Transfers

What's up my peeps. It has been the craziest week. All of our investigators are progressing so well, and we're looking forward to having a lot of success. 

Last monday evening we had a visit with some of the members in the Beaver Creek ward and they invited some of their friends named Joe and Lori who aren't members but have been going to church for over five years now. I guess they had a bad experience a couple years ago with some missionaries and so they kept coming to church but didn't want to meet with missionaries anymore. After that visit we were able to set up an appointment with them and then those same members came with us to the lesson. Not gonna lie, it was by far the worst lesson we've ever had. We planned to just teach about the Restoration but we didn't communicate well enough with the members and it was just a confusing jumble of a lesson. I can't even begin to explain how bad it was haha we only said like four words the entire time, the rest of the time was the members just rambling. But then somehow we managed to have enough the Spirit there that Joe committed to a baptismal date! It was so tight haha.

Then we had a lesson with Bob and Cheryl. Cheryl is seriously golden. We just felt prompted to read through 3 Nephi chapters 11 and 17 with them. All of our lessons with them are usually around an hour and a half hahaha Cheryl texted us the other day and said "I believe absolutely that the Book of Mormon is the anointed word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" and holy cow we were stoked haha it was tight

We also got our transfer news. Elder Anderson will be leaving and I'll be staying here in the same area and I'll be training a new missionary. I'm looking forward to it haha he's going to have a good time in this area

I've been studying repentance a lot and I want to share some it with y'all. Growing up it's really easy to just think of repentance as just "oh i did something wrong. I better confess and try not to do it again." But it's so much more than that. I could talk forever about what I've learned, but instead I figure I'll just send some of the scriptures that helped me understand it better and leave it up to you guys to learn for yourselves. 

So I'll send these scriptures in the order I studied them and the way that made most sense to me.

Mosiah 24:12-15

Alma 37:43-46

2 Nephi 31:10

John 14:15

Helaman 5:11-12

Helaman 15:7-8

D&C 19:23-24

Moroni 8:25-26

3 Nephi 11:10-11,14

Alma 7:11-16, 27

2 Nephi 31:13

John 14:26-27

2 Nephi 31:15,19-20

Also check out Romans 5:1-11, it's an awesome chapter that kind of sums it all up as well.

Jesus Christ loves us so perfectly. He is perfect, and everything he has ever done is centered around giving us an example of how to live and an avenue by which we can truly come closer to Him and allow His grace into our lives.

I love you all, stay lit

Elder Bond

My Peeps

So I figured I'd just send out a little email and let you guys all know about our progressing investigators are and who we're working with. I'll separate them by ward for viewing convenience :)

QUATAMA

First of all we have Susie and Norm Nordby. They're an older couple who are both remarried and have three kids, one of which is theirs, and a couple young grandkids. They've been being taught for almost five months now, and we do yardwork for them for an hour before every lesson which means that we've only had one or two lessons with them in our normal dress clothes haha but we've basically completely redone their yard, which is pretty lit. Susie grew up Catholic but didn't like anything about it, switched to a non demonational christian church and was baptized almost 20 years ago and has been going since. She has an extremely strong testimony and faith in Jesus Christ, and her husband Norm isn't quite as involved in church but is so unimaginably supportive. They both have some pretty severe health problems, Norm has had multiple strokes in the past couple years and as a result is in the hospital every couple of weeks. Susie has two stints in her heart and has lots of skin problems and is actually getting an angio gram today to see if she needs another one. We gave her a Priesthood blessing last night to calm her mind and bless her body to function more fully, so we're hoping things go well for her. We've invited them to be baptized and they both said they want to but neither of them have commited to a date yet. She says she's excited to join the church and she understand the need for Priesthood Authority and has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she doesn't have any doctrinal concerns, her only issue is that she loves the people at the church she's been going to and doesn't want to leave them quite yet. It's a long process, but we love working with her.

Next we have Michael and Robin Rosa. They're actually my miracle investigators. A couple weeks ago I was having a rough time and I was doing my best to have more faith. We had set a goal as a companionship to talk to EVERYONE we saw. One day we were walking to our car after an appointment and it was pouring rain and we saw these two people like legit a quarter mile away down the street and I just looked at Elder ANderson and said "goals?" and so we walked all the way to them in the rain and we started talking and they started to say they weren't interested and I just went off and explained why we were out teaching people and our desire to teach them about Christ and bore testimony to them and they were just like, sure. Please come back. Michael says I look like Matt Damon so they both call me Matt haha we've had a couple lessons with them and I just connect with them sooo well. Michael has had a pretty rough life. He's been to prison multiple times and he is legit covered in scars from stab wounds and gunshots. He's studied religion a ton and has tattoos that represent each of the three main branches of religion (judaism, islam, and christianity) but as we've taught him about what true faith is and borne testimony to him he's truly softened his heart and they are both so sincerely searching. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he's already marked up the couple chapters we've suggested to him. The only problem is that we're convinved Satan is trying to kill him. We had a lesson with him the other day and then he had seven seizures that night and then went into a coma and is now in the hospital. It kind of sucks. We pray for him so hard and I'd appreciate it if y'all could pray for him as well.

