Email from Elder Lofthouse 4/28/14

Well, not much to report on.  Here are some pictures from my birthday.  Mexicans have a tradition of smashing the birthday person's face in the cake.  That has now happened three times this month in our district.  Yay April birthdays!  I have a wonderful district and they made it a really great day.  It was also the day when all the new missionaries come in.  Since our district isn't changing, we were going to have district meeting that morning.  Elder Orndorff and Elder Boswell were over at our apartment to get their bikes and we were about to bike to the church together when they got a call from President.  He asked them to be trainers for a missionary who had been reassigned after getting sick in Honduras.  They didn't have a lot of notice that he was coming, so that's why they got the late call.  They had to drop everything, take the English elders' car and head to the mission office.

We also switched apartments.  Ours has (had) two stories and theirs is tiny.  Since they have three missionaries now, they needed a bigger apartment.  It's kind of funny because they two English companionship switched too, for the same reason.  Musical apartments!  There are now 12 missionaries here in Madera.  Crazy!

We found some good new investigators this week.  They're all searchers, people who have listened to many different religions, gone to different churches, but are still unsatisfied and somewhat confused with all the different messages they have received.  They want to know the truth, and they have all responded very well to the message of the restoration.  

The power went out at the church half an hour before church started.  The bishopric decided to have sacrament meeting in the dark and if the power still hadn't come on, we would go home after that.  Thankfully the lights came on about half-way through sacrament meeting.  We had one investigator there who came with a less-active member friend, but she had to leave right after sacrament meeting and we haven't got a chance to follow up with her yet.  Hopefully she enjoyed it despite the lack of light at first.

I can't believe April is over!  Times just flies by.  I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 4/21/14 Happy Easter

Transfers are tomorrow.  My whole district is staying here.  Should be a fun transfer!

Not much to report on this week.  We had Zone Conference on Wednesday which was a really great experience.  And we started teaching some of the Q's neighbors in their home.  We should be seeing them again tonight.  

And, that's about it.

If you haven't had the chance yet, I encourage you to go watch this video:

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

What's possible for you, because of Him?  If there's one thing I'm gaining from serving a mission, it is a greater love and appreciation for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know He lives.  I know that because of Him, there is no end, we have second chances, and we can always try again.  

I love you all!  Have a great week.

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 4/11/14 Hope!

Sorry for the longer letter, but I have a lot of good things to talk about.  Hope, following the Spirit, and miracles!

This turned out to be a really good week.  Monday and Tuesday, not much happened.  Wednesday was slightly better, but Thursday was looking to be rough.  Discouragement was threatening to set in.  But as my companion and I talked about it, we realized that all of the best moments of our lives and our missions came after trying times.  "For after much tribulation come the blessings."  So we decided to look at our drought of success as a sign of good things to come.  We decided to keep working hard with our heads up and smiles on our faces, expecting that soon, we would see the blessings of the Lord in our area.  Up until Thursday we hadn't found any new investigators and had only taught one lesson with a member present.  On Thursday, we added one to each of those numbers.  By the end of the week however we had found seven new investigators, taught nine lessons with a member present, and 30 quality lessons.  What a miracle!  I am a strong believer in the power of hope.

I've also started realizing the importance of writing in our journals and recording the hand of the Lord in our lives.  It is our past experiences that give us hope.  And if we don't have our own experiences to give us hope, we can do as the Book of Mormon constantly directs and rely on the experiences of others by "remembering the captivity of our fathers" and "how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam."  That's why we have the scriptures!  To help us remember what God has done in the past and in so doing increase our confidence in his love, wisdom and mercy.  There really are good things to come for those who believe.

The Q got confirmed on Sunday.  M was feeling really sick, but came anyway!  They had to leave right after because of how she was feeling, but they are so determined to hold faithful to the end now.  Brother Q told us that he doesn't know how, but he promises with all his heart that he will pay his tithing from now on and he will never again go to the swap-meet to sell on Sundays.  He has given his spot to someone else.  What faithfulness!  I'm so happy for them.

One of the reasons we found seven new investigators this week is because we found a family of four.  On Friday, Elder Villanueva and I were on our bikes when someone clearly came to my mind that we had never followed up with.  We had said a prayer with her and her brother towards the beginning of march.  I thought, "We should try and see them again sometime."  Then my companion said, "Hey, do you remember that brother and sister we said a prayer with?"  As I smiled and said, "Yeah."  He said, "you were thinking of them too, weren't you?  Let's go!"  So we did, found their whole family at home, and have a return appointment for tomorrow.  From that experience I learned/remembered just how subtle the Spirit can be and how important it is to act immediately or the prompting will fade.  Many times, when we talk about experiences like that we say, "The Spirit whispered to me, 'go visit this person.'"  But for me, there are rarely any words involved.  There's not an actual thought that comes to mind.  It really is just an impression, which is very hard to describe.  I think that's why we describe them as verbal thoughts.

I'm excited for Zone Conference on Wednesday.  I know it will be an uplifting experience.  I am SO thankful to be a missionary.  I have learned so much and learn more every day.  I love this work!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 4/7/14 First Family Baptism!

Hello everyone!

The Q family got baptized yesterday! And it was the least stressful baptism I've had my entire mission. Everything just went so smoothly. The ward was excited, they were excited, and the Spirit was a wonderful one. What a great way to end the weekend!  And they each wanted different people to baptize them.  I baptized I, Brother Chavez baptized M, Elder Boswell baptized O, and Elder Villanueva baptized O2.  The men's dressing room was packed!

General conference was great. I wrote four specific questions before the conference started and it was amazing how often I received direct answers to those questions throughout the conference. President Uchtdorf's talk in the Priesthood session seemed to be just for me. My motives throughout my life have generally been fairly selfish. The theme for conference for me seemed to be, "Become a disciple of Jesus Christs by loving God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, and loving your fellowmen as yourself."

Our next baptismal prospect is R. C. He accepted a date for this Saturday, but depending on how this week goes we may push it back a week or two. He needs to quit smoking (but shouldn't have too much trouble with that), and we want to talk to the bishop to see if he would like him to get married before he gets baptized. His ex-wife is a member and the reason that he's investigating, but they aren't living together. However, we want to counsel with the bishop to see what he thinks the order of things should be. Rafael is very receptive and very desirous to change his life. He lives with his parents and his sister. His brother-in-law is catholic and a very difficult man. We're going to start teaching Rafael across the street in his aunt's house, because his brother-in-law really doesn't like us coming over. We had a little discussion with him last night which was really frustrating for me. I thought we were supposed to be able to confound our enemies, but I sure wasn't doing any confounding. I suppose before I can do that I have to be "humble and full of love."

I love being a missionary.  I love General Conference.  I love personal revelation.  I love repentance.  I love Jesus Christ!  Aren't we so blessed?  We can change!  We can overcome our struggles, weaknesses, and trials.  We can become more than who we are.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse