100 Days to Become!

Hey everyone!!

So this letter is gonna be a little different from the past letters! I want to talk about the personal,  spiritual experiences that I've been going through the past little while instead of the lessons or people we were able to talk to!

So as I'm drawing nearer and nearer to the end of my mission  I've been really thinking and reflecting back on my mission and how I can make the last 100 days the best I possibly can.

Lately I've been feeling a ton of inadequacy which comes with a ton of regrets and feelings of being I guess worthless.  I've felt like I haven't talked to as many people as I should or I haven't said the things that I needed to in past lessons that could have helped that individual make the decision to get baptized.  I feel like I haven't been the leader the Lord expects me to be. I've really felt like it's just too late in my mission to change, to become who my Father in Heaven wants me to become! 

So all week I've been studying and praying a ton probably more then I ever have my whole mission just trying to overcome this trial in my life and to really have a change of heart and to really become what my Father in Heaven wants me to become! Progressively throughout the week I've seen a change and I've felt a difference in my attitude, my desires, my willingness to submit. I kept praying and was receiving answers that were telling me that things were gonna be ok to just keep studying, to keep praying, to keep talking to people, keep following the spirit in lessons, to keep doing what I'm doing.  On Friday night I had an experience that was a turning point in my mission. As I was praying that night before bed and giving thanks for the love that I've felt for the extra strength that I've been givin to continue on with my mission. I then asked what I could do more.. how can I continue to change, I'm stuck... after I closed my prayer I felt an added measure of the spirit I felt so much love from him! Then the spirit told me that he is gonna show you how to truly become who he wants you to become.

That next day (Saturday) we had a mission wide DLC and I went in there thinking it was just gonna be another meeting that we were gonna discuss our districts and how we can help them out some new training ideas that we could use and just a regular meeting.  The whole meeting that we had on Saturday was on Becoming who the Lord wants you to become and it was one of the best meetings that I've had on my mission it not only was an answer to my prayer but it really showed me the direction I needed to go and that it's not to late to change and it never will be!  President talked a lot about having a personal conversion, he talked about being willing to submit to the Father's will just as his son was willing to submit, he gave us some talks by Neal A Maxwell that was really talked a lot about submitting.

Later President and the assistants gave a training on being a leader and how we can help others become one as well! That really hit me because it showed me the importance of others and I now for the first time I feel like I'm ready to help others through whatever their going through and to help them become what their Father in Heaven wants! I now feel like I'm in the prime of my mission! I feel like now is the time for me to make an impact on as many people's lives that I possibly can! I'm very excited and grateful to serve for the next 3 months!

I know God has a perfect plan for each of us! I know he has a perfect love for each of us and that if we humble ourselves before him and ask for his help we will be able to get through  anything! I know that it is never too late to change and to become! I know this work and this church is true!.. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen!

Thank you all for the love and support you show me each week! I'm truly grateful for each of you in my life!

Elder Hess

Scripture!

Mosiah 27:25

25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

Hey everyone!!

So this week was pretty sick! Last Monday for P-day we didn't have the car cause the other elders ditched us but it turned out pretty good cause we just chilled in the apartment all day and played games! It was really nice to just relax for the day!

That night we had zone 24's which just means we went on 24 hours exchanges with a random member of the zone! I went with Elder Lomwe! He is from the Marshall islands! It was a cool exchange and not just cause he ate chicken heart for lunch ha-ha but we had a good experience and learned a valuable lesson that night.  We had a dinner that he had no idea where it was! Elder Lomwe went to this house and stared at it  thinking it was the right one but never knocked cause he wasn't sure. So we walked away and figured we would use our phone and call them to get their exact address. Well our plans didn't work that way.. right when we got in the apartment complex our phone died!! So we have no phone and don't know where to go and our dinner was at 6:30.  So we found his car under the car port looked what building number it was under then tracked out the whole building which was about 8 doors and not one of them was our dinner. So we went to the next building and did the same thing.. still couldn't find it. So at this point it was 7:00 so we stopped and we asked each other like do we keep trying to find it and apologize or do we give up and just walk home! So we did the good missionary thing to do and prayed and as we prayed we had the impression to go back to the very first house we went to that we were staring at... and as we got there the son walked out and we found our dinner!! Pretty crazy!  We had an awesome dinner and shared a sweet message that taught me a lot and really strengthened my testimony on not only the power of prayer but to never give up! Something I really needed as I'm nearing the end of my mission !! Here's the link! https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-05-12-good-things-to-come?lang=eng

On Wednesday we had our zone training meeting which had the make up to be a really good one the topics were... "Balance" which every missionary needs! "getting things done" and "discipleship"... so the ZLs gave the balance training which was pretty good I feel like they could of talked more about the balance of working hard and having fun... but all around it was still really good! Then each of the DLs were assigned a topic to give a training on that revolved around "getting things done" so my topic that I was assigned to train on was "committing yourself" which was a really cool topic to study for! I tried not to like go to hard on the zone ha-ha so I found a quote that I used! ( that will be the end of the letter instead of the scripture) and talked about it for a while which really got not only them but me to think about my mission and really re-commit myself to do better and improve! Then the last training the STLs gave there training on discipleship which was really good! I also had to bare my testimony on what I had to give up to not only come on a mission but to become a disciple and that was really good!  

The main event happened last night when we had our mission wide conference for the up coming video the church put out for Easter! The training was only 15 minutes which confused a ton of us! Then he said we were having another training that would be longer so he had us stand and sing.. and as we stood and sang.. DAVID ARCHULETA walks through the door! I've never seen so many sisters have tears in their eyes! haha it ended up being a really good conference and of course he sang and everyone loved it haha but it was a good experience and a very good week all around!

Quote!

"Give me all of you" by C. S. Lewis

 
“Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.”

Love you all and miss you!!

Elder Hess

The missionaries surprised President Orgill by stopping by his home and singing Happy Birthday to him.

The California Irvine Mission had a beautiful fireside launching the #BecauseHeLives initiative.  Missionaries listened to a wonderful training presentation along with having guest speaker, Elder David Archuleta share his missionary experiences on the importance of listening to the still small voice and always following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Hey Everyone!!

So this week was kinda of a blur!! It came and went way too fast!! 

Last Monday we were able to teach sister Venable!! She is doing awesome!! She still struggles coming to church but she will get there!! Now that the hard weeks of the year are behind her and she's getting back into the groove of things with her life I think she will be coming around real quick! 

On Wednesday we were able to go to the second harvest food bank and do some service for them for a couple hours that was pretty cool!! While I was working a guy came up and asked all about missionaries and stuff so that was cool to be able to share the gospel in non proselyting clothes haha! 

On Friday our ward mission leader decided to enter us elders in the talent show put on by our ward and he rewrote " I hope they call me on a mission" to " I hope they feed me on my mission".  It was pretty lame and cheesy but the members seemed to eat it up as they made fun of us ha but it's all good! 

On Saturday! we were able to go over to the Mendenhall's house to do more service which was pretty funny cause he asked "what we do all day?" and we said "pretty much just walk around for 14 hrs talking to people and knocking doors" and he says "wanna come pull some weeds?!" haaha so that Saturday we went over and pulled weeds for 5 minutes then ate some cheese cake and watched his 6 year old son play legos on the Xbox and listen to his dad make fun of him haha it was pretty classic!

Right after that we went and did some more service for this lady who has no job pretty much has nothing and trying to support two kids, anyway she calls us up and was like "Elders I'm getting some furniture from this lady about a block and a half away and I need help getting it to my house can you walk it there? It should be pretty easy?"! and of course we say "we'd love to!" so we go to her house then walk a block and a half to get the furniture! She needed a bed and a dresser so Elder Younger and I look at the dresser then look at each other with the expression on our face that said " this lady is crazy" so we go to pick up the dresser and it weighs about 300-400 lbs (no kidding) we then look at each other and agree we are not walking this a block and a half to her house!! So we call Brother Mendenhall to bring his truck haha it was crazy how much that thing weighed!!   

That pretty much rounds out my week it was pretty interesting haha 

Scripture

Mosiah 2:17

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings yea are only in the service of your God.

Love you all and miss you!!

ELDER HESS

Hey Everyone!!

So this week was crazy!! It was by far the fastest week one of the transfer I've had on my mission!

So on Tuesday we were headed up to transfer meeting and we were getting off the exit on Jeffery where there was an Audie A4 who was one car ahead of us stopped waiting for the chance to go and Elder Younger thought she had left so needless to say we ran into the back of her and put a large dent in her bumper Now I'm the driver haha pretty classic ! What tops it all off is the fact that she actually lives within our area haha pretty great!  Transfer meeting was good! We got new elders in out ward... Elder Buhler and Elder Despain!

That night we took care of two missionaries who were going home on Wednesday so we took them to Dove Canyon Club House for a super nice 25$ a plate meal! It was so good! Then we had an all nighter playing Catan cause they were too excited to go home that they couldn't sleep! We had to wake up at 4 am to get them to the airport.

So on Wednesday I was dead tired cause I haven't slept  and had to go to a DL meeting with President Orgill that started at 10! But that was super good! He talked a lot about D&C 121 and pretty much talked about being a good leader and what it takes to be one and the attributes we should attain so it was a very good meeting!

Later that day we had DLC with our zone and Elder Younger and I were in charge or buying shirts for the whole zone so we can spray paint them for like unity and stuff like that! It was pretty cool they turned out very well!! We all wore them for a service project the next day for the city of RSM and the mayor loved it!!  

Then Thursday was our district meeting which went very well we set some sick goals to try to get our less actives to come to church and to help our investigators progress within the district and we found a scripture that will be our transfer scripture for our district that's pretty sick that I'll show at the end of the letter!

On Saturday we were able to go down to the canyon and do some work on a less active families farm! We were able to feed their horses and do some stuff with them! I love going down and working on the members farms in the canyon! It's like the closest thing to home! It's pretty amazing! I was standing by one of their Shetland ponies taking a picture and the first thought that came to me was "dang kellen would love this place!" It was awesome and we topped the night off by going to B-dubs cause we didn't have a dinner and a member that was there paid for us so it was super cool!  

A lot of good things are happening here it's gonna be a crazy transfer that's for sure!!

Scripture!

1 PETER 3:8

 8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

Love you all!!

Elder Hess

 

Transfer Time...I'm staying put!

Hey Everyone!

So this week was a really good week!! It was the last week of the transfer and calls came on Saturday! I will be staying with Elder Younger in Live Oak Canyon in Santa Margarita! and I will also be staying here for the remainder of my mission which I am pretty excited about!! Mainly cause the next time I have to pack is to come home haha!!

But this week had some really good things happen!! We were able to go to the temple and really think about how we can see miracle and see God's hand in our work and be humble enough to recognize they come from God!! By doing so we saw some pretty sick miracles!

We were able to teach Sister Venable! She is such an amazing women! I love Sister Venable she is one of the strongest people I know! These next couple weeks are gonna be really hard for her. Her husband died about six years ago this week and it's also her wedding anniversary so this time of year is really hard on her! So Elder Younger and I decided we're gonna send her some flowers and try to buoy her up a little!

Also this week was our stake conference and we had some miracles that happened! President and Sister Orgill who live in this stake spoke! It was the same talk as it was in Mission Viejo a couple weeks ago at their stake conference but they added a story a sister told them that happened to them as they were proselyting and how the Lord put them in the right spot  at the right time so it was pretty amazing! They were able to keep this 18 year old boy from taking his life!! I'd say that was a pretty big miracle!

The next day (Sunday) the high councilmen over missionary work (Brother Hobbins) who is also in our ward went hard doing missionary work who by the way has shingles and can barely move! Anyway he got a less active, who missionaries have been trying to get back for a couple years, to come to church!! And they sat second row... it was awesome!! His name is Dennis Lytton who actually lives in Las Flores who I was trying to work with when I was there! The miracle to go along with that is his sister who is our investigator Lori Hume who we have been working with for a while who has told us she is scared to change religions told Brother Hobbins last week that she is no longer scared and she also has a friend ready to take lessons  as well!! Can you say 2 baptisms?? Ahh Yaa!! It's pretty exciting! We're teaching them this Wednesday!!

That's about it for the week its awesome!! I love seeing miracles. I love California. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love being apart of this work!!

Scripture!

Doctrine and Covenants 4:2

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

Love you all!!

Elder Hess