week 18: spreading the restored gospel of peace one door knock @ a time!!!!

Hola mifamilia,

Scripture of the week: alma 36:3.

Yes I know I am not in a Spanish speaking mission but I just like to be cool once in a while and greet you in Spanish, so come on just bear with me here.

 

Before I get into details from this week I want to bring up something that has been weighing heavy on my mind for a while but really got brought up heavy yesterday. FAMILY HISTORY WORK! The whole sacrament meeting was about it yesterday here in Lyndon, and I felt strongly that we as a family need to do much better about doing our family history. When we do this wonderful work we will receive divine help from the other side, both spiritual and temporal, we cannot make it through this crazy world without our family backing us up from the other side, so please do all you can to do some more family history work.

 

So this week was a bit of a crazy week. A good week but also a crazy one. I’ll start with Tuesday. We were visiting a less active family and I felt very prompted to flat out ask if the book of Mormon is true, I totally expected them to say no. But he answered with a yes, and then proceeded to tell us that it is true but he also went off on how bad of a person the prophet Joseph was. And if you know elder Zilles you know that you DO NOT dis on Joseph smith, because we are tight. So needless to say I was a bit fired up about that one. But I held my tongue and just bore testimony and then we left.
A few minutes later we got a call from sister Gregory telling us that brother Taylor had passed away. I don’t know if I ever told you anything about ken, but he was an amazing guy that lives on the new hamp side so I haven’t seen him in a while, but elder chen and I used to visit him all the time, we got to be very close to him. So that just added to my bad mood even more.

Then we went and knocked a door and the lady pulled the typical "o we are Christian" which usually means they don’t believe Mormons are Christians and I hate hearing that it drives me crazy. so me being the weak man that I am got a bit angry and said in not a very nice tone "oh we are Christians as well, our name is the church of JESUS CHRIST, you can’t get much more Christian than that" Yeah I know I shouldn’t have gotten short with her but I did, but hey good learning experience.

 

Thursday not much happened but that is when we heard about the whole Boston ordeal. We are very sheltered as missionaries and don’t hear about most of the news. sounds like quite the event.

Friday we ate with the Gorham’s, and I got a call and was asked to speak at brother Taylors funeral. I of course have never spoken at a funeral, and I never imagined it would be something I would do while on my mission.

Saturday was the funeral, I prepared a talk on the plan of salvation. Bishop told me that the spirit I brought in was incredible. I continually have to remind myself that the work I do is not me, it is the lord only working through me. As hard as it is to say, great things are going to come from brother Taylor passing away, his one son who lives around here want the sister missionaries to come over and talk with his family some more about the plan of salvation. So once again the lord works in mysterious ways.

Sunday was a good day as usual, I got to pass the sacrament, non of our deacons were there for some reason, so on the deacons bench we had brother Gregory, me a teacher and then the two dunoskovic brothers who are about my size, let’s just say deacons fit on the bench better than we did it would have been a pretty great picture to see us all squeezed in there in our suits. I was wearing my purple tie(I got my ties thanks so much for sending them and the craisins, although he didn’t say it I’m sure elder g was grateful for the snickers) anyways I was wearing my purple tie and I passed to the Peterson family and there little girl goes elder Zilles likes purple just like I do haha, I love that family. Brother Gregory asked me to teach him how to bless the sacrament and bless it with him next week. In priesthood we had a testimony meeting and all shared how we came to know of the truth we now know it was very neat to hear all of the different stories.

Sunday night we made the long trip to the huge town of Walden Vermont. Main street of Walden is a dirt road so that tells you how big it is. But we had an awesome lesson with our second new investigator for the week. She is married to  a less active member, he is 56 and has not been to church since he was 13. We taught them at his parents house, I will refer to the parents as the sr's We have in the ward the sr's the jr's and hopefully soon . It’s just a wonderful family as a whole. WE are meeting with mike and Lori next week it’ll be great. and soon we are going to have a french toast eating contest,

 We are currently working with about 5 investigators.  The work here in Lyndon is going great and I don’t want to leave. I fear that I could get transferred in two weeks. and if not this transfer I would bet that I will be transferred next transfer. Elder gs first transfer will be over in two weeks, time really does fly.

 

I love you guys.

Elder Zilles

spreading the restored gospel of peace one door knock @ a time!!!!

 

(the vermont "Mountains")

 

Week 17: "Do not die with your music still in you"

Hey Hey Hey,

Scripture of the week: Alma 26:11-12, Alma 30:9

Well sounds like everyone is doing swell back on the home front in the beautiful west. Sorry to hear it has been kinda cold.... oh wait im not sorry its been cold ha suckers. Heavenly Father just wants yall to know what its been like for me here in vermont. It snowed on friday, but luckily we were in a meeting in montpelier all day so we werent knocking doors in the snow. Its supposed to get up to the 60s this week. i just cant wait for it to hit 70 so then i can wear a shirt and tie without a suit jacket that will feel great.

