7/9/13

Mondays have been really stressful for me (there is always a lot that I want to get done, and it is hard to adjust my schedule around all of the other missionaries - I never really know ahead of time how much time I will have to email or write letters). 

We got our car back, but the A/C wasn't working for a few days (but today we realized that there was just a button that we missed or something because it worked for the other missionaries that borrowed the car from us). However, we still have been biking a little to conserve miles.

The good thing is you sort of get used to the heat (it isn't comfortable, but I at least don't feel like I am dying all of the time). 

That is so cool that you got to go with the missionaries to a discussion. I wish I could go to a discussion (it seems like it has been forever since anyone let us come and teach another lesson). Honestly, I've been a little down because we have so few investigators and the few that we have wanted a break from the lessons. Hopefully things will pick up more this week. 

One good thing that has come out of all of this is that one of our less active members has started to come back to church. She told us that it has been a wonderful blessing to have us come by and visit her every week, and that simple act of visiting her had inspired her and reminded her of her testimony. It was nice to be able to see something good come from all of our efforts. 

As far as your speaking fears go, I don't have a whole lot that I can say right now. But one thing that has helped me is prayer. I pray that I can have the faith necessary to rely on the Lord and trust that He will guide me to say and do the right things. I have found that to be able to speak up in lessons, I need to speak up everywhere else. I can't just walk into a lesson and become a missionary; I have to be a missionary everywhere. It is hard, but as long as I don't become discouraged and continue to push myself, things have worked out.

6/3/13

Jahmari is getting baptized this Saturday, and things are starting to pick up with Melissa (she has been opening up and we are now up to about 3 lessons with members a week with her).

We have gained two new investigators since last week. One is named Reggie, and the other is named Faith. Reggie is a truck driver that travels from Las Vegas to Utah everyday (he leaves at 1 am in the morning and gets back in the afternoon). Reggie delivers to a man in Utah named Chris who is LDS, and so he has had many opportunities to discuss the church with  him. Chris decided to refer Reggie to the church, and we were sent by his house. Although it took a while for us to finally contact him, we were able to get into his house and talk to him a little about the gospel. We were also able to give him a copy of The Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the Restoration. Unfortunately we won't be able to teach him for 2 more weeks, and then even after that he only wants us coming by on Saturdays. So I doubt that we will be able to make very much progress with him (he may go through several missionaries before he starts to progress - unless he really goes the extra mile in keeping his commitments, which is yet to be seen). As for Faith, she is a very intelligent and religious woman that would like us to come by and share a message of the gospel with her family. When we talked to her last, she asked us what message we would be sharing with her family, and so we basically taught her the Restoration on her doorstep. The biggest question that arose from our discussion was: "why do we need prophets today if we already have the scriptures - especially if they are saying the same things that the prophets said in ancient times?" In response, we referred to Amos 3:7 and I then explained to her that although God never changes, the world is constantly changing and as a result, we constantly need guidance that is applicable to our daily lives.

Life As a Missionary 5/27/13

Jamari is going to be baptized on June 8th. 

We have not had many teaching experiences so far. We have found a few potential investigators through having lessons with members, however, we haven't been able to schedule very many lessons. That is our biggest challenge right now - finding people to teach. Apparently President Neider has instructed the missionaries not to tract. I believe most of the baptisms have come through member referrals. This week we have a few appointments scheduled with potential investigators. However, in past weeks, most of our appointments have fallen through. It is a lot of work to find people, and so far our efforts haven't seemed to be paying off. On a positive note, President Neider gave Elder H and I a car a couple of days ago (we were spending the majority of our time biking). Hopefully things will begin to pick up speed soon. 

Yes we are teaching Melissa, but I can't remember what I said about her in my letter. We have mainly been joining the Dahl family's scripture reading twice a week with Melissa up until this week. This week we did some yard work for Melissa (she has been sick and she may have cancer and she keeps herself busy - basically she wasn't able to mow her lawn or take care of the yard for a while) and we invited her to start coming to church again (she has a long history of working with the missionaries). She came to church yesterday, which was wonderful.

My schedule is consistently inconsistent. However, here is the basic outline:

Wake up at 6:30 (unless we decide to attend morning sports in which case we get up at 5:40)

Prepare for the day (eat breakfast, shower, etc)

Studies from 8-10 am

The 12 week program at 11 am

Lunch 12 pm

Then we visit members of the ward from 1 - 5 pm (we go off of a less-active and part member family list that the bishopric put together)

Dinner around 5 pm

Then we probably just return to the list until 8:30 - 9 pm

We return home around 9 pm and then plan for the next day (I usually get to bed around 10:30 pm)

(We had really hoped to have more people to teach at this point to fill in our schedule, however, for now we are just going to try and get to know the ward better)

We have not been attending ward council, however, we have been attending the beginning of P.E.C. every week.

I have found that there are a ton of inactive members in this ward, but the members that attend church regularly are very strong families who are actively engaged in missionary work. We have found that they really have been doing all that they can to help out their missionaries. This will be an easy ward for fellow-shipping investigators and new converts. 

We have been fed nearly every night since we have been here (with the exception of the first week or so due to the impression that the last missionaries left). Occasionally members will cancel dinner appointments on us, however, as we have gotten to know the families better, we have found people who are always stepping in to help us out when members cancel. One family invited us over tonight to join their barbecue since our original appointment failed. It is the same family where we skyped from a few weeks ago. Also, there is another family that fed us twice last week that cooked us two of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time (they believed that if they fed us well then their daughter who was also serving a mission would be fed well).

My companion is a lot like Tyler - he wanted to do the same thing the other day - he said that he wanted to catch one of the jack rabbits here and bring it back to the apartment as a pet. I pointed out that we couldn't keep pets and he resolved that he would just catch one and then cook it into a stew. I guess he isn't as friendly as Tyler. 

That is funny that you would say "keep being obedient and you will be blessed" because yesterday my companion and I had to teach the Elders quorum lesson and the talk we used was Thomas S Monson's talk "Obedience Brings Blessings" from this last conference.

Just A Note From Mom: 

It is Kyle's Birthday on Sunday, June 23

If you are thinking about him it would be great if you could send him a quick Birthday note or wish.

Las Vegas Nevada

Journal Entry June 4, 2013 This was the only Pleasant Page I could find in my Journal entries that I felt might be of value to others. It also hints at some of the challenges I am facing.

I received a prompting the other morning while praying that I should wash Elder Hearne’s dishes.  I was a little upset with him at the time and it was so hard for me to do it, but I decided to follow through and wash his dishes.  Later in the the day, when he noticed what I had done, he expressed gratitude and things began to change very quickly.  The rest of the day was incredible because our communication with each other improved and we also began to street contact and open up to others.  I realized that whenever I find myself upset with Elder Hearn, it is because I am only thinking about myself.  Washing Elder Hearne’s dishes was my way of washing his feet  It is incomprehensibly less significant than what Christ has done and would have done in my place, however, it was a big thing on my level, and it helped to purify and cleanse our relationship.  One thing that I have learned from my various interactions with the residents of North Las Vegas is that there are some significant barriers dividing the community.  I’m not just referring to the physical walls, gates, bars, and rocks, dividing each house from the next, but rather the social barriers that have proved to be more effective.

Journal Entry Illustrating the concept of Personal Revelation(which is unique to our Church) and my testimony of it.

As I reflect back on some of my experiences this week, there is one in particular that stands out to me that I wish to share.  I believe that this experience demonstrates a concept that I am beginning to understand after a series of trying events.  The following experience is an illustration of the role of revelation in missionary work:

Yesterday I went on exchanges¹ with my District Leader, Elder Mcclure.  Prior to visiting an excommunicated member, Elder Mcclure invited me to prepare a spiritual thought to share with him.  I accepted and Elder Mcclure proceeded to tell me a little about the man we would visit that evening.  Here is what Elder Mcclure shared: ²”Brother Judd is an excommunicated member of the church that has recently lost 100 pounds.  We visited him and I felt impressed to offer to dedicate him home.  In the blessing I was prompted to cast out ³evil spirits that were residing within his home.  Brother Judd thought the event was a little silly at first, however, when his friend came over shortly afterwards she exclaimed “what have you done to your house?  The bad Karma is gone!”  There was a distinct difference in the atmosphere of Brother Judd’s home.  He recognized this miracle and his testimony was rekindled.  Currently he is working on quitting smoking so that he can be baptized again.   So far he has shown progress”.

