Week 68: Farewell, North Carolina

Hello, friends and family!

I hope all of you are doing well! We had a really interesting week!

We only had 3 lessons this week despite the tons of appointments we had scheduled, and that stank it up, but the lessons we had were good. Since Elder Clegg and I are both leaving, Elder Bentley from the Jacksonville 2 area is going to be replacing one of us. He has a pretty good idea of what the area is like because he serves next door AND he started his mission in our area! He already knew 4 of our investigators and got to meet the other 2 when we went on a 4-hour exchange last Monday.

Elder Bentley and I taught Sean about the importance of being obedient to commandments, praying often, and studying the scriptures, and he soaked it up like a sponge. He's a brilliant young man, and I'm excited for him to get baptized in a few weeks.

After we taught Sean, we taught a second lesson to Justin, who, you will recall, wants to be baptized in a few weeks. He expressed out of the blue that he doesn't like going to church and doesn't believe that he needs to in order to have a good relationship with God. We taught him that while discipleship isn't solely based on church attendance, it's important to go to church weekly after you're baptized so that you can take the sacrament and thereby renew the covenants made at baptism that bring a remission of sins. We read some verses from 3 Nephi 18 about the sacrament and he noticed the correlation between them and certain Bible verses. But... he didn't come to church, so it seems like Elder Bentley will need to go over that with him again. :)

We had our final lesson on Tuesday with Carlos. He's doing great! Last night (Sunday) is his 10th day without smoking and we are super proud of him! We had to break some sad news to him that he couldn't actually be baptized until he has certain things concerning the law figured out because restitution needs to be made. It was the first time I've ever seen him sad... he started crying. It broke my heart to see this big tough man crying, and I felt for him, but at the same time I was really happy to be reminded that baptism is so important that it's a tragedy to him to have to wait a little longer. Carlos has changed so much over the time he's been taught by the missionaries. Elder Clegg says that when he met him for the first time (in the beginning of October), he didn't think that he would ever even be slightly receptive to the gospel message. But he had changed a lot since I arrived and has changed even more over the last 7 weeks. It's been amazing to see him transform because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Carlos began to cry over the bad news, we testified that repentance is real and that the Atonement is real and that it's something that can't be had by cutting any corners. We expressed our love, and as representatives of Christ expressed the Savior's love for him. Carlos said that even though it hurt him to think that he would have to wait longer (and we don't know how much longer) to be baptized, he would press forward and continue to be prepared for baptism. What strong faith! I love Carlos and his whole family! Please continue to pray for him that he will stay strong. He's doing great!

Over the span of three days we built a really nice wheelchair ramp for Frank. Well, the materials are really nice and will probably outlast his trailer if a tornado comes through, but you can kinda tell that it was constructed by a whole lot of amateurs. For a free ramp, it will do the job. :) It was a lot of fun to build. Our foreman was Bro. Patino, our ward mission leader, and our work force consisted of Carlos, and all 6 missionaries. It was a blast! Except for one part where I was drilling holes in some of the posts with a half-inch drill bit and a massive power drill. Something happened to where the drill fell out of my hands and when it hit the ground the button got pushed in. The drill bit started to spin against my shin and it got all tangled up in my jeans. Luckily, everything was fine... it just hurt like the dickens and now I have a rainbow-colored bruise the size of a baseball on my shin and calf. No big deal. After we finished the ramp on the third day we helped Bro. Patino dig some trenches in his lawn to start creating a French drain, which I guess will be a draining system under his lawn that will reduce flooding in his backyard and take the water into the drain along side the road. That was fun too. It might be weird to say this, but I'm going to miss North Carolina dirt. It's so much easier to dig than Utah dirt!

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of coming to church. It started in our lesson with Justin, and when the Spirit directed us to the right answer and the right scripture for him. Since then I've been thinking about his questions... "Why do I need to go to church?" My mind kept going back to the importance of taking the sacrament. I think that's something that a lot of people who have been baptized but have stopped going to church either don't understand or have forgotten. It occurred to me that just as baptism by authority is the only way to receive an initial remission of sins, taking the sacrament is the only way for someone who has been baptized to receive a remission of sins, beginning after the first mistake made following baptism. I was grateful for the remission of sins I received at my baptism as I watched a little girl who the sisters have been teaching get baptized on Saturday. I am so grateful for the Atonement and Christ's mercy in allowing us to receive yet more forgiveness as long as we seek to repent and are willing to commit again to keep the commandments and remember the Savior.

