How to Overcome Challenges in Life

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. -Alma 7:11

Monday, June 15, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

With my bike, I was able to send it off. Yet, I was not able to do it Monday, but on another date. Long story on that. Now you know that, you can actually expect it. It should come tomorrow. It has left Salt Lake on Sunday. When I return home, I have plans to clean the bike. It is mostly clean, but it could use cleaning. 

Dan the Man was quite happy to hear that Moroni is alive; he still references from time to time silver plates and Moroni. Still have no clue on that. There was one day this past week that I found interesting with him. He was actually coherent; more talkative, different pitch of voice, etc.

It has been a good, long week.

Monday, after the usual chores, I headed to the bike shop for help in shipping my bike. The bike shop was closed; it had dawned on me that I got the box on Tuesday. I had not realized fully that it would not be open on Monday. I would have done it Tuesday, but Tuesday already was a busy day. We had scheduled an estimate for the car among other activities for Tuesday. I took care of dry cleaning. That night, we tried to stop by a few people that we had not seen in a while.

Tuesday, we had district meeting. I gave a training on effective study. We had lunch, then we headed back to our apartment. The gospel principles teacher and her husband showed up to take us over to a lesson with our progressing investigator where we talked about the Word of Wisdom. The gospel principles teacher shared her own conversion story and even told when the elders who taught her talked about the Word of Wisdom. They had been fasting for the lesson, but she had stopped smoking before they even taught her. Our progressing investigator decided to live the Word of Wisdom; she even bought apples and oranges to more fully live it.

After the lesson, we headed over to the dealership to assess the damage to the car. Luckily, we had picked up some screws when our mishap occurred. Most of the shield could be reattached. However, some of it was torn to some degree, so it has to be fixed. All of it is under a certain amount, so I do not have to complete an incident report. I thank God for that. From there, we had dinner with the elders quorum president and his wife. Elder Day, for the first time in his life, had watermelon. Everybody was surprised that he had not eaten watermelon. He enjoyed it. Now, he has to try Jell-O.

We were in the area, so we went to talk to a member family to help confirm dinner plans for the next day. They invited us to a family activity; we went finding around their area and got gas. They needed us to be judges for their children's cooking. It was good. We were able to help build member relationships and meet less active members. It was a plus for us. We also talked to the youth who is deciding to go on a mission; he does not feel pressure (my companion wanted to talk to him about it).

Wednesday, we studied. We had lunch and then, began the process of sending my bike off. It took a few hours, because it took a lot of packing and figuring things out. The person at the bike shop definitely helped out. Once I got the pedals off, as well as the handle bars off, the bike could mostly fit. I had to also take off the rear tire, just because of its difference. The bike shop weighed it. From there, I went to the library and went on the website given to me. I know you gave me addresses to Fed-Ex, but those were drop off boxes. The site required that I go to an official drop off location or something to that nature. Well, it was either the one in Staunton or the one in Fishersville. Although we were going to FIshersville that night, our miles have been reduced yet again, which makes us in the need of maintaining miles. I decided to go to the one in Staunton, full knowing it is attached to a gas station. Creepy place, but look on the plus side, we saved miles and it is on its way, still weighing 40 pounds.

We checked up on the young couple who is returning to church. The husband was not home; but the wife was with their child. We followed up on our last invitation. Then, we saw our progressing investigator, who now has a Book of Mormon. We had to order a large print, because she could not read the small print. It was a great spiritual experience for her. We shared two videos from Easter; we also shared a scripture from Alma. From there, we had dinner with the member family and we went to mutual to help with the missionary night the priests were having. They taught us while we were the investigators. They are definitely learning and it is good to see their enthusiasm.

And that night, I found the most creepiest bug in my entire life.

Out of all that I have personally seen and witnessed in Virginia, it won the award. Of course, it had to be in my bathroom. I saw it, walked out of the bathroom, and told Elder Day to go and take care of it. He did so, not realizing how big the monster was. Most ugly, thing in my life.

Thursday, we planned. We had another lesson with our progressing investigator; this lesson is a major hurdle. We taught the principle and gave her a priesthood blessing. It was very comforting to her.

From there, we... well, Elder Day helped on the farm. He was lifting hay bales, so that bishop would be able to feed his farm animals and not break his foot again. I just sweated, because it was hot. Then, we had dinner with the new young couple, who loved the trio and love us too. It was really, really fun. Then, we checked up on the man who is dealing a lot with pain and such. He is falling back into old habits; we realize there is not much that we can do, but what the ward can do. We plan to keep on visiting him, but he definitely needs the ward's support.

Friday, we went back to the bishop's house, thinking there was more hay to take care of. Instead, we helped his wife move things out of their barn. I had a blast doing that. One, I got to kick objects from a second story onto the ground. Some things had wheels, others not so much. Two, his wife is hilarious, just by her comments. Once we finished, we finished weekly planning. We had dinner with the recent convert man who was baptized the week Elder Day and I got here. It was a nice visit, but they were slightly in a hurry. They were going to Kentucky to pick up their cousins. After dinner, we had a prompting to check up on the people in the health center. We found one of them moved; we had no idea where she was. So, we checked up on Dan, who was quite coherent. He was unhappy with the place, plans on leaving, and such. He was talking about the people he was going to sue and such. I was quite amazed how coherent he was. He also gave me a cookie and Elder Day a soda.

Saturday, we completed our progress record. We checked up on our single mother investigator; nothing. We went out and did some finding. We cannot help but feel our own finding efforts are finding. We run into people who met with missionaries and are not interested. The areas we are finding are areas that have been tracted many times, because it is the areas that we can reach. It is imperative for us to work with members, because it is the way that things are going to go forward in Staunton.

Looking at our wall of names of people baptized, for nearly a year, the people that have been baptized were through member referrals or member influence. We had dinner that night with the ward mission leader and then, we began the search for the one person who moved from the health center. We had an idea and followed through with it. We went to this one nursing home near the hospital and ended up talking to the receptionist for nearly an hour. There is some potential there, so we will have to follow up. We gave her a Book of Mormon and several pass along cards. We talked about, somewhat, the Book of Mormon and modern day revelation. She found it interesting. We then found the place where the member was, which is in the bottom of the hospital. She was so happy that we found her; once we walked in, she was like, "My soul brothers are here!" We talked to her for a while about things going on and what she has been up to other than moving. She is happy to be there, because, to her, the food is nutritious among other things. She was quite happy.

Sunday, we had productive Church meetings;
I am waiting to see the actions that will happen.

I believe, as well as Elder Day, that the members' perspective on missionaries and us are changing, hopefully for the better. We were able to lay down ideas and take up action. We gave the sacrament to that member in the hospital. We later returned to give somebody a blessing. We usually go to the hospital every so many weeks; looks like we are going to be making rounds there. From that, we tried to visit people, but came up empty.

Things are starting to go forward. I foresee a lot of things coming to pass.

All is well.

Love,

Elder S. Todd

Virginia Richmond Mission: Moving Forward

Transfers take place every six weeks; although a missionary could be in a single area for months. As neither my companion nor I were transferred it was time for me to step up and speak.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

We did get a call. However, it was accidental. I am not being transferred and neither is my beloved companion. Now, I have a lot to explain, especially in light of the previous two transfers and this upcoming one. This transfer, as I have forewarned my companion, I am taking a more directive approach. I realized in the midst of much inner turmoil that I honestly was afraid. I was afraid of getting angry. I wanted to be patient and avoid getting angry. So, with the last transfers, I remained, mostly, patient in light of my circumstances. I turned the other cheek, more especially with Elder Young. Even so, it was not helping, because things became really slow and I slowly became miserable and unhappy. My companion was not helping much and I became overly stressed. I know that God understands, because I know it was He that helped me realize what caused me to be afraid and has given me the resolve to change. I am more resolved to take a more direct approach in an effort to help bless the people here. I was talking to a member while on splits (each companion goes and does missionary work with a member) about this transfer and my own fear of being transferred. He told me that I had done a good job, despite having two difficult companions, because I was a standard higher than previous missionaries. (A word of caution: not every missionary companionship is going to get along and do things the same way. The problem here isn't so much Elder Young but Elder Todd not taking a lead in having a crucial conversation about missionary work. It is nice that Elder Todd received some positive feedback from a member; however, the missionary experience is not all about converts or always living in a comfort zone.)

What is my more directive approach? I plan on discussing this with my companion. One, we are tracting. Yes, we will go see less actives and part member families, but we need to balance it out with tracting. I know Elder Young does not like to tract (and the ward mission leader is not that supportive of it), but I am taking my stand as to say, we are. I am not going to pull my brains out trying to figure out who to see. If anything, we need to have order and balance. Two, from 10 to 12, I think it would be beneficial for us to learn how to teach together and to plan things for that day (e.g. lessons). I always feel that I am competing to talk, even with members. Three, if things need to be done, they will get done. That is mainly for calls, because we need to make calls faster. Four, communication. We need to talk about things, about our people, and so on and so forth. Five, if he has a problem with me, I would like for him to discuss it with me.

Tonight, as I have forewarned my companion, I am going to discuss these things with him. I am going to stand my ground and lead this area. That is my goal for the transfer and that is what I am going to push myself to do.

I did get a priesthood blessing for my back, which helped calm me down and took a lot of the pain away. Some days, it acts up, particularly with a nerve pain in my leg (hip down). Bending, sitting, and other things help set it off. But, at times, it does not do that anymore, even with sitting, bending, etc. After doing some service that I could do like painting and log splitting, my back got stiff and I have been trying to take it easier to help my back recover. I have been forbidden from moves and many types of service, such as raking and by extension, snow shoveling, etc.

Moving on to Wednesday of last week, we did our usual thing of going to the library to do our progress record. We made it to the stoplight of the library and there was a red truck in front of us. The red truck goes forward when the light turned green. It almost made it across when a car coming from the right in the right turn lane (which was void of cars) hit the red truck, taking out the truck's front license plate and spun. The two pulled over and did what they had to do. It made for a very exciting morning.

We taught our investigator that day and it went relatively well. We read out of the Book of Mormon to help her to begin reading and to help bring understanding. With our ward mission leader out of town, the assistant ward mission leader together with us had dinner and we went up to see our hospital patient. He was not doing well at that time. The hospital made us put on this yellow garb and gloves. We talked to him a bit. He had not been eating and been refusing to eat. We did not get to stay for long.

Thursday, we weekly planned and organized the area. Then, the assistant ward mission leader again took us to see our hospital patient. We talked to him again. He wants to live and not die, which he was afraid of happening. He was also trying to avoid pain from dialysis and especially after his heart surgery. The assistant ward mission leader talked with him that if he wants to live, then he has to eat. Then, he ate, finally.

Friday, we had zone meeting. Now, do you want to know something interesting? From September 27th to October 4th, we are doing nothing. Well, sort of. For a week, we are reading the Book of Mormon. The way they explained it was that if we do not have an appointment for anything (investigator, dinner, etc.), we are to stay home and just read the Book of Mormon 24/7. I am excited. They have yet to fully explain it to us. After zone meeting, we had exchanges. I went down to Lawrenceville with our district leader. We did some tracting, which I was honestly happy about. I met the stake patriarch. It was a really good time. The next morning, on Saturday, we did some service. First, he helped the branch president with his porch. I painted and gave tools when needed. Then, we went to another place to help split logs. And yes, I participated in it. You may be wondering how. I pulled a small lever using my wrist and arm to help split the logs. It was a hydraulic log splitter. After that, I went home, back to Appomattox. We then had splits with the elders quorum president and the assistant ward mission leader. The elders quorum president is trying to visit a lot of people and has designated the first Saturday of the month to do this. Last time, we had a good turn out. The elders quorum had designated me as the person who creates the lists of people to see. So, I avoid single sisters (there are no high priests with us nor do we have a third male) and people who live too far to fit in our two hour time frame. He liked how I was able to get people that were five minutes away. Last time, it was great.

This time, it was a small split and I went into the Prince George area for certain less actives. The assistant ward mission leader and I saw two out of four of the names on the list. It was great! But, we had enough time, so we looked at another list. I decided on one person and we went there. It turns out the person moved but the people there were somewhat interested in the Mormons. The assistant ward mission leader did a lot of the talking, and it worked out great. We now have a potential from it.

That night, we saw another less active, who, on his own accord, is returning. He had talked with the bishop and the elders quorum president. He wanted to talk to us. It was one of the best visits with a less active that I ever had. This man is going through the repentance process and he is slowly making his way back. He is humble and is working hard to make things right. The Spirit was indeed there.

Sunday, after church, we tried a few people before we called to give someone a blessing. We did that and helped them with a few other things. We received a call from our hospital patient who was moved to a rehab center. We visited him and he was doing a lot better. He is eating. His spirits are back up. He asked if I had a DVD player, so we could watch a video with him like we usually do. (It was funny. He first asked if I had my camera and I was like yes, a bit confused. He then asked if we could watch a video and then it clicked that he meant a DVD player.) We had dinner with the family that thankfully feed us often. It was the first week of school last week and the kids had not made the parents happy this past week. Apparently, the kids missed the bus a lot. So, we had a relatively quiet dinner with small conversation. We taught the recent convert of July her first member discussion. (Now, with the new change, I missed out on that zone meeting, so I have little understanding of it, beyond we are in charge. Not sure how it all works, but I am just going with it.) Then, I helped the head of the household with Family Search and helped him gain a bit of more understanding. (I wish I had more time to do family history, but I am content with my current duties that occupy my time. Family Search takes some small time to figure out, but it is a matter of finding sources to back things up. And did you hear the good news? Family Search is getting records, soon, with some big genealogy names like Ancestry. We are merging records with them, although Ancestry is still going to do their own thing with premium stuff and what not. But, isn't that exciting?)

I am in good spirits and am ready to go forward.

All is well!

Love,

Elder S. Todd