Learning A Lot This Week 11-16-15

So this week our Area Book app had an update. However, once it was updated, we could no longer open the app or use it for a couple days which made life hard. We couldn't look up any addresses or put in lessons or anything. My ponderize scripture was Mosiah 18: 19 "And he commanded them that they should teach nothing save it were the things which he had taught, and which had been spoken by the mouth of the holy prophets." Out here on a mission, we teach a lot of people. There are also a lot of different churches with many different beliefs. For us, we only teach people the things which the Lord and the prophets and apostles have taught us. Just like this scripture, we also need to listen to the prophets and apostles and do what they have asked. When we do those things, we are blessed with opportunities to share them with others as well. We all need to pay attention to those opportunities that come into our path and then take advantage of them by sharing the gospel.

Monday for P-day we just chilled all day and then at night we found 3 new investigators. After that we went and played Phase 10 with a member and her boyfriend who goes to the Church of Christ. He has Down syndrome, not super bad, but a little and she has some mental problems because of an accident she had as a baby. They are great and we had fun.

Tuesday we tracted into a lady that was interested in our message, but we haven't been able to catch her at home since then. Small world though, the people we had dinner with knew a family of a kid that I played soccer with. So that was pretty cool.

Wednesday we had Zone Conference with Elder Zwick of the 70. It was almost all day. I learned that I need to build my foundation on Christ, read from the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of my life, keep my teaching shorter, simpler, and inviting the Spirit at the same time. I also was reminded that the past is the past and I need to look more to the future with faith as well as gaining strength through the Atonement. I also need to make sure that I don't spiritually plateau. I need to pray with faith, sincerity, respect, kindness, love, and more earnestly. The spirit was so strong at this conference and I learned a lot. We went and saw Anthony and tried implementing what we learned today as we taught him the Restoration. We did it and the Spirit was so strong as we taught and testified. It was awesome! Also, on a side note, apparently there was a tornado warning tonight. Yikes!

Franklin Zone Conference

Thursday there was no tornado, thankfully. We had a good day though. We taught Mike the rest of the Plan of Salvation and then I asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes. We had been praying about a date and we were kind of thinking Dec. 5, but we gave him a calendar first and asked which day he thought he would be ready and he said Nov. 28. We asked him to pray about the 2 dates and then tell us which one he felt was the right one. We found a few potential investigators while tracting and then went over to see a less-active part-member family. They are awesome. The Father went to the same high school as elder Wardle 6 years before him. They said they would come to church, which they did, and we have a lesson set up with them for this week and a dinner appointment for next week.

Friday I had my first gyro. (Just for clarification, they are pronounced yero, but I will always call them jiro.) They were delicious. We taught a lesson to a guy (total redneck type) that some sisters asked us to go see. He has been going to Bible School and was interested in learning more about what we believed. We weren't sure what to expect. So we started teaching him the Restoration and all through the lesson he would bring up Bible verses totally not related to what we were talking about. I just did not feel the Spirit at all during the whole lesson. Like always though, I felt the Spirit as soon as we were able to tell him about the First Vision. He was kindly “bashing” with us a little, but he was really scattered so it didn't work out too well for him. He had a hard time understanding how the Book of Mormon isn’t adding to or taking away from the Bible like the scripture in Revelations talks about. We were trying to explain to him what the scripture meant, but it was no use – he wasn’t listening, just wanted to argue. We still gave him the Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray about it. After that we Skyped a family named the Bitzers. Elder Wardle taught them in a past area and they are like his second family. I finally got to meet them and they are super cool. We skyped them because they were going through a rough time right now so we were just giving them some support.

Saturday for most of the day we helped our Ward Mission Leader move his parents into their new house that they just built. Later that night we went to a wedding reception. We then went and gave a guy a blessing who was in the hospital. He suffered two minor strokes. He is luckily mostly fine, he just can't feel anything with the tips of his fingers, but still usable.

Sunday we had 4 investigators at church. We had a healthy “lunner” which was nice for a change. We went and saw a few people with a member and then that night went to the Church of God. There were only 2 other people in the congregation besides us and the preacher. One of the two people was his wife. Really small and they didn't do anything too crazy like what we see sometimes. Our iPads finally got fixed and we had to fill everything back in for a while.

That's my week. Hope everyone has a good upcoming week and hopefully some of you have some missionary opportunities that you take advantage of this week as well. Miss ya and I pray for you guys all the time.

Elder Ellison