While I have posted quite a few photos from Elder Chuch, I haven't done a very good job with his letters. Now that I have a little spare time, I have gone back through his e-mails and pulled out excepts that I think would be interesting to his friends and family. Here are some snippets from Justin's e-mails over the past few months:
BTW: I have changed the names of the investigators.
Norm
10/19/05
so, you want more of the nitty gritty eh? Well, I have heard about the astros. Boy have i heard about the astros. Did you hear about that game that went into eighteen innings? Well we had a dinner appointment that night and the father of the household would go outside and cook the chicken only when the game wasn't on. It was kind of funny. We ended up staying there longer than we were supposed to. Then about three nights ago we went over to another dinner appointment that was during an astros game and the people there didn't even stand up to greet us, they just said, the food's over there, help yourself. Then two nights ago our neighbors had a huge crowd over to watch the last game, the one they lost in the ninth. and they were partying and shouting and clapping and carrying on until they lost or something...we didn't know that they lost until the next day. All we knew is that there partying kept us up for a while. But that's okay.
We have a lot of inactives in our ward and we have tried to visit a lot of them but many aren't home. That's kind of discouraging, you drive all the way out there just to find that they're not home, you feel like you're wasting your time. But as long as we're working hard. There's one inactive lady that has a sign on her front gate that says, "No Trespassing" then below it she has written in, "especially mormons/lds" it is HILARIOUS. We will have to get a picture with it sometime.
We are in a car share area, which means that Elder Vaz and myself share a car with the other companionship in the area. We always end up going over our alloted amount of miles so we might have to take a few extra bike days before the transfer is over.
Yesterday we had a combined district meeting and we talked about sacrifice. We all went around and told about something that we sacrificed. I remembered that before my mission i was so pumped up and didn't consider it a sacrifice at all...and i took strength in that. I know that the Lord can make so much more out of me than i ever could out of myself. My mission is finally here, and as I give it my all, and move forward with faith, the Lord will make more out of me than i ever could of myself. I want to be the BEST i can be.
10/26/05
Today we went and played football at a field at the University of Houston. It was a nice break. It was nice weather too! Guess what! It actually was COLD here the other day! It was crazy. We hopped on our bikes to deliver a media referral and we were chilled to the bone. But today was really nice.
I think if the astros lose i will tell everyone that they are being called to repentance, but i don't know how well that will go over. Things are still pretty slow around here.
We have been helping a member in our ward fix up one of his houses that he is going to be renting out. We have been cutting tree limbs and loading them in his truck. We did that last thursday, friday, and maybe saturday.
We still only have two investigators. We taught our first second lesson to JOHN on monday. He took it pretty well, but he had a lot of questions. He told us he is a democrat and asked what our position was on gay rights and all that stuff. We're teaching him again on saturday or something.
Our other investigator is a woman whose sister joined the church. She actually asked us to come and teach her. We're teaching her again on Thursday.
10/31/05
On thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Earl and Dontrell, a member.. We had a really cool experience at a family's door. Later that afternoon i went around with elder Chaney. This was all in Sunnyside, the "ghetto." Twice we got asked if we were selling anything. I'm getting better at talking to random people. I'm getting better at not just telling them something but actually talking to them.
On friday we taught JOHN, who had read up through second Nephi and said that he thought the Book of Mormon was true and that he's strengthened his relationship with God. We showed him the restoration DVD, and invited him to church. He didn't make it though, but tomorrow we might teach him a third lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and commit him to baptism. The only downside to this story is that he's leaving in a week for the marines.
On saturday we biked a lot and went down to help out a member in our ward who is going through a lot right now. We helped him clean up from the hurricane. For dinner we ate at PAPA'S BAR-B-Q, voted houston's best barbeque. That place always has a line for the drive through. I had the pork rib sandwich and it was HEAVENLY. but not as good as your ribs, Dad. I still know where the real Papa's bar b q is located!
The quote for this week comes from brother Moore from the sunnyside ward. This was at a baptism for three kids, he was giving a talk on the Holy Ghost: "The Holy Ghost is like your Mom standing behind you, giving you all the answers." and later on in the program, "If the Holy Spirit is with you, then, umm...you got it going on!"
11/2/05
I'll tell you about that experience that we had on the doorstep of that lady. It was me, Elder Earl, and Dontrell. A hispanic lady answered the door and, when she heard all the english she went and got her son, or someone, who spoke more english. Elder earl introduced the Book of Mormon and then he turned it over to me to talk about Joseph Smith. I talked about Joseph smith and as i was doing this i felt like i should ask Dontrell, the member that came with us, to bear his testimony. But before i did Elder Earl took over again. The amazing thing is that he asked Dontrell to bear his testimony! The spirit was with us. I think we gave them a book of mormon and then we scheduled a time that the spanish missionaries could come by and teach them.
Yesterday i was kind of feeling down and i decided to ask Heavenly Father to let me know that he was over this work. As the day went on i kind of forgot about what i asked. Later that day we went to visit some members. We went to an apartment complex that looked really empty. We didn't see very many people. We did see a woman and her son walking by with a bunch of trash that they were going to dump. They were not too far away but none of us got up the courage to go talk to them. (Elder beach was with us because Elder Rich got transferred) We looked around for the apartment number that we were supposed to knock on and it took so long that the lady and her son started walking back. this time i started talking to them and telling them about the book of mormon. The lady said that it was too small for her to read so we told her that we could get a copy in large print. She gave us her number because she said that she was moving. I think we gave her son a book of mormon. As we stood there I remembered what i asked and i know that he had prepared us to go here to talk with this woman. I am so grateful that he answered my prayer. And what more, when we knocked on the door of the member the lady across the hall opened the door and we were able to tell her about joseph smith and the book of mormon. She wasn't too interested but she was glad that we were out serving Christ. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding."
On Halloween we went to the Terrence's house. Brother Terrence is Jewish and doesn't sit in but Sis. Terrence is a member. They also invite some of their friends that live around and their kids. They have a lot of birds, and we got a Halloween trick. All of a sudden brother terrence and his friend come running through and head to the bird cage. Sis rodriguez, one of the friends, had told them that there was a snake in the bird cage. They grabbed it with salad tongs and regular tongs, and took it out to show everyone. It was a skinny snake except for a couple of lumps in it's stomach. We found out that it ate about three baby birds! The rest of the birds were going crazy and flying around. How's that for a trick?
I almost forgot. Yesterday we taught JOHN the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you know, faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end. I wanted to commit him to baptism. Even though he's going to join the marines i wanted him to say that he would, maybe he can get baptised down there. Anyway, when we got to baptism i taught him a little about it and then asked him. He said that he'd alreaddy been baptised. I was totally taken by surprise. I talked a little bit about the priesthood and then asked him again. He was kind of confused and said that he'd been baptised again. I was totally dumbfounded and the other elders took over from there. They explained about the priesthood being restored and challenged him to pray and think about it. At first i thought i failed but i think that was good for him because now he's actually thinking about it seriously when i don't think he really was too into what we were saying before.
11/9/05
On Friday we visited JOHN for the last time. We gave him a lesson on prophets and the priesthood. Then we showed him the prophet's testimony on "Special Witnesses of Christ." We asked him about how he felt about all that we taught him. He said that it was very different from what he'd ever heard. We asked him if he prayed about it and got an answer that it was true if he would get baptised, by the proper authority. He said that he would. He leaves to the marines on monday. I sure hope he askes in faith. He seems to have "real intent." Elder Vaz and i might stop by his house and ask his parents how he's doing and then offer to teach them.
We taught the GRAHAM boys about the plan of salvation. They even came to church this sunday with their dad. We are going to teach them again tomorrow. If things go as scheduled and they continue to come to church and prepare themselves then they could be baptised on the 26th.
On saturday we did service again. this time in a little town by lake charles called Iowa, except it's pronounced Iway. I sent you a rippin sweet postcard. We just cut and hauled limbs. I think i drank ten bottles of water. I also got bit by fire ants, at least i think they were fire ants. they left big ole itch marks, that look kindof like mosquito bites except bigger. They got on me when i carried a log out to the street. They just all of a sudden started biting me.
