Hello Everyone,
Our week was pretty great. After I wrote last week on Monday we had our normal preparation day and then we actually met with about our only investigator and the lesson went terribly. This is the former member surfer guy who lives out of his truck but then got a job and so we didn't see for a while but we finally met with again. He really wants to be baptized but the first time he was baptized he wasn't secure enough I guess cause he wigged out and allowed his parents and family to convince him to have his name removed from the church records. We met with him at the church building and about the first thing he said to start our lesson was "I think I'm going to grow some dreds." We were understandably confused by this. I probably should have just let it go but I couldn't resist the desire to hear his reasoning on this one. So I guess if I haven't already filled you in on his history then it's good to know that after he left the church for a while he joined up with the Rastafari and he still has a tendency to hold to their ways. But pretty much when I asked what his reason for wanting dreds was he said "cause I'm attracted to girls with dreds" Just to joke with him I pretended like I could only conclude from his statement "you want to grow dreds so you'll be attracted to yourself?" He thought that was pretty funny though I recognize it's not my best. Our lesson went downhill from there as one can probably imagine. More reasoning on his part for the dreds was that it fights "the system". He also said that a member had told him that generally it is encouraged for men in the church to be clean shaven. So he interpreted that as beards not being allowed so in order to express his rebellious attitude but still follow church council he would just grow dreds instead. I told him that I would much rather he grew a beard than dreds. Basically when we try to teach him he gets hung up on very trivial things and it makes it difficult to help him progress much. Also in that lesson he expressed how he "doesn't feel much of a connection with Monsoon", the whole proposition 8 thing still bothers him and we somehow got back on how it makes him sad that people call the holiday Easter instead of Resurrection Sunday because Easter is the name of a pagan god. Next lesson we will probably just attempt to be much more rigid and stern regarding what we'll talk about and be strict in sticking to the topic at hand. The last lesson was kind of my fault, my companion had already the resolve to stick to a single topic but the whole dreds thing piqued my interest and I just had to ask what the heck he was talking about. So while the lessons aren't going great I get a kick out of them and I really CAN see this guy getting baptized it will just take a while.
Other than that...we've also been visiting this less active man who most of the time when we try by he is pretty out of it. His liver is failing him and he won't be able to get a transplant so he knows that he doesn't have much time left and those thoughts must be weighing on him but also the drugs he has to take make him kind of incoherent so sometimes there isn't much point in talking to him. This week as we visited he was actually surprisingly lucid and up for a good conversation. The problem was that I was hit with one of those sleepy spells. Sitting there in his lazyboy just droopy eyed. At first you fight it and then eventually you just start to think to yourself, "eh, I won't miss anything." I started weighing the pros and cons in my head. "Well a nap would be awesome but would the embarrassment be too great?" I didn't fall asleep although I started leaning more towards the argument posed by the little nap devil on my shoulder. Had my brain been fully functioning then I probably would have recognized that even if I did try to fall asleep my companion wouldn't let me remain like that for long so it wouldn't be worth it.
I was with a missionary serving in Watsonville for a day, which is a predominantly spanish area and the missionary serves in the spanish program. I felt like I was back in Greenfield. We did service at a soup kitchen that they go to every week and it was alright. I handed out the fruit. First there were a bunch of mutant oranges (naranghas), those suckers were huge and I personally didn't think they looked all the great but to the people in line I think size means a lot. My companion for the day was in charge of desserts and at one point a very angry lady requested more and he refused to serve her more just cause it was the first round of serving and he was rationing them and she started raising her voice and then grabbed more cookies herself and continued in the line. When she came back around for seconds my companion actually removed the desserts to keep her from getting any more and then she threw a fit and the head boss lady of the place said she could have some more. Afterward when everyone was clearing out the lady came back and sort of apologized but at the same time was trying to prove a point, that being that no one is her boss. She phrased it as "your not my mother or my father so you can't tell me what to do". Really he didn't tell her what to do he just refused to let her have more but there was no point in arguing with her. My companion actually ignored her and so she tried to speak to him through me kind of, it was really awkward and I wanted to tell the lady she is a brat and needs to grow up, but instead I just said "I understand perfectly well that I'm not your mother or father." Then I thought to myself that I was extremely glad that I wasn't her mother or father. But also thinking that perhaps if I had raised this person then hopefully they wouldn't be the way they are. I don't know if I'm coming off as a horrible person in this e-mail for criticizing the homeless but I'm just saying that being around so many of these people you can usually trace their problems to uncorrected behaviors from childhood. It builds my faith that children are supposed to be raised by a mother and a father in a loving environment that teaches them the proper way to live and associate with others. It also makes me extremely grateful that I was blessed to be raised in such and environment.
Sincerely Elder F. Miller
Monday, April 23, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Hello Everyone,
Our week was pretty busy. We had something out of the ordinary and big just about every day. From Monday night through Tuesday we had exchanges with some other missionaries which actually didn't feel a whole lot like exchanges because both set's of us ended up working together to help a less active man in our ward with moving a bunch of furniture and things out of his house. That took a few hours and then the rest of the day was spent in the far reaches of the other companionships area. They cover a string of little towns in what's known as the San Lorenzo Valley and then they also cover a branch called the Alma branch which is north on Highway 17. There isn't much going on in the Alma branch and so the missionaries only devote one day a week to working in that area since it is so far removed from the normal beaten path. I happened to be with them on that day. It wasn't bad. We tried to visit a bunch of potential investigators and less active members and then we finally had dinner with their Branch Mission Leader and his family who are awesome. The Brother showed me his prize rock candy crystal which was huge. Seemed like a neat little project to have going without having to devote really all too much time to it. You just let the sugar grow on the string and check it for months until you get a good sized specimen.
Wednesday didn't work out as we planned cause we had a bunch of appointments bail on us, but we had a member who just happened to need help moving stuff out of his storage locker. It was no coincidence that he needed our help exactly when we were left wondering what to do. It wasn't a miracle either though; that guy just always needs
help. He was moving his stuff from his storage locker into a much smaller storage locker and so a bunch of the stuff he needed to have taken to his tiny apartment. We were actually a little reluctant to try and move his stuff cause we didn't want the risk that comes from loading items into our new car. We were pushing it when his old heavy tv was crammed into the back seat and close to leaning against the window. Had we gone over any major bumps recklessly there's no telling the kind of damage that could have been done. But we helped him move what things we could and then we were off to some other appointments. That night we met with members of the stake presidency and our mission president as some new protocols are being put in place to try and help investigators who accept baptismal invitations into become better welcomed by the ward members. It's a whole phone texting chain that will result in assignments being given to members of the ward to go and welcome the investigator to church or activities or what have you. I haven't seen it in action yet but I'm skeptical as to how the average investigator will feel having even more strange people standing on their doorstep. Ideally we invite investigators to be baptized the very first time we teach them, and usually it's more of a conceptual baptismal invitation. In my experience a solid baptismal date acceptance right off the bat isn't common at all. Primarily we'll be dealing with people who agree with the idea of baptism but won't be fully committed to it until much later down the line. So I'm afraid the new plan may scare more people off. But I'm often wrong and I hope I am this time.
On Thursday we had Zone Conference which was great. We watched this wonderful talk in the spirit of Easter given on the subject of mercy and it was really insightful and funny. My least favorite part of zone conference was the lecture on proper dinner etiquette. I think I'm mostly a pleasant dinner guest, no major flaws to be done away with. The only things that came up that I think I can improve on are things that don't make any sense to me and therefore I don't want to improve on them. The main one is concerning the consumption of bread. They said that it is to be broken off bit by bit and if you're using butter then to slather it on an individual basis. Considering my love for bread, this particular rule would probably prolong our dinner visits by up to an hour, and no one wants us sitting at their table for that long. Unless the purpose of the rule is to keep people like me from eating too much bread. If that's the case then I REALLY don't like this rule. Anyway, after zone conference we actually drove to my old area in Redwood City because a missionary in my zone that we had driven up needed to go and pick up some shoes from another elder now serving there. It killed our day. I don't know why but sitting in meetings and driving a bunch just wipe me out. My companion as well. That night we helped set up for an activity that was being put on by our Single Adult Branch.
The activity took place on Friday evening and was essentially a walk through the plan of salvation. We started off with a plane ride. The hallway was decorated to look like the inside of a passenger jet with black plastic to cover up the brick walls and little oval windows cut out of blue construction paper. Seats lined the walls and our Branch Mission Leader was the pilot. A simulated crash was made by flickering the lights and banging on the walls and doors and then my companion and I dressed in white as angels bearing flashlights guided the deceased first to the spirit world and then through each kingdom of heaven. At each destination they learned more about the station and were left to ponder what it would be like to remain eternally in each place. The lowest kingdom was a dark room with only glow in the dark stars all around it and with a heater in it to make it a little uncomfortably stuffy in there amongst the 30 people crammed in. The middle kingdom was the relief society room which was nice and spacious and had some good plants but kind of plain and boring. And then the chapel was the highest or Celestial kingdom and it was brightly lit with pleasant music and a family from the Santa Cruz ward sitting on the stand just looking good. We had the father stand and bear his testimony on how this kingdom was the best and only place where families can be together forever. And then from there we went to heaven on earth, the kitchen, for refreshments of root beer floats and cookies. It was really great and such an eye opener for some people to get to physically kind of tour and somewhat feel on a more real level what it's going to be like.
On Saturday there was an emergency preparedness fair that we volunteered to go to and greet people and answer questions if anyone had them. It was small and not well attended but has been very successful in years past supposedly. There was a bread making class in the kitchen which we hit up often to get some good bread and there was a lady doing "Cave Man BBQ" which was just cooking chicken on top of charcoal in a pit in the ground. It was super simple but tasty.
And then yesterday I gave a talk in church. No topic was assigned cause it was assumed that I'd just talk about missionary work. Not that I didn't want to talk on missionary work it's just that I didn't want to go at it without a new or good angle to come from. So I infused service in there. That is one aspect of missionary work and so I just kind of focused my subject to that and it was okay. Super unresponsive crowd in the Singles Branch, made me very nervous while giving my talk, especially since I had just written it that morning and didn't feel sufficiently prepared.
Then last night we finally got around to performing with the stake choir as they were joined by the BYU-Idaho Sinfonietta. A bunch of string instrumentalists came and made us sound good. We rehearsed right after church and then had dinner provided by a lady in the stake and then we performed. We were expecting more people to show up but it was still a fine turn out. Our music was called or by Faure, I'm not really sure. It included pieces called Agnus Dei, Libera Me, and Sanctus. We also did a song by Vivaldi called "All Earth Rejoice". The most of our songs were in Latin and fun to sing though. And there were a few soloists, one of them in our ward and a member of the mission presidency. He has a killer baritone voice and stole much of the show. Then there was a soprano who was really good as well. But perhaps the most exciting thing for some people was the fact that Steve Young and his family were in the audience. I guess he is really good friends with the bishop of the ward that shares the building with us and so he came for the stake choir performance. He was surrounded at the end of the show and I didn't attempt to talk to him. Perhaps a cooler statement is that Steve Young applauded my singing performance. I guess it would be more amazing if he complimented my football skills, but that's never going to happen.
So that was my week for the most part. We are doing well and having fun. We have the same guy that really wants to be baptized but he has been too busy with work to meet with us. On Sunday we were able to set up an appointment with him for tonight, so we can better assess how long it's going to be before he's baptized. There was also this whole family that came on Easter Sunday that are good friends with many members in the ward and we are hoping to get to teach them soon. It seems likely that we'll get to eventually so it's just a matter of sooner or later.
I pray that everyone is doing well.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Our week was pretty busy. We had something out of the ordinary and big just about every day. From Monday night through Tuesday we had exchanges with some other missionaries which actually didn't feel a whole lot like exchanges because both set's of us ended up working together to help a less active man in our ward with moving a bunch of furniture and things out of his house. That took a few hours and then the rest of the day was spent in the far reaches of the other companionships area. They cover a string of little towns in what's known as the San Lorenzo Valley and then they also cover a branch called the Alma branch which is north on Highway 17. There isn't much going on in the Alma branch and so the missionaries only devote one day a week to working in that area since it is so far removed from the normal beaten path. I happened to be with them on that day. It wasn't bad. We tried to visit a bunch of potential investigators and less active members and then we finally had dinner with their Branch Mission Leader and his family who are awesome. The Brother showed me his prize rock candy crystal which was huge. Seemed like a neat little project to have going without having to devote really all too much time to it. You just let the sugar grow on the string and check it for months until you get a good sized specimen.
Wednesday didn't work out as we planned cause we had a bunch of appointments bail on us, but we had a member who just happened to need help moving stuff out of his storage locker. It was no coincidence that he needed our help exactly when we were left wondering what to do. It wasn't a miracle either though; that guy just always needs
help. He was moving his stuff from his storage locker into a much smaller storage locker and so a bunch of the stuff he needed to have taken to his tiny apartment. We were actually a little reluctant to try and move his stuff cause we didn't want the risk that comes from loading items into our new car. We were pushing it when his old heavy tv was crammed into the back seat and close to leaning against the window. Had we gone over any major bumps recklessly there's no telling the kind of damage that could have been done. But we helped him move what things we could and then we were off to some other appointments. That night we met with members of the stake presidency and our mission president as some new protocols are being put in place to try and help investigators who accept baptismal invitations into become better welcomed by the ward members. It's a whole phone texting chain that will result in assignments being given to members of the ward to go and welcome the investigator to church or activities or what have you. I haven't seen it in action yet but I'm skeptical as to how the average investigator will feel having even more strange people standing on their doorstep. Ideally we invite investigators to be baptized the very first time we teach them, and usually it's more of a conceptual baptismal invitation. In my experience a solid baptismal date acceptance right off the bat isn't common at all. Primarily we'll be dealing with people who agree with the idea of baptism but won't be fully committed to it until much later down the line. So I'm afraid the new plan may scare more people off. But I'm often wrong and I hope I am this time.
On Thursday we had Zone Conference which was great. We watched this wonderful talk in the spirit of Easter given on the subject of mercy and it was really insightful and funny. My least favorite part of zone conference was the lecture on proper dinner etiquette. I think I'm mostly a pleasant dinner guest, no major flaws to be done away with. The only things that came up that I think I can improve on are things that don't make any sense to me and therefore I don't want to improve on them. The main one is concerning the consumption of bread. They said that it is to be broken off bit by bit and if you're using butter then to slather it on an individual basis. Considering my love for bread, this particular rule would probably prolong our dinner visits by up to an hour, and no one wants us sitting at their table for that long. Unless the purpose of the rule is to keep people like me from eating too much bread. If that's the case then I REALLY don't like this rule. Anyway, after zone conference we actually drove to my old area in Redwood City because a missionary in my zone that we had driven up needed to go and pick up some shoes from another elder now serving there. It killed our day. I don't know why but sitting in meetings and driving a bunch just wipe me out. My companion as well. That night we helped set up for an activity that was being put on by our Single Adult Branch.
The activity took place on Friday evening and was essentially a walk through the plan of salvation. We started off with a plane ride. The hallway was decorated to look like the inside of a passenger jet with black plastic to cover up the brick walls and little oval windows cut out of blue construction paper. Seats lined the walls and our Branch Mission Leader was the pilot. A simulated crash was made by flickering the lights and banging on the walls and doors and then my companion and I dressed in white as angels bearing flashlights guided the deceased first to the spirit world and then through each kingdom of heaven. At each destination they learned more about the station and were left to ponder what it would be like to remain eternally in each place. The lowest kingdom was a dark room with only glow in the dark stars all around it and with a heater in it to make it a little uncomfortably stuffy in there amongst the 30 people crammed in. The middle kingdom was the relief society room which was nice and spacious and had some good plants but kind of plain and boring. And then the chapel was the highest or Celestial kingdom and it was brightly lit with pleasant music and a family from the Santa Cruz ward sitting on the stand just looking good. We had the father stand and bear his testimony on how this kingdom was the best and only place where families can be together forever. And then from there we went to heaven on earth, the kitchen, for refreshments of root beer floats and cookies. It was really great and such an eye opener for some people to get to physically kind of tour and somewhat feel on a more real level what it's going to be like.
