Tours, Towels, and a Trash Can

This week has been so busy! Lakewood is very fast paced. It's good though, I feel like you only have 2 options in LK, you can either fully commit yourself to the work, and give it 100% of your attention and heart, or you have to give up and get transferred somewhere else... Because you can't really function here on half of your efforts.  

I suppose it's like that everywhere, but it's easily apparent when the work pace is so fast.

This week was full of ups and downs..... the biggest down is that a missionary in our mission was struggling, and President decided that an ET was necessary....  So my new companion is Elder S.

Anyway,  Elder C and I gave the best church tours we've given our whole missions this past week.  I love church tours.  The guy's name is Tony.  He's a 23 year old black guy, very very very humble.  He has had a rough past, and looks pretty tough. But in the chapel he just bawled and bawled... we had to bring him paper towels and a trash can.   I was crying too.

We're making it a focus to give as many church tours as possible this week. Pray for us? 

Hmmm

I dont know what else to say.

Life is good, we're knocking a lot of doors, finding a lot of people, teaching good people, and we're happy.  

:)

Lonas

"THIS is how it's supposed to be."

Monday, July 22, 2013

Let's see...

We've had another busy week.  

One of our main focus is simply working with prepared people.  I feel like a common misconception is that missionaries are here to dispense information.  Anyone who wants to acquire more information can find our beliefs at Mormon.org.  Which is a great route to go.  

But information doesn't do anything to change a person.  At best, it will influence someone's opinion.  

We are here to help people come unto Christ, through faith and repentance, to prepare them for baptism.  So if they don't have their own desire to do that, we really can't do much for anyone, except leave our testimony, and point them in the right direction if they are curious.  

I have a testimony that God restores us according to our desires (Alma 29:4)

If we as missionaries are really looking for and focused on finding people whom God has already prepared, we will find them.  If we lack faith that there are truly prepared people, we'll only find people who are not truly prepared. 

It's tempting to try to coerce someone into hearing your message, but we are emphasizing focusing our efforts on people who already have a desire.  This has led us to some amazing people.

We're working with a lady named Sara right now.  We met her tracting when she was babysitting some kids for her friend, so she didn't have much time.  But she told us she wanted to learn about whatever we had to offer, because she needed a stronger relationship with God.  Sara is a recovering alcoholic, and has experienced some close personal losses recently.  

The first thing we teach is the Nature of God.  We read from Romans 8:16, and Acts 17.  She was absolutely floored.  We used basic, simple scriptures that we've used thousands of times before.  But to her, it was like a new revelation - because it WAS.  As she really read from the scriptures for the first time in her life, you could see on her outside what was happening on her inside.  

We explained to her what it meant to be a daughter of God.  She loved the idea of being a "Daddy's Girl" with her Father in Heaven :)  

She came to church yesterday, and is becoming friends with a lady in our congregation, Nancy, who was baptized just a few months ago, and can relate to a lot of her struggles.  

In our last lesson, we were teaching, and as Nancy was talking to Sara, I was struck by the thought: "THIS is how it's supposed to be."   

We as missionaries put forth all our efforts to be obedient and diligent. God prepared and led us to Sara, Nancy was willing to support Sara, and the spirit was so strong, it was the perfect teaching environment. 

When I hear about the hastening of the work of salvation, and how tracting will be phased out, my initial reaction is to cringe. I LOVE tracting.  But teaching- and I mean really teaching, not just tellling someone about the restoration,- is even better. I would love if 24/7 my days were filled with appointments like that. And with the hastening of the work, that will happen. probably not in my time as a full time missionary, but it will happen :)  

I love being a missionary. I love having a purpose every minute of my day, every day of my life, and I love that my purpose is of eternal significance. I love and am grateful for the privilege of carrying the mantle of a missionary.  I love the opportunity to work with other missionaries, and learn from them.  I love the WATAC.  I love the Book of Mormon, and the Bible.  I love... everything!

