Tracting...the biggest adrenaline rush

January 21, 2013

Dear Family,

This week was slower and a little discouraging.  Almost all of our lessons fell through and we feel that Michael is constantly trying to dodge us.  We did end up having one lesson this week with Michael and Gina about the law of chastity.  It went well but they still haven't decided anything and are still breaking it.  

The Highlight of the week.  

On Monday we dropped in on Jennifer, the lady that we met the previous week at the wrestling match.  We knocked on the door and this girl around our age came to the door so I thought we had the wrong door but we asked if Jennifer was home.  She said yes and went to get her.  In the meantime, the son that is the wrestler invited us in and started talking to us.  He is in the 7th grade and was excited to see us.  Then we met the other daughter who is 14.  As we were meeting everyone, Jennifer came down and invited us to come and sit down in the family room.  When we got to the family room we met the husband who is a cop.  He was also at the wrestling match but didn't talk to us.  They were all really nice and we had a great conversation and Jennifer was really interested in what we do.  She then asked us to tell her about Tom Smith.  We said “Joseph Smith?”  She said “yes”, and we replied by saying we will have to come back and share the story of Joseph Smith.  She said “that would be great we will have dinner and then you can tell us about Joseph Smith”.  It felt like we had been there a 100 times and we were already great friends even though it was only our first visit.  It was fun and exciting and I can't wait to go back and blow their minds with the restoration!  

We have been doing quite a bit of tracting this week too which has led to some good experiences.  It is always fun to go tracting because you never know what someone will say or do.  It is the biggest adrenaline rush that we get as missionaries, haha.  We did, however, find the promised land of tracting which is really just a ton of mid-class town homes.  It is fun and we hope to have some good success come out of that area.  

We also had a lesson with Paul this week which was good we taught the Word of Wisdom and challenged him to follow it this week and come to church.  He was hesitant but I feel he will do it.  We are having him test it before we challenge him to keep it for the rest of his life.  

We did some Spanish work this week but no one wanted to listen.  

Interviews with President Topham were this week.  Everything went well but it didn't really feel like it was an interview.  It felt more like a Q and A session and since I didn't have many questions.  It was short.  I wish he would ask us more questions.  All the missionaries in my district felt that way.  

I Love you family and will keep great grandma, Whitney, Sydnee and Cookie in my prayers that they will all get better!

Love Elder Mouritsen

"I already know it's true..."

January 14, 2013 

Dear Family,

I had some good experiences this week.  

I had a cool experience on Thursday night.  We were invited by a less active and a non-member to their sons wrestling match.  These were the same people that Elder Stewart will be living with when he comes back, so they like missionaries.  We don't know them very well other than meeting with them once but anyway they invited us.  We decided that we would go for a little bit but feeling that there was probably something better that we could be doing because they aren't really progressing.  We went to the wrestling meet and immediately Lynne the less active started introducing us to her friends.  She then proceeded to tell the friend sitting closest to us all about the church and her friend became interested.  In the end her friend ended up giving us her phone number and address and told us to stop by sometime.  I was amazed.  A less active member is spreading the gospel better than the active members.  Of course, not everything that Lynne was telling her friend was completely correct, as far as doctrine goes, but she wasn't afraid to talk about it.  

On Saturday we met with Michael and Gina.  Michael had read chapter 32 of Alma and had felt the Spirit.  He pretty much told us that he will be getting baptized after the experience that he had.  It is just a matter of time.  Gina is still set in her ways and hasn't read in the book of Mormon at all.  While we were there, Gina brought up the topic of them living together.  She asked if they could still live together after he gets baptized.  We said no and told them they could get married or live in different houses.  They both took it really well.  Michael said he had no idea that is the way it is supposed to be.  That was sad to me.  Our world has gotten so bad that people don't even know what is right and wrong anymore because the world portrays bad things as normal things.  Anyway, it is up to them what they do.  We are hoping they will change.  We are meeting with Michael tonight to talk about the Word of Wisdom and chastity.:)  My favorite, haha.

Sunday night, we had a member of the singles ward call us and tell us that he wants us to come and teach his girlfriend.  We went to his house and got to know her and explained our purpose.  We asked her to be baptized.  She quickly said "yes" and she will be getting baptized Feb 2nd.  We left her with an assignment to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. On Wednesday we met with her again and she had read the introductions.  We taught her about God being our heavenly father and then asked her to pray to know if what we taught was true.  In her prayer she asked if it was true and followed it by saying “I already know it's true and I want to be a part of it for the rest of my life”.  God has prepared her for sure because we have hardly had to do anything.  She came to church this week and we will see her again this upcoming Wednesday.  

