New Area

well, I have successfully made it to Lynn Haven, and i love it here, i finally live in a city!! elder abrams and i get along very well and have a lot of the same ideas of what we want to happen here. the last two transfers here there have been a few baptisms, so now there arent really any investigators to teach, so we are doing a lot of grind work and hitting the pavement and knocking on doors. even though its hot and we get rejected all the time, i enjoy it; there are some pretty funny people! we had a ton of people on saturday open the door and say "sorry the game is on" and then close the door in our face, it was so funny!!

so elder abrams and i have been in a 4 pad for the last week, but it is ending this week... the other elders got an apartment, it was fun while it lasted hahahaha. but there are a ton of missionaries that live super close to us, so we will be having a bunch of fun p days and hopefully sleep overs with them, i am so pumped! the elders here are really cool, and i can relate with them really well, i love it, so much better than sabin and i being the only missionaries within 60 miles of anyone.

the ward here is absolutely incredible! the people are amazing and were very welcoming! everyone is super missionary minded and is helping us out any way they can. the ward mission leader is a stud and will do anything for us. people feed us every night, its pretty nice, we are definitely spoiled here!

elder abrams and i have been doing a lot of planning and getting things all figured out for the zone, and there are some big things that are going to be happening! we set zone goals, and if everything goes as planned there should be 23 this transfer! its pretty weird how everyone is looking to me now for advice and help, i feel pretty inadequate, but i can definitely tell that the lord is supporting me and helping me become a better person and missionary. abrams is a stellar missionary and is teaching me a lot, i really am grateful that he is my companion, cause i know we are going to grow together and see amazing things happen!

so we do have a few people to teach, and we are doing a lot of work and teaching, just not as much as we could. we feel that we can be teaching at least 20-25 lessons a week, which is pretty dang good. yesterday we were teaching this guy and was talking about how there is a prophet on the earth today and how he can find out if he really is a prophet by going to conference and listening to him speak, but he went off on us and pulled the scripture in revelations about not adding or taking away from "this prophecy" and how thomas s monson is a false prophet cause he believes in the book of mormon and that is adding to the bible, but he didnt understand that that scripture is talking about the book of revelations and that it says the same thing Deuteronomy and that most of the new testament was written after the book of revelations, so it kinda turned into a bash, which was bad, but we are going back over and are going to do a much better job at just inviting the sprit; even though we were right, it wasnt good to do that.

 "jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever" and so there has been another prophet called on the earth today! i am so thankful for the prophets and apostles and how much guidance that they give to us and that we get to hear from them this week! think about it, people of the same caliber of peter james and john of the new testament are going to speak to us about problems that we face in todays world, its amazing!! i can promise yall that if you come up with a question and ask god to have that question answered that something someone says will answer your questions., they truly are called of god, and they receive revelation for us. i love this gospel so much and love listening to the words of the prophets!

i love yall and hope that you will watch or listen to conference this week, it will help you in your life!

until next week

elder schipaanboord

 

 

Bye Chipley!!

This week has been absolutely crazy!!  We taught Jonita a bunch this week and had so much success!  We found out that her question that has been bugging her for years was about the literal gathering of Israel in the new Jerusalem, cause someone had said something to her years ago about it and flipped out and told him he was a liar.  Well we taught her about it and showed it to her in The Book of Mormon and she said "Alright, it's true, I believe it all."  So we then asked her if she would be baptized and with out hesitation she said "YES!"  It was so sick!!  We also went over and taught her about The Word of Wisdom and she basically taught it to us and 100%, accepted it, and said that she is already living it!!  While teaching her she said something to the member that made all the hardships on the mission worth it; she said "There is just something about these two Elder's that really clicked with me, they weren't like the others I have met, they were just for me."  It was so amazing!  I am so thankful that she stopped us that day in Walmart and that I have had the pleasure of meeting with and teaching her! 

We also met with Nancy and Westly Kelly this week and talked a lot about baptism.  We taught them about the sticky note thing with The Book of Mormon and they got very specific answers, it kinda freaked out Westly hahahaha.  Westly has never been baptized but wants to and Nancy wants to become a member so bad, so we committed them to be baptized, and they accepted, they are praying for a date right now!!! 

