Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Pneumonia is Bad, Right?
I don't actually think I have pneumonia. Probably.
All,
Once again it's time for a fun-filled Email from Elder Darcey!
I don't really have that much to say this week. Our investigator is asking her dad this Wednesday (whoever originally spelled that should be shot) if she can be baptized. I know beyond a doubt that she's ready. We've done all we can, and she's done all she can. It is now simply in the hands of the Lord.
Man, I don't really have anything else to say.
I Look forward to talking to family this week. Don't even think about Skype. Not happening.
We went beach combing this morning. Eels and Crabs and Starfish galore. It all added up to a good P-day morning.
Our attempts to set up church services in Hydaburg has hit a pitfall. The guy we were talking to about it called us and said that "The Elders [not us, just the old ones] won't be able to accommodate your request". That would have ticked me off if I hadn't been expecting it. So, We'll just get in a different way.
That was the only opportunity for the Church to meet, but maybe we'll be able to use the community center or something. The hardest part of the mission is knowing that you have something great; something that will bless the lives of everyone you meet, but not being able to share it because the people are so set in their ways, so hard-hearted. That hurts a lot, especially when they reject you for something that another religion did to them. We have an active, but rather overbearing Jehovah Witness group on the Island. Many of the people we meet have been insulted by them, and take it out on us because we're younger.
I bought a piano last week. Actually, I got a little keyboard so that I can practice music. It's pretty awesome. Don't rub it in mom, I'm only going to say it once. (see email previous.) I really have run out of things to say, so I'll end with the mantra that our district came up with.
It's the final match;
Fight Harder,
The work is on fire,
I have worth in the eyes of God,
The Lord has prepared me,
Love from the Seriously-if-I-have-a-persistent-cold-with-chest/lung-pains-when-I-breathe-I-should-probably-see-someone-right?
North, Elder Darcey
All,
Once again it's time for a fun-filled Email from Elder Darcey!
I Look forward to talking to family this week. Don't even think about Skype. Not happening.
We went beach combing this morning. Eels and Crabs and Starfish galore. It all added up to a good P-day morning.
Our attempts to set up church services in Hydaburg has hit a pitfall. The guy we were talking to about it called us and said that "The Elders [not us, just the old ones] won't be able to accommodate your request". That would have ticked me off if I hadn't been expecting it. So, We'll just get in a different way.
That was the only opportunity for the Church to meet, but maybe we'll be able to use the community center or something. The hardest part of the mission is knowing that you have something great; something that will bless the lives of everyone you meet, but not being able to share it because the people are so set in their ways, so hard-hearted. That hurts a lot, especially when they reject you for something that another religion did to them. We have an active, but rather overbearing Jehovah Witness group on the Island. Many of the people we meet have been insulted by them, and take it out on us because we're younger.
I bought a piano last week. Actually, I got a little keyboard so that I can practice music. It's pretty awesome. Don't rub it in mom, I'm only going to say it once. (see email previous.) I really have run out of things to say, so I'll end with the mantra that our district came up with.
It's the final match;
Fight Harder,
The work is on fire,
I have worth in the eyes of God,
The Lord has prepared me,
Love from the Seriously-if-I-have-a-persistent-cold-with-chest/lung-pains-when-I-breathe-I-should-probably-see-someone-right?
North, Elder Darcey
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The Sword/Soul Scenario
Dear Family, friends, and all others,
These thoughts have been in my head for awhile, but Brian spurred me on to actually get them written down (Thanks for the jokes as well, Brian; They were much appreciated; "Non-prophet organization...heh).
In warrior cultures around the world (I'll stick with the samurai because I know the most about them) the sword is seen as the container for the warrior's soul. Hence, the sword is extremely important, and taking care of and maintaining it is of highest priority.
Little known fact, but the more you use a sword, the more stained it becomes. even if you polish and clean the blade after every use, it will eventually become tarnished. This is sped up by the fact that there is not time to do this during battles or times of conflict, and thus the sword is continually in use.
For a warrior, the state of your sword reflects the condition of your soul. The more kills you have, the more times you've shed blood, the dirtier your soul (sword) is. A pure, innocent soul will have a clean, untarnished sword (for you Rurouni Kenshin fans out there: This is why everyone believes Kenshin when he shows them his sword, which has never been used to kill. it also shows the depth of his repentance and his covenant to never kill again, lest his sword becomes stained).