It still hasn't sunken in yet that I'm going to be in Utah in 2 days. I will miss being a missionary. I have grown so much on my mission. I've learned so much, too, about the truths of the gospel, how to be a better disciple and man in general, and (especially) the love that the Father and the Savior have for us as children of God. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ---faith in Him and His Atonement, repentance, baptism by authority, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end---is the way, "and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God," and that it is "the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (2 Nephi 31:21). I love the Book of Mormon because it teaches these and other truths that bring peace, joy, and comfort to the lives of any and all those who read it. I know that the gospel has been restored from apostasy and that the Book of Mormon is a large part of the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies concerning this restoration.

I know this email is just getting longer and longer, but while I'm still an official representative of Jesus Christ and His missionary, I want to extend to you a final invitation, and that is to do missionary work. I have also been thinking a lot lately about why, if the spreading of the gospel is the most important cause in the universe, is it left up to us---imperfect, distracted, and usually-fearful people. I remembered a previous time when I thought of this question and the answer I received: if the Father's "work and... glory [is] to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), then in what other way can we better become like Him? None, that I can think of. I have also learned because of Preach My Gospel that setting a good example is NOT doing missionary work! So many times Elder Clegg, my other missionary companions, and I have invited people to do some forms of missionary work and they have said "Well... we're being good examples to our nonmember friends and neighbors." Elder Clegg and I have talked about it a lot, and we're super glad that the members of the church are keeping their covenants and living higher standards than the world. But we are also concerned because they seem to think that missionary work includes setting a good example. While setting a good example is a wonderful way to prepare people and get them curious, almost no one will do anything to start coming unto Christ until they are invited by someone else who has already come to Him. Missionary work always includes extending any kind of invitation to come unto Christ. "People will not likely change unless they are invited to do so" (Preach My Gospel, pg. 196). But all people can change!

I invite you to invite someone to come unto Christ in any way. Some of you probably think "All of my friends are members"---no one says that you can't invite other members to come closer to Christ! And I know that there are nonbelievers all around you, whether you live in Kaysville, Logan, Salt Lake City, or Las Vegas. I testify that if you pray to the Lord in the search of someone you can invite to come closer to Christ, that He will direct you to someone you can serve and invite. It will bless their lives and it will certainly bless yours. I testify that you will be happy.

I also know that God loves us and leads us where we need to go if we didn't withstand.

I'll talk to you later!

With love,

Elder Schank

Week 67: Every Little Thing is Going to be Alright

Hey friends and family!

Hope you had a great week! This week was pretty good for us. A lot of interesting stuff happened.

We have been helping out our investigator, Frank, a lot since he got back at the beginning of the week. He has dialysis every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but he can't get out of his trailer because of his wheelchair. So we go to his home with our ward mission leader, Bro. Patino, and manually lift him out of his trailer and down the front steps and help him get in the car; when he comes home from dialysis, we help him into his wheelchair and lift him back inside. We actually just came back from helping him into his car and we'll have to get him back into his trailer in a few hours. We're building a wheelchair ramp for him tomorrow though so we probably won't have to do it again after today. We helped clean out his trailer. He is a big-time pack-rat, but it was interesting to see all of his stuff... his crossbows, swords, knives, guns, canes, stuffed deer heads, and his wolf. Yup, he has a full-bred timberwolf named Tasha. Good stuff.

We were finally able to meet with Ted for the first time in about 3 weeks. He's going through sniper pre-indoctrination... basically the program started with 80 people and they can only move on to sniper school when there are 4 people left, so the instructors are basically trying to physically weed people out. He told us that the day before he had to wake up at 12:30 am, run to the beach in freezing weather, swim for a couple miles in the ocean, and then run back. They do all this physical labor and they only get an hour of sleep each night. There are only 17 people still in the program and it's only been about a week. He still really wants to get baptized, and all that's stopping him is getting a day open that he can be baptized! Please keep praying for him.

