All a part of his plan

Thanks for the email and I am glad to hear that the lesson went well.  It is good that you liked that story I do not have many like it. Many of our investigators progress quietly. The person who got baptized, Sister Lord, was gone for many weeks at a time and she would just read The Book of Mormon and study and pray about it by herself with her husband. Her conversion story was simple but probably the best kind there is, because we did very little for her. Many converts are converted to the missionaries (rather than the gospel) and they will fall away when the missionaries are transferred.  Sister Lord is already helping make invitations for the Christmas party.

I do not have many other stories to tell but I can think of a miracle I can tell you about briefly. There is a member named Brother Case who just got out of the Marines last week and he is moving to Idaho soon.  We took him out with us to try to go find some new investigators. We knocked on the door of a man we talked to briefly before. When he open the door the man gave Bro. Case  a weird look. It turns out this man and his roommate worked with Bro.Case in the military and were in the same workshop.  However the CO of the workshop constantly made fun of our church and made it impossible to have a spiritually uplifting environment for Bro.Case to talk about the church. Now Bro.Case can share the gospel with the his two former coworkers in a spiritual environment.

Today is veterans day and most of the military has been given a 4 day weekend. We do not have any plans connected with the veterans day, but we are going golfing with our Ward Mission Leader who loves golfing.  As far as transfers go, I am staying, but Elder McHan is being transferred so I will have a new companion. So you can still send stuff to me.  I am good for any kind of cookie really.  I am just grateful for you sending more.  For Christmas, nothing really sticks out for things I need or want. As far as a CD player goes it is alright if it has radio, but the CD player must be able to be listened to without headphones.  

That is great that Derek is excited to serve. I do not know what I am doing for thanksgiving, this town turns into a ghost town during holidays. Last Thanksgiving Elder McHan was fed 4 meals by members, all that same day! 

That is a great spiritual message, I often ponder why I am in Jacksonville. I know that I was sent by the Lord here, I just do not why. It it also interesting that many of my friends seem to be having a lot of challenges and are struggling with them. I have my own challenges, but sometimes I feel like other missionaries have to deal with a lot worse I do.  But no matter what happens it is all a part of his plan.

I love you so very much and all that you do for me and I will email you again next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

Missionary Work in the Digital Age

Hey Dad, I do write in my journal, but it is spotty, however I do write the big spiritual things in it, I just struggle on days that nothing seemingly important happens.  Right now we have about 15 investigators (that number has been changing a lot lately).  We should have at least 2 baptisms this month including one this Saturday!  She is a newlywed who married a member.  He has been field training a lot and we have had some of our lessons with her on Facebook. We actually set a baptismal date with her on Facebook.  She is definitely ready to be baptized.  I'll try to send home some baptism pictures of her next week.

This week has been a pretty good week.  For Halloween night we had dinner with the senior couple but afterwards we went to our apartment.  The weather here is weird the last week there has been days it has reached 80 degrees and other days like today there has been frost on the ground in the morning!

I have been doing pretty good I am staying really healthy there seems to be an unspoken blessing when it come to missionaries, Elder McHan has been on his mission 15 months and has yet to get sick and I haven't either, despite the fact many of our investigators and the members are sick right now.

It sounds like a bad sports year but that almost a good thing. It is hard to miss sports if all your favorite teams are not doing good.  With that being said I heard that Alex Smith is doing really well right now with Kansas City.

This email is going to be rather short because I spent a lot of my time sending you the story. I hope it will help you and I will email you again next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

General Authorities!

This week has been great.  We should still have some baptisms in November, how many is still up in the air.  We are supposed to have a baptismal interview for one of our investigators this week.

Our ward had a Halloween activity last Saturday. Also that same day two General Authorities Elder Zwick and Elder Pino and their wives came to our mission and we had a meeting with them in Fayetteville. It was a short meeting, but they talked about studying effectively, and praised us and the mission president a lot too. Elder Pino was from Venezuela so him and his wife had to have a translator, and Elder Pino is very funny. Elder Zwick is from Utah but has had a lot of church assignments down in South America. We have another General Authority vising our mission next month. General Authority visits are really rare and three visiting us in the space of 2 months is almost unheard of.

The weather is cooling down here too, on Saturday there was frost on the ground! Trees here are weird, some trees have normal leaves that change color and fall down, but many of them look like normal trees until you get close to them and realize they have pine needles instead of leaves. They look nothing like the pine trees back home. Pine needles are everywhere people, even make gardens with them. People will drop cigarettes into piles of pine needles without even caring!  One day this whole State will go up into flames!

I did not receive any more cookies lately, I am assuming you are sending more.  For Halloween the day will be normal, but will we be stuck inside our apartment at night unless with get some teaching appointments for that night. We will not be allowed to be outside talking to people or knocking on doors at that time. Sounds like things are going good back home. Tell Jonathan he needs to be a whoopee cushion instead this year, a kid in my ward dressed up as one for the ward Halloween party.

That's great the Connerleys got to have a baptism while they were on trek. There are some interesting conversions stories out there. I have not personally seen any conversions like that but I heard a lot of stories of interesting conversions since I have gotten here.

The Atonement is extremely important, to put it simply the official purpose of missionaries is to invite people to come unto Christ and use his Atonement. While many people in the South believe in the Atonement, none of them really know or understand how it works.  Elder Mickleson has a book that a preacher gave to him once with the New Testament and the book of Psalms in it and on the cover it says that if you signed this book you are saved and there is a place to sign your name on it. There is a talk by Elder Bednar called "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" that  has help me understand the Atonement and grace much better. We cannot fully receive the Atonement for ourselves if we do not help others receive it.

Thanks for the email, I will try to email you some experiences next week for your lesson,and I hope you will have a good week.
Love,
Elder Lakey

Things are going great

Elder Mickelsen and Elder McHan being photo bombed by Elder Lakey

Jacksonville Missionaries

Things are going great here. We had 4 investigators come to church yesterday which is a lot for us! We should have some baptisms in November!  

As far as Facebook goes it is not all that good for finding people.  But, we have taught and even committed a person to be baptized on Facebook. It is also good for strengthening members.

Wards here are large it is about 30 minute drive from the eastern border to the ward from our apartment. That's why the sisters cover that area which is out in the countryside and live out there, while we live on the western border and the actual city of Jacksonville. The senior couple doesn't proselyte, they help the Marines that live on base who are LDS.  So no one really steps on each other's feet so to speak.

It sounds like it was a good stake conference. People overstepping their bounds is a problem everywhere in the church, same with teaching false doctrines and personal opinions. That's great to hear from Brother Call is he still teaching seminary at Syracuse High?

We did not do anything different for Columbus day, but it sure made shopping on preparation day a mess!  Thanks for keeping the bank account filled! 

"Every Member a Missionary" is a great topic to teach. We constantly are talking about this with members. Many members don't understand how few people are willing to listen to a faith they don't have any family or friends or any other personal connections to or in. For example I do not remember a single time growing up that you would listen to a salesman who knocked on our door, and that is similar to how most people see us. With that being said the ward keeps us busy, I can only think of one time I had to do actual door to door tracking.

I love that quote from Pres. Hinckley "Do your best, your very, very best.  Say your prayers and work hard and leave the harvest to The Lord."  It is a very famous quote for missionaries, because it says very simply what missionaries can do.  I am not sure where I heard this but something I often tell my self is: To do my best and the Lord will provide the rest.

I love so very much.  The work is going great here and I love all the support everyone back home has given me and I will email again next week.

Love,

Elder Lakey

A Great Week

This week has been a great week.  At first it didn't seem like it though.  We didn't have many appointments this week, so we went and visited many potential and former investigators. We burned through names in the area book and miles in the car, but our efforts were rewarded with 5 new investigators which is a lot. We currently have 13 investigators! Some of them are starting to keep their commitments and the members are starting to trust us and work with us more now too.

Chilly is a comparative word. Chilly for North Carolina yes. Chilly for Utah no. I only wear a jacket because we are required to by mission rules. It has been raining a lot though.  The leaves are starting to change though. 

Our district is very compact. There is only 2 wards in it and each ward has a set of Elders, Sisters and a senior couple. That's three set of missionaries in each ward!

We eat breakfast and lunch by ourselves. I usually don't cook things, I try to keep things simple and fast. Dinners are sometimes with members, but usually not. But, when they feed us it is amazing food.

Just last week I had Hawaiian barbeque and Philippian food.

I did receive the package, thanks for the food and music it was exactly what I wanted. Don't worry about the clothes I bought myself a jacket that should work with my personal debit card.  

That's nice to hear about your break. Today is Columbus day here and I guess it's a pretty big holiday in North Carolina. That is great to hear that stake conference is coming up and that President Reed is still the Stake President. You will have to tell me how Stake Conference goes.  It is good to hear about home.  

I love that quote, something that I study a lot on since I got here is trying to understand people. They have something in the mission called OLDS. Observe, listen, discern and speak. It says in Preach My Gospel that listening is more important than speaking. We cannot help people if we don't listen to the spirit to know how to help them.

I love you so much, even if I don't express it sometimes and I will email you next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

Technically not a greenie anymore

It is nice to hear from you.  Thanks for all that you do for me it is great!

I am technically not a greenie anymore, but basically I'm still am because I am staying with my trainer another transfer. I will probably stay in Jacksonville till Christmas, but you never know what will happen at the next transfer, which is near Thanksgiving.  Everyone that is being transferred goes to the transfer meeting. I am glad I am not training anyone yet, not only do I lack patience, but I still don't know what I am doing.

We had a goal for two baptisms this month, but they probably are not going to happen. One got offended the week he was suppose to be interviewed.  And the other person has not really kept any commitments. Most members just stay at home to watch conference. There were only about a dozen people that would show up at the church including us. We did get some investigators out to the church to watch it though.

I have not received your package yet, most likely because they freeze mail during transfer or else it would create a big mess because no one knows where anyone is going yet.  But, I did receive the package from Grandma.  I am sorry, but I can't seem to get pictures to download onto the computer, so no pictures for the moment. 

That is great to hear you ran into Shaeley Lewis.  I'm glad Grandma and Grandpa found a place to live, is it by where Jason lives? Kiley really does have bad luck with cars!  Members buying lunch for missionaries is universal, it's just that, only in Utah are there enough members for that to happen very often.

We attended all the sessions of General Conference at the church it was very spiritual. I learned more from this General Conference than I have at any other one. I took twelve pages of notes at this one!

As a missionary, I loved the Saturday afternoon session. Because, it was mostly about Missionary work.   I liked Brother McConkie's talk he even said himself that many of the things he talked about he got from Preach My Gospel. There is one whole chapter in it dedicated on how to teach lessons. And, another one on lessons investigators must be taught before they can be baptized. I also loved Elder Dube, Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Elder M. Russel Ballard's talk. Elder Ballard's promise is powerful.  I hope people pay attention to Elder Neilson's talk and his promise, that if everyone in the church talked to one person by Christmas that millions of people's lives will be blessed.

I love it out here, it really is the best two years and I will email you again next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

Last week of training

Things have been going great here.  We currently have 3 investigators who committed to being baptized.  It  is crazy to think that this is my last week being trained and come transfers next week I have no idea what if anything will happen or not happen. 

The week after we met the man from Honduras we knocked on his door again and a different Hispanic man opened the door and he told us that the other person moved away a long time and he didn't know where to. A lot of weird puzzling stuff like that happens on missions.  Despite the productivity of this week the Facebook referrals have stopped.

It is feeling very nice during the day now, but during the morning is is starting to get cold. I don't know how cold it gets here or what I really need.  What I probably need for now is some warm-up clothes and something that is jacket like but looks good when wearing missionary clothes, but not something all expensive like a suit coat. And thanks for the package. I will try to send some photos next week.

That is great to hear about Sarah and Daniel I am sure they will be great missionaries. Thanks for adding them to the contact list. And yea there are a lot of missionaries coming out.  There were 30 last transfer and 17 this upcoming transfer. Mike Russell said he has been nonstop training since he has been trained and Tom Hill is being trained by someone only one transfer older than him. 

Did Grandma and Grandpa ever find a new place to live? And that is good to see that Jonathan wants to try an instrument, especially the cello, since I did the cello too. Hopefully he will stick with it better than I did.

We are extremely excited for General Conference, my companion, Elder McHan took 26 pages of notes last Conference. We will watch it in the ward building the stake building is way to far to go.  In fact, most members here in Jacksonville will watch it at their house. 

That is great spiritual message there will always be a need for prophets and revelations. Mosiah 8:18 says that prophets are for our benefit here on earth. Many people don't understand the need for revelation from God and are satisfied with their current relationship with him. It is interesting to note that they are damned when they do this, but they damned themselves because they stop progressing towards God, God does not damn people.

Keeping your covenants is a great theme. Many people get hung up on the fact that they already have been baptized. But, outside of our faith few if anyone views baptisms as a covenant with God and that partly is why they have to be properly baptized.

It has been a good week and I hope you are all doing well and I will email you next week.

Love, Elder Lakey