Hey there!
What a phenomenal letter. Your words are always so inspirational and motivate me to be a better instrument. Yes about my bike, a member of the church had lent us one of theirs that we have used whenever one of our bikes has had a flat and that has been what I've used this past week. I called and talked to the guy at CTR bikes and he said he would send me a replacement bike.
This week seems like it has been filled with meetings and conferences. Tuesday we had a Zone Conference from 10:00-3:00. Wednesday I had district leader training from 10:00-11:30. Thursday was weekly planning from 10:00-12:00 and then District Meeting was from 1:00-2:30. Despite having a good chunk of our time overtaken with meetings, we were still able to get some good work done. Zone Conference was focused on Receiving Revelation Through Prayer which I will expound on later. At district meeting I decided to focus on the importance of members in missionary work and receiving referrals from them. President Monson said that, "There is … no substitute for a member-oriented proselyting program. Tracting will not substitute for it. Golden questions will not substitute for it. A member-oriented program is the key to success, and it works wherever we try it.” The average in this mission is around 1 in every 39 investigators found by missionaries street contacting or tracting gets baptized, and 1 in every 2.6 member referred. Obviously, a member referral has an immediate support group, someone there to answer their questions when the missionaries aren't present. Whenever we ask people if they have anybody that we can teach the answer is almost always, "no I can't think of anyone at this time." People are generally very nervous to talk to their peers about the gospel. So, as missionaries asking for referrals we now take this route: Has anybody asked you a question tha has to do with the church within the past few months? It makes them think harder and very often they have been asked a question. We then ask, What was the question? What was your response? How did they respond to your response? Why do you think that question was asked by them (why is it important to them)? How are you going to follow-up with this person? How can we as the missionaries help you to follow-up with them? People are able to zero in on times when they have talked to people about the gospel without even knowing it and it helps to receive more referrals.
I will say that the most fulfilling feeling I've felt in my life up to this point is the feeling of being a part of the change in someone's life for the better. We had two lessons on Friday night that were superb. First was with Howard Emery. He's the 82 year old guy who has been taking the lessons and hopes to be baptized before the end of the year. He just doesn't like being pressured and will tell everyone on his own time when he wants to be baptized. He is severely dislexic and nearly illiterate because of it. He lives with his niece and her husband who are members of the church and they bought him the childrens versions of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the old and new testaments. He is floored by how much he has been able to read in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. He says that he has never before been able to read so much and one night he read for like 13 hours straight because he is so happy. He is able to comprehend what he reads as well which he and the family considers a miracle. At the lesson we asked him questions about Joseph Smith, Nephi and others and he was able to describe to us what happened. There is nothing better than to see his face beam from ear to ear as he recalls what he reads. He also describes the feeling of the spirit as a warm sensation he doesn't want to go without. I can't wait to get a picture with him in white, you are going to think we are teaching Dick Van Dyke because he looks so much like him! After teaching Howard, we had a lesson with Chris Jordan. Chris is a man who NEVER would have been caught dead with a Book of Mormon, in a Mormon church, and especially with a desire to be baptized. He grew up Protestant and has a Catholic background and was severely anti-mormon during those days. He married a member of the church who is Less Active but one day she came and Chris was brought along with her. When we went up to meet him he was sitting at the back of the chapel with his arms folded, a massive frown, and looking as if he would rather be in prison than an LDS church. Well his ENTIRE countenance has changed in just a few weeks. He read a few chapters we gave him from the Book of Mormon and says he nearly had a "baseball bat to the head experience." Meaning, an immediate conviction that he needed to join the church. Since the first time we met, he has begun to take things on faith, to pray, and yesterday was the first time that he actually came to church by himself. The mean, old grump, who doesn't want anything to do with the missionaries, has become a smile from ear to ear, happy, best friend that everybody loves. He has a drinking and smoking problem and hopes to quit by the middle of December and he has already reduced his intake by half. He is the one I'm talking about when I say there is no better feeling than seeing the life of someone change because of the introduction of the restored gospel into their life. Howard as well.
So Zone Conference was focused on Receiving Revelation Through Prayer. I know that prayers are answered. People cannot and will not gain a testimony of what we teach untill they exercise their faith by praying and receiving the "evidence of things not seen" as I talked about last week. As a missionary it's so funny to see even the littlest prayers be answered. Last Monday we went to develop pictures and I had both of my SD cards, one in the camera and the other in my pocket in the case. Well I had no idea where the one in my pocket went and I couldn't remember if it was back home on the shelf or what! I didn't think much of it cause I thought it would just turn up sometime. Despite that, I prayed that I would find it so that I would have the peace of mind. Well the next day, I got a call from the lady in the ward who takes us to the chiropractor. She said that they had found my SD card in the creases of the chair where the chiropractor aligns your back. It had fallen out of my pocket while laying down on it! Haha and for some reason they were looking down in the crease and found it sitting there. Prayer answered. There have been many other times that are just small, simple things like that but it is just a testimony to me to know that Heavenly Father even cares about the small things in our lives. Even things that are non-important in the eternal perspective of things. If it's important to us, it's important to Him.
