Whats up?!
Holy cow when did you girls get so dang cute? I don't know how to say this but when other missionaries see pictures like those they ask how old you guys are. Then they ask if anybody is writing you. I tell them that you guys are 10, 13, and two 15.5's. (I would think that that would make them not ask if anybody is writing you) But they come right back with the, "soo... is anybody writing them?" HAHAHA don't be surprised if you get a letter or two in the near future. I would love hard copies of those pictures though! One question, what the crap is L-Mo's pumpkin? The only thing I can get is a scary lookin' cyclops? or... A great white shark? Yup. That's all.
I would love for you to send me the letters you write as a hard copy as well! I only get barely even once chance to read them and there is so much good stuff in there I would love to read them again. I don't "need" packages though but if you feel so inclined they are always so appreciated! Elder Nelson has already gotten like 8 of them, hahaha it's hilarious! He averages about two letters a day too but he'll notice how that dwindles down to maybe one or two a week after about three months.
This last week was utterly insane. I haven't been so busy in a long time! Monday, was P-Day and we just wrote letters. So that was nice. The Zone Leaders and I talked and we committed everyone to get the goal of 140 contacts and 5 new investigators this week and some of them weren't too thrilled with that. Tuesday I was on exchanges with a missionary named Elder Johnson in his area. He and his companion's numbers have been quite low recently and I was going to see if I could spark anything to get them pumped. It's been really hard for companionships to get the goal of 140 contacts a week, especially for these guys. Last week they got a TOTAL of 21. When I got over to their house on Monday night we started planning for the following day. He told me what he had planned and it consisted of morning scheduling, street contacting/tracting, lunch, street contacting/tracting, dinner, street contacting/tracting and then splits. Geez! I thought that with all that street contacting there is no way they shouldn't get the goal. I told him we would be setting a goal and we weren't going to go in for lunch until we had gotten 20 contacts. His response was, "well then we probably won't be having lunch." Lunch was scheduled for 1:00 and we were done with morning schedule at 10. One thing led to another, and we had 20 contacts before noon. After lunch we continued to street contact and ended up finishing the day with 43. I made him commit to me that they would get 140 in the week. He now knew that it was possible and didn't ask any further questions. I also told him and his companion that they had to call in nightly to me and tell me how many contacts they got during the day. Later that night after we had switched back they had to visit the zone leaders and I guess both Elder Johnson and his companion Elder Schafer were just stoked about missionary work! They couldn't wait to get the goal and watch their numbers rise. It felt good to hear that.
Wednesday was a leadership meeting from 10:00 to 3:00 for all the district leaders, zone leaders, and assistants. This meant that poor Elder Nelson had to cover our area with another new missionary. It was so fun to pile in the Zone Leaders’ truck with all the other district leaders in the zone. Our relationships are so strong and we laugh and have a lot of fun together. We also get down to business and help each other out with how we can handle our districts. My district is the biggest but doesn't have any sister missionaries and I guess all the others do (there's three other DL's). There has been a lot of drama dealing with them which is really funny to hear them vent about. Anyway, the meeting went well and when I returned I found out that Elder Nelson had gotten like 38 contacts! He's a stud!
Thursday was another leadership meeting from 10:00 to 4:00 for all leadership and trainers. It was cool to see Cichy there. Once again it was very busy. Elder Nelson was with his third companion of the week. (Monday-Me, Tuesday-Elder Schafer, Wednesday-Elder Nelson (different Nelson) Thursday-Elder Buttars). He helped out Elder Buttars in his area and got them back on track to get the 140 contacts.
Friday I was on exchanges again with a guy named Elder Gibson. This exchange was totally different than the first. The entire day was filled with appointments and we barely had enough time to contact at all. They did well but this was just another day where Elder Nelson was on his own in our area. And he also had his fifth companion of the week, Elder Choules. I felt bad about being gone so much and I know he doesn't like it but the week still showed to be a good week with numbers. It's good to be with an awesome companion who loves to work.
Sunday was the day to get everybody's numbers. I was nervous to hear if there were any companionships that didn't get the goal we had set at the beginning of the week. Elder Schafer and Johnson had told me the night before that they needed to get 33 contacts on Sunday to achieve 140. It was a major relief to get the call that said they had done so. Ahh man it felt sooo good! The other companionships called in, Elder Buttars and Sentman-147 contacts, Elder Gibson and Choules-143, Elder Mouritsen and Nelson-143, and Elder Johnson and Schafer-140. The funny thing is the zone leaders Elder Kennington and Johnson...108! HAHA! They felt pretty dumb. Later that night I got a call from Elder Kennington. He said, "Elder Mouritsen, you inspire me. We've been praying to know who to have speak in our zone meeting on Tuesday and you are the answer. Your topic will be 'A Sense of Urgency.'" I'm grateful for the opportunity but did they know they told me a day and half before the conference and the next day was P-Day? I literally have no time to prepare haha, so last night I prayed fervently that my mind would be opened and thoughts and impressions would come to me concerning what I should say. I came to the conclusion that if you have a goal to sleep at night, don't pray for this, because I was wide awake for the next hour with a flush of thoughts and impressions pertaining to my topic. I got up to write them down several times so that I wouldn't forget them in the morning.
