Becoming a Missionary

My beloved brethren, you and I, today and always, are to bless all peoples in all the nations of the earth. You and I, today and always, are to bear witness of Jesus Christ and declare the message of the Restoration. You and I, today and always, are to invite all to receive the ordinances of salvation. Proclaiming the gospel is not a part-time priesthood obligation. It is not simply an activity in which we engage for a limited time or an assignment we must complete as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Rather, missionary work is a manifestation of our spiritual identity and heritage. We were foreordained in the premortal existence and born into mortality to fulfill the covenant and promise God made to Abraham. We are here upon the earth at this time to magnify the priesthood and to preach the gospel. That is who we are, and that is why we are here--today and always.
- by Elder David A. Bednar
From The Ensign, Nov. 2005, Page 47

Monday, May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012

05/21

Hey what’s up y'all? How is everyone? Sounds like you are all doing pretty well after reading all of your mail! :) As I’m sure you all expect I am still doing super well! I am finally really comfortable here. I love California and when we went to multi-zone conferences this week I discovered that Yucaipa is one of the highest baptizing zones in the entire mission. It is very likely that I will spend the rest of my mission here, if not then I will spend I suppose a short amount of time in my next area!

Dang it seems like everything has gone by so fast. But as for the increase of knowledge it’s like I have been here for a lot longer! I love it so much! Here’s a cool story… So, last week we talked to this girl that was outside of her house washing her car. As we talked with her (I guess she talked with the missionaries previously, but nothing really happened) we set up an appointment with her at the church on a Wednesday night. This is the second time I have met someone at the church to have a lesson there and the spirit is so much stronger it seems. Anyway, so we set up this appointment right and she was like, Oh and I’ll probably bring my friend along too! :) YES! That’s exactly what we want to here!

So we had a lesson with her and because it was two young women, we had to have a team up. So, we had one of the priests in the ward come and it was really awesome! The lesson went really well and the spirit that was felt was amazing! We committed them to be baptized when they know that the Book of Mormon is true! No date yet... but give us some time, it was still just the first lesson. I know that the Lord is blessing me and my companion because we have been striving to do our best and to just keep a positive attitude about everything. We work hard and have some fun too!

 In the home share I currently have, there are four sons. Two are at home, one is on a mission, and another is a returned missionary. The son on a mission is Garth. The returned missionary is named Bryce and there are two kids in high school. Their names are Shane (junior) and Wyatt (senior). Wyatt went on a team up with us when we taught the girls last week. Their names are Lauren and Jessica. Recently, Wyatt has been teaching me a few things on the guitar lately. It’s awesome. I still suck, but my skills are improving!

 Also we were helping this lady throw some stuff out. She moved and left all this stuff in her driveway and we told her whatever the other church didn’t take we would donate it to the DI. So, we went and loaded all the crap into the zone leaders truck (it’s a Chevy Colorado), and we ended up taking like 3 trips to the DI which is just down the road. Then, while we were throwing the stuff out, we were kind of checking out all the stuff that was there and I scored 3 SLR film cameras! :) I tinkered with them when I had some spare time and got all 3 of them to work! Ha yeah, so I loaded up some film.  My favorite, one and took a ton of pictures at the combined with Redlands zone activity today. It was tight, like unto a dish lol :) jk but it was pretty fun! 

 So yeah, I’m doing pretty well and the work IS PROGRESSING so well! :) Hopefully we will have some great news for you next week too! Please pray for our investigators Lauren, Jessica, John, Cindy and Staisha. The last two are struggling, they kind of dropped us but hopefully there is still time!

 K Love you all! Have a great week! Love, E. McNew


















No comments: