Last Letter

It's seems ridiculous for me to think about how this will be the last letter home. It's been a wild ride the past two years full of nothing but tender mercies, some more disguised than others. 

This past Wednesday in district meeting we did an activity where we took a minute to list all of the different things that we had sacrificed by choosing to serve a mission. As I was making my list of personal sacrifices, I was slightly surprised by feeling an absolute absence of any regret whatsoever. I expected my self to have a slight feeling of longing for the things that I had sacrificed. I figured there would be at least an ounce of wishing that I wouldn't have had to give these things up, but there was none. 

As I looked at my list of sacrifices I realized that there was nothing there that I would have ever traded for the experiences and the blessings that I've received from serving a mission. Nothing that would come even close to the joy I've received from sharing the Gospel with my brothers and sisters. 

Sometimes, looking forward, the decision to serve a mission seems hard, but in hindsight it's a no brainer. In the end no one will ever regret choosing to serve the Lord. 

I'm grateful for the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Without His sacrifice none of us could ever be worthy, or able, to be a part of this work. I'm grateful for the trust He places in the "weak things of the world" to carry His gospel to the whole earth. There is no place I would have rather been over the past years than serving in the Illinois Chicago Mission. I will forever be filled with gratitude for the experiences had, people met, and lessons learned over the past 2 years.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!

-Elder Pond 

 

Bailey's Baptism

Saw some pretty cool miracles come from fasting this past week!

A couple weeks ago we had a lesson with Alena and she was in a pretty rough place. She's been going through some pretty significant hardships with her family life and it has caused her to blame God. When she was describing her spiritual state she said that she feels like she's dead inside. 

To make matters worse, when we were talking about the requirements for baptism we told her about what it means to keep the Sabbath day holy, which really put a damper on her desire to be baptized. They have a run down home that they're remodeling and the only day her husband has off work is Sunday so that's the only day they have to work on the house. We knew that there was no way she'd be able to get Joe, her husband, to buy into letting her go to church on Sunday instead of helping him work on the house. 

We left that lesson feeling pretty helpless. We had no idea what to do, so we did the only thing that we could do... plead for a miracle. Last Sunday we had a fast for Alena to either have a change of heart or for her situation to change enough to allow her to start attending church regularly. The results of the fast were dramatic and immediate. 

On Wednesday Alena came to our scripture class and we read out of Mosiah 18. Our main point was that Alma and the hundreds of people at the waters of Mormon who were being hunted by King Noah and his priests were all risking their lives in order to listen to and preach the gospel. 

Our question for the class was, what was it that was causing these people to risk their lives. Why did they continue to put themselves in danger by going to the waters of Mormon each day. The general consensus was that the reason the people continued to risk their lives by listening was because of the spirit that they felt. The discussion transitioned into why everyone in the class was taking time out of their lives to come to scripture class. The answer to the second was the same as the first. 

Alena was visibly hit with the spirit during the lesson. She was able to share with everyone the difference between how terrible she felt the week prior and the overwhelming spirit that she felt while we were reading that chapter. She also told everyone about how Joe was just offered a job that would require him to work on Sundays which means that she would be able to start coming to church! After elder Hansen explained that we had fasted for her she said, "All of these amazing miracles have been happening in the past week and now I know why." We were blown away to see the both of the purposes of our fast fulfilled in only a matter of days. 

The whole experience definitely strengthened my testimony of the power of fasting. Elder Hansen and I were both filled with gratitude for the amazing things that the Lord is doing within Alena's life. 

Bailey's baptism 

Bailey's baptism was this weekend as well! It was such a sweet experience watching her faith grow at a young age.

-Elder Pond 

 

One of the best steaks I've ever had!

 

Had some good luck fishing this morning!

A Visitor

Very unique experience this week...

So last Tuesday night elder Hansen and I were just pulling into our apartment parking lot around 9:30 when we got a phone call from president Bingham. Elder Hansen answered the phone. They talked back and forth a little bit until eventually president Bingham asked, "how big is your apartment?" Elder Hansen told him it was a decent size and president Bingham said, "Good. I'm down in Indiana right now so I'm going to spend the night with you guys." 

A slight rush of excitement mixed with a large wave of anxiety came over us, mainly because of the disastrous state of our apartment. Based off of how far away he said he was we figured we only had about 20 minutes to transform our apartment from a complete mess into something somewhat presentable. 

The next day he came out to a couple of meetings and lessons with us, which was a huge blessing to have him there to help us teach. It was really interesting to see how having our mission president around caused us to naturally put our best foot forward in every situation. We were both pretty sad when it was time for him to head back to Chicago. It was crazy to see how merely being in his presence for a day inspired us a great deal. 

At the end of the day I was thinking back on the whole experience and I was reminded of something that Elder Anderson of the 70 told us when he was here for a mission tour about 6 months ago. Back when he was a mission president in Mexico he had a missionary that was really struggling to live up to the standards that the Lord has set for his missionaries. Elder Anderson decided that he'd spend day with this struggling missionary and his companion. He slept on the ground of a little clay Pueblo and when 6:30 came around he was surprised to see that both missionaries were up and ready to go. He went through the rest of the day with them and everything seemed perfectly fine. They worked hard throughout the day and gave it their best. 

At the end of the day elder Anderson sat down with one of the missionaries and asked him, "Elder, do you love me more than you love God?"  The missionary responded "No... of course not." Elder Anderson then asked, "Do you fear me more than you fear god?" The missionary was a little confused as he once again answered no. Elder Anderson's finally comment is the part that really stuck with me. He said, "Then why do you do everything right when I'm with you, but when it's just the Lord watching you you won't do the same?" 

His story made me think a lot about the primary song that goes 

 

"If the Savior stood beside me

Would I do the things I do?

Would I think of His Commandments 

And try harder to be true?"

One of my favorite lines is in the last verse,

"So I'll be the kind of person

That I know I'd like to be

If I could see the savior standing nigh

Watching over me."

So to come full circle, as I thought about our day with President Bingham and this lesson from Elder Anderson I couldn't help but ask myself the same questions that he asked that missionary that day. Elder Hansen and I have been trying to do our best, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that we put forth more effort than usual on the day we spent with president Bingham. From now on I'm hoping to live every day as if the Savior was the third member of our companionship. I hope that after all is said and done it's my love for the savior that motivates me to do the things I do and nothing else. 

 

-Elder Pond 

 

 

The Lord of the Harvest

What an awesome week! We had some really cool experiences this week, not the least of which being Caleb's baptism. A lot of his family was in town from Utah and other places for various graduations and family reunions, which made the time of his baptism perfect. It was pretty cool to have them all their to support Caleb. After the service they opened it up to whoever felt impressed to bear their testimony and by the end of it all about 8 or 9 people had gone up. It was so cool to see all of the love and support that he received from his family. 

About half of his family that showed up are less active so it was a super cool experience to see how strongly they felt the spirit. A couple people talked about in their testimonies that they felt like they needed to start coming back to church. After the service JR, Caleb's dad, was talking with Elder Hansen about how he feels like Caleb's example will play a huge role in helping their family get back on the right track. I really hope that this whole experience will kick start their journey to eventually being sealed together as a family in the temple.

Another really cool experience this week happened with Alena Ursida. As you're probably already aware of from my previous emails, we've been teaching the Ursida family over the past couple months. Last week we had a really groundbreaking talk with Alena about how if she really wants to know if this is the right path for her family then all she has to do is ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was His prophet. We told her that until she sincerely asks god that question she'll never be able to know if this is the path He would have her follow. When we met with her this week she said that she took our advice and ever since then she's had powerful spiritual experiences, one after another, confirming to her that everything that we've been teaching her is true. 

She said that normally it's practically impossible for her to read anything other than a brief article from a magazine, but this past week every time she's picked up the Book of Mormon she hasn't been able to put it down. She said that as she's reading it it feels as if it's "enlightening her mind" and when she isn't reading it it feels as if she's "thirsting" after more. 

A couple weeks ago she told us that one of the stumbling blocks of her faith is that she feels as if she's ashamed to tell other people that she believes in God. She told us that the thought of talking with her friends about her faith absolutely terrifies her. This past week she came to us and told us about a natural conversation that she had with her friend which ended with Alena inviting her friend to learn more about the restored gospel! So crazy how keeping little commitments likeliness forever  reading the Book of Mormon and asking god if it's true can completely transform your faith! 

As I look back on my time in the mission field so far I can see times of drought and times of plenty. Michigan City has definitely been an area in which the harvest has been plentiful. It's weird to look back on these experiences and see that I'm not only grateful for the times of plenty, but the times of drought as well. Through it all I've come to the realization that success out here is a gift from God; nothing more nothing less. We are merely laborers in the vineyard, but the harvest... the harvest is the Lord's. 

-Elder Pond 

 Beach Fireside with
recent converts & our branch president

Caleb's Baptism
 

Tim and Amanda's Family

 

 

Another Transfer

Well this is extremely rare in our mission, but elder Hansen and I are staying together for a fourth transfer! The longest I've ever stayed with a companion before is 3 months and this next transfer will make 6 months that we've been companions. Pretty crazy!

Within the next 6 weeks a few of the people we've been working with will be getting baptized so I'm definitely glad that we'll both be here to see it through. 

Any ways... not too much more time to write but just know that things are still moving forward here in Michigan City!

Love you guys

 

Elder Pond



Happy Memorial Day from Elder Hansen 

 

 

Go Cubs Go

 

Missionaries or Marriage Counselors

A couple cool experiences from this past week:

So on Thursday we had a lesson with the McNeals. Lately JR (the less active son of Brother and Sister McNeal) has had to work overtime so he hasn't been able to make it to our lessons. We were planning on brother & sister McNeal, Rachel (their less active daughter in law,) and Caleb (who's going to be baptized this next month) all being their. As we were planning for the lesson we both felt prompted to teach them about eternal families, which made no sense to teach to just Rachel if JR wasn't going to be there as well. It's been a message that we've been wanting to share with their whole family for a while now, but we didn't want to share it without everyone there.

We resisted the prompting at first, but eventually we just decided to go with it. When we got their we were both pretty surprised to find out that JR's work got called off, even though Thursday's are normally his busiest days. He was a little late, but he made it just in time for our lesson. The spirit was so strong as we taught them about the possibility of their family being sealed together after Caleb's baptism. It was a really cool experience to be able to help them gain some perspective and direction for the future. We were definitely grateful for the spirit prompting us, against all logic, to plan for and teach that lesson. 

A couple weeks ago I told you about our investigator Renee and how she moved out here to Michigan City to try to reconnect with her husband. About a week ago we miraculously ran into Richard again, but this time we knew a lot more about the situation and how to approach it. We told him that we knew Renee; he was quite surprised to hear that she was in Michigan City. Even though they hadn't spoken in 16 years, he was willing to leave us with his number so that Renee could give him a call. Since then they've met up multiple different times to talk and catch up! This whole experience has really helped Renee to realize that God is working through using us to answer the prayers and desires of her heart. This has definitely been one of the more unique experiences of my mission😌

 

-Elder Pond