Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Mission XP - You are all crazy monkeys๐Ÿ’ 27 June 2016

My bad I forgot to put in the letter haha. A Korean Elder I knew would always say, "you are crazy monkey"..so cute.
Hey everyone I love you and I miss you! I hope that each of you have had a great week and been able to see the blessings that Heavenly Father pours out to each one of us. My week went by fast and it was good.

Monday was of course preperation day...p-day...play day and it was great! We had a zone activity outside and we played ultimate frisbee, kickball, and a little football. We exhorted a lot of energy. We had two lessons set up and we had two lessons fall through. Tough break.

Tuesday was not district meeting instead it was zone confrence! Three zones got together with President and Sister Chambers and it was great. The first hour President Chambers talked about change and getting a new Mission President on July first and that they should feel loved and supported. We talked about a scripture in the Book of Mormon saying "...and there should be no manner of 'ites'..." Haha no Chamberites or Lancingites. President Lancing will be our new Mission President and he is from West Virginia. The rest of the meeting was great too! At the end, as they always do, the missionaries going home shared there testimonies with everyone. ๐Ÿ˜”sadness. Next zone conference myself and several of the other Elders I came out with will share our testimonies. Half of our district will be going home in the next three months. Enough about that.


Wednesday we had district meeting. It was good as usual. Last district meeting we had an hour training on how to teach the restoration lesson from preach my gospel in four minutes. We have something called "60 seconds of power" so its really 5 minutes for us. After district meeting and lunch we went on exchanges. The district leader came with me in my area. It was a wierd day because, as usual, we talked to everyone we saw but everyone was saying that they didn't even believe in God. That's difficult because you can't just teach many principles from the gospel. They all are based on the fact that we have a loving Heavenly Father. If they "dont believe" in Him there
isn't much point in teaching His gospel to them..so instead we invited a lot of people to pray. Teaching first of coarse the feeling of the Holy Ghost and its role. Something I love saying to people, and I got this from my companion, a saying "praying takes a couple minutes." If you don't receive an answer it was only a couple of minutes out of your day...but if you do recieve an answer, a feeling from the Holy Ghost, it could change your life. So we did alot of that on exchanges. In the middle of the day we got a call from one of the ward mission leader's wife. She said someone had called about her son who lives in the apartments who had talked to the missionaries a couple days previously who had recently gone through a divorce. The mission leader's wife
asked if I remembered talking to someone in the apartments and I kind of laughed because I was thinking if we've seen them weve talked to them so I had no idea which one she was talking about. The crazy thing
was she didn't know how the lady got her phone number. She gave me the man's address and phone number and said maybe call him today or tomorrow if you have time and set up an appointment and let me know what
happens. I said ok and goodbye...but come on your not just going to call someone who is struggling and is in a perfect part of their life to accept the gospel and its blessings and just set up an appointment for another time. So 5 minutes later (because we saw someone and talked to them, it was in Spanish though) we knocked and he opened the door and without saying anything he said come in. I did recognize him. And I'm thankfull we stopped and talked to him that day and even though at the time he wouldn't recieve us. I was able to witness what happens when we always share the message of the joy the gospel can bring to our lives. He heard and rejected but then he pondered and recognized that now more than ever he needed this in his life and our night was crazy busy. We went on splits with two members of the church (ward mission leaders) and Elder Jimenez had to go do a baptismal interview for someone preparing to be baptized so he had to leave at 6 and I had a lesson to go teach...๐Ÿ˜ต surprisingly not very stressful. Maybe that's because I used to cover 3 stakes, 22 wards. I don't know? But not much makes you too stressed out anymore you know. While Elder Jimenez was out doing his district leader stuff i was at a home with Brother Mackay (a ward mission leader). We were in the home of two ladies who had the same grandchild. Crazy story but but thier kids got married and later in life they already knew each other even they lived in different places they somehow found each other in a trailor park in Utah. They are no longer married but they get along great and as Linda put it, its easier to pay rent with two people sooo yea. While we were there Linda who is a nonmember was talking...alot...pretty much the whole time. I enjoyed many of the stories she told and different events of her life. At the beggining she brought up Joseph Smith. She said
she heard A lot of Mormons talking about him and she thought they worshipped him. So she said she didn't really understand why Joseph Smith was important. But she continued with one of her stories too fast for me to interject and explain ๐Ÿ˜ฎ๐Ÿค. In the middle of the conversation she brought up things she believed about where we were before birth and where were going. She believes in most of the plan of salvation (just so you know, if you speak plan of salvation into an iPad it comes out as pedestal vacation...because that makes sence). She continued to talk after that. At some point Brother Mackay miraculously found a space to bring up the restoration as taught in "preach my gospel" and went very briefly over each bullet point. I was very impressed. Recently we have been having a meeting every other week with the ward mission leaders to help train them so they are caught up with all the "new stuff" missionaries do. We role-played with them teaching a principle of church, prayer, or reading and then extended a "will you" invitation. Last training we invited them all to study chapter 3 lesson 1&2 the restoration and plan of salvation. He obviously did. He was trying to get a lead on for me to be able to start teaching but she once again began talking haha ๐Ÿ˜„   ๐Ÿ˜” then at the very end 15 minutes before we had to get going Brother Mackay said we have to get going soon and he turned to me and said Elder Kremer I
don't know if you had anything specific you wanted to talk about or if you have time to quickly go over  anything?...yay Brother Mackay! I wanted to teach the whole restoration but I had to teach brief, clear, and simply the principles of God reveals his gospel in every dispensation (to explain why we have prophets and the importance of priesthood authority and that God always gives us another prophet), the Savior's earthly ministry and Atonement (to explain that Christ established His church while he was on the earth and gave the
priesthood to the 12 men He ordained as disciples and that eventually all of them were rejected leading into another time of apostasy or time with out the priesthood, a prophet, and the fullness of the gospel), the great apostasy (this one is important because the there was no one with the authority to teach the gospel and prophets are important because they keep the doctrines in line and so they can't get mixed up or messed up in anyway. It's really important to understand that God wasn't punishing his children exactly but more he was
patiently waiting for their hearts to be soften so they would accept the gospel and when they would that they would be ready to make changes which is really what repenting is) this lead into why Joseph Smith is important. Since he was in that time period were so many people were searching for the truth this was the ideal time for God to have the fullness of his gospel restored. Joseph who was taught in his family to turn to the Bible when they had questions did that and he read that if he lacked wisdom he needed to pray and ask god. We know
that he did pray and when Joseph prayed he prayed with a desire to know and that desire would lead him to act on whatever answer he was given. For me personally, being told this church was right or that church that was already there was right would have been a heck of a lot easier that being told you would have to be the one who is going to have to restore the church. He had a lot of faith to keep pressing forward. Anyway so thats what I taught her and she actually completely understood the importance of Joseph Smith. Long and amazing day.

Thursday we ended exchanges and continued to work. And we also got a less active man who we've been trying to work with forever make it to the Bishop's office. He has a pretty big drinking problem and he smokes a bit too. Everytime we visited him in the past he was drunk but could remember mostly what we said. Something always stuck out to him and we said very similar things everytime. Finally it hit him that through the Atonement he can be free from the burdens of his past that bring him to drink. That so far was the most fruitful experience of my
transfer here. He is beginning to change ๐Ÿ˜‚

Friday we planned for the week then had lunch (as we always do) with our m.l.s couple (the older missionaries) they are awesome! She always asks us what we want to eat and usually its just us Elders but their are Spanish speaking Sister Missionaries in the Spanish Ward that is in our Stake and I suggested to Sister Block to make biscuits and gravy (MMMMMMMmmmm ๐Ÿ˜‹) for the Sisters because one is from Memphis Tennessee so obviously she loves biscuits and gravy haha but Sister Block (m.l.s couple) asked the Sisters if they wanted to have lunch with all of us and have biscuits and gravy! My companion wasn't super happy that we were having lunch with the Sisters but it was fun. I always say that memphis is like the Currens of Tennesse. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Saturday we had the most effective morning I've ever had ever on my mission. We taught the restoration in an o.y.m and set up I think four lessons with non members WOW!

