Monday August 13, 2012

Ed's baptism was the amazing results of the efforts of so many different parties. It was amazing to see someone so converted to the gospel, so sure of its surety, so changed both in word, thought, and deed that I almost couldn't believe that such a process had taken place. From the beginning of our meetings, I had no idea where things would go with Ed, we barely got one word in that evening back in June. And yet line upon line, precept upon precept, the doctrines of the gospel distilled upon his soul as the dews from heaven, ringing the truthfulness of what he had already knew way back in pre-mortal eras and just forgotten for a time. He's become more humble, more respectful, more forgiving, more kind, more focused, and it has all come because of small steps of faith.

 

It was a smaller service than I had expected, considering we were inviting everyone both member and nonmember, but Ed said that he was glad it was more of a private occasion because the people who mattered were there. He asked me to give the talk on baptism and I spoke of 3 baptisms: the baptism of Alma and his people in Mosiah 18, the baptism of Christ himself (Matthew 3), and the baptism of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (Joseph Smith-History 1:68-74). It was significant that all these people chose not to wait to act on the witnesses that they received but they chose this day to enter into the waters of baptism (Alma 7:15). That was his day.

 

This week I also had a neat experience with another one of our investigators. John is a 32-year-old black guy who looks like he should be in his early 20's because of his physique. We came into contact with him without any effort on our part. He, like Ed, found the Bishop of the Erie 2^nd Ward's number in the phone book and asked for missionaries to come by, expressing that he himself would like to be a missionary as well. The Bishop told him he should become a member first and didn't touch that matter any further.

 

After a couple weeks of lessons, he recently told us he'd be moving from Erie and he asked us to come by one last time. He finally asked us about the desire of his heart – to become a missionary like us. For some reason, I didn't want to dance around his concern anymore and felt like we should be honest with him, so we told him that the men's age restriction in our Church for serving a full-time mission was 26-years-old and that some retired folk go on missions when they're in their later years. John seemed very surprised and a little embarrassed that what he wanted so bad was unattainable. We talked a lot about being a member missionary which consoled him a little and just gave him more drive to be a senior missionary when he gets older. Although disappointed, he vowed that he would wait and learn and save all he could until that time when he could devote all his heart, might, mind, and strength to the work of the Lord. He kept saying, “it's worth the wait, it's worth the wait...” It made me realize how lucky I am to be called as one of the Lord's servants in His vineyard. How often am I reluctant to give my whole heart to this work? How often do I dane to get up with a bright hope in my labours? How often do I count time instead of making time count? John couldn't wait to put on the “armour” we wear (as he put it), saying that it would be “the greatest thing.” What should that say about the sacredness of my calling and the power I am entitled to receive?

 

I never cease to be amazed at how my mission has changed me and continues to change me. Although the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, truly it was me that I have been labouring all this time to bring unto Him. For I know, that this Church, this Work, this Gospel, is priceless and is ever worth striving for.

 

Elder Low

Monday August 6th, 2012 (Not an American Holiday)

This last week was really only good because of Ed to be honest. Everyone else seems to be falling through the cracks. We're zooming through the commandments with him because it's so easy to teach and commit people to commandments once they've learned that the Book of Mormon is true (for if the Church that espouses that book is true, why would you need to question anything else?). Ed made the interesting connection related to the law of witnesses in 2 Corinthians 13:1. Grasping the idea of the Godhead rather than the Trinity, he's beginning to see that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one because of things they witness of and work toward. He suggested that because the influence of the Holy Spirit was so absent in his life before that the Book of Mormon was his book. He said that the Catholic emphasized the Father and the Son enough, but it wasn't until he started reading the Book of Mormon that the Holy Ghost's witness became so apparent and so real to him. However despite this connection, he insisted that he had a problem with God the Father and confessed that he might feel safe in the arms of Jesus, but was perturbed by the seemingly everlasting vengeance of God. To counter this concern we showed him a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland called, “The Grandeur of God,” which spoke directly to Ed's concern of not knowing if God loved him. It was that talk that made all the difference, he started to revere the Father and see that especially in latter-day revelation, we know God to be our Father and the ultimate source of Jesus' magnificence and mercy. For Jesus did not come into the world as much to improve God's view of man as much as He came to improve man's view of God. That He lives, that He loves us, and that He is constantly doing everything He can so that we can return to Him.

