James Letter 5-20-13

This week was much better. We still had a lot of visits, but we were able to teach a lot more. At our last district meeting I invited the members of the district to write down one miracle they saw each day, so that when it comes time to share, they have them ready. I too recorded one miracle for each day, and those are what I would like to share with you.

Starting with Monday, we had a great time playing basketball as a district, and with the spanish elders. In the morning we were able to meet with Sam B, and read through some of the Book of Mormon with him. That evening, and this is the miracle, we saw the Lalliss family, and we were actually able to share a spiritual message. It wasn't received well by the parents, but we were able to share it nonetheless, and that was a big step. We will continue trying to work with them. Slowly and surely we will be able to soften their hearts with the aid of the Spirit.

Tuesday we had a great district meeting. I asked sisters Ellett and Tanner to give the training and practice. Sister Tanner was a little homesick, but over the last couple weeks she has come a long way. I think the opportunity to teach, and learn really helped her. The topic that I assigned them was how to recognize the Spirit, a key in missionary work and in life. One of the things I thought was cool, and I don't have my notes with me, so this is from memory, was that if you are doing good things, ie, keeping commandments, serving others, etc., then you are promised to be led by the Spirit, and to have the Spirit with you always. God keeps his promises. What we need to do is to stop worrying about it so much, and to trust him, and to trust that we will be led, and we will. Then as we look back we will be able to see clearly enough to see what was the Spirit, and what was us. I have had lots of experiences like that, where, looking back, it is easy to see that it had to have been the Spirit, because it couldn't have been me. Our miracle for Tuesday came when we went to see a potential investigator named Marcia. The elders had done service for her previously, but no one had taught her. As we talked she mentioned how impressed she was by us, and I asked if they had shared what we do as missionaries. She said no. I then explained our purpose, and invited her to learn more. She agreed, and we were able to set a return appointment for service, and a lesson.

Wednesday I turned 21, and elder Mohler made me pancakes for breakfast. That morning we went out with Ethan G, a ward misisonary, who got his call this week to the Mesa Arizona mission. We saw Iris S, and were able to share teach her about hope. We also saw Ilene H, and Ann H. Ann has been meeting with missionaries for a while, and we asked her why she wasn't baptized. She replied that it was because she had already been baptized as a baby into the Catholic church, which she doesn't believe in. Apparently it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in your baptism, as long as your baptized. As we were walking back to our house we saw an elderly couple laying sod. Now, seeing that I had laid sod for my job for several years I offered to help, and then went to work. We laid their whole front yard in 30 minutes, and I didn't get any dirt on my white shirt, or suit pants. They were so appreciative, and as we were working I was able to talk with them about the restoration. When we were done they told us that we could come back any time. That was our miracle for Wednesday. That evening we met with Sam again, and I would say the best way to describe him is openly closed. he says he is open, but he thinks the Book of Mormon is false, and he refuses to apply any of its teachings, because that would be planting a bad seed. At this point I don't see him progressing far, unless he has a change of heart. We ate dinner, and had a lesson with the Martins after that.

Thursday wasn't too exciting, but we did still have a miracle. We were biking past Otis' house, the old man with the sod, and he was outside and waved us over. We talked with him for about 20 minutes, and during that he opened up to us. Unfortunatly there were cars driving by, and between that and his mumbling voice I didn't hear anything he said about his story. The only part I heard was that someone died, and he was mad at God. Still though, if he opened up once, he will open up again. He is convinced that we were heaven sent. I think he is right.

Friday Elder Mohler was able to go on a split with Ethan while I was at the leadership conference. They did some service, and saw Vicki W. I have a ton of notes from the conference, and a bunch of things that I am going to bring up in the next district meeting. I love the opportunity to be taught and instructed by the Spirit, and I would consider the opportunity to be so guided a miracle in itself.  I am confident that this district will be able to improve a lot in the next few transfers, we have some great misisonaries, and some young ones that can still be easily molded into the kind of missionaries that we need them to be. That night we also had our coordination, and we were able to put more names on our master list. There are still more to go on, but its a start. Also in our PEC this week our WML was able to bring it up, and ask who was going to be assigned to make the invitations needed. We have a good WML who listens to us, and wants to help us get the ball rolling. 

Saturday we saw the Coopers, and read with them from the scriptures, and showed them how to study. It was a good reminder for myself as well that there are a lot of resources in the scriptures to help us get the most out of them, and we need to use them. That night we saw Don, who has also been meeting with missionaries for a long time, and he doesn't think he can quit smoking, or he doesn't want to. He also won't come to church because its too early. After Don we saw Joyce B. She is a less active member, her home teacher asked us to stop by, and she was glad to see us. He gave her a Book of Mormon, and she has been reading it a lot. She is lonely, and lives by herself, so she has plenty of time. She is in Alma already, and she got the book on Tuesday. She said that she feels as if something is telling her not to go back to our church, but whenever she read the Book of Mormon she feels good, and thinks she should go back. It is a miracle how the Spirit works.

Sunday we had our ward conference. And I wa able to learn a lot. The stake president asked all of us to, find something in our life that is a bad habit, and remove it, and then to bring a good habit to replace it. That is something I have been working on, because it is not enough to stop being bad, we have to start being good. Our bishop gave what he called the parable of the slurpee, it goes as follows:

In the summertime I asked the kids to help me work in the yard. They denied me several times, and so I resorted to bribery, and after being turned down a lot I found something that would work, a slurpee. I promised them each a slurpee if they would help me work in the yard. As the day went on, however, some of the kids began to disappear. They would take frequent breaks in the house, or they just stopped helping all together. Finally the time came, and I had to come true on my promise. I found myself driving to 7-11 thinking that some of them didn't deserve a slurpee, but I had promised. I was happy when 7-11had 3 sizes of cups. They didn't think it was fair getting different sizes, but it was. There are also three kingdoms. The next summer the same thing happened, only this time one of our sons got home late from baseball practice. I asked if he wanted to help, and he did. Then when we went to go get slurpees he came with us. They didn't think it was fair, because he hadn't worked all day, but it was, because he had worked. It was a real life parable of the laborers.

Thats all I have time for.

Love you 

Elder Schultz