3/13/17

3-7-17
This morning, we did some service for a member of the bishopric who is
Bro. Contini. He's the guy we bought my mission bike from! We cut down
a few bushes and bagged some leaves for him. The weather is perfect
for yard work today! We had three appointments cancel today, so we
went into finding mode for the day.

3-8-17
We had Zone Conference this morning which turned out really well! E.
Volmar and I had to give a 45 minute training on weekly planning and
implementing a change in that for our mission. After that, we did some
finding in our area and had to go back to the church to take down
everything that we set up for the conference. Then, we went with the
AP's apartment and had dinner with them.

3-9-17
This morning, we all woke up early this morning to go play basketball
at the church. It was fun and always a good exercise. We came back to
the apartment to have our studies and then, went to a member's home
(Atkinsons) to do some yard work. E. Volmar raked the yard while I was
removing small bush & tree roots. Then, we bagged all of the leaves
up. They were very happy that all of that got done! We grabbed some
lunch and then, started our weekly planning session. We did it a day
early because we are going on exchanges tomorrow and we are
supervising their weekly planning session. We had an appointment to
see a recent convert and her boyfriend who is an investigator. It went
really well and they're planning on coming to church on Sunday. We
went over a little bit of the Restoration again and figured out his
intentions behind wanting to find out if this is the path he needs to
take.
We had an appointment with Patrice after that, but she wasn't there.
Her mom was there this time though, so we shared the Restoration with
her.

3-10-17
We had exchanges with one of the DLs and his comp today. We went to
their weekly planning session before exchanging since we changed the
planning steps as a mission. We did to make sure that it was done
correctly aligning with what we trained about. We figured that if the
DLs know, then they can help train their district on how to correctly
do it. I stayed in Lake Murray with E. Beck who is the DL's comp. He
came out with E. Winn & E. Oliver. We had some really good talks while
we were out knocking doors. After that, we went to their ball night at
their church building.

3-11-17
It was one of those really slow days today. We finished up exchanges
and I went back to West Columbia. We did some finding all day and met
some cool people! Although it, we did a lot of talking with doors
instead. Other than that, I don't have too much to talk about today.
The nice thing is that even though nothing really happened, we still
have fun just bein zealous missionaries. Haha we get along really
well, so that helps a lot.

3-12-17
The craziest thing happened this morning... We went outside to go to
church this morning and it was SNOWING!? It was snowing in SC... It
went on for a little while, but none of it stuck. It melted when it
hit the ground. This sacrament meeting was very powerful. The talks
given were centered around Christ and the Atonement. After that, we
taught Gospel Pinciples which was on Ch. 1 (Our Heavenly Father) and
that went well. We headed home after ward council, got some lunch and
made plans for the day. We had a lesson with a lady named, Ina who was
a Bible referral from awhile back. We had a powerful lesson with her
about the BoM and put her on date for baptism! She is planning to come
to church next Sunday. She is truly seeking and said that she feels
there is a void that she needs to fill that other churches haven't. It
was funny though, because we were talking about the BoM and the
Nephites & Lamanites. She was having the hardest time pronouncing
those even after helping her. She at one point said; "the nipplites"
and I almost lost it! After the day was over, we went to the mission
office and chilled with the APs. We are staying overnight with them
and spending pday with them tomorrow!

-Elder Mitchell

3/10/17

Sister Basset:

"Sister Mitchell, this is sister bassett. Thought you might enjoy this photo of elder Mitchell. I'm excited that is he not only back in our zone but he is actually my zone leader!  I was disappointed to miss our first zone conference with him but heard he did a good job.  I tangled with some poison ivy, caught a cold and somehow was over over by a truck in the middle of the night. No evidence of tire marks but my body sure felt like that is what happened. This was taken when elder Stevenson was here and I was able to visit with some of my favorite missionaries whom I hadn't seen for awhile. It is a real joy working with these young missionaries."

