Conversion, The Spirit, and Personal Revelation!

Mom Nov 30, 2009

On Thanksgiving we played football with eight other elders and some members till we had our Thanksgiving dinner with President Merkley and his family. Football was a blast because Elder Harrison was there and he taught me alot about football and it reminded me of last year in Har-Ber when we played football and he taught me how to throw. It gave me time to just have a life and think about the past fifteen months and all that has happened in them.
We only had one dinner appointment so I didn't eat as much as I did last year. After we ate we watched a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas musical which has really set the tone for the season for me. I think my new favorite song of all time is "O Holy Night". After we watched that we played basketball with the Merkleys which was a blast! President Merkley guarded me, which was really shocking because he's sixty two years old and is five foot six and super thin, but he put up a really good defense. It felt like I was playing basketball with a stake president and I was shy about playing hard, but he wasn't, so it made things fun. I love President Merkley!
So after this we went to a members home and played Mormon Mouthful and some other team games with the family and Elders, Harrison, Fellows, Clinger and Whiticker. It really helped me feel like I was back in a family again and opened my eyes to some things I want for my family.
I have recently been reading and studying about conversion, the Spirit and personal revelation. All three are very important in bringing someone to Christ, which is my purpose. I was with a younger missionary the other day who was teaching the restoration, and doing a very good job of it, but things just didn't feel right.The investigator had read the selection from the Book of Mormon the elders had left their last visit and she explained how she felt while she read. As the lesson went on we understood why things didn't feel right, it was because we needed to teach the investigator how to recieve personal revelation so that she could gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon for her self. What she decribed about her emotions while reading should have been an answer to the prayer about the Book of Mormon, but she didn't realize that it was the answer. So we taught her how to pray and how she would know if her prayers were answered and told her that it was going to be answered by the same feelings and emotions she had while reading the Book of Mormon the first time. Half the time missionaries are telling people what they know and not helping them learn it for themselves. There is a big difference in telling someone that they have recieved personal revelation then helping them understand for themselves that they are recieving personal revelation. "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lfe time." I want to teach others how to recieve personal revelation so they don't have to rely upon me, buy rely upon God for guidance. That is what it means to always rely on God.
Everything else is going good. I would use those supplements if you sent them out. I have been really good about keeping a good eating habbit even with my crazy schedule. My excersizing hasn't suffered to much because we still get to do it in the morning.
Thats all for this week, I love you family and I'll be praying for Cori.

Love, Elder D Kelly Conrad

Master teacher! Elder D. Kelly Conrad

Mom- Nov 23, 2009
Well there has been a lot that has happened this past week and have very little time to tell you about it.
This past week I saw three of my old companions bear their departing testimonies during zone conferences. When Saturday came around I thought about how much my mission will change with these three missionaries leaving, I will lose some of my best and most trusted friends. These are the missionaries who have helped me get form where I was to where I am now. I owe everything to these elders and see how they have changed my live. I will really miss them. I was pretty much the biggest wreck when I came out here and I was so lost and Elder Harrison and Jacobson have helped me overcome most of my social anxieties and my inability to function around people. I remember the only good thought that I could hold onto during my struggles was a scripture that is found in Either 12 where it says that when we come to Christ he will turn our God given weaknesses into strengths. Now that I look back I have a pretty powerful testimony of that scripture, along with many other doctrines taught in the church.
Well this week has been filled with a lot of learning, my new companion has been teaching me a lot about refinement and I have really seen a change in me because of it. The change has come in the music I listen to, the words I use when I speak and the way I conduct myself around others.
Some times I even forget that I had a life before I came out here. Every week I go through my pictures of my mission and review things that I have learned through out it and today while I took my trip through memory lane I couldn't remember life before my mission. I can't see myself without this name tag and tie. The reason I'm having these thoughts is because my companion is going home in four weeks and he tells me that it's gone by too fast, so it's got me thinking about how fast it really has gone by. It is really helping me see what I want in the future and I am setting goals right now to get me there, not just goals for things that I want to do before I leave the mission, but even goals for after the mission. I remember when I first came out when I learned something I was looking for ways to apply it in my normal life, and in my missionary life, but later as my mission went on I lost my focus and felt like what I was learning was just for my life as a missionary, but my mission president has helped me get on track by reminding me that what I'm learning now will help me be a better father, elders quorum president, home teacher and so on. It's really helped me understand why I do things and most the time I see how it won't only help me in my life as a missionary, but even beyond this life.
Yesterday I went on exchanges with the other Elders here in New Haven and I went to teach these two men, Eddie and Doyle. Both are pretty humble and in pretty humble circumstances. As Elder Whitaker and I taught them it was a very powerful experience that taught me even more about becoming a master teacher. I learned that the scripture are laid out perfectly to teach every principle and teaching it in order. For example as you read section 20 after the church has been organized it teaches us the most important doctrine, which is the true relationship we have with Heavenly Father, and then continues on through everything thing from the way some one is brought into the church, the duties of the members and the sacrament, and as you read it builds from one doctrine and principle to the next. The Lord is a master teacher and there is a lot of power in the doctrine that is taught in that section.
I am amazed that I have even able to learn from the scriptures like this, studying for school should be a piece of cake after learning how to study and learn from the scriptures.
Well for Thanksgiving there is going to be a lot of eating at members homes who I have never met, and we also be eating at the mission home with the mission president and his family who is coming in tonight. We will be playing some football and Broom ball with several ward members. I can't wait to get a little dirt on my knees and show some one that I can do more then just teach!
So I thought that after I left Fort Smith I was done having success with basketball on Mondays but today I was proven wrong. As we played we had two kids come up to us, whose names are Zack and Raymond who wanted to play ball with us. We didn't play because we had just gotten done, but I was able to talk to both of them and get their numbers and committed them to come play next week. As we got to know each other I found out that both of these kids have close family who are members of the church and Zack's older brother is serving a mission in Utah right now. So I can't wait to see where things are going to go from here. I guess basketball is one of the many styles I have at doing missionary work.

Thank you for all that you are doing for me, and the family.

Elder D Kelly Conrad

FW: alot of good stuff! Elder Kelly Conrad

Mom- Nov 14, 2009

Things have been going well this week so far. I have been able to go out and work with several missionaries this past week and I have been able to learn a lot from them. At the beginning of the week in my new area things where very slow and I wasn't sure what to do, I have a hard time with sitting on my hands and doing nothing, but things finally picked up. I have really missed Fort Smith and those that I was attached, but things have speeded up and now I don't have time to sit around and think about things. The only time things aren't going on is when we are travelling in the car to places.
I went on an exchange with a newer missionary in my area the other day whose name is Elder Curtis. Elder Curtis hasn't been having the best time on his mission so yesterday it was my goal to make the day one of the best days on his mission. We first went to a potentials home and tried to see if we could teach them, but we ended up teaching the neighbor Larry, which was a really neat experience. After talking to Larry for a short time a relationship was established and I found out that his wife was a member who has been less active for almost a decade. Larry said he had been taught about the Book of Mormon before and that he had some questions. As Elder Curtis and I taught him Larry told us that he was upset with people who believe in evolution and we started to talk about Adam and Eve and the creation. As we did this Larry quoted scriptures from the Bible which lead us right into the Book of Mormon; I turned to 2 Nephi 2 in the Book of Mormon and read passages that went right along with those he quoted from the Bible, which really drew his attention. He asked about the Book and we taught him a very simple lesson where we showed him the doctrine behind prophets and the Book of Mormon. We now have a return appointment for next week. My day with Elder Curtis was one of the most spiritual and powerful days of my life, and wasn't because it was of my own doing, but because the Lord was teaching Elder Curtis and I something very profound. My lesson was that I am truly blessed to be in the positions that I am and that I get to serve so many missionaries and help them see their true potentials' and that the Spirit is the power behind me. Elder Curtis's lesson was that he really does have a great potential and that he has to be patient with himself. He is one of the most sincere missionaries that I have ever met and that he has a profound effect on people that he cares about.
So pretty much my week has been filled with experiences like these; on Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Butler. I went tracting with Elder Butler. I hate going tracting, on my exchanges with Elder Curtis he told me it was time to go finding, which meant tracting and I suggested that we find a member near by to seek referrals from just so I didn't have to tract. That turned out to be a blessing because when we walked away with a relationship of trust with a member who was doing missionary work with three different families. But this time I submitted to Elder Butler and I went tracting. Well on the fourth house the door had a no solicitors sign on it and had a picture of a man carrying a brief case with a cross through it, which kind of had me intimidated, but I figured what the heck, I don't have a brief case I'll be good. A woman answered the door that was on the phone with her realtor, so she asked us to wait for her to get off the phone. After waiting a while we were able to talk with her about what things were going on in her life and then we got it into a gospel conversation. We taught her a brief powerful lesson and at the end of the lesson Lela promised Elder Butler and I that she was going to read the Book of Mormon all the way through and pray about it in the next few days before the missionaries came back. So now I have a new success story from tracting, I think I only have a few of them, but they were really profound experiences.

Things are just going to get even faster these next few weeks, our schedule is already filled and we will be busy, busy, and busy.

Love,
Elder Kelly Conrad

FW: New things

Nov 9, 2009

Well things are going good, I am with my new companion and things are great. We are unified and are on the same page. I knew that if I were to serve with him that he would be my most unified companion because of the exchanges that we have gone on these past few transfers.
My last week in Fort Smith was my busiest ever. We had Bre Smith's baptism on Thursday which was a night mare. Thirty minutes before the baptism while we were at home preparing to go Elder Buhler turns to me and asks me, "is the fount full?" which lead to a series of freak events that lead to a very spiritual evening. If we had a video recording our last week in Fort Smith it would have made for an awesome movie.
I really miss Fort Smith and the people there, I'm so glad that I was able to gain so many friendships there. I was really blessed by the people there and with out their help I wouldn't be where I am at right now. Over these past four and a half months I have gained some of the choicest lessons that have changed the outcome of my whole eternal character. I feel better, I'm more confident and I have gained the vision that I have been searching for my whole mission, now it is my task to share that with other missionaries.
These past few days have been very interesting. I am being put through several new challenges that are stretching me again and they have almost gotten me to unlearn what I have just learned. As I review the past I think of what it felt like when Elder Buhler first came in and I felt the burn of the trials and it triggering me and made me anxious. When thinking about that I now can handle the new challenges with a more level head and am very patient about things. When ever I am put through a new challenge or have new feelings I have taught myself to just sit back and be patient. Things will always work out in the end as I seek to do what is best. I learned the other day that everyone will have their own "lost 116 pages" moments. This lesson has really helped me out in understanding how the Lord treats us when we fail at something. Understanding the relationship with God and us is a very valuable one and it has been the source of a lot of my learning lately.
I'm still searching for my place here, and trying to see what it is that I can do to benefit others. I feel faithful and hopeful about the future.
Elder Clinger lives in the apartment complex with us and it has been a real eye opener for me to be going on exchanges with him these past few days. On the week ends we go on exchanges with the other New Haven Elders and he is one of them. I have been able to see the growth that has happened in me since I last served with him. We taught a young black man named Teven who reminds me a lot of Bre, he is humble, willing to do anything to get closer to the lord and is one of the elect of God. When we taught him we were going over the Word of Wisdom, which was kind of a touching matter because when we went up to his house we met him outside on his doorstep smoking, so it was setting the stage for what could have been an awkward lesson if prior lessons went completely understood. But as we went along with the lesson Teven was more concerned about eating a very little meet then giving up smoking! He said he would follow the law so that he could be baptized. When the lesson was almost over I asked him, "Why would it be important to follow this law?" the next question I asked was, "Who is it that gave us this law?" that started another lesson where we taught him about the role of a prophet and how it is that he receives the righteousness of God and teaches it to us, we used Romans 10 to teach it. Teven is willing to follow the Word of Wisdom all because he felt and new that what we taught was true. After the short lesson out of Romans I asked him why he thought I had taught him about the role of a prophet and he answered saying that now he can teach his friends why he follows the Word of Wisdom, and that the law was given by a prophet. It was a learning experience for me.
I won't need my winter cloths for a while, the weather is still very warm here and it will be for another few weeks. I'll let you know when I could use them.
That's all for this week, I know I didn't answer all of your questions but there will be a hand written letter sent out this week with those answers.

Love your son
Elder D. Kelly Conrad

FW: I'm leaving the Fort!

Mom- Nov 2, 2009
Well the reason for the need for a bicycle helmet was because we might have been put into a car share area for a bit. But we aren't and I am getting transferred to Tulsa and my new Companion will be Elder Jacob Begay who is one of the best missionaries out here in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. My new address will be:
5215 E 71 Ste300
Tulsa OK 74136 So you all can mail me there now.
Things have been going amazingly well here these past few days. Elder Buhler and I have really been receiving blessings due to our patience and diligence. The other day when we ran out of miles for our car we went on a couple hour walk around Fort Smith and we saw miracle after miracle.
Bre S. is getting baptized this Thursday before I leave and she is way excited for it. This past Sunday when she met the Bishop the first thing she told him was that she was getting baptized! In out last lesson we talked with her to get to know her some more and while we were talking I knew that I had truly found one of the elect of God and that she was going to be a kingdom builder. She has already started to bring friends over to be taught by us and we are teaching her younger sister Rachel who is just as amazing as Bre is. Later today Bre is going to be cooking dinner for us. I am really going to miss Fort Smith and the people that I have taught here. I have told everyone that when I get home I plan on getting in my car and driving back here to visit. So I hope that plan works.
We have seen more blessings with the H.family this week. We went over to their home and had lunch with them and taught their neighbors' boy named Destin, who is another one of Gods elect. He came to church this past Sunday and when he saw me he asked me to baptize him! As we taught him at the H.'s about Alma: 17 we asked him questions and he gave some very powerful answers. He is only nine, but he feels a lot older then that. The H.'s also had us meet their other neighbors and we were able to find others who are receptive.
Michael S. is going to be preparing for a mission. He has really been putting some thought into it and he feels that it is the next thing for him! I'm way excited to keep in contact with him and see what good comes from him.
I am really going to miss this place and these people; I have really formed eternal friendships.
Sorry if this email is short but we are going to teach Alina real quickly before we go play basketball for the last time. We also saw more blessings as we found out this morning that she has moved back into her Grandma's house.

Love your son

Elder D. Kelly Conrad