FW: Sacrifice Brings Blessings!

Well things are going good here; today we will be going to Tulsa and staying the night at the mission home for some meetings. I am really looking forward to what the meeting is going to teach me; because there is a lot that I am in need of learning.
This past week has taught me a lot about the importance of sacrifice. When we had mission tour we were taught that sacrifice is what brings stronger faith. I have really seen this principle come to life as I have made several commitments to myself based on what I learned. So the way I figure I am going to grow more as a missionary now is always choosing to make the biggest sacrifice. There are always choices to be made as a missionary and sometimes there is no real way of finding out which of all the choices is the right one. You can try to rate it on a scale that I like to call, good, better and best; you can determine what choice is good, which one is better, and which one is the best. I learned that the best choice always has the greatest sacrifice attached with it. So I have been making myself choose the choice that requires the most sacrifice. And things are slowly paying off!
The other day while we were out walking around trying to find people to teach we had a less active member pull over on his Harley and chat with us for some time. Brother Richards, when he first pulled over my thought was that he was some one who likes to create trouble and that I better prepare myself for what was coming, but I was wrong. Latter that same day we had an amazing lesson with one of our recent convert's sisters. This is the family that I taught in Springdale that moved here and were found again and were baptized, the Landert and Jackmen family. Candice is one of the family members that took the lessons but didn't want to act on what was taught. Now she is slowly getting back interested in the gospel and has really been thinking her life over and is willing to make changes. We taught her about marriage and divorce, because she has some concerns about it, and it was a wonderful lesson. Earlier last week we taught her about charity and committed her to teach us about charity, so later this week she will be teaching us about it, and she is going to be using the Bible and the Book of Mormon to teach us. This is amazing because a few weeks ago she told me very bluntly that she doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon and that she believes that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God.
Michael S. is solid and is ready for baptism. We taught him after church in the chapel about praying often, studying the scriptures and obedience. He is sweet!
We got Sou to quit her job! Now we are back teaching her kids everyday! The other day we had a lesson that was amazing! Elder Buhler and I taught a lesson about sacrifice and we read the story of the Ammonites burying their swords. We had a little activity planned out for this lesson, we brought an empty peanut butter jar and we put what we were willing to sacrifice in it and buried it in their front yard! They absolutely loved it! We are going back this Tuesday to have another activity with them.
Something we are starting to do is focus on part member families. We have been able to start teaching two families this week. We dropped by the Thomas family on Saturday and had a very inspired lesson with them. When we first knocked on the door we just talked to the mother on her door step, as we kept talking to her we were guided through out our conversation and we ended up on the topic of Xango, she is in on the loop of selling and using it. I talked to her about Megan (my sister) and that she uses it and how I used it after my surgery on my hand. She invited us in to give us a little drink of it and while we were in their home we taught them what we call the "rocket of faith." The lesson is we talk a tea bag and empty it out and place it on someone's hand and light it. When the fire gets close to the persons hand the bag floats away. The whole time we build the suspense up and tell the person to trust us and to not move their hand, if they move their hand they will be burnt. So we had this lesson with their two kids, BJ and Christopher, then we committed BJ, who is the older brother, to read a paragraph from a pamphlet that we gave him to his little brother Christopher. We are going back this week end to follow up with them.

I've got to go, we have to finish our laundry and we are playing basketball with some friends later today before we drive to Tulsa. I love you Mom!

