Week 42: Come, Ye Children of the Lord

This week was really good! We are working hard and we are seeing the Lord's hand in our area. I think it's interesting to see the different ways that the Lord opens the hearts of men to allow our message to take hold in their lives. One investigator family we tracted into about 3 months ago. They said that they were interested, but we were not able to get ahold of them for about 2 weeks, and so we put them on the back burner and eventually forgot about them. About a week ago the traveling teachers from the mission came, and we had a prompting to go and see them. We introduced ourselves, and they explained to us that over the course of the last three months their situation had drastically changed. They had both lost their jobs, and so now they are home all the time and they are really open to our message. God really does provide a way for His message to "sound in every ear."
I know that the tender mercies of the Lord are truly upon all of His children, and as we look for them and thank Him for them, we can receive more, according to our obedience.

Love, 

Elder Eliason

Leafy  Tree

 Mural

 Webber Falls Lock & Dam 

Week 41: Finding

The work in Poteau is going well! We are having lots of success finding people to teach, and I truly do love helping people grow closer to Christ. The message that I share has strengthened me so much as I have pushed the limits on my comfort and my teaching skills.

We are working closely with our Branch Mission leader to close the gap between members and missionaries, and a weekly missionary correlation meeting has helped us keep accountable to the branch as well as the Lord.  We are coming up with lots of ideas as a branch mission to implement, and we are hoping to get lots of investigators to an 8 year old baptism this weekend.

It was super rainy here this week!! There was a tornado warning, no tornados near us but some across the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.  

We did some service out at a member's farm, he had us put up some gates, and it was so satisfying!! We almost messed it up a couple of times, but it still works and looks good :)

One good talk that I would like to share is Elder Bednar's general conference address in April 2016, Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins. It talks about the Sacrament, and how it cleanses us.  It's really good!

I love y'all!!

Elder Eliason

 charcoal mask

 A coyote among a herd of cows

The district

 gospel cereal

   #highpriestsquad (for the end of suitcoat season, of course!!)

 A juniper bush in spring 🌳

 cool sunset

 riding in a tractor bucket

 a TASTE of the faith of the South :)

This is in the spillway for Wister Lake, a huge lake in our area.  The spillway is all shale, so it's torn out in places, and it looks really cool!

Week 40: The weekly📸📬

This week was wonderful! We had lots of rain, and it was gloomy for part of the week but now really sunny and warm and nice and green (and did I mention sunny?!)   outside. 

We have been trying to do a lot of service with our members, and share a message about creating a gospel sharing home. When we lead by example, others will follow. Even a simple picture of Christ or serving in the community will help others to know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

One cool spiritual thought I had for this week is this:

In a talk on Joseph Smith, Truman G Madsen intrigued me by saying that the answer to Joseph Smith's prayer is an answer to millions of prayers throughout the centuries. I have pondered on that, and I believe that it is true. We are told that sometimes the answers to our questions may not come in the time frame we expect, or in the way we are expecting. I have a firm conviction in my heart and in my mind that Joseph Smith is a prophet. We can all find greater peace, love, and direction in our lives as we look to the modern prophets for guidance and counsel. They really can be the answer to our questions, too!

I love y'all!

Keep lookin' good ;)

- Elder Eliason 

P.S. Pictures won't load so I will send them next week if they still won't load later today :'(

Week 39: 🎶Sweet Home Oklahoma🎶

Hey y'all!

This week was pretty short, as our last preparation day was on Wednesday. The biggest highlight was General Conference, which was great!

We are setting some more baptismal goals with people, so that people really know our purpose in being here on missions and coming to their homes. When people know our purpose, I feel like they are more likely to keep commitment and to progress in the gospel.

 

Addresses are so hard out here!! It is so annoying to try and find a house number on a street where there's hardly any mailboxes! We spent about 2 hours trying to find an address, in an old part of a small town. The street was sparse and did not have that many houses, but we started knocking on doors and we found that most of the people there are family. But none of them knew the house nor the person we were looking for! We didn't find the house, but we had some great experiences sharing our message and our testimony about the restoration and inviting people to come closer to Christ.  One thing that I've learned recently is that even if you don't end up doing what you set out to do, if you are listening to the Holy Spirit the Lord will guide you to where he needs you to be and where you can do what he wants you to do. 

What was your favorite talk from conference? Mine was Elder Bednar's on meekness, but they were all amazing! A scripture to go along with meekness is, Alma 13:27-28.

It's rainy here, hopefully it's nice where you are! Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Eliason

I found the BEST rocking chair(and matching footstool😉)  to watch conference in :) 

Elder Swanson masterfully positions the ball into a very sticky spot

I thought my family would appreciate this sign, as it's coming into "that season" yet again!