We've been teaching a 13-year old boy named Sean who wants to get baptized, too, but his dad, who is a non-member, wants him to wait for 30 days before getting baptized to make sure that Sean doesn't just jump on the Baptism Bandwagon. Today is day 8 and we're meeting with him again tonight. He's really bright and I have no doubt that he will be strong during these 30 days.

We're still meeting with Carlos and he has been tobacco free for almost a week! He's doing super well. He's been taught everything. We just found out that because of some things he's done in the past he can't be baptized for another 2-3 months. We're sad because we know he's going to be sad since otherwise he could be baptized in a little over 2 weeks, but we hope he will be understanding. Please pray that he will understand and not revert back to smoking to get over the stress.

We went on exchanges and Elder Brewer and Elder Clegg found a new investigator named Justin! He said he was planning on getting baptized into the Church anyway! What a find! We are meeting with him for the second time tonight.

The experience that's been most influential to me this last week was when we went to give a blessing to a less-active 40-year old  woman in our ward after church. Her husband came and picked us up and didn't really tell us a lot about the details of what was going on, besides that she had some medical problems she was dealing with. When we got there, she rolled into the front room in her wheelchair, and she looked exhausted. She excused her children from the room and told us her story. She told us that several years ago she was dealing with a lot of constant pains in her left leg. The pain eventually spread to her face and her arm. She was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It eventually got to the point that she had to be in a wheelchair and very few pain medications could do anything. Her memory and ability to concentrate were fading. She had had an MRI and was anxiously and fearfully waiting for the results. As she told her story, I was continually reminded of myself. Her problems sounded so much like mine, only several years more advanced. I have to admit that it was kind of scaring me, too. Here we were, talking to this woman who was exhausted and weak, practically immobile, and in constant pain despite medication, and I have been feeling a lot of the same symptoms as she had about 20 years ago. I was also nervous because I didn't know what to say to her. However, as I began to give her a blessing, I felt the Spirit work through me and I knew exactly what to say. The words came right out. And as they did, I felt like the Lord was not only providing her with comfort, but I felt very comforted too, as if some of the words also applied to me. It was a tender mercy that we were able to meet her and that I was able to be the vessel through which God would give her a blessing. After the blessing, she had a smile and a bunch of tears on her face. As I reached out my hand to shake hers, she grasped it and held on for several seconds, looking up at me with that smile as she cried and cried and cried. It was a sweet experience and I could tell that she felt God's love for her. I know that everything is going to be all right for her, and it will be for me, too.

I testify that God loves us and wants us to be happy. He sent His Son to feel the pain of sin and of mortal life. I testify that He hears us and answers our prayers.

With love,

Elder Schank

Week 66: Elder Pieper Visits the NCRM

Hello, friends and family!

This week was pretty great. We had an awesome combined zone conference and I got to see a lot of my mission friends, including Elder Peck and Elder Simmons, whom I was really excited to see. Elder Paul B. Pieper from the Quorum of the 70 visited us and took up several hours of the meeting, teaching us about preparing with the Spirit, hope, priesthood keys, helping investigators answer their own questions to strengthen their relationship with God, working with church leaders, finding the "elect" (those who "hear [God's] voice and harden not their hearts" [Doctrine & Covenants 29:7]), and the importance of the qualifications for baptism. He taught so many great things that I wish I could start my mission over again so that I could apply all the new things I learned. But I guess I felt the same way when Marlin K. Jensen, Elder Holland, and Bro. Watson and Bro. Wade from the missionary department came and spoke to us. I've come to learn that no matter how experienced or knowledgeable you think you might be as a missionary (and probably everything else in life), you can always learn more... a lot more. I love having that experience as I read the Book of Mormon over and over and learn something each time. I also see it as I teach investigators; I don't know why I'm still surprised when someone receives a miracle or experiences conversion. I look back at all the times where the hand of God has been present throughout my mission and am humbled as I realize that even though I've been a missionary for almost a year and a half that I still have so much faith to gain. While my faith isn't perfect, I do know that God loves His children because I have seen over and over again that He blesses those who come unto Him and calls to those who haven't started on the path just yet. Isn't it great?... The gospel is so, so true! :)

One great experience we had was the opportunity to meet for the first time with Dan, a new investigator. We were told by a missionary who served here about a year ago that he would be someone we might be able to help accept the gospel. It turns out that Dan already believes the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. I asked him why he hasn't been baptized, then, and he kind of skirted around the question and said a whole lot of nothing in particular. It was easy to discern that he didn't quite understand the magnitude of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we taught him all about it and why it's so important. He seemed to understand it pretty well, and he said he would be baptized once he knows in his heart that what we taught is true. However, when we invited him to be baptized on a specific date, he told us a few understandable reasons why he wouldn't commit to a date. It will be hard to see where it all will go from here because of the nature of his excuses, but if I know anything about the gospel, it can change his hearts and resolve any concern that he might have.

One sad thing that happened this week was we got a text from Amber's husband, Luke, saying that things are really busy for them with her pregnancy, work, and the issues concerning the custody of her son, and that they will keep coming to church but they want to stop meeting with us and she will let us know when she's ready to be baptized. We are really concerned because 1) they haven't been to church in 6 weeks or more (including yesterday's meetings), 2) we know that if they make God a priority in their lives than He will make sure everything works out well for her, 3) they never told us about their concerns and we could have easily started meeting with them less frequently, 4) it doesn't sound at all like something Amber would say because she has loved meeting with us, and 5) we can't get a hold of either Amber of Luke on the phone and they won't respond to our texts or phone calls. All we can really do at this point is pray for them to change their minds or at least call us back so we can testify that God will help her if she puts Him first. Please pray for them!

Another sad thing is that I found out that I will be coming home on February 6th for medical reasons again. My back has been feeling much better, but my hip has been getting rapidly worse and the weird shooting pains have come back hard. At first I was pretty upset. It felt like we're just going back to the drawing board. My 2 1/2 months back in Utah were really difficult and super frustrating and I don't want to do it all again. I was sad that there is a high risk that I won't be able to come back again even if I do get better. I felt very unprepared for what comes after mission life. I didn't want to leave the people I've come to love so much here. And actually, not much of that has changed.

I still feel unprepared, scared, sad, and frustrated at times, but I have learned so much over the last three years that God sometimes throws curve-balls at us. From my years of playing baseball I have learned that curve-balls are hard to hit. They look like they're going to hit you right in the face and break your nose. But when you can see that it's a curve-ball coming---not just a wild ball thrown by a bad pitcher---you know that it's going to end up in the strike zone. It takes a lot of faith to not only jump out of the batter's box but to stay in and swing. What if the pitcher doesn't really know what he's doing after all? What if I get a black eye or one of my teeth gets knocked out? It can be hard to take that swing, but if you remember who the pitcher is and trust that the ball will curve into the strike zone, it is likely that you'll hit it. I have learned that God is a perfect pitcher, and sometimes He throws us curveballs because He knows that we'll never improve as batters if He only feeds us fastballs right over the plate. He knows that our faith won't grow if we give up and dive out of the batters box... especially when we might strike out because we didn't have the courage to stick around and see where the ball would end up.

God is a just God and He doesn't hold back trials from anyone. Whether you're batting 1.000 or it seems like all you can hit are fouls, or even if you strike out everytime, God will give us trials from time to time because He knows that it will help us to grow. I testify that God loves us! I know that. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins so that He would know how to help us. If life were easy, we wouldn't need the Savior. I testify that we do need Him, and that if we come unto Him He will always bless us with peace and comfort, even if our difficulties linger. As our pain lingers, His pain lingers. It is worth it to Him to personally go through even more pain so that He can provide us with opportunities to grow and become more like Him.

I am grateful for your prayers and support that have been on my behalf for the last many months. Thank you!

With love,

Elder Schank

Week 65: Blah

Dear family and friends,

This week was... unique. A lot of great stuff happened and some other not so good things. Let's start with the good, shall we?

None of our lessons were outstandingly unusually breathtakingly earth-shatteringly amazing, but there was one that Elder Clegg and I are super excited about! Amber, the investigator whose life seems to have flipped-upside down ever since she started meeting with us, accepted a baptismal date invitation! She will be baptized on 27 Feb. Actually, it could be way sooner than that. As we were making the lesson plans that morning, Elder Clegg and I decided on the 27th as a good date for her because we knew she had a smoking problem and would likely need some time to quit. When we arrived at her house, we found out that she found out that she is pregnant! So she quit smoking cold turkey. Awesome! She has really great faith.