I read an awesome passage of scripture recently. It's the Abinadi and King Noah showdown consisting of Mosiah 11-20. What stuck out to me was pretty funny! After Abinadi had given his whole sermon, Alma baptized hundreds at the Waters of Mormon, there was a lot of turmoil going on back with King Noah and his people. Not many people were happy with him and a man by the name of Gideon went to kill King Noah and he ran to the top of the tower which was near the temple (the same tower King Benjamin spoke from I assume). Gideon persued the cowardly king and was about to kill him and then King Noah pleaded with him that he wouldn't because as he looked out over the land from the top of the tower he could see the Lamanites coming to take over the city. Gideon didn't kill him and the King ran down and started telling all the people to flee for their lives. Coward. He then noticed that the Lamanites were about to catch them, so King Noah commanded that all the men should leave their wives and children so they can run faster. SERIOUSLY? Coward. That made me laugh... Some men left their wives and daughters, but some stayed back with them. The ones who stayed back said that all the cutest daughters should go before the Lamanites and woo them into not killing them. It worked but I thought it was so funny, the opposite correlation between Abinadi and these people, especially King Noah. They definitely feared death and would have done anything, probably including denying their testimonies if they had one. Abinadi would "not recall the words which [he had] spoken unto...this people, for they are true." And he was killed for it but did not fear death. That is one thing I've noticed from teaching the Plan of Salvation, there is no need to fear as long as we are doing the things we have been asked to do and promised to do. President Boyd K. Packer recently said that from all his years as an apostle, he has witnessed every single emotion whether it was from himself or the other apostles. All, except for one. That one emotion is fear. We really have no need to fear when we have that peace of mind that we are doing the right things. I've noticed in my own life that you can truly tell when the spirit is with you always and that is how you can know that you need not fear. If you are worthy of the spirit, then you are probably doing the right things. :) I hope that I can keep myself in such a way so that I never have to question my worthiness of the spirit.
Anyways, I hope all is well back in K-Town! This email is super long I think and probably tough to understand because I'm typing like a mad man. Say hi to the ward for me and especially all the extended family! Let me know what everyone does for Halloween!
Love you eternally.
Love,
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
October 12-18, 2010: "Faith is really an action word"
Well hey!
Awesome letter. That is so crazy Talor is getting married... Kyler sent me an email and this is all it said: "Talor?????? did you hear about our cuz???????????" hahaha That was back when I had no idea! That's really cool though. I bet he's a great guy. Yes, I did receive the letter this week along with the pictures. Thank you! I needed some new pics to put on scripture cases and what not. Now whenever I'm teaching about families or something I have a picture to show so that people don't think I'm just making stuff up about how amazing my family is. Often times when street contacting I use the tactic of...'despite the fact that I am hundreds of miles away from my family, I've really never felt the immense amount of love that I have for them as I've made the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ the central focus of my life.' (that sounds bad because that should be the central focus of our lives at ALL times but still you get the point.) For some reason that ends up hitting home with a lot of people and they agree to hear about our message or to read from the Book of Mormon.
Man! The day long yellowstone trip! If I could think of a heaven on earth and it wasn't Phoenix, AZ (as a missionary...) I would have to say that you saw it on that awesome drive! Dang! Sounds like you saw some good animals too. Surprisingly there are a lot of hunters down here and sometimes it gets tough to hear about their stories but I read Jeremiah 16:16 (Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks) and find that I am also a hunter and fisher at the moment as well. :) Kinda helps and relieves the salt to the wound. Haha jk. Gimme a few months and we'll be back in Hell Hole and/or Aghetter Hollow creating eternal memories.
So this week has been awesome! The first week was the pits, and this week has been uplifting. I know that if we don't experience the sorrows, we won't appriciate the good times either. Elder Nelson is awesome and has been growing and increasing in confidence very quickly. It's been weird though, this week we've had more people want to bash us and debate than I've ever had in my entire mission! I think it's been because I've needed to learn how to handle those sorts of situations. At first, I would get pretty contentious and mouth off scriptures and ask them why they believe certain things if the Bible says that it's supposed to be a certain way and the conversation would get pretty heated. That's NOT how it should be done haha. And slowly but surely after each person that wanted to "chat" I learned that's how it shouldn't be done. Now, after the discussion with a guy last night, I just smile at them, agree with everything they say, just respond with a quick "yup" or "sure" and they end up getting very angry. Hahaha Then, because they have studied so much about our religion, they try to tell us what we believe. That's when I come in with scriptural references to all their material regarding what they THINK we believe. Last night this guy was goin crazy! Just furious about how we believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate beings. Man, Elder Nelson and I came out feeling good because we didn't retaliate at all except for bearing testimony and sharing references from his Bible. haha that's the best... As fun as it is though, it never really gets anywhere.
