March 19, 2009

A man convinced against his will, of the same opinion is he still.

So, that's a nice little quote I got from one of the Traveling Elders yesterday. We had exchanges with them (they're officially Traveling Assistant's to the President) and they basically go around the mission giving trainings at Zone Conferences or other "Traveling Elder Trainings" and they also go on exchanges with companionships to help uplift, motivate, and train them. Anyway, it was a good time! I went with Elder Wray (yes, I spelled that correctly) and we got some good stuff done. We ended up wasting some time trying to help a member move two TV's, but it still felt like a fairly productive day, even though we didn't get a whole lot of "work" done (like tracting, or teaching lessons, or other types of contacting). Elder Wray reminds me of myself and he had some good advice and suggestions to some of concerns, struggles, and questions. So that was pretty sweet! As far as other work is going, it goes...mostly well. The work has seemed to slow a little this past week, we had our lesson with Ron and Caroline Miller get postponed till next Tuesday, so hopefully that will go through. While on exchanges yesterday, Elder Nelson and Elder Henry were able to have a lesson with the Ferrell's and the Tommer's and that seemed to go well. They were able to set a more firm date with one of our investigators for April 18th to be baptized after he prays and knows that the Church is true. Now, the sad part this week comes from a couple, where the man was just baptized about 3 or 4 weeks ago. They're in a rough spot right now and struggling with their reasons for making the big changes in their lives they've been making. It seems that their testimony of Christ and the restored Gospel is not quite where it needs to be in order to sustain them; from what they told us it also seems apparent that communication between them broke down for a month or two; and most of all, it is apparent that Satan is doing his all to keep them away from the happiness and peace they are so earnestly seeking. Keep them in your prayers, please!

As for Elder Nelson and I, we're doing alright. It's still a challenge for me, but I'm learning to adapt to new personalities and live with people that are different from myself. I love Elder Nelson, he has some awesome qualities and characteristics I can definitely learn from; and I'm trying to learn how to just ignore some things that don't matter, and discuss things that really do matter so the both of us stay sane and united in our purpose and goals.

As for myself. I'm doing alright. Still growing and trying to figure out what it means for me to be a missionary, but still doing my best to give myself to the Savior. I love the Lord and I love this opprotunity I've been given. It's definitely difficult at times but I really appreciate the tender mercies of the Lord, and I appreciate Him in my life.

I'm happy I'm here, I'm happy my family and my friends (especially those very special ones) love me and support me doing this, I'm happy they're having their needs met and are okay...even though I might not be communicating with them as frequently as they or I would like, and I'm so happy that I have a chance to help others find a peace and joy that passeth all understanding.

My favorite scripture seems to be coming up more and more in my life, in my teaching, in my thoughts, just in general: 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Remember that!

I love y'all!
-Elder Michael Starks

March 5, 2009

Hello family!

How goes life in Tejas?! I hope well. I really do. I love y'all! Well, you might be asking yourself, how does the work go for Elder Starks? It goes well!

Things are progressing with a few of our investigators and one of them accepted an approximate baptismal date for sometime in mid-April!  Elder Nelson and I hope that things with him pan out and that he will continue to progress and make those leaps of faith necessary to find out for himself if the gospel is true. And his wife has even opened up a little as well. She spoke a few times (as I mentioned in my last email) but I'm not sure about this week, we were on exchanges with our Zone Leaders when Elder Nelson extended that time period of mid-April to John, so I'm not quite sure how Joelene took that and how she participated in the lesson. Anyway, we had a pretty good lesson with another investigator last Saturday, the Spirit was there and I think I was the most bold I've been on my mission with him when I felt prompted to tell him that if he would pray specifically to know that the Book of Mormon was true, he would receive an answer. He wouldn't commit to specifically pray, but the Spirit was there and we both felt it was a good lesson - not the usual listening to him ask questions about things from the Bible that (at least to us) do not pertain to Salvation. Pray for him and his family! Let's see...who else? A couple was just baptized two weeks ago. They're so cool. We're going to start teaching the new member lessons to them with their home teachers hopefully starting this next Tuesday. Yay! Um...I know there are more people to talk about...Oh! We have a lesson this Saturday with a lady. I think I told you last week, but we tracted into her and she said she had some cousins who were Mormon and one or two that had served or were serving missions and she said we could come back and share a lesson with her and her family. Hopefully something will come of that! We're trying hard to tract two hours each day so we can find some new potential investigators! Oh! In the Fanno Creek ward we had a lady refer her daughter (who is less-active) and her boyfriend to us. The daughter's boyfriend agreed to the lessons and the daughter apparently is on that line of being able to go either away or toward the church really easily. We hope we'll be able to make some progress with them and help them both to feel the Spirit and come to church and ultimately come unto Christ. Good stuff is happening and we're doing our best to work hard and teach people. We're hopefully going to get back to teaching the younger girl and boy we were working with. And we're slowly working on another famliy to reactivate the two that are members and teach the 8 and 10 year old's who aren't. Other than that things are going pretty well. Our exchanges with the Zone Leaders was fun. I was with Elder Barrett (one of our Zone Leaders) in their area and it was a great day! We set a goal to talk to everyone that we saw, and we were both pretty sure we did it, too, by the end of the day!

