Staying in Bremerton

Monday, April 15

We're pretty short on time, but I'll try and get some stuff in.  We have a baptism tonight though, which is awesome!  

First Transfer calls!  I'm............STAYING!  Along with Elder B, which is cool.   :)

Same address.  

 

Along with my Book of Mormon reading which is still going on, I was thinking a lot about a conversation I had with a lady the other day about the book of Hosea.  I decided to reread it, so I'm reading 2 chapters a day along with my other studies, so it will only take me about a week.  I started this morning, It was really nice.  I highly recommend reading it, and cross referencing it with John 10:1-15 ish... give or take a couple verses.  Up until it's done talking about sheep. haha.
I don't really have time to email my thoughts on these passages, but I really really loved them.  I'd also read 1 John 3:2, and Mosiah 5:13 along with it.  And Hebrews 11:1.  And all of Alma 32 :)

I'm really excited for this next transfer, we have a ridiculous amount of work going on, so we'll be kept very very busy, which is good.  I think it builds character.  With only 1 companion switching out, we'll flow right into this transfer with a pretty smooth transition.  

Sorry this email was really short, but we have to go fill up the font. I feel like that's a pretty good excuse :)

 

Love,

Lonas

 

Point A to Point B

Monday, April 8

 

I can't believe I'm starting the last week of the transfer, time just flies by.  This week has been awesome, and also kind of hard.  I've been a sick little ducky this week, which is unfortunate. Being sick as a missionary has got to be one of my least favorite things.  You still have tons of work you need to do, a lot of stress on your mind, and you just have to suck it up and do it anyway.  Obviously if you're sick enough you need to stay home and sleep/rest/not get other people sick.  But I don't think I was sick enough to justify not working, so I just worked like normal only it was a lot harder and more uncomfortable.  Not fun, but that's ok, it's all part of the experience, right? :) 

 

This morning I woke up feeling a bit better than I have been feeling, so that's good, I'm on to the recovery!

 

We've had tons of miracles this week!  Including the Miracle of Life! That's right, we had a baby! Well not literally 'us', but Rachel and Mitch did, and we got to go visit them in the hospital and see them and the baby :)  When the baby was born, they asked them what her name was, and they told them they hadn't decided yet, haha so they have 1 week to decide! We did our best to provide helpful options.  I suggested they name her "Elder Lonas", which I thought was a winner.  They politely declined. 

 

Wasn't conference great?!?! In case any one who isn't a member is reading this, and I haven't already given an explanation, we have General Conference every 6 months, where the Prophet and his apostles give inspired talks, so we know what Heavenly Father needs us to know today, in our day and age, because we face very different trials than they did 3 thousand years ago :)  I loved Holland's talk on Faith, he's a Boss. 

 

This week went by crazy fast, we had conference, ZLC ( I have no clue what happened in the meeting, I was just blowing my nose the whole time, and trying not to be too disgusting) and interviews and stuff to take care of, So I feel like we didnt have enough time to do everything we had to do.  We had to really focus and put out heads down when we WERE working to make up for lost time.  Meetings and stuff are good, they definitely help us, but sometimes I wish I could just work 24/7 for 2 years without distractions and stuff. 

 

 

Final thoughts, And I apologize if I've already talked about this, but it's been on my mind again recently.  I think we often make the mistake of looking at life, and the things we do in life, as a getting from point A to point B scenario.  Which is stupid.  Especially considering that point A and point B are often the same place.

 

In the grander scheme of things, we began with Heavenly Father, and we intend to return to Heavenly Father.  Before a mission, we begin at home, leave for 2 years, and then....go back home again.  Or even going on a run, we often run in a loop.  So if your only goal is to get from point A to point B, then everything in between is just an irritation, and honestly the most efficient shortcut would be to just not leave in the first place. 

