Week 84

HOLA family

Jan 27, 2014 at 10:25 AM

Hey family and friends,

Hope life is going swell for y'all.

I received letters from grandma, nana, I think another from grandma, 82, box of charger, Bernie and Tom, and Deej.  I haven't read any of them yet, but thanks :)  Since mail didn't come on Monday last week, I just got them today. 

Let's see. 

Sounds like I'm not going to be able to recognize the house with everything you done to it these past several months.  Life is ridiculously crazy and busy.  This past week we had zone conference, and we did another blitz, which went really well by the way.  I hope that I have a positive impact on other missionaries because I know when I was young, I really looked up to a lot of my zone leaders. 

It got really cold these past few days, but this morning wasn't as bad, so we ran again.  I like cold though :)  Let's see, transfers are going to be on the 11 February, so you can still send mail to Hope Mills.  I would probably stop on the Wednesday of next week, so February 5, unless I tell you otherwise.  I don't know if I'm being transferred or not.  I could be or I could stay.  I have been here 4 1/2 months, and 3 with Elder Bagley, but it's a very good possibility that we stay together.  We'll see.  Either way is fine, but if I stay, I will be able to be here for a couple of baptisms that we have coming up that are soooo exciting !!!  I will tell you a little later. 

Sounds like y'all are keeping yourselves busy.  Dad doesn't sound like he has 2 seconds to rub together (is that mixed metaphors . . . oops...)  Please feel free to use stuff I write in Sunday school or whatever...if it can help someone else, that's a o k with me :)

Ps. My jacket is ridiculously warm.  I love it.

So, we are teaching this gentleman from Haiti who is going to school up here. He's awesome.  We call him Peterson, which is his last name, because that is easier for everyone.  He knows Creol, French, Spanish, English and some German.  He wants to do Mechanical Engineering.  He came to stake conference last week and LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He said he was so happy like the whole week.  He couldn't wait for Sunday again, and he told all his family about it.  He enjoyed yesterday's service as well.  He is preparing for baptism on the 1^st of March. 

Another individual we are teaching is truly a miracle.  The day she decided she wasn't going to go to her church anymore, we showed up.  Last week, when we asked her if she would prepare to be baptized on the 8 March, she responded with "I would love to".  She has loved!!! church so far, is seeing miracles in her life, and recognizes that Satan is putting many things in her path to keep her from following this course and she pushes through!!! It's truly amazing.  Yesterday, she bore her testimony in Sunday School.  She volunteered to read Moroni 10:4-5 ( https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10.4,5?lang=eng#3 ) as part of our discussion on the Holy Ghost.  The teacher then asked her what the verses meant to her and she said "That's why I'm here." She then proceeded to tell her story about how she started questioning her church and began opening her mind and searching and then how she met us.  It was amazing.  I felt so proud of her afterwards.  I love this gospel.  I love missionary work.  The Lord is truly blessing us and helping us reach and serve our Father's beloved sons and daughters. 

Also, on Wednesday, we met with the high councilor over missionary work and the new stake president.  It was awesome.  Just us 4 and we discussed the status of the units.  I'll tell you what.  I understand how the Lord's kingdom works so much more than before my mission.  I'm not going to lie . . .before my mission, I didn't even understand what stake callings were...let alone what happened in the millions of meetings Dad went to, but now it's so clear.  I understand and love it.  It's perfect.  It doesn't compare to any other organization.  Dad, I also understand why you loved working with the Stake Presidency for those many years.  I would love it too.  I'm grateful you were so dedicated to the Lord even when your punk children complained for you being gone too long.  I would have been gone that long too :) 

Also, here's something I thought of . . . I'm not sure if I mentioned it last week. Can you think of any other organization or business or corporation that selects an individual to have authority over upwards 2500 members of said organization and an entire region of people after interviewing a couple dozen people for only 6 minutes each.  That's it.  These individuals were interviewed for 6 minutes, and that's how "they" decided who that leader, the new Stake President was going to be.  Perhaps I should phrase it correctly.  That's how the Lord decided.  And that's just it.  The Lord decides.   That's the only way it worked.  Any secular or other organization that tried to do the same thing would crash and burn in about 2 seconds if they started doing their selection process in such a manner.  Again, can I say it enough, I love this church, and I love my God that loves us enough to bless us with His kingdom on earth which is simply the scaffolding to help us to build eternal families that can enjoy all the blessings of His kingdom in Heaven.  I just wish everyone would give it a real chance.  Anyone who really truly looks into this would be foolish not to unite, because it's obvious whom you're uniting with . . . your Eternal Father and His Perfect Son.

