Well, there has been a couple of new things that are happening, like transfers and such, so lets start there. mM new companions name is Elder Edwards. He is from Draper Utah. He is the oldest of 4 children. He has 4 younger sisters. He has been out for about 15 months, and feels like he is about to die. (die in missionary terms is going home.) He isnt trunkie yet, but he is deffinately a different compaion thats for sure. If anything, I'm just glad that we dont have any real tension between each other. I will just have to send some video clips or something to show what he is like. He isnt bad or anything, he is just much more different than Elder Johnson. It's difficult for me to describe. I suppose that all my companions will be realatively different, but Elder Edwards is very unique. alright, so, now my area. I am serving in the Knightdale area. Being here is tripping me out. Knightdale is right next to Raleigh, infact, some of our area goes into Raleigh. The reason why Knightdale is tripping me out is because our district meets at the Raleigh stake center, and I have found out that Johnathan lives just a few blocks away from the stake center. I want to ask President Cotterell about what I am allowed to do and what I should do. Johnathan lives just outside of the borders of my area!!! I will let you know on how things go concerning meeting with Johnathan.
As for getting slammed by day light saving, I know how you feel. The church that I am attending is also at 9am. However, our bishop wanted us to be there early for some meetings, so we had to be there around 7am. In order to get to the church at 7 we have to get up and travel which takes about an hour. So that puts us waking up at 6. Take daylight saving in, and we are really waking up at 5. Yikes. But I made it through the day without complaining or sleeping.
When I first came into the area, there was only 1 person who we were teaching, and even then, he isn't that solid. It has been difficult to find new people to teach, but I have truely seen that our witness (or our finding) comes after the trail of our faith. For instance: 2 days ago, we were trying to see a few people that were in the area book who were formers and potential investigators. In the past, this has been the main source of our finding. We would usually use the principal of proximity which our mission president has counciled us to use. The principal of proximity (or POP) means that we will try to meet some people that we feel we should visit, and then we knock on some of the doors around (usually not more than 5-6) But anyway, we were doing what we normally did, and we saw that we accidentally didnt plan as well as we could have. We were left on our bikes with nothing left to do. This has never happened to me before, and my senior companion didnt seem to know what to do either, or really be motivated to do anything. But this was what I think was the trail of my faith. I didnt know what else to do to fufill my purpose as a missionary at the time and we were being rejected left and right. Nothing seemed to be working right. Even though I didnt have any direction really, we started to go more on the tracting side of finding others rather than POP side. In my heart I sincerly pleaded with my father in heaven saying, " I dont know what else to do, I'm trying my best, plaese help me." and within the next few doors, someone accepted us in and listened to our message and we had a great discussion. We have another appointment with him later on. It's so interesting to me how the lords work goes along. It's really a testimony to me that it really is the lords work, he is just letting me be a part of it.
Love Elder Masulonis
This a humorous thing Kent wrote about in one of his letters.
One night I was especially tired and fell right to sleep once I got to bed. Evidently I was snoring because I remember that at one moment I was asleep and then the very next I was awake. I was confused at why I was awake, and just like how dad talks half asleep half worried, I unknowingly asked Elder Johnson what was happening. After asking him several times and after coming to my senses he said, "I'll tell you one last time, but you have to listen!" I woke up to my senses, he told me that he hit me with a pillow so I would stop snoring. He laughed at my reaction. After both of us realized what happened and how things happend, we both laughed uncontrollably. (Missionary giggles?) I'm not sure on how much sense this makes but we were in the sage where everything was way funny because we were so tired.
The following are excerpts from a letter we received in the mail from Kent. There are personal things he writes to individuals in our family, and answers to questions that we have asked him, so I don't post his entire letters word for word. We are so proud of him and love to see him happily serving and growing.
Something that I have learned is that because the Lord Loves us so much, the things that are important to us, are important to him. Now this doesn't mean that all our desires will come true, but again, all things are possible with God on our side. Something that has stood out to me recently on this subject is that the Lord will help us but not do everything for us.
Right now we are teaching a few people. But one of them I'm thinking might get baptized. I'm kinda nervous though. He baptism date is in April and transfer meeting is coming up. And I'm not sure if I will be able to baptize him or even see him get baptized. This is particularly distressing to me because I have bee the only missionary who has consistently taught him. I feel connected to him because I found him and have taught him and seen him grow. We will see what happens. His name is Otto.
Kent also wrote other things but adds: "sorry if this letter seems jumbled, I'm as the beach right now. Don't worry I'm not swimming or anything. It's just easy to get distracted by the sound of the waves and the warm weather and all the beauty:)"
Mom, I love how it doesnt really matter what is going on around you in life you are able to think of things in an eternal perspective. You are able to look forward with optomism. You are a great example to me. I love you. And about being lectured, I dont care, in fact I kinda like it. I know that you are much smarter than me and have much more experience than me, and when you tell me the things that I need to do, you are fullfilling your responsability as a parent, and also in a way, showing your love for me. Which reminds me of something that stood out to me yesterday in fast and testimony meeting. One of the young women got up and shared her experiance of getting her patriarchal blessing. She said it was one of the more powerfull spiritual experiances in her life time. After the blessing was given, her dad recognized that she was feeling the spirit strongly and said to her, "now do you understand why I'm so hard on you? Because I want the best for you?" It touched me. Not her experiance, but the words that her dad said. I know that my heavenly father loves me, but this was an expression of love to me through the holy spirit. It was really easy for this to be applied to me and my heavenly father. I could see him saying the same thing when I meet him again. "now do you understand that I'm so hard on you, because I want the best for you?"
I'm not sure if I have told you about my new companion yet, but he is great, and a great example to me. He has expresed his love to me, he has been teaching me many things. Not by actually sitting down with me and directly telling me, but by what he does and how he does it. He is my best companion. I'm not sure if he knows it or not, but he has taught me that unfortunately, it becomes easier to not show your love from day to day for someone you know well and love deeply. And I have seen the importance of continued expressions of love. Without them, we single ourselves and become self centered and difficulties arise. I have learned the importance of unique, planned, acts of thoughtfull love and service. He has taught me a pricipal form preach my gospel very well that when we are focused on others more than ourselves, we benefit more than if we focused on ourselves. Well, I only have a little bit of time left, but I want you to know that I love you and I pray for you often. I hope that the things that I do will be pleasing to my father in heaven.
Love Elder Masulonis.
Dear Mom,
I have new companion. I love him so much. His name is Elder Johnson. He has been out for 20 months and is about to go home. He is amazing. Im not sure if i wrote this in last weeks letter or not, it was one of the more eventful things that happened to me. Last preparation day we were playing basketball and something happened that made it easy for my to react instead of think and act. I said a sarcastic thing to Elder Loftin, and mind you that Elder Loftin is much stronger than I am. Elder Loftin kinda flipped. He grabbed me by the shirt with his fists and pushed me close to the wall and he started forcibly talking at me with a loud hard voice. I didnt really take offense, because I thought about what was happening and stopped my reacting. It wasn't a very good experience because some of the members and an investigator was there and they were a little shocked that a missionary would do something like that. At that point we weren't representing the Lord. afterward we talked about it and forgave each other. Elder Johnson my followup trainer is my best companion so far. He is loving and filled with the spirit. He is helping me be the best I can be. I am loving him. We are friends. And not only that, we are doing allot better in the missionary work also. He is teaching me allot in his example. He is an answer to a prayer. I know that God hears my prayers, no matter how significant they are. I am very grateful for the experiences I am getting. I am nourishing a seed of being less self centered and more focused on others, especially our investigators. And that mind set has seemed to be helping me more than focusing on what I think is best. No matter what we think, God knows more and knows best. He has an eternal perspective. His is infinitely loving and compassionate. I love him. When we rely more on him and focus on others more than ourselves, God is pleased and we are then blessed for our efforts which are then magnified by him.
Love Elder Masulonis
I haven't gotten home sick my entire mission and I'm not sure if I will, but I'll tell you if I do. We played tennis this morning and I aced a few serves.
So Daniel Becks baptism was great! President Crenshaw actually spoke at the baptism. With Daniel its kinda funny/ironic. He has overcame so much to get baptized. Everything from smoking and drinking ice tea, to just reading his scriptures and coming to church. But the funny/ ironic thing is, now that he has been taught and baptized, he wants to move to knoxville tennessee some time soon.
