Monday, April 29, 2013

April 29, 2013

Hey y'all,
 
How's everyone doing today? Before we get started... everyone stop and sing "I'm a Child of God" to themselves. If you don't know the words... no worries! Go Google them and get singing :)
 
So.... this last week has been nuts!!! I was transfered... I'm not in Douglasville in the Ensign West area. I'm also the new District leader for the Ensign District. I have a new companion... his name is Elder Welch. He's a great guy... it's been interesting getting adjusted to a new companion after all Elder Schlesinger and I went through... but it's a good growing experience :) We've also been tasked with absorbing another area so we're getting adjusted to smashing two area books together... so we've have had a jam-packed week of work and fun so far :) Y'all will have to get my new address from my Mom if you still feel like sending me letters :)
 
It's been raining like crazy here lately!!! Yesterday, we went out tracting in a down-pour for 2 hours... and it was a blast!!! One problem though, my backpack isn't water-proof, so everything got soaked!!! Even my rain jacket got so wet that it soaked through... I felt like I was running around a water park there was so much rain coming down... just about every house had waterfalls coming off their roof... but I loved it. I seriously LOVE tracting in the rain, it's my favorite time to go!!! Some other notes about whats been going on this week... Elder Welch and and I (my new companion) get the amazing opportunity to teach morning seminary to the youth out here on Thursday mornings. I was able to teach my first morning here and that was a blast!! The new area is great... a lot different than PTC but I'm loving the change already. Much more the way I thought Georiga would be than PTC was haha. For sure "feels" more like Georgia if you know what I mean ;) One cool thing about coming home at night here... the sounds! Racoons, frogs, etc... everything!! Even the mice running around our apartment (don't worry Mom, we're taking care of it). Elder Welch had his first baptism this last Saturday so that was fun to plan and be a part of... baptisms are always amazing and great experiences and Elder Welch was pretty excited to have his first chance to actually perform the baptism. So yup... been busy, busy, busy!!! I've met some incredible people here in this new area too... the people here are so nice!! One lady chased us down in the rain after we knocked on her door and had left her a blessing/resortation pamplet... she gave us all (we were with a member) a big bag of grapes. Everyone here is so loving... and they all have such strong beliefs. You get to hear some pretty "interesting" things from people too about our beliefs and church haha. I won't go into detail about those... but its fun to hear :)
 
So something I wanted to talk about today with y'all is something I learned during my personal studies... this is actually what I taught/talked about in the seminary class I talked about earlier. In 1 Nephi 16... it talks about how the Liahona is guiding and directing Lehi/Nephi and their families in the wilderness according to their faith and obedience to the Lord's commandments. They're out there being led by the Liahona... and they come to find out that by only being faithful and following the commandments will the Liahona work. So imagine the situation for a moment... if you're out in the wilderness, being led by a compass that only works according to your faith and obedience to the Lord's commandments... how well would you follow those commandments and how much would you work on incresing your faith? Further imagine this... knowing that this compass is the ONLY way to be led to exactly where you need to go (the promised land/eternal life) and knowing even if it's off by just 1 degree that you could be sent off course and into dangers and harm... wouldn't you be doing everything in your power to follow ALL the commandments and have EXTREMELY strong faith? Well, I would sure hope so :) I know that I wouldn't be too happy to know that I missed out on the promised land because I was only 1 degree off in my faith or in my obedience to the Lords commandments... so how can we make sure that we're not veering off course by that 1 degree? Luckily, the answer is provided in that very same chapter... Lehi/Nephi figured it out and said this "...and thus we see that by small and simple means the Lord can bring about great things.". Now, I know I said I would talk about something different this week but I just can't help myself... it's by the SMALL and SIMPLE means that we gain enteral life and happiness. It's by those small and simple things we do each and every day of our lives that will help make sure that we're exactly on course to go to where the Lord wants and needs us to go... it was by doing those small and simple things each day that made the Liahona work... and it's by doing those small and simple things each day that we've been taught to do that will lead us, our families and our friends to more joy and happiness than we can possibly imagine.
 