But if your goal isn't about getting to a certain point, but about becoming something, than everything that is in your way becomes, instead of an irritation, a means of achieving your goal.  Like a steep hill on your morning run.  If you're trying to get back to the car, then the hill is a bad thing, because it's in your way. If you're trying to become a better runner, than the hill is what's going to enable you to do that.  Challenges on a mission, or in life, are the same way, I think.  Good stuff to think about.  Thornton and I would talk about this some time, and as we've dealt with different challenges this past week its been on my mind again.  It's all part of Heavenly Father helping us become who he wants us to be :) 

 

Life is really good, as a missionary I feel blessed way more than I deserve. 

 

Love, Elder Lonas!  

 

P.S.

So remember the guy from my last letter who gave me pizza and told me that God wasn't real? So I didn't mention this part of the story last time cuz it wasn't relevant.  On the way to our appointment (and we were running late) we realized that it was TWO HOUSES outside of our area.  Our ward split a couple months ago.  We're running late though, so we decided to go to the appointment anyway, and afterwards refer it to the Sisters whose area it is now in -  my old buddy Sister N, and she's follow up training Sister T. 

so after the appointment, I call them up, and I tell them that technically we have a referral for them, but he isn't really interested, and I give them a quick rundown, and they're like "no thanks, we find plenty of people who aren't interested on our own.  " hahaha, touche.

 
Then a few days ago, we hear about their miracle.  I won't tell you the full story because I have a headache from typing (still sicky)  and it's long, but basically, they tract into him, they get to teach him the first lesson, and now he is softly on date to be baptized.  It remains to be seen how his lessons will go, but whether he's ready right now or not, it's pretty cool :) 

 

He asked Sister N, "What's in it for me to know if God is real?  Why would it matter?"  and Sister N (who sometimes she forgets she is 22, not 5) said,  "wellllllllllll (probably in a high pitched sing-songy voice)... the only way I can think of to describe it to you, is that it will make your spirit smile!" 

 

Haha you should have seen the face I made when I heard this story...

 

I guess sometimes the spirit inspires you to talk like a child, because something about that answer clicked with him, and they were able to teach the first lesson. 

 

Pretty crazy I think. Coincidence? I think not!

Easter, Insights, Animals, and Alma

Monday, April 1, 2013

I Loved Easter Sunday, it was so nice, Sacrament meeting is just the best thing in the world, I can't imagine trying to live life without it.  Which is funny, because our ward here struggles in a lot of ways.  We don't have a ton of active, solid people.   The choir sounds... like a choir in a ward which struggles.  But the Spirit was there so strongly, I really needed it.  One of my recent converts, Micah, (he usually has been showing up to the Manette ward which is at 9) came to our ward, and he looked SO happy :)  He did his hair all nice for Easter Sunday, and we got to catch up for a couple minutes.  He is so happy that he was baptized, he always tells me about the difference that he has been feeling ever since then, and how much better off he is since he quit smoking.  Seriously, this guy is passionate about the Word of Wisdom. 

 

When I was watching them prepare the Sacrament, I thought back to my years as a deacon, then teacher, then a priest.  I think for the first time it struck me how much passing the sacrament is like serving a mission.  For your whole life up until you receive the priesthood, you are given the blessing of sitting with your family at church, and so its a blessing I took for granted.  Then you are asked to leave your comfort zone, and go do the Lord's work instead.  You are called to perform a sacred responsibility, that you don't really comprehend, and won't really comprehend until later on, generally speaking.  But performing the task and being worthy of it helps you to grow and become better, as you minister to others.  For a short time, you are more than what you are, and we saw that God calls us in our utter weakness, and then gradually qualifies us for us work.  Then you get to go back to your family, hopefully a bit better and more appreciative than you were before. 

 

Hey, I was thinking of a funny story that happened to me, I wanted to tell you about! it actually happened a couple weeks ago, but I always forget to tell you stuff. 

 

So we get a call from a random guy, and he wants us to meet with him at a given day and time, so we're just psyched, right?  Myself and my boy, Curtis, are the ones going to the appointment.  We get there, and a nice looking man, in an eggplant collared shirt and a Jerry Garcia tie opens the door, and welcomes us in very graciously.  