On Sunday we had a lesson with Paul Zartman.  The Pantalones came with us to the lesson and we taught on the sealing power of the temple.  The Zartmans and the Pantalones pretty much did all the talking we just instigated it.  It was great!  That is exactly what we want to happen because Paul needs fellowship.  We felt really good after the lesson and we can tell that Paul is being changed!  It's Exciting! 

I love you family!!!!!  Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Mouritsen

What a New Year's Eve!!!

January 7, 2013

Dear Family,

This week has been a lot different than last week.  It was not as spiritually uplifting, mostly because we had no time to work in our own area.  On Monday, we had to be in at 6:00.  We played Jenga for a little bit and I caught up on some journal writing.  Our Jenga game got pretty intense and at the end there were no more blocks to take out without it falling so I decided that I would take out two at a time from the bottom of the tower.  To our surprise, it worked!  I pulled two pieces out and the tower stayed standing and we have it all on video.  We were in bed by 10:30.  What a New Year’s Eve, haha.  

On Tuesday, we had some paper work to get done for zone leader council.  After doing the paperwork we went on a blitz with the missionaries in Lewisbury which is where all four of us were working their area.  Our visit to Lewisbury was good except for the fact that I had to sleep on the floor.  It was either the floor or a broken couch with a nail sticking out of it.  I couldn't win!  It was just a bad sleep.  

On Wednesday we went to Lewisbury's district meeting which went well and we did some role plays which help a lot in teaching our investigators.  That night we went back home to our area and tried to see some of our investigators but we didn't have much luck, they were all busy that night.  We also had a Book of Mormon class that night where Elder Spohn and I taught the plan of salvation showing all the places in the Book of Mormon that talk about the plan.  

Thursday, we had district meeting with our district in Gettysburg.  After our meeting we started our journey to Pittsburgh.  We rode with the Harrisburg Elders in their little truck.  It was a long drive but we talked a lot and Elder Ward told us a funny story of them doing service the other day.  I guess Elder Ward and his companion were helping two guys move into a second story apartment.  The first thing that they tried to move up was a headboard.  After trying to push it up the stairs for a while and destroying the wall, one of the men realized it wasn't fitting so he said "I'm going to break it in half".  He then proceeded to beat on the headboard with a hammer for about 20 min not accomplishing anything.  While that was going on, one of the men’s father was yelling "I'm locked in the bathroom! Let me out".  They finally let him out and the move kept going.  As they were moving the couch up the stairs, Elder Ward said “watch out for the light!”  One of the guys ran up the stairs under the couch and said, “We have plenty of room”.  One of the guys’ friends who was lifting at the bottom gave the couch one good push and he knocked down the light.  Elder Ward said it was a fiasco.  Everyone was yelling and the guys’ father was saying this was the worst move he had ever seen organized.  We all got a good laugh out of it mostly because we have all had similar experiences and could picture the whole thing in our mind.  

We spent the night with Elder Nelson which is always fun.  The next morning we went to breakfast at Elder and Sister Warnock’s which was delicious.  We then went to the zone meeting.  After the meeting we drove home.  I was very glad to get home to our great apartment.  

On Saturday, we tried to visit with people but had little success.  We did, however, have a lesson with Paul and talked about the law of tithing. 

On Sunday we had church from 9-12 and then went to a lesson with Christina and Brian.  It went really well and she is reading a lot.  She is in 2 Nephi 6.  She had some good questions and we were able to talk about the atonement with her.  

I love you family so much!!!!!

Elder Mouritsen

The Spirit is key in a true conversion

December 31, 2012

Dear Family,

It was very nice talking to you guys on Christmas.  It made my day and my week.  You all look good and healthy.  It was nice to see grandma and see that she is walking around and having a great life full of activities, vacations, and family events.

This week has been really good.  We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators named Paul.  It was a perfect lesson that could have been filmed and shown in the MTC for an example.  It was nothing that we did though it was all done by the Spirit.  We studied in preparation for teaching Paul.  We did many role plays as if we were teaching Paul and we made sure to use some powerful scriptures.  God had set our appointment up with Paul perfectly because usually his whole family is there, which usually is a good thing because we want them all to hear but, for this particular night it was good that they weren't there.  The house was free of any distractions and we were able to share our message simply and powerfully.  Our goal was to have him pray in front of us and ask if the Church and what we have been teaching him is true.  We started by talking about Adam, specifically the spiritual and temporal death.  Paul was amazed that Adam was talked about in the Book of Mormon and from that point you could tell that the wheels were turning in his head.  We then read in 2 Nephi 27 talking about the choices that we can make.  Then we turned to 2 Nephi 9:21-24, which is self-explanatory, and from there the Spirit took over.  We didn't even know what we were saying any more and the whole time Paul was asking inspired questions.  Eventually, it came time to pray and we asked Paul if he would pray and ask specifically if it was true.  He said “yes”.  We all knelt and Paul said “I don't know why I am doing this I don't really know what to say”.  He then bowed his head and started praying, starting off a little rocky and then he just started opening up to God, asking specifically if the church is true and he even said “I sincerely want to know”.  Meanwhile Elder Spohn and I were praying that he would feel the Spirit.  He then ended and we all stayed with our heads bowed in silence.  Elder Spohn and I then looked at each other with huge smiles seeing that Paul was still sitting there overcome by the Spirit.  He then raised his head and was speechless only saying "Wow".  He tried to explain what he had felt but you know how explaining the Spirit to someone is like it is like explaining the taste of salt, you can't do it.  We knew that he had been touched by the Spirit.  He said it was like a heavy but still really light feeling.  It was something he had never felt before.  He said the whole time we were sharing the lesson he had that fuzzy feeling you get when feeling the Spirit but then when he prayed the Spirit was taken to a whole new level.   My bosom was burning with the Spirit and that is when I asked him to be baptized.  He said that is a huge commitment but he would be taking our lessons and the Book of Mormon a lot more serious.  It was unlike any lesson I have had on my mission.  My testimony has grown because of this experience and I know that the Spirit is the key in a true conversion.      

I love you family!!!!! 

Elder Mouritsen

It is all in the Lord's hands.

December 24, 2012

Dear Family,

I have one story for you this week because I want it to go in my blog. On Friday night we had a lesson with a Spanish lady but she fell through so we decided to try our back up plan which was to go visit a less active named Sherry. We drove by her house and it looked pretty dark but we still decided to go and try it. When we knocked on the door we could see that Michael, Sherry's son and one of our investigators, was there with his girlfriend named Gina who we have also been teaching. Michael answered the door and let us in. We talked for a little while and then we asked if we could have a lesson with them. We have been planning to teach them about baptism and then invite them to be baptized for some time but, at all the previous appointments it just didn't feel right. This night felt right though, and we knew that it couldn't be put off any longer. We started by asking the question "if someone came up to you and asked about the Mormon Church what could you tell them about it?" They both gave some really good answers. Then, we started teaching them about the apostasy to show Gina, who has been baptized in the Catholic Church, that the true priesthood authority was lost from the earth. After doing that, we shared 3 Nephi 27:19-21. Everything was going great, the Spirit was there and they understood that baptism is necessary to do and it needs to be done by the proper authority. Then when I was reading verse 21 and getting ready to invite them, the front door opened and everything was disrupted by Michael's niece who is probably 8. For the next ten minutes Elder Spohn and I sat there wondering how we were going to bring the Spirit back. After ten minutes we started again, first recapping and then I asked Michael if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. He paused and said “yes!” Gina said “really Michael”, and then I quickly asked if Gina would be baptized and she said “No!” She believes that she was baptized with the authority and that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon. We then addressed her concerns and told her to read the whole BOM and pray about it. Then I said “Michael will you prepare yourself for baptism on January 12?” That is when Sherry the Mother came in and also when Gina started to cry. From that point it got super crazy and the Spirit and the devil were having an epic battle. I was praying the whole time and Elder Spohn wanted to cry. Sherry was trying to give her insights which were good but also some things that she was saying were way wrong. Michael ended by saying that he needs to pray about it because he didn't feel he was quite ready. We ended with a prayer and I quickly got out of there because I was spiritually drained. Elder Spohn and I went home and talked about the lesson and also how crazy the Spirit and the entire lesson was. I had never had a lesson so intense and emotional in my life! It is all in the Lord’s hands now! But my testimony has been lifted. We pray that Michael with get his answer soon.

Love you and look forward to talking with you tomorrow on Christmas!

Elder Mouritsen