The highlight of Christmas Day, or course, was skyping with Ryan on his mission in Salt Lake.
His first sentence was a glance at the ocean in the ipad. He said, "Are you taunting me?"
It was great to talk to him. Here are a few highlights:
* He discovered Moroni 8 as a pattern of spiritual development early in his mission. With a study of verses 25-26, he made a continuum. "And the first fruits of
repentance is baptism; and
baptism cometh by
faith unto the
fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth
remission of sins; And the remission of sins bringeth
meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the
visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with
hope and
perfect love, which love
endureth by diligence unto
prayer, until the end shall come, when all the
saints shall dwell with God.
First, he took himself through intense study and application of "faith" and "repentance", then understanding "covenants" and "commandments". He said, "You have to fix yourself before you can fix others." He worked at understanding "humility or meekness", and has been stuck at communication with Holy Ghost for some time "because there is just so much there". He talked about how you have to take yourself through the process before you can help others and that our mission is to do that and then help others do that-- faith and repentance in order to bring others to covenant making. He talked so articulately and so confidently about this purpose and told Greg that it would be impossible to become "trunky" because he knew why he was there and had such intention.
* He spoke about the contacts program that he has his District doing. Ryan's calculative mind has figured out how many contacts it takes in order to get an investigator and how many to get a baptism. He has his companionship and his District improving their associations with every single person that they meet and counting those contacts-- LDS and non-LDS. They are seeing an increase in contacts and people in meaningful finding pools as they open their mouths with greater intention. He said that they are enjoying this new quest.
* He said that a mission is so fun and that he is so happy and feels so good. He said, "Go on a mission. It's where 19 year olds belong."
*He told the boys about a book that Grandpa Lewis had sent him for Christmas about visions of the restoration. He said that it was very faith-promoting and proved, once again, that the Church was true. He said, "Don't worry about whether the Church is true. It is without doubt." He told them never to focus on that question because it was irrelevant and distracting, "Just know, it is true, so go forward from there."
* He said that they run into two kinds of people: 1) Folks who have been exposed heavy to the Church living in Utah and are ready to be taught. 2) Strong antagonists to the Church, or apostates. He said that apostates are just folks "who have forgotten what the Spirit feels like".
* He said that each Stake in their mission has a local couple that are serving as full-time missionaries. They are the couple that works with excommunicated members who want to return. Ryan considered this couple to be their own private "helpers'. He said that they help them when needed and are always available for splits and such. He said that was one of the "pilot" things that they were doing in his mission.
* He was pleased that his stake had had a visit from Elder Nelson that past week, and then Elder Holland had spoken to the mission, too. He has had the opportunity to hear Elder Ballard as a missionary, too, and joked that he just needed two more apostles a month until his mission closed in order to meet them all. he was especially impressed with Elder Holland's "master teaching" and said that his notes from the meeting were not about substance, but copious notes on HOW he was teaching. Ryan said that he has a new love of teaching himself and has that sitting in the back of his mind, though is still committed to Computer Science at college.
* He said that he and his companion went to Taylorsville High on p-day and found my Student Body Officer picture hanging in the hall. He remembered how angry the boys all were when I had asked them to come in with me to find it several years ago, then ironically sought it out himself. Said that he hasn't met a lot of people who know me, but lots who know my younger siblings: Ryan's aunts and uncles.
* He talked Pokemon and Games with the boys and shared a funny people-connector story about a baptism he had that started off with Pokemon gaming commonality. He seemed to indicate that he loved human interaction (those are my words) these days-- loved socializing and finding commonalities in conversation and such. He seems to love people.
Anyway. It was wonderful to see Ryan and so nice to hear him talk and talk so happily and confidently. Love, love that boy. I am so well pleased in who he is becoming.
