Goodbye Texas - Hello Duncan, Oklahoma

"The Lone Star District"

Checkkkk it check it out, pretty soon Austin's going to be rolling in the dough! That's pretty sweet though man, haha I'd walk into that Level one place and drop like a rag doll, passed out probably. So props to you!    Braden Sweet!  New Shoes... Good to hear that you made it through tax season Pops, and Mom another EVMCO concert is nothin for you! You got it!  Well gosh I just love you guys. 

This week has been a good week. We were able to give two blessings, and they were two really cool experiences. One was to a man, less active fella, who's wife had just left him 11 days earlier.  He called us out of the blue and said "Elders, I know I haven't been to church in 3 years, but I know that the priesthood is real, and right now I need a blessing of comfort." So Elder Owen was a boss and gave him a blessing. 

While on exchanges in Wichita Falls Central, Elder Chapman and I went and gave one of their investigators a blessing who was in the hospital as well.  I'm not gonna lie, it gave me the willies to walk through the hospital and back into the ICU unit where their investigator was.  But I made it out alive so all is well!  Also while on the exchange I got to go to a church service for a charismatic church, that a less active member went to and invited us to. I believe it's a break off or type of pentacostal church. First time I've ever been to a church other than ours, and it definitely was an experiece. They sang these Christian rock songs for about the first hour of the service (which was the most unapproved music I've ever listened to that was approved) haha annnnd then the pastor had his 30 min sermon.  And all through out that hour and half there was a ton of "Oh Jesus! Praise Jesus!" type stuff.  It was interesting however.  Because during the service, you could pick out the the pieces of restored truth that they had, and how then it would be twisted to fit the logic of man.  It totally made sense why there was a need for the restoration.  When we walked in, alllll eyes turned on us.  And they were like "why are you guys here?"  But then they welcomed us and they were the friendliest people.  No joke.  I honestly wish that I could be more like them and fellowship like they did.  Now it might be because they had a congregation of 25 so any visitors they want to keep but it doesn't matter.  They still were awesome at making everyone feel welcomed, and I did really appreciate that about coming to their service. 

The other cool thing that happened this week was Lucas R. blessed the sacrament at the servicemans group!! It was so cool to watch him be able to do that.  He did so good too!  Elder Owen blessed the bread and Lucas blessed the water, and goodness, my heart was filled with joy.  Too bad life isn't like T-VO or whatever its called where you can pause, rewind the tv, and watch it over and over again.  

And yes, Dad I guess you saw from his FB post, I am leaving Burkburnett. I debated whether or not to tell you guys this part of it or not, but I realize it'll make things not make sense in the future.  I just don't want it to seem like there's a "ladder" in the mission.  Cause there isn't.  If there was a ladder in the mission then there'd be a ladder in the Church.  And if there was a ladder in the Church then we'd all be failures if we weren't the prophet.  And that ain't gonna happen.  But I got a phone call last wednesday from President Taylor and he asked me to serve as a Zone Leader. I found out last night that I'll be going to Duncan, Oklahoma, and my new companion is going to be an Elder Zerkle. Kinda cool thing is that the Stake President of the Lawton Stake, President Peterson, goes to the Duncan ward, and his son is actually serving in the Mesa, Arizona mission!  I believe last I talked to him he said he's in the southern phoenix part of the mission, but you never know, he could always come to Montecito ward!  That would be neat.  Elder Cutler, who came out with me, also got called as a Zone Leader, and he and I will be the two "youngest" ZL's.  It's going to be a ride that's for sure.  So yes I'll be going to transfers and will be able to get the packages at the mission office.  A quick side note before I gotta run, of the 8 elders in the district, 5 of us are leaving... President Taylor decided to clean house in Texas.  Anyways, I love y'all, thank you so much for all that you do!!! Please let me know if there's ever anything that I could ever do for any of you!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE, THROUGH AND THROUGH!!!!

Elder Traasdahl

"Stand Strong"

"Texas has taught me Love"

It's so good to hear from everyone!! Goodness, I've been blessed with such a wonderful family. Well this week again it's going to be a shorter one, sorry. Don't have that much time. Conference this week though snuck up on me! I totally forgot that it was this weekend! I LOVED IT!! IT WAS SOOO GOOOOOD!!!! The Lord is speaking to us! FAMILIES are central to God's eternal purposes, and we are to treat them as such! VIRTUE is sacred. As I was watching Robert D. Hales talk during the priesthood session, I realized something. We are living the Book of Mormon right now. The world and it's people is becoming ever increasingly wicked, and the prophets are declaring repentance and obedience and a return to God's commandments.  How many talks were on obedience?  Like nearly every one in some way or another.  I loved Holland's quote too about Faith, when he said something along the lines of "When you're looking for faith and asking God for it, stand on the ground that you've already won."  I took pages and pages of notes, haha I wish that I could call you guys and talk to y'all about it for hours, but oh well!  

This last week we've had success though!  We had 3 new investigators.  We taught a guy named R., a guy named J., and a guy named B. J. seems the most promising.  He's got some awesome faith in Christ and he's interested because his sister just joined, and she used to not be religious at all.  So he's all "what is it about you Mormons?"  Hmmm, must be the truth!   Haha but oh! Lucas  just got ordained a priest yesterday! It was really cool experience. So he's doing really good.

With this apostle coming on the 20th, there will also be a member of the 70 and a member of the presiding bishopbric. So 3 general authoritites, not 1! and the meeting will only last for 1 1/2 hours.  Still awesome though. As for mail though, send any to the mission office now, because transfers are a week and half from now, and I don't know what's going to happen.  May or may not stay, I've heard both.  

My last thoughts are about something I'm realizing about leadership, and how it applies to the doctrine of Christ. And this only really all came together as I was waiting for a computer to open up to email.  As a leader, I've come to notice and have realized that you're expected to sacrifice.  There have been multiple experiences this transfer where when someone needs to draw the short end of the stick, who does everyone look to to do it? The leader.  And I've gone and done it, because it was expected.  Reflecting back on these experiences, I've at times done it with bitterness in my heart, and then I've done it with love.  As I was waiting for a computer, at first  I was bitter, because this was a re-occurance where I was only going to get a few moments to email my family, and another week to shoot off a short email.  And then I was watching the district email, and I thought of their families, and how much joy they'll have this day from the emails they'll receive from them, and the bitterness left my heart, and no longer did waiting seem a bother to me.  I could've waited all day.  And then my thoughts turned towards Christ.  And his ultimate sacrifice.  And why was he willing to pay the price for us?  Why was he willing to perform the Atonement?  Because of his love for us.  I can not comprehend the love it must've taken, but I can try to by striving to love those that I'm around.  Real leadership is about love, not the title.  Texas has taught me love.  Mom and Dad, thanks for your examples to me about sacrafice, and putting others before yourselves.  I don't know if you realize what an influence that has been on me and how I've been able to rely on that example right now in this moment of my life. Thanks for all of your love and support fam, and please let me know if I can ever do anything for you guys!

Love,

Elder Traasdahl

Pics in TX

This week Elder Traasdahl came across some crazy weather.  As you can see one side was a cloudy sky while the other side of the picture captured a sudden crazy rain storm. 

Yep, Happy Easter!

For the record, I think he was fixing the tire... not looking for easter eggs.

I'm Still Alive. All is well.

So this is going to be a short one, sorry. I had to wait back for a group of elders to get their bikes looked at by the neighborhood bike guru, and that took a good 2 hours. Sooooo bye bye email time. Sorry. And the email to Pres. took a while too.  But hey! I'm still alive! All is well. Haha loved loved loved your emails though this week! Dad, got your letter this week, that made my day. That was a super neat pic of B and Aust you sent walking by eachother. That made my day too. And you guys lost?! It was bound to happen sometime, might as well happen now and to those guys. For my week though, goodness gracious, what to share. Didn't get to do an easter egg hunt last week, our pday was shot because Elder Owen had a nose bleed for an hour so he wanted to go to an Urgent Care to get it checked out. So we did, and waited forever, and guess what the solution to the problem was? Vasaline in the nose and this handy dandy nose stopper thing. I'll send a pic home of it. 

