November 22-28, 2011: Ammon and Me

Hi all!

It was a great Thanksgiving here. It's been cold though, a whopping 70-75 degrees during the day. Last Monday we played some flag football. A few elders got sunburned. It's real tough here... Hopefully I will get some sun today! :) For Thanksgiving we had a district breakfast in the morning, went to a dinner with the Owens family at 3, and then another dinner with the Capuano family at 5. We definitely ate mucho grande amounts of food and haven't been running it off haha. The holiday season destroys a missionary’s hope of staying in shape.

Thanksgiving is great and all but when it comes to covering a YSA ward, where a majority of the students (a.k.a investigators and members) go home, it can be quite slow. We spent a lot of time with other missionaries in their areas, planning out our Zone Vision for 2012, and working on our stake report that we presented on Sunday. When Elder Duncan of the 70 came a few weeks ago he presented an idea to "Geo-Code" the wards in our mission. This means to divide the ward into small sections and then categorize the less active members, part member families, un-baptized children, prospective elders, investigators, etc. in each section. That way when we go to a certain section of the map and an appointment falls through, we will know exactly who to go and visit during the open time. Elder Duncan said that if he could he would go down to the City of Phoenix officials and tell them to make it illegal for Mormon missionaries to knock on doors. We proposed this whole "Geo-Code" idea to the stake presidency and they loved it. Following the meeting they got called the stake clerk and the process is going to begin soon. Hopefully it helps the work progress. The members are definitely the best way to find people to teach. President Monson also has said that there is no substitute for a member-oriented missionary program and it works wherever we try it. The two wards that already have a "geo-code" are the two highest baptizing English wards in the zone so it already shows to have been successful.

So transfer news came today. I bet you can guess where I will be going. Yup! Staying right here! I'm pretty stoked about it. There is a chance that we will be taking over a family ward as well as the YSA. That would be pretty awesome. I've wanted to cover one for a while now. It's going to be a great Christmas! (Pictures of transfer day)

There were eight baptisms in our zone this past weekend. Thirteen were scheduled but there were some bizarre things that happened. One lady was married down in Mexico 15 years ago and never got a divorce so she isn't legally married to her husband she has now. So she and her kids didn't get baptized. The kids still will be baptized this weekend though so that’s good. Eight was a new record in the zone for one weekend though. We need 17 in the month of December to reach our goal. It's going to be very tough but it's definitely doable.

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon student manual recently. It's got some amazing quotes from general authorities and really helps me to understand the stories and application in the Book of Mormon. One that stuck out to me was by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "...it matters very little what people think of us, but it matters very much what we think of Him [Jesus Christ]. It matters very little, too, who others say we are; what matters is who we say Jesus is." It seems that the life, name, purpose, and plan of the Savior has largely been pushed to the way side of the broad path of the world. I read Alma 26 this morning and it stuck out to me just how much Ammon's experience has been like mine and also in part, the Saviors. I'll list a few. Ammon says he didn't know he would receive so many blessings when he left the city of Zarahemla. I felt the same way when I left the city of Kaysville. Ammon tells us to count those blessings and give thanks for them. This past week has been a great week for counting those blessings. Ammon has felt it a blessing to have just been an instrument in the Lord's hand. I have felt the same. He helped thousands to rejoice and "gather to the garners." Elder Bednar has taught us that those "garners" are temples. I had an awesome experience going to the temple with the James family. I had dinner with them Sunday by the way. I love that family. Ammon taught the truth and helped to resolve misconceptions about the church and the Nephites. I have found many people who hate us and want to belittle us, but others that are humble enough to listen and change their lives. i.e. Mark Coleman. "Many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will sing to His praise forever" - Ammon. I've also seen some amazing miracles which are definite blessings from the Lord. Ammon couldn't say the smallest part of that which he felt. I feel the same way at times. He found out that repentance, faith, hard work, and continued prayers to God helped him to gain knowledge and help others to be brought to repentance. Ammon was laughed at for going on a mission to the Lamanites by his brethren. I was laughed at for going so close to home on my mission. At times he was depressed and wanted to go home but received comfort and patience from the Lord to endure his trials. Ammon was spit upon, and smote upon the cheek (by Lamanites). I was too, by Lamanites. haha. He traveled from house to house. Was rejected. Street contacted. Entered homes. Taught. Was cast out of homes, mocked but was delivered each time. He witnessed the sincerity of his converts. He was a wanderer in a strange land.

I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the power and application that come from it into our own lives. It teaches us that there is always hope in the arms of the Savior. I'm grateful for Him and I hope that I can continue to strengthen my relationship with him. This is a great time of year and I hope that all of you remember what it is all about!

I love you all and I'm thankful for each of you and the elias' you have been for me in my life.

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

November 15-21, 2011: "Then what do you believe?"

Hello family,

It was a great week this week. It was good to have a visit from Kennington moments after he was with you. I thought that was cool! Thanks for the cookies and cards. They were definitely needed!

Thanksgiving is going to be great! Sister Capuano and her husband, the same people that I ate with last year, are having us over. She is amazing and such a good cook! We were also invited over by the 1st counselor to the Bishop in our ward. Hopefully we won't eat too much. Thanksgiving is an "appointment only" day which means no tracting. I can imagine how annoying that would be to be sitting down with family and friends and have missionaries knock on the door. We will still have district meetings and weekly planning though. One of the district meetings is going to be in the morning and we are going to cook breakfast in the church.

Mark Coleman's baptism this week was awesome. He baked 5 trays of brownies, 2 - 2 layer cakes (one of which had real strawberry filling), ordered 12 Dominoes pizzas, and bought 6 bags of tortilla chips with salsa. It was a feast and many people showed up. It was cool to have Kennington there. I will quote what he said in his email to me last night:

"It was so good to see you this weekend! I can't even begin to explain how good it felt to be back there and with you guys. There is no substitute for feeling the spirit like a missionary feels the spirit. I know I took the spiritual experiences I had on a daily basis for granted while I was on my mission. . . But being away from the mission, and not having the same level of spirit with me has been a change. I couldn't keep my eyes dry while I watched Elder Mouritsen step into that font, and as Mark bore his testimony of what he knows is true, and as Elder Buttars confirmed and gave a blessing as directed by the spirit. What a wonderful experience that was for me to be reminded about what really matters in this life. It felt so good to simply be in your presence. You Elders are truly working miracles as instruments in God's hands. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with you, I'm grateful for the example you set for me. You're all superstars in my eyes. I look up to you. Thanks"





In Mark's testimony, he shared an awesome story. I will do my best to summarize and paraphrase. Three years ago he was in his bosses' backyard digging a hole to plant a massive tree. While digging, his boss' 6 year old son stood over him to keep him company. Just as a young child would, he started asking Mark all sorts of questions.

The first was, "What church do you go to Mark?"

Mark responded, "None really. I haven't been to church for awhile."

"Well are you a Mormon?"

"Nope."

"So you've never been to church before at all?"

"When I was younger my mom took me to a Catholic church but I don't really associate myself with them anymore."

By now Mark was annoyed with the young boy so he began to dig as fast as he could to get away from him and away from the conversation. The next question came.

"So if you don't go to church anymore, then what do you believe in?"

Mark's voice quivered while recounting this experience as he replied, "Nothing."

At that moment he realized he was unhappy, godless, and couldn't figure out what it was that he needed in his life. For seven years to that point he had never believed in God. There he was, at the bottom of a deep hole, with a six year old boy towering over him who had a stronger testimony and knowledge of this life than Mark did as a 22 year old man. At the time, Mark didn't see that though. Now, three years later, he has found out what he was missing during those ten years. He talked about how in our second lesson with him we invited him to pray. For the first time in ten years he did so, and felt the spirit so strong that he will never be able to deny it for the rest of his life. It was one of the most powerful testimonies I've heard from a recent convert in a long time. Following the baptism, Mark was pulled aside by an investigator that was brought to the baptism by another companionship. This investigator is extremely knowledgeable in the Bible and is stuck on how we are saved by grace and not by works. He talked to our Bishop for about 45 minutes and then after everyone left, he grabbed Mark and asked him if he wanted to go get something to eat and talk about the church. Mark agreed. Five hours later, Mark was taken home. Apparently the guy wanted to hear Mark's life story, his testimony and conversion story. Then the rest of the time he just blurted out scriptures that prove that we are saved by grace and no works need to be involved. Mark was just like, dude you need to talk to the missionaries. I have no idea what you are talking about. We think that the guy was trying to persuade Mark to quit coming to the church. His goal is to obtain as much info about the church as possible from all different sources, create a Powerpoint of all the wrong things that we do, so that when the next missionaries come knock on his door he can pull out the Powerpoint and prove them wrong with all the info he's compiled. It's pretty ridiculous. It made me pretty angry to think he would do that to Mark. We talked to him after and Mark said, "If he was trying to take me away from my testimony, then he did a pretty horrible job at it cause he didn't change anything." It's sad to think that there are people out there that would try such things. Even missionaries have been known to be deceived. One right here in the APM actually. He started to read other churches’ material and even anti-mormon literature to expand his knowledge and prove theirs wrong. It got into his head and slowly but surely the flaxen cord of Satan bound him, and he literally became an Anti-Christ. For one year of his missionary service he was trying to bring missionaries and others down. It was so sad. Just makes me sick. I can't imagine what his parents thought when he was sent home. Missions are definitely not easy. Even those of the very elect can be deceived, just as Elder Holland taught in his talk "Safety for the Soul." Jacob 4:14 says it perfectly; "But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble." God will not reveal to us things that are "unknowable mysteries" if we have not dedicated our time, talents, and energy to the "things that matter most" as stated by Elder Uchtdorf. Plainness brings happiness. I love the Plan of Salvation, the knowledge of a restoration, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the center of it all. Sister Moody in our zone said it perfectly. She said, "it's so simple a child can understand it and know it's true, but so intricate it takes eternity to comprehend."

We were tracting this week in an apartment complex. We knocked on a door and it was opened by a kid who looked around our age. He said his name was Justin Hance and that he just moved down from Orem. I asked him what high school he went to and he said Payson. I asked if he knew Kyler Figgins and he said yes. I thought that was pretty cool. We hope to teach Justin pretty soon. He lives a little ways a way but we are planning to contact him soon and have him taught in our area. Small world.

We now have 37 investigators with a baptismal date and 13 scheduled for this weekend. That will be a record. Hopefully nothing crazy happens and it works out! I love this work and get depressed when I think about only having 4 transfers left! That's forever though and I hope to be here the whole time!

I love and appreciate all of you. Madison thanks for the letter this week. It meant a lot to me to hear about your missionary experience. Good work!

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

November 8-14, 2011: Vision, Goals, Plan, Tasks

With Mark at the Mesa Temple.

A view of the Phoenix North Stake

Elder Nelson and me on a Zone Leader hike. I was his trainer back in October 2010.

Elder Henrie and me on the Zone Leader hike. Elder Henrie is the A.P. and is a friend from Davis High.

The Celestial view from the top of the mountain on our zone leader hike.

Hey!

Great letter. Great pictures! I can't believe that Carson is home. He looks... the same! haha Andrew and Kyler get home in less than a month. That is mind boggling. I hate the thought of it all coming to an end. Sure it's exciting, but bittersweet.

The discussion with the "missionary department" was actually with the research development initiative group or something like that. They asked us all sorts of questions regarding how the work is progressing with the campaign and new website. It wasn't what I was expecting. On the ride over there we had to pick up another missionary from his area who was also going to be in the discussion. We picked him up at the church that borders the site of the new Phoenix temple. It was so cool to see how it's coming along. The hole is like 40 feet deep. It should be done within 18-24 months. We will have to come back and see.

Had some pretty cool experiences this week. On Friday we were on exchanges with one of our district leaders and his companion. His companion is brand new from the MTC. I was with the new missionary (Elder Marble) in our area. We had a few appointments scheduled during the day but each time we went to visit the person, they were not home. Ughhh... It was so frustrating! Each time we were stood up though, we decided to knock the surrounding doors. We knew there was a reason for us to be there. Though we didn't teach those that were already scheduled to be taught, we found others that we felt the Lord wanted us to find and teach. One example: After knocking a few doors at one of the appointment locations, we decided to head to the car. While walking through the complex, I noticed there was a young couple walking about 25 yards behind us. Already frustrated because of the cancelled appointments, I discarded the prompting to talk to them. The prompting continued to pulsate in my mind and after battling for a bit, I stopped. I turned around and started walking towards them. When we met them, we talked and quickly found out that he had already received a Book of Mormon, and had read several passages from it. He wanted us to come back a few days later and teach him more about it. It was very humbling to see once again just how much the spirit is needed to over power the "natural man/missionary" in this work.

Elder Duncan spoke a lot about the two different kinds of missionaries there are. There are those who do all things for themselves, and those who do all things for the benefit of others. Those who serve others will be happy. That's all there is to it. If we want to be happy, we will lose ourselves and serve all those we come into contact with. He said something to the effect of, "you will achieve that which you think about the most." I liked that. D&C 4 teaches us to serve with all our heart, might, MIND, and strength. Our minds must be centered on the work and the purpose of returning back to Heavenly Father, and helping others do that as well. He said we must have a vision, then a goal, then a plan, then tasks to perform. V-G-P-T. I think that goes for life as well. It applies to many aspects. The vision of being in the Celestial kingdom. A goal to get there. The knowledge of the plan of salvation. And the tasks; faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It's such a good feeling to know that we have no need to fear as long as we have said vision, goal, plan, and performed tasks.

We had a lesson with Nick this week. He thought he would be able to convince us that he could just get baptized without first paying his dues to society. As much as we wanted to tell him that he could, we told him he had to complete the repentance process. He was not very happy and it was hard for us to give him any form of comfort. Finally it came to me. I asked him where he was at three months ago before we met him. He said he had nothing going for him except coming home after work, drinking, smoking, possibly finding a girl, etc. He was not happy. No God in his life. No intentions of changing. And no knowledge of the need for a change. He then realized just how far he has come in the past three months. He really respects women now. No drinking. No smoking. He goes to church. Reads his scriptures. Feels happy even though trials never seem to stop. And has a goal to accomplish that which will benefit him largely in the eternal perspective. In three months he has come this far. Maybe in three months he will be able to be baptized. If he's come this far in the past three months, how far ahead could he be in the next three? His perspective changed and he realized it's just a small trial, yet blessing, that he will need to work through. When the day comes for him to be baptized, it will be that much more important for him then because of all the time and effort he has put in. I'm excited for that day.

I was reading in 1 Corinthians 2 this week. The first five verses stood out to me.
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

I find it interesting that Paul, the great orator, would start out a letter like this. I find myself with the same feelings though. I do not have excellent speech or wisdom. I am weak and nervous when in front of people. But when it comes to teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is something that stands me up and helps me to not worry about what others will think. I haven't felt the gift of tongues through speaking a different language but I can definitely say that there has been a miracle performed in my life which I consider a gift of tongue whenever I am called upon to speak about the gospel. I love the gospel. I love the feelings that come into my life and the lives of others. The feeling is enough and it outweighs any feeling of weakness, inadequacy, fear, or nervousness. It's true and can't be proven otherwise!

Well things are going well here. It's getting cold again...cold. Today I purchased a sweater vest at Ross. It's pretty nice. I don't think I need anything! Thanks for all that you have already done though! The package you sent a bit ago was a life saver!

Our zone now has 34 people with a baptism date. The Lord has blessed us so much in the past few weeks. A month ago we had 2. 34 is more than we have ever had in this stake. With the end of the year coming, we hope to reach our goal that was set by our stake president of 110. Right now we are at 83. It can definitely be done.

I love you all and hope for all the best this upcoming week. I won't lie I'm kinda glad I wasn't at that snowy football game. The coldest it's been here so far is 50.

Love you.

Elder Mouritsen

November 1-7, 2011: Angels are preparing the hearts of the children of men

iHola mi familia!

Great letter. I'm so dang proud of Hallie! I seriously can't imagine her getting up and dancing but that is awesome! haha. Sounds like you all had a great week. I swear in every one of your emails you tell me about either a guy that asked the girls to a dance or a guy they asked to a dance. Fun times! It's hard for me to think that I've been on my mission for 18 months. I had a sort of surreal, eye opening moment the other day when I realized I won't see another summer in Arizona, that I have one more general conference, one more...etc. I won't lie I was nearly in tears. Being in one place for the last 18 months has caused me to reflect much on what I have really done to make those 18 months the best 18 months FOR my life. I can remember telling people that I've been out 2 weeks. Now every time I see those same people they say, "Man you're still here? You must be going home soon right?" It's weird to be on the opposite side of it. In Zone Leader Council, President Taylor had me share with the other zone leaders how long I've been in this stake. I told them and he followed by asking, "what/how does that make you feel about that stake?" I responded by saying it makes me want to be there the rest of my time. President Taylor was emotional because of that response. I hope the Lord keeps me here for AT LEAST one more transfer.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy is coming to our mission this week and we get to hear from him tomorrow. That will be really neat. I have also been chosen to represent our stake this Thursday when the missionary department comes down and discusses the mormon.org campaign. I don't really know what I'm going to say because we haven't seen much success come from it yet but I do know that there are a whole lot of people that are seeing the ads and talking to their friends about it. The member's just need to learn that those conversations are missionary opportunities and those people need to be invited to either come to church or learn more from the missionaries. The most important step is to follow up as well. I'm grateful for my mission because it has taught me to not be afraid to talk to people about the gospel. It may be an adrenaline rush at times, but hey, so is jumping off cliffs into water (just as long as there's no inner tube in the way...right mom?)

We had a great week. On Thursday Elder Griessmann and I went on exchanges. We had lessons set up with several of our investigators. One of them was Mark, the same Mark I told you about last week. I'm always a little bit nervous to talk to investigators after setting a baptism date with them because Satan seems to throw anything and everything their way. Mark is so "steadfast and immoveable." In our lesson he made this comment: "Elders, I just want to thank you for inviting me to be baptized. I thought for sure that you would have wanted me to come to church for like a year before I could get baptized. So anyways, thanks!" We were stunned. Jaw dropped. Haha. Response: Uhhh.. Yeah of course Mark I mean when you’re ready you’re ready right? haha That's not really how we answered but that’s what I was thinking. He's already read 1 & 2 Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, and half of Mosiah. He also understood and had some great questions from Jacob 5 (the allegory of the olive tree). We talked with him about the baptismal service and the interview he will have before his baptism. We went over the commandments; law of tithing, chastity, word of wisdom, and keeping the sabbath day holy. He told us that he had already discussed the law of chastity with his girlfriend. He's good with that. He was asking if he could write the tithing check out to "God" himself. haha. He's been prepared by the Lord in amazing ways. A year ago he quit smoking and drinking cold turkey just because he felt like it. A few months ago he realized he was drinking too much coffee. He decided to quit that randomly as well. Then we knocked on his door. He was so ready and prepared. It's true that, "...angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory" (Alma 13:24). He texted us today telling us about the program he wants to have. He asked me to baptize him. I'm honored. One concern, he weighs right around 300 pounds. Hopefully he's not too buoyant and I'll be able to get him under! It's awesome to see his excitement!

A cold front has come through recently. In the mornings when we get up to play racquetball it's like 48 degrees. Freezing! :) Last night it rained pretty hard. Today we are playing soccer for a zone activity and it's gonna be nice and muddy. Hopefully we get some good pictures and I'll be able to send them next week.

We had a pretty cool experience on Friday. One of our investigators lives with his member girlfriend. She told him that she wants to change her lifestyle and is going to move out of his apartment so she can become more involved in the church. Good for her! I wish there were more people with that attitude. We were helping her move in with her new roommate in the ward and our investigator (her boyfriend named Todd) was there as well. The girls needed to go and pick up another load of stuff so we told them we would just stay back and knock some doors. Todd has been really stand-off-ish to us so we thought he was going to go along with them. To our surprise, he said that since we were staying back he would just stay with us. As we sat around talking, he asked, "so were you guys serious about going and knocking doors?" Well yeah! So we went tracting with him. I think the purpose of him wanting to go with us was because he wanted to see us get rejected and bashed with. He thought that nobody would be receptive to us or want to learn more. Of the 3 doors that were opened to us, 2 of them were very receptive. The very last door we knocked was a super nice lady who was sincerely interested in learning more. She told us to come by next week after six and give her a copy of the Book of Mormon and teach her more about it. Todd was very surprised. He is also more interested now and has really opened up to us! He is now reading the Book of Mormon and has many questions.

Well it's now time to go get ready for soccer. Thank you for the package. I finally got it yesterday! The skittles and M&M's were much appreciated. Socks were definitely needed as well. As were the planners.

I love you all. I am doing very well. Not so sure about the mission being over so quickly but the next chapter must come some time. Such is life. I pray for you nightly. Be safe in the snowy weather. Get to the temple regularly.

Love,

Elder Colt Mouritsen

October 25-31, 2011: "Like a first kiss"

Hey Fam!

Wow it's Halloween... Yeah time flies, it's unbelievable. I'm fourth on the list in the ward sacrament meeting program? That’s nuts! I have not received your package yet... Maybe it came today? The office might be closed by now but I will try to get it tomorrow. Sorry my email is coming later in the day, earlier we had a whole bunch of things going on and I sacrificed my time to let the other elders use the computers. We played some "quidditch" around 1 o'clock which was a blast. The field was super muddy again and it's still 90 degrees outside. A nice, cool-down for us I suppose.

We had some great experiences this week. One of our investigators, Mark, now has a baptism date for November 19th. At first when we were teaching him, his mindset on learning was just that, to learn. The spirit does things to you though and changes such mindsets, even our desires. He came to church last week in a polo and jeans. Though he felt a little out of place he still felt the spirit and loved the members that he met. He showed up to our Book of Mormon class on Tuesday night. I sat next to him and helped him find the pages and answer certain questions he had. At the end of the lesson, I started talking to him and asked him if he had taken the opportunity to pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true yet. He responded, "well I didn't really know that I needed to!" UGH!! In my mind I thought about telling him we had told him that many times, but I held it in.. haha I took him to Moroni 10:3-5. We read it and I invited him to take the challenge that Moroni states; that is to ask of God whether or not the Book of Mormon is true with a sincere heart and real intentions. He said he would. I then told him about what the Book of Mormon teaches. I mentioned faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. After mentioning baptism, something in the back of my mind told me to invite him to be baptized on November 19th. My adrenaline started pumping. (The only way I can describe what that feeling is like is when you get the urge to make the move and kiss a girl for the first time...I'm sorry I know that is weird but that’s the only way that I can think to explain it...haha) So I asked him and he responded with a reassuring, "of course!" I then challenged him to pray and help God (by praying) to help him to know that it is true. He said he would. That night, while he was walking to the bus stop on his way home, he poured his heart out to Heavenly Father. He said that when he started the prayer he had all sorts of feelings of inadequacy, guilt, negativity, etc. But when the prayer was said, every negative feeling he had disappeared and he was totally calm and peaceful. The spirit told him that night that it is true. We've since had dinner with Mark in our bishop’s home, to which Mark brought the desert: Banana cream and Razzelberry pie. YUM! Sunday, he was helping his girlfriend move so he wasn't able to come to church. We texted him to tell him he was missed and his response was, "I missed church so much today. I prayed several times and read the olive tree parable in the book of Jacob. I can't wait to talk to you guys about it. I am free Thursday and Friday afternoons if that works for you guys this week." Great... the allegory of the olive tree. Great thing for us to hear though. :)

We had another lesson with a recent convert this week. She was feeling very down because she hadn't been treating her parents very well this week. There had been some things going on in the home that were bothering her and she seemed to take it out on her parents. At the beginning of the lesson she was very down and didn't say much. We didn't really know what to do for the lesson. She also said there had been rumors spreading around about her in her apartment complex. I prayed for a little inspiration. That morning I had been reading in the book of Romans. I read in Romans 5:3-5 where it says; “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. We talked about trials and tribulations leading to patience and then to experience which then leads to hope. My mind then remembered my farewell talk and the scriptures in Moroni 7. After talking about trials being a good thing and to learn from them, we went to those scriptures. Moroni 7 says that hope leads to faith, which leads to humility, and then to charity. Charity is the pure love of Christ. As we work through trials (which we all have) we can and will develop Christ-like attributes such as hope, faith, humility, and charity, to then be prepared to overcome the tougher trials that we will be blessed with. When she took this perspective on her trials, she felt much better and committed herself to talk to her parents and give them a big hug the next time she saw them. It was cool to see how the Lord's hand and purposes are literally in ALL things. I had no idea that my personal study that morning would be needed in a lesson later on in the day.

The zone meeting went very well. Thanks for the help with the leading and lagging indicators. It was much needed. I found out just how important the first three months of a missionary’s mission are. I'm grateful for a trainer who taught me those essential leading indicators. I'm also grateful for the atonement. When leading indicators begin to lag and lagging indicators develop during a missionary’s mission, the atonement is there to help and bring a missionary back. There is always hope through the atonement. I'm eternally grateful for that. Though time was lost during those lagging months, there is still the opportunity to press forward and "do as much as we can in the time that we have..." I'm grateful once again for a trainer who helped me learn to lead instead of lag.

Well I love this mission. I can't believe how fast it has gone. I got a letter from Kyler a little while ago and I sent him one back. I don't even know if it'll get to him in time though... Crazy to think that. I think Elder Garrett (Carson) gets home soon to so you should try to get to his homecoming.

I love you all. I'm grateful for you all. Thanks for being a blessing in my life.

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

These are photos from a stake service project during which time we painted over some graffiti.