Ok, so I'm out of time and I'm sorry for not expanding on that further or writing more interesting things and for rushing through with my writing... but I just want y'all to know that I love you SO MUCH!!!!!!!!! I know the Lord knows exactly what each of you are facing in life and I know He's right there to help you out. Just keep doing those small and simple things and He'll keep giving you those much needed blessings and help. I know He is the Savior of the world... I know that only through Him can we be fully healed and led to eternal life. His hand is always outstretched to us to grasp... and He will always love you (and everyone). Keep following Him... and keep your foundation of faith in Him fortified and edified. He will always forgive and He will always help.
 
I love each and everyone one of you. Have a blessed day.
 
-Elder Wahlen
 
 










 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Hello from HOT-Lanta!!

Mark is not sure if he is getting transferred this week or not, so please send any letters or packages to the mission home, just to be safe.



Howdy howdy y'all,

How's everyone doing this beautiful day? I hope all is going well for y'all... anyone up to anything particularly exciting?

Alright, so to start off... I don't have much time to email today for a couple reasons... first, I have to take a survey for the MTC about being trained in the field... second, I received an email informing me that I'm going to be a District Leader and so I got a bunch of stuff to print off and read. So I'm REALLY sorry that this won't be very long or exciting... just know that I love y'all tons and wish I could write more in advance :)

So where to start? Always the hardest part of these emails... how about more random stuff? That seems like its always a good way to start when I have no idea what to start with... turns out that the Frankenstein fruit know as a Grapple (Grape and an Apple) is pretty tasty. If you ever find one... try it out. For those of you who don't know, I haven't been able to hear out of my left ear for a couple weeks now... finally got into the doc's office about it and it turns out that it was because of a blockage... so how did they get it out? With a giant syringe full of warm water that looked like something that'd be used to administer a shot to an elephant... it was pretty intense, but it worked! So now I can hear again... so that's good :) Last night I was out till 10:48... but don't worry, it was authorized! I was helping to drive the new cars over to the meeting house where transfers will take place... they had 8 cars to move and we only had 2 companionship's there moving them... so it took a while considering it was a 18 minute drive between the two buildings...

Alrighty, so lets get into some good stuff now that we got the weird stuff out of the way :) So something I wanted to share from my studies lately... has anyone else noticed how much the Lord loves the number 3? The 3 witnesses, the 3 degrees of glory, Christs ecclesiastical ministry lasted 3 years, the trinity (3), etc. etc (I could go on forever).... but you know what I realized after studying all these instances of 3's (and triangles)?? There is only ONE Savior of the world... and there is only ONE straight and narrow path to follow that will lead you to eternal life with our eternal families. Christ is literally THE ONLY WAY... there is no other way named or given.

I wanted to share that little tid-bit from my studies with the short time I have today... and I want to close with my testimony of Christ. He is in the ONLY way... and he is the one and only Savior of the world. Only through Him can we receive eternal life... and I testify to you that He wants us to follow Him and to be happy. He wants us to be an eternal family again one day. He wants to lead us there... all we have to do is reach out and grasp His hand and follow Him. He will never lead you astray... and He will never leave you. He is ALWAYS there for you... His hand is always stretched out for us to grasp and He knows exactly how to help you because He's experienced exactly what you're going through. Through Him, all can be healed. All can be forgiven. All burdens can be made light and lifted from us.

I'd invite all of you to really take the time to ponder and pray about your relationship with Christ... Have you ever asked if He really is out there? If He really does know you and know of your situation? Even if you have in the past... have you done so lately? It might be something to try out... but just know that I know that He is out there... and He does know you... and He does love you.

I love you all so much... you're all such amazing people and I pray that everything is going well for y'all. I'll write a longer email next week... I promise! Just keep doing the right things and loving Christ.... it will all work out in the end if you follow Him in faith. God loves you, Christ loves you and I love you.

-Elder Wahlen

Monday, April 15, 2013

Double post

Sorry for the double post. Sara is just really on top of it today and I didn't know that she had already posted it... so here is my post for those of you who want bigger print. (Thanks for posting it Sara you are awesome and my mom was really excited to get this one out quickly)

My mom just wanted to thank all of you that have played such a big part in Mark being able to have this incredible experience. She received a letter today from the mother that Mark was able to baptize telling their story. It was so inspirational (ps this is my mom saying all this via my typing...I have yet to read this letter). The letter basically thanked us as a family for preparing to send this wonderful young man to their home. My mom feels like it was more than just our family, it was all of you as well. So thank you from the newest members in Georgia. 

howdy

Howdy howdy,

How y'all doing? Oh man... I just want to start off by saying how much I love y'all... and I really hope everything is going well for everyone. I'd like to invite y'all to do something though... just smile. Yes, right now... smile... it's a beautiful day and guess what? God and Jesus Christ love you... and I love you!!! There's always someone there who is going to love you with all their heart... so why not smile? Every day is a good day :)
Alrighty... where should we start this show? This week was a whirlwind... I can't believe I'm back here already typing up another email!!! Crazy how fast time is flying out here... transfers are coming up next week too! So a couple random notes... some good food I was given this week to try? Passion fruit and chim-chim nuggets (no, they're not chicken nuggets... they're kinda like pretzels actually). Highly recommend those to y'all. Another random and funny story... according to Elder Schlesinger, I've been sleep teaching and preaching... ya, apparently I'm talking in my sleep, and when I do, I'm teaching lessons and inviting people to be baptized hahaha. Thought y'all would get a kick out of that... Also, I finished my first journal this last week! Crazy too... I remember looking at it and thinking "Man, how am I ever going to write that much stuff?" and now it's packed full of stuff!!! I'm calling it "The First Book of Elder Wahlen" jokingly...
Alright, enough of that random stuff... this last weekend we had a baptism!! It was an incredible experience to be a part of... first off, I just want to say how blessed, humbled and thankful I am to be here. It's just such a blessing to have been put in this position, at this exact time, with these exact people to witness the Lord and the Holy Ghost work with them. It's been an incredible journey and I'm just so grateful to have been an observer throughout it all. I was blessed with the opportunity to perform the baptism for the wife/mother that had chosen to be baptized... her name is Leia, and she's AWESOME!!!! I was slightly nervous to say the least, and so when we entered the faunt to perform the baptism, and I was holding her hand/wrist... and I was shaking a little bit. I didn't think that I was shaking but apparently I was cause she squeezed my arm throughout the whole prayer to let me know that I could relax and that it was all going good. The strangest thing happened during the baptism prayer though... when I went to recite the words, it was very clear to me that it wasn't me talking... I was there, and the words were coming out of my mouth... but it wasn't me talking. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but I know it wasn't me baptizing her... the One who did the baptizing is much greater and a lot more grand than I.  Her and her husband, Johnathan are both the most incredible people... they have such an amazing background and journey that led them to this point... and I can't wait to tell y'all more about them (maybe next week if I have the time!)... but just know that they're my hero's and I love them more than I can express. We've started teaching their kids so we're hoping that more good news is to come... we'll keep y'all updated on that!!!!
Something I wanted to discuss with y'all that I learned from this amazing experience is that when you're doing the right things in life (following the Lord) and especially when you're on the last stretch of a journey (or you're heading into the 4th quarter as I like to think of it) that He has sent you on... things will get hard. The adversary isn't stupid... he knows when you're doing things right and he knows when you're on the verge of doing something incredible for the Lord and your eternal progression... and he's going to attack you from EVERY front. I would go into details about the things that this family has faced and is facing... and even things that Elder Schlesinger and I have had to face... but it suffices me to say that I KNOW the adversary will do EVERYTHING he can to throw you off that straight and narrow path that the Lord has set before us. I know I talked about this a bit last week and many weeks before... but I just can't tell y'all enough how important it is to edify and fortify ourselves each and every day by doing the small and simple things. Alma 37, verse 6  "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". The great thing we're working towards is eternal life and joy with our eternal families... so how are we going to get there? By doing the small and simple things. You don't get there in one big leap... just as you don't run a marathon by taking one big leap, you gain eternal life and joy by many, many, many small steps. My invitation to y'all would be to pray every morning and every night... just start with that small step and I promise y'all that it will help. Are there other things that you can do too? Absolutely... should you be doing those things too? Better believe it... but prayer is so strong. We are all children of God... He is our Father... and He wants to hear from us... He wants us to ask Him for help... and as we do so, He WILL help us/you... I promise you that. If we but only ask (in faith and with a sincere heart), we will receive. It really is that simple. Ask in faith and you will receive help and be strengthened by legions of angels... just imagine that for a second... legions of angels there to help you... each and every day. 
Sorry if y'all are sick of hearing that from me but it really is soooo important... I'll try to talk about something else next week, I promise (cause there's a lot of other things I wanna share too!!) but please... keep doing those small and simple things to put on the armor of God each day... it's vitally important to everything in your life. This family wouldn't be where they are now without having put the armor of God on each day... they pray together every morning and every night... they pray throughout the day... they read, study and ponder the things they read in the scriptures... they do the small and simple things, and the Lord has helped them and protected them because of it.
One last thing I'd like to invite y'all to do... this is something that stuck out to me as I started reading back through the Book of Mormon... as you read, take notice of when and how the spirit talks to people. For instance, Lehi wasn't shown the vision of the tree of life until after the Lord had allowed him to wander in darkness... and not until after Lehi had called/cried out to the Lord for help. Keep that in mind as you read... and really ponder what that means for you in your life. I'll give you a hint (pretty big one)... it has something to do with FAITH. I could go pretty far down that rabbit hole though... but I'll leave y'all with that. It's something I've been studying a lot and it's helped me tons.
Well, I gotta get going... but I just wanna thank y'all for everything you're doing and for being the person you are. Keep loving the Lord and having faith in Him and the plans He has set for you... I love you all so much... can't wait to read more of your letters too!! Take care and have an incredibly blessed day.

-With all my love,
Elder Wahlen

April 15, 2013

Howdy howdy,

How y'all doing? Oh man... I just want to start off by saying how much I love y'all... and I really hope everything is going well for everyone. I'd like to invite y'all to do something though... just smile. Yes, right now... smile... it's a beautiful day and guess what? God and Jesus Christ love you... and I love you!!! There's always someone there who is going to love you with all their heart... so why not smile? Every day is a good day :)
 
Alrighty... where should we start this show? This week was a whirlwind... I can't believe I'm back here already typing up another email!!! Crazy how fast time is flying out here... transfers are coming up next week too! So a couple random notes... some good food I was given this week to try? Passion fruit and chim-chim nuggets (no, they're not chicken nuggets... they're kinda like pretzels actually). Highly recommend those to y'all. Another random and funny story... according to Elder Schlesinger, I've been sleep teaching and preaching... ya, apparently I'm talking in my sleep, and when I do, I'm teaching lessons and inviting people to be baptized hahaha. Thought y'all would get a kick out of that... Also, I finished my first journal this last week! Crazy too... I remember looking at it and thinking "Man, how am I ever going to write that much stuff?" and now it's packed full of stuff!!! I'm calling it "The First Book of Elder Wahlen" jokingly...
 
Alright, enough of that random stuff... this last weekend we had a baptism!! It was an incredible experience to be a part of... first off, I just want to say how blessed, humbled and thankful I am to be here. It's just such a blessing to have been put in this position, at this exact time, with these exact people to witness the Lord and the Holy Ghost work with them. It's been an incredible journey and I'm just so grateful to have been an observer throughout it all. I was blessed with the opportunity to perform the baptism for the wife/mother that had chosen to be baptized... her name is Leia, and she's AWESOME!!!! I was slightly nervous to say the least, and so when we entered the faunt to perform the baptism, and I was holding her hand/wrist... and I was shaking a little bit. I didn't think that I was shaking but apparently I was cause she squeezed my arm throughout the whole prayer to let me know that I could relax and that it was all going good. The strangest thing happened during the baptism prayer though... when I went to recite the words, it was very clear to me that it wasn't me talking... I was there, and the words were coming out of my mouth... but it wasn't me talking. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but I know it wasn't me baptizing her... the One who did the baptizing is much greater and a lot more grand than I. Her and her husband, Johnathan are both the most incredible people... they have such an amazing background and journey that led them to this point... and I can't wait to tell y'all more about them (maybe next week if I have the time!)... but just know that they're my hero's and I love them more than I can express. We've started teaching their kids so we're hoping that more good news is to come... we'll keep y'all updated on that!!!!
 
