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
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