Chapter 43: A Hastening of the Lord's Work

4/19/2021

Today was a cool pday, we got to go pick up a desk and visit an art gallery. Everyone at the gallery was really nice to us, and we got a lot of nice compliments from the ladies there. There was a rescue dog that came up to us that is usually apparently very hostile to males, it started barking as soon as it heard us, but after approaching us it immediately stopped, and then proceeded to follow us around for the rest of the time. That was quite the shock to everyone, it’s as if the animal felt more loved near us than anywhere else.

4/202021

Today we did not get shot, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had. We made some muffins and brought them to a woman whose daughter recently passed away, but the woman lived in a sketchy trailer park area. We found what we assumed was her house, and at 8:00 at night opened what we thought was her screen door to knock on her actual door. Well, it was actually a random man’s door and not the woman we were searching for, and so we accidentally invaded this man’s house without intending to. Fortunately he was very patient and didn’t mind. Eventually we got the muffins delivered to the right house.

4/21/2021

Today was a great day for our investigators. We got to sit down and speak to both the Woolseys and to Sister Parker (the mother of Brazos and Travis), albeit very briefly. Unfortunately when we spoke to the Woolseys they had regressed a little bit in their comfort levels of the idea of Cybele being baptized, but that made our visit tonight even more important. When we cemented plans and ideas of how to help Cybele move forward with preparing for baptism, and again they seemed stunned at how willing Cybele was to pay attention to us. We’ll be going over every day now to watch Book of Mormon videos with her and talk about them, and we’re excited to see how it goes. We had a lot of really great lessons today.

4/22/2021

Today we got to help out at the Food Bank for service for a couple of hours. One woman there said, “I decided. I’ve adopted you both”. The Food Bank workers are really grateful for our volunteer efforts since most of them are pretty old and we can do all the heavy lifting that they don’t want to. We also had a lot of lessons today and got to watch our first Book of Mormon video with Cybele. She enjoyed it but being the bargainer she is, she made us promise to play “Go Fish” with her if she sat through the video. Well, both of us held up to our end of the deal, and I played the most intense game of “Go Fish” in my life.

4/23/2021

Today was also a lot of fun, we officially picked up Travis and Brazos in the Family Home Evening that we had tonight, although the Family Home Evening went very awry.

Sister Parker (the mother of Travis and Brazos) asked if we would be willing to show them how to do Family Home Evening, so I made assignments to everyone, including a request from a testimony and spiritual thought from the Taylors. The mistake was that I didn’t set expectations with them, and so Sister Taylor talked for ten minutes, and after she was done Brother Taylor immediately picked up where she left off before he continued for another 20, before I finally jumped in and told them we would have to leave shortly. The boys were grateful that we ended it, and to try to reinvigorate them we played a two minute game with them at the end, which they really liked and successfully brought their energy back.

4/24/2021

Today we went over to Brother Taylor’s to help with service. Brother Taylor has to be one of the most patient men that I’ve ever met. He had a tree fall on his house this week and it absolutely destroyed his back porch. There were tree limbs everywhere, and so our service for today was breaking all the branches down into useable pieces of firewood. Despite the fact that it absolutely destroyed everything Brother Taylor was just as happy and chipper as ever. It was impressive to see that this didn’t even phase him. We roleplayed a lesson with Brother Taylor and his wife afterwards and had to try really hard to control the lesson since both of them had a goal to derail it. That was also a lot of fun.

4/25/20221

Today we were a force to be reckoned with. We brought forth our plan to reactivate a major portion of the ward and talked about it in everything from Ward Council to individual quorums. We were very excited to help everyone feel that they had a part in our Ward’s efforts to gather Israel. On top of that we also had a lot of lessons today both with members and investigators. It made for a very busy day.

Today for a spiritual thought I want to share a messianic quotation from Isaiah as it's recorded in 2nd Nephi:

2 Ne 16:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here am I; send me.

The answer to the call that we see here is Isaiah saying that he'll be the Lord's servant, however we also know that this line was one spoken by the Savior when he volunteered to be our Redeemer. Likewise this is a line that each one of us must answer, each one of us must learn to volunteer the same, our lives, energies, and talents just as the Savior did. "For how long?" until the Earth is without inhabitant, until there is no one left to love, until Christ shall declare of His great work, "It is finished."

Chapter 42: Zone Conference and Quantum Physics

Elder Anderson looks like he's exhausted by the end of the day!

I'm not really sure what kind of a caption to give these next two pictures...😊

4/13/2021

Today we had a pickup lesson and unfortunately it didn’t go too well; The woman that we talked to reviled against what we said and went to Facebook for support against what we had taught her. We also were late to our interviews with President because of her, but fortunately he was running late as well so we didn’t cause him any problems. Interviews went well, and afterwards we went back and did our lessons for the day. The lessons went well.

4/14/2021

Today I got to do a service project with a family of potential investigators. They had a broken computer and asked if I knew anything about computers and if I could help them out. I consented and did my best to inspect the area, and after a couple tests was able to figure out that the heart of their computer was damaged. I did a lot with the virtual side of computers back at home, but not the physical, so just the fact that we were able to narrow down what the problem was ended up being an incredible miracle.

