Called a blasphemer

"Well, this week marks the past the middle mark of yet another transfer, and the fact that I'm coming up on my nine month mark, ha, that's super weird, I'm still super young in the mission, but it's weird to see all these people that I've known here in the mission getting ready to head on home...

Anyways, for some cool updates on what's up in life and in the life of the investigators we have this week was pretty interesting. ... the father of the part member family we have is progressing quite a bit! He loves to meet with us and we were able to meet with him this last Thursday with his Home teacher and have an awesome lesson. We invited him to be baptized, but he didn't quite accept a date, nevertheless he says he's not running away from it. Then Saturday we went to the VC with him and his family which was super awesome! We were able to talk about eternal families with the temple right there with him and all his kids. He said it was an inspiring tour, we once again invited him to be baptized, but he's still not too sure about the date. ... It's going to be one of the coolest baptisms ever! He also came to church this Sunday with his family, once again just super awesome to see them all walk in together! He was even in a white shirt and tie and then he went to a general stake priesthood meeting with his son later that night, haha yeah, super ready, he just doesn't know it yet. He's going to be an awesome convert and super strong in the gospel!"

"[The young man who was baptized] is still doing well, he's got some struggles, but we've been able to help him out and teach some powerful lessons. He'll be ordained to the priesthood as soon as possible and we're really pushing to have him get a calling and home teachers as soon as possible!

Haha, ok then we had this super crazy experience! So after the hurricane we'd been driving by somebody's house and we saw that some tree branches had fallen on their cars and such. We stopped and offered to help but no one was home, so we removed the branches and piled them off to the side, took some pictures in case their insurance needed it, as well as to protect us, and then left a note with them. Nothing happened from it, but then one night we were driving by there and we had like two minutes left to do something and we didn't know what else to do, so we decided to stop by their house and see how they were doing. Turns out they're home and the father immediately invites us into the house. He knew we were the ones that had helped him and he was super nice! He introduces us to his kids, etc. Then he starts talking about how he knows all these things about the church, about the Book of Mormon, about Joseph Smith, about the Angel Moroni, etc. because his friends in high school were members. The whole time he's saying this, Elder Gleed and I are just thinking, man, this guy is super prepared! But then, ... he starts asking us about whether or not we believe we're saved by grace alone, or if we can "earn our way into heaven".... we calmly explain that our works bring us closer to Jesus Christ who is the person that then saves us and takes us to God. ... He starts complimenting us on our zeal for the work of God and such, and we're still kind of cautious about what's going on, but we're feeling pretty good about everything, and then he drops a bombshell on us! He calmly looks at us, looks us straight in the eye and says "I wish we had that much zeal for the truth, as you do... for a lie." Yeah, super crazy... Well we're kind of stunned that he's just told us that to our faces as we're sitting in his house with his kids right there, but we calmly look at him and begin to testify of the truthfulness of our message. We clearly and plainly state that our purpose is only to invite him to read and pray to know for himself because we know it's true. Then he keeps trying to bible bash us, but we calmly avoid it through testimony. Then he starts to tell us that we are not Christian. He explained that to him, if Joseph Smith was a prophet that means that God's work, Christ's suffering was incomplete and that God had to turn to a 14 yr. old boy to fix it for him. ... We explained the purpose of a prophet, etc. and the loss of authority, but the man just did not want to listen. Then he says to us that if the Book of Mormon is real it means that the Bible was not enough, and that thus Christ's suffering was not enough, and that what we were saying was blasphemy.... We again bore calm and sure testimony, of the reality of Joseph Smith, of the Church, of the Book of Mormon, and of our knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and then we left. ... Hopefully one day he will remember the testimonies we bore...

There's definitely no way that Elder Gleed or I will forget that experience, it was super intense, and full of the spirit. Luckily we avoided bashing, haha though the temptation was definitely there! Still, it was interesting.

Elder Gleed in four weeks has now been called Satan, been bashed by some Muslims, been called a Blasphemer, and faced down another ... guy that said that having prophets is denying Christ. haha, it's crazy, but it's sweet that he's getting so many experiences!

