The Mystery Phone Audit—Unveiled

There was a fulfillment of a prophecy I forgot to record in my previous emails—so I guess I’ll record it here now haha. The first day I was with Elder Jessop we made this connection. So basically, not sure if anyone remembers this, but quite a few transfers ago I did a phone audit in an interview with President Gill of another missionary’s phone. (Again, weirdest interview I’ve ever had haha). Ever since then, it’s been a mystery as to whose phone it was. I’ve always wondered, and shared this memorable experience a few times with other missionaries. We had the Campbell River Elders staying with us (temporarily as my companion), and during the conversation with Elder Jessop he brought up that at the beginning of his mission his parents had to ship him a phone.

Transformed by the Touch of Heaven

You know. Sometimes it’s difficult to recognize the Spirit working within you. I know that I definitely struggle to recognize when my words are being influenced by the Spirit. Today I believe I was a part of one of the most powerful lessons in my whole mission; and I’m unsure if I would’ve been able to recognize it without an external sign from someone that listened to the lesson. We were teaching Arlene (Tyler’s grandmother) with Tyler participating. Now to bring some context to this situation, I’m going to explain again what I may have already brought up in previous emails, so bear with me if you already know.

When we began teaching Tyler he expressed that he’s been experiencing a large amount of difficulty and trials with his grandpa. He shared that his grandpa, Randy, would exercise unrighteous dominion over those in the home. A few examples were shared, but for the sake of privacy I won’t mention them here. Even Arlene, his partner, was threatening to leave him and move out. But due to her and Tyler’s dependence on him, they’ve continued to stay. According to Arlene it sounds like Randy doesn’t have any belief in God and seems to be against religion. She expressed that she’s afraid to pray vocally because he may walk in as she’s praying and express frustration with her.

Now that we have some background, as we showed up to their house, Randy showed up too. We haven’t had a lesson where he was present. Usually, he finds an activity to keep him occupied or outside of the house while we visit for a lesson. As we entered the house, he was doing his own thing in the kitchen. We then began the lesson and at some point during the lesson he made his way over to the kitchen and sat on the couch listening.

In the lesson, we reviewed the message of the restoration. After the lesson Elder Jessop asked me if I realized that I pointed at Randy during the lesson. I replied, I had no recollection of doing that.

Towards the end of the lesson Randy gets up, and gives Arlene a small kiss. Arlene, and frankly everyone else in the room was shocked, and she replied, “what was that for?” He responded, “I’ve been listening.” All of us were stunned.

Tyler then messaged us the following, right after the lesson:

That was different 🙏 I didn’t expect that. :o Randy had seemed touched by an angel or God, I’ve never felt something so genuine nor gentle from him thank you guys again for coming

Christmas Zone Conference

This one was a special Zone Conference. Luckily we didn’t have to give any trainings, same with the tech elders, social media sisters, and the APs. We all got to sit back and relax and watch the Gill’s run the show. This conference was full of music and many videos and clips. They did a Chiasmas in the nine hours that we were there. It basically went as follows: Missionaries -> Joseph Smith -> Book of Mormon -> Jesus Christ <- Book of Mormon <- Joseph Smith <- Missionaries. Overall it was pretty good, never thought we would be talking about Joseph Smith so much for Christmas haha.

The Veil is Thin for President Gill

At the beginning of my interview with President Gill he began with looking at the imos roster of my profile; looking through each of my assignments. We talked about it for a bit and then he offered to pray. After his prayer he asked me how I was doing and what I would like to talk about today. This was pretty neat because I’ve been planning on counseling about my plans on school with him, and have failed to bring it up in the last few interviews due to the lack of time. I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity than this one, and honestly, he probably knew.

Here’s a basic rundown of what I’m working with. I’ve deferred my University of Utah enrollment for two years while being on a mission. I’m trying to move over the college credits I completed for my generals in high school. I have scholarships lined up for UofU as well. With the way that my release date lines up, I would either: A. Go home early for the fall semester or B. Stay out and go to the Spring semester. Option B risks losing the scholarships I have. So I was definitely in quite a pickle. For most of my mission I thought I couldn’t push my two year deferment back any more. So my mind was pretty much made that I had to go home early. As of recently, that all changed. It was so clear before what I thought needed to happen, but now I don’t know. I discovered that I can push back my UofU more. I began to pray about it much more, seeking God’s will as much as I can in the process. At this point it didn’t matter to me anymore, whether or not I’ll lose the scholarships, the important thing is aligning my will with God’s. So that’s basically where I was going into the interview.

President Gill showed me his laptop and the calendar of the date range that he can schedule my release date to. He said “these are the bounds in which the brethren have set for me to change your date.” Having said this, approval is needed from them to go beyond this. He added “If you need I can call Elder Bednar and change your date.” He told me that he didn’t believe it would be necessary but it is an option… to which I was like yeah, “I don’t think that’ll be necessary either.” He then gave me two dates. He explained that he could do other dates but he wants to avoid an out-of-sync transfer for the new mission president. If I wanted to go home early, I would go August 13th, and if I wanted to serve the whole time I would go September 23rd. Salt Lake buys the tickets for the flights home six months in advance for missionaries returning home. So the date I choose must be set in stone by the next General Conference.