Here was my mental response to what he shared:  “Well, that’s a great story, however, I don’t see how there could be anything for me to share with him just based on that limited information.”  As I pondered on the information I was presented with, I attempted to analyze this imaginary character that represented brother Judd.  I tried to formulate what the best prescription might be for this spiritual patient.  Perhaps I would have focused on a topic related to the Word of Wisdom if I had known all of the details listed above(I don’t think Elder Mcclure mentioned smoking or baptism now that I think about it).  Essentially what I came to realize was that I had nothing to share with this man, and that there was no way that I could possibly find the right scripture to share with him if I could not even discern his needs.  So I decided to turn to the Lord and depend upon Him to direct me towards the message he wanted me to share.  I began by flipping through a combination of scripture mastery scriptures and scriptures that I was familiar with.  For some reason, one of the scriptures ⁴ stood out to me. I didn’t understand why, and I didn’t understand how it would relate, so I continued looking for other scriptures that seemed more logical to share.  I found no other scriptures that seemed appropriate for the situation, and I found that the scripture I had dismissed previously had continued to come to my mind.  The scripture was Isaiah 1:18.  I was not ver anxious to use this scripture because I could not think of anything to say about it.   However, as I began to study the scripture using the Bible Dictionary, the footnotes, the topical guide, I began to receive greater insights into the Atonement, ad I begin to feel the spirit prompting me and confirming the truths that I learned.  I received quite a lot of revelations through this experience, however, I was able to clearly distinguish which things the Lord wanted me to share with Brother Judd and which things I was supposed to keep to myself.  That evening as I met Brother Judd, my first impression was-”Oh, no, that was the wrong message to pick for him”.  (He did not appear to be very educated-which quite frankly turned out to be true- and the message I had prepared was somewhat deeper than what I would typically share).  However, as I got to know him better, I began to feel the spirit testify in my heart and mind that this was the perfect message for Brother Judd.  When it came time for me to share the spiritually thought, I was able to testify of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost.  I felt it and Brother Judd felt it because afterwards there was a physical change in his countenance and in his demeanor.  He shared with me his own testimony, and he expressed his desire and determination to come unto Christ, be baptized, and endure to the end.  After visiting with Brother Judd, Elder Mcclure and I visited a family in his ward for a dinner appointment.  AT this appointment Elder Mcclure enthusiastically expressed his admiration for the insightful spiritual thought I had shared with Brother Judd, and then volunteered me to repeat what I said for the White family to hear.  Although I shared the same scriptures and essentially the same insights that I had used earlier, it was a completely different experience.  The Spirit didn’t seem to be present, and the message didn’t seem to have much of an impact.  As I reflect back on these experiences, what I have come to recognize is that the Lord permitted me to gain this revelation so that I could share His message with Brother Judd.  This message was not intended for the White family, and as a result, the Spirit could not carry it into their hearts the same way that it could with Brother Judd.

The key to revelation is knowing who it is intended for.  Most often we receive revelation for ourselves.  Occasionally it may be for others in relationships such as that between a husband and wife.  Missionaries can receive revelation regarding how they teach investigators.  Parents can receive revelation for raising their children.  The prophet can receive revelation to help him lead the church.  However, in all of these instances, there is a specific person or group of people to whom the revelation is intended for.  Only when the intended audience is present will the Holy Ghost truly testify of the truth of the message being shared.  Spiritual experiences cannot be forced, triggered, or arranged.  They come only as the Lord desires them and only to those whom He has prepared to receive them.  The message that I shared with Brother Judd belonged to him, it was not a message that I ought to have shared with others when I had not been prompted to do so.

~Elder Kyle Jensen~

1-Exchange=swap companions for a day in this case I spent the day in a different area/ward.

2-This is not a perfect record but rather my own attempt to paraphrase what he said.

3-Evil was not the word he used, I do not recall the exact wording.

4-It was not a strong feeling or anything unfamiliar-but rather it resonated in my mind slightly differently than all of the others.

Elder Jensen and Elder Mcclure on exchanges