Following the Spirit in Finding a Lost Sheep

Letter #95
June 22, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Hey guys, you all had a nice week as it sounds, but it sounds like it has been pretty hot in Utah, it has been in the 80s and 90s here, but it has been raining a ton, and I mean A TON, Houston has already broken records for the most rain in a year, and it is still the first half of the year... We can't help but think that with this weather we will eventually get a hurricane this year, but the question is, will I still be in the mission or not? I kinda want that experience, but I don't at the same time, especially knowing that Mom would be freaking out ;). By the way Dad, Happy Father's Day! I just wanted to send you a picture, so I had Bro. Gálvez take/send the picture.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

This last week was filled with many miracles as well as disappointments. We saw success with mainly Andrea and her husband, Ulises, and Hermana Gálvez, the nonmember mother of two member boys, one of which is in Peru on a mission. We found Andrea and Ulises last Sunday and taught them about the Restoration, then this week we went back there with our branch president and his wife, the Mendoza's, to teach them about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation, but only Andrea was there. While we were talking about the purpose of this life, we mentioned baptism a second time because they had already accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 18th of July, and she just opened up completely, telling us that she and Ulises weren't actually married, but they were already working on getting Ulises divorced so they can get married. She expressed their desire to be baptized, but their desire to be married first, which made us really happy. We were able to help them the next time we went over to because our Branch Mission Leader talked with us about how he had gone through the same situation and he wanted to refer them to the lawyer that he had used to be able to get divorced to be able to be baptized. Andrea and Ulises were thrilled to hear about the help that they could get and are progressing nicely, they just weren't able to make it to church due to work and a sick child. They have even mentioned that they don't drink or smoke, just a little coffee here and there. We have plans to talk to them about prayer and fasting this next week so we can fast for a miraculously fast divorce process.

We were extremely excited to be able to talk with Hermana Gálvez about a date for baptism this week because she finally found out when her son is getting home from his mission! We went over to visit her with the Relief Society president, and her husband, because they LOVE Hermana Gálvez. We were able to talk to her about the Word of Wisdom because that was supposedly one of her biggest issues. (she used to drink coffee, but when we asked her if she had any problems with any of the forbidden substances, she said she was fine with all of them, she even explained how she only drinks water, juice, and the occasional cup of milk. though water, juice and milk are all okay:) She is really prepared to be baptized--she just needs to continue reading and praying. Her son, Brian, is coming home on the 27th of July, so we planned on inviting her to be baptized on the 1st of August when we went over for dinner on Saturday for her other son, Justin's, birthday, but they had company so we didn't feel comfortable extending the invitation with them there.  Instead, on Sunday when we stopped by to give a couple of ties to Justin for his birthday, we made the invitation and she accepted! We now just have the task of continually following up and helping her learn the rest of the stuff needed for being baptized. She had asked what the benefits of being baptized were, so we got to teach her a little about the Gift of the Holy Ghost, then she remembered her sons talking about the temple and being able to go inside, so we talked about baptisms for the dead and how they are similar to what she was going to do. She has a lot of good questions, and we are really looking forward to helping her address them and gain a stronger testimony.

So if all goes right, we should have at least 3 baptisms during this new transfer, but I am hoping for many more than that! I am desiring to finish what I have started, and do it the right way, giving my 110%! This last week was great for us in the fact that we had more lessons and more contacts than all of the other weeks, and we saw so many miracles. We were able to follow the Spirit in finding a lost sheep on Saturday, and are looking forward to helping him get back to church because he was "only kept from the [church] because he knew not where to find it!" He has a son in El Salvador preparing to serve a mission and 3 other kids and his wife, and they are all active.  He is only here in the United States for working to help his family. I felt extremely stupid when we found him because I have been feeling the need to go down that street these past few weeks and apparently his wife was asking him when he was going to go back to church and he had said he would go when the missionaries passed by and found him and gave him the address...well, we've done that now!

The branch has been growing little by little.  People have been lead to moving to Baytown, and there are now about 3 new families that have moved into the branch--soon to be more families and individuals, including this man we found. We look forward to the progress being made in the branch, and in our area. The Hermanas have been finding a lot of success as well.  They are still getting along great, and I look forward to seeing them have a lot of success this transfer.

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Feeling Blessed--The district is doing really well!

Letter #94
June 15, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Hey guys, it seems like you all had a great week, especially Shannon getting a new house and stuff. This last week went really well and we saw a lot of success! We were able to break out of some little unproductive habits and see the blessings of doing so. This last week we found 9 new investigators because we were able to follow the spirit in what to do and where to go. We were blessed in the receiving of a referral from one of Hermana Walsh's converts in Pasadena for a man named Ulises and his wife, Andrea. On Sunday, when we were going to a different lesson, we both had the feeling of stopping by this couple's house and the Ulises was outside and was really excited to see us! It turn out that the he had gone to our church in Mexico about 2 or 3 times when he was about 12 or 13 years old. His friend from work (Hermana Walah's convert) had been talking with him and invited him to have the missionaries over and he really wanted that! He invited us right in and we were able to speak with him and his wife, sharing the message of the Restoration and it answered many of their questions, including why there are so many churches out in the world. They accepted a baptismal invitation for the 18th of July and they seem truly willing to do what is necessary to come to know the truth.

What made Sunday even better was the fact that as we were walking the long way back to the car, we saw a guy that Elder Knudsen and I contacted one of our last days together and we were able to talk to him and his mother. They invited us inside and we shared with them the message of the Restoration as well, but we sadly weren't able to commit them to a baptismal date.  We did make an attempt, and they were willing to let us come back and explain a little more about the restored authority and the Book of Mormon. When we got out of the lesson, we had no idea why the Lord suddenly decided to bless us with 4 new investigators in about an hour or hour and a half. On Saturday and Sunday, we found 7 of our 9 new investigators, and then we were blessed with 3 more on Monday. 

The district is doing really well and both of our areas saw a ton of miracles leading us to more prepared people and progress with the ones we have found already.

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

So many Churches?...the need for the Restoration!

Letter #93
June 8, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Hey guys, it sounds like you all had a great week and I am super excited for Shanny and Simon on their acquiring of a house! Thank you all for the birthday wishes and I want you to know that I got to go to a pizza buffet with my district after District Meeting on Friday and my companion paid for me as a little gift. We ended up getting cheesecake the next day at a member's home (without them knowing that my birthday was the day before), and I got some happy birthday texts from some of the members because one of the only members that I told about my birthday posted on the branch Facebook page that it was my birthday.

This week went well for us, though it was a little rough due to the difficulty of getting in with our investigators, but we tried to use our time in a good effective manner. We went out trying to find new people quite a bit and also worked with a good number of the less active members. We have been working with the ward list a lot to try to make the necessary corrections, and we have actually had a good amount of success in finding more members to work with, and the majority are part member families!

As we have been searching out new areas to go finding in, we have also found success and now we know of more places that have a good number of Hispanics that we can talk to. We have been receiving more referrals and I have even noticed that there are times that we have had good contacting miracles! 

One miracle we ended up having was just yesterday, we felt like we needed to try a family that we haven't been able to contact in a couple of weeks, so we went up to where they live. They weren't home, but we were able to talk with another investigator for a while as we helped him try to fix his lawn mower. Then, not feeling quite satisfied with that, we went over to another person we had contacted a few weeks ago. They were busy as well, but they mentioned that they would be interested in the English class we offer and said that he would try to come. That was better, but it still didn't quite feel like that was what we were needed for in that area at that time. On our way back to the car, I saw a man and a woman sitting in a couple of chairs drinking and felt like I should talk to them. We started to talk with them and they seemed really cool, but they just didn't seem too interested. I felt like I needed to ask the man why he only went to the Catholic Church when he went to church, then I felt to ask him why he thinks there are so many churches. When I asked those two questions he opened up and said how he feels that there should be just one church and that he only goes to the Catholic church because it is what his parents taught him. He and the woman asked us why there were so many churches and other things that pertain to the message of the restoration. We were basically able to teach them about the apostasy and the restoration while we were there and they seem really interested and invited us back for this next weekend!

We had a lot of other miracles, but that was our biggest one that we saw, other than us receiving a really interested member referral that we will be teaching tonight or sometime a little later this week! We had a really funny story as well from yesterday.  We were looking for members trying to make corrections to the ward list and one of the places that we tried last night was definitely not a member. We knocked on the door of where a member used to live and the man who answered the door didn't even let us say "hello" or "good evening" before he started swearing at us and screaming that we should leave saying that if we didn't leave, he would call the cops on us, which made us laugh a little as we got back in the car.  It is unfortunate that he truly doesn't know what he is missing and he will someday meet the Lord at the judgement bar of God. We both just wish he would give the gospel a chance, but he isn't and will have to take ownership of his choices at that last day. We both just see that as extra evidence that this is true because there is only true opposition against our church.

The district has been doing well, we are all kinda struggling with finding a high number of people to teach, but we are trying to pull everything back together and manage our time better (than we have in weeks' past). We are trying to work well with the people we have, and that is helping them start progressing.  Of course, there still are some obstacles in the way of getting some of them progressing, but we are moving in a positive direction.

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Working to Build Unity

Letter #92
June 1, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Hey guys it sounds like your week was great, ours was a little hectic, we had mission conference on Tuesday and Thursday we got iPads.  Mine is just a loaner and will be returned when I go home, but it has been really helpful because we have been able to show video clips in some lessons and it really helps.

This last week was a little rough, but we were trying to make the most out of it. We ended up going through a good amount of the branch list to make corrections and to get to know more of the members. With that time taken to step back a little and assess how we can move forward with more success, we were able to set up appointments for this next week with multiple less active families that we have never met!

We were also able to make some progress with the part member family we have been working with, sadly the two kids weren't able to make it to church because they were with their father and step-mother out of town. We were able to get them to mutual on Thursday evening and we got their brother to church again.  And he was able to go to a youth fireside in the evening on Sunday, so that made us happy. Him coming to church again allowed him to set up an interview with the branch president, so he should be figuring out what all is necessary for being able to push forward and progress. We look forward to the siblings being baptized, but we will need to push back the date because we haven't been able to visit them enough.

Elder Hepworth and I are getting along great, as well as the hermanas.  We are working hard with the branch to build unity in the families and the branch. The hermanas mentioned that they had a hard time last week, but they were able to plan to be able to work more effectively and efficiently.

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Sorting out the More Prepared--Miracles come from Obedience

Letter #91
May 26, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth

Well, it sounds like you all had an exciting week and were really excited to spend time with family and now welcome the new little Pence into the family.

This last week has gone really well. Even though we weren't really able to increase the number of lessons we had, we were able to make them more effective. These past couple of weeks we have had the wonderful opportunity to work with a less active family, the Lopez/Barajas family, that is extremely prepared and "golden," in that they are just ready to come back to church.  We have had the chance to speak with the younger siblings that are not currently members of the church. The little siblings are really excited about learning and they have accepted a baptismal date for the 6th of June! And the best part is, the mother, who is a less active member, is on board, she will let them go through with it! One of the best things about this family is that they love us, we saw them almost every day last week and they were loving it, they invited us over three times, came to mutual, a branch activity, and to church! We also saw a bunch of miracles in finding new people to teach, we are still sorting out the more prepared ones from the ones just willing to listen, and not act, but we are excited for the success that is coming.

Other than that, we have just been trying to clean up the branch list and find new investigators. We have been just seeing a ton of miracles come from obedience, then the days that we aren't quite as obedient, we struggle more. I have been seeing more of a correlation between obedience/faith and the blessings the longer I've been out. I remember the time that I went on exchanges with Elder Jones when I had only been out for almost 6 months and the success that we saw, teaching about 6 lessons and finding 8 new investigators, then comparing it to Tuesday, when we were with Elder Johnson; all 5 of our set lessons worked out, 2 being with members and the other 3 with new investigators. I feel like now, more than ever, I need to be obedient because I truly want to finish my mission strong and see the success that every missionary desires.

I love you guys,
Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Making Small Changes for the Better = Greater Happiness

Letter #90
May 18, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Hepworth 

This week went very well here in Baytown with Elder Hepworth. He truly desires to work and we work in a similar way. We saw many miracles come about this past week. One of the biggest miracles was with a Less-Active family that only a few of the family members are members of the church. We went to visit Hermana Gomez, a Less-Active that Elder Knudsen and I found last week, and she referred us over to her good friend, who is also a member. We went to visit their family and found them on their way out, but they said we could come by the next day. When we went over, their son, Ricardo let us right in and instantly started crying and he started pouring out his heart and talking about all of the bad things he had gone through in the past 5 years that he hasn't been going to church. He explained that he was praying for help and then we showed up. He is ready to come back to the fold and is tired of being the cause of so much trouble and worry for his parents. He brought in his little brothers and had them listen to us and we invited them to church and an activity the branch is having. We went over the next day to give them a couple of white shirts for church and they started talking about them wanting to take the next step and change the music they listen to. We helped them with that and helped Ricardo get his suit for church, then they gave us a call at 7:40am Sunday and said that they were going to need a ride, but they were already ready for church. They had a great time at church and Ricardo brought his little siblings and a friend of theirs to church! I am excited to see where Ricardo goes with this because he keeps asking us what a mission is like and what we do as missionaries.

This week we also met two black ladies that said that they have seen Elder Hepworth before and we have no idea where or when, but he is really creeped out by it... He wants to know how they know him because neither of them knew where they had seen him before or even if it truly was him. But it was pretty funny to see his reaction.

A little bit about Elder Hepworth, he is from Idaho (making him companion #2 from one of those tiny little non-existent communities of Idaho, the first being Elder Owens from Kuna, which isn't quite as tiny, but still small)

He played football in high school and graduated and has been on his mission since June 2014.

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Visiting helps with understanding and shows love

Letter #89
May 11, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Knudsen

Hey guys, it was really great being able to talk with the family yesterday and be able to talk in Spanish a little, I hope that everyone who speaks Spanish was able to understand it and translate for those who don't know any Spanish.

This week was a little rough, a good chunk of proselyting time was taken out by service both on Thursday and an unexpected need of service for the Stake President on Saturday. We weren't really able to establish contact with our different investigators, only a couple of them answered the door or the phone, and it was kinda hard because it seemed like transfers were very much distracting Elder Knudsen. We were trying to find people, but things kept coming up and we didn't use our time efficiently causing all of our numbers to plummet. I feel like we didn't use our bikes quite enough this week, but we got on them more than we have been. I am really planning on using the bikes a lot more this next transfer so we actually get out and talk with people. I also would like to be visiting more Less Active Members, Elder Knudsen was one of the people a little confused about the Less Active visits. He didn't ever want to try to visit them because we didn't have a member with us, but I hope that with visiting them we can actually help people come back into activity in the church.

Other than all of that, we actually had a really miraculous weekend apart from the Mother's Day phone call, we found multiple people that are interested in taking the lessons and we were able to get in with investigators and wish some people a happy Mother's Day. It was really amazing, we decided to stop by the house of Luz and her family, a family that is really prepared, but for some reason wasn't going to continue investigating, and we wished Luz a happy Mother's Day and she was really excited to see us and was willing to set up another appointment for this week! I am so glad that we stopped by and were able to brighten her day!

I really love it here in Baytown and I can't wait to get to know my new companion, we have the new transfer meeting today at 4pm and luckily we were able to figure out rides and stuff. This next week I should be able to tell you about my new companion. I look forward to this new transfer and what it will hold. I am going to do exactly as Dad mentioned, work as hard and effectively as I can, especially because I know my purpose out here and I know how to fulfill it. I can't say the same for when I get home :P I don't really like the feeling of all this coming to an end. I have the same amount of time left right now as I had under my belt just before Thanksgiving 2013, which isn't very long.

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye

Our Need for the Book of Mormon

Letter #88
May 4, 2015
Area: Baytown
Companion: Knudsen

Hey guys, this week was a little rough, we had a really hard time getting in with any of our investigators and it is starting to seem like Elder Knudsen is ready to leave Baytown, he has kinda given up on this transfer. Going back to the week, we got in with three of the investigators after multiple tries, but the rest just were really busy. Sadly Luz Silva and her daughters kind of dropped us, it seems like Luz still wants to have us come over, but her daughters don't really want to change, apparently that's the situation with them, but I have a hard time believing that to be true. The daughters seemed more interested than Luz and Luz seemed really interested herself.

We were able to teach a couple of our investigators more about the Book of Mormon and how it is important and they seem to be more interested in learning. One of them, Nery, was very hesitant with the Book of Mormon because she believes the Bible so much that "there couldn't ever be another book more correct than the Bible". We had to explain a little bit more about the Restoration of the church, but we were able to help her see the need of the Book of Mormon and she realized that she couldn't say the book isn't true if she hasn't ever read it. We were able to express how much the Book of Mormon has helped us in our lives and how it can help her in hers.

Oh yeah, and a little bit of news is that now transfers are going to be Mondays at 4pm, so the departing missionaries will be flying home on the Tuesday. I thought I should tell you now because it means I will be getting home on August 4th instead of August 5th in the case that any of you are wanting to be there for my homecoming (which I hope is all of you ;)).

Yesterday the English Elders in our area had 4 baptisms, which is kinda funny because basically 3 of them were just handed to them and they just needed to teach them a little, and get them interviewed. Which I actually had the opportunity to interview all 4 of them. I was so blessed with the opportunity to interview a woman named Vansha Gray, who actually found us about 2.5-3 weeks ago. Attached are pictures of us four Elders with her.

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye