Hey!!!
This has been a really awesome week! I was very nervous coming into a new mission but looking at it now this is exactly what I needed. Once again who knew that the Lord would know better than me... one day I might learn. It is interesting to see the contrast between the two missions. I really don't think that one is better than the other but they are very different. Looking at the people that stayed in Portland and the people that move to Salem I find it very interesting that of those I know that stayed I don't know that they would have really thrived under President Samuelian. He doesn't focus in little details (he calls them tactics) he says that the spirit can give those to you he focuses on Vision and strategy. It is a lot like living the higher law rather than the Law of Moses.
So the 4th was very different for me this year. We had to be in our apartment by 7. I will be honest Elder Irvine and I were not happy about it at all. In Portland we could stay out til the fireworks were over (10:30ish) so it was a huge change for us. But we did as we were asked, not knowing before hand why. But it ended up being a really great night. We came in to do our weekly planning and that is when we got the phone call about extentions. So we were excited about that. Honestly at first I didn't consider it at all. So we went along and were doing our planning and we get a text from the Hawkers who live just across from the parking lot from us and it said, "Parking lot NOW!" So we went over to look out and then they started to light off fireworks. So we got to see their fireworks and be obedient all at the same time it was great!
Then Friday and Saturday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council). It was awesome! It was at the mission home in Newberg and it started at 10am on Friday moring. It was such a great day. We spent basically all day talking about culture and President and Sister Samuelian talked about the culture they had growing up and then building the cultur that they wanted when they got married. They then tied it into "marrying" the two missions and how we had the opportunity to to create the culture that we wanted. We broke down the cultures of the two missions and looked at what we liked and what had room for improvement and what we didn't want to keep. Right after that they had us go as companionships and break down a culture out of the scriptures and look at what made them successful. We then came back together and looked at what we liked from the cultures and came up with the Christ-like culture that we wanted to have as a mission. We found it interesting how the tings that we found were really just Preach My Gospel chapter 6 Christ-like Attributes. That ended about 9:30pm and we went to bed (we got to have a sleep over at the mission home). The next morning we woke up and went on a field trip. None of us knew where we were going but we were in the vans by 7:30 and we drove for about an hour and a half. We were at the beach in Pacific City. All the leadership in the mission in p-day clothes at the beach on a Saturday... that sounds obedient right?? Really though it was awesome. We went and found a secluded spot and sat down broke out our scriptures and we learned about vision and what the vision of our mission is. There is a huge rock in the ocean at pacific city and that is what the OSM logo is based off and our vision is "build upon the rock," being the rock of Chirst. The new mission motto (they didn't actually say that is waht it was but that is what we think it is) comes from D&C 6:34, "Therefore, fear not little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail." It was great! We also talked about allowing faith to overcome our fears. While we were there at the beach they had us go off alone (so that we could still see our companions) and write down our fears and then we folowed the example of the people of Ammon and we burried them deep in the sand. It was a cool experiance we threw all the paper in the hole that Presindent dug and them we filled it in. We buried our fears and left them at the beach. It was a very powerful experience.
Then on Sunday we had an awesome Faith and Miracle filled day. We had awesome lessons and really were guided by the spirit and we got really bold with people. The results were awesome! We had a lesson with some investigators. It was awesome! We ended up being over an hour late to their lesson because we were bout 40 minutes away (thats how you know that our area is huge) and we were in another lesson that was really powerful with another investigator that we are teaching at her member friends home. But we got to have a lesson about faith and overcoming our fears. The spirit was so strong and we went over the baptism interview questions with him (we didn't tell him that is what we were doing we just wanted to know where he was and we also wanted to use Mosiah 18 "what have you against being baptized?" It was interesting to see how our faith really brought the spirit and we were able to really get him to open up. He shared things with us that he said he really doesn't ever share with others. I have no doubt that he will get baptized. After the lesson she came over and shook my hand and as she did she mouthed the words, "thank you so much." She really wants him to have the same happiness that she has because of the gospel.
Okay so as some of you know I am going to try and extend. First things first please remember that I don't make the final decision. It still has to go through President Samuelian and the Mission Department. This is something that I had never considered before now but because of the mission split I get a very unique opportunity. Church policy is that you cannot go home more than 30 day before or after your original departure date. Well because of all the changes my departure date has been pushed forward by 2 weeks. So if I do a 30 day extention that will make it so that I can stay an extra transfer because it will be thirty days for the origanal departure day. I have prayed about it and feel that it would be a really good thing for me so I am going to start the process but I am not sure what the outcome will be.
I love you all!
Dustin
PS The address for the Mission office is,
700 Deborah Rd Ste 265
Newberg OR 97132
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