And the rain rain rain came down down down...

Montana is having a Winnie-the-Pooh moment right now. It is still raining throughout the state and massive flooding is occurring. In case you don't believe me, I have attached pictures from Round-up in these past couple of weeks. The bad part is, we have more rain today and then by Thursday it is supposed to be in the eighty's which means all the snow pack in the mountains that has been sitting there is going to come on down. It is nuts! Missionaries have spent the week doing service and trying to clean up.

Missionary work wise things are going good. We had two really good meetings in Helena and Kalispell which was nice. It felt great to go back through the Flathead valley and to see the lake again. If I could have a summer home anywhere, Flathead lake is where it is at!

During sacrament meeting yesterday in Blue Creek the power went out. So of course we took the opportunity to teach EJ again. After our lesson with him two weeks ago he decided to quit smoking the next day and has been going strong ever since. We moved his baptism a week earlier than planned and may have to adjust it again. He is excited and things are going good.

T is doing really well also. She had a few things come during the week she is trying to figure out but she feels the Spirit which is the most important thing. We had a really good lesson with her outside the temple this week (which by the way is a great idea if you are serving near a temple, just learned that).

Other than that things keep going. The online efforts of the mission are starting to pick up. Last week we had reported over 150 lessons using the Internet so that is pretty exciting.

The scripture for the week is D&C 88:123-125. We used this verse in a lesson last night. I love how the Lord gives us the counsel and commands to take care of each other. I also love the illustration of clothing ourselves in the bonds of charity and love. Great analogy for all of us to listen to. Also, sleep is necessary for missionaries and if we follow the counsel given, we may be tired but we have the Spirit more fully.

Take care and have a good end of May.

--
Elder Wixom
montanabillingsmission.blogspot.com
rhwixom.blogspot.com

Wet and Wonderful

If last week was busy, then I have no idea to describe how this week was. We were running all over the place and having a lot of fun at the same time.

We had two Zone Conferences so far. The one up in the Heights (it was good to go back) included the Billings, Billings East, and Glendive zones. Then on Friday we went down to Worland (it was really good to go back) and had Zone Conference with the Wyoming North and Wyoming South zones. Both of them were different, but the spirit was strong in both meetings. We have been going over chapter one in "Preach My Gospel" and discussing our purpose.

In case you were wondering, it rained for about five days straight. There is so much flooding going on around the state right now it is ridiculous. We had a lot of flooding here in Billings, on the drive home from Wyoming we saw all the flooding there, Hardin is flooding, the dam was breached in Lewistown, the elders in Big Fork have sand-bagged a lot, and everywhere in between is dealing with it.

Yesterday was incredible. Before sacrament meeting in Blue Creek, a lady walked in and told us she was not a member but felt like she wanted to be there. She loves the temple and said she goes there almost daily to just sit outside. After sacrament meeting she walked up to Elder Ika and said that she knew it was all true. We had an amazing lesson with her and she committed to be baptized on June 18th. The Lord is definitely watching out and blessing us.

The scripture for the week is Helaman 5:12 if for no other reason in honor of the storms we have been having. I love how it says "when", not "if". Just like we have to prepared for natural disasters, the spiritual disasters are just as bad.

Have a good week and stay safe.
--
Elder Wixom

I didn't think it could be so busy

At the beginning of this last week, Elder Ika and I thought it was going to be a fairly relaxed week. We did not have any big projects at the start, so we were able to really balance out our online efforts and proselyting efforts. Well...towards the end of the week we were proven wrong. We spent full-time in the office for two days trying to catch up on everything that came flying at us, and we still are not completely caught up.

Two of the projects we spent time on dealt with preparation for the Coordinating Council Meeting this last weekend. In case you do not know what a CCM is, all fifteen stake presidents in our mission, the temple president, President Gardner, and Elder Smith of the Seventy were all in one meeting. Top it off, President asked Elder Ika and I to give a presentation on where we are as a mission in the online proselyting efforts. A little intimadating, but I think it went well. The stake presidents seemed to take interest in the things we shared.

The other presentation for that meeting was a slideshow of some of the recent converts throughout the mission. We had a total of 60-70 pictures mailed in. It was powerful knowing the few stories that I did, gaining insights from other missionaries, and then assuming the rest of the pictures had a similar story. Again, it seemed to go really really well.

On Friday we were asked to teach Relief Society in two wards. Reason...lesson was on missionary work and they wanted a presentation of what we are doing online to share the gospel. It was awesome. The one very intimadating part was that the first lesson included all the wives of the stake presidents. No pressure huh.

One last online proselyting highlight, we had a teleconference with Br. Hemmingway who is the man in Salt Lake working with the missionary department that is heading up the online proselyting efforts. It was a very good meeting and we gained insights. Overall he is pleased with the things we are doing and encouraged us to keep moving forward.

Now on top of all the online stuff, add in our normal proselyting efforts. We spent a lot of time working in Blue Creek this week trying to get in contact with all of the investigators and other people that the elders were meeting with before. It was a busy one. We had a lesson with an investigator named Ed Job. He has been prepared for the gospel and the time is right with him. We set a baptism date for June 25th and we are pretty excited for that.

This upcoming week is going to be another busy one because we have two Zone Conferences to go to, Billings and Wyoming. We also have another meeting with Sister Pullis and Sister Green to learn more about what we can do on Facebook to be effective.

The scripture for the week is 2nd Nephi 31:20. Wonder why? I guess you are just going to have to check out my blog later this week to find out.

Have a good week and take care.

Busy busy busy

It has been a very busy week for Elder Ika and I. On Tuesday we drove with President Gardner, Elder Adams, and Elder Catron to Helena for Leadership training. It was really fun to see all the missionaries over there, as well as learn from President Gardner. We gave a presentation on 12 steps to stay effective online. I think it went really well and we got some feedback from different elders thanking us for the tips. Then on Wednesday we did it again in Billings for the east side of the mission.

I am starting to figure out the area here in Billings. The ward boundaries are pretty crazy so it is a little bit trickier, but I am learning. We were able to get in with quite a few less-active members and there were quite a few at church as well.

The scripture for the week is Genesis 3:20. This was brought up in sacrament meeting yesterday to show how important the title mother is. Adam did not call her Eve because she was his wife or because she was a woman, but because she is the mother of all living. Even since the beginning the term mother has had special significance.

Hope everything is going well. The work moves forward. Take care.

Elder Wixom

Entrusted By Heaven - Montana Billings Mission Blog

A Marvelous World - Elder Wixom's Blog

First Week in Billings

This week was pretty busy. Elder Ika and I realized that this online proselyting assistant calling is going to be a lot more work than either of us first considered. We spent about 20 hours in the office this last week (almost 7 times what Elder Moore and I spent online my last 2 weeks in Shepherd) updating the mission blog (montanabillingsmission.blogspot.com), preparing for leadership training this up-coming week, and trying to figure out what we are doing. Hopefully we will get more organized and can spend less time here and more time in the field, but only time will tell.

The work in Blue Creek and Central is going really well. We have a couple of really good families we are working with and hope to keep things going. Elder Lewis and Elder Dearborn, the former Blue Creek elders, really picked up the area and energized the ward and we want to continue that.

The scripture for the week is D&C 84:61-62. This is a really good scripture for our mission considering the online efforts. There are so many places that we can not go (like outside MT and WY) but now with the Internet, we are spreading all over the world. Our testimony of the gospel is working right along side that of missionaries proselyting in those countries and is preparing the hearts of people in place where missionaries are not allowed currently.

Sorry this email is so short; we do not have a lot of time today. Staying busy, busy, busy.

Elder Wixom