You Can Believe That Good Things Will Come

The words of the Master help us to understand
that His will is more about doing things
as He does and would have us do.

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

May 26, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

It has been a good eight days. We have been pushing forward in doing the things of the Lord.

Monday, we headed off to elders' p-day, where the elders of the zone gathered together to play sports. Elder Hansen wanted to do that, because he liked the elders here. We had dinner with a member family that day. Elder Hansen said good bye to people. We were a bit late getting home, unfortunately, because we ran into a homeless man, who wanted to keep on talking to us.

Tuesday. Elder Day and I sent Elder Hansen off; we said our good byes. Elder Hansen is now near Powhatan, but not in Powhatan. 

After sending him off, we headed to the library to complete a survey that needed to be done in preparation

for the coming of some of the General Authorities. We headed home after that to have lunch and prepare for a member to pick us up to go to our lesson to the one lady whose son was blessed by missionaries. Well, when the member arrived, he turned off his car and started to come to us. When we went back, the car would not start. So, we took him to our car and drove off to the lesson.This member shared his own conversion story and some of his wife's (his wife is the Gospel Principles teacher); the investigator absolutely loved it. We were able to discuss some of the Plan of Salvation and invited to baptism. She did not accept, but she did not turn us down either. She also promised us to read the pamphlets we had given her. We were quite excited for these developments. 

After our lesson with this woman, we headed off to the church where we met the one less active, who we were given. I cannot figure what is his story and what is, in a sense, behind him. We talked to him for a while and helped him to understand more about the Book of Mormon. He appreciated it. After that lesson, we headed back to the member's car to jump start it. It was not necessary; somehow the terminal on the battery came loose. It was easy to fix and the car worked again. Later that night, we checked up on the family whose kids love us and the father loves us, but the mother, who we did not get to have a discussion with, is not that interested. She told us that she will call when she is ready. We will have to put that family on the back-burner, unfortunately. We checked up on the less active who has been struggling with life and with coming to church. He is in pain a lot of the time, but we keep on encouraging him. He is making progress in some ways, but still struggles.

Wednesday. We tried the one new investigator who is a young engaged mother, who gave time to have us over. She was not home. We tried to do many things that day. What ended up happening is that we visited the members, including Dan the Man, in the health center, retirement home place. With the one recent convert there, we read the Book of Mormon and she got to know us. She acted as if we were new, though we had visited with her multiple times with Elder Hansen.

Thursday, we had interviews with President Wilson. After him, we went to the hospital to visit on somebody that our investigator (the one we saw on Tuesday) asked us to go see. It took a while, and somewhat of a learning experience for us, to get in to see him; we prayed with him. He did not want a blessing, though we offered. We had lunch and did some planning before we saw the one investigator, whose son was blessed by missionaries. She actually read the pamphlets; some of it stuck, some of it I am not sure if it did. She has been running into what we term "deep doctrine," or the meat of the gospel. We help avoid going into depth and focus more on the basics. (For how can you understand the meat when you cannot understand the basics? How can you understand the flower without?) (It is not that we don't want to talk about difficult subjects but gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel will help. Some questions, no matter what the subject, must be put on a shelf until we are ready to understand the answers.) We encouraged her to discover her own testimony and emphasized salvation and spiritual self-reliance on God answering her prayers. We were a bit concerned on some of the things she said, but I trust the Lord that things will resolve themselves. Later that night, we checked up on the one family who needs to come to church and came at least once (up to this point; they have again come to church). I realize even more the importance of centering the family on the gospel and the principles of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." Without these founding principles and constantly improving ourselves, the family will encounter difficulties; it does not mean the family will automatically fall apart, but it means that there will be that need for extra effort to keep things together.

Friday, we planned. We decided to look at the entire picture of the transfer; we had transfer goals and transfer goals for our investigators. We now see where we want to be and where we want our investigators and less active and recent convert members to be. It is a big push to help things to go forward and to help ourselves to have a focus. Planning was not the only thing we did, but anything else, nothing really happened. Saturday, we finished that plan and completed our progress record. We visited our investigator who is a young mother, not engaged, but with the father. We simply got to know her, know what is important to her, and how we can help her. Honesty appears to be the key. We visited with the less active who is in pain; we set up a plan to help him to get to church. We visited with the one less active who reminds me a bit of my brother. He knows where he wants to be and where he wants his family to be. To begin this, he needs to come to church.

Sunday, before we had meetings, we ensured that the member who is in pain woke up. Then, we headed to our meetings. The drama student of Ms. Mary, who can be dramatic (who is the dramatic recent convert), called us, because she is somewhere else and is afraid to go to church (for a reason) and was wondering what to do. We did what we could do under the time constraints we had due to meetings. We then had correlation; we had ward council, but we could not attend. Luckily, things in ward council were positive and constructive. Meanwhile, we took the member who is in pain to church; we had permission from some of our leaders to do this. It has been hard to set up rides, but hey, the ward, (congregation) I notice, is putting in effort, which helps us out. And our investigator, whose son was blessed, came to church. Church was great and she loved it; she thought it was very, very caring and she did not feel alone. Also, topics mentioned or talked about in church included, but not limited to: Exaltation, temples, eternal families, Adam was baptized, animals are resurrected, we came from intelligences, and your baptism did not have the priesthood authority (bluntly stated). I make mention of this, because it was very, very interesting. We were afraid of what she might think, but she loved it.

Monday, we did some finding. We talked to our investigator, whose son was blessed and who came to

church. She asked about the temples, she asked a few other questions. She has a desire to be baptized. We went over the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraged her to gain a testimony and to be rooted in that. We told her we focus on the basics, so that we have solid foundation as to what occurs. She is definitely trying to understand things.  I know when she has that testimony and gains that witness from the Spirit, nothing else matters. We had another lesson that day with a new investigator. His family is the family who needs to come to church and has started coming back to church. He has gone through the lessons, but we started over to help check his understanding. We also asked him to read the Book of Mormon. I see much good coming from him, though it did not seem apparent at the time.

Elder Day and I are moving forward in the work. We are pushing forward. I am reminded of how much time I have left (not that I think about it). I am going to do all that I can to push and go forward.

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

#VirginiaRichmondMission

A Redhead, A Brunette, and A Blonde . . .

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. -Albert Einstein







Monday, April 27, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

God has a sense of humor; it is something than one of my companions pointed out this past week. Remember those old jokes, "A redhead, a brunette, and a blonde ..." Here we are as a trio and we realized that we are that joke.  Elder Hansen is the redhead, Elder Day is the blonde, and I am the brunette.


Anyway, I hope that Sean received my card before his birthday. It is good to hear that he is doing well. It sounds like he had a good birthday.




I have been doing well. From stake (similar to a diocese) conference, I learned a lot, particularly some personal revelation. I feel calm as a summer's day about what will happen next. I have no idea what will happen after I return, but I feel trust and faith in God and His plan. For now, I am going to continue to push forward. One of my companions has been down trodden and the other is a bit tired, but we will help each other along.


This week we pushed really hard and seen some good things. It has been truly good.

Monday, we had dinner with the recent convert and his family; the recent convert is the man who was baptized when I had arrived. We started the new member lessons with him. Not much else happened that night. 

Tuesday, we went out with a member who is helping us to visit less actives that are inaccessible due to our

mileage limitation. We took him to a lesson with a man who has cancer. He loves to talk and talk. We were able to get to know him and what he needed. We talked about faith, hope, and charity. We are sure that it helped him out. We saw some other people; one person was experiencing divorce and had been offended by members. The member spoke to her-- he also being offended by members-- and pleaded with her to return. It was obvious that she was touched. I hope that she remembers that. After going about various places in our boundaries, we met up with one of the Ms. Mary students, the one whom I have mentioned before. She recently went back to her home and we asked her how that went (since she is a Mormon while her family is not). She is still strong and pushing forward. Later that night, we visited with this woman who lives in a health center. She, also a recent convert, talked to us about different things in her life. It was good to know her a bit more.

Wednesday rolled around. We finished off the area book and completed separating all of the records. We had to go to Wal-Mart, because Elder Day has been suffering from allergies. That has been going on plus plenty of illness. I feel a bit sick this morning, but I will get better. My allergies have not been kicking in as last year when I wanted to be rid of my eyes. I think my body adapted to the climate and pollen. Hopefully. We had an appointment with a less active man; he had forgotten about it and wanted to meet another time. Another
appointment we had fell through. We checked up on this referral from a couple of weeks ago. This referral is an elderly man (in his 90s); we had helped his daughter move some furniture from his place. We visited him and afterwards, we felt that he was prepared. It is matter of easing him into the idea of investigating. He has not expressed interest in learning more, but he has not declined. The things he said indicated preparedness to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Later that night, we checked up on a referral and scheduled for the morning on Saturday.

Thursday, we had district meeting. The zone leaders were there and they wanted to go on exchanges (for two hours) with us. Hmm... I wonder why. Possibly because one of the zone leaders, Elder Denning, wanted to come with me to be my companion again, just as he "prophesied." (He said that we would be companions in the end and said that these exchanges fulfilled that. I guess we can go with that as consideration of fulfillment.) So, after district meeting, I went with Elder Denning to go finding. First door we knock on we are let in. We talked to this lady, who seemed a bit off. She is Christian and knows things in the Bible, though she depends on what other people say. She explained all the strange things that have been happening to her. I knew where we needed to go with her; we set up for an appointment for tomorrow to talk about those things. She took up our time for these exchanges. 

We had dinner that night with a mother and her young daughter; the young daughter is our investigator who expressed interest in baptism. We went over to not only have dinner, but to teach her. She was not willing to listen, despite our attempts, and eventually quit altogether. We taught the principles, but it did not go too well. Perhaps we need to change things for her. Later that night, we checked up on a family who is always busy to come to church. We reminded them of their baptismal covenants and encouraged them to come to church. They realize it; they realize where they want their family. Some members of their family have desires to be baptized. It is a matter of being motivated.

Friday, we went to our appointment with our strange lady. She expressed that she was not interested, because she was going to have her own Bible study with somebody else. We talked to her about the Atonement and our trials in life-- something she needed-- but she was not willing to listen. The Spirit was not there, despite our efforts. We went home, had lunch, and weekly planned. We had our appointment with the less active man of Wednesday change to earlier and so we went off to visit him at his mother's apartment. He had some questions on his mind, which involved his situation. All I can say is this: He at one point had the Spirit with him, but he began to doubt and came to Satan's trap. His testimony nearly withered away, even nearly casting away the idea of a God. We began to help him, so he could come back to the point. He had not been to church in a long while, but was moving forward until his situation occurred. We are going to help him progress by helping him to feel the Spirit once more.

That night we had a lesson with a Ms. Mary student, who is another recent convert. She is moving to Texas soon. We taught her a few principles before it was time for us to go. Well, we were stuck in the place we were meeting, because a swarm of elderly people came in. I had no idea where they came from, so I was like, "Where did all these elderly people come from? Did they crawl out of the sewers?" My companions laughed. (Perhaps too much Super Mario?)

