The Master Plan

Well howdy y'all! This week was AMAZING!!! Last Monday, as y'all know, we went to the Houston Zoo. That was super cool to see the animals in all their varieties, shapes, sizes, and colors. Honestly, it's a lot cooler than the Zoo in Utah... 

On Wednesday, we had our interviews with President Hall. We as well had our District Council at the Beechnut Building instead of the Bering, like we normally have. Interviews went great! There will always be things I need to improve on in my missionary work, and I am so grateful for it. Especially for President Hall and his kindly correction. That is definitely something I am really trying to work on as a leader. 

Thursday was basically P-day pt. 2. We went with the YSA Elders to Herman Park to help move some trees around. They were having a fundraiser, and needed some more oomph to it. And let me tell you, we sure have it to them. Haha, after we helped out, we got a tour of the Japanese Gardens that were right next to it. That was super cool! I highly reccomend if you haven't been. 

Friday was another awesome day of service at the Beacon. We were the only 2 Elders yet again. But, it was so much fun! We literally got to chop up meat for a solid 2.5 hours. I love it now! We then biked to our boy Rob who will be getting baptized soon! He is so ready to get dunked, it's ridiculous!

As you all know, Saturday we had Tommy's baptism!! Man, that was such a spiritual experience! When Tommy came out of the water, his face was priceless! He was grinning ear to ear. When we were talking with him after the matter, he said "I wouldn't miss the confirmation for the world. I would break down door to get there!" That was really cool to hear come out of the mouth of an investigator. 

Yesterday, or Sunday was also a really spiritual experience. We confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When he sat back down with Elder Gilleland, he asked "...so when can we go to the temple?" Like... WHAT?!? AWESOME SAUCE!!! Now we are planning on working with him to get some family names to take.

Now that I have blown the length of this email up, let's keep going shall we? :)

I want to talk to all those who have returned from their missions, wishes they would've gone on missions, or are preparing to serve. I will help you increase your missionary efforts where you are today. Work, school, etc.

Some might of heard of a Family Mission Plan, and some might not. But, a FMP(for short) is our way we can contribute to the full time missionaries as well to the Lord. It is really simple and can even be performed with just one person. Here are the steps to creating a FMP.

Step 1: Recognize the blessings! Here are some of the blessings...

1. Stronger families centered more firmly on Christ (greater peace in the home).

2. An increase of joy as we invite others and lead by example.

3. A greater understanding of Christ, and His mission for us.

4. In the words of President Thomas S. Monson: "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates."

Step 2: Realize that the "Three-Fold Mission of the Church" is...

1. Preach the Gospel (our future families)

2. Perfect the Saints (our current fanilies)

3. Redeem the Dead (our former families)

What a blessing it is to know how simple missionary work really is! As a fulltime and set apart missionary, I only need to worry about "Preaching the Gospel", and for the rest of you... There lies a little more weight. But, have no fear!!

Step 3: Pray and seek for inspiration.

- Ask the Lord specifically for guidance in helping your family to bring others unto Christ (especially ourselves)

Step 4: Review progress.

- Where are we in our discipleship? If we haven't made goals, what progress have we made? Why have we? Or why haven't we? What changes must we make to accomplish these goals?

Step 5: Set goals.

- Make year goals, monthly, weekly, and daily goals to accomplish the Lord's purpose for you and your families.

- Set goals that make you stretch, but also set goals that are within your power to accomplish, such as inviting several friends to receive the Gospel as opposed to baptizing three friends. And have family scripture study and prayer as opposed to "making sure all of my children serve missions". We must always respect the agency of others. 

Step 6: Make plans.

- Make plans to accomplish these goals; If we've set a goal to share online messages, how, what, when? Etc...

Step 7: Pray again.

- Seek confirmation from the Lord, and ask Him for His blessing and aid in accomplishing the righteous goals you have set. :) 3 Nephi 27:28

Step 8: Go out and do it!!

I am excited to see how this is applied to our homes and families. I promise in the name of Jesus Christ that as you apply this planning to your daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly life, that you will come closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love all of you and hope to hear feedback on how this went for you. :)

-Elder J.T.Yates

 The Memorial District posted up after District Council.

 The Japanese Garden in Herman Park ↕

 Elder Gilleland and I in front of one of the coolest murals in Houston

Just your average homie in Downton Houston

Captain Panda-Head Man!!

"Dwight" Transmission on "Dumble" Street!

  My favorite picture I have taken my entire mission!

 The view from one of our investigators apartments

The Busy Life Continues......

This week was pretty solid. I had a ton of fun this week! The highlight would be going to the zoo. Which is where I am writing this from. If any of you have been to a zoo, then you know how much time it takes...

Something I love from what President Nelson challenged us to do was to have a firm testimony of and a relationship with the Holy Ghost. I know how important that can truly be, and what can and does happen if you stray away from it.

In 2 Nephi 32:3 it says... "Angel's speak by the power of the Holy Ghost..." I love this! As a little kid I had always wondered what it would be like to hear an angel speak. After I had truly understood what this verse meant, I now know that I have had angels speaking to me my whole life! 

I can testify that as we seek to have to holy Ghost with us always, that angels WILL speak to us! I love you all!

-Elder J.T.Yates

Flamingos!!!

The Memorial District crew at the Twiga Cafe

Those Longhorn tho

Hump Day!

This past week... was an experience for sure. We had the blessed opportunity to serve so many people! We were able to go downtown and help at a homeless shelter. We cut some meat for about 2 hours. So you could say that I am a professional butcher now... ;) We were also able to go the Herman Park and help out at their gardens section. I have loved being able to learn how to garden! Haha

This last week, we found 8 new investigators! We found 8 more souls to help bring unto Christ! Elder Gilleland and I worked our hardest this week, and there were definitely fruits to show our effort. I am so glad and happy that I am able to be here serving the people of Houston!

My life has became so much better and closer to my Lord and Savior through this last year of service towards the people. I am a little sad looking at this past year and realizing what I could've done better. BUT, I know what I can do to improve, so that's what I'll do!

This week I'm not going to include the experiences for a couple reasons.

1) I have only heard from 4 people concerning them.

&

2) ‎I don't know how many experiences I have this week that are worth writing down... lol

I am so glad to have received some responses from my last weeks challenge, I continue challenging you to study out your favorite talks from General Conference and highlighting them. 

I love you all!!

-Elder J.T.Yates

A beautiful sunset

An artistic photo

Elder Gilleland in the city!

A FULL container of weed!

Glory!

Well a fine howdy do to all of y'all!! Wasn't General Conference just amazing?? I am still basking in the heavenly glory that was given to us! I am so grateful for the messages that were provided for each of us. I hope and pray that every one of you received guidance and direction for your lives. 

This week was yet another experience of a lifetime! The Mac G area does not disappoint. Heavenly Father knew that I needed to be here, and that I would be able to benefit from these people. Now that I have spent 2 weeks in the area, it is weird to now see a white person working anywhere. Haha

Anyways... This week was a little rough. My physical muscles have finally caught up to my spiritual muscles. My legs are feeling like jello. Oh well... The members in this ward are amazing! 80% of the ward are young college students. The chapel is right across the street from the U of H. It is really fun being able to walk/bike around the ghetto streets of H-town! It has humbled me and helped me understand the people more.

Now for more of the experiences! I think I will do something like this for the remainder of my mission, that way you can get a feel for how my week is going.

Amazing experiences...

• We went to Mid-town to this bike shop that is incredible! It's called Daniel Boone's Cycles. I love it!
• I found the "Jack Yates High School". So close to my name, but just barely missed the mark on being as cool... Haha
• We had some of our investigators this week! We have been helping them get closer to baptism.
• After church, the senior missionary couple in our ward, the Stakers, asked if we had a dinner appointment, when we said no, they invited us over and we had delicious Salmon, Jello w/ fruit, and to top it off, a peach drink!
• We went to the 50th anniversary of MLK's death. We literally signed up for civil unrest. Like, there were probably 200 people that were there! Half were screaming! Hahaha

Wanky experiences...

• We went into a lesson with an investigator named Clarence. First off, let me say... If you have ever watched a scary movie that was based in a house. Then you now know what his house looks like. When we walked in, he told us that his family had gone to the store, and we were the only people there. But, when we were talking with him about baptism, he didn't understand that his baptism was invalid because the Priesthood wasn't involved. But, when I was speaking about Christ and how important His baptism was for us, literally the climax of the lesson, in the other room around the corner, there was something that fell... Freaking scary!
• The next day after that lesson, we were walking back from the U of H, and a former investigator called after us and caught up to us as we were walking back to the church. He was insane. He wouldn't let us talk and kept talking over us. He was talking about how God's church shouldn't be locked. (Because he wanted to go inside and sleep there during the week) He also was screaming "GLORY!!!" At random intervals during our one sided conversation. He got within 2 feet of Elder Gilleland and me. Both of us were about to drop him, it's a good thing we didn't though.

That's a wrap on my week and the experiences that we have had. I love being in the Lord's vineyard and helping His children come closer to Him and His Son. I want all of you to ponder upon one talk that touched your heart the most. Re-read it, and then do something that most of you probably aren't used to doing this.. But, print that talk, and then mark it up! Underline, highlight, etc... Make it look colorful and amazing!

I then ask you to send me a picture of your most marked up page! I love you all! I can't wait to see how creative y'all are with your marking! 

-Elder J.T.Yates

MLK's 50th anniversary of his death. This guy was a civil unrest expert.

A super cool looking church building in Mid-town

 The Jack yates High School! Hahaha

 

 I had a photoshoot with my bike and made it look all decked out!

 

 

Cracks in our life that can be mended

Man! This week was amazing!! I never thought how much I would actually love a biking area. The Lord really has blessed me with the ability to bike all day every day and not get too sore. We had some pretty amazing experiences as well as some wanky ones! We passed by the smell of weed so many times! It truly is the smell of bad decisions.

Amazing experiences...

• We were biking along, and about 15 feet before our investigator's home, this 17 year-old kid named Chris stopped us and asked for a pamphlet or a book. We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation. We also found out that he has a child on the way and is still in 8th grade. We can't wait to continue teaching him the Gospel!
• The Stakers, the senior missionary couple in the area, took us to District Council on Wednesday. Afterwards, I found out that they take the whole District out to MOD Pizza EVERY STINKIN' WEEK!! MOD Pizza is like Subway, but the Pizza version. It's amazing
• Elder Gilliland had the most graceful crash I have ever witnessed. We were riding along the sidewalk, when we were coming up on a garbage can. he thought he could squeeze past, but he was sorely mistaken. He literally hit just the edge of it with his handlebar, and then fell straight onto the ground, didn't try to resist the fall, just fell right there.
• One of our investigators, Terry,  came to General Conference for the Priesthood Session. Halfway through, both Elder Gilleland and I thought "What a session to come to". But, afterwards he came up to us and told us that he wants to become an Elder! What a miracle!

Wanky experiences...

• While speaking with an investigator who had one eye (awesome), we heard car tires squeal and then looked just in time to see a car ram into a different parked car. They then backed up and drove off. We later came to find out that they were all juiced up on some drugs and alcohol.
• We were biking in the "sketchiest part of our area" and were trying to find a new investigator, when we also looked over just in time to watch a drug deal go down. The dude just walked up to the car, dropped a wad of cash in the passenger seat, and then took this small bag from the driver and the car drove off.

Well, that's a rap for your weekly update on experiences! Now time for the spiritual stuff! I absolutely loved General Conference! The Lord truly has a chosen Prophet on the Earth today! President Russell M. Nelson is God's chosen mouthpiece. Through him, we learned the changes of how quorums are to be organized, how we will not be just "Home or Visiting Teaching" but ministering to those who we share Heavenly Parents with, and we have 7 new temples on the way! We truly do "Thank Thee O God For A Prophet". 

During Conference, there were many things that spoke to my heart and mind as something that I can either do to change or to improve upon. But, the talk which left the greatest impression was by Elder Claudio D. Zivic. He spoke on having a firm testimony in the Gospel and how we cannot spiritually survive without it. In particular he said, "Even the strongest can fall if they do not 'Endure to the End'". As well, he told us to say "I will not fall away!" So many times I have had a "crack" in my testimony, and too many times I have let it grow bigger. I love our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ. 

Success in the Lord's way has a price. The only way to achieve that success is to pay that price. Now for your invitation, does your testimony have any "cracks"? How can you fix that? Will you pray about and find those cracks? Then, will you pray about how to fix them? I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ that when you do this, your testimony will strengthen and will grow stronger. You will develop the love and faith needed to go through these perilous times that we live in.

I love all of you!!

-Elder J.T.Yates

 Elder Gilleland and I in our first companionship picture.

Elder Gilleland and I biking hard on our sauce machines.

A small piece of weed that we found on the porch of an investigator.

 My favorite street name... Swank.

The beautiful downtown of H-Town! It reminds me of NYC, I LOVE IT!