So I have been totally slacking in putting up Jordan's blog posts for the past three weeks but I hope you all will forgive me. So anyway here is his latest one and I will put up the other two as well so enjoy. (They are pretty long... but full of good stuff)
-Spencer A. Nielson
Hey Everyone!
How are you all doing?
Wait just a minute... It's already June 24th?!?!?!?
Alright, so I've been in the field about a month now, and it's pretty much flown by. Like seriously... July is less than a week away and it's kind of scary - we get a new mission president this Friday!
This week pretty much flew by, with zone preparation day last Monday, lots of work Tuesday -Thursday, going on an exchange to Blackwell on Friday, Tornado Clean up on Saturday, church and that awesome broadcast yesterday, and finally I'm here! But, my last email wasn't as complete as I would have liked to make it - and I have a bit more time today, so let's start there.
I kind of mentioned in my last email about last Thursday (the 13th) going on my first exchange - it was a pretty swell experience to see how another Elder does his work. I learned a lot from him, and increased my confidence quite a bit as I was put on the spot a lot more and cared less about how people responded as it wasn't my area. That might have been a bad mindset... but it definitely allowed me to be more bold with the people - which was good - and it also made it easier to talk to the people as I didn't figure I'd see them again in the near future. Then came Friday, and we had a miracle in that we were able to catch a couple people who we don't usually get to see.
Saturday was pretty great in that we were able to go out with one of the most solid members in our ward. We were able to teach and visit with 3 people and they all went pretty great. We even saw some of the people we taught at Church the next day! Speaking of which the next day was pretty awesome. We had church and it was Father's day which made church even better! It was probably our laziest church day ever as all the teachers were there and so we didn't get to substitute for any of the Sunday School classes, and most of the young men were there as well! It was pretty awesome. Then that night we had a great experience visiting with a couple less active members (who haven't been to church in probably 5 or more years) and it was neat to be able to listen to them and just gently encourage them to read their scriptures and pray and then work towards attending church.
Alright, now that we're up to this week (we're on the 17th for those who lost track like me and had to go look it up). For zone preparation day we went bowling, which was pretty awesome. My best game I bowled a 104, which was pretty solid for not having bowled in months. There was an elder there who bowled a 185 one game, which was quite impressive. He gave me a few tips as well which helped out a bit.
Then we had a great zone training meeting, where we discussed personal challenges that we face, and how through his Atonement, Christ is able to help us overcome them. We also talked a bit about how to get along better with out companions, and to apply the Doctrine of Christ into our lives. A question I asked myself a couple times during this meeting, was "How can I desire to... " and the answer I've found is generally to look back on experiences that I've had previously and then pray to understand the Atonement more. As I've done that I've discovered that the promise in Moroni 10:5 - that by the Power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things - is true for everything. I've also learned from that meeting that it is vital to get to know the members you're working with - and the members getting to know the missionaries - so that all can work together to invite others to come unto Christ.
Our zone (and now mission) is implementing a program called "#THEFLOOD". It's a pretty simple way for members to get more involved spreading the gospel to those around them. the basis for the program is found in Moses 7:62 "...and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth..." So with that verse, the challenge we give to the members is that every 2 weeks they (as a family) will give someone a Book of Mormon with their written testimony inside to help spread the gospel. There's 4 simple steps related to that, in the acronym P.R.A.Y.. The first step, Prayerfully consider is related to D&C 9:8and is where they consider who they could give the Book of Mormon to through prayer. After they decide on someone and the spirit confirms to them that it is a good choice, they make it Relevant. The scripture with that is 1 Nephi 19:23 and it's where you make it personal to them by writing your testimony inside. After that you Act in faith and actually give them the copy. The scripture with that is Mosiah 4:10 and it basically tells you that if you believe the gospel see that you do these things - meaning share it in this case. After that you're promised that Ye shall receive which is related to D&C 6:29-31 and because the promise in that scripture is from the Lord, you are sure of the promise in Ether 3:12. So basically, it's just a pretty simple way to share the Book of Mormon with those around you, and if you have any questions you're supposed to ask the missionaries in your area.
So yeah... that was only about half an hour of the meeting - so imagine how awesome the rest was! Another highlight from this week was on Saturday (the 22nd) when we went down with our ward to help with Tornado Clean up in Shawnee. We spent some time down there helping clean up an antique workshop - a place where they buy old furnishings and such and fix them up for antique stores - which was interesting as there was some pretty cool things there. But, most of it looked like junk to us so we spent a little while questioning why they wanted to keep so much of it, but that was their choice. It was pretty cool as we got to basically tear down a building (as 3/4 walls has blown away on the workshop) and move the contents to a car port they had just finished. After that we headed over and helped clean up some trees that they had cut down earlier in the day - Cedar trees for those who might want to know -and they were pretty huge. They made a sweet looking chair, but I didn't have my camera on me so there's no picture of it. We then headed up to Freddy's for lunch and we had some tasty food. Something super cool happened though - we were in our yellow Mormon Helping Hands shirts, and some random lady who we will probably never see again came up and thanked us for our hard work and left the brother who paid for our lunch with a couple twenties to "treat us to some ice cream". Now I don't know about you, but we all thought that was a miracle because we felt bad for having him pay for our lunch when we had just eaten at his house a couple days ago. It was neat to see how the Lord works in small ways. After that we headed back home and got back to work.
Another highlight of this last week was the Broadcast yesterday, which if you want to watch check it out here: http://www.lds.org/training/
Alright, I think that's enough highlights about what all I'm doing, so now it's time for my favorite part of emailing home - the chance to share some things I've been studying!
My studies this week have mostly come from the Book of Mormon - particularly Mosiah and the first couple chapters of Alma. Something cool I realized as I was reading through Mosiah 12-15 (the story of Abinadi teaching King Noah the commandments) was that there were a few slight differences between the commandments but the basic jist of what was being asked is the same. It helped me realize that the Book of Mormon and the Bible really do teach the same thing, and it also helped me to recognize the importance of using both.
Another cool story I read this week is in Mosiah 24, specifically verses 13-15 as they helped me realize how willing the Lord is to help us throughout or trials. It was cool to read about their experience with the Lord's help and then try and see how the Lord blesses and helps me with my burdens. A few examples I came up with are as follows. (1) He strengthens me - there's no other way I would be able to bike how far we do (at least 8 miles a day) and talk to as many people with out his help. (2) He gives me what to say - a cool experience with that this week was when we were visiting with a family in our ward and sharing a spiritual thought with them before dinner. We talked about #THEFLOOD with them, and the sister asked what to do if you've already given someone a Book of Mormon to bring up the gospel again. We mentioned publications like "The Living Christ" as a way to bring up gospel subjects that she could bear testimony about, and she said to us that she had never thought of using those before. It was cool to see that the Lord really does help us know what to say right when we need it.
Today I was studying in Alma 5, which is a chapter I really like to read whenever I think I could use a little humbling. My favorite verse in the chapter - verse 26, reminds me often that I need to consistently reinforce my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, for without that constant strengthening that testimony would collapse. Something else I really like from this chapter is the kind of questions Alma asks the people. Most of the questions aren't just yes/no questions but they're there to really make you think about your life and reflect. As part of that reflection I've kind of challenged myself to apply this chapter more in my life by applying that samePRAY acronymn to it. But, switch it up a little bit by prayerfully considering which question to work on/answer that day, and then making it relevant to me by rewriting it so that it is a question being asked to me in this time and then acting throughout the day to apply it. Then the Ye shall receive step is kind of related to verse 46 of the chapter where "the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit" because I know that as I work to apply these soul searching questions into my life Heavenly Father will manifest by the Holy Ghost the things that I can do to be better and become more like him.
Alright... so that's kind of a long email, but I had some time today to write one :)
I hope y'all like it, and in case you didn't notice there were a couple links in there to the scriptures to make it easy to look it up so that I wouldn't have to quote them all and make my email twice as long as it already is.
Thanks for all that you guys do to help me!
Love,
Elder Nielson
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