March 25th, 2013

Oh it has been an interesting week! Spring break.....on campus......everyone is gone! Ha-ha But it was still a good one!

Spring break really did hurt us a bit. We went from teaching about 4 lessons a day with a bunch of other stuff to scrambling to find enough to do. We had a lot of energy and not enough to use it for which made for an interesting week! Ha-ha We were fine though. We were able to do a lot of service and some exchanges and everything like that! It was a good week!

For service we helped Bro. Sorenson (who is the dean of students here at EA) with a few things. We were able to re varnish his fence(s) which was pretty fun! It was good to be out in the 90 degree weather with a tee shirt on! We were also able to help him put some lattice over his patio! It was a great thing for me to be able to really do work like that again! It has been since before my mission that I was able to work and build things like that and I really miss it a lot! It was good to be able to work with tools again! I was able to really help a lot and I feel a little bad because I kind of took over and started telling everyone what to do. In my defense......I do know what I am doing and I saved us a few trips to the store as well as extra pieces of lattice! It was good! I will send pics next week. 

I don't have much to report on the people we are teaching because every single one of them was gone this week! But Nicole is doing really well! She made it back safely and we are looking forward to her baptism this Saturday! I am so excited! Larry was able to have a good week back with his family in Louisiana! He is doing well and if everything happens as it should we should be seeing him in a white jumpsuit as well! Ale we have not heard from since she left, hopefully she was able to have a good week in Mesa with her family. Tyler is doing pretty well. Her family is having some trials this weekend that are really hard for her but we are keeping her in our prayers and everything will work out.

One really interesting experience that happened this week involves a really cool example of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was able to have a unique experience this week with the Enabling Power that changed my perspective on it a little bit and made it even more personal. It all started on Monday when I threw out my back. I am not sure when it happened and I don't remember throwing it out but it must have happened when we were playing sports with the missionaries or when we went and played sports with the college kids. Anyways Monday night it hurt. No big deal. Sleep it off and in the morning it will be better right? Wrong. When I woke up Tuesday morning I couldn't get up. I couldn't even sit up because my back was not cooperating. Weird feeling for me......I'm not that old right? Ha-ha But I couldn't do it. I just laid there as Elder Clark went to shower and get ready. As I was laying there I was pondering my options to think of what to do. I kept having the thought that I should just pray for strength and I would be alright. I decided to do it. I maneuvered myself to my knees (probably took a few minutes) and began to pray. I prayed that I would have the strength in my back to accomplish all that I needed to do that day, that through the enabling power of the Atonement I could receive strength in my back. 

There was no immediate change as I finished. It took me a lot of struggling but I was able to stand up. I was able to stagger/waddle to the kitchen with the help of the walls. But it worked! The enabling power of the Atonement can work. Though the pain was not gone and I didn't walk like normal, though I had to struggle all day. I was able to do it! I had the strength sufficient to accomplish everything I needed to and that night, after writing in my journal I could discern when that power stopped supporting me as I had to really struggle to get back into bed. I am not upset that I had to deal with the pain or struggle with the things I needed to do that day. I am super grateful for my opportunity to have this amazing experience with the Atonement. This experience repeated itself on Wednesday as well. Almost to the t. I couldn't get up until I asked for help. I was pretty much literally carried and supported throughout all the things I needed to do and my strength didn't fail until I went to bed. My back is all better now and completely back to normal but that experience I had this week was priceless. It isn't very often that we are able to be carried in a way such as that by our Savior. He has carried all of our burdens before and will gladly help us and lift us if we ask. In His words, "Come unto me, all ye that labor. And I will give you rest. For my burden is easy and my yoke is light." It is true! He will literally lift us through all of our struggles! 

That is all I have for this week! Next week will be a good one!

Till next time.....

Elder Banner......signing off.....

March 18th, 2013

I think I am beginning to sound like a broken record but it was another great week and I have way too many things to write about!

I will start out with someone new that we started teaching this week. Her name is Ale (Allie) and she is an inactive member of the church that hasn't gone for a very long time. Her friend is one of our ward missionaries and invited her to have a lesson with us! It was an interesting but very good experience as we were able to teach her about prayer and then the next lesson about the Atonement. She now wants to come back as she felt the spirit for the first time in months. It was a great experience! She is in Mesa for this week with her family.

Things are going well with Larry! He is awesome and continuing to progress! We had a good week where we were able to meet with him frequently. He was able to come to home evening at bishops on Monday and had a good experience there. We were able to watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration with him and that was also a great experience. He had to get surgery on his ear this week because of a bad ear infection so that was interesting. He is fine and he is actually able to go home to Louisiana this week to spend spring break with his family! He hasn't seen them for about 8-9 months so it will be great for him!

Nicole is continuing to progress and she is so awesome! She had here baptism interview on Tuesday and of course was ready! She is so ready! We were also able to have a few good lessons with her this week before she left on Thursday! It was cool as we were talking about faith in Jesus Christ and she said how much her faith has grown since we started meeting with her. She believed in Christ before as she was Catholic but it was cool to see how much more she knows now! She will be gone until probably Saturday or so we won’t be able to teach her much this week but we were able to get her baptism all scheduled and it will be a great program! I am so excited!

We were able to have Zone training this week with President and Sister Killpack and it was great! They told us that ours was the most fun and happiest zone training in the mission! We do have a.........interesting group of missionaries here! I love them! They are a lot of fun! Good group of guys here. We had an interesting experience with a Lutheran guy that just tried to bash with us for about 20 minutes. It was sad. His religion and the things he thinks he knows are so backwards and don't make sense. We didn't tell him that of course but it was sad to see how unhappy he was and how he tried to feel better by tearing us down. We were able to answer all of his questions and I think he left madder because he couldn't tear us down. Bashing is awful. It makes everyone angry! Also I had a crazy experience/miracle involving two cars and my leg. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances my left leg was pinned between two cars this week. Yes I have now been hit by a car on my mission. The miracle is that I didn't even have a bruise! It hurt so badly and my leg probably should have broken but I was protected and I didn't even have a bruise to prove it happened! Only a limp! Ha-ha

The best experience this last week has been with Tyler. I didn't have time to write about this last week but Last Saturday we had a lesson with her about weapons of rebellion against God. Basically anything that is keeping us from Him and the Spirit. We had her write on a paper that only she would see all of the things that are keeping her from feeling the Spirit and then we committed her to refrain from all of those things for a week. She did it and the change in her this week is amazing! It is a complete 180 and night/day difference! She had the best week of her life! That is how she described it! She was so happy this week! Everything went right for her this week and she came to the conclusion that it was so because of her sacrifice and submission to God's will. She described her change with tons of examples. I will share one that highlights a scripture that we told her about before we started this process. Tyler loves music! It is her favorite thing in the world. Her music is...hard music and not very conducive to the spirit. She has a lot of concert t-shirts and that is mostly what she would wear and most of what her closet is full of. All of these are black. One of the craziest things is that she doesn't want to wear black anymore! She only wants to wear light colors because she is happy! She has also stopped listening to most of her music because "it is garbage and nasty and I don't feel good when I listen to it". The Atonement is real! This change that Tyler has gone through is described in D&C 88:67-68 "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God." This sanctification and enlightening process has been the theme of my time up here in Thatcher! I love the Atonement! I love being able to see it working in my life as well as those who we work with! It is the coolest thing in the world!

Though there were many more experiences this week that will conclude my email! I hope all is going well with all of you!

Elder Banner