December 27, 2011 - January 2, 2012: Real Growth

It's 2012!

I can't believe this year is here. We need to get all of our lives in order because apparently this upcoming December 21st the world is going to end. Oh no! Too bad no man knoweth the time of His coming. Thank you for the letter by the way. I love how you can cram so much information into an email. The pictures look fantastic! Everybody is growing up so dang much. Of course Megan Leah is standing on her tip-toes...of course. Thanks for the update on Grandpa also. Though he is struggling immensely I am constantly reassured that "everything is going to be ok." When your letter said that he feels no pain in reminded me of my experience where I couldn't hold back the tears following my surgery and only being able to write, "He took my pain" in my journal. It is such a powerful, hard to comprehend feeling. One must "feel" it and "experience" it for themselves before they can truly know. I know that Grandpa knows. He knows he will see us again. I know I will see him again as well. There's no better feeling than the feeling of not fearing the "(un)-known" mysteries of passing through the veil into the world of spirit.

This week has been one of many mixed feelings and emotions here as well. Christmas was awesome. It's always sad to see it leave. Each of our investigators in the YSA were celebrating the holidays back at home so we didn't have many lessons to teach. We also spent a load of time on our year end report to give to the stake president. Usually we have a member of the mission presidency attend those meetings with us but since we had it at 7:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day they told us to just go at it alone. It was a good meeting. We calculated the "Real Growth" that the stake has seen over the past two years. I don't know if you have heard that term at all but it is being used by the brethren to show the growth of the church by seeing if people who either get baptized, reactivated, etc. continue on to receive the other ordinances of the gospel. They also want to know the percentage of activity of recent converts and all members for that matter. The activity level down here is very low compared to what I was used to up in Utah. There will be upward of around 400-500 people on a ward roster, but only 150-200 come to church on Sundays. I believe that rescuing a "less-active" person is just as good as a baptism on an eternal perspective. Of course our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, and baptism but we are also "Called to Serve" the people we are around in any way that we can. Some missionaries have taken this idea to "rescue the less-active" to their bishops and been taken advantage of. For example, some Bishops have said that they are only allowed to visit prospective elders and less actives before they visit part member families. Those visits were also being counted by the Bishop as home and visiting teaching. That isn't right so we with the missionaries, and the stake president and high councilman over missionary work with the ward leaders, put a stop to it. The "Real Growth" of our stake has been better than we thought. There were 204 total baptisms in the past 2 years. Only 3 or 4 are endowed but many more that were baptized in 2011 are going to make it there. Several have also expressed interest in serving missions. One that you might have heard about was a kid Kennington and I taught one year ago. His name is Will Wight. He's working on his papers right now. Mark Coleman has also expressed interest in serving. Our awesome stake president is trying to get him permission from Salt Lake because he will be 26 one his year is up. Hopefully it happens. Mark bore his testimony again on Sunday. It was hilarious! He got up there and said that he loves "testimony day." He then went on to say that he feels that one day he will get up to bear his testimony and he will find his wife from the pulpit. Either that or she will find him as she gets up to bear her testimony. He said it much better but everybody laughed pretty hard. He is a solid convert. He walks ten miles each week to go do baptisms for the dead in the Mesa temple.

We had a pretty neat experience this week. On Wednesday we were walking through an apartment complex parking lot and a young man who looks exactly like Corbin Bleu walked up to us. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Man, you guys are lookin' fly! What are you up to?" We responded by saying we are missionaries, yada yada yada... He was like, "Ah man I was hopin' you guys were! I'm pretty interested in learning more about your church." Our conversation went on and we talked about his experience in the past with religion, what he believes now, and some other stuff. He made a comment that I thought was interesting that I had never heard before. He said, "So I have heard that some church out there believes that Jesus actually came to the Americas and taught the people here just like he taught the people in Jerusalem. I think that is so cool! I believe that happened..." So, after I picked up jaw up off the ground we went and grabbed him a Book of Mormon from the truck and told him that it gives the account of that experience. He was pretty enthused.

Well sorry my email this week isn't very eventful but we gotta get going because the bowling alley opens up at 2! It's 2 dollar shoes and 1 dollar games today. Last week I broke my record and bowled a 202! It was pretty awesome. I'll send a picture of some other things we do there. President Taylor came with us one time. It's a great P-Day activity.

I love you all. I can't believe I missed Kyler's homecoming, haha actually I can but it's just weird to think that he his home.

