Find Your Own Grove

March 23, 2015

It's transfers week, we just got news on Friday for our zone. Almost every single companionship in our zone is being changed around. So Monday will be super busy. There are 3 companionships that aren't changing. Elder McDowell and I included. We have 8 companionships on our zone now. We are losing so many missionaries within the next 4 months. It's crazy. President is preparing.  I guess what I have really learned this last transfer is obedience and diligence brings miracles. But it's extremely hard to do.

Last night my dream was about Connor and I laughing and I woke up and I was literally laughing. Haha. It was actually kinda fun.  This makes me love this work more. Let me tell you how;

So this week I got an awesome letter from my sister and future brother in law. Yes, yes it was the wedding announcement and I must say I now know the most beautiful woman in the world. Meg your adorable! But as I looked at the card sadness entered my heart till I read this little sticky note on the back that helped me remember why I'm out here. This is what it said: " I love you to pieces. You'll be here in spirit. Remember you can't go to this one, so that others can have their forever too." I pondered this little sticky note for a while. Then I could hear my family’s voices cheering me on and helping me to pick myself back up. We went right over and taught the S family. Sis S isn't married but lives with her long term boy friend. Honestly I don't think they ever plan on getting married. She has 2 kids. And he has 3. Her main reason for not going to church is because she doesn't want to leave her boy for two hours. She claims she is always with them and that she hates leaving them. She works full time and Sunday's another day she gets to spend with them. While she was telling us this during our lesson, I stopped her and asked " if you love your boys so much, don't you want to be with them forever? " I mentioned how 2 hours is nothing in the sight of eternity. I could see the gears spinning than her boy friend chimed in and started to argue a bit.  What I learned from this is I'm only temporarily away from y'all. Eternity sounds much better. I’m here to bring others to the joy that we have found.  I love you all!

The couple of miracles that we had this week happened on Tuesday. Tuesday morning before we did some service for A (nonmember). We stopped by this potential investigator. Super nice guy. But it was weird because he was too nice. Too good to be true kinda thing. We sat down and started to talk. I noticed a picture of a KX450 and a guy riding it, so when the awkward silence hit I mentioned riding. We talked for a couple of minutes about riding then, he asked us, "well what's the word today?" Referring to the fact that he wanted a spiritual message.  So, stunned by this response, we started to talk about prophets and priesthood. Then we dug into the BOM. He was very open to the BOM. Said he would pray and read it. Which is a super duper miracle. No one ever does that. Ever ! Then he told us he wanted us to come back.

Then Tuesday night we met with a man and his family. He has 3 kids under the age of 9. And his mom, Sandy, lives with them. We had an amazing lesson with them on prophets, priesthood, and how the priesthood can bless his family’s home. It was a very spirit fed lesson. And definitely a miracle indeed. He's now a new investigator and very solid. I'm glad I'll be here for the next six months because I will get to work along side these awesome people.

March 30, 2015   What a super eventful day. But something that definitely captured our

attention on our way to Fort Jones California, happened on the

opposite side of the freeway.

We had just driven past this semi truck that was all sprawled out

a crossed the two lanes of highway. It was a rather unfortunate sight

to see. It made my stomach curl of worry for the poor driver involved.

My thoughts then quickly turned to those in wait for the truck to be

moved from off the road. It literally had sprawled itself out and

there was no way past. For a sincere 4-5 miles traffic backed up

bumper to bumper. I felt like it was an episode of Malcolm in the

middle that I had watched years before. Where Malcolm's family is

stuck in the hot sun of Arizona for a solid 5 hours while they fix a

downed power line. Although people here were literally getting out of

their cars and chilling. All these people blocked because of the

mistake of another. On the way back I managed to snag this photo as we

drove by. Thankfully 3 hours later they had it pushed to the side so

people could pass. The truck however was still on its side and in a

wreck. I couldn't help but ponder this accident for the next hour on

my way home. And this is what I came up with..

Sometimes in life we cause accidents. Or we go through trials or

challenges. Often times the setbacks can cause hours and hours of

damage. Or if we're talking spiritually it can cause weeks of damming

progression. Like the semi truck. One mistake, one sin, one bad

thought, puts us automatically at a standstill. It requires a lot of

work to fix the problem. And sometimes it requires the help of others

to provide us with strength so we can continue on life's journey. Our

setbacks can cause pain to others around us. As our attitude changes

for the worse, feelings of hatred set in, and over all the world can

become numb, as we become desensitized to the wicked influences around

us.

There are laws. Lanes if you will, and warnings all along the highway

of life. Signs that warn us of dangers ahead, curves or bumps in the

road. When we heed these warning signs our lives are blessed. We

receive further light and knowledge, guidance and direction. As we

obey the prophet and his council we will find ourselves within the

lines of safety. Their guidance and direction bring upon us

progression of hope and strength.

I feel as though there have been times in my life that my progression

has stopped. Where I have pulled over and given up driving on life's

long highway. My progression in the gospel of Jesus Christ had come to

a stop. Many times it was a four way stop. Where I had to make the

choice of right or wrong. I made many wrong choices. In the which I

always found myself turning around to get back on the "right road".

Through all the experiences I found pain and guilt. But the beautiful

thing was i gained a deep respect for those warning signs. For the

prophets and apostles who had warned of bumps in the road. I had felt

of my saviors love as I allowed him to take control of the wheel. His

strength and guidance is ultimately what keeps us on the road, always

progressing to eternal life in the celestial kingdom of glory.

I am grateful for this lesson I was taught on my way home from a very

small town in California called Fort Jones.

What a beautiful day it has been here in the OEM. This morning was great. We had a very spiritually felt district meeting about the resurrection of Christ. We have been given a new challenge from the church called "Because He Lives". It is an awesome experience for us missionaries to share the gospel even further. I had a chance to get away from all the missionaries and pray in my own room and ask for Heavenly Fathers help and direction. When I went to leave the room, on the door was a picture of the sacred grove. The words inscribed below the picture "find your own grove." Gave courage to my heart. Anywho after this meeting we left for a small town in CALIFORNIA called Fort Jones.

Yreka and Etna have both just recently been shut down, Due to little work. They then fell under our jurisdiction because we are the zone leaders. But right before the Etna Elders were about to leave they had a guy contact them and inform them of his interest to learn more about the church. We had the opportunity today to teach him for the first time.

On the way down much excitement and joy filled my heart. I also was filled with a lot of trunky feelings as much of this beautiful scenery reminded me of Utah’s beautiful landscape. We saw incredible mountains and hills. As you'll notice in the photo above we saw the beautiful Mount Shasta. A gigantic volcanic mountain with snow capped peaks. We saw baby fawns and birds. We saw an accident that involved a semi truck on its side, which stopped traffic for 5 miles. We got lost and had to stop at a visitor center to find our way. Then we finally arrived to our destination.

The dude is super awesome. He has never been taught the lessons. But he has already read the BOM, gospel principles book, and D & C. His motive was to prove his girl friend wrong. In this pursuit he found the truth. His testimony is amazingly strong. I feel very blessed to be a part of this experience. Etna hasn't seen a baptism in over a year and the chances of me being here for their first are slim.

It was an honor to teach him. We taught him the first three lessons and went over the baptismal interview questions. He has agreed to be baptized on April 25th. What a wonderful experience. He has definitely been prepared. He has felt of Heavenly Fathers love and desires more of it.

Personally today I have received a lot of inspiration and motivation to continue with this great work to witness many more mighty miracles. Also my whole mission I have always wanted to serve in California and I was finally given the chance today :) Wahoo !

            I love what Sister S said. It's very true agency is great. We as humans try to act on behalf of Satan when we stop others agency. In fact, that's how he cripples us. I have learned that Judgment is one of his tools he uses. Sometimes we feel as though we know what’s better for others when we ourselves lack the knowledge. That's been a humbling lesson for me out here and I’m still trying to learn it.

            God Loves me. I have been worrying about how to get some of these boxes of my things home. Brother H just stopped by and asked if I needed anything taken to Utah.  They are going for General Conference. He will be there tomorrow.

April 6, 2015   General Conference Week

           

            This week we drove to Eugene for an MCL meeting. Learning what to teach for zone training meeting. It was fun to see so many of my buddies here in the mission. I saw my “son” good ole Goode. (he had to go home for knee surgery) It was good to see that he's a DL now. He's currently with my “dad” Elder Mecham. Haha I thought I was so funny when I heard Goode was with Mecham. Grandson and grandpa. Lol. Now if I were only serving in their zone.

When we got back to Medford we had crappy Chinese food. Literally it was a horrible idea. It affected us all so much the next day. I've actually grown to love Chinese food out on my mission. It's almost a mission favorite. Chinese buffets are awesome too. But you always feel like crap afterwards.

            We got to see the D family this week. They are super awesome. We finally got sister D to start participating in the lessons. She usually just sits back and doesn't talk but now she is talking and asking all sorts of questions.

Conference was incredible. Easter was fantastic. I honestly don't know what more to add than a cool story that happened on Sunday afternoon on our way back to the church to watch conference.

We were riding bikes to our church to go watch general conference. We had a bag full of crackers, cheese, ham, dr. Peppers, peppers, and candy given to us by a less active member. We were within half a mile of the church and decided to oym (open your mouth) this kid walking by. It was seriously 10 minutes till conference started. We stopped our bikes and started to talk to him. The longer we talked the more he revealed about himself. Sharing information about how he was homeless and only 19 years old. His family had abandoned him, because of his bipolar disease and anger issues. Our companionship was moved by the spirit of charity and we gave him our whole bag of snacks. We than proceeded to converse with him about prayer and Jesus Christ. We talked about how the Lord can strengthen us in times of need. We than showed him the Because He Lives video. Expressing the need to find him. And informing him that when ever he cries out, or reaches out, or calls out, the Lord is always there for him. We committed him to search for time that day to kneel and pray to our Heavenly Father. With much joy and excitement he hugged both of us. The feeling of love that accompanied this embrace was so unreal. I was thankful for the opportunity to help another one of God’s children. We did get his number, invited him to play basketball with us on Monday, and got a return appointment.  I honestly wanted to do all that was available in my power to help this kid out. Brent H. Nielsons talk about the Prodigal Son applied to him so much. By the way, this is the Elder Nielson that has been to our mission a couple of times.

