Kansas City Temple Day

Hey Everyone,

The Kansas City Temple cleaning is complete and we are back to being able to attend a session each transfer. Because we attended the temple on Friday, we did not have a P-day last Monday so thanks for waiting for my update email today. Elder Shaw and I had a great temple experience and I am grateful for the wonderful blessings the temple brings into each of our lives. I appreciate how closely I feel to the Lord when I am in His house. I'm grateful for the reminder of God's plan for us and the opportunity I have to remember the covenants I've made with Him. 

Our Concordia Branch building is still closed because of mold. It will take some time to clean it up and have it appropriate to hold Church meetings again. The Warrensburg building had water damage but that has been repaired so our small branch travels the 35 minutes to Warrensburg on Sunday's. It sure burns up our car miles and makes it difficult for us to travel anywhere else in order to stay within our allotted mileage, but we are grateful for a building to hold meetings in.

We had a very spiritual sacrament meeting yesterday and that flowed into Elder's Quorum. The spirit was present and many shared sacred memories of times when they've been taught by the Spirit and had a witness that Christ lives. This is probably the most spiritually filled branch/ward that I've served in on my mission. Having been here three transfers now I know many families and members and they have taught me much through their own spiritual journey. 

The Gray family unfortunately were evicted from their apartment. They mentioned to us the last time we taught them that they might move in with a family member but we lost track of them for a few days as their phones were also turned off. Luckily they were able to secure funds to get one phone service back and we made contact with them. They are unsettled but would like to have us continue teaching them. We are hoping they can see us next week once they are more comfortable and settled. We are glad we haven't lost the family and hope their lives improve where they can be ready for additional teaching. 

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders after the temple and I was able to spend Saturday with Elder Thompson in Warrensburg. It was good to get a break from the usual training regime and it was nice to be with someone who shares so much of the same thoughts and likes as me.

It was Elder Shaw's 20th birthday on New Year's Eve and I took him out to lunch only to have members invite us to sit at their table and they paid for our meal. There are great people out in the world helping to make a missionary's life a bit brighter. 

As the world wide membership of the Church has learned, our mission is getting a new Mission President and his wife on July 1st. President and Sister Sommerfeldt from Provo, Utah will be the next mission president. He is a professor at BYU. I will only have interaction with him a few weeks before I go home, but I guess I can officially say I had "two" mission presidents. 

We also had exchanges with the DL's and I went to Marshall with Elder Bucheit. While there I took Elder Larsen's mission tags and put them in Jell-O. It worked as a good prank on THE OFFICE so I hoped a fun little prank would be okay with Elder Larsen. Good times on the mission. 

We are working with a gal named Elizabeth and teaching her. It is going very slow and we only meet with her every other week as her schedule is busy. We will teach her again this week and hope that we are moving closer to her being ready for baptism.

Happy belated New Year everyone. I hope that 2023 is a good year for each of you. I hope you have great goals and challenges for yourself. I am looking forward to many things this year and am grateful that a new year has come. 

In Elder Bednar's recent conference talk last October he shared the parable of the Wedding Feast found in the New Testament (Matthew 22: 1-14). One of the teachings Elder Bednar shared during his talk was: "God does not have a list of favorites to which we must hope our names will someday be added. He does not limit "the chosen" to a restricted few. Instead, our hearts, our desires, our honoring of sacred gospel covenants and ordinances, our obedience to the commandments, and most importantly, the Savior's redeeming grace and mercy determine whether we are counted as one of God's chosen." 

I hope each of you have a great week and spend time daily in the scriptures learning and enjoying them. 

Elder Mortensen 

Pictures this week:

Dinner -- BBQ sandwiches

P-Day call with mom

Temple Day

New Year's Eve shenanigans

My January picture including my nametag