What a Week!

October 19, 2015
Hey Everyone, 

This week has been a good week! We had stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday! The stake building is in Nauvoo so I was in Nauvoo again on Saturday. We went to the broadcast at our building here in Burlington on Sunday so we could welcome members and investigators. Mackenzie came to church and is doing pretty well. Her baptismal date is November 21st. We also started teaching a family of 3. Destiny(Mother), Courtney(13 year old daughter), and Amareon(10 year old son). Amareon was the only person in his family to come to church. It was cool to see him setting the example when he could have stayed home and hung out or been out with friends. Next week the rest of the family is planning to come to church. 

Caitlyn is on date to be baptized October 31st. She is great! We will be seeing her tomorrow! The missionary life can have its ups and downs, but all in all things are going great! This week we will be interviewing someone for baptism in Macomb, Illinois. Macomb is about an hour from Burlington. We have to drive a lot in this zone because the missionaries are all pretty far away. Hope all is well. The church is true. Remember to do the little things. C-P-R(Church.Pray.Read) IF you do the little things life goes more smooth. It is not perfect, but we have Heavenly Fathers help through the spirit during our trials. I know Heavenly Father is there for us! I love you all! have a good week! 

-Elder Lords 

Nashville Tribute to Jesus Christ

October 12, 2015

Hey Everyone. this week was a great week. So many cool things happened. We taught a lot of people which was great. This week flew by. I am currently in Macomb, Illinois. Its about an hour from Burlington. We are here on exchanges with the missionaries here. We get to go golfing today for free because a member owns a golf course here in there ward. We are super excited. 

On Thursday President Jensen went out with us teaching. It is called Specialized Training. It is super fun when he comes out with us. We had a really good lesson with a sweet Part-Member family. They are great! Caitlyn is the daughters name. She will be getting baptized on November 1st. We are really excited for her. Her step Dad and Sister will hopefully follow in her steps. They enjoy meeting with us, but are supper busy. 

On Saturday we got to go to the Nauvoo temple and to the Nashville Tribute Band concert in Nauvoo. It was a great experience. The band had some really cool songs. The Album was called Redeemer. You should all check it out. We were sitting by President Jensen. I am not sure if he liked there music to much haha. All in all we had a great week. We were blessed to see a lot of success this week. Probably one of the  best weeks Ive had on my mission. I will attach some pictures from the temple and other activities this week. I want to share the scripture I have been ponderizing. 

 60 And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will notsupport his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.

Alma 30:60

I hope that you all have a great week! I love you! 

-Elder Lords

Conference was a treat!

October 5, 2015

Hello Everyone, Things are going great. It was fun to watch conference the weekend flew by. We had a great week. It was cool to see Elder Renlund being called because he is coming to our mission October 21st to do a mission tour. Just like Elder Cardon of the 70 came last year Elder Renlund was planning to come. Hopefully he will come still.  

This week we saw a really cool miracle. We got a media Referral that is actually interested. Often times we get referrals that aren't interested or they think its weird someone gave us there phone number and address. This week we got a referral for a 15 year old girl named Mackinzie she is super cool. We taught her Saturday afternoon and she watched the remaining 3 sessions of conference. One on her own and 2 on Sunday at the Church. She has also read 140 pages of the Book of Mormon in 6 days. She has a friend she met from Utah on a online video game. He sent her a Book of Mormon and had her refer herself to the missionaries. It was sweet! It was a huge blessing. We also have been working with a great Part Member family. We are hoping to help the Father Shane and the Two daughter, Caitlyn and Cristen get baptized this month. 

All in all it has been a great week. This upcoming week will be great. We will have a lot of time to proselyte which will be good because last week we only had one full day in our area. We had meetings Tuesday, Thursday,Saturday, and Sunday. We only had one full day of work, but this week we will only be out of our area for a day on exchanges in Illinois. My favorite talk was Elder Hales talk from the Saturday Afternoon session. Have a good week! Love you all! 

-Elder Lords

Getting Transferred!

September 21, 2015

Hello Everyone, 

I got the call this morning from President Jensen that I will be getting transferred. I am sad to go, but also excited for the things to come. I always like going to new areas. I kind of like the change of a new place. The worst part is packing haha. We will go to transfer meeting on Thursday, and I will find out my new companion and area. 

This week was a pretty good week. We were able to teach a few people and talk to quite a few people. I really enjoy bearing my testimony to people when they are trying to tell us the church is false or other anti-Mormon literature. It is really cool to feel the spirit working through you. Preach My Gospel talks about "What is a successful missionary" in chapter one. It talks about how your successful when you invite someone or when you feel the spirit working through you. It says a few other things too, but I don't have time to quote it exactly haha! If you want to look it up its in chapter 1. 

