The Gold Mine

November 18,2013...after Stake Conference a sister came up to us and gave us a referral for her neighbor.  Then she left.  Then Elder D and I were planning to go to where she lives the next day and see exactly what this was all about and see if this sister would be able to give us more info. Sunday comes and we get out to Hedon, a tiny little village that is what I thought my mission was going  to look like outside of Leeds and York.  Well we knocked on her door and she welcomed us in.  As we start discussing what we are hoping to happen we start talking about less active members, then something and next thing I know she is pointing to about six other houses that she felt is ready and willing and some of them are even inactives.  Well seriously, she blew us out of the water with referrals but she completely 100% understands of how missionaries and members are suppose to work together so well that missionaries are teaching all the time...its the Gold Mine and we have transfers in a week...

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What potentials look like with member help. 

   

What potentials look like without member help.

A Missionaries job is to polish the gold not mine it.

The favorite moments

There is always a turning point for a missionary when he realizes he has to go home to the real world. This is one missionary's description of that honest metamorphosis...

"It's a sense of breaking on the inside as you think that the last two years are just over...done...gone...but NO! They aren't because I have a full month and a few days...Then I realize I just want to cry because I don't feel it should be coming to the end.  I don't want to...Then I think about the fact I will have to. Then I get a rush of adrenaline because I get to come back to the normal world, just with a stronger testimony and conviction of the gospel, so then I want to cry because I wish that new adventure could start, and it's so close yet far...I just don't understand. LIFE. I'm crazy! Thanks for that mum."

Your welcome son. Now. A transfer (because missionaries have transfers every 6 weeks) happened around this letters time and he didn't get transferred...June 29, 2015...so the ward he is in is happy to be able to send a missionary home. 

"They always ask what I'm excited about, and  just always ask what the plans are for when I'm home? How has my mission helped me?"

These are the tempting questions everyone wants to ask! including mom!

But here is what he is really thinking:

 "Right now I feel so tempted to just listen to the music I would back home because I am close to finishing, yet I know that is the wrong thing and if I've done it all this time why start now? Why are we so fragile as mortals?  Isn't this the grand step towards feeling eternal joy? I understand opposition in all things, but this isn't fair...I understand that its necessary, and the more I think about it the more I am grateful that Christ came and made it all possible for us to return ...The more I have even just sat here writing about it the more I feel appreciation to the Savior."
                                                               

His favorite moments...

"I can only imagine these are the same feelings or thoughts that we would have been experiencing just before our journey from our Heavenly Father's presence to this earth.  They are conflicting, confusing, yet make you really discern the light from the dark. The good from the bad, The eternal to the temporal. That contrast is so vivid and clear in those moments that the spirit teaches an individual. Those moments have been my favorite."

                                   
These missionaries are truly angels going about the Lords work. They forgo all worldly temptation and live so close to the Savior in order to bring people closer to Christ. Take note, if you thought you knew Christ, try reading the funny little book (that does not take the place of the Bible) called the Book of Mormon. It will take you as close to understanding Christ as is worldly possible.