Episode 26: Elder Schank and Elder Benson Arrive in Spring Lake!!!

HELLO everyone!

 

Wow! What a week it has been. I can't believe it's Monday again! Whew! Alright, so here's what's going down....

 

My new companion is Elder Zachary Benson from Las Vegas, Nevada. He's the oldest of 3 and he turns 20 on February 25. Hopefully we're going to have a baptism that day; chances of that are actually pretty good! He went to Eastern Utah University (or something like that) for a year and then Utah Valley University for a semester and is hoping to join the BYU or U of U baseball team when he gets back. We get along really well and we've already got comments from investigators about how unified we are in a teaching setting.

 

Our new area is the Fayetteville 1-B area of the Fayetteville district in the Fayetteville zone. And, actually, the city of Fayetteville is not in our proselyting area. We live in Spring Lake and cover that whole city, as well as Fort Bragg, a military base. It's pretty intense. There are huge jets that fly all around, we can hear bugle calls every day, and everywhere we go, including church, there are soldiers everywhere. In fact, I think it's safe to say that at least 80% of the people in our area work or did work in Fort Bragg at some point as a part of the army. By the time I'm out of here, I should be pretty good at all of the army acronyms... but right now, I can't understand most of what the military people say to each other.

 

Our ward is the bomb.com. They have really taken care of us. We finally got (almost) everything we need (it took a while for us to get the second bed so I slept on the floor for the first couple nights) and the apartment is actually starting to look pretty home-y. The biggest bummer is that the post office had to change the locks for our mailbox when we got our mail key and the lock-changing guy only does his thing on Thursdays... and before transfers they mission office holds all the mail so that it doesn't get sent to the wrong area... so, in other words, we're in the middle of a 2-week mail fast. Needless to say, we're pretty pumped for Thursday. :) We are two of four missionaries serving in our ward (they actually serve in Fayetteville). The ward mission program is working great and the end goal is to split the ward... which is exactly why they called in another set of missionaries. So hopefully Elder Benson and I will be instrumental in the creation of the Spring Lake ward! Cool beans!

 

I love being a trainer. It's the best ever. I get to go through the 12-week infield training program again (round 3) and it's going to be weird for me when I don't get that third hour of study every morning... almost halfway through my mission. Can you believe it's been that long? My mission is already more than a quarter of the way over! :( Time is flying.

 

We have a brand-spankin'-new white 2012 Chevy Malibu that we get to use. Gotta love that new-car smell. Mmmmm. We had it for about, oh, I dunno, 4 hours before our ward mission leader's son backed into it and put a big dent in the fender while we were in his house for ward missionary coordination meeting. *Sigh* It's going in tomorrow to get fixed up.

 

We already have several investigators, 5 of which we hope to get baptized next month. They are so prepared it's amazing. A lot of recent converts in the ward (big tough army guys) are just as great. On Saturday we decided to go tracting, and it was Elder Benson's first time ever. The second person we talked to said he had met Mormons before and I asked him what he thought about our religion. His response was, "Just a bunch of crazies." I was pretty surprised at that and I asked him why that was, but he didn't really give a definite answer. He didn't accept our invitation to accept the missionary lessons, but he did take a card with our number on it "just to make us feel better". In other words, he wasn't very nice. And that shook Elder Benson up quite a bit. But, we went across the street to try "one more house" and the man behind the door was Louis, a security guard in Fort Bragg who readily invited us in. He said over and over, throughout the lesson, how happy he was that we were there, and he cried when he told us that we had answered a lot of questions he had for a long time. He accepted the Book of Mormon and we are following-up with him tomorrow and what he thinks. After the lesson, we felt pretty great. But Elder Benson was still a little shaken up about the guy who called us "crazies". Pretty understandable. To try to help him out a little bit, I showed him something I had learned from the scriptures: Satan knows when good things are about to happen and he does what he can to prevent us from receiving or taking part in the good things just over the hill. You can see this happen throughout the scriptures, with Adam & Eve, Abraham, Moses, Nephi, Alma, Amulek, Paul, Jesus Christ, etc., etc., etc. When we realize what he's trying to pull off, it's easier to thwart his plans and we understand that the best is yet to come. We can adopt the attitude, "Come what may, and love it."