We also got to teach part of a mission prep class for the young men. It was great to be able to help out.

Other fun things included a man we met who claimed that he was "a prophet on social media" (whatever that means) and that if we were real Christians we would "do something 'bout da skreets". He was yelling before we even talked to him and trying to debate with us. We couldn't really get a word in and it was really sad that he rejected our message before we even tried to share it, but it always amuses me when really interesting people do really interesting things. Hopefully he'll be a little more calm the next time missionaries come his way.

The not so good stuff is basically this: Elder Clegg is going home to get surgery and both of us were in a lot of pain all week long. So we didn't exactly get as much done as we hoped. Please continually keep us in your prayers! Prayers work (for example: Amber!).

I know that God loves us so much that He allows us to deal with difficult experiences so that we can learn and grow. Trials are a refining process. They help us to become more humble and identify our biggest weaknesses and our dependence on the Lord. They are opportunities to become stronger and to learn more about God... and ourselves. They also allow us to become more like Christ. I testify that He endured the most horrible of all trials that could conceivably be endured. Because He has felt our pain and our sufferings He can perfectly empathize with us and carry us. He's already been through it all, and I know that that is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it testifies of the Atonement of Christ. I also know that the Holy Ghost is alive and working to testify to the hearts of men and women everywhere that Jesus is the Christ, the gospel has been restored, and that through the Atonement we can find strength through hard times.

With love,

Elder Schank

Week 64: Happy New Year!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was SO great! Good stuff all over the place! I hope you are all doing great and are hitting the ground running in the new year.

Despite the fact that our week included New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (no proselyting on the 31st and for half of the 1st), a zone training meeting in Wilmington, and a doctor's appointment for Elder Clegg in New Bern, we taught a ton of lessons last week! And they went really well!

Carlos is doing so much better with quitting smoking! He's almost there! I love Preach My Gospel, but sometimes the needs of your investigators just demand that you make up a lesson from scratch. And that's what Elder Clegg and I did with Carlos and his family. We noticed that he had a powerful desire to quit smoking, but he wasn't letting his desires turn him to action. So we created a lesson for them that we hoped would get the ball rolling and help him to act. We started out by telling the story of the Brother of Jared and how the Lord commanded him to do something really hard (crossing the ocean to settle in the promised land). In order to keep that the commandment, the Lord gave him a lot of answers to some of the questions he had (how to build the barges, how they would get air, how the barges would be steered, etc.). However, the Lord also gave the Brother of Jared the responsibility and opportunity to come up with a plan to solve other problems by himself (how to provide light in the barges). As the Brother of Jared thought up a "gameplan" and presented it to the Lord (ask the Lord to fill stones with light), his faith and humility increased and he was not only rewarded with his desires, but he received many other unbelieveably amazing blessings. Then we related the story to Carlos and made a gameplan with him. We handed him a pad of paper and a pen and invited him to write things down that he would do to quit smoking. We invited his family to also make a gameplan of things they could do to support and help him. They have placed their gameplans in their home where they can see them, and things have changed remarkably since then. They get along better, they communicate more, and---let's not forget---Carlos is really close to quitting cigarettes completely! We're helping out, too. We call him everyday to follow up with him and ask him if he smoked; Elder Clegg bought him sunflower seeds and cinnamon gum to help him quit; and I bought some pictures of Christ for them to hang in their home (since that really helped bring the Spirit into my room in my college apartment). The Lord is helping out too... Carlos suddenly got sick and just can't get himself to smoke! The Lord answers prayers in mysterious ways, that's for sure!

We had a couple lessons with Frank, our amputee-investigator. We taught him about the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost and resolved a bunch of his concerns about being baptized. His concerns had everything to do with practical and medical things (how we would cover his stump, what he would wear, how he would get in and out of the font, etc.), and after we resolved all of them he accepted our invitation for him to be baptized. He has a lot of faith! He will need to make a lot of changes in his life, but we know that if he exercises his faith the Lord will help him and he can receive the blessings of being baptized by someone with God's authority. Unfortunately, he got shipped off to Kinston (out of our zone) for rehab, and he won't be back for another 3-6 weeks. We had the missionaries in Kinston go give him a visit, and he seemed to enjoy it. Meanwhile, we are building a wheelchair ramp for his trailer. That should be fun.

