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

Trusting the Lord

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

It is Columbus Day? Wow, I totally forgot! Then again, I spent four years in a high school that never took it off. And then, I did not think that the library might close here. So, it is okay, because obviously you are receiving word from me in this email with the library open. 

With the staff at the mental health duplexes, we have not been disturbed since that incident. We have been teaching without a problem. It is great, though I am just a bit wanting to avoid the staff. But, I am sure they know we are there (cameras). 

It sounds like Sean and kids are doing good. It sounds like Mom is really busy with missionary work and grandma work! Keep at it! And yes, you did tell me about the lady that is part of a part-member home. We do have Missionary Coordination Meeting, though hardly any ward missionaries come. I think we have few ward missionaries here. But with exchanges, we end up calling people that are voluntold (made up word from volunteer and told, it is sometimes a LDS mentality "tell me what you want done and I will do it.") to come on splits (The missionary pair splits up so each can work with a member of the same gender). It is up to us to contact those people. Plus, there are a few people home during the day that can come for day lessons. 

We will not get any electronic devices (tablets or notebooks) until next year. Only certain missions have received them. I am not riding a bike, so I am good in the car as long as my companion drives safely (I am no longer the designated driver!). And Bria is flying?(Yes) Isn't she afraid of flying? (Yes, she plans on taking a mild sedative) Well, I am quite glad to hear that she is taking an initiative to fly out. And I am so happy to hear about my dog! (His Boxer dog gets walked at least Mon. through Fri, On Thursday, his mother walks his dog five miles which the dog enjoys.)

Taking the lead (he is in charge until his companion gets used to his new area) is a bit nerve wracking, but I am fine. I can trust on the Lord to help me with this work. I really do feel that He has been directing me. First day with my new companion, we go see this recent convert who is slightly less active and we briefly talk to her. One of the kids' friends was there and he is about 19. We talked to him and the friend really opened up. We answered many questions that he had and he said that he was agnostic. He was so excited and he wants to meet back with us at the same house (because his parents would not be too approving). So, it is all good. I have been listening to the Spirit. 

My new companion is awesome. So, I no longer have Elder Meibos, but now, I have Elder Longman. I cannot help, but say this. He is a much better missionary than Meibos. I respect Meibos for training me, but Longman is taking a lot of initiative. As a district leader (a leader of a small group of missionaries in a geographical area usually 3-4 pairs.), Longman is trying to do the work even with bad cell phone reception while my previous companion did nothing. There are certain things that I see in Elder Longman that I like much more than Elder Meibos. We might get along a lot more than I did with Meibos. Elder Longman comes from Ogden, Utah. He is the oldest in his family and a genuine guy. He cares about the people he teaches. In fact, this past Saturday we attended two baptisms of people that he has taught. So, I went down to Manchester to see those baptisms. A commuter in the Manchester Ward took us down to and up back. It was great talking to the commuter, because he comes from Scotland and talked about the different accents in the different parts. He did not talk much about the culture, but it is all right; he did not seem that interested in the culture, anyhow.

A good portion of this week was booked, only because Meibos wanted to say goodbye to certain people. Thursday was planned around the transfers and a member dinner. Friday was booked with appointments and weekly planning. Saturday was going to Manchester, which took up time. Everything has been working out. With the engaged couple who were furloughed, the woman attended church and enjoyed it. I was seriously hoping the man would because he would be a lot more interested. They are hard to teach, because they are so quiet. Sometimes they will ask questions, but they are still quiet. The neighbors of a member, who my previous companion felt prompted to go see, are doing well. The husband is a bit skeptical, but the wife is a lot more interested. They did not go to church, but the bishop is willing to come with us one night to talk to the husband. I am so excited. The mental health people are doing well, though we need to get in contact with one of them soon. One can progress, but we are going to have to find rides to church for them.

This week kept me slightly busy, farewell-mix week. There is much to do and I will keep working hard. I am so glad I have a driven companion.

All is well! Thanks for all your support!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

P.S. Thanks for the quote. It is what I needed.