Snow!

Their apartment complex after it started to melt

Hola!

Well it was interesting week here in Clarksville! First off, we didn't have our car this week (we trade off every week with another group of Elders) so we got to ride the bus...a lot. We also did plenty of walking, which was so much fun in the snow! Yes, we got snow this week. We had a pretty big storm blow through which dumped a few inches. On Friday we couldn't really go outside because it was pretty bad, so we just had a massive weekly planning session. However, while we were snowed in, Elder W taught me how to solve a Rubik's cube, so that's been pretty sweet.

We had kind of a down week as far as numbers, but we still had lots of crazy experiences! On Tuesday, Elder W got bit by a dog. This angry little terrier came up and latched onto his leg while we were going up this investigator's driveway. It wasn't bad, but Elder W's leg was a little bit swollen afterwards. Also this week, we had a worldwide training for all the missionaries, which was pretty special (the last one was about a decade ago I guess). We had lots of trainings by members of the quorum of the 12, and other general authorities of the church. I really like the training by Elder Bednar on the role of the companionship of the Holy Ghost in conversion, as well as the training by Elder L. Whitney Clayton about how to work with less-actives. It was a pretty great experience to hear from our leaders.

This week we found some pretty interesting English people. First, we met D. We were on the bus, and this lady gets on and is like, "Hey! It's the Mormons!" Apparently her sons were baptized a few years ago, and she has been thinking about baptism as well. She really wanted missionaries to come by, so we were able to refer her to the English Elders. Pretty cool. We also met J. Oh man. So, we were walking to an investigator, and I saw this guy salting his driveway, so I just waved at him, and then he called out to us and said, "Hey, what are y’all selling?!" I’m thinking, "OK, here we go." We talked to him for a while and he actually gave us his own little personal sermon about ministering, and then he agreed to meet with us the next day. He was like, "You come to my house, we'll recline, and I'll listen to what you guys got to say." We weren't sure if he was just going to bash with us, or if he was actually interested. So, the next day we were pretty nervous. Turns out, he is like super scary, but he is also like the nicest guy ever. He fed us, and then we were able to teach him about the Restoration and it went pretty well. I’m kind of sad that we'll eventually have to hand him off to the English, because he's a super cool dude, and actually shares most of our beliefs. Plus, he has this sick New Jersey accent, and totally reminds us of like an Italian mobster dude. Pretty sweet.

Alright, so my ponderizing scripture this week is D&C 112:28 which says, "But purify your hearts before me; and then go ye into all the world, and preach my gospel unto every creature who has not received it." Yup. Pretty simple. Be obedient. Be pure. Go preach. Darn right.

Anyways, hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Selfies while waiting for the bus

It was sooooo cold!

This little dog at a member's home was smaller than his shoe

More sleeping pics

Week One in Clarksville

His companions love to take pictures of him sleeping, which I guess he does a lot!

Hola!

Week one in Clarksville. It's been pretty great. The first thing to know about Clarksville is that it's a military town. There's a military base called Fort Campbell that's not too far from Clarksville, so there's a lot of military people here. It's a large city, but the Spanish are kind of few and far between here. Actually, we're the only Spanish missionaries in the whole zone, soooo...yeah. Fortunately, we only cover Clarksville, but that's still a giant area. So, we actually use the bus quite a bit to save miles on our car. There's no Spanish branch or anything here. There used to be a branch, but they didn't have enough priesthood, so they dissolved it. After that a bunch of people went less active, so we really want to focus on the less actives this transfer. Also, most of the time we just end up finding referrals for the English missionaries. We find a lot of English potentials. I think this week we referred seven or eight people to the English missionaries. It's also kind of weird because all of our dinners are with English members.

So, on Tuesday, I left Smyrna, and we headed to transfer meeting in Brentwood. Since they changed the format of transfers, it was pretty much drive up, find your new comp, grab your stuff and go. We had a member that drove us from transfer meeting, so that was nice. My new companion is Elder W. He's pretty cool, a little goofy, but he's working hard. We're getting along pretty well so far, so that's good. He is from muy muy muy southern Colorado, and he enjoys playing piano, guitar, and long walks on the beach (I don't know). He's been here in Clarksville for just one transfer, but thankfully he knows his way around fairly well.

This week we did a lot of contacting, since Elder W still doesn't know many people in the area book. This week we tried to meet with G. Her son has lots of health problems, so it's hard for her to meet with us, but she's genuinely interested in learning more! I also met M this week, who I can only describe as a Hispanic-looking Rocky Balboa, which was ironic, because he was watching Rocky 3 when we stopped by (not that I was watching or anything). Also, we met F this week. He had a ton of questions, but said he wanted to hear more of what we had to say. He was pretty much asking awesome questions like, "Who is Joseph Smith? Didn't we need the authority of God? What is our purpose here on earth?" It was pretty cool.

On Sunday, we had a Stake Conference that was a broadcast from Salt Lake. We had the chance to hear from L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the 70, Linda S. Reeves of the Relief Society, Ronald A. Rasband, and Robert D. Hales. Elder Clayton talked about 100% discipleship, which I really liked. I also really liked Elder Rasband's talk on the temple. It was a cool conference and a great chance to hear from servants of the Lord.

Highlight of the week was finding J. It was actually kind of a miracle. So, on Wednesday afternoon, we were out doing some tracting, and we weren't having too much luck with that. There was this house where nobody was home and so we just left a pass-along card in the door, not really thinking anything about it. But, later that night, we got a call from this random number, and it was the guy whose house we'd left the card in! (How many times do pass-along cards actually work?!). His name was J, and he told us about how his life has been rough recently and how just that morning he had decided that he was giving up on Jesus and stuff. So, when he called us, he was like, "Guys, I need a message about Jesus, like, right now." So we booked it to his house, and had kind of a crazy lesson with him. He had a ton of questions, and we did the best we could to answer them. He feels like God isn't really there, because his problems haven't been getting any better, but we just testified like crazy that God loved him and that He is ready to help His children as they turn to him. It was super cool because he kind of took it as a sign from God that we'd left the card in his door. I'm a little sad we have to hand this guy off to the English missionaries, because this guy seems so ready to change his life, and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for him!

Ok, so my ponderizing scripture this week is Philippians 4:8-9 which says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." I just think it's interesting because we always say in the thirteenth article of faith that we believe in following the admonition of Paul, and this is the actual admonition. So, I just thought it was cool. Sorry, that's all I got on this one. Anyways, hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

With his new companion, Elder W

On the way to Clarksville with Elder A and Elder W

His significantly bigger district

Another sleepy selfie

Moving North for the (rest of) Winter

Proof that he's eating real food!

Hola!

Well, if you didn't gather from the title of the email...I'm getting transferred! Yup, I'll be leaving my good ol' Smyrna tomorrow. In the past, we would just get a voicemail from the ZL's telling us if we are staying or moving, but this time they changed it so that they told us where we are going and who our new companion is. So I'll be going to (drum roll)....Clarksville! It's a city about an hour or two north-west of Nashville, near the Tennessee-Kentucky border. And, my new companion will be Elder W. He hasn't been out too long, just two transfers more than me. Interestingly enough, Elder W trained Elder B (my CCM companion) and his last companion was Elder W (from my CCM district). So, he just gets all three of us right in a row. I'm a little sad to say goodbye to Smyrna, but I think a change will be good right now.

Well, we didn't have too many lesson during my last week here, but we did meet with H again (unfortunately Hermano F couldn't make it to church, so neither did H). We also met with the R brothers, and had a good lesson with them. We also met with another one of the V clan. Hermana G V is now active again, so we started working on her sister N this week. We were able to meet with N and just kind of got to know her, and shared a brief message. It was good though. Also this week, we found a new investigator named I. We talked at her door for like 20 minutes, and she could potentially be golden. I won't get to find out though, bummer.

This week we also had some other cool stuff. First off, on Thursday, this random hay bale just appeared outside of our apartment. Not really sure why. It just kind of showed up, and nobody has since come to reclaim it, so I guess it's ours now. Free hay bale. Also, we had a tender mercy. We were tracting up in La Vergne and we just couldn't find anybody, we were having no success. Then, we tracted into an English member's house by accident. The member was just visiting from Arizona, but she was super nice and gave us cake, so woohoo!

Relaxing on the mystery hay bale

We had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday we had the Spanish Conference, which is pretty much just a regular Zone Conference, but it's for all the Spanish missionaries in the mission, and all the trainings were in Spanish and stuff. So, I got to see Elder A and Elder B and Elder W there. It was a good conference. We had lots of trainings from the more experienced missionaries, mostly on how to improve our language skills and studies and stuff. I really liked the training by Elder P (one of the Spanish ZL's). He talked about the difference between an honorable mission and a valiant mission. As an object lesson, he gave everyone two no-bake cookies. They both looked the same, but one had sugar and one didn't. So the one without sugar tasted really nasty. Good training. After the trainings, we heard the testimonies of the missionaries who are going home this transfer. It was a fun day. 

All the Spanish elders in the mission

Then on Sunday I said goodbye to lots of the members. I'm gonna miss em. When Presidente R heard I was moving, he was pretty sad haha. He said, "Elder Mitchell, who am I gonna mess with when you're gone?" Haha, good ol’ Presidente.

Elder Mitchell with Presidente R

My ponderizing scripture this week is 1 Nephi 21:4-5: "Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain; surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now, saith the Lord--that formed me from the womb that I should be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him--though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." Sometimes in missionary work it's easy to feel like you aren't getting much done, and that your labor is in vain. But, the Lord chose us before we came to this earth to be His servant and help gather Israel. And although we might not have gathered all of Israel, if we did what the Lord asks, then we will be glorious in His sight. I'm thankful to have served in Smyrna, and I'm thankful to have helped the work progress in this area.

Hope y’all have a great week! I'll be writing next week from Clarksville! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

"Looking fly" in his new sweater from Hermano M

Goodbye Elder S!

With his old companion Elder A

CCM Reunion with Elder B and Elder W

His district

Yeah, they're a little crazy!

Elder S eating papusas

With Hermano K, his branch mission leader

Super P-day!

In front of their apartment

Hola a todos!

Well, it was an interesting week here. It was actually really wacky. First off, winter decided to come back as this week it dropped from the 60's and 70's down to the 30's and 40's. Time to break out the sweaters! I'll just say that we've really come to appreciate our car this week.

This week we weren't able to meet with very many investigators, but we were able to meet with H! He's now been taught everything he needs to know so we just reviewed some of the third lesson with him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pretty sweet. H also made it to church this week, which was great. He hadn't been coming very often the last month with the holidays and everything, but he's starting to come back! Also this week, Hermana V and her daughter, Hermana P (some of our less actives) came to church for the third week in a row! They told us that it's a process, but that they've been feeling the spirit more, and they want to keep coming back! A reactivation is just as good as a baptism, so it's been great to see them come back to the church again. Our branch council has really put a focus on less actives (especially since we have so many), which has shown in our efforts. This week we visited with lots of different less actives which was great.

Also this week we had exchanges. I was back to being an English missionary from Wednesday to Thursday, as I worked with our district leader Elder M in his area. We didn't have too many set appointments, so we spent most of the time tracting and contacting potentials. We didn't see too much success, but we still had fun, and it was good for me to get some tips from an experienced missionary. Also, right at the end of the exchange we tracted into a Hispanic guy, so I got to use my Spanish.

On Friday we weren't allowed to proselyte, so we rang in the New Year with an all-day Super P-day! Pretty sweet. The Murfreesboro ZL's came up with another group of elders from Blackman, so there were 10 of us hanging out, playing games, basketball (lots and lots of basketball), and we watched a few G-rated movies. We watched "The Lion King," and "The Emperor's New Groove" (I forgot how funny that movie is holy cow). Also, President approved the movie "The Cokeville Miracle." It was so good! It's about this psycho who goes into an elementary school and is going to blow up the school and stuff, but through some miraculous circumstances, the children survive. It was exciting and spiritual, nearly brought all of us manly elders to tears. I definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it! Yeah, pretty awesome way to start the new year.

My first ponderizing scripture of the year is Alma 60:23 which says, "Do ye suppose that God will look upon you as guiltless while ye sit still and behold these things? Behold I say unto you, Nay. Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also." This week I'm really trying to understand how to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion. The first step is cleanse our thoughts, which will then cleanse our words and then our actions. We are promised in D&C 121:45 that if we garnish our thoughts with virtue unceasingly, the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion. Yup. Hope y’all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

¡Feliz Navidad y un nuevo año!

¡Feliz Navidad y un nuevo año!

Well, we had a pretty good week here. Tuesday was pretty slow, but we had a pretty good day on Wednesday. In district meeting, Elder F gave a training on prayer, and during that we talked about praying for your companion during a lesson. Lessons are huge mental exercises for me, because there's so much to pay attention to. You have to focus on what your comp is saying, then what the investigators are saying, and then focus on what the spirit is trying to tell you to say, and then for me I have to translate everything in my head, so sometimes it's hard for me to remember to pray for my companion during the lesson. But, as I've been remembering to do it, I've been feeling the spirit more during our lessons, which has been pretty cool. Also on Wednesday we met with one of our new investigators, G. She was able to understand the role of prophets and was pretty accepting of the Restoration. Pretty sweet lesson.

Some other things that have been going on: the weather here is starting to get a little nuts. It's still 70 degrees outside most days, but we've been getting some pretty good lightning storms lately. On Tuesday we got a text to go in at 7 because of severe weather. Also this week, we took care of a member's dog while they were gone for Christmas. Summer, the dog, is super energetic. She has a little fenced area where she can run around and stuff, but if she can escape out the front door into the street, she's gone. Well...one night she slipped by us and got out. So, we spent 30 minutes chasing her around the cul de sac, trying to lead her inside. We tried baiting her with dog food, but nothing was working. Eventually, while Elder S was chasing her down the street, I just knelt and prayed that we could get this dog to go back inside. Two minutes later, Summer was running and just stopped in front of the house. Then, she stayed still long enough for Elder S to grab her and put her back in the house. #answeredprayer

On Christmas eve, (during the day) we found a new investigator, M. He has a lot of problems with his family, but we were able to testify that the Restored Gospel would bless his family. He was really interested in learning more. Then on Christmas, we woke up, opened up some presents under our tiny little tree. A couple of the members gave us little gifts, which was super nice. Then we just did our normal studies, and then we chilled at the English elder's apartment and had lunch. During the afternoon we skyped. It was so good to see you guys. I hope I was able to satisfy your questions, but if not, you've got Mother's day. Then for dinner, we ate these massive sandwiches with our branch president. They were pretty good. They were loaded with meat and tons of vegetables that I probably couldn't name. We also had a ton of ham. I was pretty satisfied.

That's one tiny tree

We had a really productive weekend after Christmas. On Saturday, none of our plans fell through, which was awesome. We had a couple of great lessons with less actives, we met with J  again, and even contacted a referral while we were at it. Yeah, when we were visiting J, something crazy happened. So background: a couple weeks ago we found this new investigator, D, who lives in La Vergne, but we just haven't been able to get back in with him. Then when we were leaving our lesson with J on Saturday, we saw D on the hammock outside, and found out that they're related! D invited us to stop by the next day.

So on Sunday, we had our regular meetings. No investigators came, but two of our less actives, Hermana V and Hermana P came to church for the second time in a row! And they invited us to have lunch with them on Saturday. Also, I got to give a talk on the new and everlasting covenant, which was pretty interesting to study about. Then after church, Hermano M drove us out to Shelbyville where we had a great dinner with their family. On the way back from Shelbyville I passed out (pic below, it's very flattering). That night, we met with D and had a super solid lesson with him. He also accepted a soft invite to be baptized, which was cool.

Good thing he wasn't driving

My ponderize scripture this week is 1st Thessalonians 5:16 which says, "Rejoice evermore." Yup, that's the whole scripture. I like it a lot because it's just a simple reminder to be happy. As we reflect on this past year, and set goals for the New Year, let's remember to rejoice!

Hope y’all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Come Back in January!

Feliz Navidad!

Well, we had a rough one in Smyrna this week. Yeah, this one was pretty hard. It started on Monday night. O, one of our investigators that had a baptismal date, who seemed so golden....dropped us. He told us that he'd been thinking and praying, and that he just didn't want to change his religion anymore. It was a sad start to the week. Then, throughout the week, we just couldn't meet with anyone. Hispanics take their vacations pretty seriously, so most everyone is out of town, and nearly everyone that we talk to tells us, "Come back in January."

Even though our tracting wasn't super successful this week, we found a couple new people through the church Christmas video initiative. One of those was G. She goes to an Adventist church right now, but she's open to learning more. The other is A. She's the first Hispanic that I've met that doesn't already go to a church, so hey, who knows.

Let's see. Other news from this week: we had our branch Christmas party on Saturday. A grand total of four people showed up (not counting us). We had the branch president's wife and two daughters (not the branch president though), as well as the first counselor of the branch presidency, Hermano M. There weren't many of us, so we all ate a ton of nachos. We watched the video "Joy to the World" in Spanish, which was pretty good.

Sunday was pretty good. After church, Hermano M drove us out to his house in Shelbyville for dinner. During dinner, we talked about how we've had to walk so much because Elder S left his bike back in Goodlettsville, and we are quickly running out of miles on our car. So, Hermano M was just like, "Hey, well let's go get your bike!" So he drove us to Goodlettsville, we got the bike, and then he drove us back to Murfreesboro where our car was, and then we drove back to Smyrna. Lots of driving.

My ponderizing scripture this week is 1 Timothy 2:5 which says, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." During Christmas, we remember Christ's birth, but I remember that Christ was born to undergo the atonement. Because he suffered for us, he is our mediator with the Father. He bids the Father to welcome us back into His presence, and there is no other name given under heaven whereby man can be saved, except through Jesus Christ. Let us
remember why He was born during this Christmas season.

Love y’all! Have a very merry Feliz Navidad!

Elder Mitchell

They got more day-old goodies from a local store.

I guess I didn't need to worry about sending him goodies!

Getting some air!

They did a lot of walking!

Black Boxes and Kicking a Possum

Dunking with a tennis ball they found

Buenos,

Well, we had a mas o menos week. It was ok, but the overall feeling was just kind of bleh. We started off the week with a Zone Conference on Tuesday with the Murfreesboro and McMinnville zones. We had trainings from the AP's, as well as President and Sister Andersen. After the trainings, we did a mini Christmas party. We had a white elephant gift exchange, and all the Elders did a tie exchange as well. 


The big thing from zone conferences was the black boxes. All of our cars got black boxes installed. Basically, it tells you if you are speeding or if you went over a bump to fast. It talks to you while you're driving, and if you need to fix something with your driving, it'll tell you. It's just designed to help us be safe and stuff. The first time it told me to "Check your speed" it scared the heck out of me though. It's kind of funny though, because the voice they used for the black box is the same as the robot in "2001 A Space Oddessy" haha. I'm just waiting for the day when it takes over the car and says, "I'm sorry Elder....I'm afraid I can't do that..." Haha.

The black box

Other news from this week: I got to kick a possum. It's a tradition in our mission that everyone has to kick a possum sometime in the two years that they're here. We were walking to this appointment, and we saw a dead possum on the side of the road, so I got to kick mine this week.

As far as our investigators: nearly all of our appointments fell through so...fun stuff. We couldn't meet with Héctor this week, although he did come to church (whoo!). We had a great Gospel Principles lesson with him all about the Priesthood. We also were able to meet with the Romeros (Julio and Denis this time). We had a pretty good lesson with them, teaching the Plan of Salvation. We also had a lesson in Murfreesboro. That was shocking. Murfreesboro is pretty much a black hole as far as missionary work goes, but we were able to contact this guy, Tomás. His wife is a less active, and he's heard a lot from the missionaries before, so we just kind of wanted to figure out where he was at. We showed him the Christmas video, and talked with him about the Book of Mormon. Who knows, maybe he'll work out.

Probably the other crazy thing that happened this week was with Oscar. We went to meet with him, but then he told us how his friend at work had fallen off a roof or something, and so Oscar had to take him to the hospital and sign a bunch of papers saying that his friend wasn't drunk and stuff. Satan is working hard on this guy, my goodness. I was also kind of bummed that Oscar wasn't able to make it to church this week. We really need to get him coming to church to get him ready for his baptism. Hoping everything works out.

My ponderizing scripture this week is Philippians 2:5 which simply states: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." As we think about the gifts that Christ has given us, especially the Atonement. Another great gift he gave us was his example. As we follow him, we should strive so that His thoughts and actions become our thoughts and actions. Let us be true representatives of Christ at all times, in all things, in all places.

Anyways, the work is moving slowly here, but hopefully we'll start to see some progress. We’re hoping for a better week as Christmas approaches.

Have a good one y’all!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

His companion, Elder S