First of all, there's SO much that I have to say that just won't fit into the one-hour e-mail window so I'm just gonna talk about my week and send more news into snail mail for mom and dad to upload on the blog later on.
I neglected to include one extremely important detail in my last letter. Remember Nancy? well, she got cold feet and asked to postpone her baptism. We haven't given up on her yet. we are still teaching Nancy and we hope that she wil be baptized by February 14. please pray for us! She's a really sweet woman who could really use the gospel in her life.
Also, there appears to be some confusion on the rule for sending letters and packages only to the mission office. I will try to clarify. Lately, there have been reports of mail theft in the past (who goes around stealing mail anyway?) so Blackburn feels that for the security of all elders and sisters, the new rule is that everything can only be sent to the mission office, who will forward it on to the Zone Leaders, who will hand it to us at District and Zone meetings every wednesday or friday. Not the ideal solution but it's the best they can do at the time. If you want to ensure that I can get your letters or stuff this week, mail it before the end of monday so I can likely receive it.
Anyway-
We have been working very hard this week and noticably reaping ther fruits of our labors. Last week, we've focused on a man named Eddie Parker, who was baptized about a year ago, but the thing is that somehow, about a few months ago, he stopped going to church. after a while. other missionaries decided to visit him, but his father said that Eddie had gone and become an alcoholic. Well, as I first laid eyes on his name in the Area Book. I felt something strongly inside that we should help him ASAP. So we started visiting him last tuesday. when we were at Eddie's door, he told his faither to tell us that he doesn't want to talk to us. We came back the next day, with the same results. and so on until friday. Lingam protested and suggested that we should drop Eddie, but I got him to get us to visit Eddie one more time, this time writing a short letter inviting him to a branch lunch social on Saturday.
Guess what?
Eddie did indeed come to the social. The whole branch and we greeted him warmly and showed Eddie that he is still loved, no matter what. one thing after another, he promised to come to church on sunday and held true to that promise. He expressed a desire to come to church again next week, and we are going to work with him this week to help teach and change his life for the better. I.E. throwing away the bottle.
All week, we have been working with two men, George and David Turner, who are already recently baptized and are preparing to receive the priesthood and learn about temple ordinances. George will receive the Aaronic Priesthood next sunday, if all goes well. We are hoping it will be the same with David Turner. In fact, last monday, we found that he was sick with a persistent cold for weeks, so we took the opportunity to give him a Melchizedek Priesthood blessing and afterwards taught him about the powers and blessings that comes with being a worthy priesthood holder. Later into the week, David healed very quickly, and so he expressed a strong desire to learn more about temple ordinances and asked about how he could help perform ordinances for his parents, who are already deceased. We will continue to work more with David later on.
Ine more thing. I would like to express my opinion about an specific area in Los Angeles. Last Friday, we have been teaching a less-active member who lives in Manhattan Beach. I'll tell you, I almost instantly fell in love with Manhattan Beach. they have all those beautiful homes that are not so big and fancy like up in Beverly Hills (I'll leave that place to the snobby and the overrated celebrities) and it is on a hill overlooking the coast. Really beautiful. I now have a renewed plan which I will share with you.
1. work ultra hard and have the branch grow very big and become a bona-fide ward (more about that in my upcoming letter) 2. Finish mission and return with honor 3. Finish College 4. Find a pretty bonny lass to marry for all time and eternity 5. write a bestselling book and earn lots of money 6. live in Manhattan Beach for the rest of my life.
Yep. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.
-Z
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Lots of Less-actives with a chance of progressing investigators. (Plus torrential rains all week)
Hi. Everyone.
Well, I'm now in warm, sunny Los Angeles (well, not so much on the "sunny", due to said pouring rain). There's SO much to do in L.A. Somehow many of the previous ASL missionaries didn't do such a good job because 70% of the whole Torrance 4th Deaf Branch is Less-Active, so our main priority is drag- er.. uh... bringing them back to church. So far, It's going well. My new companion and I have been able to bring three less-active people back last week, and we have been working on BRTing (Build Relationships of Trust) with many other less-actives so maybe things will be a lot better this week. I've heard a lot of Elders complain that getting Less-actives back to church is like trying to herd cats, and, like cats, if you badger them too much, they literally hiss at you.
But at this moment, I'm too happy right now because I'm FINALLY out of the MTC. I mean, I couldn't be any more ectastic. That morning, I actually dragged all the other hald-asleep elders out of bed and hurried all of us along to the front of the MTC where a bus was waiting to take us all to the airport. As the MTC shrunk into the distance, I loudly said GOOD-BYE for the whole bus to hear. Some of them even cheered along. LOL. At the airport, we all went in to check in out baggage. All of mine are totally packed to the seams, and apparently, they said that one of my luggage was overweight, and they had to charge extra. Guess how much? $90 for a over-weight bag! Flying highway robbery. but unfortunately I couldn't do anything about it, so I had to fork over a lot of money for baggage and service fees. >:(
Anyway, after we went through security, Elder Hadlock and I zeroed in towards a Burger King and ordered a crossiant breakfast. Tasted like HEAVEN. That's right. You know it's really sad when after 2 months on MTC food, all we could think of was fast food as if it were sent from on high. Whatever. At least I had real food again. I also caught the headlines of today's newspaper. Apparently there was a violent earthquake that levelled Haiti just the day before. What exactly happened? Are the Church sending humanitarian aid to Haiti ASAP?
Anyway, Fast forwars 4 hours later. Here we are, in the Mission President's office in LA. All five of us ASL elders went through a little orientation, had lunch, and net our new companions in LA. What really stinks is that the ASL program is really small so three of the elders (Van Dam, Franco, and Western) had to be put into the hearing program, which left only Hadlock (who is deaf) and I. Our new companions are Elder Cordy and Elder Lingam, who I was put with. Thus began my adventure in one of the biggest cities in the world. What you have to understand is that after all of this, they basically drop you off like a sack of potatoes and you get right to work.
That late afternoon, Lingam and I visited my first real teaching appointment with a woman named Nancy. She had been taught all the lessons and have really committed to baptism, so we went ahead and gave her the litany of baptism questions. She passed! and baptism was set for last sunday. after this meeting, her friend, Leo, seemed interested in learning more about the gospel so we went ahead and taught him aboutthe Restoration. It went fairly well. After that, Lingam and I got settled into our apartment and made plans for the next day.
Thurdsay: we had a meeting with one member in out branch named Eric Townsend, I think out ward mission coordinator or somthing like that. We planned out all of the next week. Mostly Hadlock and I just listened in, trying to learn a little from Column A and a little from Column B.
That night, we had a dinner appointment (all 4 of us ASL missionaries) with Branch Prsident and sister Sutton. Dinner was DELICIOUS. we chatted a lot and shared some spiritual thoughts. Later that night, all of us went to the churchhouse where thay had a Video Phone and I got to call my family and say hello and I'm safely in LA, etc. It was really nice to see home once again, at least for a moment. After that, the branch had a bi-weekly Sports night where we played volleyball, basketball, etc. Funny thing though, only a FEW people showed up, so it's wasn't very fun compared to gym time in the MTC with 100 other elders and sisters.
Friday was my first real missionary day and we had a District meeting. Guess who I found there? MY BROTHER! He leaped on me (his way of saying hi) and we caught up at lunch in the mall. After that, Lingam and I went out teaching all day. it was fun and we got one less-active family to come back to church (which they did!) Saturday wasn't so much, though, because almost everyone wasn't home at one point, Lingam got a little discouraged, but, somehow maybe by miracle, a ice cream truck drove by. I bought us some vanilla ice cream, and Lingam felt a lot better afterwards. Ice cream makes for awesome emotion medicine, especially when it comes unexpected. We had Ice Cream every sunday and wednesday in the MTC, but somehow it wasn't nearly as exciting, because we knew that it would be there, whick made it kind of boring. Just a little piece of wisdom for you guys there.
good thing though is that out last house for the night, someone WAS home, a recent convert-gone-less active man named George. We committed him to church the next day (and he did!).
Sunday was a special day because we had a regional conference by the General authorities (President Uchtdorf, Elder Holland, Elder Edgley, and Sister Namikami (I think that's how her name was spelled but I'm not sure.)) Oh, Jared was there also. We found said less-active people there and said gratefuls that they were able to come to church that day.
