Great week in Shelley!

Dear All,

We had a Fireside yesterday I may or may not have told you about. I had some singing parts and was the Narrator. Quite an awesome program and along with it there is a cool story.

We were told by a ward mission leader about a man who was extremely less active and was afraid to go back to church. The mission leader wanted us to go by and say he sent us. We went by, his wife answered the door and told us he was around back in the shop. We went around knocked and he yelled "come in" we walked in "Can i help you guys?" he asked. (I'm absolutely confident that what happened here was not me) We opened our mouth and the Spirit put words in it. We were willing to say and do whatever was necessary to have this brother feel the Spirit, though a twinge of fear was initially in our minds I pushed it out immediately.

"We were asked by Brother Jenkins to stop by. We Have a special message for YOU about repentance" It was silent for a few seconds.

"Right now is not a good time guys" he was with a couple of friends drinking and smoking. I looked to the floor looked back at him and said, "Remember that our Heavenly Fathers love is never too far away from anyone."

"We're fine," he said, "thanks though.... I'll probably see you again, but we're fine."

The Spirit whispered many things so even though he was expressionless I could sense a smile and a spark of hope. I could tell the natural man in him was pushing off the desire to speak to us more. We left and went to the car but the Spirit was not done speaking to us.
"Elder we forgot something"
"What?"
"we didn't invite him to the Fireside, lets go back" so we started back. (I failed to notice that Elder Clay was a somewhat scared the entire time, I'm sure he may have felt we were going to walk in and not walk back out of that shop.) We walked right in, and said "Weforgot to invite you to this Christmas program."

"I told you I'd see you guys again" he said and asked for my name. We introduced ourselves and he was friendly.

What added more to our surprise was later, when we were talking to our ward mission leader about it and he asked, "When did you go over? was it on the 5th?" We confirmed that it was and he showed us a text from [the man] that said "Thanks" what added to our Joy was the fact the brother was at the fireside! His being there fueled my desire to put my heart and soul into the parts that I had.
He was friendly and we talked with him after wards (I didn't want him to leave without seeing how he felt about it) and he enjoyed it a lot. We plan to stop by and invite him to Jameston ward Christmas party.

I feel we have accomplished much even though we are not expecting any baptism dates. We look forward to bringing people closer to Jesus Christ, and hope they never look back on their past.

Elder Hedgecock


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Brothers, Sisters, and Other Loved Folks,

Hear my words and ponder on the things which I say concerning the missionary work happening in the area of which I have been asked to serve.

OK that was fun typing that introduction....

In the 13th day of the 8th month of the 2012th year of Our Lord, an instant parchment was sent to you concerning one Elder Hedgecock, a Servant of the Lord.

He, he, sounds pretty cool! Now to get serious.

This week has been full of good teaching experiences and moments we have learned important things that will bless those we teach and depending on how we apply it and for many others whom I have not met yet on my mission and in my life.

Things I have learned in studies are:
Weakness is another word for work.
Unlike in a board game; a set back does not mean we've lost progress, but that we are putting some distance in front of us to get a running start and leap forward.
Do not desire to be better than others, it shows your pride in looking down on others; desire to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ; which involves not only bringing yourself to Christ but helping others to follow.

http://youtu.be/WNLYeTxBQiY
This has become one of my favorite videos as of late. I wish to share it so all of you can see what I want to pursue when I return home, which is 14 months away, but also how much I desire to be as Elder Holland said: "Do all you can to get all you can out of a mission." He speaks boldly to missionaries, we have a video of it. He wants missionaries to be converted and on top of that not to return to their old lives that had before they left, quoting the New Testament "Peter, lovest thou me more than these? and Peter answered yes Lord, then Christ asked again, Peter, Lovest thou me more than these? and Peter responded yes Lord, and finally Christ asked Peter, Lovest thou me more than these?" for the third time and Peter is a little nervous about threes and he answered "Yes, Lord thou knowest that I love thee" and then Jeffery R. Holland says with such passion I have never seen before "THEN FEED MY SHEEP! Leave your nets and follow me, I've asked you once I've asked a second Time and I don't want to ask a Third time. Feed my Sheep! leave your nets, your oars and your boats!" I have and am still growing to love the words of the prophets and apostles.

I felt pretty good yesterday when I gave a talk (without paper in front of me) in a singles branch about John 15 and about the comparison Christ gave that he is the Vine and the disciples are the branches. I compared it to Alma 32 about the seed and also what I learned in agricultural Science class on Proper pruning rules for trees and plants. The Lord indeed has all things as a testimony of him, even in agricultural science. I enjoy finding comparisons to gospel topics in other things.

