Hello Family!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! (yesterday) haha. I'm glad you got the card Dad. We had dinner at a member's home last night and they almost called our homes so that we could sing our dads the fathers day songs. Probably not the best idea so we didn't go through with it but it would've been funny!
We had another baptism on Saturday. It was for Mike Milius, who is 23 years old and has been waiting longer than 12 weeks because he didn't know you couldn't be on probabtion to be baptized. He got through it all though and even through Satan working on him through those tough 12 weeks, he still got baptized. It was awesome!
My email this week I want to be based on something known as the "Windows of Heaven." At zone conference this week Sister Beck taught us about how to properly tract. She told us how the "elect" are out there, waiting for us to bring them the gospel. The "elect" are those whom our Heavenly Father has prepared that are just waiting to receive the message that we have for them. So, the "Windows of Heaven:" this is where you pray for a specific place, time, and even question that this person may have so that Heavenly Father can in turn give us specific answers. On Friday of this week, we prayed that Heavenly Father would prepare someone for us that we would meet in between 3-3:30 p.m. who was located in a specific building at the apartment buildings on Union Hills and 43rd. When we got there, we found the building, and began knocking doors. We came to one that opened up and it was a 15-year old boy who lives with his aunt and uncle. He talked to us for quite a long time and we taught him a bunch about the Book of Mormon and some other principles. We gave him a book and asked him to read and pray about it, he said he would. We then asked if we could come back and he said definitely! Afterwards we went and knocked some more doors. A nice black woman answered and she was extremely nice. I started talking to her and asked her several questions regarding her beliefs, and what she has heard about the LDS church and the book of mormon and what not. I taught her all about Joseph Smith, the restoration, and recited to her the First Vision. She was very interested and even allowed us into her house because we were sweating profusely and she gave us some water. We then asked if we could come back next week and she said of course! And as we left her door step, I looked down at my watch and the time was 3:31 p.m. We were in awe and immediately offered up a prayer of gratitude and just basked in the events that had just transpired. New investigators are hard to come by and in those 30 minutes we were able to get two! A new investigator is someone who you teach two principles, and then get a return appointment. Most people don't allow you to come back so it makes it really hard to get them.
We had another experience with Tom and he says that reading the Book of Mormon has brought him and his son and his 17 year old "friend" closer together than ever. His "friend" is his previous girlfriend's son and the kid says that Tom is the closest thing he's ever had to a father. It has caused them to have conversations that they would have never had in the past and it is really cool to see them change. Although, last night we stopped by Tom's house and when he answered, he had just pounded a beer and had a big chunk of chew in his lip. He sat us down because he wanted us to read from the book of mormon. He told us about his dream (I can't remember if i told you about that but he has this dream where he sees himself die before his son's 18th birthday and it breaks his heart). We taught him about our purpose in life (again) and I read him Alma 29:9 and gave him the application to it for my own life. He really liked it and marked it up. Meanwhile, he has this big gold flower pot/jug/goblet sitting in front of him and as I looked up I noticed that it was filled with some sort of liquid. I didn't want to know what was in it but as I finished reading Alma 29, he leaned over and unloaded a massive chunk of spit/tobacco into this jug which was of significant size and I'm not kidding you one bit, I immediately got the chills and threw up in my mouth. It was rancid. The spirit worked its magic though and despite the constant spitting, we then read him 1 Nephi 8 (Lehi's dream) because we thought it would be cool cause he had been having a dream. It ended up being a good visit and I can see him getting baptized soon.
Well, today we went golfing at cave creek golf course. It was awesome and I was reminded of just how bad of a golfer I am. The first four holes went well but after that it was atrocious. I hope all is going well with you and I can't wait to receive some letters from the girls!
Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! (yesterday) haha. I'm glad you got the card Dad. We had dinner at a member's home last night and they almost called our homes so that we could sing our dads the fathers day songs. Probably not the best idea so we didn't go through with it but it would've been funny!
We had another baptism on Saturday. It was for Mike Milius, who is 23 years old and has been waiting longer than 12 weeks because he didn't know you couldn't be on probabtion to be baptized. He got through it all though and even through Satan working on him through those tough 12 weeks, he still got baptized. It was awesome!
My email this week I want to be based on something known as the "Windows of Heaven." At zone conference this week Sister Beck taught us about how to properly tract. She told us how the "elect" are out there, waiting for us to bring them the gospel. The "elect" are those whom our Heavenly Father has prepared that are just waiting to receive the message that we have for them. So, the "Windows of Heaven:" this is where you pray for a specific place, time, and even question that this person may have so that Heavenly Father can in turn give us specific answers. On Friday of this week, we prayed that Heavenly Father would prepare someone for us that we would meet in between 3-3:30 p.m. who was located in a specific building at the apartment buildings on Union Hills and 43rd. When we got there, we found the building, and began knocking doors. We came to one that opened up and it was a 15-year old boy who lives with his aunt and uncle. He talked to us for quite a long time and we taught him a bunch about the Book of Mormon and some other principles. We gave him a book and asked him to read and pray about it, he said he would. We then asked if we could come back and he said definitely! Afterwards we went and knocked some more doors. A nice black woman answered and she was extremely nice. I started talking to her and asked her several questions regarding her beliefs, and what she has heard about the LDS church and the book of mormon and what not. I taught her all about Joseph Smith, the restoration, and recited to her the First Vision. She was very interested and even allowed us into her house because we were sweating profusely and she gave us some water. We then asked if we could come back next week and she said of course! And as we left her door step, I looked down at my watch and the time was 3:31 p.m. We were in awe and immediately offered up a prayer of gratitude and just basked in the events that had just transpired. New investigators are hard to come by and in those 30 minutes we were able to get two! A new investigator is someone who you teach two principles, and then get a return appointment. Most people don't allow you to come back so it makes it really hard to get them.
We had another experience with Tom and he says that reading the Book of Mormon has brought him and his son and his 17 year old "friend" closer together than ever. His "friend" is his previous girlfriend's son and the kid says that Tom is the closest thing he's ever had to a father. It has caused them to have conversations that they would have never had in the past and it is really cool to see them change. Although, last night we stopped by Tom's house and when he answered, he had just pounded a beer and had a big chunk of chew in his lip. He sat us down because he wanted us to read from the book of mormon. He told us about his dream (I can't remember if i told you about that but he has this dream where he sees himself die before his son's 18th birthday and it breaks his heart). We taught him about our purpose in life (again) and I read him Alma 29:9 and gave him the application to it for my own life. He really liked it and marked it up. Meanwhile, he has this big gold flower pot/jug/goblet sitting in front of him and as I looked up I noticed that it was filled with some sort of liquid. I didn't want to know what was in it but as I finished reading Alma 29, he leaned over and unloaded a massive chunk of spit/tobacco into this jug which was of significant size and I'm not kidding you one bit, I immediately got the chills and threw up in my mouth. It was rancid. The spirit worked its magic though and despite the constant spitting, we then read him 1 Nephi 8 (Lehi's dream) because we thought it would be cool cause he had been having a dream. It ended up being a good visit and I can see him getting baptized soon.
Well, today we went golfing at cave creek golf course. It was awesome and I was reminded of just how bad of a golfer I am. The first four holes went well but after that it was atrocious. I hope all is going well with you and I can't wait to receive some letters from the girls!
Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
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