Family and friends,
Sorry it's been so long. Lots to catch up on!!
2020 is in the past. It is what it is. But wow it's so crazy to watch everything unfold. I could not be better right now!! I'm so blessed to be here where I am. Too much has happened in the last several weeks to put everything in one email. I guess that's the same with just one week too haha. But I decided to try a different format where my update consists of the day by day stuff throughout the week as far as more major events, stories, lessons learned, etc.. I won't add all the filler stuff like studying, travel, meals or stuff like that. I've been able to meet natives from so many different countries; Malaysia, Ethiopia, China, Vietnam, Bahamas, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, other places from the Middle East, all over Central and South America, and so on. That's been a blessing to learn of their experiences. Florida certainly has a crazy diversity to it. But I've loved it! I hope to keep learning new things and see what's next. It's an interesting thing to say that each day is the same but isn't at the same time. I'm in an area of Miami now called Sunset. I am with Elder Troconiz who just got out of his training. I was transferred a little while ago. It's been great here!! We set a baptism date with someone we are teaching named Carlos. He's been to a bazillion different churches including the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ. He accepted the doctrine we taught though and claims to understand that only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains God's authority. He used to believe in the trinity but he accepted the idea of the Godhead the way we teach it. His testimony is growing so he is on track for his baptism date on the 23rd of this month. He's already been taught all the lessons so we're doing some refining now. We're really happy for him! His best friend is great too! We've had some discussions with him but we're not teaching him or anything. He is from somewhere in the Middle East, I don't remember where exactly. He speaks Arabic and Hebrew. He is also Muslim. He asked us questions and shared different beliefs of his. He said something about the Muslims claiming proper authority from the House of Israel through like a bazillion different branches and families under Israel. He talked about Allah and what they see it as. It was all really interesting and I enjoyed listening to him. Anyway, it's wild being able to talk to all the people! So here is last week's update:
Tuesday - Fantastic day! We had a total of three lessons. The first was with a referral we received from Salt Lake. It began as a discussion to get to know him then he started asking some questions that led into teaching the Atonement and power of prayer. He needs some help understanding his purpose. Right now he is pretty overwhelmed with taking care of a family member and running other errands to keep up on everything. For him it all feels like the same day in and out. So he struggles to see why he is even here and if God really cares about him. We promised him that God will give him time to complete all that God asks of him and in time he will find his purpose. The second was with someone we met at Barnes & Noble. As we were looking around we asked him about the books he had. He explained how it was some things about different philosophies. He says how he is very intrigued with finding truth but he is afraid to claim something as true because then for him that means he has to claim something else as false. And he really doesn't want to do that. He knows somewhat about religion and he enjoys talking about it. So we talked for about half an hour about the Plan of Salvation and shared our testimonies on how there is a God that watches over us and loves us. We ended by asking him a question on if he even wants the blessings we mentioned to be true. He said of course! And now he is interested in meeting with us at the Chapel this Saturday. The third lesson was someone with whom we have a baptism date. We've taught most all the lessons with him. We just need to go over how to donate tithes and offerings. But he's committed to keeping all the commandments so we're excited for him! The lesson we had was going over the Plan of Salvation from the premortal life to the kingdoms of glory. He really enjoyed it! The rest of the day was filled with either visiting members or contacting. We talked to one of the members who shared her conversion story from about 30 years ago. She spoke of the feelings she had when she visited the sacred grove. Her soon to be husband at the time was living in New York then so she was there visiting. Long-story-short she ended up getting baptized on his birthday which he wasn't very pleased about. But now everything is alright. The husband isn't a member though. But it was really sweet to hear their story.
