Dear Family,
For the second week in a row we have not had a very good week. I can't tell you how bad it feels to look back on the week and see that you fell very short of reaching your goals. We had some bad breaks again, but I'm not going to sit here and make excuses. We should have done better. This is the Lord's time and it must be put to the best use. Fortunately we do have some great things set up for this week, and with great effort and reliance upon the spirit, I am confident that we will have a great week. We need to set a better example for the zone and find prepared people who will progress and make covenants! It has been a struggle the last couple of weeks. I have never worked as hard or put as much effort as I have now in my entire mission, but we aren't seeing the success that we would like. I only pray that it's not because of my weaknesses and short comings that we aren't having more opportunities to build the Lord's Kingdom. It's been very difficult for us to find new investigators. I've spent a lot of time on my knees pleading with the Lord to direct us to the elect. I hope I don't sound too negative, because I don't mean to be. I love this area and I know that great things can happen here. I need to look a little deeper and figure out how we can improve, because we have to do better. There is nothing that will ever stop me from serving the Lord with everything I have. I love him too much and I can't bear to see my brothers and sisters miserable because they don't know how or where to find happiness. This week my companion and I have to kick it into overdrive. There is no room to waste time on good things, we can only afford to do the best things.
So those are kind of my thoughts and feelings right now. I received both the package of shirts and also the package of goodies. Thanks so much! I forgot to tell you that I wear tall shirts, but it's OK, they still fit... barely. How is everything? I haven't heard from you all in a while. I hope life is great. Lately I have pondered a lot about the blessings of the Gospel. They are to numerous to count and when I try I am overwhelmed with gratitude. What a blessing. I have a testimony of many things in the Gospel through experience, but the witness that has been borne to me the most in my life, is the eternal importance of families. There are many things that I don't understand about the gospel but the Lord has blessed me with a great understanding of how a family should be established: only on the principles of the everlasting gospel. There is NO OTHER WAY. You can not receive all that our Father is offering without a family that is sealed in the temple. Not in this life and certainly not in the next. There should be no greater effort put into anything you endeavor to do than the effort you put into strengthening your family. There is no room for anything other than parents who love righteousness. I am grateful for my family and I love you all. Families are forever, but only if you do what is right.
Love Elder Tilley
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
I Love my New Mission President
Dear Family,
So transfers are tomorrow, but neither I nor my companion are being transferred. That means I'm starting my 5th transfer in Scotch Plains. At the very least I will be here for 7 and a half months. I'm very excited though, because we have a lot of great things happening here right now. I also really love working with my companion, so life is great! Today my companion and I have the special opportunity of meeting the new missionaries coming in and are going to be present at the "fear buster". We (experienced missionaries) will each pair up with one of the new missionaries and walk around in the middle of Newark and contact people like crazy! It's supposed to help them get over their fear of talking to random people and show them by example that we are here to work. When I came out I didn't have this opportunity because of the fiasco with the flight being booked wrong so I'm super excited!
The 4th of July was a regular work day for us. We were given the option to go watch fireworks and get back late, but it just didn't appeal to my companion and I. We need our rest so we can work to our full capacity. We did hear fireworks as we tried to fall asleep though...
Our trip to the Temple was excellent as always. I really have grown to love the Manhattan Temple so much. It's sad that we aren't able to go more often so we always cherish each of the 4 temple trips we are allowed to go on. It's so strange to walk through New York in all of its chaos and noise and then enter the Temple which is completely polar opposite. It's like walking from Babylon right into Zion with no time in between. It's pretty awesome.