Then one other thing that was super amazing happened. Here at the Visitors Center we have these things called nights of Music and Inspiration where it's pretty much a music and the spoken word put on by the missionaries. Haha, because I play the piano I've had the chance to perform in a couple of them, and once again got to perform last night, but that's not the cool part. It was just an incredible night, easily the most spiritually powerful one that I've been to. It was focused on a journey through the life of the Savior and had narrations, testimonies, and amazing musical performances. The spirit was so so thick, you honestly could've cut it with a knife. When it finished and the closing prayer had been said nobody moved and everyone whispered, if they even spoke at all, because you could feel the spirit so strongly. It was an even more powerful witness to me of the reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and his mission for us. He truly is the center of everything we do in this life, and his atonement is literally all curing and all powerful. It was just an amazing opportunity to feel the power of Christ's atonement expressed in Music and pure testimony. It was just so incredible!

Then today we had a fall sports day as a mission. So we got together as a whole mission and played sports for four hours! It was awesome, we had a game called hero ball, which is soccer, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, and capture the flag all the same field. Haha, it was super awesome!

Anyways, the mission is going super good, amazing miracles literally happen daily, and Elder Gleed and I are doing well. ... He's a super good missionary!

Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost

"... As for my week, it was a pretty normal week, except for the fact that [our investigator] received the [gift of the] Holy Ghost! That was awesome, it's so cool to see how much he's grown in such a short time, he's now preparing to receive the aaronic priesthood, and it's awesome because he really does recognize the importance and the responsibility of the priesthood. He's 18 and he's a senior in high school by the way. Unfortunately his family isn't really supporting him, the father doesn't mind, but he says he's not interested, and the mother and brother live in Mexico but aren't too interested right now either. Still, in our lessons we've had with him he always prays so sincerely that his family will come to a knowledge of the truth as well. It's awesome because he has such a sincere desire to change his life, and now he's starting to see how he's changed and it's strengthened his testimony even further.

Oh we also had some super awesome success with our part member families again! We met with an Hermano whose wife and family are active members, ..he's overcome a lot of challenges in his life, even alcoholism, and now he's ready to investigate the church. He says he feels like we have something more than he does, like we have more light is what he said, haha super awesome! He's super willing to read and learn and committed himself to reading in the Book of Mormon for 1/2 hour every day!! Super awesome, we're expecting him to be baptized soon!

... the other part member family member is also doing amazingly! We had an awesome lesson on the Book of Mormon with him and his family Saturday night and he committed to come to church this Sunday, and he did! Man, it was so cool to see the whole family come in instead of just the wife and kids. He's such a good man, and he's really trying to learn for himself whether or not these things are true. He also came to a spanish Family Home Evening SUnday night at Pres. Matsumori's house, and he came without his wife!! Yeah, super awesome progress, and then they were at a ward activity Monday as well. Man, it's been super awesome!

Oh, we also had two ward activities this week, Friday we had a Ward mission activity where we took people on a tour of the three kingdoms, it was pretty interesting, and a little stressful, but as usual it all turned out in the end. Then this Monday there was a ward bbq because it was labor day, so that was pretty fun and a great opportunity for fellowshiping of [the investigators]. In other words, things are going pretty well! The Bishop is pleased with the success we're seeing in the ward and we keep working hard.

Haha, yesterday was kind of hard though, we knocked quite a bit, and it was raining, and very few people were answering the door, it was a long day! Still, if there's one thing I've learned on the mission it's the importance of attitude, hopefully my companion can learn that a little bit as well, he didn't enjoy yesterday too much haha! Things are going well though, I haven't had too many incredible insights or anything ;) I have been studying the priesthood recently though, and it's amazing to study the doctrine of the priesthood and really understand the power it has to change us, and how it enables us to serve in such a better capacity. I'm still loving the mission, and every time I think about the fact that I've been out for over 8 months, coming on 9, it honestly makes me want to throw up... Yeah, time is going by way too quickly, I still feel like I just started the mission and now it's been a year since I even entered into college... I'm afraid it'll all be over far too soon, but I'm sure going to work hard and enjoy it while I've still got a lot of time! It's weird though, I honestly feel like I just saw you guys, and I feel like Mother's day was just like last week when I talked to you all, but the date says otherwise. Haha crazy!"

"... Well, that's all for now, I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!"

Dressed in White for the Baptism

Baptism

Well, there goes another week! It goes by so quickly... Anyways, not too much happened this week, except for a BAPTISM!!! Yeah, it was sweet, [The golden investigator] was baptized this Sunday! Haha, it was really a cool experience, he's super ready and really wanted to just be clean and have the help and strength of the Holy Ghost in his life.

I can honestly say that there is nothing as good as seeing someone enter into the covenant of baptism! He may have a little bit of a tough week with it being the first week of school over here and there being a lot of temptations and old friends around, but he's extremely motivated by the fact that he wants to be worthy to receive the Holy Ghost this week so that he'll be able to have even more help in the future. In short, he's awesome!

President also came to the baptism which was cool for Francisco, and he gave us permission to take him out with us on splits this week even though he's not technically a member yet, so we took him out with us on Monday and he loved it! Haha he's super set on being a missionary, and we're really excited for him!

We're also seeing some cool miracles with some part member families we're working with that are beginning to show signs of progressing towards baptism, it's cool to see so many miracles just about every day! Man, I just love the gospel so much!

Oh another random kind of interesting experience. On Monday we were called Satan! Yep, straight to our faces! We were talking to this one lady on the street and she just kept talking about how good she was and how she already knew God so much but no one else did. We were polite with her and I'm sure she's a great lady, but then we began to testify about the reality of the Book of Mormon and of the restored church, and at first it was like there was just this cloud of nothingness around her because not a single word we said reached her. Finally after some testimony bearing it seemed to reach her and we realized we'd just wasted like a half hour. Haha at that point she said "You guys are Satan! Do you even know what Mormon means?" So then I immediately think oh great, she's about to pull the Mammon card... and she did! After explaining that he was a prophet in the Book of Mormon she said "Nope, my pastor said that that's a devil book and that you guys are Satan! " "Actually it's another testament of Jesus Christ and if you read and pray about it you can know for yourself" "You guys are Devils!" "Ok, have a good day m'am, we know what we've shared with you is true" and then we walked away. Haha, yeah, it was a pretty interesting experience, my companion seems to be getting broken into the mission rather quickly!

Golden Investigator

This week's letter from Derek is special. Those of you who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), will probably understand his emotions. It may be kind of confusing to others though.

LDS missionaries like Derek talk to 1000's of people. Most of the people are pretty neutral towards religion and missionaries. A few are hostile. Someone who is actively trying to persuade others away from the LDS church with lies and misinformation might be referred to as anti-mormon.

On the other hand, a very few people that missionaries meet are actively seeking for a change in their life. They are sincere seekers after the word of God. They are humble, have faith in God, and actively study and pray to try to discern the good and the true. Missionaries often refer to these people as "golden contacts" or "golden investigators."

Please remember that this post is from Derek's letter to us (his family). He tries to describe his experiences and emotions meeting both types of people in the same week. I hope reading his raw, unedited feelings will be positive and not negative for anyone who comes upon it.

One last comment, it may sound like Derek is expressing surprise that the, "golden investigator" gets answers to prayers. However, I believe Derek is expressing his amazement at the man's rare humility, faith, sincerity, and diligence and his excitement at being able to know him and teach him. Now, on to the letter...

"Haha, ok this week was incredible, I'm just going to start by saying that because you're not going to even believe what happened. So Thursday, my "kid's" [brand new missionary's] first real full day out in the mission field begins with weekly planning, but then we get a call from the Zone Leaders saying they received a referral that's actually in our area and we have an appointment at four. Turns out the referral actually came from the Mexican mission, so we run right over there. We meet our new investigator..., recently returned from his vacation in Mexico city where he met the missionaries and received the first lesson and the Book of Mormon.

We sit down with him and the first thing he asks us is where our church is so that he can go this Sunday. Yeah, stunning! But it gets even better, we start asking him about the Book of Mormon and such and he says "well the missionaries gave me the book and I've read some, and then they told me to pray about it, and I prayed about it and got an answer!" Man, it was so crazy, as you could probably imagine our faces were probably slightly shocked looking as we just looked at this Golden investigator. Needless to say we gave him a baptismal date for the 4th of September.

Well, then we met with him Friday as well at the Visitor's center and we find out that the people he's living with are super anti-mormon and have just been feeding him all kinds of anti-mormon stuff, not to mention the fact that he'd been looking at stuff on the internet and what not. He had a ton of questions, but he was extremely sincere and genuinely wanted to know the truth.

We taught him over and over again to trust the Lord and not anybody else, even what we were saying. The Sisters at the [temple visitor center] also did a great job of explaining it all to him and asking his questions. Then we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him and the spirit was super strong, and he said he felt something after the movie, "something like faith". Yeah, super awesome!

So then he came to church on Sunday, and we went to the visitor's center again Sunday night. Well, while we were there it looked like he'd moved through the antiness, he no longer had any questions and as we were showing him some of the exhibits he said to us "I just have this feeling growing inside of me that it's just all true"

Haha so amazing!!! Then he asked us "So Can I be baptized tomorrow?" haha we told him he'd have to wait just a little longer because we had to do some more teaching but that he could be baptized this Sunday. So [he] will now be being baptized this Sunday!

It's honestly been one of the craziest experiences I've had on the mission so far. I've never met someone so prepared nor seen someone that has been so thoroughly antied, but he withstood the blows, and he's been reading and we've kept daily contact, teaching him every day since then. He's incredibly ready, and we went over the baptismal interview questions with him and when we asked him what it meant to him that the restored church was once again on the earth he said one word "Salvation"! Yeah, don't think there's really a better response, man it's just been such a cool week!

We also had this confrontation with one of the antis that lives in his house. He started just ripping on us telling us that we worship a man, that President Monson has replaced Christ, that we were the blind leading the blind, and that we were all going to go to hell. Yeah, that lasted for about a half hour with our investigator just sitting there listening to it all. Luckily we handled it well, the spirit was with us, and we just bore pure testimony to him of the reality of the prophet, of the Book of Mormon, and of the restoration. The spirit worked on him and he got super frustrated and eventually left the room. It reminded me in a small way of Jacob's confrontation with Sherem, "we could not be shaken" (Jacob 7:5). It was crazy, luckily [the investigator] is super strong and it didn't phase him in the least. He recognized that it was a tool of the devil, opposition being placed in his path, and he's super ready to be baptized this Sunday!

Man, so cool, haha if you could only see me you would understand the excitement and the joy we feel every time we talk about the guy! He even wants to serve a mission, man it's just so incredible to see the gospel come into someone's life and begin to change it. So incredible! I love the gospel! Haha, it reminds me of what our seminary teacher said "the gospel just makes me want to flex!"

"Oh, as for earthquake news, haha I actually didn't notice it until it was almost over... We were in our apartment eating lunch but I was walking around at the time and the only thing I noticed was this noise, and I thought somebody was moving furniture above us or something, but apparently it was pretty scary. Nonetheless, because I didn't notice it I wasn't too scared. It made for a good conversation starter though."

Transfers - Training a New Missionary - August 17th Letter

I'm making two posts today. The first one from Derek's letter two weeks ago, and then the second one from this last week.

"Well, this last week was pretty interesting, and pretty awesome! It was a good way to end the transfer, and my time with Elder Lee. We had two investigators at church. [One] awesome investigator, that while he still hasn't accepted a baptismal date is progressing a lot, and has a true desire to know that it's true. Plus, he's reading in the Book of Mormon which means he'll be baptized. Unfortunately his mom, the lady that came the last week, was not able to come this week because she was out of town. Nevertheless she is also doing super good! Haha, she asked us if she could be baptized twice, and not in the incredulous way, but the really thinking about it way. Unfortunately she also still did not accept a date, but we're working with them, so hopefully more good news will follow.

We also had another investigator come to church who is awesome. ... he's a pretty interesting guy. Haha, in some ways he's kind of a punk, but he's a loveable guy and has a true desire to learn. He's ... progressing and we have a feeling he'll also get baptized within the next transfer or two.

We also had a super sweet lesson with a former investigator that we ran into. Apparently she had received an interview for baptism, had picked the songs, and was about to be baptized, but then she got super sick, people got transfered, and she was lost... Luckily we ran into her, and now she's willing to once again work towards baptism. Unfortunately she has a few problems with health, and her family has a pretty crazy story, but we're excited to work with her!

In short, it was a week of miracles! Then transfer night came around and things got crazy... Haha, yeah, it was crazy... On call out nights President calls all people who will be trainers, or district leaders before the general call out is sent out about where everyone is going. Needless to say I was not expecting a call. We figured I would probably stay in the area and Elder Lee would get transferred somewhere and that would be it. Well, that's what happened, but I also got a call from President, and turns out I'm training! I was super super shocked. Not to mention the fact that I'm nervous out of mind. I've never once been senior companion, and now I'm expected to take over the area, and train a new Elder. It was crazy, and you can definitely feel the weight of responsibility settle upon your shoulders. Luckily, God happens to be one of our companions, so I figure he'll do most of the training.

It's definitely humbled me a ton, and I've turned to God even more these last few days since I found out. But, today I met my "kid", his name is Elder Gleed, from Eagle Mountain Utah. He seems like a pretty cool Elder, a little nervous, haha but that's to be expected. His Spanish is already pretty good, and I'm excited to work with him! It'll be a fun time together, and it's definitely going to make me grow and stretch. Haha, it's honestly crazy and the nervous knot in my stomach has only really left when we were in the temple. Still, I trust God's judgment and if He says I can do it, well, then I guess I have to. God shapes the back to fit the burden he puts upon it! I'll let you know how our first week goes!"

Letter From August 10th

"Man, I think I must have a mental disease because I literally don't think I did anything since the last time I wrote you, because it literally feels like yesterday. I know I did stuff though, since we literally have every hour of the day planned every day, still, sometimes it feels like we accomplished nothing! Nevertheless I'll try and delve into those memory banks and pull out something. Let's just say that the last two weeks have been kind of rough. One of our solid investigators has started to kind of drop off of the map... She was doing really well, but every time we mention baptism she just kind of jumps away from it. We think it's a combination of influence from her husband and the fact that she believes it will bring her under condemnation to be baptized more than once. We've tried to explain, but so far she's showing little progress in that area. She went so far to say "no me bautizo", just straight up, or I will not be baptized. So we're hoping to get her to the visitors center to help her feel the spirit so the spirit can help her realize she needs to be rebaptized!

Then we had a ward activity that was pretty cool, unfortunately no one invited their non-member friends, but we did have some less actives come that hadn't been for quite awhile, so that was a success.

We did have some cool miracles on Sunday though! We had two investigators at church! We had this one lady that wasn't showing too much interest, but thanks to Elder Lee we ran by there before church anyways and she ended up coming, staying all three hours, and really enjoying it! That was super exciting, and we're teaching her and her son tonight, so hopefully it continues to go well! Then we had this other guy come that is the boyfriend of a less active member that has kind of gone seriously off the path. This Returned missionary in the ward invited her to come to church and she came, bringing her non-member boy friend who is now a new investigator! Yay for member work! He's a really cool guy! His path to baptism may be a long one just because he's got quite a lot of stuff to fix up, but he's willing and we're excited to see him change.

Other than that not too much happened. Just a lot of running around trying to get a hold of people and talking to a lot of people."

"We're doing a purification process that I think I told you about in the last letter where we make a list of things we will and will not do each day and then report to the Lord each night. That's been cool, it's been cool to see God remind me of each of those things each time I do them, and I've been getting better already in just these last three or four days. It's been cool and I'm excited to do it for the full 40! Anyways that's about it.

Oh, one other thing I'll share from this week was that in District meeting we all shared some miracles we'd seen in ourselves over the last few transfers. Since I shared with the District I figured I should share with the family as well ;) Two of the miracles I've seen is that number one I've learned more and more what it means to be unshakeable in our testimonies. That was one of my greatest worries before the mission that I wouldn't be able to say with utmost certainty that I knew the Book of Mormon was true, etc. Well, that definitely changed. God has granted me a testimony to the point where I can say with utmost certainty that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that this is His church on the Earth. So one of my miracles was learning more what it means to be unshakeable.

My second miracle was that God has really really humbled me. As you know I've always considered myself to be somewhat independent, never completely so, but I like to do things on my own a lot of the time. Well, as we know, it's impossible to do that on a mission. Especially these last two transfers I've learned what it means to really be driven to your knees because you know that the tasks of the day ahead of you are just too much for you to bear and you have to hand it all over to the Lord. That's happened a lot, and I can testify that the Lord does indeed take the burden, and He will help us to carry it. We are completely worthless, we literally do nothing. All we have to do is let God and Christ take over. Our job is merely to step out of the way, lower our pride, and let God work through us. That's been a miracle that I continue to keep seeing. So those are two of the big changes I've seen in myself on the mission. Anyways that's the week!"