Week 49- The Plan of Salvation

Hi every one!
I really don't have too much to write today, but I'm praying that the
spirit will guide my fingers, and thoughts to create a message that
would benefit each of you as it has benefitted me.
The thing that has stuck out to me the absolute most this week, would
be gods woulderful, merciful plan for the salvation of each of his
beloved children. That would be us just so you know.
We have recently taught it a lot, and I've been doing a lot of reading
and pondering about it in the scriptures.  And as some of you know
when you ponder things of God, the spirit testifys to you.
I will give you a brief run down of the Plan Of Salvation just so you
can get a taste of the same love I feel is evident in it.

It all starts In heaven, where we lived with our loving heavenly
mother and father. AND like most kids, we wanted to become like our
heavenly parents. We wanted a physical body, and to learn, to be wise
like them.
So god created this Plan Of Salvation to nurture and grow his children
into wonderful beings of creation.
He gave us agency or the freedom to choose to come here on earth. Our
spirits inherited the body's Adam and Eve created. Thus fulfilling the
commandment for Adam and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth. As
we live here with our family's we can grow and learn the same way god
did. We make sacred covenants or promises to stay true to the loving
god that created us. Then we die. Most of us are scared of death, but
if you could see through gods eyes you would be at peace, it takes a
lot of thinking and studying to know that physical death is absolutely
necessary. And that our spirits will never die, just this temporary
temple we dwell in.
After death our spirit rises to a higher level, it is called the
spirit world. This step can get complicated, so I'll put it simply. If
we made good choices according to gods commandments on the earth, we
will be at peace and not afraid of what's to come, there will only be
good consequences awaiting for us. If you made poor decisions your
soul will be restless, like a really poor nights rest, you will be
anxious and unsure of your future position.
Eventually god will reunite or beloved body's and spirits again! Where
this time there will be no sickness, or physical death, sort of like
melting plastic together, there will be no seams to which it could be
pulled apart.
After which we get to dwell with god, the important thing here is to
realize that god will not put you anywhere you won't be comfortable.
Like going to a swimming party in a ballroom gown, would you be
comfortable? God will judge you where you need to go, but that doesn't
mean you won't regret your decision for the eternities if you go to
the lower kingdoms. In ALL of this god is trying to prepare us to come
live with him like the prodigal sons and daughters we are. It is what
he wants most. And should be what we want most as well.
So voila! This plan is absolutely gorgeous to me and very perfect. You
can tell a very loving hand created it. And I want ALL of gods
children to know, so they can choose for themselves where they want to
fit in.
I want to challenge each of you to try with your might to find a fault
in this plan, and then pray about it. It is my humble promise to you
that you will not be able to find a fault to which god had not
foreseen and prepared for.
I love you all!
Sly,
Elder Minson

Pictures:

At the Payson temple today:

 

At a dinner appt Thursday. Turns out this guy was my Uncle Craig's mission companion 20 years ago!

A member caught some photos of us at Walmart this week :)

We and some of the missionaries in the Zone went to an awesome family history thingie! It was super cool!

Week 48

Me just chilling.
The unicorn behind me is the one from Despicable Me.
Some elders found it in a dumpster, bleached it, and then left it in the apartment.

An adorable kitty we found!

Sorry I haven't sent out a weekly email lately. I have decided to send out an updated version of an email that we send to our ward and stake leaders.  Tell me what yah think of our awesome experiences!  Also, this week we taught the Zone Training Meeting, and we got to go on exchanges with the Nephi elders, I went with elder Morgan, he is fresh out the MTC. People are treating us great here in Payson.

S- We have had a few lessons with him this week, mainly all to continue preparing and informing him of what will happen at his baptism. He has a good desire to continue going to church. We have discussed it with him, and felt that the 16th would be a good day, but he was wanting to change it due to scheduling issues. We will have a lesson/baptism interview with him today that will determine his date. He has testified to us that he feels the power of the spirit at church. It is really cool.


M- Had another lesson with M it was just dandy, he was very attentive, and had good questions, we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are almost done with the recent convert lessons.

W- We haven't been able to have a lesson, as they have canceled a bunch. We have a lesson today in which we will talk about his concern. He still is struggling with accepting a date to be baptised. We have testified several time in the sincerity of our heart that he needs faith first, but no such luck.. we are at this moment planting seeds.


T- We are usually have lessons every Sunday at about 12:30. So this Sunday we invited him to regional conference , he said they would be there and then there for the lesson following it. The lessons we have been giving have mainly been review. He was taught several times by missionaries in the past.


R-We had an other lesson with R on wednesday, it went really well. He felt good about what was taught. The R's didn't manage to make it to this appointment. We were very bold and said that he should not get baptised if they were not going to be good about going to church. We explained that when your baptised you make a covenant or a sacred promise to god that for your life you will follow him. We talked, and suggested they contact and talk with the bishop, as he would be the one to interview R.

J- He is doing very well, we have had a lesson with him, and we moved his date back a little, to accommodate a few schedule issues. He would like to be baptised on the 23rd of September! We need to have a baptismal interview, but that will be about it. He has been taught all the lessons, and is well prepared for his baptism, the Ward is very excited!

T-- We got an online referral to visit T.. He recently moved in and talked with a member about the church at work. He works a ton, so it's hard to catch him. We called him on the phone and he said he was interested but he would call us when he's not at work. UPDATE: we stopped by and talked to him through his doorbell. It sounded like he had guests over. They were laughing and joking around saying that they didn't need us, and to go away. We aren't giving up on him yet, we will be over again.


G- We met this past Thursday. It went well. We hope they make it to regional conference. Sister H came with us, so hopefully they will go to Primary the next Sunday! If they do they spirit will testify to the power and blessings of it!

K- A senior couple told us about K. We had a lesson with him on Thursday. We talked about baptism and his desires. We even put him on date for baptism for October 14. His mother said they will be able to go to the regional conference. The spirit will benefit this family tremendously!.


K- They gave us him as well. We were excited to see the family at church! We had 2 lessons set up with the,, but both fell through, this week. The mother is trying to have her father be at the lessons, but he has had other plans, and they have had to cancel. We are going to try and stop by tonight to set up another visit.

S- We talked with Brother S for 30 minutes, with his wife, and kids, joining for about 5 minutes. Very nice family. Brother S said he had been offended in his early 20s. We asked a couple of the kids if they want to go to church and they said yes. It seems the parents are holding them back, a bit. He said he will think about if he wants missionaries to teach his kids, and for us to come back in 2 weeks (this was last Monday). We feel this family has very good potential!

Elder Minson

Week 47-

 

Just some highlights of the week:

Soo on Tuesday, we did a ton of contacting.

On Wednesday we got new tires! Our front ones were wearing thin.

On Thursday at a dinner appointment, a woman said that I looked like one of Hitler's Youth!!! LOL Haha also we had district training meeting! Which was good, we learned about saving less active members.

On Friday we ran Onion Days at the booth from 4-8, we were with the Nephi sisters, Sister Young and Hancock, they are super high spirited! It was great! We got to talk to a ton of people, and open up a lot!

On Saturday we did some service, and went to Costa Vida as a district! ''Twas awesome!

On Sunday, I bore my testimony in the 18th Ward. It was great, I've come to have a lot of love for speaking, it's a great chance to touch many of God's children, and it is a great teaching opportunity as well, so that's cool!

And today I ate with Alex and Mary Minson! Their grandfather is my Grandpa Roland's cousin. So yep!

 

A couple of weeks ago Elder Duncan from the seventy, came and gave us training, it was pretty cool, we learned a lot about having more faith to do things!

 

Several zones meeting with Elder and Sister Duncan from the Seventy

At Onion Days Festival

 

 

New ties

Week 46- Payson, Utah

Payson is not much different than Springville or Spanish Fork, but smaller and much more friendly than Price and Helper.  I am still a Zone Leader , probably will be for 1 more transfer. But who knows.
  We are in a basement apartment. We cover the Payson Mount Nebo area. We don't have a washer/dryer so we do our laundry at a members. We cover three stakes. 25 wards.  My companion Elder Conley is from Ohio, and he has been out 13 months. He is a very cool elder, and wants to be very obedient which is awesome!! Surprisingly we're not teaching many, but that will change.

 GUESS WHAT! We gave talks on Sunday and afterwards a man texted us and said he heard our talks. He is a professional trainer and has a gym in his garage, he wants to train us. We had our first session today, it was crazy. We are going to get soo fit.

Getting our haircut today from a member for free:

A few other pictures

We drive a Frontier truck

Week 45- Transfers

These past weeks have been great, but they are very quickly coming to a close.