On Saturday there was an emergency preparedness fair that we volunteered to go to and greet people and answer questions if anyone had them. It was small and not well attended but has been very successful in years past supposedly. There was a bread making class in the kitchen which we hit up often to get some good bread and there was a lady doing "Cave Man BBQ" which was just cooking chicken on top of charcoal in a pit in the ground. It was super simple but tasty.
And then yesterday I gave a talk in church. No topic was assigned cause it was assumed that I'd just talk about missionary work. Not that I didn't want to talk on missionary work it's just that I didn't want to go at it without a new or good angle to come from. So I infused service in there. That is one aspect of missionary work and so I just kind of focused my subject to that and it was okay. Super unresponsive crowd in the Singles Branch, made me very nervous while giving my talk, especially since I had just written it that morning and didn't feel sufficiently prepared.
Then last night we finally got around to performing with the stake choir as they were joined by the BYU-Idaho Sinfonietta. A bunch of string instrumentalists came and made us sound good. We rehearsed right after church and then had dinner provided by a lady in the stake and then we performed. We were expecting more people to show up but it was still a fine turn out. Our music was called or by Faure, I'm not really sure. It included pieces called Agnus Dei, Libera Me, and Sanctus. We also did a song by Vivaldi called "All Earth Rejoice". The most of our songs were in Latin and fun to sing though. And there were a few soloists, one of them in our ward and a member of the mission presidency. He has a killer baritone voice and stole much of the show. Then there was a soprano who was really good as well. But perhaps the most exciting thing for some people was the fact that Steve Young and his family were in the audience. I guess he is really good friends with the bishop of the ward that shares the building with us and so he came for the stake choir performance. He was surrounded at the end of the show and I didn't attempt to talk to him. Perhaps a cooler statement is that Steve Young applauded my singing performance. I guess it would be more amazing if he complimented my football skills, but that's never going to happen.
So that was my week for the most part. We are doing well and having fun. We have the same guy that really wants to be baptized but he has been too busy with work to meet with us. On Sunday we were able to set up an appointment with him for tonight, so we can better assess how long it's going to be before he's baptized. There was also this whole family that came on Easter Sunday that are good friends with many members in the ward and we are hoping to get to teach them soon. It seems likely that we'll get to eventually so it's just a matter of sooner or later.
I pray that everyone is doing well.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
**This was Fletcher's email from April 9th**
Hello Everyone,
This past week was great. It had a good start to it that is for sure. Coming out of conference we were able to visit the Oakland Temple and that was again a wonderful experience. Going only once every 6 months though is not enough cause you forget everything between visits. Once again we drove up in a small 5 passenger car with four missionaries and a driver. We met up at a church building and were kind of early before our ride came and there was a basketball hoop and we just happened to have a basketball in our trunk so we shot some hoops. I also had a frisbee and it was our preparation day so it was perfectly alright to do but we were just in our suits and it was a warm day so that made the first part of the car ride pretty uncomfortable for me until I got cooled down.
On Wednesday I was on exchanges with my district leader and that was fine. This was the first time I got to drive our new car all day. It was alright. I actually always don't like how soft the acceleration pedal is on new cars, much too sensitive. But I managed not to wreck it and so the day was successful. We walked along a popular beach strolling path called West Cliff and were passing out cards and inviting people to things. We have a couple of events coming up that we were also passing out fliers for to switch things up and not just pass out mormon.org cards or the normal missionary items. At first I tried passing out some fliers to people for this concert that BYU Idaho students are coming to perform along with the stake choir but lots of the people we were talking to were only visitors to the area and so weren't interested in something local going on that they wouldn't be around for. I was telling my companion for the day that these fliers were useless. I approached an older looking guy and figured the probability of him being savvy with the internet was low and so my mormon.org card wouldn't be much use and so I gave the concert flier another try and the mans reaction was kind of neat. As I turned about the walk alongside him and introduce the flier I was holding his initial instinct was to wave off anything that a missionary was offering him, so his action was to kind of hold up his hand like "save it" but my words were just "hey, here's a flier for a free concert you're invited to attend" so as he actually processed what I had said he turned his barrier of a hand into an upturned "gimme gimme" motion and he was genuinely grateful at the invitation and took the flier with interest. So that was pretty cool just to see a different reaction come from an invitation that I thought was useless. I'm not sure there is really lesson in this. In reality we have been taught that we should never change or lessen our message just to appeal to a wider audience. I think it was one of the prophets on his mission he found that as he just taught the Atonement and left the Restoration part of the message out of it than more people would listen to him but that is a sacrifice that isn't worth it. I don't think the concert invite was a cop out though. It's just a different invitation, the hopes being that the man will come to the church building and that step will possibly lead to many more in coming to know more about the gospel.
Anyway, I think on Friday we visited an inactive man who had stopped us in a parking lot and told us he was an inactive member. He told us we were welcome to come over to his place which was cool but he figured that we'd want to come over not to teach him, but to check out his pinball machine. I have to admit I was intrigued at the thought of a pinball machine free to use. So we went over and got him sharing his life story over a couple rounds of pinball and then we shared an Easter message with him and invited him back to church. We are supposed to help him move some of his stuff tomorrow so hopefully we can continue meeting with him and serving him however and it will lead to him trusting the church again.
Yesterday we had a great day at church. We got out of having to give talks for another week since our Branch mission leader wanted to speak in our place alongside his sister who is leaving on her mission in a short while. There was a non member family at church who were really nice and maybe we'll be able to teach at some point. And a few less actives came as well. We had dinner with a couple of families who live up at the college and that was fun. And afterward we drove up to the little town of Davenport to try and find a less active lady but we asked the residents and they said she had moved. Kind of a fruitless long drive but not so bad.
That has been my week. Thanks for reading.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Hello Everyone,
This past week was great. It had a good start to it that is for sure. Coming out of conference we were able to visit the Oakland Temple and that was again a wonderful experience. Going only once every 6 months though is not enough cause you forget everything between visits. Once again we drove up in a small 5 passenger car with four missionaries and a driver. We met up at a church building and were kind of early before our ride came and there was a basketball hoop and we just happened to have a basketball in our trunk so we shot some hoops. I also had a frisbee and it was our preparation day so it was perfectly alright to do but we were just in our suits and it was a warm day so that made the first part of the car ride pretty uncomfortable for me until I got cooled down.
On Wednesday I was on exchanges with my district leader and that was fine. This was the first time I got to drive our new car all day. It was alright. I actually always don't like how soft the acceleration pedal is on new cars, much too sensitive. But I managed not to wreck it and so the day was successful. We walked along a popular beach strolling path called West Cliff and were passing out cards and inviting people to things. We have a couple of events coming up that we were also passing out fliers for to switch things up and not just pass out mormon.org cards or the normal missionary items. At first I tried passing out some fliers to people for this concert that BYU Idaho students are coming to perform along with the stake choir but lots of the people we were talking to were only visitors to the area and so weren't interested in something local going on that they wouldn't be around for. I was telling my companion for the day that these fliers were useless. I approached an older looking guy and figured the probability of him being savvy with the internet was low and so my mormon.org card wouldn't be much use and so I gave the concert flier another try and the mans reaction was kind of neat. As I turned about the walk alongside him and introduce the flier I was holding his initial instinct was to wave off anything that a missionary was offering him, so his action was to kind of hold up his hand like "save it" but my words were just "hey, here's a flier for a free concert you're invited to attend" so as he actually processed what I had said he turned his barrier of a hand into an upturned "gimme gimme" motion and he was genuinely grateful at the invitation and took the flier with interest. So that was pretty cool just to see a different reaction come from an invitation that I thought was useless. I'm not sure there is really lesson in this. In reality we have been taught that we should never change or lessen our message just to appeal to a wider audience. I think it was one of the prophets on his mission he found that as he just taught the Atonement and left the Restoration part of the message out of it than more people would listen to him but that is a sacrifice that isn't worth it. I don't think the concert invite was a cop out though. It's just a different invitation, the hopes being that the man will come to the church building and that step will possibly lead to many more in coming to know more about the gospel.
Anyway, I think on Friday we visited an inactive man who had stopped us in a parking lot and told us he was an inactive member. He told us we were welcome to come over to his place which was cool but he figured that we'd want to come over not to teach him, but to check out his pinball machine. I have to admit I was intrigued at the thought of a pinball machine free to use. So we went over and got him sharing his life story over a couple rounds of pinball and then we shared an Easter message with him and invited him back to church. We are supposed to help him move some of his stuff tomorrow so hopefully we can continue meeting with him and serving him however and it will lead to him trusting the church again.
Yesterday we had a great day at church. We got out of having to give talks for another week since our Branch mission leader wanted to speak in our place alongside his sister who is leaving on her mission in a short while. There was a non member family at church who were really nice and maybe we'll be able to teach at some point. And a few less actives came as well. We had dinner with a couple of families who live up at the college and that was fun. And afterward we drove up to the little town of Davenport to try and find a less active lady but we asked the residents and they said she had moved. Kind of a fruitless long drive but not so bad.
That has been my week. Thanks for reading.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Hi Everybody,
This past week was okay. Obviously the most exciting thing was getting to watch General Conference. I'm not sure if I already mentioned this in a previous e-mail but we met with an older active couple who are extremely intelligent people and we were just talking about Conference and how our Prophet and Apostles speak to us and we asked their opinion of conference expecting the normal consent that it is a great thing to behold, but they responded that they felt that conference was "for the lowest common denominator." I think I would agree that General Conference is pretty basic in it's teachings. The doctrine shared is never exactly earth shattering but it teaches simple truths and insights that everyone can benefit from listening to. Perhaps it's not bad for this couple to think this way of General Conference, I'm pretty sure they still listen to the talks even though they don't feel like they learn much, they just feel like they learn much more from their own personal study. It rather seems like they are on another field of understanding. They have the basics down and are working towards exaltation on an advanced curriculum level. At first I kind of considered their opinion towards conference a bad attitude but they still watch it, just not for enlightenment so much as to feel the spirit and contemplate things that they do still wonder about.
At General Conference we had a goal to get two less active members to view conference and two non-members to watch it. We only got one non-member to watch that we know of and we weren't sure who else in the less active category we could get to come. Randomly on Sunday for the second session that day a lady just showed up. She said that she had been baptized a few years ago but had been moving around and hadn't been to church for a long time. She stayed for a lunch pot luck put on by the singles branch and then stayed and watched the session. What was really weird about it is that we tried to find her church records in the ward and she was mentioning that they may have been removed. So actually we're not sure if she would have counted as a non-member or a less active. We didn't count her in our goal cause it wasn't by anything we did that she came but it's almost like our goal was fulfilled by the hand of the Lord anyway. But I really loved conference. I took furious notes summarizing everything every speaker said. The problem with me is that when I just listen to conference I enjoy it but never am able to recall what the talks were about afterwards and then if I take notes I am not paying full attention and so I can't recall what the talks were about even worse. Theoretically I have those notes to refer back to and spark my memory but in reality I don't get around to checking back on them very often. Just today we had a District Meeting and asked everyone to stand up and just share a part of conference that they really liked and I had one in mind that someone else used so I tried to think of another talk but just couldn't come up with one. One of my favorites was the one by Elder Hallstrom I think his name was and it was just really meaningful to us as missionaries. It went into the difference between the church and the gospel. People who are active in the church aren't necessarily active in the gospel or vice versa. We are making a big effort to work with inactive people and it's clear that the reason they no longer come to church is that they never had the full conversion of being active in both the church and the gospel. And then it also makes a good case for missionaries teaching active members as well. Some people may go through the motions of going to church and participating in their calling but not actually practice the principles of the gospel. Some times it's astounding to talk to some inactive members and find that they used to serve as relief society presidency 1st counselor or something else that would indicate that they were pretty solid in the church, and perhaps they were but not in the gospel.
Then Elder Holland gave another phenomenal talk. "Downing a quart of pickle juice every time some one else has a happy moment." Enviousness, no thank you. So yeah, conference was fantastic. We had a less active man that we have been working with and seen amazing improvements in come to three sessions and watch another one at his home. He's just throwing himself back into church, volunteering to do stuff and showing up for all the activities, it is really inspiring to see.
Tomorrow we are supposed to go visit the Oakland Temple, as we do around General Conference time. We still haven't found a ride that can take us which is not good but hopefully we'll find someone. I recognized a little while ago that I have never really studied or even read much from the Doctrine and Covenants and so I found that if I read one section a day I would finish about the same time as my mission does. I'm already behind a little but that's because it's kind of lame to just read one section a day so I've been storing them up so as to spend a little more time on a few sections at a time. It's been good. Just little things that I never picked up on before through hearing the stories told and not reading them personally.
Sunday after conference we went and visited a less active man and his non-member wife who we had never met before. He suffers from some pretty serious medical problems and only has one leg having lost the other one to gangrene recently. It was kind of a sight to knock on the door and then wait for about 2 minutes not knowing if they heard us. Then the door opened and I saw that the man was in a wheelchair and then a dog came out to greet us and then I noticed that the dog was missing a leg as well. The man invited us in, I may have been a little apprehensive to enter a house where it seemed the price of entry might cost me a leg. We met his wife though and she was intact so I calmed down. They were really nice. They have a gated driveway, the pass code for which some members gave us, so we weren't sure how they react to strangers seeing as they probably don't get them visiting often but they were pleased to see us. Just a nice old couple happy to talk about their kids and lives. We had heard that the wife was interested in doing some family history work so we introduced the idea of having the senior couple missionaries who specialize in that field over to meet with them and they were all up for that as well.
I guess that has been my week for the most part. Our only progressing investigator has started working a lot and doesn't have time to meet with us now. We thought it was bad when he was just a surfer bum living in his car but at least then he had plenty of time to meet with us and we could teach him. But as we motivated him to get his life together he has found two jobs and is looking to get an apartment and has no time for us. I'm sure we'll eventually get to work more with him though.
I hope you all enjoyed conference as well and have a good new week.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
This past week was okay. Obviously the most exciting thing was getting to watch General Conference. I'm not sure if I already mentioned this in a previous e-mail but we met with an older active couple who are extremely intelligent people and we were just talking about Conference and how our Prophet and Apostles speak to us and we asked their opinion of conference expecting the normal consent that it is a great thing to behold, but they responded that they felt that conference was "for the lowest common denominator." I think I would agree that General Conference is pretty basic in it's teachings. The doctrine shared is never exactly earth shattering but it teaches simple truths and insights that everyone can benefit from listening to. Perhaps it's not bad for this couple to think this way of General Conference, I'm pretty sure they still listen to the talks even though they don't feel like they learn much, they just feel like they learn much more from their own personal study. It rather seems like they are on another field of understanding. They have the basics down and are working towards exaltation on an advanced curriculum level. At first I kind of considered their opinion towards conference a bad attitude but they still watch it, just not for enlightenment so much as to feel the spirit and contemplate things that they do still wonder about.
At General Conference we had a goal to get two less active members to view conference and two non-members to watch it. We only got one non-member to watch that we know of and we weren't sure who else in the less active category we could get to come. Randomly on Sunday for the second session that day a lady just showed up. She said that she had been baptized a few years ago but had been moving around and hadn't been to church for a long time. She stayed for a lunch pot luck put on by the singles branch and then stayed and watched the session. What was really weird about it is that we tried to find her church records in the ward and she was mentioning that they may have been removed. So actually we're not sure if she would have counted as a non-member or a less active. We didn't count her in our goal cause it wasn't by anything we did that she came but it's almost like our goal was fulfilled by the hand of the Lord anyway. But I really loved conference. I took furious notes summarizing everything every speaker said. The problem with me is that when I just listen to conference I enjoy it but never am able to recall what the talks were about afterwards and then if I take notes I am not paying full attention and so I can't recall what the talks were about even worse. Theoretically I have those notes to refer back to and spark my memory but in reality I don't get around to checking back on them very often. Just today we had a District Meeting and asked everyone to stand up and just share a part of conference that they really liked and I had one in mind that someone else used so I tried to think of another talk but just couldn't come up with one. One of my favorites was the one by Elder Hallstrom I think his name was and it was just really meaningful to us as missionaries. It went into the difference between the church and the gospel. People who are active in the church aren't necessarily active in the gospel or vice versa. We are making a big effort to work with inactive people and it's clear that the reason they no longer come to church is that they never had the full conversion of being active in both the church and the gospel. And then it also makes a good case for missionaries teaching active members as well. Some people may go through the motions of going to church and participating in their calling but not actually practice the principles of the gospel. Some times it's astounding to talk to some inactive members and find that they used to serve as relief society presidency 1st counselor or something else that would indicate that they were pretty solid in the church, and perhaps they were but not in the gospel.