But guess what? Elder Owen likes to cook, so we are eating good, or have been these past few weeks.  I just split the ingredients with him and he does all the work and I eat it!  Pretty nice.  This week I went on an exchange, well two actually, but one of them was with Elder Woodward in Wichita Falls Central, and during the exchange we went to this guys house and it was pretty neat because the way it worked out with our plans and all it was one of those things where just the right amount of people fell through at the right time so that we could be at his place, at the right time to catch him.  Make sense?  So we taught him half of the 1st discussion and Christ's ministry.  We invited him to be baptised and committed him to Apr. 27th!  Super awesome lesson, very spiritual.  Now I've just gotta do that in my own area!  Yeah things are still falling through.  We have set appointments and members with us, but it just doesn't want to happen for some reason.  That scrip I shared on FB though, 3 Nephi 5:13, has been a real strength to me this week.  Each time I want to throw in the "mental towel" so to speak, that puppy just starts rolling in my head like a loudspeaker till I'm in high spirits.  Heavenly Father really is trying to get me to learn something here, so I'm learning!  Haha shoot well that's about all I can think of right now that's going on.  Oh goodness almost forgot.  On Apr. 20th an Apostle is coming to our mission!!!!  Don't know which one, we won't know that till the actual day. But neat huh? I'm super stoked for that. Finished the Book of Mormon too this week! 1 time down, to infinity and beyond! Gotta run, love all y'alls!

Elder Traasdahl

His Sacred Name

Sometimes that's just the way the ball rolls!

My Main Fam. 

So good to hear from everyone! I know, I know, Texas is wonderful.  But not going to lie, I do like the Mesa, AZ weather better.  Well I only got 1 headache this last week, and that was on Saturday evening. So I almost made it an entire week without one!  And yeah mom I got the Easter package, so no worries there. 

Where to start though. I'm sure you've noticed, how over the past few weeks I haven't talked much about the work here in the Burkburnett area, and there's a reason for it. Haha theresssss not much going on.  It's been an great opportunity to exercise our faith!  We've got like 10,000 potential investigators, or at least feels like it.  More like 11, and it's been quite the struggle to turn them into new investigators.  We're out working and finding, we're just trying to make that next step to teach them! 

This last week we had 6 solid return appointments fall through on us. Sometimes though that's just the way the ball rolls!  I refuse to get discouraged however, because that's how Satan works.  If he can get us discouraged, then the battle's won for him.  Because discouragement will weaken our faith.  When we have weakened faith, or even no faith, our expectations will be lowered.  With lower expectations, naturally our effectiveness will decrease, and then our desire to do the work will be weakened, and even lost.  As that happens, we'll have greater difficulty following the spirit, which simply discourages us even more!  So this guy's not getting discouraged!!  May I quote my good friend Joseph Smith? (Found the scripture thanks to the other Elder Traasdahl) "Brethren, shall we not go on in such great a cause? Go forward, and not backward. Courage brethren, and on, on to the victory!"  We did though have a member bring a friend to church yesterday.  We went to that members home for dinner and that friend was there so we taught a mini 1st and invited the friend to read and pray about the B.o.M.   So things are happening, we've just gotta show forth our faith first!  

Anyways, other than that, this week was better on the district side of things.  President Taylor came down to our district meeting this Friday.... Youuuu could say I was slightly nervous.  Actually in all honesty I wasn't, because I came in with the mindset "hey, if he called me to serve as the district leader then he's gonna get what he asked for."  I wasn't going to put on a show or try to impress him or anything.  As the meeting started I did get slightly nervous, but as it progressed, and we finished accounting and I went into my training, I was fine, zippo hippo butterflies to quote my bro.  I gave the training on Charity, because that was something that we're lacking big time in the district-- to clue you in on the problems of the district.  And it was super neat, the spirit was really powerful in that discussion.  It softened a lot of hearts.  I wish I could've recorded that meeting and sent it to you, because every comment made tied into the lesson plan I made perfectly, and man, it was sweet.  My testimony of Charity has grown immensely.  

Moroni, when he talks about charity, lays it down in clear and simple terms.  I've realized however that those scriptures, 7:45-48 are merely words until put into action. Once put into action, one can gain a realization of the power behind the pure love of Christ.  I had the opportunity to go on a 2 day exchange with an Elder that was struggling, but didn't know it, if that makes any sense.  Through much much much prayer, or with all the energy of my heart to quote Moroni, I asked to be blessed with charity for this elder... because I'll be honest, I didn't want to try to love him, but I knew i needed to.  As we had this exchange though, my love for him grew, and at the end, because he could see that I loved him, when I asked the tough questions, (what disobedient things are keeping you from being a consecrated missionary?) he knew I wasn't asking them to judge, but was asking the questions because I was concerned for him.  There was no way in heck I would've A.) had the guts to be able to ask those questions and B.) had him understand that he needed to make some changes had it not been for the pure love of Christ.  Sooooo there's my little sermon on charity. I love it.  No pun intended.  Haha well I love you guys, thanks for your enthusiam and constant support!  Keep on living life to it's fullest! 

Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Elder Traasdahl