24 February 2014 "Ask and ye shall receive..."

Hello ya'll!

Ever have one of those weeks where you work really hard and accomplish nothing?  Well,. this was one of those weeks. I feel like the effort does not reflect in the results. However; can I say this week was a waste?  NOOOO!!! I know that this week has brought me many great lessons.  I have been able to observe parenting styles and understand that the most effective parenting styles.Seems that those parents who love there kids have a better outcome then those parents who love to make a point. I don't know what its like to parent, but I know guilt trips don't ever work as well as a lesson of hope and love. 

I feel like this will be a weird blog for people to read, but honestly Missionary Work is not easy.  It can be discouraging. I do know that if we push forward, we can have everything that our Heavenly Father has in store for us. I am so glad that I have the parents I have.  They taught me how to smile through tough times. They taught me to be strong to push forward.  I am nothing without the things my parents taught. I don't feel down too much because I know that it just means I need to try harder and that God has something to teach me. I can do great things my Patriarchal Blessing says so. :) 

 I was able to meet two Schizophrenic guys this last week. I realize just how easy my life is after working with them. One of them is in a care facility that he was dropped off at 7 years ago when his parents moved back to Utah. He takes it in such stride. He knows what is going on and is able to stay calm. The other one has never gone to a facility and probably needs to.  He talks about being in Afghanistan for 5 years, he says he is 21, and got baptized in our church at age 6.  It does not add up and he seams really angry. 

I learned that we need to help ourselves become stronger.  No one can strengthen a testimony of someone who does not search for it. "Ask and ye shall receive knock and it shall be opened unto you."  To "knock" we have to search.  To find we need to be able to search it out for ourselves.  We can only help strengthen others if we ourselves are strong. Seek first to obtain my word, then seek to teach. There is no other way. We need to help ourselves in order for our Heavenly Father to help us. 

Tying that back into parenting, we need to think about those we are over.Are we assisting? or enabling?  Are we helping someone who does not want the help? or are we helping those who have a true desire? This is something I am working on and trying to figure out the balance. I believe if we can find that balance, we can be fantastic in any aspect of life.

Seminary is great!  We taught the story of Samuel the Lamanite.  We had each person in the class shoot at a pen cap aka Samuel.  This was truly entertaining! 

On a really good note, we might have a baptism next week.  We have been teaching a lady who has leukemia.  She is unable to make it to church. This is where we really have to work to represent Christ. We need to look on her heart and her intentions, not on the outward appearance of her not coming to church. The name on my tag (No, I am not meaning my own name, but I mean the name I took on at baptism) means so much more to me now than ever. I love the Lord.  He has helped me to grow and to become who I am now.

Sincerely,

Elder Caldwell

18 February 2014 GOALS are IMPORTANT!

Well, I don't even know what to say about this week except another big WOW! 

One thing that really has been cool is how much the people of the Nixa ward love us. We have been working hard with a few families.  We also have been working on getting Members to as many appointments as possible. 

I have had the opportunity to set goals and try my hardest to hit those goals. Some silly and some meaningful. 

One silly one is I want to knit myself a sweater before I come home.

One Meaningful one is get out of the apartment before lunch so that we can just dive into the work.

Another Meaningful one is that I want to attend Seminary as much as possible during my Mission.  The members are great and if I can create a relationship with the youth, we can get participation from the parents and from there, we can get the participation from the ward. 

I know this is kinda just a whatever email, but I know that Goals are important.  It's not bad to have temporal goals, but we really need to focus on the spiritual.

The seminary teacher out here said something kinda interesting.  He said "sometimes we worry too much about being Mormon and forget to be Christians." I know I have been guilty of this.  We get so busy in our doctrine that we forget Charity, Love, and all the Teachings of Christ.

I would Challenge everyone to seek first to be Christian.  To believe in Christ's teachings and to follow them with all your heart and soul. 

I am so excited for the upcoming week and the goals we set.  It has been an interesting week.

Love,

Elder Caldwell

P.S.   Ya'll ought to all be jealous..... I got Steak and Sushi on Valentines Day!   Never thought I would get that on a Mission!  :)

Elder Marriott & my creation called Mission Mush!  Top Ramen, egg, mixed veggies, tuna, and soy sauce. All Stir fry style.  It just kinda happened.  Elder Marriott had tuna and veggies and I had eggs and Top Ramen. MISSION  MASTERPIECE!

10 February 2014 In the Spirit of Valentine Day...

Hey, so this week was a little different.  We were able to teach 12 lessons which is not bad considering that Elder Marriott got sick.  We were down for like 2.5 days.  He is better now and we are hitting the streets up again.  We were able to teach a few new investigators and we almost got one of them to church but his daughter got sick.

I love this Mission.  It is the best thing for me.  I can not imagine a life without the gospel. 

 I know that we can do great things and that we can bring this ward up.  We have set goals to have 70% member present lessons and also to get 2 referrals a week.  This will make the work boom in the area as long as we put the effort in we will get the payout double. 

I know that Our Heavenly Father loves us and in the spirit of Valentines Day. "Love one another as I have loved you." That is the truth of the gospel right there.  That is how we can become like our Heavenly Father through loving thy neighbor as thy self.

Love you all.

Elder Caldwell

The snow in Missouri...BEAUTIFUL!

Elder  Marriott & Me

The Evening Skies....WOW!!

03 February 2014 Challenge for the week-PRAY

Ello everyone!

I have had quite the week this week! I have been out for one Transfer with Elder Hughes as my trainer. Then all of a sudden, I get a new companion named Elder Marriott. This means that now I (the Trainee) still having 6 weeks of Training  and am leading the Nixa MO Area!

The first few days I had never felt so inadequate for a calling. Now I realize how inspired that switch really was.   I can see how our Heavenly Father has blessed me in making me stretch. All of this so I can be the best missionary I can be.  For those of you not familiar with this, I would say it is most like going into a new job and getting trained halfway. Then having a new hire from a different company come in to train you. I do a lot of training him and he in turn trains me. I train him on the area, and he trains me how to be a better missionary. 

I have had so many opportunities in this Mission to serve and to help less actives. Now I realize that my focus was a little off. I need not focus on less actives or on investigators, but I need to focus on those who go to church every week. The Members do so much and I have not met half of them in this area.... Why???  Because I was not really focused on what helps Missionaries do what they need the member to do.

If you are in the church or not I want to challenge you all to do something this week. PRAY. Sounds simple but can be very complex especially if you want an answer and are diligently seeking to bring someone closer to Christ however that may be.... JUST DO IT!!!!  

I can not express how important it is for everyone to strive to move forward to help others, to love others, To become a Missionary of Christs Gospel. Everyone can be a missionary.  

The world would be a better place if people thought before they speak if they lent a friendly hand out to those in need. 

I have had such a great time. I would not give this up not even for Snowboarding and working fast food!!   Which you know I Love!!!    I really really do enjoy those things, but more so I enjoy sharing what I know and bringing the same happiness I know into others lives. 

I love you all.  Have a good week.

 

Elder Caldwell 

27 January 2014 Wow! We worked hard and even more..We thought hard!

Greetings All!

Well I don't know what to say about this week except, "Wow we worked hard and even more...We thought hard!" I never thought thinking could wear you out but truth is thinking about principals and pure hope and all the things that Our Heavenly Father has given us  is hard work. 

I know that Callings are inspired of God.  I know this with a surety now more then ever. I don't know what change will bring, but I do know that the Lord has inspired my Mission President to change things up a little.   I got my first Transfer Call on Saturday night (Yes, I was a little nervous.) I did not know what to think.  I knew that things were changing, but I did not know why and I still don't. Other then the fact that the Lord knows what we need. I am half way through my training period and my Trainer is leaving to be my Zone Leader.  I get a new Trainer, so I get to be trained by two completely different Elders. 

I am actually excited.  I get to stay in Nixa for at least another transfer.  I like it here.  The people are awesome, funny, down to earth, and real friendly. I love this place and I think that I will learn to love my new companion.  I have not met him yet, but he is a surfer. That is about all that I know.  Maybe he could teach me how to surf when I get home. I really am excited about the change, not that I don't love Elder Hughes, but I think it will be cool to see how the two different people train. 

Elder Hughes totally got chewed out by this guy because of a misunderstanding and afterwards I popped off with something really funny.  That night as we were talking about it I said, "Wow that backfired worse then gas station sushi!" We both got a kick out of that. I don't know if you will find that as funny as I do, but as missionaries you learn to laugh a lot. I am always finding things to laugh about and to think about. People are so awesome and funny.  In everyday life you just have to listen to them and you will realize how many funny things come out of their mouths.

I gave a talk in Sacrament this week. I was not nervous.  For the first time in my short life, I felt comfortable talking in front of a congregation. I believe its because I prepared by saying a prayer right before the meeting.  I know how much prayer means now. I have to say it was a pretty good talk about being fully converted. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and will help us to be fully converted. I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is not a list as we sometimes think but it is ongoing. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and Endure to the End we should all be thinking bout this all the time.  It is the way and the only way we can be saved. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior we can return to our Father in Heaven.

Thanks for all the support over this time and your excitement inspires me. I love being able to share the gospel with those in need. It has not all been roses, but looking back at the thorns I find beauty in them, too. As long as we learn a lesson from everything.  (Yes, I do mean everything)  We will find even thorns have helped us.  A rose would not be as beautiful without the contrast of the thorns. I know there is opposition in all things and it helps us push forward with a Love and passion for that which we believe is right. 

