Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/24/14 Life is Good

It's a great day to be a Mormon missionary!  I have been doing just wonderful.  We had interviews with President Gelwix on Friday.  He'd been telling us to prepare for it, to really put some thought into what we would talk about and I did that.  Because of that preperation I had the best interview I've ever had with him.  It was about 15 minutes long, but it was one of the most uplifting experiences I've had on my mission.  He is so great!  I'll miss him a lot.

Thursday morning we received a call from the Q family, who were supposed to be baptized on Sunday. Sister Q was in the hospital. We then found out later she would probably still be in the hospital until Monday, today. So, the baptism is getting pushed back. Some members went to visit her in the hospital though so that was really great. Hopefully she'll be doing well enough to be baptized this weekend. We're praying for them. They have a lot of faith and they have told us they are still set on getting baptized as a family.

On Saturday we went on a team-up with Brother Z and in one of our lessons he was talking about his goal to stand before God clean and pure. I really liked how he talked about it and as I was thinking about it in church the next day I realized/decided what I wanted my main goal to be: Alma 5:19 - To stand before god with a pure heart and clean hands, having his image engraven upon my countenance. I think wrote down the things I need to do to accomplish that and then set some shorter-term (but still long-term) goals such as finishing my mission with no regret and then what I'd have to do to accomplish that. It was so revelatory and so simple! Once I got it figured out what I wanted the main focus of my life to be, everything else just started falling in place. It was really cool! I feel like I have a pretty good short-term gameplan worked out right now and I keep adding to it and adjusting it.

I can't believe there is onlly 2 weeks left of this transfer!  I can't believe Elder Hatch is going home next week!  Holy cow!  It's the beginning of the end.  I am so determined to use my last 9 months to the fullest.  I have grown so much and I plan on progressing more than ever.  I am so, so thankful for this gospel.  I am so blessed to have this privilege to be a missionary.  

I love you all so, so much!  I hope you are taking advantage of the time that's given to you and that you're enjoying every moment.

Love,

Elder Lofthouse 

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/17/14 Good Things!

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  (In Spanish it's el dia de amor y amistad, which means the day of love and friendship.  I like that better).  

Our area has been doing pretty well.  The Q family are getting baptized on the 23rd.  Sister Q was interviewed by President Mann (he's the new counselor in our missin presidency, and he is absolutely wonderful.  I got to meet him yesterday and he was so friendly and easy-going) yesterday and the rest of the family will be interviewed later this week.  They are such a wonderful family!  When we taught them the law of tithing, Brother Q had just made a mattress sale for $250.  After we read the scripture in Malachi 3 about tithing, his wife said, "Alright, $25."  And he pulled out the money he had just gotten, counted out $25 and gave it to her so they could pay it.  I could hardly believe it!  They have such strong testimonies that we are servants of God guiding them in the right way.  Their testimony has really strengthened mine.

We had a wonderful lesson with J, an investigator we found last week, where we finished teaching her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, she talked about the Spirit she has felt in the couple times we've met with her and she accepted a baptismal date for March 15.  She expressed a desire to learn more that she's never felt before and was really excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and start reading it.

H should be getting married on Saturday, but we decided to push his baptism back a couple of weeks because he hasn't been coming to church and he really doesn't have good excuses.  He used to come all the time!  We explained the commitment that baptism is and that we want him to be developing the habit of keeping all the commandments before he makes that covenant and he said that makes sense.  Hopefully he now understands better the importance of keeping all his commitments before baptism and he'll be able to be baptized in a couple weeks.

Well, that's pretty much it.  We have interviews with President Gelwix on Friday.  I'm looking forward to that.  Then we'll have a wedding and baptize a family of four.  Woohoo!  Should be a good week.

I love you all!

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/10/14 Miracles!

Wow!  So much can happen in just one week!  Elder Villanueva may have only been a missionary for four months, but he is absolutely fantastic.  He knows how to plan, how to study effectively, and he talks with everyone!  Because of that we have found a lot of success this week.  We quadrupled some of our numbers from the week before.

Last week, Brother and Sister Q were on track for baptism for the 15th, but their sons were still uncertain they felt ready for that.  Well, as of last night they are now all on track to be baptized together on the 23rd.  This will be my first full family to be baptized on my mission.  I'm so excited!  Brother Q has been struggling to give up coffee.  He's had it since he was 5, and there was a time where he would drink a cup every two hours.  He's been trying really hard to quit drinking it, and last night he gave us the rest of what he had and said he wasn't going to buy anymore.  His wife couldn't believe it!  They have so much faith and are so desirous to keep the commandments.  I'm very excited for them.

H is another investigator we have who has been taught since July (he was found by the West Elders when I was here in the East area).  He's probably had more marriage dates than most investigators have baptismal dates.  He's supposed to be getting married and baptized on the 22nd, but he hasn't been coming to church for awhile.  He used to come all the time!  He is a really great person, he believes the church is true, and he came and played basketball with us Friday night (which was super fun!), but we just can't seem to get him to the font!  We'll be seeing him tonight and hopefully we can get things solidified.  

We experienced a finding miracle this week. I felt like we should go knock doors on Davis street. After knocking for awhile with very little success, we decided to try one more door. A young adult named J answered the door and accepted our offer of leaving a blessing for her. She thought it was really weird how she had been feeling she needed a prayer and she had just gotten back from somewhere and was about to leave again when we happened to show up. She felt the Spirit and is really interested in our message because of that experience. She told us she usually never answers the door when she knows it's religious people, but for some reason she did this time. She's attended several churches in the past and has never felt quite right in any of them. She has a very strong desire to really understand who God is and what her relationship is with Him. We're excited to teach her!

In conclusion, I am loving Madera (again).   I can't believe how long I've been a missionary.  I can hardly imagine doing anything else.  I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of it and I know what I'm doing and I really look forward to the next nine months.  Being a missionary is the best!

I love you all!  

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 2/3/14 Life is Beautiful!

I am so excited to be back in Madera!  Lots of people actually remember me even though I was only here one transfer.  And it's given me an opportunity to see how much I've grown in the last 6 months.  I understand Spanish almost perfectly now, I'm way more assertive, and I'm super excited to serve her in the Madera 3 West area (I was in East 6 months ago).

My new companion is Elder Villanueva and he reminds me so much of Sam.  He's super witty and he was in orchestra.  But theatre is his forte.  He can mimic so many different voices.  It's pretty entertaining!  He just finished getting trained by Elder Bolton and he is a fantastic missionary.  We have had a great week so far.

Friday we had one of the best team-ups ever. A recent convert, O, brought his 11 year-old daughter, M (who I got to teach and baptize last time I was in Madera) and we went to teach the Q family (who now have a baptismal date for Feb 15). In that lesson, the mother told us how the blessing the Elders had given her earlier this week had healed her and how somehow, someway, she was going to go to church and get baptized. They had been having trouble coming to church because they work at the flea market and they've been struggling financially. We went in prepared to commit them to live the Sabbath day, and as we taught it to them, they immediately accepted it. The Spirit was very strong. Afterward we had MCM (Missionary Correlation Meeting), and O and M came with us. Elder Villanueva, on the way over, asked Michelle to talk about the lesson we'd had. She said she was shy but she would try her best. When it was her turn she said, "We had a really great lesson with them. I've never felt the Spirit that strong before. They have a lot of faith and are really good people." It was such a blessing for me to see her having those experiences and continuing to grow in her faith.

And the Qs did come to church on Sunday. We were scrambling to find the four of them a ride, but the bishop's wife finally pulled through. They could only stay for sacrament meeting, but they really enjoyed it and said they would stay all three hours next week. I'm really excited for them! And I got to see O bless the sacrament!  I don't know if you remember him, but he wasn't able to get baptized because his wife wouldn't marry him.  They finally resolved that issue and he got married and baptized in December.  

We're doing exchanges tonight, which means I get to try and lead the area with less than a week's experience in it.  It should be exciting!  Did I mention that Elder Crawford, who was my companion here, is now the district leader?  He's been in Madera for almost a year now!  

This is going to be a great transfer!  I am so, so excited!  I love this work!  I love the opportunites we have to learn and grow and help people do the same.  

I'm so happy!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse