President Jergensen's Last Week :( - June 24, 2013

Summer has officially started!

 

It is a bittersweet week this week. President and Sister Jergensen, my Mission President couple, will be finishing their mission and returning to Poway, California this weekend. It has been such an incredible opportunity for me to serve under their stewardship and to learn so many things as they have instructed us. Their main focus was, and I assume always will be, on the Doctrine of Christ. I invite each of you to study the Doctrine of Christ this week from 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 11. Remember, the Doctrine of Christ is: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.

 

I am excited to meet my new Mission President couple, President and Sister Jensen! They hail from South Carolina.

 

Great things have been happening in the Story City Branch this week! It turns out we have one of President Monson's missionaries from when he was a Mission President here in our branch. It was cool to find that out and talk with him a bit about it.

 

We found a new family that we are going to be working with that lives in Jewell, Iowa. They moved in about 6 months ago. The pastor of the church that they began going to hasn't been helping her, so they are looking for a new church. All they need is a fixed car and they will come down to worship with us! We taught the wife on Saturday and answered a lot of her questions and taught the Restoration and how there is a fullness of the gospel here on the earth again!

We set a date with the Bennett family! They are preparing to be baptized on August 31st!  They also came to church yesterday! It was really neat. His mother has 4 kids, 3 other than him, and all her children are inactive. Two of them live in Omaha, Nebraska, one lives in Ames, Iowa, and then Brother Bennett who lives in Gilbert, Iowa. His mother and his two siblings from Omaha were in town for the weekend, and the sister in Ames came up. We met with them Saturday. Then they all came to church Sunday! Brother Bennett said he thinks that is the first time that she has been at church with all of her children in 20 years! How the Lord is blessing us!

His mother moved out of Story City about 4-and-a-half years ago. She was an active member of the branch then and many of the members from the branch knew her. They were warmly welcomed. We were told by our Stake President (he and his family live in the branch), the Branch Clerk, and the Young Men's President, "you're doing good work." It is really neat to see member trust being built and they trust us as ambassadors of the Lord. In my 3 weeks here, we had an investigator family here the first Sunday, the second Sunday we were surprised when a student and her mother came as she was writing a report on the Mormons, and yesterday we had the Bennett family and Brother Bennett's wife and children (there were 9 of them altogether). How blessed we have been! As Brother Bennett left the building and after we set up another time to meet with them, he said sincerely "thanks for showing up." We initially contacted them because we saw their name on the branch list and didn't know anything about them, so we stopped by. He shaved his facial hair before coming to church as well. He and his wife and their children enjoyed church!

 

This week on Tuesday we also had the Goodbye Zone Conference with President and Sister Jergensen. We had about an hour question & answer session with them about life. We asked and they answered about living the gospel, dating, raising children, and how to make marraiges last. It was very instructive. We then had a musical number. The piece I played the piano for in Sacrament Meeting when Elder Hess and Elder Sierra sang at the end of April. I played it again, much better, with 5 elders and 3 sisters singing. It was beautiful! After the musical number, we watched Elder Holland's MTC Devotional from January 2011. We talked about how it led to his talk in the October 2012 General Conference entitled "The First Great Commandment." It was cool to see how General Authorities, Apostles even, work at, refine, and perfect their General Conference talks long before they say them to the world in General Conference, where they then become doctrine. It was incredibly powerful and the Spirit was very strong.

 

On Monday, Elder Newhouse and I played Disc Golf at the course here in Story City. It was awesome! I can finally say I have played Disc Golf! It is actually pretty big in the Midwest.

 

On Wednesday, we did some service, and I mowed the lawn for the first time in about a year. It was on this member's non-member father's land. He has a lot of it. I used this very nice John Deere self-propelled lawn mower. It is true, "nothing runs like a Deere." :)

 

President Jergensen let me look up some music online to download and prepare for future use. It is great to have some Church music that is challenging, to work on. God gave me this talent, He is greatly blessing me with it since I have been on my mission. I will do my best to magnify it!

 

We are also losing 26 missionaries as the Peoria Zone has been relocated to the Illinois Chicago West Mission, which is one of the 58 new missions being created as a result of the Age Change Announcement. That change is effective July 1, 2013. 

 

Love,

Elder Zachary R McKenzie

Iowa Des Moines Mission

    D&C 6:34, 36

Doubt Not, Fear Not.
550 Souls to Christ

Story City - June 17, 2013

Patient: adj. bearing trials without murmuring

 

I was invited by my district leader to study patience in preparation for our district meeting on June 27th, and that is the definition I have in my dictionary. I thought that was incredibly interesting! Laman and Lemuel definitely were not patient!

 

This week was pretty normal. We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders Wednesday to Thursday. It was the second exchange I had with this missionary as he we the district leader's companion when I first got to Des Moines. We talked with the pastor of the big Lutheran church in town. We asked him how much he knew about the Mormons and he said he had done his research. We asked him where he did his research, and he told us he believed the most reliable source with the best perspective was reading books authored by those who left the church. It concerned him how hard it was to leave the church and how many people wanted to leave the church. So we gave him a Mormon.org card and invited him to look at this website and do future research from there. I hope he does!

 

We taught a lesson with the Stake President to an investigator whose name is Greg. The Stake President lives in our branch and he and Greg and their families have been friends for 10 years. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met in regards to the Bible. He doesn't really have a problem with the Book of Mormon being the word of God, but he has a problem with the Doctrine & Covenants. The fact that all scripture takes the backseat to revelation from a Prophet if it needs to concerns him. He reminds me much of Glenn Beck and his conversion story, full of in-depth questions that I so wish I could answer, but questions I have never really thought about before. He is one smart guy. It is even cooler because up until college, he was one who would fight against God and tell believers how everything could be disproved by reason. Then a friend convinced him to go to a church, he doesn't know how they convinced him. The pastor said "this scripture literally changed my life." That verse hit Greg really hard and his mind was immediately changed. From that day on, he believed in God. When our Stake President met him 10 years ago, he was a "grace junkie." Our Stake President pointed out to him that it didn't talk about Grace like that in the bible. Greg said it did. After an in-depth study of the bible, he realized our Stake President was right and he is an honest seeker of truth. He came to church with his wife and son 8 days ago and that was the first time he ever came to church. It is really neat. I don't know if I will see him be baptized as I am here, but I am convinced he will be someday! 

 

We had an incredible Zone Training Meeting on Saturday. It was focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can apply it in our lives as we seek for and teach by the Spirit. As we do this we will not just "spew the truth," but we will teach it to their needs.

 

Usually at these zone meetings and district meetings, the missionary will train on something from Preach My Gospel, then we will role-play, or practice how to apply that skill that they just taught us. Instead of doing this at this meeting, the zone leaders arranged for some missionaries in the zone to bring their actual investigators to be taught. The zone leaders then assigned us which missionaries we were going to teach with, we had 5-10 minutes to create a lesson plan, then we taught them for 35-40 minutes. It was so cool to teach with some of the other incredible missionaries in my zone! It reminded me kind of the TRC in the MTC. The TRC is where we went into a room, then taught an investigator that we knew a little bit about. Then the person in charge would look through the window or knock on the door when we needed to finish. The zone leaders did that. One of the missionaries I was teaching with saw him, it was a good point to end the lesson, as we were talking about the Atonement, and we closed with our testimony and an invitation to church and a prayer.

 

We have lots to do here in Story City with the members to help them "Catch the Wave" of missionary service as Elder Nelson put it so well back in April General Conference. We have planned and practiced a lesson using pictures inside the church building to teach the members and help them "Catch the Wave."

 

Loves from Iowa!

Elder Zachary R McKenzie

Iowa Des Moines Mission

    D&C 6:34, 36

Doubt Not, Fear Not.
550 Souls to Christ

Story City! - June 10, 2013

Buenos Tardes!

I am now in Story City. It is about 40 miles north of Des Moines. My new companion is Elder Newhouse from Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, almost in Canada! He is 6'2" 160 lbs. Blonde hair with glasses. He is awesome! He went into the MTC on February 27th, and that makes me his 2nd companion.

It was hard to leave Des Moines, but we found a new investigator on each day before I left Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and looking at the weekly mission email, the one we found Tuesday has a date for June 29th! It is exciting to see the Lord work in the way He does.

At transfer meeting, President decided to announce who was going where alphabetically by zone. How surprised I was when he said the Ames zone, then announced the Zone Leaders would continue to serve together, the district leader and his companion would continue serving together, then he said in the Story City Branch, Elder McKenzie would be serving with Elder Newhouse. I was totally surprised when I was the first companionship announced that would be changing at transfer meeting. After transfer meeting, we stopped for lunch on the way home at Arby's. After we had sat down for lunch, two vans full of departing missionaries and missionaries heading back to Des Moines along with President and Sister Jergensen stopped for lunch as well. It was fun to have 40-something missionaries at Arby's for lunch.

I LOVE my new area! Elder Newhouse is fantastic as well! To be honest, I was really scared to go anywhere smaller than Des Moines. I was used to the big city, and I enjoy being in big cities/suburban areas. Coming to Story City I was really skeptical and apprehensive. I am so excited to be in the Ames zone in this fantastic district! It is almost a repeat of when I went to Des Moines, as I am again in the same district as Elder Kilpatrick and Elder Claridge, with Elder Barger (Elder Anderson's trainee) as District Leader (when Elder Anderson was District Leader in that district). I am very excited to serve in this district!

Great things have been happening since I got to Story City! We had a family of 3 investigators come to church! That is the first time that Elder Newhouse has ever had an investigator at church, and 3 came! On Saturday night, we had planned to do some work in the small town of Gilbert, IA as it is between Ames and Story City, so we would be able to conserve miles and do some good work on our way to and from the Get-To-Know-You district meeting. After eating dinner with the Branch President, we contacted a less-active couple whom he home teaches. We set up a dinner for this upcoming Sunday with them! On Friday, we also set up a dinner with a less-active hispanic family. They both asked us when they could feed us and so we scheduled the dinner appointments.

After we had dinner with the Branch President, we contacted a 33-year-old deacon who also lives in Gilbert, who we planned to see the night before. We knock on his door, his wife answers, and invites us in. He then comes out and offers us a seat and we sit down with him, his wife, and his 3 kids (ages 10, 9, and 3 months), and read the Book of Mormon after we get to know them a little bit. He grew up in the church, then hit rebellious years at age 13 and carried on with that until his late 20s. From his time not being active in the church, he says that his testimony was strengthened throughout, and he has never found anything that goes against what the Church teaches. It was really cool reading from 3 Nephi 11 with him and his family.

We invited them to baptism! The 10-year-old girl said that "it would probably be good," the 9-year-old boy said he would, and the wife said that she had been baptized a Lutheran when she was a baby. They agreed to read the Book of Mormon as a family, and they said they might come to church yesterday. They didn't end up coming, but they will in the future. This brother wants to quit smoking and wants his baby blessed. He will prepare to quit smoking, he told us that once he had a priesthood blessing, then was able to quit cold turkey for 9 months. When he is ready we will share with him the Stop-Smoking-Workshop. He needs some church clothes, that seemed to be the only concern with coming to church. They will be having us over for dinner as soon as they get their work schedules!

This area has so much potential! Most of the members here in the branch have the mindset that "this area is dead for missionary work." Nothing has happened in so long and Story City is so heavily Lutheran that they are losing hope. The summary of my experience thusfar in the Story City Branch is that they are not interested, or they try to convert us to their religion. It is the good ol' stubborn Midwest that Elder Hess always talked about. I am so excited for the small towns. There is a peace and serenity and calmness that doesn't exist in Des Moines. I have been truly blessed with charity and love for the community out here. I still need work on the patience aspect, but that comes in time.

I noticed that I have gained some of the characteristics that made Elder Hess a great missionary! These traits mainly focused on how the Doctrine of Christ really is important. I was testifying of things and saying things I never thought I would say, with such conviction and power. I have been taking the lead, sometimes a little too much. I am working on my patience and making sure Elder Newhouse is a fully-participating member of this companionship. It is tough as he is shy, but I feel like I am doing more to help him each and every day. It was really cool to see that. I went to bed Saturday night feeling more happy and at peace than I have in a very long time. I got a little discouraged Sunday, and I didn't thank God as much as I should have, but it is good to see some improvement.

We have begun to apply the case study. I spoke in church yesterday about the Doctrine of Christ. The branch list in the area book was a year-and-a-half out-of-date, so I got a new one. We are teaching singing time in Primary next week so the Primary Chorister can go to Priesthood for Father's Day, we are expressing our love for those in the branch and working to live it. It is really neat!

Sorry this was a longer email, but so many great things are happening! I am so excited to be serving in Story City with Elder Newhouse!

Love,

Elder Zachary R McKenzie

Iowa Des Moines Mission

    D&C 6:34, 36

Doubt Not, Fear Not.
550 Souls to Christ

Wonderful Baptism! - June 3, 2013

What a Wonderful Week!

It has been such a wonderful week! We saw the baptism of two wonderful people on Saturday, June 1st. How blessed we are to have seen them and their true conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Three other people were baptized that the Assistants have been teaching. When Elder Clarke of the Seventy visited our mission last November, he invited us to teach the Message of the Restoration at baptismal services as those involved in the baptismal ordinance change from their wet clothes to their dry clothes. During this time at baptisms throughout the church, a variety of things will happen, such as piano music is played, testimonies are borne, or a video is shared.

Elder Clarke encouraged us to share this message and to bear testimony of the steps that those who were just baptized took and what the believed in as relating to this specific message of the Restoration. As Elder Sierra and I were not involved in the actual ordinance, we had the opportunity to teach the Message of the Restoration to the group as we waited. We had role played before people started arriving and it was a bit shaky.

It was incredible what happened. As we taught, we testified of what each other said and we testified of the choices those individuals had made to be baptized. It was the most powerful experience of my mission, and maybe the most powerful spiritual experience of my life. The Spirit was so strong it was almost tangible in the room. I have not been that touched or constantly led by the Spirit than in that experience. I have had intense spiritual experiences, but none of them lasted as long as that did. It was truly astonishing to me that God trusted me enough to teach with such a powerful influence of the Spirit.

The newly baptized ladies were confirmed and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday, June 2nd, in Sacrament Meeting. It was truly wonderful that they made the decisions that they made. There are so many cool parts to this story. The fact that the ladies were not Christian before this, but Muslim. We found them and first taught them on Elder Sierra's first day as a missionary. They were baptized on the last Saturday of the transfer.

It is even cooler as I have been told that I will be transferred this Thursday. I do not know where yet, but I know I will be a new missionary's 2nd companion. It has been such a blessing to serve in Des Moines. I guess I am not supposed to be in Des Moines without Elder Hess. He is going home to Utah this week! The ward here has been phenomenal to serve in. So many willing people that are ready to help! I am sad to be leaving this large city, but the Lord has other plans for me somewhere else.

Here closes a chapter of my life. I am satisfied that I have done all that I can here. I would have like to have done more, but I am not yet perfect. I won't reach that in this life. My companions and I had a nice discussion about being, becoming, and doing. Elde Sierra brought his researched, philisophical ideas forward, Elder Hess brought his ideas forward, and I am now moving forward to becoming a consecrated missionary. This understanding puts me at the view of this actually being attainable, and to be okay with my shortcomings, as long as I am improving. To not be too hard on myself, but to acknowledge when I could have done better.

Enjoy the best times and the worst times, as they are all for your good! If we endure it well. (see D&C 121:7-8; see also Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail).

Love,

Elder Zachary R McKenzie

Iowa Des Moines Mission

    D&C 6:34, 36

Doubt Not, Fear Not.
550 Souls to Christ

Memorial Day - May 29, 2013

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

This last week was a good one. I am really sorry, but I am not in the zone today. Too many crazy things happening. We have to get a report done and my mind is not very focused right now. So this email won't be much.

 

Church was incredibly powerful. It was wonderful. We had 3 investigators there and 2 potentials. The Hill's from Kirksville came because their niece was baptized Saturday, so I got to see their baby who is now 9 months old! It was great to see them!

We found 4 new investigators this week, 3 being referrals from the Hermanas in our zone. They are doing good work over there!

I have been pondering more as of late and I hope that I am doing good things, but that there is always more I can do. I had the opportunity to get some more perspective this last week.

 

President Jergensen has asked us to internalize the Doctrine of Christ, to take it from our heads to our hearts. One way he tells us we can do this is by studying the Doctrine of Christ in 7 ways over 7 days. I just finished a week of studying it yesterday and I began again today. When we internalize the Doctrine of Christ, we begin to apply the atonement and to use it in our everyday lives. That is what I am striving for and I hope you so as well.

 

Sorry this week's report wasn't too detailed, I will do better in the future! I hope you all improve this week as well!

 

Love,

Elder Zachary R McKenzie

Iowa Des Moines Mission

    D&C 6:34, 36

Doubt Not, Fear Not.
550 Souls to Christ