Flood the Earth

Buenos!

Well, it's been an interesting week. It's been a little stressful, but it's been good. This week we started a zone focus on the Book of Mormon, so we have been going ham passing out copies, and talking about the Book of Mormon with everyone! We are just trying to flood the earth with the Book of Mormon. It's led to some pretty cool experiences. One of those was with a pair of new investigators we found last week, H and J. We went back to teach them the Restoration and it was so good! J has a ton of questions, especially about baptism. We were in the middle of the lesson, talking about the apostasy, and Joseph said, "So wait, that same authority would've had to have been brought back through Joseph Smith, right?" It was so cool, he was making all these connections. We were able to read a verse from the Book of Mormon with him that answered his question about baptism, and it was just so awesome to see when it clicked with him. We are really excited to keep teaching them!

This week there was also a baptism in the Sister's area, a lady named S. I had the chance to interview her for baptism, and it was a great experience. She has been investigating the church for a really long time, and all the rest of her family are members. It was incredible to see how happy she and her family were at her decision to finally come unto Christ. The spirit was really strong at the baptism, and it was just great to see how much joy their family was feeling. This truly is a gospel of joy!

My ponderizer this week is Jacob 3:2 "O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever." If our hearts and our minds are firm and pure, we can be filled with the love of God, or in other words, Charity. Charity is known as the pure love of Christ. When we are filled with his kind of love, we look to serve others, instead of judging or criticizing them. It is this kind of love that will identify us as disciples of Christ. As we allow our hearts and minds to be filled with the love of God, we will receive revelation about how we can serve God, and His children. In fact, he will make it known to us in our minds, and in our hearts. I hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Ask the Missionaries...They Can Help You!

Last P-day they took a hike in the

hills outside Johnson City

Buenos!

Happy Mother's day! We had a great week here in Watauga. We were able to find some new investigators this week, and we had lots of really good visits with less-actives as well. One of those less-actives, Bro. P, came to church this week! It was so great to see him come. I got to translate for him throughout church, so that was lots of fun. One of the other highlights this week was that we were finally able to have another lesson with our investigator D, and her grandson, N. We taught them the Doctrine of Christ, and D committed to be baptized on June 24th! Hopefully she can progress toward that date, but we need to get her to come to church. She wasn't at church this week, which was a little disappointing, but we are hoping to get her there this week!

This week I also had the incredible opportunity to baptize someone! It was kind of an emergency thing though. You know that old phrase, "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" ? Well, on Saturday they were having a baptism for one of the primary kids in the ward, and the bishop was supposed to baptize her, but the bishop had to take his son to the ER. So, about 10 minutes before the service started, we got a call asking if one of us could do the baptism. Elder N didn't have any baptism clothes, so I grabbed mine and we rushed to the church! The service went really well though, and it was an amazing opportunity to baptize A. It was the first time I've ever baptized someone, and it was such an honor, and the spirit was so strong. A was so happy after her baptism. She went around to everyone and told them all confidently, "I'm baptized now! I got all my bad stuff washed away!" It was a great experience.

My ponderizer this week is Jacob 4:7 "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things." We all have weaknesses. Those weaknesses are there to humble us, but also to help us grow. The first step is to have humility, and to invite the Savior's power of grace into our lives. The more we humble ourselves and submit our will to His, the more that his atoning power can influence us. It is through His grace that we can do all things! I hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

More pictures from the hike:

One Year Older (and Wiser too?)

At Zone Conf, they got 

Pres. Griffin a new shirt

Buenos!!

This week has been good. We visited a lot of less-actives this week, and one of them was pretty awesome. We were out trying to contact a former investigator in our area book, but he wasn't home. So we looked across the street and saw a Hispanic guy working on his car, so we decided to go talk to him. Turns out he was a member of the church! His name is Hermano P. His records were in the neighboring ward, but he had moved to our ward and nobody knew. And we just happened to find him! It was super cool, plus he wants to start coming back to church! The Lord definitely put us in the right spot at the right time.

This week we also had Zone Conference, which is always great. President Griffin taught us a lot about weaknesses. Something that I thought was interesting is that Satan is the author of all sin, but God is the author of human weakness. Having a weakness is not a sin, but it can lead to sin of we do not learn how to handle those weaknesses. That is why the Lord has promised that if we come unto him in humility, he will make our weaknesses become strengths. Then on Sunday was my birthday! 21 years old, pretty crazy. We didn't do much to celebrate, just went to church, did some work, made some brownies. It was fun though.

My ponderizer this week is Moroni 6:8 "But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven." As we have visited with less-active members this week, it was so sad to me to see that so many of them do not understand repentance. One lady we taught this week thought that if you had committed too many sins or hadn't come to church in while, that you couldn't ever go back. Another man asked if he had to be re-baptized because he hadn't been to church for so long. You can always repent. You can always come back. The church is not a place for perfect people. It is a hospital, designed so that all who are spiritually ill can receive the help they need from the master Physician. We all get off course, and thank goodness that we can repent and get back on track. Let us give thanks for our savior's atonement that makes repentance possible, and let us all find joy in learning to repent daily. I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Some selfies from post ZC lunch

The Heat is On...And so is the Pollen

While helping to paint a house, he and one of the zone leaders

 decided to start the White Sleeves Club by painting them on

Buenos!

Well, Summer has already hit in Tennessee. Temperatures are rising, humidity is up, and this week we hit 90 degrees...in April. The trees are blooming, pollen is flying, and allergies are just making it even more fun. But, despite the heat and the sneezing, it's been a great week. We had a lot of chances to do service this week. On Tuesday we helped paint the house of a member who is moving from the Johnson City ward to our ward, and then on Saturday we got to help two different members move, so that was fun. We had an awesome experience on Wednesday. We were out tracting and saw this old dude struggling to mow his lawn. So, we went over, and Elder N just kinda took the lawn mower from him, passed it off to me, and started to talk with the man. We mowed his whole yard for him, and tried to talk with him about the Gospel, but he wasn't really interested. He did thank us though. It really set the stage for the rest of our day. As we went along after that, the Lord blessed us with four new investigators, one of which was Spanish! It was awesome to see the blessings of service this week.

As for our investigators, we weren't able to make a lot of progress this week. We were supposed to have another lesson with D and her family, and then they canceled on us. But, they told us they still really wanted to come to church, and that they'd be there this week...and then they weren't. But, it just means we have to keep trying just a little bit harder. Hopefully the work will pick up a little more this week. The members are starting to get a little more involved, so hopefully we will see some great things happen this week!

My ponderizer this week is D&C 84:61 "For I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment--that you remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you." I think this is one of my new favorite scriptures. What a great promise from the Lord! The first step is that we are steadfast in our thoughts and diligent in our prayers. Then, we need to get out and share the gospel! As we do so, the Lord promises us forgiveness of our sins. Wow. As we are forgiven, and as our appreciation for the atonement increases, our desire to share the gospel grows. I love the Lord. Sometimes it is hard, but this truly is His work. This is His true church and His true Gospel. Let us be willing to open our mouths and share that with everyone. I hope yall have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell