True Joy!

The Joys of Sharing the Gospel!!

10 June 2013

Jose Montoya baptizing his sons
Elder Taylor and Elder Heimberger teachers

Elder Muntzing, Sister Muntzing, Elder Rosales, two new sisters in the gospel, Sister Adams And Sister Pipkin

This was a joyous day in our mission as we had baptisms happening is several zones.  We attended the 2 baptismal services this day.  Brother Montoya had joined the church the year before and was blossoming wonderfully.  He had many challenges to overcome and was devoted to increasing in knowledge and testimony so he could bless others.  His sons had been living with his sister in the Dallas area but they were with him for part of the summer and they were taught the gospel and their father was able to baptize them. Since then, Brother Montoya has remarried to a beautiful LDS young woman and they are doing all they can to have his sons live with them as well as preparing to welcome a new spirit into their home.  He is not military, but our paths seem to continually and we strengthen one another.

The sisters attend the Mission Trails Ward (Spanish-speaking) and we have very little interaction with this ward other than the missionaries call us and invite us to attend the baptisms.  For whatever reason (probably work), the members are few that attend their baptisms.

It is really exhilarating to attend a baptism.  The Holy Ghost attends them all and is spirit is very strong always.  We believe we attend more for ourselves. Each day we try in our own feeble way, follow the admonition of our Prophet and Apostles to invite all to come unto Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true!!!!!

"Every member of the Church, upon accepting the baptismal covenant, becomes a disciple who has promised to stand as a witness of Jesus Christ at all times in any place he or she may be in.2 The purpose of our witness is to invite people to come unto Him.

All of us should be intensely interested in learning how to issue that invitation effectively. We know from experience that some will not respond. Only a few responded when the Savior Himself offered this invitation during His mortal ministry. But great was His joy in those who recognized His voice. And great has been our joy when those we have invited have come unto Him." ( President Henry B. Eyring)

Service With Faith

March 2013

Service truly requires faith and obedience.  We know this and yet, it remains challenging when put into action.  
We were asked to visit and deliver a copy of the Book of Mormon with some literature of the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to someone in need of upliftment and a renewal of peace in their lives.  Of course at the onset of this request we were willing and excited to serve.
As information was relayed to us as to where this individual was that we were to visit; apprehension suddenly appeared in our minds.  We know we are called to be about the Lord's business to do just as had been asked of us, serve His children in all ways.  Why would we be leary of doing His work?  Where was our faith and obedience now?  This individual was in a detention center waiting to be sent to their country of origin because they were in this country illegally (and it was not the county that comes readily to mind).

No problem! We bolstered ourselves and pressed forward; we can do this.  Off we went to the detention center. Oblivious of procedures and regulations ---we approached the guard at the gate. "We are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we are here to fill a request for literature and to visit a detainee." The questions began and we had no answers to satisfy the guard.  "Come back Friday evening between 6 - 9 pm and you may visit the detainee because that is visiting time for this individual," said the guard.  Friday!!! We thought, that is four days away and we need to see this person before then.  We will go to the main immigration office; confident that they would rectify this situation and allow us access to this individual.  Upon entering the immigration office (2 steps) another security officer that operated the metal detection equipment said, " Do you have an appointment?"

Of course we did not have an appointment, we weren't even in the door, we wanted to ask a few simple questions and get on with out assignment!  "No ma'am," we answered politely.
"You cannot enter without an appointment." was her reply.
"How do we get one?" we asked while Elder Sturgis tried to tell her who we were and that she should let us in (in his military officer voice). I really wanted to join him in his desire to get in and get on with our mission!!

Alas, that was not to be!  She explained the procedure to get an appointment and sent us on our way.  Somewhere in our senior minds remain the thought that this was a government agency and they are unpredictable at best so we felt it in our best interest to avoid conflict. The procedure required that we go on line and make an appointment.  We had an appointment with missionaries coming to our apartment so we went home and began the process of making an appointment.
We felt guided once again as there was an appointment time available that same day at noon.  We had a 1:30 appointment already scheduled some distance away, but were confident that we could do both, especially when we realized the next available appointment was April 30th. We hurried to the appointment, got through security and waited, waited.  The young lady that assisted us informed us that this department had nothing to do with the detention center or their procedures and sent us on our way once again.

Back to the drawing board for us.  As we left the immigration office, we noticed a well dressed gentlemen getting into his car and walked on passed him; then the prompting came....talk to him! We turned around and talked to him about our dilemma.  He gave us his son's name and number and explained that he was an attorney and visited the detention center regularly, in fact, he would be visiting the very next day. AHHH-- a ray of hope!

We went on to our other appointment, still somewhat discouraged in our efforts to complete our assignment. Thoughts of reporting that we had tried but were not allowed to complete the task entered our thoughts and we even talked about ....giving up!

We repented of our thoughts and words and contacted the attorney with hopes and prayers that he would not charge us for the call! Left a message on his answering machine and continued with our other duties.He did call and explained the procedures a little better so we had knowledge of what we were doing.  With this knowledge, questions began arising in our minds about the assignment.  He said that juveniles were not detained at this facility and we had been told the person we were to visit was a juvenile. He was a kind and generous gentleman and he did find the individual we were looking for in the system but said this person was not a juvenile. We tried contacting our original source and were told that the information about the original request had been accidentally throw away.  A reprieve we thought, we can stop this because we had no clear information and the information we do have is incorrect. Once again, thoughts of abandoning the project crept in!!!
We had USO duties, scheduling 16 missionary apartment inspections, baking for missionary apartment inspections, and of course, study time and it was already Wednesday.  Where does time go!! The attorney said he would visit with the detainee and call us after his visit.  We did not receive anymore calls from him.  Well, we had tried many avenues without success.  We had fought the fight and lost.  We would accept our losses.
Yet, with each prayer, thoughts of this individual remained vivid!  What more could or should we do.  Once again to the website and read all of their regulations.  Wait, we can visit anytime with permission of the Chaplain at the facility!  There was even a phone number to call.  Thank you Heavenly Father for a ray of light.  We placed the call and waited and are still waiting for this call.....
All that was left, was to visit on Friday evening. We did just that.  This continued a trial of our faith because as we drove up to the guard,  he informed us that we were 6 minutes early and needed to exit and return in 6 minutes.  Obediently we left and waited outside the facility with many other people that seemed better acquainted with the procedures that we were. The time arrived and off we went to the guard.
"May I see your driver's license?" he asked.
"Why of course," as I looked through my wallet.  You guessed it!! No license!!! Where could it be?  He kindly informed us that we could  leave and park elsewhere and walk in and he would allow us entrance into the facility.  While we were waiting the first time, thoughts of what we were doing and where we were began to weaken our resolve to follow through!!  We'd done nothing wrong... this individual was suffering natural consequences and we believe in consequences.  We could leave and feel alright about it.
We are so grateful for the Lord and his love and never-ending patience with his children.  Especially us!
We drove out the second time and found as secure a location as possible and locked all our belongings in the car and prayed for protection. Feeling confident that we would be going through another security x-ray machine, we wanted to carry as little as possible.
Off we went to enter the facility.  Elder Sturgis reminding me that he would not do this for someone he knows and here we were doing for a total stranger!
WE WERE IN!!! Accepted into the system and then we began the 3 block walk to the detention facility escorted by a border patrol officer in a large golf cart capable of carrying 6 individuals but he was not allowed to give us a ride.  Talk about feeling like a criminal!!!
We arrived at the facility with the greeting of more paperwork to fill out and instructed that we could take NOTHING into the visiting area.  A locker was provided for our belongings at the cost of 25 cents.  Guess who brought no money with them!!! We explained our situation to the officer and they loaned us the money. Guess who was upset about our government requiring us to pay for the locker?  Fortunately the money was returned after we retrieved our belongings upon exiting the facility.
We turned in our paperwork and waited, waited, waited.  Reminding ourselves we were about the Lord's business.  By the way, we were not allowed to give the reading materials we had all along determined to deliver!
Then we were called to the visiting area and communicated with this individual through a thick glass by phone with an officer behind the individual, watching us.
Oh, the peace and joy we all felt knowing we were but a mere extension of the Lord's love for this individual. Confusion on their part because they did not know us. We shared what we knew and listened.  Tried to offer comfort.
We were helpless to assist in their situation but offered prayer, love and assurance that the Lord loved this person and was aware of their trial. How grateful we are for tender mercies. We truly had to walk by faith in His service.  We thanked him profusely that evening for the tremendous blessing we have to live in this promised land!!!!

Walking by the Spirit

7 June 2014

We were introduced to a family from Puerto Rico by the proselyting missionaries. The military father had experienced a few deployments and struggled with P.T.S.D. They had been married 25 plus years and were the parents of three children, ages 21, 17, 15.  They had chosen to be less active but were very willing to feed missionaries.  We invited them to learn Resiliency Skills.  They agreed, we set a date only to be contacted with a cancellation of the meeting.  Sometime later, we received a frantic call from the proselyting missionaries telling us the mother wanted to talk to us as soon as possible. We completed our appointment and went to their home.  The father had lost emotional control and had been verbally abusing his wife and children.  The wife contacted his 1^st Sargent and called the base military police and had him arrested because he was looking for his weapon that his oldest son had hidden from him.  The children were scared; the mother was devastated at the insults and accusations she had to bear from her husband in front of their children and her mother and her mother and several nieces and nephew were also visiting at this time.  A very sad situation and there was no sign of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the home, just fear and sadness.  What a wonderful gift we had developed and were unconscious of it . . . we knew the absence of the Spirit immediately!! How wonderful to be worthy of Gifts of the Spirit and the tender mercies of our Lord; remembering that it was the family in crisis that the Lord was blessing through us.   Another confirmation to us the Lord loves all his children and is waiting on us to open the door and prepare ourselves to do His will (for us this meant get up and go, prepare ourselves to be led by the Spirit, and humble ourselves before the Lord – none of this is easy for us). We listened as the mother unfolded the previous story to us.

As we listened, we prayed for guidance. The message that came clear was to invite the Spirit into the home.  We offer blessings of comfort to each member of the family. They accepted these blessings so Elder Sturgis, Elder Rosales and Elder Manner began giving these blessings.  The presence of the Holy Ghost was very strong and undeniable.  Elder Manner was fairly new in his mission experience and was unwilling to participate in being voice for these blessings but even he could not deny the Spirit. For all practical purposes, this family was strangers to us and yet the youngest daughter rose from her blessing by Elder Sturgis and gave him a very long, tight hug!  (At our next visit with the family, the mother and grandmother told us that she had shared with them the tremendous feeling she had during the blessing, as if she was being held very tightly and lovingly.)  This family’s primary language was Spanish so Elder Sturgis was left out of most of the conversations but the Spirit still directed him as he gave blessings. We departed the home with the commitment to visit again.

It was just 3 days later; we received a call from the mother to please come over as soon as possible. At this time we learned about the youngest daughter’s spiritual experience.  Then the mother asked us to counsel with her youngest daughter because she was fearful of her father and crying a lot. It never ceases to amaze us the exhaustion that comes from being an instrument for the Lord and the unbelievable joy that comes at the same time!!!  We showed her the LDS video. “Because of Him” and tried to be still and hear the promptings of the still small voice as he directed us. We challenged her to pour all her feelings, concerns, and fears to the Lord in prayer.  We asked her to commit to praying alone each morning and each night for 7 days at which time we would add to her commitment to the Lord.  We met with her midway during these first 7 days and checked on her progress.  She was radiant and told us that she was feeling better and was faithful to her commitment to pray.  At the end of the 7 days we again met with the family and gave the youngest daughter a journal with the new challenge to continue in her twice daily prayers but now she was to “be still” and listen to the Spirit and write in her journal what she felt.  Once again she promised she would accept the challenge.

In the meantime, the second oldest daughter was scheduled to graduate from high school and informed us that she was not going to walk at graduation because it was too chaotic at her school.  We persisted in encouraging her to participate in graduation.  At our mid-week visit with the family she agreed to let us go to her school and find out what was needed to be sure she was able to walk at her graduation.  The morning of the first 7 days we were at her high school talking with the At-Risk Counselor.  How wonderful the Lord is!!!!! They were having mandatory graduation rehearsal at 10:00 am that morning and we were there at 9:36 am.  With the counselor’s help we arranged to order her cap/gown (the company was delivering gowns later that morning and she was able to contact them and add a gown for our special young lady).  We were unsure whether she was at school that day, so we called her mom (another miracle, because he mom seldom answers her phone when we call), she informed us that she was at school.  The counselor invited us to watch the graduation rehearsal to see if our young lady would show up.  While waiting for the seniors to gather, we suddenly heard a familiar voice and felt a warm hug as she said, “Are you looking for me?” We informed her that all was taken care of for her to walk.  Just as suddenly as she seemed to appear, her countenance changed and she glowed with happiness. She could hardly wait to tell her friends that she would be walking and she was anxious to inform her immediate family and cousins that they WOULD be attending her graduation!  Later that same day we received a call from the counselor that the gown at arrived at her office and she asked if we could pick it up and deliver to the student since she had already left for the day.  That is when we deliver the journal and cap/gown to the family. The senior in the family is hesitant to pray but Elder Sturgis asked her if she would write in a journal those special moments in her life when she felt the love of our Savior and she accepted this challenge so we will give her a journal.

This family is not out of trials yet, the father is trying to return to the home. The mother has insisted that they will go to church with or without him.  We will continue trying to help them pray individually and as a family unit. The grandmother has also chosen to be less active, but hopefully we can invite her also to work on a change of heart. The parents are receiving marriage counseling from the army but as the mother said, it lacks spirit.  They mother and children have agreed to receive Resiliency Training. The father of this beautiful family has many serious issues to work on and most importantly is inviting a true spirit of repentance into his life. We continue praying/fasting for this family to receive a complete change of heart and work on a strong testimony of Christ’s Atonement for them.

Let us all remember; this was a chain of tender mercies given to us and this family by the Lord, only as we prepared ourselves to be instruments in His Hands! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the only way to return to live with our Savior is through obedience and hard work in keeping His commandments and enduring happily to the end.

Training!

L to R - Elder Baliff, Zone Leader, Elder Krebs, Zone Leader,  & Elder Hernandez, District Leader - So  Valiant!

L to R - Elder Rosales, Elder Lawrence & Elder Rosqvist 

It's great to be part of the Kingdom of God on earth!  We are blessed to receive training from our fearless District Leader each Friday morning. We get to rub elbows with the Elders in our district, zone and southern part of our mission.  We attend zone training once a month and a zone training conference every other month.  Elder Sturgis and I enjoy intimidating the elders.  But it's not as enjoyable when they show off their scriptural prowess.  All is fair is sharing the gospel.  Elders Hernandez, Rosales, Krebs, Baliff are all Spanish-speaking Elders; and Elders Lawrence and Rosqvist are English-speaking like the senior missionaries. Elder Rosales is in our district and he was at the MTC at the same time we were and we even talked with him.  He remembered us but we had a senior moment and it took a while to remember when we talked.  He sat beside us at one of our MTC devotionals and we enjoy feeling of his spirit.  He is from Oceanside, California and prior to joining the church, his plans were to become a catholic priest.  More to come . . . .

LDS Chaplain Promoted!

Chaplain Harms's wife, Heidi made this cake commemorating  his promotion to Major

Chaplain Harms and his Proud Family!

 In all our adventures, one of our favorites is participating with the LDS Chaplains stationed here at Fort Bliss, Texas.
There are two LDS Chaplains currently serving here.  There are quite a few Chaplains at Fort Bliss and we are still trying to meet the ones that are not LDS.  We enjoy Chaplain Harms (Major) and Chaplain Coleman (Major) and we have been blessed by their words of wisdom as they speak regularly at McGregor Range Sacrament Meetings to National Guard and Reserve soldiers that come to Fort Bliss for training prior to deployment.  These men believe in families.  Chaplain Harms has 6 children and Chaplain Coleman has 10 children and their sweetheart wives are amazing!!!

We've enjoyed meeting their children who by the way, are quite resilient. We were honored to be invited to attend his promotion ceremony.  Chaplain Harms has received orders for Permanent Change of Station (PCS) to Fort Lewis, Washington with a combat infantry brigade.  Our understanding is this is quite a feather in his cap for a new Major.  We are sad to see them go but we are happy for their new adventure.

Resiliency Training

Our great, new Resiliency Training Friends in the Gospel!!

FEAR, APPREHENSION, TREPIDATION, INADEQUACY, OVERWHELMING DESIRE TO RUN!! These were some of the feelings we were having prior to presenting our first of four Resiliency Training classes.  The material was difficult for us to understand and we were unsure we believed all that was included.   Elder Sturgis squelched the idea to run (he says it was because he was afraid he'd trip over something he could not see, trying to catch Sister Sturgis as she made her escape), so we began preparing our first class.   We sought help from the other senior military relations missionary couple and they graciously shared their outline/matrix with us.  We read the material and all the materials we received from the Military Relations Department regarding our assignment.  Then we prayed, fasted and prayed some more.  We prepared our outline, prayed and reviewed our presentation several times so we knew who would share which part of the lesson and when.  As we continued in this way for several weeks, we began to notice we were receiving tender mercies from our Lord.  We found Mormon Ads that applied to the specific classes and included them. Fortunately we have much talent in our extended family and we are not shy about asking for help and we did.  Trevor helped us with technical issues/downloads because we were unsure of internet access in the meetinghouse.  We prepared folders for each participant, we attended the other senior missionary couple's resiliency class as they started a week before us so we were able to get an idea for presentation.

Still not enough faith within as we approached the last week before our presentation but we were moving forward obediently.  Then more good news?  We received information that we might have 34 participants in our first class and the recommended class size is 24.  So much for calm.  Even Elder Sturgis could not calm Sister Sturgis!!  We pressed forward for lack of any other logical options.

