ESCC

man, not too much happened this week. elder carlson and i are really trying our best to get out and find people that we can teach, but we arent having too much numerical success, which is pretty disappointing, but thats okay, cause our success should be measured by our commitment to invite, because that puts all the responsibility and agency upon ourselves. this week we went out and tried to find as much service opportunities as we could in the community, and also with members at their friends houses, because we have found that service is the best and fastest way to soften the hearts of the children of men, so we should be having lots of service opportunities coming up pretty soon!

weird story about enterprise, the reason that this place even exists is because of the farming community. but way back when, this bug known as the boll weevil came through and ate all of the cotton that people were growing, so everyone was freaking out with nothing to sell, and so this guy decided to start growing peanuts, and the community basically thrived off of peanuts and now is like the best place in america for growing peanuts. the reason i bring this up is because the people here made a freaking monument to this bug!! hahahaha it is the only monument in the world dedicated to an insect! hahahahaa its the craziest thing! but we went to go and see this thing, and its in the middle of mainstreet! there are so many pictures of this stupid bug, because it "shows how to overcome hard times" gosh i love the south!!

since president smith was baptized while he was in his youth, he has really been pushing working with, youth and young single adults, so this week we went to Enterprise State Community College and filled out some paperwork which allows us to proselyte on the campus (and yes their mascot is the boll weevil #fearnoweevil). even though it is a tiny campus, and we are only allowed on a certain part of it, we are pretty pumped about it! we go every monday and thursday, and it has already yielded some pretty promising potentials! its crazy how nice people are, and just how open young people are, they really have so many questions about life and religion, but they "are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". i am so glad I had the gospel in my life during high school, life was hard enough, so i dont know what i would've done without it.

Elder Carlson is such an incredible missionary! He absolutely amazes me every single day! He has so much desire to improve and become what his Heavenly Father wants him to be. He is constantly reading his scriptures or watching faith building videos, and his testimony has definitely increased a ton since being out, it has been a joy to watch! I really do believe that he and I were meant to be companions; he helps me to keep working and endure to the end (joyfully of course), and I have been able to help him to understand the scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel, it's awesome! 

 

Something really cool that he did this past week was write off his girlfriend! He felt like he needed to focus more on his call to serve and his personal growth and testimony. Having a girlfriend was distracting him from his goal. Alma 13:13 talks about bringing forth fruit meet for repentance (or just evidence of repentance), and I think that is brought for when people sacrifice personal wants and desires for gods will by reading the scriptures, or praying, or standing up for what is right, or going to church each week, whatever it may be, if it brings you closer to God, it is a form of repentance, so make sure to go to church, study, and pray(;

The church has come out with this program called "my plan" for missionaries to go through their last 6 weeks to help them reflect on their mission , set goals for things they want to do when they get home, and also who they want to become. I started my plan this week, what a wonderful opportunity! It has been so amazing to look back over these past 2 years and actually see what the Lord has been able to do with me. Every day I realize more and more how weak I am (ye are less than the dust of the earth), but how great I can be with the Lord on my side. One of my buddies said "I bet I can do more with $9 than you can with $10 and accomplish more in 6 days than you can in 7 days because I am endorsed  by the Lord", how true that is! If you make the Lord central to your life, and go to Him when making decisions and need help, He will always support you and give you all that you need.

I love you all so much, thank you for all that you do and say, and all that you say you do!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Trunky But Not

Tis week we had interview with President Smith and during the interview we were talking a little about me going home. He looked at me and said "You're a great missionary Elder Schipaanboord, I'm going to miss you when you leave." It totally broke my heart! To top it off, when I got home, we went to checked the mail, and my trunky papers (flight plans) came. It's so weird! I feel like I have been out forever but it is also surreal that this is happening. I sure am going to miss this so much but I am definitely excited! Wow, the start of my last transfer is here, I can't believe it! With the way that transfers have worked out, President would've allowed me to go home this transfer (August 24th) so that I could make it back home in time for school but I had thought about it and prayed about it and I realized that a Prophet of God called me to serve in the Florida Tallahassee mission for a period of 24 months, not 22 and a half. It's wild to think that I could be going home in just 3 days but I do believe that there is a reason that my release date is October 5th and not August 24th. It's super difficult knowing that the end is so close (even though it feels so far), but I need to find the reason why I feel that I needed to stay out here and I am going to work as hard as I can to find that reason! It's going to be hard but it's going to be so worth it, just like anything in life.

We have gotten super close with this family, their son is on the New Brockton football team (high school in our area), so they invited us to go to the scrimmage game this Friday, boy was it a blast! We were there helping this member hand out t-shirts that they had made for the families, so we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of cool people and just get our name and presence out there. It was super funny because all the cheerleaders are friends with the daughter, so all of them came to sat next to her, the mom leaned over to us and told us they were there for us hahahahaha! Come to find out, they all thought that we were super cute and wanted to come and talk with us... too bad they were all 15! But we actually had some really good conversations with them about us a missionaries and they ended up talking with the daughter about us and asking questions about the Book of Mormon, it was so cool! It's crazy how just being out and about and spending time with people and talking with them as normal people break down so many walls.

On Saturday, the member asked if we would be willing to come to service at the stadium. While there, lots of questions were asked again, it was so awesome! While doing service, we cleaned out the deep fryers and got nasty chicken grease all over us and we smelled sooo bad! When we got home, we went right to the shower (for the 2nd time in the day) and as I was cleaning off the nasty smell and chicken chunks, I thought "Man, it's kinda weird that we shower every day, sometimes multiple times a day just to clean our body, what a waist of water." Then I thought "Gosh, if we wash our body so often, why don't we wash our spirit that much too?"  Then I thought "And we also wash hands right when we get stuff on them, so why don't we wash our spirits right when we get stuff on it?" The Atonement of Jesus Christ is so amazing, it really does have the power to cleanse our very soul and bring us so much light and happiness into our lives. Think about how nice it feels getting out of the shower, all fresh and clean. It's pretty nice right? Well getting your spirit cleaned is pretty similar, only it feels soooooo much better, it is indescribable

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

Thanks for everything!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Craziness

This week was a pretty weird one to say the least. We helped this lady, who lives above us, move out of her place because she is getting shipped off to South Korea for the military. After we helped, we realized that she still had a couple days left before she leaves but her bed was packed away in Uhaul, so we realized that we have 3 mattresses, we could offer her one of them to use in her apartment while she waits to leave. We saw her later that night and asked her if she had a place to sleep and she said she had a motel, so we said "Oh, okay, because we have an extra bed that you can use if you need it." Then Elder Carlson and I went inside not thinking anything of it but then the both of us, at the same time, realized that she totally thought that we were inviting her to spend the night at our place...... WOW... we are such good representatives of the Savior and His church.....

 

We were at a members house, eating dinner with them, and the oldest daughter (15) had some friends pick her up to go to a movie, so the member thought "What a perfect opportunity to introduce them to the missionaries!" She invited the girls in to "meet the family" and then we were just awkwardly sitting there and were not part of the conversation.... but right when the girls left, they told the daughter "They were soooooo cute, we HAVE to come back!" The member came back and said "SEEEEE?! We just got you THREE new investigators!!!"  I love the members here so much! The ward is honestly so awesome and they are really becoming like family!

We were out knocking on doors in the hood and found these thugs out on their porch, so we went over to talk with them. We found out that one of their names is "Church" and he was all tatted up, just got out of prison, and was definitely packin a 9 mil on his side. He had a Book of Mormon and told us he was in 1 Nephi 17 and is really liking it. We got super pumped!! Then the kids inside were going crazy so he went inside, and Elder Carlson said that he heard "smack smack smack" followed by screams..... this homie went inside and beat his kids..... I wish so badly that I would've heard it, so we could've called him out and done something about it, but I was too focused on teaching the other guy that was there that I didn't even hear it.... it makes me so sad that people treat their kids like that. Being out here has definitely taught be what I do and don't want to do when raising kids and beating them is definitely a NO GO!! When Church came back out, he pulled out a little green nugget, tore it apart, and then started rolling a joint right in front of us! Then proceeded to smoke it right there!!  It was so crazy!! 

