Week 53, July 31, 2017

Miracles = Faith+Action Howdy Y'all! So this week was a Ton of fun and adventures. We have been really tight on miles so no jaunts over to Veil but it was a lot of fun despite the fact that we are at like zero miles at this point. We got three amazing new investigators! We had the lesson with Kim which was amazing! Turns out her Grandmother was a member and her aunt just got baptized a member! I feel like she is being prepared by the hand of the Lord to hear the message. It is amazing! Second was a girl named Alyxis. She is awesome. She has been taught by the sister missionaries for a while and they just handed her off so its been fun to teach her. The third was Jason! Last week I talked about Jill and it turns out Jill's roommate has a brother named Jason who is often over at the apartment. We taught him and in the process of getting to know him it just naturally transitioned to the restoration. It was amazing and I totally felt the Spirit there. It was amazing! That was the major happenings this week so now onto the Spiritual thought. You might have guessed that I am going to talk about miracles. Specifically what it takes to see one. Up until now I cannot say I have seen tremendous miracles in my life. At least not the type you hear about in General conference. I have seen little miracles but have felt that overall I have not seen the miracles that everyone always talks about. But suddenly, they have appeared. Now for those of you who know me I am rather scientifically minded. So of course I started to wonder. What could have sparked these miracles? What changed in my life? Is there a correlation or causation? And it dawned on me. Transfers happened. With transfers came a new companion. And as I discussed last week along with this new companion came a work ethic the likes of which I have never seen in any of my companions. Not that I have had bad companions. Elder Wildung is just a most exceptional missionary. So what have we been doing since he got here? We have worked our tails off. And what does that have to do with miracles? Miracles happen when we exercise Faith and then put in our best effort. Not to say that if you do those things then you can guarantee a miracle. But on the other hand if you don't do them then I CAN guarantee there will not be a miracle. Or at least it is extremely unlikely. I cannot pretend to dictate what God can and cannot do. Either way the point is we have to ACT. I love the saying "Pray like it's all on God, then Work like it's all on You". That is the way its supposed to be. We are not just meant to pray and have all our problems disappear. We are meant to work and trust that when we follow the Lords plan for us things will all work out for the best. So we work hard. Not because we pretend that we can make it to Heaven by our works. That is NOT Possible! We cannot do it! We cannot EARN our way to Heaven. We have to rely on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only way. But if we want to see the Lord's hand in our lives there is only one way to truly do it. Work hard and then leave the rest up to the Lord. Put forth your best effort and He most definitely will make things work together for your good. God loves us. He wants to bless us. Not always the way we want him to but the best way for us. And so we work hard and the blessings rain down and the miracles appear. That is the way to see God's hand in our lives. I promise God is there. He wants to help you. But you cannot expect him to just make all your problems go away. He wants us to grow. That is why He Blesses us with trials. Notice what I did there? I didn't say He gives them to us. He blesses us with them. There is a distinct difference that is all a matter of perspective. And that changed perspective can make an enormous difference. I promise. I love all of you so much. I hope you are doing well and having a great time. Sincerely Elder Nathan Lindh

Week 52, July 24, 2017

Positive Influences

Howdy Y'all!

So This week has been pretty crazy so I will just keep it down to a few highlights.

First of all I have a new companion! I have to apologize I misspelled his name last week. It is in fact Wildung not Wildone. I apologize for the confusion and for the mistake. I will talk more about him later in my spiritual thought. 

We also have seen some pretty amazing things. A while back when Elder Lunt was here we got rear ended by a young lady. Everything was fine the car had no major damage and no one got hurt. But in the incident we got this lady's phone number. Her name was Kim and we have not had too much contact since the incident got settled. But She seemed open and had been on my mind for a couple of days. I kept feeling like I should text her. It took me a while but I did and she said she would be interested in learning more about the church! It was such a miracle to see something like this come out of what normally would have been a strictly negative experience. 

The other things that happened is we had an awesome lesson with Emily and met a really cool less active named Jill. Its been amazing to meet new people and see the work of the Lord hastening in my area. I love being a missionary. 

Now onto my spiritual thought. Now I will tell you a bit more about Elder Wildung. Elder Wildung has been with me for 6 days and in that time I do not think I have seen him stop smiling even once. It is insane how positive and enthusiastic he is. It is especially appreciated by me who has felt like I have lost some of my enthusiasm for the work. I have enjoyed immensely the 6 days we have been together. Not to say I don't love my previous companions. (I love and miss all of them) But I have most certainly felt a lot more confident and enthusiastic while I have been with him. 

