Due to time, I will just send my letter I sent to my mission president with some things edited out due to confidentiality.
"Dear President Bateman,
Lots of things to tell you.
I think that is great counsel on usage of the cell phones after 9pm. I value that hour and a half before bed time especially so I can reflect on the day and how I need to repent.
Member dinners have always been challenging on my mission. I know there's been times on my mission that I was really strict on them being only an hour and I would get really anxious if it was over that. I think I've been a little loose with that rule as of late so thank you for the chastening.
This week has been good. We were able to have Dusty come to stake conference which she really enjoyed, as well as the christmas devotional. We had 3 of our vietnamese investigators come to the Randolph's house to watch the devotional with us as well.
Dusty has a new baptismal date for Jan 1st. She wants me to baptize her. I am honored, but of course that will only happen if it is the lord's will that I stay here in Paris. It was great to see how she overcame her temptation to go and buy pot and alcohol, and instead she bought a 25 dollar entertainment center. She continues to thank us how us and the Bemises and the Straits have come into her life.
A few of our other investigators have been challenging to meet with on a consistent basis, however we found 2 more really solid ones named Amparo and Pedro. They are hispanic moved from Texas recently. They have been fixing the roofing on their home, and they had no heat. But thankfully we had some members in Casey where they live install a heater. Then when we came by with Brother Bingham who just moved here from texas (coincidence I think not) on Sunday we helped them put the shingles and other trash into the dumpster before it came the next morning! They were so thankful, and afterwards we taught them the restoration and invited them to be baptized, and they said they would! She is a devoted catholic. She is so faithful though and wants her family to come closer to God because they are straying away. She felt the message of the restoration was true.Before we left, she wanted to hug us and we let her (not explicitly in the missionary handbook) and she said "mi casa es tu casa." She has many grandkids and a few other relatives that live with her so we may be teaching a family here soon!
Also, something kind of crazy happened yesterday. So within the branch, there recently has been a nasty divorce and it has effected a lot of members of the branch. I won't mention any names. But this woman who got divorced is now dating and living together with a returned missionary who recently "went off the deep-end.". Well after he turned it off his car lights which we told him he left on he came and knocked on our door to thank us, and he also came asking us to help him repent. He is 24 years old and is from the same city as me (South Jordan Utah.) He says he wants to get back in the church and everything, but with the tender feelings in the branch because of the divorce we are still unsure about if it would be good to teach him or not. Kind of a sticky situation. we will of course pray about it. But it is kind of one of those things where you think "the Lord knows his children."
Went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders. They told us that as a mission we need to think more outside the box and so Elder Kama and I have been doing that the last week. We've come up with quite a few ideas, one of which has already been approved, and another may need approval as well.
(1) With the emphasize of member missionary work from general conference and stake conference, we were thinking that we could be creative somehow and call members on a mission! Maybe do it for a day or two, or maybe even just an evening for mutual-- go out and "warn their neighbors" and share the gospel!
(2) Have a PMG class for members they can attend if they want where we can teach them how to be a good member missionary.
(3) We are going to make a #light the world CD with music compositions of an lds artist (Sally Deford) which says it is okay to copy for non-commercial use. We may need to look more into that and make sure it is okay to distribute songs that we perform by other artists. IF that isn't allowed then we are capable of creating our own compositions. We thought this would be good if we were to give this along with the chrsistmas intitiative cards! We are even going to create a type of light the world theme song! We are really excited about this! If we can do this, what do we need to make sure we do so we don't overstep our bounds?
(4) Along with the light the world, we are planning on making a light fixture with the nativity scene with wording #light the world 25 ways over 25 days. Visit Mormon.org. We are wondering if this would be approved. We have thought of putting it in the church yard but that may not be allowed, plus our branch mission leader may not like it. The other place we have considered was in front of our landlord's place, however that may not be good because then people might get an idea of where we live and that's not good. The other place we've considered and already have permission to do is at our WML's house. He loves the idea. The question I have for you though is if it would put his house in jeopardy of being mistreated or if it would cause someone to commit a hate crime because it says mormon.org. What do you think? I will also ask the zone leaders to ask the APs but I thought I might as well describe to you in this email what we were hoping to do. Hopefully there is a way we can do it without there being potential mishaps. There is a park in town that allows anyone in the community to put up christmas lights but we heard that it might be too late to put more up.
(5) We've been broadening our horizons with service. WE are now switching off weeks between a compassionate clothing donation center, an animal shelter, food pantry (which might end due to DM being on wednesdays), we tried doing shop with a cop but it was too late. That is where you buy toys for families that can't afford them. We are also getting in touch with hospitals to see what kind of service we can do that is within our rules. Also, I just talked to the librarian here where we are doing emails and she gave us this website (fiaec.com) which stands for faith in action edgar county .com. We've talked to this organization before, but they are well-known in the community for service. We asked the librarian if there were any adults who have learning disabilities that we can help them read, and she directed us to look on this website. So would we be allowed to get permission to look this up?
(6) Also, i made this myths refutes/truths affirmed diagram with the questions of the soul based off of Elder Russel M. Nelson's talk. I'll send it to the office elders as an attachment. Would that be okay to distribute to people?
(7) Lastly, Elder Kama and I have been thinking how we can use our talents to build better trust with the members or to find people. So since I play piano and he sings well, we were thinking it might be a good idea to do free piano/singing lessons and pass out flyers.
Sorry for so many requests. I don't mean to surpass the zone leaders and APs. I am mostly just really excited about implementing these ideas into our proselyting and wanted to tell you about them and get your opinion.
Thanks for your pateince with me and Elder Kama and taking the time to glance at this long email."
Sincerely,
Elder Soutas
Lots of things to tell you.
I think that is great counsel on usage of the cell phones after 9pm. I value that hour and a half before bed time especially so I can reflect on the day and how I need to repent.
Member dinners have always been challenging on my mission. I know there's been times on my mission that I was really strict on them being only an hour and I would get really anxious if it was over that. I think I've been a little loose with that rule as of late so thank you for the chastening.
This week has been good. We were able to have Dusty come to stake conference which she really enjoyed, as well as the christmas devotional. We had 3 of our vietnamese investigators come to the Randolph's house to watch the devotional with us as well.
Dusty has a new baptismal date for Jan 1st. She wants me to baptize her. I am honored, but of course that will only happen if it is the lord's will that I stay here in Paris. It was great to see how she overcame her temptation to go and buy pot and alcohol, and instead she bought a 25 dollar entertainment center. She continues to thank us how us and the Bemises and the Straits have come into her life.
A few of our other investigators have been challenging to meet with on a consistent basis, however we found 2 more really solid ones named Amparo and Pedro. They are hispanic moved from Texas recently. They have been fixing the roofing on their home, and they had no heat. But thankfully we had some members in Casey where they live install a heater. Then when we came by with Brother Bingham who just moved here from texas (coincidence I think not) on Sunday we helped them put the shingles and other trash into the dumpster before it came the next morning! They were so thankful, and afterwards we taught them the restoration and invited them to be baptized, and they said they would! She is a devoted catholic. She is so faithful though and wants her family to come closer to God because they are straying away. She felt the message of the restoration was true.Before we left, she wanted to hug us and we let her (not explicitly in the missionary handbook) and she said "mi casa es tu casa." She has many grandkids and a few other relatives that live with her so we may be teaching a family here soon!
Also, something kind of crazy happened yesterday. So within the branch, there recently has been a nasty divorce and it has effected a lot of members of the branch. I won't mention any names. But this woman who got divorced is now dating and living together with a returned missionary who recently "went off the deep-end.". Well after he turned it off his car lights which we told him he left on he came and knocked on our door to thank us, and he also came asking us to help him repent. He is 24 years old and is from the same city as me (South Jordan Utah.) He says he wants to get back in the church and everything, but with the tender feelings in the branch because of the divorce we are still unsure about if it would be good to teach him or not. Kind of a sticky situation. we will of course pray about it. But it is kind of one of those things where you think "the Lord knows his children."
Went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders. They told us that as a mission we need to think more outside the box and so Elder Kama and I have been doing that the last week. We've come up with quite a few ideas, one of which has already been approved, and another may need approval as well.
(1) With the emphasize of member missionary work from general conference and stake conference, we were thinking that we could be creative somehow and call members on a mission! Maybe do it for a day or two, or maybe even just an evening for mutual-- go out and "warn their neighbors" and share the gospel!
(2) Have a PMG class for members they can attend if they want where we can teach them how to be a good member missionary.
(3) We are going to make a #light the world CD with music compositions of an lds artist (Sally Deford) which says it is okay to copy for non-commercial use. We may need to look more into that and make sure it is okay to distribute songs that we perform by other artists. IF that isn't allowed then we are capable of creating our own compositions. We thought this would be good if we were to give this along with the chrsistmas intitiative cards! We are even going to create a type of light the world theme song! We are really excited about this! If we can do this, what do we need to make sure we do so we don't overstep our bounds?
(4) Along with the light the world, we are planning on making a light fixture with the nativity scene with wording #light the world 25 ways over 25 days. Visit Mormon.org. We are wondering if this would be approved. We have thought of putting it in the church yard but that may not be allowed, plus our branch mission leader may not like it. The other place we have considered was in front of our landlord's place, however that may not be good because then people might get an idea of where we live and that's not good. The other place we've considered and already have permission to do is at our WML's house. He loves the idea. The question I have for you though is if it would put his house in jeopardy of being mistreated or if it would cause someone to commit a hate crime because it says mormon.org. What do you think? I will also ask the zone leaders to ask the APs but I thought I might as well describe to you in this email what we were hoping to do. Hopefully there is a way we can do it without there being potential mishaps. There is a park in town that allows anyone in the community to put up christmas lights but we heard that it might be too late to put more up.
(5) We've been broadening our horizons with service. WE are now switching off weeks between a compassionate clothing donation center, an animal shelter, food pantry (which might end due to DM being on wednesdays), we tried doing shop with a cop but it was too late. That is where you buy toys for families that can't afford them. We are also getting in touch with hospitals to see what kind of service we can do that is within our rules. Also, I just talked to the librarian here where we are doing emails and she gave us this website (fiaec.com) which stands for faith in action edgar county .com. We've talked to this organization before, but they are well-known in the community for service. We asked the librarian if there were any adults who have learning disabilities that we can help them read, and she directed us to look on this website. So would we be allowed to get permission to look this up?
(6) Also, i made this myths refutes/truths affirmed diagram with the questions of the soul based off of Elder Russel M. Nelson's talk. I'll send it to the office elders as an attachment. Would that be okay to distribute to people?
(7) Lastly, Elder Kama and I have been thinking how we can use our talents to build better trust with the members or to find people. So since I play piano and he sings well, we were thinking it might be a good idea to do free piano/singing lessons and pass out flyers.
Sorry for so many requests. I don't mean to surpass the zone leaders and APs. I am mostly just really excited about implementing these ideas into our proselyting and wanted to tell you about them and get your opinion.
Thanks for your pateince with me and Elder Kama and taking the time to glance at this long email."
Sincerely,
Elder Soutas
No comments:
Post a Comment