Season 12: Skyway A. Episode 5:Progression

his is Elder John, Elder Sanders, Elder Samuelsen, and I at their apartment.
This haircut is one I did myself!

This is the board on one of the churches we drive by often haha.

Hola!

Elder Sanders in the zone had a bike accident where he dislocated both of his elbows, so he needed to stay in for a couple of days. One days I stayed inside for the day to be with him while his companion went out and worked. During that time on one of those days I had a goal to call a lot of folks from the area book. I did that and it took some work! I called a total of 66 numbers. Out of those 66, 47 of them either picked up the phone and I talked to them or I left a voicemail. Out of those 47, we got 3 return appointments and 2 pretty promising ones we need to follow up with. I enjoyed getting back in the phone drill as I worked in a call center for a security company before my mission. It was some fun stuffs!!

Gin is a super duper busy fellow and as a result he needed to reschedule our appointment that was supposed to happen last night. So we are going by this Sunday. He communicates with us very well and we really appreciate that. He is great and we love him so much!

I had the opportunity to go on an exchange this week with an Elder who I went on with when I first got here. I love this Elder so much! He has progressed a lot since I first went out with him. He has changed and become a much better Preach My Gospel missionary and he is still progressing. He isn't perfect, but we never will be! The point of this life is to continue to progress and become more Christlike in the process and this Elder is definitely doing that.

Here is a last quick thought for today.

Helping Heavenly Father become my true priority all of the time is another focus I am working on right now. On exchanges and at various other times, I am doing much better at focusing on not trying to impress this missionary, but instead to please Heavenly Father. Heavenly Fathers opinion and grade is the only metric that truly counts. One thing that is hard is at the end of a poor week of key indicators (these are defined in Preach my Gospel Chapter 8) to total them up and see you have lower numbers than you hoped for. One thing I felt inspired to do last night was to read pages 10 and 11 in Preach My Gospel, which talk about the definition of a successful missionary, before totaling them up at the end of the week. Doing that helped me feel that even though what was measured key indicator wise was low, that Heavenly Fathers love and measure of success for my companion and I is truly high. Higher than we normally realize. I invite you to pray and search for the praise that truly counts, the praise from  Heaven!

Love y'all!

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 12: Skyway A. Episode 3

Us at one point during interviews with President Eaton on Friday.

This is the Renton Zone currently

Here is a quickity quick low down for this week!

Monday the 4th: While we were eating at Dairy Queen there was this man who was talking to us and kept on trying to get us to argue with him. He was talking about all those controversial things that people usually bring up and we just responded with simple "Thank-you's" when he would compliment us and simple "Okay's." We didn't say much, but it was a great thing because we left Dairy-Queen feeling the Spirit. It didn't leave us, because we chose not to act in a way the would offend it.

Tuesday the 5th: I was practicing a lot a goal I have which is to be more grateful for others success'. For example when Elder John would receive a compliment I have been trying to think "That's wonderful, he really  great at that" rather than thinking "aren't a good at that?" Why didn't I get a compliment on that?" Its been great as I have been striving to change with Christs help that natural trait in me. Elder Holland shared a quote in his talk "The Other Prodigal" about this idea. (Its a great talk on pride. Check it out if you want help on that! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/04/the-other-prodigal?lang=eng  )

"One observer has written: “In a world that constantly compares people, ranking them as more or less intelligent, more or less attractive, more or less successful, it is not easy to really believe in a [divine] love that does not do the same. When I hear someone praised,” he says, “it is hard not to think of myself as less praiseworthy; when I read about the goodness and kindness of other people, it is hard not to wonder whether I myself am as good and kind as they; and when I see trophies, rewards, and prizes being handed out to special people, I cannot avoid asking myself why that didn’t happen to me.” If left unresisted, we can see how this inclination so embellished by the world will ultimately bring a resentful, demeaning view of God and a terribly destructive view of ourselves. Most “thou shalt not” commandments are meant to keep us from hurting others, but I am convinced the commandment not to covet is meant to keep us from hurting ourselves."

Sorry I am running out of time. Gin is progressing well! He is our first progressing investigator in my time here in Skyway. We are still teaching super duper simple! We have been doing one concept a lesson where normally we would do the whole lesson.

Elder John and I are experiencing many more blessings and I am honestly just super happy and smiley! I love being a missionary and becoming more like Christ!

-- 

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson

Season 12: Skyway A. Episode 2:Specific Conference!

My traditional MLC selfie

Temple Day

This was Mission Leadership Council on Friday the 1st.

Howdy!

I just love life! No progress with our current investigators at the moment. It has all stayed just about the same since last week. Since there has been little progress or none we may be dropping a few or most of them. We love them, but our purpose is to invite all to come unto Christ and we cant do that if we are only working with those who spend our time for naught when we can be doing more productive things.

We loved President Eyrings talk in Priesthood session. We are really praying for and striving to help a family come unto Christ through baptism. In our mission we have received a lot of baptisms from part member families and there are a lot in the Skyway ward, so we are going to be working on a list that we were given and try to contact them all by the end of the week. Whenever we have tried to contact some in the past, it has been fruitful, even if it wasn't directly from finding them so we are excited for the coming up time.

General conference was amazing. Just a little spiritual food for thought for you is to ponder about why it is called general conference. These are some of my ideas. These messages are shared generally to the whole world, with some occasions where it is specified even more. The most important part of it though is you applying the things to yourself and then doing different things as a result to help you become more Christ-like. If we just waste 10 hours watching these sessions to only go on continue doing what we are were currently doing we have missed the point and would have simply wasted that time we could have been doing other worldly things. James put it pretty bluntly in his epistle.

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves"

James 1:22

Are you deceiving yourself by not making any changes as a result of that spiritual feast we just participated in? 

You may be asking these questions now. "What can I change? What do I need to do differently? How can I apply something so general, to me?"

The Spirit is the one that takes the general messages shared with the whole world and applies it specifically to you. The Spirit is the author that inspires the givers and then inspires the receivers to be benefited by the message. Review general conference. Pray for the Spirit to highlight something you can do as a result. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and love you share with me!

Sincerely,

Elder Sumsion

"Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." -Elder Kevin W. Pearson