Wednesday- What a great day! We had one lesson today with Carlos and we discussed more about tithes and offerings. We invited him to fast this Sunday and he accepted. He also said that he wants to make a donation as well. We told him that he didn't need to since he wasn't a member yet but he keeps insisting. We were going to have two other lessons but they both didn't answer so we went to Barnes & Noble to do more finding and meet more people. We talked to one guy who is practicing as a PT. He was at the store looking for some medical books to read up on. We talked about that for a bit until he asked about what we do. We ended up getting into a discussion on how to progress spiritually. Evidently he had a weird experience with a friend who tried to get him to fast for like eight months and do some other things. So his mindset of religion is that it's just demanding and weird for really no reason. But we were able to water some things down to a more realistic approach and tell him that God expects us to progress in a way that He knows best fits us instead of overloading ourselves. We taught him how to pray and invited him to do so tonight. He expressed that he was interested. Hopefully he tries it. He gave us his number and told us to get in contact with him about getting a haircut from his aunt (his aunt owning a salon was another thing we talked about). After that we went to the second floor in the history section and found someone scanning it. We asked if they had found anything worth reading and he said he was there looking for a specific book. He then found it and started explaining it to us. It was about the constitution and some other things. I thought it was pretty cool and he got me interested! We also got on a discussion about his own family. We found out that his Dad is an engineer and his Mom is an industrial psychologist, one of the exact things I want to get into!! Obviously I had a bazillion questions about that. He said that his Mom received her PhD shortly after they all moved from Puerto Rico. I felt like I was asking too many questions so we somehow managed to get him to ask us who we were (rather the Spirit did and I'm not quite sure how). He ended up not being interested at the time and he said he couldn't think of anyone else who might be interested. But the seed was planted! About two minutes after that some manager came up to us and told us that they received a complaint from a customer about how we were walking around giving out pass-along cards. That obviously wasn't true since we didn't even have pass-along cards on us. In fact all we had was just a copy of the Book of Mormon and nothing else, no bag or anything. But that's okay, whoever saw us was probably just having a bad day and seeing missionaries might have been the last thing they wanted. So pass-along cards are officially banned at Barnes & Noble. We didn't ever plan on using them but they're banned anyway. About that time was dinner anyway so we headed over to our meal appointment. It's nice to be able to eat outside at members houses. We just can't eat inside. So we were out on the Sister's balcony and it was a sweet experience! We got to meet her son who is less-active. But he didn't seem interested in being around. After our meal the Sister expressed concerns to us about confidence in speaking with others about the Church. She shared how she is less-active as well and because of that she feels guilty to share the Gospel when she herself lacks faith. Then we had a very sincere and sweet discussion about faith and how it's not important to the Lord if you feel confident or not, because He is the one who does His own work through us. She liked the idea that what matters is if we are willing to do His will. He loves us no matter what and that's where we place our faith. By using Alma 32 she felt the Spirit strongly enough to press forward. Elder Troconiz did an incredible job expressing his testimony on trusting in the Lord. We all felt the Spirit. Near the final hours of the day we tried visiting some of our many referrals but still no answers. It also doesn't help that many of them live in gated communities. We finished our last contact with an older gentlemen. We were asking for his spouse who requested a missionary visit but when he called for her we heard her shout from another room, "No! I have covid!" Then he turns and shrugs. So that was that. We messaged her saying that we were sorry to hear about the sickness and that she was in our prayers.
Thursday- Exchanges! Before that, I completely threw my back out playing pig in the morning. Literally all I did was stand under the hoop and jump straight in the air. I think my back stretched too quickly without being warm... so yeah... The zone leaders came by in the morning and did a house study with us to kick off exchanges. We discussed effective teaching which was awesome! They used the parable of the sower from Matthew in the New Testament. They compared it to us being the sowers with those we teach. I really liked it! They gave some examples of what bad teaching looks like which starts with poor planning. It's absolutely necessary to take every opportunity we can to teach with power and sincerity so that the others may be able to feel the influence of the Spirit. It was a great day with exchanges! I hosted in our area. We stopped at a couple places to find people to teach. We weren't able to get any numbers but we still met some great people! But as we were making calls and doing some planning we had received a call from our Bishop about someone who was interested in receiving a copy of the Bible. Apparently this person had been wandering around the outside of the Chapel until Bishop went to talk to her. She said she was interested in receiving a copy of the KJV Bible (the one our church uses). So he told her that we would bring her one. She gave Bishop her address and number which he passed to us. So a bit later we left to go deliver it. We took the opportunity to get to know her a bit and teach. Her family is Vietnamese so they speak Vietnamese, a little Spanish, and English. We talked about God's authority, baptism, and the Book of Mormon. She had questions regarding that. She also wondered about animal baptism. We told her that animals serve a different purpose and that they don't need to be baptized. She then asked where in the Book of Mormon it says that. I'm sure there are a couple scriptures that can help with that but I honestly didn't have any in mind so instead we took that opportunity to talk about modern revelation. We pretty much taught the entire Restoration lesson. But note taken - find more scriptures and support on why we don't do animal baptisms haha. She was super interested though. She's been prepared as she has been honestly seeking truth. She's read three other versions of the Bible. We also left her a copy of the Book of Mormon which she nearly yanked out of my hands when we offered it. After that visit we went to visit other referrals the rest of the night which were difficult to find directions on. One answered but didn't want anything. The rest didn't answer. But Elder Guirasole and I had a neat discussion during travel. I asked him some questions about how to better do things around missionary work and what his thoughts were. That's usually a common thing I ask to different missionaries. Many times the answer is the same like how we're still figuring things out, pioneering, and just do what you're told. Absolutely it's not the easiest right now but I think he had some good insights. His Grandpa is a mission President in Australia right now and he gives some good tips. Elder Troconiz and I see our share of success but it's never okay to settle with anything less than where your potential is pointing towards. And there's lots of it especially now.