This week we had a really cool experience with Nancy and Claude. We were teaching Claude and Nancy the 3rd lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We always leave Claude a pamphlet and he reads it before we come back and has questions. Up to this point they were pretty skeptical of being baptized. About half way through the lesson Claude said to the translator, Brother Dawson a member of our ward who speaks french, that the other pamphlets didn't speak to him like this one did. He said the Gospel of Christ pamphlet really spoke to him and that he would pray more sincerely about getting baptized. It was a cool lesson. The spirit really softened his heart. Even in Africa where they are from, bad things are said about the Church. I shared this scripture from the Bible because I believe it is so true as to why people say bad things about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints: John 15:18-19 

 18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

That scripture really summarizes to me why people often say bad things about the Church. Because we aren't of the world. I am so grateful that we get to listen to the Prophet and other General Authorities of the Church in 2 weeks. Have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Lords

Good Week

September 14, 2015

Hey Everyone, This week was a good week. We were able to teach quite a few lessons which was good. We found a few new investigators. One of the highlights was Sarah and Josh our 2 of our new investigators. We had a few good lessons with our investigator Franck. Franck is a sweet 17 year old. He moved here from the Congo in Africa. He is very smart. His english is getting very good. He has only been here for about 10 months. He has taught me a few French phrases. He seems to be doing well. We just need to get him to church so he can be baptized. It has been pretty tough to get investigators to church. The church isn't extremely far, but its about 20 minutes from our area and so its been a little difficult to get people to church. We are still working hard to help them come to church so they can be baptized. Transfers are coming up this next week and ill find out next Monday in the morning if im getting transferred. I am super excited for General Conference here in a few weeks. I always love conference. I always hear or learn something that I need or someone that i am teaching needs. If you have questions, watch conference and your concern will be addressed. I know that this is Christs' Church. I am so grateful for the Church and the atonement of Christ. Each day of my mission I learn more of my flaws. Missions are very humbling and it really has helped me grow. The chruch is true. These scriptures are some of the verses I read this morning in my studies and its kind of the way I have felt. I just wish people all wanted to learn. Haha, but we all of the gift of agency. I love you all have a good week! 

 8 And it came to pass that when Alma (Elder Lords) had come to the city of Ammonihah (North Liberty) he began to preach the word of God unto them.

 9 Now Satan had gotten great hold upon the hearts of the people of the city of Ammonihah; therefore they would not hearken unto the words of Alma.

 10 Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit,wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.

 11 Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts, saying unto him: Behold, we know that thou art Alma; and we know that thou art high priest over the church which thou hast established in many parts of the land, according to your tradition; and we are not of thy church, and we do not believe in such foolish traditions.

 12 And now we know that because we are not of thy church we know that thou hast no power over us; and thou hast delivered up the judgment-seat unto Nephihah; therefore thou art not the chief judge over us.

 13 Now when the people had said this, and withstood all his words, and reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city, he departed thence and took his journey towards the city which was called Aaron.

 14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:

 15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

-Elder Lords

Happy Labor Day!

September 8, 2015

Hello Everyone, 

We did not get to email yesterday because the library is closed for Labor Day. This week we had an okay week. The only investigator that came to church was Jamal. He brought a friend with him to church though so that was cool. Nancy and Claude were planing to come the church, but there lawyer called them Sunday morning and wanted them to meet and sign some papers. Nancy is having a baby in October and she is trying to get insurance before then. So they weren't able to come to church. Nancy and Claude are both from the Congo. They are some of my favorite people to teach! They are very smart. The hardest part is that Claude doesn't speak much English. I have tried learning little lines in french for him. He seems to like that. 

Last night we had a cool experience. We met a young couple, Josh and Sarah. They have a 14 month old baby. They let us in because Sarah new a member of our Ward and he was a good example and nice to her in high school so she wanted to learn what makes him a good person. The example that we set is so important as members of Christs true chruch. I hope that I can be a better example and represent Jesus Christ and his Church better. I love you all! Have a good week! 

-Elder Lords 

Traveled back to Des Moines

August 31, 2015

Hey everyone, 

I hope that all is going well. This week was a pretty good week. The high light was traveling to Des Moines for a baptism. Sylvia was baptized this Saturday. I taught her when she was first taught in Des Moines. She asked that I baptize her so I was able to travel to her baptism in Des Moines. She is a great lady. I will attach a picture. 

This week we will be working with a few people. A few of my favorite our Nancy and Claude they are doctors from Congo. They went to China to do some of there schooling and now they are here in Iowa. They are some of my favorite people to teach they think very deeply and they will often come upon answers without relying on us. Which is great because then they can learn so much on there own. We are also working hard to help Jamal progress. We are not sure how to help him prepare to be baptized, but we trust that Heavenly Father will help us prepare him. Football session starts this week and man do Iowans love their football so this weekend could be tough proselyting with the Iowa Hawkeyes  playing. I hope everyone has a great week. Love you all! 

-Elder Lords