Chapter 55: The Two Year Mark

Ashtian's baptism!

7/13/2021

Today was the first day of three for our Zone Conference week. Typically we’ve only been having one day of Zone Conference a transfer, but this one was a special one because it’s going to go all week. Today we were supposed to be combined with our members, but it didn’t go very well. Our Ward Mission Leader doesn’t have an email and that was apparently how our Mission President asked the Ward Mission Leaders for each area to get members to these conferences, which we found out when we sat down for our Zone Conference and we had no members there. Zone Conference was still an awesome opportunity to learn more about how to work with members, though, and we were able to put what we learned into practice with the lessons we learned for the rest of the day.

7/14/2021

Zone Conference day two: Today we got to learn more about using Facebook to do missionary work it was good to talk about some of the areas that are considered weaker for our mission. We got to have a lesson with Ashtian today and talk about how she was feeling in preparation for her baptism. She had finished reading through The Book of Mormon up to 2 Nephi 1, so we read through 2 Nephi 2 with her tonight and it was an awesome experience to talk about how there was happiness and a punishment affixed to each law, and our agency allows us to choose which we will receive.

7/15/2021

Today was our last day of Zone Conference and the best one for Elder Aguirre, Elder Rindlisbacher and myself because we got to go in person and the other ones were just over Zoom. We got to see a lot of people from the neighboring Zones, like Elder Gomez. It was awesome to reunite with him for a while. We got to have a meal in person which I never thought would happen in my time serving as a missionary. I also got to give my departing testimony as a missionary today. We were told that a time range of two minutes would probably be a good time to aim for and I ended up speaking for eight. It was still good though.

7/16/2021

Today was an awesome, but very tiring day. When we were talking to Ashtian about her baptism tomorrow she was pretty excited, and started counting down the hours with us until she would be baptized. We also had a few pickup lessons. We started teaching two of our neighbors, as well as someone who we met at a gas station. The woman from the gas station told us at the start of our message that she had seen a vision of an angel, and that when we spoke to her that we said word for word the same message that the angel had delivered to her. She told us that she had been humbled and wanted to make the changes that we would invite her to do, so we invited her to be baptized, and she accepted. 

7/17/2021

Today was a great day. We found a lot of new people to teach, and we got to see Ashtian be baptized. We had a lot of people attend Ashtian’s baptism, including Sister Papurt, and she seemed to enjoy the baptism as well. Ashtian was very happy afterwards, and we’re excited for her confirmation tomorrow. The baptism was a really neat experience, and we were so proud to see Ashtian’s faith displayed so proudly. She’s been doing such a great job with reading from The Book of Mormon, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone more prepared to be baptized.

7/18/2021

Today Ashtian was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Ashtian received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we got to participate in the ordinance. Elder Rindlisbacher and I also got to give talks today in church. I didn’t realize it but I accidentally spoke for twenty minutes instead of ten. It all worked out okay, though. Afterwards I heard from a couple of investigators that we had there, they told me, “Brother Anderson, I don’t care what you do for the rest of your life, but you need to continue with the preaching of the word”. So at least talking for twenty minutes didn’t scare our investigators away.

Today for a spiritual thought I want to share a verse that stuck out to me from 2 Nephi 20:27. This verse is one that talks about the spiritual liberation we can receive through Jesus Christ: And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

Jesus Christ is no longer just "The Anointed One", or The Messiah, rather, He is The Anointing one and anoints us that we might be able to become joint-heirs with Him, as we jointly work to overcome the yoke of sin.

Chapter 54: The Plan of Salvation

7/6/2021

Today was a really busy day for us. We had a lot of meetings today. We had our District Council which I really enjoyed because Elder Rindlisbacher and I are the oldest ones there, and so we get to look really wise (even though we really aren’t) and pass on all the tips and knowledge we’ve learned to the new missionaries. We also got to have our departing interviews with President Rees today, so I got to finally sit down with him for a good amount of time and talk to him. That was definitely the best interview I’ve ever had with him. When we started he asked if there was anything that I wanted to know, and I’m sure my eyes got real big as I asked in disbelief, “anything?” President Rees smiled as he nodded and said, “anything.” So needless to say I really enjoyed our interview.

7/7/2021

Today we got to help out at a service that was unusual: We got to help a farmer with the process of thinning his apple orchard. The farmer hadn’t been able to get any help, and we only had about an hour, but we were able to make a pretty sizeable dent in the orchard between the three of us. We also went to pick up our Tacoma from the shop today, and it was in great condition, except that there seemed to be a malfunction between the car’s computer and the Mission’s computer tracking system in the car. The system gives us feedback on how we’re driving, and it was acting hypersensitive. It told me I was driving aggressively 20 times (we counted, it was comical). Getting two “aggressive” warnings is considered a felony in our mission, so we were a little nervous when we called our vehicle coordinator to tell him that the car was overreacting to our driving.

7/8/2021

Today Elder Aguirre and I went on exchanges with Elder Hicks. We had a lot of lessons, and it was pretty cool to see Elder Hicks’ teaching style. It’s interesting to see that you never get to a point where you stop learning about being a missionary, working with new people always brings surprises, and today was no exception. We also got to see just how much our members love us today, it seemed like every lesson we left was with our arms full of goods to cook with and make our lives a little bit easier. Everyone in our Ward is very concerned for the well-being of the missionaries.

7/9/2021

Today we had a lesson with a man named Benjamin. Benjamin had recently moved to the area and was living next door to some of our other investigators. When we went by one evening and our appointment had fallen through we saw Benjamin outside and and stopped to talk to him for a few minutes. Our lesson tonight was really cool, because Benjamin would tell us something that he believed, and he was obviously listening to the Light of Christ, so we were able to show him in the scriptures where it said what he was talking about. He really liked the tour that we gave him through the scriptures and all that we taught him about the Gospel.

7/10/2021

Today was awesome. We taught a lesson on the plan of salvation to a couple of people who we had never met before. It took a little bit to set the lesson up (when we knocked the wife answered and her husband wasn’t home so we had to come back a couple of times to show up when he was there), once we set the lesson up though we were so glad we had gone through the effort for it, that lesson was really cool. We taught the plan of salvation like we never had before and it really connected to the people that we were teaching. It was awesome to see them latch on to such important doctrines.

7/11/2021

Today was great, we had a lesson with Coleman and finished up the message of the Restoration with him. When we talked to Coleman he was really engaged, he thought that it was really cool how The Book of Mormon fit into his knowledge of the history of the Americas. Everyone at church was also really excited today because Ashtian’s baptism was scheduled for next Saturday and announced over the pulpit. We were really glad that they announced it because a lot of people didn’t know who Ashtian was and this helped her to get some recognition from everyone in the Ward. Everyone in the Ward was also much more excited to get to know her once they found out about her baptism and that she would be a permanent member.

Today for a spiritual thought I wanted to share a couple of verses from a chapter I've been studying all week, these verses come from Alma 42:

21 And if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?

22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

These verses teach the entire plan of salvation. We were victims of the laws that we broke, we had no way to save ourselves, and no way to undo the damaging effects of sin, but there was One who would pay the price for us, Jesus Christ would answer the ends of justice and extend mercy to all who would accept Him as their lawgiver. He has answered the ends of the law for us so that we might not have to suffer as He did. I pray that we will all accept Him as our lawgiver, because I don't think there's anything more tragic than a twice paid-for punishment.

Chapter 53: Fishers of Men

P-day Fly Fishing Activity!

6/30/2021

Today we got to have another lesson with Ashtian. We went over a baptismal plan with her and were able to show her how much she had learned with us, which she seemed to really like. We got to teach about a lot of the commandments and explained the importance of prayer and scripture study, showing that these were tools God had given us to communicate with Him. On top of that, Ashtian said the closing prayer, and it was one of the most humble things I had ever heard; In her prayer she thanked God for sending the missionaries to teach her. Most people don’t like seeing us, a few 19-20 year old missionaries as teachers, but she was grateful for us.

7/1/2021

Today was a busy day. The only lessons that went through were with nonmembers, but those are the most important ones so I suppose everything worked out okay. Our Ward Mission Leader was absolutely amazing, we needed someone to come to one of our lessons with us and he told us, “give me an hour and I’ll be there”. He showed up true to his word and we were able to have our lesson right when we hoped we would be able to. 

7/2/2021

Today was a great day for lessons, but also for a lot of unusual events that showed us how much God is watching over us as missionaries. We passed by a yard sale today and I saw that there were a lot of fishing supplies laid out. These fishing supplies interested me because we’ve made plans to go fishing with our District on Pday, but I still didn’t have a rod, a reel, or any of the other numerous pieces of equipment that the professionals had. I asked the man running the yard sale about the rods and he took my companions and I to his shed where he loaded us up on supplies free of charge, everything that we could need alongside a handshake and a desire that we would keep helping others too. That was pretty heart-warming.

7/3/2021

Because Elder Rindlisbacher and I are approaching the end of our missions we had to work on a project called “My Plan” today, which is about our life after the Mission: Our goals, our hopes, dreams, desires, and plans to get us there. Well, because there isn’t a public computer in Cedaredge, we had to go to Brother Call to ask if he would be willing to let us use his computer. Fortunately he was quite willing, so we stopped by and got to talk to him for a bit. Brother Call is an incredible student of the scriptures, and shared a lot of powerful stuff with me. While Elder Rindlisbacher was working on his plan, I got to talk to Brother Call about some of what I had been learning on my mission and some of the questions that I still had, and having someone I could council with was awesome.

7/4/2021

Today was our fast and testimony meeting, and I got to share my testimony today. We had an investigator there, and while everyone is always incredibly kind to those who bear their testimonies, our investigator’s compliment stood out the most to me, she told me, “this is the worst day ever”, and when I quizzically asked her, “why?” she said, “because your testimony made me cry.” That response was over dramatic and characteristic of her, but a valued compliment nonetheless that she felt The Spirit so strongly while I was bearing my testimony.

Today for a spiritual thought I want to share a verse that comes from 2nd Nephi 25 verse 13: Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name. 

This verse is such a profound one to me because this last week I learned a lot more about Jesus Christ's crucifixion. A lot of what I learned about was how horrible crucifixion was as a form of death, and how wrong it is that we often picture Christ hanging gracefully on the cross when in reality the cross caused a constant writhing motion from its victim. Despite all of this, I love this verse so much because it points out that Jesus Christ bore the most painful of all deaths which made his Resurrection all the more glorious--and victorious.

Christ lives, and I know that to be true with all my heart.