Working down the home stretch

Elder Hatch and I had prayed and fasted on July 4th in preparation for Mission Leadership Council and on July 6th in hopes of retaining and remember and implementing the things we learned from MLC. It helped immensely. We felt we needed to inform and train the district leaders in our zone, so that they in turn could help in training each of their district members in our zone meeting and in their district meetings to come. So we made plans with the district leaders in our zone.

On Tuesday we picked up our district leaders down in McMinnville while their companions went out and worked in the surrounding area. We had a short district leader council to help each of them catch the vision that you'd given to us. They in turn started their own spiritual preparations for zone meeting so that they might be able to present the vision God had for their districts. It was amazing to see the Spirit guide our thoughts and actions throughout last week.

Our zone meet turned out to be a success. We had the district leaders inform each missionary to come to the meeting spiritually prepared. We changed the setting of our meeting to the chapel to set the tone and we had each companionship come in reverently and listen to the prelude music while we met with the district leaders briefly before the meeting to coordinate. We also found it very helpful to implement the Sisters for a brief coordination before the meeting as well, so that they could offer the revelation that they, too, had received from MLC.

Immediately following our zone meeting, Elder Hatch took one missionary from Newberg and went on exchange back to Dairy Creek, I traveled back with another Elder to Newberg 1st Ward to work in their area for a day. At first, I was very nervous about my abilities to make a difference in this Elder's life, but after we had companion study the next day, I was filled with the Spirit of Christ in having a strong desire to help him. I had heard things about this missionary's past, but as I relied on the Lord, those preconceived notions quickly passed my mind. I felt an overwhelming love for this missionary as he bore testimony about how he gained his testimony and why he came on a mission, and then as we talked of his personal goals, visions, and strategies. The contrast between the before and after companion study that day was incredible. His attitude and heart changed. We connected rather well, and his whole countenance seemed to have changed. I loved being able to witness and be a part of that miracle.

In Dairy Creek Ward, we are excited with how the work is just exploding as we've exercised our faith in the Lord. Many of investigators are now progressing when before they were not.  A woman who be interviewed tomorrow evening is so excited to be baptized. She said "If we have to push the baptism back, that is fine, as long as I can get baptized eventually." She bore powerful, yet simple testimony of how she knows the Book of Mormon to be a blessing to her in her life, and she made great comments in Gospel Essentials in church on Sunday. She's a bit rough on the edges, but who isn't in some aspect or another?

I love that I am a missionary in this ward at this time. The members are seeing the fruits springing forth left and right and I can see their faith increasing as well. Elder Hatch and I held a special fast with our ward mission leader, and a few of our investigators. I am overwhelmed by the strength that my faith in the Lord is growing in us.

A new start and a renewed vision

We got to meet President and Sister Samuelian last Tuesday morning. It was a great calming experience. As soon as I shook their hands, I felt an overwhelming peace come over me and I knew that all the stresses and things we have been concerned about would work themselves out. The assistants, Elder Covey from the OEM and Elder Buhler from the OPM, taught us about the need and reality of change and repentance through the Atonement. It tied in beautifully to what President and Sister Samuelian taught us about creating a new mission from the background and families they come from.

They seem like really neat people and made some really impressive promises to us as a mission. He promised us that we would see thousands rather than hundreds of Spanish speaking people come into the fold. That we will have no limits to what we can achieve. I was impressed by how his focus and measure of success is on how successful our lives turn out not just on our mission but on into our future lives.

We drove down to Newberg Friday morning and arrived at the mission home around 10 am. That's when we started our Mission Leader Council with 26 total missionaries (six of them sisters) and aside from two intermissions for lunch and dinner, we were learning and talking from our mission president all the way until 9:30 pm that evening. It was amazing! I think it's an understatement to say that we were all "exceedingly astonished" by the teachings we received. That day we took time to consider the old mission cultures - both good and bad - that we brought from the OPM and the OEM. Then President Samuelian helped us council together to seek inspiration for what we wanted in our new mission culture. That was probably one of the most spiritual times in my life that I've searched through the scriptures between Elder Hatch and I.

"When Christ-like Culture and inspired Vision combine, mighty miracles occur. With the byproduct being a people knowing where they are going, and also understanding how they will get there." -President Samuelian

After we understood that we were the ones as leadership to make or break the Christ-like culture we wanted to achieve, we discussed how we need to go about things with a more strategic pattern rather than tactically. We learned that under our former missions, we were going about things tactically by simply going out and tracting and thinking too much about methods and policies to guide us, when we should be more focused on the Spirit.

After wrapping up for the night, we briefly transitioned to what we would learn the next day - Vision. 7am the next morning after sleeping at the mission home, we all got up and jumped into a couple vans in our P-day clothes. We weren't told where we were going until we got there, but were graced by a beautiful drive through the forests of Oregon as we finally arrived at Pacific City right off of the Oregon Coast. There, President and Sister Samuelian led us to a spot on the beach where we sat in the short grass and sand to be taught just as the Jews of old were taught by Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount. It was a moving experience.

After helping us learn that we needed to seek the vision that he had for this mission, he unveiled the new logo and theme for our mission culture - Build Upon the Rock - and he pointed our view to a large haystack rock located a distance off in the ocean.

"Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail."  -Doctrine & Covenants 6:34

If each of us build upon the Rock, which is Jesus Christ and His Gospel, we shall not fall. President Samuelian explained that the way he was going to start having us work is by helping us catch our own visions of what our strengths are and what we want to become in our lives. He wants to call a counselor soon who can work with and counsel with us for what we want to do in our education and college. It's a very radical approach to training missionaries, but he is confident, as am I that this will improve our success as missionaries, members, and children of God.

