The work moves forward

Elder Morgan, a familiar face in the MTC

Feb 23, 2011

Lol well Idk how I went from stuffed to starving so fast but this week it is back to stuffed. The Branch came to our suppport and has provided us with meals for the next 2 weeks and they are planning on continuing to feed us everyday of every week even though the branch pres said no. But finally the english ward called us so we have been eating 2 dinners every day this week. But starting today we will just be eating with the spanish branch.

We had an interesting experience last night. So Renee is 9 years old and was supposed to be baptized this coming tuesday so we stopped by to confirm plans and see how things are. We brought their home teacher who they really like just to have a member with us. When the dad answered the door he was really angry. He invited us in and we sat down with him and his wife. They explained how their baby had been in the hospital all weekend (we had known because we stopped by to offer our service) and how she had called a member of the branch pres. to come give the baby a blessing. The person said he would and then never showed up. She called the releif society pres and asked for meals because she was in the hosptal the whole time. Nobody came to help. She was soo mad and hurt that nobody came to help them. She and her husband told us that they would never come to church again and that their son Renee would not be baptized. Things were looking down. Then with a few inspired words from the member we brought everything changed. He said, "People are not perfect, especially leaders, and you cannot expect them to be perfect". He told them how leaders are usually very busy and cannot always get to everything but that doesnt mean they dont care. The spirit was so strong. Then he testified about how important it is for Renee to make the baptismal covenants and to have his dad baptize him. They paused and thought and said we will come back to church and we want to go to the temple. Renee will be baptized monday (earlier than expected). We walked out of that lesson wondering what had just happened and how the spirit of the conversation changed so fast.

    Two more really cool spiritual experiences I had this week. The first was last friday while checking up on a potential investigator. it was about 8pm and the inv was not there so we were walking back and I got an impression to stop. I stopped looked around and looked at the house that was to my left. "Knock that door" came the feeling. Elder F asked what I was doing and I told him we needed to knock that door. We went up and knock and a man answered. We talked for a few minutes and then at the end he said, "I want you to teach my family, come back sunday at 3".  The second story, we were knocking doors in a condo complex. We would knock about 1 or 2 doors a building and just ask if they knew of anyone that spoke spanish in the complex. We had gone through about half the buildings when Elder F suggested that we leave. I agreed and we were about to leave when the impression pretty strong almost as if I had heard an actual voice say "Not yet (dont leave) there is someone here for you" I again stopped and looked at the complexes in front of me and took a step to the left, the voice came again "Go right" I immediately walked to the back right complex and we began to knock all the doors in the complex, something we had not done previously. In the last door in the top right a man answered. He said come in come in. We walked in and we sat down on the couch, there was a lady in the chair across from us. He was american but she was from Bolivia. She looked at us and said. "You are here for a reason". I asked her what she meant and she told us that she is a member, served a mission and is still very active. He is a member too but has been less active since he was 14 (both were about 40). They were dating and he was trying to come back to church and trying to gain a testimony for himself but it just wasnt working. She told us how 5 min earlier they had been talking and she had said we need the missionaries to come by and teach you. 5 min later we came knocking on the door. We had never been in this condo complex before and to be there at the exact moment she needed us was nothing but inspiried. We talked about his struggles and shared some scriptures to help him. He then asked us how we knew it was true and if our new converts ever struggled. We told them yes we all struggle, people think so short minded as if baptism is the end, but it is only the begining and after baptism our eyes are set on the temple and its hard for new memebers to realize the ultimate goal of an eternal family. We told him he was not alone. Then she asked us to share our conversion story. Elder F shared his, a powerful story of how he had made some dumb mistakes was doing somethings wrong and one day desired to know and to change and how he read and got on his knees and recieved a powerful answer. She then asked for mine and my story is a lot different that his. I related how I had always grown up in the church, tried to do the right things, how my family was always doing what they needed to do. How I read the book of Mormon to get my spiritual confirmation, you know that powerful confirmation that it is all true, that confirmation everyone talks about. I told him how when I finished the Book I got on my knees and prayed my heart out, desiring this confirmation and.... nothing. I had reiceved nothing, no answer no powerful "YES TAYLOR IT'S TRUE". This left me wondered what had happened. Then I was touched by the spirit as it told me, "do you need that confirmation?" I thought on that and realized how I didn't need that powerful yes. I knew the church was true already. I had seen how the church and the teachings of Jesus Christ had changed my life and how I had seen it in my families life too. I realized I have always known the church was true, I had always known Joseph Smith was a prophet and Heavenly Fathe knew I knew and he knew I didn't need that powerful witness and so I wasn't going to get a witness I didn't need. I testified to him that I knew the church was true, I didn't know exactly why it was true, but I knew it was and I could not deny it. After both our stories everyone was in tears. We ended with a prayer and told him we would come back to teach him and check up on how he is doing. Walking out of that condo I realized the importance of listening to the Holy Ghost, because as missionaries the message we bring is the answer to peoples prayer and if we are not listening then we may have just cost someone an answer to a heart pled cry for help.

   Other than that the week was great, we worked our butts of in the pouring rain/snow wed and sat. When none of our investigators came to church we thought we had worked so hard and recieved nothing in return. We were wrong! In gospel principles class were 2 new people who had come to learn more about our church. The one was a lady who soaked in every minnute of class and afterwards came up to us and told us to teach her more and she wanted to learn. The other man (no relation to the lady) introduced himself in Preisthood meeting and said (spanish of course)"Hi, my name is Fred. I was Jehovah's Witness for 20 years, but always thought that there was something more to the Bible but my religion held me back from learning more. I got a copy of the Book of Mormon 2 weeks ago and I am in Moroni and will finish it today, I know the church is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet and I am glad to be here today." Elder F and I looked at each other baffled. We talked to him afterwards and set up and appt to teach him.

    It was a great week where I have really learned of the blessings our Heavenly Father has prepared for us as long as we ask and work for them. The church is true! I know it is! I love you all and have a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Jolly

Feb 16, 2011

lol glad to hear everything is going good in Cali. I got your package last week mom, loved the candy and the other goodies. Although the candy is gone. Lol we havent had dinner appts for like 4 weeks so my monthly spending money is gone and our cuboards are bare since we are low on food and money so I am going to have to charge some food today at walmart to my debit card. I hope thats ok. This past week was alright, but pretty slow. We picked up another family of 6 who just moved here from texas and we are teaching vicente and his family (11 people live in that house). Lol mom I think you can include peoples first names in my blog, I think it confused bishop. Anyway, sunday we had Branch Conference and the Branch President and Stake President talked. The stake presient praised the missionaries on our work and pretty much chastized the members for letting us go hungry. He said these missionaries have been working their butts off and the last thing they need is for you guys to let them go hungry. We stopped by Emma and Emmitas house and taught them and at the end they both wanted to get baptized but we are still working with the difficulty she has of living with a man married to someone in mexico. On monday we worked on mormon.org and I was thinking mom and dad that you should make a profile. It is a really cool site. Oh mom Sister Miller called me and said that if you get a bill for my medical stuff that you dont need to pay it, she said to call the mission office because I am doubled covered and Missionary Medical should cover anything left over after the charges go through our insurance. My favorite ride is probably space mountain or Screaming California. Hannah we r going to have to go on it again when i get back in 19 months. My 5 month mark was yesterday. Weird to think how fast these 5 months went by. Other than that it was a good week but pretty slow. We set some good transfer goals and our goal for baptisms is 13 as a companionship so pray that our investigators will progress and accept the commitments that we leave for them. Have fun in Cali and hey mom can you send me some pics of the house and yard and stuff. People keep asking me what it is like in kirkland and where i live and my description doesnt do it justice. Oh and my baby I want a pic of my baby the truck lol. But have a great time in cali and do whats right.

 

Love,

Feb 9,2011

Well it was a good week. J-- was baptized on sunday, he asked me to baptize him. He was so excited. What was great was C-- A-- and I-- attended the baptism and while we were chagning they had people bear their testimonies and I-- got up right as I came out and he bore an extrememly touching testimony. We had 8 inv at the baptism and afterwards all their kids (6 kids) came up and were like that was sooo cool, I want to be baptized.  A-- recieved the priesthood and C-- got a calling, she will be working in the primary. She is excited but nervous. I called her last night to tell her I didn't get transferred and that I heard she had recieved a calling and she was like "I dont know how to teach kids Gospel stuff. I told her it would be good practice. We had dinner with them on monday and I-- all excited says "Elder Jolly I am getting married!" I looked at him shocked because I had no idea he was dating anyone. I said wow to who? He replied "I dont know yet but its going to be next year in the temple". I said You don't know who? and he told me No but it will be in the temple and you have to come. I told him I would definitely come.  It was cool to see him so excited about getting married in the temple. We have some recent converts in our branch of about 1.5 years and they just got the recommend to go to the temple and they were so excited. He was like Elder Elder I am going to the temple soon I just got my recommend and I am going to be sealed to my family! Blessings of the Gospel. Last week Pres called us and asked to be put on speakerphone. He said Elders I ussually like to call with good news but not this time. Salt Lake City wants to retire your car.  Like half the mission cars are going to Church Headquarters to be sold. Sad day. We did some reorganizing of furniture in our house to open it up a bit and make it more friendly, it was a fun task. Anyway that was about my week. The work was a little slow but it was still rather enjoyable. Until next week, love you all.

 

Elder Jolly

Feb 2, 2011

oh and we have been enjoying some good Tongan food lately from sister L-- she loves to cook.

LOL signs of spring? HECK NO! It was 11 degrees yesterday and a wind chill of -5, we were outside helping the sisters move. Now I know why you dont like it when i wear shorts in the cold. Yes definitely drop something by the mission home for me, I would love that. This past week was good except I have been sick. Our district set a goal for baptisms for feb and the goal is 21 between 3 companionships. OUr companionship goal when prayed about is 9. I was wondering for a second if we really heard the Lord say 9 because that number is half of the zone goal and our district goal is higher than the zone goal, but yep it was 9 so we r putting our nose to the grind stone. Sunday was interesting! We picked up one of our investigators for church and about 2 min before church started Hermano M-- (WML) calls us and says he is sick so Elder F-- and I needed to teach gospel principles. Only one of our inv's showed up to church so we were a little bummed about that but hey what can ya do. ANyways after sacrament meeting we went into the Branch Pres. office to be in the circle when I-- recieved the priesthood. When Pres H-- asked who he wanted to do it, he turned and pointed to me, so I confired the priesthood on I--. I also gave him his priesthood lineage so if you could email another one dad that would be great. We then ran to gospel principles to teach, and the  lesson was oh so conviently on baptism. We taught the lesson and tried to follow the spirit and at the end our inv E-- began to cry. We then after GP had to run because it was the 5th sunday and Elder F-- and I were teaching the youth on how to prepare for missions. It went really good, although when we asked each boy and girl where they want to go on a mission nobody said South Salt Lake ... interesting. We heard that 3 missionaries have been killed this past week in other countries so that put a damper on things but the work is still moving along. We have people on date for baptism every sunday this month. J--- is getting baptized this sunday so we are all really excited. We made mormon.org profiles so if u get time check mine out! My MTC teachers are up there too. We had a really cool visa waiter Elder A-- but he got his visa and left this morning for Torreon Mexico. Other than that nothing too exciting.  Love you all and I hope to have pics of the baptism next week. Did you get the pics on the email I sent of C-- I-- and A-- baptism? Stay strong and lean on the lord.

 

Jan 26, 2011

Well, things this past week were a little slower but Pres. Miller said our numbers still look amazing. We had personal interviews with his on tuesday as a zone and we were each scheduled 15 min for the interview. Mine was 3 to 4 minutes long! The only thing he really told me was keep up the good work and try playing basketball in the mornings. We taught J-- last weekend and man he is progressing well. We gave him the baptismal date and he accepted with a "heck yes" and when we gave him the date for Feb 6th he responded "Will I be ready?" We said Of course and he was like well lets do it then. R-- is progresing well he is most of the way through Mosiah and he has only had the Book of Mormon for a week. N-- is coming along ok but church is still an issue for him. We found a family of 11 that we are teaching now. Their old house burned down and they lost everything so we are trying to help them. Other than that not much else happened. OOOH we had cow tongue for dinner monday and it was pretty good. We went and taught E-- and E-- monday and her roommate M-- and her husband were there. When we first got there her husband was kind of rude and I went to shake his hand and he said "I am busy". Then he started teasing us because we dont drink. Little did he know he was going to get a spiritual kick to the face. We began our lesson and he asked the question "What spiritual things are important" and we went into the plan of Salvation how there is more to life than work and sleep. His kids 19, 16, 15 are all back in mexico and we talked about eternal families. The whole atmosphere changed as we bore testimony and at the end he said, " I would like to meet again and learn more". It was amazing!! We meet with C--- A--- and I-- and we talked about the temple and are working to get them set up for Baptisms for the dead later in feb.

   Everyone was a little upset with  me today because I was the recipient of most of the mail. Last week I got 6 letters and a package and I only had time to respond to 2 letters but this week i got 8 more letters and another package. I didnt know I had so many friends and so much support. It touches me to read all your letters and words of hope and just how life is going. Thanks for the business cards mom!!! I love you all and I pray for all my friends and family daily. Stay strong and listen to the Holy Ghost. Until next week...

 

Elder Jolly

Jan 19, 2011

 

Well it was a pretty good week. We had the three conformations on sunday for C__ A___ and I___.   I was asked to confirm A___ and I got to do it in english so he could understand it better. The stake president was in there and commented on the sweet spirit the conformations brought into the meeting. We had a meeting with all 10 wards ward councils last night with our mission president to discuss the wards failure on the ward mission process. He was very blunt with the wards and told them that if all the wards meet the requirements that we as full time missionaries should be teaching upwards of 100 lessons a week as a companionship but we are not even teaching 15 so he said it shouldnt be too hard to get us up to 25 lessons a week. He hammered that as missionaries it is not our job to find it is the members jobs, we are full time teachers. He came up afterwards and congratulated Elder Fordham and I on our baptisms and told us to keep up the great work.

    J__ came to church on sunday and we are going to try and give him a baptismal date tonight for Feb 6. He is progressing fast and loves learning, so we meet about 2 or 3 times a week. We had a referal R___ who we always stopped by and made appts but he never showed up and his roommates would always give him a bad time about having misionaries stop by for him. So we dropped him before we could even get a lesson in. On sunday we had a weird impression to stop by again, so we did. He opened the door and actually let us in right then and there. It was quiet and we taught The Restoration and he loved every second of it. Afterwards he apologized and said his roommates didnt like us stopping by but they had moved out the night before. The only question he had when we were done was "Can you come again tomorrow?". So we taught him monday night and tuesday night and he wants us to come back again tonight too! He loves learning and the spirit he feels and so he wants us to stop by every night. I gave him a baptismal date monday and so he is on schedule to be baptized feb 13. We found 4 more people who we are now teaching, one is a less active who left the church after she got pregnant at the age of 16 and the ward black sheeped her. We talked to her for about 20 min on her door step just getting to know her and she said we could come back sometime. I feel that the moment she feels the spirit it will bring back memories of her past spiritual experiences. M__ is another less active we are visiting. He got divorced 1.5 years ago and it destroyed him so he stopped coming to church and he stopped really having faith at all. We talked with him for over and hour and he expressed how he felt abandoned. I asked him if he was still saying his prayers and he said no. I promised him that the moment he got on his knees and prayed those feelings of abandonment would go away, he told us to come back whenever we wanted.

    We had dinner the other night at a ladies house, turns out she sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Chior. She sang for 10 years and traveled all over the world. The chior is an amazing missionary tool because the people listen to the music and feel the spirit so strong. This morning at 6 we went to the Oquer (spelling?) Mountain Temple. It is gorgeous and over looks the whole valley. On the way we drove right by the lindemans house!!!!
Anyways that was the basics of my week. Lots of tracting and lots of success. Love you all! Church is ture and anyone who doubts it or doesn't know should our knees in honest sincere prayer and ask God the Eternal Father and you will recieve you answer. Have a great week