 

I wish I had more time to write about our recent adventures, but I might have to save it for later.

 

Nothing to report on my back or knees.

 

I hope you are all doing well and I love you very much! Please keep in contact! I can't wait to read your letters (after Thursday)!!! :)

 

 With love,

 Elder Schank

Episode 25: Elder Schank Gets Another Mission-changing Phone Call

Dear friends and family!

I hope that you are all doing as great as I am! Business is boomin'! We had another great week. Teaching all over the place, going in and out of the hospital to administer priesthood blessings and the sacrament on Sunday, contacting referrals and random people, and loving the work the whole way along. And of course, now it's time for transfers.

Elder Peck got a call from President Cotterell on Friday (the Friday before the end of each transfer is affectionately known my missionaries as "Freaky Friday" for this very reason) to inform him that he was being called as a trainer! I know he will do a great job and that Elder X is in good hands. After Elder Peck and President Cotterell talked a little more, Elder Peck handed the phone to me and President congratulated me on becoming the mission's youngest grandpa. (In mission lingo, you have a "son" if you train someone and that makes you their "father". So I'm Elder Peck's "dad" and Elder X is my "grandson". Man, am I'm aging fast, or what?) President and I talked together about how well Elder Peck would do and how I am dealing with my knees and back (more on that later) for a little while, and then he told me that I have been called by the Lord to fulfill a very "special assignment". I am going to be transferred to a new area that has previously had so much success that the area will be split and two additional missionaries will be called to serve there. My new companion, as I write, I think is probably on an airplane somewhere over the middle of the US. That's right; I've been called as a trainer again and also to "open" or "whitewash" a brand spankin' new area. That should be really fun, really difficult, and really awesome. Elder Y and I are up to the challenge. Elder Peck and I have been praying very hard for Elder X and Elder Y and we are excited to meet them and work with them. Transfer meetings are Tuesday (tomorrow). Elder Westley, my "dad" will be leaving back to Utah; it will be interesting to have 4 generations at that meeting: Elder X, Elder Peck, Elder Schank, and Elder Westley.

It's going to be hard to leave Virgil, Grant, and several other investigators, ward members, and missionaries, but I am excited to be heading off to a new place (I find out exactly where tomorrow, so I'll let you know in a week) and start from scratch... with my area and companion. It's going to be a lot of work, but work is exactly what I'm here to do and I'm super pumped.

Well, I know that this one's really short but I've got to get going! I still have to write my Letter to the Mission President and report on this awesome week that we just had that I've told you pretty much nothing about! Sorry! I'm sure there will be a lot for me to say next week! I'd love to hear from y'all if you've got the chance! A letter would be right nice! :)

I love you all very much. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in its fulness and that the Lord rewards us according to our faithfulness, patience, and hard work. He does with His missionaries, that's for sure! I testify with everything in me that Jesus is the Christ and that the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon, point us unto Him. Have a blessed day!

One last district meeting. Here's the district in order of mission age: E. Hintze, E. Petersen, Sis. Matthews, Sis. Bateman, E. Bingham, me, E. Winger, E. Peck.

"You know you're in the South when":

Even your laces can be "phatt".

 

 

With love,

Elder Schank

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

6508 Falls of Neuse, Ste. 100

Raleigh, NC 27615

United States

http://mormon.org/me/2JZ1/KennySchank/

http://www.elderschank.blogspot.com

Episode 24: Elder Schank Is Strengthened by Opposition

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm (re)learning a great lesson here, not only about being a better missionary but about life in general: when everything goes wrong and takes a turn for the worse, we can either let our adverse experiences be our destruction or our building blocks.

First of all, I'm still dealing with some pretty difficult back and knee pain. The last two days have been by far the worst days so far on my mission, pain-wise. BUT I am seeing more and more how the Lord is teaching me through this trial the value and strengthening power of personal perseverance. I teach people all the time the importance of enduring to the end and how it is a crucial and necessary process that must follow faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now I am understanding even better how important that endurance is, and I can see every day the hand of the Lord in my life and how He is not only blessing me for persevering, but also how He rewards me according to my endurance through difficulty. That seems to be an underlying theme to my life this last week.

On Thursday, we went to meet with a new investigator named Jeremi for the first time. He was golden. He was excited to receive the Book of Mormon and said that he already knew that it could help him and his family grow closer to Christ. We asked him if we could come teach him more and he excitedly agreed. In an attempt to always find more people to teach, we asked him to bring friends or family along, and he promised he would. On Friday, we met at the appointed time with our missionary exchange (a church member who accompanies us for fellowshipping, support, and transportation purposes). Jeremi welcomed us into his home, and as we stood to hold hands in a circle and pray for the Spirit to be with us, his friend---an older gentleman---walked into the room. We invited him to join us. He said that he would sit in on the lesson, but he wouldn't pray with us because we "pray to a different God". Uh oh. Jeremi started us off with a beautiful prayer to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. And we began our lesson. Almost immediately, his friend began to loudly interrupt everything we were saying, telling us that we were false prophets, that the Book of Mormon is a hoax, that Joseph Smith was a blasphemous charlatan, and that we were from a nonChristian cult. To make matters much, much worse, our exchange, an equally hard-headed native southerner, began to fight back against Jeremi's friend, who was a minister of some Baptist denomination. The argument grew heated and the Spirit that joined us in the first few moments was replaced by the spirit of contention. Jeremi, Elder Peck, and I were unable to get a word in. After trying (and failing) to calm our exchange down by telling him to be quiet and firmly grasping his knee, I turned my attention to the minister and asked him for permission to speak without being interrupted. It took standing up and boldly telling him that if he wasn't going to be silent then we would leave immediately to get him to hold his peace, but it finally worked. Jeremi was finally able to ask why the Book of Mormon was so important to us if we already have the Bible, and I bore testimony of its divinity and how I came to know that it was true. After maybe a minute, the minister and our exchange were back at each other's throats in argument and disagreement. Needless to say, we left soon after, dragging our exchange out the door. While the lesson in and of itself may be presented as an utter failure, I learned a valuable lesson, again, of the power of testimony and the divinity of my call as a missionary. A knowledge of these things is solidified each time I face opposition on my mission.

And it just gets better and better.

On Friday night, after planning for the next day, we were just about to have our companionship prayer when the phone began to ring. We looked down and saw the caller ID recognize it as a Utah number. It was my Dad's cell phone number. That freaked me right out! I let it ring, afraid to answer it, because in almost all circumstances talking to family on the phone is against mission rules. Dad left a voicemail that said, "Elder Schank, this is your Dad. I know this is probably a weird phone call to get, but President Cotterell gave me your phone number and asked that I call you. Call me back when you can." So, I did. He called to inform me that his father, my grandpa, had passed away due to a series of infections he had contracted at the hospital while recovering from a hip replacement. As Dad related the story to me, I felt completely at peace. I knew because of the Plan of Salvation that Grandpa is in the spirit world, doing the same work that my sister Christa and I are doing on the other side of the veil. I have felt the Spirit's kind assurance that he is doing good work to help those spirits without a knowledge of God's plan for them to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was difficult news to take, of course, and I cried a little bit for my Dad as I was speaking to him. I can't imagine how hard it would be to lose your father. I imagined what it would be like to get a call from someone else to inform me that Dad had died, and that was a painful and horrible thought. But I KNOW that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all our losses are made up in time according to our faith. My joy as a missionary grew when Christa joined me in the field; it has grown even more as my Grandpa has joined the ranks on the other side. This experience has ultimately increased my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement.

Another difficulty I'm dealing with is the fact/extreme likelihood that I will be leaving Greenville in a week from today. This is really going to be hard for me to do... I love the people in the ward and those we've been teaching. There are so many people we've found ready to be taught and I want to be here to see them go all the way towards baptism and then into the better life ahead of them. After leaving a family of investigators for probably the last time on Sunday, they began to cry, and I was pretty close to it, too! I'm really going to miss them, but I was reminded this morning of the importance of being transferred during my scriptures study. In Acts 18:23 it says of Paul:

"And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples."