We also went to the temple this morning and that was really nice. I'm really happy that Pres. Dyches lets us go once a transfer - it definitely helps me out a lot.

Tell everybody I say hi and that I'm sorry for not writing anyone back yet - it's so hard, harder than I imagined!

Well, I've gotta go for this week, but I love y'all and hopefully will hear from y'all soon!

-Elder Michael Starks

P.S. Mail sent to our mailbox would be sweet treat!

P.P.S. Attached is a picture of Elder Nelson and I. And a picture of a cool rainbow we saw yesterday while I was on exchanges with Elder Barrett.

February 19, 2009

Weekly Update

First off, transfers and my companion. Yes, transfers happened last Wednesday and I received a new companion, Elder Nelson, while staying in my same area - Tigard. I was very sad to see Elder Jensen leave. I love him and he is an awesome guy. Though, now that a week has passed I can see that it's for the good. 

So, my new companion - Elder Nelson. He's a pretty cool guy. Of course, I don't have the same kind of relationship with him as I did with Elder Nelson, I've only been working with him for one week. But so far it's been good. It's definitely different trying to adjust to a new companion and everything after having adjusted for 3 months to my previous companion. But it's good experience in learning what is important and what isn't important, what "conflicts" to bring up and try and resolve and which ones just to learn to deal with and move on, and probably a good source of learning humility and trying to not be prideful. Anyway, we're doing pretty well. The teaching is going great and we're working hard!

So, what's up with those we are teaching, you ask? Alot and also a little. We had a lesson last night with a couple and that was awesome! The Spirit was really strong and it was super cool. I love recognizing when the Spirit is prompting me and then acting on those promptings! It's also really sweet to feel the Spirit confirm what I'm saying when I bear my testimony of something...and it seems that every time I feel I should testify that the Spirit confirms that and it's just another reminder that I do, indeed, know the things I say I know. Also, while we were there we gave him a white shirt, a tie, and a suit. The shirt was one that Elder Jensen no longer wanted and didn't take with him, the tie was one that Elder Nelson wasn't all that crazy for, and the suit came from a member in the ward who no longer wore it and just hadn't gotten rid of it yet for some reason. To see the reaction of John's face was so cool! For just a few seconds he seemed to be as giddy as boy opening his presents on Christmas morning! That was such a cool experience! As for when they'll come to church, we're still not sure - but they are much closer than they have been for some time. As for our other investigators, one sister seems to be coming along! She's always excited and eager to learn and our lessons with her also feel very uplifting and nice. We're hoping the progress continues with her and that she keeps making the steps to come back and closer to Christ. Things with another woman are at an interesting point...right now it seems like there is still progress happening, but we'll see if that continues - we hope it does. Another one of our investigators always shows a tiny bit of progress with him each time we meet him, but the hardest thing with him seems at the moment that he's not fully open to Joseph Smith being a prophet or seeing the need for the Book of Mormon. He bring alot of things out from the Bible and we're trying to think of ways we can help steer him toward the Book of Mormon and help him to have the desire to read it in FAITH - with a desire to know if it's true, and to then PRAY about it! Hopefully progress will continue there and we can continue to invite the Spirit into his home and hopefully the Spirit will touch him at some point. So, a new investigator this week! Brother Jensen basically taught the first lesson to one of his co-workers after she brought up church and asked him some questions. So, he invited her over for dinner on Sunday and invited us as well. She's pretty cool! She baked a really good coconut cake and we had a great discussion. We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation and she seemed interested. Our main focus, though, is mostly on Christ being the Savior of the world, because for the past 5 or 10 years or something like that she's been studying Islam...but she's very open and the lesson went well! We have another one for this Sunday, and from what Brother Jensen has told us from their conversations at work, she's pretty excited for it! Now, as for our investigators - mainly the younger kids - progress seems to have slowed some. What seems to be the biggest issue for the moment is reactivating them and trying to get the parents back into activity before we really go any further with the kids. What I think is going to help them the most is for the kids to come to Primary and learn in that environment. That's what Elder Jensen and I felt and Elder Nelson hasn't met them yet. But hopefully soon! As for other things going on, the work is progressing! We've been out seeing people and doing some tracting. Always funny times when tracting, but they're good learning experiences too! Trying to put a Gospel principle into a couple of sentances and getting people interested is always a trick, but fun experience!

Allright, that's all for now.  I love y'all and I hope that all is going well for the family and for...everyone else! I love y'all!

January 29, 2009

January 29, 2009

We have 6 or 8 lessons scheduled for this week (I'm not exactly sure how many we have remaining, 2 or 3 I think...maybe a few more). We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders yesterday, so I wasn't at 3 of the lessons (there were 3 yesterday) but they supposedly went well for the most part. Elder Jensen and Elder Henry were able to meet with one of our investigators and it is apparent that he is seriously seeking peace in his life. So, hopefully he will allow the Spirit into his life and he will be able to find some (if not all) of the peace he is seeking in his life. Pray for him! The other lessons went well, from what I was told. 

Oh! On Tuesday we met with a less-active lady who wants to come back to church. She is so awesome!  She took the lessons and was baptized in like 1998 or something. Anyway, long story short, fell away, divorced, and now she wants to come back to church and have her children there as well. She seems so ready for the Gospel to be fully in her life.  We're teaching her the lessons because she want's to have things refreshed and questions answered.

Okay, so, other work that's going on? Well, on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elder Ferguson (he and Elder Henry are the Zone Leaders) and I got some pretty awesome work done. We were even let into the home of a guy that is a Jehovah's Witness after we knocked on his door while tracting. That was a pretty cool conversation and he said that we had given him some things to think about and to read up on. We even made a return appointment for the Zone Leaders with him next Wednesday. Cool! I hope they might be able to make progress with him and his family, and that it won't just be a Bible bash or anything. It was pretty cool to go tracting with Elder Ferguson, but that's alot of what the Zone Leaders do in their area, because they don't have a whole lot of people to teach, and their potential investigator pool and former investigator pool is relatively small. Anyway, exchanges were good.

There is progress with another investigator.  We had a lesson with him last Saturday and have another one scheduled for this Saturday. There hasn't been alot of progress, but there has been some. He doesn't seem as antagonistic as we first thought, though it still seems like it could lead that way if the Spirit was not present. But he's awesome too! 

All of our investigators are really cool people and I love them all. That's one of the things I wrote about in my journal the other day. I'd been praying since the MTC that I'd be able to love the people, because I surely felt that I loved the people back home (family, Kaycee, friends, etc.) far more than the people here. But I've seen Him working with me somehow and I really do love the people!  I definitely don't love all their decisions or choices, but I do love them and I want the best for them. I want them to be happy and I want them to be more happy than they presently are. And I know the best way to have more happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's weird, because I haven't quite felt that as strongly as I have since being out here, but I feel it! I love the Lord and his tender mercies! He has so many of them and He is always ready to help us. It's also been cool to see that adversity somehow really does make us stronger and helps us to grow more than just about anything else. We gain so much through the trials we go through, and it's never very fun or easy, but so worth it when looking back. I could go on and on, but I do need to get going soon.

I love y'all, take care, and keep praying. Y'all are in my prayers!

-Elder Michael Starks