Email & Photos from Brad Dillard 10-29-12

                                         Brad with his Halloween candy and pumpkin carving tools

                                          Brad and missionary companion

                                          Perfect Halloween party costumes

                                          Before snow.....

                                          After snow.........

Hello! This has been another great week. This has been a week of goal setting. I have thought and prayed much about what I want to accomplish out here on my mission. One of those goals includes getting in the habit of making my bed every morning. How do you like the sound of that mom? haha. I have never in my life been good at that. But I have made my bed every day for the last week. Man its awesome. A clean apartment and a made bed really does make a difference, it makes the apartment a brighter and happier place. Another one of those goals includes memorizing at least 5 scriptures a week. Last week I memorized 10! I mostly memorized another one this morning. Being able to quote scriptures, not just know where they are, is a lot of fun!  I got a lot more I am working on.

We had an awesome ward Halloween party/chili cook off on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. This tiny ward really gets good turn outs to ward functions, I have been impressed. There was a good number of non members there and a good number of less-active members there as well which was so awesome. I love that ward members aren't afraid to invite their non member friends to come to the church. We went around and got to meet them and we hope that some good will come of it.

Well there is so much else that happened but I am out of time! I love you all!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Dillard #2

10-22-12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

This week was awesome. My companion and  I had a lot of fun, and we were able to talk to a lot of people and teach a lot of lessons, and make some good progress with some of the families in the area. As we have continued to keep our sites on the less-active part member families, we have been going in with the words of Elder Bednar in our minds. He gave a talk titled, "And nothing shall offend them" or something like that, and he tells of his experiences with trying to reactivate less-active members before he became an apostle, and what approach he would take. I love how straight forward and bold he was, and we have been trying to follow his example as we do our work, and it has been working. 

I have pondered a lot this week on Elder Hollands talk this from this last conference. I have been trying to put my self in Peters shoes when standing face to face with the savior and asked by him the question, "Do you love me?" If any of you were put in that situation today... what would you be able to say? I am confident that each of us would be able to answer sincerely as Peter did, "Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." But what has been getting me is: what would be the saviors response to that? Would he ask for a 2nd and 3rd time if we love him as he did to Peter? Or would he say that he knows that we do love him by what we do to serve him? I have been reflecting on my life, and have been really trying to figure out what his response would be, and to be quite honest, his response right now wouldn't be what I would want it to be. I think he would look at me and say, "Oh you love me do you? Then why are you doing this and this and this!?". 

I am overjoyed at the beauty and perfection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so perfect! As I have continued to study more about the life of the savior, and who he really is and what he has done.

I really am loving it out here. I'm sad that the days are passing so fast though. These really are the best 2 years.

I love you all! Bye for now!

Love, Elder Bradley Dillard

10-22-12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

We had the best week, as far as finding and teaching goes, that we have ever had in our area so far! Sacrifice brings for the Blessings of Heaven!

What a true statement. We have out of nowhere gained a lot of people to teach. Its very very busy! Its amazing, the busier I get, the easier it is to get up in the mornings! Its as though the Lord gives us more strength because we are dealing with His favorite things, "His Children." I know that the Lord loves us. Too many coincidences so far in my short life that prove God wants all of His children to return home to Him.

I received a Karen name this week! My new name is " Tha Boe!"  It means, Sweetheart or darling, haha. That's what I get for having an elderly woman name me! I couldn't understand a word she said, ahaha. Karen people are from Myanmar or Burma. Many are refugees here in Minnesota. What an amazing thing it is to see them come all the way across the world to find missionaries. Missionaries who have had to learn the language out here because it is not taught in the MTC. Such a  blessing to witness someone truly speaking in tongues!   I love Dinky Town. It has a great potential to be my most favorite area of the mission. Full of amazing people from all different backgrounds. I am growing so much. 
It sounds like it's Colder in California where Elder Brad Dillard is than it is here! I'm sorry Brother! Hahaha...it's beautiful here!
Have an amazing week everyone!
Love,
Elder Devin Dillard

10-15-12 Elder Brad Dillard

This was a really great week. The whole ward was on a spiritual high because of conference, which was awesome. Its always good when the ward is fired up. We focused on fulfilling our Mission Presidents challenge that we were given a few months ago to "Bring it" when we go into members homes. Bring it means to bring the Spirit. So we talked a lot about lessons and spiritual thoughts we could leave with the members in order to give them a greater desire to be like Christ, and to build the kingdom. Its only through members that we have any hope for success. But something I have come to know, is when the members think they are helping the missionaries, they are really only helping themselves and their families. When someone in the ward helps one of their close friends or neighbors come into the church, that will mean so much more to them than it will ever mean to any missionary. That's the point that we were trying to drive home this week. Its not about helping us, and supplying us with people to teach, its about allowing the blessings of the restored gospel to penetrate their homes and families by bringing those around them that they love into it. I remember the Spirit that was constantly in our home as Korbin and his family were being taught the lessons in our living room. Nothing is better. Us missionaries are here to teach, testify, and do paper work, the blessings are for the members. That's not true, we as missionaries receive so many blessings, but you guys get what I mean. So make sure you all are actively participating in missionary work!! Don't deny the blessings!  

Yesterday was our Fast Sunday. So I was finally able to get up and bear my testimony to the Mt. Shasta ward, which I love doing. I have made it a point to bear my testimony the first fast Sunday in each of my areas. I was able to fast yesterday as well. Some really neat things happened yesterday evening after I ended my fast, which I have no doubt happened because of fasting and sincere prayer. I fasted specifically for a few less-active/part member families, and we went to visit one of them yesterday after dinner. We were able to talk to one of the older siblings, and we started talking about church and then he was like, "Oh! My parents have been wanting to talk to you guys, because we have been wanting to get back to church more, and my youngest brother isn't baptized yet so we need your guys help with that." WELL ALRIGHT! So we plan to start teaching the family and younger brother this week or the next. What a miracle huh? Heavenly Father is preparing hearts!

After that we were able to pick up a new investigator up in the town of Weed that was a referral from our Elders Quorum President and we will be going back this Thursday. And lots and lots of other things that I don't have time to talk about.

I am so happy to be serving our Heavenly Father on a mission. It is such a great priviledge for me to be given the opportunity to serve every single day. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.

I love you all so much. Talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Dillard 

10-15-12 Elder Devin Dillard

This past week was incredible. It was full of the typical missionary activities along with meeting Gladys Knight and the SUV choir.

As I was helping set up chairs and getting pamphlets/programs ready for the guests, I said Hi to a woman passing by. She said Hi! And I looked up and realized it was Gladys Knight, haha. That was about all the interaction her and I had. I stood around and listened to her a few feet away, practice with some of the band members. THEY ARE SO TALENTED!  It was an exceptionally spiritual fireside! 

Listening and enjoying the music was a big highlight! The best thing that happened to me that night was this:  I was helping people check their tickets, making sure they were the right showing, talking and laughing with non-members when I stumbled across one of the women I was teaching back in St. Cloud! I told you all the story of how we found her not long ago. She is now a baptized member! It was so good to see her, two of her daughters, and her nephew.  After the show it was so awesome to see her walking out of the show crying! What an awesome experience. Such a blessing for me to see her progression.

The rest of the week was great and I really love being here on my mission.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

God Bless you,

Love,

Elder Devin Dillard

10/8/12 Elder Devin Dillard

What a spiritual feast this past week! Conference was so awesome! I catch myself wondering if it is so awesome because I'm a missionary. As I look around and see the spirit sinking his way into the hearts of the members and non-members I realize that it isn't just because I am a missionary!

The announcement of the minimum age requirement for new missionaries is really quite amazing! I felt the spirit confirm to my heart that this is an inspired change. I know President Monson is a Prophet of God. I'm really wondering what was going through Michael Dillard's mind as this was announced. He turns 18 this month! That's really the only thing I could think about the next two hours. At least I'll get home soon enough to see him before he could technically be gone.

Have had an awesome week with Teaching a new investigator named Yihong. He is 23 and from Nanjing China. Before he met with us he said that he had no religious belief. Since meeting with us 2 Saturdays ago, he has prayed everyday and has felt a peace come into his heart he says he has never felt. He says, "I now know there is a God." I can't put into words the joy I feel within my soul. We have spent our last 2 lessons discussing his questions about the Plan of Salvation. He has the greatest questions and it is amazing to see him teach himself. I love being a missionary.

Last monday Elder Checketts and I had the opportunity to teach a religious discussion group on Hamline University. There were 25 students and we had the best lesson/discussion where we answered almost every question in the book of questions on Mormons. It was very spiritual and I am amazed at the hospitality of these people. Not one negative thing was said by any of them. They wanted to know all about the 1st vision and the Book of Mormon and Prophets. We had a projector and a laptop provided so we were able to take them around Mormon.org and show videos of the Prophet. They invited us back! Super cool. Hopefully one of them will desire to follow the Savior.

2 more days til Gladys Knight! I can't wait to listen to her Testimony and especially for the non-members to hear her testimony.

Have an amazing week!

I love you all!

Elder Devin Dillard

10/8/12 Elder Brad Dillard

My goodness goodness goodness it has been a bizarre week. How was it for everyone else? Conference was great huh!? I couldn't believe the new change in the missionary ages!! That's so nuts, but so awesome. I know that the number of missionaries will really start to grow because of this new change, immensely! I don't know if any of you were able to watch the question and answer conference with Elder Holland and Elder Nelson in between the sessions on Saturday, but Elder Holland said that they see a major growth in the number of missionaries, but they can't even predict how much. It will be a glorious day when the number of full time missionaries out in the field at one time exceeds a 100,000. I do not think that day is far off with this new inspired change. Along with Devin, I couldn't help but think immediately of Michael! Whats he going to do? This new option will really make a lot of families stop and think, especially with the women. Elder Swapp and I couldn't quit talking abou this all day on Saturday. Its mind blowing!

 

Anyways, I loved conference. I couldn't help but think about how blessed and fortunate I, along with the rest of us are, to be able to hear a prophet of God speak to us, councel us, and make known Gods will for us. Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God. There is no doubt in my mind, and I am so happy to be able to say that I know it.

 

It is starting to get cold here! The days are still pretty good, in the 70s. But it has been getting down into the 30s at night. Bring on the cold!! We split a ton more wood this week with a few of the members. This time we had a splitter. My back really appreciated that haha. It is so fun for me to help all the people here get prepared for winter. There is so much wood to split and so many people we could help, we could do it full time. But there is more important work to be done.

 

This week we came in contact with a number of part member families that are just golden!! I knew that this area was ripe with work and people ready to accept the Gospel. Finding these people is such an exciting thing.

 

Well you all have a great next 7 days. Be good, be safe, and know that I love you!

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard 

8/6/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Gee wiz this week flew! It was suuuuuccccchhh a great week, with a lot of challenges that eventually brought success. My companion and I have been at it all week trying to find people that are ready for the Gospel.

I find it interesting that in no matter what circumstance or situation we may be in out here we can always feel the Spirit. I have found that if we stay connected to our purpose and strive to always be worthy of the Spirit, we will be able to feel its influence and be lead by it in all places and through all things. I have an example for all of you. Last night after we had got out of dinner, we weren't entirely sure where we were going to go or what to do. We had planned the night before to see a few people in the area, but because our plans had fallen through earlier in the day, we ended up seeing those people earlier which left us with no plans for the evening. We saw a group of people sitting on some benches tucked back behind an old abandoned food market as we were driving past so we parked a little ways down the street and walked back to go talk to them. All of them were in their early 20's and they were all either drunk/high already, or well on their way ha. We start walking up to them and they all start yelling, "MORMONS!!!" haha it was great. As we talked with them we learned that even though all of them were living a really rough life style and they were all being held captive to drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, they still had a strong belief in God and had great faith.(even though they had a hard time showing it) Through the thick cloud of cigarette smoke, and the strong smell of alcohol, I was amazed at how strong the Spirit was. It was overwhelming! We had an absolutely fantastic conversation about Gods love, and His great Plan of Salvation that all of us are a part of, and my companion and I were able to stand before all of them and testify of Gods goodness and mercy.

They all live right near our church building, and I think it is safe to say that there is a pretty good chance that they will all be at church this next Sunday. It was such a great experience of feeling the Spirit and building a relationship with people that I normally wouldn't want to be around. I was reminded last night that regardless of what we have done, what we look like, where we have been, what situation we are in.. that we are all Gods children and He loves us all the same, and we are in this together. It is not our job to judge or put down, it is our job to uplift and encourage! Ahhhh I love my mission!

I love all of you. Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard 

8/6/12 email from Elder Devin Dilard

EXCITING NEWS!  They are splitting up the St. Cloud ward! It's too BIG!  Hahaha. I love this problem. It is going to be split into Sauk Rapids Ward and St Cloud Ward. It's going to be sad for many and yet exciting at the same time. They haven't let the members in on all of the details yet. That wont happen until the 19th.  I may or may not be here. Transfers is the 15th, next Wednesday. We have been working with the Bishop and the Stake President to decide where the missionaries will go. So we have been enlightened a bit more, but have been sworn to secrecy. It's exciting to see who the new bishop and all other auxiliaries will be. Fun! This will allow for more effective missionary work now that missionaries wont be competing for members to go out and teach with. This is all good.

Yesterday was an exciting day at church! All 6 Saldana children were confirmed in sacrament meeting. My arms were tired haha. It took the majority of Fast and Testimony meeting. SO SUPER AWESOME!  The Sister Missionaries were on Cloud 9 all day!

We have come across many awesome people this week and I wish I had the time to tell you about each and everyone of them. My heart is so full. It is such an amazing thing to have a great love for people I have only known for a few minutes. To help them and see the spirit touch them is such a priceless event, and I can never get enough! It's the delicious fruit on the Tree of Life for sure!

Remember me talking about Matt Williams last week? Well...He ended up having an emergency and couldn't make it to meet with us last Monday. His Dad went to the hospital. He did however, reschedule to meet with us the next day. We taught him the Restoration lesson in a quiet room in the Library. It was super spiritual. To actually witness him praying to God, who when he first talked with me didn't know he existed, was a thrilling experience. Now he knows that God is there. His words, "I know that this is good. Usually I am nervous and have anxiety when meeting new people, but ever since we sat down I have felt calm and clear headed. No heroine or drug has ever done this for me."

So COOL! He accepted the baptismal invite and will be working towards September 15th. He came to church yesterday and loved it. He hasn't been to church in 20 years he said. Hopefully we can meet his girlfriend soon and teach them the commandments so that they can enjoy more fully the blessings that our Lord wishes to give them.

With this new ward split, Elder Filby and I will lose most of our investigators. We will have to allow them to be taught by the sister missionaries. This will take away 3 or our investigators who have baptismal dates, and quite a few others. The Lord knows whats best:D  Plus the sisters are powerhouses for providing the Spirit.

I was privileged to head to Alexandria, MN again yesterday for another baptismal interview. This one was for a David Elhers! He is so cool! Alexandria elders are on fire, and the ward is so amazing! All of their baptisms have come from member referrals.

Headed to Bloomington tonight to spend a crazy night with the Assistants and other Zone leaders. 20 missionaries crammed into an apartment means no sleep again, haha. I love life!


Please have an amazing week!!!!!


Love,


Elder Devin Dillard

7/30/12 Pictures of Elder Devin Dillard

7/30/12 Pictures of Elder Brad Dillard

7/30/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

I will start by telling of the miracles this week! So a  family, who the St. Cloud Sister Missionaries have been teaching were baptized on Sunday! All 6 siblings! It was such an awesome day! The sisters have been working so hard for the past 3 months with them. So happy to see all of their hard work pay off. All my companion and I ever did to help out was go over and have marshmallow fights and teach a little bit. I have yet to see so many people at one baptism as I saw yesterday. The room was PACKED! It was such a great time, and our bishop was  privileged to perform the actual baptisms. It was SO COOL!

We had 2 other baptisms in the zone this weekend as well and had a total of 10 baptisms for the month! In our Zone this hasn't been done in a long time! The faith of these missionaries has quadrupled this month! So proud of them, my companion and I are just trying to keep up, hehe. I love it.

Last night we were lucky to teach 3 lessons in just 30 minutes!  We had all our plans and back-up plans fall through for the night and had no Idea what to do. We were driving by Lake George, a small lake with a nice walking path and we saw lots of people out enjoying the beautiful evening and felt prompted to just go and walk around there. As we did we saw a man (later learned his name is Greg) fishing for bass along the shore. We sat down next to him and just talked about fishing. After a few minutes a man tapped on my shoulder and asked if he could talk to me for a minute. So I stood up to talk to him while my companion finished teaching Greg about The Restoration. This other guys name is Matt. He said he was struggling with faith. He was never raised with a religious background and really knows he needs some kind of faith because he is struggling with Prescription Drug Addictions. He can't find anything that will work. Explained a little about how Christ can help us overcome adversity, how faith works, and how we receive answers to prayers. My favorite part of the whole conversation was when I asked Matt, "Why did you walk over and talk to me?"  He said, "I was over by the restrooms and something told me to talk to you. I didn't want to. No way did I. But I found myself moving towards you guys."  It was such a moving experience as I explained a little more of how the Spirit works and that this is how the spirit works within us as well as teaches us truth. We will be meeting him here at the library in about 30 minutes today. I'm looking forward to it.  We had a couple other great conversations with people last night. I know there is a reason for why plans sometimes fail why things don't go the way we want. Its His will, not mine, and my Father in Heaven knows all things. So grateful we were able to follow the promptings to go and chat with the fishermen.

I hope you all have an amazing week! Follow the Spirit! The church is true:D


I love you,


Elder Devin Dillard

Email from Elder Brad Dillard 7/30/12

Ohhh man! I have so much to tell all of you, I wish I had time to put it all into words.

 

These last few weeks have been wonderful. I don't know why my companion and I are being so blessed, but it sure does rock. Over the last few weeks, we have had many heart to heart conversations as to what each of us can do to improve, and become more converted. I think both of our testimonies have been strengthened as we told our conversion stories to each other and what it took for each of us to get out here. I am so greatful to be with a companion that knows why he is out here, and is truly converted to the gospel. He builds me up so much!

This morning, as we were having our companionship study, we got caught up talking about what it was like just before our missions, as we were preparing to come out and serve. It brought me backt to the all the wonderful and memorable experiences that I had that helped me become ready for full time service.

I really love this work. I think any missionary can admit, that there are many days where you just want to throw in the towell and call it a day. Those days are soooooo hard! But as I have gone through those days, I have come to realize why Heavenly Father gives them to us. I am convinced that whenever we are going through a hard time and feel like quiting, we are close to a miracle. Heavenly Father makes us work for each one of them. One experience that I have had recently was when my companion and I were tracting. We had spent the whole morning that Saturday out knocking doors, and had seen no success. It seemed that the only people that wanted to talk at all were those that were determined to pick us apart and prove us wrong. Then we had 3 doors in a row where people came to the door and then didnt open it. those ones are always awesome haha. So after the third one we walked back to the street and looked at each other, both of us were thinking its time to stop. But then at the same time we turned the other way and kept going. I dont know what was moving my legs because it sure wasn't me ha. The next door that we knocked on was one of the most prepared children of God I have ever tracted in to!! We had the greatest conversation on the door step in which we taught her all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit was just clothes lining all of us. It was miraculous. We left her with a prayer and set up a time to come back. It was sweeeeeeeeet!! 

Its cool that we determine our own success, not just out here on missions but throughout life. We will never quit having challenges and things will never be easy, but we have the ability to make every situation a learning experience. Faith and attitude is everything. Its so much easier said than done though. Thats what is frustrating. Anyway, my time is about up, but I want you all to know how greatful I am to be out here serving a mission. Its a beautiful thing to be out here serving the Lord. I love you all so so much. Have a good week will ya? 

 

Love,

 

Elder Bradley Dillard  

7/16/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

This week was an amazing one! Not only for Elder Filby and I but also for our whole Zone, consisting of 9 missionary companionships. Each companionship has out of the blue stepped it up this week and they are finding people left and right! I am so happy to see their faith increase. Seeing the great faith that my fellow missionaries have is only increasing mine! I am so grateful.

Monday Elder Filby and I drove down to Bloomington and had our P-Day with the rest of the Zone Leaders and Assistants in the mission. Some of my best friends out here. Such positive and spiritual missionaries. We played basketball until we had to go get ready for our interviews with President Clements. I was the first one to be interview so we quit playing ball earlier than the rest. The very first question President asked me was, "Do you feel you can sing the song of Redeeming love?"  What an inspired question because this is the very topic I have been studying the past week. Found in Alma 5:9. I am happy he asked me this because I feel stronger than I have before in my life that I am able to sing it! Not literally, but internally I feel so happy and just want to share with everyone what the Savior has done for me and for them! I shared this with my Mission President as well. He then asked me what I could do to become a more consecrated missionary. I said, "Planning."  I am a horrible planner. I can't plan worth a darn and this has been my focus for a while. Using my time more effectively. He shared some tips with me and then I asked him a question, "President, you have been out 1 whole year now on your mission. What have you learned?"  He snickered as to silently say, "Who's interviewing who now?"  What he told me was very special and I will paraphrase it, "I feel that I too have learned more deeply how to Sing the Song of Redeeming love. I have seen the promises made in my patriarchal blessing come true. That the Lord has guided not only my foot, but my hands, and my arms and my whole being in all that I do as I have sought Him out." He said this more fluently than I can recall, yet the spirit witnessed to me what he told me was true.

The Next day, Tuesday, was Zone Leader Counsel (ZLC).  I love ZLC. We learn so much! It's like a mini Zone Conference put on for just the leaders in the mission. Super powerful and spiritual.  Elder Filby and I were lucky to give an hour training during this counsel.  We trained on "Finding."  I started off the training by using a lot of "Fishing" analogies because as you know we are fishers of men.

So ZLC continued and then President stood up and said, " I just felt inspired to share this story with you all. Last night at 3:30am I awoke wide awake. This thought was clear in my mind, 'Effective planning will be a critical influence in your future happiness.' It took me a while to fall back asleep, but just seemed important to share."

WOW!  That touched my heart a whole lot. To me it felt like personal revelation because I had just been asking him about planning and the "how to's" and the "Whys."  I had to apologize to him later for waking him up, hehe. All he did was smile and say, "Thanks Alot!"

So many more miracles are happening and I am so very thankful to be apart of this great work. To experience the miracles that are still happening all around! They are real, so is our Father in Heaven and His Son and my Redeemer. What a wonderful time it is to be alive.


I miss you all! have a great great week!

Love,

Elder Devin Dillard

7/16/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Being on a mission is so fun.  It's just the best! We really had a good week, not as much success as we had planned for, but we still had a lot of fun, and had a lot of growing experiences. My testimony of prayer really sky rocketed this week, as I had to rely completely on Heavenly Father to keep me going. There was one day, where I just wasn't having a good day, and to be honest, my attitude toward the work wasn't very good, and I just wasn't happy. It was terrible! We went to visit this less-active family that we have been trying to contact for a long time now, and finally we caught them at home, so I was really excited. When we knocked on the door and the door was opened, we were exposed to a pack of ravenous chiauas ha ha. Its funny now, but at the time, 3 little rat dogs latching onto my pants and tearing them up and making it impossible to have a conversation with this woman that we having been trying to see for so long, just set me off. So I got my pants chewed on, and we missed our opportunity to talk with this less-active and I am not sure when we will get another chance. But thank goodness for prayer!! I heatedly walked back to the car, and some how through the rage I was able to just stop and say, "Elder Herrera, I need to pray." As soon as I started praying, the feelings of frustration and disappointment left immediately. It was so amazing to see how quickly Heavenly Father answered my desperate prayer to have the Spirit back, and the rest of the day went good! 

 

I am so thankful that we have a loving Heavenly Father that we can speak to directly. I don't know how I would make it out here if we were able to do that. What a blessing that is to all of us, to be able to have control over our relationship with our God. He wants to bless us and to hear from us, but he is just waiting for us to talk to him! The more time we spend on our knees pleading Him to help us, the better. Anyway, we had a great week. We found a few new investigators this week from our own efforts and through the members. One of them being a small, frail, sweet 86 year old woman. She is great! We had our first lesson with her last night, and because she is hard of hearing we had to get really close to her to the point where our knees our basically touching and yell at her so she can hear what we are saying ha ha. It was great. She has a strong belief in God and a real desire to live righteously and is eager to learn the Gospel, and we are excited to teach her. 

 

I love you all very much. Thanks for all the emails and letters! Talk to you next week!

 

Love, 

 

Elder Brad Dillard  

7/9/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Dear Everyone!

How has your week been? This week has been awesome!  HAPPY LATE 4th of JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all for your letters and patriotic treats!:D  It is absolutely one of my most favorite holidays! It's a bummer that I am a pyromaniac! I couldn't blow anything up this year. We spent many hours going back and forth between homes of investigators and the hospital. It appears as this is a good time of year for people to get injured. We were supposed to have our P-DAY on the 4th, but were too busy giving blessings. It was a very spiritual day.  2 cases were for less-active members. I will call them Todd and Amy. Todd tweaked his back and we and a member went there to give him a blessing. He couldn't even sit up. He felt so "un-worthy" of a blessing, but the member was able to assure him that anyone can have a blessing. No matter the things we have done. We can have faith, repent, and work on being better. It was a great blessing. We left and less than an hour later we received a call that Amy pulled something in her back and was unable to move as well. We arrived to the hospital and she was in a hospital bed laying on her stomach. She couldn't even roll over or move anything without having excruciating pain...Due to us coming and going so often there was a little inside joke between us and the hospital employees, "We're Back"! Haha, literally. So many back injuries. She appears to be doing better now. I am so grateful for the healing power Christ gives us. These are some of the greatest experiences anyone could ever wish to experience. Witnessing modern miracles before my eyes. The love of Christ is so strong, even for those who have gone astray. I sometimes feel his love is even stronger for those who aren't living what they know to be true. He wants us all to return and will give everyone the opportunity to do so. Not just 1 opportunity, but time after time after time he picks us up, brushes us off and tells us to get back out there and play. Life is great.

Elder Filby and I are privileged to go down to Bloomington today to play basketball, shop at Costco, and have an interview with our Mission President. Looking forward to the day. We will stay in Bloomington tonight, and tomorrow is Zone Leader Counsel (ZLC). We are trained by our Mission President on how to be better leaders and we discuss ways to better the work in our zones. Elder Filby and I have been asked to train the Zone Leaders on how to find people to teach. Looking forward to it. Going to use some Fishing analogies mostly because I love fishing, but also because we are fishers of men! Tomorrow afternoon we will drive to Hutchinson, MN to see some elders and then drive to Wilmar, Mn to check on some other elders, and end in Alexandria, Mn to do a baptism interview for those elders. Love to be able to drive around and see the awesome flat lands of Minnesota. It is quite beautiful this time of year.

Life is good! Hope you all are safe and staying cool this summer!


Love you all!


Elder Devin Dillard

7/9/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Another great week here in sunny California! and HOT! Ha ha holy cow I have been sweating all week. For some genius reason we decided to pull our bikes out this week too. It was almost a 100 degrees out and we were like, Hey lets get on the bikes that will be awesome! It was really fun and we got to talk to some people we otherwise wouldn't have.. but man were we sweaty ha ha, and we didn't realize how hilly it was here in Aurburn until we pulled the bikes out. I haven't rode in like 8 weeks and my legs were jelly after we got done.

 

I was told that Minnesota is getting a major heat wave this week and that its up in the hundreds.. How you doing Devin? Ha ha thats a bummer man. I dont have to battle the humidity like you do. Its going to keep getting hotter here too. Supposedly it will be up above a 100 all week. Bring on the heat baby! I am ready to sweat some more.

 

Anyways, this week really was a good one. Kind of slow in the finding department, even though we spent hours out on the streets and knocking doors. We just weren't able to sniff out the prepared ones. But hey, thats what we got this week for! Ha. The fourth of July was pretty interesting. We didn't have very many appointments, so we spent like 3 hours of the day tracting and everyone kept asking if we ever get a day off and told us that we need to go home and take it easy. So we kept having to explain to everyone that the Lord has no days off, so neither do we! Sadly, that day brought no results, and we had to be inside before all of the fireworks started :( I could hear them all night though haha.

 

On Friday we had an awesome "Trainer-Trainee Specialized Training" up in Gridley. It was great! Heavenly Father chooses the most noble and elite men to be mission presidents. There is no doubt that my President, President Weston, is a man of God. He speaks with such power and authority and brings the Spirit in such abundance that it is literally overflowing out the doors. Every training meeting and Zone Conference I have been to with him has been so great, and such a testimony building experience. I am so thankful that our Heavenly Father knows which of his children will be right and are qualified for such an assignment. I learned so much that day.

 

I am so thankful to have Elder Herrera as my companion! He is awesome! He is so committed to the work and is so excited to be serving the Lord. I have been very blessed and am so fortunate to have had companions that are willing to push it and give it their all everyday. It helps me so much and I am so greatful. Something I have been working on this week is just having more faith. If I dont believe that something is going to happen and that we will be lead to someone who is ready, I never will! And I know that is also true with all aspects of life. So I have been focusing on just having more faith, and it has been getting me so much more excited about getting out there and working.

 

I am truly greatful for all of you. I love each one of you dearly, and I miss all of you! Have another great week family. Go forward with faith!

 

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard 

Brad , the tall one and the short new investigator being baptized.

Devin, on the right.  Watch out people of St. Cloud, MN. Elder Dillard has arrived!

Devin

Devin in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Cananda Winter 2011-2012

Brad, knocking. 

Devin's first baptism. Alexis Odegard

Devin in Thunder Bay

Devin on bottom left. Flip flops, snow and Christmas

Devin on right. Odegard Family

Devin

Devin on left

Devin

Devin on left

Devin

Elder Brad Dillard

Brad on the right

Brad, the tall one. 

Brad and a bird

5/1/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Deeeeaaarrr Family!!

I hope you all had a wonderful week. I sure did. We only had like 10 minutes to email yesterday so we set some time aside today to finish! So this week has been full of many blessings and miracles. I will tell you all about a few. 

Like 3 weeks ago, Elder Rakuita and I were out walking around one of our areas in the morning, trying to talk to everyone that was out doing a little tracting along with that. It was in the morning around 11, so we were trying to knock on the least amount of doors as possible because tracting is the least effective finding tool at that time of day, most of the time ha. But we would hit some doors that looked like people were home or that we felt good about. We were walking past this house and we felt prompted to knock on this house, that both of us would have just passed by because there were no cars out front or anything. But we followed the prompting and went and knocked on the door. A short time later a young guy, about 20 years old answers the door and steps out to talk to him. We introduced ourselves and asked him if he was religious at all. He said no but explained to us that his Dad was actually a Mormon, and they had only been living in that house for a couple weeks. I could tell he wanted to ask, "How the heck do you guys keep finding us!?" haha. He explained to us that his dad had always wanted them to get interested in the church but they never wanted anything to do with it. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and he finally accepted one saying that he would read one chapter, and thats it, and that he was only doing it because of his dad. So this last Tuesday, we had the chance to stop back by that place again, and see if we could catch his Dad at home. Not only were we able to catch his dad at home, but the Dads parents were in town form Iowa, and they are active members! So we got invited in to stay for a while, and ended up having a second dinner with that family haha, I was so full. But it was so neat to see how we were lead to that family that is in need.  The Dad explained to us that he doesn't go to church, but he is still active at home. He reads and prays and lives his life in accordance with the teachings of the Gospel. His wife really enjoyed our visit, and even though she said during dinner when we tried to talk to her about it, "Nope! No way, we are not discussing religion, now or ever!", haha, she still would love for us to come back and visit anytime. I have a good feeling that in the near future we will be able to not only help him to have the faith and courage to come back to church, but for the family to become more open to investigating the church. It is really neat to see how Heavenly Father leads us to these people. 

Also, this past week we have the privilege of meeting a woman and her son. We ran into the woman by the mail box and talked to her for quite a while about how the Gospel has been such a blessing for our families. She described to us how her son, who is 11, is starting to really get out of control with his behavior and that she is really worried about his future. So we told her about how the Gospel can help and invited her to church and left her our number to call us. The next day she called us and asked if we could assist her in helping one of the elderly ladies that lives in the apartment complex with moving some boxes. So we went and helped and in the process got to know her son. We then invited him to hop on his bike and come out and do missionary work with us, and he got super excited about that. We took him out riding around town with us and talked to people on the street and visited some members and shared some spiritual thoughts with them. It was so awesome!! It was such a neat experience for him, and for us because we were able to teach him and have the members help teach him all night. He got so excited about learning about the Gospel that he practically begged us if he could come to church with us on Sunday haha. Our first commitment that we left with him was for the next 7 days, to give his mom a hug and tell her that he loves her every morning and night, and so far he has kept that commitment. His mother is very excited about the difference in behavior and attitude that she is noticing in him already, and I love seeing how fast the Gospel can work in a young familys life. He came to church with us on Sunday, he loved it, and the members here were so good to him. Right away they took him under their wing. It was so funny what he said after church. He said, "So I guess I am Mormon now huh?" haha. He is well on his way, and so is his mom. 

Heavenly Father has showered His blessing upon us this week. I am so thankful to be on my mission and helping to improve these peoples lives through Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is so perfect, I love it. I love you all very very much. Have a splendid week! 

Love, Elder Brad Dillard 

5/14/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Hello!

Happy Late Mother's Day to Everyone!!!! Hope it was amazing! 

These are pictures from Alexandria Minnesota! I'm on the corner of 14th and Bryant where Grandpa Don Mitchell used to go to church while on his mission, haha. This isn't the original house anymore, says the owner. It burnt down in March of 2011. She did explain however that there is still some original foundation left because it was such a great base for the house. Hehe...I should of whipped out Helaman 5:12 on her. It was fun talking to her. I told her that I was with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that this used to be one of our old churches. She said, "Oh! I didn't know that Latter-Day Saints went here, too. I thought it was just the Mormons." Turned out to be a very awesome contact and she was happy to see picture of the old baptismal font that was in the basement. She agreed to allow the missionaries to come back and see her again. Never know where that will go, but hopefully she will receive a witness from the spirit and desire to take a further look.

It is such a beautiful area in Alexandria. I don't believe I have ever seen a white swan in my life, and as we drove past a small lake, it was full of them! Beautiful white swans.

The ward there is fairly big for an area in the middle of nowhere. The city has grown very large.

This past week has been really busy and just the same ol same ol missionary work. I hope you have another amazing week!


I love you all!


Love,

Elder Devin Dillard

7/2/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

What a week!

It seems like these weeks are blowing past, but then when looking back at how much has happened it seems like it has been long! I just have to say, I love my mission. I love it so much, and I am so excited for Amanda to get out in the field and have the same joy that me, Devin, and Jordan are getting to experience everyday. Its a marvelous work!

This week has not only held many blessings for Elder Herrera and I, but for our whole mission it seems. I am hearing about miracles everywhere. The number of baptisms is really starting to climb!

One of our investigators, a 13 year old girl, spent the last week at girls camp. All week long we were praying for her, hoping that she would have a good experience and that she would be able to come closer to our Heavenly Father. Yesterday, she came to church for the fourth time with the Young Womens President, and we learned that it was a success! She had a grand time at camp, and she told me that she couldn't wait until next year.. YES!! She was kind of shy about telling anyone, but YW President told us how the 13 year old girl got up in front of everyone and bore her testimony about how she knows that our Heavenly Father loves us, and that Christ is our savior. She got emotional when telling us about it because the YW Presiden has been involved with this girl ever since we met her and her mom, and she has really grown to love her. What makes all of this even better, is that the girls mom is really pumped now about getting more involved in the church and she said she even wants to go to camp next year! Lets just hope they both go next year as members he he. So tonight we are going to have dinner and a lesson with the girl and her mom, and we are going to talk all about the experiences she had at camp. I cant wait.

I was devastated to hear about Marci. It can blow your mind to sit and wonder why things have happened how they did. But one thing we don't have to wonder about is our Heavenly Fathers love for each one of us, and the fact that he has a purpose and plan for everyone. I sure loved Marci, and I know that she loved me and the rest of the family. But we all know where she is. Thank goodness for the Plan of Salvation.

I love all of you so much and I am looking forward to another awesome week with Elder Hererra. I am excited to update you next week and let you all know whats going on here in sunny California. Have fun this week all of you. Love you!

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard

7/2/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Hello Dear Familia!

I have thus again, survived another Transfer!!!! Hahah! Yes!  Elder Filby and I are going to have the privilege of terrorizing St. Cloud, MN for another 6 weeks together! It will be a great time!

Update:  As for that family with the 2 smart girls, we are not teaching them anymore. We are all on good terms, and we pray for them, but will keep moving til we find people who are ready now.  As we do this, we fulfill our purpose of "Inviting all to come unto Christ."

Suggestion:  Don't make chocolate milk out of hot coco packets..Not very good. I was desperate though, hehe.

This week for Elder Filby and I was fairly slow for our own personal area here in St. Cloud. We spent half of the week in Alexandria and Buffalo. I love going to these other areas and working with these other missionaries. It requires me that I am being obedient and keeping a positive attitude in order to lift those that are struggling. Its awesome to see when missionaries keep and follow the counsel we give. Even if it isn't good counsel, haha, the fact that they follow what we ask them to do brings blessings. I notice it in my own life as I follow the Prophet, and my Mission President. We may not understand or even see why they ask us to do certain things, but I have a testimony that if we follow advice and counsel of our leaders, all will be well. Of course it must be inline with the Lords will and that is why we must rely upon God for all we do.

Every week I am reminded time and time again that we must do all we can to have the Spirit in our lives. Nothing we do is truly worth it, unless we have these spiritual confirmations daily. I love this amazing Gift our Father in Heaven has given me. Aren't we lucky? YEAH!

My heart aches for the Phelps family in Washington this week as I've learned of the recent passing of Marci Phelps. I hope her children and husband are coping. I've had a few minutes to reflect and what an awesome lady she is.  I say "is" because I know she is not gone. I am so happy and blessed to know the things I know. I am not even sad for her. Some can call me heartless, but think of where she is! My goodness she is the lucky one, haha. How fortunate we are to know these plain and simple truths that nowhere else has in this it's fulness. I am so thankful. I am sad, however, for the family. Losing their mother in such a quick, unexpected way. Time will come soon, when they will be reunited.

I miss you all so much! Thank you, thank you for the knowledge all of you have contributed in giving me. Along with the love and support! I don't know sometimes how I ended up having all of this which I don't deserve:D

Love you!


Elder Devin Dillard

6/25/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Hey everyone!

P-days are such a blessing, man oh man! Ha ha this week it was much needed. Anyways, how are all of you?

My new companion, Elder Herrera is a fire ball. He is from Logan Utah, and is super pumped to be out here, I love it! We had an amazing first week together, and he is an amazing missionary. His story of how he got out on a mission really strengthened my testimony, and really made me think a lot as to why I am really out here. His whole family converted when he was 14, and ever since then nobody in his family was very active. He decided when he was 18 to really figure out if the church is true so he decided to read the Book of Mormon and know for him self what the truth was. He received his answer and ever since has been gung ho about a mission. I cant even imagine what it would be like to not have all of you back home supporting me in my decision to serve a mission. How he does it is beyond me. But I am really happy to be serving with him, and am really excited for the time that we have together.

Elder Herrera loves to tract. So we have put in a lot of tracting this week. Heavenly Father really put him to the test at first, to make sure he is really committed. His first door that he took was an old lady that opened the door, looked at us, then just shut it without saying a word, while the whole time Edler Herrera was trying to talk to her. The next door, a woman answered and the only thing that he had time to say was hello before she started screaming and swearing at us to get off of her door step. I felt bad because so far on my mission I haven't ever had someone use the words that that woman used, and he got it on his second door. But he didn't get down on it, and he kept pushing forward with faith, and we were able to tract into a couple new investigators that night. 

Know that I love you all very much, and I am so greatful to have all of you in my life. Thanks everything each one of you do for this family. Love ya!

Love

Elder Bradley Dillard

6/25/2012 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Hello Hello Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past week was awesome. We were able to go around the mission and do exchanges with some of the missionaries. We were in Princeton, MN last Wednesday and Thursday where Elder Filby and I were able to interview a couple for baptism. They were baptized on Friday 22nd. Super happy for them.  While we were there Elder Black and I caught a turtle and put it in the bathtub with the curtain closed. Elder Filby went to the bathroom and heard splashing in the tub and thought it was me hiding but found a shelled reptile trying to bite him..hehe Turtles everywhere in this state.

This morning I was given permission from my Mission President to call  my mission leader in Thunder Bay. It was so cool to talk to him again. Someone I will always look up too in this life. He told me that a sister we worked with was baptized this last Friday!!!! She was a referral from our recent convert, Grant, who I was privileged to baptize. Guess what! Grant did the actual baptizing of the woman! Yeah!!!!!  The woman's  husband was at the baptism and has been attending church as well, bring along their two sons. My heart is full.

I had one of the most interesting and coolest lessons of my whole mission last Saturday night. We met this guy a week prior to last Saturday. He and his wife said they would like to learn more and would meet us at Wilson Park in St. Cloud along the Mississippi River. The day came, we arrived and they did a short while later. They brought with them their two daughters.  We taught the restoration lesson with them at a picnic table. I could not believe how smart these two girls were! It appeared as though the parents weren't too interested and the real reason they were there was so that the daughters could learn more about our faith. They have been teaching their girls about religions for a while now, and want them to find their own ways in life. I could not believe it when one of the girls defined what a prophet was to me, say it was a Man who talked with Deity and then relayed the message received to others...hehe..I believe she defined it much more educated than that, I was just blown away. It didn't stop there! They were able to tell us what an Apostasy was along with what Dispensations were 10 minutes later after we had taught them and moved onto another principle. Amazing! We invited them all to be baptized and received no objections so next week, same time, same place, we will be trying to set a date with them. Super awesome little family. I believe the parents are interested too, they just let the girls be more involved. Most interesting.

So much goes on in a week. It is such an adventure. I love every minute of it, good or bad, life is good!

I hope your week goes great! Thank you again for the love, the time put into letters and packages, and prayers in my behalf. I receive power from out of thin air sometimes that I have no idea where it came from and how I was able to accomplish some of the tasks we are charged with, yet I know it comes from you all and from the Lord.

I love you all so much!

Elder Devin Dillard

6/18/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Hi everyone!

I was sure glad to get all of your emails this week. Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me!

This week has been kind of hard, I have been feeling kind of sick and have been suffering from some pretty severe head aches all week, especially toward the end of the day. But thankfully it hasn't been bad enough to keep me inside, so thats good!

Its transfer week! We got transfer calls last night and sadly, Elder Growcock is getting shipped out, down to Roseville. He wont be serving in my old ward, but he will be living in my old apartment! Thats kind of sweet. I was able to get pretty familiar with the area that he will be in so I was able to give him the scoop on it ha. As for meee... I have been called to train! I am soooooooo excited. These next 2 transfers are going to be hard, but way fun! It will be really cool to help a new missionary get acquainted with the life of a missionary, and bring him up in the way he should go. I am going down to the mission office tomorrow and will be bringing him back up with me on Wednesday morning. Its going to be really cool because we already have Wednesday booked so he is going to have a super busy first day in the mission field. I hope he is ready!

This has been a great last week with Elder Growcock though, and a good transfer. We had a lot of success together, more than I have seen my whole mission so far. One of our investigators, a 65 year old man was baptized on Saturday. It was so awesome and such a good baptism. He is a pretty quiet and reserved guy, and would never get up and speak in public. But when he came up out of the water he yelled, " ALL RIGHT!!" Haaha it had everyone laughing because nobody expected it. He is doing really good. We aren't wasting any time with him, we are getting him to the temple as soon as possible! His retention depends on it! He will be getting the priesthood this coming Sunday and we hope to have him attend the temple to do baptisms on July 7th. Baptized and to the temple in 3 weeks! I have such a strong testimony of temple attendance. I know that if he makes it there on the 7th, he will be so much more likely to remain active in the church for the rest of his life, and what a happy life he has ahead of him. I will send pictures next week!

Anyways, this is going to be an exciting upcoming week full of learning. So far my mission has been great, and it just keeps getting better! I love you all very much. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Be safe, and have a good week! 

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard  

6/18/2012 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Why hello:D

I really love my sleep. This is why I could not be an Assistant to the Mission President, haha. We spent the the first half of last week with the Assistants, and my goodness, these Elders never sleep. Kept us up super late every night. They were up to do exchanges with us as well as prepare for Zone Conference. Zone conference was last tuesday, 12th, and all I have to say is that Elder Filby and I survived, barely, haha. We had a tough crowd of elders and sisters the first part of the morning training. We were teaching about diligence and all you could hear were crickets. Possibly because we put the righteous fear of God into them. Just kidding, Hehe, these missionaries are very very reserved compared to other groups I have seen. I felt better though as our Mission President started his training and he was receiving the same response. By the end of the day Elder Filby and I had given another training and that seemed to fire things up and the closing testimony time was very very spiritual. Some of the elders who I would have least expected to get up and bear testimony did. Very sincere testimonies too, I might add. Was a great spiritual day day for me and once again I feel I am the one who learned most, haha, I doubt that is the case, but everything seemed to relate to me and ways I could improve. Zone Conferences really have a way of smacking me in the face and saying I need to shape up, haha.

I've been trying hard to describe in words the feelings of joy I have been feeling lately. I cannot find words to do these feelings any justice.  Came across a scripture that has cause me to think a lot about this, though. I am sure I am not the only one to think this, and I am positive someone has found the answer, but I have not yet, hehe.

 Alma 5:9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved.

These people were so happy to be freed of their sins. Their Joy was full. As is mine, because of the success and miracles I am seeing I am so happy. My problem is I cannot sing. So by singing I cannot express my feelings, at least for another person to enjoy because I would kill their ears with this voice of mine. But their is a power to music, and sometimes, most times, music expresses more than words ever can. I feel the same within my own heart. If we could only take these feelings, put them on a flash drive, and plug them into a computer to convert into words. I truly do wish to sing the song of redeeming love! Those listening wouldn't understand, and maybe I'm not making sense, haha, but if anything it will cause you to think a bit deeper this week. How happy are we? Why? Do we remember how good the Lord has been good to us? Does it cause us to sing with joy? I love this chapter of The Book of Mormon. It is truly the words of God. It is such a complex, thought provoking piece of heavenly literature.

Yesterday was an awesome Father's Day! I hope it was for the rest of you!  Had dinner at a members home along with some other member families. They stuffed me full of steak. My goodness I love meat! Their house was flowing with beef, I fear I broke the word of wisdom eating so much:D

If you have ever watched the movie "Transporter" with Jason Stathum..or however you spell his name..watch it. I'm saying this because that's the nick name I have given my companion Elder Filby, haha. He tried to "Transport" me to the spirit world last night, haha. I was about to be hanging out with the dead had he not finally put his foot on the brakes, ahhahaha. As we were pulling into a parking spot last night he went to hit the brake, but accidentally pushed the gas and the car went lurching into the grass and about to go over a sidewalk into a busy street. Pretty funny. He has some angels with him this guy.

Hope your week is amazing!!!!


Love you all this much!   <-----------------Infinity---------------------->

Elder Devin Dillard

6/11/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Hello!

I hope that you all had the same kind of week that I did! This week was fantastic. Elder Growcock and I were blessed with so much success, not only in teaching a lot of lessons, but finding a lot of new people to teach, and the investigators that we have are progressing very well. It has by far been my most successfull week on my mission.

Dad and Michael, those pontoon boats are so sweet! I have always wanted some of those. You guys better get out on the river and catch some fish you lucky dogs!

The pictures that I sent all of you are of the Forest Hill Bridge right outside of Auburn California. This bridge is ENORMOUS! One of the biggest in the whole world. Its really cool that I am right next to it and had the opportunity to go hiking around it. Its like 740 feet tall or something like that, and because it is so big, a lot of people like to use it as a way to go out of this life. That would be one long drop ha. I have been told that on average, 1 or 2 people a month go barreling off that thing. Its sad. Anyways enough talk about that ha and on to another sad subject. The beloved Sister Hathaway from my last area, Roseville 2nd Ward, passed away this week :( You know, the old couple that sent you pictures mom? Its too bad that you will never get the chance to meet her in this life, you would have loved her. The mission office just called me about it this morning to let me know. I was given permission from my Mission President to go to her memorial service this Saturday but I wont be able to make it because we have a baptism. It breaks my heart! But at least we know where she went. She was such a great woman.

But this week has been jam packed with experiences that have been full of the Spirit. I mentioned last week how we have started to try praying with people we are teaching. Praying with these people has been such a great way for them to easily feel the Spirit right away. There were two different instances this week that by the end of the prayer, the women that we were talking to were in tears, and they kept saying how amazing that was and how good they felt. My testimony of prayer has grown so dramatically this week its crazy. Doing it this way helps us realize who has been humbled and prepared right away, so we can recognize whether or not these are the people that we were meant to find. It has been so amazing that I cant even put it into words. Life is great right now, thats all. Life is just grand. I cant wait for another week full of these same experiences that will help me along with those we talk to, come closer to our God. I love you all very very much. Talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Brad Dillard

6/11/12 Email from Elder Devin Dillard

Dear Familia!

What an amazing past week!

Had the opportunity to head back down to Alexandria, Minnesota this past Tuesday to attend a District Meeting. It went well and afterwards all of the missionaries went to Pizza Ranch! All you can eat buffet pizza and chicken. Yummo! While we were there the power went out and we had to eat in the dark. Told some funny stories and all of us just had a good time laughing. It was needed for some missionaries I suppose.

Afterwards we headed up to Wadena, MN where Elder Filby served for 4 months. They lost the area book when Wadena took missionaries out, so we went around contacting old investigators of his so that we could help the Senior Missionaries, who are now there, have more people to teach! We left them with about 20 new names for them to work with. Hehe, that will keep them busy.

We then spent that night and Wednesday day in Brainerd, Minnesota! It was fun to be around Elder Collier who I served with for 3 months in New Prague. We were fortunate to attend a baptism for an 8 year old girl in the Ward. She was baptized in a lake. Super cool!

I caught this awesome Turtle and named it Empathy, hehe.  I'll give you the Story behind the name:

Empathy; By Sister Clements (My Mission President's Wife)When Sister Clements was young about 8 or 9, her older brother was serving a mission somewhere in the USA in one of the southern states. He now and then would send them a package.  When they would receive package they could her the sound of scraping or clawing inside the box and would now and then find inside the box a turtle! On one such occasion Clements' brother who was still at home, reached in to grab the turtle and it grabbed hold of his finger and wouldn't let go! He was sitting there shaking this turtle and could not for the life of him get this amphibian to let go! Sister Clements then realized that she was screaming and crying! When her mom came out to help with the situation, she asked, "Why are you crying? It's not biting you!"  Sister Clements then tells us that was her first experience at recognizing "Empathy."  We sometimes can put ourselves in others shoes and not be personally experiencing the pain, but try to feel along with them. She explained further that this is what we must do with others. We need to try and understand where they are coming from so that we can help them.

So...sed Turtle, "Empathy," was going to go into a box and be delivered to Sister Clements tomorrow at Zone Conference, but I though twice and released it, figuring it might be a finger hazard, haha. 

Life out here is amazing! I feel that I don't deserve the blessings I am getting, but if you look at Alma 7:24, and recognize that if you are doing these things, the blessings are definitely deserved. Good times.

Hope you have an amazing week! I love you all!


-Elder Devin Dillard

6/4/12 Email from Elder Brad Dillard

Hello!

One of our investigators that we picked up a few weeks ago is from the south. She grew up as a southern baptist and has the strongest southern accent haha. Its hilarious I love it. She is so awesome. Each week we do a trade. Elder Growcock has a deep fryer so we deep fry a bunch of cut up tortillas to make chips and she makes a ton of really awesome salsa and we have eaten chips and salsa together for the last 2 Thursdays and have a lesson. Its so great!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes everyone! It was a great birthday. We spent a good part of the day doing our weekly planning, then had a few lessons, then went to our ward mission leaders house for dinner, and guess what he made me for my b-day! A GIANT t-bone steak, tri-tip, bbq'd chicken, and all this other food, then a brownie cake and ice cream with trick candles in it so it was a little challenging to blow out haha. But they had a few other families from the ward over too so it was a good size party and they all sang to me. It was a great day. And mom I got the birthday package Thursday night! So I waited to open it until Friday morning, so it was great timing! Thank you so much!!

This week was kind of rough, but full of miracles at the same time. We have been trying this new thing with people while we tract where we explain to them that as representatives of Jesus Christ, part of our calling is to leave blessings on people, their families, and their homes. Elder Growcock and I had a few good experiences with it this week as we put it to practice. We prayed with a woman named Donna this week, and we prayed for her husband Steve, that he would be able to recover from his recent back surgery, and while we did we all had such an amazing experience full of the Spirit, that I am sure Donna wont, and cant forget. We then talked about how another part of our calling is to teach people and help them come closer to our savior Jesus Christ and asked if there would be a time when we could come back and talk about that with her, and she was like, "Yes of course!" So we left her a Book of Mormon and we are going back this week!

There are so many other things that happened this week with investigators coming to church, and experiences that are happening to them that build my testimony of how great our Heavenly Father is and how much power he has, and also how much power the adversary has. Satan is trying so hard to drag down those people we are teaching and keep them from reaching their baptismal dates. Its scary! But it is very cool to see the faith that these investigators have. I wish I could tell you all about these experiences but time just does not permit. I am sorry! But I love you all very much and I am so happy that you are all in my life. Talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Brad Dillard