Best 2 Year Sabbatical Ever!

I was called of God to serve in the Orlando Florida Mission!
It was amazing! Starting at the MTC was hard, I wanted to get out there and start preaching! Finally I was let loose out of the MTC a little more than 2.5 weeks after I got in that place. My first mission field was the plane. I bought a missionary copy of the Book of Mormon(greatest missionary tool ever) and had it in hand waiting for my first opportunity to share the gospel. When I got on the plane to Florida I sat by this guy named Bob. Bob was a very interesting character from the looks of him, but I had him just where I wanted him, sitting down trapped sitting right next to me and my friend El Libro De Mormon. Needless to say I taught Bob till I was blue in the face on that plane and placed my first Book of Mormon. I was so excited about teaching Bob and Baptizing everyone in Florida I just looked past the fact that Bob would go in and out of consciousness when I was teaching him because he had a little too much to drink. I just wanted to preach the Gospel and BAPTIZE!.. You get the picture? And Preach the Gospel and Baptize I did, for two years and loved it!
Starting out in Daytona I went wild, my trainer Elder Sorenson would let me contact people in the park, I went hog wild train to preach and Baptize all the homeless people in the city, I soon found out there was a lot of them, and got to know a lot of them by name. But.. come to find out my preaching to the homeless came in handy as we found a less active... after teaching him the whole first lesson, he told me he was a member. And my companion made the connection of who he was. Crazy stuff! But my homeless preaching days were only the beginning!
Next I went to Kissimee, and found tons of Success as Elder Anderson and I caught that area on fire. We would bike and Knock all day long.. just how I liked it, good hard work! I also got to train a brand new elder in that area, Elder Stewart(my only son.) In that area alone I was able to see over 10 Baptisms! It was the best!

The Mission Kept Getting Better as we worked harder, knocked more doors, and increased our faith in the Lord! Baptisms begat more baptisms!

I began to learn some important lessons in my life.

1. Obedience- I saw a lot of missionaries who were not as happy as I seemed to be, I realized that submitting your will to the Lord not only brings you temporal blessing but the lord blesses you and imparts his joy with you, and you become one with him as you enjoy seeing his children except the gospel.

2. Patience- Every missionary has tough companions, I am not going to lie I had a few! I learned to be patient with them, where they were at in their growth, and learn how to be still and follow the spirit and let the spirit guide me and my actions in how to deal with each individual companion and situation.

3.Faith- Faith Precedes the Miracle... When I believed with all my heart and acted on it, I was able to see mountains moved before my eyes, the sick healed, and covenants that opened the door of Salvation opened.

4.Work- This is the underlying lesson to it all, WORK! The Harder I Worked the greater the harvest the Lord blessed me with! It is as easy as that!

5.Fun!-Missions are a Blast!

I served in many different capacities on my mission and loved them all! I love every companion I ever had, even when I wanted to pull my hair out because of them! I love every person I met! I loved the mission!

I served for 25 months! I served a month Extension with Elder Aaron Fielding Dunn. We drove a 15 passenger van, yes we even had to have "special van training certified" to drive it. Crazy eh? WE STROLLED AROUND IN THAT VAN FOR DAYZ! It was the best. Our extension consisted of driving, training, knocking, teaching, inviting people to be baptized, knocking, teaching, inviting people to be baptized, sleeping on the ground, and eating Little Caesar's Pizza. Setting records in every area we went to opened my eyes to one thing, every area is prepared by the lord, he really has prepared his vineyard. There is no such thing as a "dead area" only "dead Servants." Wherever the servants of the Lord work hard, he blesses them abundantly with baptisms. There are Elect people everywhere, so help them feel the spirit and invite them to be BAPTIZED! I know there are people everywhere who are ready for this step! It is amazing!
The mission changed my life! I will go on few more before I die! I know Christ Lives! He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father! By Him the worlds are and were created and the inhabitants thereof! There REALLY is NO other way where by man can be saved, except through the merits, Mercy, and grace of the Messiah, the Lord Omnipotent. Christ Restored his Church on the earth today! Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet! HE did see God and Jesus Christ! All the laws and ordinances of the gospel were restored with the corresponding powers of the priesthood to officiate them! The Book of Mormon Is the word of God, also being the convincing evidence to both Jew and Gentile that the above stated are true. How do I know these things? I know because I have seen, I have felt, and the Spirit itself beareth witness with my spirit that these things are True, and this is how the REALLY are!

Like I Said, "BEST 2 YEAR SABBATICAL EVER!"

The Honest Truth (Teenage Years...)

Disclaimer: (The following information is personal and is a sensitive subject.)

EVERYONE,
Once again it might be hard to believe this now, but I wasn't as good then as I am now. I will explain in the following report. Before I continue writing this section of my Blog, I want to let you know that this section is going to tell you the honest truth about my life. I will unfold to you parts of my life that most people don't know about me because I do not talk about it much because it is not who I am anymore. the things that I will talk about in here are true, But coming to a knowledge of Jesus Christ as my personal Redeemer has made me put things aside. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11)

I have always been a restless soul. What I mean by this is I am a thrill seeker, always on the move and looking for the next exciting thing in life. This being said I have tended in my early years to gravitate towards the more... well lets just say the kids who are risk takers. This is how it was when I was a freshmen at Deer Valley High School in Antioch California. I want to clarify... I never had bad intentions to begin with, I just liked living life more on the edge.

The day soon came that My family and I, being my parents, my sister and I, moved to Utah. First let me tell you, I love Utah! It is a beautiful place... Little creepy at first when you realize everyone is white but you adjust quickly. Though Utah's geographic regions being as beautiful as they are... it seemed to me it was not the easiest for a new comer like me and my sister Caitlyn to fit in to the "good" social crowd... nor did I really want to associate myself with people I thought to be stuck up, proud, and self righteous (I wish now I would have tried harder to be friends with those people). In the Alpine/Highland area, which is the Lone Peak High School boundaries it is as Mormon as one can think. The Youth, overgeneralizing of course, seemed to me at that point to not welcome people who were different, did not get as good as grades as they did, not of the same social economic background, or maybe even not as perfect as them. But of course there is a flip-side... there are the Kids who are very excepting of others, who unfortunately tended to be the Kids who were up to NO GOOD, go figure right?

Without going into much detail, I became one of THEM, them being the kids who were more excepting, more loose in their personal values. It seemed fine at first. I was having fun, an occasional sneak out here and there, but still never at this point doing anything really wrong... But soon my very life slipped through my fingers. I became no longer responsive to parental council, or prophetic council either, and soon slipped into substance abuse. It is then that I started fading away from the church and loosing my vital relationship with God.

I am very blessed to have a lot of people who love and care deeply for me, among the most my Mom and my Dad. My parents prayed earnestly to the only source that could give them comfort and could possibly help me, God. I know God answered the prayers of many people when he intervened in my life. My past mistakes finally had caught up to me and God was teaching me a lesson of necessity on how to take responsibility for my actions. The consequences were grave and difficult, and the road tough but it was well worth it in the end. I began to get my life right with the State, the Church, My Family, and most Importantly the Lord my God. The road being tough, I felt the strength of the lord many times lift me above what I was to a a higher plane of reality. I was becoming more like the man my Father in Heaven had foreordained me to become. during this long road the Lord aided me with angels both earthly and heavenly. The earthly angels that strengthened me were my parents, a dear friend Brett Christensen, a girlfriend Aubree Worton, and wise man named Doug Nielsen. These individuals did not know what effect they were having, but I now know what they were sent to do, answer prayers, and bring me back to my Father in Heaven. Through my teenage experience I made a lot of mistakes, I felt a lot of pain, but through it all I was able to learn great lessons and soon felt the greatest joy known to man that can only come through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, a Gift that was given me through his atoning sacrifice! I love the Lord, And I testify he is KING, SAVIOR, REDEEMER and the SON OF GOD! This teenage experience, my conversion if you will led to the next adventures in my life!

A Childhood Of Mischief

As a young man I grew in stature, not always spiritually but mostly mischievously. My mind was often caught up to new adventures or big ideas. It seemed trouble followed me throughout my younger years, and now looking back on it has trailed into my adult life ever so often. The purpose of this Post is to educate an individual on the troublesome events of my life.(Disclaimer: Warning these stories might not be completely true, they are going strictly off my memory, which is known to exaggerate, and not to be accurate since brain surgery, but enjoy!"

Event #1: BAT in Sisters Head
This story somewhat has something to do with the great sport of baseball..(You will see a theme here shortly.) One day I was happy about having my own Baseball BAT i went down the street to hang out with all my friends. While sitting outside my friends house I was practicing swinging my baseball bat! Remember i was a chubby little kid, hence a big hitter. (Kiddding about the big hitter part.) While I was thus practicing my baseball swing my sister came over the area where I was swing my bat. I warned her to move or she was going to get nailed by y baseball bat.. And of course little sisters never listen so within the next couple swings she walked behind me when i was singing and off came her head! Well not really but there formed an unusually large goose-egg on her head. Of course what happened next? What all little sisters do best, my little sister cait went home crying to mom and of course made it sound intentional that i just almost Batted her head off with my bat. Everyone knows what came next.. Yup i am in trouble.. my Bat is taken away and I am grounded. How exciting right? (Cait I Love you.. but note to self, i am wrecless with a BAt so when I say move, I mean MOVE sista! P.S, sorry about that HUGE goose-egg!)

Event #2: My First Broken Window (... no worries mom and dad, many more to come!)
I was never very good at baseball, which is apparent from the following story. My older Brother Tyler was a good Baseball player back in the day and my dad coached his teams.. so when i became of age my dad took me down to the city peanut league sign-ups. How exciting right? I played on a team called "the Sharks" what a name right? Well to make a long story short.. one day I was out in the hard trying to magnify my new hobby and was throwing the ball around the yard.. Before I know it the ball had left my hand and went straight threw the front left window of our house on Rock Ct. My mind was struck with horror, the only word that went through my head was, "BUSTED". So i ran in side the house yelling "I am BUSTED! I am BUSTED!" And so I was, but it was an honest simple mistake this time...

Event #3: "Great BALLZ of Fire!"
I definately have My older brother Tyler and his friends to blame for this epic event. I Became a pyro at a young age thanks to Tyler. One day Tyler and his buddy came up with an absolutely brilliant idea. The idea was this, take tennis balls, cut a slit in them and fill them with gas. Once this step was complete dowse a paper wick in gas and shove it in the slit. Now this harmful ball of disaster is ready to ride all you need is to light it up. (This invention is cool because when you kick this ball of fire down the street it leaves streaks off fire on the blacktop like back to the future!) So my brother, and his friend and I head down to a construction area behind our house and light this little trick on fire. Of course, being the genius young man we are, and following the goodly example of my older brother, played kick ball with this ball of fire. All went well tell my brother's buddy kicked the flaming ball in the air and it lands on the bear skin of my leg, melting away my pasty white flesh. This is a bad ending to a good story! I love you Tyler thanks for teaching me to play with fire.

Event #4: FLAMES, SMOKE, AND SHEETS
If you remember, I became a pyro thanks to m older brother Tyler.. He was 18 at the time and could by me cool knives, and better yet cool lighters, not just any lighters but butane torches! Got to love it! ONe morning I woke up, LAying in bed before school grabbed the lighter off my shelf while laying in bed. Enjoying watching my cool lighter, which would light up like a colorful strobe light, I flicked my new torch lighter on and off. IF you dont know much about a butane torch it is a blue flame, but the tip of the flame you cannot see, it is invisible if you would like it explained as such. So thinking nothing of my morning pyro activities "OOooing and Awwing" over the lights and the flames, I got up out of bed and looked out my window and was enjoying my beautiful view of the delta when I smelt smoke. I whipped my head around and saw my bunk bed was on fire.. in panic I threw myself on the flames and burned my chest, but I did smother the flames out. At this time I ran in a hurry to my sister room grabbed perfume, sprayed it all over my room, and lit incense. Next step was to hide the damage.. Being that the whole side of the sheets and bed was burned, I flipped the mattress so the burn side was not visible. TO say non the less. I lit my room on fire and no one found out till years later when we moved to Utah and the saw the charred mattress side, and asked what happened! Good times! I love you mom and Dad, you put up with a lot from me.

I hope you all enjoyed these four childhood memories of my mischief!