So here's the message. There are only 2 types of friends in this world. Good friends and Bad friends. What's the difference? The difference is that a Good friend makes you a better person and enriches your life. A Bad friend is someone who makes your life harder and only makes you a worse, more selfish person. And why does this matter? Because we get to choose each day what type of friend we will be. Will we be a Good friend that people enjoy being around and makes others better? Or will we be a Bad friend that makes the lives of those around us harder and bleaker? Only we can choose. Now I know and recognize that is a slight exaggeration. In reality I know there is a lot more gray area where there are some who don't affect us much and don't change our lives much one way or the other. But in my opinion those are not Good friends so by default are a Bad friend in that they don't make our lives better. 

Now this is not to say we should cut people out of our life because they are not driving us to be better people. In fact I don't mean to direct this as a way to judge others or tell you how to live your life or who you should hang out with. Instead I mean this to hopefully cause some introspective thinking. I want those of you who read this to take a good long look at your life, your characteristics, your habits, your mannerisms, and evaluate " Am I a Good friend or a Bad friend? Do I make the lives of others Easier or Harder?" and to be honest I don't know what your answer will be. But I would suggest that if the answer is that you are a Bad friend that maybe you should evaluate your choices in life and make the necessary changes to become a Good friend. And this is not a challenge I extend lightly. I am doing the very same thing. I am trying to make changes in my life that will allow me to be a Good friend to everyone. I want everyone I run into to see the Savior in the way I live my life and the choices I make. Not to say I am perfect but that I know that I want to live my life the way the Savior lived his. Full of love and service and kindness. I don't want to be remembered as a grumpy rude individual who did nothing but complain and bemoan my lot in life. So I am making the changes to reflect the Saviors life and teachings. 

The second half of my thought is along the same lines. I have been watching Elder Wildung. I mean when I spend almost every waking hour with the guy its hard not to. And I have noticed something. He is a happy guy. Now some of you might go "Wow how long did it take you to figure that one out?" especially if you know Elder Wildung. But I don't just mean He acts happy or looks happy. He IS happy. It is one of his characteristics. And I have been pondering on that. I mean who does not want to be a happy person? I want to be more like him. So I have been wondering how to do this. And I have a few thoughts. 

First of all, happiness is a state of being. It's not as much an emotion as it is a lifestyle. So how do we make happiness our lifestyle? That is a task that is easier said than done. We follow the teachings of Christ. Sounds simple but it's not quite as easy as all that. We have to truly center our lives on the Gospel of Christ. And we have to do it with a cheerful heart. It needs to be done because we have a love for the Gospel and a love for the Savior. Not because we want God to fix all our problems. And that is the thing. God is not going to simply wave his hand and fix every tiny problem we might ever face. And why not? because God wants us to be happy. And not just feel happy as a temporary thing. He wants us to have everlasting happiness. Another word that is probably more accurate is Joy. I need to change my definition of Elder Wildung. He is not simply a happy person, he is a Joyful person. The difference is that you can feel happiness in life and not experience true Joy. But when you are a truly Joyful person you will always be happy. Not because life will suddenly cease to have trials. But because that Eternal Joy and the perspective it brings will allow us to feel Happy even when life is extremely hard. And that is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings. Not temporary relief or happiness. But True and everlasting Joy. That is why so often the youth of the church are often seen as being happy positive people. Those of you who know my little sister Anna know what I am referring to. She is a joyful person. 

Now I hope you guys hear what I am trying to say. We choose each day who we are and what we do. We can choose to be a Good friend. We can choose to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ the center of our lives and let the Prince of Peace bring peace and Joy to our lives. Its all a choice. Not an easy one and not a one time choice. Instead it is a choice we make every second of every day. Whether we will choose Joy or sadness. Whether we will be a Good or a Bad friend. And hopefully we make the right choice. 

I love you all. I hope you have an amazing week and I am thinking/praying for all of you! I love you!

Love

Elder Nathan Lindh

Transfers!

