I attended church yesterday and I thought a lot about my father, not really my imperfect, tired, sometimes drunk on cupcakes, earthly father, but my heavenly father. Heavnely Father is perfect in every way, and he will never, ever touch you in your bathing suit area at night when the lights are out. Ever.
It was a super terrific meeting.
There were some great talks given during sacrament meeting. Here were some of my favorite quotes:
- "I used to go by my mother's room every night and see her on her knees every time"
- "The scriptures have never been very important for me" (I assume the speaker was trying to say that they were never a priority)
- "brothers and sisters, I've seen Jesus Christ. I've felt his hands and touched his feet" - said by a missionary ready to go on his mission to Florida.
- "Women of the church are supposed to get married and have babies, not go on missions." - again, said by the young man going on a mission
Those were a couple choice gems from the meeting that really lifted my spirits.
P-day is great. I get to wash my clothes, write on my blog, and then read some letters.
Pray for me
- Elder Gandy
Angels on the Roof
Okay, the mission has been going great, but I've been so busy going door to door to door to door, that I thought I should write about a really super spiritual experience one of my ancestors had to share my testimony on my missionary blog (the one you're reading right now): angels on the roof of the Kirkland Temple.
This comes from my great, great, great grandpa's journal, Ammon Kingsley:
"In Kirtland, we enjoyed many great blessings, and often saw the power of God manifest. On one occasion I saw angels clothed in white walking upon the Temple. It was during one of our monthly fast meetings, when the Saints were in the Temple worshiping. A little girl came to my door and in wonder called me out, exclaiming: 'The meeting is on top of the meeting house."
I went to the door, and there saw the temple angels clothed in white covering the roof from end to end. They seemed to be walking to and fro; they appeared and disappeared before I realized they were not mortal men. Each time in a moment they vanished, and their reappearance was the same. This was in broad daylight, in the afternoon.
As I was watching the angels on the roof, I noticed in the distant part of the roof that there was not much room left for all the angels, and as one angel (I'll call him Larry) was moving about, he accidentally pushed another angel (I'll call him Thomas) off the roof.
The angle Thomas fell off the roof.
Thomas fell hard. I quickly ran to the side of the building where the angel Thomas had fallen, and in the bushes I heard a raspy voice, "oooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack". I didn't know angels could feel pain, but apparently, this is true.
I lept towards the bushes in an attempt to help Thomas, and as I parted the bushes, to my divine surprise, the angel had quickly turned into a cat.
The cat slowly started to walk up to me. It was such a beautiful, heavenly cat, with orange and white spots. I wept like a little girl at the site of this fallen angel cat. I decided then and there that the cat was a gift to me, from Jesus himself, as a token of my faith.
So I took the cat home and named him. I named him Checkers.
Checkers and I became the best of friends. Often, I would ask Checkers what heaven was like, and how many mansions there were there. Checkers never really spoke back outloud with this angel voice, but I could read his little cat mind, and he told me of the fanciest of stories about heaven. I can't wait to go there."
Well, I can't wait to tell you more about Checkers. He was surely a divine, special cat. I know these things are true. I know it so hard. I know these things because I read them in a book. I love my mission, and I love the work I'm doing. Pray for me.
In the name of checker's and his god master, even Jesus Christ, amen.
- your pal,
Elder Gandy
This comes from my great, great, great grandpa's journal, Ammon Kingsley:
"In Kirtland, we enjoyed many great blessings, and often saw the power of God manifest. On one occasion I saw angels clothed in white walking upon the Temple. It was during one of our monthly fast meetings, when the Saints were in the Temple worshiping. A little girl came to my door and in wonder called me out, exclaiming: 'The meeting is on top of the meeting house."
I went to the door, and there saw the temple angels clothed in white covering the roof from end to end. They seemed to be walking to and fro; they appeared and disappeared before I realized they were not mortal men. Each time in a moment they vanished, and their reappearance was the same. This was in broad daylight, in the afternoon.
As I was watching the angels on the roof, I noticed in the distant part of the roof that there was not much room left for all the angels, and as one angel (I'll call him Larry) was moving about, he accidentally pushed another angel (I'll call him Thomas) off the roof.
The angle Thomas fell off the roof.
Thomas fell hard. I quickly ran to the side of the building where the angel Thomas had fallen, and in the bushes I heard a raspy voice, "oooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack". I didn't know angels could feel pain, but apparently, this is true.
I lept towards the bushes in an attempt to help Thomas, and as I parted the bushes, to my divine surprise, the angel had quickly turned into a cat.
