January 28th, 2013

What a week!!!

 This was, by far, the most successful week of my entire mission up to this point! It was so much fun and so crazy! I know that I am not going to be able to write about everything but I hope to hit a few high points.

The first thing I need to report about this week is the success we have had with our new investigator (from last Sunday) Tashina! Tashina is soooooo awesome! We have been able to have a lesson with her every day this week (that is so cool in and of itself) and have already taught her most of the lessons! In one week!! That blows me away because I am used to needing a lot more time to teach people even simpler principles!! Tashina is going to be baptized on Feb. 16 and we are so excited for her! As an example of how cool she is I will share this experience, on Thursday Elder Clark and I forgot to give her a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon (yes we are awful missionaries I know) so what did she do? She decided to start to read it from the beginning. When we asked her if she read (after apologizing for forgetting to give her something to read) she told us that and then told us what she read about like Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem, then about Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel going back to get the brass plates (and remembering each of their names!) and the three different tries they did. And then how they went back again to Jerusalem to get Ishmael and his family and at about this point we asked her how much she read. She read about 8 chapters!!! It was crazy! Not only did she read it but she remembered everything! Even the names of Sam and Ishmael! Normal investigators don't do that! She is so cool and so ready! Elder Clark and I both feel that she is a blessing to us for all the crap we have gone through up to this point! The Lord truly loves and knows each of us. We also gave her a Navajo Book of Mormon in addition to her English one (yes she is a Navajo) and she was excited for that one as well!

Speaking of the Book of Mormon.....I just want to say one thing. I encourage all who read this to read the Book of Mormon. It doesn't matter if you have never read it before or have read it 100 times! You will always learn something new! Also that is the best way to know if this church is true! If the Book of Mormon is true then it means that Joseph Smith is truly a Prophet of God! It means that this Church is truly God's church once again established on this earth and the fullness of His gospel is found here! This is a totally black and white thing, there is no grey! Either the Book of Mormon is true or it isn't and this church stands or falls as God's church with that simple truth! Wither you are wondering if this is the right church, you have forgotten that this is the right church, or want a stronger testimony that this is the right Church the Book of Mormon is THE way to know. I bear you my witness and testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God given to us from a Prophet called by Him. I know that is true and that is why I am here! I want to quote from the introduction of the Book of Mormon:

"We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3-5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.”

I know that is a true promise. God loves every one of you and will not keep you in darkness! If you read the Book of Mormon and pray to know it is true then you WILL know it is true. I promise that and testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

We had lots of other cool things happen this week but I want to touch on one more that was one of the coolest experiences I have had thus far on my mission. This may not seem so cool but it was for me! Yesterday, right in the middle of the 4 Sacraments that we go to, I was able to go and do a baptismal interview for a little girl. This little girl is named Rachel and she is 9 years old and Autistic. It was so fun to meet and speak with her! We talked for about fifteen minutes about all the things that she likes to do and it actually really reminded me of you Jackson. She is just like you were at that age! She loves to play video games and loves Sonic and everything. She even would use the same phrases and stuff! It was really cool and really funny! She is such a sweet little girl! The reason that it was such a cool experience is that, even though she is 9 years old and Autistic, she gets it. She understood baptism and the importance of it more than anyone I had ever interviewed! I was sitting right in front of her and I asked her if she knew why I was there and talking with her. She told me that it was to see if she could be ready to be baptized. I said, "That's right! I am here to make sure you are ready to be baptized!" right as I said this she stood up (she had already stood up and sat down twice so I didn't expect what happened after) she smiled so big and then just gave me a big hug and said thank you in my ear! It was so cool! The feeling that was there was great! This little girl understood the love that her Heavenly Father had for her and knew (and told me) that she wanted to follow Jesus and live with him for a lot. She also knew that the only way to do this was to be baptized and she was so happy to be able to talk to me so that she could. It was one of the sweetest experiences of my entire mission and definitely the best baptismal interview I ever have done. That gave me a whole new meaning to the phrase "and becometh like a little child" and know I understand what the Savior meant when he told us to be as children. It was such a great experience!

The other thing I need to comment on is a devotional we had last night! We were able to have two members from the first quorum of the 70 come down here and do a special devotional for the young single adults in the Gila Valley! It was so cool! It was a great meeting and the spirit was super strong! Tashina was able to go to that and she really enjoyed it! We (Elder Clark and I) were also able to meet them and speak with them for a little while! It was super cool! 

Oh there is so much more I want to talk about but my time is done! The church is true! I love being out here on a mission!

Love you all!

Elder Banner

January 21st, 2013

Sorry I didn't post last week!  To catch you up a little, he was just transferred, and he was just made a zone leader.....

 

Hello again!

 

This is a fun week to write about! I LOVE the YSA wards!! They are so much fun! I will give some details about our work here, I don't know if I said this on the last email but this time I actually know what I am talking about! We serve on the EAC (Eastern Arizona College) campus and are over 4 YSA wards, the Mount Graham 1-4 wards. And they are awesome! There are some of the coolest people up here! One funny thing is that alot of the people up here know, not only where Layton is but, alot of people that I know as well! Small world! One guy (I will share an experience we had with him later) actually lived in my ward boundaries in Layton over this last summer. He was in the condos across from Dairy Queen! Crazy!! Also I don't know if I really told about Elder Clark my companion. He is a stud!! He is from Nampa Idaho, the first kid in his family to go on a mission, been out about 18 months, he played basketball for a college in Washington he went to, and is awesome! I am so lucky to be with him! He was one of the people I was hoping to be with! haha Being with him and being here on EAC campus (which is possibly the most coveted spot on the mission) is payoff for the patience I have had to have with everything thus far I think!

 

We are at a building stage right now with investigators. We have a couple that aren't all in if you know what I mean but we did have a ton of non members come to church on Sunday that we were able to meet that hopefully we will see soon! We did set up a appointment with one of them that we are super excited for! I'll let you know how that goes! I also realised while being here in the YSA wards (full time now) that I am pretty socially awkward from being in the branch for so long! One on one I am fine but when there is a large group I get pretty quiet because I am not used to that anymore! haha funny stuff! This week at church was interesting! Being that we have 4 wards we go to 4 different Sacrament meetings every week! That is very interesting and actually quite a blessing! It is great to be in there with them! This week was even more interesting! We participated in 3 of the 4 sacrament meetings that we had! In 3rd ward we each said one of the prayers, in 1st ward we shared our testimonies at the end of the meeting, and in 4th ward we were the meeting! We were the speakers and it was actually a great experience! We each gave some good talks and had alot of positive feedback from them. Also that was a ward that we had one of our investigators in and two potential investigators in! It was awesome!

 

The member support here is unreal! I can't believe it! I guess that is partially due to the fact that many of our members are in fact RM's so they know how it is! But it really is blowing my away! Everything! Even the fact that we have a ward mission leader (we have 4!) and ward missionaries that would love to come out with us is crazy to me! I love it! One example of how this works and how each of you can be a member missionary is below:

 

We were over and teaching a member lesson (super effective) and one guy in our ward started talking to us about a less active friend he has. Then he says, "I'm going to call her.......right now." which he does and then when she answered he spoke with here for a little while and then said "You can't be mad at me but I just told the missionaries that you are going to take the lessons with them". Maybe a little too blunt for some people but perfect for her as she agreed without any persuasion. He testified that we would be able to help her and then said goodbye. Then the next morning we got a text from him saying that she invited a non-member friend to meet with us also! That is member missionary work! He will be at the lessons as well as both of them. We are hoping to start those this week. The church is true!

 

That will be all for now! Hope you had a good week!

 

Elder Banner

January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year!! It has been an interesting week this week! Lots of new things!

I'll start with how all of this started! Last Monday around 4 or 4:30 we were driving home from dropping off the other missionaries after p-day and we got a phone call from President Killpack. Elder Van Noy answered and spoke with him for a little while and then he asked to speak with me. I took the phone and President told me that I was going to be transferred! Now I had a feeling I would be transferred on the 15th because we had three of us and everything but then he said a few things I did not expect! He then told me he was going to rock my world a little bit and told me that I would be transferred, not on transfer day in two weeks, but the next day! That shocked me! An Elder in another area was going home and his companion needed a companion and we being in a trio made that choice easy! ha-ha But President Killpack told me that would only be temporary and then asked if I would be a Zone Leader on the actual transfer day! So.....ya! I spent my new year’s packing all my stuff (which after a year in the same apartment collecting things....I had so much stuff!) and then on the 1st I moved! I started my second area in the mission about thirteen months in! Ha-ha and I will only be here for one more week before I am moved again! I still do not know where I am going for that but it has been pretty crazy! Also on Friday I went to ZLC (Zone Leader Council) which was awesome! It was like....a gentleman's club! Ha-ha it was pretty fun! The real funny thing is that, as of right now in this area, I am not a District Leader anymore and I am not even sure if I am senior or junior comp so I will be skipping all of that to go ZL! Ha-ha Funny stuff!

 

We are in the Cienaga and Corona Wards which are out there! Even for me, an ASL Elder and used to driving all the time to get to people, these two are far. There are no apartment complexes out there so we live in Tucson (still in the East Stake boundaries) but drive out to the other side of Vail every day. It is about an hour drive just to get to our area! I actually really enjoy the area though. They are a few just small communities clear out in the desert alone. We have a truck and we need it because most of the roads when you finally get out there are dirt roads! We have had fun with that! We also took our bikes out there on Saturday to give it a try and see if we could use our bikes and save miles. We can but I learned just how out of shape I am when I was trying to bike through the desert sand! Ha-ha Also Elder Jones lead us through a "shortcut" he saw that ended up have some thorn bushes with branches crossing the path. I heard him yell OW OW! In front of me and then I went through the first one and was ripped up so I tried to stop......bad idea! As Elder Jones kept going full speed he went right through the other ones but when I stopped I just got stuck in them. So it took me a few minutes to get everything out of me and my clothes and on our way again but my arms still look like I cut myself! Ha-ha and I was still finding thorns in myself a few hours afterwards! Fun Times! :p Oh I am companions with Elder Jones, he is an English elder and the two of us are the same age in the mission, we are actually going to go home at the same time. He is an interesting guy! I like him and the two of us get along very well! He is bipolar and has some ADHD among with lots of other things! We are doing well and are getting some work done and having a good time while doing it! I knew him before because he was in my zone when I first came in the mission.

 

English is fun! It is good to use my voice to communicate with people again but It has become apparent how used to signing I was/am. I still am always using my hands, my natural response to say small things like thank you or whatever is to sign it instead of say it and I am not used to how normal people communicate. Allot of the time I am just thinking.....get to the point please! Ha-ha that is the deaf culture coming out! So yes I actually really miss signing! And I don't miss it at the same time! Also I need to explain church! So I have not been to a family ward in over a year except for once and that were a few months ago and I think I already talked about that! And the only other ward I had been to other then the deaf branch is with the YSA which everyone says is crazy quiet! So going to church yesterday, to both wards and especially the Corona ward, they were so LOUD!!! I'm not exaggerating when I say there were times I half covered my ears! There were so many kids crying and everything and I couldn't believe it! As I was thinking how loud everything was I looked around and NO ONE else seemed to notice! I even said to my companion how loud it was and he was first, confused and said this one wasn't that loud and then realizing why I thought it was so loud just started laughing at me! It was an interesting experience! It was so nice not to have to do anything! I don't think I will ever think of sitting in the congregation and just enjoying church the same! It was SO nice! No responsibility! Ha-ha and it was also weird to have the option which class to go to! It was a really cool experience and the members are really cool! We had dinner with one of our ward mission leaders last night (dinner and having a ward mission leader are weird to me! Having someone called to help in missionary work with us, all other missionaries have it so easy!) This was interesting! Ha-ha He also had two guitars he let me play which made my day! One was a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe edition Electric guitar and the other one was also a Gibson (I didn't know the model) but it was an acoustic and the most beautiful sounding and looking (and probably the most expensive) guitar I have ever played! I was in heaven! Ha-ha

 

There has been lots that happened this week! Lots of changes and new things but that is all the time I have!

 

Till next time!

Elder Banner

Transferred....

After the one year mark, Elder Banner gets his first transfer.  Josh was transferred to an English speaking portion of the mission this past Tuesday.  He is excited for his new adventure!  Until this point he has only been in one apartment and had two companions.  So from now on if you send anything send it to 939 W. Chapala Drive, Tucson, AZ 85704!