last email from the field

July 18, 2012

Hey there!!!

It is a very strange feeling, realizing that something that has been my life for two years is coming to an end.  Serving a mission has been the greatest thing I have ever done and I’ve learned a lot and experienced a lot. Here’s some thoughts that I’ve gathered together as I’ve been pondering my mission:

I learned patience waiting for my visa in LA, and I came to feel the Atonement in my life more.

An old lady hit me in the shoulder and told me that I needed to take a bath.

I broke my ankle. Poor old Toby.

I paid a man 15 pesos ($1) to shine my shoes and then got a 30 peso ($2.50) haircut the next day.

I love God’s creations. As we traveled out of the city and towards Tequixquiac last week, I looked out the window and saw a green field. I just breathed in super deep and realized how much I appreciate the beauty of what God has made for us. Sometimes, being around cement and nothing else for two years makes you forget that nature still exists. 

President Tervort taught me all he knew about having success on the mission and in life. The spirit is the center to all of that. I am so grateful for leaders chosen by God, through revelation.  Sister Tervort cooked awesome food and made me feel at home. The best mission President and mission mom in the world!!!

I wrote all of my spiritual experiences in a small journal President Miller gave to me, and I’ve been able to look back on those moments and find strength in them - SEED - Spiritual Experience Every Day. I know that God gives us a spiritual experience every day and that we just need to recognize it. 

A man told me that my Spanish stunk. We taught him the restoration, the spirit arrived, and he wanted to be baptized.  Mayra, a worried mother listened to us. As we spoke of truths, the spirit arrived and all of her worries left.  A young man listened intently as we explained baptism and his back felt rested, something he hadn’t ever felt. An old man, Arturo, begins to cry as the spirit touches his heart. He grabbed his chest and asked us what he was feeling. The room went still and María de Jesus understood what Christ truly had done for her and knew she needed to be baptized that week. A tired missionary arrived at his house after a long day of being rejected and prayed for God’s comfort. It came. The spirit has the power to help all of us personally. I know that it is our most important constant companion and it will guide us through this life. What a great gift from God!

I love the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true! I have prayed about it probably hundreds of times and every time I do, I feel a quiet, beautiful peace in my chest telling me that it is true. We taught Mirell about the promise of Moroni and the next day she knew that it was true, because she had the faith to ask God and she was willing to follow her answer from Him. She was baptized that same week. The Book of Mormon is powerful. I KNOW THAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!

I have felt so many times in my mission that I can’t go on any more. In my moments of pain, God has sent His tender mercies to lift me up. I know that God truly loves His children, us! He is real and He listens to prayers. I have felt his quiet answers as I have cried to Him for help. He truly wants us to be happy and will help us do it. I KNOW THAT GOD LOVES US!

I feel that the most important thing that I’ve learned from my mission is that Jesus Christ lives. He is God’s Son! I know that through Him we can receive strength to make it through anything. We can never begin to fathom what He went through for us. His suffering was real and personal. I have had many sacred experiences that confirm my testimony of Christ. I feel so much love for Him and what He did and does for me.  I testify that He can take away any stain that makes us unclean. He is humble enough to take upon Him our burdens. He can lift us when no one else can.  I have seen sin washed away through the cleansing power of the Atonement and I have felt His help through the enabling power of the same infinite Atonement. I cannot do anything without his help. Christ is truly the greatest gift to the world. I have come to know my Older Brother. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you have done to support me. I especially thank you for your prayers on my behalf. They were felt! I love you!

See ya soon!!!!

Love,

Elder John Pope

This morning we had a really cool mission conference. President Tervort is truly inspired by God. I love being a part of the best mission in the world and having someone leading us who really cares for us and wants the best for us. It is the same with God. 

We talked to an older couple this week with 2 college-aged kids. They expressed their desires to have their kids exceed the success that they have had. It was easy to transition into talking about God’s love for us. He truly wants us to succeed in everything and in the end, have all that he has. God’s love is sooooo incredible. I love Him and I know He loves each of us on a personal level. Christ lives! He is God´s Son! I love you all!

I am so glad that I came on a mission. I have taken some time to reflect and pray to seek God’s approval of what I have done. All we do should be approved of God. I have felt in moments of reflection great joy in the journey that I have had. Just today I felt an overwhelming love for the Mexican people. It is all so great! 

