Called to Serve

Monday, October 27, 2014

See People as the can become!!

Hey Fam!

So I just wrote a couple of days ago and not a lot has changed but I did have some good experiences I would like to share! So like I said last letter transfers was this week and it was pretty hectic as always but everything ended up working out great! We have 202 missionaries in our mission right now. Which is a lot! Next transfer we are looking to decrease by 20 though.
 
Elder Daley and I got some time to spend in our area the last couple days of this week which was great! On Friday evening we went to the Phillips family home. They are some new investigators we found not too long ago. This was really the first time we have got to sit down and teach them though so we taught them the restoration! It was pretty insane how strongly the spirit was there. I really felt like I was given everything I needed to say. At the end of the lesson they were asking really good questions and then one of the older daughters named Carnesha asked the best question of them all, "Do yall do baptisms at your church." Well if that's not music to the ears I don't know what is! We were pretty quick to invite them all to be baptized and they all accepted a baptismal date for the 22nd of November! At the end of the lesson the Mom was just explain how for a long time she was feeling really frustrated and negative towards her life but that when we came into the home we brought with us positive vibes and she wanted to have that in her life. We explained that those positive vibes were the spirit!

I have talked about in the past how when you are teaching a lesson on a mission sometimes you will just feel an extreme anxiety and desire for the people you are teaching to know this is true! You just realize it would change their whole lives and make their lives meaningful. That's how I felt as I was teaching this family. One of the biggest blessing of being a missionary is that the Lord really allows you to see people as they can become. We would treat our family and friends and strangers so differently if we knew who they were destined to become. Heck we would treat ourselves so differently if we really knew our identity and our destiny.
 
Mom and Dad I just want to let you know how grateful I am for you treating me in this way.
Things are going good here in little Rock. I have been here for about 9 months now......still only 2 areas my whole mission! I like it that way though!
Thanks for all that yall do for me!


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Busy Week!

Hey Mom!

It sounds like ryans team is really tearing it up! I bet he is excited for playoff time. 

This week was a  wild one but it was pretty fun. We had specialized training meeting tuesday through friday at all the zones around the mission. Elder Daley and I taught about the principle of sacrifice. At the beginning of out instruction we called all the district leaders to come up and I would explain to them their task which was to get the shoes of all the missionaries in their district and bring them up to me. The catch was they couldn't tell the missionaries why they were getting the shoes, all they could do is ask for them. Whoever got all their shoes and brought them back to me first won a piece of candy for their whole district. After that little game we would identify the principles of sacrifice from it and there was a lot to learn! I like teaching at these meetings because I end up learning a lot more. 

After the meeting we finished the transfer board items on Saturday. Monday started the transfer week! We drove to memphis for the departing missionary temple trip. We then picked up the new missionaries tuesday afternoon. Did you talk to Sister Garcias mom? We picked her up too. She is serving in Southaven Mississippi right now.
 
Anyways, the real doozie of this whole transfer week is that Elder Daley and I made the trip to Memphis and back (3 hour drive) 3 times in 3 days! Once on monday with the temple trip, then we went back to memphis tuesday night and stayed at President Floyds house, then at 6 in the morning we took missionaries getting transferred to Little Rock over there, then we took the missionaries going to Memphis back over there, and then we went back to Little Rock. Long day! Transfer week is always fun though because you get to see mission buddies you haven't seen in a minute.

Things are going really well over here. Its busy but its fulfilling. I am convinced the only way you can truly be happy in this life is when you are not trying to make yourself happy. True joy comes from serving others. On this mission I have never been more tired in my life and at times I have never felt so inadequate but its easy to find joy when your focus is on lifting another.  

Sorry I didn't have time to write on monday mom but I hope ya know I love ya! Thank you for all that you do! 


Monday, October 13, 2014

Happy Birthday Camz!!!

Hey Mom!
 
Ya so......we have bed bugs. For some reason I kept on forgetting to mention it. I have been sleeping on our couch for the past month and Elder Daley has been sleeping on a spare mattress on the floor. We are waiting for the bed bugs guys to come and steam our apartment. Its pretty lame. I cant remember the last time I've slept tight and didn't let the bed bugs bite!
 
  Anyways this last week was a good one. All the zones had their zone meetings where we watched the meet the Mormons movies. Its a pretty good little flick! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about members of the church.
 
   Elder Daley and I got a lot of time to spend in Little Rock this week which was awesome! We have a couple of people we are working with right now that should be getting baptized in the near future. One of them is a guy named Mark Green. He is a way cool guy. We taught him and his sons the plan of salvation with the Duncan famiy (members in our ward) on Friday night and it was awesome. At the end of the lesson Bro. Duncan asked Mark from what has been discussed if he felt inspired to do change anything and Mark said "I just need to hurry up and get baptized so I can be clean and ready for the next life!" ha ha man if only every investigator understood that! He has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month.
 
This next week we have five specialzed trainings in a row. Monday-satudrday. And then the week after that is transfers. So it is going to be so busy!
 
Mom thanks for the letters and all that you do for me. I am really grateful for it.
 
 Happy Birthday CAMZ!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Virtue and Repentance

Elder Zwick, Elder Daley, Elder Udall, Sister Zwick

 
Hey family whats up!!
 
It has been another classic week in the ALRM! This week was pretty power packed with learning experiences. So on Tuesday was mission council again for the month of October! After talking with Elder Zwick, President told us that he wants the mission to focus on Virtue and repentance for these next couple months. So at mission council Elder Daley and I gave the spiel on virtue. I'm really grateful that I got to instruct on the topic because I learned how vital it is to become virtuous. Like it says in PMG, "Virtue originates in your innermost thoughts and desires." I think that's a good thing to constantly reflect on, what do I think about throughout the day? Where are my desires? PMG also teaches us the virtue is prerequisite to receiving the spirits guidance. That's why we are focusing on this attribute especially.
 
Our mission has a goal of 100 baptisms in November. The only way we are going to reach that goal is if we are worthy and constantly seeking out the guidance of the spirit.
Anyways Elder Daley and I went on 2 exchanges this week. The first one was with the ZL's in Searcy. I went to searcy with Elder Chapman who is going home soon. Our goal that day was to set a baptismal date with somebody. So we went hog wild talking to everyone we saw. We found some great people but the real miracle happened at the end of the night. We taught a guy named Curtis the first lesson in the church building. When I first saw Curtis he said "Elder Udall! I know you!" I asked him how and he said he met me a year ago in searcy when I was serving there. He said I gave him a book of Mormon and told him if  he ever wanted to learn more to call the number. He said that he was now finally ready to learn more. He still had the BOM copy I gave him. So we taught him the first lesson with Brother Shirley and the spirit was strong. We invited him to be baptized on the 18th and he accepted! It was sweet! O and guess how he found the missionaries again after a year....Chris Cooksey!! Chris referred him to them. ha ha
 
We also went on exchanges with the Memphis zone leaders. I brought Elder Henderson to Little Rock with me. We got out of the car for a lesson that night and we heard the tornado sirens. The weather looked fine so I decided to ignore it and the CMAS weather alert text I got that said "Tornado warning, find shelter immediately." Not even 2 minutes later though it started raining really hard and the wind was blowing so hard I thought we were in RV for a second. Then there was a lot of lighting and the power started going our everywhere. So we though it best to start heading home! The weather got bad but I don't think a tornado ever hit ground. It was crazy though. Anyways thanks Mom for the letter you sent! It was a cherry on top to a delicious sunday! I love you Mom and am so grateful for an athletic mother!