July 3, 2011

I've always known that you can find what you look for in just about anything, but I guess the Lord has decided that it's time for me to really get it.  Life is so much more what we make of it than what happens to it.  Last Monday evening I remember walking with my companion, he wasn't really talking to me at the time, probably was upset with me about something or another, I don't really remember.  As we walked "contacting" (there was no one anywhere on the streets) I felt so alone, so miserable.  The more I focused on my misery, the more miserable it grew.  That's what Satan does to us every time.  I'd been praying to find an answer, what could I do differently?  How could I make my life a joy?  We continued walking, and it was as though a light turned on inside of me.  Inspiration hit.  I learned all that I needed to know back in scouting!  (Of course I'd say that, right?)  But it's true.  I remembered the stages of development, that we teach about at Cedar Badge.  Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.  I realized that I had been dealing with my companion as if he was storming as a missionary, when in actuality he is good at doing missionary things.  He could be better, but I'd say norming for sure, and in his mind he's probably performing.  No wonder when I tried to apply the leadership styles for norming there was friction, conflicts, and upset feelings.  Yeah, he might be storming in emotional health or relationships, but that is totally understandable based on what little history I know.  I just need to remember EDGE and apply it correctly.  Thanks Cedar Badge!  Hope everything went well the last few weeks. 

That said, it's still not exactly a cake walk.  (I always loved those at Ward activities.)  I still feel sometimes like I'm walking on nails, but I understand better now what the Lord expects of me, and how I can go and do the things that He's commanded me to do for this six week period of time.  Maybe there will be no monumental effect on anyone else, but I can see miraculous changes taking place in me as I hold my chin up and face the challenges that come my way.  Everything will be ok. 


We have a new investigator this week.  Elder Hatch met him a few weeks before the transfer ended, and I was there when we met him on the street a different time and gave him a Book of Mormon.  We met him by a lake on Friday, Elder Hatch and I.  (He came for a visit before we left for Zone Conference.)  We just kind of taught according to his needs, with the goal of helping him make the decision to be baptised.  Towards the end of our talk we extended a baptismal commitment, and he accepted!  He came to church Sunday and stayed all three hours.  He said he enjoyed it even though it was a really crazy week, since we had just moved to our new building.  The Church is going to bring so much joy into his life.  He has a rough time getting along with his family, and isn't always very confident in himself.  Now he'll learn what families are for and will prepare to become a valiant servant of the Lord.  I love how living the gospel changes us so much.  It's the only way to come to understand the Savior.  You can't learn from books the things that the Lord needs ingrained in you, or written upon your heart.  That's another small testimony of just how true our Church is. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers, and for the wonderful strength that I receive from them.  I sometimes feel as though I am carried by angels.  I know that God knows each of us, our individual concerns and situations, and is ready to help us overcome any obstacle.  He always has our best interests at heart. 

I'm also really thankful today for the freedoms that we have.  We're not doing much to celebrate the 4th of July, but I have had songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "God Bless America" stuck in my head all day.  May He truly bless our great nation with peace and lasting freedom.  I love you all!  Eat a tasty burger and some watermelon for me! 

Love,
Elder Fife

Elder Fife in Nakhodka

Well I'm in a big new area.  There were 20 people at church this week, pretty much all women.  The priesthood could use a lot of strengthening here.  Well, they could use priesthood here.  There were three men at church this week, who weren't missionaries.  There aren't even very many inactive men.  It's probably because most everyone from Nakhodka is a sailor.  If we could just figure out how to baptize more perspective priesthood holders.  We had church this week for the last time in the International Sailor's Club.  Ironic huh?  Priesthood is in the Captain's Room.  It was...interesting.  We have a new location, just down the street that we're moving into next week.  We will have it all the time, instead of just when we need it like we were at Interclub.  We're really excited about that. 

I love that the Lord gives me tender mercies every day.  For the last several evenings I've felt like I just can't do it anymore, I'm up against a wall, discouraged and alone, and then the something that comes that makes things just enough better that I know I can make it through another day.  Things like looking through my companion's pictures and seeing the familiar face of Bennett Briggs.  Little things like that, that become huge tender mercies for me.  The Lord works in all kinds of mysterious ways I guess. 

We are also serving with a senior couple, the Alicos.  They are so funny!  Just their whole relationship with each other cracks me up.  Sister Alico decided this week that Elder Lisevich shouldn't eat any more sugar, and challenged him to go all transfer.  He gets headaches a lot.  If I remember right she volunteered Elder Alico to help by going off sugar as well, and of course she would too.  Elder Alico spent probably a half hour thinking of reasons why it wouldn't work and things for Sister Alico to give up, but she was willing to do anything.  So none of us have had any sugar in the last 5 days.  I never agreed to anything, but I would feel bad eating in front of my companion, and I wouldn't want to tempt him.  The only thing we have is Tropicana orange juice, because it says "no sugar added" on the box.  I love orange juice. 

Yeah, this is a hard time for me, mainly trying to figure out how I'll be able to get along with my companion, but we are seeing cool things happen as well.  The other day we were in a park, waiting for our investigator to come to talk about some problems that had come up that would hurt her baptismal date, when a 15 year old girl came up to us and asked for any literature.  She said she has a Book of Mormon, and read the whole thing.  She said she'd been to church as well.  She also talked about how she knows its true and that she's really interested in knowing more.  Now we have to be careful, because she's a minor, but the Alicos gave her a "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet, which she went to a bench and began reading with a friend.  After a few minutes the friend came and asked if she could have one too. 

Eventually our investigator showed up and we went to sit on a bench to talk.  The girl saw that we were going to teach, and couldn't help but inch closer to hear.  Within a few minutes both her and her friend were standing right next to us, and she was participating in the lesson, testifying that the Lord answers prayers and softens peoples' hearts.  The whole time I just looked at Elder Alico and mouthed "Who is she??"  He shrugged his shoulders.  Elder Winkler, who she said gave her the Book of Mormon doesn't remember her either.  Sister Alico thinks that she was an angel.  We invited her to church this week, but she didn't come.  Hopefully she'll find us soon. 

Thanks for your prayers in my behalf and for the love and support that you send me.  You have no idea how much of a difference it makes.  I know that it will just be a little while longer.  I can hold on to my faith a little longer.  Have a wonderful week! 

Love,
Elder Fife

Last Transfer?

Transfer calls came again last night.  It was a little bit of a surprise.  I'll miss Artyom.  I'll be moving this week to Nakhodka, where I'll serve with Elder Lisevich, who is from Western Russia.  He has a reputation of being kind of a difficult companion, so it will be interesting.  It will also be interesting that there are currently two companionships there, but now there will only be the two of us.  There are some good things going for Nakhodka though, and there are actually members there, which will be a fun change from where I've been the last three months.  We'll also be moving into a new building this month.  Lots of good exciting things going on there, but it'll be an interesting new challenge.  I think that I will probably be there until the end of my mission, because after this transfer I'll most likely be training one of the new missionaries who are coming.  Weird that so much time has passed already. 

 

 We had some cool successes in Artyom as well.  We think we've found a place where we'll be able to hold Church and things here in town, so that people don't have to drive an hour each way to Vlad.  That is a huge success.  The Church Facilities Manager in Novosibirsk is taking care of contract things right now, so hopefully this week or next we'll have church meetings in Artyom. 

 

So I'm really having a hard time thinking of what to write this week.  Summer is finally here.  Sudden rain storms still happen every couple of days, but it's been much warmer and sunnier.  I like it when the weather is nice. 

