Moments from a Missionary

The booth up at the Roanoke star was a grand way to spend our Christmas evening, two people accepted Book of Mormon's who I genuinely believe will read them, but the biggest impact was simply the fact that we were there for 3 evenings before Christmas...many families took time to watch the video and it was wonderful to see parents teach their children the true meaning of Christmas, because of our presence there...many softened hearts and welcome thank you's from many people for going through the effort to be there and bring the spirit of Christ. Today we, with the new Downtown Elders also hand delivered custom thank your cards to each of the city offices that were a part of making this happen and included the Zone Leaders phone number to contact us if the city ever requires our help. We are going to go ahead and reserve the Star for a booth again next year for Christmas and for the 4th of July and place it on the ward Calendar so all the elders will have to do next year is se...

Dearest All It seems a long time in coming, but was joyful when our friend R.H. came to church and loved it, we have been teaching him for about two months, solid individual, he is currently a resident at the "Rescue Mission" Recovery Program, the ward frequently does service projects with this facility and was nice for the ward to see some fruits of their labors there as well, Brother H., first came in contact with church when he lived in Utah for a short while, when he got into the Recovery Program (something very similar to West Ridge Academy which my family is familiar with back in Utah) He asked the staff at the Rescue Mission if they knew of any Mormon missionaries in the area, to which thanks to the Ward the rescue mission was able to contact the Elders Quorum President and then refer us to him.  He is originally from Huntington WV, which has been nice to have that connection with him having just served there. He once shared a journal entry (song) he wrot...

Dearest All We have been blessed by many Media referrals, (no doubt in part to the Christmas Initiative) many of them asking for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and other church media like Joy to the world...we have received one at least every two days and for the first time in my mission each one has been contacted with-in a day or two, (also being in the smallest geographical area I have ever served in helps that, and also means we have no excuse not to contact them with- in 24 hours ) and we have 3 new investigators as a result, sincere investigators at that. K.K, excellent man of faith, ordered a Bible and also welcomed The Book of Mormon, we taught him for the second time immediately following specialized training, feeling freshly spiritually sharpened and polished thanks to President Salisbury's wonderful instruction, certainly carried into this appointment, I was particularly astonished by Elder McClune's powerful teaching as we shared the Restoration with Brother K. W...

Dearest All The two big highlights from the week Civil Dealings - I was so pleased with the excitement from the ward when they learned of our booth up at the Roanoke Star, the bishop was especially excited and asked the ward to volunteer time to come and join us at the star, which 10 families signed up for various times to join us in sharing the Christmas Spirit with their fellow citizens of Roanoke. At the beginning of the week we received permission from the Roanoke City Parks and Recreation Department to set up at the star...then a couple days later we received another phone call, informing us that we could not do that and proselyting in the parks was against the city's rules and ordinances. Confused I, thought that was strange and seemed a little off-color and limiting of the freedom of religion, so I took some time to read up on the freedom of religion in the public square on LDS.org and Mormon Newsroom. After learning a bit more about the topic and following the council ...

Dearest All It was a grand week, we worked hard and diligently, not all with ease either, which I suppose is why it was a great week, because it took work and even though we didn't see any immediate results (as I have been blessed by often over the course of my mission) I felt the spirit and simply that the Lord was pleased with our efforts and felt Preach My Gospel's measure of success more so than ever before, dedication. It is has not been easy to stay motivated with my usual excitement in this area... Tuesday  was proving to be my make or break point, we had a day full of plans and appointments resulting from the efforts of last weekend...then one by one every single one cancelled or rescheduled, turning to our back-up plans which was a finding effort or some sort...by  6:00  I was tired and a little down on myself, when we came in prepared and ate dinner and following the meal, and about to go out again & my heart was heavy, and sat down while waiting for m...

The week has proven to be a enduring week but a rewarding one, I am happy with the results of a lot of hard work spent in planning and cleaning, we took a couple hours out of the day to do something to bring the area up to a higher standard, from cleaning out old records, deep cleaning a room in the apartment, deep cleaning the car and organizing supplies, and the Phone...by the weekend everything was tight, tidy and organized and I feel like I could take a deep breath and look back on what was accomplished. Elder McClune said "If his former companion came back he wouldn't recognize the apartment" With the area cleaned up and organized our days quickly got easier to plan and finding being the large emphasis, we found two promising new friends, to which I was over joyed and really raised my spirits! This week has dawn me back to Preach My Gospel in seeking direction, and this week the spirit has really whispered to me more than ever before through PMG particularly in Cha...

​This was a week full of travel and conferences, this was us stuck in Traffic with the Hazard Elders on I-64 took 45 min to go 0.8 miles...but we made it, most of the zone was stuck in it with us, it made for a great time on the way though. The reason for our travel to Charleston was our mission conference with Elder Kopishca (I am sure I spelled that wrong, it is a German name)...Super incredible conference...then we went back to Huntington, taught S. and then went back to Charleston the next morning for a special Mission Leadership Conference with Elder Kopishca again. Spiritual overload...so tired by the end of it. Sheetz for dinner with Hazard Elders...Elder Taylor and Elder Crook...considering their area is 3 hours from Huntington and 4 from Charleston we brought the Hazard Elders up early the night before the conference to stay with us. ​Seeing some familiar faces at the conference...it was so strange not to see my friends. Elder Myers, Elder Cluff, Elder Thompson, Elder ...