This Might Interest You

November 5, 2012

So we had transfers this week and President Maynes made an interesting announcement. I noticed that many districts, zones, and areas were being drastically changed, and he got up and said that this in preparation of the wave of missionaries that are supposed to be coming to the mission field due to the age change of missionaries. Salt Lake has estimated that the number of missionaries that will be in the mission field 6 months from now will go from about 50,000 missionaries to over 90,000!!! Every mission will be affected. Currently, our mission has about 160 missionaries in the mission. Six months from now we are expected to have about 250. So wards will be split, and the areas will be much smaller (and probably a lot higher chance of biking on the mission).

President Maynes told us to "have faith that God is in it, and God will make sure the work picks up in every area to suit the needs of the number of missionaries serving." So some incredible estimates are just around the corner.

The work is definitely picking up, and although we only had 14 lessons, we finally have someone progressing well. Michael, husband of a less active member, is starting to come to church and Elder Jennings and I are thinking about putting him on a baptismal date this week! Pray that it goes well! Also we talked to one of our investigator families about the prophets and the priesthood. We challenged the nonmember father to one day hold the priesthood so he could bless his family just as Jesus blessed others. He said he felt humbled and the "prospect seemed exciting." So yes we are finally getting some really good experiences with teaching people.

The ward is also helping so much. This ward is the most enthusiastic about missionary work than any other ward I've served in. So I’m excited to finally see some work pick up here.

The election is absolutely nuts. I'll try and take some pictures of all the signs tomorrow. Its funny how like every other house goes "Romney, Obama, Romney, Obama, Romney etc." The members I live with seem to think Obama is the most likely winner, but we'll see tomorrow.

Elder Bringhurst

Transfer News

October 29, 2012

Well both of us are staying in Heather Ridge this transfer. It’s looking like a cold winter on a bike is ahead of us. I've learned the cold can really destroy your energy. We were huffing and puffing all day on Wednesday. It was freezing to say the least. We had another slow week. But overall our average is starting to climb. We hope we can become a thriving area here pretty soon. I have faith we can.

The ward is starting to help quite a bunch. The ward mission leader is trying to get an elder or high priest to come with us for an hour or two every day! So that will be great to have someone who has a car to drive us around and give us at least a little break in the day. Also, the ward council has updated the "15 names list" of people in the ward they want us to regularly meet with. Hopefully that will yield some lessons. I've said it and I will say it again; this work cannot go on without the help of ward members in every aspect of missionary work. And this ward is responding wonderfully to that invitation and I'm very grateful.

It seems like people here want to talk about two things, politics and the Denver Broncos. I live in Broncos Country, and I probably hear the names Romney, Obama, and Peyton Manning more than Joseph Smith or Jesus Christ. Ha-ha.

 

No updates really on the people we are teaching. But we did go to the ward's "trunk or treat" where everyone just opens up their trunk and kids in their costumes go trick or treating in the church parking lot. I'm hitting myself that I didn't bring my camera because the kids looked so adorable I thought I’d die. One little girl dressed up as a bouquet of pink roses by wearing a green skin suit with some plastic wrap on her shoulders with pink paper roses on her head and shoulder. One baby kid dressed up as an Ewok from Star Wars. Some nonmembers showed up so it was really good!

Well that’s all the news I have for today. Thanks for the Halloween package!

Elder Bringhurst

Yah!

After a load of planning and an increased effort to find people, we finally got 20 lessons this week! I don't know how it happened, it just seemed like the Lord is blessing us in ways that I couldn't even foresee.

So first experience: Stake conference was this week, and it was a multi-stake broadcast from Salt Lake City. (58 stakes from Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado) Elder Nelson of the Twelve presided there. He spoke on how we need to take care of our bodies and avoid pornography like the plague, and Elder Tad R. Callister of the Seventy spoke about how our prayers need to be more earnest and to specifically pray on our knees. But I actually got a lot of enlightenment from the Sister who spoke. I forgot her name but she is the second counselor in the young women's presidency. She highlighted the connection of things that have changed for the youth in the last decade in preparation for the revelation to lower the missionary age. She pointed out that the youth had and are being prepared for the change in missionary age with the strength of youth, the duty to God, and other youth programs. The Young men's and Young Women's presidency had no idea that these standards were in preparation for this revelation, but now the purposes of the Lord have become more clear. God truly is hastening the work.   This last week really showed me that.  God really did lead us to the people that were home.

Also another experience connected with Stake Conference: The morning of Stake Conference we still had not arranged for a ride to go there, but out of the blue an investigator named Elijah (this super awesome guy who met with missionaries in North Dakota) gave us a call and asked where church was. We told him about stake conference and felt inspired to ask him for a ride. He accepted and took us to and from stake conference. He told us how God had blessed him in all the aspects of his life and told us that he wanted to be a part of a church, and that he admired our church for how we endorse clean living. So hopefully we will be seeing a baptism in the near future.

Andrew is doing well, he and his family are working hard. So yes we are starting to see the work pick up in the area after the long drought of nothing.

Elder Bringhurst

 

 

Cooling Down

Well this week we had a great experience. I've been praying for just ONE person who was solid, who would progress towards baptism, and on Thursday, Bro. Peterson who is in the young men's presidency set up an appointment with a kid named Andrew. He has been going to scouts and is a nonmember, and he invited him to have the missionaries over at his house. He accepted and we went over. He and his father are incredibly interested in the church. His father is also dating a woman who also seems incredibly interested. It was a wonderful lesson. Turns out his father is actually a less active member of the church and wants to come back, and Andrew is also interested in joining. YES! We actually invited them to the "chili cook off" this past Saturday, and they came! They even took us over to it. So we got to talk with them and we also gave them a tour of the church. That was a great miracle for us. Hopefully soon we can get them baptized and see some fruits of our efforts.

Also a funny note on the chili cook off: I decided to take a chance on some of the super "hot stuff". First I took the hottest chili, and it wasn't that hot. But someone brought this extremely deadly hot sauce to the place. The hot sauce came in a coffin shaped box and claimed to be the "hottest stuff in the world." So some people dared me to take some. I put about a half spoonful of that stuff on my spoon and just slurped it whole. Worst decision I could've made. At first it wasn't bad, then it just got hotter, and hotter, and it was just burning after about a minute. Big laughs! I was at the drinking fountain for about 10 minutes just trying to cool my tongue. I looked at the bottle to see what was in it. It was a mixture of ghost chili peppers and habanera peppers. You can look those up to see just how hot those peppers are. That was funny. I woke up the next morning with the worst stomach ache in the world though. So that’s all I have for today.

Thanks so much for everyone's support.

Elder Bringhurst

Conference Weekend

October 9, 2012
 
Well, conference is over and I'm a little sad about that.  We set up like 3 appointments to watch conference with less actives and they all cancelled,  so we just watched conference at home via the internet that the Stuznegger's lent us.
 
It truly was a great conference. If you noticed, Elder Bednar's talk was about the difference between a testimony and conversion. That's exactly what he talked to us about here in Colorado. It seems to me that the General Authorities have a really good idea of what they want to talk about long before they give the talks. Elder Holland's talk was an almost word for word reiteration of a talk he gave the MTC in 2010. Also it was interesting that both Elder Holland and Elder Hales talked about how the Lord asks us to leave everything and follow him. When they talked about this I thought that is exactly what missionaries ask investigators: To give up everything and follow Him.
 
My personal favorite was Elder Nelson's "ask the missionaries" talk. Mostly because I learned from what was not said. I learned from all the instances mentioned where you need to "ask the missionaries" that we, as missionaries need to be prepared to help them. The brethren expect us missionaries to help people a lot more than I thought. Overall it was good.
 
The area still struggles and the trials continue (and add on top of that freezing weather on a bike), but I learned sometimes God asks us to push against a rock that won't move, but he just wants to see if we will push it anyway despite the fact it remains stationary. All in all, God moves the work forward, and we just need to be willing to be there when He needs us.

Elder Bringhurst

 

 

What A Week

October 1, 2012

Well the struggles continue, but that's a part of life. Anyone who doesn't have problems in this are buried 6 feet under it. Right now I'm just working on finding joy in the trials. In a strange way, the line of companions I've had had made me want to better myself. It’s a strange concept but it seems to be working.

We had interviews with the Mission President this week and I asked him why I was in the situation I was in. He told me that he didn't know. He said that the Lord rarely, if ever, gives him a reason to put companionships together, but the reason why only manifests itself after he puts them together. His answer was simply "it felt like the right thing to do."

A mission isn't supposed to be easy, and I never expected it to be, but the lack of success we have in this area starts to weigh down on me. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be learning here, but the answer to everything is "work harder," so that's what I'm going to do. President asked me to study charity and love. So I've been looking up a lot on that, and I have gotten a lot from it.

In the news of missionary work, we really have kind of been running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Trying our best to contact as many as possible, and if possible build our teaching pool. Not much other news, so have an awesome week everyone.

Elder Bringhurst

Another Transfer Begins

September 24, 2012

So yup got a new companion. He is the District Leader here, but he has been out on his mission only 8 months. When I first heard he was coming I thought "wow he must be an awesome missionary if they are making me junior companion to him."  His name is Elder Jennings. He's from Las Vegas Nevada, but unfortunately, he says he wants to go home and hates the area so far. It kind of weighs on me.

At first I was really angry because I was junior companion to someone who is a younger missionary and new to the area and has a hard time obeying some of the rules. But after some praying the thought came to me. "You are not here for you, you are here for the Lord." It made me realize that I need to stop putting myself in the whole process, but to simply focus on the work. True, members tend to admire missionaries based on their leadership positions and by the number of conversion stories they have, but I realized the Lord looks at it differently. None of the baptisms, reactivation, or anything else done here is a measurement of MY capacity, but rather a reflection of the great and wonderful things that the Lord allows missionaries to be a part of. Admiring a missionary for his baptisms and leadership positions is like admiring a sculptor’s chisel rather than the sculptor himself. I realized we are all on the same team here, and it doesn't matter where I fall in on the team, because we are all tools in the shed. Let God use His tools however He wishes.

In other news, the family of about 6 investigators, ALL came to church yesterday. 9 people filed into church. (Less active mother, nonmember father/boyfriend, 6 kids, and a friend one of the kids brought with them) It was such a massive entrance into the chapel that the entire ward seemed to be turning heads to see what had filled the back seats up. They stayed all three hours and the father came to Elder's quorum just as the Elders Quorum was being reorganized, so he got to witness the passing of the keys to the Elder's Quorum President and feel the great spirit of brotherhood at that meeting. It was so cool to see his face as he saw everything. He loved it and everyone was friendly. Hope to see a baptism in the future!

We did get a new Ward mission leader this week. Bro Johnston is his name. He is really excited and seems up to the task. Well that's all for this week!

Elder Bringhurst