We had a lesson with Amber and her less-active husband Luke. It was the first time I've been able to meet them. They seem to be really progressing, but it's obvious that Satan really doesn't want them to be heading this direction. In the last two weeks there have been issues with her custody over her son and her first husband, a tree fell on Luke's head, and an abscess appeared really close to her eye. They are staying strong though. The lesson we had with them was a rough one because her aetheist 15-year old sister, Lexi, was there... by force. Her parents (who haven't even met with us ever) made her go to Amber's for the lesson, and it was very clear that she couldn't care less about God and would rather be anywhere else. We'll see where that takes us. Amber said that her dad has a lot of questions about the Bible... he thinks that it was slowly corrupted somewhat over the years because of man's translation. We couldn't keep from smiling when we told her to let her dad know that we have an answer to his questions. She was really excited and it seems like this answer is something he has been looking for for a very long time. He should be at our next lesson with Amber on Wednesday.

Our lessons with Ted were amazing. He is so great! He just came back from leave after being with his family for Christmas for a couple of weeks. He had a lot of really deep questions, but we were able to answer all of them and he not only understood the answers, but he loved them and thought they made so much sense. His first question was our belief in the Trinity, and he was actually smiling when we explained to him that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are seperate beings but one in purpose because it made more sense to him than the beliefs he had been brought up on. He also asked us if he could be baptized without living the law of chastity because he was in an active immoral relationship with his girlfriend. We told him that he couldn't. He surprised us when he said that even though it would be hard to change the nature of the relationship, he would begin to live the law of chastity now because he wanted to be baptized worthily and not do anything wrong. He even has a desire to go to the temple. He's on fire! The only problem is, he and his other infantry buddies are always training in the field and he doesn't know his schedule beyond a few days at a time. He has been trying to talk to his officers about a day he can be baptized but they aren't being cooperative in telling him his schedule. After he's lived the law of chastity for three weeks the only thing stopping him from being baptized is actually finding a day to do it!

This morning we went to see some pretty neat military memorials in our area. Their was a memorial for troops in Beruit who got attacked and killed by suicide bombers, one for the Vietnam war, and another for September 11th. It was pretty neat. I found the names for quite a few Schancks and Shanks on the glass for the Vietnam war memorial. Please pray for our troops... I know and love quite a few of them!

One thing I love about my mission is it has really helped me understand the importance of making goals and it has taught me how to reach them. I've been doing really well at mine so far... I've been writing in my journal everyday even though at first I hated it, I'm eating healthy, and I'm getting better at catching myself when I lack charity. I feel the Lord's help as I "set goals and make plans" (as Preach My Gospel always says) to improve. I know that as we create a goal or a "gameplan" that if we have faith in the Lord and allow Him to touch our plans to reach our goals, then He will help us and even bless us with excess. It worked for the Brother of Jared, it's been working for me, and I know it will work for you! Whether your goal is to get in shape, to get better grades, or to read the scriptures better than you have in the past, I know the Lord wants to help you. I know that He has given us some of the answers to accomplish our goals already through the restoration of the Gospel. One of those answers is the Book of Mormon. I never get tired of testifying of its truthfulness because between each email I write my testimony of it grows stronger and I have a deeper conviction of its divinity with each week that goes by. Most importantly of all, I know that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah and the Savior of the world. I also know that He will come again, and it will be soon.

Please pray for Carlos to have help to quit smoking; for Frank to respond well to his rehab and to be able to return soon; for Amber to heal and be protected so she can continue to progress without any more problems; for Lexi to have her heart softened; and for Ted to find a day when he can be baptized. Please also keep Elder Clegg and I in your prayers; I have been hurting lately and Elder Clegg has a problem with his abdomen. It is very likely that he will need to return home for surgery, and soon. I know that the prayers of the faithful work!

Also, good luck with the next semester, all you college people! And congratulations to Whitney and Chris on being sealed in the temple! I'm happy for you!

I love you all and hope that I get to hear from you soon!

