Mormon Missionary Does "The Twist" While Others Watch

If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Yes, I am  transferring for what appears to be the last time. Who knows where I will end up? I had a feeling for a long time inside that I am being transferred and told my companion. He argued against it, saying that I was going to stay. Well, lo and behold, I am transferred.

Easter was great. I received my packages and I am grateful to have a backpack once more. Thank you for sending that and for the items and goods for Easter.

I had a good week some of it being interesting in its own right.

Monday, a member took us out to see the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was a beautiful museum that had actual ancient art and a mummy. Of course, there was modern art in there. I do not understand modern art; I understand the idea of abstracts and such, but I get nothing from it. Perhaps it is too simple for my complex thinking. There was amazing ancient Egyptian items. I loved the ancient Asian cultures and their various arts. I always find it beautiful. There were items from Africa and some of it was odd. I had a fun time. 

Asian Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

That night, we went to Goochland for
dinner. We checked up on the less active who had a Shiba Inu. He was actually lively and happy. That was good to see.

Tuesday, we had tracted one area. We went straight into the neighborhood where the president of the management was. She was actually friendly and just warned us. She knew what we were doing. We finished that area before we moved on. We went to another neighborhood that my companion felt good to go to visit. I was against it, because I did not feel right about it and it had been recently tracted. I usually leave areas alone that have been tracted recently, unless I feel prompted to go there. Not wanting to be a tyrant and going against it (though I have stated my opinion against this for a while), we went. One door and we were kicked out.

I felt impressed to tract in Goochland. We did; did not find anybody, but had a lot of success contacting people. That night, we went out to find a less active member whose address is given, but not her apartment number. It worked out, because we found her, though we never have actually seen her. Her roommate and neighbors helped point out where she lives. We will have to follow up soon.

Wednesday, we had a lesson with the investigator in Goochland who finds the Book of Mormon and the Bible too dark. We explained justice and mercy to her to help her to understand the things that she sees in the scriptures. She put up many, many boundaries, which did not allow us to strike at the heart of the issue. She loved her "Jesus books," which explains the ideas of Jesus and shows him to be more loving. We left on a good note, though, and we will return. We went over to the Bible study host's house to help put down his kitchen floor. There was no Bible study, but lots of good service. He now has a kitchen floor after a year and a half of not having one. It was a really good time.

Thursday was the interesting day. As I was get dressed, I heard my companion say something, but did not understand. When I finished my task, I got out of the bathroom to notice the door was open. I did not know what was going on nor did my own companion. Well, as it turned out to be (and this is the honesty of the situation), Elder Clifford's companion was going to the temple that day since he was going home. The zone leaders, who are in a trio (the third member of the companion is dubbed "the zone baby" and is not a zone leader), were planning to have one of them go with Elder Clifford and the other two stay in their own area. But, the third member of the zone leaders (the zone baby) had to be in Washington D.C. as well for medical purposes for the day. Not wanting to pass the chance of going to D.C., the zone leaders asked Elder Clifford where he would like to go for the day. He chose my area, so we ended up with Elder Clifford for the day, though the zone leaders did not tell us. So, to our surprise, Elder Clifford was with us for the day. We did some finding that day and found a Chinese woman. We stated that we were missionaries, or teachers. Thinking that we were actually teachers, she was excited to have a lesson. Well, by the end of it, partially due to our language barrier, she told us that we needed to go back to school. One thing that I find interesting to note is that she had the basic questions of life as a little girl, but when she went to school in China, they answered those questions for her. She "believes in science."

Bingo that day was interesting and thank goodness Elder Clifford was with us. The activities committee for the place were either out of town or taking care of their own sick people. That left Mama in charge of bingo and us to help out.

It was a rough beginning, because there was contention over the cards and what people wanted and such. Elder Jensen was the one calling the numbers, because I thought he would be the loudest and I thought he could entertain the people. The elderly still had a hard time hearing him. "B 14!" "Did he say B 44?" "B 14!" "What!?" It went well and there no more contentions after that.

We had a lesson that night with the part member family and tried to get the wife more involved. We were able to understand her background some more.

Friday, we had a zone meeting. We went over to our ten year old investigator's home to teach him, but we had to wait until that night. When we arrived, he was playing Mortal Kombat with his mother. It was obvious that we were going to go nowhere with that. 

We had more service to do at the health center. They were having an Easter social and were understaffed, which was why we helped. I was in the kitchen-like area, preparing food. My companion was checking up on the people, seeing if there was help to do. At one point, the man playing music and singing, decided to do his own rendition of the song that goes along with the dance "the Twist." This one person, who can still walk and such, got up and started to do the twist. My companion was near by and she was like, "Dance with me!" Not wanting to turn her down, he did start to dance, though not with her per say. I was laughing, but it was good to see. 