 

Week 51, July 17, 2017

Disagreements Howdy y'all! So its been another week which makes six in total in the belleview ward. As many of you might be wondering why that is important, that means it's transfer time! Tomorrow I will be heading to transfer meeting to drop off my companion Elder Lunt and pick up my new companion Elder Wildun ( I believe that is the spelling I have never met him so have no idea.) I will be staying another transfer in the amazing Belleview ward! So my address will not be changing! That being said this week has been full but not super productive when it comes to sharing the gospel. It has however been extremely helpful in preparing to share the gospel. On tuesday we had an amazing lesson with Emily a recent convert who is extremely well versed in the gospel. Honestly I love teaching her because her faith is amazing! She has every reason not to join the church or to remain active and yet she doesn't ever waver. Someday I hope my testimony can be as strong as hers. Then we spent the majority of Wednesday cleaning. We did a deep clean of the apartment. Its all nice and clean. Well it was..... Elder Lunt is getting ready to leave so his stuff is in various stages of being packed. Anyway that night we had a lesson with a man named Josh. I mentioned him a week ago. He had excellent questions and we had a good lesson. It was great. However he says he is not interested in joining the mormon Church so we might not want to waste our time teaching him. He did however commit to reading the book of Mormon so we will see what comes of it. We will probably refer him to other elders. Technically He is not a YSA but I still enjoyed teaching him and introducing him to the gospel. Thursday we were jam packed with district meeting, an appointment and then interviews with president. The appointment was with a young man named Hunter who is progressing really well. He just works on sunday which means he goes to the family ward instead of ours but we are trying to get that changed so he could be more involved with the ward. Friday we went to Vail! it is a rather remote part of our area so in three transfers Elder Lunt had never been out there. We decided we would go and visit a few people and see the sights. It turns out when you cannot check the traffic that things take longer than you think they will. It took us 2 hours to make what is usually a 45 minute drive. So we only got to try a few people. The frustrating part is that the addresses we had all didn't exist or weren't accessible. So It was rather disappointing. But Elder Lunt got to see Vail and we learned some valuable information. Saturday was spent getting Elder Lunt started on packing, then we had a lesson with Tony sailas. Tony is a great guy and a convert of about a year. He went into the army but got hurt in basic so was not able to pursue that. Because of that he is in a state of flux that makes it hard for him to get to church. But we hope that we can get him to start coming soon. On sunday we met with Sarah and Chrissy Page. The Page's are an awesome family and it was so much fun to teach them. We hope to get them more involved in the ward as they struggle to come to activities or church. Hopefully one of these days they will come. And that was the week. So onto the lesson I learned. There is a difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable. Disagreeable people are no fun and are hard to hang around with. But you can disagree with someone and not be disagreeable. The way I learned this is that me and Elder Lunt have disagreements. Not that we don't get along (don't tell anyone but he has become a very close friend and I admire him greatly) But we don't always see things the same way. But that is not to say that that is a bad thing. We can see life differently and still get along well because of two things. First the Atonement of Jesus Christ allows us to forgive one another and to change. And secondly our difference of opinion does not necessarily mean one of us is wrong or one of us is right. We can both be right and yet not agree. Now I am not going to say I am perfect. I am not. In fact I am a stubborn, bull headed, strong willed individual who likes things to work the way I want them to. Which means If I disagree then it is likely that I will not back down until I feel that I have either proven my point or until I feel it is pointless to continue the conversation. Now that is not always the best thing. I tend to refuse to drop things and so can be rather annoying. Elder Lunt can testify of that. But at the same time I know that I don't know everything so I tend to accept other peoples view of the world so long as I can understand why they see things that way. I think that is important. Sometimes we are not even truly disagreeing but because we as humans don't know everything we don't understand why the other person cannot see things our way. We need to understand that not everyone thinks the way we do. And that is okay. Part of what makes humankind so special and amazing is that we are all so different, and yet we can get along despite those differences. In fact it is a part of our Heavenly Father's plan for us to disagree. But it is integral that we overcome those differences and learn to love one another. That is why we are here on earth. So the take away here is we can disagree with others, and not be disagreeable. I love all of you so much and hope that You know that. I want you all to know that I think of you and pray for you every day. I love you. Love Elder Lindh

Week 50, July 10, 2017

Hard Lessons Howdy Y'all! So this week was kinda hard. All our lessons cancelled and so we were not able to meet with anyone. But instead we saw a miracle. Yesterday at 8 I wanted to go home. I had a headache I was tired and had been in meetings most of the day. So when we realized we had not done companionship study I thought "awesome! we can go home at 8 do companionship study and I will get to bed early." But luckily I have an awesome companion. Elder Lunt didn't tell me what to do but instead was rather incessant that there was a better use of our time. So finally at 8:15 I gave in and we headed out. We decided to take a walk and talk to everyone we met. At about 8:50 we had not talked to anyone and I was about ready to call it a day. But on the way home we met a man named Josh. We began talking to Josh and telling him a bit about what we believe. He used to be baptist but has since became atheist. Not that he had a problem with God but that he found some things in the bible hard to accept and other things he saw in religious beliefs bothered him. But as we continued talking for almost every question he had, the gospel had an answer. It was amazing. The best part is we will be going back on Wednesday to teach him. So that was our miracle. Now onto my hard learned lessons. First topic I want to speak of is empathy. Not sympathy, but empathy. I know they are often used interchangeably but there is a large difference. Sympathy means we can see why someone did something in an objective way and then we feel bad for them. Empathy means we know how they feel and we understand them. Not to mean that we necessarily had the same experience they did but that we had a close enough experience that we know how they feel. I have found that empathy is a hard thing to earn. It is never easy. This week I gained a little empathy. For as long as I have been a missionary and even most of my time as a member of this church I have never fully understood why some people would choose to abandon everything they know and love just because someone did something that offended them. Often times they get offended by a leader that said something that upset them or something they disagreed with. I have never understood how they could allow such a "petty" thing to drive them from something they know to be true. Then I learned what it feels like. And suddenly I had a very clear understanding of how that could happen. I will try to avoid specifics but I had an experience with a person who is a leader in my life. That person asked me if I was being exactly obedient. I was not so I chose to be honest and said as such. I felt like I was following all the major rules and that my infringements were relatively minor. I mean I have not broken any commandments and still felt worthy to hold the priesthood or enter the temple. So when this leader became rather upset I was confused. It was further compounded by basically being told that despite my desire to change and my honesty, they felt that I was not in fact even trying to follow the rules. They then told me that I would have to change, and quickly, or this could become a pattern that would lead to a "tough life". They hinted that I might end up in a very bad position such as divorce, unemployment, and homelessness. To be honest I wasn't just offended. I was much much more than just that. I was totally furious. I was about ready to tell this leader to stick it where the sun don't shine and that I would be going home. Luckily that is not what I decided to do. Instead I tried my best to remain calm and at least try to think this over. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had two choices. I could continue to be angry and let this anger drive me away from the church and the Gospel I love. Or I could take it as it was. A single person who made a choice that I did not like. I realized that I could not base my decisions, especially decisions about my salvation, on the decisions of others. And then as I realized that and started to look at things in a more objective light I realized that this leader was trying their best. They wanted the best for me and while their methods were not my favorite I could accept that and move on. I could instead decide to do what is right despite their choices. Now unfortunately that was not the easy choice. The easy choice would be to remain angry and upset. To let the other persons choice dictate my actions. To simply be mad for the rest of my life. And so that is how many people react. And that is not to say they are bad people or that I am better than them, but instead I am saying I finally understand them and want to try even harder to help them come back to the gospel and learn how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help them forgive and forget and move on. I think that is enough about that for now. If anyone has any questions or comments please email them to me individually. The second topic is Faith and Obedience. Sometimes it is hard to be obedient. Especially on a mission. There are so many rules and it seems like most of them are simply there to make life boring and hard. A lot of them are easy to disobey and nobody would be the wiser. It is easy to justify and think that since it is just a rule that it wouldn't matter if you didn't obey. This is true in life too. There are times it would be much simpler to just break the small rules. To bend them or try and find a loophole. And trust me I am a big fan of loopholes. But truthfully there is only one person who wants you to break the rules. Satan. The father of all lies. He tells you that one little itsy bitsy rule doesn't matter. That it won't effect you. And often times he makes it look very attractive. Especially in the little things. This is a lie. The little things matter. Not because your salvation hinges on whether or not you got out of bed at 6:30 or 6:31. But because when we let Satan's little lies work on us then we lose something much more valuable than five extra minutes of sleep. We lose the Spirit. At that point we can no longer expect blessings from our Heavenly Father. Of course he will continue to bless us because He loves us but He cannot bless us for being obedient. And the Spirit will not be there. Trust me, as a missionary, and as a normal person, I cannot afford to not have the Spirit with me. I cannot! So that is why we NEED to be obedient. The other thing I have learned is that obedience is how we show our Heavenly Father that we have Faith in him and that we want to do what He asks us to. This week I have been studying faith, and the more I read the more I realize that the word that is most often associated with being Faithful is Diligence. Specifically diligence in keeping the commandments of the Lord. For missionaries this means also following the white handbook. Remember the white handbook (the rulebook for missionaries) was written by a Prophet of God. In order for us to truly show God we have faith in him we must follow those rules, especially when we don't understand the reason behind them. I think that is all for this week. I want you all to know I love you and that I hope that you know that I have a testimony that this is the true church of Christ. That it is not led by men but by Christ. He is my Savior. It is only by Faith on him that we are saved. It is by my works that I testify to him that I truly have faith in him. I hope you all enjoy the blessings that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you are not a member and want these blessings in your own life I suggest you find the missionaries. They will happily answer any questions you have. And I promise that the things they teach you can only bless your lives. But please do not simply take my word for it. Ask your Father in Heaven. He is the source of all truth and will send his spirit to testify of the truth of these things. I have seen this time and time again in my life. I love you all so much. Have a great week! Love Elder Nathan Lindh Dinner with the VanWagoners

Week 49, July 3, 2017

Faith to See Miracles Howdy Yall! So first of all "we" had a great week here in belleview. I say "we" but mean elder Lunt. I was on exchanges on wednesday and missed Five lessons. When you only get 6 in a week missing 5 of those cause they were all on the same day is kinda lame. But I got to go to Columbine! Most of you should remember I was there about 6 months ago. So I had a good time. Felt good to be in the area again. I also got to see Susie Harrison and the Duersts while I was in columbine. Susie was an amazing lady that I got to begin teaching. I loved working with her and loved being able to see her again. The Duerst were an amazing family that I got to know while in columbine. They were the ones who hosted us while we taught Susie. The best part was they recognized me! They were confused for a moment because I have changed my haircut and have changed a bit, but I was still super flattered that they remembered me! Other than that I spent most of the week trying to help less actives which often times is frustrating because we have no idea when they will be home so most times when we just try by they aren't home. So that makes things harder. But we won't give up! So now onto my thought of the week. This week I got into a bit of a disagreement with my companion. Elder Lunt is a wonderful guy and I love him but often we see the world in different ways which can lead to disagreements. Although we never argue. Just don't always agree. Anyway that's not the point. The point is that we disagreed whether or not having more faith will lead to seeing people be baptized. My argument being that we cannot change other's choices by being more faithful. His argument is that if we were more faithful and hardworking we will find those who will choose to be baptized. Now truthfully I was being more stubborn than usual and it took me a while to kinda figure out why. Yesterday though I feel I came to my answer. Elder Lunt is right (oh how that pains me to say that, his ego's gonna swell so bad.😉) If we are more faithful we will not change people or their choices, but we will however align ourselves more with God's will and therefore be able to find those who are willing to make the choices that will lead them to be baptized. Now the reason I feel I was being more stubborn is because I am lazy. And not in the traditional sense mind you. I like to work hard. Give me some good old manual labor any day. I like getting down and dirty and trust me I have the callouses to prove it. But being more faithful and building our faith isn't something that requires a one time effort. When you cut down a tree you don't have to wake up and cut that same tree down the next day. But with faith that is exactly what you have to do! We have to choose to be obedient. We have to make that choice every day and every hour and quite frankly that is a LOT harder than deciding I am going to do my laundry or I am going to go chop down the tree I have been meaning to get rid of. Things like that are pretty easy to decide and do. When you decide to be faithful, to follow all the rules, to work hard, to talk to everyone you can, then you have to make a whole bunch of little decisions every day that will affect whether or not you will stand true to the decisions you have made. That is why it is so hard to be a Mormon or any other religion. It is so easy to just give in to peer pressure and lower your standards to what the world would have you do. It's certainly not easy to decide each week to go to church for three hours or go to church period. It is not easy to stand up and say "I believe in God" or "I believe God ordained marriage to be between a man and a women." The world says that we shouldn't say these things. That we should lower our standards and do whatever is popular. Now that is not to say we should be offensive or rude in our beliefs. After all they are just that. OUR beliefs. Others are free to use the agency God gave them to believe whatever they want. I will love everyone regardless. But at the same time we must be bold in declaring and defending what we believe to be right. Standing faithful and not letting the world tell us what to do. And that is not easy. But it is so worth it. I testify that it's all so worthwhile to stand true to what we believe. To choose to act in faith instead of doing what's easy or popular. I know that this was probably rather lengthy but I want you all to know that I have decided to choose to act in faith, instead of doing what is easy. I love you all. I want you to know that I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered the Atonement so that we can be free of sin and so that we can overcome our weaknesses. He loves us and knows exactly how we feel and knows best how to help us overcome our challenges. I love my Savior. I know He lives and heads this church. I will follow him even when it's hard. I hope you all have an amazing 4th of July. I love you all! Sincerely Elder Nathan Lindh