Saturday, we had a lesson with the referral contacted on Wednesday. He wanted his kids taught, so we taught the Restoration simply. It was good. By the end, the father, who we had talked to and was the original referral, had said that he and his family needed to get back into church. He definitely expressed interest. We are excited to meet with this family again. We had lunch with some members. We did the progress record. (And be thankful that it is not raining, because the Internet was down when it rained on Saturday.) Then, we had a lesson with the mother, who has a kid, and needed to get to church. SHE PROGRESSED! She had changed her job, which, with her shift, will enable her to come to at least sacrament meeting. She stated that she knew the Book of Mormon was true and she bore testimony of God. Now, she needs to come to church and get married. One step at a time. We had to visit the one woman in the health center, because she needed to be updated on her ride. We also visited our crazy man who told jokes during church.

Sunday, we had the stake conference broadcast. It was great and I will get to that. For the rest of the day, we went out and tried to find people. Not much happened in the day, except a lesson with the elderly man who has an 8 year old son. He expressed that he was not going to change.

So, stake conference broadcast, Elder Larry S. Kacher talked; he spoke about being truly converted to the gospel. He even told of a Muslim man who went to a district in that part of the world and was baptized, despite knowing the costs. Elder Kacher shared some parts of his letter. Sister Linda Reeves spoke about repentance and being truly clean. Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke about being a witness of Christ. Elder Robert D. Hales spoke about faith and strengthening our family. He repeated this counsel, "Never shut the door of your heart to any of your children."

I loved it. I realize the need to have balance in my life, wherein I can be a faithful member. Spirituality is a characteristic that I find that is most important in my life. I love having a relationship with God. I plan on living my faith and acting and applying on what I believe. People have their agency and I respect that. At USC, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "He who once was our enemy can become our friend." It is important for me to understand people and accept them for who they are.

My questions that I pose (as given by Elder Kacher) are: What does it mean to be truly converted? Do you cherish the things of the gospel?

All is well! Tout va bien!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Introspection: Accepting Who I Am

And ye shall be holy men unto me. . . 

                                          -Exodus 22:31 

    For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.  -Mosiah 3:19

Monday, January 12, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

I am getting the picture, or at least the message God seems to be sending me. I have had you, wife of the members upstairs, and our single mother investigator tell me, in essence, the same thing. Everyone has been telling me the same thing. I have a lot of potential, yet I do not see it.

I have changed a lot and not into the person I had envisioned myself at the very beginning. At one time, I envisioned a person who was a person who could be a talker, a person who can be noticed. Yet, through the mission, I have accepted that I am not a talker. In fact, I love to be quiet. Quiet, to me, gives me an anchor, a place inside myself to pray to God and to rely on God. I love to listen. I have learned that I have a strong, stalwart soul. I am a person with determination with gentleness in heart. I often thought it was weakness, but it is strength. I am a man of belief. I love reading the Law of Moses, not only because of the aspect of law, but also of the moral principles that extend to principles of the higher law. When I say a man of belief and then discuss the law of Moses, I point the fact that I look for moral principles, a cause to defend religion in general. I hope this all makes sense.

I do have lots of knowledge. I rather not brag that I am smart. I have much more to learn. I have felt shunned because I have knowledge.

I am serious about changing my music that I like to hear. I am absolutely in love with Bollywood, folk songs from different cultures, operas, musicals, music from 30's and 40's and some from the 50's, and the other things. I know I will have to watch less shows than I did when I was home. Yes, television has been, in the past, time to take a breather from stress. I will have to watch less now. I have to strike that balance. I have to make sure I read my scriptures. I have to make sure I pray often. I have to make sure that I am obedient. I have realized how I am dependent on God and I cannot lose the relationship I have with Him.

I am afraid to offend you. I made mistakes before and I have been yelled at for them. I do not respond to yelling and I cannot stand yelling. I cannot stand the fighting that goes on. I have been afraid to tell you that I have lost things on the mission. But, here it goes. I lost the hats that I had; I am mad about losing the hat I got last year. But, this year I received ear muffs and they will do. I think the worst that you would see, but what I learned to be a blessing, is that I lost my electric shaver charger. Yeah, I did. But, the good news I use a manual razor now, which is quite excellent. It allows me to remove my finer hairs on my face, which the electric shaver could not get, no matter how much force I put into it. So, blessing in disguise; no more peach face. (Yes there has been discord at home. At times, he has made some upsetting mistakes but nothing of a serious nature. There are things we wish he could do better. There are things, so many things he has accomplished and done well. He is absolutely right about the razor. Getting rid of the peach fuzz with a razor blade is a dream come true. No more baby face. Ear muffs won't do. We will expect that he keeps his entire head warm in Virginia's cold weather.)

So, now these deep feelings have gone out and I have confessed what I have lost, it is due time to tell you a few important items. I found those different language Book of Mormon books in the apartment here. Oh, did you look at the audio book? Did you see the letter? I am not concerned, I find it interesting. Now, for the main item of business. Yes, I am being transferred. And so is my companion. Yep, it has happened again. So, where I go, I will find out tomorrow.

Monday, after our P-day, we had a lesson with a man who we had not seen in a month. He was asleep when we knocked, but he allowed us to come in. We taught the Plan of Salvation. He seemed alright with the ideas and concepts. He did not object, but it seemed evident by his conduct at the end, when he gave his two cents. I do not remember what he said.

Tuesday, we saw the recent convert who lives down in King William. My companion and him get along, a lot. So, when we were teaching him one of the new member lessons, he and my companion went off into many tangents. Some about orange juice, some about tomatoes. The recent convert is an excellent man and he has a great understanding of the gospel. He definitely is hungering after the word. Our appointment that night with the man who I am still wondering how much he understands fell through. But, he progressed last week, which was great. He remembered concepts, which is a step in the right direction. We were able to find that out through some questions we asked. (An important step in teaching as well as conversion is to check for understanding and if necessary to reteach. This hopefully will avoid future misunderstandings.)

Wednesday, we had district meeting. I shared a spiritual thought from Exodus 22:31 and connected it to Mosiah 3:19. To me, it spoke about the contrast of the holy and carnal, which is greatly expounded in

Mosiah 3:19. (Side note: I love the law of Moses. It is great. I realize that is a very just form of law, but couple it with human nature, you receive a law that can easily fall into error. To me, in order for the judges or rulers to use this law, they have to rely and have dependence on God.)

We moved furniture into a new apartment here in Tappahannock for the branch is about to receive Spanish speaking missionaries. (English speaking missionaries will replace us.) That took some time. We went from there to home to an appointment we had in Warsaw (the sisters handed somebody to us) and then to the church for the appointment fell through. We were able to check on the person who is on date. He had come home from the hospital, but the very next day, he went back for tests for about ten days. He did have a stroke and his eyesight is blurry. He was weak when we saw him. He could not read, but I remembered that we had the Book of Mormon on CD. So we went to retreive it and gave it to him. The senior couple gave him a discman to use.

Thursday, we did not have much success this day.

Friday, we planned. All day. We decided that we would do a more effective planning session, so that we would have more effective lessons. Well, we will not see the results of it, but I loved doing it.

Saturday, we saw our investigator who I am not sure how much he understands. We taught him some more things. He is actually deciding which church he needs to go to. He is progressing. We saw our single mother investigator with some members. It was a great lesson for the most part of it. We taught her about discipleship. We had a good discussion. We felt as though we resolved her concern about hyprocrisy in churches in general. Then, she turned the tables on me. My companion and I did not know what to do. It was awkward. How did she do that? Well, she started discussing myself, about how I have great potential. She said that I would adjust well while my companion would have a hard time. We received our calls while at her house.

Sunday. My companion and I gave a talk. We were given this assignment on Saturday at 6:00 at night.  I wrote mine out, at least to how much I could write out. I did not have a lot of time to construct much. We were assigned to talk on missionary work. (Surprising, right?) More importantly, member missionary work.

I decided to write my talk as if I was in a one on one conversation. I told them that they were the same as I, but they had a power greater than I. I told them to expect miracles and to have courage. Then, I told them three examples from White Oak, Powhatan, and Appomattox involving three of my investigators and member missionary efforts. I told them they had the power of being a friend, of being an example. I invited them to invite their friends, coworkers, and if all options were exhausted, then pray for missionary opportunities. I invited them to get to know our investigators and to invite them into their homes. It was good.

Not much happened that day. We spent a lot of time with the members upstairs.

Alles wohl!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

I Deliberately Sneezed! - éternuer - niesen - чхати - nyse - עֲטִישָׁה - чихать

An LDS missionary, somewhere in Virginia, deliberately sneezes.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Let me begin with my back situation. I go to the doctor and I am in the room immediately. He comes in and asks me the story of what is wrong with back, what happened, etc. I told him what has occurred since July and about how sneezing made it worse. 

Now get this, he asked me, "You just randomly sneezed?" 

Sarcastic Answer: "No, doctor, I deliberately sneezed." 

(Do not worry, I said yes and not the sarcastic answer.) After getting my story, he walks over to me-- mind you, I am on that bench, bed thing and my legs are at 90 degrees-- and straightens my leg to 180 degrees. Then, he asked me where it hurts, which, of course, my leg and back were on fire at that point. I am also sure he could tell that I was in pain when my eyes nearly bulged out from him straightening my leg. (And if I was not in pain at that point, then I sure was and there after.) Once discovering that, he tells me he will be right back. 

Time passes and he comes back in with another doctor. My diagnosis? Herniated disc. Tomorrow, I get to go back to the hospital and get an MRI that will show where my herniated disc is and if I actually have one. Once confirmed, I get to consider treatment options. Do not worry or panic. The doctor is good, despite the silly questions and inflicting pain. It is me. I still do not like doctors and I have my reasons for that.

That is good about my driver's license. (His renewal can be done online.) I remember last time, I believe, before I left we did try to extend it. They just said that I would have to wait. At least we have made progress in that regard. 

It sounds like my dog is who she is and trying to make friends. Keep an eye on her, please, as I know you have been doing.

My week was good. On Monday, we Met the Mormons ("Meet the Mormons" showing in theaters but privately shown to missionaries.) before I came to email. With that movie, we are not allowed to be near theaters or watch it in theaters. For us missionaries, they still wanted us to see it, to talk about it with members. It is a good little film that shows 6 actual members living the gospel standards. Some break the ideas that people have of Mormons. Some show how we benefit those around us. I definitely liked it. Our lunch appointment that day turned into a dinner appointment. We also finished with combing through the potential records. The potential records are officially divided and we have started going through our list. No success so far.

Tuesday, we had some cleaning to do and we tackled a closet and organized it. We also tried seeing one of our less actives, but it did not turn out. We tried contacting a few other people, but it did not turn out, except for one. One person answered the door (a less active) and she did not let us in, but did tell us what days are best for her and her non-member husband. After that, we both agreed it would be great for us to try that house again. She had potential; the Spirit was strong about that. Normally, I do not get that feeling. We stopped by a few people after our dinner appointment; one of them who is the returning member who has overcome health issues.