The cat slowly started to walk up to me. It was such a beautiful, heavenly cat, with orange and white spots. I wept like a little girl at the site of this fallen angel cat. I decided then and there that the cat was a gift to me, from Jesus himself, as a token of my faith.
So I took the cat home and named him. I named him Checkers.
Checkers and I became the best of friends. Often, I would ask Checkers what heaven was like, and how many mansions there were there. Checkers never really spoke back outloud with this angel voice, but I could read his little cat mind, and he told me of the fanciest of stories about heaven. I can't wait to go there."
Well, I can't wait to tell you more about Checkers. He was surely a divine, special cat. I know these things are true. I know it so hard. I know these things because I read them in a book. I love my mission, and I love the work I'm doing. Pray for me.
In the name of checker's and his god master, even Jesus Christ, amen.
- your pal,
Elder Gandy
Problem in the Mission
Well as for people we are working with we have a lot!!! We are very busy. The people we are finding are great people too. Stacey is a woman we found while we were walking around. She was having a yard sale so we went to "Go look around, haha". We gave her a Book of Mormom and in six days she read all the way to Helaman 14. I think she has finished it by now!
This past week we had our monthly zone conference. It was so awesome. I got to see some of my old friends from my first area, and then our mission president had something really important to say to all the Elders of the mission.
During the Zone conference, our mission president came out and asked for the sister missionaries to leave. He had something important that he wanted to talk to the Elders about, and so the Sisters were told to go home.
I was thinking that the Prophet had started the return to Missouri, and the Elders were going to get some special assignments to help build Zion, but alas, this was not the case. Not the case at all. Our Mission President started to talk about something that had been waning on his mind for some time. He said after talking with many Elders, he realized that he needed to say something in Zone conference to all the Elders.
There's an epidemic of masturbation in the mission.
President said that too many Elders had been guilty of self abuse, and that if we were (no I'm not guilty of that sin) that we should repent immediately. Just then, Elder Calhoon stood up in the meeting and started sobbing, and before he could say anything, Elder Johnson got up and started whining about something. They were both crying and saying how they were so sorry, but before they could go on, my mission president said that they should sit down and they should talk to him after the conference and not during the meeting.
Our mission president is so inspired. He said he's going to help the Elders of our mission in two ways.
First, from now on, every Elder will have to clap while in the bathroom. This will help us stay pure and worthy by not hitting the salami. Our comps are supposed to stand next to the door and listen to us clap. (I'm not too happy about this because when my comp goes number 2, it's really stinky, and I don't want to be next to the door, but I'll do what God asks of me).
Second, the president is going to install 'spiritual cameras' in our bedrooms and living rooms so the office elders can monitor our worthiness. He's going to put video cameras in our apartments and then have a new group of office elders constantly watching the video from the mission office. He says that this will help us all in being the most worthy missionaries we can be, and that it's better to have the spiritual cameras installed and operating all the time than to have us sin and be cast out to eternal darkness forever. When he puts it that way, I'm so excited to get the new cameras installed. I do not want to go out into space, yah, even eternal darkness.
Our mission president is so inspired, and I know that he's saying exactly what god wants him to say. I love my mission!!!!
Update: I guess this masturbation problem is cross missions!!! One of my friends serving in the france mission had his mission president talk about the problems of self abuse, too:
This past week we had our monthly zone conference. It was so awesome. I got to see some of my old friends from my first area, and then our mission president had something really important to say to all the Elders of the mission.
During the Zone conference, our mission president came out and asked for the sister missionaries to leave. He had something important that he wanted to talk to the Elders about, and so the Sisters were told to go home.
I was thinking that the Prophet had started the return to Missouri, and the Elders were going to get some special assignments to help build Zion, but alas, this was not the case. Not the case at all. Our Mission President started to talk about something that had been waning on his mind for some time. He said after talking with many Elders, he realized that he needed to say something in Zone conference to all the Elders.
There's an epidemic of masturbation in the mission.
President said that too many Elders had been guilty of self abuse, and that if we were (no I'm not guilty of that sin) that we should repent immediately. Just then, Elder Calhoon stood up in the meeting and started sobbing, and before he could say anything, Elder Johnson got up and started whining about something. They were both crying and saying how they were so sorry, but before they could go on, my mission president said that they should sit down and they should talk to him after the conference and not during the meeting.
Our mission president is so inspired. He said he's going to help the Elders of our mission in two ways.
First, from now on, every Elder will have to clap while in the bathroom. This will help us stay pure and worthy by not hitting the salami. Our comps are supposed to stand next to the door and listen to us clap. (I'm not too happy about this because when my comp goes number 2, it's really stinky, and I don't want to be next to the door, but I'll do what God asks of me).
Second, the president is going to install 'spiritual cameras' in our bedrooms and living rooms so the office elders can monitor our worthiness. He's going to put video cameras in our apartments and then have a new group of office elders constantly watching the video from the mission office. He says that this will help us all in being the most worthy missionaries we can be, and that it's better to have the spiritual cameras installed and operating all the time than to have us sin and be cast out to eternal darkness forever. When he puts it that way, I'm so excited to get the new cameras installed. I do not want to go out into space, yah, even eternal darkness.
Our mission president is so inspired, and I know that he's saying exactly what god wants him to say. I love my mission!!!!
Update: I guess this masturbation problem is cross missions!!! One of my friends serving in the france mission had his mission president talk about the problems of self abuse, too:
Eternal Truths
My most favorite part about being a missionary is the teaching. I love, love, love to teach people. It's just so great to walk into someones home, look them straight in the eye, and tell them there's a heavenly father who loves them. And he knows more about us than we could ever know about ourselves.
Telling people about our Heavenly Father is so rewarding. We know so much about him because of our prophet's visions. We know that he has a body of bones and flesh, like us, and that he lives on another planet, Kolob. On a side note, one of my favorite hymns is if you could hi to Kolob.
But when I get to sit down with an investigator and tell them that the creator of this planet, yay, the creator of all life that we know of is is a space alien from a distant planet in our universe. He made us, because he loved us. And that super loving space alien had normal men write a book, a book on how to serve men. It's the most wonderful book on earth, and the most perfect book on earth.
In it, we are taught by our loving space alien father how to serve men, how they should be, what they should eat in order to be healthy.
I can't wait till one day when our science can catch up with our heavenly father. Can you imagine in it? Lines and lines of people waiting to board the ships to go see the best space alien father we've ever had. Gosh, I can't wait to go to Kolob. My comp actually told me that one time he fasted for four days to find out if there were other planets like Kolob, and he received a spiritual confirmation that there is another planet, Zandor. And on Zandor is where our Heavenly Mother lives.
I think the best present our Father in Heaven ever gave us was the book on how to serve men. I know that if we live by it day by day, we'll be just what our heavenly father wants us to be. And when the mother ship finally arrives back on earth with heavenly father, we can all get aboard and finally go back home to Kolob, or Zandor, depending on whether or not we want to live with our space alien father or mother.
On a side note, we had a really wacky visit by an investigator the other day. He said he'd read our book given to us by heavenly father on how to serve our fellow man, but he said something so peculiar, he said the book was a cook book, and how to serve man was a recipe. Weird. I'm pretty sure he's got the case of the devils, but he may just be catholic or something.
Anyway, I got to get back to knocking on doors to tell more of our brothers and sisters about our heavenly father. He's alive!! And he loves us more than we could ever love ourselves in so many ways.
Telling people about our Heavenly Father is so rewarding. We know so much about him because of our prophet's visions. We know that he has a body of bones and flesh, like us, and that he lives on another planet, Kolob. On a side note, one of my favorite hymns is if you could hi to Kolob.
But when I get to sit down with an investigator and tell them that the creator of this planet, yay, the creator of all life that we know of is is a space alien from a distant planet in our universe. He made us, because he loved us. And that super loving space alien had normal men write a book, a book on how to serve men. It's the most wonderful book on earth, and the most perfect book on earth.
In it, we are taught by our loving space alien father how to serve men, how they should be, what they should eat in order to be healthy.
I can't wait till one day when our science can catch up with our heavenly father. Can you imagine in it? Lines and lines of people waiting to board the ships to go see the best space alien father we've ever had. Gosh, I can't wait to go to Kolob. My comp actually told me that one time he fasted for four days to find out if there were other planets like Kolob, and he received a spiritual confirmation that there is another planet, Zandor. And on Zandor is where our Heavenly Mother lives.
I think the best present our Father in Heaven ever gave us was the book on how to serve men. I know that if we live by it day by day, we'll be just what our heavenly father wants us to be. And when the mother ship finally arrives back on earth with heavenly father, we can all get aboard and finally go back home to Kolob, or Zandor, depending on whether or not we want to live with our space alien father or mother.
On a side note, we had a really wacky visit by an investigator the other day. He said he'd read our book given to us by heavenly father on how to serve our fellow man, but he said something so peculiar, he said the book was a cook book, and how to serve man was a recipe. Weird. I'm pretty sure he's got the case of the devils, but he may just be catholic or something.
Anyway, I got to get back to knocking on doors to tell more of our brothers and sisters about our heavenly father. He's alive!! And he loves us more than we could ever love ourselves in so many ways.
A CHRISTmas time
I'm so glad to be apart of the building of Zion. The gospel truly is going to every nation, kindred, and tongue, and religion!! I love being a missionary!!
Last Christmas there was a lot of attention on material things, this year there is nothing but the glow of a few lights, our study materials, and meals made for us by some of the members. This will be a very quiet Christmas.
I'm so, so, so lucky to be here on my mission during CHRISTmas, because really, my real family is my Heavenly Father, and my Heavenly brother, Jesus. That's it. My earth family is awesome, but let's face it, Jesus is truly awesomer.
I get a whole 10 minutes to talk to my earthly family. It's going to be awesome, awesome, great! A whole 10 minutes to tell them exactly how I feel about my super special brother, Jesus, and how he's done so, so, so much for us and we don't ever really thank him.
I'm going to tell my earthly father how much I've learned about my Heavenly Father, and how truly great Heavenly Father is in every single little tiny way, even in the invisible ways, and in the ways we wouldn't think he would be awesome, he is. That's him, that's our Heavenly Father. Gosh I wish I could hug him right now.
---------
This past week has been a little tough. We've been decorating our place with all kinds of CHRISTmas decorations, and at one time, we had the whole place lit up with lights, but then we couldn't sleep because it was so bright at night, and my companion was yelling at me, "Go unplug 'em, Gandy!"
It hurts sometimes when he calls me that, like I'm not an Elder, because I am, I'm an Elder in the church.
Anyways, I try to not let him get to me. I think tomorrow I'll shine his shoes to show him how much I truly love him. And then I'll swab the kitchen floors and make his breakfast just the way he wants it.
He has me make his breakfast almost every morning. He tells me its making me a good missionary. And then he has me go out and get the morning paper, and then to tie his shoes, make his bed, brush his teeth, and lay out his clothes. He told me that's just what Jesus did, and I want to be just like Jesus, so I'll do it. I'll do it.
Anyways, Merry Christmas!!! And don't forget the reason for the season. And don't forget to write your favorite missionary!!
Last Christmas there was a lot of attention on material things, this year there is nothing but the glow of a few lights, our study materials, and meals made for us by some of the members. This will be a very quiet Christmas.
I'm so, so, so lucky to be here on my mission during CHRISTmas, because really, my real family is my Heavenly Father, and my Heavenly brother, Jesus. That's it. My earth family is awesome, but let's face it, Jesus is truly awesomer.
I get a whole 10 minutes to talk to my earthly family. It's going to be awesome, awesome, great! A whole 10 minutes to tell them exactly how I feel about my super special brother, Jesus, and how he's done so, so, so much for us and we don't ever really thank him.
I'm going to tell my earthly father how much I've learned about my Heavenly Father, and how truly great Heavenly Father is in every single little tiny way, even in the invisible ways, and in the ways we wouldn't think he would be awesome, he is. That's him, that's our Heavenly Father. Gosh I wish I could hug him right now.
---------
This past week has been a little tough. We've been decorating our place with all kinds of CHRISTmas decorations, and at one time, we had the whole place lit up with lights, but then we couldn't sleep because it was so bright at night, and my companion was yelling at me, "Go unplug 'em, Gandy!"
It hurts sometimes when he calls me that, like I'm not an Elder, because I am, I'm an Elder in the church.
Anyways, I try to not let him get to me. I think tomorrow I'll shine his shoes to show him how much I truly love him. And then I'll swab the kitchen floors and make his breakfast just the way he wants it.
He has me make his breakfast almost every morning. He tells me its making me a good missionary. And then he has me go out and get the morning paper, and then to tie his shoes, make his bed, brush his teeth, and lay out his clothes. He told me that's just what Jesus did, and I want to be just like Jesus, so I'll do it. I'll do it.
Anyways, Merry Christmas!!! And don't forget the reason for the season. And don't forget to write your favorite missionary!!
Latest Adventures
One day we were tracting and we went to a door and Elder Rogers (my new companion) kinda froze and I was like knock on the door and he said look at the sticker on the door, then I looked and it said "NO RELIGIOUS SOLICITATIONS AT ANY TIME".
It was funny to see something like that, but we did knock anyway. We just had a district meeting yesturday and I had to train on patience. But I wasn't going to let some stupid little sign stop my brothers and sisters from getting the ONLY true and living church. It's alive. The church is Alive PEOPLE!!
You know that one show, I saw it along time ago on some cable channel, but there were these guys in space, and they were there in space, and the space ship was ALIVE! I think the spaceship's name was Hal. It would always say, "Hal, what are you doing?" and stuff.
So, yeah, the church is just alive and it's just like that spaceship. So when we don't do what the church says, it will say something like, "Elder Gandy, why aren't you paying your tithing?" or "Elder Gandy, what you doing? Why don't you go to my church?"
That's so true, I know it is. The church is alive and in charge.
Then today for p-day we are going to the TEMPLE YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA. We are really excited. We had 3 team-up, which are when we go with our District Leader or Zone Leader and then we also went with the APs.
Life is so good hear in the mission field. So full of opportunities to share the most important thing on earth, my testimony.
It was funny to see something like that, but we did knock anyway. We just had a district meeting yesturday and I had to train on patience. But I wasn't going to let some stupid little sign stop my brothers and sisters from getting the ONLY true and living church. It's alive. The church is Alive PEOPLE!!
You know that one show, I saw it along time ago on some cable channel, but there were these guys in space, and they were there in space, and the space ship was ALIVE! I think the spaceship's name was Hal. It would always say, "Hal, what are you doing?" and stuff.
So, yeah, the church is just alive and it's just like that spaceship. So when we don't do what the church says, it will say something like, "Elder Gandy, why aren't you paying your tithing?" or "Elder Gandy, what you doing? Why don't you go to my church?"
That's so true, I know it is. The church is alive and in charge.
Then today for p-day we are going to the TEMPLE YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA. We are really excited. We had 3 team-up, which are when we go with our District Leader or Zone Leader and then we also went with the APs.
Life is so good hear in the mission field. So full of opportunities to share the most important thing on earth, my testimony.
P-day journal entry
Ok... so last Saturday was Janet's baptism (she's another super spiritual 8 year old) and well... It was just amazing. Afterwards Elder Rogers and I were just feeling pumped and we headed off to an appointment with a university professor (which normal scare me to death).
But yeah... This appointment turned out to be AMAZING! We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and praying to know. Well... as my companion went to commit him, he commited himself. He saw the amazing possibilities that could come from praying and that we gave him what, as he called it, could be, the answer to all of his questions. Yeah for the spiritual boost of baptism and just totally prepared people!!
It was awesome.
Then... because I felt prompted by the Spirit, I started to share my experience of praying in the woods behind my father's house.
I was struggling with finding out about God and if he was real or not, and if the church was really, really, really true or not.
As I walked back into the deep woods... behind my dad's place, I found a quiet spot and got on my knees. I started praying really, really hard and then, as I sat there in a stupor of prayer, something happened. I was surrounded by darkness. And it smelled. It smelled bad.
My knees started getting wet, and as I reached down to feel them, they were covered in something. I slid my finger and scooped up some of the goop on my knees. I first smelt it as I put my finger close to my nose, and then I put it my finger in my mouth to make sure my hunches were correct.
And they were.
I was knee deep in the overflow of my dad's septic tank. The septic tank is where all the crap and filth go when we flush the toilets in our house. I realized that the goop on my knees was crap. Crap from the overflow.
And so... it was really a spiritual experience, but I did learn a valuable lesson: don't kneel where the sun don't shine.
In the name of my Jesus H. Christ. Amen.
But yeah... This appointment turned out to be AMAZING! We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and praying to know. Well... as my companion went to commit him, he commited himself. He saw the amazing possibilities that could come from praying and that we gave him what, as he called it, could be, the answer to all of his questions. Yeah for the spiritual boost of baptism and just totally prepared people!!
It was awesome.
Then... because I felt prompted by the Spirit, I started to share my experience of praying in the woods behind my father's house.
I was struggling with finding out about God and if he was real or not, and if the church was really, really, really true or not.
As I walked back into the deep woods... behind my dad's place, I found a quiet spot and got on my knees. I started praying really, really hard and then, as I sat there in a stupor of prayer, something happened. I was surrounded by darkness. And it smelled. It smelled bad.
My knees started getting wet, and as I reached down to feel them, they were covered in something. I slid my finger and scooped up some of the goop on my knees. I first smelt it as I put my finger close to my nose, and then I put it my finger in my mouth to make sure my hunches were correct.
And they were.
I was knee deep in the overflow of my dad's septic tank. The septic tank is where all the crap and filth go when we flush the toilets in our house. I realized that the goop on my knees was crap. Crap from the overflow.
And so... it was really a spiritual experience, but I did learn a valuable lesson: don't kneel where the sun don't shine.
In the name of my Jesus H. Christ. Amen.
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