Week 52: Trump It

Don't think I'm obsessed.  But another thing happened at Bishop's last night.  So first he tells us about the red heifer that a jew found in the US.  If you ain't read about it in the old testament (Numbers ch. 19), the significance of this rare bovine is that a) there's only been nine found previously in all of recorded history, making this the tenth (coughLOSTTRIBEScough) and b) such a heifer is a requirement to purify the grounds and the priests before the Jews can rebuild their temple in Jerusalem which they've been waiting to do for forever, so c) now that they found themselves a ginger cow, THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM IS GOIN UP AND IT PROBS WON'T TAKE BUT A YEAR.  I know it's wild, but try to stay calm.  True, this is not the LDS temple that's supposed to be up before 2nd coming, however.  This temple was prophesied of as well.  And the BYU center in Jerusalem could easily be converted into a temple at a moment's notice, so like, that's not too far off either.  This isn't all we discussed last night.  Bish told us about these weird noises that people are hearing all over the world and no one's sure where they're coming from.  But when you play the sound clips sped up, they sound a lot like Jewish trumpets.  What's that our eastward facing Moroni's got in their hands atop every temple? A TRUMPET maybe????  And what's supposed to sound to herald the second coming?  A...... TRUMPET?????  This isn't the crazy part though.  When we leave our dinner appointment, we walk outside and are about to head down the dark driveway to our car, when the silence of the night is broken by a strange, low sound coming from afar off.  The sound of a trumpet.  Next thing, Bishop's wife hears a thud and turns to see four sister missionaries slammed up against her back door, screaming.  May or may not have been crying too and got permission to have a sleepover so we wouldn't be alone last night.

 25 How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants,and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not! [D&C 43]

 92 And angels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with aloud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying: Prepare ye,prepare ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the judgment of our God is come. Behold, and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. [D&C 88]

It's everywhere.  So the bishop called us back a little while later after we told him about it.  He went outside to listen for himself and eventually heard what we heard.  Turns out it was a neighbor blowing his hunting horn to train his coon huntin' dogs.  But still.  Even bishop agreed, it was an odd coincidence that his neighbor would be training at night in the dark at the very moment we went outside on the night we talked about the trumpets.  There are no coincidences.  It was a sign to let us know that no, we're not crazy, and yes, everything we've been talking about concerning the end times is super real.  If you read the Doctrine and Covenants, it's in like, every other section.

Back to like, my missionary work though.  Went on exchanges with Sister Parmenter on Tuesday in Richland.  We're kinda fed up with young dudes in trailer parks who only talk to us because we're young and attractive, fifteen minutes wasted and they didn't get a word of the Restoration.  But we did talk to a young adult in front of his apartment, ended up teaching the full restoration, and he asked where our church was.  Then he told us he'd seen the sister missionaries riding their bikes in the rain one day and told his brother that if they ever talked to him, he'd go to their church because of how dedicated they are.  Heck yeah.  That's why we bike in the rain.

Sister Dailey and I taught the Book of Mormon class again this week, led a discussion about the army of Helaman.  Two investigators were in the class, one of theirs and one of ours, and a member with a killer conversion story.  Spirit was so strong.  And our inv, Brother J, is solid.  At long last.... gators that understand what they read and can discuss it.  We taught Brother J after church yesterday - well, we meant to.  But he ended up teaching US about tithing and fasting and committed himself to do it before we even asked.  You're making this too easy for us, Brother J! we said.  I had a wonderful living example, he said.  His daughter's family are like the most solid family ever.

This week's M-Hall adventure was a guy who drove up to us while we were tracting, looking sufficiently hood with a bandana on his head and studs in his ears. Had this wild and troubled look in his eyes as we followed him into a laundry room so he could ask us for help with his house that is haunted (different from a haunted house, those are not life threatening).  He claimed to have video on his phone (which thankfully was not with him) of the bad mumbo jumbo that he's been seeing in the halls, something about child-age spirits, roaring sounds, and the walls turning red.  Poor guy seemed legit scared, and swore no drug or alcohol use or satanic practice was going on in his home.  He'd stopped us recognizing us as spiritual people, but unfortunately we don't have the priesthood to handle these kinds of things.  So we took down his info and passed it on to the bishop, but he said he and his counselors would have to consider and pray about this before attempting a cleansing.  I guess even bishoprics get freaked out by bad mumbo jumbo.

Pioneer day was not nearly as extravagant as Cassie's Utah-scale celebration, but there were pancakes and a pie contest (my Oreo pie took first place, shout out to mom for the recipe) and a baptism for a family of five.  Glorious day.  Next week is our turn.  Brother J all the way!  In the meantime, the hunt for the elect continues (so we don't go into a state of depression when he's baptized and we don't have a golden inv anymore), and rest assured we'll be raising our voices like unto a trump.  The urgency is real.