On Saturday and Sunday, Elder Carlson and I were super sick, and didn't do anything, it sucked so bad!!! We were going stir crazy from being inside with nothing to do because our mission doctor told us not to go out, we didn't even go to church... it was weird! The young men brought over the sacrament and I definitely felt like an 80 year old grandpa in a nursing home that can't care for himself. It was so strange but also really cool! It made me a lot more thankful for the priesthood and how many ways there are to serve in this church! The young men didn't realize it but them coming over was such a light to us, they literally brought the Savior and His sacrifice with them, it was truly amazing!!

On the bright side, we got 4 new investigators this week and the work is starting to progress! Elder Carlson is dope, and we are getting along really well!

I love y'all so much and appreciate all that you do for me and those around you!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

 

How Great Thou Art

man, this week has been sooo crazy!! Elder carlson and i have been doing soo much finding, and it has started to pay off! we went tracting, and got 7 return appointments, all of which i swear are with single ladies with 3 kids, its crazy!! we also were able to get 4 new investigators (dont know how much progression will happen, but its sooooo nice to be teaching again!). then, we were at a members for dinner, and someone knocked on the door, turns out it was a vivant salesman who was a RM; after we left the appointment we walked out to our car only to find a note on the windshield with him telling us to give him a call so he can give us some "leads", hahahah this guy knocked all the doors in the neighborhood and told us which ones to go and see, it was pretty dope! and he told his "team members" about us, and so we keep getting tons of houses to go and try, its pretty sick! all of this has happened though because we have been showing god that we are willing to work hard. time and time again i have seen that when i just do what god asks, he always pulls through with blessings from heaven, but i am so carnal and weak and forget too easily. i wish that i could just "always remember him", life would be a lot easier and smoother if we could master that one simple line.

On saturday we went to Opp to help elders move out of the house there. They had a massive pool table that we needed to take back to a members house. The thing probably weighed 1000 pounds!!!! We couldnt get the door to open to take it out so a nonmember helped us take the door handle apart so we could open it. Which consisted of him taking a crowbar and smashing things till they fell off. The table was so heavy!!! it was so hard to lift even with 6 elders there, and im pretty sure i threw out my back, so that was fun! But it was so much fun to go and hang out with them, being with other missionaries is the best!!!

We had a Stake Priesthood meeting on Sunday. The Stake President said something so profound, he explained how when we are baptized it is a great spiritual moment because we have prepared to be there, and treat it as a special event. He also went on to say that it is the same with the other ordinances in the gospel like getting the priesthood, going through the temple, and being sealed to your family. Then, he said, so why don't we treat the sacrament the same way? It is the only ordinance that we do for ourselves more than once and yet we don't come to church prepared and ready to be spiritually fed. I can promise that if we come prepared, and treat sacrament meeting like the spiritual feast that it really is, you will be filled with the Spirit, and understand how you can improve in your life and come closer to your family and to our Savior.

Definitely the highlight of the week, we went over to this members house and got into this crazy deep conversation about the gospel. Then it turned into talking about the last days and how some of the signs are coming true, not going to lie, I was pretty pumped! It's definitely going to be pretty scary and crazy but also such a wonderful and glorious day! I am really excited! As we talked, I had to stop and ask myself if I was ready, I think that is a question that we will never be able to answer with "yes" by ourselves because we can always do better, and get closer to God, but because of the grace of Christ, He will make our shortcomings made whole and our Heavenly Father will extend His infinite mercy towards us. How grateful I am for our Savior!!!! He has helped me in so many ways and will help me to become more. Because of Him, we are able to overcome sin and death, and return to live with our Father in Heaven, the greatest gift ever!! So how will you show your appreciation for this?

I love y'all so much!! I hope you have a great week!!

Elder Schipaanboord