What is up all you fine males and females! I hope you all are crushing at life and I hope y’all are doing good! So much has happened this week so let's get right into it…
Scripture of the week:
2 NEPHI 28:30 For behold, thus saith the lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there little; and blessed are those who harken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto the council, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth i will give more; and from them that shall be taken away even that which they have.
I am going to try to fit a spiritual thought every week because I have been lacking on those..
Spiritual thought of the week:
One thing I have been thinking about this week is how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and it's truly something we should all stop and think about. How do you feel the Holy Ghost? How does He speak to you? What feeling do you get when you feel the Holy Ghost?
For me, I have found the best way that helps me is when I pray before I read the Book of Mormon and then after I read, to go into a room alone and say a prayer out loud and ask for guidance and to feel the Spirit. And then I sit there and listen and feel for anything and once I have a good feeling or thought I write it down in a journal and remember that good feeling because that is the Holy Ghost speaking. It's not something you do only once. I have found myself doing this process a lot on my mission to remember how the Holy Ghost speaks to me and it's something we should do all time.
More times than not we find ourselves comfortable and feel like we got everything figured out and we lose site of how the Holy Ghost speaks to us and we need to retune ourselves back with the Spirit and how he communicates to us. I will continue to pray when I feel like I have lost site of how the Holy Ghost speaks to me so that I can keep myself spiritual in tune with Him
The biggest thing I want ya’ll go get out of this email is to go read the Book of Mormon! Before you read, say a prayer ask God to help you find out how the Holy Ghost speaks to you and read the scriptures and once you have finished reading, go into a room alone, somewhere private and say a prayer out loud and ask to find out how the Holy Ghost speaks to you. Before you end your prayer, sit and listen and once you find that feeling say thank you and go write down how you felt so you remember how the Holy Ghost speaks to you. And it may take more than once to find how the Holy Ghost speaks to you. The Lord may want to see how much you are willing to stay steadfast fast to Him so keep it up until you find how the Holy Ghost speaks to you.
March 17
I packed all day and we also went around and said goodbye to some ward members. It was sad but the Lord had called me to a different area. The Lord does everything for a reason in our lives, even if its hard trial, it all happens for a reason.
March 18
Moving day and man it was so cool! To start the day off we drove back to Oklahoma City which is a 2 hour drive from Muskogee. As we got closer to our destination we saw (what my gramps calls a convoy) of Toyota rav4s because those are the cars all the missionaries use. It looks like an army of cars with bikes on them all following each other, pretty sure some locals were wondering what the heck was going on.
Then we got to the church which we call the pen building, there i was able to watch the “ring of fire” but instead of being new and getting a trainer I got to watch all the new missionaries (greenies) come into the mission and get their companions. It was so cool to see everyone! I got to see two sisters from my MTC District and it was fun to say hi. I also got to see a friend I made in the MTC. It was fun to say hi to everyone and catch up. Once we got our keys and car, me and my new companion, Elder Siddoway headed out for another hour drive to Lawton, Oklahoma. Fun fact, it is the second largest town in Oklahoma. It also has a military base, one for the U.S. Airforce and the other side had an Army boot camp training for new soldiers. After driving for so long we finally made it. We had to stop at a military post and get visitor passes because we teach on the Army base here in Lawton which will be so fun. After we went there after for a bible study but unfortunately we have to go through training before we can teach the soldiers but it's only a 2 day training so it will be fast. It will be so fun to share our love of God to the men and women who fight for our country. After that we came back to the apartment and slept good.
March 19
Well I hear artillery guns firing all day long
Today was so cool. We made three new friends whose names are Chuck, Makayla and David. All of them are so cool and we are so excited to teach them. All are wanting to understand our church and learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And we also got to volunteer at a food pantry. I am basically in a dudestrict- in short , my District is all elders. There are our Zone leaders, Elder Tyler and Elder Domen plus the trio, Elder Hogge, Bullock and Ross. We all got to work at the food pantry. It was good to help those who needed food and who are going through a hard time. Me and Elder Siddoway are getting along well and our goal is to help at least one person in Lawton come closer to Christ though the covenant of baptism so let's see what happens this transfer. Afterwards Elder Domen and Elder Taylor came to our house during dinner. Some members here got us burgers which was so nice and it was so good and then we went back out to walk around and try to find people to teach and help.
March 20th Well today was so awesome! We got our missionary app aka pmg for Preach My Gospel, to work so we were able to go knock on some members' doors and talk to some referrals and we made 3 friends. It was so cool to talk to them, we also had a random moment at Golden Corral where we went for dinner with some members. While we were there, this guy came up to us and asked to get a picture with us, so we got one with him and then he just left without a trace, so random. Outside of that, we just had a fun day walking and meeting members. We talked to a guy whose wife had a prom dress rental business and had 400+ dresses and we got to see the room of them all which was crazy.
