Highlights from the last two months

June -

After being here in Utah I realize that it really does rain a lot in Montana. I really love that quote about how the Lord works because it is TRUE and AMAZING! I remember reading it before and thinking about how attitude is so important and the Lord can help us be humble and change our attitude and then our environment changes through how we see the world and how we work to change our lives and the lives of others.  This week was good. we only had one lesson that was without a member, and the other lessons were good. We haven't been able to put anyone on date yet, but I can see that they are progressing slowly to be able to accept the invitation to follow Jesus and be baptized by someone holding His authority. Tomorrow we have a mission conference because President and Sister Pitts will be leaving this month and they want to get the whole mission together. We will take a mission picture and all that stuff. It will be good to see everybody there, too. I am going to Saratoga Springs this Saturday. It will be great to see everyone and be able to baptize Carmen and see her kids get baptized. I will also meet her brother who finishes his mission in Idaho in two days.

This work is the work of the Lord. I know that He will help those who come unto Him with their problems and weaknesses. Today I was reading in Ether 12 about humility and charity. I could feel the truth of the words and how that if I apply them that I really will be able to be like Christ and share is light for my whole life with everyone I meet. I hope everyone has a great week!

 

July -

I hope that everything is going well for everybody. This is the Lord's work, and everybody can do it. Just start out with the goal to start a gospel conversation every week, and then you can work on it and make it higher. I read a statistic that says that between 3 to 5 % of ACTIVE members of the church regularly participate in missionary work. And we still get almost 300,000 convert baptisms a year? Imagine if 50% of active members participated? Each person can choose to add their little part to the great work of the Lord. I promise those that do that the Lord will magnify their small effort into a great force for leading people into the Gospel. Talk with your friends. Leave small testimonies. And the number one factor that affects missionary work in a ward or stake is the personal righteousness of the members. Live up to your covenants. Keep the commandments. Be more like Jesus Christ every day.

 

Things have picked up a lot here. And it is definitely God doing it. We just try to be obedient and diligent and He has brought the people to us. We have 2 baptisms planned for the 11th and 2 more for the 25th and hopefully a few more people we are teaching will be ready by September. The sad thing is that I am leaving the area. I am staying here in Provo, in the same district actually, so I will be able to come back for the baptisms. Crazy, huh? My knew companion is Elder Espinoza. We will actually be in a trio for a couple weeks with Elder Prettyman, who is finishing his mission 4 weeks early to get to school on time (he will be back at BYU too). It will be a good transfer. It has been amazing to see Elder Kuhn progress. He is way better at Spanish, although he still has a long way to go, and he isn't as quiet with the members and investigators as he was at the beginning of the transfer. The past week I have been pretending like I was a missionary new to the area and making him lead me to our appointments and decide who we were going to visit if one fell through so that he would get used to it if they were going to transfer me. It is definitely a good thing we did that because he will have to introduce someone to the area now!

Something weird that happened is that I was talking with the 21 year-old daughter of a member family that we visit who is going on her mission in September to the St. George Temple visitor's center, and we found out that both of us went to Rock Canyon Elementary together! It was weird because we don't remember each other at all, but we remember a ton of the same people and the same teachers and everything! It almost felt like I met a long-lost cousin or something. How small is the world!

 

Well, I hope that everyone will have a great week and will do what they can to come closer to Jesus Christ. He lives and is our Savior. He restored His Church and the Priesthood and the Fulness of the Gospel for us in these days. Keep moving forward!

August -

Transfers were last Wednesday. I was only with Elder Kuhn for one transfer, but it was still amazing to see his progress. It looks like he has a great companion and they should have some success together. I am still in the district so I can keep tabs on him. :)  We are in charge of the Grandview 20th Spanish family ward and all of the Spanish YSA investigators. There aren't any Spanish YSA wards, so we just have 21 YSA stakes and teach young single adults who speak Spanish. So, technically I cover Marissa's ward! Crazy, huh? So tell her to look for Spanish referrals for me!

 

Love,

Elder Getts