Then Elder Holland gave another phenomenal talk. "Downing a quart of pickle juice every time some one else has a happy moment." Enviousness, no thank you. So yeah, conference was fantastic. We had a less active man that we have been working with and seen amazing improvements in come to three sessions and watch another one at his home. He's just throwing himself back into church, volunteering to do stuff and showing up for all the activities, it is really inspiring to see.
Tomorrow we are supposed to go visit the Oakland Temple, as we do around General Conference time. We still haven't found a ride that can take us which is not good but hopefully we'll find someone. I recognized a little while ago that I have never really studied or even read much from the Doctrine and Covenants and so I found that if I read one section a day I would finish about the same time as my mission does. I'm already behind a little but that's because it's kind of lame to just read one section a day so I've been storing them up so as to spend a little more time on a few sections at a time. It's been good. Just little things that I never picked up on before through hearing the stories told and not reading them personally.
Sunday after conference we went and visited a less active man and his non-member wife who we had never met before. He suffers from some pretty serious medical problems and only has one leg having lost the other one to gangrene recently. It was kind of a sight to knock on the door and then wait for about 2 minutes not knowing if they heard us. Then the door opened and I saw that the man was in a wheelchair and then a dog came out to greet us and then I noticed that the dog was missing a leg as well. The man invited us in, I may have been a little apprehensive to enter a house where it seemed the price of entry might cost me a leg. We met his wife though and she was intact so I calmed down. They were really nice. They have a gated driveway, the pass code for which some members gave us, so we weren't sure how they react to strangers seeing as they probably don't get them visiting often but they were pleased to see us. Just a nice old couple happy to talk about their kids and lives. We had heard that the wife was interested in doing some family history work so we introduced the idea of having the senior couple missionaries who specialize in that field over to meet with them and they were all up for that as well.
I guess that has been my week for the most part. Our only progressing investigator has started working a lot and doesn't have time to meet with us now. We thought it was bad when he was just a surfer bum living in his car but at least then he had plenty of time to meet with us and we could teach him. But as we motivated him to get his life together he has found two jobs and is looking to get an apartment and has no time for us. I'm sure we'll eventually get to work more with him though.
I hope you all enjoyed conference as well and have a good new week.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Hello Everyone,
I was actually just perusing the updated lds.org website and I think it's awesome that it let's you log on and check out an online ward directory. Unfortunately I didn't recognize most people in the ward so I'll have a lot of greeting to do when I get back to the Maplewood ward I guess. This past week had some great parts to it. Foremost of which (I hope this doesn't unveil my mixed up priorities but,) we got a new car. My current companion has been vying for a new car for quite some time now, and not just any new car it is a brand new Chevy Cruze. I think my companion would have gotten the car no matter what cause he was pretty much the only missionary aware of it's coming and bothered to pester our Vehicle Coordinator for it. The fact that we serve in Santa Cruz makes it way cooler that we have a car called the Cruze however. It's pretty nice. I've noticed there isn't as much leg room as in the Malibu we had but the turning radius is much better and that is a trade that I am fine with since mission rules state that the passenger must exit the vehicle and signal the driver whenever the car is backing out. Better turning radius means that I don't have to get out of the car in the rain and look like a dork as often. It's a shorter car but the trunk space is surprisingly good. Upon inspection our district leader said in appreciation "Wow, you could probably fit four dead bodies in here." I'd say two living bodies though cause four would be uncomfortable if you could feel it.
New car aside the week was good. We have an investigator that is progressing nicely. He has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and that is really all it takes. He knows that it is true and whenever he comes to us with concerns, we can give him answers and they are true but he's never convinced until he studies it out himself and finds his own answer through the Book of Mormon. At first it seemed like it would be no problem to get this man to the waters of baptism and then we met with him some more and he seemed less certain on some things. The next time we saw him he said, "I know that I want to be baptized and soon." We asked how he had come to this decision so assuredly and he just said that he was reading in the Book of Mormon and found a section talking about the importance of baptism and it moved him.
On Sunday we managed to make it over to San Jose for the departing missionary fireside. Our investigator made us really late but it was great to get to go and see the finishing missionaries bear their testimonies and also the testimonies of some very strong recent converts and hear the beautiful music we could sing all together. The investigator we brought tends to be very open and we accidentally introduced him to Sister Watkins, the wife of our Mission President, and this resulted in Sister Watkins being stuck listening to our investigators life story for 20 minutes. He's a talker alright. We also were able to bring with us a less active member who we have been meeting with and a guy in the Singles Branch who hasn't made up his mind about whether to serve a mission or not. He'd make a great missionary but I think all the pressure from church members is having the opposite affect on him, causing him to push back.
Today was transfer day and both of the district leaders in the Santa Cruz zone were switched up. My new district leader is an Elder that I've seen around but never gotten to know like at all so it will be great to get to know him better.
On Thursday we were able to go and do Habitat for Humanity again and it was lots of fun. It's a good work out and also kind of relaxing to pound some nails into a floor. It's really neat to see the construction at like week intervals and notice slight changes and try and envision what the final product will look like. I guess I should probably say something to that effect about my investigators as well. It's neat to see them make changes over time and look forward to the growth that they will make in their knowledge and understanding.
We were also able to do some service at a soup kitchen that we go to every week but this time we got a less active member that we have been working with to come along, actually he volunteered and invited his girlfriend and roommate to come and the Elders Quorum President came along as well. Some of the other volunteers seemed a little unsure, like the Mormons were taking over their Catholic Soup Kitchen, but most of them are super friendly. Actually there are quite a few UCSC students at the soup kitchen and a few visits ago my companion got talking to one of them and they were interested in all the same stuff. Japanese culture, anime, math, D&D, you know, nerd stuff. But she is a poor college student and so welcomed the invitation to any activities we might host that involve a free meal or refreshment and we got her to come to an ice cream social that the single adult branch held and it was great. We couldn't stay but for 10 minutes cause it went past our curfew but we heard that she had a great time and we were very excited about that. Then we are planning another activity that will take people on a tour of their own death, but in delicate terms, fictitiously put on as a plane ride in the chapel that crashes. It should be fun, my companion and I will act as post mortal guides, showing the "deceased" through the plan of salvation.
That's about it for me. I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the times.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
I was actually just perusing the updated lds.org website and I think it's awesome that it let's you log on and check out an online ward directory. Unfortunately I didn't recognize most people in the ward so I'll have a lot of greeting to do when I get back to the Maplewood ward I guess. This past week had some great parts to it. Foremost of which (I hope this doesn't unveil my mixed up priorities but,) we got a new car. My current companion has been vying for a new car for quite some time now, and not just any new car it is a brand new Chevy Cruze. I think my companion would have gotten the car no matter what cause he was pretty much the only missionary aware of it's coming and bothered to pester our Vehicle Coordinator for it. The fact that we serve in Santa Cruz makes it way cooler that we have a car called the Cruze however. It's pretty nice. I've noticed there isn't as much leg room as in the Malibu we had but the turning radius is much better and that is a trade that I am fine with since mission rules state that the passenger must exit the vehicle and signal the driver whenever the car is backing out. Better turning radius means that I don't have to get out of the car in the rain and look like a dork as often. It's a shorter car but the trunk space is surprisingly good. Upon inspection our district leader said in appreciation "Wow, you could probably fit four dead bodies in here." I'd say two living bodies though cause four would be uncomfortable if you could feel it.
New car aside the week was good. We have an investigator that is progressing nicely. He has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and that is really all it takes. He knows that it is true and whenever he comes to us with concerns, we can give him answers and they are true but he's never convinced until he studies it out himself and finds his own answer through the Book of Mormon. At first it seemed like it would be no problem to get this man to the waters of baptism and then we met with him some more and he seemed less certain on some things. The next time we saw him he said, "I know that I want to be baptized and soon." We asked how he had come to this decision so assuredly and he just said that he was reading in the Book of Mormon and found a section talking about the importance of baptism and it moved him.
On Sunday we managed to make it over to San Jose for the departing missionary fireside. Our investigator made us really late but it was great to get to go and see the finishing missionaries bear their testimonies and also the testimonies of some very strong recent converts and hear the beautiful music we could sing all together. The investigator we brought tends to be very open and we accidentally introduced him to Sister Watkins, the wife of our Mission President, and this resulted in Sister Watkins being stuck listening to our investigators life story for 20 minutes. He's a talker alright. We also were able to bring with us a less active member who we have been meeting with and a guy in the Singles Branch who hasn't made up his mind about whether to serve a mission or not. He'd make a great missionary but I think all the pressure from church members is having the opposite affect on him, causing him to push back.
Today was transfer day and both of the district leaders in the Santa Cruz zone were switched up. My new district leader is an Elder that I've seen around but never gotten to know like at all so it will be great to get to know him better.
On Thursday we were able to go and do Habitat for Humanity again and it was lots of fun. It's a good work out and also kind of relaxing to pound some nails into a floor. It's really neat to see the construction at like week intervals and notice slight changes and try and envision what the final product will look like. I guess I should probably say something to that effect about my investigators as well. It's neat to see them make changes over time and look forward to the growth that they will make in their knowledge and understanding.
We were also able to do some service at a soup kitchen that we go to every week but this time we got a less active member that we have been working with to come along, actually he volunteered and invited his girlfriend and roommate to come and the Elders Quorum President came along as well. Some of the other volunteers seemed a little unsure, like the Mormons were taking over their Catholic Soup Kitchen, but most of them are super friendly. Actually there are quite a few UCSC students at the soup kitchen and a few visits ago my companion got talking to one of them and they were interested in all the same stuff. Japanese culture, anime, math, D&D, you know, nerd stuff. But she is a poor college student and so welcomed the invitation to any activities we might host that involve a free meal or refreshment and we got her to come to an ice cream social that the single adult branch held and it was great. We couldn't stay but for 10 minutes cause it went past our curfew but we heard that she had a great time and we were very excited about that. Then we are planning another activity that will take people on a tour of their own death, but in delicate terms, fictitiously put on as a plane ride in the chapel that crashes. It should be fun, my companion and I will act as post mortal guides, showing the "deceased" through the plan of salvation.
That's about it for me. I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the times.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
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