Episode 13: Elder Schank Gets a Big Phone Call

Hey!

 

Well this last week has been pretty dang interesting.

 

I've officially been in the mission field for over 100 days. I think day 100 was Saturday. I finished the 12-week infield training program yesterday. That means I am now officially a bona fide TRAINED missionary. The purpose of the infield training program is to prepare the trainee, if he is called, to be able to train an incoming missionary. Well, I guess it's fulfilled it's purpose because on Thursday I got a phone call from my mission president. Now, phone calls about transfers and important things like that usually come on Saturday. If they come on Friday, you know it's a big deal. So when we got called on Thursday, we knew something crazy was about to happen. President Cotterell said, "Elder Schank, the Lord has called you to be a trainer." I said, "Seriously?" He responded, "That's what I said when He told me!" Ha. Ha. He assured me that if the Lord called me, that means I can do it. I'm excited but I'm really nervous; I still don't know a lot of the how to's here, and I am way more unfamiliar with the area than I would like to be. But I know I can do it. I think it will be a huge learning experience for me.... I have always learned best by teaching, anyway.

 

On Friday our ward and the neighboring wards had a trunk or treat. Halloween here is pretty scary business, so we celebrated it early with the two wards and reverse trick-or-treated: the adults sat in a big rectangle around the cultural hall as the kids went around to collect candy from them. We joined in the line with the kids, but instead of accepting candy---well... we may have accepted a little... :)---we handed out new pass-along cards that had important questions like "Where do I go when I die?" and "Can I live with my family forever?" on them to the adults and challenged them to do missionary work themselves. It turns out that one of the adults wasn't a member and I guess our handing her one of those cards was the final step to her wanting to learn more! The missionaries in the other ward will be teaching her, but I'm just really glad that we could go and get candy and still be effective. :) Oh yeah, we also dressed up a little bit... pictures included.

 

 

 

We had to stop teaching our good friend Grant. He's such an awesome man, but, even though we've had 28 lessons with him, he's not ready for baptism yet, he says. So we're giving him more time to read the Book of Mormon and mull everything we've taught him over in his brain, and then come back in a little while. At least we'll see him each week at church. He loves coming! He believes the Book of Mormon is true and everything, but I don't think he understands the significance of it. He learns really slowly (hence the 28 lessons)... I guess it takes a long time for old dogs to learn new tricks. We keep praying for him and hope that something will change and he can join the church!

 

 

 

We had our stake conference in New Bern, by the shore. It was a really big deal because our stake was the first stake in North Carolina, and this year marks its 50th anniversary. There's a picture of me looking off into the distance over the water... this is what happens when Elder Westley starts getting artsy-fancy with the camera. :)

 

 

 

We're STILL looking for people to teach! I know there are people out here looking for the truth but they just don't know where to look. They're out here somewhere. I know it. We just haven't found them yet!

Let's see... I think that pretty much covers all the good stuff.

 

So I found this scripture this morning in my studying. It's a quote from Captain Moroni who, like me, writes home to inform the recipient of the message of his situation, anxiously hoping to receive a letter or two in reply. Nephi says to apply the scriptures to ourselves, so here I go:

 

"Yea, great has been your neglect towards us. And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state" (Alma 60:5-6).

 

Haha just kidding. But seriously. I really would like to get a letter from you! All of you! :)

I love you all and hope that things are going well at home. If there was ever a time I needed your prayers, now would be the time. My joints are getting gradually more painful, and it's not just my knees anymore. That, on top of having the responsibility of training a new missionary and still trying as hard as I can to find someone to teach and not having a single baptism yet... let's just say I would love it if you would include me in your prayers.

 

I love you all and I pray for each of you every day, often by name... and that takes a while! :) I encourage you, no matter who you are or where you are in life or what you are doing now, to think, right now, one way you can grow closer to Jesus Christ, and commit to yourself right now to do it. I promise you that if you accept this challenge, you will be blessed, because I know that He "is the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by [Him]" (John 14:6).

