Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/26/13

Well, I've just about finished my first transfer in the mission field.  I had my first baptism on Saturday, D.  She's 11 and we're hoping to be baptizing her mom soon.  I honestly don't really feel like it's my  first baptism, but I did get to confirm her (in Spanish!) on Sunday.  I didn't get any good pictures, sorry.  Next time I won't trust a nine year-old to get me a good picture. :)

After the baptism, we got a phone call.  It was a man named A who had just moved into a new house and had found a Restoration pamphlet with our number on it.  He'd read some of the pamphlet, liked what he read, but wanted to know who Joseph Smith was.  We told him we'd be happy to come over to his house and tell him about Joseph Smith.  We did so yesterday with the second counselor in our branch presidency.  It was a good lesson and he said he'd read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  We're following up with him on Wednesday.

Remember how I told you about Richard a couple weeks ago?  He got baptized on Sunday as well.  Imagine if we hadn't stopped to talk to him!

Last week I mentioned going to contact a referral (the one with the dogs).  When we contacted him, we gave him a Book of Mormon.  We finally got to teach him (very briefly) on Saturday, and he'd read the first sixteen chapters!  We had forgotten we'd even given him one.  He works kind of far away though so he doesn't get home until around 8, and it's been hard to catch them (him and his wife) home on weekends.  But they have great potential!

We were hoping to have a baptism this Saturday, but we're not so sure it's going to happen.  He's going down to Mexico Sunday night to visit his father who's sick.  His family are all members except for his oldest daughter, and we haven't seen her for awhile.  I think she's a way working or something.  And he has been progressing very well.  The only problem is that he's been having a struggle with drinking.  When we found out a couple weeks ago that he would be going to Mexico for most of March, we decided to set the goal of having him be baptized on March 2.  But he couldn't drink at all for the two weeks before that date.  Yesterday, we went over to their house to have a Family Home Evening, but he was in the other room talking to his dad and we didn't get to see him.  My companion saw a beer on their kitchen table.  O has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  He's seen how the gospel has affected his family, and he has expressed a desire to be baptized.  He went to the baptism on Saturday, and he really just needs to overcome this last obstacle.  Please pray for him.  He needs Spiritual strength, especially as he visits Mexico these next three weeks.

We're also teaching a lady named E and her two children.  E was going to be baptized 10 years ago, but her husband wouldn't let her.  She's no longer married to him, and we're hoping to baptize their family on the 9.  They let us confiscate their coffee, they've been going to church and reading in the Book of Mormon, and we're having dinner with them tonight with our Branch President.  I'm excited!

I wanted to quickly share something from my personal study the last couple days.  I started studying about hope.  We always hear about faith, hope, and charity, but hope seems to be fairly ignored, probably for a couple reasons.  For one, we see hope and faith as basically the same, and for another, in our daily use of the word hope, it holds a lot of doubt.  Here's an interesting thing.  In Spanish, the verb "to hope" is "esperar."  That also means, "to expect."  Esperanza, the word for hope, is also "expectation."  And so it is in the scriptures.  Hope is not a doubtful thing.  Quite the opposite.  Hope is a certainty, an expectation for the promises of God to be fulfilled.  Faith is believing that God CAN answer prayers.  It's believing that it's possible to go to the Celestial Kingdom, to speak by the Spirit, to work miracles, or to be forgiven of sin.  Hope is to expect those things.  When we don't have hope, we're in despair.  Preach My Gospel says hope is manifest in confidence, enthusiasm, and optimism.  You cannot have hope without faith, but I believe that you can have faith without real hope.  However, strong faith is always accompanied by hope, by that expectation in God's promises.  The scriptures talk about "a lively hope" or a "perfect brightness of hope."  And how do we develop hope.  Read Alma 22 and you'll have an idea.  It comes through repentance, prayer, and study of the scriptures.  And then, when we have faith and hope, when we know that we have a remission of sins and we will inherit Celestial Glory, then it is so much easier to develop charity and a desire for all men to have that same hope that you have attained. 

The Apostle Paul always ended his letters saying something like, "May the grace of God be with you" or something about grace.  I think I'm going to end mine with hope.

Keep your hope burning bright,

-Elder Ryan Lofthouse-

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/19/13

Hello!  I am having a wonderful time here in the mission field.  So much happens in one week and I'm not sure what to write about.

We have baptism scheduled for this Saturday, an 11 year-old girl named D.  We also have several baptismal dates for March.  And with our mission president's counsel to spend three hours each day finding, we're finding so many new investigators with a lot of potential.  For example, on Saturday we were riding our bikes and we passed a man in a trailer park doing something with his car.  We both felt we should go talk to him, so we turned around and went back.  When we told him that all we wanted to do was leave a blessing in his home, he invited us in.  His whole family was there, including five sons.  They were very nice, and just had a Mormon-ish look about them.  They felt the Spirit as we left the blessing, and invited us back.  We're hoping to see them today.  

Oh, funny story!  Again, riding our bikes, we saw a man with a teenager and a young kid.  When the kid saw us he said, "Run!  It's the Mormons!"  And he took off running!  The other two just ignored him, and so he said, "Look behind you!  Vaya (go)!"  And he disappeared around the corner!  Well the man talked to us, and it turns out he was one of the sister missionaries' investigators.  I couldn't believe that someone had literally ran away from us, even a kid.  

Another story:  We got a referral and went to go contact him.  There were two dogs and a bunch of their puppies guarding the gate.  They weren't that big, but they were not acting friendly at all, barking and growling.  But we had to contact this referral.  So with faith that God would protect me, I opened the gate and stepped in.  A second or two later the dogs were perfectly happy to have us there.  I like to think that they were calmed down by angels. 

We had a Trainer/Trainee meeting in Fresno last week.  I love meetings with President Gelwix and his assistants.  They're always so inspiring and motivating.  We talked about how our purpose in life is to become like Christ.  And as missionaries, our purpose is to invite and help other people to do that.  Everything we do is just a part of that, including baptism.  We can't lose focus of that bigger picture.  We also talked about the prayer, and how the purpose of prayer is to strengthen our relationship with God and bring our will in line with His.  And we locked our hearts!  There's a talk that President Benson (I think it was him) gave in a mission many, many years ago called, "Lock Your Hearts."  Falling in love is not allowed in the California Fresno mission.  So they have a tradition of buying plastic locks for all the new missionaries, and we get to decorate them and then lock them in this frame (I should have taken a picture) and give the keys to the coordinating sisters.  We get them back at the end of our mission.  It seemed a very fitting thing to do on Valentine's Day. :)  Oh by they way, I got your package while I was there. Thank you so much!

Elder Christofferson and Elder Rasband are coming to Fresno this week for a Priesthood Leadership Training.  I won't get to see Elder Christofferson, but Elder Rasband and President Gelwix are holding a special stake conference in my stake.  That should be really good!  

Anyway, I hope everything is going well back home.  Tell everyone that they can feel free to write me letters, but that I have hardly anytime to reply, so they should be aware they might not get a reply for awhile.  

This work is God's work, and this is His church!  I'm so excited to see the growth of the church in the next several years and to be able to be a part of it.  

I love you all!

-Elder Ryan Lofthouse- 

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/12/13

Hello everyone!  I can't believe how much happens in one week and yet it passes so quickly!  There's so much I could write about, and I don't know what to choose.
We should be having at least one baptism this month!  We've been teaching a lady.  She was actually going to be baptized just before I came, but then she was thrown in jail for a night, right before her baptism, lost her apartment, and is now living with her boyfriend who is a member (though less-active).  She's in the middle of a divorce right now, so she can't marry him yet and she doesn't have anywhere to go.  So we can't baptize her until that problem is solved.  However, she has a daughter, D, who is 11.  She really wants to get baptized.  We had an obstacle though.  Her father is a Jehovah's Witness and we needed his permission to baptize her.  We were praying and praying that he would give her permission.  Well, in court the other day, he temporarily lost custody of the kids.  Which should mean we can baptize her, though we're still going to double check with our leaders.  But we're expecting her baptism to be on the 23rd.  And we have a wonderful, wonderful sister in our ward who does so much for us, Sister Garcia.  She was taking care of a recent convert who had nowhere to live, who was having similar problems, but she moved to San Jose.  We're hoping and praying that Sister Garcia might be able to take D's mom in now.  If so, we could almost definitely reach our baptismal goal of 2 this month.  

This is such a great mission!  So many good things are happening.  Oh, I have an interesting story.  We were in our apartment at about 10pm last night, giving referrals to other missionaries in our district, when there was a knock on the door.  There's a companionship of English missionaries who live on the floor below us in our apartment, and they're always coming up to borrow things or ask questions, so I thought it would be then again.  But when I opened the door, who did I see?  President Gelwix!!  We were all a little in shock.  He inspected our apartment, talked with us, and then informed the other elders that they're going to be training a new elder starting this week!  We're getting eight missionaries who are waiting for visas and one of them is going to be with Elder Peacock and Elder Vera.  President said he was thinking of putting another one with us, but he didn't want to interfere with my training.  So luckily we won't have to fit six elders in our apartment, but we will have 5.  I'll have to see if I can send you a picture of our five beds all in the same room. :)  The new missionary arrived in Fresno today, and the Elders are picking him up tomorrow!  We're so excited!

Our mission is on track for a great year.  We had zone conference a few weeks ago, and the emphasized topic was finding.  We're supposed to spend three hours finding people each day, which involves street contacting, tracting (knocking on doors), and contacting referrals and potential investigators.  Two of those hours are supposed to be spent offering people blessings on their homes.  President Gelwix gave that instruction quite awhile ago, and no one was really doing it.  We got lovingly chastised and set out to do better.  Two weeks ago we as a mission found 276 new investigators (investigators who have been taught one lesson and accepted a return appointment) and last week we found 296 more.  That's a new mission record!  I know that Presidnet Gelwix holds the keys for revelation for this mission and as we follow his counsel, we will find success.  I'm so happy to be here!

Oh, one more cool story.  One day a few weeks -- wait.  I've only been here a few weeks.  It feels so much longer!  Okay, a couple weeks ago, Elder Hernandez and I were riding our bikes down the street.  We passed a man sitting on the bed of a truck.  We were going to just keep going, but we felt prompted to turn around and talk to him.  So we did.  We talked a bit, invited him to be baptized and set a date (March 9 I think) for him to be baptized.  He seemed very prepared.  He only spoke English thought, so we passed him on to the English missionaries.  His name is Richard.  The missionaries have taught him a few times now, he loves it, and he went to church this week.  He told the missionaries that he's definitely getting baptized.  We're so happy!

I know that this is the Lord's work.  Elder Eyring taught that the Lord puts prepared people in the way of his prepared servants.  There are lots of prepared people out there.  The more we prepare ourselves to share the gospel, through scripture study (treasuring up continually in our minds the words of life), praying for opportunities to share the gospel, and strengthening our testimonies through church attendance, the Lord will put prepared people in our path.  

Keep strengthening your testimonies!

Until next week,
-Elder Ryan Lofthouse- 

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/5/2013

A day in the life of a CA Fresno misisonary

 

Hello!  How is everyone doing back home?  Things are great here!  To answer your questions, I'm in a town called Atwater.  Yes, keep sending mail to the mission home, they immediately forward it.  I did get your letter.  I hope you got mine.  We have a car (which I drive) and we bike.  I don't think I've really done any walking.  We have dinner with members every day except Mondays, which is our preperation day and occasional other days where no one signed up for a dinner.  The Tuesday after I got here we had a Zone meeting.  We had specialized training that Thursday, which is where a few zones get together to receive training from President Gelwix and the Assistants.  Each zone is asked to do a muscial number.  My district leader had brought a copy of an arrangement of "Savior, Redeemer" (I think that's what it's called) which I think might be in 17 Miracles.  Anyway, it's a really pretty song and the zone leaders decided we would sing that as a zone.  Elder Doane (my district leader) hadn't thought we'd actually do it.  Well, the piano part is kind of difficult, and somehow I ended up being the one to play it.  With less than two hours of practice, I manged to make it work for the Thursday training.  So yes, my piano "skills" have been put to use. :)

A typical day involves exercise (five days of that week that involves 20 minutes of running and a 2 minute plank), breakfast and preparation (like showering) in the morning, personal study at 8, companionship study at 9, language study at 10, lunch at 11, The First Twelve Weeks study program for an hour, and then proselyting, which involves lessons, street contacting, and something we call "Harvesting Blessing" which is where instead of asking people if they'd like to learn more about our church, we ask if we can leave a blessing on their home as representatives of Christ.  That gives you a chance to invite the Spirit and soften their hearts.   There can also be various trainings and meetings during the week that change our schedule a bit.  

I wanted to share one story.  A recent convert in our branch has a stepmother (I think that's the relationship) who hadn't been feeling well because she'd fallen and hit her head.  After having dinner at this converts house on Friday, we went over there to give her a blessing.  We explained what a blessing was and how we did it, and then we told her to focus her attention on how she felt as we gave the blessing.  Her dogs didn't trust us very much and they kept barking when we stood up, but with some help and some treats, they calmed down enough for us to give the blessing.  I annointed and Elder Hernandez gave the blessing.  The Spirit was strong, and the dogs completely calmed down, which she noticed.  And she felt the Spirit so powerfully.  She said she knows that she needs to go to church and pay tithing but she hasn't known which church is the one she supposed to go to.  She's been praying to know which church to go to, and she has noticed the change in her step-daughter since she was baptized.  We're going to go visit her again today.

I've seen how people can be prepared to hear the gospel and God leads us to them.  I have so many experiences and not enought time to share them all.  But I know that this is the Lord's work and I'm so glad to be a part of it!  

I love you!

-Elder Ryan Lofthouse-