So. Forgive me if this week's email is
a bit shorter than normal. I'm trying to remember everything without my planner
from last transfer. Okay. So on Wednesday, we had a lesson with I., and we
taught him about the spirit world and vicarious work for the dead. He had tons
of questions about what qualified one to go to the celestial kingdom, and what
the scriptures meant by "hell". We explained everything, explaining
all of the points in a really simple manner, and that "hell" is
merely the state of fear and anguish of the souls of the wicked as they await
the time where they'll be brought to stand before the judgment bar of God. We
then taught that through the vicarious work for the dead, these people may
accept the ordinances of the Gospel, and be freed from their torments and
pains, and receive a state of paradise and rest. We shared that everyone will
be brought before God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost to be judged of their deeds,
whether they were good or evil. We then went and taught L., who has been
having a bit of a hard time because of how much work he's had all of a sudden.
We mentioned that it was possible that I would be transferred the coming week,
and he got pretty sad. I let him know that if I got transferred, that all would
turn out alright. We then went and visited some potentials and finished up the
night.
Thursday, we did our weekly planning,
and then went out to find people to teach. We had some appointments later in
the night, so during the afternoon, it was mostly trying to find people to
teach, or find people at home so that we could set up an appointment with them.
We spent quite a bit of time contacting, and had some pretty good contacts, I
must say. We were able to have some really good conversations with people. We
then had a predicament where I really needed to use the bathroom, so we went to
McDonald's, and ran into F. He offered to buy us dinner, so we ate with
him, and talked with him about how he'd been doing, and how his work was going.
He said that he'd been extremely busy lately, and that he was going to come to
church Sunday. We shared a thought with him, and he went back to work. Then,
L. called and asked if we wanted to come by and share the Joseph Smith movie
with him, since he had some free time. We had been planning to show the movie
to him, so we figured that it would be perfect. So, we swung by and put the DVD
into his player, and it didn't work. Bummer. So we ended up just sharing a
message with him, and he then offered to feed us. We were like,"Well, we
already ate today." and he insisted that we eat. Okay then. So he heated
up some ribs that his sister had made for him, and we ate that and some black
bean soup. Then, my stomach had had enough. We went home for the night.
Friday, we had district meeting
outside, since it was a nice 80 degrees outside with a cool breeze blowing. I
shared a message on how the account in Joseph Smith History followed the points
of the Gospel quite closely. First Joseph exercised faith in Christ, and
prayed expecting that God would answer him. The First Vision was then opened
unto him. Three years later, he was feeling particularly guilty for having kept
jovial company with some who weren't the best company, and felt unworthy before
God, and desired forgiveness. He then retired to his bedroom on Sep. 21 of 1823
and asked the Lord for forgiveness of sins, in other words, he exercised faith
unto repentance. A heavenly messenger named Moroni then appeared and
told Joseph that God had a work for him to do. Later, during the translation
process, Joseph and Oliver retired to a place close by, and as they prayed
about the topic of baptism, John the Baptist appeared and conferred the Aaronic
Priesthood, and gave them authority to baptize. They then baptized each
other. Soon after, Joseph and Oliver then received the Melchizedek Priesthood
from Peter, James, and John, and, I'm assuming, received the Gift of the
Holy Ghost. The Church was then restored upon the very principles of the
Gospel that would cause it to function.
We then went out and got to work, and
tried to visit several people, who, alas, were not home. We then got onto our
phone, and found several names of former investigators, and began calling a few
of them to see if we could visit them, since there weren't any teaching records
with their names. We then went and visited J. and B. to show them the 20
minute Restoration video, and when we got there, we found out that even though
they had a DVD player, and a PS3, they weren't connected and didn't have
remotes. So we just watched it on their tablet. (Thank goodness for
technology.) Their daughter, B., and her husband came in for the first time
ever, and watched the video with us. The Spirit was amazingly strong, and I was
quite impressed with how well everything fell into place after that.
Saturday, I really can't remember half
of what we did. I feel like we went and did mormon.org time, got some
Golden Spoon frozen yogurt with the English missionaries, and then went
contacting for the rest of the afternoon. OH. Got it. We went to the Family
History Center down in Mission Valley, which is pretty darn huge, and we got
some orientation on how to do family history in order to help our less-actives
and recent converts. I ended up finding several people that needed their
records updated and clarified, so I logged into Ancestry.com and got some knots
and tangles fixed. Then I found a few ancestors that hadn't had their temple
work done, and I wished that I could have reserved their work, but since I'm a
missionary, I can't really do that, so I left them to be found by family
members. THAT'S when we went and got frozen yogurt and stuff. Then we spent the
afternoon contacting. We then went and visited several families so that I could
say goodbye to them. I'd been having a pretty solid feeling that I was getting
moved, so I wanted to be sure and get some good pictures with everyone that
I've really gotten close to.
Sunday, about 10 minutes before Gospel
Principles, I was told that I was teaching the class. Whoop-dee-doo. So I
snagged one of the books really quick and read through it at the speed of
speed. Right as we were about to start the class, all of these women started
walking in that I'd never seen before. Turns out they were all investigators,
so I was pretty happy. I taught the class, we had Priesthood, and went to
sacrament meeting. They had me bless the sacrament with A., and Elder
G. sat down by a less-active. L's mom hadn't returned his calls that
morning, so he went to make sure that she was alright. Turns out her phone had
kicked the bucket, so he was trying to get her a phone set up the whole day so
that he could keep in contact with her in case something happened. Hence, he
wasn't at church, so he'll have to wait until next week to get his temple
recommend. Looks like I won't be able to do baptisms for the dead with him. But
oh well. We didn't see F. there either, since Hno. Z. skipped out on
church this week for some reason. We then had dinner, and went to visit several
families to take pictures and the like. We visited the H. at the end of it
all, and they refused to take pictures just so that they could make me come
back Tuesday to take pictures. So we'll be doing that tonight.
Then yesterday, we helped out shoveling
some more goat poo, and went to have some burritos from this Mexican place
called Oscar's. My burrito wasn't too bad for the price, but I don't think I'll
go back. We then went and re-added a former investigator that we thought had
moved away, and proceeded to watch as every single appointment of ours for that
night fell through. It was quite dramatic, really. We had an appointment every
hour from 5 to 8, and every single one fell through in succession. Then we were
able to go visit the B. and take pictures with them. They're a really
solid family. I really hope they do well. So yeah. Yesterday was pretty....slow.
I'll be sure to let you all know where the heck I'm
going next week, because I'll have already been there for a week! HAHA. Just
remember to see what you can get done on my freshman registration, and once
you've done all you can, just let me know, and I'll talk to President to get
the rest done. Plus they'll have some senior missionaries there to help me out
if I need it.
I hope you all have a great week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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