We did return that night to our ten year old investigator's house to teach him. Candy does indeed work wonders; he seemed to focus a lot more. Little coincidence there.

Saturday, we finished our planning for the coming week. We headed over to watch conference. I was surprised to not have President Monson welcome everybody, though I understood, beyond health, why he did, in a sense, welcome everybody on Sunday. President Boyd K. Packer spoke during that session and he gave a really good talk; it was really a good talk. I enjoyed Elder Dallin H. Oaks and others that morning session as well. When it came time for Saturday afternoon session, I was really looking forward to it. Like probably everybody that did not know what was going to go down, I was shocked to hear the "opposeds." It is saddening to see. I could not help, but think of a video I saw recently in the Doctrine and Covenants church videos. In this particular video, it involved the early days of the church and defecting apostles due to hearts hardened. It was talking about Lyman Johnson and Thomas B. Marsh. At one point, Lyman Johnson and others met in the temple to call somebody else as prophet and to denounce Joseph Smith as prophet. Brigham Young was there and openly rebuked all who were there. He told them that only they could destroy their authority and stated, "Cut the threads that bind you to the prophet and sink your souls to hell." The reasoning behind why they did what they did does not matter; they were allowed to do so and they made their opinion known. The apostles handled it quite well, especially President Uchtdorf. What matters for us is to continue to strengthen our own faith and to sustain the prophet, not just by raising our hand, but following his counsel. If we know that President Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet of today and that God speaks to us through him, then what else matters?

Before priesthood session, I took Elder Jensen out to eat and yes, used personal funds. I got the call seven minutes before priesthood. Priesthood was great. I really enjoyed it, especially Elder Ballard's talk. I really enjoyed that talk. Sunday, the sessions were great. It is so amazing to hear three new temples announced. I loved Elder Holland's and Elder Neil L. Andersen's talks. They were truly touching. More especially touching is Elder Brent H. Nielson's talk, because it was so personal and for us (you and I), it really hit home. I cannot help but say, I hope you listened to that talk. If not, watch it and watch it again. I absolutely love President Uchtdorf, who after one of the Spanish Seventies gave his talk, he got up and started speaking in German. That was truly funny.

I have to review these sessions of conference. For me, what stuck out is there was a lot of advice for return missionaries. I am staying focused, but it is good to hear such advice that I may be able to "stay weird" as Elder Bednar said last year to us missionaries. 

On Sunday, I said good bye to Mama and other families. It was great.

It has been a good week. I have pushed things along and blazed the trail for growth here. Great things will happen.

On to the next trail to blaze. All is well. Tout va bien.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Got Eye Drops?

Monday, May 27, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

We just got done with lunch. We had helped with the food bank today which was slow, awfully slow. And this Tuesday P-day made life a bit interesting. We had the food bank and another service project.

With a new person in the house (his parents are renting his bedroom for a while), it will take time to get adjusted. Lots of time; patience will be what will carry you.

It sounds like you have had fun with Sean (his older brother). Reagan (his niece) looks taller. They are all getting older. Thank you for the packages. I was not expecting much, but I got a lot. We nearly got something for one of us each day of the week. It was really nice and I appreciated it.

Thank you for giving my congratulations (to the graduating class of his former high school, Lemoore, Middle College High School). It was quite nice. Keep up the work, Dad. The reason I say that is I know you are doing well.

I have no idea why we do not have tablets or how they will be used, but some day, maybe. I am not too concerned. One companion I had has a case already. I am not overly anxious.

It has yet to storm today. It has been sunny. We had a tornado warning and it was sunny. But in other places, I believe, a tornado did hit. Oh, and an earthquake hit. It was a small one, a 3.2. A very small one, according to this Californian. I did not feel it for I was on exchanges in Midlothian when it occurred. It was my companion's first earthquake and apparently, it shook our whole entire building. 

Monday, it was zone P-day  (preparation day). I tried to get into it, but it just was not the same. Regardless, I did have a bit of a good time. Not much else happened that day other than we had a great dinner with a member.

Tuesday, it was another day at the food bank. It was a bit more than we had today. We stopped by our blind less active and nothing really happened there. We went out with one of the priests and saw a few people. We saw one investigator who we cannot otherwise stop by (single female) and she does not remember much from last time. She just wanted to talk. We had dinner with this one young family. There was something that the wife said that I just wanted to help, but nothing really formulated in the way of an idea until Wednesday. We went to another of our less actives and taught her the scriptures.