Monday (P-day): basically, we just tided up our apartment. the Library was closed in observation of MLK day, so now you know why there was no e-mail yesterday. we had a fun p-day activity: Bowling (ZL-approved, mind you) with all the local missionaries so I got to meet a lot of Jared's companions. it was fun, and I was able to not sink a lot of gutter balls.
anyway, that's my adventure so far. Stay tuned next week!
Elder Zack
Sunday, January 17, 2010
MTC Photos
Group Photo: Clockwise from Left: Wester, Lemmon, Jones, Me, Nightingale, Hadlock, Gervacio, Van Dam, Franco, Hansen, Christensen, Stoddard, Badger, Moulton, Cox, and Gauthier.
He ain't heavy. He's my brother.
Last MTC Letter
Okay. This is my official last e-mail from the MTC before I leave for LA. I'm so excited. Only five days left. Of course, knowing the time flow here, It'll feel like a lot less. Missions are like the summer vacations back in high school that you don't ever want end, but the forces of time and space makes time go faster just to spite you.
Our branch is getting noticeably smaller. Two ASL sisters, Moulton and Christensen, left for their mission field yesterday morning. We all wished them lots and lots of luck of their mission.
Elder Ringwood of the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us at Devotional last Tuesday. It was about the analogy of the seed, which I will explain to you.
See, faith in Jesus Christ asnd the gospel is like a plant. When we (missionaries) teach other people the gospel, we are giving them a little seed (a bit of faith), and we teach them to "Experiment unto the seed" as outlined in Alma 32. As we nuture and care for the seed (pray, read the scriptures, etc), the seed becomes a sapling, or in ther words, our faith and testimony grows. Eventually, through continuing faith and the strengthing of our testimony, the young plant eventually matures into a strong tree, symbolizing our powerful faith and testimony. On the other hand, If we neglect and stop caring for the tree, watering it or pruning it or whatever, the tree easily withers away and we have no choice but to cast it out. Thus, if we dontinue to care and nuture our faith and testimony through praying and studying and sharing the testimony, then what's the point?
Overall, It was a very interesting talk.
IN ther news, If any of you haven't gotten a reply letter from me yet, I APOLOGIZE. For some reason, my address book got up and walked away, plus a few letters came back to me on account of wrong address, but I'm trying my best to get all of them to you guys. Thanks for your patience. I DO have good news though. I will be sending a couple of letters plus a lot of pictures and videos so except multiple blog posts over the week with said pictures and video.
Thisd week, the temple opened at last! We got to go into the temple one last time before we left and It was very spiritually refreshing.
well, sadly, time for me to go, but my next e-mail will be coming from sunny Los Angeles. See you all there.
Have a good day.
-Elder Tritsch
Our branch is getting noticeably smaller. Two ASL sisters, Moulton and Christensen, left for their mission field yesterday morning. We all wished them lots and lots of luck of their mission.
Elder Ringwood of the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us at Devotional last Tuesday. It was about the analogy of the seed, which I will explain to you.
See, faith in Jesus Christ asnd the gospel is like a plant. When we (missionaries) teach other people the gospel, we are giving them a little seed (a bit of faith), and we teach them to "Experiment unto the seed" as outlined in Alma 32. As we nuture and care for the seed (pray, read the scriptures, etc), the seed becomes a sapling, or in ther words, our faith and testimony grows. Eventually, through continuing faith and the strengthing of our testimony, the young plant eventually matures into a strong tree, symbolizing our powerful faith and testimony. On the other hand, If we neglect and stop caring for the tree, watering it or pruning it or whatever, the tree easily withers away and we have no choice but to cast it out. Thus, if we dontinue to care and nuture our faith and testimony through praying and studying and sharing the testimony, then what's the point?
Overall, It was a very interesting talk.
IN ther news, If any of you haven't gotten a reply letter from me yet, I APOLOGIZE. For some reason, my address book got up and walked away, plus a few letters came back to me on account of wrong address, but I'm trying my best to get all of them to you guys. Thanks for your patience. I DO have good news though. I will be sending a couple of letters plus a lot of pictures and videos so except multiple blog posts over the week with said pictures and video.
Thisd week, the temple opened at last! We got to go into the temple one last time before we left and It was very spiritually refreshing.
well, sadly, time for me to go, but my next e-mail will be coming from sunny Los Angeles. See you all there.
