June 2014

     This is our month of special trainings.  We opened with one for district leaders at the mission home. (Front: Elders Bradford, Coombs, Johnson, Meyer, Seo, McKendrick, Dold, and Cook; Middle: Elders Holmes, Johnson, Russell, Ludlow, Pres. Eaton, Elders Solomon, Gardner, Albrecht, Hardt, and Draper; Back: Elders Beckstrand, Grant, Erekson, Bonner, Dymock, Batchelor, Thomas, Hilton, Freeman, and Spillsbury)

   

     We also had a special training for language learners.  Although Spanish is the only official additional language assignment in the mission, we have missionaries from other countries who are working to improve their English as well.  We talked about how learning another language can be a type for spiritual progression in general.  We also discussed language learning plans as outlined in Preach My Gospel.  We didn't get a picture of the whole group, but we did get one of the Hermanas. (Front: Hermanas Dubon, Biggs, Huchendorf, Syphus, Olson, Hansen, Clark, Casper, Ah-Hong, and Sis. & Pres. Eaton; Back: Hermanas Killingsworth, Mitchell, Wright, and Womack)
   
      Although our mission leadership council meeting is held every month, we rarely take pictures and we got one this time.  We opened with a discussion on personal study and then searched the scriptures to find answers to several questions posed by the missionaries.  Among other things, we emphasized role play as a way to both sustain changes and empower those who may be nervous.

(Front: Sisters Hehl, Wolf, Eaton, Pres. Eaton, Sisters Taylor, Judd, Huchendorf, and Mitchell; Middle: Elders Bradford, Butt, Grandstaff, Matthews, Garner, Porter, Quackenbush, Davis, and Rodgers; Back: Elders Cook, Young, Tui, Jenkins, Maxwell, McDonald, Tibbets, Cannon, and Thomson)

     This month we said goodbye to Sisters Kartchner and Lloyd, shown with Sis. & Pres. Eaton in front, and Elders Porter, Nelson, McDonald, Johnson, and Macfarlane in back.

     We welcomed Sisters Clement, Cass, Peacock, shown with Sis. & Pres. Eaton in front, and Sisters Weldon, Halford, and Sonasi.  Elders Jones, Caputo, Oliphant, Bradshaw, Noh, and Capener are standing in back at this lovely setting by Lake Wilderness.

     I've also included some of the miracles missionaries have experienced as they have tried to implement training and fully consecrate themselves to the work of salvation.

Elder Downing: We had some really amazing miracles happen this week because of praying to have prepared people in our path and talking to everyone. We found 3 families to start teaching.

Sister Syphus:  One thing I've tried to incorporate into our finding efforts is offering a SPECIFIC prayer of faith... for example, while praying, tell Heavenly Father who we're going to be visiting at 3:00 and the area we will be in, then praying for people to be placed in our path around that time. I've learned when we offer specific prayers, the Lord can grant us specific blessings!

Elder Solomon:  I have seen so many miracles as we find through members. We gave our members our progress record with the addresses of everyone we have been working with investigators and less actives and had the members drop by and invite them to church. They came! Members can do things we just can’t. Their influence can be huge.

Sister Ripplinger:  I have been praying a lot for people to be in our path this week and to have the courage to talk to them. Role playing has definitely helped! I believe that how serious we take our role plays influences how serious we take our work. If we sincerely try to improve in our role plays and practice often, our contacting and lessons go so much better!! Right after zone meeting I was so excited to talk to people after we had practiced so many contacting approaches. I decided to take Sister Muir's advice and invite everyone to meet with the missionaries no matter how interested they seem. We talked to him and he didn't seem too interested but we invited him to meet with the missionaries anyway and now is committed to baptism!!! Having faith that Heavenly Father has put people in our path has made a HUGE difference in our work!

Elders Johnson and Loveland:  We were in Walmart [on P-day] doing our shopping when a woman behind a DirectTV stand walked over to us and said, “You’re Mormons, right?  I’ve been studying the Joseph Smith story and it just feels right.  How do I join the Mormon faith?”

Sister Copen:  This week we tried to spend an hour contacting every day. There were some days that it didn't work but most of the time it did. On Wednesday we were trying to contact a referral but they weren't home so we decided to start our hour early. We walked through the park and saw this young guy listening to music. We went to talk with him, and with the thought "don't settle" in our minds, we felt prompted to ask if he had a minute that we could talk more. We sat down and shared the first lesson. After we read the first vision he said “guys this is powerful.”  Multiple times he started crying and as he shared his life story with us he ended by saying that “I know God led you to me. I needed to be here today so I could talk to you.”

Elder Garr:  The best thing about this week was with Betty! She is this little old lady that we helped move about a week ago. Well along with her committing to come to church as "payment" she also had us over for some cake. While we were sitting there eating cake we taught her the first lesson and it was super spiritual. Before we committed her to baptism she was telling us her religious background and she said, “I was born a Lutheran, I married into a Baptist family, and now I’m going to be a Mormon.”  She had some really good questions about the restoration and we were able to answer them for her. She got really emotional at the end of her prayer and she noticed the good feeling that she felt and we told her that it was the spirit testifying to her the truthfulness of our message!

Elder Kim:  We started to see some miracles as we open our mouth and try to talk to everyone. We found 10 potential investigators through inspired tracting! Our appointment got moved to later so we decided to knock on some doors in the apartment. Also we tried to share the message of Restoration with everyone and invite them to meet with missionaries and I was surprised how many people said yes. . . .The more I talk to people the more I am surprised how many people that the Lord has prepared for us!