Remember always Isaiah 41:10 FEAR NOT 

Love

Elder Caldwell

My Current Zone..we are an awesome bunch!

The Missouri skies are beautiful!

21 January 2014 New Lessons Learned

So this week has been interesting, probably not as interesting as last week.  

I learned that no one hopes for the church to not be true. They only fear that it is true because that makes them have to change. Fear is to hold you back God would never hold you back. Our Heavenly Father only wants to uplift us with hope and love. I don't have a lot to write about except the fact that I learned some great lessons this week. 

1. How to break into our apartment in about 5 seconds

2. My companion Elder Hughes is really light 

3. OTM= Open Thy Mouth or Oklahoma Tulsa Mission or Obesity Through Members  ha ha All 3 being true.

I will start by talking about us breaking into our apartment. First off, we live on the second floor right above a field. Second, we have a balcony with a sliding glass door that does not lock. It all started with us locking our keys in our apartment and we had our ward mission leader waiting for us to go to an appointment. We quickly devised a plan to get into the apartment from the balcony. I boosted my companion way up over my head (mind you the 2nd floor starts at about 12 feet from the ground) so it was quite the boost. He then proceeded to climb up over the railing grab the keys and met me back at the top of the stairs.  All this happened in about 5 seconds. We were then telling our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Stephens about the experience and he said somethin' real funny "Wow Elders you got more guts then a slaughter house."   We had to do this twice in one week... My companion really needs to stop lockin' us out! haha 

OTM is the ackronym for my mission.  I heard a rumor that the name of my mission will probably change in about 18 months, as we change mission presidents. They came to the realization that Tulsa is in the outskirts of the largest mission in the United States. It would just make more sense if the hub was somewhat more central. This means that I may get a real rare opportunity to serve in two different missions. I Love that there is a saying that goes with the initials of my mission OTM... Open Thy Mouth.  Is that not what we all need to do?  Missionary and Member alike to build the Kingdom of God? I feel like we are in need of this as the church grows we have experiences.  They open new missions, they build new temples, they build churches. Brothers and Sisters, if we are Gods offspring then don't we need to treat everyone as such... BROTHERS and SISTERS?!?

One of our investigators is having a really tough time. He is an illegal immigrant and he is trying to become legal. In the process he may get deported. Where he comes from, the church has not yet reached.  There is no LDS church in the place in which he came from. This is really hard to watch because he knows it is true and if he gets deported he wont be able to fully honor his baptismal covenant. The reason I tell you this is not to discourage but to  excite. For the Hastening is alive. I know that in the days to come at some point, if we all strive forward with faith, we will be able to press forward and open up missions in all the places where missions are not. If only we would OTM or rather Open our Mouths.

I love you all!

Love 

Elder Caldwell

1111

13 January 2014 Snow, Wind, and Drifts in Missouri

This week I had some interesting experiences.   We found 2 new people to teach and one of them was tracting, pretty cool, heh?

We were talking to this man who was driving us to zone training.  As we were talking to him, he started giving us dating advice.  Pretty funny when an 80 year old tells you that the only ways to break up with a girl consists of "Ummm..I got to go."  The second is "it’s been fun these last couple dates but, well, you're just not my soul mate." He is the funniest nicest man. He got lost in thought at some point.  He was saying "that tree makes me feel..."  He said you can say how things make you feel. He (also in this session) said that "we would all do great, except my companion.  Not because you ain’t cute, but because you're stupid."  He said that in response to my companion saying, "That sunset tickles my fancy." Either Brother Brooks is super funny or you just had to be there.

We have this Non-Active that we have been teaching when we can find him working on a car.  He won’t answer the door if we come up, but he is always good for a good chat.  I think we opened his eyes, but before I get into that I must talk about last night and the funny experience we had.

We started talking to him, asked him how he was doing and he said he was doing alright, but that he had been in the E.R. earlier that day. He had caught his shirt on the hood latch of his car. While he was in the middle of pulling a part out of the engine compartment, he yanked back real hard and realized that it was not just his shirt, but his nipple ring was caught on the hood latch ripped it right off. As he was talking about this, he pulls out a Ziploc baggie and shows us his nipple still attached to the ring.  I guess people here in Missouri are more open than those back at home.

I really like this guy, he reminds me of all my old friends at home.  He is hilarious. When we were done talking about the E.R., we started teaching the plan of salvation.   I saw his eyes fill with hope and love.   I never knew how much you can tell from a person’s eyes.  His eyes acted as a gateway to opening my eyes. He was so ready for that lesson.  God had prepared him and put him in our path.

I know we can return to our Heavenly Father.  I know that I am here to help and I am excited to see that look in other people’s eyes! Love you, til next time, bye.

Love Elder Caldwell