Mortensen, Camden

Hey Everyone,  We have a very large Lutheran school here in Concordia that teaches their students how to bash with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In fact, they even have several classes on how to do this and each year around this time the missionaries serving in this area receive many referrals from these students as part of their class project. They have to find us online and request a meeting with us. Then we meet and they use the lessons they've been taught to bash us and our religion. It's an ongoing problem and perhaps other missionaries in other parts of the world have the same situation. Our inbox has recently been filled with "fake" referrals and it's been interesting as we've sorted them out determining if they're actual referrals or not. We've been asked not to answer those that aren't "real" referrals. It's been taking a bit of time these past weeks with this process.  Tracting this week I found...

Hello Everyone, This week was good and we worked hard. We had several appointments fall through and we found several new investigators also. Three of the people we found are Drew, Michael and Emma. We placed a Book of Mormon with all three and they've committed to read it. We have appointments with them this week.  We had a blitz exchange with the AP's and ZL's . Elder Neinman and I stayed here in my area and had a good exchange. This week we also had an exchange with the DL, Elder Templin. I went to his area and he had an appointment with a Spanish speaking investigator and I was concerned how I could help teach the lesson. Elder Templin and I prayed for the GIft of Tongues before we went into the appointment. During the lesson I felt very impressed to share a thought. I said first of all in Spanish, "My Spanish isn't very good." And then in Spanish I said, "The name of Christ is in this book (meaning the Book of Mormon), and this book is true." I g...

Hey Everyone, Way to go Kansas City Chiefs and Coach Andy Reid! We spent our P-day as a Zone together watching the game (the edited version without commercials or the halftime show) with permission from our mission president. There are a lot of happy Chief fans everywhere you turn here in Missouri.  I've mentioned to many Chief fans that I've met Coach Andy Reid. And their response is "Really? Where did you meet him?" I respond, "Funny you should ask. It was at our Church." This is a great conversation starter for a missionary in Chief's country.  Tuesday I turned 20 years old and appreciate all of the Happy Birthday messages from some of you, thank you. A family in our branch, the Marr's, cooked dinner, made me a cake and gave me a gift. I am so blessed to know such good and kind people. And, to top it off they made parmesan crusted chicken which is one of my favorite meals, and it was delicious and reminded me of home and how my mom makes the best ...

Hey Everyone, New mission change, we can now track 4 hours a week in any area of the mission. I am super happy about this because I think missionary work is so much better when all of your poles are in the water. You can't just sit on a computer and FB find all day long.  Very sad news about our investigators this week. Marsha's husband passed away. It's devastating for her and so we are allowing her time to grieve yet also being there when we can. Kahlan didn't make it to church this week. She is taking it slow and we are still teaching her at the Marr's home. Aletha and John have disappeared. We can not find them or get in contact with them. Harvey, our golden investigator, who wanted to be baptized and loved being taught by us died this week. He had cancer and the chemotherapy treatment killed him. I just can't even express how sad this is. I have to focus on the fact that Harvey will be baptized but in a different way. This seems to happen more than ever exp...