On sunday we tried to visit some less actives and media referrals. At one house we knocked and they weren't home so we went across the street and tried to talk to some strangers. We started talking to the Father and then the wife came out and told us all about how the book of mormon is false and that we need to burn our book of mormon and leave the mormons because our souls are at stake. I felt so good while she was saying that stuff to know that the Book of Mormon is TRUE! We spent a little time talking to eachother, more like arguing sometimes. I tried to wrap things up in a caring way, and we left.
Tuesday, we were trying to find this guy that gave us his address. He lived in some apartments, and we were looking for his door. He said he lived in 1906 but there were two 1906's 1906A and 1906C. We knocked on both and on the second one we didn't find the guy but we found a lady who was really interested. We gave her a book of mormon and we said that we are teaching her more tomorrow.
11/16/05
Last thursday elder Chaney and i went on exchanges. It actually went much better than i thought it would. Nothing interesting happened until we went tracting and ran into a guy who had a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said that he agreed with everything in it except for the fact that it didn't mention anything about what happens after you die, if you are judge right then, or what. The amazing thing is that earlier that morning i had read Alma 39-41 which talks about just that! I was able to share some thoughts with him about that and then I left him with a card telling him the chapters that he should read. We got his number so we might go talk to him later on.
Later we went tracting again when we had more time. At the second house that we knocked on we met a real interesting guy. When he answered the door we introduced who we were and he said, "mormons." Then he invited us to sit down on his porch and he proceeded to tell us everything that was wrong with our religion. He told us all kinds of things, like how none of the churches are true on the earth, and about all of the stuff you might here in an anti mormon literature pamphlet. I wanted to be nice and let him get his word in but whenever i would start to say something he would cut me off with something else that he wanted to say. Eventually we ran out of time and when we left he prophesied, in the name of the Lord, that we would each have two dreams, and we'd forget the first one. We then told him about moroni's promise and left. He told us to come back sometime. It was a weird experience but i learned a few things from it. First of all i learned that i need to testify more. I need to bear testimony more often. I don't know if i even said, "I know" once while we were there. I also learned that i need to be more bold. I should have told him that we'd been nice and listened to him and now he needed to listen to us.
Next we had an appointment with SHAWNA. She is a really open minded person. I think she might accept the gospel. But she won't read the Book of Mormon yet. She has read through the entire old testament, which is quite a feat, and is currently in the book of John in the New Testament. She said that she didn't want to start reading the Book of Mormon until she finishes the Bible. I think that's probably alright since she's so openminded.
Oh yeah, thank you about your advice to warm before you warn. I have taken that to heart more and i have looked for ways that i can do that more. Also, as i have been praying for more courage to open my mouth it is happening. I am getting more excited about talking to people and i'm not so afraid. I'm glad I have Elder Vaz here, though to take over when i stumble.
After SHAWNA we went to the GRAHAM's house. The GRAHAM's moved in last month or so from the north side of Houston. They are an african american family. The parents are both member and the dad is a priest. Their two boys are 12 and 9. The two boys haven't been baptised. So far we have taught them about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which is what elder Chaney and i taught them that night), and about some commandments. Their baptism date is scheduled for the 3rd of December. They have to come to church at least 3 times and we have a few more lessons that we need to teach them. Last time that we visited them we set up the baptism date and we asked the dad is he wanted to baptise them and he said that he didn't. He said that he'd let us do it! So we have our first baptisms in this area coming up!!!! We also want to work toward getting the father ordained to the office of an elder and get them on the path to the temple. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.
Tonight we are going to visit a less active lady who is having a birthday. We are going to make a cake and bring it over with some of the ward members. She has been a member for a year and sort of fell away for a while. We are hoping to get here back to church so that she can go to the temple.
