James letter 11-28-12

I got transferred! I didn't move very far, but this new area should be full of interesting stories, Hopefully soon I'll have some to tell. My new area is in the Raleigh Hills ward/Market Street branch. My area covers downtoen Portland, and it is a very strange place. So, sorry that this letter took so long to get to you. We went to do our emails yesterday, but the libraries computers were down, so we were unable to do so. Before I give you an accouting of my last weeks work in Rock Creek/Springville let me just tell you how excited I am to be serving here in downtown. I am going to have some really neat experiences, but I can also tell that some trials are coming as well.

Monday we were able to do some service with a less-active member in Springville. We helped her get out her Christmas decorations. She fed us lunch, and we were able to talk with her about her family, and her past experiences. That night we stopped by B and C. B's sister, who is a Wicken, and has always been a little hostile told us that she read a chapter  in the Book of Mormon that Elder D left her a year ago, and now she wants to be baptized, and have her daughter blessed. We thought she was joking, but it turns our that she's serious. C started reading on his own too, and had already made it to 1 Nephi 8. The rest of the family had started reading the Book of Mormon together, and B has a goal of finishing it by the end of the year. I'm not sure what cause the dramatic change in their family, but it was really neat. to see. It was definitly a miracle.

Tuesday morning we were finally able to meet with J S again, and we taught her the plan of salvation. She agreed with everything that was taught, and especially liked the part about the resurrection. She had her toe amputated recently, and liked the idea of having it back. Due to medical complications thought she is confined to her house until further notice. She is also not allowed to get into water. She told us that she is healing quickly though, and she hopes to be able to come to church and be baptized soon. 

Later that night we met with S and B. She is going to be baptized as soon as she finishes the Book of Mormon. Yes, we told her to read a little faster. She is already ready for it, but finishing the book is a deal that she made with her less-active husband. After the lesson we said goodbye and took pictures because I had a feeling that I would be transferred, and wanted to say goodbye before they left for California to spend Christmas with her family. Oh, and she told us that she would be going to church while whe was out of town, and would also be taking her nonmember sister and her two daughters. She is already starting on her own missionary work.

Wednesday we had another lesson with B and C. A, the sister wasn't there, but we watched the restoration dvd with them. And we talked with C about a baptismal date, and commited him to pray about one. We talked with him on Sunday after church, and set a date for December 22.

Thursday we had a great Thanksgiving. We were able to play in both of our ward's Turkey Bowls, and we had investigators, and less-actives come to both. We spent the day with members sharing in their feasts, and feeling the spirit of thanksgiving.

 Saturday we were tracting when we got the call that Elder C would be training. We had just taught a great lesson on the doorstep when the call came. She had gone to a catholic high school, but doesn't really have any particular belief about God. The father of her child was a mormon, and she thought that it made sense that God would send an aditional witness to go along with the Bible, and that you could pray and find out more for yourself. We set up with her to come back this coming Saturday. That night we also saw the E(B and C), to say goodbye to them.

Sunday was a great time. We were able to teach our priests quorum about the importance of the Book of Mormon in missionary work, and practiced with them what they might say when giving a copy of the book to a friend. After church we spent the evening visiting with the members and saying goodbye to them. They were sad to hear about my parting, but were excited for my future experiences, and told me to visit them again. These wards have been so great. I will treasure the memories of my time here.

My time with Elder C has been great, and I am excited for him to train a new missionary. He will do such a great job. He helped me a lot to become a better missionary, to be obedient, and to be open with others. Even though we didn't see any baptisms together, I feel that my time with him has been the most successful on my mission. We worked hard and were obedient each day. I am finally able to see what a difference that is. I am glad to say that I have continued the habits I gained with him, and am still rising in the morning for excercise at 6:15.

Elder L and I have started off at a pretty good pace. I am learning the area, and should be able to navigate around soon. We taught our first lesson together Monday night to someone in the Market Street branch. We talked about prayer, and by the end we were able to help him realize that through his experiences he had gained a testimony of prayer for himself. It was a great time, and interesting to be in downtown after dark. Elder L is a little nervous about being without Elder La, and about driving(he did go the wrong way down a one way street(Portland is full of those), so I guess he has good reason to be nervouse), but I can see the love he has for the people, and he too will be able to grow a lot. He seems so unconfident, and unsure about his knowledge. I hope that I can help him to realize how good of a missionary he can be.

Love Elder Schultz

 

I did get the package from mom. And if you send anything else make sure that it is to the mission office, because I don't know the address to my new place. The mission office address is:

 

1400 NW Compton DR STE 250

Beaverton, OR 97006

James letter 11-19-12

This last week was an interesting one. I am happy to report that I haven't had any more flats since last Tuesday. The week was cold, the weekend was wet, and today is windy.

Last Tuesday as we walked up to our a members house for dinner, we found him outside talking to his neighbor in the next apartment over. He was able to introduce us to her, and as we went inside for dinner we said we would see her later, to which she replied, "you definetly will." I take that as a good sign. Our member told us that she has been wanting her son to have God in his life, and he has been able to share mormon.org with her. We left him a commitment to follow up on his invitation, and also to leave her another: to meet with us in his home. he accepted.

Wednesday's District Meeting served to strengthen my testimony that God answers prayers. Recently I have been struggling with my prayers, and feeling that they aren't doing much good. I have been trying to search for a way to improve them, and for the training and practice Elder I trained on Prayer. He gave us a talk by Elder Joseph B Worthlin entitled "Improving your Prayers". It was a great talk, that discussed the attitude you have before, during, and after prayer. What you should pray for, how you should pray, it also outlined a few steps to take while praying. It was a great thing to see that an inspired leader could receive the revelation needed to help me, and be an answer to my prayers.

After our District Meeting we were able to meet with a less-active member. This was the first time we have met with him, so the first part of the visit was getting to know him as an individual, so that we could know how to help him. He has a unique situation, that is almost entirely foreign to me. He is homosexual. He doesn't act on his attractions, but that is who he is. He told us how much he wants a family, but that he doesn't feel that he could ever have one, because he wouldn't be 100% commited, or attracted to any wife he could have. He is without hope, and feels that God doesn't love him. We were able to invite him to pray, which he did, but he still feels the same. He did invite us back though, and we also met with him on Saturday night.

That day we were also able to go over a Stop Smoking lesson with T D. The way the program works is it helps to change your habits so that it turns off the desire to smoke. It also helps clear the nicotine out of your system in about a week, so that by following all of the steps exactly for seven days you will be done smoking. The lesson went really well, and we were excited to see it work. We stopped by her on Thursday and she had not started the program, we revieved it with her, and helped her to start part of it. Saturday we got a call from her saying that she couldn't do it, and she couldn't be baptized. We met with her that day as well, and helped to build her confidence back up. She has tried and failed at so many things in her life that she is afraid to do it agian. She doesn't want to blow her only chance. We told her that we would continue to help her, and that the thing that she could do to progress the most is to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We are going to start back at the beginning with her, and take it slow.

Also on Wednesday night we met with another new less-active member. She has started coming back to church on her own, and welcomed us into her home gladly. We shared our first message on the Atonement. She was willing to have us return for another visit, and we will hopefully be able to do that this week.

Thursday started off with some service for a single sister in the ward. She has back problems, and is unable to to manual work. We helped her to prune the plants in her backyard. She delivered us a plate of cookies Saturday night in thanks. We also had a lesson with G that day. We talked with him about the Gospel, and what it means to him. We are still working on getting him back to the temple. We also found out that he has not yet recieved a patriarchal blessing, and we told the bishop Sunday, and will be working on getting him one of those as well. That evening we went home for dinner, I was not hungry, so I took a nap, and I woke up at 8:30 sick. It was an unpleasant evening, and the next morning wasn't much better. I said a prayer, asking to bless me with health enough to work hard that day. As we were going out, Elder C asked me if I was sure. I told him that if I was to pray that I would be well enough to work, and then not try and work that it would show a lack of faith. We went out, and I was fine that day, and the rest of the week.

Friday we were able to meet again with J. Again his wife was unable to join us, but we shared with him the Gospel, and after the lesson he fed us lunch; homemade chicken noodle-Phillipines style. it was great, and helped with my health.

Saturday we met with B and C. We taught the 10 commandments. All of the family participated, we were also able to introduce one of our ward missionaries who shares a similar interest in a card game called Magic. He is going to play with them during the week, to help them have more contact with the church. He was also able to go by Sunday morning and remind them of church. They were able to make it because of that. He is going to do the same every week. Its easy for him because her lives in the next building over in their complex.

Sunday was a great and busy day. We didn't have to bike all day. We started the day at 8 going to meetings before church, we sat through our two wards, then got a ride to lunch with a member family. After lunch we had our sacrament meeting at the retirement center, after which we went to an Interfaith dinner to help usher. We finished the night at coordination for Springville.

Springville ward had their Primary program this week, the theme was choosing the right. Here is one especially funny thought. "I want to be a good football player so I can CHOOSE to throw the ball instead of running it so we can win!" I love hearing the special insights of the litttle ones. They are so pure and innocent, and full of love. It is always a joy to watch.  The Interfaith dinner was a neat experience as well. There were about 20 different faiths each gather together to share how they give thanks and worship God. It was great to see all of the different perspectives on religion. Several member families from my last ward were there, and I was able to say hi.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving this week, and well as to finding out what is going to happen at the upsoming transfer. It seems like just yesterday the transfer started. Time has gone by so fast. Hopefully I have a little more time in this area, but if not I have definetliy enjoyed my stay, and am looking forward to what the future holds. My time with Elder C has been great. He is a terrific missionary, and will do great things on his mission.

Love,

Elder Schultz

James letter 11-13-12

I'm not even sure where to start on this past week. We had another successful week, but to be quite honest I didn't have a very good time for a lot of it. This week I had four flat tires, all of which put me in a bit of a bad mood. I think that is one of my weaknesses, I am easily frustrated, and when in such a state I easily forget what I should be doing, and the Spirit leaves.

Anyways, on Monday we were able to go to a part-member family with members from the same apartment complex. Although the lesson didn't go through the members were able to establish a friendship. They invited them over for a dinner, and to go hunting with them. It was neat to see our member reaching out to help us in our work. We had dinner with another part-member family that night, the dinner was good, but we weren't able to have a lesson afterwards.

Tuesday we had our Zone Meeting. We talked about using members. I have come to realize that we don't fully utalize members like we should. We should have more experiences like we had on Monday, where our members become friends with our investigators. Instead we just use them to get into a home when we need another male. Too often that is the attitude we take. Also we should take a few minutes before to tell them why we wanted them specifically to be there, what we are teaching, and what we want them to do. As we  work more with members they will start to truly care about the investigators like we do, and they will want to see them progress as we do. They will also become more excited about doing their own missionary work, so they can be involved in the work even more. Members are a resource that are overlooked, or underutalized. We are going to focus on improving there. That night we were also able to see TD. We read through Alma 36, and had a wonderful talk about repentance. We also shared with her the importance of scripture study everyday, and frequent prayer. She again made mention of her desire to be baptized, but she is still not ready to do so. We are still working on getting her to quite smoking. Pray for us, and her.

Wednesday started with some tracting, and a lesson with a less-active member. He has a non-member wife, but we have been unable to teach her as yet. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and what it means to have an eternal family. The spirit was there, and he was able to come to church Sunday with his son. We did some more tracting after lunch, followed by another visit with a less-active member. We talked with her about repentance also, I fell it was a message I needed to hear a little too. That night on our way to the EQ presidency meeting I got my first flat. I ran about a half mile from the road on the trail to Brother H house, so we could make it on time, we were late, but they hadn't started, so we were sort of on time. We got a ride home afterwards, and I fixed my tire.

Thursday we were able to do some service for the Relief Society, in helping them set up for their Gratitude Dinner. We had a lesson with B and C. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom, Chris has shown a lot of improvement recently. We saw him on Sunday, and he told us that it had been two days since he had smoked. That night, as were heading home after a visit with members we get to our bikes to discover that I have another flat tire. We got a ride home again, and I fixed another hole.

Friday we were able to help a non-member move. He was living in the Rock Creek Retirement Center, and we met him after one of our lessons there a couple weeks ago. He didn't pack, so the move went slow, but we got it done, and he is now in his new home. That night we stopped by some of the "unknown" members in the Springville ward, and we were able to see several of them. We have an appointment with one of them on Wednesday.

Saturday we had another move, this one with a less-active member, they moved to the next ward over to Orenco, the missionaries there helped move them in. We were able to meet with a part-member family that afternoon, and we talked with them about the Atonement. That is something that brings the Spirit no matter what. We were also able to contact a referral we had recieved from mormon.org earlier that week. We gave him the Bible he wanted, as well as a Book of Mormon, we taught him about prophets, and what the Book of Mormon is. He didn't seem super interested, but he said he would call us if he had any questions. We tracted around his apartment before we left.

Sunday was a great day. As I partook of the Sacrament I really felt renewed, and forgiven. It was a beautiful feeling. That night we were able to meet with a couple active member families, and set up an appoinment with J S, her health has been poor, but she is feeling better, and wants to have us back. We finished the night with our coordination meeting.

Monday, the library was closed, so we couldn't email. We got together as a district, with some members and ivestigators and played football in the wet, muddy field. If you didn't have cleats you were slidding all over the place. It was a lot of fun. When we got home I had another flat. We had to get picked up for dinner, because I wasn't able to fix it in time. We walked to our other planned people afterwards, and the night seemed to go by slow.

This morning when we were heading in for lunch I got another flat, and we had to take an extra 30 minutes to walk home.

Apart from the flats though it has been a fairly good week. We are working hard, and being obedient, and blessings are coming, even if they are masked by flat tires.

Love Elder Schultz

 

James letter 11-5-12

This week was an interesting week. We were short on lessons, but we were busy everyday, and we were able to see a lot of people that we haven't been able to for a while. While we weren't able to teach some of them we were able to converse with them, and let them know that we care. Sometimes that is the most important thing that we can do.

Tuesday we had the opportunity to attend the Trunk or Treat for Springville ward. It was a great time, and opportunity for missionary work. For the past month or so as we've gone to dinners we taught the members about missionary work, and invited them to invite their friends to this activity. It provided a great opportunity to expose them to the Church, help them to feel the Spirit, and have a good time without feeling pressured. Several of the part-member families were able to attend, as well as less-active members. And, in answer to our challenge we had a great number of non-members in attendance. We had the chance to have a lesson afterwards with C and B. Brother A, the Young Mens president was able to attend the lesson. We taught the Gospel. C opened up a lot. He told us that he was not going to get baptized, because he was not ready for it. He said that he needed to quit doing several things, which he wasn't ready to do. His statement struck me as very intelligent for someone of his age. He understands what a big thing baptism is, and he doesn't want to rush into it unprepared.

Halloween this week provided an interesting environment for missionary work. We had our district meeting in the morning, afterwards we were able to teach two lessons and make several visits before heading inside for the night. We watched the John Tanner Story with a less-active member, and he was amazed at the dedication and sacrifice shown in that story. The Spirit was there. That evening we were able to spend with the members we live with.  We wern't able to dress up and be outside, but because I knew we were going to be home for the rest of the night, I went upstairs and put on Emily's black, green, yellow tie, as well as my orange and black tie, and was a "house divided". In case you don't understand that would be a Oregon Ducks fan, and an Oregon Beavers fan. The A liked it. We spent the night playing games, and having fun. Sister Alberts told us that she wanted both of us to stay for Christmas. I love living in their home, they are so willing to serve us and help us out. We do as much as we can to return the favor.

Thursday was a great day, we were able to teach several less-active members. We shared lessons on the Sacrament, and the cleansing power it brings. We taught about repentance, and the wonderful feelings that come from true repentance. We shared about the miracle to Christ's life and Atonement, how we are able to overcome our weaknesses through Him, and return to live in our Father's presence.

Friday I was able to go on an exchange with Elder I in his area. He has been ill, so I spent the morning studying the scriptures, while he rested. I was able to read about repentance, prayer, working with ward leaders, and teaching those without a Christian background. I learned a lot during my studies. After lunch he felt well enough to go out, and so we did. We tracted for most of the day, and were able to give out a couple Book of Mormons, and find a few potential investigators. That night we went to Brother J of the High Council, and he gave us two families for us to see in the Springville ward. One is a less-active family, the other is a non-member one.

Saturday we had the great opportunity to assist with an Eagle Scout Project. He was collecting supplies for babies. We spent the morning going through the neighborhoods collecting the donations. It was a great time, and it reminded me a lot of my Eagle Project, and the great times I had and the things I learned in scouting. That evening we were finally able to meet with T D. We had to move her baptismal date, as she is still smoking, she hasn't been able to make it to Church, and she hasn't been reading. It is sad to see her not progressing as well as she should. We are hoping to be able to get a lot more member help, and help her to stop smoking and gain a testimony.

This Sunday was Stake Conference, it was a broadcast from Salt Lake, and Elder Quintin L Cook, and Elder Adrian Ochoa both talked about missionary work. They spoke about preparing the youth to serve, and about serving ourselves to fulfil the call of the prophets of "every member a missionary". Elder Ochoa said "You can do hard things", which reminded me of our mission culture. He also gave three things to help us: 1.Know and trust the Lord, 2.Choose the right, no matter what,3.Never give up. He promised us that as we did those things that the Lord would support us, and we would be able to make a difference. A member of the presidency of the seventy spoke about remembering, which really struck me as well. Remembering helps us to become more Christlike, protect us, and help us qualify for eternal life. We need to remember who we are, what we are doing, why we are doing it, where we are going, and how we are going to do it, and get there. Sister Dibb spoke as well, and talked about making sure it is "real" some things don't last, or aren't really "real", and we need to make sure that what we do is "real"

Thats a good summary of the week. It was a good week, we were busy, and even though we didn't teach as many lessons I feel that we had a successful week.

Love Elder Schultz

 

James letter 10-29-12

There is a lot of things that I could tell you about this week. It has been a great week, we were busy the whole time, and had great success. Last P-day we gathered as a district and carved pumpkins. I carved an outline of the portland temple. I was going to put an outline of oregon portland mission, but lacked the skills, or tools necassary. We have it on our porch the represent who we are. I like how when we light the candle inside that there is a light coming from the temple. It is a wonderful thing.

This week has gone by so fast. This week we were able to meet with T D three times. We taught her the Gospel, read through 2 Nephi 31, and taught the Word of Wisdom. Our visit on Thursday with her was a little disappointing. She told us that she had a pack of cigarettes left, and that she was going to smoke the rest of them, and then be done. It was the I'll get in as much as I can, and then stop. That kind of attitude makes it next to impossible to quit. You can't "fill your cantene" so to speak, and expect to not be thirsty. If you give in to temptation once, it is easier to do the next time. We went over on Saturday and taught the Word of Wisdom, and told her that if she still plans on being baptized on the 3rd that she would have to quit now. We are going to have to move her date, but we are going to have her move towards that until the end, and then move it, so that she can keep the sense of urgency. She wants to be baptized so bad, but she is not quite ready.

 

Wednesday we were able to go out with Bishop R to a lesson with J S.  She was in the hospital for an infection in a recently amputated toe.  We taught a great first lesson, helped her realize that she had felt the Spirit before, and how to recognize it now. We were able to set a date with her that night for November 24, and she asked bishop to baptize her. We saw her again that friday, she told us that she had read the Book of Mormon for two hours the past couple days. She is out of the hospital now and we should be able to meet with her on Wednesday or Thursday.

We had a great lesson with H B, and less active member. We talked about repentance, and the strength that comes from the atonement. The Spirit was there so strong. We talked to him about what he could be, about the great missionary that he would be. We helped him to see his potential, and he seemed to want to be there. He commited to come to church. I wish I could say that he did, but he did not. We will see him on Thursday.

Saturday we were able to go to the Visitors Center with S and B G, and his parents, who are active members. It was a great time, full of the Spirit. We were able to talk about the great blessings of the temple, including the possibility of an eternal family. There has been a change in B over the past few weeks, and I believe that soon he will realize that he does indeed have a testimony. S is ready to be baptized, and he is almost there as well. Last night we got a call, and were asked to come over and give his father a blessing, and B was asked to stand in on the blessing, and he did so. It was a great thing to see. Such a small and simple act will make a big difference for him. I'm excited to see them continue to progress. While we were there we walked around the temple. As we looked up at the spire with the angel Moroni we saw the coolest thing. the light shining up on Moroni cast a silhouette of him onto the cloud. It was like the bat signal, but it was Moroni. It was so cool.

This week looks to be another great week. Elder C and myself are still doing great. We are having so much fun together. We are busy, working hard, and being obedient. It is great.

As I've been writing this letter I've been listening to the talks from this last general conference. Right now I am listening to Elder Hollands talk "the great commandment" It is such a great talk, and a good reminder that the most important thing for us to do is to Love Him. If we are to do that then we will keep any commandment that we are given and we will share the Gospel with everyone. Once we love Him, we cannot ever go back to what we were doing. We have to become who He wants us to be, and to be converted by having charity, and loving Him. The Spirit is great, and I love being able to feel its power and influence.

Our new bishop in springville is Bishop E, he was the elders quorum president. He will be a great bishop, and I look forward to working with him as long as I am here, which is hopefully a while more. I hope to be here for Christmas, but we'll see.

 

 

Love you,

Elder Schultz