 

Ed is committed to being baptized on Saturday and I don't think he could be more ready. It's been wonderful to teach him and see him change into the wonderful person that he is.

 

Elder Low

Monday July 30th, 2012

In light of this last General Conference, I have much pondered the talk by Richard G. Scott entitled “How to Receive Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life.”

 

One of our investigators, (actually the first and only investigator I've gained from a member referral in the members' home) named Gary is absolutely golden, except for the fact that he loves and openly admits to being addicted to coffee. We've told him that by living the Word of Wisdom, he'll be able to see the profound blessings of that commandment in his life. At the conclusion of the lesson, he told us that he would definitely pray about it. Now I don't doubt the sincerity of his prayers, for I believe he is closer to God than I am, but I hope that his bias toward his vice and his already preconceived notions won't block those channels of sacred communication with our Heavenly Father.

 

The world, with it's neon lights and obtrusive noise, tends to blare its obnoxious influence wherever we go. With the busyness of life, it's almost taboo to set apart time anymore for pondering, for quiet moments of peace and understanding. I was, and still am, too guilty of this. I remember constantly having music played, whether at home on the computer, in the car on the radio, or anywhere else with ear buds, filling my head with the voices of the world rather than the voice of the Spirit. I fear this dulled my spiritual sensitivity growing up. It was hard to find the voice of the Spirit on my mission because it was foreign to me; for it really wasn't much of a voice at all. Where so many other voices compete for our attention, we miss the subtle promptings from the spirit of love, peace, joy, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

 

I hope that Gary feels that voice. I hope that amidst the race of life, we can slow down and pause for those moments of enlightenment. The answers don't always come at once, but blessed is he that waits on the Lord, for the Lord's timing is not ours. We only see ourselves in terms of the here and now, whereas the Lord sees us in terms of forever. Against the backdrop of artificial and temporary light, the candle of the Lord continues to lead us, for if we pay attention to it, we shall hear it say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)

 

Elder Low

Monday July 16, 2012

I feel like I can only describe how I felt during this week day by day. It was a very strange week; full of ups and downs. But I guess before I forget, I should tell you that transfers are next Tuesday (July 24^th). I still have no idea of what will happen, but I'm prepared for the worst. I'll know my fate on Saturday and will tell you the outcome next week.

Monday – Drove to Jamestown and had a pretty fun P'day with their district. I thought that after I got out of high school I would not have to be forced to play a stupid sport that I didn't want to play. Little did I know that high school never ends and I yet again embarrassed myself in dodgeball and basketball.

Tuesday – I was on exchange in Olean, New York for the entire day and it was relatively successful. I realized how much I can learn from younger missionaries and how undiligent I've become. o_o

Wednesday – Ed is doing awesome! He told us that he gave away all his coffee and tea. In our challenge for him to be baptized he said that he would and that he was already notifying his sons. He completely acts like a member at Church. We don't even need to shepherd him around at all!

Thursday – We had a really great dinner at our Elders Quorum President's house. He reminds me randomly of Brandon. He's a really cool guy and loves to tease me.

Friday – We had a wonderful lesson with the Hawley family again. Up until this point, we had only taught them about Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. The order we taught them the lessons could not have been better because they truly needed messages of faith and repentance in their lives. Then the Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ made so much sense to them. We were a little worried to hear their reaction to the Restoration because the mother (Tracey) really does have a strong faith already. I started to worry halfway through the lesson as we talked about a prophet on the earth today. Tracey all of sudden got really quiet, put her hands in her face, and I could tell she was starting to cry. She got up and walked out of the room in the middle of teaching the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith; I had no idea what she was thinking. When she came back in she told us how everything had suddenly just clicked with this lesson, how it really tied everything together. She said that she definitely needs to do some reading and praying. I am amazed at how much the whole family wants this in their life.

Saturday – Although we achieved the most lessons during this day, I felt like we didn't accomplish anything. I guess it's possible to go through the motions as a missionary and meaninglessly check off lessons without having a full purpose of heart. Throughout my mission I always thought that I'd be happy if I was always busy. But I definitely see that happiness is not situational, but a choice and is directly to how much effort you put into it.