One other major focus that Elder Hatch and I keyed into was the emphasis on having faith rather than fear. A lot of us as missionaries have been too fearful to reach our true potential. We are limited by our view of what we think we can accomplish and not allowing faith and God's vision to enter into our hearts.

"If we're afraid God can't help us." (President Samuelian)

Not that He won't, or that He doesn't want to, but He can't. If we choose to fear rather than to trust and have faith, God cannot infringe on our agency to compel us to have faith. Faith is a desire and a decision more than anything and Elder Hatch and I are witnesses of these truths just by what happened yesterday.

Sunday, we fasted and prayed to help us remember and take in what we have just been trained on and our first inclination was a worry that we couldn't do it and that we would just go back to doing the same old missionary work we always have. In the Work of Salvation broadcast two Sundays ago, the video started with scenes of the dawning of a new day. And that's just what this is. President Monson, Prophet of God, has seen a vision that this is a new day. We need to realign our focus with what God wants. Each of us needs to repent now. President Samuelian reminded us of Einstein's definition of insanity:

"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein

We can't keep embracing insanity and fear if we are going to do this the Lord's way. I know that it works because I've seen it. After choosing to overcome the doubt and fear that came after sitting through Sacrament Meeting, I saw wonders as many people came up to us telling us about potential people who they want to share the Gospel with. One young woman, whose family we had dinner with this last week, brought her friend to church and actively participated in teaching in the Gospel Essentials class second hour. All the primary kid's lessons were on Missionary work and they each wanted to shake our hands as we passed through the hallways. That was only what we saw in church.

That afternoon, we saw people's hearts change who just last time we met were upset and offended by some members of the ward. Now they have a strong desire to recommit to living the Gospel, sharing it with others, and strengthening their own family and testimony.

Other investigators we went to go visit agreed to pray about dates on which they would be baptized. Miracles happen when we have faith. But:

"if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them" - Ether 12:12

I know these things are true. "O be wise, what more can I say?" (Jacob 6:12) Have faith. Start today. Start now.

Farewell to the Oregon Portland Mission

It feels like we've been riding on a roller coaster while living in limbo with all the changes that have been happening worldwide with the church as well as in our mission specifically. Elder Hatch and I have decided that despite the whirlwind that's surrounding us, we are going to just stick with our area and our zone of missionaries one minute at a time, cause apparently that's about all the time we have until something new happens nowadays.

Last week we had our last zone conference with President and Sister Morby as our mission president in the Oregon Portland Mission. It was a great note to end on. And this time, we had five Assistants to the President - the two for the OPM, Elder Buhler as OSM Assistant, and Elder Harding and his new comp - Elder Draeger - as OVM assistants - there at the meeting to help instruct us alongside President Morby. It was cool to see the puzzle starting to piece itself together slowly. After the grand finale of a testimony meeting ended, all the missionaries who were leaving the OPM to a new mission had the opportunity to say one final goodbye before the split occurs. They gave us some memorabilia that is normally given when a missionary departs home and we got to give both our mission parents a hug. They truly have changed my life. I love them.

We did a lot of planning and coordinating for our next week (without actually knowing many details regarding it) on Wednesday and throughout the week. Every day we received a call from the new assistants for the OSM, Elder Buhler and Elder Covey (from the Eugene Mission) informing of us of some new policy or change in the schedule for this week. It was a bit of a hassle at first changing times for exchanges, meetings, etc. but it has all worked out up until now. I can already tell that the administrative work for this new mission will be imperative for smoothly bumpy transition into our new mission culture. But as Elder Perry said in the MTC Broadcast last week, we are going to be doing the same thing in our missionary labors regarding the teaching despite the drastic changes in cultures, policies, and structures. I can't imagine the uncertainty that occurred when Joseph Smith and the early leaders of the church started a brand new "mission" in this dispensation. It's all very exciting, nevertheless.

Among other things, we were able to teach at prison again this week, do service in our suits by moving a ton of bricks and rocks, and help out a barn by fixing a fence and bringing brownies for someone's birthday by using an "instant birthday kit" we found in our closet. Haha. We also made a trip to the temple visitor's center with our investigator and some members for what could be our last time being able to visit. Since today the new missions are finally split officially, our new mission boundaries restrict us from freely traveling to and from the temple. I am dismayed at this fact, but hope that we might still have some opportunity to take our investigators and less-actives to the temple occasionally just because it is such a great tool in helping them progress in the gospel. Until President Samuelian decides to approve it, however, I am distanced once again from my favorite past time of visiting the temple, the House of the Lord.

We currently have one investigator who is progressing towards being baptized on the 20th of July. Several other of our investigators are coming along well, also. I'm grateful to have the emphasis placed on our oneness as members and missionaries from the Prophet and the Apostles of the church. We truly are one in purpose and the more we dedicate ourselves to this purpose, the further we ourselves progress in the gospel, not to mention helping others come unto Christ. As I've looked back over the course of my mission, I can see how the only way we can successfully and efficiently do missionary work is when we all live up to the covenants we made at baptism - to stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places. I am grateful for the members in the wards in which I've served who understand that and help me to understand that by their great example. The members are almost more of a motivation to go do missionary work than the full time missionaries by their incredible examples.

I am excited to meet President Samuelian and his wife tomorrow morning in Newberg. Later this week on Friday and Saturday we will be having a Mission Leadership Council in which we will know more about the logistics of our new mission and will be guided further as to how we as missionaries will operate. This is obviously the living Church of Jesus Christ. How can you not know it? It's wonderful to see the Lord building us up to where we need to be. "I feel my Savior's love..."