President Toone called last night. He
talked to both Elder Diaz and I. Elder Diaz is training. The second he
said he wanted to talk to me my heart dropped since I knew it would mean
I would leave. He asked me to 'step up' and then later to pack my
bags.
I have loved this area. I've loved this district.
District meetings were always so much fun and I loved preparing
the training and whatnot. I was hoping to stay there for a long time
since it is a more personal calling. I'm still working on making myself
be excited because mostly I'm just sad to leave.
Right now we have six people getting baptized,
easily, in August. Six! Ahhh! This is what happened to Elder Sawyer, he
got transferred right before six people he taught got baptized. I'll be
sad to miss the baptisms.
So in short: I'm getting transferred. Three months
of happiness here in Chandler serving in one of the best wards. I'm
going to miss the members, the recent converts, and our roommates and
Elder Diaz.
Yesterday at church we finally saw the fruits of all
our labors with the members. Members had brought friends to church!
There were 5 there that members had brought all on their own! After our
talks last week and all our visits it's finally paying off. When we got
to this area the members didn't trust the missionaries and there was
nothing going on. I'm so happy I got to see it turn around and am
devastated not to see the amazing results that are just around the
corner.
Speaking of results. We had two baptisms this past Saturday!! They were awesome. We started fifteen minutes late since one of the soon-to-be-recent-converts
And then during the service the person who said the
prayer only prayed for one of the two and then the first speaker forgot
one of their names....Ahhhhhh I was dying! But fortunately a comic
relief saved the day. When one of them came out of the water (baptized
by the bishop) he did the catholic cross thing with his hands and
everyone started laughing. I got to baptize one of them and it was an
amazing experience. Ahhh, I love baptisms. One we had to do after since he was super late ha.
At church when he got the gift of the holy ghost he
just sat in his chair afterwards and looked up slowly and said quietly,
"what peace....what happiness..." and then gave us all hugs.
That was the most amazing sacrament meeting I've
ever been to. There was a missionary returning, leaving, and the two
confirmations. In between the talks the mother and her friend got up to
sing to her departing daughter (Chicago, Illinois) and choked up and had
to stop while her friend kept singing. For the last few lines the
mother turned around and just looked at her daughter while she sang. The
lyrics were all about handing her daughter over to the Lord and
watching her grow etc etc. The spirit in that room was tangible.
Someone asked us this week if we had horns.
We
had a pretty cool experience with an investigator. She is going to ask
her mom if she can be baptized. We had her pretend that Elder Diaz was
her mom and she practiced what to say. In that little role play she bore
her testimony and it was super super powerful. Dangit I'l miss that
baptism too!
One of the Sister Training Leaders (STLs) from the
Mesa zone was over at our dinner appointment doing exchanges. She did
the dinner message but used her iPad Mini to show a video clip from
President Eyring. It was waaaaay cool. Jealous!
Chandler is being taken over by Tesla Model S's! They're way sleek.
This
week Elder Janis is working me out hard this week haha. Last monday I
told him to make me an exercise plan that I can do everyday for the next
months. He took it to heart. He was a fitness trainer back home and is
watching everything I eat and making us get up at 6 to do 30 mins of
cardio and 30 mins of weights. I'm eating about 1700 calories a day and
lots of Chia seeds. They taste terrible haha. I gave up chocolate. I
know, crazy, right?
A little bit of background real quick. Mexicans love
Novelas. Soap operas. This week we were teaching someone who said, "You
know, I think the scriptures are a lot like Novelas." He stopped
talking because I was laughing too hard. He never explained it
hahahahahahahahhahaa.
We had an amazing meeting this past week. The
Chandler East stake called all the ward council members, bishops, and
missionaries in the stake together for a training. President and Sister
Toone came and they trained on how to focus ward councils and meetings
on missionary work. It was an amazing meeting.