11/23/05
I was able to tell someone about the plan of salvation yesterday, and it was really cool. I was there to witness the lightbulb going off in her head. Elder Vaz and Chaney found her while they were on exchanges. She is a young woman, from about 18 to twenty something, we aren't sure what. We met with her yesterday and we are meeting with her again today. She asked what are the rules in our church and i explained to her that they can be seen as rules or guidelines, it depends on how you look at them. We then taught her a little bit about the plan of salvation and about how our father in heaven wants us to come back and live with him so he sent us here. While we are here we have to walk by faith because we have the veil placed over our minds. Then, the light clicked on, she got why we need to have faith. She wasn't really sure before, why her uncle would always tell her to have faith. We also taught her about the apostasy and about why there are so many churches and that made sense to her too. We taught all of this outside because her uncle is a minister for some church. i don't think he'll have too much sway on her but you never know.
Yesterday we went to deliver a media referral, the lady wanted a finding faith in christ DVD, and she wasn't home. So we decided to tract around the area because Preach My Gospel says that sometimes the Lord is preparing others in the area. We ended up giving away two copies of the Book of Mormon! It was pretty sweet!
11/30/05
On thursday brother potter took us to his family's Thanksgiving day celebration. Brother potter is awesome. He is a really funny guy. He likes to talk a lot, with a cool texan accent, and he has a lot of funny stories and views on life. Anyway, most of the people there weren't members and we got offered coffee more than once. It was a pot luck style dinner and we ate until it hurt. They had a lot of food and on top of that they had tons of desserts. Later they got out a guitar and we all sang songs. it was pretty fun. They had some hymn books from some other churches and i looked through them. They were interesting. I didn't know that there are that many "other hymns."
On friday all of the Houston missions gathered together at a central chapel and we all got to listen to elder Ballard talk to us. It was great! I took lots of notes. He spoke about why we aren't baptizing more people. He said a lot of good things, some of them were, talk to everyone, get members more involved, and have companionship study. Companionship study was one thing that he really stressed. He stressed having it every day. It's hard because on sundays we have to be at church early, so he said to have it after church. Some of these guys don't take it very seriously, and i probably haven't been either, but we need to do better at that. It was kind of unreal to see him up there. with us, the normal people. Before he closed the talk he left a blessing on us and there was a really neat feeling in the room. He has family down here and supposedly he speaks to the missionaries down here every thanksgiving.
The GRAHAMs are still getting baptized this saturday and then confirmed this sunday. Elder vaz said that i could do both baptisms since it was too much hassle to get all four of us wet. Elder beach interviewed them yesterday. They are sweet boys. Very quiet and very nice. I will tell you how the baptism goes.
I'll tell you about this sweet investigator that we have right now. Her name is JANE. We have been trying to contact her for a long time but she has been busy and probably pretty worn out because she was really pregnant. She just had her baby about two weeks ago. So about a week or so ago we visited her and we talked with her about the book of mormon and basically gave her a first lesson. i think she already had a book of mormon from the previous time the missionaries visited her a while ago.
It was a week before we visited her again. We asked her if she had done her reading and she said that she hadn't. We then watched the Restoration DVD. It was cool because earlier that morning, at district meeting, we talked about the importance of stressing the importance of the book of mormon. Jeffrey R Holland says that the first thing that you should do if the investigator has not read and prayed about the book of mormon is be devastated! So i really tried to stress to her the importance of reading the book of mormon. The other guys talked too and she even said that she wanted to get baptised. The spirit was really strong in the room and she pointed out that we bring the spirit with us. It was awesome! We are checking up on her again today.
12/7/2005
It's funny, i've gone from worrying about doorstep scenes to door approaches. I had the WORST door approach in the world the other day. We were tracting on monday morning, which is less effective anyway because no one is home, but we ran into a house where someone was home. The lady answered the door and I started talking to her about the book of mormon and how it is a record of prophets, just like the bible. I wasn't feeling it as i was talking and i really didn't know where I was going to go next so i stopped and said, "you know what, I don't know where i'm going with this." And then i turned to elder Vaz and let him take over. Fortunately, Elder Vaz was on his toes and he went right into explaining the Book of Mormon. After a little while I got my feet back under me and was able to explain a little more. It's funny now, pretty pathetic, but funny. Anyway, we were able to give a Book of mormon to this lady. We asked her to read and pray about it and she told us, "okay, give me...two weeks," then Elder Vaz explained to her that she didn't have to read the whole thing before she prayed about it. He said that she only needed to read chapter 11 of third nephi, and then she said that she needed a week. So we scheduled a return appointment for a week from now but i think that we should have just had her read the whole book of mormon.
