New Year quickly approaching

Wow its incredible that Christmas has already come and gone. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa spoiled you. This week was a little slower of course with it being Christmas week. A lot of our investigators were out of town or were too busy with family. We did find time however to meet with two of our investigators and talk with them. We also found 4 new investigators. It incredible how the Lord puts people in your path. We were on our way to an appointment this week and as we were walking up to the door we saw someone across the street and of course being that obnoxious missionary we flagged him down and shared with him a message about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We then set him with a baptismal date. Its so important that we talk to everyone. This new year is approaching fast. Hopefully we set goals and more importantly make plans to accomplish those goals. Hopefully this Christmas season we took into our hearts the message of the Savior's atonement and looked for ways we can become more like him. Hope you all have a wonderful rest of your 2015 year and a great start to 2016. Have a great week. Sorry for the short email. Talk with you next week. 

-Elder Loertscher

Christmas is Here December 21, 2015

First great news. These 2 people that Elder Fernande's and I were teaching in my last area got baptized this past Saturday. We put in a lot of time with these two individuals so when I heard they finally were all in I was so excited. 

So where did time go? I remember Christmas last year just as if it was yesterday. I cant say it enough time is flying by. So this week we saw some really awesome miracles. We were on exchanges with a companionship in our zone. During the exchange we had made specific plans to contact certain people. As we were on our way to go knocking doors I felt the need to go to another area. So we drove to the area that we felt we should go. Said a very sincere prayer, got out of the car, and went to this door right in front of us. We then proceeded to talk with this man for about an hour. They recently moved from Utah. While there his daughter got baptized. So we talked with him and committed him to a baptismal date. It was a really cool miracle. But then after the exchanges talked with Elder Boy and found out that he isn't in our area. He is across the street from out area so we cant teach him. It was a huge let down. You would think that being here for a month already I would get to know our area boundaries but i guess not. In my defense they are really weird. So also this week we saw another awesome miracle. We got a referral from the mission office. There is someone in the YSA that wants to learn more. So 1st he came to us. That always means there is a better chance of him progressing. Next he is engaged to a member. So he told us he wants to learn so they can get married in the temple. Were making sure though he is doing it for the right reasons. Which it looks like he really truly wants to know. So he will be a baptism coming up here soon. We are seeing a lot of success. On Saturday morning this side of the mission got together and watched Its a Wonderful Life. It was super funny. It was great to see old friends in the mission field. So altogether it was a pretty great week and we are looking forward to an awesome week this week. 

So this week something cool that i learned was this 

J.O.Y. 

Matt. 22:39

 34 ¶But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So lets break it down.

 J= Jesus & God. First we should love and serve them with all our heart, soul, and mind. 

 O= Others. We need to next serve and think of others before

 Y= yourself. We should be last in our thoughts and look to serve Jesus and others first. 

If we do those things we will have JOY. I just thought that was cool because I have not heard that before. 

-Elder Loertscher

These were right outside out church building.

Busy Schedules December 7, 2015

Wow was this week jammed packed with meetings. So Monday we had p-day and played a lot of basketball. Monday night we had family home evening with a recent convert. Tuesday we actually had time to work. We were able to meet with one of our investigators and teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Tuesday we had to meet with one of the high councilman from the stake. We talked with him about our monthly actual as a stake with missionary work. We discussed how we can get all the wards on board. Then Wednesday we had Mission Leadership Council with all the zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders. That was a great meeting. We talked a lot about making sure we resolve people's lame excuses for not coming to church. After MLC we had to plan for our zone training meeting on Friday. We also had to re meet with the high councilman to finish the meeting from the night before. We also met with our district leaders to tell them about MLC and how we can help the districts in the zone. Thursday we had weekly planning and meeting with two of our investigators. Friday we had Zone training meeting. It went really well. Hopefully it inspired our missionaries to push harder and #GIVEAGIFT to the savior. Friday night we went and helped at the Christmas Creche which is a event held by the church for the community. They have over like 200 nativity sets and choirs form around the area come and perform at different hours of the day. It is so cool. We helped with that. Saturday we attended another baptism that someone in our zone had. We also were able to tract and find more new investigators. Sunday we attended our ward and the YSA ward because we cover that area as well. While at the YSA ward someone brought a friend so of course right after church we set him aside and taught him the restoration and set him with a baptismal date. I loved having a really busy week though because it goes by quick and feels super successful. 

ALMA 17:9-10

9 And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.

 10 And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.

This is my new favorite scripture. It helps me ask myself. Am i offering up much prayer and fasting? Am i being an instrument in the hands of God? If so its a promise that i will have the spirit and i will be able to be comforted. How much comfort that brings to me. Hopefully we all are doing all that we can on our part to place ourselves in a path in which we are able to align our will with the fathers. 

Here is a great video about the savior. Please watch it and share it on social media. 

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/purpose-of-a-savior

​First picture is a picture of our zone at ZTM. the one in the front. His name is Elder Tasi. He is from New Zealand. He is so cool. The second picture was taken at the local community college. I thought it was cool how the signs light up at night. 

Hope you all have a great week. 

-Elder Loertscher