Wednesday, we had another district meeting and I went to Midlothian for the day. I was with the district leader and we went out and saw a recent convert. It was hard to stay awake. We went tracting and had fun with this one person who asked us different questions. We tried a few potentials and was able to meet with one. That person stayed silent until the end. I ended up talking a lot, which was odd. I had not realized that until now. I never talk as much as I did. At a member's house for dinner, we talked with them. It just hit me like a load of bricks. I realized what I could do for the member that I talked to on Tuesday. And the rest of the night, I was with the district leader and the ward (congregation) mission leader for Midlothian while they had their ward correlation meeting.

Thursday, we saw our 87 year old investigator. She is a really neat person who has accomplished much. She could open doors when and if she gets baptized. It is a really big, yet tender situation and I am trying to not let it get too big in my head. All I will say is that Thursday, she was ready to drop us. She felt overwhelmed by the Book of Mormon, but while being there, she felt the Spirit. She opened up. She wanted to continue to meet with us. She told us some of her life stories. We really did not say much. The Spirit is really strong around her and is working hard with her. There is no denying that. She was quite grateful that we were patient, gentle, and understanding with her. She was glad we listened. We were there for three hours on her porch. The rest of Thursday, not much else happened. We contacted several people who we had previously had trouble contacting, except for one, our investigator of whom is still smoking (if he would allow them they have a successful program for quiting smoking) and is avoiding us.

Friday, a member couple took us out for lunch. It was a lot of fun. We talked with one of our investigators that day as well. She likes her church community, but she likes us. Not much happened, because she and I were not big friends with Mr. Wasp who kept on flying around us. My companion could care less. We tracted that day and tried to see other people. Not much luck.

Saturday, we helped with somebody's yard. I used a weed eater to cut a big section of their grass. We tracted with the district leader and his companion. We found a lot of potentials. It was good, except everybody was cutting their grass that day. And after dinner, we helped cut somebody's grass, our less active who we teach scriptures. Saturday could also be called allergy day. My right eye itched and I was sneezing. I was glad to have eye drops and after doing it so many times.  (I still hate eye drops, yet I can tolerate them now.)

Sunday, after church, we had a linger longer. It was a lot of fun. We stopped by and talked to the former bishop to give his mother the sacrament. Then, we had dinner.

Monday, we helped with another yard and this for the ward organist who cannot do much unless he wants to get shocked by his heart defibrillator again. And again, we helped the less active who we teach the scriptures. Her sliding glass door shattered. Lots of glass that had to be picked up.

I realized a few things this past week. One is the Bible, I get so fired up reading it. If you actually read it, whether it be in order or not, and actually pay attention, you will pick up on the fact that there needs be an apostasy and that God's church has prophets and apostles. You see that Paul warned that the leaders would be corrupt (in Acts) and that the word of God was corrupted by some (in 2 Corinthians). Reading the Bible and trying to understand it, despite its old, old English, you begin to pick up insights. Using context clues and main ideas, certain things can be picked up on. Take, for example, baptisms for the dead. Paul was not renouncing it, but rather, he was saying that if Jesus was resurrected and we also will be resurrected, then we must do baptisms for the dead. Some things bug me a lot for some reason when I read the Bible. You could say I feel like Wilford Woodruff and Robert Mason studying the Bible and seeing what things consist of God's true church. And maybe this is because I am a Mormon and a missionary, but regardless, it is something that can be picked up on.

I also realized that there are two things I should master. One is fear. I cannot explain that one, other than I feel it should be something I should master. Two, and more importantly, getting upset. I am not as upset as I have been in the past. What is weird, that I have noticed and others have noticed, is that my performance peaks when I am angry or upset. My communication improves, I think a lot more quickly, and I get more passionate. So, I figure I should master righteous anger (if there is such a thing) and control it, rather than let anger control me. I feel right about this. How, I have no idea. I just get the ideas.

All is well! In a great mood, more especially after ranting about the Bible.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

As They Walked and Walked and Walked . . .

Monday,  January 27, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Thanks for the those crime stories. (Two young girls were kidnapped from a meetinghouse in this area, molested, and left stranded, Also, near Seth's home town, a bishop was shot and killed in the meetinghouse. Surely there were pictures of Jesus on the walls.of both buildings) I honestly could use them. Why? Well, it turns out that I am the only one that likes the door locked as well as the windows. It frustrates them, but it frustrates me even more that they do not realize how un-invincible they are. I keep on locking the door, especially when it is night and when we leave. They can deal with it for all that I care. Why? Like you pointed out, a picture of Jesus is not going to do anything. And it keeps us safe and the house protected. Criminals, unless they are really after our stuff, are not going to break a window or bust down a locked door, because they do not want to get caught. But, I can only point out facts and do wish I could share some more facts on safety. But, that is that. I am stubborn, a little bull-headed at times, but I know when something is right. I am hanging in there.

