This week has been INCREDIBLE...The Blessings of Obedience

New Years Celebration at 10:25. It was also the first night for a bunch of elders here! They are here for two weeks going to the West Indies Mission and for a bunch of the Spanish elders just came for two weeks and they are going to Puerto Rico and Santiago.. I have commissioned my District to find our family in PR and baptize them!

As we start a new year

As we were striving to be obedient I helped an elder decide not to stay up unitl midnight on new years and we took a vote with all the districts and they all agreed so we made 10:25 our 12 this year. As we counted down we yelled happy new year and the minute we did we hear a knock. It was the sisters from another District asking Their District Leader Elder Madsen and his companion and me and Elder Smith to give her a blessing in a time of severe trials and because we were Exactly Obedient we were able to with the Spirit and it was amazing. There is no better way for me to begin a new year then by blessing the life of another through the Priesthood !

Elder Hefner and Elder Smith with Elder Orr's stash for New Years Celebration

Elder Orr - He got all this together

This week has been INCREDIBLE

Hey Mom and Dad. This week has been INCREDIBLE. One story in particular I need to share with you is this one. I had the impression to fast to be a better district leader and example to others and so I did. That same day I got paired up with Hermana (name withheld) in a session of teaching and I knew it was the moment that I had been fasting for. Instead of teaching her like a pretend investigator I tought her. In the opening prayer of our lesson I begged the Spirit to guide me as to what to say. When I did I heard the words in my mind clear as day you need to teach her about where to turn to when she is in need of strength. Then it gave me very specific scriptures to share and a Question to ask. When I asked the question in the very first part of the lesson she began to sob. Everything I shared with her is what she needed the most. I knew that was my role and that I was the only one who had the capability to say what she needed to hear. If you are ready I have another story that will bring the Spirit Please let me know love you.

Our reply was: We are here!!! We are ready!!! Happy New Year!!

Tender Mercies from two points of view

We are part of a private group on Facebook were Missionary Mothers share their Elders/Sisters experiences on the field in order to uplift each other. To our surprise a Mom posted the following:

My daughter has been at the DR MTC for about 4 weeks now. She shared a really neat story in her email today. I just wanted to say thank you to those Elders that she is serving with that were able to help her when she needed it. What an amazing experience she had!

"Also, a couple nights ago I randomly started getting these super sharp pains in my stomach and I literally could not move. I took Advil and they just got worse and worse. I was planning on sleeping in a chair because every time I went to lay down the pain just increased. So I finally decided to go ask the elders if they could give me a blessing. We knocked on every door and woke up every elder in here because we didn't know what room our elders were in. So that was embarrassing. But apparently all the elders in my district couldn't sleep, which is super rare because by the end of the days you are dead tired. Anyways, when we knocked on the door and asked for a blessing they were all freaking out saying that's the reason they couldn't sleep. But the coolest thing happened during the blessing. The elder that gave it to me said, "Christ is looking down on you smiling because of how proud He is of you" and as soon as he said that I saw, clear as day, a smile. So awesome and immediately after receiving that blessing the pain was gone. The power of the priesthood is real, my friends. I probably needed that experience to humble myself and not only did it strengthen my testimony in the priesthood all the elders in my district gained a stronger testimony and that's sooo cool."

This was our response to that mom for Elder Hefner shared the following Miracle in his e-mail:

I share the story from the Priesthood side...Just sharing for the Spirit was overwhelming when I read it and for everyone to know that Heavenly Father watches over our children. This is what my son wrote: "so there was a night this week were it was 11 at night and NONE of the Elders in my district could sleep myself included. We are a district of exact obedience so we are always in bed by 10:30 but this night it was 11:10 and we were laying in bed with the lights off and just couldn't sleep. Then the Miracle happened. We got a knock on our door from one of the Hatian teachers. He said one of our sisters was in a lot of pain and required a blessing. Luckily we were all wearing shirts and shorts so we threw on our name tags and ran out the door. She asked Elder Alatini to anoint and for me to bless. As i put my hands on her head I closed my eyes and Everything went bright white. It was as if I had closed my eyes while standing outside at noon day and the sun was shining directly at me. I felt my self recide from my own mind and the Holy Ghost filled every ounce of my frame and mind and spoke words to this Sister. I remember saying to arise and be made completely whole through her faith in Jesus Christ. After the blessing was over the Severe STABBING pains that she had had for hours were completely gone."

Unconditional Love

Last night of Haitian Elders at the CCM

I had to say goodbye to my Haitian brothers when the left the CCM. I have had to do very few things as hard as that in my entire life. I have a Special love for the People of Haiti like my father before me. I asked the CCM president and he has confirmed that there are hardly any Haitian speaking elders in Santiago. That is because they are all being sent to Haiti. And they have no one that can teach creole here. The Haitians bring their teachers from Haiti. Dad please begin preparing things to send to help me learn Creole. I love you guys I really do. I have faith that I can learn this. I will do all the lord asks and I have a feeling that I am going to pick it up really fast because he has ALOT of work for me to do. My Blessing from The lord says " I will bring MANY souls unto Christ while on my mission" Luckily there is an elder here who is going to Santiago who speaks fluent Spanish and Haitian! And I have already gotten a PMG in French.. He will help me learn Haitian through Spanish... Blessing? I think YES. It was hard because I know that I will not see most of those brothers again in this earth. They bore us testimony saying that we were angels because we embraced them with all our hearts and loved them because we didn't judge the color of their skin. They bore their testimony in broken English of the truthfulness of the gospel in Broken English and I have never heard a more powerful testimony. I love these people so much Mom and Dad I really do.

Our Response to Elder Hefner was: We already have had the same confirmation. On Tuesday we were in your room and your dad was reading you mission call letter and he read the line that said about your mission will be change according to your mission president and your dad said: It wouldn't surprise me if his mission president ask him to speak creole".