March 4, 2013
Hello Family,
Hello Family,
I am glad it is P-day and I have the opportunity to read your
emails. This week has been a busy week but not my favorite week by any
means. We did a lot of traveling and had meetings 3 out of the 7
days.
Last P-day after all our usual activities we went to have dinner
with the Pantalones and afterward we had a lesson with Paul. Brother
Patalone has been to visit Paul before and they really hit it off, so we
decided that we should have Bro. Pantalone come with us again. I text Bro. Pantalone a couple days prior to
our lesson and he told us that he had a business trip that day so he wouldn't
be able to come. We then decided to invite brother Coy who is our ward
mission leader and is great with fellowshipping investigators. Brother
Coy said he could come all the way up until Sunday night when he told us that
he couldn't go because his wife was having a family night. Frantically we
tried to find someone else that could come with us to Paul's for Monday
night. We eventually found Brother Burton. We had still planned to
go have dinner with the Pantalones Monday night because their 18 year old son
was going to be there. When we arrived we found that Bro. Pantalone was
there and that his business trip had gone shorter than expected. I
quickly asked him if he wanted to come with us to visit Paul. He said
yes, I thought it would be better for Paul to have the same fellowshipper
be there and Paul really likes Bro. Pantalone. I called Bro. Burton
and canceled. After dinner, we went to Paul's and had planned to teach about
the connection between the bible and the book of Mormon but the Holy Ghost had
different plans. Elder Collier asked Paul about his belief in God. Paul
had a concern about God and the evidence for Him. That is when Brother Pantalone took
over. Brother Pantalone was the Gospel Doctrine teacher for a long time
and knows his stuff. He is also very
scientific which Paul likes. Anyway, Bro. Pantalone taught so well that
as missionaries we were learning new things and started thinking about things
differently. He shared many examples of the evidences of God on the earth
today and bore powerful testimony. We all bore testimony and the whole
time that this was all going on Paul was on the edge of his seat. His
spiritual experience was then brought up and he ended up bearing testimony of
the Spirit to us. In the end, Paul said that he had a lot of pondering to
do and was excited for our next lesson. I can't help but think about God’s
hand in missionary work. He put a trial in front of us by not having Bro.
Pantalone available but after seeing our diligence and determination to have a
member with us at our lesson he provided a way for Bro. Pantalone to come
with us. I feel that there was no other person at that time that could
have connected with Paul and addressed his concern any better than brother
Pantalone. The Spirit was there and I was glad to be a witness of
it.
Wednesday we had an exchange. I went to Gettysburg with Elder Munoz.
We had a good time speaking Spanish but unfortunately all the plans that he had
fell through. Luckily, Elder Collier and I had too much work that day and
some of that work was with Jesi our investigator who is planning to get
baptized this week. She happened to be
in Gettysburg that day. We ended up having a lesson with Jesi about the
gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of wisdom. It went really well and it
seems that there is doubt that she knows the church is true and is ready to
make the commitment of baptism.
That night we also taught a girl named Tosha who has been
coming to church for the last 3 weeks but he haven't been able to teach
her. Kinda funny, that never happens. We had a good lesson with her
and taught her about the restoration and importance of the Book of
Mormon. We found out that she started coming to church because of a
school project on religion but she felt something as she went. We will
keep pursuing her progress.
On Thursday we went to our district meeting and exchanged
back. At the meeting, Elder Collier told me that one of our
less active members father passed away from a freak heart
attack. Her dad was completely active in the other ward
and before he passed she told us that she would do whatever it takes to
see him again. She is planning to come to church and to get to the temple
as quickly as she can. We were happy to hear that she would be
making those kinds of strides but it is sad that it took the death of
her father to do so. I think all the little signs that she was having
weren't doing anything so God had to shake her a little bit. We are
excited to be working with her.
On Thursday we had another lesson with Jesi and taught
her about the law of chastity and set up her baptism. Afterward,
we drove back to our apartment, packed and left for Pittsburgh. It
was a long drive but we stopped in Pitt to have Chick-fil-a (however
you spell it). It was the first time in 19 months that
I have had their chicken sandwich with the honey bbq sauce. It
was really good and it reminded me when mom introduced me to
those sandwiches. We spent the night at the APs apartment and
in the morning we went to breakfast at the office elder’s apartment before
going to our meeting. They are a senior couple and they made a
delicious breakfast for us. It was
probably my favorite part of the trip, haha. The meeting was fine but it
was the same training that was done a year ago that needs to be done
for the new missionaries. There wasn't too much mission business or drama
so it was a little boring at times. The meeting went till 4 and
after going to get supplies from the office and eating at Chipotle we
finally got on the road at about 6:30. We didn't get home until 12:30
that night because of traffic. We
were pretty tired the next day.
On Sunday we had testimony meeting. I bore
my testimony on following spiritual promptings. A couple of
weeks ago I had an experience where I had received a strong spiritual
prompting but I did not follow it. By not following that prompting
came a negative consequence. I promised myself that something
like that would never happen again. The other day Elder Collier and
I were driving and we saw a U-haul truck and two ladies putting
furniture into it. I received a spiritual prompting that we should
help. Not wanting to avoid that prompting I told Elder Collier that
we should help them. We pulled over and walked over to find two
ladies standing in the truck struggling to put something in place.
We asked if they could use any help. One of the ladies said yes and
then told us she was a member of the Church but had been less active for a
while. We began helping and later found out that she had been
praying for help. She, her old mother and her husband had to be
out of their house by Thursday and it was Wednesday. She also told us
that she had been getting over a sickness and her husband has
a disease dealing with his muscles. She had been praying
for help because she knew she couldn't do it on her own. I
am grateful to have been tuned in to noticing Spiritual promptings at that
point. I know that we were her answer to her prayers.
The Spirit speaks to us.
The Church is true and I know it.
I love you family!!!!!!!
Elder Mouritsen
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