District meetings are getting fun! I often feel like the elders don't need to listen to me though because they've been out so much longer. So I do my best to just be good friends with them and then it ends up working itself out. There's a member of the district who used to be an office elder named Elder Sentman. Oh, he's 27 years old HAHA. He's awesome though and we get along really well. I have to go on exchanges with each elder in the district every transfer and last week I was with Elder Schafer in his area so Elder Nelson had to plan out the entire day in our area and take it over for a day! He did awesome! I wish I didn't have to leave our area to go on exchanges so much because of all the good stuff that's going on. A few weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Trish and she invited us back the next day. We went over and as we sat down with her she looked at us and said, "you know, there is something I forgot to tell you. About 25 years ago when I lived in Oregon I got divorced from my first husband and then two missionaries knocked on my door. I ended up getting baptized." Of course we were kinda disappointed (haha) because she seemed so solid but as we talked she said she wanted to get reactivated in the church. She said she lives with her husband who's not a member but he would NEVER be interested in coming to our church at all. Well we went over on Tuesday of last week and had a good chat with them. Terry, her husband, sat down and talked with us and we discussed the restoration, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and several other questions. He was really nice and towards the end of the lesson I asked them if we could help them clean up their house. They tried to blow it off but I insisted and finally they gave in. We ended up throwing away HUNDREDS, literally hundreds, of unpaid bills that were piled on their coffee table. It took about thirty minutes and then I moved over to the fireplace and mantle. There was literally a 1/2 inch to 3/4 of an inch of dust coating all their picture frames, mantle, fireplace, and everything that was placed on it. I grabbed a nearby vacuum and started sucking up all the dust. The whole place came a live with color! Seriously there were things that I thought were grey that after I vacuumed them, they turned out to be fire engine red. We cleaned up the room real good and then Trish looked at us and asked if we wanted dinner. Of course we were starving and she made us some tacos. So the visit with Terry, who we were told would never want to meet with us ever, ended up with him wanting to come to church and then also to come to the temple to watch the Joseph Smith movie. It was awesome and service can go a long way if you let it!
Another thing I've noticed is that soon after people meet with us, a whole rush of anti material all of a sudden becomes present in their lives. I know it's not coincidence. So now in lessons we have to talk about that. We tell them that "over these next couple days before we meet with you again, you are going to have a lot of random things show up that are against the church! You will have a lot of questions but just know to come to us to have those questions answered." It almost always happens like that. A girl named Gracie goes to school with a member of the church and stopped us one day in a parking lot and said she wanted to meet with us. We scheduled an appointment and over the next few days before the appointment she heard just about everything a person can say that is negative about the church. She asked us about the answers though and she was perfectly fine with what we said! We invited her to be baptized and her response was, "well of course I would! Why wouldn't I?!" Haha She is awesome and definitely the elect.
This week I studied a bit about faith and how "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). I wanted to find a reference in the Bible that talked about what faith is and also what those "works" are that the book of James states. In Hebrews 11:1 it says, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." To me, that's powerful..."the evidence of things not seen." A lot of people we come in to contact with think that all we have to do is BELIEVE in Christ and we will be saved. I just don't think it's that easy. I've noticed that for me the only way that I'm able to feel of the spirit and keep the spirit with me is when I do the "works" part in exercising faith. Faith is really an action word. I believe the works we must do involve consistent, sincere prayer, scripture STUDY, church attendance, obedience to the commandments, repentance (because we all mess up, and I have to repent daily out here haha nobody's perfect and repentance is such a blessing we have been given), the ordinances that Christ has told us we need to return to live with Him and the Father, etc. I found another scripture in Hebrews 11 that states, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." I love how it says without faith it is impossible to please Him - without faith, without action, without work. With this new responsibilty as a trainer and district leader it's been awesome to see the help from Heavenly Father as I've prayed and asked as well as doing needed "works" to fulfill what He would have me do. I know, without a doubt, that by faith miracles are wrought (Ether 12:16, Moroni 7:37)
I hope all is going well for you! Make a cardboard cut out of me and Elder Figgins or something so that we can still be in the pictures at Talor's wedding! I love you all so much and if you ever feel so inclined to send pictures again, please don't be bashful. Haha I love them!
Love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Colton Mouritsen
Awesome letter. That is so crazy Talor is getting married... Kyler sent me an email and this is all it said: "Talor?????? did you hear about our cuz???????????" hahaha That was back when I had no idea! That's really cool though. I bet he's a great guy. Yes, I did receive the letter this week along with the pictures. Thank you! I needed some new pics to put on scripture cases and what not. Now whenever I'm teaching about families or something I have a picture to show so that people don't think I'm just making stuff up about how amazing my family is. Often times when street contacting I use the tactic of...'despite the fact that I am hundreds of miles away from my family, I've really never felt the immense amount of love that I have for them as I've made the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ the central focus of my life.' (that sounds bad because that should be the central focus of our lives at ALL times but still you get the point.) For some reason that ends up hitting home with a lot of people and they agree to hear about our message or to read from the Book of Mormon.