Love y'all so much,

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 83

By George!

Jan 21, 2014 at 12:55 PM

First off, I want to say this day will remain infamous throughout history for it is the only day in my entire life that the date of my birth is equal to the number of years since my birth :)  Good stuff.

Anyways,

Hello family and friends,

Glad to see y'all again ;) figuratively, of course :)  I also did receive said birthday box; thank you so much for the Tie (mighty gorgeous I might add), and Taco Bell gift card (you know me too well) and "off-the-charts" pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  Oh my goodness.  Soooo good. Sooo moist.  Mom and Dad...thanks so much :)  y'all are the best in the west . . . and the east . . .

I also received a letter from mom I think and at least 1 from grandma. 

Yes, mother, I am still emailing Chris little snippets and He me. :)  I haven't received the cord yet, but it might be in the mail box.  who knows.  the mailman, probably.

Let's see...what else.  We have zone conference tomorrow.  I will be conducting, which will be intense . . . and then Elder Bagley and I will be giving an instruction for about 20 minutes.  Should be really good.  We had an amazing experience in preparing it.  Here goes. . . so . . . we say a lot of prayers as missionaries; and as with anything in life, it's very easy to get into routine. . . in hindsight, I realize that this is what had occurred with me.  We said a prayer before we began discussing what we do for our instruction, and I'll tell you what, it was the most discombobulated, random, inconclusive, unorganized 20 minutes of "preparation" that I've ever experienced.  We, and a lot of I, just talked about faith and hope and random subjects going along with that for 20 minutes, and then at the end, we were no closer to knowing what in the world we were going to teach than we were before we prayed.  And then I realized that we were pretty much trying to do it on our own.  My heart wasn't in that prayer where we should have been pleading with, begging Heavenly Father to show us His will and direct us in His paths.  But instead, as I realized then, I had simply knelt down, said amen, and hopped up.  My attitude had not been one like Daniel had of "Speak Lord, and thy servant heareth".  It had been more like, "Look, God, Elder Bagley and I have this in the bag, but if you want to be back up or something and help us out if we get in a pinch, that would be awesome."  Needless to say, we got back on our knees and offered up a heartfelt prayer of acknowledging our unworthiness before Him, or dependency on Him, and our sincere desire for Him to be the truly leading this preparation.  Following that true prayer, revelation truly flowed, and Elder Bagley and I both feel very confident in the inspiration we have received in what to teach the Zone. 

Also, last week, we went on a blitz with a set of Elders in our Zone.  It is one of the Elder's first time training, so we went and by blitz, I mean, we had 2 sets of missionaries running around in their area.  It was great.  The 2 missionaries we went with are awesome missionaries, and we were definitely impressed by their diligence and enthusiasm for the work.  Both Elder Bagley and I can remember blitzes that we had with our zone leaders when we were young and how much impact they had in shaping us into the missionaries we became, so I hope that we had at least some semblance of a positive impact on these 2 fine missionaries. :)

We also had an amazing church tour with this fantastic individual we are teaching.  Her name is Vickie, and she is a media referral.  She is truly seeking and wants to find the truth, but she really wants to make sure that she makes the right decision for her family.  As would be expected, she is a little hesitant to come to church, and that's when Elder Bagley had the brilliant idea (or, I should say, the spirit inspired Elder Bagley with this brilliant idea) to have a church tour with her.  When we told her on the phone that we would love to have a church tour with her for our lesson on Thursday, she started crying because of how grateful she was for that, and she thought it would be a great idea.  Then, to make it better, we asked the Elders Quorum President and his wife, who is a convert from the same faith as our investigator and a counselor in the Relief Society, to join us and THEY COULD!!! So, now, this is a couple of days before the church tour and we are begging Heavenly Father to do anything and everything to make sure that this all goes through.  When things have that much coordination, the likelihood of it falling through is inordinately high.  We knew that there was going to be opposition, but we were praying that it wouldn't prevent it from occurring or that the opposition could come in a later arena.  Well, long story short, it all worked out, but only thanks to the member family whose faith and determination to overcome opposition was strong.  One of their daughters had gotten Pneumonia and the other was sick and they had been at the doctor's that morning, but when they thought of cancelling on us, they said there was no way they could do that, so they just brought everyone and stuck the kids in another room.  Amazing miracles happen through prayer.  Never doubt that. 

Well, I've got to go, so . . .

Love,

Elder Patty

ps. Elder Johnson is not in my zone anymore. 

Week 82

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE MOST FANTASTIC PARENTS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!! HURRAH

Jan 13, 2014 at 9:58 AM

I repeat . . .

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE MOST FANTASTIC PARENTS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!! HURRAH :)

Hello family,

Crazy to think that y'all (mom and dad) have been married for 25 big ones. That's intense.  I hope you have a wonderful time in Salt Lake City.  Are the kings playing the Jazz?? Tee hee. 

Anyways, in regards to letters and such, I did receive the package, I also got at least 2 from Grandma, a card from the Burton's, one from  Uncle Dan and Aunt Zuleica and one from Rachel, I also got 80 and I think any earlier ones from mom.  Let's see, what else. 

This past week was a really good week.  We had a couple investigators at church; one there for the first time with her 2 granddaughters and they had an amazing experience.  It was awesome! :)  We had a really good lesson in Gospel Principles on Baptism, and she had some great fellowship.  Last night, we received a text from her that said, and I quote "I just wanted to take some time to say THANK YOU I truly did enjoy the service.  And I do look forward to learning more"  We're so excited.  She told us last lesson that she already believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, but we're going to help to make sure that she has a spiritual witness from the Holy Ghost, something that is sooo important :)  Regardless though, we're excited! :) 

We are also teaching some other fantastic individuals.  The Lord is truly blessing us.  Don't get me wrong, we are definitely having some trials, but we continue pressing forward knowing that the Lord will bless us if we but have faith.  A few of our investigators that were progressing the most are kind of dropping off the face of the earth, and/or slipping.  One of them is basically avoiding us even though he told us he knew the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God.  Another one is still hopefully going to be baptized soon, but not as soon as we had hoped.  We were planning on doing it on the 25 of January, but they didn't come to church again yesterday, which was disappointing.  It's a part member family with the 9 year old son, so church is something that is so crucial in this young  man's conversion.  Probably, the most important piece at this point besides consistent family prayer and scripture study and Family Home Evening's at home.

We're still optimistic . . . but striving to make sure that we are using the Lord's precious time appropriately and effectively. 

We also had another amazing experience last week.  Something that I have felt we need to do since I've arrived here in Hope Mills is track down the millions of unknown Less Active members that are on the roster, but it hasn't been until this transfer that we are finally buckling down and doing it.  With that, we have seen some really good things happen even though we are just beginning.  When Elder Bagley was putting the LA names in the GPS this one name jumped out at him, so he wrote it in his planner.  A few days later, we had an appointment fall through or something, so we were visiting less actives in a particular area; at this point, Elder Bagley told me about this individual that jumped out at him and felt that we should go visit him; we didn't have a ton of time, especially since the certain individual didn't quite live where we were currently working, but we decided to go and visit this one individual before we had to get to our next appointment. We go down there and find them home. (First one that day, btw).  He invites us in because it was really cold and we just chat in the entryway.  But at this point, we learn that he is a Return Missionary!!!! yep, and Less active. :(  Have I ever told you that this above most anything else is what breaks my heart most as a missionary.  I just look at them and think, how?!? How could you :( How could you go around for 2 years personally representing Jesus Christ and then leave and become the very person that for 2 years you were striving to help?? Another side note, dad, we did get pretty cold on Tuesday, it got down to about 9 or 10 degrees.  Needless to say, I enjoyed it because it actually felt like winter.  But back to the story, we also meet his wife and 5 year old son.  His wife is not a member (which, btw, is the number 1 reason for Return Missionaries going less active).  But she was super nice, and we set up an appointment for yesterday.  Yesterday, we went there with the Elders Quorum President, and it went really well.  Long, but well.  And she agreed to seriously investigate this.  She has never been to church before because she used to utterly refuse, but after some difficulties in their relationship I think, she softened up a little, and now has agreed to attend with him sometime.  She also hasn't read the Book of Mormon. And something I love about what I do as a full-time representative of Jesus Christ is how I can guarantee anyone that if they will simply put in the effort to diligently seek as Nephi says, the power of the Holy Ghost will unveil the mysteries of God to them.  I can put full stock in that truth.  I never have to worry about how maybe the Holy Ghost won't pull through this time, or what if God has changed his mind, and I love how I don't have to be the one to prove it to them, or convince them, or empirically defend my position and win an argument.  I just have to bear testimony of truth, and do everything I can to persuade them to see and feel for themselves.  It's incredible.  We're really excited.  And the LA return missionary still has a strong testimony and knows it's all true.  He volunteered to say the prayer at the end.  He definitely wants this for his family.  Always follow the spirit.

We have zone conferences once a quarter usually.  We have Zone leader Training Meeting once a month, and the other weeks are District Meetings and we travel to each District in the zone once a transfer to visit their district meeting.  There are still a lot of sister missionaries coming in. Ratio-wise...I don't know. 

Other than that, this week is going to blow by.  We have a deep clean tomorrow and then on Friday, we're going to be in another area to Blitz it. (which means that we have 2 sets of Elders working in that area that day.  Each of us will go with one of them.  It's for training purposes)  We're excited though, but we just don't have enough time to do all we need to do. 

I love working with the members.  We have a lot of great ones here.

Other than that, again, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!

Not much else to say.  Click mouse for replay.

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 81

Great Scott :)

Jan 6, 2014 at 9:59 AM

Well dear family,

I received 2 letters from Grandma and #79 from mom.  Hmmm...let's see what else to write today...I have a feeling that this letter is going to be a shorter one, but at least, by  virtue of you receiving this email, you know that I am alive.  Don't expect to glean much more information than that. 

I slept through New Years. 

We had a Zone Leader Training Meeting on Wednesday, which translates to you Gentiles as a meeting where we and some of the district leaders instruct the zone.  It went really well.  I've definitely learned and fine tuned a lot of leadership skills out here.  Good stuff.  Should hopefully help me be a better servant for God throughout my life. 

In a couple of weeks, we will be having an emergency stake conference where a member of the seventy will be coming to reorganize the stake presidency because our stake president is moving.  Should be exciting except that there isn't going to be enough room for even half of the stake...seriously though, I'm not joking.  Our "stake center" isn't actually a stake center, it's a lot smaller, and usually when we have stake conference, they hold it at the next stake's over stake center.  We don't have enough room in our building for our ward and "stake center" up there isn't a ton bigger.  It might be able to fit 2 wards, and they're worried about parking...it's going to be interesting to say the least...I'm still trying to figure out whether we want to invite investigators to this thing...could be positive, but I probably don't want it to be investigators first experience with the LDS church...could be a chaotic nightmare. 

Good story for the week, we started teaching this media referral who is truly hungry for the Gospel.  It's incredible.  She was asking this question from her soul from the very beginning about life after death and everything, and she has been searching for a long time.  It's truly a miracle.  We introduced the Book of Mormon to her, and she was so excited to read it.  She should be at church next week.  She has a little girl and wants a good church to raise her in.  Something I find a lot of times is that I really wish that I could just infuse someone's mind with everything I know about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and with everything I've experienced in it.  If everyone could see what I see, it would unwise and dumb, to put it lightly, not to join this church, but alas, I cannot infuse people's brains, so we must do it the Lord's way, which is always the better way anyways, and teach and testify so that the spirit can infuse their soul with the understanding of doctrine and the confirmation of truth.  I just want everyone to have what I have! (hence being on a mission ;) )  Someday, all will know...I just hope people don't wait until it's too late...

