Month: October 2015
Weekly week email
I have been looking for winter gear for the impending winter season, no success so far.
But…
Describe something that you do to find investigators. What was the most interesting result this week?
– If you had a “bad mood” or a “down” moment this week…describe what it what and what brought you out of it?
1. Family history has been a help in our efforts to find those are interested. But we don’t have a family history center so the effectiveness is smallish
2. Down moments are abounding for the last couple of weeks, reading the scriptures has helped the most.
Sorry for a short letter home, I have 2 minutes in my email time and I ran out of things to put in. Zone interviews are this week and we have zone conference next week, will write about next week!
Elder R Seely
Sent from my Mission-Issued iPad
New Flow of things
SO this week has been rather uneventful, and I have doing okay, I was a little sick earlier this week and I’m a little sick now, but life goes on and I don’t plan on going down for sickness just yet.
1. Share a story about the teaching you’re doing. We have had an Investigator who is progressing wonderfully, and by that I mean that she takes the lessons in and truly wants to change for the better. Last week we had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she wanted to be baptized, so we committed her to baptism. A few days ago she asked what else she can read, which is a huge thing because no one wants to have contact with missionaries! She also invited her friend to look into the church and she wants to be baptized too. Missionary work is a real thing!
2. What are you learning on your mission now? I am not ponderizing a scripture at this moment, but I have seen some pretty good scriptures that I might do. I was asked to study the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel chapter 1 by my Mission President.
3. Describe something from your mission. One thing that I have noticed is that some people don’t want to talk to us, but are nice enough not to say that. I want to say “we can tell you don’t want us there, but we are sharing an important message that will bless you.” Most people will still ignore us, but that is New England for you.
4. What can we include in our prayers to help you? Not much, just pray that we can find those who are searching for the truth and that they will recognize us when we come. Winter is coming, and we are preparing for the weather, so prayers for a mild winter would be nice. Maybe the snow here is like the snow in Utah? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.
Love you all!
Elder R Seely
Sent from my Mission-Issued iPad
Elder Seely & Elder Perry at a recent DA (picture)
Image Posted on Updated on
Thanks for sharing your sons!
Transfer, companions, and work Oh MY!!
For this week we had transfer meeting in which we got new companionships. My new companion is an Elder whom I have served with while on exchanges. 
Elder Perry who is from Perry, Utah (no relation) is my new companion. He is a new district leader so it will be fun to show him the ropes that I myself have only observed, but he has the potiential to become an awesome district leader where ever he serves.
But anyway, I have been procrastinating this post for a while so… Monday: pday
Tuesday: transfers, a day in Saco, Maine
Wednesday: just a blur
…I’m writing this email in my P-day clothes, waiting for Cornish 1 to arrive so that we can go to Yarmouth to have Zone P-day.
While waiting, I have several things going on around me
- My companion is typing his emails to his family
- Laundry is going
- Thinking about what Pie we should bring to zone P-day
- Wondering if there is anything that I should do before leaving
- Where is my Bro’s email…
So plenty of things are happening at the Windham Apt. All of them worthy activities for the day. maybe not the pie thing… but pie is still good…
Just know that all is well, and the work of the Lord is progressing
Elder R Seely
Sent from my Mission-Issued iPad
Transfer week
This week is transfer week and I’m destined to receive my 6th companion in a row who is a district leader. The one I have right now is going zone leader. 3/4 companions have gone zone leader after me. Furthermore, I predicted every time a companion is going zone leader correctly so far. Let’s see if the trend continues…
Aside from transfer calls and general conference not much has happened in the area, but it is beginning to turn into Fall….
Monday Played Capture the flag, with Saco, Cornish and Yarmouth Elders, quite interesting, lots of fun. One team captured the ball (mine did 😉)
Tuesday I went to Saco on a zone leader exchange with Elder Trochez (who is completing his mission and is probably still packing when y’all read this.
Wednesday Feel good district meeting, recounting memories, Elder trochez’s Golden Truth (In our mission the missionaries who are going home come and impart one thing that has changed their mission and will change their lives to come. I have no golden truth that I have learned yet but all of the truths that I have heard are excellent truths to remember.)
Thursday Went to Raymond to do service (Raymond is the farthest north our area goes)
Friday Weekly planning and what we usually do out here when we are not teaching anyone. Getting pumped for…
Saturday GENERAL CONFERENCE AND THREE NEW APOSTLES!!!!!!
Sunday GENERAL CONFERENCE
This conference was awesome! We now have 15 excellent Brethren leading this church. They will fill their assignments with help from the Lord. Elder Bednar’s concluding remarks on the lessons learned after a lifetime of the 6 deceased general authorites that he has served with, while serving in the quorum of the 12. It is my testimony that they have been called by God and Jesus Christ, and if they are called from on high, then they have my support.
Have a great week,
Elder R Seely
Sent from my Mission-Issued iPad
PS I was kindly informed that I used language in my last letter did not exactly match the Missionary standard for language. I realize that, and will do better in the future.
