Onto the next chapter

earest Friends and Family,

                                              I apologize that it has been two weeks since I have written. Much has happened to be grateful for. The work here in East Cleveland has been in bloom which has brought me a great deal of satisfaction. On the 19th we were able to baptize our good friend Walniesha Collins! and on the 20th I was able to confirm her a member of the Church and confer the Gift of the Holy Ghost upon her by the laying on of hands. This young woman is quite amazing. She is from the inner city and is very independent. She has her own job, car and apartment and she is only 20 years old. She has come such a long ways since she first starting investigating; including being able to give up smoking and in the process having to give up some friends. She has been a great example to all of us here at the Cleveland University Branch and I felt it a great honor she asked to confirm her a member of the church. I love the spirit that is always manifest in that ordinance. We have also had success in finding new people to teach and we had three new investigators come to church this Sunday! All of this is exciting to me because it has been a while since the work has truly picked up in this area. Early this week President called me and asked me if I would accept the assignment to train a new missionary. I was so thrilled and accepted with "giddy" as I told him. All week I have been thinking about this new missionary and I have been growing more and more excited. I have been praying for him all week that he will be ready to hit the ground running and have the time of his life. I also got to thinking that this assignment would also mean 3 more months in East Cleveland; a total of one year in this area. I was really excited for that and thought that this would be the case until last night President called and released me as a district leader and thanked me for my service in that assignment. He also told me to pack my things because I was to be headed to transfer meeting on Wednesday. This means I will be training a brand new missionary in a brand new area that he and I have never been before. I am so excited! This happened to me last year when I trained Elder Crosland in Ashtabula. I love the idea of getting a fresh start somewhere and starting from scratch. It will be a great training opportunity considering he and I will be learning the ropes together. So, If you would please pray for this young Elder and I; that we may have success and that we may forge a friendship for the eternities!

 

This experience is rather bittersweet for me because I know wherever the spirit of the Lord calls me will be my final area. It is also hard to leave East Cleveland. I love everything about this area; it is the "home" of my mission. I love the inner city.To me, something so depressed never looked so beautiful. I love the red bricks and concrete. I love the graffiti and the worn down houses. I love the tastes, the smells and the sounds. Above all, I love the people. I had several meaningful conversations with many of them last night and this morning that have left me with a warm feeling in my heart and a confidence that success is to be had anywhere the future takes me. It has been 9 months altogether and I can say that I have put more heart and soul into this area than any other. I felt such a surge of charity for everyone this week. I was hugging them all and telling them I loved them long before I had a clue I was leaving. I feel that the Lord has helped me learn what I needed here. I believe the two greatest lessons learned here were to first; see people for the children of God that they really are. And Second; happiness is not in circumstance, it is in decision. I pray for this area. I hope that many miracles are to come in the future and I hope that I have helped this place in some small way to be better.

 

Now it is on to the next one!

 

This is the only true and living church on the earth. True because it is established by God and the principles spoken within are eternal. Living because there are many on both sides of the veil who are anxiously engaged in living these principles. I pray that my faith will never fail and that I may be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ all of my days! I know he is True and Living! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Love Always, Elder Prince

Fire and Rescue

Dearest Family and Friends,

                                                I thought by titling my e-mail as 'Fire and Rescue' this week more of you may be interested in reading my 400th e-mail ;). This week has been one of the best weeks of my entire mission and in many unexpected ways. On Tuesday we had our Ward Mission Leader (Bro. Huxel) out with us on a split for the entire day. During the morning we taught a few lessons together and then decided to get a bite to eat around noon. After a while we all decided we would make an impromptu visit to an older man in our ward who despite coming every week faithfully was not seen the previous Sunday. This lead us to drive to his trailer park a few minutes away in route we passed right by the trailer of a less active woman in our ward. As we passed by her house Elder Colf looked out the window and said "Why is Sis. Allred's house destroyed?". We then all looked and paused only to see that black smoke stains covered every window trimming and all of the glass had been shattered out. In the same instant that we looked upon this burnt trailer the Sr. Couple in our ward, the Palmers, came walking out with black hands stained in ash. Then out came Sister Allred with tears streaming down her shocked face. Her electrical company had turned on the power for the first time in months and appliances that were previously left on had caused the entire trailer to go up in flames. The entire inside was covered in a black smoke residue. Both the Sr.Couple and ourselves had shown up within half an hour. Both of us felt impressed to be on that street at that time. If you could see the enormity of the area I cover you would understand that this would be the equivalent of showing up to visit a member of your ward on one street in a ward boundary the size of all of Sandy Utah without any communication other than whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Elder Colf and I cancelled all appointment that day and spent the rest of the night helping this woman salvage anything she could from what remained of her destroyed dwelling. I couldn't help think of the words of the song, "Let the Holy Spirit guide, let it's whispers govern choice". Needless to say this good women knew this was a wake up call and she knew that we were all sent to her for a reason.

                     

                                                The next day I was honored to attend the funeral of one of my best friends here in Cleveland; brother Bill Colbourne. Just last week I had found out of his passing and was utterly shocked, he was only 44 years old. Bill was one of the most faithful latter-day saints I have ever known. He had a crippling case of cerebral palsy and despite walking and talking with extreme difficulty he faithfully attended church and passed the sacrament every week. He was one of my first member friends here in Cleveland and would always talk to me every time we saw each other. Bill is the only person that could make me lose my focus and talk about the Celtics for entire priesthood meeting. I will miss him alot but I truly enjoyed his  funeral service which was a combination of heartfelt testimony and belly aching laughter. I look forward to the day I get to play basketball with him in the Celestial Kingdom.

 

                                               This week we also had our quarterly interview with President. From a few challenging weeks leading up to the interview my mood was moral was a bit low and seemed to carry over into our meeting. I told him that I had been trying my hardest here in the city and despite my efforts I was feeling disappointed regularly. One of President Vellinga's greatest gifts is the gift of listening. He listens very intently  and is always full of Christlike perspective. He helped remind me of a few things that helped me realize no matter what the fruits of your labors may be it is often going unnoticed and unsaid what great things are happening within the heart of a missionary as he passes through adversity. President Vellinga asked me if I would preach the gospel even if the Lord told me not a soul would listen. I told him I would. He then went on to say that was ultimately my duty. That is not to say neither of us believe others will listen in East Cleveland but  it is said more so to allude to the fact that a major part of our commission is to plant seeds of testimony, show forth Christlike examples, correct  false doctrines and warn this generation of the consequences of sin. It would be honest in telling you all that I have not had a harder 4 1/2 months of my mission as there has been these last  three transfers. In all, I have served nearly 9 months in the inner city of the East side of Cleveland and at times I feel the greatest convert from these efforts has been myself. The lessons I have learned had refined my soul and magnified my capacities especially in tolerance, patience and love. I am so grateful for my labors here. They have caused my to stop looking for happiness in circumstance. I have been blessed by the Lord to recognize the small blessings and miracles everyday. My eyes see the hurt of a lost people every day and yet I see the divine children of God in all of them. As the scriptures say I feel 'encompassed about' with the blood and sins of this generation yet the Lord has helped remain hopeful. As of late so many things have reminded me of the truth that the Saviors love is felt in humility. It is felt in hope. I am so grateful that I am have been called to labor so long in this place and have been counted worthy to suffer what little things I have for the Lord. In the backdrop of saints of old I feel adversity that the adversity of my life to have been such a small thing; yet I feel akin to them and that we are linked together in our love for the Lord. I want to thank you all for your mindful and heartfelt prayers. I am also grateful for my great priesthood leaders who have helped me see the good in so many challenges and especially President Vellinga at this time. I walked out of our interview more sure I was ready to face my circumstances.

 

                                           Only a few days later President Vellinga called in all of the former assistants in the mission (Elder Metcalf, Elder Parkinson and myself) to have a special meeting regarding the growth of the mission in the coming months as he need our help and experience in planning for over 30 new areas! Together we helped him plan for over 4 hours working the logistics of cars, meeting houses, apartments, etc. There are currently 62 companionship's in the mission  and by the time of transfer meeting I leave from there will be roughly 95 companionship's! It was thrilling to be able to help him plan for the promised prospect of such great growth. I also felt in an honor to be able to render my opinion with such fine Elders. By the time we all finished counseling together we had come up with a plan that seemed perfect to us all; it was a very edifying experience. As we prayed to end our meeting President stopped us before we stood up and said "Elders, I want to thank you for your help. This is exactly what I hoped would happen. This was one of the most important meetings this mission has ever had". I was grateful and excited to have been there.