Now for the gospel reference. Everyone turn to Alma 24, starting around verse 12 (Mom, if you could do this next part on the blog?) Every time the King says "SWORD", substitute "SOUL" (remember, the Lamanites were a warrior culture too).
Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords (SOULS)have become bright, then let us stain our swords (SOULS) no more with the blood of our brethren.
Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords (SOULS) that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords (SOULS) again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins.
And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.
Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords (SOULS) are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, (SOULS) yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.
And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, (SOULS) and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.
Cool, huh? The People of Ammon had repented and turned away from their sins. They wanted to keep their souls as clean as possible for as long as possible, and they were afraid that if they killed again, they could never again be completely pure; their swords would again be stained. Isn't that what we need to do? We have to opportunity to repent every day, to completely purify our souls of all stains. That is what we need to be doing when we think about repenting, baptism, prayer, or the sacrament. We need to clean our swords through Christ's atonement and we need to look upon anything that would stain our swords with abhorrence.
Anyway, that's my thought. Thanks again Brian for reminding me of that scripture; I probably would have missed it... again...
Elder Darcey
These thoughts have been in my head for awhile, but Brian spurred me on to actually get them written down (Thanks for the jokes as well, Brian; They were much appreciated; "Non-prophet organization...heh).
In warrior cultures around the world (I'll stick with the samurai because I know the most about them) the sword is seen as the container for the warrior's soul. Hence, the sword is extremely important, and taking care of and maintaining it is of highest priority.
Little known fact, but the more you use a sword, the more stained it becomes. even if you polish and clean the blade after every use, it will eventually become tarnished. This is sped up by the fact that there is not time to do this during battles or times of conflict, and thus the sword is continually in use.For a warrior, the state of your sword reflects the condition of your soul. The more kills you have, the more times you've shed blood, the dirtier your soul (sword) is. A pure, innocent soul will have a clean, untarnished sword (for you Rurouni Kenshin fans out there: This is why everyone believes Kenshin when he shows them his sword, which has never been used to kill. it also shows the depth of his repentance and his covenant to never kill again, lest his sword becomes stained).
Now for the gospel reference. Everyone turn to Alma 24, starting around verse 12 (Mom, if you could do this next part on the blog?) Every time the King says "SWORD", substitute "SOUL" (remember, the Lamanites were a warrior culture too).
Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords (SOULS)have become bright, then let us stain our swords (SOULS) no more with the blood of our brethren.
Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords (SOULS) that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords (SOULS) again they can no more be washed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins. And the great God has had mercy on us, and made these things known unto us that we might not perish; yea, and he has made these things known unto us beforehand, because he loveth our souls as well as he loveth our children; therefore, in his mercy he doth visit us by his angels, that the plan of salvation might be made known unto us as well as unto future generations.
Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords (SOULS) are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.
And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, (SOULS) yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.
And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, (SOULS) and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.
Cool, huh? The People of Ammon had repented and turned away from their sins. They wanted to keep their souls as clean as possible for as long as possible, and they were afraid that if they killed again, they could never again be completely pure; their swords would again be stained. Isn't that what we need to do? We have to opportunity to repent every day, to completely purify our souls of all stains. That is what we need to be doing when we think about repenting, baptism, prayer, or the sacrament. We need to clean our swords through Christ's atonement and we need to look upon anything that would stain our swords with abhorrence.
Anyway, that's my thought. Thanks again Brian for reminding me of that scripture; I probably would have missed it... again...
Elder Darcey
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
There is No Chance, No Destiny, No Fate
All,
It's good to be home in Craig. Have you been getting my Emails? For some reason I feel as if they're not getting out to you. I don't know.
Anyway, it's nice to be back from Ketchikan and seeing Elder Denison off and away.
My new companion is named Elder Terry. He's from Orem, UT, he's 20 years old, he's been out for 7.5 months (one transfer longer than me), loves drawing and being awesome, has skin grafts on his arm from playing with fireworks (he melted the skin off his arms, legs and face; you could see his cheekbones. It's a complete miracle that he healed at all) and is awesome. He is so in tune with the spirit, and he does what I can't: he asks questions about people and gets them talking. He can just ask questions that get people to talk about themselves, so you can learn. He's epic.