But I think my favorite part was when P. Toone
spoke. He shared some awesome stories in response to some questions
about the iPads. He said that while he was in the MTC being trained they
had a training on the iPads and Tracy Watson, director of global
proselyting, took out his iPad and said, "Hey, want to see where the
missionaries in the Texas ____ mission are?" He then opened it and had
real time tracking on them. But he quickly clarified and said, "Tracking
them isn't the point." He said the Brethren and the Mission Presidents
have complete access to lively monitor iPad usage. They can see when the
last time the electronic area book was updated, the plans for the day,
etc. Then he said again, "But tracking them isn't the point." He went on
to tell some stories of the power behind the technology. The first
story goes like this:
A woman calls the 1-800 referral number requesting a
Book of Mormon. The missionary at HQ on the other line notices she
lives in an area that is piloting iPads. The missionary sends a text to
the mission president who sends one to the zone asking if any
missionaries are nearby. One missionary, using the iPad, gets all the
information, coordinates with the missionary at HQ, and replies, "I'm
two doors away. I'm on my way over now." Before the woman calling HQ
hangs up the phone, the missionary is at the door with the item she
requested. Her response, "How did you do that?!"
True story.
Another one. A
husband is married to a member. He isn't a member. He decides to take
missionary discussions but is a truck driver so never has time. The
missionaries commit him to pull out Skype at rest stops. Over his 10 day
trip they taught him everything over Skype as he traveled from Utah to
New York. They coordinated church building locations and then skyped
with him and his family after church. The man was amazed that the
lessons in New York were the same in Utah and they shared thoughts on
the lesson 10 days later the man returned, ready for baptism.
True story.
The concern
came up about missionaries abusing it. President Toone said, "We know.
But the Brethren have said the Lord has created this for the spreading
of the Gospel. The Brethren said it is too powerful not to use and if
there are problems, they will deal with them as they come and they will
learn better ways to control them, but "this tool needs to be used now."'
In the next 6 months we should have them mission wide.
This Wednesday the mission is receiving 41 new missionaries. 1/3rd the mission will be training.
I set a goal for myself to read the Book of Mormon
in 6 weeks. That's about 115 pages a week. I'm 60 pages into it and it's
going really really well.
One of our recent converts told us the funniest story this week.
His friend was baptized a Jehovah's Witness and they said that when he
comes out of the water he should, "see Jehovah standing." So the first
time he got baptized he said he saw nothing. They baptized him again.
Again he said he saw nothing. Four to five times they baptized him and
then finally he came out of the water gasping saying, "Yes, I saw them!"
The newly-baptized JW told our recent convert that he felt like he was
drowning and so he just told them. Our recent convert was dying of
laughter while telling us the story aahha
This week our recent convert told us, "Science has a
limit. God doesn't." It was super insightful. He was telling us about
the opposition he received in deciding to be baptized. His other pastor
started anti-ing him. Just like last time, our recent convert anti'd him
back and won haha. The story was super intense and our recent convert
said words were coming to him and he didn't know where they were coming
from.
We have been having a big problem recently at
church. We have too many investigators to sit with and we don't have
time to talk with them all? I love that problem. It's my favorite
problem to have. Last week we had 8 at church and this week we had 6. We
have really good relationships with our members. When we walked into
ward council meeting they all got up and gave us hugs. Ah I'll miss this
ward.
Last night someone freaked out at us and started
screaming at us. We were talking with a woman in an apartment complex
and a very heavily tatooed man ran at us screaming TONS of obscenities,
calling us names, and telling us we can't solicit. We don't solicit, we
invite. By Arizona law that is recognized but no one knows that. So he
screamed and screamed and threatened to call the cops on us. I wanted to
tell him to do it because they'd be on our side but we just walked
away. I was worried for our member, an 85 year old. Later his neighbor
apologized and explained that we can't be there for soliciting. We
explained to her that we're allowed to be there and then left.
Anyway, this has been an awesome three months. I've learned a ton and have grown a ton. I'm excited for what's ahead!
Thanks for all your support everyone! Thanks for writing Eric, Will, Mom, and Natalia!
With love
EJ
Random question: Why do the monsoon clouds only come in in the afternoon?
Random question: Can someone tell me more about Madasa?
Random question: is there a way to produce darkness like we produce light?
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