I Call Them My Answer Book

From Mason Blettenberg

Teaching in Ireland

We had such a blast this week. I think what made it so good is how much me and my comp studied the scriptures together; that’s what changed it. There is just something about the scriptures that draw me in like a bug to a light. i just keep reading to find answers. I call [the scriptures] my answer books.

We have one investigator with a date to be baptized, so that is exciting. But the highlight of my week was visiting a less active man name Mike. Mike is a long-term less active member of the Church and he has so many addictions its not even funny. He is literally in his house all day smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. He just can’t stop what he is doing. But he loves elders so he lets us in. so we made a plan to clean his house so he could feel the Spirit. I have seen a lot of dirty houses in Ireland and Scotland, but nothing like this. So we brought bags to just start slow and pick up rubbish. We started but he did not like it; it made him feel bad that we had to do it for him. So I prayed and fasted over what to do. He is on my mind all the time. I love this man, so we went over to try once again and same thing happened: he did not want to do the clean up. Then I looked at the fireplace and the still small voice whispered to me and told me to use the fire. So we made a fire in the fireplace and slowly started to put things in the fire. Now that felt good! We did not stop him from drinking or force him into anything, but we had a campfire and had some small talk about his life and the Book of Mormon. I love this gospel and what I’m doing on my mission. I will return with honor.

 

Elder Blettenberg

An Unexpected Miracle

From Karsten Hinckley

Teaching in Thailand

One day while we were at the church making phone calls before we go home we get a text from someone who wanted us to call them back. What happened next was an unexpected miracle. I call the number and a lady answered. She asks, “Is this the Elders?" "Yes", I reply "Well I’ve been looking for you”, she said. This lady goes on to tell me that she is a less active and how she wants to get reconnected with the church again. I asked her how she got our phone number and what she told me I couldn’t believe. Someone that this lady teaches English to held out our inviting card and asked her if she knew who we were. I remember the lady this member was talking about because we ate lunch together one day. After that we could never contact her and her husband again. Anyways this less active member took the inviting card and wrote down our number. After about a week or so the spirit prompted her to call us and it went from there. 

That was only the first miracle. We met with this member one day for dinner. She told us her story with the Elders before us."One day I just prayed to God to have Him send me the Elders and the next day at the grocery store checkout line she saw the Elders. The next time is the time that I met you. I prayed to God because I needed the Elders again and a week later my student showed me your inviting card which I snatched up." This lady is amazing! We sat down to talk with her for a while. She told us soo many things! She is very well educated. That first day she called I felt prompted to tell her to watch conference because it would be on that day so she could watch it. She said," It was great to watch conference again. It has been a long time since I’ve seen conference." As we were talking with her she had mentioned to us that she had been to the temple before and the spirit told me to tell her, “You should prepare to go back to the temple." Well I told her that and she said that was the best advice she has ever gotten. Before we left we gave her a Liahona which she thought was great as well. 

The second time we met with her she told us about a dream that she had. In her dream she saw her father and her grandfather. They were just standing there in their Sunday best. She said, “What I got from that dream is they were trying to tell me that they have already received the gospel and are waiting for me to go do their temple work for them." She told us every since she has met with us she has been less stressed with work and knows the Heavenly Father is guiding her life more. Meaning she can feel His presence in her life more. I think that is great she understands the feelings she gets. Another thing is that she understands what she needs to do as well. She knows she has some problems with commandments but right now she is trying to do all that she can to start keep those specific commandments again. One thing that we told her the first meeting was," Heavenly Father still loves you." She was thankful we said that because she said," I knew that I was always to love Heavenly Father but I forgot that He loves me too." This whole experience has taught me that someone you invite can help others find you. If we didn’t invite that first lady, the less active member may have never found us. This member needs your prayers. 

Always Follow the Spirit

Cole Beck

Teaching in Arizona

One of the biggest things I have learned on my mission so far is to always follow the [Holy]Spirit. When trying to follow the Spirit, I often question myself saying things like, ”Is this the Spirit or is it just me thinking?” There have been so many times that I am just not sure if it is the Spirit or just me. The thing I have learned is that, if it is good and the Spirit doesn't tell you that it is bad, then it doesn't matter if it is the Spirit or you. As long as you know that it is not bad then it should be ok to do. It's something that I had to learn quickly. 

For the first part of my mission I would just do whatever we had planned, which mostly worked out and we saw who we needed to see. I have a story that really changed all of that for me. 

When I was serving in Teec Nos Pos, AZ. It was around five o'clock and we had already run out of names of people to see. On the Navajo Reservation people go to bed when the sun sets, so the chances of finding anyone to talk to where very slim. I had the prompting to see a guy named Chris Frances, who was a very inactive member. My companion and I went to his house and then he told us how he had been thinking of us all day and how the Spirit had been working on him very heavily recently. He had been inactive for over ten years and was very into his Navajo traditions. Missionaries had been working with him forever and he had recently decided to really find out the truth. My last Sunday in Teec Nos Pos he showed up to church, and I give the credit to God for giving me the prompting I needed to feel. I know that if we are doing good, and that if we try to follow the Spirit even if we don't know when it is the Spirit, then all will work out.

I Had An Undeniable Feeling That We Had To Invite Her

From Cambree King

Teaching in Honduras

On Sunday, the elders in our district had a baptism and we really didn’t have any reason to go but they kept calling us and telling us to come. So, as it was starting, we headed to the church. A mototaxi offered us a ride and took us right up to the door of the church because it was pouring. But about a block before the church on the corner was an hermana that sells ojuelas (fried tortilla things) that I have seen several times. As I looked at her on the corner, I felt an undeniable feeling that we had to invite her. The baptism was waiting on us and it was pouring rain and I about didn’t go back. But I knew I couldn’t walk in without inviting her. The Elders came out to let us in and I just said, “You have to wait. Give me a minute,” and they kind of freaked out. But we went down and invited the hermana to come to the baptismal service. She didn’t even hesitate and came with us. I don’t know what difference it made in her life, but I know that she felt the Spirit and I am so grateful that I listened to the Spirit in that moment. Sometimes, we don’t understand why the Spirit tells us to do certain things,  but the Lord has a higher manner of thinking in all ways. 

On Tuesday, we went to contact a block close to our house. A week ago, we promised the Lord that we would be there at that time and that we would knock every door of the block. Of course we found some very interesting people, but the Lord blessed us with Mario and his two boys. Mario has heard of the church quite a bit in his life but i think that now is just his time. He has had a bit of alcohol in his life but he has decided that now is the time to leave it. In college, he was studying to be a sacerdote in the catholic church but got with the wrong group of friends and he said that it has changed his life. We invited him to commit to pray to know if he needed to listen to our message. The second time we went back he said that every single one of them had prayed about our message and that the answer was a clear yes that they needed to open the door to us. He claims it is a miracle that he even let us in the first time, but he has so much potential. 

Guided to Go Exactly Where They Needed to Be

From Ethan Harris
Teaching in Alaska, USA

(More of the miraculous blessings he saw as he taught in Alaska last week...)

Because of the amount of woods and that being the main source of heat for Alaskans, we do a great deal of chopping wood (which is both strengthening me and wearing me out). We have been doing service for a man who has not had anything to do with church for over 30 years and he just loves us. Me and my companion felt that we should continue to help out and provide service, even though he wasn’t ready or interested in us teaching him anything. We are amazed at how, by first building a relationship, his heart was softened. He said that it’s been a while since he’s been around the Church and that he would like to come to Church and have the doctrines and principles retaught and refreshed in his mind. We also had the Elders Quorum involved in the service and this man didn’t know what to do because he was overcome with gratitude!

 We cover a island called Hoonah but, due to anti things going around, we will not be there for a while. Matt is an investigator that we teach over text and phone because we can’t see him in person due to the fact that he’s on a island. He came to Juneau for a day,  so we gave him a chapel tour of our brand new stake center. Another miracle… he brought his Ukrainian friend who, ten years previous, was an exchange student in Utah! He also has a desire to be taught and come to church!!!