 

With love,

 

Elder Schank

Weekly Update: Week 12

Hey!

 

This last week was a really interesting one. On Monday, which is normally our preparation day, we woke up at 5:30 to go to Kinston for our zone conference. Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Presidency of the Quorum of the 70 was there... and I think I wrote about it in my last email. In short, it was awesome. I attached a picture of my zone with him. (Elder Jensen is the one in the middle with the glasses. My mission president is the one to his left. I'm standing behind my mission president. My friend Elder Kyle Simmons is the second one from the left, on the back row. Some of you may also know Elder Morrell [7th from the left on the back row] and Sister Johnson [the sister in the white and pink on the right]... both of them are also Davis Darts! Woohoo!)

 

 

 

On Tuesday we shopped for food and emailed home because we didn't have time after the zone conference.

 

Things were pretty normal again on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday we drove to Apex to go to the Raleigh Temple. It's so small! But it was still a very wonderful experience and I'm really glad I could go again. I miss being able to go once a week. When we finally got home, we had our preparation day... shoot hoops... play piano... write letters... the usual.

 

On Sunday, our investigator Virgil (the one with muscular dystrophy in the wheelchair) came to sacrament meeting! It was the annual primary program this week, when little children sing and speak as the main meeting that week. I could tell that Virgil was very touched by the meeting. The Spirit was strong as the children reverently bore testimony through word and song, and it brought tears to his eyes. He was very impressed with the Latter-day Saint children. The primary program made me miss home a little bit... there were about half as many kids involved as I'm used to seeing, and Becky was not among them, but I still loved it.

 

Not a whole lot has changed... still trying to find people to teach, avoid getting hit by cars, and help people come unto Christ. It's an exciting thing! I hope that you are all having great experiences at home! Hopefully something a little out of the ordinary (but safe) will happen soon so that I can have a neat experience to share with all of you. Please let me know how you're doing! I love your letters, even the short ones!

 

Love,

Elder Schank

Week 11: Zone Conf. w/Elder MKJensen

Hello everyone!

 

Yesterday we had an amazing zone conference with Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the First Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy and his wife. Before the meeting we all got to shake his hand and when he shook mine he told me that he really liked my glasses. Awesome.

 

His instruction was amazing and inspiring. I wish I could tell you everything he said, but I obviously can't so I'll just share one thing. He talked a lot about faith and how Christ can help us in our asking, "Lord, Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). We spent a lot of time together in Alma 32, one of my very favorite chapters in the whole Book of Mormon. We studied that faith begins with a simple desire. That desire instills in us a particle of faith. That little particle of faith is like a seed. If we plant it in our hearts, nourish it, and do not cast it out, the seed will grow into a mighty tree. A pattern becomes established. If we desire to believe, then act on our desire by experimenting on that belief, then make sure we don't cast it out, the end result is a growth of faith. I know that this is true because I have seen it applied time and time again in my own life. As we nourish our faith by doing the little things... reading our scriptures and praying each day as individuals and families, going to church each week, serving and loving others, keeping the commandments, etc.... I know that our faith in the Savior will grow and we will qualify for great blessings and miracles in our lives, "for it is by faith that miracles are wrought" (Moroni 7:37) and "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6).

 

Well, as far as things go here, nothing is super exciting. We're still trying to find investigators to teach, and we have a few that we're still teaching. Elder Westley and I are a lot more unified, and it's obvious in how effective we are and how much I enjoy the work. It's been tough, though. The sun goes down at about 6:30, and even fewer people want to talk to us after dark; so if we don't have appointments (and we usually don't since we have few investigators) then we just have to try to use that last 3 hours to do something effective. We're trying to see members more often and invite them to make a commitment to help with the work, though, so hopefully we'll be able to get a lot done there.

 

We've been teaching a man named Virgil recently, who is in a wheelchair due to some kind of muscular distrophy in his back. He can't read very well, so that's been a big challenge. We're going to try to get him an audio copy of the Book of Mormon so that he can gain a testimony of that wonderful book. He really wants to learn more about Christ so he can change and become a better person by repenting of his sins. He's been meeting with us, some Baptist ministers, and the Jehovah's Witnesses to find the truth. We have encouraged him to keep an open mind in all he learns and to pay attention to the feelings of the Spirit. We promised him that if he does that, God will lead him to the truth. Virgil was excited to come to church this last Sunday. We were excited for him; it would give him a chance to be fellowshipped and befriended by members, and he would be able to feel the Spirit really strong---besides, we haven't had an investigator in sacrament meeting for the last 5 weeks. When we arrived at his home to pick him up for church we were met by his wife, who told us that the night before he had fallen and spent the night in the emergency room and was not feeling up to coming to church. That was tough for us. We have been trying really hard and we can see opposition affecting all of our investigators! That opposition comes in all different forms, I've found: for some it's busy schedules with work; for others it's friends that are bad influences; for some it's even accidents like car crashes and falling... Pretty much anything that keeps them from progressing. We have been battling against the devil and all the opposition he has thrown at us and the people we teach, but we know that the message we share has strengthened their faith in Christ, and I know that it has strengthened mine!

 

I'm doing well. Fall here doesn't feel like fall. Everything is still green... the biggest difference is that the humidity is more comfortable and the temperatures have dropped about 15 degrees. But other than that... same old, same old. I hear that the fall is beautiful back home! I miss it a lot. I hope all of you are having a great time in your own lives and that everything is going well. I would love to hear from you! Please write me and/or send pictures! I don't have as much time as I would like to to respond right away, but I will do my best to get back to you!

 

With love,

 

Elder Schank

Weekly Update: October 10

Dear friends and family,

 

Well, nothing really exciting has gone on recently. We did run into another antimormon gentleman this week, though. He was a pretty scary-looking, angry guy... he had wild eyes that pointed away from each other and long, scraggly hair on his head and face. He stopped us on our bikes and told us that he was spreading God's word and that we were believers in the devil's religion. With every disputation he had we tried to testify that we knew that the Book of Mormon was true, that Jesus Christ restored His church through the prophet Joseph Smith, that there is a living prophet today with authority to lead Christ's church, etc., but he would always interrupt us. He kept saying false and ridiculous things, like "Joseph Smith kissed the face of the devil himself!" His whole spiel was so ridiculous I was barely able to keep from laughing. He then told us that we believed in false prophets who uphold the work of the devil and that we were false prophets ourselves. Then he started talking about a bunch of crazy stuff I've never even heard of and told us how ignorant we were. We told him that we worked everyday to try to build our knowledge and testimonies of Jesus Christ by studying the scriptures. Then he looked at us with squinting eyes and said, "If you really want to know God's truths, then you'll follow me and what I teach." I guess we weren't the only "false prophets" on the street that day. We then told him that we knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ taught that if people have faith in Him and His Atonement, repent, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end, then they will be saved. Just like the last antimormon we ran into, this man was silenced by pure truths of the gospel. We rode off without further discussion.

 

Oh yeah,... this other time we were stopped at an intersection trying to leave Walmart on our bikes, and a man felt it necessary to slow down (holding up traffic) to yell out his window "only the blood of Jesus can save you from your sins!" to us. We tried to reply that we also believed that doctrine, but he would only yell back the same words whenever we tried to talk. Eventually he drove off and traffic
moved on, but it sure was frustrating that he didn't know what we believed and that he didn't think we were Christian. Man, that drives me crazy.