I am glad to hear that you received my testimony of Jesus Christ. I still have to send some out to other family members. For Christmas, in Fredericksburg, I used a copy of my testimony plus a plate of cookies and sweets to give to certain members. It was nice to give that to them. 

I am also glad you understand about my views of criminal justice. I have been warned by people, especially you two, about the risks of the job and, by my companion, the risks of psychology. To me, I am, as I am realizing, about law, justice, order, and mercy. I know what God wants me to do in life as in career. I know who God wants me to be. I will listen to what people have to say, but I will always have to remember what God wants me to do. And you mentioned conversion. For the nearly 7 months I have been out, I have been trying to focus on the people and how to help them. But, in a way, with my studies and with what I have been learning, I honestly having been learning about- forgive me, Dad- being converted and consecrating myself to God. I am accepting what God wants me to do, but some areas I could improve. Such is life and I have the next fleeting 17 months to learn some more. I may not change my interests, but I think my character will change. I honestly feel as though the first six months were battles against the adversary and what I am now expecting for who knows how long (well, except God) that my character will be tried.

This week was ouch. Yeah, we had snow, but it was downhill from there. I am keeping optimistic and keep on improving. At times in life, we have those weeks that are seriously downhill. This is definitely one of those weeks. The back tire on my bike is flat again and I basically said to my companion, "I will get a new tube." So, today, I get to buy myself a tube as well as a much needed crescent wrench in order to get the back wheel off. I am just hoping my bike does not need a special tube, which I do not think it does. We will see. I am only hoping, because my companion currently hates my bike and is tired of walking. First few days, walking in the snow, yeah, it was rough, but I got used to it. I know he will not be happy if I have to order a tube. 

When it snowed, it was great, because for a few hours, we got snow shovels and shoveled people's driveways. (Oh, the life of a missionary!) It was mostly in secret. Mostly. Some people came out and said thanks. Or they wanted to pay us, which we refused. Sometimes, we helped someone that was doing their driveway. One of them wanted to take us to the recruiter's office. It was so much fun to do that. 

We have been tracting a lot. Appointments have fallen through due to illnesses and such. To top off our week, two investigators dropped us. One due to disinterest, though he was honestly seeking a church and God. Another due to her boyfriend who caused havoc for her when she talked about the Mormons. It was probably best for her to drop us, because she does not work and she has a child with him.

And then, as we were tracting, we got a call to help someone from one of the members. These members are honestly kind and I really like them. But, it was a waste of time. They let us in, fed us, and, oh, we were not needed. Still, I do thank them for their kindness. 

Oh and one of my pockets on one of my shirts nearly fell off. It was my only shirt for today, so I spent time sewing it. It went okay. My stitiching or whatever looks okay, but, uh, the white thread is apparently magical. I used the sewing kit that I got from home and used- and I know I did use it- white thread. Well, it magically turned pink on my shirt, so I have a pink string that slightly bled. Time to do laundry.

Also, we had interviews with President Wilson this past weekend. My interview was short, but he told me something that put a dent in my New Testament study. I cannot use the institute manual, not even for reference. (Even though the manual is published by the church, the reading material is restricted to what they are called to teach.) Now, mind you, I do not have the manual, but I was looking at it online for the scriptural references to put everything in chronological order. Well, no more. I definitely cannot infringe on people's agency who say things, "Oh, did you read about such and such event in Christ's life found in such and such gospel and also this gospel, in these chapters and verses? Also, then Christ did this, in such and such gospels, chapter, and verses," and I definitely do not know where they got such material. Now, I do understand there is the harmony of the gospels, but I am having a hard time correlating it with how far in my study I am in and I cannot just undo what I have done. Something is not matching up and I got so far as the marriage in Cana and a bit after that. So, I am a bit stuck there and I cannot progress. (As his dad, I will help him in my letters as my letters are not restricted.)

No word on the iPads that so many people are waiting for here. I bring up, because my companion told me that a girl he knows that is serving in Arizona has iPads and they are strictly iPads which means no paper scriptures at all; especially, for personal study. I hope that does not happen here, because then that will not be fun, especially with how much effort I have put into my paper scriptures. Who knows? I will wait for that time. (I doubt that he will have to forfeit his paper scriptures as some people do not take to reading electronic devices.)

Plus, have you watched the Bible Videos, the Life of Jesus Christ? They are so amazing. I recommend them, plus they chose a really good person to portray the Savior. I hope they keep on producing them. I especially like the Resurrected Jesus, because they did so excellent. My companion keeps on saying that this Jesus is better than the Finding Faith in Christ, Jesus. But, I really think they did an excellent job. (www.mormonchannel.org)

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd