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

Week 83: Fort Sill

We are trying to pick up our teaching pool this week. It is down a little bit so we are doing whatever we can to find more out here. We are still set on the date with Destinee this weekend.

 

There are a few recent converts on base that I am so shocked with their willingness to still come to church even though they are in Basic Training. It was really wild teaching there. My first week there I had to give a talk and honestly the material that I had was about missionary work and the notes that I had down were not what I gave with my talk. I was able to go a whole 15 minutes without hesitation at all so that was fun. I am definitely getting better at that so for that I am proud of myself. In my missionary discussion lesson that I taught, it was all about keeping the commandments and it went really well. There was a recent convert named Private Johnson and he opened up about the struggles that he is having in life and the members and non-members both gave him spiritual advice on how to help him. It was so awesome to see.  

Fort Sill

Caden Nelson

Elder McMinn   

“The Lord places no limits on our access to Him. But we, unfortunately, do. We limit ourselves when we sin, when we are lazy spiritually, and when we fail to ask and seek.”

-Sheri Dew

“When you feel hurt, lost, scared, upset, sad, hungry or hopelessly abandoned in life’s extremities, open the Book of Mormon and you will come to know God will never desert us.”

Brian K. Taylor

*Small world moment* The young soldier is a friend of Kyle's from Pocatello. They played football together for a few years and ran into each other at sacrament meeting on Fort Sill. Also, Kyle's new companion is from a family that his Uncle Ryan knew when he was on his mission in Sacramento (Rancho Cordova) a few years ago. Pretty cool!

Dinner with the Rileys

Open your eyes Kyle!!

Week 82: New Companion and Staying in Lawton

This was a really good week. Monday and Tuesday were used for dinners for Elder Hymer to say goodbye to the people in our area. They were pretty good days because we had an awesome lesson with Destinee. She wanted to make sure that she had fully followed the steps that it takes for her to be baptized because she wants to make sure that this one is the right one. Wednesday I drove up to Edmond to pick up Elder Hammond. He is from Sacramento, California and has been out on his mission one transfer more than I have. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Hymer!

He was so good for Elder McMinn!

Meeting the new companion Elder Hammond

Something really cool that we starting in our ward is a 40 day fast. We pass around a calendar that is marked for 40 days and various individuals sign up for a specific day to fast for the missionary work in the ward. We will send out reminder texts the night before. We will also include any cool miracles we see or the lessons we have in the text to the member(s) and let them know their faith was part of that miracle. So far we have seen a baptism date, double the amount of lessons, and double the number of return appointments in our area. 

Lawton Missionaries

Sunday we had only 4 hours to do regular missionary work but those 4 hours were the most productive 4 hours I have seen and some of the most rewarding 4 hours at this time of my mission. This was such an awesome week. 

Elder McMinn

“We grow closer to the Savior as we, out of pure love, serve others for Him.”

-Henry B. Eyring 

 Night Ride

 Transfer pictures

We got lots of pictures this week because of transfers. I get after Kyle because I want to see him in the mission pictures so this week he did his job!

Note to mom:

Did you like how many times I showed up in the pictures from transfers. I tried to make up for all the times I didn't and I will improve from here on out. Did you hear me in the video. I did that for you ;)

We love that missionary of ours... he makes me smile!

Week 81: We had a Baptism!

 

This week we had the baptism of Jordan Gibby! It was so awesome. Everyone was so pumped. On Sunday I confirmed him and I was also able to stand in for his ordination as he received the Aaronic priesthood. I have never seen someone so happy to be able to pass the sacrament. It was incredible. 

We set another baptism date with a girl named Destinee Aker. She had been studying with the RLDS but felt something was off and then she moved to Lawton. When she moved she met one of our members in the hospital there. She then told us that she would love for us to come by and visit. In the first discussion, she shared her testimony with us on the key doctrines that we believe. She has a testimony of it all. We met her 2 weeks ago and she is already in 2 Nephi 10 and has read 3 Nephi! I have never seen someone so prepared.

Transfer calls were this week and I am staying in Lawton another transfer. One cool thing that is new for me is that I will be going to Fort Sill Army post on Sunday and will be attending the branch there. I will be teaching the basic trainees the lessons. That is going to be such a cool experience.

For P day last week, we went to Mt. Scott the tallest and only real classified mountain in Oklahoma. It is a mountain by 50 feet. It is more of a large pebble hill. We hiked to the top of that. The wind was really strong. It was fun to get out and do something outdoors.

Elder McMinn

"Be a hand that reaches out. Be a smile for those who have no reason to smile. Be a light for those who live in darkness. Show them what it means to truly love."

Week 80: Solid Week

We had a really cool lesson with a part member family. They are on a Keto diet. They fixed us a keto meal which actually I was pleasantly surprised by how good it really was. Part of their New Year's resolution this year is that they are going to read the Book of Mormon together every night. They are going to pray about it together too. I am so pumped for themWeWE had exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they came to our area. We had a lot of fun and we were able to see a lot of people that we had not been able to see. This week we decided to venture from our house to the edge of Fort sill and back. That was a good distance for us and that was fun. We have a baptism this week on Saturday and I am so pumped for Jordan. He is 11. We may be setting another this Thursday too. Lawton is so awesome.

God is preparing people to receive your testimony of the restored truth. He requires your faith and then your action to share fearlessly what has become so precious to you and those you love. 

- Henry B. Eyring

Elder McMinn

Be patient with yourself. Perfection comes not in this life, but in the next life. Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement. As you let the Lord help you through that, He will make the difference.

-President Russell M. Nelson

Week 79: A Visit from Some General Authorities

Elder McMinn hit his 18-month mark this week! 

My week out here is going to be interesting. I have exchanges with the Anadarko missionaries on Wednesday. On Friday I am going to be with the Witchita Falls missionaries for exchanges so this means there will be a lot of switching around but we will be in our area most of the week. We have some pretty cool lessons with investigators coming up. A new one is a member referral and her name is Destiney. She is the coolest lady ever. She was looking into the RLDS church when she lived in Kansas but she was sharing a room in the hospital with a member of the church and that member talked about our church and invited her to come to one of our services. Now she told us that she is never going to stop coming. We are meeting with her again on Thursday and we are going over the restoration with her. The previous lesson we went over the Plan of Happiness and she loved every minute of it. I drew it out on a piece of paper and she told us she looked at it everyday and read the Book of Mormon everyday. Another awesome thing is that a part member family came to church. His name is James McQuillen and he is so awesome! They invited us over Tuesday night to visit with them. A lot of fun things are happening out here. 

With patience and persistence, even the smallest act of discipleship or the tiniest ember of belief can become a blazing bonfire of a consecrated life. In fact, that’s how bonfires begin as a simple spark.

-Elder Dieter Uchtdorf

This week we has 3 general authorities come to our mission. They gave the best talks about giving up your will to the Lord. Then they shared ways that will help us grow a deeper conversion to the Savior and to grow our relationship with our Heavenly Father. It was Elder Ochoa, Elder Harris, and Elder Teixeira. It was a whole mission conference! That was the same day that I hit 18 months on the mission so we got a picture with all of the missionaries still out after that 18 months. It was cool to see so many of us. We still hold the record for the largest group coming into the mission at one time!

“Doing better does not always mean doing more!” -Sharon Eubank

Elder McMinn