On Sunday, none of the speakers showed up so the First Counselor in the Bishopric came up to Sabin and I right before the meeting started, literally 3 minutes before, and asked if we would give a talk.  It's crazy how much I have grown, I wasn't scared at all!  I have learned that if you know the doctrine and what you want to speak about you really don't need notes at all, you can just get up there and start talking about it.  So I decided to speak about something that I have been pondering a lot lately, and that is prayer.  It's so amazing that we have the ability to speak with our Heavenly Father!  The person who made everything and has all the power in the Universe wants to hear from us, and will help us!  I think that the more sincere and humble our prayers are and the more we pray for things to line up with the Lord's will, the more powerful our prayers will be and the more answers you will get.  One thing I have been doing lately is really and sincerely thinking and visualizing that I am speaking with Heavenly Father and truly thank Him for the blessings in my life and ask for His help.  As I have done this, I have realized a huge difference!!  I am thankful that we have the wonderful gift of prayer, and I know that God answers them!!  If you don't believe me, try it!  Offer up a humble and sincere prayer and I promise that the Lord will answer your prayer!!  He does it for me all the time!

It is amazing how much work is going on here in the Chipley ward, I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it, BUT of course, right when the baptism start to come, I get transferred....): that is okay though, I truly have loved this area; it took a while but I really do love the people and have enjoyed my time here.  The Lord has bigger and better things for me in store.  I am being transferred down to Lynn Haven to be with Elder Abrams!!  I am really excited!  I have served around Abrams multiple times and have been on exchanges with him and can't wait to put in work with him!

 

My new address is: 

2401 Stanford RD

APT 503 

Panama City, FL 32405

Thank you for every thing that y'all do for me!  I really do love all of you and hope that y'all have a great week!

Elder Schipaanboord

Crazy Lessons

This week has been super awesome!  We went down to Panama City for zone conference and had a sleep over at the zone leaders apartment with all the elders in the zone, it was so sick!  There are a ton of new missionaries in the zone, and like half of the elders played baseball in high school, so we got along right away!  We ended up staying awake until like 2:00 playing games and just talking, it was super dope!  But I definitely paid for it... the next day I was fighting to keep my eyes open during zone training and the lessons we had planned the rest of the day, but somehow I did!  In zone conference we learned about the Wemick Punchinello and how we need to not worry about what others think, but rather what the Lord thinks of us.  We are literally children of God, so why worry about what those around you think when your Father in Heaven thinks so highly of you and knows your potential?  There are some really good books with Punchinello, and I would highly suggest looking them up, they are short children's books, but soo good!

So we were able to meet with Jonita two times this week and both of them were pretty crazy!  The first one, she had a lot of questions about 1st Nephi chapter 13, so we sat down and read it with her.  Thankfully the Aukemas were there to help us out because we didn't understand it all!!  It is Nephi prophesying of what is going to happen to the Americas!  He see's Christopher Columbus, the founding fathers, the killing of the Native Americans, and the coming forth of The Book of Mormon.  She had a lot of questions, but when we explained it, she got so excited!  So we shared with her in Galations where it talks about how one of the fruits of the spirit is joy, and she said "That's what I'm feeling."  It was so cool!!  We went over again and had planned to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ but she kept talking about how she has a question deep in her heart, but doesn't know what it is.  So we decided to talk about ways to get an answer from The Book of Mormon and how the Spirit testifies of truth.  She also had a question about what happened after Joseph Smith, so we explained how the Lord continued to call a prophet from the 12 apostles all the way up until now, and we told her that General Conference is coming up really soon and she got super excited and wants to go and watch it! Jonita is honestly amazing!!  She always tells us that she thinks that she is a hard person to teach and that we probably hate going over there, but it is the opposite!  She is so prepared!!!  The Lord has been working with her for a long time, I am so thankful for the opportunity to teach Jonita and help her come closer to Christ!

We also met with the Kelly family a few times this week and had great lessons with them too!  They were pretty crazy too though... they have a bird that starts squawking at the most inconvenient times, they have dogs and cats that interrupt, and they have crazy kids too.  One of the kids ran into the room we were teaching them in and said "Nancy, Alycia stood up on your bed and peed all over it on purpose."  Honestly it was really funny and I couldn't help but laugh, and thankfully they did too, but it was at such an inconvenient time!!!  Gosh, the Devil is so dumb!!  Even though the lessons are crazy, they are beginning to understand everything that we are teaching them, and Westly even said "We really appreciate you guys in coming over to visit with us and help us."  It was honestly so cool; its' nice to know that people really do appreciate us and what we do for them. 