This week has just blown by. In this week alone we've picked up 3 new investigators, which is huge for a Bush area. These have been coming for a while; they just needed the questions asked that would get them investigating. The area was picking up in the last transfer; now it's just on fire. We're just going to keep working and going strong. The Lord blesses exact obedience, which is super important in the bush, 600 miles from anywhere.
Mom, nobody believes that I had a mullet. Can you email some pictures of me with my hair? They should be on facebook or something. Aidan, you're using my computer? Is Little Aidan going to melt my hard drive again like Sister Darcey's? That would sadden me.
This week or the next is going to be big for our area, because our main investigator is going to ask her dad if she can be baptized. She's been working up to it for almost a year now, so it's going to be awesome. She is beyond converted; her dad was just anti-ed by one of the people on the island and now thinks that she's joining an cult. Her 18th birthday is next year, and she's going to be baptized then anyway, so I don't see how 10 months would make a difference. I kid you not, She's more spiritual and prepared than a lot of members I know; she's probably more converted than I was when I got baptized.
Anyway,
Love from the North, Elder Darcey
It's good to be home in Craig. Have you been getting my Emails? For some reason I feel as if they're not getting out to you. I don't know.
Anyway, it's nice to be back from Ketchikan and seeing Elder Denison off and away.
My new companion is named Elder Terry. He's from Orem, UT, he's 20 years old, he's been out for 7.5 months (one transfer longer than me), loves drawing and being awesome, has skin grafts on his arm from playing with fireworks (he melted the skin off his arms, legs and face; you could see his cheekbones. It's a complete miracle that he healed at all) and is awesome. He is so in tune with the spirit, and he does what I can't: he asks questions about people and gets them talking. He can just ask questions that get people to talk about themselves, so you can learn. He's epic.
This week has just blown by. In this week alone we've picked up 3 new investigators, which is huge for a Bush area. These have been coming for a while; they just needed the questions asked that would get them investigating. The area was picking up in the last transfer; now it's just on fire. We're just going to keep working and going strong. The Lord blesses exact obedience, which is super important in the bush, 600 miles from anywhere.
Mom, nobody believes that I had a mullet. Can you email some pictures of me with my hair? They should be on facebook or something. Aidan, you're using my computer? Is Little Aidan going to melt my hard drive again like Sister Darcey's? That would sadden me.
This week or the next is going to be big for our area, because our main investigator is going to ask her dad if she can be baptized. She's been working up to it for almost a year now, so it's going to be awesome. She is beyond converted; her dad was just anti-ed by one of the people on the island and now thinks that she's joining an cult. Her 18th birthday is next year, and she's going to be baptized then anyway, so I don't see how 10 months would make a difference. I kid you not, She's more spiritual and prepared than a lot of members I know; she's probably more converted than I was when I got baptized.
Love from the North, Elder Darcey
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Went Fishing!
First, sorry for the short email this morning. Derick was correct when he asked if I was running late; we were, and I wasn't in a bad mood. Promise.
ANYWAY,
Dear Family:
We went fishing today P-Day. My first time fishing in probably 7 or 8 years, and it's amazing. We're fishing for Steelheads, which are kind of the King of Rainbow trouts. Anyway, we got all hooked up (jokes) to help a member up here and went out to the Thorn River. We didn't catch, or even see, any fish, but it was awesome nonetheless.
Alaska fishing beats any other kind any day. Go on, I dare you. Just try to find any fishing that's more awesome.
This week has been great. We've been working hard all week, striving to get up every day on time and do the right thing, and we've noticed the immediate blessings. It's incredible how successful we can be when we're trying hard to always do the right thing.
The transfer is coming to a close, right when things are starting to happen. Elder Denison doesn't want to go anymore; he's been working on getting Sunday services set up in the outlying communities for 6 months now, and it looks like he'll leave just as it's starting to happen.
I'm sorry, I've completely forgotten what I was going to say in this Email; Fishing took all my memory space.
