Week 21: Elder Rosier

This week has been super awesome!!

Elder Rosier arrived Tuesday morning, and he placed a Book of Mormon his first door!! That part he takes after the other side of the family (Elder Dike) haha!  We had tons of "Finger of the Lord" experiences, and hopefully he can learn something from me ;)

Thanksgiving was cool!  We volunteered at the Methodist church near us, to help provide Thanksgiving dinners to members of the community.  A member of our ward said she saw a picture of us serving there, it was really cool to see that the work we are doing is being noticed.  We got invited to about a million dinners, and it was an awesome day.  I didn't even get as stuffed as usual :)

Our stake is doing this thing called "Nativity and Noel", it's like a nativity show, where people set up nativities and there's a nativity viewing with prelude music from a string quartet.  After the nativities have been viewed, there's a concert of local choirs.  There's a Mormon Ozark Choir, some local High School choirs, and even a Seventh Day Adventist choir!  It's been going on for 10+ years, and so I'm excited to see what it's like!!

We are having lots of success finding people to teach, it only took 6 weeks but we are finally building momentum!!  It's weird teaching in a trio, but it's a wonderful opportunity for both of us trainers to cover each other when teaching Elder Rosier, so that we don't forget to teach anything!!

Well, I hope y'all have a great start to December this week, and remember to kick off the "Light the World" program.  I'll be doing it right along with you!!

Love,

Elder Eliason!!

From left to right, Elder Dike, Elder Rosier, Elder Eliason

Week 21: Kansas City Temple Trip

This week was so cool!!

We visited the Kansas City Temple, and it was such a good experience!!

We participated in all of the ordinances in the temple, it was so spiritual!

I also found out that Elder Dike and I are training a new missionary, Elder Rosier!  It's going to be an interesting situation training in a trio, but we'll make it work ;)

I guess the mission is just really full right now, which is good!

In our mission we have these things called cottage meetings, where a member of the ward will open their home on a Saturday night with food and games, so that we can invite anyone we meet throughout the week to come to a relaxed, fun party, and it's sort of like fellowshipper speed dating!! Also, the people at the party can invite the people we meet to come to church the following morning, so it works out very well!!

This week my testimony of the Savior and His love has grown so much, as well as the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  I have found that when I share my testimony, it grows immensely, so I am very blessed to be a missionary, where my job is to testify!!

Well, y'all have a happy Thanksgiving, and remember to think of activities to participate in for the Light the World Challenge!! https://www.mormon.org/bc/content/assets/pdf/christmas-2017/christmas-leadership-calendar.pdf

Elder Eliason

In front of the Kansas City Temple

Elder Dike and Me

Liberty Jail

A cool art exhibit in Bentonville, called Crystal Bridges 

Cool colors in the fall!

Week 20: Blessings

Good times are to be had in Centerton!!  

This week we were able to find lots of new people to teach, which is good because we weren't able to teach a lot of lessons.  

One person is named Jurika.  She's so awesome!!  We met her on thursday, had a lesson on friday, and she went to church on sunday!!  It was such a blessing to meet her, and teaching people is such a blessing as well!!

Throughout the week we have had experiences that have strengthened my faith, not big lightning bolts, but small and simple things (Alma 37:6).  

I challenge all of you to Light the World this Christmas season, and with such there are some scriptures that fit really well with the initiative!! The first one is 3 Nephi 11:10-11, where Jesus Christ first comes to the Americas and establishes that He is the light of the world.  Then, in 3 Nephi 12:14-16 Jesus Christ is giving a sermon comparable to the Sermon on the Mount, and He says that WE can be the light of the world!! I think it is so cool that we can share the same light that Jesus Christ has, and I believe it is through loving, and serving, and forgiving like He does.  The Light the World campaign is really special this year.  Our stake president here promised us, in the Bentonville stake, that we can see miracles in our lives, that our love for the Savior will grow, we will see peace in our homes and joy in our lives, and, greatest of all, our lives will be changed.  It is going to be a great holiday season, as we all look unto Christ in every thought!!

https://www.mormon.org/download (the leadership calendar is really good, it has examples of things to do for every day!)

What a wonderful time to be alive, even though there is great tragedy all around us, there is the foundation of Christ that we can all have!!  I love serving God's children, and I hope all of you will serve alongside me!!

Love,

Elder Eliason

Week 19: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like

Hello all!!

Greetings from Centerton!

We are building momentum in this area, it was hard to start grooving with things when we were new, but now we are setting lots of return appointments with new investigators and working really well with the Ward Mission Leader to pair our investigators up with what seems to be an infinite number of really young, strong couples who work for Walmart!!

It's awesome to see how the Lord works miracles in His vineyard!!!!

One example is the following:
We were planning in the morning one day to figure out what we needed to do with a 3 hour block of time that was open (which is why we need to build momentum!), and we decided that we needed to go tracting for the first half of the time, and then visit members from the directory that we did not know, which is a good way to meet less-actives and part member families. We went to dinner at a member's house far away from where we wanted to go tract, but we felt like we needed to stay there for a little bit before going tracting. We had great success with that, meeting a really solid investigator who we hadn't been in contact with since we arrived in Centerton!! We also found a man named Terry who is very interested in our message! After that, we felt it was time to go tracting. We went to an entire apartment building, about 16 doors, and only one person came to the door, and wasn't really interested. We were wondering why we were prompted to go to that complex, and as we walked to another building to start knocking again, we crossed paths with a man named Johan, who we started talking to. It turns out that he went to a different ward last week, with one of his friends, and he's super interested in learning more!! There are so many experiences like that that I have seen in the missionary work here that can only be explained as tender mercies of the Lord :)

I hope y'all have a great week this next week, and I hope you will recognize the tender mercies that we all receive each day!!

What is a Tender Mercy? 👇
“The Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ” (“The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” New Era,Feb. 2012, 2).

Love,
Elder Eliason

Sorry for so few pictures, I have not been very good at taking pictures hehe. 

 Featherston Rd! A super cool member family in my last area was the Featherston's, so shout-out to them!!

 Taking notes!

Service For Sister Larson 10.31.2017

Two hours worth of weeding, weed wacking and pruning. Well done, Elders!

Week 18: Centerton 2nd Ward

This week has been so good!!

It's been fairly cold, so shout out to my mother for sending my coat!!

We have been very busy sometimes, and sometimes we are very open.  It's interesting to see the differences in culture here, and to learn more about them!

This week we were teaching a guy from South Africa, and at the end of the lesson he prayed in Afrikaans!!  He's a very interesting man!

We also are teaching a man who is Muslim.  He told us that our bodies are Islam and then prayed in Arabic.  He'll change - eventually! ;)

We went to a car show this week, it was a great place to contact people and share a message, because you have tons of people who are just standing there waiting for people to talk to, and you also have something to start the conversation with - cars!!

Something that Jeffrey R. Holland promised in his 2001 talk "Witnesses unto Me" is "I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a truth of the gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer more."

We used that a bunch in the car show and had so much fun looking at cars with people and talking about Jesus Christ!!  I strongly suggest using this as a contacting method in the future, it's a lot more enjoyable than tracting!!

Love, 

Elder Eliason

 My favorite car EVER, the Nissan GT-R R32

A baby hedgehog at a members house

Week 17: Centerton 2nd Ward

This week was very good!!

Elder Dike and I tracted a LOT, and we got 6 new investigators this week!!
We are putting all of the potential investigators and former investigators that look promising into the GPS, so that we can visit them if we are in the area.  We are calling them on the way to appointments so that we can set up more appointments!!

We are working hard, and praying harder!!  We have found the most success when we pray for guidance, then plan where to go, or who to see, or where to tract, and then pray to know if it's right, just like in Doctrine and Covenants 9.

Whitewashing an area with a companion who has been out as long as you (3 months) is a very interesting situation, but I love it!  We are having so many great experiences that build on my testimony and strengthen my conviction!!

I love you all!

Elder Eliason

New activity: Stud or Dud moments.  I will occasionally put out a "Stud or Dud moment" section where I tell moments that I think were studs or duds!!  (Idea stolen from my trainer)

Stud: I bought a ukulele
Dud: I have very little money because of said ukulele
Stud: We left the apartment fairly clean for the sisters
Dud: I left a bunch of stuff at that apartment
Stud: We went through old records and found 2 people to teach
Dud: We get bashed more here for "quitting" polygamy than for "starting" it!
Stud: We have tons of activities planned for P-days
Dud: We forget about all of them
Stud: I have y'all in my weekly letter loop ;)