Have a good day.
-Elder Tritsch
Am I Still Awake?
Okay. Once and for all, I would like to sincerely state that my whole district is insane. Since the temple is closed today, I've reserved this day pratically a week in advance for sleeping-in (and informed about everyone beforehand), but oh no, my district decided to spring the last minute idea of doing laundry in the wee hours of the morning. ON CHRISTMAS EVE, even. Naturally, this idea was met with resistance, mostly from me. I mean, hello. We ALREADY have a time set for laundry later in the afternoon so why don't we all do laundry at that time and just enjoy our morning? But long story short, here I am, at bloody 4:00 AM in the morning, typing this letter.
Last Tuesday, Elder Neal Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his whole family visited the MTC. it was really sweet. His grandchildren held a little choir rectial. then of course Andersen spoke to us. It was about the importance of Jesus Christ in our lives, especially around Christmas.
Last friday at TRC, I ran in someone special: Jared's old companion, Austin Balaich. Really cool. We spent some time talking about Jared, what L.A. is like, how his mission were, etc. etc. Austin has already applied to teach here in the MTC in the ASL program and if all goes well, he will start teaching around the first week of January. Can't wait.
Something important happened this week also, One elder in my district, Daniel Cox, stepped down from District Leader and that calling was given to my companion, Elder Van Dam. Which makes me District Companion, which in some way makes me second-in-charge. heh heh heh. I feel the power now! Better not... abuse it in some way. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. still, it's cool though.
Anyway, that's it for today. Sorry for the relatively short letter but I'm always slower than usual in the mornings and it's hard to think clearly. I seriously need my sleep. WAH. bye.
Elder Tritsch
Last Tuesday, Elder Neal Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his whole family visited the MTC. it was really sweet. His grandchildren held a little choir rectial. then of course Andersen spoke to us. It was about the importance of Jesus Christ in our lives, especially around Christmas.
Last friday at TRC, I ran in someone special: Jared's old companion, Austin Balaich. Really cool. We spent some time talking about Jared, what L.A. is like, how his mission were, etc. etc. Austin has already applied to teach here in the MTC in the ASL program and if all goes well, he will start teaching around the first week of January. Can't wait.
Something important happened this week also, One elder in my district, Daniel Cox, stepped down from District Leader and that calling was given to my companion, Elder Van Dam. Which makes me District Companion, which in some way makes me second-in-charge. heh heh heh. I feel the power now! Better not... abuse it in some way. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. still, it's cool though.
Anyway, that's it for today. Sorry for the relatively short letter but I'm always slower than usual in the mornings and it's hard to think clearly. I seriously need my sleep. WAH. bye.
Elder Tritsch
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Blog Post #4 - MTC Observations
What's up everyone?
Well, today officially marks one month of my Mission. Time really goes by FAST. It feels like i've only beeen here for a week so far. Whoa. 1 down, 23 more to go.
So, to commemorate the 1/24th of my mission, I want to state a few observations of my whole MTC experience so far...
1. The MTC food. The low quality and repetitiveness of the meals they serve has finally pushed us around the point of protest. In fact, one day, when they served fried pieces of whole chicken, one of our sisters proceeded to twist a leg off. Guess what happened?
It gushed blood. Literally. Like up to a foot across, and that was it for us. What did they do, hack off the chicken and serve it within the hour??
Some of us have already chosen to live off salad and cereal from now on, and I'm contemplating crossing that bridge.
2. Last sunday was fast sunday, and several meetings were cancelled in observance, thus most of our district took the advantage of a urgently needed extra few hours of sleep. Normally I would enjoy it too, but my stuffy nose kept me up. I seriously loathe colds.
At least we finally had SNOW that day, and I woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. Joy! Our district was planning on an epic snowball war for P-day, but unfortunately the MTC presidency had the delight to tell us that snowball fishts is strctly not allowed. Drat. Oh well.
3. There are a lot of short people in the MTc. I mean, a LOT of short people, like no taller than four feet or less. In fact, three Elders and a sister are registered as dwarves. I feel like the Goliath to a whole bunch of Davids. Just a statement.
