Surviving Hurrican Irene

Hello Family!

Sooo... no.  I didn't die in the "hurricane".  I wish you could have been here to see how bad people were freaking out.  You would have thought there was about to be a zombie uprising the way people were acting.  People are crazy in Jersey!  There was a mad rush to the stores and people were fighting over water like kids fighting over the last piece of candy... super funny. 

We were instructed to evacuate and stay at the church, so we did.  Can't say that I've ever slept at the church before, but I've done it for the last two days now.  It definitely rained, and it was kind of windy.  Basically the storm was a joke by the time it got here.  Oh well, better safe than sorry I guess.  The only problem now is the flooding.  Our apartment is right next to the Passaic river, so we had to re-evacuate and we're back at the church... again.  The flooding will last for a couple of days, but thankfully one of our members has a really nice landlord who is letting us stay in an empty apartment for a few days.  We haven't been able to help anyone out yet, because we were instructed to stay put here, but later today we're going to help some members whose basement is flooded.  I feel like slothful servant because we haven't been able to do anything for so long.  I don't ever remember having time to just sit around.  It's kind of weird.  The earthquake that happened a few days ago wasn't really a big deal for us either, I didn't even feel it.  There are some trees that have fallen down and scattered debris every once in a while, but flooding has been the real issue where we are.

Lately I haven't been able to get the Book of Mormon off of my mind.  Of course, it's always on my mind as a missionary, but lately it seems like everywhere I go I'm reminded of how incredible it is.  A book written thousands of years ago, but specifically for our day.  It has the power to influence one's life greater than any other thing that can be read, at least that we know of.  It is one of the most precious treasures, yet it is so available to any who desire it.  It is of this availability which I have pondered about.  Maybe it's because of all the literal flooding that has taken place around me, but I can't help but marvel at how President Ezra Taft Benson's vision of flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon is taking place right before our eyes.  A few days ago I met a recent convert (is probably in his late 20's) here in Caldwell.  Like with all converts that I meet for the first time, I asked about his conversion story.  Like all conversions, his was incredible! He is a writer and so naturally he loves to read.  One day he was looking through his father's library for something he had not read before.  His eyes quickly caught hold of book he had never seen before.  It was The Book of Mormon.  He had heard many things about Mormons and was interested in learning more.  His attitude soon changed from that of casual curiosity to what he called a "deep obsession" with not only the Book of Mormon, but with the doctrine of Mormonism.  He read the entire Book of Mormon in 6 days, while also spending time researching our doctrine on line.  He soon found out about the Doctrine and Covenants,  as well as the Pearl of Great Price.  His desire to learn more was so great, that he printed off every single, solitary page of those books.  He researched the commandments and began living them even before meeting with the missionaries.  For over a year, he studied and lived the Restored Gospel to the best of his ability with no help whatsoever, other than the writings of the prophets and of course the spirit.  S. is extremely intelligent, and one of the greatest philosophical minds I have ever met.  Everything made sense to him because he went about it with the right attitude, looking for truth.  Eventually, he recognized that to receive all the blessings which were his right, he needed to do something about his new found belief.  So he found the Bishop's number one night and called him and asked him what he needed to do to be baptized.  Just a few weeks later he was baptized.  All because someone, somewhere, at some point of time, had the sense enough to follow what was surely a prompting from the Holy Ghost and give S's father a Book of Mormon.  That very same day I met with another convert for the first time.  Her story was very similar.  While visiting her parents, she also was looking for a book to read in their collection of books.  She too came across The Book of Mormon.  She, along with both of her parents, her husband and her son, was baptized soon after.  Once again, someone was doing their part to flood the earth with The Book of Mormon.  I plead with any who read this letter, to share what has been such a great blessing in my life, and hopefully in yours, with someone who has not had the opportunity to receive such.  The Book of Mormon is the road map to happiness, and it is essential for gaining a divine witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator

Love,
Elder Tilley

P.S. Thanks for the family letter!  It was awesome and I love to hear from everyone!

Hurricane Irene

I received this email from Ryan's Mission President yesterday:

NEW JERSEY MORRISTOWN MISSION
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Brothers and Sisters, parents of missionaries in the New Jersey
Morristown Mission:
First, let me tell you what a privilege it is to serve with your sons
and daughters in this great work of bringing souls to Christ.  Without
a doubt, our missionaries are the very best in the entire church.
Thank you for your support of each of them.
As you may know, Hurricane Irene is headed in our direction and is
currently forecast to arrive in the New York/New Jersey area by late
afternoon and evening of Sunday, August 28, 2011, lasting into the
early morning hours of Monday, August 29, 2011.  We have alerted all
our missionaries of this impending storm and asked them to prepare
accordingly, including identifying a location to go to for safety,
i.e., a member’s home or one of our church buildings.
Rest assured we are doing everything necessary to ensure the safety of
your missionary son or daughter.  We are staying in close contact with
all of them.  Please do not call the mission home, the mission office,
or your missionary.  Following the passage of the storm, we will send
out another email confirming their safety.
Again, thank you for sharing these wonderful young men and woman with
us.  We love them all.
President and Sister Jeppson

The Missionary Moms email group that I belong to is reporting that they are evacuating the missionaries on the coast. Ryan is currently serving 10 - 15 miles inland, so I am not sure if he has been evacuated or not. We are all praying for everyone's safety and we know what an amazing service opportunity this will provide our missionaries. As for my family, we will be watching the news very closely this weekend.

Spanglish?

Hey Family,
 
I am now in the Caldwell area/ward.  I was actually wrong and didn't go to either of the areas I thought I would, because I'm a district leader now instead of a zone leader.  It was really weird that I didn't get a call from president to be released or a call that I was being called as a district leader so it kind of threw me off.  I'm also in a trio and we're spanglish.  We have to cover a whole ward in English and Spanish which is crazy!  My companions are Elder Tippetts and Elder Lopez.  Elder Tippetts was a brand new missionary last transfer but is a good young missionary.  Elder Lopez has only been out two transfers and is from Argentina originally.  So I have two super young companions.  Because Elder Tippetts is so young he doesn't really know what's going on so I feel kind of like I've just been doubled in.  It's been kind of crazy trying to wrap my head around all the changes and figure everything out.  Being a zone leader is nice because you always have a companion who is a skilled missionary and who shares in your responsibilities, but not as a district leader.  I'm super excited for this transfer though, and this area is AMAZING!  Elder Larsen (my trainer), who is now one of the assistants, was here right before me and he did some serious work!  Everyone here is obsessed with him and unfortunately he baptized everyone being taught.  We are going to have to find a lot of people to teach the next couple of weeks and focus on gaining the members trust.  The ward is very supportive and we have some awesome leaders.  I was surprised at how amazing our week was even in all the confusion.  As far as numbers go, this was one of the best weeks in my mission.  It's kind of weird trying to balance the English work and the spanish work but we're figuring it out.  Only the three of us live in our apartment and it's a nice one.  So far the cities that I know of that we cover are:  Caldwell, West Caldwell, Little Falls, Linkoln Park, Montclair, Bloomfield, Bellville, West Paterson, West Orange, and that's all I can think of right now.  I'm the district leader over the Paterson Elders so I can go back to my old area on exchanges now!  I'll be doing a lot of those... My address is 19 William St (Fl. 2) Little Falls, NJ.  Anyway life is soooo good.  Most likely they're setting me up to train for like the next 4 transfers but we'll see what happens.  Pray for my companions and I.  So far we get along well.  I'm really going to focus on being patient this week.  I think my companions can tell I'm a little frustrated with their lack of experience and getting to know the area.  I need to be outwardly positive so I can fill them with confidence.  It's weird but I kind of feel like a parent...
 
Love,
Elder Tilley

Transfers

Dear Family,

I'm being transferred!  It's super sad but at the same time I am really excited!  I've been here for so long I can't even remember being anywhere else so it's going to be really strange when I arrive at my new area.  I'm still a zone leader, so there are only two possible places for me to go.  The first place I could go is to the Hightstown area which covers part of the Princeton 2nd Ward.  The area covers the cities: Hightstown, East Windsor, West Windsor, Hamilton, Robinsville, twin rivers, plainsborough, Cranberry, Monroe, Monmouth Junction, South Brunswick, Kendall Park, Princeton and Princeton Junction.  Yeah... It's a pretty big area, at least for our mission.  Elder Breur was there just before he became my companion, so that's how I know so much about it.  It's the area that President Eyring lived in when he was young.  It's a huge ward, about the size of the Ledgewood Ward.  The other place I could go to is the Eatontown area which covers the Eatontown Ward.  I don't know too much about that area, but it's down by "the Shore".  Redbank is the only other city that I can think of that it covers.  It's the zone that is farthest south and it takes forever to get to meetings and conferences from there.  Elder Larsen (my trainer) served in Eatontown right after he was my companion. So you can check out the map and know that I'll be in one of those two places before you even hear from me next week.  I thought that I was going to be dropped from my zone leader position and was hoping to train, but that's not what the Lord wanted.  It's going to be really weird because now I'm one of the older zone leaders even though I still have half of my mission left.  Tomorrow is the transfer conference and then I'll be off to a new area. 

So how is everything?  How's Elder Campbell doing?? I haven't heard about him for a while.  He probably only has like one transfer left. Crazy!  The mission goes by WAY too fast.  I can't believe I already past my year mark.  I try not to think about it too much.  Anything new with the extended fam?

So this week was pretty amazing.  The last couple of weeks we have found some really cool families (of course right before I leave...) The other day we were out walking and a lady named Q. pulled up right beside us in her van and asked, "Are you Mormons?"  We responded and as we talked she told us that she loves our church and used to attend in East Brunswick.  She was pleased to have us come by and she is interested in learning again.  We went over a couple of days later and talked to her mother and her sister.  They both said that Q.  had nothing but good things to say about our church and they are very interested in learning as well.  It was an awesome miracle.  It really strengthened my testimony that the Lord will lead prepared people to us.  I am grateful that his spirit not only guides us but also those who desire to find truth and happiness.  I love all yous guys.

Love,

Elder Tilley

I am so Grateful to be a Missionary

Dear fam

This week has been a great week especially since we had 5 investigators come to church! it was super awesome. I can't believe Laresa met Carter out at the pageant! How did they even make the connection? I don't know what address to give you, because transfers are this upcoming week. I've been here forever so I'll probably get transferred... If you think it will get here before next Tuesday, you could send it to my apartment. I think you have the address.   I couldn't really understand what you were asking/saying about it in your letter. It didn't make much sense to me... sorry. President Jeppson just approved the use of Mp3 players so it's a good thing that I held on to the IPod you sent out. I think I'm going to send it back out to you with a list of artists and songs that you could put on it for me. Would that be OK?

We just got back from Rio Rodizio's which is an all you can eat Brazilian Barbecue place. It was so delicious! It's all the way in Newark though, so we still have to go shopping and there isn't much time for me to email. I feel bad when I can't write in detail. Just know that I really love you all and I am having an amazing time being a missionary. I am so grateful to be a missionary in the New Jersey Morristiown Mission. I can't begin to tell you how great of a mission it is. Jay E. Jenson is the 70 over our mission and we received great reports from him about our mission's results thus far this year. Out of the 26 missions in the North Eastern part of the U.S. and Canada which he is over, we are 3rd in total baptisms, 2nd in baptisms per companionship, and 1st in retention. We have so many great missionaries and amazing leaders in this mission! When considering overall obedience, you won't find many better missions. It is such a blessing to be here. Pray for the people here in New Jersey, and pray that we will continue to have success. Many souls are finding light and are on their way to receiving salvation. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Tilley

Great Things are Happening

Dear Family,

This past week we some great things happen in our area. Although we only found 1 new investigator, we have found some great potential families. We hope to follow through with them this week and start preparing them for baptism and eventually a trip to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. There is still much work to do, but I feel that we will see a lot of improvement soon.

  After many months of trying to get some support on creating a ward mission plan, we finally have our ward mission leader on board. We had a great coordination meeting and had an inspired brainstorming session. Hopefully the ward council as a whole will be supportive. The missionary work here in Scotch Plains would greatly benefit from a ward mission plan that is implemented. I see great things for the future.

  One miracle that we have seen lately is a family that moved in from Utah into our ward. None of them are members, but they are very involved in the church. We taught the father of the family and the rest of his family will be moving here in about a week. We were also able to teach B. again and should be able to meet with her regularly again. She was the one who got baptized but then her family told her they would disown her if she joined the church. They are still not supportive, but at least we can meet with her.

It's the beginning of the month which means we have to set goals and plan out zone meeting. We never have the time we need to prepare as much as we would like, but that's just life I guess. The Mission President usually creates a training schedule each month, which is a basic outline of the things we need to train our zone on, but this month we don't have one. That will require us to take even more time planning it out. It's all good though, we have some great ideas already. Things are going really well. I love my companion, I love my new mission president, life is good. That really stinks that school is already starting back up again. I swear you just told me that school got out. time flies... Love ya all!

Love,
Elder Tilley