With love,

Elder Schank

Week 63: Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Dear friends and family,

I hope you had a merry Christmas and that you felt the love and peace of the Savior on that special day. I testify that He lives and loves us. My testimony of that has grown so much this last week. There are a lot of struggling people in this town. One of them is Frank, an older gentleman that we've been teaching. I haven't even been to his house yet because everytime we've seen him it's been in his hospital room. He has diabetes and it's really messed up his feet. In fact, one of them was infected really bad so they had to amputate his lower leg. Last time we visited him, he had been out of the surgery for only two hours and he was in a lot of pain. He called the nurse in and told her he wanted more medicine, and she said she couldn't give him more because they gave him the strongest pain killer and he couldn't have another dose for hours. I'm sure I speak for Elder Clegg as well when I say that we wanted so badly to be able to help him. We knew that there was nothing we could do to take his pain away. But I knew there was Someone who could. We gave him a priesthood blessing and I could feel the Lord's love for Frank. After the blessing we discussed the feeling of the Spirit that had filled the small room. Frank thanked us and said "I can already feel a difference in my pain." I also know that because of the Savior and His Atonement we can have our pain alleviated and even removed, in some cases. I testify that Jesus Christ knows what it is like to lose your right foot. He knows of the pain of the recovery. I also know that because He has felt that exact pain, that He alone can perfectly empathize with Frank to help him through this time.

I also know that because of Christ we can all have our pain lifted. Whether you are a lonely widow, a frightened soldier, a dying patient, a discouraged missionary, a troubled criminal, a sorry sinner, or just a normal person with normal problems, I know that you can be healed through the Atonement of Christ. I know this because I have met all kinds of people with these discriptions and I have seen how the gospel of Jesus Christ has helped them access the Atonement and find relief to their minds, bodies, and spirits. I know the Redeemer lives!

Our week was very slow. So many people are on leave to see their families for the holidays. On top of that, there is a sickness spreading around the entire city and it seems to have gotten into every home of the few families that are still here. three of our seven investigators are in town and two of them are sick. The other one is dealing with a lawsuit concerning the custody of her child and despite our promising that a message about the gospel will help she hasn't allowed us to come over yet. We contacted a lot of referrals, though, which is good. Anyway, I don't have a lot of great stories about lessons or proselyting because not much has happened.

Christmas was pretty good. We got to eat breakfast on Christmas and dinner on Chrismtas Eve and Christmas day with members. My favorite part about the whole holiday was sharing a message with the families who fed us about the glorious news of the restored gospel and how we can give the gift of missionary work to members. And of course getting to talk to my family even though it's only been a couple weeks since I've seen them. It was especially great to be able to talk to Christa this year. 

Other exciting news: we have a new addition to our backyard buddies. We've been getting so much food from members (we get fed about every day... except for during the holiday season, apparently) that we can't eat all the leftovers and goodies they give us before some of it goes bad. So we've been putting the bad food on our back deck for the 11 stray cats that live in the woods behind our house to eat. At first when I heard about this tradition I thought the past elders were pretty stupid, but when I realized that the cats were already coming I figured, "Eh, what the heck" and so I've been throwing my cold pizza crusts out onto the deck. The other night we found out that not only the cats have been loving the food when we peeked out our window to see a big fat possum chowing down on some stale pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. He was huge! Since the 11 cats already have names, we decided to name him, too. We call him Pachus the Possum, named after the king of the Nephite dissenters in the Book of Mormon. Kind of a weird name, I know, but we found it in the pronounciation guide in the back of the book. We looked up who Pachus was in the index, and he seems like a varmint himself so we figured it would be a good name for our possum.

Yesterday in church one Sis. Bluth (a sister missionary in our ward) and I performed Dad's arrangement of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" for cello and piano. We were kind of nervous because we only had one day to put it together and the cello we got was a 3/4 cello, which Sis. Bluth had to adjust to, but it turned out really great. She played beautifully and I was really pleased with how I did. Our ward loved it, too, and they're asking for more!

This morning I had a great experience. A week or so after I returned here from Utah I felt like something was missing. I didn't have the Spirit as strongly as I remembered having it before. I have been doing my best to be exactly obedient to the mission standards and the commandments, I've been working hard, and I just couldn't figure it out. Yesterday at church I realized that the biggest difference between now and then is that I haven't been reading as much from the Book of Mormon. Since I've been back, I've just been using it to supplement my studies, rather than focusing my studies around it. Today I got a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon and decided to start over with it and mark certain concepts with different colored pencils, like I did several months ago. I read the introduction and the first 9 chapters of the book, looking for references to Christ and His doctrine and Atonement. An hour later, when personal study had ended, I realized that the missing something had been filled in by the Spirit. I testify of the truthfulness and divinity of the Book of Mormon. I know with all my heart and soul that it is a book from God.