While I've been out here, I have seen something really neat with president Crenshaw. (I call him president because he just became the new elders quorum president last week.) One day, he was coming back home on a motorcycle and by and by he ended up crashing. He wasn't killed or anything, but he was beat up pretty bad. He had road rash pretty bad. Within the next day or two he got a blessing so that he could heal quickly and well. It was important that he got better soon because he basically flips / re-does houses, and in the condition he was in, he couldn't really do a lot of the work he usually did very well. Through his endurance and faith, he was healed and he was able to do his job. Within the past week or two, I've been reminded and learned more that sometimes the reason why we go through really hard things is so we will rely on Christ more. Hard times are learning opportunities. I saw a little girl crying because her feelings were hurt by someone and i thought, " grow up." This is not how our father thinks of us when we go through difficulties and struggles. He loves us. He knows us. He sent his son to live and die for us. He suffered pains and sicknesses of every kind. Surely he was a man aquatinted with grief. He suffered for us so that he would be able to know how to succor his people the best. He doesn't look at us and say " grow up." He KNOWS. He understands. He wants to help us grow. The things that we find of importance are also important to him and the good news is that he provides us with help. If we choose to humble ourselves before him and having faith in him, by reading our scriptures, by praying, by fasting, by going to church, by having faith, by having hope, by living like his son,and by helping others on their way, I know that he will help us. We are in every way, imperfect. This world and life is a time given so that we can become perfectED. So that we can then someday live with our heavenly father. To be able to have him say to us... well done my child. We will know that we messed up alot, but that we also ended up following the path he has provided for us, and thats what really matters.
I really hope that you guys know back at home that I love you and I hope the best for you. I hope that through life we can all rely more upon Jesus Christ who is the only way in order to get to God and happiness and relief. I know that he is the way and the light. I love him and I'm trying my best.
- LOVE Elder Masulonis
So I'm not sure if I've told you this before, but preperation days are awesome. Today was only slightly lest awesome. It rained this morning, which I wouldnt really care if it was any other day because Elder Loftin and I play tennis with someone named Brother Crenshaw on monday mornings. ( and I've heard that when you do missionary work in the rain, your future wife gets hotter ;) ) he is pretty good, and he is teaching me how to play better. Hopefully I can keep this hobby on my mission so when I get back I can waste dad. ;)
Ya so actually I live in the up stairs of some members, and they have a ton of horses. They also have like 4-5 dogs. And I had to learn the hard way that if you leave your bike helmet out, the next day it would be all chewed up.
So this week we went on a blitz with our zone leaders. A blitz in mission terms is when 2 companionships serve in the same area and the companionships are switched for the day. So I was with Elder Pace, and Elder Loftin was with Elder Whitman. (Elder Whitman was one of the Elders from Rexburg ID. I was on the basketball team with him in jr. high. His dad works up at the college.) I learned alot from Elder Pace. He was so considerate and understood my situation so well and could relate to me. He actually reminds me of Jamin a lot. He grew up on a ranch and fixed farm equipment and rode horses and herded cattle and moved pipe growing up. But he helped me be a better missionary by showing me how I can improve and loving me. He is amazing. Anyway, he helped me talk to everyone about the gospel. Like really everyone. Elder Loftin and I got in the rut of going from one appointment to another and not noticing the people on the side of the raod as much. But Elder Pace would help me by encouragement and by example to talk with everyone. As we started to talk with everyone I met up with, I got shut down more and more. Near the end of the blitz, I secretly thought to myself, why can't I talk with the spirit? Why do I always think of what I should say next instead of listening to the spirit? What am i doing wrong that is causing me to get shut down so much by people and on the inside as well. But as we were going to our last place that we were planning on going to, I ended up talking to a man named Otto. At first, I though he was a little slow because when i was explaining the restoration, he just accepted everything we told him. But Elder Pace offered to give him a Book of Mormon, and he showed that he wasn't slow by declining in an intelegent way. Elder Pace then asked him, "what are you feeling right now?" He then said, "warmth and saftey" Elder Pace then taught him that the feelings that he was experiencing were feelings caused by the spirit touching his soul. We then set a return appointment. I took away from that experience that again, it is after, that trial of our faith that we recieve a witness form our Heavenly father. Sometimes we go through things so that we can have a great prize. But when we have faith in our Heavenly Father and in his son Jesus Christ, we are able to obtain that prize. I am very greatful for this blesing in my life. It may seem small to others, but it was from my Heavenly Father and it is important to me.
I'm so grateful for being able to be raised by goodly parents. I often forget how truely blessed I am. Thank you for supporting me and helping me be the person I am today.
love- Elder Masulonis
