A Teacher in Zion

Well, I do not even know where to begin! These past few days have been sooo crazy, soooo life changing and just down right MATHEMATICAL!!! First, I just need to state that I know I’m supposed to be here... I arrived at the Missouri airport with the AP's ready to greet me. They were nice and have been out 23 months both of them! (One looked and talked like Samwise from Lord of the Rings). I went and ate at the mission home and met my companion Elder Bills! Elder Bills has only been out for 4 months but let me assure you he is a champion superduperstar missionary. Anyways, after spending time at the mission home, me and Elder Bills traveled back to our apartment in our mission car! SO SWEET! Anyways, I was just super in the dark and I had no idea what to expect for the next day because as good as Elder Bills is as a missionary, he is terrible at communicating (he admits). Anyways, it kinda just felt like my first day of Moxie Pest Control. I had no idea what was going on!

In my journal I even wrote that I will really need the spirit to get me through the day cuz this is like a game of pin the tale on the donkey, but playing it 12 hours straight. I'm glad to report that our first day was super solid! I placed a Book of Mormon! I gave it to Shane Fetters. He is 22 and I told him to read Alma 36 and we arranged to go back to his house Monday (so today) at 8:00 (we couldn’t interrupt super bowl time on Sunday). Anyways, that gave me some confidence and trust me the rest of the day went SUPER! We taught a lady the restoration and we’re going back to teach her whole family. We taught another family the restoration and I dug through my scriptures and managed to find my only copy of the Family a Proclamation to the World. We also taught at member’s houses and asked for referrals and then we did some tracting in between.

The ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT though was when we were on the way to Sister Waite’s house... who by the way owns a Moxie pest control company in Missouri with her husband! They were UBER excited when they heard I sold in Arizona!  Anyways, on the way to her house I felt like we needed to cross the street and knock on this one house. I knocked and a lady comes all the way out of her house and just stands there almost on the verge of tears. I felt so sorry for her and I just wanted to give her a big hug (I’m sure that wouldn't have been good though if I did for many different reasons). Anyways though, I told her we were missionaries and asked if there was anything that we could do for her. She paused and then said "Yeah, you can prove to me that God exists and tell me why he lets bad stuff happen to people.” Long story short I talked about Joseph Smith who was a prophet and God allowed TERRIBLE, AWFUL, INHUMANE stuff happen to him and we read Doctrine & Covenants 122 with her.  We bore testimony that God lets us suffer only for our benefit and we just talked and talked outside where it was raining and super cold, but she said that she was just thinking about her relationship with God and that it was amazing that we showed up at the time we did (sorry its really hard to explain the whole experience). But anyways, she has had a tough life in her marriage and I know that the spirit directed us to her house and that she felt it because the lady who stood on the porch on the verge of tears when we first met her was laughing and smiling by the time we left! Anyways though, we are going back to her house Tuesday with Sister Waites. I love missionary work A TON already! The tiny sacrifices of being away from family and being lonely is nothing compared to the pain I can help prevent in other peoples lives, and of course it's nothing compared to the sacrifice that Christ made for me and I will never forget that!

The people are great here and I've made a lot of new friends already! We knock on doors and all these memories come back from the summer, so it’s unreal when people say yeah Jesus is good you can come over tomorrow! We also had dinner at a Polynesian family’s house and it definitely made me start to long for New Zealand! The father and son played rugby together all the time and they fed us a ton of food! Don’t worry though I absolutely know that I need to be here right now! In fact the craziest thing happened Saturday night! I got home and was super tired and I started to get ready for bed and stuff! I said my prayers and then when I was getting up I decided that I would read my patriarchal blessing and one little line hit me so hard. It says "You will be a teacher in Zion, this will be a great joy to you."  This land is where the New Jerusalem (ZION) is going to be.  I felt the spirit so strong and I could not believe how awesome Heavenly father is! I know that I am teaching in Zion and nothing makes me happier than knowing that I am in the right place at the exact right time!

I love you guys so much and I think about you a ton and pray for you a ton too! Collin good luck with vb tryouts and the ACT!  Oh and hey, I want to hear reports on how many temple visits that you total each week as a family! Other than that, all is well and my address 517 West Walnut, Independence, Missouri, 64050 is the mission home. That’s where you are supposed to send mail.

Love Elder Ward