This conference was awesome! I learned so much from it. It was incredible! Every talk, like you said, was saying something to me.  I absolutely loved that talk too! The whole time that talk was going on I was thinking of that 80's song.. "Oh you can dance if you wanna..."  I honestly have so many favorites from conference. But cool little story... The McHatton’s love Indian stuff and during that session we watched it with them. They were astonished at a great talk. He went to the priesthood session with us. Then we went back to their home and had a delicious ham and potatoes.

Sister W is awesome! She made a super cool scavenger hunt for us on Easter! It was fun. But I didn't want to look like a little baby so I played the normal man card. But I had fun! It was exciting to do and figure out the clues :) sooooo nice of her. Love the W'

s! That's awesome she sent you photos and is now your sweet friend! She's awesome! You’re awesome! There are some good people in this world. She reminds me of you, mom.

            All my pants are getting holes in them and the seams are coming undone. This lady in the ward randomly told us if we needed any sewing done to bring our stuff to her. Ha. Been praying for that too. Heavenly Father is always aware of my needs.

            Howdy mom :) I love you ! :) Thank you so much for all you do. Thank you for always emailing me. Every week I look forward to your emails because I know they will always boost me up. Even those times I don't wanna believe what you say, you always end up right. You’re an incredible example to me. You mean the world to me and I thank you for your gospel example you set for me. You’re the best in the entire world. :) I love you with all of my heart. Thanks for being the best ever!

All My Love,

Elder Workman

Getting WET!

**From a sister in his current ward: 

March 16, 2015

We attended a wonderful baptism yesterday. It was a touching example of the results of diligent and prayerful missionary work. President Russell came and brought three of our past missionaries, and another flew out from home. A joyful day in many ways!

I meant to tell you too that Elder Workman spoke at a stake youth fireside last week, and he connected so well with the youth! They loved his talk! He spoke in Sacrament Meeting too - a busy day for him! You mentioned that he doesn't feel like he always has the right words, but I disagree! He has a very easy, personal way of speaking that really draws everyone in.

Have a great Sunday!

Sister B

March 17, 2015

Wow what an incredible day. Full of love and the spirit. I greatly

enjoyed this day. I had the opportunity, for the first time in my

life, to baptize and bring two souls to their Heavenly Father. We

spent all of the day preparing for the baptism. We had a couple things

go wrong early this morning that we had to figure out. Desserts,

programs, and the timing of the water was killing us all day long.

Thank goodness for an awesome 2nd ward here in Medford.

So to the good stuff. Up to this point on my mission I hadn't had a

single baptism. And then when bro M asked me I thought he was

doing it to be nice.  But I'll have you know this was definitely not

the case. When we hoped into the water, and after they both ditched

their glasses, I was able to baptize hid wife first. Everything went

extremely good. I remembered the words, she bent her knees great. And

it was overall smooth. Then brother M got in and I got a little

more worried. He's a big guy. And not very flexible. I was worried I

wouldn't be able to get him back up. I prayed a ton haha. And the Lord

granted me strength. Unfortunately I was so worried about getting him

up that he never fully went down. His forehead didn't go all the way

in. So we had to do a round 2. Then everything went way smooth.

Success!  When we had gone into the locker room to change from our

wet clothes, brother M told me he needed someone like me to get

him baptized. Made me feel so good. He really complimented me. He likes the guys that have a good work ethnic. Or are.. In his words, country boys. Made my feel goods feel good. He genuinely will be family the rest of

my life. And they are a wonderful people to have included into my

family. I'm honored I got this chance to meet them. I know God was

well aware of my needs and his. I will be back for their sealing in

the temple.

On top of the M’s asking me to baptize them, I have also been

extremely blessed to receive some of their charity. 6 shoes, 4 really

nice ties, 3 jackets, one is an old western awesome looking one that

reminds me of red dead redemption. I feel so blessed to have met the

M’s. What a wonderful people.  Beyond measure I am grateful to

have met them. They will be kingdom builders for sure.

Hi mommy :)

I love you more ! Email definitely not distracting. I will share this

with the M’s for sure. I did end of meeting her dad. (My friend’s dad works at the Medford Oregon Temple as the recorder.)   It was

super awkward because we were both looking for each other, but we

didn't really have anything to talk about. And it was in the temple,

he was being loud so we kinda got in trouble lol. But it was cool to

meet someone who knew a someone I knew haha. The temple was beautiful. I felt so happy there and just up lifted by the spirit.

We have to get a kid ready for baptism. His name is D. He's 9. Pretty hard to work with. But we have two lessons with him this week. And a lot of finding too.

(His cousin

got a mission call to the Georgia Atlanta Mission)I knew he would serve in the south! So happy for him ! When does he leave?  Loved the video. What does Ivan think? Was he surprised? And that is tons of time! Holy moly! Congratulations!

 

Love,

 

Elder Workman