BEAVER CREEK

Bob and Cheryl Dorton. Man they're tight. So Bob is actually a referal from some other missionaries. But he is GOLDEN. The first time we met him he was like "I've got some pretty weird beliefs. You guys might think I'm pretty strange and not want to meet with me, but just bear with me" and then he legit straight up explained the entire Plan of Salvation haha it was so tight. He used to be a part of a biker gang and then worked heavy machinery and had a pretty bad accident and almost lost one of his feet, took a few years off and now has started his own excavation/grading company. He is LOADED. He has a huge lifted F-350, his wife drives a Range Rover, he has mulitple banshees, the nicest dog I've ever seen in my life (her name is Bella and she really likes me haha) and he's just tight. He's been reading through the Book of Mormon and said he loves it so far. His wife Cheryl works for the state and is extremely busy but we were able to meet with her for the first time this last friday and she is so tight. She grew up kind of hopping between different organized religionsl and never found one she felt comfortable or confident with. She still stayed religious and actually toured with different gospel choirs and played piano/organ all over the country. She has hundreds of passages from the bible memorized and is unbelievably spiritually aware. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and I think we did a good job of it. The SPirit was extremely strong as we taught and testified and she said she'd read it that day. She also unfortunately got pretty sick and wasnt able to come to church this week. They're both extremely promising though.

Last but not least, Tiffany. So we felt prompted to go stop by this family a couple of weeks ago and as we were walking down the street we saw this lady smoking on her porch and she did NOT look like she was in a good spot. We went up and talked to her and she was just like "normally I'd be swearing and yelling at you guys but I actually do need to talk to you right now. And so we went out to the curb and talked for a solid hour. She's lost her mom, brother, and husband within the past couple of years. Her husband died and then when her brother died she adopted his two kids, so now she has six kids and is dating this new guy and he's kind of a character. I'm personally not a huge fan of him and he's kind of holding her back in her progression, but we're doing our best. But she is so sincerely searching for God right now and I know that she will find Him. We've only been able to meet with her a coupple of times becuase of how much she has going on, but her son Eathyn (weird spelling, I know) has been coming to mutual activites and to our youth sports night and it's making a big differene in their entire family.

We have a couple other new investigators as well as a huge list of people we've met who've said they want to meet but those are our progressing investigators right now. I love them all, and I always look forward to meeting with them

Hitting the Grind

Hey everyone, it's still lit in Hillsboro. It's been a pretty slow couple of weeks, our investigators are all progressing well and we've been busy as ever. It's been good.

Elder Anderson crashed our car into a pole a couple of weeks ago (we're both fine, it just messed up one of the doors) and we're finally getting around to getting that fixed this week so we're going to be on bikes for the week, so that'll be fun. We are actually kind of excited haha whenever we go out on foot instead of driving we always meet WAY more people and we've been needing to meet some more peeps.

Easter Sunday was awesome. We had the chance to listen to General Conference which was amazing, It makes such a difference to know that we have a Prophet on the earth today who literally speaks the will of God to us. I've found peace and comfort as I've prayed for a personal witness that he is indeed a true and living prophet, and I've received it for sure. Hearing the talks and the direction from the prophets and apostles was such a blessing, and I'll be referencing my notes for months to come haha

Being on a mission is so hard, but I'm continuing to learn how to find little things to get me through hard days and how to forget myself to make it so the days aren't as hard. There are so many things that happen and that I can do that make all the diffference I need when I'm struggling. Me and one of the other missionaries from a differen area are starting a hot wheel collection (mine is way cooler). We played some football with one of our investigator's sons and it made his day and meant the world to her (she says he needs more postive male role models in his life). We go and do yardwork for another one of our investigators a couple times a week and she said she'd love to adopt us as her grandsons haha hearing her joy from our service and being able to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such a blessing. Just being able to help others is the whole reason I'm out here. I have been called to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ. A big part of that is teaching others about His gopsel and inviting them to Come unto Him. But an even bigger part of that is simply serving others and bringing them peace and direction, just as He would have done. Ironically, doing that makes it even easier to find people to teach haha spreading the good word involves LIVING the good word. I hope that my experiences are things that can help you in your day to day life. Do something for someone else, no matter how small. I made a burrito for Elder Anderson the other day and he said it helped him tons haha it doesn't have to be extraordinary to make an extraordinary difference.

Be yourself. Love others. It's lit.

I love you all.

Elder Bond