Week 14 - Ceres

Good morning,

I've had a lot to think about this last week.  We've been in and out of teaching and contacting, we've been in a trio this whole week because one of our zone leaders finished his mission a week before transfers.  One of the assistants came and stayed with us for a few days before he leaves at transfers.  They're cool Elders, and it helped me develop a lot of skills I felt I was lacking.

Just when I thought that I was being productive and beginning to be a good trainee/missionary, we get a call for transfers.  We're being doubled out, and I'm going to Ceres.  I guess I'm supposed to have faith that it's what God wants, or that it's what is best for both the area and for me, but its hard to think so.  Everything I think I know gets flopped on it's head, everytime I think I'm doing good, the work stops.  I feel like Jonah, the Lord wants me to do something that I don't think I can do.  And even if I do it, I probably won't be happy about it.  But I guess my ways aren't God's ways, so I'll have to suck it up and do what he wants until I learn to enjoy it.

Elder Gneiting

Enjoy some pictures of me and my trainer at the northern boundary of the California Fresno Mission, and variety.

  

 

 

Week 13

Brothers and Sisters

The Lord hastens His work.  It's been a busy week.  Our second transfer ends soon and it's hard to believe that training is also nearing it's end.  We had Zone Conference this week, and I went on two exchanges consecutively.  First with a zone leader and then with our district leader.  Both of them are going home after this transfer.  As I watch the cycle of old and new missionaries, I see the time slip away.  Two years isn't long, and there's only so much work we can actually do.  The moment we recommit ourselves to diligence and obedience, the fruits of our labor spring forth.  As was spoken to Moses, 

"...My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (Exodus 33:14).  

The Spirit of the Lord gives me rest.  It can give rest to all who seek it out.  Strive to have the Spirit in your homes, in your neighborhoods and wards.  Cling onto the Spirit when it cloaks you, and refuse to let it leave.  I haven't felt joy like I've felt out here.  The Lord, 

"[is] the good shepherd, and know[s his] sheep..." (John 10:14).  

He knows us, and He knows them.  No matter where you are, the work is needed.  Pray that the Spirit will guide your friends and neighbors, pray that they will feel peace and love.  Be an example of His ministry.  How privileged am I to carry His word on my side, His name on my chest, and His spirit in my countenance.  Only He can change us, He guides us home.  His sacrifice meets all ends, and is neverending.  The truth rings remembrance in the ears of our Brothers and Sisters.  Though I shuffle in discouragement and wade in unbelief, the work progresses.  Somewhere, another of our siblings is brought closer to Christ.  Another family is blessed eternally.  

"I... have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good" (2 Nephi 33:3-4).

Your efforts are not wasted.  I cry and pray for each of you, especially those of my friends and family preparing for or beginning their missions with me.  You will not be perfect, yet no effort is wasted.  Who am I, a child raised in Utah, only knowing the gospel of Christ, with no significant afflictions to restrain me, to convince and persuade my experienced siblings of this good news?  Nothing, for it is the Spirit who teaches, and I am a vessel.  

"Verily I say unto you, ye are clean, but not all; and there is none else with whom I am well pleased;" (Doctrine and Covenants 38:10)

Stay yourselves a clean vessel.  The enemy shall not overcome.  I am afraid, yet the Lord pushes me push forward.  I am weak, yet the Lord gives me strength.  I weep into my corrupt and broken hands, but it's profane to believe any of my misdeeds could stop the Lord's rolling stone.  God loves His children.  The work always continues.

Elder Gneiting

At zone conference, I took a 3 generation pic with dad and grandpa, Elder Pumipayup gave me a Supreme shirt.  Elder Scheel and I like to goof around.  

   

  

Week 12

Whatup

Last Monday I had the privilege of enjoying a morning hike in a nearby town with my companion, another companionship, and a couple members from our ward.  All of us went up to a trail that leads to a well-secluded climbing wall, with views over a close valley and reservoir.  We hiked over everything from soft dirt to volcanic rock until we reached the base of the wall.  It was cool and quiet, and it felt nice to get back against a mountain.