On thursday we visited SHAWNA again. She had been gone a week for thanksgiving. We taught her for the last time before she goes up to live with her husband for the holidays. She still won't read the book of mormon because she still hasn't finished the bible. She did watch "Special Witnesses of Christ" although when she prayed about our message after she watched it she didn't feel like she received an answer yet. She had a bunch of questions, like why her sister can't drink her tea with caffeine when other church members can drink coca cola. She also asked about wearing gaments. She said that she wants to know everything that she has to do to become a mormon before she decides to because she doesn't want to commit to something she can't do. We explained that once you get that answer and you're committed to follow the example of Christ that there's nothing that can stand in your way with His help, of living the "mormon" life. We gave her a "Joy to the world" DVD to watch over the holidays. I hope her husband doesn't tell her to stop taking the lessons. we will check back with her on Jan 8th because that's when she gets back.
The big news is the baptism this last saturday. It went well. There were only about twenty people who showed up to the baptism. We got a picture with the boys and the family and then the program started. Pretty soon it was time for the baptisms. On the first one, JIMMY, i kind of just lowered him into the water and he opened his mouth and was coughing when he came up. It was by immersion, however, and after we established that he was okay, i baptised JAKE. I pulled the plug to the font and everyone left to go back to the relief society room. As i was just about to get dressed one of the members came running in and said that i needed to put the plug back in, that JIMMY needed to be baptised again. As it turns out his middle name is Lee, not leon, like i said, so we did it again. This time his hand came up out of the water and so, as you can imagine, he didn't really want to do it again. But we talked him into it and the third time was a charm, according to the witnesses. It's pretty funny, i've messed up every time i've done a baptism. I had to baptise mallory twice and now this. I think it's funny. The awesome thing is that every time i said the baptismal prayer i felt a peaceful strength inside. it was great.
12/12/05
Last wednesday, after e-mail, while we were shopping at a dollar store we ran into this guy who had been taught by the missionaries about three or four years ago. He said that when they left, however, that no other missionaries came to see him and they took his Book of mormon. We set up an appointment to see him next Friday. His name is GARY. He lives in a really nice apartment south of where we live.
When we got there he wanted to tell us what he remembered about Joseph Smith. We said okay and then listened to him tell us the joseph smith story in detail. He even knew the little details, such as the fact that he was born in Sharon, Vermont, in 1805, and about the angel moroni. Needless to say, we were amazed. Then he turned the discussion to us and asked how we knew that this was true. We both shared how we knew that the church was true but he wasn't satisfied. He said that many years ago he was part of a few different churches, such as the United Pentecostal Church, and he didn't like them because he felt like they were giving praise more to man than to God and that they didn't really accept or love him. So he left them and now he just sort of practices religion on his own. He is really big on unconditional love and that is good. He tells us that he is "hungry and thirsty."
He told us that he wants to talk to someone who has been in the "bondage" of another religion, and who left that church and then joined ours and found out it was true. Neither of us had that experience so that's why he wasn't satisfied with our explanations. The spirit was really there, though, and so that was awesome. We told him that we had someone at our church that had been a baptist all of his life and that he could talk to him at church on sunday.
Amazingly, he came to church on sunday! We were elated. We tried to explain things to him and he liked the sacrament meeting. The new investigator class wasn't as great though because the teacher was passing out a really complex drawing of the plan of salvation and explaining it to us. He was lost, and when the teacher asked if anyone had questions he told him that he was lost. The teacher then said that he'd leave it up to us to explain things to him.
After church we met with the baptism guy, whose name is brother Griffin. He's in his late twenties and he teaches seminary. He was great for GARY. They really connected on a few things. He really wants to learn more and really wants to know for himself if the church is true before he joins. We told him that he is exactly right and that we can have as many "bible study" sessions (as he calls them) as he wants. He was kind of afraid because he said that the last elders came and taught him the lessons, not discussed them so he could understand them, but taught them, and then they asked if he wanted to be baptised and asked him about how he's living and everything. Then they eventually left. I guess he just didn't want that to happen to him.
We are going to meet with him on tuesday night at Brother Griffin's house to have another "bible study" He is a great guy and i am excited for him.
12/14/05
I tell you what! I am enjoying my warm weather! It is Nice! But it is pretty cold in the mornings. But then it usually is a nice temperature. It hasn't ever gotten down to the forties like it did that one day.
So, I need to tell you about the ghetto. As I may have explained in past letters i live on the border of the ghetto. Elder Earl and Chaney (who got transfered to Louisiana and replaced by elder pearson) serve in the ghetto, which is called sunnyside. A common occurrance in the ghetto, so i hear, is a run down house, or trailer, with a huge screen T.V. in it. There are some interesting people in the ghetto too. Elder Klc went on exchanges over there and met a guy who spoke in tounges to him.
Anyway, on monday, after i e-mailed we went over to Kings Best Market, an indoor flea martket of anything that you could ever want in the ghetto, suits, grills (for your teeth), belt buckles, bling, sweatsuits made out of money patterns. It was quite the cultural experience. There were a few halls that we couldn't walk down because of the revealing posters. Anyway, i didn't get anything there, but we went to the HEB in sunny side and i got something for lance for christmas, some bling bling that you'd only find in sunnyside. It's pretty sweet, I'll send it as soon as i can.
I forgot to tell you but a week or so ago our landlord cooked for us. However we were at a teaching appointment so we didn't have time to eat with him before we left. When we got there it was just sitting there. It was some meat in a sauce to pour over some mexican rice. We ate it but the meat tasted kind of weird, we guessed it was pork. When our land lord got home he asked us, "how did you like the dinner?" We said it was good and then he said, "that was tongue." Elder Vaz just about died. I was excited but it was kind of weird knowing that little pieces of cow tongue were floating around inside of me.
Anyway, nothing too new is happening since monday. Last night we taught GARY again. We met at a members house, the one he talked to on sunday. At about 8:15 we met there and started explaining the plan of salvation to him. We should have started earlier because he really likes to talk. We didn't even get through earth life, but we did figure out that he didn't understand everything about Joseph Smith. We hope he comes to the Ward Christmas party on Friday.
12/21/05
There were two major things that happened this week. The first is the ward Christmas Party. That was awesome. It helped to make it feel more like Christmas. I have really grown to love this ward. GARY came too! That was cool because he could probably feel the spirit and he got to meet a few more of the ward members. He's a great guy but we won't be able to get back in touch with him for a while because he is spending a few weeks exclusively with his brother. That is what it is like with a lot of our investigators, because of the Christmas holidays.
The next cool thing that happened was Christmas Zone Conference. We had a gift exchange and sister lake read the "right left" stories, you know the one where you pass it to the right when you say "right" and vice versa. I got a "don't mess with texas" mug and some hot cocoa. We also got a tee shirt with the mission logo on it and a dvd with pictures from hurricane cleanup. I'm only in one of them but that's okay. Elder Willson, an elder who served during Christmas last year, in sunnyside, stood up with the rest of the elders in his area this year, and sang, "have yourself a very ghetto christmas." It was pretty hilarious! it even had a rap section. And then, before the gift exchange Elder Smith came in dressed up as "Matt Foley" the motivational speaker from saturday night live. It was a great zone conference, and there was a chocolate fountain, too.
12/28/05
I had a really good study on faith yesterday in Ether 12. In that chapter it talks about a lot of people in the Book of Mormon who did many things by faith. The key point to all of this, however lies in verse six, which says, they received a witness after the trial of our faith. For all of those people the witnesses and help came after the trial of our faith. I think that if we all remember that this earth is a probational period and that we are here to be tested, that everything will not be easy, then we will remember that we will receive help, after the trial of our faith. Even during the trial of our faith. But all of these amazing things that these people did were done after the trial of their faith.
We got back in touch with GARY and we are planning to meet with him again on Friday. We scheduled two hours for him because he really likes to talk.
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