Week 58 - "I take from you your POWER! And I CAST YOU OUT!"

Hello, everyone!

Crazy week. What else is new? It's been full of ups and downs. The quote is from Anthony Hopkins' Odin in Thor. It has to do with something that happened later this week when we were meeting with a guy we're teaching.

So we've been teaching a guy named Kenny who's a friend of a recent convert, and we've had three meetings with him this week that have been really good. I'll talk more about that later, because the best one was yesterday.

So after Monday this week started off with interviews and district council at the mission home, which was really good. It was the day before one of the sisters in our district, Sister Jung, would go home, so Elder Sears asked her to bear testimony, which was really cool. My interview with president was really good, too. I didn't have any urgent, pressing issues, so we were able to mostly just talk about missionary work and how to do it and so forth. It was refreshing. At the end of the interview president told me I was probably staying in Delaware and Elder Sears was probably on his way out. He said, "Get ready to lead that area. That's why you're there," or something to that effect. So I don't know what that means as far as what I'll be doing here, whether I'll simply be the senior companion or the district leader or what, and I won't find out until later today, possibly after preparation day ends, so I may not have an update for you about that until the beginning of next week. If I do find out about it before 6 p.m. my time, I'll send an email letting you know about specifics.

So in addition to that kink in our schedule (interviews involves us driving 30 minutes down to the mission home; having district council, waiting until it's our turn to meet with president, considering we currently have the largest district in the mission with 8 companionships; then driving back, not to mention we had to do a vehicle inspection), we had two double-in training visits (where we go to an area and do an exchange and both companionships work in the area) and attended a baptismal interview this week. So we haven't been in our area very much. Honestly, we haven't been in our area very much this transfer. But good things have been happening.

So the first training visit we went to Lewis Center/Polaris, and I got to spend time with Elder Yukihiro, who seems really cool and really chill. That area has had trouble for a long time, but since Elder Yukihiro has been there they've been focusing on member work, trying to help the members become involved with missionary work by simply serving and helping them and seeking to uplift them, and they've had three baptisms, one for every transfer. So we spent basically the whole day visiting with members and trying to bless and uplift them. There was one woman whom we asked if there was anything we could do to help, and she said no, but then she said, "Unless you know how to upgrade a computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10--I need to upgrade mine." Just a few days earlier, Elder Sears and I had gone to the library, and he worked IT before his mission, and he carries around a little case with some flash drives and other technology stuff. He keeps some personal information on one and then a copy of Windows 10 on another, because he felt like he should, and you never know when you might need to install Windows 10 for somebody, I guess, which he can do because a. He knows how, and b. The computers he has installed it on so far already had a license for it. Anyway, we had gone to the library, and he had just barely updated the copy of Windows 10 he keeps on the drive to the most current copy. So when this sister said that, I was like, "I know someone who may be able to help you out with that." So we called Elder Sears and Elder Pearce, and they came and met us there, and then Elder Sears got it done. He really knows what he's doing, too--her computer was better than brand new from the store by the time he was done with it. I hope it strengthens the relationship between the missionaries there and that sister. She was very grateful for the help. Also, Elder Yukihiro is a bomb cook and makes some really good food. He made a couple things for us, and they were really good.

We had a lesson with some members the next day, and I learned about patience and expectations: We try to encourage people to do missionary work, to invite others to participate in the church or show them by their example how to live the gospel or even just invite them to be with a group of people who share our faith in whatever context that may be. But we were trying to encourage this family to do that, and I think I got a little impatient with the kids, because they seemed a little cold toward us at Sacrament meeting Sunday. Basically one of them said it was really difficult to invite people, and I asked him "Why?" trying to get him to think about the reason, because when I do that I often find that there is no real reason for me to be afraid about things. But I think I didn't do it in love so much as out of a lingering impatience. But what I'm learning is that sometimes we expect people with less experience in the gospel (or even in life in general) to think the way we do, to have learned the same lessons we have, and to behave in the same way we do, and that's simply unreasonable. If we feel the place that we are is a good place to be, we can invite people to come that place and be there with us, but to basically berate them for not being there already or do anything like that doesn't help anything. People are constantly going through difficult experiences in their lives, and if they're trying, they're learning and growing in the ways that they need to and that God is guiding them to. We can invite them to grow in a certain direction, but making them feel they've done something wrong because they're not there already is unhelpful. We have to be patient and understanding with people. We can invite them to be with us and offer to help them get there, but I think only rarely, if ever, is it appropriate to make someone feel that they're falling behind or aren't at the point in their progression that they should be. We may be moved upon by the Spirit to tell people they have made a mistake and aren't in a good place, but to make them feel like they're behind everyone else in a race is not, I think, in line with what the gospel teaches.

We learned about that the next day, actually. After getting up and shampooing the carpets at our apartment (we were asked to clean them before we move out), we attended a baptismal interview, and the interviewer asked the candidate the question about tithing, unaware that he was in a very difficult financial situation (like, no money, just barely beginning to get a paycheck), and after some discussion about it and seeking to encourage the candidate to pay an honest, 10 percent tithe, the candidate basically just got up, gathered his stuff and left. The missionaries who were teaching him ran after him, trying to remedy the situation, but he took off. I talked to the interviewer, and he felt pretty badly about it, but it was a complicated situation, and I don't necessarily think he did the wrong thing, though it may have been wise of him to mention the church's welfare resources and how the blessings from tithing can come directly from funds the ward has donated precisely for the purpose of helping people in difficult situations. Still, missionaries aren't taught a lot about whether we're supposed to give leeway in those interview questions or not. Not long afterward President called and told the missionary about how the interview is a safety net meant to help us determine a candidate's worthiness before their baptism, and he said he did the right thing. Elder Sears and I also learned later that the candidate was re-interviewed by someone else and got baptized this weekend, so it seems like everything worked out.

Later that day we got to give a church tour to one of the people we're teaching, Kenny, and his friend and a recent convert, David, and he really enjoyed it and said he would come to church that Sunday, so that was exciting. That night we helped the senior couple in our area move some things out of their apartment, which is going to become our apartment tomorrow, and then went down to Worthington for another double-in training visit. After the events of Friday with the way the baptismal interview went, we sort of had a cloud of gloom over us, and that was hard to sweep away, but the day in Worthington did my soul good. We were able to see Nancy (you remember Nancy, from Worthington? If you don't, go back to my Worthington emails) and just sit and talk with her, like old times. At the end of the meeting I was able to share some scriptures and doctrine with her that I think she appreciated. If I'm able to stay in Delaware and still do exchanges there (if I'm in the district leader companionship or if the district leader companionship is in Worthington), I'm going to keep visiting her and seeing what I can do to uplift her. I think she has a lot of potential to be blessed by the gospel. Anyway, the time Elder Bond, Elder Meyers and I spent there was really good and really did my soul good. Later that night we went to visit a family called the Kanus (I may have mentioned them in previous emails in Worthington) and taught them about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We've taught them before, but the lesson that night was absolutely filled with the Spirit. There were also two other people there, relatives of theirs, Khadija and Mahdi, who became new people being taught! It was awesome! They also committed to come to church and to attend a baptism, and they did! It was great! So that was a nice contrast to the pretty gloomy events of Friday.

The next day, Sunday, we had another great day. Kenny came to church, for a start. That was awesome. And then we were able to go and meet James. We haven't been in touch with him in a while, and we've been wondering what was going on, and then he called us and invited us to come over. When we did, we found out that the woman he wants to marry, Karen, is in town, too! We were able to meet her and get to know her. After we had talked to her for a bit, she was like, "So Mormons, you guys don't believe in Jesus Christ, right? Or something like that?" And we were like, "Oh, we believe in Jesus Christ. We can't be saved without Jesus Christ." We pointed out our nametags and shared some scriptures out of The Book of Mormon about the necessity of Christ in the Plan of Salvation (I suppose that's an understatement--it would be more accurate to say that there is no Plan of Salvation without Jesus Christ), and she was like, "Oh! I guess I had some misconceptions." She seemed very impressed with us, and she expressed a desire to come to church with us on Sunday, so we're hoping and praying that happens. I guess we'll do all we can to help it happen, too. We've been hoping and hoping that if Karen came, she would be what James needed to get him more invested in the gospel, and we're going to continue to pray that that will be the case. So that was awesome. Also, Elder Sears helped them install Windows 10 on their computer, so we did some more IT help. (Hey, you use your talents to further the work, right?)

The next day, yesterday, we had a really great experience with Kenny. He deals with some difficult health problems, and they were making teaching the lesson difficult. He said it was making reading the section of The Book of Mormon we were in tough. Both Elder Sears and I felt like the adversary was trying to interfere and making the problem worse than usual. We had planned on teaching the Restoration that night, our most important message. We had mentioned priesthood blessings before, so we taught him briefly about the priesthood and the restoration of it, and asked him if he would like a priesthood blessing. He said he would like anything that could help. So we explained the procedure, and then I was the voice for the blessing. I felt like I needed to bless him with health but also bless him that any evil or unclean spirits that were harassing him would be banished, never to return. After it was over, he said his problems had abated and were much less intense. We told him that as he continued to have faith, he would be healed more and more. We then taught the Restoration, and at the end we asked him if he would pray to know that it was true, and he said, "Oh, I know it's true." So that was pretty awesome. I felt "off" during the lesson, but Elder Sears said he felt the Spirit as I spoke, and as I gave the blessing, so I guess I just wasn't supposed to feel it as strongly at that point, for whatever reason. Earlier that evening we also visited with Martin, a recent convert who drives us to church--he's awesome. He wanted pictures with us before transfers, in case either of us left. He loves the missionaries, and he's going to the temple pretty soon, so we're excited for him. We're probably going to be meeting with him more frequently and reading the scriptures with him. I'll let you know if we have any cool experiences that way.

That's basically it for this week. I feel like Mormon: "I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people." There are many other things I could sit and write about--I could probably spend all prep day writing about everything that happens every week, but hopefully what I write is enough.

I love you all. Have a good week! I'll let you know what happens as far as transfers.

Elder Davis

Me and Martin

Elder Sears and Martin

The mission is doing a Book of Mormon challenge where we're reading through The Book of Mormon in 90 days and marking commandments, blessings for keeping the commandments, and consequences of not keeping the commandments. I'll let you know if I have any cool insights as a result.

I found this on another elder's phone during a device audit and thought it was pretty great. I asked if I could have it, and thought I would share it with you all.