Some of my thoughts were flashbacks to when I spoke in Stake Conference. The quote by Vince Lombardi, "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause, and lies exhausted on the field of battle, -- VICTORIOUS." A story came to mind from a man in one of the ward's here. He is from Sierra Leone, West Africa. He barely survived the brutal civil wars by running on foot to Liberia where he was able to be protected in a refugee camp. The rest of his family was not so lucky and were killed as they tried to do the same thing. It was a miracle as he was able to be sponsored by a group in the U.S.A. and be sent here with his wife. While in the refugee camp he met two missionaries. He said that they are the most influential people in his entire conversion and life. He said that if he had all the wealth in the world, he would give all he could to the cause of missionary work. I think he recognizes the Sense of Urgency that is required to bring this great cause to all the world. I thought about the Sons of Mosiah, who pleaded with their father to let them go preach to the Lamanites because "they could not bear that any human soul should perish...even the very thought that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." It's true though, the Lord has told us that he is going to harvest His vineyard one last time and that time is now. There needs to be a great sense of urgency. Check out the talk by President Monson, The Rescue. I guess his Biography is titled with the same name as well. I think he knows how urgent we need to be.
Regarding the Holy Ghost, I can think of one talk from conference which was by Elder Bednar. He talked about how important it is to always be worthy of the Holy Ghost. I often remind myself to "never question [my] worthiness" because as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, "if ye have not the spirit, ye shall not teach."
I better get on with it though. "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear" and I need to prepare for the talk tomorrow. President Beck is going to be there. SCARY! I love you all so much! Don't forget to send pictures! Maybe even some good hunting pictures, surprisingly there are a lot of hunters down here who want to see some. :)
Love you.
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
Holy cow when did you girls get so dang cute? I don't know how to say this but when other missionaries see pictures like those they ask how old you guys are. Then they ask if anybody is writing you. I tell them that you guys are 10, 13, and two 15.5's. (I would think that that would make them not ask if anybody is writing you) But they come right back with the, "soo... is anybody writing them?" HAHAHA don't be surprised if you get a letter or two in the near future. I would love hard copies of those pictures though! One question, what the crap is L-Mo's pumpkin? The only thing I can get is a scary lookin' cyclops? or... A great white shark? Yup. That's all.
I would love for you to send me the letters you write as a hard copy as well! I only get barely even once chance to read them and there is so much good stuff in there I would love to read them again. I don't "need" packages though but if you feel so inclined they are always so appreciated! Elder Nelson has already gotten like 8 of them, hahaha it's hilarious! He averages about two letters a day too but he'll notice how that dwindles down to maybe one or two a week after about three months.
This last week was utterly insane. I haven't been so busy in a long time! Monday, was P-Day and we just wrote letters. So that was nice. The Zone Leaders and I talked and we committed everyone to get the goal of 140 contacts and 5 new investigators this week and some of them weren't too thrilled with that. Tuesday I was on exchanges with a missionary named Elder Johnson in his area. He and his companion's numbers have been quite low recently and I was going to see if I could spark anything to get them pumped. It's been really hard for companionships to get the goal of 140 contacts a week, especially for these guys. Last week they got a TOTAL of 21. When I got over to their house on Monday night we started planning for the following day. He told me what he had planned and it consisted of morning scheduling, street contacting/tracting, lunch, street contacting/tracting, dinner, street contacting/tracting and then splits. Geez! I thought that with all that street contacting there is no way they shouldn't get the goal. I told him we would be setting a goal and we weren't going to go in for lunch until we had gotten 20 contacts. His response was, "well then we probably won't be having lunch." Lunch was scheduled for 1:00 and we were done with morning schedule at 10. One thing led to another, and we had 20 contacts before noon. After lunch we continued to street contact and ended up finishing the day with 43. I made him commit to me that they would get 140 in the week. He now knew that it was possible and didn't ask any further questions. I also told him and his companion that they had to call in nightly to me and tell me how many contacts they got during the day. Later that night after we had switched back they had to visit the zone leaders and I guess both Elder Johnson and his companion Elder Schafer were just stoked about missionary work! They couldn't wait to get the goal and watch their numbers rise. It felt good to hear that.
Wednesday was a leadership meeting from 10:00 to 3:00 for all the district leaders, zone leaders, and assistants. This meant that poor Elder Nelson had to cover our area with another new missionary. It was so fun to pile in the Zone Leaders’ truck with all the other district leaders in the zone. Our relationships are so strong and we laugh and have a lot of fun together. We also get down to business and help each other out with how we can handle our districts. My district is the biggest but doesn't have any sister missionaries and I guess all the others do (there's three other DL's). There has been a lot of drama dealing with them which is really funny to hear them vent about. Anyway, the meeting went well and when I returned I found out that Elder Nelson had gotten like 38 contacts! He's a stud!
Thursday was another leadership meeting from 10:00 to 4:00 for all leadership and trainers. It was cool to see Cichy there. Once again it was very busy. Elder Nelson was with his third companion of the week. (Monday-Me, Tuesday-Elder Schafer, Wednesday-Elder Nelson (different Nelson) Thursday-Elder Buttars). He helped out Elder Buttars in his area and got them back on track to get the 140 contacts.
Friday I was on exchanges again with a guy named Elder Gibson. This exchange was totally different than the first. The entire day was filled with appointments and we barely had enough time to contact at all. They did well but this was just another day where Elder Nelson was on his own in our area. And he also had his fifth companion of the week, Elder Choules. I felt bad about being gone so much and I know he doesn't like it but the week still showed to be a good week with numbers. It's good to be with an awesome companion who loves to work.
Sunday was the day to get everybody's numbers. I was nervous to hear if there were any companionships that didn't get the goal we had set at the beginning of the week. Elder Schafer and Johnson had told me the night before that they needed to get 33 contacts on Sunday to achieve 140. It was a major relief to get the call that said they had done so. Ahh man it felt sooo good! The other companionships called in, Elder Buttars and Sentman-147 contacts, Elder Gibson and Choules-143, Elder Mouritsen and Nelson-143, and Elder Johnson and Schafer-140. The funny thing is the zone leaders Elder Kennington and Johnson...108! HAHA! They felt pretty dumb. Later that night I got a call from Elder Kennington. He said, "Elder Mouritsen, you inspire me. We've been praying to know who to have speak in our zone meeting on Tuesday and you are the answer. Your topic will be 'A Sense of Urgency.'" I'm grateful for the opportunity but did they know they told me a day and half before the conference and the next day was P-Day? I literally have no time to prepare haha, so last night I prayed fervently that my mind would be opened and thoughts and impressions would come to me concerning what I should say. I came to the conclusion that if you have a goal to sleep at night, don't pray for this, because I was wide awake for the next hour with a flush of thoughts and impressions pertaining to my topic. I got up to write them down several times so that I wouldn't forget them in the morning.
Some of my thoughts were flashbacks to when I spoke in Stake Conference. The quote by Vince Lombardi, "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause, and lies exhausted on the field of battle, -- VICTORIOUS." A story came to mind from a man in one of the ward's here. He is from Sierra Leone, West Africa. He barely survived the brutal civil wars by running on foot to Liberia where he was able to be protected in a refugee camp. The rest of his family was not so lucky and were killed as they tried to do the same thing. It was a miracle as he was able to be sponsored by a group in the U.S.A. and be sent here with his wife. While in the refugee camp he met two missionaries. He said that they are the most influential people in his entire conversion and life. He said that if he had all the wealth in the world, he would give all he could to the cause of missionary work. I think he recognizes the Sense of Urgency that is required to bring this great cause to all the world. I thought about the Sons of Mosiah, who pleaded with their father to let them go preach to the Lamanites because "they could not bear that any human soul should perish...even the very thought that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." It's true though, the Lord has told us that he is going to harvest His vineyard one last time and that time is now. There needs to be a great sense of urgency. Check out the talk by President Monson, The Rescue. I guess his Biography is titled with the same name as well. I think he knows how urgent we need to be.
Regarding the Holy Ghost, I can think of one talk from conference which was by Elder Bednar. He talked about how important it is to always be worthy of the Holy Ghost. I often remind myself to "never question [my] worthiness" because as it says in the Doctrine and Covenants, "if ye have not the spirit, ye shall not teach."
I better get on with it though. "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear" and I need to prepare for the talk tomorrow. President Beck is going to be there. SCARY! I love you all so much! Don't forget to send pictures! Maybe even some good hunting pictures, surprisingly there are a lot of hunters down here who want to see some. :)
Love you.
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
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