Week 90: Still in Shawnee

 

This week, we did not have any lessons sadly and our contact with new people was really slow but it was still a really good week. We had an opportunity to go to a multi-faith convention on how we, as Christians can come together in a divided world. It was a very exciting forum and it gave everyone present insight on how to interact with each other. We were hosted at a Presbyterian church so it was also fun to have the experience of being in another church.

We had two people come to church this week. Megan and Riley. They both have come quite a bit in the past but it was nice to see them there again and for us to have someone at church again. In all, it was a really good week. 

Elder McMinn

"Of this be sure: you do not find the happy life. You make it!"

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"To testify is to know and to declare. The gospel challenges us to be 'converted.' Which requires us to do and to become."

-Dallin H. Oaks

Week 89: Shawnee (Week 2)

 

This week has been filled with lessons and return appointments. We had 8 lessons and 11 return appointments in 3 days (Friday - Sunday). We have 4 people now who are praying about baptism and when would be a good day for them (Tanner, Riley, Megan, and Brandi). We have had a lot of lessons with new people and have been getting a lot of referrals from people on who to go see and not even just from members.

We had a lesson with Brandi this week. She is a single sister whose husband passed away 7 years ago. He was a member. She loves the church and loves how they reached out to her after his passing but then she slipped through the cracks. We found her. As we have been visiting with her, she has brought up baptism and how she feels that it may change her life for the better. She is currently praying about it.

“God is determined to make more of us than we thought we could be.”

-Jeffrey R. Holland

There has been a lot happening out here and I love it... Obviously.

Elder McMinn

P-Day at the Zoo in Oklahoma City.

Week 88: Shawnee

Our missionary has moved and has a new address.

Elder McMinn

1810 N. Harrison St. Apt# 165

Shawnee, OK 74804

For the last few days in Lawton, we had a few good lessons set up on Tuesday. The first was with Michael. He was the one who said the only way that he would allow us to go over the plan of salvation with him would be if he could feed us dinner. It was such a good lesson. We went into it and both he and his wife were engaged the whole time. They had a lot of questions so it was really great.

Shawnee is really a cool area. For the first full day, we contacted 3 new people that were interested in having us come back and taught one impromptu lesson which led to 2 new investigators. We have been using the survey tracting out here and it has been working extremely well also. It is easy to see people's concerns and to understand where their foundation starts.

Shawnee is a smaller town filled with a lot of different factories that employ most people in town. There is also a strong Native American influence in the area. The casinos are the second largest employers in the area as well.

It is a really fun area and I look forward to everything here. 

Elder McMinn

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

-Muhammad Ali

Week 87: Leaving Lawton

Elder McMinn has a new email address:

kyle.mcminn@missionary.org

This Monday we had a Tri-zone P day. We drove up to Oklahoma City and went ice skating. At first, I thought it was a silly idea until I actually did it and then I realized how much fun it actually was. After we were finished there we went to the Moore Church building and played a ton of other games and had a HUGE Spikeball tournament. Spikeball is something that our mission takes very seriously! The winner of the championship would play against President Mansell, who is extremely good. It was one of the most fun p days I have had in a while.

Tuesday was our interview day. I always love interviews with President Mansell. They are the best. The role plays that we did were really fun too. We had to have a 20-minute discussion where we only asked questions. It was hard but really fun.

We had a really cool experience on Wednesday. We went back to see a potential investigator that we knocked into about 2 weeks ago named Michael. He let us right in when we showed up and we sat down at his dinner table with him and had one of the coolest conversations. We eventually gave him the survey that we had been using for tracting. We got to one question that talks about what happens to those people who never hear about Christ? It sparked his interest big time and we told him we could come over another time to share the whole plan of salvation. He stood up and used an authoritative way of speaking and said. "under one condition..... You allow my wife and me to cook dinner for you!" That blew our minds so we are going over tomorrow to have dinner with him.

Fort Sill was a lot of fun too. We had one baptism interview with Broadhead so next week he will be getting baptized! I taught the restoration and it was a great class. Only 3 new people this week but all 3 participated a lot so that made it fun. I really have felt my teaching skills and testimony grow from teaching at the post. I love the atmosphere of it there and I love the soldiers.

I am getting transferred out to Shawnee this week. This may be my last area. I loved Lawton a ton but I am excited about the new area and to see what it holds. 