4. The Referral center is good, but sometimes it can get a bit scary. From there you get to chat with people from across the country who responded to church advertising. We met a lot of nice people who wanted to learn more about the church, but (please kindly pardon my french) you also meet some of the idiots who ask about the strangest things. One man spammed about evidence of Evolution, the big bang, etc. one woman told stories of her being 13 years old and pregnant (yikes), one man told us that temple garments "turns him on"??!?!?!
And here's the real kicker. One man said he wants to "Come onto Christ". Fine and all, bout the problem is... the words "Come onto christ" was implied in probably the most extremely inappropriate way ever. If you don't know what i'm talking about by now, then for the sake of your further sanity and mine, DON'T EVER ask me to explain it to you. EVER.
5. Another elder left, who is also our roommate, so our room has become somewhat quieter. Van Dam was very ectastic about finally getting the bottom bunk previously occupied by the other elder. He really don't like top bunks.
Two sisters in out class, Badger and Hansen, found out that they are going to be stuck at the MTC for a lot longer (6 more weeks) and they're pretty torn up about it. I surprised them by giving them both gifts of their favorite candy and they seemed to like it very much. I think little tokens of frienship goes a long way, don't you think?
that's about it for now, snce I don't have much time. One more thing, I ran into Kol Gibson at the MTC. We had a nice long chat yesterday and he seems to be doing very well.
okay. one LAST thing. To my family and friends: Please please please PLEASEEEEE send me letters! I'll reply back, of course! I'm tired of seeing nothing but spiders and cobwebs in my mailbox. IF you don't, I'll break my tie from the nearest tree and exclaim,"THAT WAS MY FAVORITE TIE!" You wouldn't do that me to me, would you...? =-(
haha. bye.
-Zack
Well, today officially marks one month of my Mission. Time really goes by FAST. It feels like i've only beeen here for a week so far. Whoa. 1 down, 23 more to go.
So, to commemorate the 1/24th of my mission, I want to state a few observations of my whole MTC experience so far...
1. The MTC food. The low quality and repetitiveness of the meals they serve has finally pushed us around the point of protest. In fact, one day, when they served fried pieces of whole chicken, one of our sisters proceeded to twist a leg off. Guess what happened?
It gushed blood. Literally. Like up to a foot across, and that was it for us. What did they do, hack off the chicken and serve it within the hour??
Some of us have already chosen to live off salad and cereal from now on, and I'm contemplating crossing that bridge.
2. Last sunday was fast sunday, and several meetings were cancelled in observance, thus most of our district took the advantage of a urgently needed extra few hours of sleep. Normally I would enjoy it too, but my stuffy nose kept me up. I seriously loathe colds.
At least we finally had SNOW that day, and I woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. Joy! Our district was planning on an epic snowball war for P-day, but unfortunately the MTC presidency had the delight to tell us that snowball fishts is strctly not allowed. Drat. Oh well.
3. There are a lot of short people in the MTc. I mean, a LOT of short people, like no taller than four feet or less. In fact, three Elders and a sister are registered as dwarves. I feel like the Goliath to a whole bunch of Davids. Just a statement.
4. The Referral center is good, but sometimes it can get a bit scary. From there you get to chat with people from across the country who responded to church advertising. We met a lot of nice people who wanted to learn more about the church, but (please kindly pardon my french) you also meet some of the idiots who ask about the strangest things. One man spammed about evidence of Evolution, the big bang, etc. one woman told stories of her being 13 years old and pregnant (yikes), one man told us that temple garments "turns him on"??!?!?!
And here's the real kicker. One man said he wants to "Come onto Christ". Fine and all, bout the problem is... the words "Come onto christ" was implied in probably the most extremely inappropriate way ever. If you don't know what i'm talking about by now, then for the sake of your further sanity and mine, DON'T EVER ask me to explain it to you. EVER.
5. Another elder left, who is also our roommate, so our room has become somewhat quieter. Van Dam was very ectastic about finally getting the bottom bunk previously occupied by the other elder. He really don't like top bunks.
Two sisters in out class, Badger and Hansen, found out that they are going to be stuck at the MTC for a lot longer (6 more weeks) and they're pretty torn up about it. I surprised them by giving them both gifts of their favorite candy and they seemed to like it very much. I think little tokens of frienship goes a long way, don't you think?
that's about it for now, snce I don't have much time. One more thing, I ran into Kol Gibson at the MTC. We had a nice long chat yesterday and he seems to be doing very well.
okay. one LAST thing. To my family and friends: Please please please PLEASEEEEE send me letters! I'll reply back, of course! I'm tired of seeing nothing but spiders and cobwebs in my mailbox. IF you don't, I'll break my tie from the nearest tree and exclaim,"THAT WAS MY FAVORITE TIE!" You wouldn't do that me to me, would you...? =-(
haha. bye.
-Zack
Blog Post #3 - Wait...
okay, so-
As of yesterday, Elder Nightingale has flown the coop for his mission assignment. He will be greatly missed, especially from me, but we hope he is doing very well. At lead it was a fun three weeks with him.
Wait a minute.
Have it been 3 WEEKS ALREADY?!? Where on earth did the time go?? The days feel like watching turtles go by, but when you look back, it like someone attached a jet engine on said turtle. Uh-oh... I'm now incredibly afraid that if I blink, my whole mission might zip by and I missed everything, and I've suddenly grown a 2-feet long beard, and absolutely reek of 2 years lack of hygiene.
There I was, having landed at the LAX airpirt, rubbing my hands in anticipation and exclaiming "I'm READY" when suddently the mission president taps my shoulder
"Your mission is finished now. Time to go home", he says.
"Finished? I just arrived here!", I say
"Arrived? HA! You've been here for the last two years! Seriously, go home. you have the rest of your life to look after!" he says
Anyway, a funny thing happened yesterday also. Yesterday morning, most of the class was either still half-asleep or dozing off. then the unexpected happened. Out of the wild blue, a bird decided to dive-bomb right into our class window, making a loud slamming noise. the shock of the impack scared us all wide-awake. I think that God doesn't want us sleeping on His time, so He sent a little surprise along the way to jump-start our day. Yikes.
This week, we got to hear from Sister Lant, of the Primary General Presidency. She spoke about inviting and feeling the spirit, and challenged us to find ways to find the spirit easier and better because on outr missions, we will ABSOLUTELY have to rely on the Holy Ghost to help us succeed, because without the spirit, we will never be able to, no matter how charismatic and well-teaching we are. It was a very marvelous talk, which in fasct beings me to another topic:
Today, we got to go to the Provo Temple again (no temple last week due to thanksgiving). After the endowment and I walked into the Celestial room, I felt very strongly impressed to sit down, close my eyes, and pray, so I did so twice. I prayed about pretty much everything that happened in the past month. Since the computer clock is ticking down, I will not be able to explain everything, but suffice to say, it was a meaningful two prayers. After I closed my prayers, my eyes almost immediately became fixated on a Book Of Mormon lying on one side of a table, never letting it escape my sight for at least a few minutes. It was then that I knew straight away the answer to my prayers was; that I should read the Book of Mormon once more, AND listen to its words more carefully. I really felt the spirit that morning, and as I left the temple, the cloudy dawn became a clear, crisp day, and I felt a lot different than when I entered the temple.
I think, at that point, I really became a missionary.
-Zack
PS: The bird is fine, by the way. It held on to a tree branch for a moment, then flew away as if nothing happened.
As of yesterday, Elder Nightingale has flown the coop for his mission assignment. He will be greatly missed, especially from me, but we hope he is doing very well. At lead it was a fun three weeks with him.
Wait a minute.
Have it been 3 WEEKS ALREADY?!? Where on earth did the time go?? The days feel like watching turtles go by, but when you look back, it like someone attached a jet engine on said turtle. Uh-oh... I'm now incredibly afraid that if I blink, my whole mission might zip by and I missed everything, and I've suddenly grown a 2-feet long beard, and absolutely reek of 2 years lack of hygiene.
There I was, having landed at the LAX airpirt, rubbing my hands in anticipation and exclaiming "I'm READY" when suddently the mission president taps my shoulder
"Your mission is finished now. Time to go home", he says.
"Finished? I just arrived here!", I say
"Arrived? HA! You've been here for the last two years! Seriously, go home. you have the rest of your life to look after!" he says
Anyway, a funny thing happened yesterday also. Yesterday morning, most of the class was either still half-asleep or dozing off. then the unexpected happened. Out of the wild blue, a bird decided to dive-bomb right into our class window, making a loud slamming noise. the shock of the impack scared us all wide-awake. I think that God doesn't want us sleeping on His time, so He sent a little surprise along the way to jump-start our day. Yikes.
This week, we got to hear from Sister Lant, of the Primary General Presidency. She spoke about inviting and feeling the spirit, and challenged us to find ways to find the spirit easier and better because on outr missions, we will ABSOLUTELY have to rely on the Holy Ghost to help us succeed, because without the spirit, we will never be able to, no matter how charismatic and well-teaching we are. It was a very marvelous talk, which in fasct beings me to another topic:
Today, we got to go to the Provo Temple again (no temple last week due to thanksgiving). After the endowment and I walked into the Celestial room, I felt very strongly impressed to sit down, close my eyes, and pray, so I did so twice. I prayed about pretty much everything that happened in the past month. Since the computer clock is ticking down, I will not be able to explain everything, but suffice to say, it was a meaningful two prayers. After I closed my prayers, my eyes almost immediately became fixated on a Book Of Mormon lying on one side of a table, never letting it escape my sight for at least a few minutes. It was then that I knew straight away the answer to my prayers was; that I should read the Book of Mormon once more, AND listen to its words more carefully. I really felt the spirit that morning, and as I left the temple, the cloudy dawn became a clear, crisp day, and I felt a lot different than when I entered the temple.
I think, at that point, I really became a missionary.
-Zack
PS: The bird is fine, by the way. It held on to a tree branch for a moment, then flew away as if nothing happened.
Blog Post #2 - Week 2
SERIOUSLY, IF I HAVE TO EAT ONE MORE BURGER, I'M GOING TO START A RIO-
Oh, hi.
Wow. it's been two weeks already. Freaking amazing. I thought the days went by like molasses, but then when I look back at it.
odd. odd indeed.
but anyway, I've been having loads of fun so far. just last tuesday, Apostle Dalin H. Oaks graced the MTC with his presence. He first spoke about the statistics of missionaries in the MTC and in the field; how over half of all missionaries are learning 52 different languages; included was 15 ASL missionaries. That was when I immediately knew that he was talking right at me. Really cool.
Elder Van Dam: He's pretty cool too. He comes from a huge family: 12 kids. I think one of them are deaf too so he learned some ASL before coming to the MTC. His ASL is getting better everyday to the level of normal communication so we got a chance to really talk and bond. Oh, and he's going to Los Angeles too.
Lemmon and Nightingale are doing well. Nighingale just got informed that they're sending him out in about a week. Lucky him.
the five ASL sisters in our branch are nice too. all hearing, but fairly versed into ASL, so...
Anyway, last week, we had our first referral center appointment where we talked to actual people online who had questions about the church. It was ok, but you meet the strangest people online. One man had a "concrete testimony about the Big Bang Theory, science, and stuff like that. Another man discussed the intricaties of *cough* his intimate moments. etc. etc.
But on the plus side, we hooked an appointment on our FIRST call. W00t. Think that's a good omen or something?
We also had opportunities to teach real investigators in person at the MTC last friday. I think it went well, as the investingator (Amanda) didn't show us out the door on the first minute. yikes. I was very nervous but I think I did fairly well.
agh. Time running out. again. BUT... a story before I go.
Two mew missionaries arrived on a island where they were supposed to be teaching. There, they were immediately surrounded by tribial natives wearing masks and paint. And spears. lots of spears.
One elder made the mistake of saying Hello in plain english, and for some reason the natives bound them up with rope and carried both elders off to their giant idol on the island. there, the natives chanted to the idol to burn the elders in sacrifice, but the idol has done nothing. the chanting went on for hours and yet nothing happened, so one of the elders finally decided to wriggle out of his ropes. he than put his hand in his pocket as the natives stopped and looked on suspiciously. He then took out a lighter and flickered a flame. the natives, all 2,000 of them, jumped back in astonishment. the elder then lit his post on fire, showing that he could make fire when the idol couldn't. every native on the island collective bowed on the ground.
At that, he told the natives to read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it (the right way, of course).
Withing a month. the two elders baptized all 2,000 people. the Mission president's jaw dropped to the sand.
Anyway, enough about us. What's up on the home front?
-Zack
PS: Please PLEASE send letters. it gives me a thrill of seeing the shiny white envelope in the mail. If typing is REALLY your thing, then send me mail at DearElder.com THANKS!
