Tuesday, July 31, 2012
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
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
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
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
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
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
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
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
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