Last thing, there is the 19 year old kid, named Ty, with autism that is obsessed with missionaries.  He isn't a member, but loves to hang around the missionaries.  He has been taught for so many years but will never progress because he gets wayyyy sidetracked in lessons and honestly every time we talk with him. he will call us anywhere from 4-8 times a day and just say "What up cuz, just wanted to check to see how my brothers are doing."  It's really funny, but gets aggravating sometimes.  Anyways, he took us to Pizza Hut with him for lunch, it was so funny!!!  He is so crazy, like yelling all the time and laying down and doing a bunch of random stuff.  It's really stressful sometimes to be with him but I know he loves us, so I don't mind being with him, it makes his day!  The mission is teaching me a lot about accepting people for who they are and sacrificing your wants and needs for others.  I have a lot to learn still but I am so thankful that the Lord is allowing me to learn and grow, cause it is making me a better person and so much happier.  The mission is hard, shoot life is hard, but if it weren't for the hard times, we wouldn't grow at all.  So I am thankful for the hard times, cause I know the Lord has a plan and wants me to be better!

I love y'all so much and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Schipaanboord

Calm before the storm.

Calm before the storm.

The storm coming our way.

Pizza Hut with Ty.

Pizza Hut with Ty.

We teach this Native American lady who is super into Native American stuff and has her own museum, so I asked her if she had any gator stuff that I could cover my scriptures with, and she said "No, but I have rattlesnake skins" and proceeded to give me two rattlesnake skins!!!

Matching purple ties.

A member bought two pairs of Nikes online for super cheap, and one of them didn't fit, so he gave them to me!

Hurricane

This week we got a call from the zone leaders telling us that we need to put gas in our car, get a bunch of water and food because a hurricane was supposed to be hitting the Panama City Zone, so that's exactly what we did.  I was honestly so excited to experience my first hurricane and hopefully do some clean up but no.... all we got was rain for like 20 minutes.  It wasn't bad at all!  All of the hype for nothing!  I was honestly so upset hahaha!  But I guess I should be thankful that everyone here was safe and no one lost any of their possessions.

Remember how last week I talked about how the sisters in my district wouldn't be here for the rest of the transfer and that district meeting would be weird, well it was!  We literally just stayed in our pajamas and basically just had an extended comp study.  Normally I commit the district to do things, which is already weird with only 2 sets of missionaries, but this week was pretty weird extending invitations... "Elder Sabin, will we do (commitment) this week?"  I'm not really looking forward to the next 3 district meetings, but all is well hahaha!

This week was actually really awesome with investigators! We went over to teach Jonita, the lady that stopped us in walmart that one time, and had 3 stellar lessons with her and she is really loving what we teach and says that it all just makes so much sense.  We taught her about the priesthood authority and she asked "So does that mean I have to be baptized again...?" and Sabin bore a powerful testimony about the priesthood, to which she said "Well if I come to know that this is true, I will be baptized again, because I would be stupid not to."  It was so sick!!!  We have scheduled to meet with her 3 times a week, so hopefully we will be able to get her baptized before I get transferred.

We also went over to this lady's house who has been investigating the church for 2 years, but hasn't really progressed because her husband has been holding her back, well he recently had some bleeding in the brain that caused 2 strokes which lead to him not being able to walk or see that well.  They both (Nancy and Westly) we very humbled and recognized God's hand in their life and now want to learn.  We were going over to teach something out of The Book of Mormon but ended up talking about temples and how families can be together forever and I looked at Westly and said "Do you want to be with Nancy forever?"  And he said "Yes."  Nancy just freaked out because she has wanted this forever, and now he is on board!  He knows that he has to be baptized to get to the temple and he really wants to, they both do!  The Lord truly is preparing people, it's amazing!!!

Now on the funny side of things, yesterday we had some investigators at church and we were super excited because it was going really well, then this old man got up and started preaching false doctrine left and right and how the Bible was wrong and how he knows what's true...after he was done, everyone was really antsy about it and was shocked, then the bishop gets up and says "Bro (so and so) we appreciate you sharing your testimony, but brothers and sisters, that was false doctrine, just wanted to clarify that."  Then  he sat down!  It was so funny!!!!

Anywho, Elder Sabin and I, and the rest of the missionaries are all safe and still loving life!  I love this gospel and see how much it changes peoples life, and how it has changed my life, and am thankful to be helping others receive the same blessings that I have.  That's the only reason we ever invite people to do anything, so they can receive more blessings in their life.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 

Elder Skip

 

Shrimp Boil