Authenticate Your Testimony

HOWDY!!!!!

Well i won't say I had the best week of my mission this week BUT it was still great! I got super sick ... SO MOM YES I REALLY MISSED YOU!  I got a fever then got Step throat... It was a rough couple of days in bed!  It was so weird I remember laying in bed sick, and I felt so lame being a vegetable and not out talking to people! Weird how things change!  I am realizing more and more everyday how short your 2 year mission experience is and how you have to take advantage of EVERY SINGE MOMENT! I don't want to loose any of this valuable time to give myself to others!  It is to short!!!! Speaking of short!! I turn 20 this week, and I am telling you 20 years takes forever!!!! I am ready to be 30! 

I had a lot of time to think (and sleep) this week while in bed.  I thought a lot about a certain investigator we are teaching.  this man is amazing.  He just glows when we talk to him, and the spirit is just like floating around him.  I don't know how to explain how badly I want him to know this is true.  He currently goes to a church that talks a lot about "authentication" of truth.  How can I prove the words I am saying to him are true? Does faith come before the witness of truth? No.  Although he is a avid believer in Jesus Christ he seems to believe that Christ authenticated himself through his works. and biblical prophecy.  I disagree.  I believe that we can authenticate our own testimony and Belief in Jesus just by having enough faith to follow his footsteps more closely.  The more we succumb to the will of the Father, the more "authentic" of a testimony we will have .  Faith has to proceed the work or miracle. Christ didn't say... I am going to do this work or miaracle so then you can believe in me. He would say, "let it be according to your faith"  He teaches us that to believe in him we must exercise of faith first. So to authenticate ones testimony, one must first exercise the faith then ask the question,'is this true?' and be willing to go on a journey to find out. 

This is the hardest area I think I will ever serve in. Not because the people are mean or harsh, but rather because they are so consumed by the world of proof and instant gratification.  I think it is brilliant how God works.  Why would He just give it to us? WHY?! I know that anything I have worked for in my life I cherish and appreciate WAYYYY more!  He lets us go through the fire a little bit, so that He can make us become something more!  If it is to easy then why do it at all?!! If gaining a testimony was easy then everyone would have one! IT IS NOT EASY!  I know that we have to be putting in constant effort for things that we believe to become authenticated knowledge!! If I ask someone for directions, and if that person seems trustworthy, I might choose to believe that those directions are correct.  If I actually follow those directions, I am exercising FAITH that the directions are correct! when I arrive at the destination, then I have the Knowledge that the directions are correct ,and the journey to prove it, and subsequently no longer need belief or faith at that point!

So go by faith! Put faith in areas that you are struggling! Go on a journey to find the knowledge! I know He won't let you down once you get to that destination. he has never EVER let me down.

I love you ALL!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Elder Patch

The Spirit

HOLA!!!

Dang this week has been so FUNNN!!!!!!!!!!  ALSO I AM ALMOST 20!!!!!! And it is about time!  Can't wait to say I am not a teenager anymore!  I like to think I am 19 going on 40:) HA!  

Well This week we MINI MISSIONARIES!!!! It is so fun!  So what happens is that we get a local kid that is thinking about going on a mission for a week!  My mini missionary is named Alex (He is the one carrying me in the pic... typical)!  He is awesome!  He is planning on going on a mission at the end of the Summer! I think it is an amazing opportunity for a young person to go on a mini mission to really see what happens on a mission and feel the amazing spirit. 

That is what I wanted to talk about, the Spirit.  I sent another picture with a young guy with crutches.  His name is Jake Dastrup.  He is actually from Utah and is a gymnast on the OSU and National team! What is crazy about meeting up with him is that I actually met/saw him last year and the year before at the Olympic Training Center.  We were training in the gym right next to him!  I had no idea who he was nor that he was Mormon!!!! Well we have gotten pretty close!  the reason why I wanted to talk about him is because he has changed my life.  The minute I met him I felt something different.  He started coming to lessons with us and I could just feel like positive feeling whenever we were around him.  It was the spirit.  He has never said a negative thing or even slightly crude thing around me.  He is always smiling and SOOOO willing to come and teach with us.  It is no surprise to me that he has the spirit with him!  He has taught me how important that little things we do or can change can have a huge influence in carrying a light or Spirit with us.  I love being around Jake cause he makes us all happier!  I know I need to be even more positive and do the small things that will bring moreS of the spirit into my life! He is planning on serving a mission soon!

I also have been thinking a lot about my mission so far!  Due to the fact that I will be home almost a year from now!!! WHAT?! I have reflected and realized how thankful I am for the spirit.  I am so thankful that I don't have to do the converting!  I think when I first came on my mission I thought "I" had to convert these people to the truth!!! Well I have learned and am continuing to learn that conversion is not by any man, but only by the spirit.  I had a interesting discussion a few days ago with a man we are teaching!  He told me that I was not going to convert him to being a Latter-Day saint. And I said,"I know, but the spirit will."  He looked a little stunned.  But I really meant that.  I told him my conversion story about how I really struggled with my faith and belief in God. How I wasn't very active in this Church.  I testified that what led me to knowing that this was true was the spirit that accompanied every little thing I did in or with the church.  I saw objective proof through subjective experiences.  I know that spirit is what will lead us through a LIFETIME of conversion!  I will never say I am fully converted, because I believe I would loose the potential for growth!  I look forward to learning by the spirit for a lifetime!  

Thank you EVERYONE for all you have done for me!  Reach out to those around you and help anyone and everyone you can in anyway that you can!!! CHARITY NEVER FAILETH!

Love 

Elder Patch

Pics!

1.Elder Afalava and I were reunited! Miss that kid

2.Jake Dastrup aka the MAN

3.My Mini Missionary!!!

4. Our investigator Jay was Baptized!!!!

Servant Leadership

Wow!! This week was amazing!

Emil Brolick the Wendy's CEO came and spoke to us about Servant Leadership! Emil is a Catholic, so it was really cool to have him there and to here him talk about his faith in Christ!  He is best friends with our Mission President who is the CEO of Cafe Rio!  

Emil talked about how a successful leader can influence more than just ones he or she might be stewards over!  This was one of my favorite quotes from him,"If you place others priorities first, then their priorities will become yours."  I thought that was great!  We as leaders in some form like parents or friends have to put others priorities first then through that their priorities will shift to yours!  He is also said, "Helping to much deprives those from experience and growth."  I thought that was very insightful.  I think it is really amazing that a VERY successful business owner lets others kinda figure it out themselves!  He gives them the opportunity to grow for themselves. That to me shows a lot of trust!  So my rhetorical question for you is: Do we trust the ones we are stewards over?  

It was such an amazing experience to have Emil there!  We were really fortunate!

This week has been so great!  We started teaching the coolest family!! They are all Hippies! I love them!!!! I sent a picture of them.  The dad is super into God and wants to lead his family to God more! And the mom is Atheist, but said she is willing to learn!!!! The two boys are so cool!  They call us "the Mormons"  So every few minutes we hear, "HEY MORMONS! Watch me do this!" soo funny.  I love seeing a whole family progress toward accepting the Gospel! 

Sorry to be brief but there is no time for anything anymore ha!  I just want to share a quote from a missionary that bore her testimony yesterday, she said, "The most beautiful thing about the Atonement, is that you can wake up a totally different person."  I really identified with that comment.  I have been able to see from so many people I teach the amount of guilt that they hold onto!  The greatest thing is that they don't have to!! I love watching them realize that, and see them access the power of the Atonement.  So free yourself of guilt and add more faith and courage in your life! I know that the atonement is real and very personal to me!  I am so thankful that I don't have to hold onto things and can almost physically feel things lifted off my shoulders.  I am so thankful for Jesus Christ.

I hope everyone had a great week!!!!!! 

Love you all!!!

Elder Spatch

Hey!

FAMILIA!!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I have written!! Things have just been crazy busy! A ton has happened so I don't really know where to begin!

Well First off THINGS ARE AWESOME!!!! I have already decided that I am moving back to this town after my mission!! It really is so great!  I love the people and the food!!! mmmmmmmmmmm

Angela Got baptized!  What an experience that was!  I don't think I have ever had to work THAT hard to get one person ready for baptism.  It was amazing how everything wrong went wrong.  She lives in a very rough neighborhood and has so much negativity around her, so it was eally hard to keep her focused and positive!  But with a TON of prayer and help from the members she was BAPTIZED!!!! It was an amazing baptism too.  I asked her to share her testimony after it was over ans she did.  Her testimony of the Atonement and of faith was amazing. I am so envious of converts.  Although on some level we become more converted ourselves to the gospel being born into it; converts just have a totally original perspective! Their testimonies just amaze me.  Angela has been amazing ever since she got baptized.  She has told ALL her homies about it ,and wants all her friends to talk to us!  THAT IS WHAT IS IS ALL ABOUT!  IT IS SO GOOOOOD THAT YOU HAVE TO SHARE IT!  She is an awesome missionary now.  This whole experience taught me how important members really are.  So I challenge you guys to go out of your way to help someone come to the church!  I know it will change your life as well as theirs.

