missionaries to the max

This week was pretty awesome! We were able to have lots of success which always makes the week that much better. 

The lady that we bagged leaves for (Myra) came to church and absolutely loved it! She felt so much love from everyone and said that she feels so good inside and this is where she is supposed to be. Myra is honestly so great, she is already doing missionary work! She has been talking to everyone she knows about how we are real Christians and how we were an answer to her prayer and now all of her neighbors hearts are softening, one of them just lost a son and wants us to help with her yard and talk with her too, it's so cool! 

Ty has been drinking a lot because he has nothing else to do with his time, so this week we got him a new pair of glasses so he can actually read now (he was doing great until he lost his glasses and stopped reading The Book of Mormon)! Crazy thing about Ty is that he is also doing missionary work like crazy! He lives in an apartment complex and knows like everyone there and is always sharing our pamphlets with everyone, he has invited people to sit in on the lessons too! This week one of his friends did sit in and he loved it and wants us to get him each time we go and see Ty!

So funny story for the week. We had this potential investigator who was super nice to us and invited us back over on two separate occasions (never taught him, just talked on his porch), then out of nowhere we get a voice mail from him to which he says that we are going to have to agree to disagree and then he said that he would like to share some verses with us and then went on and on about all these scriptures in the Bible that everyone down here uses to bash with us, and proceeded to tell us not to come back over. It was really sad but honestly I couldn't help but laugh, we literally got Bible Bashed over voice mail, that's awesome!! hahahahaha!

Get this, Brother Aukema, from Chipley, was down here for a meeting and afterwards, we totally went out on splits! I went with him and Burch with Luke, it was so dope! We were able to pick up two new investigators and 2 potentials because of the split! Brother Aukema amazes me every time I am with him, this time we were stopped at a red light and he looked at me and said "give me a pass along card" so I hand him a card, and he gets out and goes and talks to the people behind us!!! He is literally such a beast!! He would always tell me when I did something good "You're a real missionary." So when he got back into the car, I said "Brother Aukema, you are a REAL missionary!" and he just looked at me and said "shut up" hahahahahahaha!

Lastly, we had another MLC, but this time we had 2 members from the missionary department from Salt Lake come, it was so incredible! They taught us ways that we can double baptisms and also a lot about having a positive attitude and also raising our expectations. I think our attitude and expectations apply to all things. If we wake up and say "Man, today is going to suck." You are going to over look all the good and notice all the bad things that happen that day and will get super upset cause it was a "bad day." But if you wake up and say "Man, today is going to be a great day." You will be able to overlook all the bad and notice all the good, which will lead to a happier life and a greater desire to accomplish everything you are supposed to. there is a quote in PMG that says "If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit." I believe that the opposite is true, if you raise your expectations, your effectiveness will increase, your desire will strengthen, and you will have greater ability following the spirit.

Thank you for all that you do and say, and say you do! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEK

Wow, this week was so amazing! There were so many miracles and wonderful experiences!

First off, Brother Huber is progressing pretty well; he hasn't gained a testimony of Joseph Smith or The Book of Mormon but he is sooo close.  Each time we go over, his heart is softened more and more.  He is honestly so cool and loves us!  We go to his place like 3 or 4 times a week and we are hanging out with him today for p-day, so its gonna be sick! 

We went on more exchanges (as always), and had such a great experience!  All we do when we go on exchanges is tract, so we can find more people to teach.  Well on this occasion, I was looking at our map trying to figure out where to go and I felt very prompted to go to Mississippi St, so Elder Hirz and I went out and started tracting.  About 45 minutes into knocking doors, no one really wanted to listen to us, until we got to this door where a army recruiter opened the door and started talking with us.  At first it was pretty intimidating, just cause he was all dressed up, and he was talking about how he has shot people in the face, and he was pretty colorful with his vocabulary, but as we got talking with him, he kept preaching truth and asking like the most perfect questions, so we started to tell him about The Book of Mormon, and he got really interested.  It was really cool to see how his heart softened, and then he said "You know what? Come on in"!!!  I'm gonna be 100% honest, that was the first time on the mission that this ever happened, everyone else just told us to come back another day, so this was super cool!!  So we sat down and taught him the Restoration, and he loved it!  He told us that he doesn't really read the Bible and go to church, because the Bible is really confusing, and churches hate that he asks questions, so when we read Moroni 10:3-5 with him, he got super excited and said "I have to read this!"  So then we told him we would come back and teach him about God's plan for us which answers the questions of where we come from, why we are here, and where we are going, and he got really excited and wants us back!!  I am honestly so pumped to teach this guy!  He is so cool, and so ready!! 

Next crazy miracle.  Elder Burch and I have noticed that people get really scared and intimidated by the white shirt and ties, so we decided that we are going to go out in service clothes, and knock doors and offer service so we can soften the hearts of the people here.  So we got some youth with us and went to this house that we saw earlier that was filled with leaves.  Well, right when we got out of our car, this lady who was out side came and talked with us, we told her about how we were just going out and doing service, and she said "I have been praying that God would send someone to help me with my yard."  So we raked leaves for 2 hours.  This yard was massive, we couldn't finish it in 2 hours, so we set up a return appointment for today (earlier this morning) and we got like 20 people out there with us and she was just astounded!  She literally called the news station and tried to get them out!  She kept saying how amazing we were and how we are real Christians.  Well come to find out, he daughter in law is a member and now she wants to come to church and be taught!  It's so cool how the Lord really is preparing people to hear our message, we just have to go out and find those people! 

Man, the next thing, is we were able to have a full mission conference in Tallahassee with Elder Stevenson of the 12, Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the 70, and Elder Parker, our area 70, and boy was it good!  They all had such powerful testimonies of this wonderful gospel, you could just see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices, they spoke with such love, and passion, it was incredible!  I really thought that they were all going to be super serious all the time, but all of them were really humble and down to earth people that cracked a lot of jokes!  Elder Stevenson called Elder Sabin up to the stand so that he could recite the missionary purpose, and Elder Sabin was soooo scared, so Elder Stevenson said "Look, you have no need to be nervous that you are standing next to a member of the 12, it's only Elder Stevenson, I've been at this for about a year, if it was Elder Oaks or Holland, then you could be scared, but it's only me, I'm new at this, so don't worry."  It was so funny! He spoke about how we truly teach repentance, and he really focused on extending commitments. One thing that he said was that lessons without a commitment left is a waist of time. I love that!  We are to invite other to come to Christ and the only way to do that is to invite them to do things that will help them come to Christ.  He also talked about how we need to always be finding new people, not just when we don't have anyone to teach, but at all times and in all places. Elder Maynes taught  about how influential The Book of Mormon is and how we need to be using it more in our teaching.  It's amazing how it's just the really simple things that will help out so much, but we get prideful and think that we know a better way, but we really don't, its the basic things that will help the most. so the thing that impressed me the most about this whole conference was when everyone was going through shaking the general authorities hands, they looked everyone in the eye with the kindest face and most sincere voice, and called them by name and told them thank you for serving, it was true charity!  They truly are Men of God who have been called to preach His gospel and guide His church!

One thing that I have been pondering on lately is the scripture in Alma 34:32 that talks about our purpose on earth, and how this is a time for us to "Prepare to meet God", and I have been applying it to sports, as always. But I was thinking about how athletes prepare all year so that they can preform well for baseball there is spring training and football, the pre season, boxers and fighters also prepare very intensely before a fight.  There are so many tools that each sport has to help you get stronger and become better, for baseball there is tee work, short hop drills, practice turning 2, pop flys, bunting, cut off drills, soft toss, bullpen, batting practice, the weight room, and so forth.  As I thought about this, I thought about all the tools that will help us have a happier life here on earth, and also so that we will be prepared to meet God; we have the scriptures, church, prayer, the temple, home/visiting teaching, service projects, youth nights, efy, general conference, firesides, family history, Mormon messages, and so on, but why don't we take full advantage of them?  It's very simple, "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."  Do these simple things, and your life will improve, and you will be able to "stand blameless before God at the last day"

I love you all and am so thankful for all that you do for me and those around you!  Keep on keepin on and have a great week!

