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| Breakfast with the four AP's |
June 8, 2015
Hey everyone!!
How goes life? It sounds like life is great!! Also sounds like
James is a stud at football, pulling in interceptions and touchdown passes,
sounds like he will be WAYYY better than I ever was! (which isn't saying much
haha). But I can't wait to come back and watch and even coach him, too!
But life here in downtown Sparks is great. The other three
Elders and I are having a ton of fun, it will be sad when Twitchell and White
leave. The work is going great. We are going to have quite a few baptisms here
pretty quick in the next few transfers. We are all staying pretty busy.
One of the things that I wanted to learn at the beginning of my
mission was how to better listen and follow the promptings of the Spirit, and I
think I am getting better. A quote that was mentioned at our MLC (Mission
Leadership Conference) on Friday was, "A thought is a prompting until
proven otherwise." So I really took that to heart, and have been trying to
follow all of my thoughts and impressions. The other day Elder White and I left
our apartment and we were going to go out and proselyte for an hour before
lunch. We didn’t have any appointments, so we were just going to walk around
and talk with people. Before we left the thought came to me, "Grab a
Spanish pamphlet." But I ignored it, and sure enough, 45 minutes later we
ran into a Spanish dude in a park who did not speak a lick of English. Of
course, this was like a wake-up call for me because I wish I had that pamphlet!
So I am learning the hard way, but I won’t let that happen again!!
We had MLC on Friday, which is always fun to see all of my
friends. Most of my missionary friends are Zone Leaders, so it is always a
party. President spent two hours showing and discussing with us a portion of
the trainings that all the area seventies received in their annual General Authority
training. It was 100% focused on How to Build Faith through Sabbath Day
Observance at Church and at Home. The Twelve Apostles really feel that we need
to focus on that, and so for the first time ever, that is all that they talked
about. It was cool to watch portions of it, and discuss it. The Ward Council is
going to now decide together on the agenda for Sacrament meeting, like who
speaks and what they speak about, and the hymns and so forth, in order to make
it a more spiritual experience for all who attend. It didn't necessarily apply
directly to us as missionaries, but President told us that he wants us to
understand this now so we can teach it to our own families when we have them
one day. The world these days does not by any means keep the Sabbath Day holy.
In fact, most "Saturday" chores are now done on Sundays, and church
often gets put on the back burner. When we do not keep the Sabbath Day holy, we
are really breaking another commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." So
on that note, my scripture of the week is Isaiah 58: 13-14 "If thou
turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day;
and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor
speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” I
know that as we turn to do the LORD's pleasure on the Sabbath day, and do
things to uplift us and praise Him, that we will truly delight ourselves in the
Lord, and he will bless us immensely. I know I really appreciated Sundays
during football season, because it was the only day that we didn’t have
practice…and I could actually rest!!
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| Upstairs in my apartment |
Last night at 3:48am I rolled out of bed, got on my knees and
started praying at the top of my lungs. I woke up my three companions in the process.
I was completely asleep, and don’t even recall the event, but I woke them up
and as soon as I was done praying, I jumped back into bed and was out cold.
Apparently my prayer was something like this: "DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER, THANK
YOU FOR THIS DAY. PLEASE BLESS TROY, SEAN, AND MICHAEL. IN THE NAME OF JESUS
CHRIST, AMEN. I woke up this morning and they were all like, " Bro why did
you get up and yell a prayer in the middle of the night?" All my
companions woke up and were like "What the heck is he doing?" And so
they waited until my prayer was over but then when I dived back into bed they
all busted out laughing because they realized I was sound asleep the whole
time. I guess it is a sign that my mind is truly on my mission, because I was
praying about my investigators, meanwhile at the same time one of my companions
was dreaming about walking down the beach with his girlfriend (he admitted
it!). I just found that to be really funny.
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| Selfies with Isaac! |
Troy, who I am sure you will hear more about, is a recent
convert. He was baptized three weeks ago, and man – he has the strongest
testimony I have ever seen from such a new convert. He is amazing. He is African-American,
and he played college football for Mizzou. He is about 50 now, and his sons are
playing college football. But he is SO solid. We had another African-American
investigator at church named Larry, and it turns out they both went to the same
church. So after church, Troy called up Larry and had a THREE AND A HALF HOUR
long phone call about the church, and committed him to baptism. Troy then
called us and told us to come over. So
Elders Twitchell and Freeman went over and had Larry on speaker phone, and Troy
gave Larry the baptismal interview questions!!!! We all couldn't believe it. We
are going over to Larry's tomorrow with Troy.
We have been working with Larry for a while, like over a year, but he
came to church for the first time yesterday, and then Troy took over from there
and did our job for us. When Troy called me and told me about it all, I
couldn't believe it!! We are so excited
about Larry.
We also had three more investigators at church yesterday, Troy's
wife, and Michael, and Jessie. Michael is awesome. He has been meeting with the
missionaries for over a year as well, and the past two weeks have been his
first at church, and that has been his biggest hang-up. So we are hoping that
his dam has broken, and we can get him baptized shortly here, too. Jessie is a
12-year old who lives next to our bishop.
He and his Grandma are both investigating the church. Jessie is going to be baptized on June 27th, but
his Grandma isn't quite ready. It is hard for me to get to know all of the
people we are working with, because there are 4 of us – so we have to take turns
going to each of them. We all want to go
to the progressing ones, so that is the struggle too. But as long as they all
progress, it is all good!
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| Exchanges with Elders Moore and Krey. I love those guys!! |
I got to go back to Cold Springs for a day to be on exchanges
with Elders Moore and Krey, and it was so much fun!!! We had lunch with the
people with the really messy house, and it was clean!!! I know a lot of people
in that area, so it was fun to show them a few people they haven't met yet.
They are both a riot, and had me laughing the whole day.
Well, that is all for today!! I love you guys!!! The church is
true!!!
Love,
Elder
Richman Dawg
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