Member Work

Yo. This week has been kind of interesting. I've been getting a little frustrated lately because we've been really struggling with finding new people to teach. There's been a lot of contributing factors tonthat, but it's still been kind of frustrating. So we kinda decided we'd keep focusing on the members and doing our best to support our wards. So throughout the week we did some service and helped some members out and then we had these two lessons with some less active families and holy cow. The first was one this newly wed family where the wife is super strong and has a testimony and a desire to stay strong in the Gospel but her husband is kind of lazy and doesn't really care a whole lot. Our long term goal is for him to get the priesthood, but for now we're just trying to motivate him to study the scriptures and pray. We had a lesson the other night and it was SUPER spiritual and then at the end of the visit he was just like "Could you guys come every week? I think it would help me a lot" and so now we're going to be doing an FHE with them every monday and eventually passing it off to the members. It was pretty dope haha and then we had another less active family that we felt like we should go stop by and we just chatted about general conference and about personal revelation and then they brought up that they've been wanting to go to the temple together so now we're working with them on that. It's so refreshing to see how the Spirit can open people's hearts and help them be more receptive to change and enrichment.

So I've mentioned Michael and Robin a couple of times. Michael has some pretty severe health problems and so it's hard for him to have time to meet. The other day he fell off a ladder and collapsed a lung and broke a couple ribs, and then he visited his doctor and found out he has some disease. He's really not doing well. He gave us a call and basically just explained what all was going down and that he wasn't going to have any time to meet for awhile, which we totally understand haha but the other day we felt like we should go do our studies in their neighborhood. So we were down there and we saw him walking. He came up to us with tears in his eyes and told us this story that the night before he had been considering ending his life but that at 2:17 in the morning he opened up the Book of Mormon and just said a prayer and asked God to tell him something. He opened up to a scripture that gave him exactly what he needed and it changed his heart and his mindset and gave him the strength to keep carrying on.He is such a baller, and I am so grateful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us and that through the power of revelation He can truly communicate with us. If you need something, ask a question and open the Book of Mormon with a prayer in your heart and I know you will receive an answer. 

We also had a funny experience the other day with a guy on the street. We chatted with him for a bit and he told us he wasn't interested so we asked him if he had any friends who could benefit from some help or a message about Christ and he was kind of making fun of us and told us we should try out his whole building and so we went for it and the first door we knocked was this lady named Ophelea who said she'd been feeling kind of lost and we have a lesson with her coming up this week haha it was pretty lit.

At times the work can be pretty hard, but we have so many awesome experiences and I serioiusly know that I'm meant to be here with these people. Also it's been really pretty lately. We also did some exploring in our area the other day and found a primate research facility behind locked gates with a security checkpoint and everything, which was a little strange haha but yeah. I love being out and feeling the Spirit and seeing it change people's lives. The Gospel is the best thing for us. I've talked with a fair amount of people who try to bible bash and tell us we're wrong and it's just kind of impossible to get shook about it haha having the Spirit to testify of truth and teach us about the scriptures and how true they are is such a blessing.

I love you all and hope you're doing well

1 and 2. Elder Measel and I 

3 and 4. Dope Pictures 

The Patriot

yo this week FLEW by. It was pretty weird haha but lots of good things happened this week. I had an exchange with Elder Petersen our district leader and we had an awesome day. We've had next to no finding time lately and so we made a point to have some finding time and we got tons done haha we accomplished most of our weekly goals in that one day. We also had a lesson with Susie and set a date with her, which I'm really looking forward to. We've been teaching her since as long as I've been in the field.

We also had an interesting service opportunity on Saturday. Hillsboro has this big farmers market every weekend and then the School District joined in and did some booths and events and whatever. So they got in touch with our zone somehow and invited us all to come volunteer and help out and whatever. We got there and they were like "yo we have mascot costumes for each of the schools but no one showed up to be the patriot mascot and so I got to be the patriot for the day haha I just went around and handed out balloons and yeah. It wasn't anything too crazy but then I heard that there was going to be a mascot dance off and I was like "heck no" and fortunatley the person who was supposed to be the mascot showed up and took over #tender mercies

All in all it's been a good, productive week. I got to video chat home yesterday for mothers day (HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM AND ALL YOU OTHER MOMS) which was probably the highlight of my mission so far haha and yeah. I hope you all are still doing well.

Love you all. 

Stay lit

1. Elder Petersen and I with our freshly shaved legs 

2. One of our investigators (Bob) owns an excavation company and I want to be just like him

3. Jet spoons

4. No comment

5. We had a water fight today 

6. I forgot I had a quesadilla in the oven haha

Yeet Yeet

Alright, couple quick updates for y'all.

Our area and our entire zone are both doing extremely well. We're making members a priority and we're seeing some major success from doing so

This was a bit of a rough week, we had all of the new missionary meetings for Elder Measel and I and we had zone conference and we did almost 22 hours worth of service throughout the week, which led to almost no finding time for us :(

Zone conference was super good

Susie invited her friend Donna over for a lesson we had with her and Susie flat out bore her testimony to her friend and then talked about how ready and excited she is to join the church. She just has a couple questions she wants answered before she commits to a baptismal date

Bob and Cheryl came to fast and testimony and Cheryl talked to us afterwards with tears in her eyes and told us that this was the first time she had taken the sacrament in years and that she had never felt the presence of Jesus Christ so strong and that she was so excited to continue to learn and feel more of Jesus Christ and His gospel. I may have cried a little bit when she told us that

I waxed my legs for zone P-day

We had a district car wash and I got sunburnt which was weird

I'm loving the work and working with our people. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. 

I love you all

Elder Bond

New Comp

Well I have a new companion. His name is Elder Measel and he's from Detroit. He's also a ginger, which is kind of fun. We've got a lot of work to do this transfer and I'm excited to see how the busyness is going to help him adjust to the life of a missionary. This week has been pretty slow, it's kinda hard to keep things going with the adjustment of having one companion leave and a new one come in. Oh yeah, I'm training Elder Measel, he's a brand new missionary. So yea, It's going to be a good couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how our work goes.

I can't really think of anything else super exciting that happened haha missionary work is hard work, and it's so rewarding but also stressful and it lowkey starts to get kind of monotonous haha I hope you all are doing well. 

Love you all

Elder Bond

1: our zone last week. After transfers it's way different now haha

2: doin service

3: the newbie, Elder Measel

4: The Crew

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