I hope your 2012 starts fantastic.

Love,

Your son and brother. Elder Mouritsen

December 20-26, 2011: Christmas Traditions and Santa

It was good to talk to you yesterday! Everybody is definitely growing up. Thanks for being prepared with all the great questions. That always seems to get a lot out of the short time that we are allotted to speak. I distinctly remember last Mother's day at the end of the call thinking, "oh my, the next time I hear their voices will be in like 7 months!" Those 7 months flew by. (Little did I know that I would be speaking to you dad on August 23, haha I don't remember much though). That makes me wonder just how much faster the next five are going to fly by.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes Christmas so different, yet similar, to one spent back home. On the mission there are no family parties, gift exchanges, traditions such as; stockings on mom and dad's bed Christmas morning, eating cinnamon rolls Christmas day, going to Dingle, the Christmas Eve party at Grandma and Grandpa Mouritsen’s, Christmas Day party at Grandma and Grandpa Figgins, not having school, making ornaments, gingerbread houses, snow, etc. There is none of that to look forward to while on the mission. But for some weird reason it doesn't really effect the feeling that is present. The feeling during the season is still the same and that alone causes it to be a good one. It's true what the Grinch said when he found out that Christmas doesn't really come from a store, but that it is much, much more.

There was a pretty cool experience this week that I will share. A young man by the name of Darie (pronounced Dar-ee-A) used to date a girl that lived above us when we lived in our old apartment. We talked to him a few times but each time produced the same results. He always found a way to make fun of us or degrade us in some form or another. We tried to avoid him from then on. Well those contacts with him were about 8-9 months ago. This week the family ward elders got a referral for him. Because he is YSA age, they passed him over to us. We visited and found out that he isn't dating her anymore. It turns out he wants to surround himself with good people. He loves the Book of Mormon. Believes Joseph Smith is a prophet. And now has a baptism date for January 21. It's amazing how line upon line, precept upon precept the Lord prepares those who you never thought would get to that point.

So I told you a little bit about Christmas Eve. We dressed up as Santas and the other elders in our apartment were the elves. We then went and delivered the Christmas packages to all the missionaries in the zone. It was fun to barge into their apartments and freak the crap out of them. I'll send some pictures.

Well that’s about it! Thanks again for the presents. I love you all and I hope that you have a great Christmas break.

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

December 13-19, 2011: T'was the week before Christmas...

Merry Christmas!

Phenomenal letter. I can't believe so much can go on back there in just one week! I also can't believe that Kyler is home. That blows my mind. Ok so for the Christmas call: We have sacrament meeting in Cactus View at 9:00 and then in the YSA at 1:00. But I think it would be good if YOU could call ME around 3:30. Yes, I still have the same number as last Christmas. :)

Some awesome things happened this week. One might include another long story about Mark Coleman. This week he came to our Monday night FHE which was a huge dinner and then White Elephant gift exchange. There were about 75 people there which is good for our YSA. My gift that I brought was a Book of Mormon in Croatian. People laughed. I was also the first to choose and happened to pick a Batman cape. It was a hot item and got stolen very quickly. Anyways, so Mark was talking to some members and started talking to one of them who just returned home from her mission. She found out that Mark is into canning foods and she asked if he would teach her. He of course said yes but didn't think that anything would come from it. She then said, "ok well how about Wednesday?" He was a bit shocked but set up a time to teach her. Tuesday night, Mark came to our Book of Mormon class and met with one of the bishopric members afterwards to see about getting him a temple recommend. Mark was so stoked. He asked him about being a full tithe payer. Mark said that he wasn't able to at the moment because of some giant loans he has been having to pay back from when he had surgery on his eye way back in the Spring. He was pretty bummed to find that out but when he got home, the Spirit hit him with a prompting. Mark is a huge fan of guns and remembered that he has a whole slew of them in his home. He realized the seriousness of being a full tithe payer and also a temple recommend holder. The next day at work he put a sign up at work in the window at his desk that he was selling all his guns. By lunch time, they were sold. He got the money a paid all the tithing that he owed, including some for the future. Wednesday came, the returned sister missionary and a friend went to Mark's house and upon leaving after canning blueberries, she turned around and randomly told Mark that he should serve a mission. Immediately Mark responded with, "well if I did that then I would lose all my credits at school, money would be hard, blah blah blah..." Her response, "You should pray about it." Right then he knew that if he prayed about it, his answer would be he needed to serve. That night he prayed. His answer came. He explained it by saying it was as if he was being held by someone in a very large warm blanket. He said the literal feeling of God's presence was undeniable and so powerful. He is determined to serve a mission. The next day he set up a meeting with the bishop to settle his tithing, get his recommend, and ask about the process of serving a proselyting mission. The only problem? He turned 25 in September, and he was baptized in November. Age 26 is the cut off to serve missions. Apparently there is special permission that can be granted for those who are recent converts. President Hettinger is on the ball and is going to be trying to get him permission. That would be so dang awesome! He would be a phenomenal missionary. He got us Christmas presents and brought them to church. It is a very nice framed picture of the Phoenix temple. I'll probably send it home sometime with the letter that he sent me.

Saturday our zone had 3 more baptisms. The total is now at a new record on the year. Though the 110 didn't get reached, it is still so cool to see 100+ baptisms two years in a row. The stake presidency and high councilman over missionary work are quite enthused about it all. At the beginning of the year, nobody really believed that we would be able to do as well as last year. The reason being that all the "part-member families" or "low-hanging fruit" as some call them were mined. This year the missionaries did phenomenal work at "finding the elect" and seeing them to baptism. It's awesome to go back and look at the records and see the percentage of those found through street contacting/tracting to those that were member referrals. This year there are many more found through the missionaries than last year. Hopefully next year both sides will contribute even more.

The mission Christmas Zone Conference was on Wednesday this week. We listened to some awesome musical numbers and then drove out to Mesa to do a session and see the lights at the temple. It was so cool to see Sister Keddington there. She saw me and pulled me right out of a crowd! I was pretty amazed that she even remembered my name. (She wrote to Colton's family and shared the following: “He looked fantastic and the spirit radiating from him was clearly visible. He seems so, so happy to be doing the Lord's work. You have every reason to be proud of the missionary and the man he has become/is becoming. Thank you for raising such a wonderful son and setting such a good example for him. Thank you for sharing him with the people in Arizona. Take it from me, they need him! I just wanted you to know that he is doing great, that he loves you, and that he is happy.”

I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday. I'm going to send out the copy of my talk with the Christmas card that we made today. I don't really know how good it was but I hope you like it. My topic was "The True Meaning of Christmas - Becoming Christ-like."

I hope that you have an awesome Christmas. I'm excited to hear from you all.

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

December 6-12, 2011: "Never Tract Again," Katie's Baptism, and Mark Coleman's Conversion Story

Hey family!

That's too bad about all the damage that was done to the home. Hopefully it all gets worked out.

We had a pretty good week this week. Tuesday was Zone Leader Council. We talked all about our goals for the upcoming year and how we are going to progress. When Elder Kevin Duncan came and visited our mission he talked about Vision - Goal - Plan - Task. Our vision in our zone is to "Never Tract Again." When we presented that to our stake president he was like, "huh?" Then we told him the goals to accomplish that vision. The goal is to "Geo-Code" the wards, which has already proven to work in the areas where it has been implemented. I've talked to you about this before. The plan to accomplish the goal is to receive all the lists from the Bishops and Ward Clerks including the lists of part-member families, unbaptized children over 9, prospective elders, less actives, etc. Then the task is to categorize each of these (including potential and former investigators) and then to pound out the sections in the spare time that we aren't teaching. In our family ward that we just took over, we have already found a lot of good potential. It also seems that when you put forth the effort and hard work, the Lord blesses you in ways that you would not have expected. When I talked about this to the ZLC, some of the zone leaders called afterwards to get feedback and ideas on how they can present it to their stake presidents. I think it will help the work progress immensely. We put forth the effort this week and found a few potentials, but when we came to church on Sunday, some random kid named Skyler showed up telling us that he had already taken the lessons in California, lived in Rexburg for a while, and that he just wants us to help him prepare to be baptized. We were amazed. The Lord is truly blessing us every single week! Katie was last week, and Skyler is this week.

Katie's baptism was awesome. Elder Buttars baptized her and I confirmed her. She bore her testimony about how she has come to know the church to be true. She shared one experience that I thought was pretty cool. On Friday we went by to make sure everything was ok. I was on an exchange with a younger missionary. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and I asked, "Katie do you believe that the Book of Mormon is true?" She said that she did but that she hadn't really ever read it. In my mind I was thinking all about the phrase, "the feeling is enough." She said that since she has a testimony that Christ is real and the Book of Mormon talks about Christ then she doesn't doubt that it is. I told her to open up to 2 Nephi 33:10. “And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.” She read it, marked it, highlighted it, dog-eared the page, etc. because it spoke directly to her. Her testimony is very strong of the book and she's literally only read one verse. You don't have to eat the entire cake to know that it is a good cake. The feelings she gets when she bears her testimony and learns about the gospel are enough for her. Following her baptism, our good Relief Society President hung out with Katie for the rest of the day. Katie was able to meet almost the entire ward in one day - from going on a bike ride, to a RS party, to caroling with the elder's quorum, to chaperoning at a stake dance. She is already grafted in nicely.

Yesterday Mark Coleman spoke in church. I think the entire ward was in awe. His talk was phenomenal. He sent me a copy of it and I will forward it on to you. He seriously seemed like a general authority up there. I think he'll be up there one day. He is so intelligent and has such a strong testimony. He will definitely be one that I will stay in contact with my entire life.

Our zone is doing pretty well. Several families have succumbed to temptations and their baptism dates have been pushed back. As of right now we are at a total of 99 baptisms on the year. With the three scheduled this upcoming weekend, they will push us to 102, a new record. Not that the numbers are of any importance, but they represent souls. I'm grateful to have been involved in this great work for the entirety of 2011. I would not have wanted to be in any other place. I don't know a missionary who is able to say they stayed in one place for an entire calendar year either. I consider myself very blessed.

I have been reminded by a quote that was said recently. It's by Albert Einstein. "Great spirits often times receive violent persecution from mediocre minds." I was also reading in my patriarchal blessing recently and was reminded of the personal relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. For some reason the picture that came to my mind was me returning to the feet of Him, shaking His hand and embracing Him, and telling Him of the effort and work I put forth in the errand He called me to run. I know that Heavenly Father knows each of us on a very personal level. I'm grateful that you shared with me the experiences that are going on in Grandpa Roger's life. I'm grateful to have the knowledge that our Father wouldn't send us to this earth to develop such powerful relationships with our family members to just have them end. That would give me no hope and desire to progress. I know that we will be with our families forever. This absolute truth gives me so much comfort and peace during the times of trial and distress in life. I love you all. Please, please know that!

Love,

Elder Mouritsen

Talk given by Mark Coleman on 12/11/10. It’s the remarkable story of his conversion and baptism. (We were on exchanges when Elder Buttars knocked on his door)

My Story

Good Afternoon, My name is Mark Coleman, I am 25 years old and I have been given the honor of telling you my story on this day.

Dear Heavenly Father gave us this gospel which has changed my life and brought me here. I would like to read a couple of verses that I found poignant. The first is from Jacob 5, during the parable of the Lord's Olive tree, the domesticated tree is withering and dying. Regardless of His and His servant's efforts of digging about and pruning and dunging, the tree continues to deteriorate. His final remaining option is to cut the dying branches from the tree and graft wild branches in their place so that he might preserve the root. He says He ought to cast the dying branches into the fire, but instead, writes in Verse 14,

14 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard went his way, and hid the natural branches of the tame olive tree in the nethermost parts of the vineyard, some in one and some in another, according to his will and pleasure.

He spared those branches they might take root and produce fruit for him again. He goes on to later in the chapter in verse 52 to say,

52 Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came.

Those branches have been saved. And I would like you to think about that second chance as I tell you my story.

I was born in California. I was raised there as well as in Texas and have been living in Arizona for the last decade.

I was raised a traditional Catholic and attended Catholic school for the majority of my childhood. I can only tell you that of my experiences within my church.

We prayed in that faith. We prayed a lot...

The prayers were pre-manufactured. To pray adequately you would say 1 of 3 or 4 prayers repetitiously until the desired outcome was achieved. One of the most common prayers goes like this,

Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee, blessed are't thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus, Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen.

After prayer you make the sign of the cross. You say, in the name of the Father (while touching your forehead), the Son (while touching your chest), and of the Holy Spirit (while touching the left and then right shoulder), Amen.

I want you to remember the last part here, the ← Holy Spirit -> while I traverse into another story.

At the age of twelve, with the coming of hormones and cynicism, I decided that I no longer believed in God. I only believed in that which was true and proven. I had a fascination with the sciences and I would only put my faith into that which is truth and law.

I addressed faith this one time and decided I knew all I needed to about my beliefs.

Later in life I began self-destructive tendencies like drinking and smoking.

I worked in grocery stores pushing carts in high school. I later became middle management for Albertson's and Sprouts.

Almost 3 years ago found myself working in my present job as a legal secretary for one J. Vance Andersen. He is an attorney. He is also LDS. In fact, there are several attorneys in our office. They are all LDS. There are several more secretaries, they are all LDS.

And I was the only godless wretch.

My boss, Vance, had moved to a new house with a plain and flat backyard. He paid me to come over on Saturdays and dig holes to plant massive trees in. The ground was so hard and full of rocks it required a jack hammer to break up. The remnants had to be shoveled out. Did I mention it was June? It was very hot and miserable.

We planted that side of the yard with citrus trees that are now flourishing. His children would aid us in our work.

It was on one of those hot mornings that I found myself talking to a 7 year old Christian Andersen. He was tasked with helping me, but couldn't do much, so instead talked to me about school and matters as such.

I was digging a hole for a 24” box tree that stood about 12 feet tall. I remember digging low enough that my knees were level with the ground. And Christian asked me...

'Are you a member of the church?'

To which I responded, 'No.'

He went on, 'Well, where do you go to church?'

And I said, 'I don't.'

Confused, he continued, 'What church did you go to?'

I replied, 'I used to be Catholic.'

At this point, I could see his curiosity leading me down to an awkward explanation. I had never told my boss I was an atheist. I most certainly was scarred to tell my boss's son. So I began digging. I thought that perhaps my busy working would change the subject or distract Christian. I dug with all my might and as fast as I could. My hole grew deeper and deeper. There was a silence among the two of us while I endeavored. Finally, I was almost sure my hole was dug and I could start a new one.

I found myself, almost waist level with the ground, covered in sweat and dirt, hot and tired at the bottom of a very deep hole, with a child towering over me and I asked Christian, 'Does that look deep enough to you?'

Ignoring my question, he said, 'So what do you believe in?'

Before I could stop myself, I said, 'Nothing'...

My mind reeled at the thought. I am no nihilist, I must live for something, I must have some belief.

I tried to satisfy my ego, by saying, 'Science, proven facts...'

It didn't work. That line of questioning opened up a hole in my psyche, in my soul that I could not fill. Even through all my analysis of faith as a teenager, I had never been forced to admit belief in nothing.

That tree was planted, many more were as well. Life went on and I continued college studies and work and thankfully I was not fired.

Almost a year later on my 24th birthday I decided to quit smoking and drinking for at least a month. 1 month turned into 3, and 3 to 6, and I felt the habits were something I could give up for the rest of my life.

A couple months after my 25th birthday, it was a Friday evening, I had gathered dirty laundry and text books to take to my girlfriend's house for the weekend as was tradition for me. There was a knock at the door (knock sound), I yelled, 'One second sweety' as I grabbed my keys and upon opening the door, my eyes took a moment to catch up with my mind.

I said to myself, 'there is only one of my girlfriend, but two people stand before me. My girlfriend also does not wear white dress shirts or a black name tag.'

These were missionaries. I had heard of missionaries. Another secretary's son had just come home from a mission. I came out front to Elder Buttars and his companion and asked if they were LDS, how old they were, and where they were from. I invited them back so that I could feed them and learn about what they do. It was simple curiosity. We made an appointment, I ordered the pizza and we ate together the next week.

After eating Eldar Buttars asked if I believed that Jesus Christ was the savior of our sins.

I looked at him, thought, you aren't going to trick me as young Christian Andersen did, and said, 'I don't know'.

We had a lesson, they asked to come back, I was surprised by the request, but obliged none-the-less.

I thought about that a lot that night after they left. My answer of 'Nothing' had changed into 'I don't know'. Why? Because 'Nothing' is uncomfortable, it's scary, it unappealing to the subconscious and the conscious mind.

For the first time since I was a teenager I re-examined what I thought faith was. Now as a pre-nursing student, I have a stronger understanding of science and truth.

Law and Truth as defined by science are that which can be repeated perpetually without a change in result. But the funny thing is, Newton's Law of Gravity was just dis-proven by Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The law by which we launched men into space, performed countless physics calculations and studied for centuries was not perfect truth.

You begin to realize as you think about things such as open heart surgery, that there is no defined fact or truth in the procedure. There is no 'placebo' group that proved the surgery works. There are only statistics. And something else...

There is FAITH!

Faith in your doctor, faith in all the times that the surgery worked. We practice faith with our most precious commodity every day, our lives.