This morning the assistants called us and informed me that I was being transferred to Payson, Utah. The mount NEBO Zone!
In the past when I covered the YSA stake I went into that zone but have never been part of it. So now I'll be there for good. My new companion will be Elder Connelly! Apparently he loves the gym, so I
might get huge! Lol!
This week we had a few good lessons, one specific one that I loved was with a seventeen year old kid that live In carbonville. His name is K and he has had some experiences in the past that have pushed him into atheism. We talked with him, and the spirit testified soo strongly of prayer. It was amazing. I firmly believe, or rather hope that he will pray. It brings me quite a lot of joy to minister, and administer in the Lords vineyard.
I love you all soo much.
Please keep praying to your loving Heavenly Father. Like your earthly father and mother, they joy in hearing from you.

Sly,
Elder Minson

More from Moab

At Washington Park

Week 44

Dear parents, and people that love me.:

On Monday, as you know, MOAB! It was soo cool!

Tuesday, we had two five star lessons. The first was with a woman and her daughter. Their names and K and N. They are awesome, they both showed up to church last Sunday, and loved it. They loved all the love and attention that people gave them.! We taught a little about our purpose of being there and what not. It went splendid! The next lesson was in the evening with a young man named T. Missionaries in the past taught them, and T had expressed that they were too pushy. So we went in and had a little more relaxed lesson, we sat outside on the grass and played with their dog while we taught. It was quite a spiritual experience.

Thursday, I GOT PULLED OVER! I was going 70 in a 65 and the cop didn't like that. He pulled us over and came up to our window, first thing he said was, "Awe it's the Elders, I was already planning on giving you a ticket." Long story short, he didn't, but he ended up not being able to find our insurance, so I've had to figure that out, and had to call the courts and get the church to fax them proof that we had insurance at the time of the "pull over". It was a big barnacle. Soo much wasted time. But I've learned and I've been going the speed limit lately. Haha.

Saturday we were on exchanges! I went with Elder Joachin and something crazy happened too! Our dinner appointment canceled, so we went to this restaurant called Big Dons, where we ordered pizza. Right when we finished I placed a call to someone in the stake, and a man walked into the building. He went right up to the counter and when he thought no one was looking took a bunch of cash out of the tip jar. I didn't really realize what was going on till I got off the phone. Then we ran after him, and found him after five minutes of driving, we pulled over and started talking to him. It was too late to get the cash back, he had already purchased a bunch of chips with it. He is kinda homeless. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but we asked him about God, and offered to come by his home and teach him and he said sure!

Tender mercies! God loves all his children no matter what choices they make. And they all deserve the gospel.

These pics are of 1. Another picture from Moab last week

2. A cross eyed cat LOL

3. A kitty we found.

 

Cross-eyed cat

Last P-day (Moab trip)

Week 43- Moab!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been super eventful, we started the week off on Tuesday by waking up at 5 and driving to Provo for Mission Leadership Council. That was amazing, because the new chapter focus is chapter 13 which teaches us how to work with members better. And that's super exciting, because as we as a Zone focus on this new chapter focus our finding will increase. Technically we as missionaries don't have keys to find. The bishop of each ward does. He then delegates it to the members he calls. Which is super cool.

Also! Before I left Springville I started making a knife, and then I left for here. So I left my knife there for the man to finish and he finally did! It is sooo pretty!

On Thursday we once again woke up early and went to prepare for Zone Training Meeting. It was a very good meeting. Holy cow, there were soo many inspired comments. I learned a ton, and I'm still reflecting on it. Then we immediately start trying to work with members better. We've already started to see more lives be blessed.

Saturday we went on an exchange with the Spanish elders. It was a very good learning experience. I learned a ton from Elder Hernandez about being your self while still teaching with the spirit. It was pretty cool. He has been out about 6 months. He and I also had an interview in Green River at 12:00 so we booked it over there. We worked primarily in the Helper stake as well.

Sunday was great because well, it's Sunday! And it was fast and testimony meeting! Yay, I always love hearing testimonies. Also, people came to church in the Gordon Creek Ward that weren't members! And they were interested learning more, so we set up a lesson on Tuesday.

And today we went to Moab! We saw a couple of arches and got a lot of sweet pictures. It was breathtaking. Plus my companion is super good looking so that was fun. Haha jk, but really I love nature soo much, God really knows how to make em doesn't he?. But please enjoy the beautiful pictures of some of our Zone. Woohoo! It was a blast.

So most of these pics are of Moab. And one is of our Zone Training Meeting last week.

Love Elder Minson

Our tradition when someone is going home

Moab bound! (me in the back)

 Moab pictures