So after emails, we had dinner and then tried to figure out who we needed to visit. We prayed and looked through our Area Book, but we couldn't find anyone. It was just dead. We didn't know what we needed to do. Then Elder Brinkerhoff had an idea and we went back to our place and watched a video by Richard G. Scott about Prayer and things that can happen with Prayer. Lesson learned is that sometimes all you gotta do is something, and then you'll know if it's the right or wrong thing to do.
Tuesday we had District Council again, read the Book of Mormon till the Sisters got there in the bed of the Truck. It was a nice day really so I thought why not. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation and how it's proven in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I'll throw in a picture of the scriptures in the bottom. Then we visited some families, the Blines weren't home but we visited the Huckaby Son and Grandma. Then after we came back home and basically talked about each other and helped both me and Elder Brinkerhoff understand each other and why we do certain things. Then we did some easy make Pasta, but we used two different flavors in one dish. It was good, I forgot to take a pic so trust me, me and Elder Brinkerhoff did make food.
Wednesday was a long day. So these past few weeks we have had troubles with our Fridge water, having leaks at some parts of the fridge and having our Landlord come through and turn off the water for the Fridge as we try to fix it. He finally was able to get the right part and put it in. Then we had to drive all the way back up to Collierville to have interviews with our Mission President (Honestly they're more checkups and goal setting in my opinion) but we stopped at the Morrisons and had a little lesson with them about Being Good Enough. After the interviews we taught Unique and Maricus and then we headed back home. It was pouring when we got home so we left our suit coats in the truck and went inside. We then saw that there was water still leaking from under the fridge and found out there was ANOTHER thing leaking and then we had to put a pot under and just let it sit as we called the Landlord. Then we were sending Spiritual Messages out to people and then we got a text from the Boone family asking if we had eaten yet. We told them no and that we couldn't go anywhere because of our situation. So they insisted they drop it off so we let them and we are thankful for that. Then the Landlord came back later and turned off the water. It was just a stressful night, but we learned a lot, there are always people around who care and will help.
Thursday was a little better haha, Landlord came back and fixed that and now we have officially Fridge water and ice so yay! And another thing we've been struggling with is WiFi, we don't have it here at our Apartment, and we only rely on the Hotspot on the mission phone. We go to the Library, but it's always on and off, McDonald's doesn't work, and our nearest member is 10-15 minutes away, so maybe hopefully we can ge a Modem, but we aren't sure. Search and ye shall find, and Ask and ye shall recieve XD. But then we visited Martin's, then had dinner at Mockys, then visited Georgia and watched The Refiners Fire (Link in Attachments). Basically to sum why it showed what it does, the refiner is God, and he's creating us into a beautiful rose, so that we can help others. We go through trials to become what God wants us to be, an inspiration. Watch the video, it's really good.
Friday did more Animal Shelter stuff, and then did all of our Studies and planning. We decided to take a new approach, we looked at our section called "Stopped Teaching" and we went through and grabbed names we felt like we should visit, all of them were in Holly Springs. So then we started off with someone named Lois, we went to her house, met her son, and she pulled up so we met her and she invited us to come back. Then we visited anther house but they weren't there so we left a card. Then went to a family called the Hodges, they weren't at the house, but Elder Brinkerhoff kept knocking so I was kinda confused, then we saw them pull up, and we got a time set up for us to come back because they were busy as well. Then we went to one more house, we were looking for one person, but as we went to the house, we asked the girl if she knew this person, turns out he died last year. So the girl and her boyfriend(who knew the other person) lives there now so we met them and they allowed us to come back. So that was a crazy day. Then had dinner at Brother Roswells house and had my mind blown into smithereens. I'll just say this, we are all really important and we were sent to this Earth for a reason. It was crazy.
Saturday not a lot happened, but it was fun. Had a new ceiling fan put into our apartment so that's cool. Then we went to a Branch Event at Gary Allen's house, The Dove Hunt. We had lunch, and then we went out to his field in a wide circle area and stationed ourselves (No I didn't shoot, Missionaries aren't allowed to shoot guns) and waited for Doves, in the end, we got 4 Doves. So that was cool watching that and seeing how Bird Hunting goes. Then after that we tried visiting people but not one was home.
Sunday we had church, found out the Stake Patriarch was released, but he's still alive. We have assumption he may have been called to the Area of 70, we don't know. But we won't know till General Conference. Then after church we had another lesson with the Morrisons about Asking God about questions, mainly James 1:4-6. Then later we had our lesson with Cooper about the Plan of Salvation. So that was fun.
As I close, I want to actually talk about the Plan of Salvation. I have a pic attached that shows a diagram Elder Brinkerhoff made for the Plan. So I'll go through it section by section. So in the Pre-Mortal Life, we lived with God, we are literally his spirit children. In this stage we learned and we grew, but there was a point where we couldn't progress further because we didn't have a body yet. So God showed us the Plan, and Jesus volunteered to be our Savior, and all of us here on Earth chose to follow it. The rest left with Satan after rebelling. Then God creating the Earth and everything all together, and placed Adam and Eve as the first parents. After they were tempted and ate the fruit of knowledge, which created the Fall, our earth life started. We are here on this Earth to learn more and to grow, we can't remember what happened in the Pre-Mortal Life because we have a veil over us so we can't remember or see other things. Our decisions, diligence, and Repentance affect what happens after. So when we die, we go to the Spirit World. That's where we wait for Christs Second Coming, and those who didn't know about the Gospel can have the ability to be taught about it. They can still choose to accept it or not, and even the Ordinances we do for them in the Temple. They can choose to accept it or not. Then when Christ comes again, we will be ressurected, where our bodies will reunite with our spirits and we will have a perfect body frame where we can't get hurt or get sick. Then we go to Judgement where Heavenly Father and Jesus judge our works and see if we were faithful, and if we repented. Then we get placed in 1 of 3 Kingdoms, our goal is to go for the Celestial Kingdom, where we have competed all of our Ordinances and we stayed faithful, and where we can live with our Family forever with God again, there is 3 sections in the Celestial Kingdom but I won't go into that right now. The Terrestrial is where people go who lived Honorable lives, but didn't accept the Gospel. And the Telestial is where people did a lot a bad stuff and didn't accept the Gospel at all. If anyone has questions about anything feel free to message me anytime and I'll try to respond throughout the P-Day and 2 P-Days after.
Speaking of which, I will be unable to reply to anyone's messages next Monday, for P-Day is on Tuesday next week and that is Mission P-Day so I'll be busy doing stuff all day next week. You can still reply to my stuff, I just won't be able to reply to it till the 24th. So if you have questions or just want to say hi from Tuesday till the 24th, feel free, but I won't respond till then. I will take emails today, but just a heads up for next week.
I love you all, and I always pray for you. Stay strong and push forward.
Much love,
Elder Braxton Hotton
Attachments:
Blog link: https://elderbraxtonhotton.blogspot.com/?m=1
The Refiners Fire: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-11-010-the-refiners-fire?lang=eng
1st pic: A view from the Church we rent, and in the middle section is what Kudzu looks like from a distance
2nd pic: First half of Plan of Salvation with scriptures
3rd pic: Diagram of Plan of Salvation
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