The day arrived for our first class.  We had arranged to get a key to the building, arrived in the afternoon to set up for the training and realized that we did not have a tablecloth for the table (sure you know who was worried about this). We could not get into the nursery room, the library took approximately 30-40 minutes off and on to get the key to work, and all the time the TV/video was in another room that was not locked. We did not know who the child care workers were or if they were even coming, nor were we aware of who was providing refreshments.  Too many variables for you know who. Time stops for no one, so we continued to the best of our ability and that was questionable by this time. The appointed time arrived and we completed our first class with 17 attendees. 

We continued in prayed and tried to stay calm but most importantly faithful. It's awesome and faith-building when you experience the Holy Ghost in action.  He did exactly what he is called to do and sustained us through this trail of our faith for the good of those in attendance. Did we do what we had rehearsed and prepared?  We are unsure because our memory of this event is fuzzy.  What we were sure of was it was over!!!

Did finally get a tablecloth for our Resilency Class Display (All is right with the world)

Class 3 pertained to children, so Elder Sturgis wanted to have toys! Thank goodness for neighbors!!

We were assured that the Lord was with us.  We continued in the same manner with the next three classes and it seemed to us that each one was better than the previous one. President Smith, 2nd counselor in our stake presidency address the class on the second week. We were encouraged by the fellow-shipping that took place after each class during refreshment time.  New friendships were formed as the participants were from 3 wards. All that came ready to learn, felt the confirming witness of the Spirit when truths were taught.

Our last class was on a particularly busy day and we had a few snags, but once again, we received tender mercies.  We felt we should prepare a refrigerator magnet for each couple, but ran out of time to attach the magnet.  One of our attendees had felt impressed to come early to help.  We were so grateful for her willingness to listen to the still small voice.  She completed the magnets just in time as we finished preparing everything else.

The happenings during this training are many and the miracles just as numerous and for this we are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and the great gift of the atonement given to us by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our testimony of this continues to grow as does our love for our service opportunities.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true church in the universe. The plan of happiness is the only way back to our Heavenly Parents. We remain imperfect but so much happier for the opportunities we have been afforded to feel God's love in our lives.

Why We Are Here!

James & Patricia Caruthers & Elder & Sister Sturgis assisting at James' Deployment

Patricia was the first new military spouse we met on our first Sunday in our mission.  She had been baptized the day before and married the week before and her sweetheart, James was scheduled for deployment the end of December, 2012.

Elder Sturgis was assigned to this family because 22 year old Patricia is legally blind and has had  issues with her vision since she was 10 years old.  This is the family we assisted with our miracle move the day after Thanksgiving and they were our family on Thanksgiving.  We learned a lot about how the Army deploys soldiers to Afghanistan. 

James' Company at roll call. Patricia was waiting patiently and wishing this was a dream

 We arrived at Spc4 Caruthers' home at 11:45 A.M. to drive them to their deployment rendezvous location for a 12:30 p.m.arrival time.  He was scheduled to embark on his departing plane at 11:p.m.  Elder Sturgis definitely understands military but this was beyond our comprehension.

This is where James works.  He said we could take pictures of the vehicles

 James and Patricia were blessed to play the waiting game in the military building where James works with military vehicles that looked strange to Sister Sturgis and Elder Sturgis did his best to see them with his monocular and tell me about them and James seemed to know less than Elder Sturgis did.  So much to learn and there seems so little room in my brain to retain it, but trust in the Lord we will do.

Assault Weapon issued to Spc 4 Caruthers at approximately 3:00 p.m.

.  We really were allowed to hang around with James and Patricia even when they were issuing their weapons.  Just had to take a picture of all the goings on.  This was getting too real for me. 

We hear about and talk about the wars and rumors of wars and here we saw the faces of young men and women living the war along with their families.  Our prayers now have vivid pictures of our military that we ask the Lord to bless. Please remember them in your prayers.

This is just a small group of the many families involved in this  Deployment

Our understanding is that there have been deployments about every two weeks and they will continue for several more months. We will continue learning how things work at Fort Bliss and support and assist LDS Military families during these difficult times

Patricia is doing well during this her first deployment.  We assisted her is enrolling in community college and getting to some of her doctor appointments, trips to the bank, IRS, Social Security office and above all church meetings.

Elder Sturgis and I are currently teaching Resiliency Classes to military couple/singles willing to learn skills to help them make the atonement of our Savior central in their lives and therefore helping them cope with the unique challenges of military life. This has probably been better for us than for them.  We have attendees from 4 wards and growing.  We are humbled to have the privilege to assist these families since the challenges they have as individuals and families afford us the privilege of freedom.  Our classes are designed to help them focus on the glass half full!!