Sunday was decent not many people came to church that we have been working with but two did come and one is going to be baptized this Saturday!

I would love to tell you how each of our lesson went but then you'd have way too much to read and I wouldn't finish very soon. We had 17 lessons and were very busy! Badadadadum I'm lovin' it๐Ÿ™ƒ

Have a great week I love you all!


Elder Kremer
(\(^~^)/)

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Mission XP - 20 June 2016


Once again a spectacularly amazing week. We had a really cool experience as we were trying to contact people in  the apartments. We had just talked to somebody and and we were just stopped in the road trying to figure out if we should go to someone. When we saw a guy working on his van. I didn't recognize him at first but Elder Ray did. He was a less active member he'd been trying to meet with but stuff kept getting in the way. Elder Ray asked we we should go help him. I don't know anything about vehicles but Elder Ray know alot so I said yes we
should. We helped him a bit then he thanked us and offered us water so we went into his apartment and sat down and we were able to share a message with him. We shared "always remember him". And we asked what
was personal for them in the video. His fiancรฉ shared first. Then he shared and said, as tears came to his eyes, that this was exactly what he'd been praying for. He literally said we were an answer to his prayers. We invited them to come to church and meet with bishop.It was really cool for me.Three of our investigators are moving to Sandy. That was kind of sad to find out because the mom was very golden. She felt the spirit strong in our first lesson and wanted to be baptized. But we know the missionaries and Sandy will help her continue to progress.
I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Kremer
((^~^)/)

Monday, June 13, 2016

Misson XP - 13 June 2016

Something I've been working on in companionship study is talking slower. When we role-play I focus on talking slower so I can go by the spirit more and my mouth doesnt get too far ahead of my thoughts and feelings. It is a very important thing for me to learn. I have struggled with this off and on throughout my mission but I will overcome it with practice.
Elder Ray and I are still haveing a blast together! We get along pretty darn great.
This week...Awesome. Once again we saw the Lord's hand very obvious in
the work. Last week and the week before that we o.y.m'ed a kid. We talked to him then asked him if we could meet his family and share a message with them. He said yes and we asked him where he lived. He seemed a little unsure but pointed in a direction and said a certain apartment area. Elder Ray new the guy who lived in that
apartment he said it was some angry crazy guy they had talked to before so I thought the kid was just trying to get rid of us. I believe it was on Monday that we ran into the the Spanish Sister Missionaries. They told us about an o.y.m they just had with a black lady in our area. She sounded pretty golden or at least someone who would let us talk to them. They gave us an apartment number. We weren't able to stop by on Monday because we had so many appointments but we went by Tuesday. We knocked on the door a couple times and someone opened the door. She was not black. In fact she looked familiar but I was thrown off a bit because...well I was kind of expecting a black lady to open the door. The lady said come in, luckily we had another man with us because their wasn't a man in the home but a previous lesson had fallen through so we decided to go here instead. When we got in I realized it was the family that we had been o.y.ming on the street. We tlaked for a few minutes then we prayed and started teaching. We did 60 seconds of power and then after we taught and shared the first vision we did 60 seconds of reflection. During this time Elder Ray asked her what she had been feeling. Her experience couldn't have been any more perfect. She said she hadnt been having the best day, in fact, right before we had come over she was very mad and she had a big headache. However, as we were talking to her she started feeling better, happier, and her headache left her. Needless to say the spirit worked on her good. We extended the invitation to be baptized and at first she said she had already been baptized so we explained the priesthood and then reinvited and she said, "why not" and we said, "exactly" (how fun is that). Anyway great miracle.


Elder Kremer
((^~^)/)

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Mission XP - 8 June 2016

Elder Ray and I are doing great! We get along well and we have been doing really good with being exactly obedient. When ever we see something even if its small we just bring it up on the spot and work on it. It's been going great. I definitley have that rekindled fire since the moment I came into this area. The last bit of my mission is going to be amazing.