The first thing I notice walking in is that there is a little table with a Pizza Hut box on it, with some soda, plates, and napkins. In my head I'm like, Oh they just had lunch. Then he's like, "Oh here, the pizza is for you! 

 

At which point in time, Lonas gets a strong impression that this guy is luring me in. I look at the bait (I Love PIZZA) and I look at him, and I think of those stories about animals that are caught because they won't let go of the shiny object, or banana or whatever.  And in my head I'm like, "man those animals are dumb" and out loud I'm like "Ooh, Thanks! I love Pizza!"

 

 So I sit down  :)  

 

And he's like, will you offer an opening prayer?  And I think about it, and decide that I like praying, so I'm down.  I say a prayer, and say Amen, and I look up, and his head snaps up and his eyes open, and he had this look in his eyes like a predator, it was very interesting.  He said something along the lines of,

 

"I noticed you asked if the Spirit would be present.  Why is that? If God is omniscient, wouldn't he already know that you want the Spirit there? If you didn't ask, would the Spirit not be here?"

 

Hahaha :) silly man :)

 

I answer his question, and then he moves on to his next statement: "what would it take for you to deny the existence of Jesus Christ?"

 

(Anyone else having flashbacks to Alma 11:22-23?) 

 

And so I say, "O thou child of hell, why tempt ye me?"

 

Hahaha just kidding, that wouldnt have been very nice :)   I used nice words instead.

 

He brought up a bunch of stupid stuff, and just tried to tell us that God wasn't real basically.  But its funny, I was thinking as he was speaking, He didn't have anything new to say. He has nothing original, or profound or whatever.  The same arguments have been around for thousands of years, it's pretty redundant.  I did my best to politely answer his questions, bear my testimony, and then excused ourselves (after we finished the pizza, which was excellent) because we have much more important things to do. 

 

Arguing with people is a waste of time, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to bear my witness of the reality and divinity of the Christ.  In Sunday School, we spoke about when Barrabas (sp?) was released instead of Christ, and the question was posed, if we were there in the square, and Christ were to be crucified, would we stand up for him? 

 

I would suggest that people crucify Christ on a daily basis.  The God of Israel is trampled underfoot, and his words set for naught, and forgotten.  But we can stand for him, by raising our voice. 

 

I know that Jesus Christ IS our Saviour.  He is real, and He is Living.  I love him, and owe everything to Him.  I'm so grateful that he cared enough for me, to rescue me, despite my own stubbornness and pride.  I love being one of his missionaries.

 

Elder Lonas

 

One Wedding and Two Baptisms

Monday, March 25, 2013

 

Amazing week!  I'll try to convey a little bit of it.

 

So once a month we do this thing in our mission called "Park Day"  (So called because we hang out at the Park all day!  Haha.  Just Kidding. That's NOT what it is.  In reality, we 'Park' our cars all day, and have to bike/walk everywhere) 

 

So here's the thing, on Park Days I try and have a good attitude, and just work hard all day and hope for miracles... but they never happen! I always have rough park days, where it's long and hard and tiring, and absolutely nothing works out for us.  

 

So this Park Day, I was also a little bummed, because it was Friday, and we were supposed to have a wedding on Thursday.... But it didn't go through, and we couldn't get a hold of the couple. 

We're out knocking doors and whatnot, and we get a call- It's Rachel and Mitch (The couple)!  They apologized for Thursday, but their excuse was understandable...they were in the hospital, about to have a baby! But the baby wasn't quite ready to be born yet, so they were released from the hospital on Friday morning.  They called us because they both had the same feeling, that it was really important to them to get married BEFORE the baby was born, so the baby could be born into a Marriage :) Isn't that awesome?!