As far as taking notes on conference that is definately something i want to keep throughout my life. There are so many things i have already learned and will learn that i cant wait to apply to life when i am back in the real world. As crazy as it sounds i am excited to start school and stuff in a few years. "Do not die with your music still in you" i am pretty sure that was Q. L. Cook that said that one but i could be wrong. 

I am glad to hear elder birky made it home safely. I am sure he has an incredible spirit about him. Itll be good to hear from him. And the letter he wrote me before i left, i read that almost once a week, i try to read the notes from my setting apart every week, and i keep dalts letter with that. I also read my Patriarchal Blessing almost every week, i always learn something new about myself its very neat.

Mom it is funny that you mentioned your FFA boys, i have been given the special assignment of dealing with a local FFA boy, and was actually going to ask you for some advice on that. But its a little hard to ask that. I guess its a good sign, cause it means the ward trusts me. Ive had several people in the ward request that we go visit their less active family beacuse they say they would like me. Its a great compliment. I love the ward here, and it is sad to think that sometime i will have to leave here and go to a new area. That will be a hard phone call to recieve, but i know the lord knows where he needs me. I hope that in the duration of my mission i get to serve in all five states, that would be neat. I also could serve in canada, one of the areas takes in an island that is considered canada, the elders have to take a ferry boat to it.

You remember the peterson family that moved here from idaho? Well they have a 5 year old little boy named conner, and he has decided that he is going to be elder zilles when he grows up. He like to pretend he is other people, and his newest thing is being me. He said to his mom the other day "mom you be elder zilles mom and i will be elder zilles" His parents thanked me many times for being such a great example.

We had an awesome time in manchester, i love those meetings cause we get to be with lots of missionaries. I spent most my time with elder lund, cause he is like the only missionary that i know because we were in the mtc together. The best news we got at the meeting was we are NOT losing our car, thank goodness, so no need to ship the bike yet, i dont know how i would move it with transfers. But itll come in handy at college when i get home.

Well i think that is about it, gotta go play some basketball. love you guys.

Elder Zilles

Week 16: "Where E'er though art, act well thy part"

Tonernation speaking here.
How are you all? from the email it sounds like everyone is doing wonderful.  Scripture of the week: Alma 17: 2, 13-14. Matt 10:39.
Oh my goodness where do i even start for this week, i feel like i have so much to tell, but then at the same time not much really happened, but it was still such an amazing week.

I have been going through my General Conference notes trying to decide what talks were my favorite, but i really can not think of one single talk that was my absolute favorite. I took 34 pages of notes, yes 34. I was writing like crazy trying to take in every little thing that i heard. It was the neatest conference experience i have ever had. Being a missionary i have been able to learn so much more from everything than when i was back home, its so great. So here are just a few of my favorite ish ones. but once again they were all so incredible.
Of course the first one that really stood out to me was President Eyrings in the saturday morning session. i love how he talks, he gives such powerful witnesses, and the whole time he is usually crying, but in my conference notes at the bottom of his talk i wrote "i hope my whole family was able to hear this talk". Also loved Elder Cook's from saturday afternoon, Stanley Ellis from saturday afternoon, and Russel M. Neilsen's from saturday noon.
Two that really stood out to me in The Priesthood Session were Tad R. Callister, and President monsons. Some of my favorites from sunday were, President Uctdorf's in the morning, Elder Anderson's, L. Whitney Clayton, L. Tom Perry, Elder Holland's of course, And Bruce D. Porter. But there were so many others that were fantastic as well.
Starting my first transfer in the mission i started writing quotes on the front of my planner. They range from prophets to ward members to family, quotes just by anyone really that help me feel better about the work, this transfers quotes are of course all from conference, well except for the one by uncle bruce about obedience.
 Here are some of the quotes i liked from conference that i wrote on my planner. "What E'er thou art, act well thy part", "our living god is a loving god", "Faith is a real power", "Do not die with your music still in you", "Lift up your sickle and put your back into it", "The lords way is THE WAY", "One consistent step at a time". And a bunch of others but i dont want to bore you guys to death with my cheesy quote lovingness. But hey i like quotes they help to seriously motivate me.  

 The work......... Well....... It is going great. Our numbers dont show that right now, but we are working our tails off. This past week we placed four Books Of Mormon a couple of church DVDs and a few Family Proclamations. Teaching will pick up here soon as we turn all of our potentials into real investigators.
We had quite the miracle yesterday after conference. One of the ward members gave us a refferal of a man who is dying of cancer, i felt we should contact him right away so we changed our post conference plans and headed to East Burke a drive of about 10 miles. The cancer man was not interested so we decided to knock the doors on his street. and then we met CRAIG. He is the nicest guy i have met in Vermont. He accepted a b.o.m a family proc and we talked to him for about 25 minutes and he just kept asking such great questions. So once again the lord works in mysterious ways.