When you cross the street or drive your car you exercise faith that you won't be run down by traffic. When you eat a restaurant you practice faith that the cooks will not make you ill. We put so much faith into so many things other than God every day.

And I thought to myself, 'If I can put all this faith into my fellow man, then why not God?'

Elder Mouritsen asked me one day, 'Do you feel the spirit?'

I thought, ← Holy Spirit → Amen, and said 'No, what does it feel like?'

I was perplexed, I was never told that I could feel God or his spirit in all my studies in Catholic school.

He described, it. And one night asked me to pray on this book.

And today I bear you witness to my testimony,

That walking home from Sister Sloughman's Book of Mormon class one night after a prompting from Elder Mouritsen, the spirit filled my heart and gave me the truth of this faith.

I bear witness that a child and two missionaries with simple words and questions, brought the word of the prophet Joseph Smith to me and introduced me to the plan of salvation as well as my own spirit.

I tell you that this church is true, because I have more faith in it and it's members than any other person I've ever had faith in.

And I tell you I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ by Elder Mouritson on November 19th of this year and confirmed in this church by Eldar Buttars on November 20th.

While I cannot think of myself as a branch upon Jacob's tree, perhaps I was a twig, struggling to produce a leaf for the sustenance of good fruit one day. I feel that just as those branches were spared from the fire and given time away from their origin, I too was spared. And I feel that I am now grafted back to my tree of faith. That it is living here. That I am now surrounded with the fruition of desirable acts blooming all around me that the Lord can lay up unto himself against the season.

You all bear fruition to so many desirable acts...

You ALL bear fruition to so many desirable acts.

And I pray that I may endeavor to bear similar works to the Lord in offering up the entirety of myself to Him.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

November 29 - December 5, 2011: Agency...and one of the best weeks yet!

Hello!

Holy cow sounds like it was a crazy week up there! The damage received to homes reminds me of the hail storm we got down here over a year ago. Roofing companies are still backed up to this day with homes needing new roofs. Insurance companies were pounded. Hopefully everything works out. I love to hear about all of the service that was rendered from members and friends in the area. Sunday is a day of service. What better way to spend the Sabbath! Thanks for giving me a great example to apply to teaching people how to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

The week here has been one of the best of my entire mission. I'll give you an outline of what I'm going to say. 1. We took over Cactus View, the family ward that meets in our building. 2. Had an awesome lesson with two extremely analytical girls who were trying to catch us in our words. 3. We were passed the sacrament by Mark Coleman, recent convert of two weeks. 4. Met a girl for the first time on Thursday. Invited her to be baptized. Friday, we had another lesson on the commandments. Saturday, she came to the temple lights with the ward. Sunday, she came to church. She bore here testimony in sacrament meeting. Next Saturday, she will be getting baptized. AMAZING story. 5. Mark Coleman also bore his testimony about the "visceral" feeling of the Holy Ghost that has come into his life and helped him to gain a testimony. 6. etc.

And that’s about it! Hope you have a great week!

Just kidding...

First off, the two analytical girls. Every Friday night we have a lesson and it usually consists of questions all about myths, misconceptions, and biased people's opinions they've heard at one time or another. Prior to this appointment, we gave them the assignment of reading the first 8 chapters in the Book of Mormon. They read the intro, testimony of the witnesses, testimony of Joseph Smith, and the eight chapters. Right from the get-go I knew that it was going to be a "throw down." I remember saying a silent prayer to calm me down and help me to use the scriptures in my answers to their questions as my adrenaline began to rush. They then proceeded to ask questions about every little thing that stood out to them from their readings. Most of the questions were trying to find loopholes to prove us wrong and get us to change our ways. Each time, we responded with evidence from the scriptures to prove to them that it is true. When it came down to it, I had to interrupt them by saying that this discussion is going to get us no where without you sincerely praying to know if it's true. You can study the Book of Mormon all day long, even logically prove it to be true, but that won't do anything until a spiritual conversion occurs. They had questions like, "why would God tell Nephi to kill Laban if one of God's commandments is to not kill?" A great question. Because of recent studies from the Book of Mormon student manual, we were able to answer clearly. One of them even responded, "holy cow that was a very smooth answer which makes a lot of sense." Other questions like, "what is the time period of the Book of Mormon compared to books in the Bible?" "What was contained on the plates of brass?" "What changes have been made to the Book of Mormon since the original one was translated by Joseph Smith?" "How did Moroni visit Joseph if he was dead and had died prior to the Savior's resurrection?" To be honest, I don't remember my answers. But I do remember the way I felt and I was spitting out answers that I had no idea I had. It was a great feeling. One of the girls went from being very stubborn to nearly convinced. She's still against organized religion though because of some previous experiences. Upon leaving, we felt very good about how it went especially because of the spirit that guided the discussion. They will read the next 8 chapters in the Book of Mormon for next time.

Next, sacrament meeting was one of the best of my entire mission. We had four investigators there. Mark Coleman was the second to get up. He talked about how grateful he is to now have God in his life. He said that the reason he knows this is true is because of the visceral feeling from the Spirit on a constant basis. He is so amazing. All he wants to do is serve. He talked about the first time we came into his apartment and told him that God loves him. He said that was the moment he found out what he was missing. Katie Redd, our investigator we met for the first time on Thursday, also got up to bear her testimony. We were amazed! She talked about how grateful she was that we were able to come to her door, talk to her about the gospel, and help her to find what she has really been missing in her life. It was such a good feeling to hear that from the pulpit. Our new relief society president has been an amazing fellowshipper for Katie as well. As I said before, we met Katie Thursday, taught her again on Friday by going through the baptismal interview questions, she came to the temple on Saturday, church on Sunday, and will be baptized on Saturday the 10th. Most prepared person I've ever met in my life. She has 5-6 family-friends that are members of the church from her home town of Bullhead, Arizona and has loved their church ever since she was little. She just has never taken the step of baptism. One of her friends told her to go to mormon.org and research a little. She did so and talked to the missionaries on the chat room. Those missionaries then referred her to us. We just stopped by on Thursday because our other appointment cancelled and she just happened to walk up the stairs when we were leaving. The Lord is definitely in this work! I love it.

In my study this week in 2 Nephi 4 I read a quote by Dallin H. Oaks about overcoming sins and weaknesses. It stood out to me a lot for some reason.

"Perhaps these persons, as the saying goes, were 'born that way.' But what does that even mean? Does it mean that persons with susceptibilities or strong tendencies have no choice, no free agency in these matters? Our doctrine teaches us otherwise. Regardless of a person's susceptibility or tendency, his will is unfettered. His free agency is unqualified. It is his freedom that is impaired...We are all responsible for the exercise of our free agency...Most of us are born with thorns in the flesh, some more visible, some more serious than others. We all seem to have susceptibilities to one disorder or another, but whatever our susceptibilities, we have the will and the power to control our thoughts and our actions. This must be so. God has said that he holds us accountable for what we do and what we think, so our thoughts and our actions must be controllable by our agency...We need to learn how to live so that a weakness that is mortal will not prevent us from achieving the goal that is eternal...The efforts we expend in overcoming any inherited weakness build a spiritual strength that will serve us throughout eternity."

Sure we all may have certain temptations and sins that easily beset us but that does not mean that we are forced to give in. If this were true, it would mean God would go against his original plan of agency, and He would cease to be God. His plan will not be frustrated. This plan gives me great hope in knowing that I do have certain susceptibilities but that I'm not forced to fall. And through the atonement I can always stand back up taller than I did before. I know that Christ is my personal Savior. I also know that He wasn't able to perform the miracles that He just did because He was the Son of God, but because He lived up to every commandment and covenant He had made to the Father. What is stopping us from reaching such trust from God? I'm grateful for the atonement that is there for me to "become like Him" because He loves me and wants me back. I'm grateful for a plan that provides me to leave my family for two years so that I can help others be with theirs for eternity. I love this work and this gospel!

I love you all as well. I bought a sweet Christmas tie today that I'm going to wear to Zone Leader Council tomorrow. It's bombin'. (New word from down here...maybe up there too.) Thank you so much for all you do. I hope all is going well there with the damage. I love your attitude about it being a blessing to have not been hit again. Many people would curse God and ask why such a thing would happen. That doesn't get anyone there. I think this is why Paul prayed that he is thankful for thorns in his side or burdens on his shoulders. He also prayed that his "thorn in the flesh" would depart from him. The Lord replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." I don't think that would have been the response if Paul had had the original attitude of murmuring when trials came into his life.

Once again, I love you. I love the Christmas season. It's weird to say I will have my third phone call with you in less than three weeks.

Have a Merry Christmas and please be safe.

Love,

Elder Colt Mouritsen