Thanks for being the best family in the world (and the best friends in the world if you are reading this . . . because if you are reading this, then you've got to be the best friends in the world :) )

Love,

Elder Thornton

Week 80

Mi Familia

Dec 30, 2013 at 9:53 AM

Well, family,

Looks like I'm going to be the odd man out in terms of Spanish speaking...whatever ;) 

Letter wise...I did get Aunt Bernie's and Uncle Tom's package.  Tell them Thank you soo soo much, and they should expect a letter soon, but it probably won't be this week.   

I think I told y'all last week about getting Sister Nelson's package too.  I will be writing her a letter too in the next couple of weeks. 

It was good to talk with y'all on Christmas.  Y'all seem normal. 

Don't really know what else to say...

Christmas eve was really fun.  We went over to a family's home and another family joined us and we had dinner.  Delicious Mexican food.  Then, we went caroling to some families in the neighborhood, and following that, we came back and acted out the Nativity with the kids.  It was really fun.  2 really good families.  One of them, a Recent Convert family, just went to the temple and were sealed about a week ago.  ps.  Their conversion all started with a simple invitation to come to church when the other family's dad became the bishop about 11 years ago. :)

2 last things for today and that's all you get. :)

1.  Last Friday, after the leadership council meeting in Raleigh, we had a church tour that night with an investigator family we are teaching.  We stopped by a couple hours before just to make sure everything was good to go.  It was.  So, I have re-decided that I love church tours.  They are just so powerful.  Nothing can compare to physically going around the church, feeling the spirit, actually looking at the baptismal font as we testify of the importance and blessings of all people being baptized by authority, and ultimately taking a few minutes to ponder at the end while sitting in the chapel.  On a spur of the moment decision, I decided to play one verse of a hymn before we just sat in silence for a minute or 2.  I was going to play either I know that my Redeemer lives or I believe in Christ, but then a thought came to mind that I should play Be Still My Soul.  I don't know why.  And I still don't, but I do know that afterwards, Elder Bagley told me that he was thinking of that song as well.  Must be inspired, but maybe we'll never know...Either way, at the end, we invited them to prepare to be baptized on the 15 of February and they accepted.  It was an amazing experience.  Alright, not to be a mood/spirit killer now, but they didn't come to church on Sunday; they weren't there when the member went by to pick them up, but I bet there was a good reason for it.  Satan's working hard to defeat us, but he can't win. So, there!

2.  I've come to the conclusion once again that I love being a missionary.  It's not that my natural man always wants to talk to people about the Gospel and invite them to come to Christ, but I just know how important it is and how amazing it is, so I do it.  But, what I've found and what I love, which has led to the initial statement, is that as a missionary and set apart representative of Jesus Christ, when I talk to people I can tell them just that! I love being able to tell someone that I am a messenger of Jesus Christ and that I have a very important and powerful message to share with them that brings peace, direction, comfort, and answers.  I can testify to them of the truths of the Restoration, knowing with all my heart that I can guarantee what I promise.  Never again, will I be able to do what I am doing now.  Because of who I've become on my mission thus far, I will always be diligent in sharing the Gospel with Heavenly Father's children, but I won't be able to declare with that power that I am His personal messenger in this area of the world.  It's truly amazing.  And I can tell it to anyone because this is WHO I AM!!!! Whether it be the waitress, or the salvation army lady, or some random man working on jumping a truck, I am who I am, and the ability that we have to be bold as missionaries is astounding.  I'll always have the ability to be a powerful missionary regardless of what phase of life I'm in, but nothing will ever be the same as it is now for me or any other missionary.  I hope that makes sense.  Be sure to understand that I'm not saying that when we're not set apart we can't be powerful missionaries, but we then direct our brothers and sisters to the full-time, set apart representatives of Christ.  That in and of itself is powerful and is the reason that members are so important because that is something we cannot do alone regardless of how hard we try.

I love this work; I know it's our Lord's work; and we are living in a wonderful age of the world where we can be a part of such a tremendous manifestation of God's power, but more importantly, God's love.

Love,

Elder Thornton