July 27 - August 1, 2011: "I Climbed That"

Hello family!

This week was pretty good. Transfers were crazy though! President Taylor shook things up a lot! Instead of having four assistants (2 English and 2 Spanish) there is now one set, with one English speaking companion and one Spanish speaking companion. There are also 2 brand new zones that have been created. The Phoenix stake has two zones now. That's the first time ever! We also have three districts in our zone instead of just two, which makes for a lot more one-on-one communication between the leadership and the missionaries. I think it will pay off a lot.

We had a pretty cool experience yesterday. We went to check up on some potential investigators at the San Valiente apartments. It ended up being quite rewarding! Not only did we score an "L" shaped couch from a member who is moving out but we found some great members who want to come to the YSA who also have a lot of non-member roommates! This experience taught me that the Lord has a purpose in everything that we do as long as it is a righteous thing we are doing. We had a bunch of random addresses of people that we have taught before. We knocked on a door for two girls named Eileen and Olivia who we taught several months before. They stopped contacting us and so we dropped them for a bit. When we knocked on their door, two other girls opened it and told us that Eileen and Olivia moved out a while ago. We started talking to them, and from back in the room, another girl came to the door and said, "Hello elders!" We started talking and found out she is from California and has been wanting to come to the YSA up here while she goes to school. She also has 6 or so friends that she would bring with her to the activities who are not members. Her name is Lailai. It was really cool! We then went to go check up on another less active member that we found tracting a few weeks ago. Her name is Valerie and she has 3 non member room mates that she has been trying to invite to church and other activities. Tonight there should be a lot of non member attendance to our FHE activity. We are playing, "Battle of the 'Genders'" so hopefully that will be good. :/ haha I'm grateful for members who will share their testimonies and stand up for what they believe. They do more work than we could ever do!

Sunday we had a great lesson by our bishop, Bishop Grizzle. On a slideshow he put up a couple of quotes that I jotted down. Here they are:

"Indeed the precise challenge you regard now as 'impossible' may be the very refinement you need, in His eye." -Elder Russell M. Nelson.

"Work on the projects ahead and when you have taken one step in the acquiring of faith, it will give you the assurance in your soul that you can go forward and take the next step, and by degrees your power or influence will increase until eventually, in this world or the next, you will say to the Mount Zerins in your life, 'Be thou removed.' You will say to whatever encumbers your course of eternal progress, 'depart,' and it will be so." - Elder Bruce R. McConkie.

While he was speaking, I was reminded of the phrase often used in our family after we climbed a peak. "I climbed that!" I remember saying it whenever we would see a picture of Diamond Head in Hawaii and other mountains. I thought about the other "climbs" we go through in our life whether it be spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally. How good does it feel after we climb a mountain of trials and overcome them? Or a mountainous temptation that has beaten us before? I'd have to say that it feels pretty good! I would hope that we would be able to say, "I climbed that" on a more consistent basis in our daily lives. Whether it be a stressful assignment at school, an assignment given from the third base coach, a temptation regarding the word of wisdom or the law of chastity, a literal mountain, or any other sort of thing. I love the scripture in 2 Timothy 4:6-7; "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:"

Well our investigators seem to be doing well. We received a referral for a guy named Derek Chapo who is a Native American from New Mexico. He has a baptism date for August 20th. He came to the church for the first time yesterday and he loved it!

Well sorry this email is so short. I hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Colton Mouritsen