Gratitude for my first Church experiences

I am beginning to realize just how lucky I was to begin learning about the Church of Jesus Christ – and to continue growing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – in the ways that I did.  As we work with helping less active members of the Church return to activity in the Gospel, I am realizing just how rare it is for people who are baptized in the Church to truly have the sort of conversion that leads to lasting faith and hope in Christ.  I am learning that my missionaries, my Sunday school teachers, my visiting teachers, my home teachers, my first Bishop, my ward mission leader, my ward missionaries, and my ward and branch friends all managed to accomplish a critical series of events that helped me become DEEPLY rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that my conversion would be a lasting and enduring one, that would hold up even when the storms of life came (and they did).

Here are some of the things that they did right:

·         My missionaries (Trevor and Tyler) were patient with me.  It took me a long time to realize that I had enough faith to act on it.  And it took me a couple of tries to really figure out how to be obedient to God’s commandments.  My missionaries never gave up on me, and they didn’t guilt trip me.  If they had, I probably would not be here today.

·         My missionaries thought hard and prayed hard to know what I would need to increase my faith.  They received revelation on my behalf regarding which scriptures I would need to increase my trust in the Lord and in His love for me.

·         Every lesson that the missionaries taught me had at least one member friend (Benjamin, Meta, Joseph, Tyson, Justin, etc) present.  As I allowed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change me, I changed the way that I lived.  (For example, I no longer played beer pong.)  At that point in my life, playing beer pong and going to bars was pretty much what we did on Friday and Saturday nights.  When you cut one habit out of your life, you absolutely have to replace it with something else.  My new friends from the Church showed me that I could have fun without alcohol.

·         My Sunday school teacher (Jessica K) knew how to ask inspired questions during Gospel Principles (“Mormon 101”) that helped me to teach myself through the Holy Ghost.

·         Somehow, from the very first Sunday, members of the ward (Danielle, Deanna, Erica, Julie) reached out to me and made sure that I always had someone to sit next to.

·         My first bishop (Bishop W) took a sincere interest in me and in my spiritual development.  We had one lesson with him and his son (Seth) in his office.  He listened to my concerns about committing to something too early, and he did his best to resolve those concerns. 

·         My first home teachers (Nathan and Phil) taught me about what exactly a priesthood blessing is, and why they work. Did you know that when a holder of the Priesthood administers a blessing, it is as if the Savior Himself were speaking? 

·         My visiting teachers visited me.  And not only that, they visited me in my apartment! 

·         I was immediately extended an invitation to accept a calling!  And people from the ward that were more experienced helped me to magnify that calling. 

·         Almost immediately after I was confirmed a member of the Church, my bishop (Bishop W) interviewed me for a limited use temple recommend.  A month or so after I was baptized, I was able to go to the Mesa, Arizona temple and perform sacred ordinances for people who died without the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Once I had that recommend, I had something to fight for! 

·         Our ward organized and facilitated regular trips to the temple.  Lots of ward members went!  And lots of people went to do baptisms with me!  I never felt like I was less worthy than the endowed members of the ward.  And baptisms were just as important as endowment sessions.  I love that worthy endowed members of the ward came to do baptisms with the rest of us.  There was a lot of unity in those Tucson wards.

Looz-ee-anne-uh Cuisine

On Friday, Elder Clark (a member of the Seventy) came to our mission for Zone Conference. 

He talked a lot about how we can use members to find, teach, retain, and regain worthy converts (as opposed to mere baptisms).  One pretty shocking statistic is that within the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission, there are 20,000 members of the Church, but only 6,000 of them come to church on Sunday.  That means that there are 14,000 people living in the mission who were baptized (and thus, promised to come to church on Sundays) but who are not keeping their promise.  As missionaries, it is our job to make sure that the people we baptize truly understand why the Gospel is so important.  We want to convert them, not just baptize them.  

In between sessions with Elder Clark, various members of our stake helped make us lunch.  The salad and the dessert were fabulous, but the main dish was pretty gross.  We had pastalaya.  Ever heard of it?  I thought it was a fake word.  But it turns out that pretty much everyone here in Louisiana knows exactly what it is: jambalaya but with spaghetti instead of rice.  It looks like lo mein, but tastes like beef jerky. 

I was hungry, so I ate it all, but I do not particularly want to experience it again.  It was super greasy and tasted like pig fat. 

This morning my roommates made beignets (been-YAYZ).  They kind of remind me of Navajo flat bread, 'cause they're just dough that is deep fried in oil. 

We sprinkled powdered sugar on them.  They're tasty but probably super unhealthy.

Overcoming through Faith

Update: I am serving in Prairieville, which is the "boonies" side of southern Baton Rouge.  I am currently in a tri-companionship.  My trainer is Sister Smith, and my mission president point-blank told me that she is one of the best missionaries (not just one of the best sister missionaires) in the entire mission.  She is scheduled to go home at the next transfer (in April) unless she decides to extend.  One of the things that I love about her is that she does emphasize numbers.  A lot of the work we do does not "count" toward our weekly call-in reports.  But since she and Sister Roll (my other companion) just opened this area seven weeks ago, we know that it is important to build up the ward's trust in us by visiting with less-active families, part-member families, recent converts, and missionary-oriented families. 

Sister Roll is a "visa-waiter," which means that she was called to serve in foreign mission but does not have her visa yet.  She is eventually going to the Brasil Riberao Preto, but until then she is falling in love with the area and practicing Portuguese with me.

Yesterday was pretty neat.  We had decided Saturday night that we were going to try to contact a Potential Investigator (PI) that previous missionaries had contacted this past summer.  I remember on Saturday night wanting to make sure that we had actual time to knock on doors (AB-D) in whatever area we chose.  It was like I couldn't let it go.

In the mission, AB-D is an acronym for what you do when you go to C ("see") someone.  Before or after you C them, you hit the houses around them, too (A, B, and D.)  Get it?

On Sunday, we parked our car at a gas station and then walked into a neighborhood of new homes.  Our PI lived about a quarter of a mile into the neighborhood, and my initial inclination was to walk to her house first, and then tract on our way back to our car.  But Sister Smith just had a really strong feeling to knock on the door of the first house we came to.  

(Can you guess where this is going?)

A guy named Chad answered the door.  He's about thirty and pretty good looking.  He works as a manager at some Chemical Company.  We chatted, introduced ourselves, and he seemed super interested.  He even asked us, "Would you like to come in?"  Sister Smith told me that was such a surprise for her; I know it was for me.  I had been grateful for the mere opportunity to talk to someone.  We asked him if he had a wife or girlfriend living with him, and since he didn't, we asked him if he would be willing to chat with us outside.  He was!  We had a mini-lesson where we talked about the God and who He is, and what type of plan He has for us.  Chad told us that he grew up Methodist, went to a Baptist school, and recently has just not really made religion an active part of his life, but that he wanted to start going to church again.  We asked him if he would like to attend church with us the following Sunday, and he said that he would.

During most of this, I had not really talked too much.  Sister Smith and Sister Roll seemed to know what they were doing, and I knew that I wasn't receiving any revelation regarding what to say.  (I'm really trying to apply the advice, "Don't speak unless the Spirit tells you to.  But when the Spirt tells you to say something, say it!")  But once he said that he would like to come to church, I knew that I needed to ask him if we could meet with him again.  So I did. I was nervous about sounding less fluid than Sister Smith and Sister Roll, but I knew that I needed to ask him.

He told us that we could come by any time on Tuesday, so we suggested around 3 PM (after district meeting and lunch).  We also left with him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and gave him our cell phone number so that if he had any questions, he could call or text us.

I know that I was not guided by the Spirit as much as I could have been, but I also know that thanks to my companions and the fact that God is merciful and full of grace, my deficiencies can be made right.  I know that I need to rely more fully on the Spirit to tell me what to say, when to say it, and how to say it.  But I love getting these little tastes of what missionary work can be like when we are truly guided by the Spirit. 

I love that Heavenly Father provides us with earnests so that we can know that the hard work is worth it.  (Feel free to read 2 Corinthians 1:22 , 2 Corinthians 5:5 , and Ephesians 1:14  for further insight on what on earth an earnest is.  If, after reading those, you can [ask a Mormon online.] 

In the coming week, I am trying to listen to the Spirit before I begin personal study so that I can study what my Heavenly Father knows I need to study.  I don't want to become so methodical about reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover that I neglect to read what the Lord needs me to read.  Today was sweet because I chose to read Ether 3-5 in preparation for teaching a non-committing investigator named Doug.  Chapters 3 and 4 have so much to do with faith and testimony.  I'm hoping that reading from those chapters will help Doug feel that it's alright to have an imperfect knowledge of things.  We know that Doug feels like he should have solid proof before committing to attend church or prepare for baptism.  I can empathize with that, since I had similar issues when I was investigating.  I think part of my issue was that I felt like a loving Heavenly Father would not ask us to live by faith, since there is always a little bit of uncertainty when one lives by faith. 

After personal study, I talked with Sister Roll a little bit about that way of thinking.  She helped me learn that just as repenting is hard and painful in the moment, but ultimately results in us feeling better than before we sinned, so too is it that walking in faith ultimately results in greater knowledge than if we were just told facts without a trial.  As a biologist, I also think of how enzymes help chemical reactions take place.

Here's the deal: Most chemical reactions involve going from high-energy starting materials to low-energy products.  I think of it as being kind of like a kid's red wagon that wants to go from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill. 

That's the natural way that things go: high to low.  It's just easier.  Some reactions, though, have a hill in between the start and the finish that you have to go over.  Sometimes, the wagon just thinks that the hill is too high to cross, even though once you get over the middle hill, it'll be smooth coasting.  What enzymes do, is they make the middle hill smaller.  It's not such a daunting task, anymore - now it's just a speed bump. 

You still have to put forth some extra energy to get over that speed bump. But once you do, you get to coast all the way to the bottom.  

In this Sister Palmer Analogy, the enzyme is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Through His Atonement, our obstacles become smaller.  We still have to go over them, but He makes the obstacles into surmountable speed bumps.  Some people might just focus on the speedbump-that you still have to cross-and think that it's too hard.  They may think that a loving Heavenly Father should remove all of the bumps entirely.  But that's not how He works.  He wants us to apply the Atonement (i.e. the Grace of Jesus Christ) in our lives so that we can see that the huge middle hill becomes a speed bump because of His Son.  And once we cross the speed bump, we're in a better position than when we started.

When we get knowledge in the Lord's way (though faith first, and then the proof), we get more knowledge than if we did it on our own (in the traditional "academic" way of learning things proof-first, then belief).  It was actually a pretty major thing for me to learn this morning that the Lord's way isn't just the Lord's way, it's the best way.  And Sister Roll helped me!