Your Why

Well this week was good! Our numbers haven't been too good so we were trying to talk it over. We talked a lot about why our numbers are low and why we can't find any people. I just kept asking a bunch of whys. I emailed my mission president and he said I need to deepen my why. We had Elder Lynn G Robins come to our mission a while back. He talked about getting and deepening our why. Why are we out on a mission and what makes us do the things we do. He compared it to being in a boat out in the middle of the sea. We have to find an island if we want to go anywhere. We have to have a reason to paddle. We lose a desire if there is no island to paddle to. It's like having a why on you mission. There has to be a purpose to our mission. If we don't have a good enough why either it's like losing sight of our island. I lost sight of my island while I've been out. I have a clear good why at the beginning of my mission but lost it along the way. It was good to just get a wake up call and get a sight of my island again. But what makes us do anything in life? Why do we stay in the gospel? Why do we follow the prophet? Why do we pray and read out scriptures. We need to find a reason to do anything in life. Why paddle at all if we have nothing to paddle to. I know I follow the gospel and do the things I do in my life because it brings me the most joy and I love my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Of course we are going to hit waves and lose sight of our island sometimes but trying to keep our island in sight helps keeps us focused on why we do the things we do. The gospel works! I have no doubt about it. The principles I live by aren't just made up by a bunch of old men. They aren't restricters that keep me from having fun. They are guidelines my Heavenly Father put out for me to keep me safe. Our Heavenly Father loves us beyond measure and so does Jesus Christ. It's crazy to take a step back and look at the things Jesus Christ did for us. He literally died and took our sins upon himself so when we don't quite make it to where we are supposed to be. When we run out of energy to keep paddling he can be there for us. He'll help us in times of sorrow and in times of joy. The biggest reason why I'm out on my mission is because I feel huge urge to try and repay him the best I can. To live by his commandments and to help his children. Are you stuck in the middle of he ocean paddling because it's the only thing you know how to do? Or do you have sight of an island? Do you know what your purpose is and why you need the gospel in your life? I love this gospel and couldn't be in a more happy place. I love all of you guys! Just remember there is a purpose for this gospel in our lives. Just find out what it is for you. Heavenly Father cares about each of you and loves you more 

Elder Langes apartment in Clay Springs Arizona

Keep Your Eye On The Ball

We had a pretty good week. I was thinking a lot lately about my whole mission. There are some good lessons you can learn just looking back and figuring things out. But probably the biggest thing that I noticed was that I wasn't really trying my hardest any more. I became less diligent, only worked out for 20 minutes in the morning instead of 30, didn't take studies as seriously or just got distracted in studies reading something that wouldn't help our area. They were all pretty small things but definitely make the biggest difference. So I've taken a hard look at myself and decided some things need to change. Small, simple, and easy changes but ones that can improve everything so much. I guess I just looked at it as a life lesson too. I'm super scared of getting home from my mission and loving the gospel for a while then just kind of slowing loosing sight of what matters most. I think it happens to the best of us. We just get distracted with friends, school, family, career, etc. The trick is catching ourselves when these times come around. The world really does distract us from what really matters, and that's the gospel. Sometimes it gets pretty hard to hang on the the iron rod. Sometimes we even have to hang on upside down but as long as we keep a grip on what matters most, our lives will work out. But just finding out and realizing our lives aren't in order doesn't do much if we don't do something to change it. The first and pretty important part is catching yourself when you aren't headed down the right path best the second and most important is doing something about it. We can't just expect everything to just work out if we ask Heavenly Father to change it. We need to put in the effort needed. It's something I need to do a lot more of. I took a hard look at everything I was doing and have been trying to change a lot of it for the better this week. It take constant effort but it something I really need. So I'm trying to become a better more consecrated missionary by look at myself every day and deciding what I need to work on and if what I was doing was the most important in my life. This gospel and my mission are the most important things right now. I love this gospel and what it does for me. I love my mission  and what it has done and is going to do for me.

Gotta love pictures texts!

We got a text from a member in their ward that said "We had a great lesson with a young man who is 18 and has not been to church in his teenage years.  Your son brought the spirit with him during the discussion.  Great young man."

Here is another picture text we got from a ward member, "Had the privilege of feeding your missionary hamburger and potato salad tonight. We're outside making smores right now.  Thank you for sharing him with us" Randy Webb 

Finding companion unity!

This week went pretty good! One night right before we planned we just

sat down and I was like alright Elder Watts something is wrong. We
don't have any investigators that are progressing and I don't feel
like we have very good comp unity. Things need to change. So we sat
and discussed why things might not be working out and why it feels like
we don't have much comp unity. We made some changes of what's going to
happen from now on to be more unified and how our area can grow. The
people we have been working with are just people that let us in and
don't really make much progress, or it's really slow. So we decided
that we are going to just stop seeing the people that aren't
progressing. We have around 1-2 progressing investigators but other
than that we are going to start from square one. We thought of a bunch
of ideas of how we can find the people the Lord has prepared for us.
Then we made a few changes for now of how we can be more unified and
start with those. After we have those down we can work on other
things. Once we had this little sit down, things started going a lot
better! I feel like Elder Watts and I are finally on the same page.
We've also tried a few new finding ideas of how we think we are going
to find the prepared people in our areas. So the week went pretty good
and then Sunday rolled around. There were all these less actives at
church and people who haven't been keeping commitments and people
coming up so us saying that they might have some families for us to
stop by. It seemed like all these things were just falling into place
after we dropped some people and got on the same level as companions.
The week just seemed to go by so much better than before and I think
it just has to start with the small things in our companionship. It's
kind of weird to think about because you would think if you had two
good missionaries they could do a lot of work without having the best
comp unity, but I figured out it all starts with your comp. No matter
how good of missionaries you might be at teach or what ever, you have
to be on the same page as you companion. Elder Watts and I are getting
along great and I think our area is just starting to grow now that
we've pulled out all the weeds. I've learned a lot about how important
it is to have comp unity this week and how we have to stay focused on
people who actually want to repent and change. It's been a struggle
with Elder Watts for awhile but now we are doing great. It just needed
a little bit of communication.

These last 2 weeks have been really sweet!

These last 2 weeks have been really sweet! We went to a house of a recent convert/ less active. They got baptized about a year and a half ago. Anyways we had a pretty nice dinner and message with them. Then we asked if they had anyone we could go see. They thought for a little bit and said you can go see our my sister. I don't know how she will take it though. She was baptized when she was 10 but they lost her records and she doesn't want to get baptized again. We have been trying to help her get baptized for the past 30 years. We thought we would go over and see them and just kind of talk because she has a non member husband. So as we pulled up they were both sitting out front working on the house and we got to talking. Not even 5 minutes into the conversation we invited her to be baptized again and she said yes. We were like we'll do you want to do it in March? She said that her and her husbands anniversary was on March 5 a Friday. We were just kind of like well.... We could do it on the 6th the next day. We had an interview for her and she quit coffee and came to church twice and got baptized all in the middle of 9 days. We talked to our President about the situation and he said it was fine and we worked things out with him. It was really cool though. All the sudden now that we showed up she just had a mighty change of heart. She got baptized on Sunday because there was a reception going Saturday that we didn't know about when we set the date. Anyways she's baptized and doing well! She said that she is soooo glad that we showed up to her house that day. Now it's time to start working on the husband.

The next person is someone we recently found also. We got a call from someone in the stake telling us that there was a lady that came to the church because she was looking for a new one to go to and she felt prompted to go to this one. She had heard so many bad things about it her whole life but for some reason she says she feels like the Holy Ghost is pretty much shoving her into this church. Of course she has a lot of questions just because the way she grew up but is really wanting to do what it takes to know this church is true. Her family and friends don't support her but like I said she can't deny the feelings she is getting to come to this church. We invited her to be baptized on April 16th. We will see how it goes. She came to church for all three hours yesterday and that was a huge deal. She was like freaking out that our church was 3 hours long. She showed up late and my comp was like super sad because he just knew that she wasn't coming and it was probably because it was 3 hours. But for some reason I just knew she would come. I didn't know why and my comp was pretty convincing but I just thought she would come. We saw her walk through the back doors and I literally jumped out of my seat. It was kind of embarrassing after I realized what I did so I sat down really fast. We got up and told her to come sit by us and she did. It's just so awesome to see people following spiritual promptings even when everything seems to be against them. I think the biggest lesson I learned this week was expecting the Lord to keep his side of promises. It was a strong amount of faith or even a hope it was more of a knowledge that I knew if we did what we were supposed to the Lord would bless us. I think a lot of times we get in a routine of hoping or wishing for things when we should know that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to keep his promise. Expect things from the Lord don't hope things will work out. This also means putting in your share of the work. Faith is a principle of action and faith without works is dead. Love you all! 

 

The lady in purple is the one who got baptized 

Alec's mom talking:  So Dawson gave Alec this darth vadar alarm clock before he left and Alec wanted Dawson to see that the alarm clock was being put to good use.  In fact, if you know Alec, you know he loves his back scratcher.  This is his second back scratcher he has gone through while being in Arizona.  Darth Vadar must be pretty cool to hold his beloved back scratcher.

And Alec...true to form...so serious about this missionary business!  

Pictures from Clay Springs Arizona!

Going on exchanges 

Exchanges with the AP! 

Elder Lange said he learned how to hypnotize a chicken, he sure did!