May 19, 2011

What was the most spiritual thing that happened to you on your mission?

There cannot be an answer to that question. The mission is made up of spiritual experiences that are hard to rate from least to most spiritual. I had plenty of times where I knew the Spirit of the Lord had directed me. The second week in the mission my comp assigned me to decide where we would go tracting. I remember praying about it and thinking that I had no idea if I was truly following the direction of the Spirit or not. However then when we knocked on a door and found someone truly interested in the gospel I suddenly discovered how the Lord does answer your questions and directs you. Then the night that the ex-mormon cornered us with his stacks of books and tried to use reason to break us down I remember thinking about my patriarchal blessing and that I had been told that my testimony would be a blessing to the righteous and a condemnation to the wicked and I finally could do nothing else but bear my testimony to him and then my companion do the same and we walked out. It was a very disturbing night but in the same light helped to actually build my testimony to be even stronger.

May 18, 2011

Who set you apart?

I was set apart by my Stake President David Sam. On Sept  29^th prior to going into Salt Lake on Sept 30^th. It was fun having him, as my Stake President when I had been taught several years earlier in Seminary by him as well.

What are some of the most interesting experiences from your mission?

I had numerous special experiences in my mission ranging from watching “The Ten Commandments” with a young Baptist neighbor couple to having scorpions run into the Bishop’s office in the church during a planning meeting. We also had a woman open her door after we knocked and she had on only a robe and it was open in the front. We immediately turned around and left which is probably why she did it. I experienced five tornados while there and hail storms with golf ball size stones. I met a great fellow working on his car who invited us back and later his whole family was baptized and then later in my mission went to meeting a great fellow who was out painting his porch who invited us back because he was an ex-mormon with an agenda to convert us to be Jehovah Witness converts. I was chased by a huge dog and stung by a scorpion in our apartment. (The only way I knew was I had a black and blue spot on my leg and later that night found the scorpion under my dirty clothes bag on the floor.) I also outran (in our car) a huge storm in the pan handle of Texas returning from a zone activity that took place in an area that was in miles closer to my home town than the mission home in Dallas. I went out on large sand dunes for a P Day and rode down the 2 inch strip of no ice another time on our way to a teaching appointment. I gassed up the car every other week at 19 cents a gallon verses the other week at 21 cents a gallon because the gas stations in town had a gas war going on and then left the mission when paying close to a dollar or more per gallon because of a government caused gas shortage that had employees of oil companies being laid off because the oil tanks around the refineries were all full and the government wouldn’t let them produce gasoline.

However one experience stands out that I will relate.

We were in the Seventies quorum meeting on Sunday morning and the President of the quorum came in and read what sounded like an official document from the church stating that the Negro would now be given the priesthood. It sounded a bit strange to me but I didn’t think to much about it since it had been a long time in coming. However I was really shocked to hear the comments of two of the Brethren as the lesson continued who said that they would leave the church if it is true. I couldn’t believe their attitudes and how bitter they were toward the negro’s. The president then said it was not a real letter but the whole point of the lesson was to learn to love our brothers and sisters no matter what their color. I knew that Texas was part of the deep south and knew the hatred that the south has for the negro race but never really realized it until that day. Well in 1978  when the church came out with the actual proclamation stating that all worthy male members could be given the priesthood I thought of those two brethren and if they had removed their names from the records of the church or learned Christ like love in the last 5 years since that meeting.