Love-
Elder D. Kelly Conrad

FW: A more excellent way! take two

My last email didn't go through because the computer shut down because the library closed and I didn't get the time to email it.
Well I am staying in Fort Smith for another month and a half with Elder Buhler. Things are going well with our companionship, we are working on our unity and giving each other feed back on things that we can become better at.
Yesterday we set a baptism date with Michael S. he is a 19 year old boy who is a friend of one of the young women here who's name is Rachael M. Michael plays basketball with us every week and we teach him three times a week at Rachael's home. The other day we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we were done we committed him to baptism and he told us that he has already prayed about baptism and that he wants to join the church. He's going to get baptized between the Saturday sessions of General Conference. It's going to be amazing!
Well we had a general Authority tour our mission the other day. Elder Marlin K Jenson; he taught us about levels of faith and how we need to be seekers of Gods will. I have learned a lot these past few weeks while serving here in Fort Smith with Elder Buhler. This mission tour has really opened my mind to somethings.
I have been holding Elder Buhler more accountable. Something elder Jenson told us at Mission tour really helped me out with a struggle that I have been having. First he said, "If you do not speak up you are thinking more about yourself, than you are the mission." He also said, "Never deprive anyone of the chance to sacrifice something." These powerful statements have helped me out with the way I talk to people and go about correcting myself, my companion and any other missionary. I normally am apprehensive about committing people to things and asking them to do things that might be inconvenient. But I realized something the other day, there is nothing convenient about missionary work. With everyone I meet I am going to be an inconvenience, we come into people lives and start asking them to do and change things, some people respond to it nicely and other not so nicely. It's not my problem if they don't respond to it so nicely. Now that's not saying I'm going around forcing people to listen to me, I am trying to do it the way the Lord would have me do it. Elder Jenson referred to this response to the striking of a tuning fork and how if a tuning fork is placed close to a tuning fork that is of the same tune, then when one is struck, the other will resonate. Now the way it is applied in my life and any ones life who shares the gospel is this; teach the gospel to some one and see what the response is and you can tell if they are ready for the gospel. Now when I talk with people I am teaching more and testifying more and I am looking for the Spirit to testify to me to whether or not the person is "resonating." Powerful lesson!
So we lost some investigators this week  Hilde B. is moving to Tulsa this Friday because she lost her job. We are going to make sure that she is found and contacted there, and I fully expect her to overcome her smoking habit and get baptized. We also lost Mary to another church! It's really a funny story, so we meet with her almost daily and this past Thursday when we went over she had this big small on her face. We asked her what was going on with her and why she had such a big smile on her face for. She told us that she had been baptized! Elder Buhler and I had no clue what to say, we sat there and we looked at each other. So we taught her about the apostasy and how the authority to do anything in Gods name was in our church. We could tell that it wasn't really clicking and we asked her about her baptism. After she told us the story we asked some questions to check for her understanding about what we had taught to her. Needless to say she isn't as accountable as we thought she was. We are still teaching her and her family, but we have to take things very slow.
Tido's mother Sou is still being over worked and it is stopping her children from progressing in the gospel. We are going to commit her to quitting her job and finding a new one. If she doesn't then she is going to miss out on some very important things with in her family.
Well that's all for this week, sorry it was late.

Love-
Elder D Kelly Conrad

PS Those picture were of Elder Buhler, Hilde B. and me; the other one was with Sister B. who I got to see at mission tour.

FW: Starting to feel like a real missionary!

There is a lot that has gone on this week .We had our district meeting with President Merkley and we had stake conference. Along with that I had some exchanges this week with some new missionaries and along with that came some very funny stories.

President Merkley taught us about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. As he read the story and explained it my mind was blown away by how deep the symbolism is in that parable. What I have to write about wont do what he taught justice but the main thing I learned was that Christ has a lot of trust in me to be a host of those that He brings to me. In the parable the Samaritan brings the wounded man who has been bound up and healed by the oil and wine to a host. Christ is the Samaritan and the oil and wine is his atonement and healing, you can say the healing of things both spiritual and physical, and what Christ does after he heals the man is He take him to a host to take care of him. Then Christ tells the host that if it cost more then two pence to take care of him then He will repay the host. In a shorter version of what I learned, Christ has a lot of trust in anyone who is a host over anyone and if you do all that you can He will repay you. There is a lot more to what I learned but that will do.

Next thing, every month we meet with the Stake president and the high counselors who are over the missionary department and have what we call "stake correlation." It's basically a meeting where concerns for every ward concerning missionary work and efforts are brought to the stake president. It's the connection between the missionaries and the normal church government. Well this past week I have been calling brother McCabe, who is the high counselor over missionary work about when the meeting was going to happen. He never returned my phone call so I just thought all was well, but on Thursday he calls me ten after six and the first thing he says was, "Are you coming?" There we are standing in a restaurant with a member who was feeding us at six o'clock and we were supposed to be at this meeting and I get this phone call. So we took our food and hurried to the church. Needless to say we were not fully prepared for the meeting, I hadn't collected all the data that we are suppose to present to the stake president and we didn't have our suits on. If there is a rule I will always follow for the rest of my life it will be the rule about always wearing a suit to meeting, especially to ones where I meet with leaders in the church. So the only reason why I'm letting you know about this mistake of mine is to illustrate the lesson I learned while in the meeting. When we got to the meeting I was a bit fearful because I wasn't prepared, but as I sat there and was asked questions about the progress of the areas and about details I was enabled by the Spirit to remember things, like last months indicators, concerns of certain wards and other things that blew my mind that I was able to recall. It was a very powerful lesson to me.

Next thing, on Friday I went on an exchange with a new missionary, Elder Bill Sherrick. A few days ago I gave my word to a man named Audrey that I would mow his lawn on Friday. Well after making calls all week to find some one in the ward to lend us one I was with out a lawn mower for Friday. When thinking about who we could get one from just hours till the scheduled event I came to the thought about Sister April North's house and that she had a lawn mower out in the front yard. The only reason I knew that she had a mower at her house was because a few days earlier I was over there changing her car battery out and fixing odds and ends on her Chevy Blazzer, which is a whole other story. But as I drove to Sister Norths I tried calling her to see if she would let us borrow it, but her phone has been turned off. So we keep going to her house in the hopes that she would be home. Well when we got there she wasn't home so I had a decision to make, was I going to take the mower or not? We loaded it into the back of our car and took off. We mowed the lawn and Sister North was ok with us taking the mower. Later that evening we went back to teach Audrey and now we are teaching his family. He loved what we taught and has tons of questions about the restoration! How awesome!

We are still teaching Mary S. and we are now teaching her daughter Rachael. We watched the "Restoration" with them both, and when it was over Mary bore her testimony that she knew our church was true because she had felt the Spirit while at church and during the movie. Her baptism date is the 10 of October.
Some complications with Tido and Erica have sufficed. Apparently Sou's ex is trying to get custody of Tido and Erica and she has Tido go to court next week over it. So we are working with a member in the ward who is a lawyer, his name is Brother Houston. As I talked with him about it, we talked out where he served a mission, and he served in the Spokane, Wa and he served in Moses Lake! So we had a good conversation and he will be a good help to Sou and her position.
Hilde B. came to church and is still growing. She fasted last week about the Word of wisdom and has a growing testimony. She is studying the scriptures and is really praying to quit the coffee and cigarettes.
That's all for this week; hopefully I will have time to write some letters today, I actually got some mail this week! I have been on a dry spell for ever.

Love your son,
Elder D. Kelly Conrad

FW: Trying to keep didligent!

Things are going well here. WE have been pretty busy with exchanges with other missionaries. Tomorrow President Merkley will be coming to our district meeting. The next transfer will start the 27 of September. Things are going to get kind of crazy next transfer because we will have 3 sets of missionaries in our ward! President Merkley is thinking about splitting the area that we have into to and having another set move into the ward. Hopefully it won't over tax the ward on exchanges and dinner appointments.
We have finally been able to get a hold of Sou G.and taught Tido and his family, Sou is Tido's mom. She just got a new job last week that has her working every day from 9 am to 9 pm and she doesn't get Sundays off. But we finally got to talk to her and she has pretty much demanded Sundays off, or she is going to quit! She is so sweet! Tido is going to get baptized the 26th of this month along with his little sister Erica who is turning 8 on the 22nd.
Hilde B. fasted this week about the Book of Mormon and the Word of Wisdom. She is part of the ward already, but all she needs to do is getting rid of the cigarettes and coffee and she will be solid! So she is fasting and praying about it, along with reading the scriptures daily and coming to church; it's just a matter of time before she will be worthy.
I think I talked about Mary S. last week. She is a black lady who has 12 kids and can't read. We have given her some tapes that have the Book of Mormon on them and she has been listening to them. Last Sunday in gospel principles, while I was teaching, I asked her how she could know which church is true, and she said, "I already know, it's this one!" It was music to my ears! We are going to go see her later today and make sure that she has batteries for her tape player.
I have often thought of my experience in Mountain Home. I have come up with several thoughts; for one thing it has set the standard for my whole mission and life in being obedient. It also helped me learn the importance of being humble and diligent through tough times. It also showed me how missionary work will go no where with out members help. If a ward isn't going to take care of those that the missionaries' are teaching, then the Lord is not going to give blessings in the way of converts, plain and simple. This is what happened in our case.
But get this; Miami is on fire right now! I called and talked to the zone leader who covers that area, and they told me about everyone they are teaching in Miami and all the baptism dates they have set. Everyone that they are teaching and baptizing is all the people that I found and began teaching! It was so wonderful to hear that news, it really strengthened my testimony and made me happy!
Things are ok with me and Elder Buhler, there is still room for improvement, but I am working on it. My goal is to set the example and have a standard and not let it lower or slip. It will push me and it will push him.
I can stay a zone leader my whole mission, or I can go district leader, or I can go back to being a normal missionary, it's all up to President Merkley and the needs of the mission. More then likely I will be staying in Fort Smith for another transfer with Elder Buhler then be moved to another zone to be a zone leader again. But even that's not set in stone, that's just what normally happens.
My goals this week are: Focus on what matters most, become more obedient, and teach 40 lessons and have 140 OTM's. I have several other small goals, but these are the big main ones. I have really become focused on goals lately, setting small goals to help me reach a big goal. Its funny because I even tell Elder Buhler what my goals are for him every week, like today I told him that my goal for him this week is to get him organized, prepared and to be more confident in himself. Another small goal we have for him is to always keep his eyes on the road when driving. Its funny!
But that's all this week, I love you Mom and I thank you for all that you do for me!

Love your son,
Elder D. Kelly Conrad