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

"The Best Two Years - the sequel?"

(The movie "The Best Two Years" is a Mormon genre movie about male missionaries in Holland, one who is anxious to convert people and the other who has almost given up on missionary work after a friend of his goes home and marries this Elder's girlfriend. We see some parallels here but in all fairness we hope our son has compassion for his own weaknesses as well as for the unseen weaknesses of others.)

Monday, January 26, 2015

Dear Parents, Mom and Dad/Dad and Mom,

Well, I did it. I wrote my companion a letter rebuking him for his actions that he has committed; the letter was written under prayerful direction of the Spirit. I felt that it was something that needed to be done, because when talking about sleep, his responses do not follow some of his actions. It was slightly embarrassing when Spanish elders came to our door and were wondering why he was not awake. I knew that something needed to be done. I wrote the letter, not out of anger, but out of concern. I wrote not spoke, because I would be able to write calmly. I wrote it yesterday, questioning his thinking. So far, he has not really avoided me. He has withdrawn a bit though. Yesterday, during the spiritual thought for the members who fed us, I bore testimony of the Atonement. I said what I needed to say and ended my thoughts. Silence pervaded for a while before the members spoke and then I looked at my companion, asking for comments. His reply, "Yeah, I agree." Now that I have rebuked him, it is now my task to love him even more. I pray for him, hoping things will be alright. I feel right in my own actions.

Meanwhile, I am still blind about this area; I have no clear vision. I have yet to weekly planning with him to help our companionship unity (even more, I have not done companionship study). Without these, I am blind, though I am taking small steps before I introduce the idea of weekly planning. However, I am doing all that I can to help this area grow. I have started to take note at the end of the week of those who are investigators, less actives, recent converts, those we need to visit, and potentials. It allows me to have a definite list of who we need to see, though I have no clue what each person needs unless I have been directly involved. Thus, to help myself it will do for these coming weeks of the transfer do what I am about to do next.

We have an investigator, a media referral, who is from South Africa, but has not been there in many years. His father is a recent convert in another state, hence how we got the referral. He was a bit surprised, as he told us, when we knocked on the door. Previous missionaries had tracted into him before, but they knocked very loudly and would not take no for an answer. This investigator is definitely interested in joining and finding a community that will support him spiritually. Add that to another reason why we need to do our home teaching and visiting teaching and be thankful for such program. We talked of what he needs to do in order to be baptized and we talked about the church. He already loves the Church, because of what they do for his father. We got through only two points of the Restoration, mainly about families and prophets. He loves the family aspect of the Church and connected the idea of families to prophets and apostasy. He caught on when people apostatize from the prophets, the family disintegrates. Though we do not have a specific return appointment, he is planning for us to return this week. We need to give the Proclamation to the World to him. We also need fellowship and the bishop here would be good for that. After all, the investigator knows the bishop quite well; the work at the same place, though not the same job.

We have a Persian (?) Book of Mormon for our Persian (?) family. We have not seen them this past week.

We have a set of investigators (relation unknown) who have some affiliation with the Jehovah's Witnesses, either from current or past experiences. We taught them once, though it was more of a question and answer session of opinions. It was the question of blacks and the priesthood. We explained it then and that we do not know all the reasons why it occurred and explained all that we could. The man of this set accepted our answer. We should visit them this week, though it is rather difficult. They want us come by 5 to 6, our dinner time. It would be fine if we could move our dinner appointments forward., though, we have a sliver of openings.

We have the nine year old who wants to be baptized. He is part of a family of recent converts. I am not sure what he needs, though, again, he needs visual aids. He also needs his family to help him to understand the gospel truths and teach him. I wonder if they are holding family home evening. When we have dinner appointments with this family--- which takes 3 hours (from the time we get there, the mother is still cooking for another hour or so and then an hour for us to eat)--- we need to have a lesson or attempt to.

We taught an Arabic family this past week. They were referrals from the Spanish elders and we contacted them. It was not a good time when we initially contacted them, but we gave them an Arabic Book of Mormon. We obtained an Arabic Restoration pamphlet. When we came over this week, they were curious and lots of questions. They were not Muslims, but Christians. I did not feel the Spirit as much in the lesson. They were asking a lot of questions and we were trying to understand them for at times the words they said did not match with our definitions. The wife, in the end, was more interested than the husband.

