Week 79.1 (4/30/20)0

Our devotional speaker today was Elder Kyle S Mckay of the Seventy (also part of our area presidency). He delivered a wonderful talk on the army of Gideon, and, in response to a missionary's question of when Covid and quarantine would be over, informed us that "first of all, you need to repent of all your sins. We are just waiting on this mission!"

One of the insights he shared was that we sometimes give God too much credit for bad things that happen. Why did God send Covid? Well, He probably didn't! But He knew it was coming, and prepared His church for it. I also liked this quote: "what does God want me to learn from this pandemic? Well, what did He want me to learn without the pandemic?" Emphasizing that God's goal for each of us is to teach us of Himself, and He will use whatever circumstances we find ourselves in to do so. 

Elder Hancock and I cooked biscuits and gravy as a joint effort, they were very tasty. Funny how the gravy recipe is so similar to the Cheesy Potato Soup recipe! I am learning how to make a good roux (also the basis of eyeslime. Cooking secrets are being unveiled!)

Week 79 (4/27/2020) Mythbusters

You have all heard the conversion stories, the person says that after they got the Book of Mormon, they just couldn't put it down, when the missionaries come back the next day they have read the whole thing and know it is true. I was always intrigued by those stories. Being relatively aware of the rate that most people read the scriptures, it is pretty amazing to think that someone, with no familiarity with a scriptural text, might sit down and read it. 

Now, I was rather limited in my experiment, since the only one that was willing to participate was me (the people we were teaching didn't seemed thrilled at the prospect of reading the whole thing), and I am not the best test subject, perhaps, since I am relatively familiar with both the Book of Mormon and scriptural language. But I wanted to see anyways. The verdict? It is possible, clocking in just over 13 hours to read the whole thing. No better way to spend the Sabbath. 

Here are the conclusions that I drew from this experience:

1. Anyone who does that the first time they pick up a Book of Mormon is being acted upon by the Holy Ghost, no other explanation.

2. Even 13 straight hours of scripture study doesn't perfect you, more's the pity.

3. They sure talk about Jesus a lot in that book

4. Ether is always shorter than I think it is. Good thing, too, by the time I got to Ether it was almost my bedtime. 

5. It is hard to absorb much from scripture when you are speed reading.

Well, there you go. I tried it, so if that was a question that has always bothered you, now you don't have to. I wouldn't particularly recommend it. I love the Book of Mormon, but keep the studies under 4 hours 🏽

In other news, I also finished the New Testament this week. 

We had our Branch Council and Sunday School over zoom yesterday, it was nice to actually see some members of the branch. And one of our members dropped of a meal to us, so we actually got to see somebody. 

Our teaching currently mostly consists of sharing Book of Mormon scriptures whenever we can get someone on the phone. Phone lessons tend to be more succinct: they are a one principle sort of a deal. Not that they are always short....but you do only end up getting one principle in edgewise during the long phone calls too. 

Hoping and praying that this ends soon. I'll send an addendum to this email if and when I come up with some jokes. My brain is still tired from yesterday. 

Oh! We were told this week that at transfers next week, our mission will be absorbing the Spring, Texas stake, so that is pretty cool. I think President said that the temple would still be barely outside of our boundaries, though. 

Love,

Elder DeFord

Week 78 (4/20/2020)

Dear y'all,

I mentioned during my midweek email that we are having some success with a man named S__S__. We found him some time before the quarantine, but had had a really hard time getting in with him. Well, even now, long lessons are the exception, not the rule, but when we can catch him we have great discussion. He is middle-aged, lives here in Welsh. When we first brought up the Book of Mormon, he expressed how much he loved that book! (Missionaries had worked with him in earlier years) One frustration that he shared with us was that he has a hard time understanding what he reads in the scriptures. Sometime ago, when I was teaching him over the phone, I committed him to offer a prayer before he began reading and ask to be able to understand it. Well, in a lesson Elder Hancock was teaching him this week, he said that he had, and for the first time in his life, to use his words, he could understand everything he read! Super cool. 

That is one strange thing about phone proselyting: not teaching as a companionship. Even though it is on speakerphone, the companion who is not speaking finds himself seemingly unable to contribute in any meaningful way. After all, they can't see me nod along with what Elder Hancock is saying, and my flipping through scriptures is generally to no avail. One thing I often do is just kneel and offer a prayer for Elder Hancock and the person being taught. That is something you can't do in person!

We had our interviews with President Hewlett this week. Among other things, he asked me if I had accomplished on my mission what the Lord wanted me to. I was surprised at the question. I responded that I had accomplished 18 months’ worth, but that I wouldn't be done until the badge came off my chest. And then I thought a little and continued that I wouldn't really be done then either, though the circumstances of my life may change. 

See, I never plan to stop being about my Father's business. We recall that when Jesus made that startling pronouncement he was but 11 years of age, and yet his formal ministry began at the age of 30. We can reasonably assume that the intervening years were spent planing, shaping, and smoothing wood as a carpenter. Yet He was no less the Christ when He was pursuing His occupation and, we must assume, rejoicing and enjoying the fellowship of both friends and family. It is laughable to assume that when God's voice came down from Heaven saying that He was well pleased, that that was a modification of earlier displeasure. Of course not. Heavenly Father was pleased with all His Son did. So it is with us. Sometimes we feel that because we are not constantly engaged in our own "3-year ministry", we are falling short of God's expectations, or on the flipside, that we are not in His work. 

I love the comparison with work, but I believe that our own shifting culture regarding employment has also shifted our views towards God's work. I think of the days when work was a vital necessity: if you didn't work today, you had no crops come winter. There were no set hours, but you did all you could in all the time you had. It was grueling, I am sure, but people were happy. Today, work is often something we put on for eight hours and leave at the office (spoken in observation, not condemnation). Which has led too many of us, I fear, to treat God's work the same way. When we are on a mission, or serving in our callings, of course we are about our Fathers business, we might say. But we would do well to remember that the "son" of Joseph was no less fulfilling his divinely appointed mission as the Christ when he was making yokes as when he was teaching about them. 

Well, I didn't intend to moralize on that quite so extensively. The point being, that I want to live each day in expectation of God's approbation; not looking forward to some imagined conclusion, for His work is one eternal round. 

I suppose that it is no surprise that I am writing a little more extensively, such is the natural consequence of reading more extensively. Useless statistics of the week: 

Number of people who have messaged me over family search telling me I am doing things wrong: 1 

Books read while on mission: somewhere between 15-20

Books read while in Welsh: 5

Pounds away from pre-mission weight: 0

Number of influential people the Hewlett's know and have gotten to address us over zoom: ...I suppose it depends on how you define influential. Becky Craven of the General Young Womens Presidency addressed us this week. 

Time I'll get tired of being facetious and actually send this email: well, I don't think I will even tire of being cleverly amusing, but I get my point. 

Love you all, and I am praying for you. Yes, you. Don't turn around and look at anybody else. 

Elder DeFord