Man! The day long yellowstone trip! If I could think of a heaven on earth and it wasn't Phoenix, AZ (as a missionary...) I would have to say that you saw it on that awesome drive! Dang! Sounds like you saw some good animals too. Surprisingly there are a lot of hunters down here and sometimes it gets tough to hear about their stories but I read Jeremiah 16:16 (Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks) and find that I am also a hunter and fisher at the moment as well. :) Kinda helps and relieves the salt to the wound. Haha jk. Gimme a few months and we'll be back in Hell Hole and/or Aghetter Hollow creating eternal memories.
So this week has been awesome! The first week was the pits, and this week has been uplifting. I know that if we don't experience the sorrows, we won't appriciate the good times either. Elder Nelson is awesome and has been growing and increasing in confidence very quickly. It's been weird though, this week we've had more people want to bash us and debate than I've ever had in my entire mission! I think it's been because I've needed to learn how to handle those sorts of situations. At first, I would get pretty contentious and mouth off scriptures and ask them why they believe certain things if the Bible says that it's supposed to be a certain way and the conversation would get pretty heated. That's NOT how it should be done haha. And slowly but surely after each person that wanted to "chat" I learned that's how it shouldn't be done. Now, after the discussion with a guy last night, I just smile at them, agree with everything they say, just respond with a quick "yup" or "sure" and they end up getting very angry. Hahaha Then, because they have studied so much about our religion, they try to tell us what we believe. That's when I come in with scriptural references to all their material regarding what they THINK we believe. Last night this guy was goin crazy! Just furious about how we believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate beings. Man, Elder Nelson and I came out feeling good because we didn't retaliate at all except for bearing testimony and sharing references from his Bible. haha that's the best... As fun as it is though, it never really gets anywhere.
District meetings are getting fun! I often feel like the elders don't need to listen to me though because they've been out so much longer. So I do my best to just be good friends with them and then it ends up working itself out. There's a member of the district who used to be an office elder named Elder Sentman. Oh, he's 27 years old HAHA. He's awesome though and we get along really well. I have to go on exchanges with each elder in the district every transfer and last week I was with Elder Schafer in his area so Elder Nelson had to plan out the entire day in our area and take it over for a day! He did awesome! I wish I didn't have to leave our area to go on exchanges so much because of all the good stuff that's going on. A few weeks ago we tracted into a lady named Trish and she invited us back the next day. We went over and as we sat down with her she looked at us and said, "you know, there is something I forgot to tell you. About 25 years ago when I lived in Oregon I got divorced from my first husband and then two missionaries knocked on my door. I ended up getting baptized." Of course we were kinda disappointed (haha) because she seemed so solid but as we talked she said she wanted to get reactivated in the church. She said she lives with her husband who's not a member but he would NEVER be interested in coming to our church at all. Well we went over on Tuesday of last week and had a good chat with them. Terry, her husband, sat down and talked with us and we discussed the restoration, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and several other questions. He was really nice and towards the end of the lesson I asked them if we could help them clean up their house. They tried to blow it off but I insisted and finally they gave in. We ended up throwing away HUNDREDS, literally hundreds, of unpaid bills that were piled on their coffee table. It took about thirty minutes and then I moved over to the fireplace and mantle. There was literally a 1/2 inch to 3/4 of an inch of dust coating all their picture frames, mantle, fireplace, and everything that was placed on it. I grabbed a nearby vacuum and started sucking up all the dust. The whole place came a live with color! Seriously there were things that I thought were grey that after I vacuumed them, they turned out to be fire engine red. We cleaned up the room real good and then Trish looked at us and asked if we wanted dinner. Of course we were starving and she made us some tacos. So the visit with Terry, who we were told would never want to meet with us ever, ended up with him wanting to come to church and then also to come to the temple to watch the Joseph Smith movie. It was awesome and service can go a long way if you let it!
Another thing I've noticed is that soon after people meet with us, a whole rush of anti material all of a sudden becomes present in their lives. I know it's not coincidence. So now in lessons we have to talk about that. We tell them that "over these next couple days before we meet with you again, you are going to have a lot of random things show up that are against the church! You will have a lot of questions but just know to come to us to have those questions answered." It almost always happens like that. A girl named Gracie goes to school with a member of the church and stopped us one day in a parking lot and said she wanted to meet with us. We scheduled an appointment and over the next few days before the appointment she heard just about everything a person can say that is negative about the church. She asked us about the answers though and she was perfectly fine with what we said! We invited her to be baptized and her response was, "well of course I would! Why wouldn't I?!" Haha She is awesome and definitely the elect.
This week I studied a bit about faith and how "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). I wanted to find a reference in the Bible that talked about what faith is and also what those "works" are that the book of James states. In Hebrews 11:1 it says, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." To me, that's powerful..."the evidence of things not seen." A lot of people we come in to contact with think that all we have to do is BELIEVE in Christ and we will be saved. I just don't think it's that easy. I've noticed that for me the only way that I'm able to feel of the spirit and keep the spirit with me is when I do the "works" part in exercising faith. Faith is really an action word. I believe the works we must do involve consistent, sincere prayer, scripture STUDY, church attendance, obedience to the commandments, repentance (because we all mess up, and I have to repent daily out here haha nobody's perfect and repentance is such a blessing we have been given), the ordinances that Christ has told us we need to return to live with Him and the Father, etc. I found another scripture in Hebrews 11 that states, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." I love how it says without faith it is impossible to please Him - without faith, without action, without work. With this new responsibilty as a trainer and district leader it's been awesome to see the help from Heavenly Father as I've prayed and asked as well as doing needed "works" to fulfill what He would have me do. I know, without a doubt, that by faith miracles are wrought (Ether 12:16, Moroni 7:37)
I hope all is going well for you! Make a cardboard cut out of me and Elder Figgins or something so that we can still be in the pictures at Talor's wedding! I love you all so much and if you ever feel so inclined to send pictures again, please don't be bashful. Haha I love them!
Love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Colton Mouritsen
Monday, October 11, 2010
October 4 - 11, 2010: "An immense amount of responsibility"
Well hello there family!
This week has been forever long! Monday: transfer news. Tuesday: transfers. Cichy got transfered out to Lavine to open up a brand new area and he is training while doing so. My new companion is from Idaho Falls and he is also fresh from the MTC. His name is Elder Nelson and he's a stud. I don't know if you got a letter from President Beck? I got a letter saying that I was going to be a trainer and DL and it said that it was being forwarded to you so I was just wondering if you got it. It is so crazy to go from relying wholly on my Elder Cichy to an immense amount of responsibility! I love it though and I can't wait to get the hang of things. Our district gained another set of missionaries as well. Remember Elder Choules? He and a guy named Elder Gibson took over one of the wards in the district so that now there are five total companionships. Elder Otto (DL) and Elder Wesche (ZL) both went home so there is now a new Zone Leader in our district as well. His name is Elder Johnson from Edmonton, Alberta. They are some awesome guys and I hope and pray that this transfer is going to be a good one!
I don't know if you watched anything about the weather that we had down here but on Tuesday before, during, and after transfers there was a MASSIVE rain and hail storm. Many cars, homes, churches and other buildings were damaged from inch and a half sized hail. Me and Cichy got stuck out on foot and took cover under a covered parking lot in an apartment complex and luckily were able to get a ride home. The roads were literally filled with water and then as the hail came down it looked like people were throwing baseballs into the road because the splashes were so huge. We got a ride to transfers at about 1:25 cause we had to be there by 1:45 and it was cut close because of the storm. We didn't get out of there till about 6 and our ride was stuck in all the traffic again so we didn't get home till about 6:45. We pulled Elder Nelson's suit cases inside, grabbed our bags, and went out and started working. It is so weird to be on the opposite side of the spectrum! SERIOUSLY! It just boggles my mind because I feel that I will always be a greenie (someone fresh from the MTC). We went and visited Tom and his son Tom Junior. I wanted Elder Nelson to meet him. On the way we talked to several people at bus stops and it is so funny to see the look on a new missionary's face as we approach and talk to the very first person on their mission! haha I remember when I was in that exact situation. We got to Tom's and sat down in his apartment. The rain had stopped but the roads were still backed up because a lot of the sewer holes had filled and popped open and were flooding the streets. As we were sitting in Tom's apartment all of a sudden his roof began to leak and water was flushing out of his light fixture in the ceiling. His idea was to climb up on top of the apartment complex and see what was going on. So we did... As we got up there, there was an incredible lighting storm way off in the distance to the east and we just watched it for awhile. Despite big Tom being a bit drunk he talked about how awesome God's creations are and how small we really are compared to other things such as a lightning storm. Little Tom was terrified to be up so high but he seemed to grab on to my arm as we watched and he thought it was cool, but he wanted nothing to do with standing on top of a three story apartment building :/. As we stood up there, I requested we say a prayer as we were humbled by such a neat experience. Big Tom said the prayer as he held his son in his arms. It was awesome. As we climbed back down to the apartment, we knelt down because Tom Junior now wanted to say a prayer. In his prayer he asked that Heavenly Father would help him overcome his fear of heights. It was so cool to hear him ask for help and show his thanks for other things! Little Tom seems to have grown closer to me in recent visits and he's gotten a lot deeper in his questions. Mind you, he's nine years old and he asked me this: "Remember you saying that you are protected by Heavenly Father as a missionary? And even if people tried to get you, you would be protected? I want that." I told him that he can have that. It comes after he is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy Ghost. He thought that was pretty cool and he was more receptive to baptism than ever before. We ended up committing them to be baptized on October 16th but I have a feeling that it's going to be pushed back a few weeks because Little Tom's mom isn't very happy about it. Also, they need to be interviewed and taught the actual lessons. Big Tom told us that it's not a matter of IF for him, it's a matter of when but he wants to do it with his son. He says that he'll be able to stop drinking whenever he needs to as well... I hope he's right! As we left Little Tom wanted to say another prayer and he prayed that his dad would be able to be helped to stop drinking from Heavenly Father. It was a very cool experience! A good one for Elder Nelson to have on his first night!
