Dear Family,
This week has been awesome. The zone had three more baptisms which was awesome! That brings the total for the month of February to 9 with three more scheduled for next week. We have definitely been blessed.
Tuesday this week we had a specialized zone training. That is where we combine with two other zones in the mission (Phoenix and Glendale) and get trained by President Beck, Sister Beck, and the assistants. We also have a skills training. We then have lunch together and afterwards the zones split up and have their own personal zone meetings. The focus of ours was "A Successful Missionary." We had talks on "How to become a successful missionary/What determines a successful missionary?" and also on developing Christ-like attributes. It went ok but I'm always kicking myself since it can always go better. That night we had the Book of Mormon class and afterwards taught Heather Dewar and Tiffany Schmidt, two recent converts. They wanted to know more about the spirit world and what goes on there. I had no idea what we were going to talk about. While thinking about the topic, Elder Buttars, another missionary we live with, was sent a story from his parents that was written by a Stake President from Boise about a vision he had of the spirit world. I sent a copy to you. It was pretty cool and we ended up having an awesome lesson. Afterwards, Heather asked if we could give her a blessing because of the stress that was going on in her life. We did and she said she felt comforted. The faithfulness and drive of the recent converts is unbelievable to me. Tiffany has already received her Patriarchal Blessing, and both of them are already inviting their friends to learn about the church because they know just how much happiness it has brought them. It is so cool!
Wednesday we went to both District Meetings. Afterwards, we taught Roy Kelleners who is a new investigator we found last Saturday who is a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands. He is legit! Right after the lesson he said he really wants to come to church, FHE, and also the Book of Mormon class. He came to church and got along really well with all the members. He fits in really well and we hope that he will continue progressing and become a powerful member of the church. Later that night, we had a lesson with Vanessa and Dominique. They are twins who are NUTS! haha They are very random, somewhat awkward, and one of them is severely dislexic and has a hard time paying attention. We taught them a great lesson with several members there, but afterwards Dominique asked the members to leave and us to stay because she had something she wanted to tell us. We said ok, and after everyone left she went on to tell us that she had already been baptized twice and didn't want to be baptized again. We asked more questions as to why and reiterated the lesson we taught about the priesthood. She finally told us the real reason. She laid her face in her pillow and mumbled under her breath that she just has her own beliefs. I asked well then what are those beliefs? She didn't want to tell us because she thought it would offend us. I assured her that we had heard them all and if anything could offend us at this point we were probably doing things wrong. She went on to say that she believes that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are the same person. Ahhh, haha it was like a switch just flipped in my mind and I went from calm, quiet, smooth Elder Mouritsen, to Samuel the Lamanite calling the Nephites to repentance on top of the wall! haha I started giving "evidence" from the Bible as to how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are two separate beings. How about his baptism? How about praying in the garden? How about telling the Father to "forgive them, for they know not what they do?" How about the vision Stephen saw of Christ sitting on the right hand of the Father in Acts 7? The only thing she could say was, "well it's just really hard to explain!" We went on to reteach the message of the restoration from the life of the Savior, emphasizing the power of the Priesthood and the apostasy, to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. (haha, one thing led to another, and we have a prophet on the earth today!) She didn't have much to say. But after, she made sure that we were still going to come back and she is all of a sudden going to do all that she can to get work off so that she can come to church with us on Sunday. It was intense.
Thursday, we went on a brief exchange with a Spanish companionship because we were going to pass one of our investigators over to them. Well the investigator wasn't home but there was a less active member in the apartment next door who came out and talked to us. We quickly learned that she has two young daughters, and seven other "kids" living in the small apartment. By "kids" I mean full grown SNAKES! You KNOW how I love snakes... She showed them to us. They have several Boa Constrictors, a chameleon, a corn snake, a 6 foot bull python, and a NINE foot albino python. Oh, don't worry, they sleep with the nine footer in their bed with them. I can't tell you how freaked out I was. I didn't even want to invite them back to church... haha just kiddin but it was nuts.
Friday was a pretty "sick" day. haha We had a great experience this week with the "Windows of Heaven." In our prior weekly planning session, we planned a window of heaven for Friday at 2:30, at the 23rd Ave and Dunlap intersection. Our appointment we had scheduled at 1:30 cancelled, so we decided to go to the window of heaven an hour early and see if anybody was there. As we sat in the truck, while it was a bit chilly outside (around 50 degrees), we didn't want to begin contacting yet because we thought that it wouldn't be necessary until at least a half hour before the allotted time. Suddenly, a young adult looking Hispanic kid walked down the sidewalk and sat at the bus stop in front of us. I had a very distinct impression that I needed to talk to him. I shrugged it off for a few seconds, but the impression didn't leave. Right then I said to Elder Birch that we needed to talk to that kid. So we got out of the truck and Birch went and stood on the corner so nobody else would slip passed, while I sat next to the young man. His name was Jose, and it turns out he is an assistant at Devry University for our Ward Mission Leader and said that he would love us to come by a few days later. I gave him a Book of Mormon. We chatted for several more minutes and got to know each other a bit more. We then shook hands and went on our way. As I looked back at him several times because his bus had not come, I noticed that he had already opened the Book of Mormon and was reading it for the next several minutes. He is awesome!
Friday NIGHT, was a different story. We had an investigator named Anthony come to church last week who lives in a halfway house on 11th Ave and Mountain View rd. GHETTO. haha Of course, he set the lesson up with us at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night. We didn't think anything of it. We got to the appointment, and it turns out he lives in a halfway house and has been in prison for 4 and a half years. He's 24. We went to the halfway house manager and he said that Anthony wasn't home and wouldn't be back till around nine. Well, that's after our curfew, so we headed back to the truck. When we got there, two ladies started asking us questions through a fence so we went over to talk to them. We ended up talking all about the Easter Pageant and how they really wanted to go. As we were talking, we noticed a group of scary looking guys developing on the other side of the street across from us. We knew that this part of town had a reputation for iffy business so we started to get uneasy. We finished our conversation with the two ladies and headed back to the truck. The guys were sitting in lawn chairs smokin' who knows what but I noticed that the house they were in front of was a place that a recent convert from the YSA was staying in and nobody had been able to get in contact with him forever. I asked them if they knew anything about them and immediately one of the guys was very nice and wanted to help us out in finding him. There were two of them sitting in the chairs and they immediately walked over to us. We noticed that one of them was an average height, skinny black guy and the other was an extremely drunk, bulky, Native-American guy. The black guy was super nice and was trying to help us out but the Indian guy got right up in our faces, called us demons while using many vulgar adjectives to describe who we were. He grabbed me, grabbed Elder Birch, and pushed us both us against the truck. We were just like “what the heck?’ He reeked of alcohol. He would get up about an inch from our faces and tell us he was going to kill us. He was also doing this all the while the black guy was trying to explain to me where the recent convert was staying for the night. I was hardly paying attention to him though because I was just waiting for the Indian guy to attack us. After awhile the Indian opened the truck and tried to push me inside. I slammed the door, looked at him, and told him that we were not yet going to be leaving. He looked at me, and after a few seconds passed, told me he was going to kill me because I was a demon, and decked me right in the head above the right ear. My head slammed back against the window of the truck. I was very taken back and hadn't really recognized what was going on when I looked back at him dancing like a boxer with his fists up, chanting over and over, "come on demon let's fight! Let's go!" "What...the crap?" is what I thought when he came at me again and hit me a second time in the exact same spot. By this time, the black guy got between us and told him that he needed to stop. He told him over and over again that we were men of God and he really needed to quit. I opened my door, went to get in, looked back at the Indian and said, "Bro, you might regret what you just did." The Indian threw the black guy out of the way and by this time we were able to get inside our truck and luckily Elder Birch locked the doors because the Indian ran back, trying to unlock the door by using the handle, but noticed it wasn't open, and started punching the drivers side window to get inside. That happened to be my side! I started the car, slammed it in gear, and sped off. It was an interesting night and definitely one for the journal! Later that night, we decided to play a joke on the missionaries that live with us. I wrapped toilet paper around my head and put a drop of red food coloring on the spot that he hit me while Elder Birch told the story. I then walked out and they were like, "AHH! Oh my gosh! Are you kidding?!" haha It was funny to see their faces when I took it off.
Well, that's about it for the week! Our Stake President, President Hettinger, called us saying that he wanted us to teach an investigator in the family ward his family goes to. I guess the missionaries there offended them by not talking to them when they wanted to set up an appointment or something. Kinda sad, but cool for us! She is solid! We met with her on Sunday night and she already wants to be baptized. Pretty cool. President Hettinger hugged us afterwards and told us he is grateful for what we've done for his family, including his own son, who was off course for awhile.
I love you very much! Thanks for all you do. Also, thanks for the valentines! They were awesome!
Love,
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
P.S. Ken Law (picture of him at his baptism) is a motocross racer and Saturday morning he got in an accident where he went over the handle bars and got ran over or something and landed in some rocks. He got life flighted to John C. Lincoln hospital which just happened to be in our area. He said he was in the worst pain of his life which is saying alot for him. He called us up and asked if we could come give him a blessing. He said that he didn't know if he would be at church on Sunday because of the severe swelling and bruising on his back. Sunday came, and he was there an hour early, telling us that he needs to keep the Sabbath day holy. With a crippled back, not able to walk properly, he paid his tithing, and stood up in Sacrament to have the ward sustain him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. It was awesome. What a stud.
This week has been awesome. The zone had three more baptisms which was awesome! That brings the total for the month of February to 9 with three more scheduled for next week. We have definitely been blessed.
Tuesday this week we had a specialized zone training. That is where we combine with two other zones in the mission (Phoenix and Glendale) and get trained by President Beck, Sister Beck, and the assistants. We also have a skills training. We then have lunch together and afterwards the zones split up and have their own personal zone meetings. The focus of ours was "A Successful Missionary." We had talks on "How to become a successful missionary/What determines a successful missionary?" and also on developing Christ-like attributes. It went ok but I'm always kicking myself since it can always go better. That night we had the Book of Mormon class and afterwards taught Heather Dewar and Tiffany Schmidt, two recent converts. They wanted to know more about the spirit world and what goes on there. I had no idea what we were going to talk about. While thinking about the topic, Elder Buttars, another missionary we live with, was sent a story from his parents that was written by a Stake President from Boise about a vision he had of the spirit world. I sent a copy to you. It was pretty cool and we ended up having an awesome lesson. Afterwards, Heather asked if we could give her a blessing because of the stress that was going on in her life. We did and she said she felt comforted. The faithfulness and drive of the recent converts is unbelievable to me. Tiffany has already received her Patriarchal Blessing, and both of them are already inviting their friends to learn about the church because they know just how much happiness it has brought them. It is so cool!
Wednesday we went to both District Meetings. Afterwards, we taught Roy Kelleners who is a new investigator we found last Saturday who is a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands. He is legit! Right after the lesson he said he really wants to come to church, FHE, and also the Book of Mormon class. He came to church and got along really well with all the members. He fits in really well and we hope that he will continue progressing and become a powerful member of the church. Later that night, we had a lesson with Vanessa and Dominique. They are twins who are NUTS! haha They are very random, somewhat awkward, and one of them is severely dislexic and has a hard time paying attention. We taught them a great lesson with several members there, but afterwards Dominique asked the members to leave and us to stay because she had something she wanted to tell us. We said ok, and after everyone left she went on to tell us that she had already been baptized twice and didn't want to be baptized again. We asked more questions as to why and reiterated the lesson we taught about the priesthood. She finally told us the real reason. She laid her face in her pillow and mumbled under her breath that she just has her own beliefs. I asked well then what are those beliefs? She didn't want to tell us because she thought it would offend us. I assured her that we had heard them all and if anything could offend us at this point we were probably doing things wrong. She went on to say that she believes that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are the same person. Ahhh, haha it was like a switch just flipped in my mind and I went from calm, quiet, smooth Elder Mouritsen, to Samuel the Lamanite calling the Nephites to repentance on top of the wall! haha I started giving "evidence" from the Bible as to how Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are two separate beings. How about his baptism? How about praying in the garden? How about telling the Father to "forgive them, for they know not what they do?" How about the vision Stephen saw of Christ sitting on the right hand of the Father in Acts 7? The only thing she could say was, "well it's just really hard to explain!" We went on to reteach the message of the restoration from the life of the Savior, emphasizing the power of the Priesthood and the apostasy, to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. (haha, one thing led to another, and we have a prophet on the earth today!) She didn't have much to say. But after, she made sure that we were still going to come back and she is all of a sudden going to do all that she can to get work off so that she can come to church with us on Sunday. It was intense.
Thursday, we went on a brief exchange with a Spanish companionship because we were going to pass one of our investigators over to them. Well the investigator wasn't home but there was a less active member in the apartment next door who came out and talked to us. We quickly learned that she has two young daughters, and seven other "kids" living in the small apartment. By "kids" I mean full grown SNAKES! You KNOW how I love snakes... She showed them to us. They have several Boa Constrictors, a chameleon, a corn snake, a 6 foot bull python, and a NINE foot albino python. Oh, don't worry, they sleep with the nine footer in their bed with them. I can't tell you how freaked out I was. I didn't even want to invite them back to church... haha just kiddin but it was nuts.
Friday was a pretty "sick" day. haha We had a great experience this week with the "Windows of Heaven." In our prior weekly planning session, we planned a window of heaven for Friday at 2:30, at the 23rd Ave and Dunlap intersection. Our appointment we had scheduled at 1:30 cancelled, so we decided to go to the window of heaven an hour early and see if anybody was there. As we sat in the truck, while it was a bit chilly outside (around 50 degrees), we didn't want to begin contacting yet because we thought that it wouldn't be necessary until at least a half hour before the allotted time. Suddenly, a young adult looking Hispanic kid walked down the sidewalk and sat at the bus stop in front of us. I had a very distinct impression that I needed to talk to him. I shrugged it off for a few seconds, but the impression didn't leave. Right then I said to Elder Birch that we needed to talk to that kid. So we got out of the truck and Birch went and stood on the corner so nobody else would slip passed, while I sat next to the young man. His name was Jose, and it turns out he is an assistant at Devry University for our Ward Mission Leader and said that he would love us to come by a few days later. I gave him a Book of Mormon. We chatted for several more minutes and got to know each other a bit more. We then shook hands and went on our way. As I looked back at him several times because his bus had not come, I noticed that he had already opened the Book of Mormon and was reading it for the next several minutes. He is awesome!