Friday- Zone Conference! It was great. We ended exchanges at Zone Conference. During which we discussed chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel and improving teaching by preparing properly for lessons. I really enjoyed it! We got new ideas to do. They left us with commitments which had to do with completing a scriptural mastery by the end of this transfer and collecting lists on certain information. There is a big thing that I have come to know better and that is that you should never be satisfied with where you are at. Never stay comfortable with settling at the minimum. That doesn't seem like the design of the Gospel. Elder Holland put it best when he has before jokingly quoted someone else by saying, "It seems like the Gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." I think that has a true sense to it though. So another great Zone Conference done! That took up most of our day until almost 5:00 since we had to stay after a bit. The rest of the day was filled with contacting and trying to visit referrals. We didn't have any lessons.
Saturday- Wild day! My back is doing a little better. We started with going to the Chapel to hopefully play some sports with a guy we had previously met last week. He invited our house to play frisbee golf with him which we did. And then we invited him to play basketball with us which he accepted. But he didn't end up showing up. Although he texted us saying he would be down for frisbee golf again soon. He is originally from Pennsylvania but he's hanging around Miami for PT school. We'll see if we can meet up with him again soon. So the rest of the morning we were with our Bishop cleaning the Chapel and then discussing with him more about the ward. We obtained each of the lists that President Pingree had asked all the companionships to get from Zone Conference. After lunch we went back at the Chapel for the lesson with Liam. He never showed up nor did he answer his phone. We hope to catch him again sometime at B&N. Instead we accepted the invitation from the social media missionaries to do some commenting and stuff on Facebook. We also contacted Nuong (the Vietnamese lady) to ask her more about the scriptures. She didn't answer her phone but for some reason preferred to do a conversation over text which we did for a bit. She just had some questions about the Book of Mormon. After that we had a meeting with other missionaries from Salt Lake. Later We called the Sister who was struggling with her faith. She hadn't completed the invitation we gave her to read the complete chapter of Alma 32 claiming she didn't have enough time. So we suggested that she uses the Gospel app and listen to it on her travels. She said she suppose that would work. But we also talked about how her family was doing. She was visiting with her daughter further up North closer to where my previous area had been. We checked up on how her son was doing. She said she appreciated the call and it was really what she needed. We ended the day with more contacts and a lesson with Alex (a former)! It went well. We talked about faith. He was so frustrated about why he was praying and showing so much faith but he wasn't getting any better from his sickness. We opened to James 2 and read more about faith and how without works it is dead. I guess he was pretty taken back by that and realized he needed to start doing things like get enough sleep, exercise, eat healthy and so on. We were glad that he realized that.
Sunday- Great Sabbath! We had Church from 9:00am to about 2:00pm, attending three meetings. The third was for the sustaining for Dad. I'm really happy President let me be there for it! Carlos attended Church which was great!! We sat down with him and Bishop after that to discuss some things. Then we visited a less active/someone who has records in another ward where they aren't supposed to be. As we walked in the rest of the family stood up and left, politely though. They don't seem to enjoy church stuff. The brother is Venezuelan and I can't really understand him that well. Often it's still a hit and miss with Latinos from other countries. Sometimes they like to slur their speech like not add the 's' at the end of some words or abbreviate or use slang. He works as a security guard and stopped coming to church because evidently someone told him that there was no church right now and also because he had weird working hours. But he has a very strong testimony about self reliance, faith, and the Book of Mormon. He accepted our invitation to go back to church without hesitation. We hope to see him next week. We went to the Bishop's second counselor's home to visit with then. He offered to visit the temple grounds with us and Carlos sometime soon. That was very kind of him. He also talked about different experiences from his mission in Korea regarding culture and language. Two of the kids they tutor were there and we got to talk to them and get to know them a bit better. Their families aren't members but the kids have attended church quite a bit. One of them is from Cuba and the other is from China so they speak Spanish and Mandarin. It was great to hear a little about their countries. The last big thing that night was watching the devotional with Elder and Sister Gong. What a great time that was!!
-Elder Markham
Photos! There are more that I need to still download. I might need to get them next week.