We had another amazing miracle these past 3 weeks!  So we were walking down a street that was totally not interested, and we were so confused as to why we felt like we needed to be there?  Well as we were walking back to our car to leave we saw I saw this women mowing her lawn, and I kid you not she had like a pillar of light around her.  It was unreal.  So we went up to her and I was like, "HEY!!!! Can I mow your lawn for you?!!" She said no, but then all of the sudden she said, "I think I am going to start coming to your church." WHATTTTTT.  We had not even started talking about church yet or anything for that matter!  She explained that she had been praying for a way to get closer to God and a place where her family can go.  We didn't even know what to say!  We obviously asked if we could come back and she said pretty much for lack of a better word "DUH". ha.  So for the next two weeks we tried to see her, and could never get to her!  She would be sick or not feeling well or not home!  We were so depressed!  Then, last Thursday we went over with a member that we felt like needed to come and tried to see her.  SHE WAS HOME AND HEALTHY!  We had the most unreal lesson ever!!!! We started talking about the Book of Mormon and the First Vision and she just started crying!!! Shoot,I WAS CRYING!  She just said," From the moment I met you guys I KNEW that this was or me."  She told us she already knew this was true!  I wish I could describe the feeling that was there on her patio.  It was beautiful!  We extended baptism to her, and she was like, "I have already been baptized, but I don't even care I'll do it again!" HAHA it was so awesome.  Her name is Rita and she has two amazing and bright young girls.  

I am so grateful for the hand that God plays in our missionary work, well actually His missionary work.  I really know that with Faith anything, and I mean ANYTHING is possible.  I am thankful for the trials we go through, cause I know it is a way for me to get closer to God and always remember Him.  I am thankful for all of you that support and pray for me!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

With a TON of love,

Elder Patch

Pics-

Got to throw on a wheel again! Felt so good!

We have a famous artist in our ward (Janice Wunderlich)

she lets me throw all the time. she's rad.

Why Is it Not Easy?

So this week has been pretty great!  A lot of miracles!

So In a picture I sent you will see a pic of a black guy. His name is Derante!  He is a miracle! So we were talking to Angela, the woman getting baptized this week, and she was like I feel like you should talk to that guy over there(Derante).  We were like okay??? So we went up him and started explaining who we are.  He was so excited!  He was saying how he just was thinking about coming closer to God and making a better life for himself! So We invited him to church. In this area it is notorious for false promises. So we weren't expecting him to really come.  Well at 8:30 am we knocked on his door and he was all ready to go last week! He had an awesome time!  

We barely got to see him at all last week so we were a little nervous that he wouldn't come.  We we showed up at 8:30 yesterday and he came to the door then shut it in our face.  We didn't really know what to do.  I am super sad about it.  Well were talking to another person across from him and we were about to leave at like 8:50 and then we hear,"Are you guys ready to go?" It was Derante!  He was changing for church!  What a miracle of a kid. He is 24 and is just so committed to what we teach him.  We had the most amazing lesson with him last night.  He talked about how all of his family was putting him down and telling him to stay away from the Mormons! HA! I asked how he felt when he was inside the church. He replied ,"Every time I want through those doors I forget all my problems and I can't seem to remember what things are wrong with my life." I asked why that was?  He said," I have no idea why, but that's why I am here to find out."  My heart was on fire I was so excited.  Then Later that night we talked about "Standing Alone".  Having the courage to stand up for what you believe.  He then said he wants to go on a mission?! I am not even kidding.  We have known this kid for like a little over a week and now he wants to be a missionary?  He is on fire! Man I am so pumped for people that want to be better! 

I have been thinking a lot about why this missionary work isn't easy.  And I why I feel like I am constantly being pushed,stretched, and pressured.  A talk by President Holland has come up more than once this week for me.  The line I want to focus on is this,"I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?" I have decided that I do not care anymore if someone slams the door in my face or tells me to get lost or any hurtful thing, BECAUSE I KNOW THIS IS TRUE! SO I WILL FIND SOMEONE THAT WANTS TO HEAR THE TRUTH!  I too am convinced that this work is not going to be easy, in fact it is going to be really really really REALLY HARD.  BUT, I know that I do not have to experience anything close to what the Savior did in terms of hard things.  This life will never be easy, but it wasn't designed to be.  So when you think your life is hard, and you're tired, and angry, remember that there was someone that had it much much worse than you or I.  