2/20/17

Hi there! I am one of the sisters who served in Blythewood with your son. I took lots of photos at his surprise party awhile back and was sure you'd want to see them, so I got your email from him so I could share them with you. He has done a lot of really good work here and you should be very proud! I hope you enjoy these photos!
Emily Pew

2/20/17

2-14-17
DDM was this morning and there were some really good trainings given.
I had Sis. Pew train on the example of angelic missionaries that
Christ and his apostles were. I asked E. Oliver to train on becoming a
more persuasive teacher. Then, I trained on trusting in the Lord's
ways and how to better align our will with His. I used excerpts from
the talk "Willing to Submit " by Neal A. Maxwell in April 1985. After
DDM, we went on exchanges with the ZLs. Elder Heimuli came here with
me in Blythewood and we were able to meet with some neat people. We
were also, able to see Lynda and Ruben that evening. E. Heimuli was
just baffled at how well they are progressing! Ruben talked about how
he wants to get baptized and eventually, marry Sis. Reynolds in the
temple!

2-15-17
We did service for SBP today which was basically, all day long. We
helped sand down some walls and painted the with a primer. We went to
a ghetto burger joint and it was surprisingly, really good and
affordable! After we got back from our service and got all cleaned up,
we went to the Dobbs to have some Bojangle's and Lynda was there. We
had another good lesson with her and talked about her getting her
patriarchal blessing! She texted the bishop that night to get
interviewed for that.

2-16-17
Thus morning, we planned to do some service for an older less active
man who's pipe got clogged up, but he wouldn't answer his phone/door.
We still had some service planned for Sis. Jensen, so we went and did
that. We helped he move a bunch of stuff out of a storage unit to
their house. One of those things happened to be a wagon wheel which
wouldn't fit in her van or dad's car. We were not going to take a
whole nother trip just to get the stupid thing, so we got creative and
put it on our bike rack! We only had to go up the road a few miles, so
we drove cautiously. We got it there all in one peace and helped her
unload everything else. Sis. De La Rosa invited us over for dinner
tonight. When we got there, the Sisters were there as well because
they were invited. Dinner went well and she talked our ears off!

2-17-17
This morning, we got a phone call and it was from President Turner. He
was calling to talk to me about transfers coming up... He has asked me
to be a Zone Leader for West Columbia, so it looks like I'm going back
over to the other side of the river! That's right where I was at my
last area in Congaree. That was pretty nerve-racking to hear that, but
I will be with Elder Brian who was in Ridgeway when I got here and
he's a dope farmboy from UT. We got along really well when he was
here, so that was kind of a relief to hear I'm with him. We had some
Mormon.org time and tidied up our apartment for inspections today.
Those went well and they didn't have anything to complain to us about!
After that, we had weekly planning which went really well! We set up
some times to visit people that I want to say goodbye to. At the end
of the night, we went over to Eric's to eat dinner with him, the
Sisters, Sis. Emerson (Lynda), Sis. Reynolds & Ruben and the Ridgeway
Elders. That went very well and they were all sad to hear that I will
be leaving next week. It was funny, because while we were there, Ruben
approached us and said that he heard that there are some courses that
he has to take before baptism and that he would like to start on them.
Haha, he was pleased to hear that we've already started them with him!
Sister Reynolds also, said that bishop called her and asked if an Area
70 could come and visit them in their home! She was so excited to tell
us that news. It's really neat because she is less active and has been
coming back to church since the beginning of the year with Ruben.

2-18-17
It was a really good day today! We had ward coordination this morning
which ended went well. After that, Lamping and I grabbed some lunch at
Applebee's. After that, we visited Tammy so that I could say goodbye
to them and talked to her for a little while. Then, we visited the
Hill's to do the same thing and they were eager to see us. They were
also, glad that we were able to stop by. At that time, we headed to
the apartment so that I could do a little bit of packing until we
headed to the adult session of Stake Conference. We went to Stake
Conference and got to listen to Elder Alba from the Area Seventy. He
gave such a great talk! Ruben went there and came up to us to talk. He
told us about Elder Alba coming to visit the house. He got pretty
emotional and teared up while he was saying that it was amazing to
hear a man called of God in that "hierarchy " to tell him that he sees
a lot of good in him and that he knows the Lord is happy with him. We
seconded that notion. Elder Oliver came up to me and said that there
is this couple that have a son in the Wichita, KS mission and they
want to meet me. I went up to them and talked to them for a little
bit. Their son (Elder Campbell) was serving in Burlington, KS and is
now in COLBY, KS!? Grandma and Papa were just talking about him in
their email to me. They are from the Elgin ward which is right next to
Blythewood, so I thought that was really neat!