Wednesday, we had our district meeting. The ward mission leader took us; he was fighting falling asleep. So was I. I did not sleep good that night. I have been able to fight falling asleep in cars, but I have been more and more exhausted lately and I am reverting back to sleeping while as a passenger. My companion was in the back seat while the two of us in the front were falling asleep. On the way back to Petersburg, we had correlation. When the assistant ward mission leader took us out for dinner, we went to see people instead of heading to the church. One person was not happy at all in seeing us, because we did not call ahead and he was eating dinner. All of the people we tried to see were not answering their doors. Finally, I decided, based on a prompting, that we go see the returning member who has overcome health issues. It turned out to be a good visit.

Thursday, we had interviews with the mission president. It was the usual interview. I agree that we should not overly abandon tracting Colonial Heights and surrounding areas, but I am still adamant in storming Dinwiddie. I have a strong feeling about it. (The thing is, my companion likes finding potentials; it is his favorite form of tracting. I am working around that.) We tried to see people after the interviews and lunch. Then, I had my doctor's appointment.

Friday, we planned and went over the potentials. We tried discussing things. We tried to see some more less actives. Not much happened on Friday. Neither on Saturday. There was a child of record baptism and we were in charge of filling the font. Filling the font took 5 hours, as per usual. (It takes five hours, because people want the water warm and we have a energy efficient water heater, which means water heating takes a while.)

Sunday, we had church. A less active who is permanently stuck here made it to church once again. Hopefully, she can keep at it. We tried finding more potentials and had some success of at least meeting them. Then, we had dinner over at the family (or as I feel bad in calling them as I did, the family who feeds us a lot). Dad's bestest friend (a recent convert who shares on Facebook a love of soccer, Southern manners and the topic of the "rapture") was there and we taught her about tithing.

Columbus Day, the library and post office was closed. The schools were open, which was different. We cleaned and rested. I made my companion a grilled cheese and a milkshake. I put seasoned salt and basil on the bread. Well, I oversalted it and cooking it got rid of the seasoned part of the salt. So, it was a bit salty. Then, I slightly burnt one side of the bread, which he scraped off. I gave him potato chips, which are overly salty. Dinner, needless to say, was salty. He was so cautious of eating it, because he did not watch me cook it and previous experiences with companions and them cooking meals for him have turned not for the best for him. (I guess it does not help that I have scared him a lot, but he scares easily). After dinner, we headed to the church, where we received info about a returning member. We tried another recent convert and his wife. He was awake, but she was not. We helped him with obtaining a LDS account on lds.org. He ordered scriptures.

Those calls are this weekend. I am not guessing this time. I have no idea what is going to happen. For all I know, I could be gone. My companion sure thinks I am gone. When members have been asking about transfers, he tells them when they are and that I am mostly likely gone (or "he's [referring to me] gone and I am staying"). He is even acting like I am leaving. I am going to hold off on making guesses.

All is well!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

P.S. Really, Sweets? (Reference to the TV show "Bones.") That is sad. Either you were going to tell me or eventually somebody was going to tell me. Also, do not worry about feeling out of the loop. I feel out of the loop most of the time. Not sure if that makes you feel better, but just know that I also know what it is like. And so does Somebody else.

BACK BREAKER and some inspiration!

September 2, 2014 (My grandfather Leith Todd would have been 95 years old today)

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Before describing the week, I am hereby giving what is going on with my back. Monday, my back was intensely sore that I could hardly bend, get up, or walk on my left leg. (The place of injury is my lower left back and I had pain running down my left leg. Thus, walking hurt and so I limped.) Tuesday, after getting advice, I called Sister Hendrickson the medical officer, which was my original plan and everybody agreed. My companion thought I was toughing it out, but I was not. I could still do certain things, like drive the car. I called Sister Hendrickson who said to do what I did before. So, I took ibuprofen and a back relief over the counter medicine and iced my back and took a nap. Lying there helped, so when I was woken and was given the phone, I did not have any pain. Sister Hendrickson told me about your offer with the chiropractor, which I felt like what I was doing was going to work. So, not in rudeness nor in offense, I rejected and said I did not have any pain. After getting off the phone, I got up and had pain. Either way, I was sure that what I was doing was going to work. Well, after giving somebody their own priesthood blessing, the impression came to my mind that I should see the doctor. I love you two and all of that and I do listen, but if I can reason things out, then I become stubborn in my own ways. When God puts his vote in, it is best to listen, which I did. On Friday, my companion had his own appointment to go to and so we essentially stayed in Richmond all day. The clinic made do all of this paperwork, which I answered to the best of my knowledge. They x-rayed me and then I talked to the doctor. She gave me a prescription for a steroid (methylprednilosone), which is anti-inflammatory, and some muscle relaxant to use in case I need at night. (I picked up said medication via my local CVS. They apparently have record of us. Hopefully, that was okay.) I have been mainly taking the steroid, which comes with its own plan, with each day I use less. It tastes awful by the way for one time it melted before I had time to swallow with water. And it comes with some side effects, such as increasing energy, increasing heart rate, making feel more hot, and making feel like I have taken a lot of salt.

My choice by the doctor was either I take the medication or I get an MRI. Mission Medical will not pay for an MRI, so my option was the medication. She told me if it gets worse or there is no improvement, wherein the pain down my leg shoots down to my foot, there is a problem. With taking this medication, I have been taking it easy and what not. But, like the back relief over the counter medication, I am afraid that this steroid is only masking the pain. It has greatly improved wherein I do not feel the pain, albeit in certain circumstances, such as walking 12 blocks to get to another doctor's appointment for my companion. (With the medication, it does not hurt as intensely.) I am working on the priesthood blessing, because I have been stressed this past month, I have a lot of thoughts about this next transfer (I do think we are going to get a call), and now I have this. Trust me, I am trying to get better, because I do not want to be sent home.

