Week 26: "I am Loving My Mission!"

July 13, 1988

Life is great in Seaside.  Elder Friend and I are working hard, but the adversary is giving us all he's got.  Even so, we are standing firm.  We placed four more copies of the Book of Mormon this week, so we are having some success.

Now, let me tell you about Elizabeth.  We tracted into her on Monday, June 27.  She has back problems and we gave her a blessing before teaching her the first discussion.  About a week later, Elder Friend called her to set up appointment for teaching the second discussion.  Elizabeth said that she had read half of the markings in the copy of the Book of Mormon we had given her, and she knew that it was true.  You cannot imagine the joy that simple statement brought us.

We set up an appointment for Thursday, July 7.  On that day, we taught her the second discussion and committed her to pray about a date for her baptism.  But the adversary is working on her as well.  She just got through an eviction threat, fortunately, the threat lacked legal foundation.  Her back has really been troubling her, and she has been suffering big headaches.  We stopped by again on Monday and showed her a filmstrip.

On Thursday, we had a dinner appointment with a family whose nine-year-old daughter had not yet been baptized.  Her father asked us to speak to her.  We showed Sarah a filmstrip called: "Baptism, a Promise to Follow Jesus."  We then discussed the filmstrip with her.  In five minutes we committed her to be baptized the following Sunday.  Her biggest concern, it turns out, was fear of water.

The font at our stake center is out of commission because the water heater needs to be replaced.  So, Sarah was baptized by her father in a swimming pool.

On Friday night, we taught a first discussion to a couple we had tracted into on Noche Buena.  The wife is in the army, assigned to Fort Ord as an M.P.; the husband just got out of the Army, but he works as an electrician down in Palm Springs.  We told him how to contact the missionaries down in Palm Springs.  He said he was going back down there on Wednesday, so we set up an appointment for Monday, but he was not there when we got there, because he had gone down earlier than expected.   Meanwhile, his wife's unit has been alerted for a possible deployment down to Panama, to the Canal Zone, where, apparently, things are getting tense.

On Saturday we had to get some temporal things done, because of the holiday on Monday and no p-day on Wednesday. As I waited on my laundry, I read about the sons of Mosiah and their mission to the Lamanites. It is such a great story and it gave me a needed boost. Right now I am in the middle of the mission to the Zoramites. The first thirty-five chapters of Alma is one of my favorite parts of The Book of Mormon because of all the missions by Alma, Amulek and the sons of Mosiah.

After the baptism on Sunday, we stopped by to see Robert and Regina.  He has been reading the Book of Mormon but says that he is not convinced. We set up an appointment for Thursday at 7:00 p.m. We are thinking about having a fast for both of them.

We tracted for four hours on Monday, doing one street.  We met a real neat lady who said she liked to study religion.  When she realized who we were she said, "Oh, I haven't studied Mormonsim yet!"  She gladly accepted the copy of the Book of Mormon we gave her.

On Tuesday we tracted for three hours and didn't even come close to finishing the street.  We got in one door to teach a first discussion, but the woman was suffering from morning sickness, so we set up a return appointment and left her with a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Then we knocked on the door of a part member family.  The wife has been less active for years, but now says that she wants to come back.  Her husband, who is fighting deportation, wants to know more.  A few houses later, we placed another copy of the Book of Mormon.

Today is my "bump" day, meaning that I have been on my mission for six months.  Time is really flying by.

I got a letter from a friend in the MTC. His excitement and positive attitude really hit the spot. I wrote him back and told him that he is about to embark on some of his most choice experiences:

“Things will be hard and sometimes it may seem as if your challenges are overcoming you, but if you live the mission rules and heed the spirit and work as hard as you can, you will look back and regret not a single moment. You will look backward and say, ‘I am loving my mission!’ That is what counts the most when we both step off the plane at Salt Lake International Airport.”

All is well here.

Love

Douglas