It's been hard for me to decide what spiritual topic to talk about that has hit me this week. One could be the need to be happy. Another, the impact of the adversary upon people who are striving to come closer to the truth. I just read a quote by Heber C. Kimball; "The nearer a person approaches the Lord, the greater power will be manifest by the Adversary to prevent the accomplishment of his purpose." A few weeks ago, I told of an experience we had with the powers of the adversary and the power of the priesthood. That same guy (we'll call him John) who was having issues from that experience came to us again telling us that he's been having these negative thoughts pertaining to his past. Nothing of the magnitude of before, but that he just has a hard time removing the memories and problems from his past. He said that his father was a very terrible man, who beat him and his mother. These beatings had been going on for a very long time and one day after being beaten pretty badly, John told his dad that he wanted him to die because of how harsh he was treating him and his mother. The next day, his dad shot himself. Many people blamed the tragedy on John but he knew how bad he had been treated and that he was not the one to pull the trigger. Today, almost 40 years later, these memories of his father have become extremely vivid in his dreams and thoughts and he has no idea why. He says that there is just no way that he would be able to forgive his dad for things that he did. Well, I've never been one to give advice, AT ALL, so I had no idea what to say! I just shared with him that through fervent prayer, scripture study, and the power of the priesthood, these things can be overcome. I told them that sometimes we just have to hear ourselves say the words, "I forgive you." Through this whole conversation he was in tears and told us that he had never told anybody this before. We ended by giving him a priesthood blessing. As we left, the intensity of the meeting had become relieved, and the powers of heaven had been conjured and we let him know that through his faith, that the will of the Lord would be accomplished. I think he felt a little better...
Well, that's about it for this week! I hope all is going well for you back home. I love ya'll so much! Stay righteous and safe!
Love,
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
This week has been forever long! Monday: transfer news. Tuesday: transfers. Cichy got transfered out to Lavine to open up a brand new area and he is training while doing so. My new companion is from Idaho Falls and he is also fresh from the MTC. His name is Elder Nelson and he's a stud. I don't know if you got a letter from President Beck? I got a letter saying that I was going to be a trainer and DL and it said that it was being forwarded to you so I was just wondering if you got it. It is so crazy to go from relying wholly on my Elder Cichy to an immense amount of responsibility! I love it though and I can't wait to get the hang of things. Our district gained another set of missionaries as well. Remember Elder Choules? He and a guy named Elder Gibson took over one of the wards in the district so that now there are five total companionships. Elder Otto (DL) and Elder Wesche (ZL) both went home so there is now a new Zone Leader in our district as well. His name is Elder Johnson from Edmonton, Alberta. They are some awesome guys and I hope and pray that this transfer is going to be a good one!
Photo taken of Colton and other elders moving their gear on transfer day.
I don't know if you watched anything about the weather that we had down here but on Tuesday before, during, and after transfers there was a MASSIVE rain and hail storm. Many cars, homes, churches and other buildings were damaged from inch and a half sized hail. Me and Cichy got stuck out on foot and took cover under a covered parking lot in an apartment complex and luckily were able to get a ride home. The roads were literally filled with water and then as the hail came down it looked like people were throwing baseballs into the road because the splashes were so huge. We got a ride to transfers at about 1:25 cause we had to be there by 1:45 and it was cut close because of the storm. We didn't get out of there till about 6 and our ride was stuck in all the traffic again so we didn't get home till about 6:45. We pulled Elder Nelson's suit cases inside, grabbed our bags, and went out and started working. It is so weird to be on the opposite side of the spectrum! SERIOUSLY! It just boggles my mind because I feel that I will always be a greenie (someone fresh from the MTC). We went and visited Tom and his son Tom Junior. I wanted Elder Nelson to meet him. On the way we talked to several people at bus stops and it is so funny to see the look on a new missionary's face as we approach and talk to the very first person on their mission! haha I remember when I was in that exact situation. We got to Tom's and sat down in his apartment. The rain had stopped but the roads were still backed up because a lot of the sewer holes had filled and popped open and were flooding the streets. As we were sitting in Tom's apartment all of a sudden his roof began to leak and water was flushing out of his light fixture in the ceiling. His idea was to climb up on top of the apartment complex and see what was going on. So we did... As we got up there, there was an incredible lighting storm way off in the distance to the east and we just watched it for awhile. Despite big Tom being a bit drunk he talked about how awesome God's creations are and how small we really are compared to other things such as a lightning storm. Little Tom was terrified to be up so high but he seemed to grab on to my arm as we watched and he thought it was cool, but he wanted nothing to do with standing on top of a three story apartment building :/. As we stood up there, I requested we say a prayer as we were humbled by such a neat experience. Big Tom said the prayer as he held his son in his arms. It was awesome. As we climbed back down to the apartment, we knelt down because Tom Junior now wanted to say a prayer. In his prayer he asked that Heavenly Father would help him overcome his fear of heights. It was so cool to hear him ask for help and show his thanks for other things! Little Tom seems to have grown closer to me in recent visits and he's gotten a lot deeper in his questions. Mind you, he's nine years old and he asked me this: "Remember you saying that you are protected by Heavenly Father as a missionary? And even if people tried to get you, you would be protected? I want that." I told him that he can have that. It comes after he is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy Ghost. He thought that was pretty cool and he was more receptive to baptism than ever before. We ended up committing them to be baptized on October 16th but I have a feeling that it's going to be pushed back a few weeks because Little Tom's mom isn't very happy about it. Also, they need to be interviewed and taught the actual lessons. Big Tom told us that it's not a matter of IF for him, it's a matter of when but he wants to do it with his son. He says that he'll be able to stop drinking whenever he needs to as well... I hope he's right! As we left Little Tom wanted to say another prayer and he prayed that his dad would be able to be helped to stop drinking from Heavenly Father. It was a very cool experience! A good one for Elder Nelson to have on his first night!
It's been hard for me to decide what spiritual topic to talk about that has hit me this week. One could be the need to be happy. Another, the impact of the adversary upon people who are striving to come closer to the truth. I just read a quote by Heber C. Kimball; "The nearer a person approaches the Lord, the greater power will be manifest by the Adversary to prevent the accomplishment of his purpose." A few weeks ago, I told of an experience we had with the powers of the adversary and the power of the priesthood. That same guy (we'll call him John) who was having issues from that experience came to us again telling us that he's been having these negative thoughts pertaining to his past. Nothing of the magnitude of before, but that he just has a hard time removing the memories and problems from his past. He said that his father was a very terrible man, who beat him and his mother. These beatings had been going on for a very long time and one day after being beaten pretty badly, John told his dad that he wanted him to die because of how harsh he was treating him and his mother. The next day, his dad shot himself. Many people blamed the tragedy on John but he knew how bad he had been treated and that he was not the one to pull the trigger. Today, almost 40 years later, these memories of his father have become extremely vivid in his dreams and thoughts and he has no idea why. He says that there is just no way that he would be able to forgive his dad for things that he did. Well, I've never been one to give advice, AT ALL, so I had no idea what to say! I just shared with him that through fervent prayer, scripture study, and the power of the priesthood, these things can be overcome. I told them that sometimes we just have to hear ourselves say the words, "I forgive you." Through this whole conversation he was in tears and told us that he had never told anybody this before. We ended by giving him a priesthood blessing. As we left, the intensity of the meeting had become relieved, and the powers of heaven had been conjured and we let him know that through his faith, that the will of the Lord would be accomplished. I think he felt a little better...
Well, that's about it for this week! I hope all is going well for you back home. I love ya'll so much! Stay righteous and safe!
Love,
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
Monday, October 4, 2010
September 28 - October 3, 2010: General Conference & Cichy Leaves
Hey Mouritsens!
Conference was unbelieveable. Saturday we watched it at Brother Baird's house with Elder Otto and Elder Buttars. I have never looked forward to listening intently and taking notes as much as I did this time. The Priesthood session was great, but yes I had the same feelings that I missed sitting next to you. I wondered what you would be thinking when Elder Nelson asked all the missionaries from around the world to stand up. I hope that you, mom, and the girls would stand up at that comment as well, because of the missionaries you have been in my life, in helping me hold to the rod. For some reason I loved the talk by Elder Patrick Kearon which was about following the commandments with EXACT obedience, with no actions of rebelliousness or laziness. He told the story of wearing flip flops instead of shoes while out camping in the desert. Because of this decision, he was stung by a scorpion. "Disregarding what we know to be right whether through laziness or rebelliousness always brings undesireable and spiritually damaging consequenses." I don't know if it was his English accent or what but I just loved that talk. I also loved Elder Holland's all about gratitude. It seemed so different compared to his normal blunt, penetrating and powerful words. Maybe he was told to tone it down... I don't know. haha
It also seemed like some major topics from conference were agency, the Holy Ghost, and the living prophet. On Saturday, two Elders gave the same 14 points about the prophet. Being missionaries, and being out in the middle of a lot of the world's problems, we tried to guess what the major topics would be because of the things we've seen. Our guesses were: Chastity, Family, and the economy. Those are some of the obvious ones we've seen. But as we listened to conference, we realized just how much more this world needs. There are SO many people that we talk to who believe there is absolutely no need for organized religion. I can't remember who it was cause I don't have my notes with me right now but there was one talk all about the necessity of organized religion. It also seemed like there were a lot of talks which were trying to give people hope to exercise their agency and repent of their sins through the atonement of our Savior. From talking to so many different people, that is a serious issue it seems with most because of all the heartache and guilt they hold on their shoulders. If they only knew the reality of the atonement and the power that it entails.
This week we taught Chris Jordan. He's got an issue with smoking so we proposed a way that we heard previously to dip one of his cigarettes in milk, let it dry, and then have him smoke it. A guy in the ward said that he did it on his mission and it made the smoker extremely sick but he never smoked again. Well, Chris smoked it and it didn't work for him for some reason... Kinda anticlimatic but he set a goal to stop smoking by December. We'll have to come up with another way to get him to quit sooner :).
It's so crazy how much people open up and tell us their whole life's story. On Thursday I started talking to a lady in the line at Wendys and she ended up sitting by us and telling us about her ENTIRE life. We were there for like an hour and a half! That night we were on our way home and we found a lady who was sitting on the curb in a park. We stopped and started talking to her. Her name was Michelle and she told us that she was there because it's where God had sent her. She spends most of her day praying and allowing God to lead her steps. She told us her life story as well. We sat there for an hour and a half just listening to her as she cried and told us that she still can't find the perfect man for her. It was crazy. I don't know what it is about us, maybe the black name tag has super powers or something that makes people open up.
Well we just got transfer news. Cichy is headin' outta here and I'm staying around. Sad, yet it has to happen sometime so it'll be cool to see who the new companion is. Maybe I'll send a quick letter or something letting you know what happens.
Sorry this is such a short and lame email. We have a lot to do today because Elder Otto and Elder Wesche are going home. Wesche is from Farmington so if you want to go to a homecoming from somebody who served in the Arizona Phoeniz Mission it's this Sunday at one o'clock. The address is 1395 S. 200 E.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all you do!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
Conference was unbelieveable. Saturday we watched it at Brother Baird's house with Elder Otto and Elder Buttars. I have never looked forward to listening intently and taking notes as much as I did this time. The Priesthood session was great, but yes I had the same feelings that I missed sitting next to you. I wondered what you would be thinking when Elder Nelson asked all the missionaries from around the world to stand up. I hope that you, mom, and the girls would stand up at that comment as well, because of the missionaries you have been in my life, in helping me hold to the rod. For some reason I loved the talk by Elder Patrick Kearon which was about following the commandments with EXACT obedience, with no actions of rebelliousness or laziness. He told the story of wearing flip flops instead of shoes while out camping in the desert. Because of this decision, he was stung by a scorpion. "Disregarding what we know to be right whether through laziness or rebelliousness always brings undesireable and spiritually damaging consequenses." I don't know if it was his English accent or what but I just loved that talk. I also loved Elder Holland's all about gratitude. It seemed so different compared to his normal blunt, penetrating and powerful words. Maybe he was told to tone it down... I don't know. haha
It also seemed like some major topics from conference were agency, the Holy Ghost, and the living prophet. On Saturday, two Elders gave the same 14 points about the prophet. Being missionaries, and being out in the middle of a lot of the world's problems, we tried to guess what the major topics would be because of the things we've seen. Our guesses were: Chastity, Family, and the economy. Those are some of the obvious ones we've seen. But as we listened to conference, we realized just how much more this world needs. There are SO many people that we talk to who believe there is absolutely no need for organized religion. I can't remember who it was cause I don't have my notes with me right now but there was one talk all about the necessity of organized religion. It also seemed like there were a lot of talks which were trying to give people hope to exercise their agency and repent of their sins through the atonement of our Savior. From talking to so many different people, that is a serious issue it seems with most because of all the heartache and guilt they hold on their shoulders. If they only knew the reality of the atonement and the power that it entails.
This week we taught Chris Jordan. He's got an issue with smoking so we proposed a way that we heard previously to dip one of his cigarettes in milk, let it dry, and then have him smoke it. A guy in the ward said that he did it on his mission and it made the smoker extremely sick but he never smoked again. Well, Chris smoked it and it didn't work for him for some reason... Kinda anticlimatic but he set a goal to stop smoking by December. We'll have to come up with another way to get him to quit sooner :).
It's so crazy how much people open up and tell us their whole life's story. On Thursday I started talking to a lady in the line at Wendys and she ended up sitting by us and telling us about her ENTIRE life. We were there for like an hour and a half! That night we were on our way home and we found a lady who was sitting on the curb in a park. We stopped and started talking to her. Her name was Michelle and she told us that she was there because it's where God had sent her. She spends most of her day praying and allowing God to lead her steps. She told us her life story as well. We sat there for an hour and a half just listening to her as she cried and told us that she still can't find the perfect man for her. It was crazy. I don't know what it is about us, maybe the black name tag has super powers or something that makes people open up.
Well we just got transfer news. Cichy is headin' outta here and I'm staying around. Sad, yet it has to happen sometime so it'll be cool to see who the new companion is. Maybe I'll send a quick letter or something letting you know what happens.
Sorry this is such a short and lame email. We have a lot to do today because Elder Otto and Elder Wesche are going home. Wesche is from Farmington so if you want to go to a homecoming from somebody who served in the Arizona Phoeniz Mission it's this Sunday at one o'clock. The address is 1395 S. 200 E.
I love you guys so much. Thanks for all you do!
Love,
Elder Mouritsen
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