Hastening the Work

November 12, 2012

Dear Family,

This week has been a good week.  I started the week off by having exchanges with Elder Kunes.   He is one of the Elders in the Hershey area.  It went well.  I always like going to Hershey because it feels like I am staying in a hotel.  Their apartment is so much nicer than ours and you can see Hershey park from the window.  We had some good lessons in Hershey and we gave one of their investigators a blessing because he had been in a car accident.  The blessing went well and afterward he sent us a text saying that he was feeling better.  I am sure that Heavenly Father planned that out perfectly; he probably allowed the car accident to happen which then caused Sok (that is his name) to put forth some faith and ask for a blessing.  That is exactly what he did and Heavenly Father healed him letting him know that the church is true.  He came to church that Sunday and I am sure he will be baptized in the coming weeks. 

We ended our exchange and on Thursday we had a zone training meeting where we learned some great information from President Topham about the “hastening of the work”.  There are lots of missionaries coming in and that means the work is hastening and we need to work harder than ever.  We also need to rescue those that have been lost.  Our new goal, which President Topham set, is to find, teach and rescue instead of our old goal which was to find, teach and baptize.  We focused on the finding part which all started with faith.  We need to have greater faith in our finding ability and we need to find new ways other than tracting and talking to people on the street.  Overall, I learned a lot and Elder Lozano and I will be working on implementing this info into our daily activities. 

A couple more great things about this week; Sambo came to church for the first time and enjoyed it and Rebecca gave her first talk in sacrament on the temple.  For Sambo to come to church was huge because she was able to interact with the members, feel the Spirit and know the difference that it can make in her life.  I pray that she was touched by the Spirit and that she will come back and eventually be baptized because I know how much this gospel can change her life as well as her kids. 

Elizabeth is still doing well.  She didn't come to church but she is ready and she set up two days out of the week that we could come teach her.   

I can't believe that AJ is coming home!!!!  I want all of us to get home at the same time but that won’t happen.  I am sure he has had one of the greatest missions and probably has been one of the greatest missionaries that have ever served.  

Thanks for all your love and support!!!

Love you!

Elder Mouritsen

The Spirit pricked my heart and I could not hold back.

November 5, 2012

Dear family,

You guys have had quite the week last week with illness and parties. I hope mom is feeling better and I am glad that the kids all behaved at our house after the Bingham Ball dance. 

I talked to sister Gillon yesterday.  She came up to me and told me that she had talked with my dad and that she really enjoyed talking to you.  She is probably my favorite person in the ward.  She is so nice and loves the missionaries.  She is like the missionary mom.  She is in charge of our dinners now and we have been having dinner almost every night since she has been in charge.  Sister Mastracola has been really sick and busy with work and hasn't even been to church for about 6 weeks now.  I hope she starts feeling better and she can figure something out with her work.  The Mastracola’s were probably hit by the storm the worst out of all the ward members.  They had two huge trees de-rooted and their huge barn door was blown into the barn and it was on some massive hinges, so the wind must have been pretty bad and they were out of power for a couple days. 

This ward is really great and I have been impressed at how the ward has been so willing to step up and help us get to the places that we need to go and always pick us up and take us home for dinner.  They have also been buying us bus passes so we can get out to Palmyra the farthest part for us in our area.  We have had members present at lessons more than ever since we lost our car.   We need members to drive us to our lessons and most of our investigators are woman which is great but, we need priesthood in our ward.  I can definitely see why plural marriage was practiced back in the day because there weren’t enough good men that held the priesthood.  There are lots of men in this area but none are willing to listen.  All they are interested in is drugs, sex and trying to get rich.  They don't care about families and the well-being of their children that they have.  It amazes me how many young people already have babies and have no financial stability to support that child or a family.  We have one young man that we have come in contact with because he lives with his grandma who is a member.  He has one child already and one on the way with the same girl and he has not even turned 18.  You think he would've learned with the first baby but no, and he doesn't really plan on getting married.  It makes me sick and sad for those kids and I can't even image how sad God is for these decisions that his children are making.  I am glad for your example that even though the odds were against you, you guys got married and worked hard to make a happy family.  I feel that you two did one of the best jobs raising us kids and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I truly have the best parents!!

This week has been different mostly because of the storm.  On Wednesday we had to stay in after 6 so we spent a lot of time in our apartment this last week.  There were some very spiritual events that took place.  We have been teaching a lady named Elizabeth and we found her by knocking doors one night.  She speaks Spanish and English but we teach her in Spanish.  We shared the story of the Restoration last week and this week we watched the Joseph Smith DVD which she loved.  You could tell by the way that she was watching the video that she understood and was feeling the Spirit.  She is also reading to Book of Mormon and coming up with questions which is a sign that the person is progressing and being touched by the Spirit.  We have been trying to work hard on asking inspired questions this week and in this lesson I feel that we got to put that practice to use.  I hope we can schedule a date for baptism this week. 

We also taught another Spanish speaking woman that has 4 kids and one on the way.  She is a single mom and ready for the gospel.  We shared the story of the Restoration with her and she understood it and told us that everything that we were talking about sounded true.  She also has the same question that Joseph Smith had about knowing what church is the true church.  It was a good lesson and I could feel the Spirit.  We also helped her fix her vacuum which had a clogged filter. 

Sunday was a great day!  We had testimony meeting and one of the first people to bear their testimony was Rebecca.  I wish I could put into words the way I felt as she bore her testimony.  She had written her thoughts on a piece of paper and as she read she cried and bore testimony that she knows this is the true church and how she has felt it change her life.  I don't think I have been touched so much by another testimony in my life.  The Spirit hit me so hard that I began to cry and I don't think I have ever cried in a testimony meeting but I could not help it.  The Spirit pricked my heart and I could not hold back.  I love that lady.  She has probably changed my life more than I have changed hers. 

 I love you family SO MUCH!!!

Elder Tanner Mouritsen