Love,

Lonas

"Very fun, very busy, very good place to be a missionary."

July 15, 2013

Dear Dear Dear,

I'm in Lakewood! Very fun, very busy, very good place to be a missionary.  My companions are great!  Me and Chris just fell right into the swing of being companions again.  But it's even better than last year. We are 15 months more experienced, we've learned how to be more efficient and effective missionaries.  We are laser focused on our purpose- and we have a blast doing it.  

Our two boys are Elder H and Elder M.  H is an 18 year old new missionary we're training. He's a baller, so I'm excited to learn some more from him.

Elder M is Samoan, and from Australia.  Chris trained him last transfer, and now we are follow up training him.  He's sooo funny.  Back home he was in a rap crew, and did like underground freestyle rap battles and stuff.  He is WAY good. So we do a lot of freestyle rapping throughout the day.  I'm getting better :)  

Christensen is going home after this transfer, so we are working really, really hard, and helping him finish strong. Please keep us in your prayers.  Please pray that we can find the family that we're looking for.

Oh, by the way, I don't remember if I included this in my last email or not, but guess who my District Leader is?   Elder S!  My boy from like 3 or 4 transfers ago!

He was a good boy, I figured he would be district leader pretty soon, but I didn't guess I would be Zone Leader of his district! I went to his District meeting on Wednesday, and was very impressed, he is a great missionary.  It reminded me that the caliber of a missionary is not determined by how long you've been in the mission field. There are great missionaries with a lot of experience under their belt, and great missionaries who are still learning the ropes.  That's not what it's all about :)  

Ok, enough small talk, lets get back to the scriptures.

so I'm continuing my Book of Mormon reading, where I'm going through at approximately the rate of 1 chapter a day. realistically a little bit slower, but around there, and I'm up to Alma 59.  The problem is that at this rate, when I finish, I won't have enough time to go through it again, which I really want to before I go home.  So I started another project, where I do 3 pages a day, so if I read 4 pages the last week, I'll finish the week I go home.  It's fun, and makes it easier to draw connections to different books and stories.  

So I was reading 1 Nephi 10:6, where we learn that the nature of man, in our temporal state, is 

a) Fallen

b) Lost

which struck me as significant, because we know that the nature of God is that he is 

a) Just 

b) Merciful.

so we are Lost and Fallen. Physically Fallen, because of our separation from God, and Lost because we wander from the path spiritually.

What I realized this morning is that characteristics of the nature of God and OUR nature go together.  It is the Justice of God which redeems all men from the fall, in bringing us back into his presence to be judged.  It is the Mercy of God which allows the demands of justice to be swung in our favor, where we can be restored for the good we have done, and forgiven for the bad.  It is through his Mercy that we can be "found" so to speak.  

Only 1 min left, so I better wrap this up.  No time to include other scripture references, or explain more. hope that makes sense.

Love

Lonas!

Dream Area, Dream Team :)

Monday, July 8, 2013

I need to preface the following statement, and the remainder of the email, by saying that Heavenly Father loves me sooooo much. Like, it's absolutely ridiculous.  I don't know if I did something good in the pre-mortal existence for which I'm being rewarded, or if He just knows I can't take many trials, and He promised me I wouldn't be tempted above that which I can bear, but I'm just blessed so much.

Transfer calls- Lonas is going to............................. LAKEWOOD!!!!!!!!!  (

My new (kinda) companion is gonna be............................ ELDER C!!!  The same guy I was with in Manette last year! hahahaha :)   He goes home in 6 weeks!  crazy.  This is completely unreal, I'm getting my dream area, with one of my best friends. Hopefully I'll remain in Lakewood for the duration of my mission. 

 

New address:

9411 56th Ave SW apt. MM-106

Lakewood, WA   98499

Sad news is I can't even describe how much I'm going to miss Bremerton.  This is my home... I'm scared to leave. But it'll all work out.  Hopefully I only need to learn this one last area, and I can just work as hard as I can.  Leave it all on the court :)  I have everything I could ask for to make these next transfers successful. 

