This is Jordan's blog post from the 10th. Enjoy reading!
-Spencer A. Nielson
Hey Everyone!
It's been a crazy week for sure, but things should be slowly becoming more normal now. We've done everything from tearing down fences to chopping up downed trees, to proselyting all day!
So on Tuesday we went down to a little town of about 600 people called Carney and helped out a guy there to clean up from the Tornado damage. We tore down a fence for him that consisted of a layer of Chain-link fencing, then a layer of barbed wire, and then a layer of chicken wire. It was pretty tough to get it down, but eventually we were able to accomplish the task. Then that night we were able to visit with a less active family and we talked with them about the doctrine of Christ and going to church. It was super awesome! We also met and got to teach a new investigator about the restoration, and it was super awesome because he just lives down the street from us!
Then the next day, we had a miracle where we stopped by to see one of the part member families in our ward and were able to have a really spiritual discussion about weaknesses and turning to Christ to help overcome them. It was super awesome, and I think it helped them a lot.
Then Thursday was pretty awesome as we had a member go out with us to one of our appointments. Sadly, the appointment fell through, but the miracle was after that we were able to visit with two other people and teach them! It was awesome, and I was glad he was willing to go out and help us. Sadly, he moved away to Texas this past Saturday. Then we got to visit with a recent convert named Tyler and we were able to talk about a lot of the questions he had - a lot of which regarded the Priesthood. Later that night, we were able to visit with another person and talk with him. It was pretty great!
The day after that, Friday, we had district meeting, and the zone leaders came up to visit us and counsel with us during that. We discussed getting members involved, and also the commitment pattern. It was pretty great, and the zone leaders had some awesome insights. After that we went out to lunch at a Mexican all you can eat buffet named El Patio, and it was pretty tasty (they only have the buffet for lunch) and you should try it if you're ever up this way in Ponca City. Then one of the zone leaders, Elder White, went out with us that day and we were able to visit with a less active named Marion, and his uncle ( a non member) named Darrell and we talked about the atonement and recognizing God's hand in our lives. It was pretty awesome, and Elder White had some great insights for us. Sadly, our appointments for later fell through, but the people we had set up a church tour with showed up and that was a great experience. We had the church tour with the three of us missionaries and our awesome ward missionary, Brother Avans, and it went over quite well. The family that we gave the tour to then followed us out to a ward cook-out where there was some delicious food to be partaken of. They had a great time there, and so did we, so it was a pretty great day.
The next day we got to go down with some of the members of the ward to help clean up down in Shawnee, and we spent a good 5 hours down there cutting up large trees that had fallen and putting them in a pile to be burned later. It was hard work, but was definitely worth it as we were able to help out an older lady who would never have been able to do it herself. Then when we got back that night we were able to see a few investigators and visit with them briefly, and it was another day that flew by.
Yesterday, Sunday we had a great ward council meeting, and the ward leadership was quite happy with all the effort that we had put into that week and we're going to do even better this week. Then we had church, and the family that we had given a church tour to on Friday came! It was a great experience to have them there, and we were super happy. The speakers in Sacrament talked about Priesthood keys - one was a member of the bishopric and the other was the high councilman - so they were kept pretty interested in what was going on because most of it was new information. Then they stayed for Sunday school, and I got to teach the Gospel Principles lesson and help them understand the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The members that were also in the class were a great help in explaining that clearly, because it is definitely something that is experienced differently for everyone. After out studies and meals that day, we headed out to proselyte and were unable to see any of the people on our list. We did however, at the very end of the night, meet a great potential investigator and we'll be seeing him next Saturday.
So that's my crazy week, and sadly I haven't gotten as much study time in this week as a typical week is supposed to, as we didn't have studies on Tuesday or Saturday. In addition to that, instead of the 2 hours of companionship study we're supposed to have most days of the week as part of the 12 week training program we only got to have the full 2 hours on Wednesday.
Anyway, for my studies this week I have taken on the challenge of applying the scriptures I'm reading into my life and the lives of my investigators. So, a chapter I read this week is 1 Nephi 18 and a few things stuck out to me. For one thing, in verse 3 it was awesome to see that when you pray often the Lord blesses you. Then in verse 4 when I applied it to myself I noticed that if you humble yourself and let yourself become a "work of the Lord" you'll find that you turn out "exceedingly fine" and the same goes for any one of us. Then in verses 13-15 I put myself in for Laban and Lemuel and realized that sometimes it may take until the 4th prompting for me to realize that I need to do something, and that it also goes for my investigators where it may take until the 4th time for them to realize that the message we're sharing is God's word. Then in verse 21, Nephi calms the storm through faith and I related that to when Christ did the same thing and then realized that, if God needed me to, I could also do the exact same thing through faith in Christ. It was a pretty great study session that day ;)
Then another day I studied on how to best develop the Christlike attribute of virtue, and as part of that I realized it was important to figure out what virture was. So I tried looking in True to the Faith and didn't find a definition, which made me sad. So I came up with one myself... and it's that virture is goodness and being morally strong, and that it is an attribute that when combined with Faith in Christ gives one power to do all things. So I worked on finding ways to develop virtue. I read D&C 121:45-46, and came up with some ways to let virtue garnish my thoughts unceasingly. For example, making sure that I'm always praying is important, as it memorizing hymns/scriptures so that if any unclean thoughts do enter my head I have something to call upon to clear them out. Another thing I deduced was that it was important to seek after virtue, and to pray for the Lord's help in developing it. A way to work on developing it as well is to magnify and exemplify what I have been called to do. Then I read in 2 Peter 1:3-8, and focused on verse 5, which talked about adding to my faith virtue, and to my virtue knowledge. From that I realized that as you have faith and experience things, virtue is what takes that and makes it knowledge for you to use.
Anyway, that's mainly what I've learned so far this week in addition to studying more of the lessons to know them better.
That's all for this week, oh and for those of you who are wondering, still send things to the mission office (416 SW 79th St. Ste 210 Oklahoma City, Ok 73139) as they forward them out to me wherever I am.
Love you all,
Elder Jordan Nielson
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