4/15/2021

Today we went to do service at the food bank again. We got to see some of our friends from last week, and everyone was incredibly thankful for our efforts and all that we did to help out. the majority of volunteers were in the 60+ age range, and everyone else was definitely over 45 years of age, so they were grateful for a couple of “young backs” to keep things going while they were working. I was impressed by how well we worked together, despite this being our second time helping, we were able to get everything going smoothly and had a lot of fun doing it.

4/16/2021

We had Zone Conference today. Today was the first time that I’ve had it in the afternoon, and was amazed at how fast the day disappeared because of it. We had to drive for two hours to attend, and the meeting was four hours, and as missionaries we have about three hours in the morning to study, so that was pretty much our whole day. It was crazy to walk outside and see that the day was already done. The conference was very engaging, I even got to do a roleplay with Elder Eden in front of everyone, and it felt a little too natural to be up there joking around like we used to in a mission setting.

4/17/2021

Today was amazing! We had a service project with a few investigators and a couple of members. The nonmembers were all kids between the ages of 14-16 and were all very smart youth. I found out they were interested in coding so I spent a while teaching them about a couple of coding concepts and we even talked about quantum computers for a bit. After the service we taught them about the importance of the Gospel, we didn’t share a story with them or teach them about any principles, we just talked about the importance of the Gospel, and then gave them an invitation to pray. Afterwards there was one boy who said, “I think it’s time that I started going to church”. We had Stake conference tonight and swapped back companions, and it made for a great day.

4/18/2021

Today we finished off Stake conference. The speakers did a great job, especially one youth, a convert, who spoke first and spoke of the difficulties of her decision to join the church and her continued efforts to be faithful in the church. After Stake conference we were slammed with lessons. Thursday and Friday this week we weren’t able to do many of the lessons we hoped we could, which was disappointing, but they all lined up for today, so we were quite busy all day. The lessons went well, and this was our major “test group” for the Zoom class program we’re going to try doing, so we’re looking forward to seeing some of the results of our efforts on Tuesday.

Today for a spiritual thought I wanted to share 2 Nephi 9:18.

But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

Unending joy comes from Jesus Christ and His way. His way is not one of "casual Christianity" His way is one of courage; courageous saints willingly bearing the crosses, or burdens, they are called to bear, and going the extra mile with them. We talked to a lot of people who were carrying heavy burdens this week. Know that God is never nearer than when we're struggling under the weight of a heavy burden, and that God has the power to refine us through those burdens. This perspective shows us that our burdens are not heaven turning its back on us, they are blessings with thorny coverings, blessings that if borne with patience will refine us and help us to reach heaven.

Chapter 41: Strange Service

4/6/2021

Today was interesting. We were incredibly busy today and had a lot of lessons. One of those lessons was with a member who told us that they believed in the trinity and didn’t give their “allegiance” to the Prophet. My companion and I were amazed, we were amazed that someone had baptized this woman because she should not have been. She was very politically charged and told Elder Aguirre and I that we were part of “the problem”, but we were able to share a message with her, which is more than most other missionaries have been able to do.

4/7/2021

Today was a good day, we had a lot of lessons again, as well as a two hour training this morning. We had a lot of fun in the meeting and we learned better how to use Facebook. I was impressed by how much better we’ve gotten at using Facebook, our mission really is doing a lot better than we were when we first came out. We also met with some people today who knew about the history of Cedaredge and had access to the mission reports; They let it slip that Elder Aguirre and I had been finding people when this area hadn’t found in a very long time. No one had told us anything because they didn’t want us to get discouraged, but we have been seeing a lot of miracles happen as we’ve worked to share the Gospel with those around us.

4/8/2021

Today was a lot of fun. We got to do a lot of service: We worked outside with Sister Coca for an hour and a half cleaning up her yard and getting it ready for the sweltering heat of the summer. We cleaned a lot of dead stuff up, and got to mess around with some homemade irrigation, which was a lot of fun. We got to go to a food bank afterwards where we worked for a couple of hours, and it was amazing, we loved getting to help and it reminded me of working fast-food again, because of how busy it was. Everyone who we served was a lot more grateful than our fast-food customers were, though. We had a few lessons, after that to finish up our night.

4/9/2021

Today we made a Facebook video with one of the widow’s in our Ward: Sister Dearmond. We recorded her talking to us over the phone about miracles that she’d seen through prayer, and it made for a very moving testimony. That video was a lot of fun, Sister Dearmond is incredibly shy, but she wanted to help with a video. Sister Dearmond told us, “If I could talk without realizing I was talking, that would be perfect, then I wouldn’t trip over my words at all.” So we talked to her for a little bit and slowly transitioned into our recording, and before she realized it the recording was over. It was like getting a shot at the doctors office, except she wasn’t just getting immunized herself, she was helping immunize the world, but before she knew it the recording was finished and she was amazed she had given such an awesome testimony without realizing how naturally it came to her.

4/10/2021

Today was a great day. We had a few lessons today, and spent the majority of our time working on Facebook. We found someone today and scheduled our “pick-up” lesson for Tuesday, which will happen right after our interviews. We’re pretty excited every time we see the incredible ways that missionary work is still happening even amidst a global pandemic.

4/11/2021

Today we presented some of the tools that we’ve been working on as the Cedaredge Elders. Our Ward has a goal to reactivate a major portion of the Ward. We’re a ward of ~150 members, and have in the neighborhood of 300 inactive members. Our Ward leaders are really looking to us to figure out how we can reactivate these members. We’ve been working for a few weeks on this idea of doing nightly Zoom lessons that we encourage members to bring a friend to, and we think that we’ve worked out all of the potential hang-ups. We’re excited to see how everything goes.

For a spiritual thought today I want to share a section from 2nd Nephi 33:1, "when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." The greatest ability any missionary can have is to speak with the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a gift as available to the newest missionary as the eldest. The Holy Ghost is the instrument of conversion, and can be replaced by no other.

Chapter 40: The Best General Conference Ever

3/29/2021

Today I got the first half of the COVID vaccine. We were pretty excited that they were being offered to us on behalf of our service as faith leaders. Our arms are very sore. My companion just cried out in pain as he attempted to put on a sweatshirt. I also took a trip down memory lane today: There was nothing to do in Manaus on Pdays except just sit in the internet cafe and call home/write emails. Well, Cedaredge is so small that likewise there isn’t anything to do on Pdays, so I got to send emails all day, which is actually my ideal Pday, so I enjoyed it, but I felt bad that Elder Aguirre wanted to do stuff, yet every building in town is open exclusively Tuesdays through Fridays, so there wasn’t a lot to do.

3/30/2021

Today we got to meet with a Baptist minister. We picked him up, and it was a good meeting. We spent the majority of our time talking about exaltation, our potential to become like God. Elder Aguirre asked, “is it not in harmony with God’s nature that He would want to give us everything He could?” which I really liked. The minister didn’t think that it was biblical that we could become like God, and I pointed out that God wanted us to progress and become like Him as much as possible. He doesn’t put a cap on our progression, and He never will. Our loving Father wants His children to grow up and become like Him. I asked him the question, “where does God’s love end? Where does His infinite mercy end?” There is no end to God’s love, there is no end to our ability to progress. We then gave him every biblical reference that I had to exaltation which was a surprisingly lengthy list, and a reference out of the Book of Mormon to read as well, and presented Him with a copy of the Book of Mormon. We also taught seven lessons today so we were very busy.

3/31/2021

Today was a lot of fun. We had a few lessons today and it was a great opportunity to meet the members of the Ward. We were very impressed as we continuted to talk to everyone around us to see just how friendly and welcoming this Ward was. We also got to play spiritual dodgeball with the youth tonight which was a lot of fun, but I think the best part of the day was the last lesson that we had. I use to watch a lot of space shows with my dad and when we walked in to our last lesson tonight the man had been watching a space documentary, so I asked him a little about how it had strengthened his testimony, and it ended up being one of the best conversations I had in a long time.

4/1/2021

Today was a lot of fun. Elder Aguirre and I had Zone conference today, so we left our house at 9:00 this morning for Montrose. On the way over I recognized that we were driving through some very familiar roads, and so we stopped by the Hightower Cafe, where Brother Hightower works, who I got to teach eight months ago. He invited us back for lunch, so after that brief visit we got back on the road for our conference. We gave a training to our Zone and it went really well. We talked about the importance of being yourself, we said that a lot of missionaries had traded their identities in the name of being the “ideal missionary”. We told people that the greatest tool that they had was what was inside of them. If they listened to the Spirit and sought to be not just “an instrument”, but “their instrument”, to do the things only they could, that they would have incredible success as missionaries. We got a lot of compliments afterwards, it seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people.

4/2/2021

Today was exciting. Elder Aguirre found a free piano listed on Facebook and so we both jumped at the opportunity to bring it to our apartment. We spent our lunch picking up the piano and moving it to our house, and we were both pretty excited about it. It had a dead key, but one of our members lent us some wood glue and we managed to make a surprisingly good repair to the key. We’re excited to see how it works tomorrow. The piano was in good condition and will be a great addition to our Facebook videos. We also had a lot of great lessons today. We’ve been giving a lot of messages in preparation for Easter and conference tomorrow, and now we couldn’t be more excited to hear from The Prophet.

4/3/2021

Today was a lot of fun. We had three sessions of General Conference today, including the first Priesthood session that we've had in a couple of years. The messages can be described as nothing but inspired. If you weren't able to watch them, please go back and do so. The teachings on the family, home, temple, and covenants are too valuable to be passed up.

4/4/2021

I'm actually writing this summary on the following day (4/5/2021). This day includes my thoughts for the week, because I don't want to detract anything from the messages of the prophets that we heard speak in conference. To their voices I add mine: Please, do all that you can to increase your faith, and if that seems like a daunting challenge go back and look at President Nelson's talk from the Sunday morning session of conference. His talk can be found on churchofjesuschrist.org under the section of "General Conference" and "April 2021". His words were prophetic counsel, and will bring us closer to Christ than focusing on anything else right now.