July 19-26, 2011: Abinidi and Back to the Basics

Family!

Sorry the email is on Tuesday this week! I bet you have many questions. With transfers being this week and President Taylor having received different direction from the brethren, p-day was changed to Tuesday so that the transfer process would be back to two days. Apparently the brethren want the incoming missionaries to stay the night in the mission home. President Beck got rid of that the first transfer after I got in. Now it is back. That means that there are missionaries coming from the MTC RIGHT NOW that will be in the mission home tonight. I feel like I was just there. Transfer news this morning: I am staying in the stake once again! I'm very happy. This means that I will kill Birch off because he goes home in the September transfer. By "kill off" I mean that he will go home and die from being a missionary while we are companions. Elder Choules is getting transferred along with Elder Fagersten and Sister Briggs. I was pretty let down when I heard Sister Briggs was going because she is a stellar sister who has done great things in her area. Her companion has also been here three months longer than she was. There is also a possibility that we will be getting another district in our zone. That is another thing that the brethren have instructed the mission presidents to do: There needs to be 3+ districts in each zone. We will see tomorrow.

Mom, you would be proud of me. This Sunday a missionary in the Country Gables and Campobello wards put on a missionary concert. Our district sang “Called to Serve” to open the meeting. It was well attended by those two wards and it was so awesome to be able to see all of those members again. Elder Birch and I got a lot of dinner appointments out of it because they don't like their missionaries as much... :/ haha well one of them. Anyway, we've been practicing this number and the last part of the song was split up into 3 parts so that one person sang soprano, one alto, and one tenor. I consider myself extremely tone deaf still so I had to sing the soprano part because it was pretty much just the melody. It sounded good though and the missionary also got permission to do an audio recording of the performance and CD's will be given out next week. I will be sure to send you a copy. You will probably think it is the weirdest thing ever, because it kinda was. Haha. Except for the first song of course...

We had a very unique experience this week with a very unique person. On Tuesday we got a call from the Glendale zone leaders saying they had a referral for us. Her name is Christina and she demanded to meet with us asap. We quickly figured out that she is legitimately crazy. She's severely bi-polar, has 45 decible hearing loss, used to be taught by the ASL missionaries but didn't like it. Right now she is in an assisted living center because she was badly abused, but she is extremely smart. She read the gospel principles manual in three days and pretty much taught herself about the church. She said that she wants to be baptized asap. We told her that we would just need to teach her and make sure that she is ready to make such a commitment. We asked her about the word of wisdom, tithing, the law of chastity, and what it means to keep the sabbath day holy. She pretty much taught us. She knew everything already. I thought something was really fishy and we didn't know the whole story. Regardless, she came to a baptism in the zone on Saturday and was interviewed right after. We just wanted to see if she could really pass and if she was ready for baptism. She passed. I still wasn't convinced though. She calls us almost everyday and sends us random crazy text messages all the time. Sunday she came to church. Monday she walked (or says she did) to our FHE activity which was like 7 miles from her house and we talked to her about how we felt about her getting baptized. People had been coming up to us non-stop saying that they don't think she is ready because of things she has been telling them. She wasn't too happy with us but by the end of the night she was convinced that it was probably good that she wait a couple weeks and see which ward she would do the best in. We just didn't want somebody to make the baptismal covenant with God and then not be able to keep it. I would feel as if it were on my shoulders at that point. She is still excited though.

We've had some struggles this week with some missionaries tainting their investigators’ views towards the YSA ward when the investigator has consistently told them, and us, and other missionaries they want to be in the YSA. It has been quite ridiculous and it's an experience that I will have to tell you after the mission. I recorded it in the ol' journal so I wouldn't forget the details. It's so stupid though...

I love our stake president, President Hettinger! We had our monthly stake coordination meeting with him this past Sunday. He's so legit! We talked all about the missionary work and the numbers and what not. He pretty much just does anything that we tell him would work with the wards, bishops, and ward mission leaders. It's nice to know that he trusts us. Our numbers have been very odd. Baptisms have been on the rise compared to last year. But the other key indicators have been slowly decreasing. I have wondered about this for awhile and the only conclusion I can come to is that we are becoming more efficient. We are constantly striving to find the elect instead of those who aren't really interested in changing their lives and coming closer to Christ. We are called here to baptize, and baptize we will. By the end of this month in our zone we will have a record on the year which is 14. It's awesome!