I hope you are all doing well and are working to keep all the promises you've made to God, and if you need to repair them do so. The Lord is willing to forgive all who have the 2 requirements necessary: A Broken heart and a Contrite spirit. And don't be discouraged Christ asks us "let your heart not be troubled, neither let it be afraid" John 14:27

Know that I love you all and am doing well out here in Idaho!

Love,
Elder Hedgecock

Amazing Week in Idaho Falls

Dear All,

This week is simply ama-za-zing! We have 2 baptim dates now; we got one with a 9 year old who's dad is less active, and the second is with a lady named Hillary. She had parents who would disown her if she became a member. We prayed, fasted, and put her name in the temple prayer roll and on Friday she told us her mother gave her permission and said not to worry about her father, and then her father gave her permission! Indeed miracles are all around!

We visited with Mike, who has had alot of health issues and he's been telling us more and more about himself. He's ready, really [to be baptized], and he believes the Lord can heal him of his infirmities, and I believe it too.

We met with the girl who is in the addiction recovery group, and she has been open more about herself. She made us Elders Day Cards! because she went to Tuesday night activites for the Young Women and they were making Fathers Day Cards, except her father is not allowed to have contact with her so she made me and my companion Elders Day Cards. It made my day! So after a bit of talking she got out the Book of Mormon and said, "We left off on page..." She is really working to try and find God and faith and I can't wait to see what changes she makes. Any changes anyone makes are just absolutely AWESOME!

We have been meeting some goals and exceeding some, which makes me feel good, because I know it means I'm becoming the kind of missionary the Lord wants me to be. Amazingly, we looked at our goals and thought they might be too low but after this Sunday we are glad we have set them where they are at. Agency is the one thing we can only hope will be used correctly, but the Lord knows how it will be used. We also have been getting some amazing revelations at the most random times. My companion and I have decided it is easy to go for the low hanging fruit, or people who are already ready to be baptized, however we know we seem to be able to get places with people other missionaries only hope they could because we do not push our goals on them. We had a thought to visit people who we have been told are not interested by members. The scripture we thought of is about the sons of Mosiah wanting to teach the Lamanites, and the Nephites saying in Alma 26:24

"24 For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the Lamanites of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers, as stiffnecked a people as they are; whose hearts delight in the shedding of blood; whose days have been spent in the grossest iniquity; whose ways have been the ways of a transgressor from the beginning? Now my brethren, ye remember that this was their language.
25 And moreover they did say: Let us take up arms against them, that we destroy them and their iniquity out of the land, lest they overrun us and destroy us.
26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls."

We aim to visit those whom most members do not expect to be interested. We also intend to get maybe at least one person who may be interested once they see we are not missionaries who push our goals on them but that we really care, that we might bring a few souls unto the Lord. (yeah we might not be dealing with people who shed blood, and members don't want to destroy them)

All is well my dear Family and Friends, and I shall write unto you again when Monday comes again!

Sincerely,
Elder Hedgecock

Another week in Idaho Falls

Dear all,

This week was a very good week. We met with a less active lady with a wayward child. We sat outside cause we couldn't get a team teacher to come and the wayward daughter was actually the calmest I've ever seen her. We talked with her a bit, and she said she had been sober for some time. We told her of the addiction recovery support groups run by the church and she was extremely interested. We told her where to go and she went. Saturday, we got up early and got her to come with us to the Stake Garden to do some community service (she needed 22 service hours) after which we opened the scriptures and read with her. She told us a lot about her past. She had gone through a lot, and wanted a way out of her situation. I could see a desire to be free from her addictions and problems. Yet she just didn't know how to let go. It seems if she held on to both parts of herself much longer she will be torn apart; as the scriptures say "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."- Matthew 6:24 we hope she is able to start progressing becuase she feels she has hit rock bottom.

To brighten things up we had a softball game on Thursday (turned out to be a game of catch) with a investigator and a ward mission leader. Kinda embarrassing, considering we should have had 8 other people there at least. But thats not the part that it gets better. I got a free baseball glove! We visited a member of the branch presidency to talk about the work in the branch and told him about softball. Told him we would like to borrow some gloves if people have them. He had a glove for a left handed person he'd been trying to give away and so I Got a Baseball glove! MADE MY WEEK! Then again seeing others wanting to do better in life MAKES MY WEEK TOO! But considering I wanted to do some baseball/softball before I left on my mission and wanted to buy a mitt for some time, and got one for free...... yes God Does grant us according to our desires, even if it is not something at the top of our list he will still grant according to our desires. I have a baseball mitt to prove it!

Love,
Elder Hedgecock


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad