Monday, April 28, 2014

Out With the Old, In With the....Wait...I Know These People!

Transfers! Always an exciting time to be a missionary. The excitement on Saturday night of finding out who is leaving and who is staying. Saying goodbye to members in the ward if you happen to be going. And finally saying goodbye to your old companion and saying hi to your new ones on Tuesday!

That is what this last week has been for me...except the saying goodbye to members part as I am still in the same ward. But on Tuesday I lost Elder Rupper and got a new companion. Elder Mickelsen! He is really awesome. And he was actually in Carlsbad when I was. I didn't know him very well then, but I recognized him when he got assigned to be my companion. And the other funny thing, Elder Call, one of the Elders in the other half of the ward, got a new companion as well, and who should it be, but Elder Skenandore! Yeah! One of those guys I was with for a day and a half! He is now serving in my ward! It's pretty awesome!

Some more Elders and Sisters got transferred in and out, and Elder Rupper actually ended up just moving to a different area in Temecula...and actually still lives in my ward boundaries! It was really funny when we realized this! So I'll still be seeing a bit of him over the next six weeks or more. I also knew some of the other missionaries, or at least recognized them, that got transferred into the zone. But it was still a very exciting time for us all!

The rest of this week has been pretty good. Elder Mickelsen and I have been visiting some of the members and I've been helping him get to know the area. But even though we have been together only a very short time, we got separated quickly...because we had exchanges this weekend! I got to spend the day with Elder Call, and Elder Mickelsen and Elder Skenandore got to work in the other half of the area. But since we exchanged over a Sunday we all saw each other most of the day, and actually did an exchange back for church so the ward would know whose companion was whose.

While with Elder Call we taught a lesson to one of the former investigators of the ward, who has since returned, and is really working hard towards changing their life for the better. It was really awesome!

So yeah, that was this week in the exciting life of me.

For my scripture thought I just want to focus on two words that are repeated a few times throughout the scriptures. "Prove me" (Malachi 3:8, Hebrews 3:9, etc.). These couple words are in my opinion very, very powerful, because it is the Lord talking to all of us. He is saying, "I give you commandments, and if you follow them, I promise to give you blessings. If you doubt it. Prove me and see." But this works both ways, not only can we prove the Lord in what he says, but He is also going to "Prove You" or "Prove Them" (D&C 98:14, Abraham 3:25). He will bless us and help us to "prove us" if we will show gratitude to him, and he will allow us to go through trials to "prove us" if we will be faithful.

Thank you all for all the support I receive! Talk to you all again soon!

Love,

Elder Wixom

Monday, April 21, 2014

"He is Risen!" An Easter Motto

What an exciting week! Or at least weekend!

As I said last week, on last Saturday the entire mission got to meet with Elder Ballard. It was incredibly awesome! We also got to hear from the area seventy over my area, Elder Sabin, and one of the Seventy, Elder Maynes. It was such a good experience to receive counsel from these General Authorities. And not only did they give us some good counsel, but they were also really quite funny!

Another great part about the mission conference was that I got to see some of the missionaries I have served around in the past. It was awesome to catch up for a few minutes (and they were a few shocked exclamations of, "You're back!"). Another fun little side note about last Saturday, since I had served for 4 months almost to the day when I had to go home, I changed my "mission birthday" to the 19th, the day corresponding with the day I got back into the mission, and I have been back for 2 months now. So last Saturday was my official 6 month mark! One fourth of the way done! It is insane to think of how fast time has gone by (even though it has taken me almost a year to reach 6 months).

Easter Sunday was really awesome! Got to hear more counsel from Elder Ballard and Elder Sabin at stake conference, but not Elder Maynes as he was up hosting a stake conference in Murrieta. Did a small Easter Egg hunt in Elder Rupper and my apartment (he had some plastic eggs, and I bought some candy, and we hid eggs for each other in different rooms). It was a lot of fun!

But the thing I loved most about this Easter is the chance to really think about the Atonement, and then also the Resurrection of our Savior, and the reasons I think I was thinking about it so much were because of..well...I'm a missionary, and the "Because of Him" video that I have had the pleasure of sharing throughout this week. So for my traditional scripture thought I want to share just a couple parts of Luke 24 as a last thought for this Easter season, "...Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is arisen..." (5 and 6). Also, a hymn that has been playing through my head a lot recently (and even more so since I got the CD in my Easter package) is "He is Risen." So let's just all remember that not only did our Savior die for us, but then he took back his life and rose from the dead so that we will all be able to as well.

In other news, this has been my last week with Elder Rupper as he is going to be getting transferred on Tuesday. So I will be getting a new companion, and I will tell you more about that later.

That's all for this week! And I just want to thank you all for letting me come out here and serve!

Love,

Elder Wixom

Monday, April 14, 2014

#BecauseofHim

I'll get to the reason for the unusual title a little bit later. First, some of the highlights from this last week:

Last Monday the zone had another zone activity at the same home as last time. The members who owned the house were extremely awesome. They fed us ribs, potatoes, cinnamon rolls, and some other great stuff. And then we all played volleyball, Frisbee, a little bit of baseball, and some people played catch with a football. It was a lot of fun! I'll make sure to include some of the pictures that I had another Elder take with my camera (as I was a bit busy playing Frisbee and volleyball).


It has been really awesome to start to read a lot from my new set of scriptures, and I'm not sure what it is, but something about having a new set of scriptures makes me really excited about reading scriptures. I think it might be me getting excited about all the new things that I hope to discover from reading from the new, clean pages. For instance, with one of the recent converts of the ward here, he has asked that for our lessons we start reading from Doctrine and Covenants with him each week, as he has had a bit of trouble with understanding it, and so this last week we started that by just reading the introduction pages of D&C. It was awesome to read them, especially because I actually don't think I had ever read them before, so it was a new learning experience for me as well!

One other exciting thing that, though it didn't happen this last week, is going to happen this next weekend is that Elder Ballard is coming to Temecula! The stake here is holding a special stake conference so that we can hear what Elder Ballard has to say! On Easter Sunday! It is going to be awesome! And one of other really cool things that is happening is that the mission is going to have a special conference of it's own so that we will get to hear his counsel for us as well! I'm excited!!! I'll tell more about how that went last week.

Now, the reason for the title: This week the Church has published a video on mormon.org for the Easter season. It is called "Because of Him" and is a short 2 1/2 minute video that just talks a little bit about what we in the world are able to do "because of him" meaning Jesus Christ. It is such a powerful message, and the Church wants as many people to see it as possible. What they are encouraging is that members go to mormon.org, watch the video, and then share it to FaceBook, Twitter, etc. with the caption of #BecauseofHim, and also share what we can do because of Christ. It is a great way to commemorate the Easter season and share what we can do "Because of Him."

That's all I have for this week. I hope everyone enjoys Easter and remembers what the reason behind this season is.

Love,

Elder Wixom

Monday, April 7, 2014

General Conference Excitement!

This last week has been really exciting! Not because of anything special that really happened in the week, but because of what was coming up at the end of the week!

In fact, most of the actual week was pretty standard. Right now Elder Rupper and I are in finding mode, so owe spend a lot of time walking around trying to talk to people, and knocking on the doors of our potential investigators, former investigators, and less-active members. Elder Rupper actually has done the calculations (he is really good at math), and he has figured that since him and me walk about 3 miles per hour, and walk for a few hours a day at least, since we have become companions we have walked over 500 miles! And to think that I used to think walking 50 miles in a week sounded like a lot of walking! But all the walking is worth it to find those people who are ready and waiting to hear the Gospel.

Anyways, like I said, this weekend was the thing that every missionary in the Carlsbad mission, and probably most of the world, was looking forward to. General Conference!!!

It was so awesome to hear from the General Authorities and General Officers of the Church as they gave us counsel to become better. I really noticed that many of the talks were directed towards the youth of the Church (so I hope Lela was paying attention), and that many of the talks were about defending our faith in this ever downhill spiraling world, and about defending the organization of the family in this world where the traditional family is a thing that is looked over. But even though many talks were directed towards the youth of the Church, there is something we can all learn from all the talks that were delivered.

I noticed that watching Conference as a missionary felt different than watching it at home. At home, I was "pretty good" about focusing, or even staying awake, during Conference. But watching it this weekend, I couldn't get enough of it. I was really shocked when during the first session I looked down at my watch after what seemed like only half an hour, and found that triple that time had passed! It was crazy! I feel so uplifted after hearing the talks given, and I cannot wait till next Conference!

So, for my scripture thought today, I would like to share one of my favorite scriptures that I read recently. It is found in the book of Jacob, "O be wise; what can I say more?" (6:12). And with it I just want to say that we should be wise, and revisit those talks from conference. And really, "what can I say more?" I'm so thankful for the Gospel, and for living prophets and apostles that lead and guide the Church today.

That's really all I have for this week!

Love,

Elder Wixom