Week 42 - "God uses us all, my son."
Hey, everyone!
I was about to say that this week had been pretty uneventful, but now that I looked back through our Area Book calendar, consulted Elder Smith, and thought about it for a bit, there was a LOT that happened this week--more than I probably have the room to write about. I also came to the stunning realization that I've been in Chillicothe all of 11 days. That's absolutely nuts. It feels like I've been here 3 or 4 weeks. We only took Elder Jones up to Canal Winchester to meet the Assistants 9 days ago. My perception of time is all over the place, apparently.
The quote is from The Da Vinci Code, which I can recommend conditionally. It's not intended to be used in this context the same way as in the context in which it's used in the movie. Just take it as it is.
So on Monday we actually had to take another drive up toward the Columbus area, to Circleville, to get some bedbug-proof mattress covers (bedbugs are a big problem here in Ohio, and you have to be very conscious of what homes you go into and where you sit, and depending on the place, you have to do a pretty thorough check of your clothes after you leave and throw them in the dryer when you get home to make sure nothing takes up residence in your apartment. I guess the lack of bedbugs is one more reason to appreciate the West. Anyhow, with President's permission, we took the opportunity to take an item Elder Jones had left behind up to the zone leaders in the Scioto Ward, so the whole evening after preparation was basically just a road trip, which was fun. We were able to talk to them about what's going on in their zone and with their elders, and I was able to hear a little about how my companion from my last area, Elder McVey, is doing. That was good. It was good to see Elder Klinkowski and Elder Lowry again. They were my zone leaders last transfer, and they're really great guys, and awesome missionaries.
The next day we spent part of the day helping some members right near our apartment to put a rope on a flagpole they had just put up and then weeding their front garden. The husband was a veteran and wanted to make sure the flagpole was functional in time for Patriots' Day (September 11). It was a cool service project to be involved in. It made me feel patriotic.
On Wednesday we had the elders serving in Jackson double into our area. Elder Smith, my companion, is the district leader for our district this transfer, so he has to do at least one training visit with each elder in the district. He spent time in Chillicothe with a greenie, Elder Muhlestein (who, from what Elder Wiggins told me, is a super bomb missionary already, and totally prepared--his family would have a family devotional every morning when he was growing up, and he's a great teacher and seems like he's here to get stuff done), and Elder Wiggins and I took a trip down to Waverly, further South in our area, to visit a few people. While we were there we met an amazing person being taught named Jamie. Jamie has already ben taught all of the lessons, we're just waiting on some logistics for his baptism, and then we'll put him on date, get him interviewed, and get him baptized. He actually grew up in the Community of Christ. He watches general conference all the time, and he's got a testimony that our church is the true church. His mother sat in with us, and she's been taught many of the lessons as well. She commented on how she feels like our two churches are sort of just part of the same church, though as we talked, she definitely made her own distinctions about how our church has been able to move forward so strongly and build so many temples (the Community of Christ has two temples), and she also said we study more deeply than they do. We also talked about the many miracles that happened over the course of the saints moving west. It seemed like by the end of our conversation she was thinking about the many evidences that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of the Restoration. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to meet with her more, and that as we do she'll come to recognize the many things that witness that our church is true and that she'll be interested in joining us officially.
That night we also met a great member family named the Littles who have moved into the ward from the D.C. area. The father is ex-military, and he's starting a nonprofit here using sustainable small agriculture as a tool to help veterans with PTSD and other difficulties, arising from their service, and their families. The last person we met with who the elders before us were teaching was a guy named Alex. Alex is so solid. He has an absolute testimony of The Book of Mormon. He kept saying things like, "You can't tell me that book isn't true." He's been through a lot of trial and trauma in his life, but he found God through it all. He says, "God is the God of Many Chances." He's got a little family, a wife and two kids, and he's ready to be baptized, but he's waiting on his wife to catch interest and move forward, because he wants to do it with her. He doesn't want to leave her behind in that decision. But he indicated we don't need to worry about him. As he said, "I'm a lifer, bud." He's awesome. It's going to be a privilege to meet with him and try to bring him and his family closer to the truths we hold dear.
That night Elder Wiggins and I were walking around Waverly and, as we went to visit two potentials, eventually ended up with three new people to teach, all in the course of an hour. This area is super blessed. "The field is white already to harvest." As we were walking around a corner, Elder Wiggins felt like he needed to knock on the door of this house. We did, and the woman who answered was very receptive. We'll be going back tonight to see if we can teach her and her husband. It should be good.
On Thursday we visited with a former member named Mike. That was an interesting visit. He had his name removed, but he still believes firmly and staunchly in The Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it. He's just not necessarily about the church. He said he had some concerns about a variety of things, and it seems like a concern or two was social. As we talked with him, he said a lot of things that made me feel like he wants to come back. He actually asked us for a Gospel Principles manual as well, which we'll be taking over to him later this week.
On Friday after weekly planning we went over to the area of the paper mill. Before I came to this area my mom let me know that there's a Mead Paper Mill here in Chillicothe. When I arrived, Elder Jones talked about the awful smell it makes and how much he hated it. We hadn't smelled anything for the past week, and so we weren't sure what he was talking about. There was a time or two there were some weird smells in the area, but nothing too bad. But when we went over there Friday night--you guys, it smelled so bad. I don't want to get too graphic or detailed, and I'm not trying to say anything bad about the area or anything, but I imagine it's what it would smell like if you left baked beans in the fridge for a few weeks, fed them to a cow, and came back in a few hours to clean up the byproduct. That's the best way I can describe it. It was so bad. I was shoving my tie in my nose to filter the air as we were walking back to the car. I never knew making paper was so rank.
Anyhow, on to more pleasant things. On Saturday we spend a little time at the library putting together a spreadsheet so we can organize our efforts of finding members and verifying their information. The Chillicothe Ward has about 600 members on its rolls, and 1/6th or 1/7th of those members are active. When we were talking with Mike, he actually said that there were a lot of ex-members of the church in this area. (He joked that it was "Apostasyland.") We also got doubled in, and we were joined by sisters this transfer as well, so we've been trying to send records of single women over to them so they can teach them (it's easier for them to teach single women and for us to teach single men). As we've been doing that we've been cleaning out the area book, deleting records that don't have potential for one reason or another. I think we'll be spending a lot of time just trying to get records organized. Anyway, what we're doing is putting together a spreadsheet that allows us to keep track of who is active, who has moved, who is inactive, who doesn't want to be contacted, and so forth. We had something similar in Riverside. But we're trying to streamline the sheet so that it's very easy for everyone (missionaries and ward leadership alike) to use. Unfortunately the solution we've come up with for that problem requires some more advanced coding that is a little out of my depth. I would have to use Google's Script language to create the functions we needed, but if we can make it work, the spreadsheet will be a super useful tool. I'm just not sure the knowledge I have is sufficient for that. We were going to talk to Elder Smith's brother, who's a computer programmer, but if one of you is experienced and would like to help, let me know, and I can explain the problems we're running up against.
Anyway, that's probably boring to most of you. I guess the last thing for this email was a really cool opportunity we had to give another person a blessing. There's someone the sisters are teaching named Beth who wanted us to come and bless her apartment and then give her a priesthood blessing, so that's what we did. We asked her what she needed the blessing for (so we could clarify if she needed a healing blessing or a blessing of comfort and counsel), and she said she felt like there was some kind of a presence with her, and she wanted it to leave. So we gave her a blessing, and we commanded any influence or presence or evil to depart. I didn't feel any different, but she said there was something, and it left, and it made a difference. We testified of the power of the priesthood, of the Holy Ghost, and of Jesus Christ. That experience was kind of an object lesson of a principle that's been rattling around in my head for the past week or so. I've been thinking about how the Lord is involved in the details of our lives, how he uses us to further his purposes, and how the Spirit can work even when we're not aware that it's working. I'm sure many of us have had experiences where we say something to or do something for someone offhand, without really even thinking about it, and later they tell us that what we said or did was just exactly what they needed, or they felt the Spirit confirm it to them or something like that. One of the things I've learned on my mission, a mantra I've tried to develop, is, "Who you are today is enough, but it won't quite be enough tomorrow." God can use all of us in whatever situation we're in. He even uses those who are doing bad things and directs their actions to accomplish his plans. In 1 Nephi 2:23-24 we learn this principle. God says that the seed of Nephi's brethren will have no power over his seed unless his seed rebels against God as well. If they do, God will make this seed of his brethren a scourge unto Nephi's seed, and this is the crucial part, "to stir them up in the ways of remembrance." God can use the behavior of the Lamanites in order to bring the Nephites to a point where they can be more edified. This principle is taught again in 1 Nephi 13, where the Lord shows Nephi the coming forth of the Gentiles to the land of promise, and how the Lord will use the Gentiles to scatter the seed of Nephi's brethren (1 Nephi 13:14), but he won't allow the Lamanites to be utterly destroyed (1 Nephi 13:30-31). Apparently God used the Gentiles to accomplish a purpose, even if their behavior might not have been appropriate. These are extreme examples, but they illustrate to us that God can use us in whatever circumstance we are in, and I would submit that he can use us even more effectively when we ask him for direction and are seeking to follow him. But sometimes even when we are doing that, we have difficult experiences, or perhaps we deal with struggles that occupy our mind or pull us away from the Lord and make it difficult to us to feel the Spirit. But the Spirit has our back, and he operates and uses our efforts even when we aren't the ones feeling him there. As we're trying to do what the Lord wants us to, he can take that effort and consecrate it to his purposes.
That reminds me of a couple of videos from the church. You should watch these:
Also, if you haven't seen the trailer for the church's videos on The Book of Mormon, check it out: (https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1221743138021738&id=18523396549&sfnsn=mo). When I first watched it I was a little underwhelmed, but as I've watched the trailer another few times I've seen little details that make me excited for the videos. I think they're going to be great. The first one comes out this Friday, so keep an eye out!
In other news, this week (tonight), we'll be going down to Jackson to participate in an event called the Apple Festival. It's a huge event in the area, so they bring a bunch of missionaries every day during the week to help out. We'll be conducting a little survey with people to try to find those who are interested in learning more about our message.
I love you all! Thanks for your emails. I appreciate it when you keep in touch.
Elder Davis
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