Sunday – Everything came crashing down on me after Sacrament Meeting yesterday. The stormy backdrop out the church windows totally reflected my mood. The baptism we were supposed to have canceled literally at the last minute. Also the lady we asked to teach our gospel principles class randomly didn't show up. Feeling scattered, overwhelmed and unprepared, I dismissed our class which actually had a couple investigators in it to go into gospel doctrine.  It was possibly the most frustrating Sunday of my mission.

Monday – These truly are the best days. They bring me back and help me realize that I'm starting anew. It'll hopefully be better this week.

Sorry if that sounded depressing but I felt like I probably shouldn't sugarcoat my feelings. Writing is also a great outlet for me. It probably isn't what you want to hear, but thanks for allowing me to talk to you about my feelings. One returned missionary in our ward said that more than writing what happened everyday of his mission, he wished he would've written how he felt about those things. Hopefully someone can look back at this and draw strength from it, maybe even me. It's nice to reflect and see that one bad day doesn't make a bad week, but that the Savior will lift us up day by day, no matter what the situation.

Love,

Elder Low

Elder Swensen and I as American Eagle models.

 Most recent Zone Leader Council picture.

Always keepin' my face Canada-ward.

 What's that rule about not swimming again?

I and my District Leader Elder Curl.

 Zone Leader breakfast at our favourite diner in Pittsburgh.

Monday July 9, 2012

Whoa whoa whoa. First things first, despite my worried disclaimer in last week's letter, it is not for sure that I am leaving Erie. In Zone Leader Council last week I made it pretty clear that I didn't want to be released just yet. Honestly, it wouldn't really make sense to release me because I have six transfers left after this one, which is on July 24^th. So if I'm going to my dying area, six transfers would be a LONG time to spend there. At this point anything is possible but I'm hoping that neither Elder Swensen nor I get transferred.

 

I make that bold and sure statement because we have so much potential for next transfer. We just set a family we've been teaching for a couple weeks with a date of August 11^th. This is the same family I mentioned before about how we cast the devil out of their son Nick. We've taken it pretty slow with them because the two teenage daughters are kind of apathetic towards the whole thing but the Mom is surprisingly on board, despite all their insisting that we were only coming over for Nick. When we challenged them to baptism following a really great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Mom (Tracey) started to cry. Nick was very adamant about the decision and Tracey could not hold back her conviction of desiring to be baptized as well. When her two daughters answered in a kind of “I guess so” answer, she scolded them and could not believe that they wouldn't be more enthused about this saving commitment. Hopefully I'll be able to attend.

 

It was looking like we weren't going to see a baptism this transfer as the weeks rolled by. With Katina's back problems inhibiting her from meeting with us regularly and Ed's doctrinal concerns, we thought that the rest of July would be dry. Amazingly enough however, one investigator we've been working with since before I got here, a nine-year-old girl named Sera, has officially decided to be baptized. She's a shy and timid girl, when Elder Swensen and Elder Willes were teaching her and her sister the transfer before I got here, only her sister Megan was baptized; Sera got scared and locked herself in the bathroom during the service. Since then we've tried everything to reason with her concerns, but a nine-year-old isn't the most reasonable of investigators. It was only when we said that she should alert us when she was ready and that we wouldn't push her anymore that she came out to her mom and showed the desire of her heart. Hopefully we'll have a secret baptism this week for her.

 

I mentioned that Ed had some doctrinal concerns. I guess that's a simple way of putting it. Hopefully we'll challenge him to baptism again this week as we keep having wonderful lessons with him and he keeps biking to and enjoying immensely church. He's an interesting man. Everyone we bring over there loves him. And despite his rash opinions, he's extremely friendly. This week, just before we left our lesson with him, he handed us a binder full of articles. Now even though Ed is an open book (he loves to talk), I always feel like he's continuing to give us pieces of who he really is. Before, he gave us a framed diagram depicting the “Pyramind of Success” by a victorious basketball coach. His house is carefully arranged to represent who he is. Nothing in his small area is there by accident or decoration. The prologue of the binder was a handwritten letter to Elder Swensen and I telling that he wouldn't feel right without showing us his “beliefs.” The binder contained 19 letters he had written to the Erie Times Newspaper regarding his very conservative views on questions the paper asked. It wasn't necessarily things we didn't know before, but it was interesting to see how his views progressed over the years and especially his views after we started teaching him. In particular, he answered a question that the newspaper posed “Would you consider changing religions.” His answer was along the lines that he should always be open minded for added truth.