After showing me all of this, he said, “I’ve felt impressed upon by the Holy Ghost twice to share a story from an Elder named Elder McCreedy.” He came out at a weird time because of a surgery he had to get for his bad back. When he entered into the mission field it was out-of-sync; which meant his end date was out-of-sync as well. So he faced a similar dilemma. He either had to go home early to make it in time for school, or extend a bit and change his plans. He had a great school lined up with scholarships and was already enrolled as well. When Elder Saben came for a mission tour, he sat at his lunch table. He asked him the very same question I’m asking President Gill: “should I go home early for school or stay out?” To which Elder Saben bluntly responded, “the Lord has called you to serve for the whole two years, why would you ever want to change that?” President expounded and said that we probably don’t get to choose when we are born and you don’t get to choose when you die unless you take your own life. He then said Sister Gill and him have talked about what Elder Saben said, but the Brethren have given room to work with to be used with judgement and discretion.

He shared that Elder McCreedy decided to extend his mission. The last transfer of his mission, he dropped everything and changed the school he was planning on going to, to BYU. He met a great girl and changed the rest of his career and life. When he said that, I was thinking, no way he just did that to me. He somehow finds a way to slide in BYU every time missionaries talk about school with him. He’s actually gotten so many people to change their plans to BYU, it’s actually quite impressive how he does it. Anyways, he shared that he extended and served as AP his last transfer. He then reassured me that “now I’m not saying that’s how it’s going to end for you.”

He shared that, “the last six months of your mission is going to be greater than any other part of your mission experience. All of your experience and everything has been built up to prepare you for those last six months.

At the end of my interview he wanted to make sure that he didn’t make me feel that he was trying to sway me one way or the other. He said he would be 99% happy with my going home early and 100% happy with me staying out. Just a little bit more haha. He said he wants me to do what I feel is best and is here to support me in whatever that is. He trusts my judgement. I told him that I’ve already been leaning towards staying out the whole time, and right now I feel that that’s what I need to do.

Now it’s difficult to describe it in words, but I marveled at all that President Gill has told me. He is so incredibly in-tune with the Spirit it was amazing. There are so many thoughts and feelings that I had that were reaffirmed through his words and connections that I have seen in regards to my Patriarchal blessing. I’ve never had any experience reaffirm and connect to it so much, then in those moments that I had speaking to him.

So yeah, basically I’m staying out. I still don’t really know what the future holds. But this is right for right now and I’ll keep pressing forward in faith towards where God needs me to be.

Exchanges with the APs

I had an exchange with Elder Wilkerson, and that was awesome! I was so drained after Zone Conference and interviews, and I gotta say I don’t know how God does it, but as I went out and finding with him I was reenergized. Everything that happened during that exchange was entirely led by God. It was actually super cool. Not so cool part of it is that Elder Wilkerson told me that he feels that he is leaving and so there will be an empty spot in the APs. He asked for my thoughts in regards to being AP, and said that he’ll bring my name to the list of suggestions. I basically told him that I don’t really want to be AP, but if that’s what needs to happen then I’ll do it.

We went to a park downtown and everyone at the park was celebrating Honica; it was this big public event. Super neat to see it all, and we just so happened to meet a man named Rayell, who we’ve been in contact with and Gyula, who we’ve taught in the past. The first time I came into contact with Rayell was over the phone, and honestly I totally thought he was a member. It wasn’t till our interaction at the park that I realized he wasn’t a member. He knows way too much about the church and is too nice to not be a member. In my first transfer in Nanaimo he called asking for information regarding the Nativity activity and Christmas concert that we were having at the church. He knew about Stakes, he knew about Wards, he knew that it’s common to have a Christmas dinner at the church around this time of year and he was inquiring of that too. We saw him at the Christmas concert and he came up to us and handed us a program. I assumed that for someone to go out of their way to give us a program that they would’ve been a member, but I was wrong haha. He came up to us at the park and was incredibly welcoming. Especially after he saw a young couple basically tell us to leave because this is not a place we should be proselytizing. We expressed that we were just checking it out. Rayele then came up to us and welcomed us. He was trying to get us to go in and have their jam filled donuts and hot chocolate. At first we politely declined, but as he was relentless in his invitations, we eventually gave in haha. He shared the Jews beliefs about Honica with us and how fundamental they are to know because that was the religion Jesus Christ grew up in. Despite being a Christian, he sees the good that the celebration brings and wants to be a part of it as well as invite others to join too. He told us that the Nanaimo newspaper for Christmas had the front cover featuring our nativity display at the church. He mentioned how good that is, especially considering the opposition you see in the world against the restored church. Of all the churches they could have chosen, they chose ours. He also shared that he was able to tour the Kirtland temple just after the restored church purchased it. He said the week before it was purchased they called a bunch of senior missionaries to give tours of the temple. It was an incredible experience for him and he feels a closeness to the temples. He marveled at the beauty of the architecture and how remarkable it is for the first restored temple. We had a long conversation about a bunch of more stuff, he’s quite the talker. But he asked us if we are having a church service on Sunday and said that he’d want to come again. So next time we meet him, I’m going to try to figure out why in the world he isn’t a member.