Be bold

Anyways, this week we had a cool experience. There was a mission party thing with a talent show and a bunch of stuff, and right after we had cleaned up, we had an appointment with an investigator. Luckily my phone was on silent from the meeting and I didn’t see her message saying that “she felt pressured and scared and didn’t want us to come that day”, so we showed up to her house and she began telling us how doubtful she was. To be honest, at first I felt so faithless. I was just thinking to myself, ¨This happens so much to me with my investigators. How can I help her through her doubts? ¨ I prayed soooo hard that the spirit would guide me and that God would strengthen my faith. She kept saying that she didn’t feel that it was true. I asked her what she needed to do to know for herself if all of it was true (we had previously taught her about Moroni’s Promise). She said things like “learn more, and go to church and read more”. I said, ¨no, you need to pray to God. It doesn’t matter how much you know until you pray to God to know if it is true. ¨ She said that she had prayed, but hadn’t felt anything. I said, and it was a good bold statement for me, ¨Then you haven’t prayed with a sincere heart or real intent or faith. One of those things is missing in your prayer. ¨ I then got a really cool impression to tell her, ¨You haven't got an answer, because you have no real intent. You are too scared to follow the answer you will get and the things you’ve felt when we’ve taught you.¨ I just waited for a second, and she was like, ¨maybe that’s true.¨ I asked, ¨Do you want to know right now if the Book of Mormon is true?¨ She answered affirmatively, and so we all knelt down and I started with a super simple prayer, ¨Heavenly Father, is the Book of Mormon true?¨ Then Elder Wright prayed for the same thing, and then she prayed for the same thing and we all waited and paused. I knew the spirit was there. We asked her how she felt and she said normal. We testified that the spirit was there, because we could both feel it and we asked her again to describe how she felt. She said, ¨I feel light. ¨ She finally began to recognize the spirit. We had identified it earlier with her in other lessons, but I know that she was too scared to really recognize it. She is still scared, mostly due to her husband, I think, but she has now truly recognized the spirit and the truth of these things. We left. She knows that she needs to be baptized and to not deny the spirit - we made that clear. I love the spirit and the guidance that it brings to allow us, as missionaries, to be bold and to help others see the truth and the path to salvation. I am so grateful for that experience. The Promise of Moroni is real. The Book of Mormon is true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s church on the earth. It is all so true!

Recognize God in all things

I am weak, but with God’s help I can do anything. That is the hard part to remember. We always forget that we need God when we start doing things well ¨on our own¨. When we think we have it all down, that is when we forget God and He has to allow us struggle on our own. When we truly remember God in all things, He is there to guide us and lift us up when we fall. I love my Heavenly Father and I know He is real and truly talks to us if we approach Him in prayer. When He made the plan of Salvation for us he thought of each of us specifically and made the plan to truly help us at an individual level. He listens to us, He loves us, and He lives!

Moroni's promise

 Speaking a little about the importance of Moroni’s Promise, we were knocking on doors and when we crossed the street, a couple of guys contacted us. One spoke English and told us that he felt in his heart that he needed to talk to us. At first I was thinking that he must be a golden contact, but he soon got into bashing on our doctrines. He questioned our belief that we can become Gods, and how there is no physical evidence of the Book of Mormon. The scriptures support all that we believe, but he wouldn’t listen. He then remarked how the scrolls that the Book of Abraham were taken from were translated by Egyptian scholars and that their translation was different than Joseph Smith’s. He doubtingly asked, ¨Would you believe people who actually know Egyptian, or a so called prophet Joseph Smith. ¨ I simply told him that I trust a prophet of God, Joseph Smith, and that I have asked God if the Book of Mormon was true and God, Himself, told me that it was true; therefore, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God here on the earth. I have absolutely no doubts. I love how anybody who really wants to know the truth can simply ask it of God and He will manifest the truth unto him or her. It is incredible and no other church in the world invites people to do that. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it testifies of Christ and of His church. It is so true!  

Everything is well in Zion, pues.

THOUGHTS

This week I was reading about when Alma the younger had the visit from the angel. When he was out for the count he was racked with terrible THOUGHTS, but then he THOUGHT about how his dad had taught him about Christ. Thoughts are so powerful. His focus on eternal things led him to recover his strength and be healed. Everything starts with our thoughts. We can all have incredible days if we think of Christ a little more (always remember Him) and we can fulfill our potential and baptismal commitments much better, which simply allow us to have the spirit with us more! Every good thing cometh of Christ! I know He lives!

Happy Easter

Well, in this Easter season, I just want to bear my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ lives! He truly in the Son of God. There are times in my life when I feel like I cannot go any further, but I am lifted by His strength. His burden is light and He is humble and willing to take our burdens. Everything can be fixed through Him. It is just so true, because I can feel it! I love my Savior so much. He lives!