We Can Find A Calm In The Storms Of Our Lives Through Jesus Christ

Hey Everyone,

P-day today was pretty amazing and was spent with our entire Zone at the Kansas City Zoo. It was hot and humid and the zoo was ginormous with so much to see and do. 

This week we were saddened to hear that PAT had to remain in rehab to continue to get help with her walking after being hit by a car last week. We have visited her and she misses reading from her large print Book of Mormon we gave her. She is still wanting to be baptized but we might have to push her date back a few weeks because of the accident. We spent Sunday fasting and praying for her. We are hoping we can start teaching her husband along with her. 

We also felt inspired to call a family that was listed as a "grey dot" in our area book. We called and the mom, SHIRECE, answered and it was near her kids bedtime but she called them all to the phone to hear us share a scripture and a message with her family. It was quite an amazing experience and the spirit was present. SHIRECE and her husband have 7 children all over 8 years old. We will continue to see how things progress with this family. 

We spent a lot of hours this week doing phone work and Facebook work. We also met BETTY, a grey dot in our area book. We will continue to share messages with her in the coming weeks. 

My Book of Mormon ad on Facebook is getting some traffic and I found a guy who lives in Nebraska and he asked that I send missionaries over to his home. 

This week I had exchanges with Elder Hansen from the Harrisonville ward in our district. We spent time finding and also several hours doing service for Sister Blake who needed a lot of gardening done in her yard. We had to pull oak tree growths that were sprouting up all around her yard and that took quite a bit of time because they were everywhere. I moved a huge rock for her to a new location and the amount of roly poly's (pill bugs) that were under that rock was more than I've ever seen in my life!

I also had exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Lee. We went to dinner at the Cox family and they had a dog that kept running around in circles. Reminds me of my crazy dog at home. 

This week my companion and I were asked to be pallbearers at a funeral for a family member of a sister in our ward. It actually was a pretty neat experience and we are grateful we could help out the family. 

This weekend we had Stake Conference which was incredible. Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy spoke to us and he shared many football stories and related the gospel of Jesus Christ with it. He asked me afterwards how the mission was going and I told him my face couldn't hold my smile because it is so big. He was really nice and loves missionaries and missionary work. NFL Kansas City Chiefs football coach, Andy Reid, also spoke at stake conference. He lives in our stake and was asked to share a message. He also talked about football and the Savior. We talked after the meeting and he asked me where I was from and how I was enjoying my missionary service. What a great opportunity to meet these great men and shake their hands. Coach Reid is beyond exemplary and down to earth. Elder Nielsen has a way with words and captured our attention from the first sentence. 

I spent time this week studying 3 Nephi 19:24 which says: "And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus prayed unto the Father, he came unto his disciples, and behold, they did still continue, without ceasing, to pray unto him; and they did not multiply many words, for it was given unto them what they should pray, and they were filled with desire." I know that when we pray we should pray with a sincere desire which brings inspiration to our prayers. Inspired prayers help us to achieve goals and accomplish what we are seeking in our lives. 

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. It is through Him that we can find a calm in the storms of our lives. We can rely on Him. We can turn to Him. We can count on Him. He is always there for us. 

Elder Mortensen 

Pictures/Videos this week include:

Pday with the Zone at the Kansas City Zoo

Stake Conference with Coach/Brother Andy Reid, Elder Nielsen, Elder Steven (comp) and our Stake President

Chicken casserole I made and it was delicious; we ate on it for 3 days

Beautiful skies and clouds 

Crazy dog run