Elder McMinn

"Don't wait for happiness to be thrust upon you. Seek it out in service and learning."

-Dallin H. Oaks

Week 86: Low temperatures in Lawton

Only three more fast Sundays!!

This week we had an awesome lesson with James. He started to bring up concerns like polygamy and faith vs. works but we dug in and found out that those aren't the real concerns at all. It all goes back to his testimony of the restoration because either it happened or it didn't. Either the church is Christ's church or it isn't. Once he finds that out those concerns that he thought were concerns will either fade away or it will be easier to address. He promised that he would read and pray with sincerity this week.

It seems like with all the cold weather here that people just don't want to have lessons with us. I know those two don't correlate at all but I think maybe there is something to it. We have been doing a lot of finding this week with a new method that we call survey tracting. With this new approach, we have a survey with 10 questions to see the investigator's religious background. The questions are questions we ask about the plan of salvation and the restoration. It is easy for us to elaborate on the questions and it gets the people interested in it more. We have already set 5 return appointments with it. We used that method all of Sunday to find people.

Kyle loves Risk but nobody wants to play with him at home so I am sure that he is loving the fact that somebody will play his favorite game with him.

This past Sunday on post I taught the plan of salvation. We had a group of 6 investigators in the lessons and 8 members. We have one on date to be baptized, Broadhead, and 3 invitations for baptism, Flinn, Guajardo, and Carter. Teaching on Fort Sill is the coolest thing ever because people come to basic training ready like Broadhead had been meeting with missionaries at home in Blackfoot, Idaho and has had all lot of the lessons but figured now is the time for him to join. 

Still loving Lawton.

Elder McMinn

Kyle still has a love for a really cool car.

"His invitation 'Ask and ye shall receive' does not assure that you will get what you want. It does guarantee that, if worthy you will get what you need, as judged by a Father that loves you perfectly, who wants your eternal happiness even more than you do."

-Richard G. Scott

Week 85: Another good week in Lawton

This week we found 4 new people to teach. Amber, Richard, Joseph, and Sarah. Richard, Joseph, and Sarah are all from the same house. It is a really cool situation. Joseph's mom was a member but he didn't know that until after his mom passed away. It was a lot of fun teaching them all. They want to come to church but they have a wild schedule at Goodyear tire. We have been meeting with them for a good bit now but just barely started teaching lessons. 

Amber is really cool as well. She has a young family and she has a lot of questions for us. I call them the basic questions like "Why do we need another book of scripture?", "how do you know your prophet isn't false?" "I heard that you all are saved by works, is that true?" She had a lot of those questions. We had to hit the surface level with them all but we are going back Wednesday and going deeper into the answers of her questions. 

On post, on Sunday we had 3 baptisms, 3 confirmations, and 2 Aaronic priesthood ordinations. There were so many priesthood ordinances in one day. The work on the post is so fast but they are some of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission. I love going there each week.

It's been another good week in Lawton!
Elder McMinn

Week 84: Another great week in Lawton

This was a pretty stellar week. Monday was P day so we did our regular routine of emails and then we decided to go wander around the mall for a little bit. The rest of the week we had a pretty good flow of lessons. 

Two of the big ones were Joseph Schroeder and James McQuillan. With Joseph, he told us about his upbringing and how that had played a huge factor in his life. He told us that he later learned that his mom was a member of our church and she didn't tell him until she was close to passing away. He has had an interest since then but never too sincere. Now he told us that it is his time for finding out if it is true. We had a great lesson about how families can be together forever. In the past, his wife was the one most interested and Joseph stood in the background, now that has changed. We are going back Wednesday to go over the whole plan of salvation with him.

 

We had another great lesson with James. We went over last night and had a discussion on why bad things happen to good people. We found out that one of his big things is "I fully believe that Joseph Smith believes what he saw but I don't know. That is where faith comes in." His wife and he had a new years resolution to read the Book of Mormon daily so I reminded them of that and they are going to try and do better with that. He had a lot of questions of why did it come forth when it did? Why did it happen there? Why was it Joseph Smith and not someone else so Elder Hammond gave him the Why 1820? talk. We're going back over Wednesday to talk all about it.

It's been a good week in Oklahoma!

Elder McMinn

"Keep going and the Lord will help you".

-D. Todd Christofferson