Oh, hi.
Wow. it's been two weeks already. Freaking amazing. I thought the days went by like molasses, but then when I look back at it.
odd. odd indeed.
but anyway, I've been having loads of fun so far. just last tuesday, Apostle Dalin H. Oaks graced the MTC with his presence. He first spoke about the statistics of missionaries in the MTC and in the field; how over half of all missionaries are learning 52 different languages; included was 15 ASL missionaries. That was when I immediately knew that he was talking right at me. Really cool.
Elder Van Dam: He's pretty cool too. He comes from a huge family: 12 kids. I think one of them are deaf too so he learned some ASL before coming to the MTC. His ASL is getting better everyday to the level of normal communication so we got a chance to really talk and bond. Oh, and he's going to Los Angeles too.
Lemmon and Nightingale are doing well. Nighingale just got informed that they're sending him out in about a week. Lucky him.
the five ASL sisters in our branch are nice too. all hearing, but fairly versed into ASL, so...
Anyway, last week, we had our first referral center appointment where we talked to actual people online who had questions about the church. It was ok, but you meet the strangest people online. One man had a "concrete testimony about the Big Bang Theory, science, and stuff like that. Another man discussed the intricaties of *cough* his intimate moments. etc. etc.
But on the plus side, we hooked an appointment on our FIRST call. W00t. Think that's a good omen or something?
We also had opportunities to teach real investigators in person at the MTC last friday. I think it went well, as the investingator (Amanda) didn't show us out the door on the first minute. yikes. I was very nervous but I think I did fairly well.
agh. Time running out. again. BUT... a story before I go.
Two mew missionaries arrived on a island where they were supposed to be teaching. There, they were immediately surrounded by tribial natives wearing masks and paint. And spears. lots of spears.
One elder made the mistake of saying Hello in plain english, and for some reason the natives bound them up with rope and carried both elders off to their giant idol on the island. there, the natives chanted to the idol to burn the elders in sacrifice, but the idol has done nothing. the chanting went on for hours and yet nothing happened, so one of the elders finally decided to wriggle out of his ropes. he than put his hand in his pocket as the natives stopped and looked on suspiciously. He then took out a lighter and flickered a flame. the natives, all 2,000 of them, jumped back in astonishment. the elder then lit his post on fire, showing that he could make fire when the idol couldn't. every native on the island collective bowed on the ground.
At that, he told the natives to read the Book of Mormon, and pray about it (the right way, of course).
Withing a month. the two elders baptized all 2,000 people. the Mission president's jaw dropped to the sand.
Anyway, enough about us. What's up on the home front?
-Zack
PS: Please PLEASE send letters. it gives me a thrill of seeing the shiny white envelope in the mail. If typing is REALLY your thing, then send me mail at DearElder.com THANKS!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Blog Entry #2: MTC Email Restrictions
Hi Everyone. How are things going for all of you. It's great on my side too.
I hate to be a bother, but for the duration of my stay at the MTC, I would like you to please send me letters via regular mail (or you can use DearElder.com). The MTC has cracked down on the email usage policy and programmed all the computers so that when we use up our 30 minutes of email time, the program shuts down automatically and I risk losing everything I type. Harsh I know, but that's what it is.
For that reason, I want to reserve as much time as I possibly can to type about my exploits thus far, so I'll have very little time to read any email you might have sent.
Thanks and I hope you understand.
They are saying that I "MIGHT" be sent out a bit earlier than January. The operative word is "might" since it is still up for discussion. I will keep you appraised of the situation.
Love you all very much,
Elder Zack
I hate to be a bother, but for the duration of my stay at the MTC, I would like you to please send me letters via regular mail (or you can use DearElder.com). The MTC has cracked down on the email usage policy and programmed all the computers so that when we use up our 30 minutes of email time, the program shuts down automatically and I risk losing everything I type. Harsh I know, but that's what it is.
For that reason, I want to reserve as much time as I possibly can to type about my exploits thus far, so I'll have very little time to read any email you might have sent.
Thanks and I hope you understand.
They are saying that I "MIGHT" be sent out a bit earlier than January. The operative word is "might" since it is still up for discussion. I will keep you appraised of the situation.
Love you all very much,
Elder Zack
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