November 13, 2017 Elder Neil L. Andersen

Hey everyone!

This past week was great!

 On Saturday, we had a mission-wide meeting with Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He was accompanied by Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the 70, and Bishop Gérald Caussé, the Presiding Bishop of the church.
It was a wonderful meeting! President and Sister Huntsman bore brief testimonies at the beginning and then the general authorities took the majority of the meeting. The meeting was only about 2 and half hours, but it was great.

Elder Ure, Brian Gore and Elder Duvall

Elder Nielsen was a former BYU Quarterback, a quarterback in the NFL, and a sports broadcaster. His talk was inspiring and motivating. He talked a lot about getting the most out of our time as full-time missionaries, telling us that we “cannot afford to waste a single minute,” that there is too much at stake. This is my only time to be a full-time proselyting missionary. I love what the Missionary Handbook says about time as a missionary:
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Time is one of the most precious resources Heavenly Father has given you. The period when you are able to serve the Lord with all your time and all your efforts is extremely short. Use it fully and wisely. Such an opportunity is a privilege.”

Bishop Caussé centered his remarks on a scripture from 1st Corinthians 2:3-5, which states “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
He talked a lot about how our missions are important times in our lives where we can learn how to access spiritual power. A quote from him that I really liked was that “A bold missionary is a humble missionary.” Sometimes we hold back ourselves from being bold out of fear. But if we are bold with the people we meet, and do it lovingly, that actually shows our humility and willingness to do what the Lord would have us do.

Elder Andersen gave us some practical tips on ideas of things we could try to do to find more people to teach and see more success in our individual wards, but most of his remarks to us were about Jesus Christ. He asked missionaries to stand up and share scriptures that we have memorized about Jesus Christ from the New Testament and from the Book of Mormon. He challenged us to identify a few scriptures that we truly do believe about Christ, and then remember those scriptures whenever we begin to have doubts about anything in the gospel. He talked about how so often he meets young adults in the church who are beginning to have their doubts, questions, and concerns about the church. Maybe they have doubts about the calling of Jospeh Smith as a prophet. Maybe they have doubts about the validity of the Book of Mormon. Maybe they have doubts about current church leadership or policies, etc. No matter what our doubts and questions are, Elder Andersen firmly told us to “never lose our testimony and relationship with Christ.” That is the most important thing we need to hold onto. He wants us all to memorize scriptures that we truly believe about Christ. I think that’s a wonderful invitation. We will all have various doubts and concerns that come up at different times in our lives. Some doubts may come as a result of trials and tragedies in our lives. Some may come as a result of the actions and decisions of others. But no mattter what we go through, we should NEVER doubt the example, the life, the mission, the atoning sacrifice, the resurrection, and the infinite love of our Savior! He invited us to constantly evaluate ourselves and ask “What do I really believe about Jesus Christ? and How can I improve my relationship with him?” If we stay solid on the foundation of Jesus Christ, I know we will never fall away into the “mists of darkness” of this world.

The spirit in the chapel was strong get as Elder Andersen bore his testimony of President Monson’s calling as a prophet, and his testimony and witness of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to have been able to attend this meeting and learn from numerous leaders of the church, and to be able to shake their hands and interact with them was special.

We had a fun experience on an exchange this week. I was with
Elder Wright for the day and we went to teach Konadu, one of
our investigators. She watches some of the neighborhood kids for work,
mostly Ghanaian kids, a couple Hispanic. We started trying to teach her,
but it was hopeless with all the kids running around making noise. 

It’s a busy couple of weeks in our mission. This week, we are having two half-mission conferences with Elder Mervyn B Arnold of the 70. These conferences will be a full day event. Half the mission one day, half the mission the next. But Elder Ure and I have to attend both days because we’ve been asked to conduct the meetings. The night before the half mission conference, Elder Arnold will be coming with President Huntsman into our area for the evening to proselyte and make some visits. We are nervous but excited for that!

So Elder Wright went on one side of the room and gathered
them together to teach them a simple lesson about Jesus.
They absolutely loved him. He’s super tall, white,
and has blonde hair, and some of the kids were rubbing
their hands through his hair as if they have never seen a
blonde person before. As he occupied them and taught
them, keeping them quiet, I taught a lesson to Konadu and
 her brother all by myself. It was a fun experience!

Another highlight of our week has been teaching Dorothy. She’s made tremendous progress over the past few weeks. She’s been coming to church and learning a lot. She told us yesterday “You’re the two best missionaries that I’ve ever had!” However, in our minds we think, “well, we’re the only missionaries you’ve ever had, since we’ve been together for nearly the whole 6 months since we’ve been teaching you.” She did used to meet with JW’s, so I guess maybe she’s comparing us to them.
She had a baptismal interview, but apparently needs some more time to work on quitting smoking. We gave her a priesthood blessing a few days ago, then at church on Sunday she said “I don’t remember what you guys said when you laid your hands on my head, but it’s workin’! I was about to smoke, but I felt the strength to not do it” and now she has gone two or three days without smoking. We’re hoping she can have the strength to continue to overcome it so she can be baptized in a couple weeks.

Things are going great in our area. We also have a part-member family who we’ve been working with quite a bit, and the wife finally chose a baptismal date for the end of December!

Elder Ure is in his last couple weeks as a missionary, but we’re staying focused, trying our best to get out and work hard every day!

I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Jeremy Duvall
Washington DC South Mission