Visits with members has gone well so far, they are enthusiastic about us and our work.  We're teaching a new friend, his mother is a less-active member and he has a desire to be baptized.  We are excited for him and are trying to teach him to feel and recognize the Spirit to help him make these decisions on his own.  

Having the opportunity to meet so many new people, I get to explain what being a missionary is, and what it means to me, especially to those who aren't of our faith.  At one point, we knocked on a door who initially turned us down, and then opened their garage to call us back over for Gatorade and then they offered us dinner.  Turns out, their daughter is a member, but they don't know a lot about the Church.  We got to explain and get to know them very well.  Although they don't seem particularly interested right now, we have made friends with them, and they will be prepared for when the time is right.

I enjoyed conference, I hope you all had the opportunity to enjoy it as well.  Happiness truly comes as we choose to align our will with the Lord.  Prophets, apostles, and officers are called to help us understand His will.  We need only listen and obey to discover that happiness these people preach from the pulpit.  Love of the Savior, and submitting to His plan will give us safety and happiness in our personal relationships and in our roles in this life.  His plan extends to all.

Last Sunday, we sang I Need Thee Every Hour, and it was nice.

"I need thee ev’ry hour,

In joy or pain.

Come quickly and abide,

Or life is vain"

What the heck does that even mean though?  

Each verse describes a beautiful variant of the many possible relationships we can have with the Savior.  I have learned to love the Savior in times of both joy and pain, but what is this final line, "life is vain"?  We know without Jesus Christ's sacrifice, we would have been subject to permanent spiritual and physical death.  His sacrifice is His perfect and sinless life, His ministry, His atonement and crucifixion, and His resurrection from the tomb.  Because of this-His ability to forgive us of our mistakes and to rend the shackles of mortality-life goes on.  The plan continues.  As God designed, we can be happy.  We can make others happy.  We will live again.  His work and His glory is mine to share with the world.

His mission, His son

Elder Gneiting

  

  

 

Week 11

How grateful I am for a Savior.  We had zone interviews the the President again, having a new transfer started, and when we weren't interviewing we participated as a zone in "Zone Training" and talked about some specific points, like baptismal invitations and making the principle of "God is a Loving Heavenly Father" real for us.  We had to make some tough decisions this week.  In an effort to jump start our evanescing teaching pool, we took some new steps.  We dropped all we were teaching but 2, the only 2 progressing, and have been meeting with members nightly to pray with their families that we can find more friends.  That they can find more friends.  Without offending our bishop or any members, we have to ask them to do more.  The work out here needs to change.  The ward is trying to support us, but the missionary's role is to support the ward in finding and inviting others to come unto Christ.  We are slowly implementing this new approach to, hopefully, gather Israel at an unprecedented level, as was encouraged by our Mission President.

Monday night, our zone sent in voice recordings of miracles that happened to each companionship this week, they call it "Miracle Monday".  It caused me to reflect on the things that I have witnessed, and did not consider a miracle without this retrospect.  The Good Shepherd loves All His Sheep.  I was reading in 3 Nephi this week, and I can't help but get emotional when I read in chapter 17.  Jesus loves us, He gives time to each of us if we simply reach out to Him.  Even for those who haven't reached to Him, who don't know Him, He suffered your pains and He knows you perfectly.  Christ was perfect so that we don't have to be sad anymore.  So we don't have to feel pain anymore.  I think about the time we live in, how great it is to spread the gospel of love and eternal life to all ends of the Earth.  Death is not the end.  Birth was not the beginning.  John wrote, concerning the second coming of Christ, 

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" 

Sometimes I am ungrateful for this opportunity to give a little back to the older brother who did everything for me.  I am selfish to think that my problems could ever compare to, or ever get in the way of, the work of salvation to all men.  We are all promised happiness, I feel His arms around me, I feel His love every Sunday as I take the sacrament, or when I sit in His holy House.  He has given so much to me, how can I not proclaim His joy to all those I meet?  It doesn't matter how strange church history gets, it doesn't matter how hard it is to believe, the Book makes you feel good, doesn't it?  If only everyone I asked would simply read it and ask God themselves.  How unworthy am I to proclaim His word, yet He qualifies me every day.  Yet He forgives me of my sins and beckons me to come closer, to try again.  I cry for His hand every night to touch this work when I feel I have wasted His time, yet He allows me to wake up and try again the next day.  His work will go on, and as Paul wrote,  

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life...nor things present, nor things to come...

Nor height, nor depth... shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"

No matter what you think, They will always love you, and They will always receive you with open arms.  Thank you all for your letters of encouragement, I think of you all when I press forward.

Love

Elder Gneiting

  

  

  

Week 10

Our Zone Leader, Elder Bastian, went home.  He finished his two years of service.   Many missionaries I serve with right now will be going home in the following transfers, it's kinda wack.  Before I know it, I'll be a veteran.  Last Monday morning we spent saying our goodbyes and having food.

Monday night we began preparations to make jalapeno mac n cheese, which includes decorating the apartment with electric fans to gust out the spicy fumes of fried pepper.  The preparation takes a large portion of our precious dinner time, until we found out the peppers we bought had spoiled and we would need to put all the fans away.  I was happy how prepared we were, even when disaster didn't strike.  Hotdogs and plain mac n cheese sufficed.
Our friend Nichols took us to an old lady's house, they're friends, she's not a member but she likes to give missionaries tons of food, we went to her son's house afterwards and gave him a priesthood blessing, he's recovering from surgery.  We're hoping the missionaries in their area will make successful contact.
We had another opportunity to bless a sick child in our ward, he's the son of the girlfriend of one of our primary investigators.  It was my first time sealing the anointing, and I didn't find out until later, but the child's appetite returned almost immediately and hadn't thrown up since that day.  I was pretty excited.
We had been visiting for odds and ends this week, and made a couple trips to our family history center in an attempt to help a recent convert family get temple names.  We didn't have any ready by our temple date, but we still took the family to the temple and it was great to be back.  I definitely took for granted the blessing of temples back in Utah, and the saddest part is I didn't fully realize the importance of, and knowledge I received from, the temple until I began my serious study out here.
We spent a day with our new zone leader, the other one was in Fresno for the day, so we did work in the YSA area and also did 2 shifts at our "mall presentation", I think I've mentioned it before.  We put on our salesman faces and handout pictures of Jesus and Scripture in an attempt to interest the mall-goers.  It's pretty degrading, but it's nice to have variety in the degrading tasks of being a missionary.
I spend a lot of time in the Book of Mormon, and am now more comprehensive in the timeline and lineage, however that doesn't help too much in teaching about feeling the Spirit.  The Spirit is the most effective way to come closer to Christ, by seeking the Spirit every day we learn more about Him and the blessings from Heavenly Father's plan.  Being entitled to the Spirit at all times, I become very aware when the Spirit is absent.  Luckily, that feeling isn't too familiar.  I am grateful for the examples I had in my ward back home.  We have a strong bond and although I was just a youth, I felt like a member, a part of something bigger than myself.  I didn't always take responsibility as a member of our "family", and I regret that.  The best way we, as active members, can invite others closer to Christ is to simply invite all our friends to our homes.  Church is becoming family and home oriented for that reason.  We must be firm in our faith and make sure others are very aware that our home is one centered on Christ AND family unity.  I miss my family everyday, but just how my home before had pictures of Christ & my family, so does my desk.
Thank you for your individual emails, if any of you ever have questions or simply want to talk personally, I'm only an hour behind!
I love and pray for you all.
Elder Gneiting