And so, once I take the last medication and in the following days, the pain comes back, I will have to call Sister Hendrickson. Seeing as an MRI is out of the option list here, next could be physical therapy or whatever. I would say do not worry, but you're parents and you worry. I guess what I could say is be calm? I have no idea, but let's just see what happens after the days I am done with this steroid. Meanwhile, I will work on trying to get a priesthood blessing. Oh! And they have me doing certain exercises to try to help, which has helped somewhat, other than aggravate the nerve.

It sounds like you have been busy. And fun. I am glad that you are enjoying your time. I have been doing a lot better emotionally and I am excited, nervous, and scared. Mostly excited.

Monday, we, with our assistant ward mission leader, went up to Midlothian to St. Francis, where our hospital patient (name withhled) was at the time. We get up there and I am limping along from the parking lot to the room. I was offered to be dropped off and get a wheelchair, but I thought I was fine. By the end of it, I was wishing that I had accepted the offer. We came to his room, where we learned that he had been moved to a hospital in Richmond. We never did go there on that night, but the member drove to CVS and bought ibuprofen and back relief medicine for me. I was honestly surprised and I thanked him.

Tuesday, we had a zone workshop where the assistants to the president and President and Sister Wilson came to our area and split the zone in half to directly teach us. We had to get there early to open the building. I manage to stay put and stay sitting. As part of the zone conference (and any other missionary meeting), somebody has to give the missionary purpose. I was the person to do that, or assigned to such task. I got up rather slowly, hobbled to the front, and gave the purpose. President Wilson was wondering what was going on, so when he and Sister Wilson got the chance, they asked me what had happened. The rest of the zone conference was good, except it hurt just to sit there. I could feel exactly where the nerve was, what its shape was. The pain was undoubtedly sharp. Upon getting home, I called the mission medical officer and rested. Eventually, we had dinner and then, a member wanted to see a few people. One of those people is a family where there is a do not contact and his reason for being so is that he requested to be removed from the church records and is highly antagonistic. We go there and that person was not home, yet. We had a good visit with the person of interest and family. It was going great until he showed up. Then, he turned it antagonistic by asking questions, trying to disprove the Church. The person of interest who is still in the Church was somewhat on our side, but also on his side. She was upset with us, because we did not say hi and neither did anyone else when she came to church. (Which was odd, because Elder Young blessed the sacrament and I passed and neither of us saw her that previous Sunday.) Finally, we left the house, after the member bore testimony just to shut down the person.

Wednesday, after correlation meeting that night (for not much happened during the day), we, with the assistant ward mission leader, went up to see our hospital patient, who had just had heart surgery (which was ahead of schedule). He was doing alright. Since then, he has not been doing well. He was supposed to be released on Saturday, but he has not been released. Thursday, we saw our new investigator. Now, I had looked over the smoking program of which you gave me in Powhatan. I had not realized that we have a binder in our apartment that has the same thing in it. So, we are both are trying to head up the project, but it is obvious that we do have different ideas. (He had looked at the binder before we realized that she needed to quit smoking.) We introduced it to her. As it turns out, that everybody that was there wanted to quit. Which was a bit of a shock, because that was not expected. Plus, she has to figure what she can do and not to. Citric acid inflames her pancreas, which causes pain. We are trying to figure that one out and luckily, she is going to a doctor soon to talk about it to them. Friday was a day of doctor's appointments. 

Saturday, we got a call from some fellow missionaries for help with a move in our area (the people who were moving were in the nearby military branch). We go over and I sat out. I apologized and had to explain. My companion was the only extra hand that they had and the person who was moving had a bad knee (and was doing a lot of the lifting). Eventually, they called movers and took us out to lunch. They were really nice people. Sunday, after church, we again went to Richmond to check up on our hospital patient. He was in a lot of pain and was very groggy. He was and is not doing well. We talked to the nurse about when he might be released; she shook her head and told us not any time soon. We had a great dinner that night with the family that usually feeds us on Sundays. We had them Thursday and on Thursday, they asked if there was anything we would want them to cook; it was our choice and they were willing. My companion requested grilled cheese sandwiches and we all looked at him. I suggested chicken parmesan, which was what we had that night. It was great, both the time spent and the dinner.

And Monday. It was not our P-day that day, but today. So, on Monday, we contacted a less active who we have not heard from in a while and could not contact. It was great timing, because he was getting ready for work. I realized an issue that he might have that could affect his church attendance. I am excited to work with him. We saw another less active after that, then lunch. I was wondering what we could do to help boost missionary work and excite the members and improve the area. It is something that we and the assistant ward mission leader have been praying about. I came to the inspiration that we should see everybody on the ward directory (minus a few names), whether they are active or less active. And rather than doing it secretly and slowly, make it aware to the quorums and auxiliaries, so that we can use hometeachers and possibly use them for rides for people who are far away (i.e., Amelia County, Sussex County). I was a bit nervous about this idea, because one, we are having a ward conference where the quorums and auxiliaries are reaching out to certain members (not necessarily, the entire ward roster) and we have a time set aside this Saturday to see less actives and such with the Elders Quorum. After talking to my companion about it and praying about it, I feel right about it and so does he. I am excited to tell our assistant ward mission leader and ward mission leader. I do believe this will work.