 

So they call us, and we realize that we have a little problem, the bishop is out of town! (which is why we were planning on doing it Thursday, before he left) So we call all of the neighboring bishops, but can't get a hold of them.  Then we call the Stake President.  No answer. So we call our Mission President, and ask if we can just marry them!  He said no, but that HE could!   So he came up from Tacoma, and the Stake President actually was able to make it too, so he officiated, and President just came for fun :) The Wedding was simple but awesome, and it was cool because a lot of their friends actually came out to support them :)

 

We went out beforehand and grabbed a cake and some flowers to try and make it nice, and a little wedding card too.  We were WAY stressed though, because it took longer than we anticipated, and we had no way to get to the church in time for the wedding! We started street contacting people, but asking for rides instead of asking for them to hear our message.  It didn't work too well.  Fortunately, a part-member family that we were teaching came through for us, answered our call, and took us to the church in time!  After the wedding, President told us he thought they should be baptized right then, and told us to fill the font.  We called Bishop, ran it by him, and he was down!  Rachel and Mitch loved it, they were hoping originally to be baptized the same day they were married, so their wish came true! 

 

It was amazing, probably one of the biggest miracles of my mission :)  We had one of our boys baptize Rachel, and the other baptized Mitch, and yesterday at church they also gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was incredible. 

 

I love my companions, I love the Book of Mormon, I love weddings, I love knocking doors, I really love the Book of Mormon, And I love the sunshine!

 

 

(Another thought from Chase I thought was worth sharing:)

Heavenly Father definitely puts us in specific places for specific reasons - which are usually specific people :) 

 

 

Marriage, Missions, and Mosiah

March 18, 2013

 

Guys, can you believe how fast March is going?  I CAN NOT!  But it's cool though, I'm way stoked for General Conference!  It will be a blast.  Also, April will be fun because It looks like we'll have a couple baptisms on April 6th.  What a good day for baptisms ;)

 

Ooh, also, we'll be having a marriage on Thursday! Rachel and Mitch, after church this Sunday, were talking to me and they told me that they finally went out and got their marriage license!  Bishop will be performing the ceremony on Thursday, we're gonna go out and grab them a little cake and something to try and make it memorable, and I can't wait :) I love marriages!  and then their baptism is scheduled for after church this next Sunday :) What a miracle :)  The spirit I felt at the last marriage I was at was so special, I'm really excited for this one. 

I definitely feel WAY more in tune with the spirit as a missionary than I did before, I'm going to do my best to hold onto that post-mission.  

 

I LOVE being a missionary.  It is the best, most worthwhile, most fulfilling thing I've ever done by far.  I wish I could be a missionary forever.  I'm scared at how fast it's going. 

Elder T and I would talk about it sometimes.  If we could watch movies on Pday, listen to our own music during non-proselyting hours, and date girls on the weekends, we would happily just be missionaries forever.  But those three things will definitely make coming home pretty fun.  And the other thing is that being a missionary is so stressful. ESPECIALLY as a Zone Leader, I just feel like there's tons of pressure.  When I go home, I think it will feel like taking about 500 lbs off my shoulders.  So that will be nice too.

 

I've been studying in Mosiah the past week or two, it's been GREAT.  It's so funny to me, I read this pretty darn recently, and I read it pretty darn in depth, and yet I feel like I missed so much last time that I'm catching now, and I'm sure next time I read this I'll catch even more. 

 

Here's some food for thought:  So Abinadi spends a good deal of time ripping King Noah and the wicked priests for their misuse and lack of understanding concerning the Law of Moses, yeah?   So I looked into that a lot last time I read through, it was great.  Abinadi keeps telling them that the Law of Moses is shadow and a type of things to come.  But check this out, I've never noticed this before ( maybe this is common knowledge, but since I discovered this only a couple days ago, it seems pretty profound to me!), Abinadi is a type of Christ!   I don't have much time to delve into it, but check out Mosiah 12:1, 18-19, 28-29, 13:2, 6, all of mosiah 14, 15:1-5, 17:5-8,9-12, 13,19,20

 

Pretty intense.

 

 

 

Convinced -- Conviction

Hello! 

