August 10, 2015

Saw the 4 of Arlington for the last time.

Light
Everything in this world reflects light. Some more then others.
Example: The moon is a perfect example of reflecting light, but even
when the moon is full it still only reflects about 12% of the Suns
light. Then you look at asphalt, it reflects very little light and
that is why it is black. Again everything in the world reflects light.
One of Christ names is "Light"
John 8
12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life.
He is the source of all light and you reflect his light. But the
question is how much light do you reflect? Living gospel principals is
the key for this light to grow writhing us!
D&C
24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and
continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth
brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Matthew 5
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
We has humans are drawn to light. And people look and search for
light. Light gives us a sense of direction. For example sailors before
maps and radar where here used the stars and lighthouse for a sense of
direction. They would follow the stars and lighthouse  because it gave
them a sense of direction while trailing at night.
Most people say when they join the church its not because of the
doctrine, it's because of the feelings and they want what church
members have and that's the light the reflect. Christ like attributes.
Be a light and beacon in this world for others to see! Let your
conversion and convents be evident in the way you live.

I had a awesome experience with two elders in one of the districts
this past week. One of the elders had been struggling with keeping
goals with little obedience things. His companion saw this and asked
for our help to help motivate him. I am so grateful for this
companionship and the love that they have for each other and my love
for them grew ten fold for them as well. I grew in my testimony for
how much our father in heaven has for us, his children, and how much
potential each one of us has! In the end we talked about the "why" we
are serving and do the things we do. I am a baby cause at the end of
this conversation I was crying my eyes out. I am big baby now. Is sad
haha but it was a great experience that I will never forget!

On Wednesday September the 9th in
the evening  one of my recent converts here in Killeen is going
to the salt lake temple to do baptism for the dead and she would love
for me to go with her. She is going to be in Utah for a doterra
convention. That is a oil/ medication thing. So I hope there isn't
anything planned for that night cause I will cancel them.

Elder Winterbottom & Elder Fowles
Serving in Killeen
The Lord's vineyard

The kid on the far left played soccer for Ogden fc and then went to
wastch. Do you remember the wastch tournament went I was still playing
for Ogden fc and we played another Ogden fc team in the finals? Well
he played on the other team. Small world!

August 3, 2015

I forgot to share with you an amazing miracle that happened my last Monday in Arlington. There is this member in the Ward that is a convert of 5 years now. The missionaries that were teaching him when he joined the church had a hard time getting permission from his wife for him to be baptized. They finally got permission and he was baptized. He knew the responsibility and role he had as a member. He would go out with the missionaries once a week, Attended the temple every month, and would fulfill his priesthood duties. But him doing all of this and being gone all the time his wife didn't like it so she then said it either me or the church. Which would have been a hard choice for any member of the church. I would not have wanted that question ever to come up in my life. So he gave up the blessings of the church and continued to have the blessing of a family. But to this day he still has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. He doesn't attend church often but when he does he brings his little girls who are old enough to be baptized. And the little girls want to be baptized and they have even said they want to in lessons but the mom tries to persuade them not to. Well the whole Ward knows this family and loves them to death! And they know we were trying to work with them and would ask us all the time how they were progressing. There was a Ward council that the auxiliary leaders decided to do a fast that her heart would be softened. We all picked a day and fasted. We weren't able to see that family for a while because of work and vacation. But we were able to teach them my last week there and that's when the miracle happened. The mom sat in on the lesson for the first time since I had been there. We were able to talk to her and she was teaching her girls about Christ and his role in her life. It was truly amazing. Then the husband texted us the next day and he told us thank you and explained that she has never sat in on the lessons ever since he has been a member and that's been 5 years. He was so happy and thanked us for bringing the spirit into his home. I know it was the fast that softened her heart! I know fasting doesn't take away people's agency but Fasting may help you and those you love receive personal revelation and become converted to the truth! I know this to be true and I love that family! I hope and pray one day they will grow together as a family in the gospel.

This week has been good. We were able to have a baptism on Tuesday that came out of no where and that made things super stressful. Trying to get everything set up in 4 days is hard and I learned two things from that experience. One is to plan ahead. We really couldn't do that with this baptism but all the other ones that I have been a part of with programs and setting everything up goes a lot smoother with plans. The second one is that just be patient and follow the Lord's timing and everything will work out. 

Elder Winterbottom 

July 27, 2015

Coming Back Home

It's great to be back in the Killeen zone! It feels like coming home. I love Killeen and I forgot about the culture of the military style life. I'm slowly working myself back into the yes sir and yes mam. I have already been able to see some of the members when I served in Lampasas. The high council man for our Ward was the elders quorum president when I was in Lampasas. His oldest boy that would come out on exchanges with us now has his mission call and is getting ready to serve his mission. He has grown spiritually a lot.

Elder Fowles and I have had a great week already! The elders here have been teaching this little girl off and on and we went over on Thursday and talked with the family and set a game plan for her to be baptized. We asked if she would be baptized and she said yes, I would like to be baptized on my birthday. We said great when is your birthday? she said the 28th. of this month? yes. Well if you look at when that was it was 4 days away from when we talked about it with her. So we have been busy the past couple of days trying to get ready for a baptism that was unexpected. 

I also had a experience with my father in heaven last night. I was chastised by him in my pray. it was well need experiance because it made me realize that I need to lose my pride and listen to what others have to say. Yesterday was just super stressful for me with new zone, new area, new ward, new investigators and just everything new. Well one of our district leaders had been bugging us a tone about a car issue. There is a car sitting in the zone not being used for right now because a couple of elders don't have driving privileges. I came up with a solution to the problem that I thought was pretty good but the district leader dint think so. So we talked about it for a while and I was just to prideful to change. and while this conversation was happening I just kept losing respect for this Elder and was just super negative towards him. when we got home I just felt bad the whole and I could fix it with what ever i did. We i went to say my pray last night I was chastised about my pride. and the whole time I was praying I felt that I need to say I'm sorry and actually listen to what my zone has to say. After that I was able to feel a lot better and going forward from here I promised that I would listen to the zone and hear what they have to say before I make a decision. Sometimes we all need to be compelled to be humble and I needed this one.

Elder Winterbottom & Elder Fowles 

Serving in Killeen

The Lord's Vineyard 

Arlington 6th Ward Members

Picts with Arlington East

July 20, 2015

 

The ZL's from Arlington West and East

Elder Petersen and I have been able to see a lot of miracles this week with finding. This week we got a referral from bishop saying that there was a family moving into our ward that were taught by other missionaries in a different mission. They moved in Saturday and we helped out for about 6 hours. At the end she said thanks for helping and if it weren't for us they would still be at the uhaul place. She is always home and welcome for us to stop by. So that is a good potential. 

So for my last transfer I am leaving Arlington.... But great new is that I'm going back down to the Killeen zone! I'm not headed to Lampasas but I will be able to check up on the Torres family. I'm hoping to go and visit them and a couple of the members I really miss on one of my preparation days. I'm super excited for this up coming transfer. I loved the Killeen zone when I was there and right now the Killeen zone is on fire with lesson being taught and their teaching pool. I'm not sure on how far away I am to the military base but I'm sure I will pick up on the military mentality. I don't have the address because there have been lost of moving around in the mission and they don't have all the correct addresses. My new companions name is elder fowles. He is from delta Utah. Not sure how long he has been out. 

Elder Winterbottom & Elder Petersen 

Serving in Arlington 

The Lord's vineyard 

Arlington West Zone

Both Zones

The Boyz!

July 13, 2015

Happy 7/11 day

Elder siniscalchi and elder jackson hit their one year mark.  Best looking elders in Arlington west and east zone. Ate out with east
zone leaders and Spanish elders.

July 5, 2015

 

Mansaray Leaving

4th of July week

This week was a pack week full of service. We were able to help out at a food pantry on Wednesday. This food pantry thing happens every first Wednesday of the month. this moth just happened to be the 10,000 time they have don't this so it was a big deal and the mayor came and thanked everyone that was apart of the great work. We as missionaries do a lot of the grunt work because by the time the people go all the way through the line they have a ton of food that a lot of the older people cant care. I love helping out there because you are able talk to them one on one for a little bit and they express how much of a blessing we are for them. This last week we had someone stop us after we dropped off their food at their car told us thank you and said a pray with her. at the end of the pray she was crying. I could just feel how grateful she was for us and what a blessing we were to her. I love providing service because for that split second you are able to feel some of the love that our father in heaven has for all his children. 

We also helped out at the biggest parade in Texas, the Arlington day 4th of July parade. and 3rd largest in the US. There was about 60,000 that attended and 6,000 in the actual parade. The wards in Arlington play a huge role in making everything run and a lot of behind the scene work. Each ward is in charge of different parts in the parade and Elder Petersen and I were to set up chairs for the mayor and the judges and make sure they had a good time and then to take down after it was all over. some of the other Elders were on crowd control and watch out for weird looking stuff like bombs haha and then some were on traffic control. we also got to take all the trophies to the winners of different floats after the parade. It was a lot of fun and felt like I was apart of something this holiday. At the end of the week we hit a total of 20 service hours combined Elder Petersen and I.

Have a happy rest of July!! 

Elder Winterbottom & Elder Petersen 

Serving in Arlington

The Lord's Vineyard 

The flag down the main street of the parade.

It was the 50th year anniversary of the parade

University of Texas was there and the Martin High school was there ( got that one for mark and Tracy)

Exchange with one of our District Leaders

The guy in the middle is on the ranger's team and in our ward!!!

June 29, 2015

Don't hate on our glasses. We look professional ;) his are reading glasses but he also has fake ones as well. This week we have what we call mlc which is mission leadership council and the Amanda that we will be talking about is Facebook.... I like the idea of having it so I can know what is going on with all my recent converts but I hate the idea of using technology. It's weird. I still feel so out of place when I use the iPad. This past two week we have had to transfer all the info from the area books to our app that we have. It's been a long process and then after that we had to check everyone else's and make sure that all of theirs is correct. It's been a long week. 

We had zone conference.... My last one. It suck know how close you are but my time is short and I need to make the most of it. The mission just started a temple video and that where if any of our converts have gone to the temple and taken pictures, we have put it together on a little video and the whole mission gets to see who is progressing towards the temple. And what was cool is I got to see on of two of my converts on the video!!!! I had just give my departing testimony and then we watched that and saw them and I broke down into tears! Just being able to see them and know that they are still strong in the gospel and see them receive the blessing of the temple are amazing!  

When I went on the exchange with elder Ramsey, he taught me something that I will never forget. We talked about how we felt the spirit on our exchange and what events lead up to that point. It wasn't until I was able to look back when I truly saw god's hand that day. We need to evaluate our selfs and see how God answers us. When we do that we will be able to recognize the prompting of the spirit and then act on it. A lot of times we say a prayer and it gets answered in small and simple ways but how often do we go back to God and give him thanks for answering a prayer. Take for instance when someone loses a key. They pray to find it and then a little while later they find the key and go on about their life. Luke 17:11-16 give thanks to God and he will bless us even more. 

It has been a good week for me and learned a lot and looking forward to another great week.

Exchanges with the AP's

Used other Missionaries' Truck for Service

Took down the jungle of grass!

Pre-Zone Conference Picture