Two stories

Some stories from Nate from last month. All of these letters from the missionaries constantly remind me how important it is to be in tune with the Spirit. To always be listening.

"We had a pretty cool experience about a week ago. I was on an exchange in Marysville 5th. We were with one of the district leaders and we were doing companionship study, doing training models and stuff, and the door rings at 9:15 in the morning. The girl upstairs wants to use our phone. We start talking to her and give her a quick first discussion and a copy of the Book of Mormon. She says she’s going to rehab in the morning and will have time to read. 10 minutes later, her boyfriend comes down and asks to use the phone. We asked him about his background and he said he reads the Bible for an hour and a half each day and he was open. So we gave him the Book of Mormon and introduced it and he said, “that is cool. I’ll probably read the whole thing.” He ended up reading the entire night. He said he was up from midnight till 6am reading. He said, “I’ve been reading all night and I can’t put the book down.” He had a whole page of questions he had from his reading. He had this note which said, “God opens doors no man can
close and closes doors no man can open. I’m still waiting for my door.” He had all these questions about the church. So we went over there with Elder Merrill and his companion and we taught him a first discussion and answered all his questions and talked to him and Autumn before they left. It was so cool. He is just so open and knows so much about the Bible. He’s 18 years old. But they’re in a really rough spot right now and so we’re helping them to understand more about it.

We went over to the McLaughlin’s a week ago (mom is a member but three children aren’t baptized: age 8, 10, 12) and John McLaughlin, the 12-year-old, was in the back yard playing a trombone. Elder Searcy played the trombone in high school. And I was like, “oh my gosh, it’s
perfect, a gift from heaven.” So Elder Searcy goes up and is talking to him and he’s giving him quick lessons. And we ended up teaching the coolest lesson in the world with this trombone. We talked about how when Christ had the church, it was perfectly established like the tuned trombone, but that over time things got switched around. So we pulled out the tuning slide and reversed it and put it back in. And when the prophet was gone, the mouthpiece was taken out. And then people changed this and that and a couple things got removed or changed on the trombone and it didn’t play anymore. Needless to say, it was a good lesson. All we need is motorcycles and trombones and we can hit it off with anybody. I can talk about motorcycles. Elder Searcy can talk about trombones and everything else we don’t know what we’re talking about, we can just fake it till we make it."

Amped Up

Here's a great story from one of Nate Packer's letters. I love the creativity and the idea that we need to be excited about the work. What can we do to get excited about our missionary work? I know a lot of us were just called to reach out to the singles' in our boundaries who don't attend our ward. Can we think of things that will get them excited to come to our ward?

We had zone conference on Wednesday last week. On the table we had hymn books stacked up making a mount and also an overhang for this WWII 90mm tank shell we got from the Army Navy store. We were over there the other day and I was thinking that for zone meeting the whole idea is to get everybody really excited and to get them amped to go out and work and to baptize people. And I was thinking about how we were all generals in God’s army in the re-existence and so I said, “What if we got everybody a metal of honor and they could wear it? So we snipped off the pins and grinded them off flush and they could be glued to the back of our tags. There’s 28 people in our zone, it’s a huge zone, so we got all the metals and organized them on top of hymn books, all different kind of WWII and Viet Nam metals. But anyway, we had the
cloth over the whole thing. The tank shell is like 3-feet long and weighs about 30 pounds. It’s like a full-on WWII anti-tank missile. It looks like a big bullet. So we asked, “What do you elders now about the war in heaven? “Who were you in the war in heaven?” And they’re like, “we were like lieutenants and officers and stuff.” And I was like, “No, you were all GENERALS. It was really cool and we want you all to remember who you are and who you were.” So we pulled off the sheet and everyone was standing up and looking at this tank shell and these little metals and they were all looking at it and laughing. On the side of the tank shell it’s wooden where the cartridge is, and we put the word “Baptizer” written on the side of it. It kind of works like the Stanley Cup. The best companionship in our zone that has the most impressive week gets the Baptizer for the whole week and they get to write their name on it and they get to have it in their apartment and take pictures with it and stuff. Then every week, each district leader nominates another companionship and then out of the three that are nominated, we choose the one that will get it. So everyone was really excited to get it. So we awarded it to a missionary and his companion. We passed it around to everyone and then gave it to him at the end and put his name on it. It was really cool and it got people pretty amped.

“This is all we have as missionaries. This is really like our power, our testimony. If we don’t have a testimony, we can’t do anything. But if we have a strong testimony, then we will be able to be really powerful.” And I said, “The bullet is like you and the amount of charge you have behind
it is your testimony and you can have as much or as little as you want, but that is what is really going to propel things and like this tank shell that can pierce another tank at two miles away, your testimony will be able to pierce all of the people that you talk to right to their center, just like Jesus Christ did when we came down from Heaven.”

Elder Wigginton's Address

Here's Elder Wigginton's address. Now we can all write him lots of letters! :)

Elder Jared Wigginton
P.O. Box 1052
Pointe-Noire
The Republic of Congo

And a fun picture of him with some bananas.


And Elder Packer's blog with his address and all of his letters.
http://www.missionsite.net/elderpacker/main

Change

Here are some bits from recent letters from Elder Packer and Elder Blue Star. They both make me think about how important it is that we are open to change and that we recognize the desire and ability to change in others. I think we all are trying to become better and help others become better too. I know that we can do it if we follow the examples of these great Elders and their great investigators!

"Jorg was very nervous that he would be unable to keep the commitment to follow Christ his whole life as he is 32 and has lots of set ways that he wanted to change but felt it would be very hard. Through the help of the Scriptures and the promise that he would receive heavenly aide through the Holy Ghost, he was able to overcome his fears and valiantly choose to enter the waters of baptism. I have a video that I attached of when he was just baptized in which he speaks of how he felt relieved of his old temptations and how great he feels. Very soon after the baptism, he left and went back to Holland. We received an email that he made it to church and the members ¨jumped for joy¨ when they received him. I am sure his talents and testimony will light up his branch in Holland and that Jorg will continue seeing miracles in his life thanks to his grand decision to choose the path of Christ.... the only path that leads to a fullness of everlasting joy." - Elder Blue Star


Jorg's Baptism








"We found a family a couple of nights ago, Nick and Crystal. We
actually found them about a week ago. We were tracting and this guy
was coming up the stairs and we said, “Hey, how’s it going?” He’s
like, “I just quit smoking,” and he was in a really bad mood and so we
gave him a pamphlet and said, “Cool, man,” and we started talking with
him and he said, “I gotta go,” and he just shut the door. So I’m like
“Ok. So I wrote in my planner that that guy was trying to make
changes. He’s quit smoking, so maybe he’ll like the gospel a lot. So
we went back over there a few days ago because I was thinking, if he’s
quitting smoking, then he’s a candidate for the gospel. So we went
over there and the guy was so cool. He was totally different because
he’s not trying to quit any more and he was in a much better mood. We
went over there last night and actually got in and taught him and his
wife Crystal and they are so cool." -Elder Packer

I love Elder Packer's story. He didn't push but he made a note to come back later. I love that the Spirit lets us know how to talk to people in the ways they need when they need.