Talk on D&C 11:21
My talk today is on D&C 11:21 which says,
Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.
Let me take this verse apart into chunks that we can understand…
“Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word…”
We need to first learn the doctrine before we can look to declaring it unto all those who are ready to receive it. There are many teachings that constitute “my word”. One prime example is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is that we must
- have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
- come and repent of all of our sins,
- be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority,
- receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and
- endure to the end
“Enduring to the end” means that we continue to have faith, continue to repent, partaking of the sacrement to renew our baptismal covenant, and remain worthy of the Holy Ghost. As we learn to apply these simple principles in our lives we will be blessed. After we obtain the word, we can then learn how to declare the word. As a full time missionary, my job is to preach the word to those who are listening. I do that in a variety of ways from knocking on doors to talking to people while walking. In my youth I needed to obtain his word as part of my preparation to serve a mission, and now I need to declare his word as well as continue to obtain his word.
“…then shall your tongue be loosed…”
Isn’t that the same as “declare my Word”? No it isn’t, here’s why: There are multiple instances in the scriptures where the writer has been told not to write anything (commonly found in the Book of Mormon where the other set of plates is mentioned). One such example is found in 1 Nephi 14, where Nephi writes “…I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard; wherefore the things which I have written sufficeth me; and I have written but a small part of the things which I saw…” But on top of that, the Holy Ghost will sometimes tell you not to speak to this person yet, but that he is being prepared to receive the full gospel. I firmly believe that we are receiving these thoughts every day, waiting for the time when we can go and declare the word of God. I also believe that the people who are being prepared to receive the gospel have had challenges placed in their path so that when they hear the gospel message that they will receive it, they fully accept it with all of their heart and mind.
“…if you desire…”
This part of the verse is interesting, we need to have the desire to share the gospel to others. That desire comes from wanting to live the gospel standard and then desiring to share that with others around us. As we continue to desire to share the gospel, in harmony with the spirit then we will have success in all of our works. The desire to share the gospel can be seen in all of the missionaries that I have served with and around. Being junior companion to a leader in the mission, I have the great opportunity to serve with other elders in the mission, and I have the opportunity to serve different wards. It is a learning opportunity that I am so grateful for. The desire of all missionaries to share the gospel is tremendous. This ward is excellent in helping the missionary work in this area. Keep up the good work for all future missionaries.
“…you shall have my Spirit and my word…”
After all this explanation, we must come to the conclusion that all of our efforts must be guided by the Holy Ghost, for without the Holy Ghost we can’t achieve much in the process of conversion. My job as a missionary is to bring the Holy Ghost into the home and I’m supposed to teach by the Spirit. The role that the Holy Ghost plays is so much more meaningful and so much more important. PMG chapter 4 says,
Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke of the power of the Spirit: “True conversion comes through the power of the Spirit. When the Spirit touches the heart, hearts are changed. When individuals … feel the Spirit working with them, or when they see the evidence of the Lord’s love and mercy in their lives, they are edified and strengthened spiritually and their faith in Him increases. These experiences with the Spirit follow naturally when a person is willing to experiment upon the word. This is how we come to feel the gospel is true” (“Now Is the Time,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 75).
I want those who I teach to think to themselves “huh, he taught very well and I felt something, maybe I should look into this.” When I feel that the Spirit has made that impression on their minds then I am confident that they can be numbered among this church, and be fellowshipped in this church.
“…yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.”
The power of God, unto the convincing of men. What an excellent blessing to receive after all the preparation that we do. We can all be missionaries, even President David O. McKay taught repeatedly “every member a missionary”. As we do all of the parts to this scripture, we will not only more firmly root our testimony in the gospel, and we be able to bring those to the light of the gospel. So the scripture in full is a lesson that can be talked about for hours and is simple enough for one to understand. One more thought before I close, three weeks ago I gave a similar talk about the spiritual daily bread, here is a excerpt from that talk:
…Allow me to take an example from my mission. My companions have taught that we need to be doing four things: learning, applying, teaching and, relearning. When we learn about something we see how it could be applied to our lives. We then apply it to our lives. And then we go and teach others through our experiences of applying it. And then we relearn the concept, but in a new way. Most of us have read the Book of Mormon at least once (if not, go and do so) and we have gathered something from that experience. During my most recent reading of the book I have more than once skipped over 2 Nephi because of its difficult-to-understand chapters. But I commonly miss something from those chapters that may help me help someone else. If I did not have those scriptures on hand then how could I use them for a lesson that I might need to teach? But I read those chapters and I was surprised at the depth of some of the teachings. I picked one or two of those teachings and then applied them to missionary work and my life. The changes that occurred were quite significant. My interactions with the members improved, my investigators progressed quicker, and even my companion noticed a change. I then went about teaching my companion what changes I have made, and various members were also taught the same principles. I then was given some inspiration from a member on how another set of ideas could improve the experience I had with this, and I have begun the process all over again…
Elder Richard M. Seely 