This is the map. Each week or each transfer there will be a new pin.
March 25, 2017
March 15, 2017
La Despedida (Farewell)
Friends, Acquaintances, Everyone involved-
It is with satisfaction that I report that my full-time service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints comes to a close on Friday, March 17th.
I would like to use the following space to share some things that I have learned during my time of dedicated ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us
Because our Father loves us, he sent his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. The joy and peace of His Atoning Sacrifice are made available to us by participating in saving ordinances, the repentance process, and constant communication. The expiatory power that our Savior offers us is without end, limit, or understanding. It works. For everyone.
2. Hard work is a necessity for a successful life.
The satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your labors, the fulfilling mental and physical tiredness at the end of a long day, the peace of knowing that somehow, somewhere you contributed to a cause that is greater than you- it all comes from good, hard work.
3. Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.
As all returned missionaries can relate, in the beginning, at various points during, and even at the conclusion of a mission, each missionary is underqualified. I bear personal witness that the Lord has, in my case, filled my mouth "in the very moment, (with) what [I] should say"
4. The Law of the Harvest- You get out of your experiences what you put into them.
The Lord was very specific in his parables, and I have seen exactly that. At times on my mission, I was more lax in my approach; not an overall laziness and lack of desire, just a reduced effort. I found that when my effort was reduced, the results decreased in direct correlation.
5. Missions are just dang fun.
Any young man that reads this, whether in the next 3 minutes or the next 30 years, needs to know the truth about missions. They are a whole lot of fun. There is nothing to compare it to that you have yet participated in. It is just awesome. Try it. If you are hesitant, try going out with the missionaries or a mini-mission or something. Get a real taste.
In all, this experience has been a developmental experience for me. I testify of the divinity and reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I witness that His Gospel has, in fact, been restored to the Earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Furthermore, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's Kingdom on the Earth today, the same organization that existed when Christ performed his earthly ministry.
May we all focus more on coming closer to Christ is my solemn plea in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
It is with satisfaction that I report that my full-time service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints comes to a close on Friday, March 17th.
I would like to use the following space to share some things that I have learned during my time of dedicated ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us
Because our Father loves us, he sent his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. The joy and peace of His Atoning Sacrifice are made available to us by participating in saving ordinances, the repentance process, and constant communication. The expiatory power that our Savior offers us is without end, limit, or understanding. It works. For everyone.
2. Hard work is a necessity for a successful life.
The satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your labors, the fulfilling mental and physical tiredness at the end of a long day, the peace of knowing that somehow, somewhere you contributed to a cause that is greater than you- it all comes from good, hard work.
3. Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.
As all returned missionaries can relate, in the beginning, at various points during, and even at the conclusion of a mission, each missionary is underqualified. I bear personal witness that the Lord has, in my case, filled my mouth "in the very moment, (with) what [I] should say"
4. The Law of the Harvest- You get out of your experiences what you put into them.
The Lord was very specific in his parables, and I have seen exactly that. At times on my mission, I was more lax in my approach; not an overall laziness and lack of desire, just a reduced effort. I found that when my effort was reduced, the results decreased in direct correlation.
5. Missions are just dang fun.
Any young man that reads this, whether in the next 3 minutes or the next 30 years, needs to know the truth about missions. They are a whole lot of fun. There is nothing to compare it to that you have yet participated in. It is just awesome. Try it. If you are hesitant, try going out with the missionaries or a mini-mission or something. Get a real taste.
In all, this experience has been a developmental experience for me. I testify of the divinity and reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I witness that His Gospel has, in fact, been restored to the Earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Furthermore, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's Kingdom on the Earth today, the same organization that existed when Christ performed his earthly ministry.
May we all focus more on coming closer to Christ is my solemn plea in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
January 16, 2017
Miracles from Mizzurah
Family, Friends, Fellas
Our last week was one for the books, a great one on the Lord's part. It seemed that our every action was guided by the Lord. I am happy to be a part of this great and marvelous latter-day work!