March 21
Day three here in Lawton and we have made two new friends who are so cool and we also have taught some lessons. Our first lesson was with a lady named Carol who is on date to be baptized but after talking to her and learning about her I don't think she fully understands some of the commitments required for baptism so we went over them and just asked her a simple questions (when you go to church what do want out of it and what are you looking for at church and why do you come)
I believe it's important to know why you go to church. If you go to church with the wrong mindset it's not going to help you and you will not receive all the blessings you can gain from church. It's only 2 hours of our Sabbath day that we are asked to go to church, to give of our time to the Ones who created us and gave us this amazing life here on earth- Who have placed us where we need to be.
After our time with Carol we walked around and went to a member's house where I got to work on a car and completely take out and replace a radiator and it was so much fun to work on cars again! Sorry mom, my white shirt is a little dirty now but its not too bad, a quick wash and it will be good to go and the guy was so happy I fixed his car. He said “I don't think I have ever seen a Mormon work on their own car before.” He then proceeded to take a picture of me to send to his wife 😆 after all that, we had a lesson with a cool guy named Chuck we are teaching who we met 2 days ago, super cool guy. Then we went to the church to play corn hole with some of the members and some guy called me out on my boots saying it was probably not the best to wear on a mission and that because Lawton was a military town many people would look down on my unpolished boots. I kindly just said thanks for letting me know. Even though I got approval from my mission presidents to wear them for proselyting ( walking out in public) and I have a better pair of shoes I wear for church and my boots have been used for 4 years without polish and they are meant to be work boots so of course I'm going to wear them when walking out all day. And they can get worn and dirty so it's ok. I wore them all day in my last area and no one had a problem with them. After that it was a chill rest of the day
March 22
Today was such a cool day. To start it all off we left the apartment at 7:20am and went to the Army post, Fort Sill. It serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Fires Center of Excellence. We drove over to where the basic training happens and walked into a building where we met a couple missionaries who were assigned there and we set up church for all those who were in basic training to come and have church or as we call it BCT. We got to speak for a couple of them before we had to go over to a different area where we had church service for those in AIT or in short, a more specific training like heavy artillery, aircraft, tanks, officers etc and we were able to bless and pass the sacrament of the Lord’s supper to them. It was cool to meet and talk to the men who are serving our country and it's just such a cool feeling to be a part of. That feeling that you get to go on base and teach soldiers and help them find and strengthen their relationship with God and how He can bless all our lives when we put Him first is incredible. After that we headed to our home ward where we met the members in the Lawton 1st ward and it was such a fun experience! After church we headed quickly to the hospital and I got to give my first priesthood blessing on my mission to someone. Her name was Shirley Brady and she was such a kind lady who sadly had a really bad health problem and so we gave here a blessing and man, it's so cool to be set apart as a missionary and see all this happen and see the blessings that come from it. I’m grateful God gives us His power through His priesthood to bless others. After her blessing we gave her the sacrament and we wished her luck on getting better. I also had to get all dressed in a hospital outfit 😆 so now I have a funny picture of me in hospital clothes hahah
Outside of that I had a chill rest of the day and got to meet some more members and I’m looking forward to the new week.
March 23
Well today was a sigma day, We had a lot happen this morning. We had a Zone meeting over zoom since we are District leaders and so we had to talk with the other set of District leaders and the Zone leaders. Then we had zl training which is a zoom with the mission president, President Huffaker with all the District leaders and Zone leaders in the mission and we had a training that happens once a month. After that we went and visited some friends and some referrals. We also stopped at a family member's house where I role played sharing the gospel to them. We biked a lot today. I can't feel my legs but it’s ok, pain is sometimes the best teacher. Overall, a good day.
March 24
Today was pretty chill and busy. We started the day biking for 3 hours to visit people and we made 2 more friends who are super cool and we are so excited to teach them we are giving out Book of Mormons so fast we are going to have to put in an order for more. For lunch we went with the other elders to Sam's club for lunch with another elder who recently had a really hard night- long story short, an elder in our district sadly had to get sent home due to some mental health problems so they had to ET (emergency transfer) the other elder to the Zone leaders
Pls pray for the elder who had to go home his family. The elder still here is Elder Gold who is super cool and fun to talk to. He is from Idaho falls. After lunch we went and met a young boy named Robert, he is so fun to talk to. He is 11 and his grandma recently got baptized and she wants Robert to be baptized if its what he wants so we are teaching him. it's a little tough, he has really bad ADHD and some other things so its hard for him to stay focused for long but we made it work but we are so excited to teach him! After all our teaching we went over to the church and played volleyball ball for 2 hours with youth and other members of the Church which we do every Tuesday at the end of the day over all, a good day!
Well everyone time for me to close this long email but hope yall have a good day and I got my address so if you all want to send anything, whether its cards or package here is my address
Elder Saul Saunders
ROSE BROOK apartment
3132 NW Cache Rd, #115
Lawton, OK 73505.
Shout out to my friend Madi Miner, she got called to serve in the Mesa Arizona mission!