A Thursday in Medford

October 27, 2014

Thursday was a marvelous day! I'll tell you about it and it can go to my weekly email to everyone. This is what a fantastic day, in Medford, as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, looks like… So Thursday is our weekly planning day. It is also Elder Dyorich’s hump day! Half way finished with his mission. We decided to play scrabble for the remaining time of our weekly planning. So we started to play everything is going awesome. I won once he won twice. When I won though it was 374 to 167. So sick haha :)   We were making some big words, and getting lots of points when all of a sudden, bam.. Door gets knocked on. We Answer.. It's the Domino’s pizza man holding two pizzas and this small box. Excitedly we take the box, leave a tip, and prepare our tummies for warm food to enter. Dang good pizza BTW. Also amazing volcano brownies. Dang they were delicious with the drizzled icing we got!! He loved it too and said thanks. He said my moms legit!  About an hour later our packages arrived. So we looked through them to make sure there wasn't any perishables :) love the ties. Super legit ties! I love the Broncos one. I wore the pheasant one the other day. Also STINKEY(Connor), I gotta say awesome job on the cd dude! So sick!  I LOVE IT!!! Thank you. Can't wait to drive Connor’s new truck while he's on his mission ;) It looks sic! Film Ryley at his swim meets for me! I love all the Halloween stuff :) All the good candy:) Oops - I ate the Reece's.  Also got all the sweet notes and letters. I love all the art! So sick. I showed all the missionaries that were over when we got em and  they all laughed and I hung it up next to my desk. Man I'm lucky to have an awesome family. Anywho so right as we were about to leave another set of elders drops by trying to get out of the rain. So we stop and talk with them for a bit, answered some of their questions and continued with our day. They dropped us off on a street closer to where we needed to be. The plan was at 4:00 we were giving a guy who just had a stroke a priesthood blessing. He was at the hospital, then at 5 we were having dinner way out in the boonies of town, and 6:30 was a lesson with key investigators and we were finishing up the day at 7:30 with another lesson. So we had some busy work to get done. We got dropped of at the hospital around 3. So we decided to do some walking around and talk to some people in the area. To be honest both of our "motivators" we're broken and we were killin time. So were walking down this street, it's drizzling rain and we notice this lady in a wheel chair just sitting on the curb of the street. So we walk by, *I will note that it was a Spiritual impression to walk down this particular street* and asked her how her day was going. She was very nice and we started chatting about worldly things; the weather, her kids, and basically just what was going on in her life. She had then asked if we had bible on us that she could read. We told her that we had Book of Mormon we'd love to give her. As I was pulling the book out of my bag a well-dressed man approaches us and decides he wants to bible bash us in front of this lady. His main concern was there was no physical evidence for the BOM. Offended, the lady in the wheel chair put him in his place, she told us she had to go but that she would love to have a copy of the BOM. We gave her our number and a chapter to read from the Book of Mormon. And she was off and on her way to her home. The guy had stayed there and wanted to bash a little more so we heard his case. Frustrated with this guy but remembering the words of a dear friend GS, I decided to just bear a powerful testimony of the BOM. He shut up and you could feel the spirit. So then we decided to explain how we knew it was true. The man still wanted physical evidence. So we pulled the card of “how do you know Christ was real?” He reasonably answered. "How do you know Moses parted the Red Sea?" Again he replied but he used the word faith. Bam! We tagged him and bagged him. Again we explained faith and told him we needed to go. It was now 4:17 and we were late to giving the guy his blessing. We left well dressed man with a commitment to read the BOM. Turns out he was a nice dude just having a rough day. He even told us he wanted to pick a fight with us but because of our calm manner and kindness he no longer felt like a good Christian. Mormon missionaries =1. Well dressed man =0.

Basically running to the hospital we got there and noticed as we were going up the elevator that we couldn't feel the spirit and both of our minds were in fight mode and arguing stance. We decided to say a quick prayer in our hearts and ask to once again be directed by God. We arrived to the guy’s room feeling much better. His wife then explained what had happened to him and began to tell us how he couldn't talk our use his left arm. The stroke had done a number on him. So we shook his right hand and asked him to blink twice if he wanted a blessing. The reply came from his mouth as he said "yes".  This is only his second word since having the stroke. Then he smiled and we proceeded to give him the blessing. I was the lucky candidate to seal the anointing. Since I’ve only known this guy for about 2 minutes I just listen to what God has to say to him. After the blessing the spirit was so strong. Almost put me in tears and had everyone else in tears including Elder Dyorich. The feeling of Heavenly Fathers presence was so real. The man was smiling and had tears rolling down his face. You could see that he wanted to tell us something but he couldn't. We talked for about 30 seconds and continued on our way. As we were leaving his room he yelled out a loud and impressive "thank you!" and was waving his hand and smiling. The feelings we had were not describable. It was cool to see the power of the priesthood once again and reconfirm my testimony.

To save time I will briefly go over dinner. We had it at the C family house. Very wonderful family. They have definitely raised there children right. They said the prayers and each time their children had prayed for missionary opportunities. We're talking about 10 year olds folks. Amazing family. The food was great, Ham and potatoes. :) yummy :)! Anywho we had them drop us off at our next appointment which was in a members home, the W. Another Amazing family! Love the W's. They have only been married for 2 years and are killing missionary work.

This lesson was with two good investigators. But we were worried because they weren't progressing at all. But this lesson would tell us if we needed to drop them or continue meeting with them. They have to get married, quit drinking, and they have no money to. Turns out they had done their reading and loved it. They then told us they knew they needed to read. *as I right this down you have to understand that these people we not progressing at all. It was a miracle for them to read and then bear testimony of how they knew they needed to. Again words cannot describe how awesome this lesson went. Words cannot describe the spirit that was felt. Which is why I usually don't write this stuff in my emails. There are just to many details that get left out. Which leaves my words sounding powerless, and casual. And mostly because I don't know how to explain the emotions, and concerns. So I will quickly use the words found in Ether chapter 12 vs 23-24. "And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them; And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them." * Anywho we recommitted them to baptism. Was an amazin lesson. In the which we really did some good teaching and describing of 3 nephi 11. But no time for us to linger we had another lesson in five minutes fifteen minutes away.

So we left them with prayer and a scripture to read... Our members were having dinner with them afterwards... And continued on our amazing day. Now the next lesson was with the B's. A family that is so ready for baptism, but doesn't want change. They are very rowdy. And it's hard to maintain a spirit or speak of anything spiritual. Thursday, with a member present, we were able to deliver a very strong lesson about eternal families. The member helped us out tremendously. (plug for the members!!) And you could once again feel the spirit. Again words cannot describe the progression and the spirit we felt. We were able to actually give a lesson. Was amazing! Dyorich and I were so overcome by the many experiences we had encountered that day that we went home and thanked Heavenly Father. It was amazing! :) That’s all I can say folks. Enjoy your week!

GRIZZ 👻

I LOVE YOU

Speeding Through Life

Hey mommy !:).  I love you!

It's been a really good week. We have had to walk everywhere though.

Which is actually really nice. Love it here in Medford. My aptartment is sick and now it’s so clean. I'm a clean freak. First day here I spent an hour cleaning it up. And all the sisters’ hair; the drains are ALWAYS clogged and I fix them. It's a nice release.  Last week, we had to transfer apartments. So we got all set up in our original crappy one. Then the office calls us and the sisters in my district were getting harassed by a dude that lives next to them. So they asked it we would switch apartments with them. So we did. Last week was crazy. But I love being back in an area with all the missionaries. In Bandon the nearest people were 30 minutes away. Which is nice except on p days. I’m playing basketball right now and playing football today at 2:30 :) wahoo. Love you. We’re at the central point stake center. It's fun :)

So in my ward there are about 400 members and 124 are active. I do like my ward and it’s great to be in a ward again. The church here isn't doing so good. I’m still a DL. It's the hardest thing I have had to do yet. Missions are hard. I have 10 people in my district. Biggest in my zone. I live by your motto here mom. “Fake it til you make it.” Faking it till I make it. I actually just did that object lesson for district meeting. It went really good. My companion is good. We get along. :) What makes me happy is the friends I have made out here. I love all the other missionaries. I've never fought with a comp yet ha. I know tension destroys companionships. I miss Utah. I wish I was freezing. Hey go grab my cool green blanket and cuddle in it. I still have your red one I use when I miss you. It's 87’ today I believe. In Bandon it got into the 70s but we had ac. So that made it nice and a nice cool breeze. It's so hot here. 

Indexing is so fun! That's going to be my release when I get home. My favorites are obituaries. They rock. I did 700 in Bandon. Was a lot of fun. I like your story in the temple. Makes me really miss you. We are right next to the temple here. Sucks how I can't go in and do a session whenever I want to. That's a habit I can’t wait to get back into.

I will say that's a cool story about your warning for speeding and getting pulled over. As humans we always tend do look at the negatives. I have noticed that out here. I can make it safely through a day. But then when someone yells at us, I start freakin out. It's the little things out here on your mission that get you. Slow down, enjoy the moment and be prepared. Awesome analogy mom, I am going to use it. I miss you, mommy. Also, I think I get to go see “Meet the Mormons” soon. Super happy about that.

Yea I got the stamps. :) Please tell grandma thank you. As far as Christmas gifts go, the best thing I want all short sleeved, white shirts. No long sleeve please. All mine are long sleeve and it sucks. Gift cards.. Anything for fast food.

My advice this week for everyone is to speak to God as if he's your father. Be as confortable and confident with him. Tell him everything! He IS your father. He is amazing.

I love you! 

GRIZZ 👻  aka: Elder Workman

Medford

I probably won't have much time to email today! It’s been a crazy week! I am transferring to the Medford 3 ward. Hopefully close to the temple.  President Russell told me this is going to be a tough transfer. I have to fix the elders in my district. Going to be stressful... Anywho wish me luck!

It really was a great weekend. That was by far the best conference I have been a part of. I loved it. I feel like the apostles and the prophet really hit on fasting and helping the needy and poor. Really applied to me because that's what my p blessing says. Thought that was a cool topic. Conference. Loved it. All of it. So awesome. Richard G Scott. Wow. Powerful. Totally agree with ol L Tom Perry! How can you chose just one favorite. It was all amazing.

I just learned today in my studies in Matthew 16&17 that prayer and fasting are so vital and important. 

I feel like honestly start preparing Ry and Con. They will be amazing missionaries as they read all of the pmg. Multiple times. They will be the best missionaries.

I am happy to be here in Medford. It's hot though. A lot like Utah. Fall is pretty hot here. But I'm with a kid I knew in middle school then he moved to Idaho. My companions name is Elder Dyorich.. So it's cool to talk about middle school days and work hard. We are full bike again. And our apt is about 15 minutes bike riding out of our area. My comp just tore his

MCL so we walk everywhere. It's pretty fun. Love him already haha

I love you all!

Love,

Grizz