Sickness and Health

This week was very unproductive. We were sick for more than half of it with some sort of head cold. We just slept most of the days. Yesterday we had an interesting sit down with one of our less active members. He is old and has a lot of health problems and lives with a part member family that we are working closely with our bishop. The old man is named Brother Bobo and he is one of the most hateful people I have ever met. He has been kicked out of like 4 nursing homes because he is such a problem with other people. So the members called us and asked if we would come and try and calm Bobo down and get him to eat his food and take his medications because he was diabetic. He had locked himself up in his room and just refused to do anything. we tried to show him how he was over reacting, again, but it was just a battle of whose pride was bigger. After awhile of that I came up with the idea to get him to pray and then we would all go around in the room and make a list of things we are grateful for and like about other people, because Bobo has never said anything nice about anyone else since I had gotten there. We did that for 30 minutes and by the time we left the spirit was there and he had calmed down. We left him and from what we know all worked out well. Yeah we had to be rather harsh and bold with Bobo because we had to cut him off when ever he tried to turn his talk into hate and anger. I had a blast. Well, nothing new here. Lots of love.

Love the Rasbandit

Asking for Guidance

 

 

This week has been one of the most impressive weeks I have ever had on my mission. The Lord does indeed answer prayers and leads us when we ask him to. So ever since I have gotten here I have been praying that we will be lead to people and that people will be led to us and be put into our paths and we would recognize them or them us. And this week that happened twice. The first time we were in one of the surrounding small towns called Cherryvale and we were visiting a less active family. When we left a car drove past and the driver waved at us and us at him. We got into our car and we drove off to the next less active. The driver of the just mentioned car followed us for a mile or so until we stopped at our destination. We both got out at the same time and he approached us and asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We said no, that we were LDS, and he was relieved to hear that. He said that he was looking for missionaries for the past few years and he was very interested in what we taught. He asked if there was a good time we could meet and we looked at out watches and saw we had an hour before our dinner appointment. So we followed him home and taught him and his wife for an hour. His name is Duck Simpson (it’s his navy name that he prefers to be called by), and her name is C, can’t remember her full name at the moment. We taught them about the restoration and left both of them a copy of the Book of Mormon and Duck seemed exited to read and C seemed not all that interested. We set an appointment to see him again before Sunday and we brought our ward mission leader over to help teach about the plan of salvation. Duck ate it all up. Oh so some back ground info on Duck, he is super into Christianity who knows his stuff very well. He has read many versions of the Bible and agrees with us on so many doctrines, Trinity, the end of the book of revelation, prophets. He has a master’s degree in theology and by the time we finished teaching him the Plan of Salvation he wanted to throw his degree away because he feel like he has been blinded by misunderstanding. We helped him realize that it is near impossible to interpret scripture correctly without the whole story. He said he is going to go through the Book of Mormon very quickly and we also gave him the gospel principles book, and I expect the next time we meet he will be through most of it. He wasn’t able to come to church Sunday due to gas but he is way exited to go. We are meeting him today again and I am super exited about it.

The other person we ran into is a woman named Carmen Lopez. We were about to go tracting and we had just prayed and I was looking at the GPS asking the Lord where he wanted us to go. I was felt impressed to go to a certain street and when we arrived I felt strongly that we needed to tract in a west direction. We talked to one guy that we had a follow up appointment with the next day but that is not the important part right now. So we knocked on about 8 doors when a lady started walking towards us and asked if we were missionaries. We said yes and she was very exited. She asked if we had a Spanish book of Mormon, and we said not on us but we can get you one. Carmen was on the phone with her sister who is an active member in Utah. Carmen said that her sister wanted to talk to one of us so she talked to Elder Burr while I talked to Carmen. Apparently Carmen is a very less active member of the church. Her entire family is very active and last months did a fast for her to get active. Right before we entered the scene Carmen had just told her sister that she would be interested in reading the Book of Mormon again, and then she looked over and saw us. Yup. Crazy I know. So we talked to her for a little bit and the next day we dropped off a copy of the Book of Mormon to her. We will stay in touch with her and work on getting her active again. Over all this has been a busy week with lots of people progressing. The family I mentioned last week has not moved anywhere, just because we haven’t had a time to meet with them, but we are working on it

For all you missionaries and future missionaries, (and i guess all you people) if you ask the Lord for guidance, he will give it to you. Knock and it shall be opened, ask and you will receive. Well the gospel is true the mission is amazing, and I am very grateful that the Lord puts us where we need to be at the right times so we can touch lives. Thanks for your prayers and all the love you guys have for me. 

A Week of Progres

Another week in the books out here in Independence. This week we have stumbled into some hopefully, fruitful people. First on our list is a lady we tracted into named Francis. We tracted into her a week ago and she seemed super open and just looked and felt ready. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and then on Sunday we  dropped in on them again and she has some family over and were playing a game so we just talked again. We brought over Caleb Hogge, the bishop's son who is prepping to go on a mission, and his thoughts on the family were exactly the same. They just look ready, we got their number and will be checking in on them some time this week hopefully. More info on them later. Also this week we had a lesson with one Gabriel Foot. Missionaries have been teaching her grandpa for a few years but he hasn't made any progress. Gabriel came to church this last week and this week so on Tuesday we taught her a lesson. She is super interested in the church but she had no idea why. So we have her praying and reading every day at 7:30. We will be meeting with her on Tuesday this week and we plan on meeting with her more often than that and teaching her in someone else home because her house is not the best environment.

This week we also had a mission wide fast that started on Saturday at 5 p.m. and went to Sunday at 5. It was sweet. We fasted for the new missionaries coming in and for the work to hasten here and to find new people. It will be cool to see how the work changes here now.

So this week we had an exchange with the elders down in Bartelsville for a day. I went down there with Elder Hindel (who is from Alaska) and we had a few good experiences. The first one is my prompting to talk about video games. We tracted into this guy who had a Halo 4 shirt on and when we did our initial introduction he was very uninterested. Then I felt like I should talk about Halo 4 and he opened up a ton. We talked for a little bit about Halo then he asked a few questions. We covered most of the restoration by the end and he wants us to come back whenever. It was sweet. Later that night we went to a less active member's house and they had a non member over so we taught the plan of salvation. By the end of the lesson he was super into the lesson and was asking questions. I felt so great because I was able to answer all his questions very well and the level of confidence I had with the material I was teaching just felt great. He was asking questions I would have had no idea how to answer at the beginning of my mission. It was after that lesson that I realized how much I have grown in the gospel and how much it has changed me and sunk into me. I believe it so whole heatedly and it feels as thought it will shape my decisions for the rest of my life, which I hope it does. Well enough of that. Thanks for all your prayers and all that you guys do for me. I am looking forward to coming home and our reunions.

Man I can't believe we are going into week 4 of this transfer. The time has been flying by out here. It makes sense with how much we have been doing. Yesterday was one of the most crazy days I think I have ever had. We went out with our bishop for 5 hours and talked to a ton of less active families and part member families as well. He is one of the most driven and urgent people I have ever met. I can't even imagine having to keep up with him on a daily basis. Just listening to him talk about the work and what the Church means to him and how he wants to share it makes me feel so... not good enough. But regardless it is me that has been called to serve here so that is all they get. This week we taught 22 lessons to people. By the end of this transfer I think I will almost have doubled my lesson count for my mission. Well probably not, but it feels that way. I heard that one of the reasons the Twelve lowered the age limit is because the work needs to be hastened. This area feel that need to hasten the work. This area makes me feel that urgency. There are so many people here who have been blinded by the subtle craftiness of men. Every one here are such good people with great heart and I just want to share with them what we have. I feel as though I now understand the need for a humble heart. That alone is the thing that we need to have to learn new things and improve ourselves. This area is a great example of that. Well I don't have a bunch of time but I love all you and I am grateful for all that you have done for for me, each of you. This gospel is true, Christ died to save us and to transform us through His grace so we may one day be like Him, if we are humble and have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Seek the lord and for the truth, and do what ever it takes to get it.