Week 3: You Asked Me to Change the World

I can't believe it's been a month since I left my home. It seemed to go by so quickly. I am already a 24th of the way done!

Me and Elder S mixed up roster tracting with regular tracting, and it seemed to be rather effective. We got to meet many wonderful people. There was one I was particularly excited about. She is a girl by the name of N in her senior year of high school. As we started talking with her, we found out that she believes in some sort of higher power, but no firm belief in God. She told us that she is trying to figure things out right now. We testified to her that she has a loving Father in Heaven, and that He wants the best for her. We explained that His Son, Jesus Christ, atoned for all the sins and sufferings of the world, and that He knows EXACTLY what she is going through. We told her of the Great Apostasy and how Joseph Smith didn't know what church to join, and that it wasn't until he prayed that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and through him, they restored the truths that were once lost. We showed her the Book of Mormon, and how it testifies of Jesus Christ and that it can answer some of the deep questions she may have in her life. We explained to her how to pray, and testified that God would answer her prayers if she prayed to Him. We are going to talk to her again today.

 

We met with one of the less-active members this week again, P, and talked to him about family history. P has been dealing with Word of Wisdom problems, and we have been trying to help him overcome the addictions he's dealing with. He is striving to be temple-worthy, but he hasn't been coming to church because he always gets called in to work on Sunday morning. That definitely concerns me.

 

The other person we are working with is E. She is an investigator, but she doesn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith or of the Book of Mormon. She believes that because God doesn't change, the Sabbath should still be on Saturday as it was before Christ was resurrected. She has told us that she can't read the Book of Mormon because the letters are too small, and she hasn't gotten reading glasses yet. We looked at her teaching record, and the first time the missionaries talked to her was in 2009, and she had the same concern. She dropped them in 2010, but she was recontacted while tracting in 2014. We ordered a large-print Book of Mormon for her so she can read, but the appointment with her fell through this week. Hopefully we can make an appointment with her before this Saturday, so we can talk to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon and of prophets, then we can invite her to watch General Conference (which is on Saturday as well as Sunday, so she should have no concern with it concerning 7th day worship).

 

As I've been working with less-active members and with investigators, I'm starting to realize that soon me and Elder S are going to have to start asking some hard questions, as well as giving out some hard answers. The road to God and to repentance was never intended to be easy. Change hurts often, and the missionaries are going to make sacrifices just as the people they are working with are going to have to make sacrifices. It may mean giving up friends, giving up your job, and many other things, but it must happen if you want to return to His presence.

 

When Martin Luther was about to be tried and condemned to death for protesting against the practices of Catholicism, thus creating the Protestant movement, his old mentor was cutting his hair. His mentor got angry at him, and scolded him, saying something along the lines of, "How could you? You have upset the Christian world, pitting Protestant against Catholic." Martin grabbed his arm and said, "You asked me to change the world. Did you think there weren't going to be consequences?" Nothing ever happens if nothing ever happens. We can't expect to become better people if we don't let go of the part of us that is bad. That is why baptism by immersion is symbolic of rebirth. We must let the old part of us die, and be reborn as a better person. Change is never easy, but it is worth it. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. Why is it that the greatest people, or the people who brought about the most change for good, were persecuted the greatest? Because the world does not readily accept change, because it is scared. This is why Jesus Christ was persecuted, betrayed, whipped, spat upon, and crucified, and why he had to suffer the pains and sins of the world. This is why reformers like Martin Luther and William Tyndale were killed. This is why Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered, and why he was murdered by an angry mob. As Joseph Smith once said, "The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calumny may defame, but the truth of God with go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, until it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

-

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Tibbitts

 

 

Jacob gave no explanation for the picture. I'm guessing another one of La Junta :)

Week 2: Fixing the Harvesting Equipment

This last P-day, after we had finished emailing, my district went shopping at Wal-Mart. I saw the clinic there and remember that none of us had gotten our flu shots yet, so I suggested that we all get our flu shots there together. Pretty smart, right? Wrong. Even though none of us got the flu, we all felt under the weather most of the week, effectively decreasing missionary productivity greatly. None of us could go out tracting as long as we wanted to because of it, and one of the elders had a fuzzy mind for most of the week.

Our key indicators were extremely low each day, each one being mostly 0, sometimes 1 or 2, but I am still committed and confident. Me and Elder S tried out a new method of tracting. We know that of the 400-500 members on the ward roster, only about 100 of them are active members of the ward. So we decided to color-code and mark which city each member had their address in, and then we started knocking specifically on those doors. We don't know all of the active member's names, so we mostly just are going through every name on the list. We only get about 6-10 names done each day, because we don't have too much time to tract, as well as the fact that the names are spread out over each city and we are going alphabetically, since the ward roster isn't organized by street. We started to find out who was active and less-active, and if the addresses on the roster are still correct. I like to call this method roster tracting. When we went to our coordination meeting with the bishop and the ward mission leader on Sunday, we explained to them our new method, and they told us to keep a detailed record of each door we knocked on, so that each Sunday we can bring the record to them so they can update and improve the ward roster. Hopefully they'll start adding in a column in the ward roster on who is active and less-active. Also, it will help them know if the addresses they have are correct, and more details, like if we find out whether or not they are a part-member family. The way I see it, the other elders are doing purely harvesting, while me and Elder S are mixing harvesting with fixing and optimizing the harvesting equipment.