For some reason I have been thinking a lot about the man Abinadi in the book of Mosiah this week. I can't believe that I have been on my mission for almost 15 months. It causes me to reflect back on the past year and a quarter to see what I have done. What have I done? How did I spend my time? Am I changed? Was I an instrument in the Lord's hands? Did I really make a difference? What can I do more in the future? The reason I think of Abinadi is because sometimes in life we feel as if we don't put a "dent" in tasks or positions we are put in. Sometimes we feel like we don't make a difference. Look at Abinadi, he dedicated his entire life to preaching the gospel. It doesn't say in the scriptures that he was an old man, even though we depict him to be so, but we can imagine that it was a lot of years that he put in to inviting others to come unto Christ. In all those years, we only hear of one convert. And did Abinadi even know that he converted him? We don't know. But I can imagine that Abinadi had some of those same feelings. Did I really make a difference with my calling? Am I adequate for this job? Look at his fruits: Alma, the Waters of Mormon 1st Ward, thousands of converts, etc. I hope we can all learn from Abinadi's persistence and determination.

In our Zone Meeting this week I spoke about getting back to the basics of missionary work. I read the story of Glenn Cunningham, who ran a mile in 4 min 9 secs after being burned severely in a fire. It's a good story. I will send you my talk (see below) so that I don't have to re-type everything (we have a zone activity 12 minutes ago haha).

I love you all very much! Sorry to send the email on Tuesday...Just had to be obedient. I hope you have an awesome week! Keep being so stellar.

Love,

Elder Colt Mouritsen

Here is Colton’s Zone Conference Talk from 7/22/11:

Back to the Basics – July 22, 2011, by Elder Colton Mouritsen

Introduction: The story of Glenn Cunningham. In February of 1916, Cunningham and his older brother Floyd were badly burned in an accidental fire in their schoolhouse. Floyd died from the burns, and doctors thought that Cunningham's legs were so badly burned that they would have to be amputated. However, he eventually recovered after a long battle. Cunningham regained his strength by running. By the time he was 12, he had beaten all the local high school runners. His legs remained deeply scarred, however. Throughout his life, he would have to massage them and spend time doing long warm-up exercises in order to maintain circulation. In addition, his injuries meant that he could never run smoothly or efficiently; he compensated with endurance and strength. Cunningham attended the University of Kansas, where he ran for the track team and won his first big race, the 1932 NCAA 1500 meters. That summer, he was selected for the U.S. Olympic track team. At the 1932 Olympics, held in Los Angeles, he came in fourth in the 1500 meter race.
In 1933, Cunningham graduated from the University with the highest academic record in his class. That same year, he won the AAU 800 meters with a time of 1:51.8, as well as the 1500 meters with a time of 3:52.3. In addition he won the NCAA mile for the second time, with a time of 4:9.8.
Glen had his share of trials. He struggled, he probably doubted and got down on himself frequently. As missionaries, sometimes we struggle, sometimes we feel like our entire teaching pool gets burned down, sometimes we even feel burned out, but we can't let that effect the way we want to feel at the end of each day we go out and work. We can't let minor choices to not do the Lord's will effect the way we will feel at the end of two years (or 18 months). Persistence, determination, and getting back to the basics of missionary work we will be able to get back on track and feel good as we go to the Lord in prayer each night to recount to Him what we did during the day. We can see our own missions like a mile race. To some, it is short. Others, long. Some have just a short distance left, others far. Some are well prepared before hand, while others are recently converted. Some of us are competitive, some not so much. But each of us puts one foot in front of the other and moves along just like everyone else. In that we are all equal. We all know the basics to running a race. But what are the basics to missionary service?

What is a “basic truth” of missionary work you have learned that has stuck with you your entire mission?
· Follow the Spirit.
· Obedience
· Hard work
· Use the Book of Mormon
· Teach Doctrine
· Find the Lord's will in all that we do
· Involve the members
· Live our purpose
· Relationship with God
· Relationship with our Companion and other missionaries
· Relationship with Investigators and Members
· Relationship with ourselves

I've noticed from the past couple months that we often times lose focus and forget what we have already been taught. For example, the focus of the month of January was “Finding the Lord's Will in our Planning and all that we do.” February, was “Finding the Elect.” During those months we found new investigators like crazy! March was focused on Improving Member Involvement. April was on Sacrament Meeting Attendance. May was Extending and Securing Baptismal Dates. June, Asking Inspired Questions. July, My Purpose – The Doctrines of Christ. Each month we went to a new focus it was as if we forgot about the previous one. I hope we will not forget what we have been taught and remember those focuses each and every day. There is a reason we are now focusing on My Purpose – The Doctrine of Christ. It is because it is the basic, pure gospel of Jesus Christ that we are to teach. President Dieter F. Uchtorf said, “Brothers and sisters, let us be wise. Let us turn to the pure doctrinal waters of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us joyfully partake of them in their simplicity and plainness. The heavens are open again. The gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once more, and its simple truths are a plentiful source of joy!...Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most.”

Testimony.