Monday, November 18, 2013

November 18, 2013

This week was a week wherein I found myself looking much back to review and pondering my mission. 

 On April 3rd 2013 I stepped out of our big white Mormon Assault Vehicle onto the pavement of the MTC, pulled out my bags gave my mother a hug and walked into a whole new world. As I was led down the big MTC hall to where I would get my name tag I could've never imagined what was waiting for me. Now a little over 6 months later it has been amazing to see how quickly it is passing by. 
 So far I have been stationed in two different areas, in every sense of the word. From rich, white, Catholic, Strongsville, down to poor, rundown, black Youngstown it has been to me quite a strong lesson in how no matter who we are, are where we find ourselves we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father, and His Gospel will help us no matter what circumstance or background we are from.
 I have also learned much more to trust in the Lord and patiently wait for His timing and His way. The Lord has put each one of us in the exact circumstances we need to be in order for us to grow learn and come closer to Him. He will also help us to navigate right through the trials of life if we will put our trust in Him and hearken unto His counsels; if however we choose to not heed his instruction we will quickly find ourselves making much less headway in the treacherous waters of life than we would like or we should be. 
 This most recent week I have also had the opportunity to realize the difference between being baptized into the church and becoming converted. Conversion requires first having a testimony that can only be gained through the witness of the Holy Ghost after applying the principles of the Gospel, which must then be followed by consistently living that which you have gained a testimony of. Unfortunately if someone does not gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, or a living prophet they are simply baptized into the church and the often times in the long run persons simply baptized into the church become less active once the allure or storms of the world dampen the original reason for baptism. Even if the person baptized does remain active they will not be able to enjoy the full blessings of the Gospel until they do start the process of conversion. 
 I really cannot believe how fast my mission is progressing I want it to slow down it has definitely been one of the greatest experiences of my life and i never want it to end. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

11-12-13

The Elder Poe Report

This week was a bundle of hectic all rolled into one week. The first warning sign was when we realized that we would be having three exchanges in one week, which made things super interesting to begin with. For those who haven't served a mission an exchange is where two missionary companionships trade companions for the day and spend time working in a different area, it is always a bundle of fun and excitement, but can take a lot out of ya. So three in one week was way difficult. 

Although this week we saw an amazing miracle happen. This previous week was the last full week of the transfer and so I collected the final key indicators for the transfer and we had a miracle of 3 confirmations all taking place on the same last day of the transfer. It was truly amazing to see, especially in the area we are in where it hasn't been considered a place of "bountiful" soul harvesting, but within 6 weeks 3 people were baptized within one district it was amazing to see. The Lord truly will work miracles when we try our hardest. 

I am looking forward to a truly great transfer for this upcoming 5 weeks and I can't wait to see what miracles that God has in store. I know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God that was called to restore the fullness of the Gospel in these last days. I know that if we will turn to God and consecrate all that we are too him we will find that he will do much more with our life than we would ever be able to do. 

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe 

Monday, November 4, 2013

November 4, 2013

The Elder Poe Report
 
 This week was an exciting week and a very powerful lesson in the fact that God always answers prayers and always makes up the difference even when we fall short.
This week most of our appointments canceled on us which was depressing but we still had the opportunity to be instruments in the Lord's hands.
 
We have a less active member that we have been working with since my 2nd week into the area, and to understand when we first met Robert he admitted to having several different fairly serious challenges as far as going to church was concerned, and he didn't have a really strong desire to go to church, but figured someday he would get into it. Since then he has changed so much, the lessons with him have often been incredibly powerful and the Spirit has been so strong when we have met with him. Since we first met with him almost everything about him has changed he has overcome a lot of the challenges he was having with worthiness and he is moving forward so rapidly. I know the power of the Atonement in not only helping us find forgiveness but also in helping strength us and giving us the power to change who we are is real.
 
We also had a wonderful opportunity to see the missionary finding effort work in the ideal way, namely through members. There is a wonderful family in the ward, and recently they told us they had a friend that could really use the gospel in his life, and was kind of interested in the church. We set up a time to meet with him, in the member's house and we had an amazing first lesson with him. He is a really great guy, by the name of Kevin, and he seems willing and committed to finding out if the church is true, we also had the members there to teach us with him and they were able to offer amazing testimony of the principles we shared about, and helped him really feel comfortable.
 
We had one day this week that didn't go so well, most of our appointments canceled on us or flamed us, and we spent a lot of the day in not so productive tracting. As I came home I was pretty discouraged and not feeling so great. We finished planning and everything then I went to our room and started praying and talked with Heavenly Father, and told Him how I am willing to accept His timing and His will for me, even if that means being an Abinadi missionary while in the New Castle West Area, and here is the amazing thing about that night.... nothing happened, Heavenly Father let me continue to be bummed out, but the next morning I got the feeling to look at a talk by Elder Maxwell called "But for a Small Moment" that I had a copy of, as I read it, it really helped me refocus and help me understand my current situation more; however I took a lot bigger lesson from that, even though we offer up prayers and we have been promised that whatsoever thing we ask it will be given to us, it doesn't always mean that it will come in the exact way or time that we expected it to. Sometimes Heavenly Father will let our faith be tried a little bit and let us learn patience before He will give bless us with what we need, but we can always be rest assured that He always will do what is best for us eternally even if we may not be able to see it from our limited perspective of mortality. 

I know Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, He is the Lamb of God, and when we do turn to Him we can feel peace and healing. As we trust in our Heavenly Father we will find the strength to endure through all the storms of life, and we ill have the perspective to enjoy them cheerfully. I know that our choice ultimately comes down to choosing liberty and eternal life through the Great Mediator of all men or to choose captivity and death through the power of the devil. 

10/28/2013


The Elder Poe Report

These past two weeks have been a phenomenal experience in growth and in trusting the Saviour.
 
Last Monday I saw the Spirit of the Lord in action at work so strongly. First we went in with a recent convert sister, who when we met with her we had planned to go one direction with the lesson but we instead felt an impression to talk more about temples and baptisms for the dead as we did so she really opened up and started talking about how her sister never had the chance to get baptized and how she really had been feeling strongly that she has been feeling like she needed to go to the temple it was an amazing opportunity the Spirit was really strong and we could feel the love Heavenly Father has for each of His children. 

Following that appointment we had an opportunity to meet with another less active sister that we were meeting for the first time, as we met with her we started talking a little bit and then we gave the lesson we had prepared to give and everything seemed to go well the Sister seemed pretty open and receptive but not overly engaged. Then I thought I just might share one of my favorite miracles of Christ which is when he walks on water, as I shared that story and related it to everyday life the Sister got tears in her eyes and started saying this was exactly the lesson she needed to hear right now, it was an amazing experience and it was then that I realized that my idea was not mine at all but  a prompting from the Lord. It really taught me that these are the Lord's children we are working among and it has given me a strong testimony of "they were the Lord's sheep long before they were ours." Christ does know each of us personally and very perfectly and loves us more than we can ever understand.

Last Sunday we stopped by a different less active sister that had told us she really couldn't set anything up because she was too busy, and her schedule was too hectic but she relented to let us stop by in a week or so just to see how she was doing. When we got there she was just finishing cutting the grass and at first she seemed like she was ready to shoo us off because she was so "busy" but we offered our meager services to help in anyway we can and she started talking about some of the things she had to do and then she started going into how overwhelmed she had been feeling lately and started pouring out her concerns and fears and we started sharing some scriptures from the Book of Mormon with her and we could see the Spirit of the Lord touching her it was an amazing experience and wonderful opportunity to be able to act as the hands of Christ in reaching out and lifting up one of His children it is a privilege I cherish deeply and am very grateful that the Lord has provided those of us in His church for ways to be able to help others through Home and visiting teaching and missionary work. 

I know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, He is our advocate with the Father and He is the Lamb of God slain to take away the sins of the world, and that because of that He knows us each perfectly and loves us and will be there every step of the way to guide direct and uplift us. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church on earth with the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the only Church that has the necessary authority to bring the full power of the Atonement into play in the lives of the children of God, and I know that if any person feels like they need the Spirit more fully in their life, feels like their is more they want to do to come closer to the Lord, the work of salvation is the way to do so, spreading the Gospel will bring greater satisfaction into the lives of those who engage on it, than almost any other endeavor. 

The Report of Elder Poe