 

Other than that, nothing really has been happening, it seems like. But I know that the numbers we bring in each day aren't what matter most. We've been trying hard to teach current investigators and find more people to teach, but we can only do so much. At the end of the day, it's their agency that affects their own progression. We have been trying to help them grow closer to Christ through faith, repentance, and receiving ordinances/making covenants through baptism and confirmation, but we can't force them to read the Book of Mormon, pray to know if what we teach is true, or come to church. That's up to them. So even though our numbers are the lowest they've ever been (we taught 2 lessons this week), I'm not discouraged yet, because I know that success is not quantified by the numbers on our paperwork.

 

Well, I hope all is going well in your lives! I would love to hear from you! Even just a short note about how you're doing would be AWESOME! I don't expect a novel (though I do love them)! Please remember that I pray for you every day.

 

With love,

 

Elder Schank

Weekly Update: General Conference!

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Wasn't General Conference AMAZING?! What a blessing it is to not only have a living Prophet and Apostles on the earth, but to also be able to hear their words?! Thanks, awesome technology! I am so grateful for their humility and willingness to be spokesmen for the Lord.

 

Before conference, I was thinking of home. I really miss it! I sat on the first row of the seats in our chapel to watch the broadcast projected on the back wall, remembering all the wonderful memories of traditional General Conference mornings with my family at home. I felt a little sorry for myself that I wasn't there, and everyone else was enjoying it (I'm sure) without me. But then conference started, and the first thing I saw was beautiful Temple Square in Salt Lake City. As I saw the breathtaking temple appear on the wall, I felt a peace that comforted me and reminded me that I really was with my family, because at that exact time, they, too, were assembled as members of the Church of Jesus Christ to watch and hear the prophets, seers, and revelators of our day speak the words of the Savior. I felt that same reassuring feeling as I raised my arm to sustain the leaders of the Church in unison with my family and all of you who also participated in that crucial part of the General Conference, though I could see none of you.

 

General Conference was just great. Did it seem to anyone else that those messages were picked especially to help you as an individual? That sure is what I felt. I went to watch it with a specific question in my mind that I had prayed to be answered. It was answered in all 5 sessions.

 

I continue to pray for each of you every night that you will improve in your scripture studies, prayers, and temple attendance/preparation. Did you notice that talks on all three of those important habits were included in General Conference? Richard G. Scott and Tad R. Callister spoke of the importance of studying the Book of Mormon and the other scriptures; J. Devn Cornish talked about the blessings of prayer; and David A. Bednar and our Prophet Thomas S. Monson taught us about the importance of completing temple ordinances and family history work... not to mention the many times any of those three subjects were mentioned as component parts of other talks. I hope that you will continue to work on doing just a little bit better at studying your scriptures and praying on a daily basis, as well as attending the temple regularly or preparing to do so in the not-too-distant future.

 

I encourage you to review those talks, or if you missed them, to watch or read them (even if you're not a member of the LDS Church)! You can do so by visiting http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/10?lang=eng. As of the time I send this email, only the video and audio are uploaded onto this site... but the text will be updated soon.

 

The Lord and His laws are the same yesterday, today, and forever, which means that if He called a prophet in ancient times to direct the affairs of His people, then He would have a prophet direct them today. If He spoke to prophets then, He speaks to them now. If following the prophet brought safety and peace to the lives of the ancient followers of Christ, then doing so today will also bring us happiness and security. I know that the Lord has called a prophet of the world today, and that that person is President Thomas S. Monson. They both love us very much. That was very obvious to me as I watched President Monson end the conference with his closing remarks. If you don't for yourself know that God has called a prophet today, I encourage you to find out. Isn't that something that would be pretty important? I know that it is. Read the words of our living prophet, and learn for yourself that he has been called of God, and he speaks the words of Christ. I know that because God loves us, He has called a prophet to lead us to Him.

 

How are you doing? I love getting those letters. Please keep them coming! I am trying to write back as quickly as I can. Thanks for your patience!

 

I love y'all so much and hope that things are going well with you! 

With love,

 

Elder Schank