 3 Behold, I say unto you that it is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might—

 4 Lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, proclaiming the truth according to the revelations and commandments which I have given you. [75]

 6 And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God. [42]

 106 And in all his journeyings let him lift up his voice as with the sound of a trump, and warn the inhabitants of the earth to flee the wrath to come. [124]

 6 To lift up your voice as with the sound of a trump, both long and loud, and cry repentance unto a crooked and perverse generation,preparing the way of the Lord for his second coming. [34]

Off I go to trump it out and prepare the way.  Hope ya'll are doing the same!  The Lord needs us all in this!

Sincerely,

Sister Valdez

Week 51: Out The Sky

I'm gonna overlook the fact that none of you commented on anything I said last week and assume that you still see me as the level-headed highly-rational one in the family.  Not a hormonal stress-bomb gone nuts.  I appreciate that.

Right when I thought the highs couldn't get no higher and the lows no lower, we broke some records this week.  First was record of tears shed by one companionship in a fifteen minute period, second was consecutive lessons in members homes in one day - with no cancellations and no knocking-and-no-one-answered attempts.

I ended up in the worst Bible bash of my life - with a member.  A recent convert actually, who I guess never had a solid testimony of the Restoration, believes the Book of Mormon to be true, but is stuck on false traditions of his fathers - i.e. that there is no "one true church" that the Bible is the only everlasting and infallible "word of God" and that nothing can add to it and it's not the doctrine that matters or the way you worship it only matters that you believe Jesus is the Christ.  Anyway.  He ended up basically telling us that "God's closing the door on this one," meaning he's not coming to church anymore, or talking to us anymore.  So much for temple prep.  Soon as we were around the corner out of sight, I threw down my bike, sank into the lawn, and cried.  My companion followed suit.  And then it started raining.  It was like a movie or something.  For a day, I was plagued with the awful awful feeling that I had completely failed as a missionary by doing the exact opposite of my purpose.

Our poor greenie, who last transfer was deserted by his trainer, finally got to return to his area with a new comp.  And then he got pneumonia.  Out of the blue.  The first day.  Poor kids have been stuck in their apartment all week watching The Testaments and playing farkle.  So.  I guess it could be worse for us.  We could be not working at all and asking Relief Society to bring us casseroles.

But then it got better yesterday.  Remember our investigator who was the dad of a member in our ward who was in the process of moving back here from Virginia?  He's back!  We walked into church yesterday and there he was!  Best surprise ever.  Just fell out the sky and into our lives.  He'd gone to church every week he was in VA and met with the bishop there, who was a converted Southern Baptist, just like him, and met with the missionaries as well who showed him the Restoration video.  "It showed the story of Joseph Smith, helped me understand it better.  He was a prophet!"  He also told us he'd read "a little bit" of the Book of Mormon, we we're thinking, okay like two chapters maybe, and he's like "I'm about a third of the way through" and we're like *passes out in disbelief.*  Yep.  He's ready.  August 2nd, here we come.

M-Hall adventures were good as always.  We met a guy who looks and acts a lot like an art professor I had in college - minus the braces - and showed us a five page letter he got from a local prophet named "Prophet Peter" telling him his future with every other line bolded or underlined.  He's like "I sent this guy some money once and I started getting these two or three times a week.  Scares me a little bit, but I don't wanna judge one way or the other if he says he's a prophet." And in our minds we're like "Aha let me tell you a thing about prophets" but instead we assured him that it's okay to question the words of a "prophet" especially when the stuff they do scares you.  In fact, please feel free to pray about this one a lot and refer to 1 Timothy 4:  God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of peace and of love and of a sound mind.  He was a funny guy though, and when he asked for whatever literature we had so he could study up, we gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration.  You wanna know a thing about prophets?  Bam.  Prepare to be mind blown.

We also got to teach the Valdez family (aka mah cousins) and a friend of his who's hanging out there happens to be a former member of the church who starts bringing up all this stuff his bishop told him that "made" him dissent from the church and we're like "awesome there goes our investigator" but then we start teaching Mr. Valdez about the Book of Mormon and the crazy friend bears an unexpectedly sincere and adamant testimony about how the Book of Mormon is true and you can tell every time you read it because the stories are crazy cool and it always somehow applies to the stuff going on in your life.  Afterwards, Mr. Valdez says "Yeah, I'm actually going to read it this week.  Hearing him talking about it made me really interested."  A crazy dissenter's testimony.  Go figure.  These things come out of nowhere.

4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

 5 Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow.

 6 Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony of the things which are to come;

 7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand; [D&C 58]

So much of our time is spent in foundation laying.  And then once in a blue moon, Heavenly Father just throws in a cakewalk teaching experience, in which basically all we have to do is present what we know and testify of it and they take it and run because this is exactly what they want.  And by once in a blue moon, I mean THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME and may well be the last, it's fine.  When it comes to golden, we missionaries really don't do anything, we're just a formality.  The elect are already convinced of the effort they must put forth to be converted, and we just show em where the road is.  So our job is to be obedient, do our darndest, not have breakdowns  - well, have breakdowns and then get back to work - and be ready to teach when the one golden-elect-prepared investigator falls from the sky.  Don't worry bout me, I'll make it.  love ya'll.

Sincerely,

Sister Valdez