Just some pictures......

Magnificently articulating......moral of the story- Brother Bishop is great and Joseph Smith is greater!!!

I'm trying to magnificently articulate a well typed email all the while emailing pictures to myself from my ipad to send to y'all AND do key indicators and baptismal dates for our zone. :)

Thank you for sharing that about Bishop Bishop! The new institute directors name here in Bozeman is Patrick Bishop. 

Cool story: I was in a lesson with Brother Bishop the new institute director and we were teaching an investigator. The investigator was picking at every little thing that we taught him. He eventually got to this point where he said, "It's just hard for me to swallow. The Bible is all about faith, faith and faith. After a time Joseph Smith comes along and starts preachin' works, works, and works. Looks at what it's done. It's just not right and I just don't agree with it." Brother Bishop looks at us and says, "May I?". Brother Bishop pipes up and says, "I'm not sure if I know where you are coming from. There are very few people in this world that have studied the life of Joseph Smith more extensively and for a longer period of time than I. I spent just the last 30 years studying his life. I helped write and publish the Joseph Smith Papers, I read manuscripts that he himself wrote as a prophet, and what you just said is furthest from the truth. Joseph Smith never preached works, in fact there is not one person who has testified of our Savior more than Joseph did at that time in history." He didn't say a word and just moved on to another thing that he had a problem with. So moral of the story, Brother Bishop is great, and Joseph Smith is even greater!

Jacob is right.... Joseph Smith was a great man. I admire him for so many reasons. He was courageous and he was obedient and he believed in God.  In James 1:5 Joseph read, "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." At a time when there were so many religious revivals and it was hard to know which church was true- he simply asked. I will always be grateful for that. My life has 
been incredibly blessed by the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that my Savior 
loves me and I know that He gave his life for me. I firmly believe that God still loves us and cares 
about us and He leads and guides us through a prophet on the earth. I knows the Holy Ghost leads me and guides me as well- I am truly blessed. 

http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/joseph-smith?CID=33401010&s_kwcid=TC%7C1028504%7Cjoseph%20smith%20%20mormon%7C%7Bplacement%7D%7CS%7Cb%7C%7Bcreative%7D&

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/js?lang=eng

Oh mom I can't wait to hug you. I love you

Oh mom.

I can't wait to give you a big hug. I love you.

I think that it's so great that with y'all havin' sammy that you're getting more and more missioanry opportunities! I will keep praying that you have them. I laughed at the story where she got out of her cage. Was she doing anything that she wasn't supposed to do? 

Our investigator didn't get baptized this week but we have faith that he will receive his answer that the church is true and follow the example of our Savior into the baptismal waters this next month. He is awesome! He's great. Jorvik would like him too. He was a marathon runner before he came to msu. He has ran like 5 marathons and he said he took 8th place in the Ogden marathon, he's qualified for boston several times and his best marathon he averaged like 6.5 minute miles for the whole thing-26.2 miles. It's crazy. He's awesome though.

I got a letter from the Hills this week so that was good (they sent a simple card and it was a nice reminder that people love me. Thank you Hills!!!!) I will probably write them a simple letter back.

Our zone is doing good. Our ward is doing even better. I don't know how but they are. Ducks just keep falling in place and the more we work the more I look back and realize we have been led by 

the spirit as we have managed this zone and our area.

sweet realizations.

So this email made me feel really good. I can't wait to hug him too- it will be a glorious day!  Enjoy these photos Jake shared-

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Mission Tour, Family History and Bush's Baked Bean ~ Heck Yeah!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Mission Tour with Elder Carlos A. Godoy, Mission Leadership Council, Ate Bush's Baked Beans for dinner on Sunday, and someone who believes Christ is an Alien. That's my week in a nutshell..

Mission Tour was phenomenal. Elder Godoy made it very clear again that our mission is #1 out of the 22 missions in our area. He said that if this mission can't baptize thousands then none of them can. We need 84 a month for 12 months to get 1008. Our mission is striving to live a higher law of obedience and the things that we consider an obedience problem, most missions would probably not.  Like, "Don't say p-day say preparation day." I think that kind of obedience is ultimately why our mission is doing so well. We are the same as the other missions in the sense that we all deal with obedience matters but ours are minute to the things the other missions have to deal with. 

Mission Leadership Council is great! I am thankful that I know about Family History. We broke up into a few groups to talk about some things our mission wants to implement or get better at. I was one of the few people in the Council that knew anything about how to use and work Family Search and Ancestry.com. It was great! It will be something that we use a lot more in our missionary work. Our zone conference in July will be dedicated to it.

Bush's baked beans for dinner-Heck yeah! Hahaha University ward problems. I love it (: We have a full week of dinners this week though so we're excited. One of them is with a less active member and her non member roommate. 

Found a lot of potentials this week. One of our investigators needs your prayers. She knows she needs to be baptized but she text us last night and said she doesn't want lessons or to go to church because she wants to sleep in on Sundays.  We asked her if she had prayed about what to do and she said that God told her AGAIN that she needs to be baptized this month but she doesn't want to. 

there's an update! 

Here are a few pictures of Jake from his Mother's Day Skype call - Enjoy!  (I sure do miss him!!!!)

Lookin' Good....and other musings.....

Yep... Lookin' Good!

Must admit... I think the blue on the cup brings out the blue in his eyes. hahaha

Transfer calls came this week and Elder Packham and Elder Johnson will be staying in Bozeman. I do believe he is happy about that. However, I think he would be happy with whatever President Mecham asked him to do. Here is his update:

Things are going great! We had a great week. We had our presidents interviews this week and those were incredible. Things are just going good. So much has happened. I love President Mecham!  

Elder Johnson and I are staying in Bozeman and we are happy about that. The work is going great! We are having a baptism in 2 weeks and that is Melissa. We are not teaching Cole and we can't find him. That's okay though, if he doesn't want our message, we are going to move on. That's crazy about the ward alignments!  If we know the church is true than it shouldn't matter who goes where. It's the same. People just need to be reminded of there covenants that's all.  Mission Tour is next week. Elder Godoy was actually missionary companions with Elder Aitukaitus who spoke in general conference. They are really great friends. This morning Elder Johnson and I were able to sit in on the staff meeting that is held each week-that consists of the aps, president and his wife, and all of the office staff. That was fun. President and Sister Mecham also fed us dinner last night and we were able to teach them a lesson and extend them some commitments. We spent the night in the mission home with the assistants and Elder Mamea. The mission is on track to hit our goal of 70 baptisms. We are at 65 or so at the end of this week, and we have 1 week left. We are now shooting for 80. 

The Lord really is hastening his work. I see this in the things that Jacob shares and in the work here in Iowa. It is pretty amazing!  I wish that it were easier to share the gospel. I don't know why but it just seems difficveryult at times. I try every single day to live my faith so that others can see what I believe.  I work  hard to be who I say I am.  I hope that shines through to others.

I love the Savior and I have a strong testimony of the love that He has for us.  I know, without a doubt, that He will never forsake us.  Let's face it - life is just plain hard some times and I have no idea how I would do it without my Savior by my side. I know that He hears my prayers and I strive to have Him close in my life.

President Monson gave this beautiful talk that I want to share with you.  He speaks of losing his dear wife... and I know all too well the feeling of losing a dear companion that you love beyond measure.  But he makes the point that we are all given challenges... and we all ask at times...why me?...but the truth is... the Lord will not forsake us... He will never abandon us and never leave us alone.  Each of us have to ask ourselves at one time or another... shall I falter or shall I finish?  It is my prayer that each of us will be able to draw strength from the scriptures....consider Job...he kept the faith... may each of us do the same.  When burdens come, may we endure... and overcome and know, without a doubt, that the Lord is always with us - He will never forsake us.

If I had a nickel for every time he said, "Literally the best lesson I ever taught!" - I would be SO rich! hahaha

The title of this post, totally legit! haha If you read his post below - he says it twice!  Trust me when I say that every lesson must be the best lesson he has ever had/taught.

Wait... What is going on with the world!!! Check out my week in a nut shell.

We went on exchanges for 3 days and that was awesome. It made me grateful for serving in a University ward. I witnessed so many miracles. Our zone made it! We reached our goals! Our streak has not yet ended and we only plan for our numbers to get higher and higher, we ended April with 52 baptisms. 

We taught this Vietnamese man on Friday, he is from Vietnam and he is Budhist. It was very interesting teaching a man with no christian background. Seriously we could have been filmed and put on the district videos. The lesson was phenomenal. Just fundamental teaching. Easily one of the best lessons of my mission. We invited him to pray and he said he would. He offered one of the most beautiful heartfelt prayers I have ever heard and it was his first prayer to a God ever! I know that the spirit was helping him and prompting him with things to say. I told Elder Johnson the spirit helped him in his prayer and he said he received that confirmation in the prayer as well.

Friday night we went to the Vocal Point concern. Oh boy were we jammin'. That's the first and last time I will be able to listen to 'other music' on my mission. It was such a great community event! We had several investigators and less actives in attendance. One of the singers is from Bozeman actually and it was his last performance with Vocal Point. On Saturday morning there was a morning side that Vocal Point led and that was fun too. It was nice to talk to the guys about there missions and enjoy some good laughs. One of them is from Cedar Rapids as well and we had a good talk about good ol' Iowa. 



Catholic Mass?! Sunday Morning we went to Catholic Mass with our neighbor. Needless to say it was very interesting. The Catholic Priest bashed on us and the islams. I wasn't to happy about that but I took it as a grain of salt for everything he said wasn't true. We talked to our neighbor about it and told him it's one thing if he does it in conversation but to talk about other churches he clearly doesn't know about when instructing from the pulpit is wrong. He tried to defend his faith but there wasn't much that he could have said. It's pretty plain and simple.While we were there for Mass they baptized a baby. I wonder what the little guy was thinking. It built my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the ONLY true church upon the earth today with the priesthood authority and prophets of God. The same church that existed thousands of years ago. God IS the same yesterday, today, and will be forever. Mass was from 7:30-9am.

Another investigator.... He's a champion. I don't know if I have told you about him yet. We have been trying to meet with him for 8 weeks and finally last week were able to meet with him. Ironically it was the same day that Elder Johnson and I committed to having more faith. He came to FHE last week and loved it! We had breakfast with him this last friday at Perkins. He showed up to break the fast at 5pm on Sunday, Stayed for the CES Devotional at 6pm and we had a lesson with him at the Heaps house at 7 along with dessert. Literally the best lesson I've ever taught. It was fundamental, Straight from preach my gospel. We did how to begin teaching and set the tone for the lesson and then as we started to teach things just happened. We asked inspired questions, our member participation was nothing less than great, and he was involved and engaged as well. I recited the first vision to him and you could physically see him overcome with the spirit. Elder Johnson followed and invited him to baptism. Knowing him I'm sure he wasn't planning on saying yes but how could he say no? He couldn't... At least not with the spirit as strong as it was. He is on date for June 7th, we may move him into May.

I will be able to skype for 30-45 minutes on Mothers day.

I am happy, safe, healthy and well. 

Our zone is doing great! We had 3 baptisms this last week in our zone and at least two more this weekend. Starting May off right!

Pictures!

I so miss Jake... and I haven't really received new pictures from him in a while but put something together to share. Enjoy!