Daily Archives: April 23, 2013

Even in Carlsbad…

I asked the motel manager where he suggested we eat and he said the locals went to a place called Whiner’s Diner because they prepare everything fresh themselves.So that is where we went. When out waiter walked up he noticed our name tags and asked if we were Mormons…and when we said yes, he said so was he. We found that there were two wards in Carlsbad with about 300 active members. So again everywhere we go we find Latter-day Saints.

BTW the food was good.



President Anderson’s Letter

Although we are on our way home, we are still getting president Anderson’s letter to the missionaries so we will share some of the experiences that he writes with you…

“I love your faith and obedience. I love to hear the words “President, we did what you said” and then you express the blessings and miracles that occurred because of your obedience and faith:

 “The first day we did what you said (transfer day). Came home and went to work! We did just that! We were able to leave 8 blessings that night, It was incredible. As we left blessings by knocking doors, we made sure we contacted everyone and asked for referrals from EVERYONE. That is how we were able to show God we wanted to find families. In return, God blessed us with 8 amazing families! It all started before we left the apartment, we fell down on our knees and offered up a sincere prayer, asking God to show us the way, because we were both new and needed His help, His guidance, and His direction. What an incredible thing to see God’s hand work through us that first day. I caught a glimpse of what God has in store for us in the upcoming weeks.” 

Your faith and obedience also creates diligence as you are blessed with miracles:

 “The very first day we went out and got to work. We prayed for a place to go harvest, felt inspired to go to a certain area, so we got in the car and drove over there. When we got to the area before we got out of the car we prayed and then started walking. The first people we saw outside we came up to and offered to leave our Saviors peace and blessing. They allowed us to and wanted to be baptized! Then we asked who we could go leave this same prayer with and they sent us to their neighbor who is sick. We left the blessing with her and she wanted to be baptized! Then we asked her who we could leave this blessing with and she sent us to her neighbor as well. When we met her neighbor she broke down in tears and started talking about how badly she has been struggling with everything. We then left a blessing with her and she accepted baptism as well. God blessed us immensely as we were diligent immediately after transfer meeting, and as we asked everyone for referrals!”

Your faith and obedience will direct you to those of God’s children that need you most:

 “This week we saw a big miracle We were knocking doors in a neighborhood … and when we knocked on his door he said ‘Just so you know I’m already saved’ but let us in almost instantly. We asked him what we should pray for, and he said he and his wife just separated, and he wasn’t feeling very good about it and wanted his family back. He said he was just like one minute before folding laundry and said a short prayer to God to send him some help. And there we were! He felt amazing after the blessing and accepted baptism with an ‘of course!’ The next day we taught him a short and great first lesson on baptism and he told us that shortly bit after we left, he received a call from his ex-wife saying she wanted to reconcile. He told us, ‘I know God sent you’.”

Your faith and obedience is contagious and our investigators are exhibiting the same:

 “We had a super great baptism this week. When previous missionaries first met her they blessed her house. They continued to teach her from there. She was mildly interested, but didn’t really see why she should be baptized again. Once they started talking about the commandments she really struggled because she had a major addiction to coffee. She would usually drink about 2 gallons a day apparently. She had tried to quit multiple times, but it had always hurt her. Even 6 painkillers at once wouldn’t stop the headache. Apparently at some point she had not progressed at all really, but they kept having good lessons and felt they should stick with her. Then almost overnight she changed. She’s been clean for 5 days now and she is soooooo happy!!! It has been amazing to see just in a week the great change the gospel has brought into her life. Yesterday before the baptism she said to us, ‘You never asked me why I changed my mind and decided to get baptized even though I had already been baptized before.’ So we asked her why she got baptized. She told us that she had decided one day to pray and said to Heavenly Father, ‘If you really want me to do this then help me to not drink coffee for one day’. That day she drank no coffee. She then decided that she should get baptized. She bore her testimony and said that she knew she should do it, not only because of the day she didn’t need to drink coffee, but God had blessed her not to need it.”



We Are in Carlsbad…

Well we got into Carlsbad New Mexico early so I set up the laptop so I could post on our blog.

Before we left Fort Lauderdale we stopped by Hollywood where we picked up a package from elder Smoot to bring home. Then we stopped by the mission home so Mary could be interviewed by president Anderson for a temple recommend. While we were there we got to meet sister Anderson’s lovely mother.

Our next stop was Tampa where we had lunch with our good friends elder and sister Walker who just arrived for their mission as an office couple. We have not seen the Walkers for a number of years but like any good friends it was like it had only been a few weeks. While we were coming out of Cracker Barrel we met two men who saw Mary’s tag and introduced themselves as members from near Panama City. We asked if they happen to know an elder Mthalane who served there and they said not only did they know him but had him over for dinner a few times. We delivered elder Mthanlane’s mission call while we were serving in South Africa, helped him check in at the MTC, and then visited him in Panama City when we drove through on our way to Fort Lauderdale.

We spent our first night in Tallahassee and went to church at the Tallahassee 4th ward. We said hello to the missionaries and asked if any of them knew or had served with elder Mthalane and one of them had been his companion. Then the bishop introduced himself and when he heard that we had served in Fort Lauderdale, he told us that he was Boca Raton which is in our mission.

We then drove to San Antonio so we could see the Alamo and the Riverwalk. We had only 30 minutes at the Alamo and the Riverwalk was pretty much blocked off because of Fiesta…a special celebration that includes a parade on the river. We were too tired to stay up for that. However along our walk three women came up and introduced themselves as members.

So no matter where we went we met people who we knew, knew people we knew or were members. It is a small world when you are missionaries wearing your name tag.