It was pouring Saturday, then yesterday it was bright and sunny. Just make up your mind, already!
Things are going great! :) like the email before,
people here are always busy and have no time to talk to us or anything
of the sort. But the members? Oh, goodness... they are spectacular!
Seriously, they all have such strong faith, and I still haven't met a
family yet where the father didn't serve a mission. It's like
missionaries from about 20-30 years ago all moved here to Leesburg!
It's crazy!
Oh, right - Wednesday.
We have four mission training conferences a year, right? So the
Centerville, Ashburn, and Leesburg zones (about a third of the whole
mission) showed up to do some training on Charity and being "in the
box" of self-deception and self-betrayal, and then after lunch we had
a lesson on following up from Sister Riggs, then to close out we had a
Q&A with president Riggs. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the Q&A.
Too many argumentative comments, and most of them were directed at
other missionaries instead of focusing on learning new things. In
fact, I wasn't really paying attention; I was too busy studying
Doctrine and Covenants 93, which is just loaded with all kinds of good
stuff! One of the main points to take from it is that even Jesus
Christ had to receive the fulness of His Father grace for grace. He
learned. He grew. And that alone gives us plenty of motivation to keep
pushing through moments of self-doubt and pity.
After the meeting, we had a dinner and lesson with the Smith's, then a
lesson with the Gardner's, and then we went on missionary splits with
Brother Palmer. We visited Jay Stevenson (he's a convert and was
baptized when he was 18). Right now he's 48 and he has three kids,
just recently re-married in the temple a couple months ago, and...
he's had it rough. He's HAVING it rough. His oldest daughter is 26 and
married, and she has a daughter, but she's not accepting of her new
stepmom at all. She actually cussed Gretchen (Jay's new wife) out
Tuesday night over the phone. On top of that, his youngest daughter
Jade (who lives with his ex-wife) has been on suicide watch for the
past couple of months, and it's not getting better with her. Kira (the
oldest) makes it worse by constantly berating her for not being strong
enough and just causing a bunch of trouble for Jade. Also, he's facing
religious discrimination at the middle school he works at (he's a
teacher) by the head of the department there, and the school
administration isn't doing anything about it. He's also sick! :/ I
just felt so bad and wanted to help him out... and help we did.
Brother Palmer showed him the "Refiner's Fire" video made by the
church, afterwards I shared with him the story of Alma the younger and
had him read Mosiah 27, verses 14 and 20. I explained to him that the
prayers of the older Alma did NOT go unanswered, but he had to
continue working in the faith. And when his prayers finally were answered, and Alma the younger was brought back to him almost in a coma, he rejoiced. Not because his son had "gotten what he deserved", but because he knew it was the work of God answering his prayers. So Jay and Gretchen just need to keep
up what they were doing; praying for their kids, and showing them love
at all times. We gave him a blessing, then we left.
This work is amazing - and there's a lot of people out there who're
lost without the knowledge of the truth that we have. And that's what
we're here for! To help spread the Gospel. In order for the Second
Coming to happen, two things have to occur first: the hearts of the
children have to be turned to the fathers, and the Gospel must be
taught to ALL the world. We're getting there! :) love you guys! Thanks for all your love and support of me out here, I really do appreciate it! :D
people here are always busy and have no time to talk to us or anything
of the sort. But the members? Oh, goodness... they are spectacular!
Seriously, they all have such strong faith, and I still haven't met a
family yet where the father didn't serve a mission. It's like
missionaries from about 20-30 years ago all moved here to Leesburg!
It's crazy!
Oh, right - Wednesday.
We have four mission training conferences a year, right? So the
Centerville, Ashburn, and Leesburg zones (about a third of the whole
mission) showed up to do some training on Charity and being "in the
box" of self-deception and self-betrayal, and then after lunch we had
a lesson on following up from Sister Riggs, then to close out we had a
Q&A with president Riggs. To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the Q&A.
Too many argumentative comments, and most of them were directed at
other missionaries instead of focusing on learning new things. In
fact, I wasn't really paying attention; I was too busy studying
Doctrine and Covenants 93, which is just loaded with all kinds of good
stuff! One of the main points to take from it is that even Jesus
Christ had to receive the fulness of His Father grace for grace. He
learned. He grew. And that alone gives us plenty of motivation to keep
pushing through moments of self-doubt and pity.
After the meeting, we had a dinner and lesson with the Smith's, then a
lesson with the Gardner's, and then we went on missionary splits with
Brother Palmer. We visited Jay Stevenson (he's a convert and was
baptized when he was 18). Right now he's 48 and he has three kids,
just recently re-married in the temple a couple months ago, and...
he's had it rough. He's HAVING it rough. His oldest daughter is 26 and
married, and she has a daughter, but she's not accepting of her new
stepmom at all. She actually cussed Gretchen (Jay's new wife) out
Tuesday night over the phone. On top of that, his youngest daughter
Jade (who lives with his ex-wife) has been on suicide watch for the
past couple of months, and it's not getting better with her. Kira (the
oldest) makes it worse by constantly berating her for not being strong
enough and just causing a bunch of trouble for Jade. Also, he's facing
religious discrimination at the middle school he works at (he's a
teacher) by the head of the department there, and the school
administration isn't doing anything about it. He's also sick! :/ I
just felt so bad and wanted to help him out... and help we did.
Brother Palmer showed him the "Refiner's Fire" video made by the
church, afterwards I shared with him the story of Alma the younger and
had him read Mosiah 27, verses 14 and 20. I explained to him that the
prayers of the older Alma did NOT go unanswered, but he had to
continue working in the faith. And when his prayers finally were answered, and Alma the younger was brought back to him almost in a coma, he rejoiced. Not because his son had "gotten what he deserved", but because he knew it was the work of God answering his prayers. So Jay and Gretchen just need to keep
up what they were doing; praying for their kids, and showing them love
at all times. We gave him a blessing, then we left.
This work is amazing - and there's a lot of people out there who're
lost without the knowledge of the truth that we have. And that's what
we're here for! To help spread the Gospel. In order for the Second
Coming to happen, two things have to occur first: the hearts of the
children have to be turned to the fathers, and the Gospel must be
taught to ALL the world. We're getting there! :) love you guys! Thanks for all your love and support of me out here, I really do appreciate it! :D
Love,
Elder Taps 
P.S - I could've sworn Studio C was just a Utah thing... boy was I wrong!
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