Email from Elder Lofthouse 6/16/14

This was a good week. I've been feeling pretty good lately. There is nothing I love more than feeling the Spirit and I have felt it often recently. I know this is God's work.

R got confirmed yesterday. He has changed so much recently, and is very happy with his decision. He thanks us all the time for opening his eyes. The other day he was sharing with us some problems he's been having with children and grandchildren fighting. In the past he may have lost his temper and said a lot of things he shouldn't have but he said to us, "I've been trying so hard. I haven't done ANYTHING to offend God since I've been baptized. So instead I just cry." I had never seen him cry before but he was when he was talking with us. I hope his wife notes the change in him and will one day follow his example. In just a brief month and a half I have really come to love that family.

M has also been progressing really well, but didn't come to church yesterday because of a Father's Day activity with his family. His wife came though. We should be having another lesson with him in the home of his brother-in-law (who's the Elders Quorum President) tomorrow, and is still on track to be baptized at the end of the month. He's starting to know the scriptures and has found lots of answers during his studies. I'm excited for him!

We really haven't had much contact with F though. I still have high hopes for her, but we need to have another lesson soon. Something I've noted on my mission is that the Spirit, before baptism and confirmation, has a shelf-life. We need to act quickly before she completely for gets her experience last week.

I can't believe two weeks of this transfer are already almost gone. I've really enjoyed being with Elder Morrow. He accepts correction very well, he speaks Spanish 100% of the time, he's been discerning all our investigators' thoughts and I am just having a great time with him.

Well, I hope you all have a great week!  Life is just great!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 6/9/14

I am so excited for this transfer. I am so thankful to have Elder Morrow as a companion.  He's from Virginia, he's 20, and he's been out 14 months. He is a fantastic missionary! 

R C got baptized yesterday. We met with him a couple hours beforehand and he thanked us for opening his eyes and helping him join the Church of Jesus Christ. Not too long ago, I wasn't even sure he really understood the restoration. He has made leaps and bounds in the last month! He has a lot of family in the ward, and they were are really excited and could hardly believe he was actually getting baptized. Everyone's faith is really high right now that his wife, B, will soon follow.

M came to church yesterday for the first time! He has a baptismal date for June 28th. He has also made leaps and strides in the last couple months and his less-active wife is no longer less-active. I hope she gets a calling soon. I am very excited for them.

We also got a new ward mission leader yesterday.  He served a mission in Missouri, was the first convert in his family (they've almost all been baptized in the last 10 years now), and is already really good friends with us.  We are all super excited.  He has a lot of good plans and is going to be such a blessing to this ward.

Our best experience this week was with an investigator named F. We hadn't seen her for quite awhile. We started the lesson by asking her what she remembered from what we had taught and she really didn't remember much. Then, Elder Morrow started asking inspired question after inspired question. He asked if she was ready to make covenants with God. She said that the missionaries wanted her to get baptized, but she didn't intend to get baptized. She'd talked to someone who's gone to our church for years without getting baptized and told her that she didn't need to get baptized to go to church and hear the word of God. Elder Morrow asked her if she had asked God if she should get baptized and she said no. With absolutely no hestiation, Elder Morrow got on his knees and said, "We can do it right now then!" She said, "Okay," got on her knees and asked how to do it. I re-explained to her prayer and we told her that we would stay on our knees after the prayer and pay attention to how we felt. She said a very sincere, faith-filled prayer, saying, "Please tell me if I should get baptized in a dream, because only you know my problems and my situation, and I need you to tell me in a dream... or right now, if I should get baptized." As soon as she said, "right now," the Spirit flooded the room. After she said amen, we stayed on our knees for probably 5 minutes straight, just basking in the Spirit. It was wonderful! My companion then said, "I sense you've received your answer." She nodded and he said, "So will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the authority from God?" She said she was going to talk to her daughter-in-law who is getting baptized in one of the English wards soon to see when it would be. It was amazing how quickly the Spirit changed her!

Well, I hope you are doing well.  Have a fantastic week!

Email from Elder Lofthouse 6/2/14

Well.  This next month will be interesting and should be super great!  I'm staying here in Madera.  Elder Villanueva is going to Atwater (where I was trained)!  My new companion will be Elder Morrow who I have seen at lots and lots of zone conferences over the last year but never really met.  On Tuesday we and hopefully most of the mission will be going to the missionary farewell in Fresno.  The Tuesday night before transfers each transfer there's a fireside where all the missionaries who are going home share their testimonies.  We get to go if we bring an investigator and find member or investigator transportation.  Well, this farewell will be particularly special.  There are probably more than 20 missionaries going home this transfer, and..... this is also President and Sister Gelwix's farewell!!  Afterward, when everyone is mingling in the cultural hall, the coordinating sisters want us to do a flash mob of "Called to Serve" California Fresno style where we'll all surround president and sing it to him (when I get back maybe I'll demonstrate it for you).  It's going to be fantastic!

We're going with R C and his grandson, C.  C's the best!  R is getting baptized this weekend and C is going to baptize him.  Woohoo!  And M is progressing well.  He's the brother-in-law of our Elder's Quorum president.  He's made a lot of changes in his life and his wife has been coming to church pretty regularly over the last couple months.  She used to be very less-active.  Sadly, he's had lots of work and still hasn't made it to church, but hopefully he'll be able to be baptized by the end of June.  

E and C said they were going to try to come to church on Sunday but they didn't show up either.  However, it turns out the E really understands the restoration (at least a lot better than we had thought) and we committed them to read the Book of Mormon together.  Hopefully we'll see them again soon.

Anyway, I am really enjoying Madera, California.  It's mostly been in the 90's the last couple weeks, occasionally hitting 100.  Forecast says it will be 103 on Friday.  I'm super excited!  This is such a great mission.  I am really going to miss President Gelwix and we want to work our hardest for him this month.  We had 98 baptisms in May!  We are on track to reach our goal of 1000 baptisms this year and a lot of that is because of the inspired and inspiring leadership of President Gelwix.  I wish you could all get to know him.  

Well, I hope you are all doing really well.  I know this gospel is true.  I have a very strong testimony in the power and possibility of repentance.  "Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you" (Alma 34:31).  Immediately!  It's so true.  God is waiting and willing to answer our prayers, to forgive us, and to sanctify us.  The Atonement of Christ doesn't just help us overcome sin, but it helps us overcome all our burdens, all our frustrations, all our fears, all our doubts, all our pains.  So take His yoke upon you.  Let Him share your burden.  And keep moving forward!

I love you all!

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 5/26/14

Hello everyone!  We just got back from Yosemite National Park.  It was a lot of fun.  This earth is beautiful!

We had a great experience this week with an older couple named E and C. They had gone to Mexico for a couple weeks at the beginning of the month and we finally got to meet with them again. We started teaching E awhile back and we got to teach both him and his wife in the home of a member in April. And it was amazing, because his wife never leaves the house. And she also told us that she used to want to have nothing to do with us, but now she comes and talks with us every time we go over. And she's going to come to church on Sunday! In our last lesson with them, I felt prompted to talk about Heavenly Father, the nature of our relationship with him, and the pre-mortal life. At one point in the lesson she asked,"If we die and were to get resurrected I wouldn't still be married to my husband, right? That'd be impossible." And we said, "Well...would you want that?" And she said, "Oh, yes! We are here to tell you that it is completely possible, and we're here to show you how." We briefly talked about getting sealed in the temple and she felt the Spirit so strong. They are such a wonderful couple. I sure hope they get to the temple someday!

I was really discouraged yesterday by how many of our members, recent converts, and investigators have rationalized working on Sundays.  There's a lot of work right now, and people get paid more on Sundays so lots of people are taking advantage of that.  A few of our team-ups have taught investigators that, "When you need to work on Sundays, God understands." I suppose that's true, but I just don't think that most people really "need" to work on Sundays. They're afraid to turn their families' well being to the Lord. I'm always afraid to ask them to stop working on Sundays and trust that the help will come.  Yet I just KNOW that if they will keep the commandments 100%, no exceptions, God will take care of them!  Even if they have to make some sacrifices, it's so worth exact obedience to the commandments of God.  Yes, it's hard, but so was the atonement.  If He could do that, surely we can do the few things that He asks of us.  I think that's why I'm afraid to ask them to do it though.  There will be sacrifices that have to be made, it will be hard, it won't be comfortable.  But as Elder Holland said, "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. 

"Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes—and this seems the greatest irony of all—these  folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of “comfortable” God. Really? He who said not only should we not break commandments, but we should not even think about breaking them. And if we do think about breaking them, we have already broken them in our heart. Does that sound like “comfortable” doctrine,easy on the ear and popular down at the village love-in?"

The Gospel is not easy to live.  But it is simple.  God has shown us the way quite clearly in the scriptures.  If we will just unwaveringly hold true to his commandments, all the suffering and hardship of this life will be swallowed up in the joy of salvation and exaltation in God's kingdom.  So keep the commandments, be obedient out of a love for Jesus Christ, and watch the blessings come pouring down.  Because they will.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

-Elder Lofthouse