Gordon's Missionary Blog: Letter and Pictures

Dear family!

This week had it's ups and downs I guess as every week does. There was a lot of great things that happened but also some disappointments.

Monday: We saw the sobers and watched a temple video and connected to enduring to the end. They can't wait to be able to go to the temple. They went to Florida this week and while they are there they may go walk around the temple grounds if they can. That would be so cool! They would never want to leave haha :) We also saw Simon and Nadecia with her son Richardo who is 18 or so. We watched the restoration video. John wasn't there because of work. It was good and brought the spirit. I think it is causing them to think more about what we are sharing with them and stirring their souls.

Tuesday: We had an awesome zone conference where we learned a lot about finding those who are searching for the truth. There was a lot of great stories and experiences shared that just give a boost to your testimony that there are those people out there that the Lord is preparing to hear and accept the gospel. President also talked about Eternal Marriage connected to the temple. He was a temple sealer and he shared some personal meaningful experiences that he has had that brought the spirit. It was a special meeting to be in. I loved it. We saw Lorraine in the evening. We taught about the end of the plan of salvation on what happens after we die and her son Nicoli joined in the lesson. He is 20. We gave him the book of mormon and the tracks to read and he started looking through them. It was good.

Wednesday: We read again with Bro. Brewster. It's been having a positive influence/change on him. We can start to notice a difference in him. He also likes it when we sing hymns too. We saw Juanita and taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After teaching about repentance and the importance of keeping commitments we gave her a choice to continue the lessons and she said she wants to when things settle down. She will call when she is ready but for now we have stopped going by. We had a lot of fall through appointments and so we contacted a bit. We also went and played basketball to do some sport finding. We've been challenged to do that to help seek out the youth and young adults which is a direction from the 12 Apostles. It's fun! We get to go play with some really great players and then share the gospel with them. We go on wednesday nights for an hour or so. They are more open to us and we have found some interest. It's cool.

Thursday: We saw Kelvin who had done the assignment we had given him to watch Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. He watched it like three times and it honestly scared him and kinda made him angry at God. He was really emotional and we just talked with him about it and what he felt from the movie. He believes it is a true story and that Joseph Smith had a lot of faith and was a true prophet but he didn't like it because of all the terrible persecutions that happened to all the faithful saints. It left him with questions and concerns. He was confused as to why a loving God would allow his saints to go through so much trial and suffering. He wanted to know why God didn't just put his hand in to play and stop the bad from happening. We talked with him to help him understand and explain and teach about God. We also answered his questions from conference which were great and he had many. We later gave him some things to study to help him more. We gave him several talks and several scriptures to look up. One of my favorites was from last conference called God Shall Wipe Away All Tears. There are a myriad of different reasons but I know God loves us and does everything for our good and to help us learn, repent, and progress. It's so much sense because it's part of our purpose here in this life. We also dropped Renee. He isn't ready right now but we told him to give us a call in the future when he is ready. We saw Meredith and taught about the plan of salvation. She said she was going to come to church this week but she didn't. I think we are going to have to say goodbye for now as well. Ah! It's so hard! We love them so much! We saw John, Simon, and Nadecia, and Richardo for a short lesson. We just watched a mormon message called Because of Him about Jesus Christ and as we watched I felt the spirit come over me very noticeably with peace and warmth. I don't know if they felt it like I did but it was amazing to me. We talked about their thoughts and feelings after. They enjoyed it and they said it gave them a sense of hope. John spoke about his feeling a need to read the book of mormon. They haven't come to church yet but they say they will and they feel they need to. The greatest disappointment happened today when we went by to see Rodney. He told us that he didn't want to meet anymore. It was such a shock to us. We were like wait what?? He told us that he was talking with his old bishop and that he had chosen to go back there and repent there. It was really heartbreaking. It was so sad. We tried to talk to him about it but he couldn't then. We aren't quite giving up yet but I don't see a lot of hope because he is pretty set. We are wanting to have one last lesson if he will let us. We will see but for now we aren't teaching him anymore. He says he will still read from the book of mormon because he likes it.

Friday: We did a lot of contacting and saw Lorraine with Elvis. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ and a few of the basic commands to pray, study, and go to church. She is committed to do them. She spends a lot of time praying and reading. She has read all the assignments we give her and more. She's great!

Saturday: We saw Bro. Brewster again. He feels a need to repent. We read Alma 36 with him. Elder Anderson felt like we should contact near a supermarket in our area during our allotted time to contact and so we went there. We found across the street at the bus stop a young married man named Rommel who had heard a little of the church before and was super interested. We gave him a book of mormon and he was excited to read it. He lives in another area but I think he has a lot of potential. I'm excited to see what happens with him. We saw Travis who isn't really accepting what we are teaching him. He is a nice guy with a great family but we aren't going to continue teaching him. We saw a guy named Don for the first time who accepted baptism. He is good friends with a couple of strong members so he has some potential. He was taught before by missionaries. We saw patrick and talked about general conference with him. He enjoyed it and found what was said was true.

Sunday: Kelvin was the only one who came to church this week but I'm sure glad he came. He was again taking a lot of notes and asked good questions in our gospel principles class. He is still going strong despite doubts and concerns that satan is throwing at him. He is really trying to overcome and understand it all. He hasn't accepted a date for baptism yet because he wants to learn more first. The Sobers were on vacation and Junika was sick. Sister Jones also came. We went and taught her after about faith in the Savior and repentance. She is doing good things to help build her faith and repent. She asked us for an assignment to read before we gave one to her. We also saw a couple of new investigators and then we saw Lorraine again. She didn't come to church this week because her daughter was sick and she had to take care of her. We helped get conference and she is excited to watch it since she missed it last week. We had given her the word of wisdom, law of chastity, and tithing for her to study and prepare and then we taught them all together. She is already living them all and was fully prepared to accept the commitment to live them. She found a tithing slip and already set aside money to pay tithes and offerings. It was amazing. What amazes me even more is that she isn't financially well off. It shows the great faith that she has. She is excited about her upcoming baptism and is ready.

I love you all! I know this gospel is true! I know that Jesus is the Christ! I've been striving to learn all I can about Him. I feel my faith increasing and my love for Him grows more and more. I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder King

Basketball and Kelvin at church!