Leaving Bremerton I already knew was going to be really hard... but as the end of the transfer got closer, I was sad, because I felt like I hadn't done a very good job.   There were specific people who I felt like I was sent to Bremerton to help, and not all those people have been baptized yet.  (bear with me... I KNOW the right answer, but it doesn't change the way I FEEL)  So I felt kind of like I failed.

Sally isn't baptized yet, because she's scared of her Dad. (understandably so, her dad is a scary man)  But she knows that the Gospel is true. And her Dad is meeting with missionaries now... and if his heart is softened, she'll be able to be baptized any given day.  

Chrissie just wouldn't come to church!  She could have been baptized months ago if she would just come to church- but she has never come.  And I've been so so patient with her. She has a good countenance. And then this Sunday, we dropped by her house an hour before church. She promised she would come.  Then she didn't show up.... so instead of Sunday school, We went BACK to her house, and put shoes on her son, and helped her get there.  She finally came!   She made it for all of relief society, and she loved it.  She has a couple friends in RS now, some are almost neighbors. she's going to go to game night tonight, she isn't afraid of coming to church now :)    And you know what? I'll be gone and won't be able to baptize her. But that's okay, because that's not what matters. It's not about "me" being able to baptize her. I was here, and I did my part in helping her progress. She is closer to her Saviour now than she was 6 weeks ago.  

Almost every person I've baptized here in Bremerton was at church.  Everyone is doing so well. The ward relations are the best I think they've ever been.  Heavenly Father has blessed us so much here.  Not that the success here has been because of anything that we as missionaries or as members could do.  It's the principle we learn in Jacob 5:61.  WE do the work, and HE brings forth the fruit.  It's his work, it happens on his terms, and his timetable.  And we're along for the ride and the growth, as long as we're obedient and diligent.  

My heart is so full, I can't really describe it.... But I am so grateful.  The Lord has blessed ME so much.  He is under no obligation to pour out so many tender mercies, He and I both know I don't deserve them.  But he does anyway. I KNOW that He lives, and I KNOW that He loves me.  

I'm going to go to Lakewood, which will be my promised land, and I will be blessed, prospered and preserved, inasmuch as I am faithful in keeping his commandments.  There is never really a reason to not be excited for transfer calls. Laman and Lemuel hated transfer calls.  Sometimes we as missionaries are the same way- We forget that it's His mission not ours, and we forget that His track record in making plans is significantly better than ours. But this transfer I don't even have to try to have a good attitude.  I've been blessed with anything I could have asked for.  

Transfer meeting will be bittersweet, as usual. One of my best friends in the world is going home.  And in 6 weeks, most of my other close friends go home as well.  Sad thoughts. 

But I'm still here, and I still have work to do.

And I'm happy.

Love,

Lonas

"WHY?!? I know it's true!"

This week has been very busy, but it's been good.  Four individuals we've been working with for awhile (ranging from 8 months, off and on, to... like 2 weeks) were baptized this weekend.  :) 

  The lady we had been teaching for the shortest amount of time, Annika, is one of the most solid people I've taught my whole mission.  To be perfectly honest, we barely even had to teach her.  Her mom and daughter are both LDS, and they've been teaching her for a long time.  She approached us on the street because she wanted her own Book of Mormon.  She already new 85% of the lessons we have.  I've also never seen anyone so impatient to be baptized.  We explained to her like a billion times that people are supposed to go to church a couple times before their baptism.  She was like "WHY?!? I know it's true!"

Her mom flew in from Oregon see her baptism, her step-father baptized her. :)  

The baptisms were all great, but I'm absolutely exhausted.

I don't really know how I'm almost out of time.  Writing about my week is really hard, I just get lost in thought.

Doing this email thing is clearly not my strong point.    That's ok, I can repent and try again next week!