They were predicting the worst ice storm of the decade, but it missed us by about 20-30 miles. We woke up and our car was covered in ice, but it wasn't bad. Up where we go to church though, tree branches were snapping and everything was covered in ice.
Here is a photo of the twisted beauty of the deadly storm (grainy quality thanks to point-and-shoot photography)
Not nearly as bad as the 2007 ice storm up here, apparently. We had power, only a flicker once.
We had some pretty cool experiences this week.
We have been trying really hard to find more people to teach.
We found some different people through different finding methods. We had met a lady with Elder Bayles while tracting. She was nice, took a copy of the Book of Mormon, and said we could come back sometime. She gave us her number. We tried following up a couple of weeks later, but it was unsuccessful. Then, earlier this week we had finished some appointments and I was just thinking. I remembered her. I gave her a call, and she had been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and pondering it. She wanted to talk. We go back this evening to meet her again!
Another guy we found was pretty cool. We made some Bible flyers (I probably told you last week) but we are doing some DIY media referrals. Normally, we wait for people to click on advertisements online requesting a Bible, but I got tired of waiting. So I made some flyers and we have been putting them up on bulletin boards all over town and in laundromats and in apartment laundry rooms. We had our first call (which made all of the work worth it) and we got to meet a nice man named Kirtis. He had lived a hard life, and was in the process of quitting smoking. We told him we had a program to help him. We also gave a copy of the Book of Mormon with our Bible.
And then the last (and coolest) of the stories this week.
We were looking in our former investigator list and found a family that had been taught a lot, really well fellowshipped by the ward, and had a LOT of people there. So we went and checked it out.
We'll call them "La Familia Grande" just to reference them. Every Sunday, Kika (the grandmother) and Jaime (the grandfather) get all of their 5 kids and many grandkids together under one roof. They love the missionaries, and were happy to see us. We had a lesson with 12 adults, all of whom participated. They were interested in the gospel and in learning English. Just having that many people in a room is more than all of the spanish members in this area- almost too good to be true. They are a really good family, and we plan on visiting them weekly.
Other cool experiences include meeting Tom and Yvonne. Tom was outside picking up sticks that had fallen in the ice storm. He's an older man, bald, a pretty goofy guy. He started talking to us in the street, and then it was 10 minutes later and then we were inside his house and then he introduced us to Yvonne, his wife who taught school and then realized that it would be important to learn Spanish, so she did. She was impressed by our spanish and we talked with her about learning spanish for a long time. Tom was very excited about sales and politics. He loved talking to us about it, but we didn't give very much away (not allowed to talk about it). They were super nice, and I gave them my email and phone number. We gave Yvonne a Book of Mormon in Spanish. It was cool. They really liked me, like a lot. It was weird. Like I knew these people for 35-40 minutes, and they were just really attached. I felt like a grandchild again haha
Anyways, It was a really good week.
We learned in our Zone Traning meeting about "The List." Elder Lynn G. Robbins came to our mission and instructed on a lot of good stuff. He was an executive at Franklin Covey before he was a general authority, and gave lots of good advice about how to be successful. It really just confirmed a lot of things to me.
Things that I have been working on like gossiping less, working harder, procrastinating less, etc. I came to the following conclusion:
We are told in all of our classes, studies, etc. to fight the natural man, even to kill him. It is a lifelong approach. However, what we are less apt at is identifying what he looks like, or perhaps just doing it often. An important part in any war, with any enemy, is to know what they look like, to identify their attributes, etc. So a big part of understanding how to defeat the natural man is understanding what he looks like. The attributes on "the list" are a pretty accurate description of what to avoid or fight off.
In all, a really empowering and helpful week.
Today marks under the 60 day mark until home. Pretty crazy that it comes that fast.
One more picture- this was last week tracting in 10 degree weather. Not too successful, but makes for a good picture :)
Have a blessed week, world :)
Elder Busi
Our last week was one for the books, a great one on the Lord's part. It seemed that our every action was guided by the Lord. I am happy to be a part of this great and marvelous latter-day work!
They were predicting the worst ice storm of the decade, but it missed us by about 20-30 miles. We woke up and our car was covered in ice, but it wasn't bad. Up where we go to church though, tree branches were snapping and everything was covered in ice.
Here is a photo of the twisted beauty of the deadly storm (grainy quality thanks to point-and-shoot photography)
Not nearly as bad as the 2007 ice storm up here, apparently. We had power, only a flicker once.
We had some pretty cool experiences this week.
We have been trying really hard to find more people to teach.
We found some different people through different finding methods. We had met a lady with Elder Bayles while tracting. She was nice, took a copy of the Book of Mormon, and said we could come back sometime. She gave us her number. We tried following up a couple of weeks later, but it was unsuccessful. Then, earlier this week we had finished some appointments and I was just thinking. I remembered her. I gave her a call, and she had been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and pondering it. She wanted to talk. We go back this evening to meet her again!
Another guy we found was pretty cool. We made some Bible flyers (I probably told you last week) but we are doing some DIY media referrals. Normally, we wait for people to click on advertisements online requesting a Bible, but I got tired of waiting. So I made some flyers and we have been putting them up on bulletin boards all over town and in laundromats and in apartment laundry rooms. We had our first call (which made all of the work worth it) and we got to meet a nice man named Kirtis. He had lived a hard life, and was in the process of quitting smoking. We told him we had a program to help him. We also gave a copy of the Book of Mormon with our Bible.
And then the last (and coolest) of the stories this week.
We were looking in our former investigator list and found a family that had been taught a lot, really well fellowshipped by the ward, and had a LOT of people there. So we went and checked it out.
We'll call them "La Familia Grande" just to reference them. Every Sunday, Kika (the grandmother) and Jaime (the grandfather) get all of their 5 kids and many grandkids together under one roof. They love the missionaries, and were happy to see us. We had a lesson with 12 adults, all of whom participated. They were interested in the gospel and in learning English. Just having that many people in a room is more than all of the spanish members in this area- almost too good to be true. They are a really good family, and we plan on visiting them weekly.
Other cool experiences include meeting Tom and Yvonne. Tom was outside picking up sticks that had fallen in the ice storm. He's an older man, bald, a pretty goofy guy. He started talking to us in the street, and then it was 10 minutes later and then we were inside his house and then he introduced us to Yvonne, his wife who taught school and then realized that it would be important to learn Spanish, so she did. She was impressed by our spanish and we talked with her about learning spanish for a long time. Tom was very excited about sales and politics. He loved talking to us about it, but we didn't give very much away (not allowed to talk about it). They were super nice, and I gave them my email and phone number. We gave Yvonne a Book of Mormon in Spanish. It was cool. They really liked me, like a lot. It was weird. Like I knew these people for 35-40 minutes, and they were just really attached. I felt like a grandchild again haha
Anyways, It was a really good week.
We learned in our Zone Traning meeting about "The List." Elder Lynn G. Robbins came to our mission and instructed on a lot of good stuff. He was an executive at Franklin Covey before he was a general authority, and gave lots of good advice about how to be successful. It really just confirmed a lot of things to me.
Things that I have been working on like gossiping less, working harder, procrastinating less, etc. I came to the following conclusion:
We are told in all of our classes, studies, etc. to fight the natural man, even to kill him. It is a lifelong approach. However, what we are less apt at is identifying what he looks like, or perhaps just doing it often. An important part in any war, with any enemy, is to know what they look like, to identify their attributes, etc. So a big part of understanding how to defeat the natural man is understanding what he looks like. The attributes on "the list" are a pretty accurate description of what to avoid or fight off.
In all, a really empowering and helpful week.
Today marks under the 60 day mark until home. Pretty crazy that it comes that fast.
One more picture- this was last week tracting in 10 degree weather. Not too successful, but makes for a good picture :)
Have a blessed week, world :)
Elder Busi
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