Friday NIGHT, was a different story. We had an investigator named Anthony come to church last week who lives in a halfway house on 11th Ave and Mountain View rd. GHETTO. haha Of course, he set the lesson up with us at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night. We didn't think anything of it. We got to the appointment, and it turns out he lives in a halfway house and has been in prison for 4 and a half years. He's 24. We went to the halfway house manager and he said that Anthony wasn't home and wouldn't be back till around nine. Well, that's after our curfew, so we headed back to the truck. When we got there, two ladies started asking us questions through a fence so we went over to talk to them. We ended up talking all about the Easter Pageant and how they really wanted to go. As we were talking, we noticed a group of scary looking guys developing on the other side of the street across from us. We knew that this part of town had a reputation for iffy business so we started to get uneasy. We finished our conversation with the two ladies and headed back to the truck. The guys were sitting in lawn chairs smokin' who knows what but I noticed that the house they were in front of was a place that a recent convert from the YSA was staying in and nobody had been able to get in contact with him forever. I asked them if they knew anything about them and immediately one of the guys was very nice and wanted to help us out in finding him. There were two of them sitting in the chairs and they immediately walked over to us. We noticed that one of them was an average height, skinny black guy and the other was an extremely drunk, bulky, Native-American guy. The black guy was super nice and was trying to help us out but the Indian guy got right up in our faces, called us demons while using many vulgar adjectives to describe who we were. He grabbed me, grabbed Elder Birch, and pushed us both us against the truck. We were just like “what the heck?’ He reeked of alcohol. He would get up about an inch from our faces and tell us he was going to kill us. He was also doing this all the while the black guy was trying to explain to me where the recent convert was staying for the night. I was hardly paying attention to him though because I was just waiting for the Indian guy to attack us. After awhile the Indian opened the truck and tried to push me inside. I slammed the door, looked at him, and told him that we were not yet going to be leaving. He looked at me, and after a few seconds passed, told me he was going to kill me because I was a demon, and decked me right in the head above the right ear. My head slammed back against the window of the truck. I was very taken back and hadn't really recognized what was going on when I looked back at him dancing like a boxer with his fists up, chanting over and over, "come on demon let's fight! Let's go!" "What...the crap?" is what I thought when he came at me again and hit me a second time in the exact same spot. By this time, the black guy got between us and told him that he needed to stop. He told him over and over again that we were men of God and he really needed to quit. I opened my door, went to get in, looked back at the Indian and said, "Bro, you might regret what you just did." The Indian threw the black guy out of the way and by this time we were able to get inside our truck and luckily Elder Birch locked the doors because the Indian ran back, trying to unlock the door by using the handle, but noticed it wasn't open, and started punching the drivers side window to get inside. That happened to be my side! I started the car, slammed it in gear, and sped off. It was an interesting night and definitely one for the journal! Later that night, we decided to play a joke on the missionaries that live with us. I wrapped toilet paper around my head and put a drop of red food coloring on the spot that he hit me while Elder Birch told the story. I then walked out and they were like, "AHH! Oh my gosh! Are you kidding?!" haha It was funny to see their faces when I took it off.
Well, that's about it for the week! Our Stake President, President Hettinger, called us saying that he wanted us to teach an investigator in the family ward his family goes to. I guess the missionaries there offended them by not talking to them when they wanted to set up an appointment or something. Kinda sad, but cool for us! She is solid! We met with her on Sunday night and she already wants to be baptized. Pretty cool. President Hettinger hugged us afterwards and told us he is grateful for what we've done for his family, including his own son, who was off course for awhile.
I love you very much! Thanks for all you do. Also, thanks for the valentines! They were awesome!
Love,
Elder Colton Matthew Mouritsen
P.S. Ken Law (picture of him at his baptism) is a motocross racer and Saturday morning he got in an accident where he went over the handle bars and got ran over or something and landed in some rocks. He got life flighted to John C. Lincoln hospital which just happened to be in our area. He said he was in the worst pain of his life which is saying alot for him. He called us up and asked if we could come give him a blessing. He said that he didn't know if he would be at church on Sunday because of the severe swelling and bruising on his back. Sunday came, and he was there an hour early, telling us that he needs to keep the Sabbath day holy. With a crippled back, not able to walk properly, he paid his tithing, and stood up in Sacrament to have the ward sustain him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. It was awesome. What a stud.
