"Why not? Our message is for everyone!

Letter #34
April 14, 2014
Area: Humble, TX
Companion: Owens

hey guys! It hardly feels like it has been a week...but at the same time it feels like it has been a lot longer than that. This week was very difficult for us, almost all of our set appointments fell through and we have had to spend almost all of our time finding people to teach. Even though we had difficulties, we had success in finding people.  We found 7 people that we had never taught before, and all of them are interested in the message and want to learn more! 4 of the people that we found were members of a family that we ended up finding during Hour of Power. I believe we found them as a result of us continually trying even though it was difficult. They were really an Hour of Power Miracle because both Elder Owens and I were thinking of passing the house because it didn't seem like it would be someone who doesn't speak Spanish, but then we both had the thought, "Why not? Our message is for everyone, even if they don't speak Spanish we can still talk to them." They ended up being a great family and it stopped the mother from punishing her son for being a little disobedient, and helped her be calm again and be happy. I am glad that God blessed us with the opportunity to find that family and others. We ended up teaching more than just those 7 new people, but we were never able to set up another time to visit them or find them at home.

We have been trying to learn and progress each day and we keep thinking of ways to figure out if we are doing anything wrong that would have caused the difficulties. As we have followed that process, we have found ways to improve in our studying, planning, teaching, and obedience in general. I personally have started to try to study from Preach My Gospel more because I realized that as I tried studying the scriptures and for investigators, I have forgotten to study from the other chapters of Preach My Gospel... As I have been studying more, I have learned how we can better present the Book of Mormon so the people can understand how it can help them and how they need it to know the truth of the message. I have also been studying in Chapter 2 of Preach My Gospel to help me be more efficient with my time and still get more out of what I do read. 

I am very excited to start this week out with a clean slate and endless possibilities, we have already gotten a lesson today because we were waiting for the library to open so we could email, and the person asked if we could come by today before 5pm. We ended up teaching her and her mother-in-law, and they were excited to hear a message about Christ during this time of Easter.

It doesn't exactly feel like it is almost Easter already...today it is colder again and it is raining and storming...like it seems to be every P-Day out here... But we got to enjoy having a lesson already today and we celebrated with Baskin Robbins :) 

Now to the questions:

1) I am serving in a ward and we have 4 other missionaries in it because it takes 30-40 minutes to drive from the north end to the south and about the same from the east to west... and that's going 50-60mph... 

2) I haven't met an Elder Mogart... I don't recognize the name, but I quite possibly have seen him unless he came out recently, I haven't really met very many new people recently.

I love you all!

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

with prayer and fast, anything is possible

Letter #33
April 7, 2014
Area: Humble, TX
Companion: Owens

Hey guys, it sounds like you are all having a pretty good time and you enjoyed General Conference! :) I really enjoyed conference, especially the talk that President Monson gave on Sunday morning about Loving God and Others https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niHIKItV7bA and the talk by Elder Corbridge about Joseph Smith. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/the-prophet-joseph-smith?lang=eng#listen=audio And I really liked the talk about remembering who we were before when we make decisions.

I did end up watching a little bit of the conference in spanish (Sunday Morning) and it was a little hard because I was taking notes and trying to listen and I had to look at the subtitles a little to understand the full thing. I think this conference was definitely a good one and I know of a talk that one of our investigators should read, listen, or see.

This week went by pretty fast, but we only had 1 lesson a day since Thursday, so we were kind of disappointed... This week definitely had miracles, but we had to try a little harder to actually see them because of the trials. We were supposed to have a few people come to conference, but they all had things come up to prevent them... It was sad to get to conference and not have anyone there, but we still learned a lot.

This week started out strong with us being able to get a member out with us for a lesson, and we got a couple of other lessons because we had a dinner with some recent converts, and while there, Juan, the miracle of about 2 weeks ago, called and asked if we could come over, so we stopped by and taught him a quick lesson too. Our main miracle that happened this week was that basically all of the English areas that we cover gave us referrals for people and we got to go out and try them. We are most likely going to have a minimum of 3 lessons tonight :) but we have 6 possible lessons because of the referrals, we just need to find another member to go out with us earlier because we have one at 8, just not any before that (well a possible one at 7ish, but he hasn't replied...). I can't wait to see what happens! :D 

Even though the end of the week was tough on lessons and long, we did as President Monson advises us to do, "respond with love and kindness to whatever might come our way". We didn't have that advice as it happened, but we rose with hope and excitement each day that it would be blessed and better than the last. I know that there is hope for each new day and I hold on to what I know is true, that if I do my part, the success will come in God's time.

I don't know where I heard it, but with prayer and fast, anything is possible, and I know this is true because I have been fasting and praying to overcome my habits and my temptations. I have felt the load get easier when I rely on God and "take [His] yoke upon [me]" to accept His help and His strength.  I also had the opportunity to sing a song from Zions--the song "Hold On" :) [Soundtrack: Secret Garden (The)
Title: Hold On]

I love you guys and I know that as you continue doing missionary work, others can receive the saving ordinances to join us in Heaven as we do what is necessary.

I love you,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Helping others to feel the Savior's love in their lives

Letter # 32
March 31, 2014
Area: Humble, Tx
Companion: Owens

So it sounds like all of you had a great week this week, and I am glad to say that we did too! We had a ton of miracles in our area again, and I love serving here. By far, there was one miracle that stuck out from the rest, and it happened on Friday.

On Friday, we were trying some people, but nobody was home, and it was about 8pm, so we parked the car and tried to think of what we could do... While we were thinking, I pulled out my planner to see which potential we could try at that time. I saw a couple of name referrals that live in a trailer park, and instantly I thought of a guy named Javier that lives there too.  We had found him a few weeks ago, but we couldn't ever find him again because he has no set schedule at work and he doesn't have a phone. I said that we should try him, so we drove over and he was actually home! When we knocked at his door, he seemed excited to see us and invited us in to his home (which was only 1 room that was 1/3 of the trailer..). We started talking to him about the restoration and while we were talking about something, he opened up to us and he told us how he is addicted to drugs and he lost his family and how a ton of crap has happened in his life. He told us about how he has tried to quit and tried to change his life so many times, and before he had been on his way to church for the first time in a while, and he met a really good-looking girl on the way in and instead of going in, they went away and lived together for 2 years...she had drug problems too, so it didn't help him at all. When we ran into him, the first time, he said it was God sending him a way out, and this time we came right before he was about to leave to use someone's phone to call a guy for more drugs. I feel like God told me that we needed to go there to help prevent him from doing that, and to help him feel His love. I felt prompted to ask him if he wanted to change and that I believe that we were sent to free him from his trap of drugs. When I invited him to be baptized, he accepted while nearly being in tears for like the 2nd or 3rd time that lesson.

It is incredible how God prepares people for us and how he prepares the way for them to change and grow! Javier told us that this Sunday was most-likely going to be one of the last Sundays he will have to work! :D

One of the saddest happenings this week was also on Friday, when one of our investigators, Miguel, told us that he got an answer from God that he should tell us that we should take our time to teach people who will change... Indicating that he wasn't ready to do what we asked. He told us that he was going to keep reading and praying, and maybe someday we will get a call from him saying he's ready or we'll see him at church... At first I felt like the missionaries from the district video, when their investigator, Jinx, said basically the same things, and before leaving, I asked Miguel if he felt like he did everything that he could to get an answer, and when he said he did, I told him that everything we invite him to do is to help him and that the one thing he hasn't done is attending church. I promised him that if he would come to church and pray to know the truth, he would get his answer there, but he told me that he wasn't going to come this week and that we might see him there sometime... He just wasn't willing to see that there was more to do.

Even though this week had ups and downs, I felt like it was a great week overall and I could see the Lord's love and blessings each day.

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye