Code Green

Visit to Rock City--Fly like an eagle?

Buenos!!

Well, to start things off, this week is transfer week! We got some exciting news: This transfer I will be training a new missionary!!! Yup, I will be getting a brand-spankin-new greenie. I'm absolutely stoked. I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve, and that President Griffin and the Lord have enough confidence in me for this assignment. So, I will meet my new trainee on Wednesday. This transfer should be a good one! As for Elder J, he is off to Sevierville! Sevierville is pretty much mini-Las Vegas, so he'll have a good time for sure. I'm thankful for the chance I had to serve with him, and I've learned a lot from his example of hard work, diligence, and obedience. He will do great out in Sevierville.

As for what happened this last week, I'll start with last Monday. For P-day, we went to Rock City, a little ways south of Chattanooga, which is famous for its view. From the lookout, you can (supposedly) see 7 different states! It was pretty cool, lots of pics coming. Then, we went up and spent the rest of the day in Downtown Chattanooga, and did some exploring down by the waterfront. It reminded me of Portland a little bit. Anyways, it was a super fun day.

The lessons were few and far between this week, but we were able to have solid lessons with E and A. E has a real desire to be baptized, but he has a LOT of things to work through, but we set a goal for him to be baptized on the 22nd of October. Our lesson with A went great! We taught him all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and really hit home with baptism. He told us that there's a lot of things in his past that he wants to be cleansed from, and he has a sincere desire to change his life. He won’t set a date right now, but we think that after his wife R has their baby in a couple weeks, things will be less stressful, and that we will be able to set a date with them. I really believe that A and R are going to be baptized, and it'll be soon. Now, we just got to get these investigators coming to church! Neither  E or A came to church this week, so that'll be a big focus this week, focusing on how we can get them to church.

My ponderizer this week comes from Jacob 5:13, 71 which says, "And these will I place in the nethermost part of my vineyard, whithersoever I will...that I may lay up fruit thereof against the season...And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come." After having been called to the Nashville mission, being here in Dalton sometimes feels like the "nethermost parts" of the mission. But, this transfer has been a testimony to me that my change to the Knoxville mission was inspired. If I'd never come to Dalton, I would've never met all these wonderful people, or served with Elder J, or trained the new missionary that will be coming this week. I know the Lord makes things happen for a reason. I also know that as we work to save our lost brethren, the Lord will guide us to those who are ready, and help us have joy in our work. I am learning to have joy in laboring in the vineyard everyday!I hope y'all have a good one! Wish me luck! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

More pictures from Rock City--what a view!

Titanic?

Calling the world to repentance...

Holding up the world!

Downtown Chattanooga

At the soup kitchen where they volunteer once a week

 

His district this transfer

Tracting a goat?

Another sleeping pic

You Win Some, You Lose Some

The only other Oregon fan in Dalton!

Buenos!

Well, this week was kind of up and down, but kind of flipped from last week. See, last week, we found a ton of new investigators, but couldn't meet with any of our progressing investigators. This week was the opposite. We had a few really solid lessons with some of our top investigators this week, but we could hardly find a new investigator to save our lives. We went out, tracted up a storm, but we found all the interested people last week haha. Well, you win some, you lose some, I guess. Here's what happened this week:

On Tuesday we had Zone Meeting in Chattanooga! It was pretty great, we had trainings by the ZL's and STL's, and then President Griffin gave a bomb training. He used the example of Samuel and Saul (in 1 Samuel 15) where Saul was commanded to utterly destroy the people of Amalek, and so he went up and destroyed the people, but he spared the life of the king, and took back the best spoils off the flocks. Anyways, just go read it. President was able to teach us a lot about obedience, breaking down every verse, it was cool. After the meeting, we got Pres. to throw up "ball is life" haha. Then, later that day, we met with some of our new investigators, a young couple, A and R. They seem super solid. They have been attending different churches, and praying to find the right one, but they just feel like they haven't found the right one yet. So, they were able to connect really well with the Joseph Smith story. They told us that they really want to attend church, but that they wouldn't be able to this week. Next week though!

On Saturday we were able to get back in with H, who is just eating up the Book of Mormon right now. Last time we met with him, he'd read the intro and the testimony of Joseph Smith, but now he's in 1 Nephi 16! He told us he had questions about Joseph Smith, but all of his questions were like, "So, Joseph Smith did this, this, and this, right?" Yup. "And then he did this, this, and this, right?" Yup. So yeah, he is just understanding everything super well too, it's awesome to see. Plus, when we went to see him, his mother-in-law was visiting from Honduras. She'd never heard of the Book of Mormon/Joseph Smith, so H started teaching her! He explained everything about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to her perfectly. It was super cool.

Sunday was pretty great. The ward has been putting a big emphasis on home teaching lately, and it's working. Yesterday in sacrament meeting we had 15 less-active members come to church!! Hopefully we'll be able to catch up to the ward and have that many investigators at church too haha. We did have one investigator at church, E. He is the boyfriend of a less-active member, Hermana C, and he has a sincere desire to learn more about the church and to change. It worked out great, since the gospel principles lesson was on baptism, so we were able to a least softly commit him to be baptized during class. Later that evening we had dinner with O and his family, and they had invited the C's, so we got to teach E twice in one day. Then, we had another lesson with A! (Just A though, R wasn't feeling well). The lesson went great though. After teaching the Plan of Salvation, we committed him to baptism, and he said yes! He really wants to be baptized, but he wouldn't set a date right now, but told us that once he feels ready that he'll get baptized. It was great. It truly feels like the Lord is helping us to finding those who are prepared for the Gospel. We have a lot of people who are making the first steps of progression, and now hopefully we can get them working towards baptism. There are a lot of great things brewin' here in Dalton!

My ponderizer this week is Alma 31:34-35 which says, "O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ. Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee." There are many who have not yet come unto Christ. They are our brothers and sisters, and their souls are precious. As we pray in faith, and labor diligently, the Lord will bless us with the power and wisdom to bring those lost sheep into the fold. Hope y'all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Pres. Griffin throwing ball is life

There was a much needed rainstorm, but they got soaked.

So they got some pupusas while they dried off.

Some pics from around Dalton

Tracting With Sticky

Buenos!

We had a pretty good week here in Dalton, some good, some bad. Bad stuff first: we couldn't meet with any of our top investigators this week...every appointment with them fell through, which was a bummer. So, we didn't have anyone at church. We would've had A and D/O at church, but A had to work, and D was sick. But other than that, the week was pretty good!

On Monday night we had a good lesson with M and J. They are such nice people. After the lesson we had dinner with them, and they fed us carne asada, one of my favorites. We had a good time. Then on Tuesday, we just got blessed like crazy. We tracted most of the day, but it was worth it because we found 4 new investigators! Plus, everyone was just super nice to us, giving us water, a few people offered food, it was pretty sweet. Plus, it really got us set up for another big day on Friday. On Friday we had 7 appointments, and from those we were able to teach 5 lessons, so that was pretty exciting. With those two big days, plus all the success from our tracting this week, we were able to find 11 new investigators! Some of them seem really solid, especially this one guy, J. We had a great Restoration lesson with him, and he seems super prepared for the Gospel. Only thing is, he works a lot (in construction) so he'll be off on a job all this week, so we won't be able to meet with him this week, but hopefully soon.

Other cool things from this week: While we were out tracting we found this stick insect. Then, it jumped on to Elder J's bag, and so we took it with us for the rest of the day. We named him Sticky, and we kept him for a few days. But, we eventually released him into the wild because we didn't know what to feed him or anything (seriously what do stick bugs eat?). Also, we had a pretty awesome lesson in Gospel Principles on Sunday. We had prepared to teach a lesson on Baptism, but we didn't have any students, so we thought we were off the hook. Then as we were about to leave, in walked this lady named V. V is a recent convert who just moved to Dalton this last week, so we'd never met her before. She started opening up to us about all the challenges she was going through, and she was going through a lot. So, I felt prompted to change the lesson and we ended up talking about the atonement. It was so great, everything we talked about applied to her perfectly, and the spirit was so strong in that room, it was great.

My ponderizer this week is Moroni 9:6 which says, "And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God." Sometimes, our investigators can make things hard. You set appointments that fall through; they don't keep commitments, etc. But, as we labor diligently, we will conquer Satan, and rest their souls, and our souls in the Kingdom of God. Hope y’all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Mitchell

More pictures of Sticky!

Teaching the Tree of Life

Taking a break on a bike path

On p-day they visited the 

National Battlefield of Chickamauga,

site of a civil war battle

Wonder how many times it took to get this cool shot?

Obey God Rather Than Man

Georgia can be hilly!

Buenos!

Well, we had a fairly good week here in Dalton. This week we did a LOT of tracting, and we were able to find a few new people to teach. This week, we found this awesome couple, M and J. We had a solid Restoration lesson with them, and we are actually going back tonight to have dinner with them, so that should be fun! We also have a new progressing investigator, H. He really enjoys the Book of Mormon, and we had a pretty good plan of salvation lesson with him this week. He wasn't able to come to church this week, but he will probably be at church this week. We weren't able to see F or A this week, but we were able to have some members out with is to see our other investigators. This week we had a good Plan of Salvation lesson with D and O, and J came with us. He is getting ready to go on his mission, and he is absolutely solid. He will be a great missionary, and he was a great help to us. Also this week, we finally met with A! We taught him the last couple things he needed to know, but he's basically a member already, he just kind of taught us. The only thing is, he wants to wait until he goes back to Florida to get baptized. He'll be in Dalton for about 3 months doing a temporary job, and then he might get another job in Iowa before heading back home to Sarasota. So, we'll just continue to teach him, but he is already super solid.

Wednesday was a busy day this week. We drove up to Chattanooga for interviews with President Griffin, which were great. He was able to teach me a lot, especially about the spirit, in just the short time we had. It was pretty cool. After interviews, we had district meeting, and then after district lunch, we had exchanges with the Chatt Valley elders. Elder J went back to Dalton with Elder H, and I went with our DL, Elder P in his area. It was a good exchange, we did a little finding around Ft. Oglethorpe, and then we had ward council in the evening. It was pretty good. Then we switched back the next day.

Sunday was pretty good too. For starters, we were doing a mission-wide fast, and it was great, I think it really brought us in tune with the spirit. We had A at church again, and it was super cool because we had a really powerful testimony meeting. One of the members in the ward passed away this week, and he kind of died young. But, yesterday there were so many testimonies on the priesthood, eternal families, and the sealing power. The spirit was just so strong during that meeting, it was incredible. So yeah, those are the highlights of the week.

My ponderizer this week is Acts 5:29 which says, "Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men." We have the commandments, we have our gospel standards. The world would try to convince us to violate those standards to fit in with everyone else. But, as the scripture says, it is better to obey God rather than man. Well, I hope y’all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Out with J, who is getting ready for his mission

Not sure why Elder J is chewing on grass?

One Year Down

Another Mitchell Street!

Buenos!

This week was pretty great. On Friday, I hit my year mark!! Yeah, kind of crazy. I can't believe how time just absolutely flies on a mission! To think that one year ago, I was going into the Mexico MTC is just crazy. Well, we didn't do much to celebrate, just put in a solid day of missionary work. But, I did burn a shirt, so that was fun. We had a pretty good week this week; we were able to teach a good number of lessons. We were also able to focus on a lot of less actives this week, so that was good too.

Tuesday was one of the best days this week. First off, it was 102 degrees outside...yeet. Plus, we didn't have a whole lot of people to see that day, so went spent about 4 hours tracting in the Georgia heat. But, despite the adversity, we saw some awesome blessings. The biggest one of those was Alberto. We tracted into A on my first day here, and he let us in, we taught him the restoration, and he committed to read the intro to the Book of Mormon. Well, when we came back and saw him, he had read the pamphlet we left him, the intro, the beginning testimonies, and the first FOURTEEN chapters of 1st Nephi...what?!?! It's hard enough to get people to read anything from the Book of Mormon, let alone the first 14 chapters. We asked how he felt about what he was reading, and he said "Well, I feel good, all the word of God is good." So, we asked if he thought that it was a book from God and he said, "Mmm, yeah!" Seriously, it was so cool; we can't wait to keep working with him! Also on Tuesday night, we went to go see a returning member, Hermano G, and ended up doing a little service. He was setting up a little roof area over his back porch, so we helped him put up the boards for that. It was fun.

Sunday was pretty good too this week. We were able to meet with D and O a couple times this week, and then they came to church! Also at church, we had A, our referral from Florida! We haven't been able to meet with him yet because he's been so busy, but we are hoping to meet with him this week and set up some things for his baptism. After church, we met a new investigator, I. We taught him a pretty solid restoration lesson, and when we were talking about the spirit, he was like, "Yeah, I think I felt that when y’all came in, you guys just have this vibe about you." It was pretty cool, and it strengthened my testimony that as missionaries, we represent the Lord, and we have a light about us that others can see and feel, even if we don't always recognize that ourselves.

My ponderizer this week is John 13:17 which says, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." We've been blessed with a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the commandments, of the plan of salvation. If we will follow that gospel plan, we will be happy, it's just that easy. Hope y’all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Burning the shirt on his one year mark!

Helping Hermano G with the roof on his porch

Greetings From Dalton!

He is now serving in the Rocky Face Ward in Dalton

Buenos!

Greetings from the blessed land of Dalton, GA! Yup, transfers were this week, and I got to cross the border down into Georgia. Dalton is in the very most southern part of the mission, just a little ways southeast of Chattanooga. This first week here in Georgia has been great. The weather has been brutal though. I thought it was hot in Tennessee, but holy cow, it is sooooo hot out here. So. Hot. Also, Dalton seriously feels like little Mexico. There are so many Hispanics here!! The population here is probably about 50 percent Hispanic, it's crazy. Another cool thing about Dalton is that it's the carpet capital of the world. There are a ton of carpet factories here. I guess another thing about the area is that we only cover the Dalton area, which is weird because I'm used to covering whole stakes, so this is definitely the smallest Spanish area that I've had.

My new companion is Elder J! He from Spokane, WA, came right out of high school, and has been out for about 10 months. He enjoys snowboarding, hunting, and other outdoor activities. He is also a real hard worker. This week we have hit the ground running, with full, busy days every day. We have been doing a lot of tracting, and finding lots of potential investigators. We are also working with a few progressing investigators. One of those is F, who has a baptism date for the 20th of August. He said he would get baptized if his wife is ok with it. We are also working with a woman named D and her daughter O. They love talking to the missionaries and coming to church, so hopefully we can set a baptism date with them soon. Also this week, we got a referral from some elders in Florida. One of their progressing investigators, A, just moved here this week. It's pretty awesome, because he's already been taught everything, so we just gotta dunk him.

Other things from this week: we have had a lot of run-ins with dogs this week. Everyone here has dogs...and none of them are on leashes, so it's fun. We also had a pretty awesome tender mercy this week! We were out tracting, and I had run out of water. After a while I thought, "Man, it would be so great if somebody gave us some water right now." Literally 10 seconds later, this Mexican dude riding a moped pulls up, grabs two water bottles out of a little cooler he had, gave them to us, and then just rode off. He wasn't a member; we had no clue who he was, just a super nice dude. Sunday was pretty good too. The ward here is so great! Bishop T is super funny, and the members here are getting excited about the missionary work here. There are a lot of good things happening here in the Rocky Face ward.

My ponderizer this week is John 12:26, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." If we are going to serve Jesus Christ, we have to follow him. The invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to develop his attributes and become as he is. As we follow and serve him, we have the promise that He will go before us, and His spirit will be with us. Hope y’all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Dalton produces 90% of the world's carpet!!

One last picture with the Cookeville zone

Saying goodbye to Elder C

Saying hello to Elder J

Taking tree houses to a whole new level

Georgia On My Mind...

Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day!

Buenos!

Well, it's transfer week!! Cookeville Spanish is going to be shut down for a few transfers, so Elder C and I will both be leaving. Elder C is off to Knoxville! He will be in a trio with the ZL's there while he waits for his upcoming surgery, and then after surgery he will spend some time in the mission home. As for me, I will be going to the Rocky Face Ward in Dalton, Georgia! The Rocky Face ward is the one full Spanish ward in the mission, so I am absolutely stoked! That's about all I know about the area right now. My new companion will be Elder J! I don't know anything about him, so it'll all just be new come Wednesday.

We had a pretty good week here for our last week in Cookeville. President Griffin kind of hinted to us early that we would be shut down, so this week we tried to do some things in preparation for that. We spent most of the week just trying to contact everyone in the area book. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see many people. So, we ended up dropping/deleting a lot of people, and everyone else we will end up referring to other missionaries.

Between the contacting, we had some fun experiences this week. Tuesday was cow appreciation day at Chik-fil-a, so if you dressed up like a cow you got a free entrée. That was fun haha. On Friday, Elder C had another doctor's appointment, so we got to cross over to the other side and go to Farragut. We actually met up with Sister Griffin at the mission office, and then she drove us around town. We met with another orthopedic surgeon, and got Elder C's surgery scheduled for August 9th. Then we got lunch, and then Sis. Griffin showed us the mission home and the Knoxville stake center where we go for transfers.

On Saturday night we went and played basketball at the church. It was great, we had some missionaries, some investigators from the Cookeville ward, and some less-actives from Burgess Falls ward. We had a fun time. I ended up spraining my ankle, but it's all good, it's feeling better now. Then, we had our last Sunday, and said goodbye to a lot of members. Pretty good week.

My ponderizer this week is one of my brother Nathan's favorites, Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." This week our bishop shared something in his talk that I loved, and it reminded me of this scripture. The Lord once appeared to a man and charged the man with the task of pushing a large boulder. The man began the task with zeal, pushing with all of his might. He pushed and pushed but the boulder wouldn't budge. He pushed all day, and the boulder wouldn't yield. The man came again the next day and pushed again, with no success. As he pushed and pushed, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Eventually he became discouraged, and Satan began to put thoughts of doubt in his mind. The man became lazy. He would go out each day, putting in a minimum effort. Then, he took his problems to the Lord. He asked why he was charged with this impossible task, and in his darkest moment of despair, he wanted to give up. It was then that the Lord consoled him: "Be of good cheer, you are doing a good work. Your job was never to move the rock, but to be obedient and push. Look at you now, you have become strong. Your arms and legs have grown, and the pushing has made you tough. And now, I will move the boulder." Whatever trial we face, whether it be in missionary work, or in the challenges of everyday life, our job is simply to push. It is through Christ that we are able to do all things, and our challenges will make us stronger. If we are obedient and push, the Lord will make up the difference and move the boulders out of our path. Sorry that was long, but I felt like I would share that. Hope y’all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Dalton is in the NW corner of Georgia, 

not far from Chattanooga Tennessee.

More Cows!

Saturday night basketball

With part of his district.

They figured she would be the only one

left in Cookeville after transfers.