The Lazarus Principle

Do you have a favorite zone conference topic or talk?

I taught institute earlier this week (it was awesome to be with a group of returned and prospective missionaries!)

I told them a little about the Lazarus principle. That was one of my favorites. My epiphany after my temple visit and just prior to speaking was that we should never ask for something unless we are already doing everything we can to make it happen. And sometimes, that's the answer to our prayer. Not that the thing is wrong, but that we aren't doing all in our power yet to make it happen. One thing I learned on our mission, I hope you did, too, is that we are capable of so much more than we think especially when we are pursuing the right course.

Know. Feel. Do!

AMM alum make the New Era conference cover!

Still working miracles!

And still the best missionaries in the world no matter where they're transplanted! 

Elder Jorgensen and Elder Miller formerly of the AMM and now serving as Assistants to the President in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. Look at those smiles. I love it!

And two shall put their tens of thousands to flight

 Doctrine and Covenants 133:57-59

“And for this cause, that men might be made partakers of the glories which were to be revealed, the Lord sent forth the fulness of his gospel, his everlasting covenant, reasoning in plainness and simplicity—

“To prepare the weak for those things which are coming on the earth, and for the Lord’s errand in the day when the weak shall confound the wise, and the little one become a strong nation, and two shall put their tens of thousands to flight.

“And by the weak things of the earth the Lord shall thrash the nations by the power of his Spirit.”

Welcome Home!

14 missionaries made it home today. They started checking in with president around 1:00. (We still haven't heard from a few.) Being close to his home town, we were able to surprise Elder Matsunaga. Miracles continue. We love you all and wish we could have been at each of your homes and met your families. Thank you to the Matsunaga family for their hospitality and graciousness, but especially for their son. We love him.

If you have tips for the transition back, we'd be glad if you'd share!

Make the Green Grow

From Elder Gleaves, a zone leader in Phoenix

"This week has just been amazing! We have seen so many miracles come from working hard and diligently especially with the "making the green grow" project. We have seen an elevated level of excitement in the Elders, and I really feel like it has unified us as a zone. It reminded me a lot of this past Christmas when we were all excited to hear about baptisms, where we were at and how many more we coming. It's the same thing now, but just with the TTI's (TTI is an acronym for Teach, Testify, and Invite. We use it to refer to street contacting). The Elders are excited to get feedback, and they worked harder than ever. Not only did we reach our goal, but we soared past it making a new recod in the zone of 1790 TTI's. And now that everyone did it, we all reached the goal of 140 TTI's per companionship, we know that we can do it every week. 

It was something really cool to see that the number of lessons didn't decrease, it actually continued to go up. We are teaching more, and seeing more people come to sacrament meeting. I believe that it is due to our efforts of talking to EVERYONE that we see. We were definetly able to see how God was able to prepare the way for us in giving us enough time to do everything. Just a quick example, yesterday we actually had the chance to have Elder Isom with us, and in that day we only had 2 lessons planned. So in the begining we were just trying to make contacts and visits, and not too much worked out. We we continued to work diligently even when we weren't teaching and the Lord did bless us. We ended up that night with 6 lessons, and 30 TTI's. Looking back, I dont even know how we did it with only 2 lessons planned. But the Lord prepared his children to be there in their homes at the right time so that we could visit them. And a lot of the people that we visited yesterday are on their way towards baptism in the next couple of weeks. We have been so blessed here to find those prepared to accept the gospel."

The Livingston's

The office staff went to The Godd Egg for breakfast just before the Livingston's finished their assignment. It was an opportunity to poke fun at Elder Livingston one last time. Although he loves chocolate, he doesn't eat it EVER (willpower!). The enjoyment on their faces is when they realized that book was a chocolate gone crazy type cookbook. The second prank was a plate full of bananas-something he refuses to eat on purpose. Who would be crazy enough to eat a banan on purpose?

We love you both. We hope you make it home...eventually, but remember part of you will always stay here with us. We love you!

Some things should never change!

AMM Sisters are the best in the world! Full field or VC, it doesn't matter. Beautiful. Virtuous. Faithful. Diligent. Focused. Strong. Everything Sister Beck encouraged women to be during General Conference. They're fantastic, and we love them all.

Look for the photo of two sisters talking to a young man sitting on the lawn outside the temple. Sister Fonbuena and Sister Bustillo were heading to the Udall building for a prepartory meeting with the elders. Their role was to give a few reminders to the missionaries and encourage them to fill their hearts with faith. On the way, I saw as they stopped to talk with this young man. I took a picture and went on to the building. When they caught up with me, they were excited to let me know they'd just had a top box...in Spanish. Sister Fonbuena is an English speaking missionary and only knew the little bit of spanish she had scribbled on a card. It was enough and then some. They were so happy when I told them I thought I had a picture of them in action. (See, sometimes having the camera around is a good thing!)

Updates and More

I have some super cool news. I graduate in May (not the cool news, but still good), so I decided that I was going to move back to Orlando so that I could teach RS in my old singles ward (the RS presidency wanted me to, and I LOVE teaching RS!). I had been thinking about this decision for a while, and made the decision to do it for sure on saturday. Well, the next day was the sunday before conference so I fasted (mistakingly thinking it was fast sunday). I fasted to know that my decision to move was right, and that I would be in the place where I could help the Lord most effectively. After Sacrament, a member of the stake called me into the office and issued a calling to be an Institute Instructor teaching Mission Prep. I just stared at him blankly, in silence. Had he REALLY just offered me my DREAM calling when I had just decided to move?!?! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN!!! In the awkward, staring silence- he said "did you ever think you would be an institute teacher?" I didn't know what to do! I felt good about moving to Orlando! I thought about it during gospel doctrine and decided that it was the answer to my fast. I am going to have to commute every week (1.5 hours) to teach this class... but I am SO stinking excited!!! I am under the direction of the CES Institute Director and I will have a key to the building and everything (SO official)! I LOVE missionary work! I can't wait to share that love with prospective missionaries. I really hope that I can help those who are bordering on "not going" to fall on the side of "I CAN'T WAIT TO GO!" I've been home 18 months. Do you know how long the stake counselor thought I had been home? TEN (because of my behavior)! Now THAT'S a complement if I've ever heard one! I found out that two of my friends who took the first lesson a month ago (see my other post of "Two Birds with One Invite"), were each approached by a family member who angrily interrogated them about their visits with the Mormons. They each told me of their responses and I was AMAZED at the nearly perfect first lesson each of them taught to their accusers. Even though they didn't want to proceed with the lessons, each of them shared what they knew with others. They defended the LDS church with all that they had learned. What a sweet experience. Currently, I have been talking with one of my friends who is going through a "spiritual rehab". She is very in tune with "the universe" and very gay. I have a deep personal love for those who struggle with same gender attraction, but I am always very careful and hesitant when I want to share the gospel with them, knowing what they would have to sacrifice. However, I KNOW that they need these blessings, and I KNOW that it is my responsibility to share it with them. Today I was able to share a little bit about the church with her as we had lunch. Before we ate, I said "excuse me, I need to bless my food". I bowed my head and said a silent prayer. Afterwords, she smiled and said "I need to do that! What did you say?" I was able to share with her how to pray, and to tell her some of the things that I prayed for. She responded "I like that!". I don't know how far this will go, but I DO know that she needs to see the life of a Latter-day Saint who actually lives the gospel. Homosexuals rarely get to see "the good" aspects of the church, so I'm glad that I can be there. We had a very spiritually uplifting conversation. Did I tell you about the Jew I met while I was donating platelets and plasma? She has become my favorite phlebotomist! She is a jew who actually practices her religion! She speaks fluent Hebrew and everything. We talked about temples and some other gospel topics. I told her that I wanted to learn more about Judaism and she told me that she wants to learn more about the LDS church. I'm going to go to the synagogue with her on some friday. How could anyone NOT love missionary work!

Well this past Sunday we had some amazing miracles both having to do with church attendance. We are teaching Juan, who has a baptism date. We have taught him for maybe a month now, and he is already in the book of Mosiah, and he started from the beginning. So that's cool, but he had a problem with being able to go to church every week due to his schedule. Then, just out of the blue, without us even asking him to do it, he asked for Sunday off, and like that he got it. There was no conflict, or problem what so ever. It was amazing. So we are excited to get him prepared to be baptised.

Then the next was a couple, who we have been teaching for about 2 transfers now. They had a date but couldn't make it because the husband always worked on Sunday. Just recently we had a church tour with them. Then his wife asked if he could drop her of at church on his way to work, so we had it planned that she would go while he went to work. But when they got there on Sunday both were there to go to church. We asked him if he was going to stay and he said yes, because the night before some one called him and told him that he had Sunday off. It's amazing. So we are really looking forward for these people so that they can continue progressing and soon be baptized.

But these are just some of the miracles that Elder Staton and I have received.

 

Elder Gleaves

President,

...Will you please forward this section to sister bassett as a miracle?

This week, we were biking around, our appointment fell through, our three backups for the hour all didn't answer the door, and we were without plans. We were just contemplating what we should do, when I saw this guy walking by a street away. I felt like I should go talk to him, and as I got ready to go, he turns the corner and starts walking toward us. I felt REALLY urged then, so we talked to him. It was just after a District meeting about questions of the soul, and I asked him a question. He completely opened up, and said how he would like to learn more about why he's here. It was a really neat experience to me, how God had put us in the right street at the right time to talk with His child. Every soul is precious in His eyes.

Elder Morgan

From Elder Gomez:

So you know the challenge you issued at zone conference?  We gave it a shot.  On Saturday we attempted to contact as many former investigators as we possibly could.  We got a couple that might be worth following up on.  So we were thinking... where is this person who is ready for the gospel that Sister Bassett promised us?  We had a baptism that night, which by the way was amazing, and the sister of the baptizee (is that a word?? :) ) really felt the spirit and decided that she wanted to learn the gospel as well.  So there you go, your faith was not in vain.  We did find somebody who is ready for the gospel... even though we didn't exactly find them the way we would have expected.

Dear sister bassett

 

First, last Friday Elder Parkin and I were feeling a little discouraged because we haven't found any one in a while.  We had two potentials in the area book. So I took the time to get down on my knees and say a prayer. I talked with the Lord. "We are talking to a lot of people. We are trying to do as you wish but where are the blessings?" The answer I received was to wait. The Lord has his time. So being pacified, the next day we had a baptism for our investigator named Amy, which is a miracle in and of itself. Low and behold one of our members brought their friend to the baptism and she wants to learn more. How sweet is that.

 

See you Thursday

 

Love Elder Thomas 

Well the baptism of the family Parra was one of the most amazing services that I have attended. Not only because they were getting baptized, but also when I got there I saw a kid named Christian, whose family had been less active for years. When I was with Elder Salazar we had tried going by so many times, and just could never get them to church, but now their son got baptized, and their other son is thinking of going on a mission. It was amazing to see. I couldn't believe it. I sent a picture of the baptism of the Family Parra, so hopefully you get it. But also it was really cool because the brother that gave the talk based it almost perfectly on what Pres. Bassett talked about, with baptism just being the door that we can enter to start on the path towards God. He gave an amazing heartfelt talk.

Well thanks Sis Bassett for everything, especially your talk in stake conference.

Elder Gleaves