Tuesday, last week's P-Day. We picked up another set of missionaries after e-mailing and had lunch. We did our shopping and then headed to the Church. We played the game Risk, which my companion is really good at playing. It was my first time playing and I inherited the Asian continent in my first go round. If you ever play Risk, Asia is most difficult to hold onto, because you are so spread out. But, I lasted for a good while despite inheriting Asia. It was a lot of fun and it opened up my companion a bit more to me. We had dinner. Then, we had the Book of Mormon class. Nobody showed. Some people forgot. We need fliers to encourage people to come and to attend the class. It is not enough to have it announced. We need to sell it and to encourage the members to attend with friends. 

Wednesday, we had zone conference and had to pick up the biking set of elders. We were nearly late, though there were people who were later than us. It was a good conference. President Wilson spoke to me on the side and told me to love my companion. Oh, and we talked about online proselyting. Why? Well, we still have no iPads and our mission president and his wife seem to have no hope that it will come to us soon, but at least we can prepare for them (and thus, the answer to why). So, we went over that. I do not know if you know, but they changed the referral system. We still get a text from headquarters, but we receive no information. All the information is online. We no longer are calling a machine to update, but we have to go online to update our referrals. It is time consuming and I do believe it may cause a stir of murmuring from missionaries that do not have the access to technology unless they go out of their way. It is a bit of a hassle, I do admit, but it is requiring a lot more faith on our part and a lot more devotion. It is a good new system. From online proselyting, we discussed the plan of salvation with President Wilson. There were lots of questions from the elders about deep doctrine ideas. After zone conference, we called this area's single mother investigator to confirm our appointment. Well, she decided to do some research and talk with her pastors and now she no longer wants to meet with us, not even to discuss the things of which she heard.

(Surprise, like the pastors were going to tell her good things about Mormons. Or that everything on the internet is true, though we have admitted that mistakes have been made.) So, she is no longer interested. That night we had our three hour appointment.

Thursday, we volunteered at the health care center (that place I called an adult home, which is incorrect, I believe) where our Powhatan-to-Gayton recent convert is.  She was asleep when we were there. Missionaries have been volunteering there for a while. I was glad to be able to help. I helped with those there that needed help playing Bingo. It was fun. We had dinner, then we went out to Goochland (nicknamed Gayton West) with the Spanish elders. The car got stuck in mud, but through our efforts, we were able to get our car free. We tried to see a few people, but they were not home or wanting us to come by. 

Friday, we saw some recent converts. We read from the scriptures with them and helped them to understand. One of them generally understands what is taught, but the other does not. That night we were able to have a lesson with our South African investigator. 

Saturday, we did our progress record. While he did the record, I did more family history and listened to some of the things that LDS Charities is doing. I absolutely loved it. I am quite amazed about what the Church is able to accomplish. Later that night, we visited a less active who is returning and also needs help in understanding the scriptures. 

Sunday, we had church and our meetings. We tried to see some people before heading out to Goochland for dinner. It was a nice dinner. We visited the less active who has the Shiba Inu. He is going through some hard times and we offered to help him in things that he needs help. He was appreciative of that. I am trying to figure him out to see how we can help him progress spiritually.

With the situation with my companion, I have been turning to the Lord for help and guidance. I have been trying to draw on all my sources of help. As I have been relying on the Lord, I have been a lot happier. It is much better than Appomattox. Think of it this way: the people of Limhi and the people of Alma. The people of Limhi relied more on others than the Lord, which was in part why it took a while for them to be relieved of their burden. The people of Alma, on the other hand, relied more on the Lord and though their burdens were not automatically taken away from them, they were a lot happier and their burdens were lightened. I am relying on the Lord a lot more and using prayer as a strength. We have access to the heavens through prayer and it is such a strength. I am definitely persisting in not giving up and in trying to be obedient; hence, I am fighting like a dragon.

Tout va bien!

Love,

Elder S. Todd

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