 

                                         Ok, Ok, I know this is a biography but I have to finish by sharing with you all the experience I had in Kirltand on Sunday. The singles branch that we cover took us with them to have a special sacrament and testimony meeting in the Kirltand temple Sunday morning. It was such a special meeting and privilege. I felt like one of the early saints as we all gathered to worship and partake in ordinance in the lower assembly of the temple. Following the meeting we took our investigator Walneisha on a tour of the  historic sites; it was a great time. Walniesha is also going to be getting baptized this Saturday so we are very excited for her. All in all there is so much to be grateful for. This week has been a blessing and I can't wait to see where the Lord will lead my feet looking ahead! Lead kindly light!                                                                                           Love Always, Elder Prince

 

P.S. Sorry if there is a slew of grammatical errors in this letter. I am tired from restlessness in bed last night :0

Christmas Cheer from East Cleveland

Dearest Family and Friends,

                                                 I am excited to write you all today! It has been a wonderful week! We have enjoyed the Christmas spirit that is all around and are having more success in finding people to teach. I found out last night that I will bet staying yet another transfer in East Cleveland which will be my 6th in the area (two separate tenures) and my 7th in the same apartment. If you could see where I live you would see that this place has so much personality. We live right next to a big towns square where you can find all walks of life and everyone knows our name and who we are. I have grown to love all the people in my surroundings here. This is also a fun time of year because everyone seems to be a little more infused with peace on earth and good will towards men. I am a bit saddened however because of the news that Elder Mo'Unga will be leaving. He has been so much fun to work with. It is funny because he says I have been a big brother to him and I think he has been a big brother to me (literally and figuratively). He has been here in the inner city of Cleveland since he arrived here in May so it will be nice for him to venture out and have the experience of serving in new places. I hope he has success wherever he goes. I will miss his protection from danger perhaps most of all.

 

                                                  The beginning of a new transfer is always exciting to me. It is always a time of re-commitment, greater faith and new friends. I will be meeting my new companion tomorrow and we will be getting right to work.

 

                                                I am excited for this coming week. I look forward to see who the Lord will have me serve with. I am excited to continue my labor for the Lord. I love this work. I can't wait to meet all those who I haven't met yet. I can't wait to teach them about the glad tidings that Gabriel spoke of. I am realizing more and more that this experience of serving in the inner city of Cleveland has far reaching effects into the days where I don't where a name tag. My work is cut out for me here. If anything is to be truly accomplished it must come from faith. I love the Lord with all my heart. I wish I could fully show you all my heart that you might know how much I love Him. I wish I could persuade those who are lost to come unto him. These things are truly the state of my heart.

 

                                                 Thank you all for your collective prayers and thoughts this Christmas season. I am far from alone and am surrounded by many whom I love and consider family. I appreciate all of your cards and letters. Please know of my love for you. I hope you all have a great week!                             

                                                                                 Love, Elder Prince

Happy December

Dearest Family and Friends,

                                               I am sitting here trying to remember what happened this week; it is all a blur at this point. I would have to say the highlight was the specialized training that we received from Salt Lake. We had church educators here all week who had all of the leaders assemble for training. To be honest it was like boot camp mixed with Sunday school. This one brother in particular was a mission President in San Diego ad now does missionary instruction for the church; this guy ripped our hearts out. Our mission President said we all looked like a bunch of scared dogs. I loved it though. I love straight forward talk when it comes to the gospel. Way too much false doctrine is spread when we speak light and fluffy as missionaries. People will understand the love and the joy of the gospel only as they feel motivated enough to try the doctrine. We learned alot of great things and we will also need to make a few course correction in our mission. This guy was taking cultural standards we had here and flipping them on their head. Pretty funny/intense.

 

                                              We also had our Christmas party on Saturday and we had over 100 people show up, 30 more than expected and way more than a traditional sacrament meeting. The idea that more people will show up for free food than to worship God honestly does sadden me a bit, but the ward did a great job in making the whole party about Christ.

 

                                               Elder Mo'Unga and I have been blessed with some great people to teach this week; thank you for all of your prayers. We are teaching a couple in their 80's right now and its going great. The husband has been protecting Joseph Smith to his kids; it has been pretty impressive. We also have been able to re-connect with some former investigator and our YSA investigator, Sydale is also doing great!

 

                                              I wish I could tell you more but we are flying fast today. I love you all and hope that you are doing well this Christmas season!

                                                                               Love, Elder Prince

Much Love from East Cleveland

Dearest Family and Friends;

                                                It has been yet another great week to be a missionary.  Our teach pool has dwindled down considerably which can be discouraging if you let it. This area seems to challenge me more than any where else I have served. This area also happens to be the place where I have spent more time than anywhere else. The culture of the inner city is a hard one for the seeds of testimony to flourish. The Lord has been teaching me perseverance and patience perhaps more than anything. We did have a young man we tracted into come to church yesterday which was great. His name is Sydale and he is from the inner city. He is very humble and is looking to improve his life so we are looking forward to continuing to meet with him. We also had a man from Nigeria call us yesterday and referred himself. He said he met with the Elders in Africa and has been looking for them ever since he came to the states and last week some Elders on the street gave him our number so that would sure be exciting if we can start teaching him.

 

                                               I have to tell you all the miracle of the week. Friday night as we were planning we felt impressed and madepreparations to teach one of our less-active members about the law of Chastity. The next morning we went and taught him. As the lesson began it was one of those times on my mission where you feel like the spirit grabs your tongue and you say exactly what is needed. This man began to humbly and vulnerably explain how he is struggling with an addiction to pornography and how he feels that God has repeatedly trying to reach him and help him stop. We expressed to him how grateful we were for his forthrightness and humility. We then went on to explain the scriptures onto him and testify of the atonement. After some discussion we asked the man if he would show his faith in Jesus Christ by gettinga black Hefty garbage sack and gathering all of the pornography in his house to surrender over to us. Without hesitation he rose and left alone in his living room and gathered all the materials he possessed and placed them all in the black garbage sack. Upon surrendering the sack to us we asked him, "How do you think your Heavenly Father feels about this decision?" He said "he is probably very proud". The spirit was so strong and I was touched by this mans humility. We assured him that he had won a battle that day. The sack was then placed in its rightful place; the dumpster.

 

                                              I am always touched when anyone will take a step of faith. I am touched by honesty. I am touched when the spiritual man inside gets an upper hand on the natural man on the outside. I am grateful for the Lord who empowers His children and whispers engorgement and healing into their hearts. I pray that whatever our sins may be that we might not value them more than the Atonement of our Lord. I hope that no sin ever becomes more precious to us than eternal life. I hope that we all might surrender our weapons of rebellion. Elder Mo;Unga have resolved to look for the small and simple miracles that happen every day and they are happening. I know that the Lord still heals.

 

                                             Thank you all for your prayers and support. I can feel you from all these miles away.

                                                                                      Love, Elder Prince

18 Month Report!

Dearest Family and Friends;

                                               I apologize in advance if this is brief. It is such a special time to be on a mission right now. I love the Holiday season in the field; all people seem to be a little friendlier. We are hoping to undertake a lot of work in the area right now if everything continues to go the way it is. We have had a few setbacks in the last few weeks with the loss of many investigators; including Ali & Mohsen who we have not heard from in a week. President had cleared them for baptism and the next day we never heard from them again; it has been hard on our hearts. I am realizing more and more however that 'real growth' is the most important thing. Like President Hinckley said, there is no point in doing missionary work if we cannot retain the fruit of our labor so the fact that we haven't heard from them when they were doing so well hurts a lot less because they aren't doing this after they had been baptized.

                                             The work with the members is beginning to pick up as well. The ward here is a labyrinth of gospel conversions and backgrounds. It is such an odd mixture; young Caucasian student families mixed in with a hand full of African-American native Clevelanders. It is of sad report that I tell you there could be much better unity between the two and we are seeing as part of a much more grand accomplishment of what could happen here with missionary work that the two groups have to have more love and unity in our ward body or the body will continue in its shrinking trend. I never thought that it would be my job as a missionary to go and cry for unity amongst members. We have been very loving but also very candid in our lessons with them in the last two weeks and I have found it most interesting to find that they put up no contest to our cry for unity; they acknowledge it and accept that there needs to be more love of Christ. We have been inviting them to do simple things to increase unity and missionary work including having a family over for dinner that they norm ally wouldn’t or sitting by someone in church that they normally wouldn't sit by. I feel that the Lord has been directing Elder Mo'Unga in a most interesting way this last month. He has been guiding us to so many less active members that haven't had contact with the church in years who are now ready to come back. Three that hadn’t been at all in a year were all at church on Sunday and all were happy to be there. This last year there has been 5 convert baptisms in this ward and all 5 are less active; I have felt so strongly that something needs to change within the ward before the Lord will bless us with any more sheep to feed. My only worry is that I won’t be here long enough to see this unfold, but I trust in due time that the ward will be more unified and the Native Cleveland families will build up the church body again. I have tried to keep negative things about people or places I serve out of my reports home but that is what we are dealing with right now. The Lord has stated that "if ye are not one, ye are not mine". Despite the challenges we are facing we do recognize the Lord is helping us so much and the members here truly do have so much love within them. The next step is helping them all see a vision of what could become here if we do missionary work and what will become if we don't.

                                         This is the Lords work. He has given us the commission to participate with him in the building of His kingdom. I pray that we may all examine our commitment to live like the Savior and "feed His sheep" if we truly love Him. I pray that we may not only live in a spirit of thanks and giving at this time of year but that this may be the hallmark of our lives and the way of our daily walk. I know that God lives and that he will support us in our practical and our seemingly impossible challenges. I am humbled to bear the title of servant for the Lord Jesus Christ!

                                                                                Love, Elder Prince

Happy November

Dearest Friends and Family,

                                               Interesting week this week! Hurricane Sandy apparently was 900 miles wide and we got a good three day storm out of her. Monday night we were advised to stay in our apartments and wait out the storm. We had brand new family of 8 moving into the ward that need help transporting items out of storage unit about 30 minutes away so we received permission from President to go and help them move. It was an epic event moving these people in the middle of this storm; sideways wind. I was laughing as I thought of Forrest Gump in describing all the different types of rain in Vietnam; we were experiencing the freezing cold kind that hurts when it hits your face. We were successful helping them but there were windows breaking everywhere, trees laying on the road and ALL of the lights were out in the city. Street lights and all! In consequence of the storm the lights in our apartment went out which included our heating and hot water. It was pretty fun to live camper style with the Elders for a few days as we waited out the storm but after a while you go stir crazy if you can't go out and teach. The most trying thing about this week had to be the ice cold; pierce your soul like a dagger water that we had to shower with in the morning. I am sure Travis is reading this somewhere rolling his eyes considering we pretty much got three days of what it is like to serve in a South America mission; none the less, cold showers are cold showers. When we finally resumed work and were able to leave, Elder Mo'Unga and I walked down our hallway out the front door of our building both looking at each other saying "This feel so good to be a missionary again!".

 

                                               All continues to go well in East Cleveland. We are really trying to get the ball rolling with our less-actives; their indifference can be saddening at times. Ali & Mohsen are continuing to do great; both attended church this week. We had a great meeting with they and President. We taught them the Doctrine of  Christ and they both grew in their desire to make covenants with the Lord. I don't have words enough to say how special these two young men are. They are pure, bright, humble and full of desire to follow the Master. We hope to have the green light from President on their baptism ion the coming month.

 

                                              Also, we received word last night that Elder Mo'Unga and I will be staying together another transfer. I am so excited to be with him. He is a great example and he is here for all the right reasons. We both had the opportunity to teach the YSA family home evening last night. I love working with the Young Adult Branch. We had a great time with them. We conducted several activities with them to help  them truly view one another as children of God. We even did a demonstration in which they were required to stare into a partners eyes for three straight minutes and try to see that person as God sees them. It was a very powerful demonstration and it was so interesting to here their responses and to listen to them describe what they saw in each other. We taught from the Hymn Book and the scriptures. The whole night was very memorable.

  

                                               Well, I best be going. I love you all. Thank you for your goodness. I don't endorse any political candidates; but God bless America today! Voting is agency at it's best! Have a great week! Love, Elder Prince