"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!

".. I'm not the best at any of it- but I have a hard time believing that anyone loves it more than I do."

Great Broadcast yesterday! :) 

( http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast )

Most of it wasn't new to us missionaries in the field, we've been working on this whole missionary/ward unity thing for awhile now.  But nothing quite like hearing it from the 4 most senior apostles on the earth.  Who doesn't love any opportunity to hear those men speak?  I'm reasonably certain that Holland has the sword of Laban (just saying) 

In a recent meeting with our Stake President, visiting General Authority, and President Weaver, and the Northern conference of our mission, Stake President Anderson said something I really liked. He said  (I'll paraphrase), "we often hear of people refer to member missionary work? as opposed to.... what? It's all just missionary work!"  

He's right :) And hopefully the Call to Arms will inspire and motivate all of us missionaries and all of us members (and we are all both!) to step up our game and work together.  We all need to get outside of our comfort zones, and do what the Lord commands :)

Essentially everything we do is either a result of us acting out of FEAR, or out of LOVE.  we have the option to be agents, and act, or to be acted upon (2 Nephi 2) or as Elder T puts it, we can define our environment, or we can let our environment define us.  And I know that perfect Love casteth out all fear (Moroni 8:16)

Highlight of the week- Xavior's Baptism! What an awesome kid.  His mom was baptized 2 years ago, but hasn't been to church since she moved to Bremerton, until we knocked on her door.  After his baptism, when he was changing into dry clothes, she bore her testimony, and it was amazing. She testified of our Savior, Jesus Christ. She testified of the Book of Mormon, and how she knew it was translated by a prophet of God, Joseph Smith, who restored the gospel.  She was so humble and sincere.  Nothing in the world quite like a baptism.

And we had our last fireside last night (I realized I said this before, but this was really the last one. They MIGHT do more in the future, but it will be completely different)  It was great, I saw lots of friends/former companions and I saw my favorite members from Graham... it was good.

I love singing so much.  Haha, last fireside I was in the "More Holiness Give Me" group, and it was good. I assumed I was in the same group.  I looked on the program and found out that Sister Weaver (who I think picks the groups by drawing names out of a hat) put me in the "Jesus, Savior Pilot Me" group.  so we had about 5 minutes to practice just before we performed, and the guy sharing the tenor part with me had also never sung it before. But we had a good practice, and the performance went swimmingly. Well, as well as could be expected, but I feel like no one in the audience would have caught most of our mistakes.  Have I mentioned I love singing? I do!  I'm not the best singer, I'm not the best piano player, I'm not the best at any of it- but I have a hard time believing that anyone loves it more than I do.  It just makes me so happy.  

The Book of Mormon is true.  I'm beginning the War Chapters. I LOVE the war chapters.  If you don't love them, I invite you to gain a testimony of them.  Think of the principal authors of the Book of Mormon, and WHO they were. It's not coincidental how much of the book is devoted to the subject. God doesn't make mistakes- we do.

Love,

Lonas

"Be yourself, and be obedient. But if you can't be yourself AND be obedient, then just be obedient."

Dear,

I looked at a calendar this morning and realized its June!  Elder Thornton and I used to daydream about summers... beautiful days where you can just tract as long as your heart desires, and no one's mad at you for it being dark outside.  The sky is blue, the sun shines, little birds and forest animals follow us from doorstep to doorstep and sing melodies of springtime....... And it's here!  All except the part where no one is mad at you.  People still get mad at us, they find other reasons :)   But its all good, its funny how little it bothers me.

Haha that reminds me of a lesson we were teaching this week to a man and part way through the lesson he expressed his concern that he didn't want to hurt us if he were to end up rejecting our message. 

 He asked me, "Would it hurt your faith if I were to say no?"

"Nope"

"would it hurt your integrity?"

"Nope"

"would it hurt your self esteem?"

"Nope
"your self worth??"

"Nope"

"Your feelings???"

"Nope"

"Gosh man, you're like a rock!"

hahahah. I'm pretty sure he's referring to my muscle density or something, we've been working out way hard.

Ooh, other cool news, we have a new investigator!  He's 17 and he started coming to church for no apparent reason.  He isn't too interested in Baptism at the moment, but he DOES want to serve a mission. hahaha how awesome is that?  We're teaching him again on Tuesday, and we'll explain the process of that  :)

We're also teaching a young couple, Evan and Tina.  Evan has had a.. colorful past, but now that he has a little baby he has been doing a lot of thinking, and re-evaluation about his life.  He and Tina were both brought up Christian, and still have a belief in Jesus Christ, but they both feel like they haven't had much.. structure, for lack of a better word.  They came on a church tour and LOVED it :) I LOVE church tours.  They want to be baptized :)  I'll try to remember to keep you posted on them, they're pretty sweet.  Also kinda funny, they share the other half of the duplex of a part member family we're working with :)

My companions and I are all doing well together.   Elder F and I did some bonding on the way home from our last meeting, which was good :)   He's on the quiet side (not shy, but quiet) So sometimes I'm not sure what he's thinking or if he likes me or whatever, but this week was good. I like him a lot, he's a good companion.  For a while now I've been blessed with very good companions.  My new baby boy, Elder W is doing good too.  He's been loosening up and learning to have fun while doing missionary work.  Heavenly Father wants us to be happy :) and I believe we are happiest, and the most successful, when we are OURSELVES.  There's a phrase that says "Be yourself, and be obedient.  But if you cant be yourself AND be obedient, then just be obedient."  Definitely true, we are blessed for obedience.  However, it may be implied, but I dont think its voiced often enough, that whenever being yourself does not conflict with obedience, then you should always always be yourself. :) 

So I think he's starting to learn that :)

Speaking of....... Ok, no segue, this is unrelated.

But anyway, our new neighbors are NOT very quiet at night.  they get up all throughout the night to go do things. Last night at like 1 or 2, this guy is going up and down the stairs, with his iPhone blaring, rapping along with Drake or something. I mean, it would be one thing if he was good, but he definitely wasn't.  And so I didn't sleep very well, so I'm very tired, so if you remember, could you please pray for Lonas to be less tired? Or at least awake enough that I can focus throughout the day? I think In 6 months I'm gonna need to do some make up sleep.

But for the most part life is definitely good.  This next week will be an adventure. A General Authority is coming to tour our mission, so that'll be interesting.

Love,

Little Lonas friend :)

RADIATE

This has been a good week. I think my definition of a good week has changed in the past year or two. 

 

Activity- Personal Study: Consider the way you defined a good week 2 years ago, with the way you define it now.  Compare and contrast.

 

The majority of our solid, progressing investigators were neither solid nor progressing this week, so I think I'll forego updating you on any of those...

 

I'm grateful to have companions who can be my friend.  I'm sure somewhere in some handbook it says that missionaries and missionary companions should be missionary companions first, and friends second.  Probably true. But in my experience,  if I can be friends with my companions, missionary work just falls into place without much extra effort. 

 

I feel like I've gotten into the swing of this transfer now, which means, as far as time will feel, this transfer is practically over.  We're starting week 3 already, how crazy is that?

 

Time is so short, what a funny concept.

 

Ok, writing about my week is hard, I'm gonna go back to just writing about study topics.

 

The first principle in ever missionary lesson is, or is directly related to, the Nature of God. It's absolutely essential to know about the Nature of God, or we can never understand who WE are, as His children.  We have Divine Spiritual DNA. Not a new concept, but one that we cant forget.  

 

John 1, among other places, tell us that Christ is Light.  (this will be cliffnotes, short sentence version, 5 min left and I'm a slow typer...) 

 

A property of Light is that it RADIATES.  It starts at a central point, and moves outward in every direction, unless inhibited by an external factor.  Christ is light so this applies to Him, and we are the Sons and Daughters of God.  No time for scriptures or other things, but I'll just skip to the point.  

