James' letter 8-26-2013

Well, I have a lot of good things to report on this week, and a few not so good things. We will start off with the good first. Monday night we met with Maggie W, and taught her the Plan of Salvation, she had had questions about the kingdoms, and so we were able to walk her through it. We hit a lot on the Atonement, and how much God loves us. She is in a delicate spot right now, and needed that assurance. Her parents were a great help with the lesson, sharing their own insights, and testimonies.

Tuesdays mission tour was a neat experience. Elder Richards talking about teaching the pure and simple doctrine gave me a new focus in my studies. This last week I have taken time to summarize the essential truth from each point in the lessons. I have also been doing that with my patriarchal blessing, looking at what it is talking about, and praying about how I can obtain the blessing. I have received a lot of personal revelation as I have done so. It has been really cool to see just how willing our Father in Heaven is to teach and instruct us. After the mission tour was over we went and knocked on some doors. We knocked on only five before our dinner, and the last door we knocked on we were able to give away a Book of Mormon, and get a follow-up appointment for this week. We had one of our teaching opportunities fall through that night, so we were able to attend the open house planning meeting. Our building was just redone, and they are having an open house in October. It was going to be on the 12th, but they moved it back a week to the 19th so I'll miss it.

Wednesday's exciting moment was our weekly coordination meeting, we are changing the way we run it, to make it more like a district meeting, and we put that into effect this week. We are starting with a basic agenda; business items, accounting, a spiritual thought, and a training and practice. For our first training and practice we taught about extending invitations, and this next week we are going to start going through the lessons to help them know how to teach. Our goal is to get our ward missionaries involved, and have them teach collectively as much as we do. The ward missionaries are really excited about it, and happy that they are going to receive training on what to do.

Thursday we had an exchange with Elders Burton and McMullin. I was with Elder McMullin in my area. We were able to teach Don, the restoration, and we were also able to set up lessons with a new family, the Aghos, they are less active, and were very receptive to having us in their home. Just before dinner we knocked on a few more doors, and we were able to give away another Book of Mormon, and get a follow up visit. We were also able to set up lessons with the Larsen family.

Friday we spent the morning doing service with the Walkers, and afterwards brother Walker told me to be careful around Maggie, because she likes me too much. After that conversation Elder Barrow wouldn't even talk to me for a couple hours. We went and saw the Olsens, and after that he warmed up. The Olsens are always an uplifting couple to visit. He is coming back into activity, and she was baptized a couple years ago. We are going to start reading the Book of Mormon with him, to help him 1, get in the habit, and 2, be able to quit drinking. That night we taught sister West, which he had told me earlier in the week he didn't want to teach her. The lesson didn't turn out very well I don't think. He kind of blew through it, skipped points, and I tried to reteach things that he missed, but couldn't get all of it without just entirely starting over. Part of the purpose in teaching members is to gain their confidence in your teaching ability, and I'm not sure if that lesson accomplished that design.

Saturday we were supposed to help re-roof a member's house, but instead Elder Barrow slept in until 12, and I had gotten, up, but ended up falling back asleep as well. It started off the day on a bad note. The Spirit wasn't there, and I found myself getting angry at Elder Barrow. We ended up getting into an argument, which of course did nothing but make things worse. I apologized, and asked for forgiveness, and he did the same. We are on much better terms now, but I feel that our work for that day suffered a lot. That night we were supposed to have a missionary fireside, but it hadn't been announced very well, so we are going to reschedule it, instead we just talked with our bishop about the wards vision. He has been receiving a lot of revelation, and is going to start doing a lot more things to help accomplish this vision of splitting the ward.

Sunday in our ward council we revisited the ward mission process, or the focus 5. We went through and thought about who to invite, and I explained how the program is supposed to work, and then we made assignment for invitations. By the end of the day we had three people invited to take the lessons, and they all said yes. It was a big success. Maggie came to church, and her parents were so happy to see her there. It was rewarding to see a family being brought together again. There is still a long way to go, but things are moving in the right direction. Maggie agreed to take the rest of the discussions, and we are going to start teaching tonight, hopefully Summer is able to sit in as well. This could lead to a baptism, we are pretty excited. I talked with her a little about what Bill said, and she was pretty upfront about it. I told her that there is no way I am doing anything as a missionary, and that if she really wanted she could wait a couple months, and we'd talk about it, but right now I'm not going there. I never expected something like that to happen on my mission, and I hope that she keeps her end of the deal and waits. If she doesn't, and keeps flirting, I am going to ask to be transferred.

Elder Barrow has been really depressed recently as well, I have been able to see it in his moodiness, and irritability, that is one of the causes of our fight. I talked about it with him, and he doesn't have any plan for changing it, he is just going to "deal with it". I don't like seeing him that way, because I know that a mission is going to be torture if you are depressed. He thinks that he isn't where he is supposed to be serving, and that maybe he should be serving spanish instead. I'm not sure what you want to do, but he is going to talk to president tonight. We are working on loving each other, and I hope that in my next report I will be able to report a success with that. I want to love my companion, not argue with him.

I did get the thomas guide, it gives us good coverage around Lafayette, which is where we work most, and it is more up to date than the map we had, so it is a welcome addition.

Love Elder Schultz

James letter 8-19-13

This last week was a great one, and I feel that things are going to get even better as we do a few things to change our work, and as the members in our ward get behind us. We spent most of our time this week working with less active and part member families in our ward, there are a lot of them. We went through the ward list and selected families to go see, both active and not, and went out. As a result we were able to get in with a couple less actives that we had not been able to previously. 

Tuesday we had our weekly splits with the ward, and while Elder Barrow went out with brother Branchard to teach the Barletts, I went with brother Palmer to see his home teaching families. Our first visit was very productive. We caught the family in the middle of a birthday party, and found out that they had actually moved, and were just there for the party. They invited us in and shared the cake. They asked me about my mission and I was able to share with them some of my stories from my time in downtown Portland. They got a kick out of them. The members son and his wife were there, and neither of them were members, I think we left a good impression on them. We were also able to see the West family, part of whom are less active. Elder Barrow and I had decided that we were going to start teaching active members, so they have experiences to share with their friends when inviting, it is also less threatening when you are invited to someone elses lessons, and its not focused on you. We were able to set up an appointment with sister West, the active member, and we hope that as we teach her we will be able to reach her family as well. 

Wednesday we had brother Blanchard come with us to see Dirk. It was a great visit, the two of them hit it right off. They talked about their military experiences, and then brother Blanchard invited him to take the lessons, and have his wife sit in. It was a perfect invitation, born of love, and it flowed naturally. That is that way it should be done. Dirk agreed to take the lessons, but he doesn't want to invite his wife until she has their baby in October, because she is under a lot of stress. We also set up an appointment with the McMurays. The best part of the day though is when we stopped by the Walkers. Their daughter was there, and she is going through a really hard time right now. We were able to listen to her, and then she started asking us a bunch of questions about the church. She had told us a little while ago she wasn't interested, and then she had a sudden interest. We answered her questions, and as we talked the Walkers nonmember granddaughter, who also has expressed disinterested, listened in. 

Thursday we met with Don. We taught him the Gospel, and we drew a diagram of how it works to help his memory. He is wanting to go to the temple, but is a long way from that. He doesn't have a very good foundation yet, but it will come. We also had our correlation meeting, and made plans for an upcoming missionary fireside. We are going to run it like a district meeting, where we train them on using mormon.org to share the gospel, and then have them practice. We are also going to start running our correlation like a district meeting as well, so that we can train our ward missionaries how to find and teach. We are getting a lot of ward missionaries called, and we are going to train them just like we are trained, so that they can do everything we can do. 

Friday our district meeting was focused on using the areabook to find people to teach. It was a good refresher on how to use all of the tools at our disposal. We were able to stop by the Mayhew family, and get in and teach a message about the Book of Mormon. They are a part member family, and she said that her husband is warming up to the church. We don't have a set return with them, but are going to follow up in a few weeks. 

Saturday at our dinner we asked who they knew that we could teach. They listed off a bunch of names, and then said that they had invited them before, and they said no. He then talked about how we needed to take care of who we have before we get anymore, and that if we do that the Lord will take care of us. It reminded me of a nondenominational christian, who believes that you don't have to do anything to get the reward. We wrote down all the names he said, and after dinner we went to see one of them. They let us right in, and we got to know them. When we left they gave us homemade jam to take home, and invited us back. It was cool to see that peoples hearts change, and they are ready at different times. If we hadn't stopped by though, we may never have known that they were ready, because the members wouldn't try again. No matter how many times they have been invited before, they may choose now to accept, even though they have rejected it in the past. 

Sunday during sacrament I was reading through the D&C, and in section 11:24 I found a cool scripture. It says Build upon my rock, which is my gospel. I thought about that, and how I could do that, and then I had set it as a vision for myself with the first four steps of the gospel as pillars, and things under those as tactics to accomplish those. I now have a detailed plan on how to live the Gospel. Our bishop gave a talk, and he was talking about vision, and he announced to the ward the Lord's vision to split the ward in two years, and what we need to do to accomplish it. He also called two new ward missionaries, with several more on the way. Things here are moving, and pretty soon all of the members are going to get it, and the work will explode. It is only a matter of time. 

Love Elder Schultz

James 8/13/13

This week had a lot of exciting things in it. Monday night we went over to the Walkers to do some service, and we got there just too late, and they had already done what they wanted us to do. They knew we were coming, but didn't want to wait. Their daughter was moving back in, because she is getting a divorce. We were able to talk with her for a little bit, and it was good exposure fot her. She is a member of the church, but has been attending a different church with her soon to be ex husband. She is not to keen on the church right now, but she seems to like us, and we will hopefully be able to help her as she goes through this trial in her life.

Tuesday night we had our weekly splits with ward members, I went out with our EQP, and we say the Barnetts. We spent some time getting to know them, and then to involve the kids a little more we played the "Restoration game". That is where you have everyone draw a picture of something, and then you pass it, and the next person interprets the picture with a sentence, and covers the picture. THen you pass again, and draw a picture from the sentence. By the end of the game the picture is completely different. We used it to teach the apostasty, and the need for the restoration. We bore testimony of the restoration, and how each of us are able to know for ourselves.

Wednesday's zone conference was great. I have a bunch of notes from things I thought or felt during the meeting. One thought I had, and I'm not sure if it was spoken or not, but its that true repentance doesn't happen until you disregard all worldy reputation or appearance, and accept the consequences, and steps of restitution. You must forsake all of the world, and follow guidance from above. When you do this, repent regardless of worldy consequence, then you have the Atonement take power in your life, and you can feel the power of redemption.  It was Elder McMullin's birthday as well, and we had bought a pinyata, and broke it open before the meeting. We also got him a birthday card. It was actually a fathers day card, but we edited it to make it work. It had a man in a shirt and tie, that when you pulled a tab turned into superman. We used a sharpie to color over the man, and make him a missionary. It fit perfectly with our district meeting from last week with being a hero for Christ.

Thursday we met with Don D, we started teaching him the plan of salvation, and he had a lot of different ideas of how it was. We tried to correct him, but I'm not sure if we got through. He doesn't have a very strong foundation, so we are going to focus our next lesson with him on the basics. We also met with Damin, he told us that there was no point in meeting with us, because he is not going to join our church, and he doesn't see any difference. The Bible is the authority, and you don't need anything more. He is curious to see, but he has no real intent. I asked him if he was willing to forsake the world to follow Him, and he said no, he lives in the world. My heart sank. You will never know if you are not willing to follow.We bore testimony, and told him we were always there, and he is always welcome. I am sad to drop him as an investigator,but I feel good about how our last lesson turned out.

Friday we moved into out new apartment, We are short a desk, and our washer and dryer aren't there yet, but it was ready, so we did it. We have it all set up, and it has been nice to be in the ward, and close to people. We fit all of our luggage, food, and desk supplies in the back of our Toyota Corolla. The only things that didn't fit was a dresser, and our whiteboard.

Saturday morning started out fine, but turned out a little different than expected. I was cutting a piece of cardboard to line the drawer under the over, and I cut my thumb open. It didn't bleed right away, so I was able to see how deep it was. I probably got a good quarter inch slice. I washed it out, put antibiotic on it, and put gauze over it, and wrapped it up and drove to Newberg for urgent care. They put three stitches it it. I have to keep it covered, but I can use it fine. We went to the funeral of the Yamhill police chief, that was a good thing, lots of people from the city were there, and a lot of nonmembers. It was an interesting experience for me as well, it was the first nonmormon funeral I have been too. No one was dressed up, they were in t-shirts and shorts. It was a constant dron of remember what he did, because this life is it. Mormon funerals are much better. People dress up to show respect, the talks are uplifting and hopeful, and the Spirit is there. It was another testimony to me of the Plan of Salvation. Also I had this thought during one of the talks. They were speaking about living in memory of the deceased. I thought about how people will remember their deceased loved ones, and live in memory of them, but not very many remember Christ, and live in memory of Him. That is what you are supposed to do, the sacrament reminds us of that weekly, but do we really live in His memory?

Our ward council on Sunday we spent the whole time talking about how to accomplish the vision of spliting the ward. It was very productive. New ward missionaries were called. Good things are happening. I am excited to see how things unfold.

Thats all that I have time for, that you for all that you do. Love you.

Elder Schultz 

James Letter 8/5/13

Its strange to think that week two of this transfer has already gone by, the time always moves so fast. I am really enjoying my time here. The people are great and there is lots of beautiful scenery. We drive a lot of back roads, and go through a lot of country.

A couple of highlights for the week, Tuesday we talked with a less-active family that we may be able to start teaching. We weren't able to set up anything, but they told us that we could stop back.

Wednesday night we met with our bishop and talked about the vision for the ward. The vision he has is to split the ward into a Yamhill and a Lafayette ward in two years. We talked about how to do this, and how to get the ward council involved in creating strategies and tactics. He wants to start having more ward councils so he can get more accomplished with missionary work. Right now there is some division in the ward council, but there are going to be a few new callings, and some releases that should help, and then we are going to spend ward council on our vision. We shared with him a lot of the ideas that you gave us, and he is all on board.

Thursday we met with Darwin J. He has a non-member wife that he says is really close to joining the church. He has been working with her for a while. He thinks that she will be baptized sometime soon. The bishop is going to call him as a ward missionary, which will really help us work with her.

Sunday we were able to set up an appointment with a new less-active family the Stepps. We may also be able to work with the non-member girlfriend of a less-active member in the ward. She came to church last week with her several kids, and we were able to talk with her grandma, who said she is really interested in the Church. That would be a family of 6 we could baptize soon. 

I found out on Thursday that my extension is still approved, so my scheduled return date is October 15. I am excited to be able to serve until then. I really feel that I need to be here for more than just this transfer, so I am glad that I will be able to. 

Love Elder Schultz