 

One of the last and possibly most important reasons I feel that I should stay is because of an active family whom we love very much. The Clarks are converts of about 6 years and stalwart ones at that. They love the missionaries. But they've been through a lot since I've been here. Before my time in Erie, Elders Swensen and Willes went over every Sunday to teach their kind of adopted grandchildren, but when custody battles arose and they were taken from them, the Clarks were left in shambles. We've continued to go over Sunday-ly to encourage and lift them. And surprisingly, I think we're doing a lot more for them than I had anticipated. As a result of bad experiences, Sister Clark stopped her progression in the gospel before receiving her partriarchal blessing. We had an extremely good talk with them last night and I truly think that it is because of our intervention that she is making those steps again.

 

You never know who you might influence. Even though I might have felt in the past that anyone could've seen the success I've had being in my place, it's wonderful moments like these that help me know that I am where I am supposed to be.

 

Elder Low

“Official Canada Day” 2012

The Canadian jokes are getting REALLY old over here. I used to think that simply “doing as the Romans do” would help me avoid any unnecessary competitiveness between the two countries that both mean a lot to me. But despite me not being super aggressive about my Canadian patriotism, the members and missionaries here still love to push my buttons. I pretty much snapped and destroyed one of the Harrisburg Zone Leaders yesterday and yet now I feel like a jerk. Great.

 

But despite all that, I really loved getting on the computer this morning only to find a video uploaded from Dad with season's greetings from immediate and extended family members. It really made my technical Canada day. It also reminded me of how much everyone is praying for me. I was actually just glad to hear that people remember me! Only exclamation points can describe my joy and amazement right now. Although I really can't believe how much has changed and how old some of my cousins look, like when the heck did Alexa turn into a teenager?

 

Elder Swensen and I are getting along fine still, and in the heat of the long summer days, we are actually finding much success. We're hoping to set quite a few investigators with baptismal dates this week. But such is the promised land of Erie. Actually we had interviews with President Topham this week and he said something that kind of scared me; he said that Zone Leaders have an average shelf life of 5 transfers (approximately 7 ½ months) this transfer being my 5^th transfer as a Zone Leader... There are of course exceptions, but he said that's generally the rule so that many missionaries can experience being in leadership positions. If that's the case for me, I might be getting moved from Erie after only being here for 2 transfers. I could only protest that he said missionaries are to be in each area for a minimum of 4 or 5 transfers, but he responded that Zone Leader areas are “different.” Needless to say I'm scared. So I hope I can do all I can before I leave, and hopefully it won't be at the end of this transfer...

 

I'm currently in the middle of putting together the ULTIMATE Plan of Salvation scripture guide. Hopefully by the end of it, I'll have a couple scriptures (at least one from the Bible) for each sentence in the 2^nd Preach My Gospel lesson. This spawned from having to teach like a jillion Plan of Salvation lessons to our investigators this week, all of which have been going great. In addition to the eternal investigators Guy and Liam I talked about a couple of weeks ago, their friend Marjory has started sitting in on the lessons with them. We taught her the entire Plan of Salvation with the help of Guy and Liam and she's drinking it all in completely, saying that it makes a lot more sense compared to her original Catholic indoctrination. She actually read my entire True to the Faith booklet I lent to her in about a week and a half; she wanted to understand Mormon terms so I thought it would be a good idea for her. Little did I know that she went to town on it and completely agrees with everything. She came to church yesterday and is truly making progress.

 

An update on Ed: because of his “spartan” lifestyle, which includes him choosing not to own a computer, TV, cell phone, or car, he rode his bike to Church yesterday for the first time. He said he enjoyed the ride and was planning on doing it every Sunday. I even overheard him talking with the usher in our ward about storing his bike in the winter. It makes me happy that he's making plans for that far off. This is what you would call true conversion. It's wonderful.

 

The gospel is a wonderful thing. We're happy because of the gospel, and we know the gospel is true because we are happy. (Mosiah 2:41)

 

Elder Low

 

P.S. Yeah, having centralized air conditioning here in Pennsylvania saves me. I have no idea how we survive Calgarian summers without it. Maybe it's just less hot than here.