 

It's been a great week! I miss Elder T, he was such a good buddy, and such a good companion.  I got to hang out with him for a couple minutes at the new missionary/ trainers meeting.  You know what's great about serving with people? You get to keep seeing them! And then it's even better, because you love them AND you miss them!  Speaking of which, my old buddy Elder C is with me today.  He got permission to come down to Bremerton and drop off something for us.  So we're emailing together in the same library we did last year!  It's great. 

 

My new companion Elder B is cool, he's a great missionary, and way funny.  We caught on to each others humor way fast, so we've just been having a blast.  It's funny, I didn't realize that we missionaries have our own humor, until last transfer, when we were talking to all these new missionaries, who didn't think we were funny...   I'm nervous for going home, no one will laugh at my jokes!  Fortunately I'll continue to laugh at my own jokes.   haha.

 

Guess what?!? One of our new boys is only 18 years old!  That's crazy!  He's 2 years younger than me, and I still feel like a child.  He's great though, definitely wouldn't know he was 18 until he tells you.  Although a lot of the 18 year olds really do look like deacons/teachers. No joke. they look way young.

 

We've been working as hard as we possibly can, and trying to be perfectly obedient, so that we can set good examples for our baby boys.  I really think their first couple transfers will impact the rest of their missions, so we're trying to make them stellar! 

 

Only a couple minutes left, maybe I'll share something I've studied recently?

 

Eh, not enough time.  Just a quick thought though.  So, in the Book of Mormon, we hear the phrase "convince" a lot.  (2 ne 25:18, 26:12, hel 5:19 etc)

and in Lonas' head, he was like "wait a minute- I thought we weren't out here to 'convince' people, we're here to "invite" right?  Yeah thats true.  Because I was reading it wrong I think.  I feel like in my head, I was implying "convince (against their will)" which is silly. 

 

"a Man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still" right?

 

But I was thinking about what it means to be convinced of something? well, it means to have a thorough conviction.  In that sense, we definitely ARE out here to convince anyone and everyone who will listen to us, who has a sincere heart and real intent.  We want them to be convinced in the same sense that we are convinced, that Jesus is the Christ and his Gospel has been restored :)  It's so great to be convinced of that.  I'm so grateful I am.  and how can we convince people?

shoot out of time.  But it talks about it in Hel 5:18. 

Subs, Twins, and Heroes

 

Monday, Mar 4, 2013

 

Guess what? I got to go tour a submarine this morning! It was sweet.  It was an Ohio class sub, the kind that carry those trident missiles to blow up ornery countries.  (Sidenote: I love the word ornery. I use it a lot more than necessary in my day to day language.  Shenanigans is another keeper)

 

It was pretty tight. figuratively and literally. (haha)

 

Anyways, week was good :) We got transfer calls,  Elder T is going to Tacoma, I'm staying here and getting former AP Elder B. I'm nervous, but it will be a really good learning experience I'm sure, I hear he's a great guy, and a stellar missionary.

We're also having twins! that's right, double training boys!  It will be an adventure.  Especially since an enhanced sense of direction isn't one of the talents I've developed on my mission, and we're getting 3 new people, which makes a total of 4 who don't know where anything is.  I can always find my way back to Little Caesars, though.  That's kind of my anchor, and I branch out from there.

 

Guys I'm really sorry, but extenuating circumstances (legitimate ones this time) left me with only a few minutes to email, so this will be short, but I want to talk about one more thing briefly that's been on my mind. 

I really like my heroes.  I really like having them, they are fun to have, and they give me ideals :)  In the past I've looked up to MacGyver, Ace Enders, David Belle, and tons of other people. On my mission, I continue to admire MacGyver a lot, but I've developed a lot of new heroes: Captain Moroni, Teancum, Mormon, and tons of others.  I love my new heroes and I love my old heroes. I don't have a perfect definition for Hero, but I think it would be something along the lines of someone who you look up to (to whom you look up? still a dangling preposition?) someone you respect, admire, someone who motivates you to be better, and gives you a hope you can be more than what you were/are.  My favorite hero is my dad.