I'm Still Alive! :P
Well Everyone,
This week was incredible! We had what we call Mission Tour where a member of the seventy comes to visit the mission and talks with us about missionary work and any other topics he feels prompted to speak about. We had our mission tour on Friday in Pueblo, CO which is about 2-3 hours north of where I am at. This update is going to be a little different, I am going to start of like I usually do about how my week went and some experiences, but I will then be discussing something that you will find out about later. I hope you enjoy.
This week we had a slower week because of Mission Tour, however we were able to see many new people that we started teaching last week. We are making a lot of progress with the community BBQ we are planning. We called the Catholic leader to invite him and his congregation. I am hoping that we can do this successfully and unite the town.Friday we had Mission Tour and had Elder Nattress and Elder Anderson - both of the Quorum of the Seventy. ThenSaturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference for the Alamosa Stake which includes the La Jara II Ward where Elder De Hoyos of the Seventy was there. (We cover 2 wards or congregations in La Jara. The La Jara I Ward is in the Manassa Stake) (Info on Wards and Stakes) I will share some of my notes from that here soon but before I do that, I have a funny story from Saturday morning.
So Saturday morning most of the missionaries in the zone went to help out with a kids only triathlon by request of a member in our ward. I gathered together 12 missionaries to show up to help and I will post some pictures once I get them. So this was a kids only triathlon. The order of events was Bike, Swim, Run. Elder Tillman and I were in charge of the Bike portion.
All the missionaries who volunteered at the race with STAFF shirts
Our job was to make sure the younger kids turned around at the cone we were at and the older kids kept going. There was a little girl (7 or 8) who was up front in the race and didn't have brakes on her bike and decided to turn left instead of make a u-turn. (She couldn't cut the corner sharp enough to make the u-turn)
All of us again
Normally this would be okay if you decide to take the corner wider, however the "left turn" she made was right into an irrigation ditch... She rode down the ditch a few feet then went face first into the water in the ditch. I ran over to help her out and was able to pull her out of the water and her bike. She was covered in moss from head to toe.
Elder Tillman and I
She was crying a little bit. She said, "I quit, I don't want to do this anymore." I walked her back about 20 yards and then asked her if she wanted to get back on her bike and finish the race. She said she did so I helped her back on and she finished the race. They had to take her to the showers to wash her off before she could do the swimming portion.
Elder Tillman and Sister Anderson Having a noodle fight
She finished the swim and the run! I felt horrible but after the race I found her again and she was laughing about it and telling her parents the story. It was great to see her so happy and able to move on from it! So proud!!!
Now for the notes:
Mission Tour
Sister Rehm
She talked about choices and how sometimes we pick up a walking stick by the good end (representing something that may not seem bad but in reality it is) however, we always get the bad end that comes with it. She then related this to choices and how all the choices we make have consequences and then how there are good sticks that we can choose to pick up and have good consequences.
President Rehm
Liken the scriptures unto ourselves - apply the scriptures to our lives (1 Nephi 19:23)
It doesn't matter how each of us (missionaries) got here, we all accepted our call and are on missions serving the Lord
The Lord will give us comfort
Matthew 28:16-20 They worshipped Him, but some doubted. What did they doubt? They didn't doubt Christ, Christ is perfect, they doubted themselves - Christ reassured them All power in heaven and earth is given Him and he promises to be with us always
Sister Nattress
Learning to be good under-shepherds
D&C 84:88 His angels are all around us to help us up
Brother Nattress
What think ye of Christ? Matthew 22
When did I know? When did I know that I knew?
(Shared a video) by Elder Holland
Our message is that we are sons and daughters of God and that the Savior lives and loves us
Our message - Everything will be okay
OPEN OUR EYES
OPEN OUR EARS
OPEN OUR HEARTS
OPEN OUR MOUTHS
Teach
Testify
Invite
Promise
Sister Andersen
Morning prayers are very important, we need to connect with our Father and see what he has for us to do today
Grace - He will strengthen us
Stay connected with the Savior
Grace is more valuable than anything, there is no limit, it is always available, grace is stable
Elder Andersen
Head Knowledge (Mind)
Information
Intellectual
Book Learning
Through our 5 senses
Heart Knowledge (Heart)
Spirit
Desire
Conversion
Change of Heart
Soul Knowledge (Soul)
Becoming
Practice
Application
We can't jump from Mind to soul, we have to make sure we include heart.
Bible Dictionary - Faith
Mosiah 5:2
We need to get head knowledge into the hearts of the people we are working with
We can only impart head knowledge - we can't impart heart knowledge, only the spirit can do that, we must provide a teaching environment so the spirit can testify to their hearts. The Holy Ghost can't testify of false doctrine.
Invite people to Come Unto Christ by helping them to acquire a desire by helping them RECEIVE the restored gospel
What we receive goes back to what we desire to receive
We then had a Q&A session with Elder Andersen which was very powerful and some very inspired questions were asked from missionaries.
Just a simple fact, Elder Andersen gave the popular talk entitled "The Music of the Gospel" which was super cool!
Stake Conference
Elder De Hoyos
The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are worried about members resisting the worldly things, sacrament attendance and the way we take the sacrament.
"It's easy to see who took the sacrament, it's not easy to see who renewed their covenants" -Elder Eyring
What things are most important?
Scripture reading daily individually and as a family
Temple Attendance
Prayers
Fasting
The ability to resist the world comes from this pearl
Act to be clean, prepared and worthy for the second coming
Prepare every day, every hour to meet the Savior
Study Patriarchal blessing
There are two ways we can to remember our blessings
1) Go to the temple
2) Study our Patriarchal Blessings
Make the Sabbath a holy day at church and at home
It's a sign between us and Our Heavenly Father
What sign am I giving my Father in Heaven
President Mortensen (Alamosa Stake President)
The gospel of Jesus Christ will not move, the world is changing exponentially
We need to have hope and be positive
There is always hope no matter how dark it gets
Go to your Father in humble prayer
We will have protection from the adversary by the ministering angels if we go to the temple often - This must be a priority in our life
Anyway, those are my notes from Mission Tour as well as Stake Conference. I hope y'all enjoyed them. Now, I wanted to discuss a little bit about how I got on my mission. This week I have been thinking a little bit about my past and what all I have learned and certain people and experiences and trials I am thankful for. One thing I thought of was how grateful I am for my family.
I had several spiritual experiences growing up that led me to find out for myself that this is the true restored gospel. I have had many trials in my life as well some of them self inflicted, and others were external forces that I couldn't control. I had a thought come to me the other day - a primary song came to mind and as I was sitting on the couch one night it hit me, THIS is what I was singing about in primary. "I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two..." I am serving a mission, I have grown a foot or two and I am teaching and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanted to share an experience I had that I may have shared before I left on my mission, but if not, here it is. I just graduated High School and was working on my mission papers. I had been preparing for this for a very long time and the time was finally here. The time to go and serve the Lord. I ended up putting it off for a little while. I ended up getting very sick and spending a little over a month with my grandparents in FL to recover. Short story about that, I had mono and went down there to recover and make sure I didn't give it to my sisters. I remember I was spending a lot of time reading the scriptures (probably 4-5 hours a day) and watching TV because I would walk upstairs and just doing that would drain all the energy out of me. I remember one night in particular I was upset with myself because I wasn't recovering like I wanted to. After 2-3 weeks of reading the scriptures and watching TV I decided to say a prayer and ask for help. I remember telling myself, "I came down here to recover so I am going to recover." I asked my Heavenly Father for help and the very next day, I got up around 7 and went for a 1/4 mile walk which would have killed me before! I chose to make that decision and was given strength. After that, I still had days where I lacked energy, but from that day on I was able to recover much quicker. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father being a prayer away. Anyway, I went on 2 sailing trips with my grandfather, went on a trip to Palmyra, attended the Young Single Adult ward in Atlanta for a time and didn't feel ready to serve a mission. I prepared a lot for my mission, I am saying this not to brag at all, but because I did what I felt I needed to do to prepare. I am so grateful for the ability I had to read and study the scriptures more in depth. The reason I brought all of this up is because of this one key event when my mom walked into my room one day. Prior to this, I had many people telling me just to submit my papers and go on a mission, but I didn't feel I was ready and I didn't feel the Lord wanted me just yet. One day my mom walked into my room while I was studying and I looked at her and said, "Mom, I'm ready." Now I said this, not because of the knowledge I had acquired, I still have much to learn from the scriptures and I still don't know all of the stories, but I had an overwhelming feeling that day that the Lord wanted me NOW to serve a mission. In total I ended up waiting a little over 7 months however, I am grateful for that time and I have already seen one reason why I came out when I did. A young man who I took on exchanges with me in Parker contacted me and said I helped him a lot and I am hoping that he will make the decision soon to serve a mission. He has since moved to Utah with his family thus the reason I was there when I was. I love this gospel and love the areas I have served in and am very grateful for the opportunity I have to serve. I love helping bringing people closer to Christ.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and learned something from my e-mail this week. Thank you for allowing me to share my experiences.
Have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Warmest Regards,
Elder Levi Snow Soller
"When there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm."
-African Proverb