 We also had a lesson cancel which always is not fun to deal with, but then we were inspired to see a inactive member. We arrived and the man was sick and needed a blessing of healing and also of comfort due to his marriage situation and other trials that he’s going through. Despite the let-down of a cancellation, we were guided to see him and that’s exactly where we needed to go.

 There has been many other blessings! I know that the Lord is mindful of each of us despite our own thoughts or doubts. He is there, He lives, and He loves us! And I know that the Lord is preparing hearts to receive this message as it reads in Alma 16…

The Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming— That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God.

Inspired to Make a Call

From Ethan Harris

Teaching in Alaska, USA

This last week was wonderful to see the hand of the Lord in everything, and how we simply did what we knew we should.

During our weekly planning session, we had the opportunity to pray and seek inspiration for those that we would contact. This inspiration inspired us to focus on Lina, someone we had taught in the past but have not been in contact with for a while. For some odd reason, we didn’t have her phone number, but we had her daughter’s number.

We felt inspired to call her daughter’s number right away. [Lina’s daughter] gave us her mother’s phone number. Then she told us that she had talked about us with her friend Angie, and that Angie would like to meet with us.

Moments later she texted us and asked if we could be there in 20 minutes!  We agreed. We stopped by and met Angie, who is awesome and has a such a sincere and powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. She talks to people everywhere about him and invites them to come closer to Him. She is so interested in the powerful message that we have and she accepted the invitation to come to church.  She also told us that she would bring her granddaughter and the friend who referred us to her. MIRACLE!!!!

We also met with a part-member family. The husband is returning to church activity, he hasn’t been for ten years but is coming faithfully. The wife, who is not a member of the Church, is also coming! We felt like we should not rush the idea of us teaching her the lessons, so we began teaching from the foundation. We taught them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it was wonderful. Following our discussion, she asked if we could continue to teach her the "Mormon Lessons “. Her heart was softened and prepared  by our loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of everything we do!

Help from the Other Side

Brae Beck

Teaching in New Mexico, USA

I have a cool family history story to share this week.  So on Tuesday, Elder Nicholson and I went to the family history center for our weekly hour of working on our family history.  And I was reading a story about my Great-grandma Ila's grandfather John Crossley.  Let me share a portion of the story with you:

John Crossley was born in Crags, Yorkshire, England, 9 March 1814, the son of Sarah Standhaven and Anthony Crossley. John Crossley married Hannah Elizabeth Crabtree (maybe Crandall) about 1836. They had 7 children, although records for only 6 have been found. The family lived in Bradford, and Halifax. He and his family heard the Gospel from Joseph F. Smith while he labored as a missionary there. He made the Crossley home his headquarters. The Saints used a large room there for a meeting place. His wife, Hannah Elizabeth died in Bradford, 23 November 1855, of asthma. A daughter, Elizabeth, died as a child and one son died as a young man. John Crossley had a beautiful home and owned a shoe store. He was also a carpenter by trade. He later learned the trade of cobbler. When John decided to come to America, an older daughter, Sarah Ann was married and chose to remain in England. He came with two daughters, Mary and Hannah Maria, and a son, Levi. They sailed on the ship “Antarctica”, on 25 September 1863. They spent 9 weeks on the water. It seems that John Crossley left his three children in the East while he came ahead, we suppose, to make a home for them in “Zion”. It took him 12 weeks crossing the plains in the company of Captain Peter Nebeker. The three children came later, in another company and joined their father in what is now known as Bountiful, Utah.

So, the part of the story that stuck out to me was that his older daughter Sarah stayed in England.  I looked on my family tree and realized, that none of her family was on there.  So that means that they didn't join the church with her father's family.  So I started searching on ancestry.com for England census records showing Sarah Ann and her husband.  Lo and behold, I found one that  listed her and her husband Lawson Widdop, and their seven kids.  I was able to plug them into Familytree, and now I've requested their ordinances so that after my mission I can go to the temple and do their work!  Throughout this whole experience, I felt the spirit with me a lot.  It's like my "clicks" were guided to find the right information, and I know without a doubt that those cousins of mine were on the other side helping me out.  Family history is so amazing.  I'm thoroughly addicted.