Something I wanted to discuss with y'all that I learned from this amazing experience is that when you're doing the right things in life (following the Lord) and especially when you're on the last stretch of a journey (or you're heading into the 4th quarter as I like to think of it) that He has sent you on... things will get hard. The adversary isn't stupid... he knows when you're doing things right and he knows when you're on the verge of doing something incredible for the Lord and your eternal progression... and he's going to attack you from EVERY front. I would go into details about the things that this family has faced and is facing... and even things that Elder Schlesinger and I have had to face... but it suffices me to say that I KNOW the adversary will do EVERYTHING he can to throw you off that straight and narrow path that the Lord has set before us. I know I talked about this a bit last week and many weeks before... but I just can't tell y'all enough how important it is to edify and fortify ourselves each and every day by doing the small and simple things. Alma 37, verse 6 "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". The great thing we're working towards is eternal life and joy with our eternal families... so how are we going to get there? By doing the small and simple things. You don't get there in one big leap... just as you don't run a marathon by taking one big leap, you gain eternal life and joy by many, many, many small steps. My invitation to y'all would be to pray every morning and every night... just start with that small step and I promise y'all that it will help. Are there other things that you can do too? Absolutely... should you be doing those things too? Better believe it... but prayer is so strong. We are all children of God... He is our Father... and He wants to hear from us... He wants us to ask Him for help... and as we do so, He WILL help us/you... I promise you that. If we but only ask (in faith and with a sincere heart), we will receive. It really is that simple. Ask in faith and you will receive help and be strengthened by legions of angels... just imagine that for a second... legions of angels there to help you... each and every day.
 
Sorry if y'all are sick of hearing that from me but it really is soooo important... I'll try to talk about something else next week, I promise (cause there's a lot of other things I wanna share too!!) but please... keep doing those small and simple things to put on the armor of God each day... it's vitally important to everything in your life. This family wouldn't be where they are now without having put the armor of God on each day... they pray together every morning and every night... they pray throughout the day... they read, study and ponder the things they read in the scriptures... they do the small and simple things, and the Lord has helped them and protected them because of it.
 
One last thing I'd like to invite y'all to do... this is something that stuck out to me as I started reading back through the Book of Mormon... as you read, take notice of when and how the spirit talks to people. For instance, Lehi wasn't shown the vision of the tree of life until after the Lord had allowed him to wander in darkness... and not until after Lehi had called/cried out to the Lord for help. Keep that in mind as you read... and really ponder what that means for you in your life. I'll give you a hint (pretty big one)... it has something to do with FAITH. I could go pretty far down that rabbit hole though... but I'll leave y'all with that. It's something I've been studying a lot and it's helped me tons.
Well, I gotta get going... but I just wanna thank y'all for everything you're doing and for being the person you are. Keep loving the Lord and having faith in Him and the plans He has set for you... I love you all so much... can't wait to read more of your letters too!! Take care and have an incredibly blessed day.

-With all my love,
Elder Wahlen
 








 

Friday, April 12, 2013

April 8, 2013

Hey y'all :)

How's everyone doing? Everyone enjoy general conference this weekend???? It was AWESOME, wasn't it?? So many great talks... I know that I learned so many things and had so many prayers answered from watching and listening... I pray that y'all had similar experiences.
 
Some of my favorite talks? Oh man, where do I start??? Elder Holland (as always) gave a great talk... President Monson, his talk on obedience, that one was REALLY good too... I really enjoyed Elder Claytons' talk on marriage... President Uchtdorf gave a great talk... in both general session and in priesthood... Elder Beck in priesthood had a stellar talk... President Eyring in the first session gave another great one... Elder Ballard... that talk was super!!! I think that might be my most favorite talk of the conference... but alas, I'll stop my long list there although I loved them all!!!
 
So where to start this week????? SO much to talk about, so little time... so how about a quick interesting story... that's a good place to start, ya? We were out tracting with a member earlier this week, we all had our suits on and this member was driving us around in a Lincoln car with his dark sunglasses on... needless to say, we looked like a car full of FBI agents. This is probably why when we went up to a gentlemens' door-step and knocked on his door that he came to the door wielding his Glock pistol... he promptly waved us to go to the garage... on our way to the garage I jokingly said to the member who had been standing behind us "Well, he has a pistol in hand... you better hide behind us Brother Phillips. I would hate to have you get shot while out tracting with us..." Long story short, I did make sure I was standing in front of him when the guy came out to the garage with pistol in hand... but don't worry, after we explained everything and who we were he let us go without incident :)
 
I had a GREAT Birthday and I just want to thank EVERYONE who sent me letters, food, crafts, presents, etc. etc. etc. I LOVED everything!!! You have no idea how much I love y'all and how much I appreciate everything you sent me... I would write more about that and thank each one of you but I only have a few minutes left and I REALLY wanted to talk about what happened on conference Sunday with a family we've been working with...
 
