots of good direction.  Something I'm really working on is the application part of the activity.  Oftentimes, we all hear great council or we have great ideas; however, usually, the fire dies off either within a couple of days or weeks or it dies before we even leave the meeting.  Take general conference for instance and the quote from Elder Hales, " we gather to hear the words of the Lord, and we return to our homes to live them"

So crucial...without that, we don't grow.  We don't become.  We waste what we had just been given.

I don't really have much else to say.  I'm trying to be the best Zone Leader I can be.  Sometimes, I wish things were more spelled out...like by an angel or something . . . that would probably make things easier.  :)

Not much else to say, oh, we're trying to teach a Mongolian speaking girl in the Netherlands via facebook utilizing a translator out of Utah :)  Good stuff.

Love,

Elder Patty