2-19-17
Stake Conference was today and it was so good! There were some great
talks given -especially, by Elder Alba. After church, the Sisters had
a pass of lesson with us with a guy they've been working with named
Michael. Then, Marshall Walker who has been going out teaching with us
quite a bit just received the Melchizidek Priesthood and we got to sit
in for that. We got back from church and went over to the Bishop's
house for dinner. We ate some pretty dank BBQ that reminded me of
home! Ruben and Sis. Reynolds came over there as well! We had a good
visit with them. After that, the we followed behind the Sisters and
went to the Hunter's to say goodbye. Then, we went to visit Lynda so
that I could say goodbye. She has been really sad that I'm leaving,
but is excited for me to move onto the next chapter. We talked to her
about her reading and she has read a ton lately. She is already in
Alma 25 and loves every bit of it!

-Elder Mitchell

2/13/17

2-7-17

Last night, we went to visit Lynda and shared a message with her. She is doing so well! She's already in 2 Nephi in her scripture study and she called bishop to set up a time to meet with him about going to the temple!

Today, we helped Cindy who is an investigator of ours move a couch. She bought one from her friend that we went to go help her move onto her trailer. Then, we went over to her house to help move it into her living room. We noticed that she had some reading material from the Jehovah's Witnesses from stopping by, so we snagged it without her noticing. Haha she doesn't need to be reading that stuff anyway! Later this evening, we met with Ruben and brought Bro. Gallahar with us. It was a great visit and Sis. Reynolds even fed us dinner! We talked a little bit of the organization of the church and the BoM.

2-8-17

We got to start my birthday off by doing service for someone in Columbia with SBP. We did some more mold remediation at another house. We got all suited up in that gear again. After we got back from the service, we went on exchanges with the Ridgeway Elders. We all stayed in Blythewood and just worked there. Lamping & Oliver went to an appointment we had scheduled while Dean and I knocked around and found two new investigators! We set return appointments with them to come back. Later on that night, we went to Oliver to share a message with them. Little did I know... It was a planned surprise party for me. A lot of people showed up -including Lynda! The sister brought my favorite types of wings to the party to cater. Eric cooked me up a New York cheesecake! It was so much fun to have everyone together. I will always remember this birthday and the people I got to spend it with.

2-9-17

We continued our exchanges today, except I went with Oliver today. It was a long day since we weren't able to catch anyone at home. We did quite a bit of knocking as well. One neat experience that happened today was that we decided to go eat lunch at Panda Express. Firstly, we were walking in the parking lot and we saw a big deisel truck by the front door. The back tailgate had a sticker with writing on it in cursive saying; "Just because there's smoke, it don't mean it's Broke." I was thinking that, that was pretty odd that someone would put that on their truck... Haha but funny! We walked in the doors and a less active was there! Bro. Dove was right in front of us ordering food. We went up to say hi and he was happy to see us. He bought our lunch and saved a seat to sit by him. We had a good visit with him and was just casual. When we went to leave, he got in that truck in the parking lot and drove off. Haha, he is such a funny guy and even funnier that it was his truck we were joking about! Good thing we didn't say anything to him about it! Later this evening, we went to choir practice since Lynda cancelled our appointment with her due to illness. Lamping and Dean were there as well! After that, we finished up exchanges and got ready for tomorrow.

2-10-17

We got up and got ready for ZTM this morning which went really well! They trained on Obedience and being more of accepting to change. After ZTM, we went to Lizard Thicket to have some good southern cookin'! After we ate, we came back and stopped by a guy we had an appointment with, but he wasn't home. We stopped by a few others on our way back with no luck. We ended the night with a productive weekly planning session.

2-11-17

This morning, we helped the Garbe's move into their new house which took a good 20mknutes with just three of us. They don't have very many of their belongings since they're all out in Colorado. They took out to eat at Bojangle's afterwards which was good as always! We got back to the apartment and we had about 30min until we had to go meet Bro. Moon to ride with him to go help clean the church. We got there and the Sisters were there as well. They brought an investigator they have who is on date for baptism next weekend! They have him a tour of the church and then, helped us all clean the church. We made quick work of cleaning and headed back to the apartment. We had an appointment with Lynda which ended up really well. We talked about how God will give/allow trials to help us grow and learn from them. She is struggling with a lot of night terrors, so we helped her understand why she may be going through them. We gave her a blessing before we left to help with them.

2-12-17

Church was interesting today! We had a "musical sacrament" where a member from each quorum and auxiliary goes up and shares their testimony along with their favorite hymn and why it is their favorite. After that, we would sing the hymn that they shared. About seven people went up to do that and it was really spiritual! After that, I taught Gospel Pinciples today which turned out well. We had a big turnout that came to class today. We overheard Ruben talking to Bishop about him wanting to get baptized. He also, expressed that he wants to get married with Debbie in the temple! It was so exciting to hear that. He is such a great guy and is very sincere. I can't wait until he is able to eventually, get to that point!

Lynda grabbed us after church and told us that she met with bishop and is working on getting her limited-use temple recommend. She said that the bishop is going to assign her as a primary teacher! She's was so excited for that because she said that she really wanted to work with kids. I am so happy for her and the progress she has made.

 

-Elder Mitchell

 

 

1/25/17

Dear Reed
1-25-17
I thought you would like to see this text and mine.

"Hello, my name is Lynda. This Saturday morning I am to be baptized because of your precious son, Elder Mitchell :) I moved here almost three months ago and a week after I had moved in I heard a knocking on my door. Heavenly Father has shown me His love and redeeming Grace through these missionaries. They have shown me patience, love, and understanding

As they have taught me about the Atonement and Repentance and Heavenly Fathers redeeming Grace! Sorry, I sent this before I was finished tying...me and technology don't mix well! Lol!  Anyways, I can't begin to express my gratitude to your sons, Elder Mitchell and Elder Lamping, and to you, for your prayers and encouragement!

You have amazing sons!! I will remember them always and I pray that Heavenly Father blesses them and all of you always! I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. ️"

My response: "Thank you Lynda. Such expression of kind words makes my heart so happy. I am especially happy that you have had faith in Jesus Christ and in his healing power. He is the great physician. I love Jesus Christ and his gospel with all of my heart. It is the way to find true joy which is deeper than happiness. I love you and am thankful for the love and trust you have given my Son. I have been praying for you. I am so excited about your baptism!! Love, Sister Mitchell "

1/9/17

Fwd: Monday!

Lisa Mitchell

Begin forwarded message:

From: Reed Alton Mitchell <reed.mitchell@myldsmail.net>
Date: January 9, 2017 at 3:20:02 PM CST
To: Mom <lisa.mitchell.423@gmail.com>, Dad <tmitchell@communitybanktopeka.com>
Subject: Monday!

Mom and Dad-
How y'all doing?! My new suit fits really well! We had a mission-wide
conference with L. Whitney Clayton and Elder Gary E. Stevenson. It was
such an amazing experience. I got to shake their hands and talk to
them a little bit. So how are you liking the .22 mag rifle? Does it
have a little bit of a kick to it? That's very surprising to hear
about Indy beating Butler and Hutch! Firing that coach was probably
the best thing they've done. That Black positions coach from Indy
(Coach Lolar) is the head coach at Bethel and he emailed me asking me
to play for them when I get back. I want to go to school out in Utah
somewhere though. Our ZLs are okay. Sorry, we are busy playing
basketball with a lot of my friends from West Columbia. I hope y'all
have a great week! I love you very much. ️

1-3-17
We went on exchanges with the Ridgeway Elders today and I stayed in
Blythewood with E. Dean. He has only been out for about 5-6 weeks, so
he is still a greenie! We tried by quite a bit of people today. We
were able to meet with the Riggs who are less active. Later that
evening, we met with another less active named; Horace Branham. He is
an older guy who has cancer and has been going through a lot of health
issues lately. We were able to teach his daughter who isn't a member a
little bit.

1-4-17
We finished up exchanges today, so we went up to Ridgeway to switch
back. Transfers were today, so Sis. Hansen is training a new Sister in
Blythewood. Her name is Sis. Pew. When we got back, we met with Lynda
and had a really good lesson about the Word of Wisdom. She smokes,
drinks coffee & tea and drinks alcohol. We have been working with her
about the alcohol lately. She went a whole week without drinking last
week, but plans to tonight. She said she has three beers in the
fridge, so before we left we asked for her to give them to us. Haha it
was hard for her, but she ended up doing it after we prayed about it.
We knew that if she wasn't willing to give them up now, then she might
not ever. Later tonight, we had ward Coordination with Bro. Taylor
which went well! We got to meet Sister Pew.

1-5-17
We were knocking by some less actives when Tammy (less active) called
us and asked us to come over. It sounded like she had been crying...
we went over there and she had a really rough day and everything had
just piled up on her. We were the first she thought she'd call. We
went over there and shared some scriptures and a video that we thought
would help. She was very thankful that we were able to come by and
share those things with her. We bore testimony and shared experiences
to relate. After dinner, we met with Oliver and Ana. We brought a
recent convert over named Eric, which they got along really well. We
talked about tithing and fast offering which went well! Oliver said
that he made a promise with God that he would pay a full tithe from
now on and work towards receiving the priesthood. We committed him and
Ana to fast this Sunday for our fast Sunday.

1-6-17
We had Weekly Planning for next week today which went well. It usually
takes a few hours, so that was our morning. Later on, we met with
Lynda and brought Bro. Walker with us. She was upset about some legal
situations with his sister and mother passing.
Afterwards, Bro. Walker had us over for dinner and had some cheesy
potatoes and pork roast! We had to be back to our apartment, Elders
from the Greenville East zone came down early for the mission
conference tomorrow because it's supposed to snow in the morning.

1-7-17
This morning, we got up in the morning to go to a mission-wide
conference in West Columbia. We got to see Elder McArthur and L.
Whitney Clayton from the seventy there along with Elder Gary E.
Stevenson from the quorum of the twelve! The Temple President for the
Columbia temple was there as well. I got to go up and shake all of
their hands and talk to them which was a neat experience. They all
gave talks after Sister and President bore their testimonies. Their
talks were so good! I was nourished and edified. ️ Elder Stevenson
talked about following urgent promptings urgently and went over our
purpose as missionaries. I got to see so many of my close friends
because the whole mission was there! I got to see Elders Winn, Staley,
Rose, Gerardo, Casey, Stapley, Overson, Hartman, Michaelis, Volmar,
Brian, Wille, Holt and Jacobsen! E. Staley came up to me and said that
Tammy Barefoot from Hartsville got the letter I wrote her about a
month ago bearing my testimony to her. He said that while she was
telling him about it, she started crying and he said that I had a
really big impact on her life while I was there. She is still active
in the church and it meant so much to hear that from him. Also, it
didn't snow any...

1-8-17
This morning during studies, we got a text from Lynda saying she had a
rough morning and didn't feel like coming to church. Her mom recently,
passed away and today was her mom's birthday. She was part of my fast
today. We went over to her house before Ward Council and talked about
how coming to church will help her immensely. We promised her that she
will feel peace as she goes. She agreed to still go, so we told her
ride that she will still go. We ended up having three investigators at
sacrament this week! The boyfriend of a less active came and brought
her. We have been working with both of them. It was fast and testimony
meeting and people bore some powerful testimonies.
After church, Lynda came up and said that we are the most persistent
people we've ever met. Haha, but she said that she is glad she came!
On our war home, we stopped by Tammy who is a less active and talked
to her for a little while and talked about having family prayer with
her family. Then, we went over to Bishop Lenker's house to have dinner
and break our fasts. He invited us and Lynda over along with some of
his family members. Lynda seemed to really enjoy it and be with people
from the church. Sis. Lenker's mom shared her conversion story with
Lynda. So go this... Bishop's dad is the temple president of the
Columbia temple and he was there as well! We had dinner with him and
talked to him for awhile. He talked to Lynda about the BoM and bore
powerful testimony of it. That was a super rad experience and Lynda
seemed to really enjoy herself!
We surpassed the Standards of Excellence in member presents again this
week! It was very exciting to get 9 again. It was hard work, but
definitely was the Lord blessing us. The Ridgeway Elders in the
District hit them as well! Blythewood Sisters hit them last week with
us, so the District is doing so well right now. It motivates me to do
even better and is so exciting to labor in the Lord's vineyard!

The whole mission! I am in the front row

Inbox	x
Lisa Mitchell <lisa.mitchell.423@gmail.com>	Jan 9
to Dane, me