So we've been working with this INCREDIBLE family for about a month now... we've been meeting with them about once a week and things have been going really good each week we've met with them... to summarize how I feel about this family before going any further... I would literally give up anything to help them get to the temple and be sealed together for time and all eternity... so we had planned to watch conference with them at their home on Sunday. We planned to watch each session with them and then have a lesson with them after each of the sessions while we ate dinner and lunch.
 
Before going over to do this... I had been praying the hardest I've ever prayed for anyone to receive an answer and a witness of the truthfulness and importance of the restored gospel in their lives... and I had been praying specially that it would happen during conference... so we watched the first session and talked with them after. That went well enough, but the father had some things that were still holding him back (at this point in time, the wife had already told us that she wanted to be baptized along with her whole family). So we left to do some things and then came back to watch the next session... we watched it and then started talking afterwards... we talked about a few things but then all a sudden the husband sits down and says "Well, I guess we better get baptized". This is the REALLY REALLY REALLY short and simple version, but lets just say that I haven't felt the spirit so strongly since I've been out here in the field... it was amazing... they're going to be baptized this Saturday and I can't tell you how blessed and grateful I am to be here to witness that... the Lord and the Holy Ghost did all the work and I was fortunate enough to be here to witness their mighty work...
 
But what did I learn from this??? Prayers are answered when we pray with faith and a sincere heart and the Lord will ALWAYS win... I can't even begin to tell y'all how much adversity we've been facing as a companionship these last couple weeks... and this family has been facing extremely hard times as well... and I KNOW that its because the adversary was (and still is) doing his best to prevent this family from taking that step towards becoming an eternal family... but through prayer, faith and following the Lord, this family is going to be baptized this Saturday. I can't possibly express to y'all how amazing that is... and how amazing this journey with them has been. There have been hard times, and there are still hard times ahead... but they've reached out and grasped the Lords hand, and they're not letting go... and neither are we... and by doing so, the Lord is leading us through this tempest of a time to a place where eternal joy and happiness will abound in more ways and for a time longer than we can comprehend. NEVER LET GO!!!! Ask for help!!! I promise you, as a representative a Jesus Chirst, that as we follow him in faith... and as we ask for help when we need it... HE WILL BE THERE FOR YOU!!! And everything will turn out for the better in the end... I promise you that!
 
My time is up, and I wish I had more of it... but I don't haha. Thank you all SOOOOOO much for everything... in particular, thank you to my family (I loved the happy Birthday card), the Brey's, Sara and the basketball team (OH MY HECK, you have no idea how excited I was to get those shorts and shirt and everything else in that package). Y'all are the best... and that includes ALL of you. I love you. I love you all with everything I have... and I do so through the Lord as he can amplify my love for you beyond any measure that I could ever hope to achieve on my own. Continue to follow him... and keep serving one another.

With all my love,
-Elder Wahlen
 









Friday, April 5, 2013

Happy (late) Easter from PTC, Georgia!!!!

Hey yall,


I hope everyone had an amazing Easter Sunday!!! Man, Easter is like one of the greatest holidays  isn't it? I love Easter Sundays... they're the best, especially since the next week it's followed up by general conference!!!!


So where should I start this week? How about Easter Sunday? Easter Sunday for us was crazy!!!!! Church was a whirlwind!!! We had 7 investigators at church (including a couple younger kids in the one family who aren't considered investigators yet) so we were all over the place talking to them, introducing them to members, etc. We also gave a blessing to an elderly man who had just moved into the ward (normally home teachers do that but he didn't have any yet!). We also had 3 less active families come to church... one of which is admittedly one of my favorite people I've met down here... and I was SOOOO excited to see him at church. It's probably the highlight of my mission so far... I was so happy to see him there. After church, we had double booked dinner appointments... we had one with my family away from my family... which was great!!! French Silk pie and frog eye salad were the standouts in that meal... then we went straight from there to another dinner appointment with our Ward Mission Leader family and a family of investigators (who I love like
CrAzY!!!). That was really great... but man, so much food!!! I was stuffed at the end of the night!!!! It was a great way to spend Easter though... no better day to eat lots of good food (other than Thanksgiving, of course).


One experience from the week that I wanted to share... one day, Elder Schlesinger and I were driving to an area to knock on some doors and to visit some members... we drove past a young man who was shooting hoops in front of his house and I felt like we should pull over and talk to this guy... so we did. We parked a few houses down and walked back to meet him. Sadly, when we got there, he was leaving and wasn't very interested in talking. He left and I felt a little discouraged. Why would I feel that way if he was only going to leave without even talking to us? We turned to go back to the car and Elder Schlesinger suggested we knock on the doors of the few houses that were on the way back to our car... so we did. Turns out that in one of the houses was a family who really needed a prayer at that time. We left them with a blessing through prayer, sang them "I'm a Child of God" (the little girl plugged her ears through that
haha), taught them the first lesson, left them a Book of Mormon and a copy of the family proclamation to the world. It was a neat experience and it taught me that even though sometimes when you follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, you may not see the immediate results but you're never in the wrong. It may not end up being what you expected in the end, but the Lord has a plan and does everything for a reason.


It was
kinda like the other day when we were driving and we were about to drive over some train tracks and the guard rails dropped down for about 30 seconds just before we got there (no train was coming)... as that happened the thought crossed my mind "The Lord must need to slow us down for a few seconds for some reason". We ended up driving to one of our investigators apartments to visit her... we went over, knocked on her door... no answer... we turned to go back to the car and right as we did... BOOOM!!!! Huge lightning bolt hits right outside of where were standing. Now, I don't wanna make any assumptions... but my guess is that the Lord did need to slow us down for a few seconds for just that reason... he didn't want us getting fried by a lightning bolt!!!


So
ya... you are NEVER wrong following a prompting of the spirit. Even if it turns out differently than YOU expected, it always turns out the way the LORD needs it to be.


Something else I wanted to talk about... Bishop
Corbridge in our ward (son of Elder Corbridge) gave an awesome combined lesson on Sunday... he talked about a lot of things... one of them being "Spiritual Momentum". We build this momentum by doing the small and simple things each day... by being diligent and consistent. Keep doing those small and simple things because they keep adding more and more to your momentum that is carrying you towards eternal life and joy. Another thing... the world is inherently dark. Everything in the universe is dark until light is introduced to it... (think of an empty room before you turn the lights on... or even outer space). So what does this mean? It means we have to choose to do those right things, we have to choose to turn the lights on and to keep them on... every day! Every day the darkness of the adversary is going to be pressing in around you... but make the choice each morning that you're going to carry that light with you at all times... and as you do so, the Lord will bless you with ways to not only keep that light burning, but he will bless you with a stronger and brighter light... you know what else is cool? The more lights you have, the brighter and easier it is to see... so let your light shine forth so that others around you can see better... and be around those that have a light burning bright as well, it will help you to see better too!!! Stand in holy places... avoid those dark places... avoid even the appearance of dark places... there is no "grey area" when it comes to light and darkness... there is only the two.


One last quick experience... I had a gentlemen who answered the door who wasn't very fond of the church... and he really let us have it... eventually, I just started to testify of the churches beliefs in Christ (he accused us of not being
christian) and my own testimony of things... eventually he stopped the attack and listened... afterwards I told him that I loved him and we left. That was it... but it reminded me of some scriptures... 3 Nephi 12: 10-12... don't ever be afraid to stand up for Christ of the church or for your own beliefs... do so boldly and with the authority of the Holy Ghost... and do so with love. People will always be there to persecute you and the church...  but this is his true church, and you never need to be ashamed for standing up for whats right. He will bless you for doing so, and when you do... angels will be there around you.


I love you all so much.... thanks for all your thoughts, prayers and letters (keep them coming!!!). I want to in particular thank Laura, Merilee, the
Brey's, John, Spencer, Tyler, my family, my grandparents and all the cousins!!! Oh ya, and Sara too... ;) ... you REALLY helped me through these last couple weeks... I'll leave it at that, but you really were such amazing blessings to me in one way or another. Thank you so much, keep following and loving Christ and I'll talk to yall again next week. Enjoy conference!!!!!!!