Elder Kopischke visits NC

Hey Ya'll!!!

Sadly Elder Clarke did not survive transfers. He's packing as I type. Pretty sad to be losing him, we were pretty tight, but I'm also excited to see who my new companion is.

Highlight of my week: Elder Kopischke of the first qurom of the seventy was at mission conference!!!!! He's spoken in General Conference a few times and is such a cool guy. He's from Germany and knows a ton about the gospel. He started out by talking to us about listening to the promptings of the Spirit, and then just opened it up for questions. For four or five hours we just asked him whatever questions we wanted, it was so cool. I asked him what are the best things we should be studying. He told me to study The Book Of Mormon, The Four Gospels, The Pearl of Great Price, and The book of Acts in that order. He also talked about the cycle of faith using Alma 32:27-29. He explained that faith is a principal of action and power. We have to do all we can to act on our faith  or the action side, and then God takes care of the Power side and that's when we see the miracles happen. He said we're really only responsible for the things we can control. Sometimes, especially as missionaries, we feel guilty for things we can't control, but we shouldn't at all. We just have to focus on the things we can control and trust God for the rest.

After the conference President Alexander selected a few missionaries to interview with Elder Kopischke, Elder  Clarke was one of them. I sat in the hall while they interviewed and got to talk to Sister Alexander for a bit. Turns out she has some family in Newburg! It was nice to get to know her a bit more, she's so kind and loving and is just filled with charity for everyone.

So yeah, that was super fun! We also have three super solid investigators, Ivan, Holly, and Siena. They came to church yesterday and are progressing really well and are on date for baptism on the 7th of November so we're super excited for them!

So it looks like I'll be in Danville for the next six weeks! I'm pretty happy, there's a lot going on here as far as missionary work and I'm making pretty good friends with some of the ward members. I love you and let me know if I can doing anything for ya'll!

Elder Earnest


An excerpt from Grandma's letter:

So I'm not sure if I mentioned it it in my weekly email home, but a few weeks ago we had a huge mission conference all about family history and the spirit of Elijah. Our mission president's son-in-law works for the church's Family History Department, and he was there and gave a great training on how we can use family history as a missionary finding tool and also trained us using family search. I have the family search app on my ipad and have been doing a bit of family history work lately. Most of the work is done on all sides of my family, but I was able to search through some records and attach someone to their wife so that was pretty cool! At that huge conference they said something I thought was cool. They said the Spirit of Elijah can usually be felt a lot faster than the Spirit of the Book of Mormon, so if people aren't interested in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, they might be interested in family history and that can lead to the gospel. So that's been a big focus in our mission the last few weeks. 

Elder Earnest and President Alexander

Families are forever

Hey ya'll,

Glad to hear everything is swell in Redmond.  I'm so jealous you got to go to the temple! I wish there was a Charlotte North Carolina temple.

We've been teaching a mother and daughter that live in our neighborhood this week. They both want to get baptized, which is awesome, we just need them to come to church.  Anyways, the daughter called us Sunday afternoon and told us her sister wants to meet with us now and wants to be baptized into our church.  We went and met them, there was some crazy junk going on in that neighborhood so we didn't stick around long, but they seem super nice and we're super excited to teach them!

We ran into a couple while we were looking through a list of perspective elders. They weren't really buying the church's stance on some issues so it was awkward and we didn't really know what else to share with them.  Elder Clarke told me he was trying to think of something to say to get us out of there, then I just randomly asked this guy if he'd done any family history before and we ended up having a hour long conversation on family history and familysearch.org. If they're not interested in religion you can usually get em' with family history.

I've been studying the Book of Mormon a lot lately. I did a really deep study of Nephi's vision in 1 Nephi chapters 11-15. There's a lot of really cool stuff in there. I've also been reading parts of Isaiah that talk about the great apostasy and the restoration and the last days. Basically I'm just trying to deepen my testimony of the restoration and the need for Christ's gospel to be restored to the earth.

So far I think my favorite part of my mission has been studies. It's so nice to sit and read form the scriptures for 3 hours a day. I've learned a ton! I'm gonna try and read all the standard works before I hit my year mark. Speaking of which, next week is the last week of the transfer! I can't believe how fast time is going!!!! I don't think I'm going to get transferred though, and we're hoping Elder Clarke is going to stay too.

I was talking to a member the other day that recently moved here from Utah. He said on the first day of school, his kids came home really confused. They said all the other kids at school were asking them who they lived with.  They couldn't understand that some kids still live with both their mom and their dad. It's so sad how much the family has been degraded in the past few years. I've been in and out of many homes here and it's rare that you find a family with a married mom and dad and kids. It's so sad. I'm so grateful for my family and even more grateful I can be with them for time and all eternity. I'm so grateful the priesthood has been restored so that families can be bound both in heaven and on earth and that marriages are not "till death do you part" but are "for time and all eternity". God's plan for us is perfect, and it's centered around the family and the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 9. It talks all about God's plan for us and why we're on this earth and what we need to focus on while we're here. Great stuff, I'd invite ya'll to read over it when you get a chance.

Anyways, thanks for writing to me! I like to hear about what's going on at home in ya'lls letters. It's not so much what's in the letters, just that you write them to me. I love reading them so keep sending them I'll try to send more letters to the kids! Till next week,

Elder Earnest

Making use of his Eagle Crest golf course maintenance experience.

General Conference is awesome!

Fishing was a bust. It rained the whole time and I didn't catch any fish.

General Conference is awesome as a missionary!!! We watched all five sessions at the church and I've got about 6 pages of notes. It was really weird that they all started at 12 instead of 9. I learned a ton though. I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but I'm starting to get the feeling we need to be keeping the Sabbath day holy. A couple other key things I took out of it were that we should pray and ask the Lord each night what we need to be improving on. Ask what's keeping us from progressing and then listen to the Holy Ghost. It will speak in your mind and your heart and give specific customized answers. I realized the importance of living worthy of a temple recommend and keeping ourselves pure and unspotted from the world. This way we can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. The biggest thing I took away is that we need to be patient and trusting of the Lord. It seems to me that we express our faith by trusting the Lord and trusting that as we do as he says, everything will turn out all right. When we pray, we ask what we can do to better follow Him and align our will with His. Then we listen to his guidance and follow through and trust it will all work out. I'm so grateful for the blessings that come from having modern day prophets and apostles that receive revelation specific to us in our time. Before conference started I had six questions written down referring to what I wanted to learn about during conference. All six questions were answered and a few very specifically. The Lord has not left us alone in these days. He has restored His gospel and called a modern day prophet to lead and guide us and when we adhere to His message, we cannot go astray. 

That's exciting ya'll are reading the Book of Mormon together again! As for why Laman and Lemuel went astray even after seeing an angel, I think of the quote from the Bible dictionary relating to faith: "Miracles do not produce faith, but strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words, faith comes by righteousness, although miracles often confirm one's faith." So even though they saw an angel, which should confirm one's testimony just as much as any miracle would, they weren't being obedient and diligently following Jesus Christ. I think of the verse in the 2nd chapter of James that states "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." It's not enough to believe in Christ, you must act on that belief. Laman and Lemuel were not acting on that belief, or after the angel appeared, knowledge. If we're not acting and trying to improve ourselves because of our faith what good is it to have faith at all? "Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead..."

It's been raining a ton here. That hurricane brought lots of rain and wind our way. At one point they thought it was going to come through Danville, but we got lucky and it didn't. Because of general conference, an exchange to Eden, and a mission conference, we didn't teach a whole lot last week, but we're looking to get back at it this week!  Love and miss you so much! 

Elder Earnest  

Answering Mom's questions...

Hey Mom,

It's been raining all week. Luckily we had the car this week so we didn't have to ride in the rain.

The lady that's been teaching us how to cook is Sister J.  We're actually going to her house tonight and she's teaching us how to make a special pasta. Also, she makes really good Nutella cupcakes.

I have a new favorite general conference talk. Next time ya'll drive out to Madras as a family listen to "Know Thyself, Control Thyself, Give Thyself" by Paul H Dunn. It's the best general conference talk I've ever heard, but listen to it, don't read it. The way he speaks is great. It's from priesthood session from April 1972.

Right now we're teaching a kid named J who's trying to stop smoking. He was a previous investigator that used to meet with missionaries and stopped. The first time we met him his grandma came at us with a ton of anti mormon stuff and we just testified what we knew to be true and the spirit really softened her heart. There's been a few times where I start bearing testimony, and the spirit has just been so strong. I love it.

The Tubbs family in our ward has been really kind to us. They always have us over for dinner and are super nice. Also, Brother Hales is awesome. He drives us to meetings all the time and bakes us treats a lot too!

This week I learned how important the Book of Mormon is for one's conversion. If we don't have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, we really don't have a testimony of the church we belong to. The Book of Mormon is just as important as the Bible. In fact, without the Bible, the Book of Mormon would lose most of it's purpose. I've heard it explained that the Bible is the tool and the Book of Mormon is the instructions for the tool. I'm not really sure if I fully like that analogy, but you get the point. If the Bible was really all the instruction we needed, than we wouldn't have hundreds of different Christian churches teaching different doctrines. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). The reason the Book of Mormon is so important is that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, then Christ's priesthood
has been restored and Christ's one true church is again on the earth today. If not, then our whole church is false. It really comes down to if the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be, or if it's false. And the only real way to figure out whether or not it's true is by reading it, thinking about the message it contains, and then praying and asking God if it's true. Once we ask we need to pay attention to the feelings and impressions the Holy Ghost gives us. "By the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things."

I'm feeling pretty healthy I guess? I haven't passed out so that's good. I've slowed  down on losing weight, but I still weigh 15 lbs less than I did three months ago, and I didn't weigh that much to start with. For P-Day today we're going bass fishing with a member and I'm super excited!!!!!! 

Okay, I gotta go fishing, but I'll send you pics when I get back!

I love you mom!!!
Elder Earnest

Short but sweet

This week we had interviews with President Alexander. He talked to me about improving my studies so I can become a better teacher. He also let me ask him any questions I wanted, so I asked him about something I've been studying a bit lately. I don't want to get into too much detail, but if you want to study some pretty cool keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, look into the keys to the ministering of Angels. President Alexander had some neat insights, it's definitely an under-used power of the priesthood. I've really been studying the priesthood a lot lately. I don't think we really fully appreciate and understand the honor and privilege it is to have the priesthood bestowed upon us and I think a way to better appreciate it, is to better understand it.

We also had a ward picnic, and lots of people brought non member friends, which was great for us. We taught quite a few people and have a couple new investigators from it. I'm really starting to like our ward here. The people are really friendly, and there are a couple of families that are stellar at member missionary work.

I wish you taught me a little more about cooking before I left (side note:  I tried, but he had no interest!), but don't worry because we have a sister in our ward that invites us over for dinner about once a week and shows us how to make the meal we're having.

Well, it sounds like ya'll are doing great in Redmond. Let me know if I can do anything for you and sorry again I didn't write enough last week. Also let me know if you have any questions about what going on with me because sometimes its hard to know what to write. I love you and miss you a ton! Hope to hear from you again soon,

Love,
Elder Earnest

Missionary work in the Bible belt

This was my first full week on the bikes. Not my favorite mode of transportation, but whatevs. Since we were on the bikes we didn't get to teach as many lessons as hoped for, but we had a couple of really good ones. We had the chance to teach an investigator about the gospel of Jesus Christ in a members home and also had the ward's former bishop, Bishop Mullins, come teach our progressing investigator, Josh, who's on date for baptism in a few weeks. The quality of lessons is more important than the quantity. Speaking of which, Mattie was asking if we have many investigators and if it's hard to find people to teach. Finding people to teach is literally so easy, finding people that are ready to accept the message is not so easy. I can literally walk down the skreet (that's how it's pronounced here) and every other house will have people sitting on the front porch. All I have to do is walk up to them and ask if they believe in Jesus Christ and I'm pretty much guaranteed a thirty minute lesson with them, in which we can teach and most likely be taught. People here are so religious and absolutely LOVE Jesus. Just not all of them are ready for the fullness of the Gospel. 

In other news, my banjo playing skills have won the heart of our high priest group leader.  He had us over for dinner the other day and let me play his guitar. He's in a bluegrass band and plays just about every bluegrass instrument. He also really likes the Civil War and watches Turn so we had a lot to talk about. That Civil War class I took last fall has really come into good use here. 

I'm not really sure what else to tell y'all about my week here. It's been fairly slow but it's still been pretty fun. Even when there's not much fun going on, we just make it fun. I'm sad I missed the first football game of the season! I feel like I should be in school right now, it's weird. 

One other thought. I've realized pretty quick that if you're going to be a Christian missionary in the Bible belt, you need to know the Bible REALLY well. So I've been really diving into the New Testament and I love it. Such good scripture in there! 

Hope all is well back home. Did y'all get the letters I sent you? I'm super jealous of Mattie and Lauren's new seminary teacher! (Side note:  Included for Leah Wilcox's benefit!)

Anyways let me know if there's anything else y'all want to know about what's going on here! I wish I could email each of you individually, but that's why I've been writing letters in my free time. I love y'all!

Elder Earnest

Also, an excerpt from Elder Earnest's letter to his Dad:

I think my new favorite talk is Elder Holland's High Priest of Good Things to Come. Since you sent it to me I've listened to it two or three times and read over it a couple more. Something I'm starting to realize, mostly from reading Jesus the Christ, is that Jesus was a man just like us. Obviously He was much much greater than us, but He had a mortal, human side and still felt the same trials and temptations we do. For a long time I seemed to think it was easy for Him just because He was Christ, but it wasn't until a few days ago I really started to grasp the fact that He truly was human, and that's what made Him so great. I'm sure most people already understand this, but I just marvel at the fact that His physical human state was the same as mine and it would have been just as easy for Him to sin as it is for me. I'm having trouble putting it into words, but what I'm getting at is my appreciation and absolute awe for the Savior has increased tenfold. Jesus the Christ is my favorite thing to read right now because it's teaching me so many things I never realized. 

Breaking and entering

Hey Ya'll. 

 "4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."  Ether 12:4

I love this idea that if we just have hope in God, it turns to faith and when we exercise that faith it becomes an anchor to us. Even though life gets really rough and hard, as long as we anchor ourselves in Christ and live a Christ-centered life, everything will be alright. There's really nothing to worry about because in the end Christ has our back. I love the line in the Hymn 'I Believe in Christ' that says "I believe in Christ, so come what may." God rarely does what's easiest for us, but he'll always do what's best for us and if we just live the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) our burdens are lightened, and life is good. 

Speaking of life being good, this week I was chased by a pitbull, met a lady who claimed she was the resurrected Christ, and had someone try and break into to my house. Pretty normal week....

At 3 AM this morning I was awoken by a pounding at our front door. It was like a violent pounding and super loud. I was really confused why someone was 'knocking' on our door at 3 AM and pretty freaked out. I just kinda pulled my blanket up over my head and waited for it to stop, but the person (aka Sasquatch) kept pounding on our door. Then they started turning the door knob back and forth like they were trying to get in. At this point my companion was also awake and I was like "what do we do?" and he was like "I'm calling the cops." So he calls 911 because some insane person is pounding on our front door and violently twisting and turning our door knob. He told me later the lady on the other end of the line told him they had a unit on Claiborne, Washington, and 3rd ave which all are right next to our house, basically they've got a ton of cops patrolling our neighborhood every night cause it's super sketchy, so it only took like two seconds and then there were eight cops and three or four cop cars in our front lawn. Sometime between when we called 911 and the cops showed up the person stopped knocking and left our door step. As we told the police officer on our door step what was going on, I noticed that for some reason our car's lights were on and that two other cops were talking to these people in a truck right up the street from us. The people in the truck were our neighbors, a crazy old lady named Sister Crochier who goes to church with us and some other weirdo that lives with her. The two cops talking with our neighbors come over and tell us that Sister Crochier noticed our car light was on and wanted to let us know so that our car wouldn't be dead in the morning. I'm baffled as to why she chose to do this at 3 in the morning and even more confused, and slightly concerned, at the fact she tried to open our front door. Long story short, someone tried to break into our house so we called the cops and it turned out to be Sister Crochier telling us our car light was on.

We also have a stalker named Berna. She's an insane old woman who thinks she's the messiah, speaks in tongues to birds, and can read palms. She was a referral from a minister we talk with sometimes, and I'm pretty convinced he set us up. This lady calls us about 30 times a day and sends us really creepy text messages. Also she saw a demon at Walmart. 

To say this week has been interesting is a bit of an understatement, but we've also been super blessed and have more people to teach than we have time for! One of our investigators is on date for baptism and another one is getting pretty close. It's very exciting. 

I went on an exchange to Caswell this week (and got chased by a dog that probably weighs twice my weight)  and met Brother Batten! (Note:  Brother Batten is Sam's uncle's father who lives in North Carolina.)  He gave us a ride to district meeting, very nice guy.

I'm on my way out to Eden to go fishing for a district activity, but I hope ya'll have a great week and keep writing to me! Love ya'll! 

Elder Earnest