Sunday, July 8, 2012

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 

Email from Elder Dillard 6/4/2012

HI!

So, I'm going to start with the bad...and then get to the good:D  hehe

I'm sitting on big shag rug on the floor in an appointment with one of our investigators and the whole time I keep getting a whiff of this rancid smell of urine or animals or something, it wasn't pleasant. It was very hard to focus on the lesson, The Plan of Salvation, and I was worried that I had stepped in something gross. About 20 minutes go by and as I prop myself up again to get better posture, my hand touches something wet...I smell..Pee.  Ugh...I about lost it. Then I nonchalantly feel around the area I am sitting and discover that I am in a big puddle. Shag carpets hide it so well. I had no idea. We had a couple sisters from our ward in the appointment as well, and I did not want to embarrass our investigators so I just scooted over a bit and didn't say anything. So horrible. Haha it had to of been the worst smelling stuff EVER! But wait! There's more! So we ended the lesson, and we had one immediately after. Luckily there was hand sanitizer in the car and a phone book to sit on so the seats wouldn't get nailed. We stopped by the next appointment because we couldn't get a hold of them to postpone it a bit. They invite us in. Fortunately the wetness had dried. The funny thing was that their pet Chihuahua "baby" would not leave me ALONE!  Literally the whole 45 minutes we were there this dog's nose was attached to me. They just thought I had a way with dogs....We'll just let them think that.     That was the BAD:D


Now for the good!    The woman and her family came to church yesterday! We are seeing loads of miracles everywhere! She is asking all sorts of questions about baptism and we are getting ready for her to make a date. She has to either get married to her fiance or move out first before we are allowed to do this. That is the next lesson.

We had this Lao investigator. He is 8 years old, his mom is not a member but his Grandmother is an active one. He is our best friend, haha.  It is so fun and so life-fulfilling to see these families come and partake of the spirit which is found in our Church buildings. They are immediately blessed for coming, I see that every time. Get them to church and it's all good from there!

Our St. Cloud Zone is seeing awesome miracles! The Sisters in St. Cloud just set 5 baptism dates the other night with a family! The best thing is that there were 2 other kids missing and so they should hopefully have 7 dates set when they get home! Other areas are seeing blessings of hard work as well. You can truly see that where the missionaries are working hard and being exactly obedient, miracles come.

Elder Filby and I get to Conduct a Zone Conference this coming June 12th. Pretty excited. Will email what we will be training the missionaries on as soon as we finish our trainings.

Get to go back to Alexandria tomorrow for another District Meeting! Super Excited. Love that beautiful city.

I hope this week is full of miracles and the blessings that all of you so deserve! I really appreciate the love and attention to put in to updating me on life while I am gone.

Love,

Elder Devin Dillard