I am excited for what is coming next, which is something I am also nervous about. I finally have an idea to help this area and it happens to be the week of transfer calls. By pattern, it has been three months and by three months, I leave. But my pattern has slightly been broken, seeing as I had Elder Avision only for 6 weeks. I do not know for sure, but I think I might be leaving. I really do not know.

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Muddy Waters, Fatty Pink, Red Light, Oh! No!

Lisa Lim on Google+

March 10, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

This has been a slow week. Not much happened at all. We found two new investigators and are hoping all goes well there. Other than that, not much. Week summarized. Well, sort of. Other things of note, besides the meeting we had to attend, was the ordeal Saturday and the Sunday meal. 

So, Saturday. Yeah, it is warming up and everything is melting again. When things melt, it creates water, which creates mud and bogs. Saturday, we went up and down this one road filled with all of the water and mud. White shirt plus mud equals a dirty missionary. Luckily, not much happened that day. Also, on Saturday was the ward talent show. It was nice, lots of piano pieces.

The Sunday meal, I had corned beef, which I guess comes from brisket, whatever the brisket is. But, the meat was pink and tasted like ham. Which triggered two things in my head. One, I rediscovered why I do not like ham. It is the taste that sets in. It is horrid. But, I do bite my tongue on what is given. Two, the pink meat. Now, I remember a general conference long ago. It was not so much what the speakers said, but what we had for dinner. It was some pink meat stuff that I thought was not cooked and was full of fat. I remember there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over eating this "uncooked" meat. Needless to say, we never had that meat ever again. Eating this corned beef, it being pink and fatty, reminded me of such event. Still do not like it at all. 

It was a long meeting; sometimes, I could not seem to focus. There are things that I got out of it that I feel like I can apply with the people here. Other than that, I was not having too much fun. I realized how much mental stimulation it takes to keep me focused. Other than that, it was not a bad meeting. And yes, we were pushed to read the material. I did so anyways before hand and now, I need results to figure out what works and does not. Slowly, it will be worked out and I

Lisa Lim on Google+

will be able to use the material in it. 

My speech this week is fine, thankfully. I have not had much problems other than some people not understanding me. That is life as usual. It will get better in this life or the resurrection. The resurrection is a guarantee.

I plan on mailing you two a letter soon. I will write a little sticky note about why I basically wrote this out. So, expect a letter some time. I guess it correlates with your quote. Maybe.

I am definitely trying to be safe out here. The night before the zone conference, there was an accident with the transfer van. In the van, was a district leader, Elder Medsker (the housing coordinator), and one of the zone leaders. They were exchanging back and Elder Medsker came up for the meeting. Well, the district leader's apartment was across the street from the zone leader's apartment. There is also a hill where the intersection is. Well, somebody was going up the hill and the light turned red on them. The van goes forward for the green light and it gets T-boned by the car that ran the red light. Luckily, everyone is okay, if not bruised or in major pain. The district leader did not have his seatbelt, only because he could not find it and he got thrashed a bit. The zone leader only hit his ribs, but he seems to be okay. Elder Medsker is in a lot of pain, did go to the hospital, but as far as I know, he is just in a lot of pain. Accidents happen. 

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Does God Answer the Prayers of Those Who Pray Frivolously?

September 23, 2013Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

I am forgetting which weeks are what. (Well, I definitely am losing myself in the work). The lady did drop us, which was unfortunate, and did so over the phone. She said that she was set and that she had received no answer about reading the Book of Mormon. So, she figures it is just best to stick with what she has. My idea is, okay, so she knows me and my companion, but I can work around that. I will keep her in mind and every new pair can go visit her and help her progress. (Don't get us wrong we read, study, and pray about the Bible but when someone asks you to pray for an answer to your prayer, how would you pray? If you really wanted an answer don't you think you would clear your mind of distractions, pray with real intent, humble yourself before the Lord and perhaps even fast? Yet, when asked to pray do you really think God is going to answer a prayer where your mind is made up, where you made no effort to study and ponder, nor made any effort to humble yourself before Him? If we are going to learn anything from God don't you think it will take some effort, experimentation, and pouring out our soul before Him? Yet who is willing to do this?)

I have heard about the Utes (University of Utah) winning. I heard about it several times yesterday. In fact, I even told my companion I would be hearing about it through your email as well. It is really good news and it really did make me think of home. Even in Virginia, the rivalry is there (between the U of U and BYU). 

I did hear about Denice's mom through Denice herself (Denice is a friend of Seth who is a member and her mother has decided to join the church). Denice has been emailing me a bit. I also got a few letters from Sister Oberst and Aurora Oberst. I will definitely try to correspond back. I have some letters to work on, but that is fine, I am not at all late (I got the letters just recently). 

It sounds as though Mom is really busy taking care of Sean's house. Maybe they will notice a difference when Mom leaves. I am glad to hear that they are taking care of Mom, which is really nice of them. It is good to hear how Sean and family are doing. It brightens up my day.

I am using my manners. I try to be as professional as I can. (Also, nice reference to Ecclesiastes.) (. . . there is a time for everything under the sun) I say thank you and do all the proper things even with my companion (though my companion could use some manners). I try not to be late, but it does factor into some people talking too much and you cannot get them to be quiet to say, "Okay, lesson is over. Who would like to say the prayer?" (I do not say that; I make light of what I am saying). I know to be careful of what I say and try to be a respectful person. 

Even yesterday, my companion and I went to an investigator's house and his pain in the neck friend who disrespects God was there. (He was the same guy about a month or so ago that tried to question us and annoy us and derail the lesson.) This guy was really after me, trying to push my buttons. I simply ignored him, because there were other people there that wanted to talk and were trying to make conversation. My companion finally pissed him off by saying, "God is your dad." That guy got so angry and left. It was awesome. (Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. Acts 17:29; And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6)

But, my week went fairly well. There were some bad times, but all is well. Last Monday, we had a district hike and most of the district came. The place we went to was Caledon State Park and it was absolutely beautiful. (My companion and I are planning on going back to go biking.) There were some areas that were quite nice. Hopefully, I will be able to send pictures of the area.

The charitable man was supposed to be baptized this week, but unfortunately, he did not. He said that he quit tobacco; he said that he accepted the Book of Mormon and our teachings. He said that he wanted to be baptized, but the day of his baptismal interview, he did not show up. He had personal business that took too much out of his time that he could not have made his baptismal interview. We understood, "Yeah, he is a busy man." What is extremely frustrating is that he has not contacted us since and he has been ignoring us. I am trusting these people to be honest and I try to make them honest. May God work things out. 

Also, do not get Sprint, ever. I understand that it is cheap, which is good for our Church, but do not get it unless you want to lose your sanity. In our residence, we do not have reception as well as most places in Virginia. Perhaps it is due to the trees, I do not know, but still, you expect to have service. I volunteered myself to call the Sprint place to get help on how to fix our phone. It was rather ironic, because the help called another department and their call dropped on them. Other than that, they did not help and I was so confused by their instructions. I felt literally drained from talking to them. Please forgive me if I sound negative, especially in the last two paragraphs or so. I am keeping a positive outlook, because it is in God's hands and things will work out.

We had zone conference (this is when missionaries get together from a wide area to discuss things) this past week. It was nothing too interesting, until, of course, President Wilson ( the mission leader) spoke. I learned a few things. But, funny that you mention manners, because we were extremely late to zone conference for a very good reason. So, a recent convert's sister (the sister is not a member) was sick and the recent convert needed somebody to deliver medicine and Gatorade to the sister. We did so and had a nice discussion and first lesson. The sister was not too interested, but at least we planted a seed. It was a real life application of what was practiced during zone conference. President Wilson thanked us for helping, though she needs her home teachers or visiting teachers to do the delivery next time. (Members are assigned to visit a certain number of members of the congregation to see how they are doing and if they need anything. All of this gets past back to other leaders and ultimately to the Pastor.) (By the way, please do your home teaching (men) and visiting teaching (women). I am beginning to see how important it is.)

On Saturday, I helped a family move (out of the ward into a close, but distant ward). Their new place that they are renting is in a basement of members. The place is not that bad, because the land they are on is huge. It is acres upon acres. Interestingly enough, the people that own the land grow pumpkins and cantaloupe to claim their land as farmland and have reduction on property tax (even though they do not sell the pumpkins or cantaloupe). The man of the house (which I believe the family that owns the house is an elderly couple) builds coffins and transports the deceased (I believe to the morgue). On the way back, my companion and I got a ride back from the member's brother. He has a major in forensic science, though, due to the economy and job availability, he does not have a job in it. He still knows a lot. We talked about CSI and how those types of shows are just entertainment. I still like watching them even with what I know and that is how I view them, which it makes it possible for me to look at, say, the autopsy scenes during CSI. He talked about the CSI effect, or the effect of these types of shows on the public, to which I surprised him by speaking about it and sharing what I know about the CSI effect. We also talked about the different ways of packaging evidence, which all depend on the crime scene. (For example, you would package evidence from a crime scene in a river differently from an arson crime scene.) He was quite surprised by my knowledge, to which I explained that I took forensic science in high school and that I want to be a forensic psychologist. He actually took a psychology and law class, which was awesome to hear about what he did (he had to diagnose certain serial killers). He told me that he hopes that I have a stomach for the job (which I do believe I do; it is just other stuff that I will have to get used to). He gave me the suggestion that it would not be a bad idea to intern while in college. It was so great to actually engage a conversation with someone, which is something I am not too skillful at. It was great practice and plus, it was a normal conversation (Let's put it this way, it was normal for Seth. Not all of us know about the different ways of packaging evidence, let alone care.).

Yesterday, sacrament meeting was quite different. The bishop decided to have nothing, but special musical numbers. He wanted us to listen to the Spirit and learn from the Spirit. The music was absolutely beautiful. Someone did a soul and Southern Baptist version of Amazing Grace, which was quite interesting for most people (I absolutely like it). I do admire music. I love the violin in particular. I think of the violin as a window into human emotion. There's some beautiful examples of the violin, though I think of one  that has really powerful violin music, which is the soundtrack to Schindler's List. I believe they used the violin, if not the cello, but I am pretty sure it is the violin. I do admire the bagpipes as well for its power and our heritage. (My companion, unfortunately, does not like the bagpipes). 

Oh, and I love the Ensign (the church magazine for adults). I have been reading a lot from the Ensign, even older editions. Man, I missed out on a lot and I love reading them. If there are any at home that are still around and you do not want them, save them for me when I get back. I love the Ensign and they are absolutely good and I am not saying this because I am just a missionary.

The man who got baptized recently is doing well. We showed him a video of the temples and he is so excited. His fiance who is a member is also excited for him. He got confirmed (an ordinance done by those with authority to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost and to confirm them members of the church) yesterday and was so excited to continue to progress in the gospel. He is so spiritually open and spiritually minded. Some of his friends of other denominations basically tried to sway him, but he knew that they did not know for themselves. It was amazing.

All is well.

Love, 
Elder S. Todd

Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds. -Gordon B. Hinckley