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

Email from Elder Lofthouse 5/19/14 Life is Great

We got to go to the temple today.  It was wonderful!  

We decided to wait on setting up the baptismal interview with R. He was going to get baptized on the 17th, but there's still a lot of things that he doesn't understand. I'm honestly a little unsure what to do with him, because he has a strong desire to be baptized so he can receive a remission of his sins and enter into God's kingdom, he has lots of member connections, has come to our church several times, and will most likely still continue to come for the rest of his life as long as he keeps getting a ride. We're just having a really difficult time helping him understand prophets and the restoration and helping him develop a personal testimony and not just the answers to the baptismal questions. He seems to think that there's supposed to be a specific answer to the question "What does that mean to you?" So, I'm not sure if we should baptize him and hope that he eventually understands and receives a testimony of the restoration or wait first. He meets every other requirement.

We had some great experiences with the Book of Mormon this week. One of our investigators, J, mentioned that the bible says stronger things than the Book of Mormon does. I told him, "Here try this chapter" and left him 2 Nephi 29 to read. When we followed up, he hadn't read it, so we read with him. As we were reading he looked up and said, "I realize that this book is true. The Spirit just entered into me." He received a testimony of the Book of Mormon right then and there before our eyes! My companion asked him if he believed the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ had been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and he said, "Yeah, based on what I just felt." Now we're just trying to help him have the faith to keep the Sabbath Day and also to set a baptismal date.

Another day, we were knocking doors and one man accepted our offer to leave a blessing on his home. As I said amen, he immediately asked, "Do you have a book called... Mormon?" I said, "Yeah!" He said, "Do you sell them?" I said, "No, but we can give one to you." "You mean, you'll lend it to me?" And I said, "No, it's a gift!" He said thanks and said that he reads the bible, but that the Book of Mormon was a different book, another testament, and he wanted to read it. We asked if he'd talked with missionaries before and he said, "No, not really." He had a co-worker who used to work with the missionaries and I think that's where he first heard about it. Then a couple days later we went to visit his neighbor, and her son was there laying in a hammock listening to something on his i-pad. As we walked up he asked, "Do you have a Book of Mormon? In Spanish?" We said, "Yeah, do you want one?" He said, "Yeah, I was listening in Psalms the other day where it talks about this book and I want to read it." I don't know where in Psalms he was talking about but we didn't question it. He's a less-active Jehovah's Witness. I'm excited to keep teaching him.

Also, for those who are interested, the Qs are doing well.  Sister Q is still very sick and hasn't been able to come to church the last couple of weeks.  But her husband has been coming with one of the sons (they switch off staying with their mom) and Brother Q and O received the Aaronic Priesthood last week.  They've started doing family history and have plans to do baptisms for the dead in the future and have a goal of being sealed onApril 11 of next year.  I'm so excited for them!

I also got to hear about all my recent converts in Merced last week.  I saw the Packs coming out of the temple (my stake center is right next to it) and they told me about them.  J is a ward missionary as is M.  She's also activities chairman and planned a great activity not too long ago.  I'm so happy for them!

I hope you are all doing well.  I know this church is true and that there are good things to come for the faithful.  Keep pressing on!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 5/12/14 The Atonement is the Center of it All

Surprise!  I'm actually e-mailing today.  President interviews got moved to next week.  I will be e-mailing on Tuesday next week though.

Yesterday was just fantastic.  I love the phone calls home we get.  They do exactly what I think they're supposed to.  I feel so re-energized and focused afterward.  We ended the week with 13 lessons with a member present and set a new baptismal date.  His name is M.  In our last zone meeting, our zone leaders had us think of an investigator and look over the baptismal interview questions, thinking about what they needed next to progress.  I thought about him and as I went through the questions the Spirit whispered to me that while he may say he believes that Jesus Christ is our Savior, he probably doesn't really understand that.  He wouldn't accept a date because he feared falling again after baptism.  I felt that question three, which is about repentance, is what we should focus on next and as I did so I realized that it went perfectly with the second part of question one (do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world?".  And then my mind was just illuminated with the thought, "He needs to be taught faith in Jesus Christ and repentance."  It felt so right!  Later, my companion and I role-played our lesson with him.  In our last lesson we had taught the plan of salvation but for some reason had skipped over the fall.  We weren't sure why, but as we were role-play we felt directed to teach the fall and the atonement.  We felt so strongly that if we could help him understand the fall and the need of the atonement, that his faith in Christ would increase and he would accept a date.  And that's exactly what happened!  That was one of the most revelatory experiences I've had on my mission.  It has been such a blessing to see Mateo's faith grow.  He said he will try to be prepared to be baptized on the 31st, but it was with determination not uncertainty.  

R is set on being baptized the Saturday.  He's a little older though and forgets a lot and it's going to take a lot of work and a miracle to have him ready for the baptismal interview before Saturday.  He has a very strong desire to be baptized though, he has lots of family in the church, he loves going to church, he reads the Book of Mormon, he prays, and I think that with Heavenly Father's help, we'll be able to have this baptism. 

I just want to share my testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It has grown so, so much on my mission.  It grew even more last night as we taught M.  I was about to bear a general testimony of how Christ paid the price for our sins, but it came out like this: "Jesus Christ came to this earth to pay the price for MY sins and to rescue ME from the fall.  He did that to give ME the strength to overcome my weaknesses and to be able to get up over and over again even as I fall.  Because of Him we need not fear falling.  Because of Him it's okay to fall.  We can fall over and over again as long as we let Him lift us back up."  The Spirit bore a powerful witness to me of the words I was saying.  

We really were lost forever without an infinite atonement.  Death and sin are the two great obstacles to God's plan.  We cannot overcome those on our own.  But how great is our God who sent His son to save us from death!  How wonderful is His plan of redemption! "Repent all ye ends of the earth and come utno me and be saved."  Saved from death, saved from sin, saved from our fallen natures.  Let him heal you!  Let Him purify you!  He has all power and is all-loving.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

Email from Elder Lofthouse 5/5/14 Hello

This was a long week. A lot of good things happened. We finally hit 10 lessons taught with a member present. I was super happy about that. And we have some good plans to get lessons in members' homes this week and to receive referrals from members. It's been difficult to change and start working more through the members, but we've been keeping at it and I think it's starting to work.

Yesterday we set a fairly solid baptismal date for May 17th. His name is R C and he's related to a lot of the members. He's gone to our church a lot in Modesto and he reads the Book of Mormon. But he was adamant that he had already been baptized. However, we couldn't find his record anywhere. We've been pretty sure for awhile that he was never baptized in our church. We had dropped him a couple months ago, but we were on splits one night and I was with R's grandson. He suggested we go visit his grandpa. We did, set a return appointment, and I felt very guided by the Spirit last night as I asked R about confirmation and explained the importance of record-keeping. It sounds like he was never confirmed and it just seemed to click with him that he should have a certificate or some kind of record to show that he did that ordinance. So he accepted a baptismal date and he seems excited about it.

Our recent converts, the Q family, are going through a really hard time right now. Sister Q's sister died a couple days ago and she's taking it really hard. Her husband and one of her sons came to church on Sunday and it must have been such a sacrifice for them to leave her (she's really, really overwhelmed). But it was the first time they stayed all three hours, the first time they paid tithing, the first time they had interviews with the bishop, and I'm sure they will be (and already have been) so, so blessed for it. And the members have been great in reaching out to them and giving them support. Sister Q should be receiving several visits this week. I love this ward!

Also, R showed up to church this week!  He was going to get baptized in April and then he disappeared.  But he's back in our area and we're going to start teaching him again.  I'm excited!

Anyway, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Lofthouse

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