Date
April 16, 2018
Area
Prince Frederick/Calvert County, MD
Companion
Elder Ellison
The Apostle Tour
Friends and Family,
So no email last week. That was really my bad...
It was the infamous District Activity day. The whole District came together and we played basketball, volleyball, and watched the movie Ephraim's Rescue.
It was awesome! Gathering together as a group of missionaries is such a rare thing in our mission so the once- a-transfer district activities are such a luxury!
After the activity we had plenty of time, I was going to get a solid email sent, we just had to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart, and then I was going to email everyone. Unfortunately our quick stop at Wal-Mart took 2 and a half hours. Have I mention Elder Ellison is sometimes indecisive? It makes P-day store run quite the test of my endurance!
This week I am emailing first thing! And I have so much to tell you guys!!
Transfers were last week, Elder Ellison and I both stayed in Calvert. I would have been really surprised if that hadn't been the case. There is enough going on in our teaching pool that moving either of us would be a shake up. The Suitland Stake President, and the New 1st Counselor in the mission presidency are both in our ward and both asked President Johnson to leave us! On top of that I spoke to President on the phone a few days before transfers and he asked me directly what I thought would be the best move at transfers. I told him to leave us together and he promised he would!
The sad part of transfers were the changes to our District. I have loved the District I am in! Perhaps my best friend in this mission, Elder Brown, from my MTC district is finally serving near me. He is in the area directly above us and his ward meets in our same building. Seeing him so often is so cool! Last transfer there were also two former Zone leaders in our district who are close to going home and serving with them was incredible. We now have a very young mission, Elder Brown and I were the next most experienced members of the District. Elder George and Elder King contributed so much by way of trainings, and instruction on how to be good missionaries, and they had so many stories of the early days of their mission and what things were like. It really broadened my view of how to be a balanced finder, and a more effective missionary. Elder George particularly is a legend in our mission. He leaves at the end of this current six week transfer and he is taking so much with him! He played football for the Air force academy before his mission, and the impression he gives can be well summed up by that! His size alone makes a statement. He is 6'6' and muscular from head to toe. He has the most loving personality. He has also been quite a voice for change on his mission, advocating in MLC for a lot of policy changes. Sadly he transferred to Annapolis. Elder Brown is staying though! Blessings!
This past week has been one of the most memorable of my mission. On Saturday the entire mission gathered together for a special meeting with Elder Stevenson and Elder Gong. Woah! Bishop Davies was there too. They were all scheduled to visit our mission before General Conference, Elder Gong has been assigned over all the missions in our region for a while, and then when he was called to the quorum of the 12 we all got extra excited!! It was a beautiful meeting to attend.
The whole mission gathered for a picture with the apostles, and then they shook everyone's hands. Bishop Davies and I chatted about Arizona, no big deal or anything.
Then they sat us down and gave us instruction! Bishop Davies taught about Faith, as an action word, and what that looks like for missionaries. He promised that every missionary who had faith would baptize on their mission.
Elder Gong was so awesome. From conference I got the sense that he has a good sense of humor, reading some of his past talks has confirmed that for me, but at our meeting if I could describe him in a word, I would say he was gentle. He spoke about how as missionaries we should be spiritually bold. Which is never obnoxious! He gave examples of being stuck in an airport and receiving a prompting that that delay was an opportunity from the Lord to do good. He went to a couple sitting at a restaurant and they had the best conversation about their son who was stationed at Fort Bragg and was doing something called HeLo training. Elder Gong had just been at Fort Bragg and was able to give them a detailed update on their son's experience. They then told him about another son who was acting in a play they didn't know much about called Les Miserables. Apparently he was playing someone called Jean Val-jean. Elder Gong was able to tell them all about the play and their son's important role in it. He then told us that if we lay all we have on the altar of the Lord he will use our every experience and interest for his work. Elder Gong had all the spiritual insight you would expect from an apostle, but on top of his calling I was impressed just how meek, gentle, and non competitive everything he said was. He wasn't trying to outdo anybody or come off as a gifted speaker, he just powerfully called in the spirit. He also taught powerfully that we are all really called of God, for the people we will meet, for the missionaries we serve with, and for our mission President. It helped me a lot, to invest more in my relationship with Elder Ellison.
Elder Stevenson stole the conference. I was most surprised by him! From general conference I had assessed him as wise, calculated, no nonsense, and perhaps even stern. Elder Ellison described him, after the meeting, as happy-go-lucky. He wasn't stern at all! He was so loving, so happy, and almost frolicked around the chapel we were meeting in with childlike enthusiasm. He had powerful faith too. He called in the spirit with each word and he knew Preach My Gospel like no one I've ever seen! How did he do that? He had like every word memorized in addition to being like, in charge of the church! What about the rest of gospel library? How did he have time to master PMG in addition to everything else he does? He gave expert instruction on how to help Investigators make and keep commitments and he called heavily on his experience as the Nagoya Japan mission President. He told so many stories and interspersed so much Nihongo! It was super cool.
Maybe one of these guys will be the prophet when I'm President of the United States. You never know!
I have a strong testimony that these three General Authorities are true servants of the Lord, they are prophets seers, and revelators just exactly as we sustain them during each conference. My testimony of Joseph Smith has been strengthened as well that he saw just exactly what he said he saw, and that he was chosen to be the prophet of our dispensation. I'm thankful for men like Joseph, and Elder Gong and Stevenson who link us to heaven.
In other exciting news, Michael has accepted a date to be baptized! He will be baptized May 26th and he couldn't be more excited. He has loved church these past few weeks and had a great time at last night's Why I Believe. Teaching him has been the adventure of my mission, but I have loved every part.
To be truthful, Elder Ellison is struggling a little. He is going through some pretty heavy emotional challenges and I'm having a hard time convincing him to ask for help. I'm grateful for the point I am at in my mission that I can help him through this. But it feels like all I can do sometimes to get him moving. Being a full-time missionary and a full-time counselor at the same time is the tallest order of my life so far. He has frequent stress emergencies and I walk a delicate line trying to be his friend and push him enough that the work continues to progress. Our contacting numbers took a bad hit these last few weeks as a result. He feels like my highest stakes investigator, with all the potential in the world, at that critical point where he has to choose to progress or not. My own failures are magnified a hundred fold as I see every mistake I make each day, trying to work with him. We could both use your prayers!
I love you all! Mom, it's so funny you mention Savior, Redeemer of My Soul, Bridget and Tony, who are getting married this Saturday have asked me to sing it at their wedding. I'm a little nervous because I haven't sung it since Seminary graduation.
Love,
Elder Tenney