I love you guys!  Congrats to Loyola for the National Championship! Shout out to my boy Thomas Jaeschke for winning! Also James Shaw for killin it the whole season! Love you guys.

Have a Great week!!!

Elder Patch

Limits

AWESOME WEEK HERE IN RIVERSIDE!

Hey everyone! 

I hope all of you had a good week of FINALS!!! MWAHAHAH. 

Also shout out to BYU VBALL FOR MAKING IT TO THE FINAL FOUR!!! That's rad.  I might try and get permission to watch the final when BYU is playing in it! So pumped for them!

Anyway this week has been exhausting! We have done a ton of work! I think being here has taught me more and more that it is so important to be yourself on a mission.  People don't relate to a self righteous guru.  they want a really imperfect human!  Well they found one thats for sure!  I love being able to relate to a lot of people here.  We all have similar beliefs and enjoy knowledge which has been huge for the progression of this area.

I have been thinking a lot about limits. Specifically my own. One of the Apostles of the church was talking about how he believes that the children of Egypt being led to freedom by Moses demonstrated their faith by pushing their LIMITS.  He suggests that they were not just standing at the shore line of the Red Sea while Moses was standing in the water talking with God (although the Disney movie illiterates that).  Rather he suggests that the whole people were to their necks in the water! Pleading and praying for a miracle.  They had come so far and were ready to swim across the Red Sea.  They didn't just stand their and wait for something to happen.  They wanted to find freedom and refuge so bad that they would  drown for it.  I think that is really profound.  It made me think or rather rethink my own limits.  Will I wait at the shore line, or will I go neck deep in the water or even fully immerse myself with trail and hardship. How bad do I want it?  This week I have worked at pushing myself even more.  I want to be neck deep in trial. I would thus have a new shore line that I could cross over and over again.  

On a positive note the people in the church here are really cool. Everyone is a vegetarian which is also really cool.  We are in like a young family ward, so it feel likes Provo, UT here. eeek.  I am super close with a couple families here.  They are younger with like newborns so we are kinda close in age.  We have found some way awesome families to teach!  We found them like one right after another!  They are super pumped about the church and have been looking for truth for a while now!  Seriously I don't know if it's Spring, but the days are just a little brighter!  I love all of you!  Hope you have a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Patch

pics

-Me and Barb.  She is my favorite human, there

isn't a lesson that we teach that she doesn't drop

some profane word 

-Me and Brother Carruth.  We matched one day.

-My new Home!

All Good In The Hood

Life is so good!

This week has been HARD!  So many challenges, but so much more opportunity for growth!  I have learned to love hard times!  Which I hope will last hahaha.  

This week Rubie got baptized in Marion, so I got to go back to Marion to baptize her! That was awesome! She is 14 and there is not a better time to be baptized I think when you are really starting to explore who you are!  I am really excited for her! I also got to see Rose and Phillip (who were baptized in January) which made my whole week. I really missed them.  

This weekend Angela is getting baptized!  I sent some pictures of her and my area cause I want all of you to see how awesome it is over here!  It is the most TRENDY spot on the planet!  I might possibly just move back here.  I came from Marion, which was a far from this as you can be to now being here in trendy heaven! Everyone dresses well! LIFE IS SOOOO GOOD. hahah

Anyway more important things... THERE IS A URBAN OUTFITTERS IN MY AREA!  haha Just kidding even more important things than that.  for the past two weeks here I have really been pushed!  The people here are super Liberal and are all about personal identity and self exploration, but more on a scientific aspect.  That has been a HUGE culture change.  People here want evidence!  Which I can totally relate to, but then where does faith fit in?  Well It actually makes everyone's starting point here the same!  We start by increasing everyone's faith in things they can't see, which are true!  Easier said than done, but it is possible.   I think in a world moving so far away from the idea of God it has become more of a absolute that i must work harder and faster to help others gain that personal intimate relationship with their creator.  I can't imagine a life not knowing I am a son of King?  My potential in endless?!  Who wouldn't want that knowledge?  Well everyone here wants it... they just don't know it yet! haha

I don't ever want to take my mission for granted.  I am so thankful for the really really hard lessons I learn.  I never could have imagined the amount of emotional, mental and spiritual uncertainty that one would go through!  But to come out on top and to look back at how much you have learned and grown is LIBERATING! Knowledge is freedom!  I love being here!  I love you all!!!!!!

Lets all strive to be better!

Love 

Elder Patch

Pics