 

Christ spent his entire life to, and continues to, ACT to benefit and uplift others.  When King Benjamin exhorts us to serve our fellow men, it is because to become who God wants us to be, we need to be proactive in helping others.  Missionaries are happy because we don't have to divide up our time between others and ourselves, we serve others 100%.  Being a non full time missionary makes the balancing hard. But if YOU aren't as happy as you want to be, change the balance from wherever it is now, to a greater emphasis on others.  I believe that Christ is happy, because he finds His joy in making us happy. When we do the same thing, we experience maybe a small percentage of the same type of joy that He does.  We were CREATED for the purpose of bringing light to others the way that He did.  I invite anyone reading this, to do at least 1 thing EVERY day, to RADIATE.

 

Love,

Lonas

Scriptures and Spirits

Monday, June 3, 2013

 

 

Dear Concerned Citizens,

 

Yes, It's official, I am never leaving Bremerton.  But that's good, This is a good place to settle down :) 

 

My new companion is Elder F.  He's good at basketball and scriptures, and has been our for 21 months (that means Bremerton is his Deathbed)  He's chill, so that's good, He's pretty easy to get along with. 

 

This is just about a year from when I left Bremerton last year... and here I am.  Life is so funny :)

 

I have 1 month left until my 18 month mark.  That's pretty weird, and I want to make it everything I possibly can. So I made goals for who I want to be/become for the last 6 months of my mission, and I'm starting them now at 17, that way I can hit the ground running at 18.  I've picked up a lot of experience and skills in the past however long, and I'm excited to take that for the remainder.  But I think there is a tendency to allow yourself to become jaded, and lose that greeny fire - which is silly :)  So I want to treat my last 6 months like my first 6 months- I have the world to learn, and everything should be new to me. 

 

Hey guess what, I'm in a new apartment! We moved from A-303 to A-302, right across the hall haha.  Nothing like a good ol' pilgrimage to fight complacency!  Haha, really though its pretty cool, even though we had to spend most of P-day moving.  But it's way nicer, because missionaries haven't been living there for 10 years. 

 

Guess what I've been doing every morning?  Reading the scriptures!  If you don't know what to read, read Moroni 7, specifically verse 48, along with 1 John 3:2-3.  Very interesting.

I got my hands on a DICTIONARY this week, and have been having an absolute blast.  Goodness, I love words so much.

 

I don't have the dictionary on me, or my scriptures for that matter, so bear with me, but if I remember I picked out the first 2 definitions for "purify" (like moroni 7:48) and they are something like "to make clean" and "to make free of guilt"

Very interesting, no?

And you look up "pure" and it says something like free from any adulterating or foreign matter. 

Then look up adulterate, and it says something like "to make impure by the admixture of an inferior substance, which may have the appearance of genuineness, but is debased or spurious.  Then you look up debase and its something like "to cheapen the character quality or virtue" and spurious, in a biological sense (which is where I'm going with this) means something like "to have either the form or the function of the organism, but not both" 

 

Oooh,  now we're getting somewhere. So we're talking about our spirits here, yes? Our spirits come from our Heavenly Father (Rom 8:16-17,Heb 12:9) So we each have this divine, spirit DNA.  Because of the Atonement, we each have the Light of Christ (Moroni 7:16)  (D&C 131:7 I think, not very good at D&C...) tells us that there is no such thing as immaterial matter, but that spirit matter, or light is finer and more pure.  We choose, by how we exercise our agency whether we want to be filled with light, and to be purified by the atoning blood of Christ (Mosiah 4:2) and to have love cast out fear, or by extension, have light cast out darkness. (moroni 8:16, 1 john 4:18-19)

Shoot, I only have 30 seconds left.  No time for grand conclusion.

 

But study this stuff, its way fun.

 

Love,

Lonas