This week we finally met our new mission president and his wife and they are AMAZING!!!! I was blown away. I've never been so empowered in my life after the meeting we had with them. I know that he's going to take things to the next level and we are going to see some incredible miracles! He's very funny, musically talented and a spiritual giant. He was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and loves to play the guitar. He even played and sang to us at the meeting. I don't know if you know who Alex Boye is but their daughter is married to him. After his musical number he told us about himself and his life. It was really neat the way he taught us as he was telling us about himself. He and his brother were very close growing up and were about the same age difference as Matthew and I. When he was 17 his brother went on a walk and never came home. He assumes that he came across the path of "an evil one" as he put it, but whatever happened his brother was never found. while serving his mission he had a really neat experience with his mission president where he was able to find out that his brother had in fact passed on. Shortly after his brother's death, his father committed suicide. When he was finally about to serve a mission, he found out that he had malignant cancer in his leg and the doctors gave him 60 days to live. He opted to have his leg amputated and eventually was able to serve a mission. Later in life his second oldest son was stung by a bee at a church softball game. They didn't know that he was allergic and unfortunately he passed away. He's faced some serious trial in his life and the whole time he talked about prayer and how in each of these circumstances he prayed for a miracle or for things to work out and never did they turn out the way he would have liked. The whole theme of the meeting was trusting the Lord. He said that after his leg was amputated he was filled with anger and bitterness, but as he laid there for weeks and weeks he prayed over and over again to know if God even existed. Slowly he was able to see the light and gain a testimony that he had a loving Heavenly Father. What I've written is kind of all over the place and just can't do it justice, but it was so amazing. He was a Patriarch for 10 years which has allowed him to become so spiritually sensitive. He can look into your soul when he looks in your eyes. It's pretty crazy. Anyway I already love he and his wife sooo much.
I have so much more to talk about but unfortunately I have to get going because there is a member in our ward who has a Karate place and we're going over so he can train us. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Love,
Elder Tilley
So transfers are tomorrow, but neither I nor my companion are being transferred. That means I'm starting my 5th transfer in Scotch Plains. At the very least I will be here for 7 and a half months. I'm very excited though, because we have a lot of great things happening here right now. I also really love working with my companion, so life is great! Today my companion and I have the special opportunity of meeting the new missionaries coming in and are going to be present at the "fear buster". We (experienced missionaries) will each pair up with one of the new missionaries and walk around in the middle of Newark and contact people like crazy! It's supposed to help them get over their fear of talking to random people and show them by example that we are here to work. When I came out I didn't have this opportunity because of the fiasco with the flight being booked wrong so I'm super excited!
The 4th of July was a regular work day for us. We were given the option to go watch fireworks and get back late, but it just didn't appeal to my companion and I. We need our rest so we can work to our full capacity. We did hear fireworks as we tried to fall asleep though...
Our trip to the Temple was excellent as always. I really have grown to love the Manhattan Temple so much. It's sad that we aren't able to go more often so we always cherish each of the 4 temple trips we are allowed to go on. It's so strange to walk through New York in all of its chaos and noise and then enter the Temple which is completely polar opposite. It's like walking from Babylon right into Zion with no time in between. It's pretty awesome.
This week we finally met our new mission president and his wife and they are AMAZING!!!! I was blown away. I've never been so empowered in my life after the meeting we had with them. I know that he's going to take things to the next level and we are going to see some incredible miracles! He's very funny, musically talented and a spiritual giant. He was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and loves to play the guitar. He even played and sang to us at the meeting. I don't know if you know who Alex Boye is but their daughter is married to him. After his musical number he told us about himself and his life. It was really neat the way he taught us as he was telling us about himself. He and his brother were very close growing up and were about the same age difference as Matthew and I. When he was 17 his brother went on a walk and never came home. He assumes that he came across the path of "an evil one" as he put it, but whatever happened his brother was never found. while serving his mission he had a really neat experience with his mission president where he was able to find out that his brother had in fact passed on. Shortly after his brother's death, his father committed suicide. When he was finally about to serve a mission, he found out that he had malignant cancer in his leg and the doctors gave him 60 days to live. He opted to have his leg amputated and eventually was able to serve a mission. Later in life his second oldest son was stung by a bee at a church softball game. They didn't know that he was allergic and unfortunately he passed away. He's faced some serious trial in his life and the whole time he talked about prayer and how in each of these circumstances he prayed for a miracle or for things to work out and never did they turn out the way he would have liked. The whole theme of the meeting was trusting the Lord. He said that after his leg was amputated he was filled with anger and bitterness, but as he laid there for weeks and weeks he prayed over and over again to know if God even existed. Slowly he was able to see the light and gain a testimony that he had a loving Heavenly Father. What I've written is kind of all over the place and just can't do it justice, but it was so amazing. He was a Patriarch for 10 years which has allowed him to become so spiritually sensitive. He can look into your soul when he looks in your eyes. It's pretty crazy. Anyway I already love he and his wife sooo much.
I have so much more to talk about but unfortunately I have to get going because there is a member in our ward who has a Karate place and we're going over so he can train us. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Love,
Elder Tilley
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