Memory: Oh Yeah, Mom, if you could sent a Large Flash drive up here next time you get a chance; I need something to store pictures on, and the USB drives up here are 80$ for a 16 GB. That is not right.
I need to wrap this up. Please know that while I'm not saying anything of importance, I still love you all. I'll try hard to not be running short on email time next week. Love, from the where-are-the-fish-I-though-this-was-Alaska North,
Elder Darcey
ANYWAY,
Dear Family:
We went fishing today P-Day. My first time fishing in probably 7 or 8 years, and it's amazing. We're fishing for Steelheads, which are kind of the King of Rainbow trouts. Anyway, we got all hooked up (jokes) to help a member up here and went out to the Thorn River. We didn't catch, or even see, any fish, but it was awesome nonetheless.
Alaska fishing beats any other kind any day. Go on, I dare you. Just try to find any fishing that's more awesome.
This week has been great. We've been working hard all week, striving to get up every day on time and do the right thing, and we've noticed the immediate blessings. It's incredible how successful we can be when we're trying hard to always do the right thing.
The transfer is coming to a close, right when things are starting to happen. Elder Denison doesn't want to go anymore; he's been working on getting Sunday services set up in the outlying communities for 6 months now, and it looks like he'll leave just as it's starting to happen.
I'm sorry, I've completely forgotten what I was going to say in this Email; Fishing took all my memory space.
Memory: Oh Yeah, Mom, if you could sent a Large Flash drive up here next time you get a chance; I need something to store pictures on, and the USB drives up here are 80$ for a 16 GB. That is not right.
I need to wrap this up. Please know that while I'm not saying anything of importance, I still love you all. I'll try hard to not be running short on email time next week. Love, from the where-are-the-fish-I-though-this-was-Alaska North,
Elder Darcey
Monday, April 16, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Why Do I Love This Place?
All,
First, Do you see that picture? We've had a full week of uninterrupted sunlight and that has effected miraculous changes. My hair finally went back to being normal blond, my cold completely went away and no one makes fun of me when I wear sunglasses at night.
Mom asked me a question that made me laugh. She said "Are you getting mostly normal daylight hours now? I hear that it changes so much as 5 minutes daily." To her, I respond, how much sunlight is normal? The sun's coming up at 5 in the morning and going down at 8:30 p.m. Even as far south as we are (the south-est [most southern] in the mission) we're still going to be getting only 4 hours of actual darkness come summer.
Second, the Work is going awesome. We taught the first lesson to investigator "Six hour" last week. She agreed to be baptized when she received a witness that it was all true. I left her with my promise that has never gone wrong: "if you put in the work, you WILL receive a witness of the truth". For everyone seeking, I promise the same thing. If you're willing to do what the Lord asks of you, you will never be left in the dark.
Third, The food is great and deer meat is delicious. Down (or is it up?) here, the deer are only the size of, say, a large golden retriever, so residents are allowed to take 5 per year, per family member. Fish is delicious. Halibut, Salmon, Cod, crab, it's all great.
The packages Mom sent up of g-f mixes are great as well. It was awesome to have waffles and muffins and other g-f treat things. To answer my mother's criticism about not remembering how to make waffles, let me simply say that it's been a full year since I was in college and needed to make them myself. On that note, "How do you make them again?"
Fouth, my Companion is great. Elder Denison is from Price, UT. He's 22 years old and has 4 months left on his mission. He's had some of the hardest times in a mission that the mission has to offer, but he's doing great now.
Fifth, I just love being on a mission. I'm learning great things, both for myself and for others.
Here's my thought for this time: "We need to recognize how we feel the spirit. This is the most important thing we can learn in our lives. Whether it comes in knowledge, feelings, enlightenment, or anything else, we need to be able to feel and understand it so that we can follow it."
I'll share a weird example before I sign off. Every time I'm alone in a house, or the last one awake, I'll always get the feeling to check the locks on the doors before I go to sleep. I'll ignore it, because I already checked them. But I always get the feeling again. So, I'll go and check the locks, and lo and behold! They're all locked.
This is training. One day, I'll be able to check the first time without needing a second prompting. And maybe someday, with all my diligence, the door will be unlocked.