We also had an interesting door knocking experience this week. We knocked an apartment complex that turned out to be all old people on e lady let us in and a few minutes later her phone rings and it was the land lady and she wanted to talk to me, so i take the phone and the crazy land lady just goes off about how the people who live there are very vulnerable adults and they will open the door to anyone and so they dont allow soliciting. So i said well we are not soliciting. But she was still being a butt face so i decided to be polite and honorable and we said good bye and left, but it was pretty funny. Crazy vermonter. 
Talk soon love ya!
sorry- i keep remembering things. thought i would tell ya we are headed to manchester tonight to stay in the mission home, in preparation for our new missionary training tomorrow. Well elder guinns new missionary training and my trainers training im excitedcrap i forgot to put in my sign off quote so here it is,
"spreading the restored gospel of peace, one door knock at a time"
So glad to hear all the cows are doing well.
 I miss them

Week 15: Happy Easter!

Heeeeeeeeey,

Scripture for the week John 20: 13-18.

Ok so that is the absolutely best easter present i have ever gotten in my life. Cutest little calf and i really miss my cows right now. I hope Zadee is able to stay healthy and keep her doing well.
We have lost tooooooo many heifer calves out of that magnificent cow, its about time we keep one alive. thanks so much for sending the pictures, that made my day.

 

 

Alright so im sure yall are ready to hear about the new companion and all of that exciting mumbojumbo. well....... Elder Zilles is training Elder Guinn from Roy Utah. This past week has been one of the hardest of my mission. Being a trainer is very tiring. I thought i was tired at the end of the days before i was training but this puts a whole new meaning to it. I have gained a whole new respect for elder chen because of it though. And i really miss him. Elder Guinn is very very quiet and its hard to get him to say more than two words. But i am not complaining about him. I know the Lord placed us together for a reason, and i intend to make the best of it. thank you for the faith you all have in me. please continue to pray for me. It is definately a new adventure but i love it.

 

so here is how the week went, tuesday we went to transfer meeting in manchester when we got there i had to go to a trainers meeting and elder chen went who know where. In the training meeting president wilkey talked to the 25 trainers and told us how sacred the calling we have been called to do is. He made us all promise to magnify it. He told us that the future of this mission lies on our shoulders. So that was some pretty intense things to hear, but definately made me want to magnify my calling. After our meeting we made our way into the chapel where the new missionaries and all the other missionaries were. All of the departing missionaries bore there testimonies and then they announced the new companionships. I was sitting by Elder Lund, who is from my mtc district, he is training as well. We are the two that came out in my flight group who are training. We were both totally freaking out. We decided we were more nervous at this transfer meeting than when we first got to the mission.

President called me up to the front and then said " Elder Zilles you will be staying in Lyndon... and you may be losing your car soon, but you will be training Elder Guinn." Yup thats about how it went, o keep in mind that we were like the last ones to get announced out of 26. There were 26 new missionaries and only 25 trainers, one of the sisters is training two other sisters. After that we took a few pictures and then headed back to lyndon to get to work.

(Three generations of Missionaries-Elder Guinn, Elder C, and Elder Q)

 

Zee sounds like a great name for the new calf. I cant wait to meet her in two years when she herself is a momma cow. That will be great.

My easter was absolutely amazing. Church was soooo goood. While sitting in sacrament i recieved this feeling of great peace and comfort. For the first time i honestly felt 100% at peace with being here. I now know for sure that i was called to the NHMM and to the lyndon area. As i sat next to the gregorys i jsut knew i am meant to be here it was the best feeling ever.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Jablonskis. I love that family so much. It was us Bro j Sis J and their little girl elli and sister js parents and grandparents, they made us feel so welcome. the Jablonskis shared some super exciting news. Well a few weeks ago brother and Sister Jablonski pulled elder chen and i aside and said they had some news to tell us, but we were the only ones that know and we couldnt tell anyone. They are having a baby.. Yuip so just like with sis and landon i was the first one to know haha. But last night they told all of us that were there.
The baby is due november 10th, i of course said it needs to be born on the 9th. so as far as im concerned i have a neice due and july and another due in november. its so exciting.

Well my toe is fine. Its just annoying. it hurts but i just dont worry about it. I know that heavenly father will make it all work out. So you guys dont need to stress about it too much.

Well i think thats about all. Love you guys so much.

 

Elder Zilles.

 

Ps i got my easter package and loved it