This week was really good. We were extremley blessed to be able to be lead so much to people who we needed to talk to. Two miracles stuck out to me this week. Both occurred on saturday. The first was after we had been trying to contact a potentual investigator. Across from were we were their was an older man in a wheelchair talking to a lady. As we knocked, he lady left and went up to her apartment. No one answered to door for us so we got to our bikes and were heading out when the man started calling out the lady's name while looking at her balcony. I felt the small urge to stop and ask him if hed like me to go up and knock on his door and he replied, "sure if youd like" as i was knocking i could see my companion and he was talking to the man but I could exactly hear what he was saying so i didnt know what they talked about. The lady didnt answer her door so she was probably busy. I came down and he thanked me and i asked what he needed her for and he said he was trying to give her some medicine for her headache. Rig before we were going to leave i asked if we could do anythinfor them. He said no, then he said we are members we just dont go to church. I could see the image in my head..our legs going over our bikes, him stating that he's not active, our legs comming back over our bikes almost on cue and asking questions. He shared some deep stuff of why he stopped going to church. Really sad stuff i couldnt believe happened but hes going to to the bishop here and we are going to stop by him often to strengthen him.

The other cool miracle was also on saturday. It was later on in the evening. Elder Ray and I were stopping by Chris, one of our investigators, I dont know if I've said much about him. He is making such amazing progress. He detoxed of some heavy drugs and he is also kind of homeless but an awesome less active member is letting Chris
stay with them. He happens to live in an apartment right above and across from his brother and sister in law. His brother is also not a member and his sister in law is a little less active. Anyway, as we were getting off our bikes to visit Chris his brother and sister in law came out and as they were passing us the sister in law asked us what time church met. We told them then we asked them if we could stop by later that night to share a message with them. We knew the brother was a nonmember. They said we could come by around 7. When we came by we planned on sharing the plan of salvation but as we did "how to begin teaching we relized that we needed to share the restoration. We found out that he had met with missionaries before and when they had invited him to be baptized he had said no. Elder Ray prayed then I did something we call "60 seconds of power" which is where we state our purpose, state bullet point number 10, "As you accept our message, you will learn how to make covenants, or promises, with God. You will learn how to make changes to bring your lives in closer harmony with
His teachings. You will want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be baptized by proper authority" then promise blessings. And we teach from thier. After we shared joseph smihs first vision we did what we call "60 seconds of reflection" which is pretty much helping them feel and recognize the holy ghost. When we invited him to be baptized he said yes! He did have a concern we were able to resolve but he is on date for the 25 of june XD after the lesson Elder Ray told me that they had seen him before but when they asked to come by and share a message he said no.

For me this was an amazing learning opprotunity on why it is so important that we as missionaries and members should always invite. Heavenly Father knows when people are ready. He knows when their hearts have been soften or they have been humbled and are willing to make changes in thier lives. Once they are ready that's were we come in. Everyday there is someone we could influence and bring the spirit to. You dont know why you might go somewere or why your car may break down or why something that is unexpected might happen to you. I urge you to make it a priority to seek those who do not yet have the gospel in thier lives or are living under thier privileges. As disciples of Christ who have already seen and felt the blessings that come from living the gospel we should be doing everyhting we can to be finding those who are ready. Start praying everyday for the opportunity to find "the one" then seek them out. Spark a conversation with those you come in contact with. Do not be afraid to bring up religion or the gospel. When someone asks how your week was share how your Sabbath went, how you saw a prayer answered, how your family blessed your life this week. Always seek "the one". I know you will feel the holy ghost stronger. You will be able to see the change in someones life who is accepting the gopel. You will feel joy beyond any joy you've felt physically serving someone because youll relize you are blessing someone spiritually and you are helping them receive eternal salvation. What a blessing it will be when you reunite with those in heaven that you have touched here on earth.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Kremer
((^~^)/)