Or maybe I'm just going crazy. ;)
Love from the North,
Elder DArcey
First, Do you see that picture? We've had a full week of uninterrupted sunlight and that has effected miraculous changes. My hair finally went back to being normal blond, my cold completely went away and no one makes fun of me when I wear sunglasses at night.
Mom asked me a question that made me laugh. She said "Are you getting mostly normal daylight hours now? I hear that it changes so much as 5 minutes daily." To her, I respond, how much sunlight is normal? The sun's coming up at 5 in the morning and going down at 8:30 p.m. Even as far south as we are (the south-est [most southern] in the mission) we're still going to be getting only 4 hours of actual darkness come summer.
Second, the Work is going awesome. We taught the first lesson to investigator "Six hour" last week. She agreed to be baptized when she received a witness that it was all true. I left her with my promise that has never gone wrong: "if you put in the work, you WILL receive a witness of the truth". For everyone seeking, I promise the same thing. If you're willing to do what the Lord asks of you, you will never be left in the dark.
Third, The food is great and deer meat is delicious. Down (or is it up?) here, the deer are only the size of, say, a large golden retriever, so residents are allowed to take 5 per year, per family member. Fish is delicious. Halibut, Salmon, Cod, crab, it's all great.
The packages Mom sent up of g-f mixes are great as well. It was awesome to have waffles and muffins and other g-f treat things. To answer my mother's criticism about not remembering how to make waffles, let me simply say that it's been a full year since I was in college and needed to make them myself. On that note, "How do you make them again?"
Fifth, I just love being on a mission. I'm learning great things, both for myself and for others.
Here's my thought for this time: "We need to recognize how we feel the spirit. This is the most important thing we can learn in our lives. Whether it comes in knowledge, feelings, enlightenment, or anything else, we need to be able to feel and understand it so that we can follow it."
I'll share a weird example before I sign off. Every time I'm alone in a house, or the last one awake, I'll always get the feeling to check the locks on the doors before I go to sleep. I'll ignore it, because I already checked them. But I always get the feeling again. So, I'll go and check the locks, and lo and behold! They're all locked.
This is training. One day, I'll be able to check the first time without needing a second prompting. And maybe someday, with all my diligence, the door will be unlocked.
Or maybe I'm just going crazy. ;)
Love from the North,
Elder DArcey
We Had A New Investigator -- Six Hours Church Straight?
All,Let me tell you how awesome conference was.
IT WAS AWESOME. I think one of my favorite talks was by Elder Andersen. Anyway, the big news is that we picked up a new investigator...sort of. We just invited her to conference, and she showed up. FOR ALL SIX HOURS. I was pretty impressed, seeing as most members don't stay for the entire time, or watch the whole thing in one break. It was a real testimony how much people can be seeking out the truth; all we need to do is show them where it is.
Sorry about the shortness of the emails, and the lack of the responses. I'm still kicking a bad cold that swept me yesterday. Literally, one second I was ok, the next I couldn't breath and was coughing and sneezing and dying. Go figure.
This week we helped pour concrete at a members future home. This wasn't a little "eagle scout project" pour; this was a "the cement mixer had to go and refill twice" pour. It was pretty awesome.
I recieved an awesome package from my family! it had a belt (I'm running through these things so quick; you just keep sending one every 4 months or so and I'll be good) a BOOK (this book is awesome. Thanks so much for sending it). I also received a DVD with awesome music on it! (I can't get it off the DVD, but that's ok).
This week has really again affirmed to me how important it is to keep working, regardless of how much success we seem to have. One day we had everything from 3:30 on fall through, and we spent the entire afternoon just looking for people to see, or service to do, or things we could fill up our time with. It was important to do that. We could have just called it quits, but that would mean admitting defeat, which is something that neither Elder Denison or I like to do.
I wish I could finish this story with a "and then we found someone who was awesome and we're now teaching them", but that would be a lie. We didn't find anyone to meet with, and we didn't find anything to do, but we tried anyway, and that's what's important. I was advised by someone to try out the Paleolithic Diet. I object due to a couple reasons. First, I don't eat less food. Second, I'm a missionary, with what's known as a "meager income". third, it doesn't seem to have any good effects. Last, I'm doing ok with just my Celiac diet as it is.
I better sign off. Love to all from the North,
Elder Darcey
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