December 9, 2013

At the end of Joseph Smith history it records the account of Oliver Cowdrey on what it was like to translate the Book of Mormon. It open with "These were days never to be forgotten.." I had an amazing privilege to have a day like that this week.

 This week we had what in our mission is called Christmas conference, it is kind of like a big zone conference with half the mission, or it was. This year we had to get Christmas conference approved through the area 70, fortunately we got to do it this year, with a caveat, the area 70 asked that rather than doing half the mission on one day and half the mission the other day we do Christmas conference for the entire mission on one day. This is what happened that most remarkable of days.....

We began the long hour and a half drive early at 7:05 in the morning in order to get to Kirtland on time. An hour, several legally gray driving maneuvers, and a scream or two from the other missionaries in the car that weren't so used to a creative Utah way of driving, we arrived in the parking lot of the Community of Christ visitors center across the road from the Kirtland Temple. According to the instructions we had received from our zone leaders we all gathered in front of the Kirtland temple and waited for everyone to arrive. At approximately 9:30 the Assistants to the President opened up the door to the Kirtland temple and asked as everyone proceeded in that they would please maintain silence and study D&C 110, 109, and 137 as we waited for everyone to come in. 

It was truly an awe inspiring experience to sit in the Kirtland temple and read what occurred there as I was able to stare at the exact spot where Jesus Christ appeared and accepted the Kirtland temple as his house.

As the conference began we were notified that the area 70 of our area was present and presiding additionally that 3 of the stake presidents in our mission were present as well and would be addressing us. The opening hymn that we sang to begin the Christmas conference was The Spirit of God. Everything that occurred following could not be adequately be described by the written word nor the tongue convey the spirit that was in that sacred shrine wherein the priesthood keys of this last great dispensation were restored. 

 

We had the opportunity to hear the various stake presidents testify of the Saviour and Joseph Smith, we were instructed by our mission president, and we had the wonderful opportunity to here from a member of the 70 Elder Seltin bear his testimony that he knows with 100% certainty that the members of the Quorum of the Twelve are guided and directed by Jesus Christ and that this church is driven and captained by the Lord. Truly one of the greatest difficulties presented by the Gospel is the challenge of trying to express even a particle of what happens when one has a spiritual experience. 

The Kirtland Temple session of Christmas conference was closed as over 200 full time missionaries sang the Ohio Cleveland Mission song, and proclaimed loudly that we have been called to serve in the place where Christ our Saviour has shown his face. 

I know with absolute certainty that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he is directing this great latter day work of bringing all nations kindreds, tongues and people to a knowledge of their Redeemer and preparing this earth for his second coming which will not be as a humble babe in a manager, but rather with the armies and hosts of heaven as the Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and he shall reign forever and ever in glory and splendor with all those who will turn to him and allow him to make our burdens lights. I bear testimony that lasting peace and joy can only be found as we turn our hearts and wills over to the Saviour of all mankind, trust in his redeeming love, and try his works to do.

The Report of Elder Poe

December 2, 2013

This week was Thanksgiving, which means around here in Ohio it turns into annual, be too busy season. 

 This week was a little bit sparse in setting up appointments, because apparently if you have family coming into town Thursday for Thanksgiving, or you are leaving the day after thanksgiving that suddenly means you can't meet with missionaries for the entire week. It is actually quite puzzling that people can't find an hour in an entire week to discuss the Being who gave us everything we have, and continues to grant us the breath of life from day to day.

 In fact with the onrushing tidal wave of holiday business moving towards us like a screaming mountain of crazy it has caused me to seriously reflect on the purpose of this life and why we are, and more importantly what we are doing to fulfill this purpose.

 A purpose gives something meaning a purpose is the reason something exists, for example the purpose of a knife is to cut, the purpose of a missionary is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in the Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end". the purpose of a salad shooter is too dice salads. If something is no longer fulfilling it's purpose than it doesn't have a reason for existing, if a knife doesn't cut we throw it away, if a missionary doesn't fulfill his purpose he should get sent home, if a salad shooter doesn't slice salad we spend 30 years trying to fight with customer support services to get a new one since it is still under warranty.

 In the same way, we that have accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our hearts understand that we too have a purpose in the this life which is to become closer and closer to our Saviour and Our Loving Father in Heaven through changing ourselves to become like them by drawing on the power of the Atonement. Do we ever stop to think if what we are doing is helping us carry out our purpose in life. There are two people we are working with that really illustrate what happens when we don't seek to carry out our purpose. One Brother is currently living alone, he has recently overcome a second bout of cancer, and is divorced with one daughter and grandson who he hardly ever sees, despite working with this brother for three months he still has had difficulty giving up things in his life that are preventing him from coming back to Christ and coming to church, this brother continues to drift from day to day without doing much in his life, and just existing really. Then there is another sister we are working with who has a beautiful family and two wonderful little girls that is always on the go. Her daughters are well on their way to becoming olympic swimmers, she volunteers at the YMCA and works as a part time teacher, and a million other things. This sister is constantly on the go and constantly moving, but she too has trouble making it to church because of all she is involved in. She is constantly moving but often laterally. Both of these individuals are wonderful beloved children of God that have incredible potential but neither of them are moving forward in life because they aren't helping fulfill their purpose. At the last day when all things that we have done are brought forth and we give a final accounting of what we did with this life what will be able to say we did? Will we be able to say we have carried out our purpose? 

Luckily a knife that doesn't cut can be sharpened, and missionary that doesn't work can repent, and a salad shooter that doesn't slice can be replaced under warranty that will break down in the exact same amount of time as that last one.

That is the good news of this holiday season, is that because 2000 years ago a young babe was born in a stable, we can put behind us our past mistakes and our missed opportunities and become a sharpened knife, a repentant missionary, even the miracle of a fixed salad shooter. That is the miracle of the Atonement and the meaning of this holiday season that is the purpose of Christmas to turn us to Christ and help us understand again what our purpose is.

I know that Jesus Christ was born 2000 years ago in a lowly stable, that he descended from celestial worlds on high to ransom mankind, but of even greater worth I know that his life did not end 33 years after his birth but that he still lives today that he broke the bands of death and hell and through him and only on his name can we find our purpose, salvation, and happiness every other avenue will falter in the end will not make up the difference at the final accounting, but he already paid the price if we will just accept his offer. 

Introducing Preparing for a mission:
We are adding a new section to the Elder Poe report for those who will soon be embarking on a full time mission called Preparing for a mission. Today we would like to focus on the first question in preparing to serve a mission, which is. Should I serve a mission. If you can respond yes to the following two questions then you should definitely serve a mission.

1. Are you a young man between the ages of 18-27, who holds the priesthood?

2. Are you currently worthy, or willing to repent and become worthy to serve a mission? 

If you can answer yes to both those questions then you should serve a mission. The prophet has commanded you to, and when you entered the waters of baptism you covenanted to follow the commandments of God, that is one of them. 

The Report of Elder Hunter Poe

November 25, 2013

This week was a great week in the New Castle West area, of this little corner of the Ohio Cleaveland Mission.

 

 Monday we had an awesome suprise, of having a wonderful sister in the ward to feed us, and she invited her non member daughter and son in law to the dinner as well and so we had a powerful opportunity to bear testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it can do in our lives, I wish I could say that following that they both wanted to investigate but alas twas not to be so at this time; however God's plan is to work as it will.

 On Wendesday morning we had a second lesson with one of our investigators, Phil, who is the husband and father of a returning member family. Before the lesson I was quite nervous for no apparent reason about the lesson, at first the lesson started kinda rough and didn't feel like it was flowing real well. I would llike to say that about half way in everything just started flowing real smooth and nice but to be honest the entire lesson was kind of rough, however the Spirit was definintly there, and that is all us missionaries are suppossed to do is create an enviroment wherein the Spirit can testify of the truth of what we teach. 

 Fiday Elder Tollefsen and I got a wonderful lesson in sacraficing for the Gospel. As it is getting close to the end of the month Elder Tollefsen and myself have been running quite short on miles to drive around with, and so we choose to bike everywhere on Friday, unfortunatly the weather thought it would be funny to rain, all day long, and drop down to the lovely low 30's for most of the day, as I was biking the only thought that kept popping into my head though was "my pioneer anscestors don't feel sorry for me at all" so it was an excellent learning opportunity to experience what it means to sacrafice for the sake of the Gospel.

 I am very grateful to have the opportunity to serve in the Ohio Cleaveland Mission, a mission is definitley one of the greatest expereince of my life, I know with absolute certainty that God is our loving Heavenly Father that He knows each one of us perfectly and completly and loves us. I know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world and that as we seek to draw closer to Him we will find the happiness that is not dependent upon external factors or circumstance but we will be able to find a lasting joy that comes from knowing we our children of loving heavenly parents with a divine potential and an eternal destiny. I know that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is  the only church on the earth that has the fulness of the Gospel and has the priesthood authority nessecary to perform the ordinaces that are required for the Atonement to take full effect in our lives and allow us to return to our heavenly home.

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. 

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 

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