To every one of you that is reading this now, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon. It doesn't matter if you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint or not, and it doesn't matter how many times you've read it in the past. As a literal representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you in His name that if you read it with real intent, looking with faith to know how you can strengthen your relationship with Christ, that you will find what you are looking for. You have absolutely nothing to lose---I know from experience that this book will only bless your life. To miss out on the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon is to miss out on the blessing of coming closer to God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true because I have read it and witnessed it change my life and transform me into a better disciple of Jesus Christ. I have seen that happen to dozens of people as I've had the humble privilege to be one of two to bring them the book that the Savior wants them to read the most. I extend this invitation only because I love you and I know that by accepting it you will be happy and blessed by the Lord.

I am grateful to my ward at home. Thank you for your love and the support you have given to me. You are in my prayers and I love you all very much!

Again, I know that Jesus is the Christ, our loving Savior, Redeemer, and Atoner. I know that the fulness of His gospel and the authority to administer sacred ordinances was lost but has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The work of the Lord is hastening.

I hope to hear from you soon! And I hope you have a great new year's eve! Don't do anything stupid because people that do stupid things on holidays make it so that missionaries like me have to stay inside all day!

With love,  Elder Schank

Merry Christmas from Elders Schank and Clegg

Week 62.5 Merry Christmas (tomorrow)

Dear friends and family,

This one will probably be short because Elder Clegg and I have to share one computer we found in the family history library in the church.  So I got my package this morning. My presents are sitting under our ghetto Christmas tree, along with Elder Clegg's gifts. Tomorrow we are having Christmas breakfast with the Sutherland family and dinner with Bishop Reese's family. The area is really great. We've had some great lessons with Carlos and his family. Two of his kids got baptized last month, his wife is returning from less-activity (well... we think so... no one can find her records but she remembers her baptism and obviously is familiar with LDS culture), and the other kids are younger than 8. He is trying to quit smoking because that's all that is keeping him from being baptized. We had a few other lessons with Ted, a 21-year old grunt Marine. He told us that he knows our message and the Book of Mormon are true and he wants to be baptized. Most of our investigators (6 or so) are gone for Christmas so I haven't even met half of our teaching pool. Good stuff is happening.

One funny story is we went to contact a referral named Marco. Church headquarters told us he wanted a missionary visit. So we went and we were really excited to meet him! We knocked on the door and a really abrasive, large Hispanic man in shiny blue silk pajamas (belly button clearly visible) opened the door. He told us he knew who we were, that we didn't believe the truth, and that he believes we're a cult. He seemed surprised that we weren't shocked at all when he said that (we get it all the time). We tried to clear up any misconceptions but he didn't want us to tell him what we really believe. He accosted us with the whole "don't add or take away from this book" problem in Revelations, and then quickly changed the subject when we had a completely sensible explanation and told him the correct interpretation of that verse. (We get that one all the time, too.) Then he targeted me and started testing my Bible knowledge by quoting obscure Bible verses and challenging me to fill-in-the-blank and judge our beliefs in God. I got most of them right, but after I missed one he told me that I was totally unfit to be an elder because I didn't know the Bible well enough. We kept trying to bear our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and things to him but he always went back to how I didn't have the Bible memorized and was a terrible missionary because of it. It was hilarious. We were pretty fed up with him trying to keep provoking us into argument so we struggled for the next 5 minutes to leave. We asked him if there was anyone in his area who was lonely for Christmas or who we could help. He said he did, but he wouldn't tell us because if we were really ministers of God then the Spirit would direct us to them. I guess he doesn't know how the Spirit really works---through people. It's always sad to see how some people completely harden their hearts to the truth. It does, however, make me grateful that I have the gospel in my life, and it motivates me to find those who are ready to accept it for themselves.

I invite everyone this Christmas season to watch a video about the birth of Christ. I love the Savior and I know He is the Messiah. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true. I love that book!

I hope that all of y'all have a very merry Christmas! I love you and hope to hear from you soon!

With love,

Elder Schank