Silence Can Be Deadly

Monday, March 23, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

If you could please send out the MTC backpack (the blue one), that would be great. I still have my regular scripture case; that did not break. It has survived. I am slightly tired of carrying my scriptures by hand, though it is not at all a big deal. It still works fine. Though, for your sake and mine, I would love to carry my camera with me. I hate to leave it in the car or carry it in my pockets.

I am glad that Elder Sopp called you. I was so happy to see them, because they are from Hanford. It is like seeing kinsfolk of a land that you have not seen in a very, very long time. Plus, I can actually tell somebody that I am from Lemoore and them asking me, "Where is that?" Yeah, we received a new car this past week that barely has been driven. It has about 5000 miles on it. My companion is absolutely happy that we have a new car, instead of the car we were driving.

I may be going to baptism tomorrow again in Tappahannock for the man who I was unsure whether or not he was ready. One, I need to get a ride and two, I need to get permission. And I found out yesterday of the baptism. I debated whether or not to go, because my companion does want to work. I decided to go. It really is a tough decision, because we got slammed to the ground this past week (figuratively). It has been a difficult week for the both of us, yet we pushed forward.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, we had a great preparation day. We took care of the needs that we needed to and had a wonderful dinner with some awesome members. We saw our less active recent convert-- the one that did not seem ready for baptism and is going to another church at this current point due to his father-- and there was progress. He always talks of his other church, the one that he normally goes to. But, this time, it was different. I am never sure how we got on the topic of his going to church, but we did. He recognized that he needs to come to the Church, but he has difficulty of keeping the sabbath day holy and honoring his father and mother. We discussed this and told him that he should pray and fast on it. We told him that his spiritual progression is being halted by him not keeping the sabbath day holy. He does not yet have the priesthood nor has he gone to the temple. He wants that. We will need to follow up, so that we can help him even further.

Tuesday, we contacted potentials and received referrals. We helped the high priests that night with the "March Rescue" that is occurring here in the stake. I went with one high priest (he was one of the members that took us out to dinner the night previous). We checked up on our elderly member, who we happened upon last week. Unfortunately, he has yet to answer the door nor has anyone else answered the door. We tried a do not contact. I have to admit that she was the most friendliest of do not contacts; she politely talked to us. We have no idea why she is a do not contact. My companion and I will definitely will have to follow up. 

Wednesday, I learned the difference of areas that are okay to tract and the ones that do not want you. We had district meeting and we went on exchanges. I stayed in the area and I was with the district leader. We had some spare time before we needed to do something, so we decided to tract this one apartment complex (that, like many, if not all, complexes, had a do not solicit and do not trespass sign). We went to one building of this complex, which consists of eight doors. We knocked on each door and only one of eight was friendly. If they answered, they would say, "There's no soliciting here," and promptly close the door shut. By the end of our fifteen minutes and as we were heading to the car, the management came out and asked us to leave. We told her that we were not solicting, that we would leave, which she understood. Looks like we will not be coming back to that. On contrast, we went to another complex of duplexes. We were able to find a potential in this complex. But, as we were tracting, we met this woman who asked us if we saw the signs that said, "Do not trespass." She did not ask us to leave, but do not bother anybody else. We told her that we were proselyting, we told her thank you, and we moved on. Nothing was done to ensure our removal. It is something we will have to do or else the work would be hindered. I know that there is a difference between "Get out" and "Do not bother anybody else."

Later that night of Wednesday, we went to Goochland to see if there was Bible Study. There was not. But, we helped the host of Bible Study with some sheet rocking. I got to use a drill for a while. I am still not the best. I was so happy to do some kind of physical labor that will not threaten my back. We talked to the host and was again able to gain information from him about himself. 

Thursday, we got the new car, we exchanged back, and we went about doing all that we can. We helped with the health center and tried to contact referrals. After dinner, we helped the member, whose house is not dark, understand the Book of Mormon. 

Winston Churchill

Friday, we attempted to weekly plan. We still have not accomplished all of it, though we are trying when we can. We tried to find. We helped the less active recent converts, whose house is dim or not lit, to understand the Book of Mormon. One of them, who wanted to be taught as though she never heard of this before, is understanding. We tried more referrals.

Saturday, we had appointments with our ex-Marine and our Bible fundamentalist. Both cancelled. We took care of our progress record. I helped my companion with his family history, somewhat. He was exploring how far his line goes back, which I have to admit is quite interesting. The farther you go back, the harder it is to determine whether or not it is fact. I mean, certainly Jacob and Rachel did not give birth to Zeus. It does not seem rational to me.  After lunch, I felt prompted to help our Bible Study host again. I mean, his house is kind of in shambles and he has guests coming in about a week for his daughter's wedding. Plus, he has to take care of sewing the dresses, making the decorations, and so on and so forth. We helped with more sheet rocking, which was fun. There were a lot of mistakes made, but they were not entirely my fault. We could have done more, but we were running kind of late to get back for an appointment. We had an appointment with a different Muslim family, who is from Sudan. Not sure if it is going to go too far. They are interested in Christianity's similarities to Islam and our differences. (The one major one is Jesus Christ.) We plan to give them information and they plan to give us materials. That will be interesting.

We did teach our ten year old investigator, which, my companion is right, he is paying attention a bit more. That is great news for us. His mother is still wanting to wait until May. We have ideas to help.

Sunday, we prepared and made it to church early. I love it that we come to church early. I have to admit that this particular Sunday; I was exhausted, perhaps due to the physical labor. My back, despite a lot of physical work I had to do with sheet rocking, was not hurting. PROGRESS! Of course, I am being careful. After church and lunch, we tried a few people.

Then, we went to a birthday party for Mama. Her birthday is actually on Thursday, but she had her party on Sunday instead. A lot of people from church and a few from the health center came. It was great to see her happy. We had an appointment with a less active member. We were trying to talk to her about the Atonement, but she made us feel like we were trying to push her to come to church. A lot of her answers to deep thinking questions was about church attendance. We had an appointment scheduled with a part member family, the one who is already an investigator of ours, but had been sick for the past three weeks or so. We, apparently, did not knock loud enough, because nobody came to the door.


Well, despite the flops, it was good week. My back is making progress (I know I will not be stupid), Mama is happy, we helped the host of Bible Study, and we kept on going. This week will be good!

All is well! Tout va bien! Alles wohl!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

#Virginia Richmond Mission

Virginia Richmond Mission: Prayers Answered

Monday, September 29, 2014

 Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

 Wait. In general conference, those of a foreign language get to speak in their language? Where did you hear that? I have heard nothing of that and it is probably too late to ask where you heard that. That honestly sounds exciting. That will be great. (Speakers spoke in several languages including Cantonese, Portuguese, and Spanish.)

About my back (pinched nerve), I guess you got some information from my letter to Mom, which I am glad that you did receive. I will reiterate it here as well. Honestly, I am a bit panicked about it, but not too much. It is quite obvious that God is aware of my plight. Like I wrote to Mom, after talking to the medical officer and hearing that I was managing (and I am), I felt confused whether or not I should see a doctor. I made up my mind with the medical officer that I would; however, I was still confused and if I was just rushing into it due to my emotions. Through prayer, I received my answer that I should see a doctor. Rather call right away, I took a nap for an hour until I was woken up by the phone. I ignored it until I thought it might have been important. Sure enough, it was the medical officer. She told me that Missionary Medical, the secondary insurance (it is not insurance but will pay any balance owed while a serving as a missionary only) I do have for the duration of the mission a green light for me to see a doctor. (She gave me a number to call, which I did and it was the number the doctor gave me back in August.) I am allowed to receive an MRI, which is to be covered by my primary and Missionary Medical. With a chiropractor, I understand that you would love me to see one, but we have to be sure of what it is, lest I have more damage. If you feel unsure, I recommend prayer for surely God will answer. (Regardless, I will ask the doctor if I should see a chiropractor.) I called the doctor and set up an appointment with Dr. Joseph S. Kim. (The people asked if my insurance wants me to see my primary care physician before I go see Dr. Kim and I was like, "I am unsure.") So, I have an appointment on October 17th at 9:00. It is a bit of a wait and I asked to be put on their cancellation list, wherein if someone cancels, I can take their spot. (I have not heard anything back on that.) From Monday, I have felt some kind of pressure on my spine that hurt. I did something I probably should not do, but I twisted my back in order to make it pop. That relieved the pressure and it was a blessing. It did not make anything worse. I have taken one of muscle relaxants thinking it would help. It did nothing, except make me dizzy and my mind fuzzy. I hate drugs that mess with my mind. I did stop taking ibuprofen for about a day on Thursday (in order to take the muscle relaxant so that I could be worry-free of mixing drugs and causing damage), in which case leg pain did return. And then, I fasted yesterday and I say this to make another point that God is watching over, not to be as the hypocrites. I knew that ibuprofen had been helping (at least in masking the pain) and if I wanted to take ibuprofen, I had to eat and drink water. I understand that fasting is not foregoing food and drink for a duration of hours, but a principle of sacrifice. Yet, I wanted to fast. I am not going to let something such as pain get in my way. So, I prayed that my pain would be, if anything, lessened that I may fast. My pain was lessened until about dinner time. Surely, God is aware of my plight as He is aware of your worries. Thank you for giving me the information I needed. Now I know that we are switching to Blue Cross, which is something I needed. And I hope I gave you enough information to know what is going on. Oh and I have a bunch of forms emailed to me, which I am so not looking forward to doing. But, they will get done.

Monday, we had received another referral that we tried to contact. We were not able to do it. Not much happened on Monday.

Tuesday, we tried seeing one of our less actives that we set up an appointment. But, it did not work out. So, we saw another less active, the less active who is stuck in Virginia, now permanently, which she is okay with staying. We talked of the Atonement and told her what she needs to do. We had lunch, then we set off to see our hospital patient. It was our last visit at the health care center. We watched a missionary video with him, which he enjoyed. Well, on Thursday, the day he was supposed to get out, he got sent back to the hospital for a blood issue. On Sunday, he finally arrived at home. Back to Tuesday, we saw one of our returning members. He has been working on the piano and trying to get back into it. He says that he makes a lot of mistakes. I can hardly tell.

Wednesday, we did our routine tasks and then saw our home bound less active (home bound due to his father, who was in his old age and not wanting to go anywhere). We talked to him for a while. Our investigator that usually comes stopped coming and has not been coming to meet us to be fellowshipped by this less active. The less active was feeling sick, so he went to rest. We had correlation that night and were able to discuss a few things. The bishop says that there are a lot of new subdivisions in Dinwiddie County. We live in Colonial Heights and Dinwiddie is far from us. I always felt right in my decision with living in Colonial Heights, but I have yet to see why. I have been holding on and I continue to seek out why. Surely, there must be a reason.

Thursday, it was fairly nice day. We had district meeting in Lawrenceville and had a nice lunch with a member (who took us to Lawrenceville). We had to weekly plan afterwards, so we went to the church to do so. In that time of going home and driving to the church, we received three calls, all of which were a huge blow. One was our hospital patient who at that time was sent to the hospital. Another was the home bound less active. His father had just passed an hour before. There was another call of which I cannot explain as to what it pertained. We planned until dinner. It was an excellent dinner with one of the recent converts and his wife. Friday, we finished planning. We went out with the elders' quorum president to see the home bound less active. Then, we saw our permanently stuck here in Virginia less active. We started to read the Book of Mormon with her in order to get her started.

Saturday, we read to ourselves the Book of Mormon. We read individually. My companion listens to the audio CDs and I turn on the A/C to drown out the CDs, so that I can focus. I closed the blinds, because I can only focus on one thing at a time. I did not want to be distracted. By Sunday, I got to Moroni 7 by 10:30 that night. 10 pages to go. So, this morning, I finished. I bear witness that the Book of Mormon is true. I had a lot of concerns and questions. By reading and being receptive to the Spirit, I gained the answers that I needed. I learned principles and I realized many things. I say that the Book of Mormon will answer our questions. It will bring peace to a hungry soul. I know the story that is contained in the Book, but every time I read, I learn something new that is pertinent to me at that time. The Book of Mormon directs me to God. By it, I know that Jesus is the Christ, that He is Our Savior and Redeemer, wherein if we believe on Him, we can be saved as we repent. I know of God and His mercies to His children. I have gained a more stronger witness of the divinity and truthfulness therein of the Book of Mormon. I know that God does answer our prayers as I have seen this week and when I have prayed to know of the truth. Seeing as God has answered my prayers, then surely He will answer our prayers, even as Joseph Smith, the prophet, who received the record that we now call the Book of Mormon and that was translated through the power and grace of God. I know this to be true and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 Love,
 Elder S. Todd