 

Elder Schipaanboord 

It's a Miracle

This week we went on a bunch of exchanges and tracted all day... but had so much fun! We had one lady bash with us and told us that the LDS church is a break off of the Mormons.... and we told her that she was mistaken that its the same thing but she just got upset and told us to go and study theology more, especially the history books. She then told us that The Book of Mormon never talks about Christ and that if we want to learn about Christ we need to go back to the history books and read about Moses and Abraham.... man she made no sense but we had a good laugh after that door approach. We then knocked on this door (it's 3:00 at this point) and this lady opens the door and says "What is this?!" and then continues on to tell us how she worked late last night and that we better never "pound on her door like that again" cause she was asleep, it was so funny!! I have learned that tracting either sucks really badly, or it can just be a comedy show, it's just up to your perspective!

We then went to Tallahassee for an exchange with the assistants and had a blast! I went out with Elder Matthewson, he is so cool! He reminds me so much of Steve-O and we get along so well! While in Tally, we decided to have a good night and treat our selves to a nice meal, so we went to Texas Road House..... bad idea! Don't get me wrong, the food there is sooooo goood and their rolls are to die for!! But Elder Gunnell and I each ate 10 rolls and then found out from our waitress that each roll has 350 calories in them!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, I now know why I am "filling out" as my family would say..... but it was worth it, so I don't care!!

On the way back from Tally, we hit some pretty bad traffic and all we see is a massive plume of black smoke ahead of us. A bunch of people were turning around and heading the other way and this lady told us that it was a fuel tanker that was on fire!! So everyone was getting out of the way to not get hurt and also to watch it. Elder Burch and I looked at each other and concluded that this was the only way back into town and we had an appointment in 30 minutes and we were 40 minutes away, so we decided to drive right passed the fuel tanker that was about to explode....... so worth it!!! W got the dopest video!! I don't think it ever exploded, but it was pretty bad!

Man, last Monday, was so awesome!!!!! We had those lessons with Jesse and Ty that I talked about last week, and then we had an incredible lesson with a part member family. So Mike Huber has been going to church for 12 years but has never been baptized and hasn't really taken church all that serious until now. He asked us to go and give him a blessing (1 of only 3 he has ever had) and boy was the Spirit there!! After the blessing his face was covered with tears while he talked about how he never feels worthy of God's love and it's amazing how Mormons are always so close to God and are such great people. Then he said something I will never forget; with his wife sitting next to him on the couch, he looked at us and said "I want to get baptized." This was the most powerful experience that I have had on my mission! The Spirit was so strong and it was an answer to so many different types prayers (for the Huber family, as well as for me)! He still has a lot to learn and isn't too sure about Joseph Smith but he knows that something so good couldn't be wrong. So we gave him his first Book of Mormon and he wants us over all the time, it is so amazing! 

The Lord really does answer prayers! I have seen that a lot lately! Ask and ye shall receive! Put it to the test and then be patient for God's answer but also search for it! "Pray like its all up to God, then work like its all up to you."

Love Elder Skip

Not Much

Sorry for the short email but this week basically sucked, we faced so much rejection, it was unreal! But I will focus on the good things for you.

We have been meeting with Jesse Kelly every day for the last week and it has helped him soooo much!! We went over and made a plan with him of how to over come his addictions and he has done a great job! He got rid of all of his drugs and got rid of people that will tempt him, including his girlfriend that he was living with and he dumped out his beer while we were there, it was so sick! We went over there today and he looked so good, happy, and filled with light, it was awesome!! There is still a lot of work to do with him but he is definitely on the right track!

We have also been meeting with an investigator named Ty and he his making a lot of changes in his life too! He has been really weighed down with past sins and is really wanting to change his life. He loves us coming over, and again, he is filled with much more light than when we first met him. It's so crazy how you can literally see someone change a few things in their life and they have a whole new outlook, a new countenance, and a new light; it is amazing!! Ty came to church this week and absolutely loved it! He loved the members and how friendly everyone was and also the doctrine, and said today when we visited him "I for sure want to be a member of your church!"

But other than those things, we just tracted, and did some contacting with no success, it was great!

No matter what anyone ever says or does, Joseph Smith saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and that will never change!

Love you guys and hope you have a good week!