 

We also had ward council this Sunday. It really changed my view on the activity of the ward. I had thought that the ward was practically doing nothing missionary related, but sitting in at ward council made me realize just how involved the leaders of the ward are in helping out. The gears and cogs are definitely turning in the ward.

 

We also went to a dear sister who owns an animal farm and we helped her do yard work and farm work. She is incredible. Most of the animals she owned are ones she rescued from abusive owners, though it's hard to tell because she's nurtured the animals back to health so well.

 

We also had the annual barn dance at the bishop's onion shed (there is a lot of farm land here), well, not us elders of course. We can't dance much on our mission. We mostly just helped set up the place and ate the food.

 

Speaking of food, the members here are INCREDIBLE cooks, and wonderful people. The more and more I talk to the members of this ward and get to know them, the more I fall in love with them.

 

I wrote down an impression I had this week that I thought I'd share. For me, I take the idea of being in the Lord's Army very literally, because if you look at another military and look at us, it is strikingly similar. Both require the use of armor in order to be protected. There are punishments for deserting the army we serve in. Missionaries specifically go through a basic training (MTC), but all members receive training. There are many different tools and weapons at our disposal. There is specific protocol we must follow, and we are given several instruction manuals on how to follow protocol. There is a clear chain of command, and each soldier is specialized to fulfill certain tasks. There are dozens of more comparisons. Anyway, the impression I wrote down was this: "Satan's forces are determined to bring us misery. The enemy is committed to their goal. Are we?"

--

The Lord's Soldier,

                      Elder Tibbitts

 

* A note from Jacob's mom - last week he said that the mission president wants packages and letters sent to the mission home and not his apartment.  That was a misunderstanding.  Things should be mailed directly to Jacob at his apartment so the office doesn't have to forward mail and packages on to him.  Just don't send anything right before a transfer or he might not get it for a while.  My email address is at the top right of this blog.  If you want his current address, email me and I'll get it to you.

 

This is Jacob's Armor of God necklace he used to wear everyday.  He now carries it with him everyday (he is not allowed to wear a necklace on his mission :)
 

 

 

I'm guessing a view of La Junta.

First Week Out!

This has been a crazy first week out in the field, but I guess that's how it is with every missionary. After leaving the MTC, I got to fly to Colorado Springs from Salt Lake. That's the first time I've flown since I was very little. It is truly a breath-taking experience, to see the clouds below me, with the earth as their background instead of the sky. I could barely take my eyes off of the window.

Once I got to the mission home, I met President Rehm and his wife Sister Rehm. They are so nice, and it is rather easy to pick up on their personalities. All of the new missionaries (24 total, I believe, 2 from the Mexico City MTC) stayed the night at the mission home, except for the 4 sister missionaries, who spent the night at a member home.

 

The next day we all received our area and companion assignment. There was this one trainer in the back that kept popping up whenever a new missionary was assigned to the Pueblo zone, expecting to be their trainer, and he had to keep sitting back down because he wasn't assigned to that missionary. Lo and behold, when I was called up, I was assigned to the Pueblo zone, La Junta I area, with him as my trainer. I was a little scared that day. But Elder S, my new companion and trainer, is actually rather wonderful. I love having him as a companion, and our personalities mesh rather well.

 

The La Junta area is a rather difficult area. As my new bishop said during Coordination Meeting, "La Junta is the Marine boot camp of the Colorado Springs Mission." We've had very little appointments during the week, so we've done a lot of tracting. Elder S has only been in the area for one transfer, so neither of us know the area really well. When I heard that the Colorado Colorado Springs Mission (CCSM for short) was full of people with Christian backgrounds and family values, I thought the Lord had set them up perfectly, but La Junta is full of a lot of people who "know" about the Mormons, and are very "firm" in their religion. I'm still staying positive, though. I know that people have their free agency, and I still placed my first Book of Mormon!

 

I had to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. I should have seen that coming. After church, I saw all the members talking to each other happily, and I was filled with the Spirit. The thought came into my mind along the lines of, "This ward is like a stronghold of light against the forces of darkness." I felt like I wanted to have more people experience this. I almost cried tears of joy when I felt that fellowship.

The Lord's Servant,

                      Elder Tibbitts

 

PS, If you want to send me mail, President Rehm has asked that you send it through the mission office. Here's the address:

Elder Jacob Christopher Tibbitts

4090 Center Park Drive Suite #4

Colorado Springs, CO 80918

 

PPS, I get to drive the car! My companion never got his driver's license, so I get to drive the car everywhere. And he's only got 3 months left, two transfers, so I'll be his last companion since he'll be training me for two transfers.

 

PPPS, Also, I got to eat pig tripe (stomach lining) and Chinese food my first week here, so now my mom can laugh at me thinking I could escape Chinese food.  The pig tripe was actually rather delicious, except the spice they put in it overpowered the rest of the soup. The stomach lining by itself was actually quite tasty.

 

Ok, NOW I'm done.

 

 

MTC group.

MTC group at the Provo Temple.

 

All 24 new missionaries with Pres. and Sis. Rehm in Colorado Springs.

 

 

Jacob and Elder S.

 

 

Pig tripe soup!!

 

Last Week at the MTC!

I got special permission today to email because I am flying to Colorado Springs on Monday in the morning.

 

This week has been a roller coaster ride. One of the sisters in my district went home, and a few days later my companion decided to go home. It has been hard on the district. It is truly unfortunate...

 

There has been a bug going around, so I've been sick for a few days.

 

I am a zone leader, so me and the sister training leaders were responsible for welcoming and orienting the new missionaries in our branch on Wednesday, but because the other zone leader (my old companion) left, and one of the sisters left, the way the new companionships were organized ended up making the whole district greet the new missionaries. They are going to be going to Reno NV and Rochester NY, with one sister going to Oakland CA. It was great fun getting to know all of them.

 

The TRC investigator my and my companion were teaching frustrated us, as much as we love her. She is extremely well versed in the Bible, and she finds that everything we teach her matches up with what she reads in the Bible. She keeps telling us that it all makes sense, but whenever we invited her to be baptized, she said she would when she found out if it was true. We finally told her that we can't convince her with facts, that she has to take that leap of faith and pray to know if the Book of Mormon and what we have taught her is true. I think that was truly the first time in my life that I deeply desired to see somebody make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and had the determination to help them get there. Unfortunately, that was our last meeting with her before we leave for Colorado Springs on Monday. It just goes to show you that all the evidence in the world cannot prove it to you. The evidence you need can't be shared to you by mortal men. It must come in the quiet whisperings of the Holy Spirit.

 

My roommates have quite the amazing story, though. The TRC investigator they were teaching finally opened up and told them everything and that they were the only missionaries at the MTC that she had told it to. At that point they were sure that she was an actual investigator, and not just a member working and the Teaching Resource Center. They told her that God had led her up to this point to meeting them, and that because of what she had gone through, she was holding in her hand a book that she had rejected dozens of times, and that she knew it was true. After their last appointment with her, she stopped them and told them that she wanted to schedule one last appointment with them on her own personal time the next day. Of course they said yes. During that last appointment that the MTC hadn't even scheduled, she told them that the thing she loved more than anything was the feeling the Spirit brought to her when they were there. They told her that she could have that feeling with her everyday if she was baptized. She said she would get baptized. Of course she still needs to take a few more lessons to confirm everything, but she seems ready for baptism. They are going to continue to email her in Colorado. I couldn't be happier for her.

 

I fly to Colorado Springs on Monday. So far as I know, there are going to be 20 missionaries on that plane headed to Colorado.

 

Elder Tibbitts

 

P.S.
My roommates are amazing! They are the funniest group of people I've ever met! I don't think I've laughed this hard in a long time. The amount of inside jokes we have created in the last two weeks in incredible (we counted and we are above 20). I really hope one of them is a companion with me near the end of my mission.

MTC First Week!

Well, I've basically finished my first week at the MTC! It's been incredible! I didn't think you could pack so many spiritual moments into one week, but I guess that's the mission life. It's really weird at first entering into the MTC. You see Elders and Sisters walking around with the experience that makes them seem like they've been there for months, but in reality most of them have only been there for a week!

It has been amazing feeling the Spirit every day and seeing miracles happen on a daily basis. I've already started teaching "investigators" (we don't know if they are members acting a real story or actual non-members with their own stories). I've learned SO much about missionary work. I think one of the most important lessons I've learned is to teach people, not lessons. We aren't there to sell the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others, we are there to come unto Christ WITH them. Every person has unique experiences and lives.

My roommates have been incredible. I think we laugh way too much. But we also understand the sacred calling we hold.

I was made a zone leader my first week here. I've never felt like one of the leader types, but as I've been trained how to be a leader in my mission, I've realized that perhaps I have been thinking of the word "leader" the way the world thinks. I really love the last verses in D&C 121 because they show us exactly what a leader should be like.

I also had a few firsts. For the first time in my life, I gave a priesthood blessing of comfort, and the day after I gave a blessing for the healing of the sick and afflicted. I think I may have put a little too much consecrated oil on the elder's head. He kept joking that I put a quarter cup on his head, but he said he was very grateful.

 

Sabbath day was one of the best Sabbaths I've ever had. We watched a talk given by Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve here at the MTC a few Christmases ago. It is called the Character of Christ, and it was life changing. The character of Christ is that when others would turn inward, He turned outward in love and compassion. He had putteth off the natural man that is naturally selfish, and had been naturally selfless, even in His moments of unimaginable anguish. If you get a chance to look up the talk you should. Because that is what we preach as missionaries, a gospel of selflessness.

 

I am so excited for this next week. I know that it is going to be beyond incredible.