I reflected back on how I have been strengthened by the companionships of Elders Fuhriman, Westley, and Peck, and how I have provided some help to them as well. I understand better now that trials are really tools we can use to grow, and that we don't have to go it alone; we have each other. That is the way God intended our lives to be. In the words of Christ, "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). I know that as I have done that and as my wonderful companions have done that to help me, my conversion is even more and more real.

I know that if we endure through trials we can grow. We are purified by the Refiner's fire so that we can become even more precious and of even greater worth than we already are in our Heavenly Father's eyes. I testify that Jesus is the Christ and that, if we are faithful, all our losses will be made up by His Atoning blood.

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon! Keep the letters coming! I promise I'll write back to those of you who are waiting on a reply!

With love,

Elder Schank

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

6508 Falls of Neuse, Ste. 100

Raleigh, NC 27615

United States

http://mormon.org/me/2JZ1/KennySchank/

http://www.elderschank.blogspot.com

Episode 23: Elder Schank & Elder Peck Find More People to Teach

Dear friends and family,

 

What's up? I hope you're all doing just great on your New Year's goals and that every things is wonderful at home! I want you to know that I love and miss you all and that I am doing great!

 

Health Report:

Things with my back and knees have been better. We're back to using the car full-time again because biking isn't working out right now. But it's not slowing me down as much and I'm really feeling strengthened. The mission got a new doctor named Dr. Smalley and he sounds really cool over the phone! :) He's given me some very, VERY simple exercises to do frequently and I've been doing a pretty good job at keeping up with it! I'm supposed to work up to the point where I can do it every waking hour, and I'm not quite there yet, but it's coming along alright. Thank you so much of your prayers and fasts on my behalf. I can feel the power of your faith and I want you to know that those prayers are being answered in the Lord's own way.

 

I'm loving the work more and more. I'm learning that when we talk to everyone we meet (like missionaries are supposed to), the Lord can trust us with more people and He will allow for us to cross paths. Right now we have at least 40 potential investigators on "the board" who we believe can become investigators soon (some by the end of the day) and exactly 12 investigators (13 or 14 by tonight). Progress is SO slow... some of these people are struggling to keep commitments, some aren't looking for conversion, and some have just simply fallen off the face of the earth; and no one has a baptismal date set quite yet. But the point is, things are happening and we're really picking up speed. The ward has set a goal to have 48 baptisms this year. I am trying to gain the faith I need to make that happen and not let the fact that there hasn't been a baptism in our ward since I've been on my mission deter me from baptizing one person per week for the rest of the year. It's a big goal, but it can happen if we "up the ante" (or "pony up" as Elder Peck would say) and put forth the faith needed to accomplish this miracle. After all, "it is by faith that miracles are wrought" (Moroni 7:37)! :)

 

The elders in Washington (a city not too far from Greenville) found a woman who, for whatever reason, wanted to give away her lightly-used $3000 power wheelchair. They were able to get it from her and get it to us on Wednesday at our district meeting because they knew we were teaching Virgil. We called Virgil up and asked him if it was something he could use, and he actually informed us that he was having a hard time with paying for his loaner chair because his original wheelchair has been in the shop for many months. He also asked us if we could continue to read from the Book of Mormon with him, and, of course, we said yes. We gave the new wheelchair to him but we had a difficult time assembling it and we didn't have time to read with him. He was a little disappointed... he had his book and glasses set out all ready to go and was really excited to read with us. But, we're getting back together tonight and he's pretty pumped! We are bringing by a 15-step Stop-Smoking program that is produced by the Church that is reported to have worked 100% of the time for those who follow it exactly. He will be investigating again as of tonight and I'm so excited to be teaching him again!