 

I made tons of cookies this week.  My companion got sick for a few days, and even though he wanted to, I wouldn't let him go out and work.  So we had planned to make cookies for members this week, to tell them we love them and that we don't always just pester them and try to get them to meet with us.  So as my companion rested to try to get better, I made chocolate chip cookies.  People here don't know what those are, so it's like an exotic magical cookie of wonder.  I made about 10 dozen.  too bad that we can't even get a hold of our members to give them cookies.  We have only been able to give out three plates, and we've been trying since Friday.  Oh well.  I have tons of cookies in my freezer. 

 

Funny story of the moment.  So the girl who works here left, and I guess she locks the door when she leaves, so she locked us in, and there's some other random woman sitting in the corner of the room.  So this older lady, wearing a leopard print shirt (leopard print is really popular right now over here) comes up and wants to come in, but the door's locked!  She is so confused!  She kind of banged on the window, since the whole wall is glass and she can see that we're in here...now she's wandering around in the office across the hall just confused.  The girl is unlocking the door now so I guess that funny moment has come to an end.  The older woman in the leopard print shirt made it into the room.  Hurray!  :D  Funny things like that happen all the time.  I love people.  And Russia.  And Russian people.

 

Well I don't really have too much more exciting to write about this week.  Hope all of you are having a great time and enjoying the summer time. 

 

Elder Fife

June 12, 2011

So at the first weekly planning of this transfer Elder Williams and I tried to find a direction for our city.  It seems like we're backed up against a wall, and we weren't sure what could get us out of it.  As we counseled together we felt like we should find a future Church leader in Artyom.  We titled him "Brother Brigham" and wrote out some of the characteristics that we expect him to have, and some that wouldn't be half bad.  We started asking other missionaries the mysterious question "Who is Brother Brigham?" and eventually explained to them what we meant by that.  So for almost a month now the hunt has been on.  We've invited more than 500 people to hear the message of the Restoration, and focused on those who seemed to us like they might be him.  Up until yesterday we hadn't had a single lesson with anyone who we had contacted or tracted into. 

Saturday a man that we had met earlier in the week called us, like he said he would, and wanted to meet up the next day.  I think that's the first time that has happened to me on my mission...I was just confused, but excited.  We didn't have a place we could meet, so we ended up on a bench around the place where we had met.  As we started talking he explained to us what he wanted our help for, something about getting a green card.  So we listened to him, asked lots of questions about him and his life, trying to just get to know him better and see how much potential he might have as an investigator.  As we sat there I got the impression several times "This is him!"  "You're sitting on a bench next to Brother Brigham!"  The more he told about himself the more convinced I became.   He doesn't drink or smoke, he's honest and seems like just an all around good man, he even does family history work!  At one point he got a phone call from his current business partner, and I turned to my companion and whispered "Is this Brother Brigham?"  His answer was something like "Absolutely, and I'm going to call him out on it."  I wasn't really sure what that meant, but the Spirit was incredibly strong. 

I've never told anyone before  "God has a work for you to do."  But that's what I felt like he needed to hear.  We explained to him how we had prayed and sought inspiration, and about the answer that we had received, and how we felt strongly that he had an important role to play in building the Kingdom of God.  His reaction surprised me.  "That means I should probably start going to Church, doesn't it?  What time do your meetings start?"  Then he asked "what do you want me to do?"  We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him he can start by reading that and praying so that the Lord will tell him that it's true, and then we'll talk a little later on this week. 

Now I don't know anyone's future and I can't see how they will react to the invitations that we as representatives of Jesus Christ give them, but I can say that the Spirit was incredible yesterday.  It was just miracle after miracle.  So did we find our mysterious Brother Brigham?  Only time will tell I guess.  But this I know.  God answers our prayers.  He directs his work, and will even show forth miracles when they are needed.  I've been reading about Ammon in the Book of Mormon the last few days.  He saw miracles too, and found a man who would become a key recent convert to bringing many souls to Christ; King Lamoni.  Because of his boldness, loyalty, faith, and sweat, he was able to touch many lives.  We might apply that a little better in our own lives every now and again. 

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Fife