He Shall Receive The Crown Of Life

Hey Everyone,

Happy Father's Day to my amazing dad who has been there for me every day of my life, and I know will always continue to be there for me. I love him very much.  And to all of the men who have been supportive of me as I've served the Lord these (almost) two years. I appreciate all of you for your love and prayers. 

Today for P-day we played mini golf as a district and then had Sonic for lunch (Sorry Dad, I know you love Sonic Slushes). We also accomplished the usual preparation day errands and chores, which is a good thing since I ran out of food yesterday. 

The temperatures have been climbing here in Missouri and the humidity is showing its ugly face. We have felt the heat as we've tracted and walked the streets of our area.  

Unfortunately, we had to drop Mike. When we met with him this week he became rude and disrespectful because he doesn't believe that in order to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he needs to be baptized. His solid belief is because he was already baptized into the Catholic church as an infant, that one baptism is enough. We've shared every single scripture and church approved material showing him and expressing to him why he needs to be baptized in order to be a member. He just wants to be a member without baptism. He is very interested in Family History and so I don't know how that will work out and continue, but as for our efforts as missionaries, we need to move on. 

We met Leo this week. He was a referral and had been previously taught a little about the Plan of Salvation from another set of missionaries and has mutual friends who are members. We spent about 2 hours teaching him and answering a lot of questions he had. Elder Fleming and I felt very good about the lesson and the spirit was definitely present and noticed. When we shared Moroni 8, Leo took the scriptures very well and we felt comforted knowing he was accepting of the need to be baptized to join the Church. We will meet with him again this week. 

We had several additional appointments and all were cancelled or fell through. We spent most of our Sunday visiting members and less active members in our ward. One day we went tracting in Dearborn, a less populated area. We spent about 3 hours walking the streets and knocking on doors. We placed 3 Books of Mormon and tracted about 1/3 of the town. One set of streets we walked have the months of the year for street signs and then 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so forth. I saw a street sign that said "4th of July". See picture below. 

Our weekly service at Hillcrest was on another very hot day here in Missouri. We spent an afternoon unloading donations from vehicles and sorting the items at the warehouse. 

There is a shortage of Books of Mormon in English due to warehouse closure for upgrades. We are completely out of Books of Mormon and had to ask the sister missionaries to give us 5 copies. We are down to 1 copy and will need to get more. Hopefully shipments will start coming into our mission soon and everyone will have a surplus at their apartments. 

This week I went on exchanges with Elder Gillman and we spent the day walking the streets of Parkville sharing messages and placing copies of the Book of Mormon. I really enjoy spending time with Elder Gillman, especially since we only had one transfer serving together. 

This week in personal studies I focused on the Priesthood and studied from the standard works and mostly in Abraham chapter 1. I also am continuing my efforts in reading the standard works in chronological order. In James, chapter 1 verse 12 it says: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." The crown is the reward of exaltation. If we can keep in mind this promise and each day focus on living our lives on the covenant path and removing ourselves from the influence of the adversary, we will see our testimonies grow and strengthen and we will experience the blessings and promises taught in this verse. 

Elder Mortensen

Pictures this week: 

Pday patriotic picture

4th of July street sign

Elder Fleming  and I walking the streets of Dearborn

Patriotic fire hydrant

District Council pictures 

Me and mom

P-day Mini golf with the District