 

We went by Grant's last night to check up on him and see how he's doing. He has been undergoing treatments for skin cancer recently and has been pretty lonely since we stopped teaching him because he wasn't progressing. We had a hard core lesson on covenants and priesthood authority and we could tell that his brain-wheels were turning. The Spirit was strong and Grant told us that he wanted to try to quit coffee again. We set a date for him to quit by the 18th... 10 days. I decided to quit sweets again so that he and I (as well as Virgil and I) can report to each other on a daily basis how it's going quitting coffee, smoking, and sugar. Grant also said he'd like for us to keep coming back to teach him/read the Book of Mormon with him. Awesome.

 

We've also had a ton of opportunities to serve random people (we've racked up some pretty weird stories) and talk to even more. It's amazing the Lord literally leads us to meet those who are interested in the gospel. Some people practically beg us to come back and teach us more about our message! I love that.

 

Chances are good I'm being transferred on Tuesday the 24th. I don't know for sure until about the weekend before, and I won't know where I'm going until the day I get transferred. It's pretty sad! I've really grown to love this area and I hate to leave the people I've grown to know and love in the ward and on the streets. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to stay in Greenville for my whole mission. :)

 

I had the great experience yesterday in our fast and testimony meeting to bear my testimony to the ward, and, again, I was taught something about the power of our testimonies. When I stood up at the pulpit, it was pretty noisy in the chapel... small children were doing their small children thing and one particular baby was crying. But when I began to testify of the importance and validity of the Book of Mormon, the place went silent! Even the children could feel a change in the room. I know that it wasn't me or the words that came out of my mouth that changed the atmosphere in the meeting, but the Holy Ghost's presence and additional witnesses to the truths of which I spake. I know that our testimonies are powerful. They can change lives. 

 

I know that the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The authority of God, after over a thousand years of being completely absent from the face of the earth, has been restored through a living Prophet of God. There is a Prophet and there are Apostles today. The Book of Mormon is true. Jesus is the Savior. He love you, and He loves me. I know these things are true!

With love,

Elder Schank

 

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

6508 Falls of Neuse, Ste. 100

Raleigh, NC 27615

United States

http://mormon.org/me/2JZ1/KennySchank/

Episode 22: Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

 

From what I've heard, it sounds like a lot of you have had a great holiday season between Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day. I really have pretty much no time left, so this one will be pretty short.

 

The other night we went to contact a potential investigator. He wasn't home, but his brother was smoking on the front porch. When we explained our message to him and asked if he was interested in learning more about it, you could tell he was trying to scare us and shake us up a bit. In my past life, he probably would have done a really great job at that. He was this big black guy with a ribbed tank-top on, tattoos all up his arms, gold chains around his neck, and he kept blowing smoke on us. He told us that we were false prophets and "wolves in sheep's clothing", and that Satan is literally walking on the earth to tell us what we should say to people. He said it was too late for us to repent because the world will end in 2012. He told us that everything we believed was an illusion... that we aren't real men because we live in "the box of your Mormon Bible" (the Book of Mormon). But HE was a real man because he lives in the world and isn't fooled by the illusions... he used to be a crack-head and kill people for a living. We kept trying to explain our message with testimony. The first time, it didn't work very well, and the second time didn't work either; but on the third time, I looked him square in the eye and smiled and bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the reality of my calling as a representative of Jesus Christ, and of the existence of His prophet on the earth today. He was silenced. I know that the power that attended me was given from the Savior. I didn't have power of myself to say what I said with such touching force. I'm grateful that the Lord watches over and helps His missionaries to do His work. We left the man with a handshake and a kind "good night" and went home.

 

Yesterday morning we cleaned up pine straw off of the church lot. The stake president asked us to get on the roof and rake it off. Seriously. It was awesome.

 

I know that the Savior lives and loves us. I know that His gospel has been restored through the living Prophet, Joseph Smith, and that there has been a Prophet ever since him. Today's Prophet is President Thomas S. Monson. I know the Book of Mormon is true.

 

I hope you are all doing great and I hope to hear from you!

 

With love,

 

Elder Schank

 

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

6508 Falls of Neuse, Ste. 100

Raleigh, NC 27615

United States