Another great week in DC!

We all survived transfers! It was crazy, but we made it through. We opened up 5 new areas and everything went as smoothly as it could have gone. 

On Tuesday we picked up the 23 new missionaries. We had 3 missionaries come in who are waiting for their visa. One is from the Ukraine, and is serving his mission in the new Ukraine mission. He is from Sumy! I believe that is where Anthony is serving right now. Anyways, he has a cool accent.... We drove them to DC right after we picked them up and it was crazy! So many police officers were there! EVERYWHERE! I saw a ton of helicopters flying around as well. I have never seen so many cops in my life. 

Well another start to another transfer. This is Elder Norris' last one. It's freaking him out. But he is as focused as ever. This last week we had a great first lesson with a guy who was reffered to us by his LDS co-worker. In PMG there is a section on How to Begin Teaching, and we used many of the bullet points from that. It started the lesson off great! We have another lesson with him this Thursday. He has been Catholic his whole life, but isn't happy with the lack of answers to his questions that his church has. Well, that's what we are here for! Is to answer those questions.

Funny story... As I have said in past emails, Elder Norris and I have had a hard time to stay awake during sacrament meeting. Well yesterday was sacrament meeting. (starting at 3 doesnt help either...). Well I was struggling during the administering of the sacrament, but after I was wide awake. Elder Norris on the other hand was out cold. It wasn't in the program, but Bishop Forsyth had a young man bear (spelling?) his testimony right after the sacrament. He is preparing to serve a mission. Anyways, in his testimony he made a special remark about how Elder Norris helped him prepare for a mission. When he did that, EVERYONE looked over at us... I turned to look at my companion. His head was cocked back, mouth wide open, DEAD asleep... He slept the WHOLE 30 min! Everyone was giving him a hard time afterward. We were laughing so hard after church.

Love ya!

Elder Michael Litchfield

It is always sad when you see a missionary go home early. This last week we had 2 go home early. One was for something he did out here. It is so sad to see that. It kills President Riggs. Thursday we were in the office all day dealing with it...

One a brighter note, Suzy Brown came to church! She is sooooo catholic (she teaches catechism) but she came! Funny story... I was on an exchange with a zone leader from the Centreville Zone, and we were taking Suzy on a tour of the church building. We had a young man who was preparing for a mission, and a Lady from the ward who lives close to her. Suzy brought her 2 year old and her 2 month old with her. She has 5 kids all under the age of 10. We went through most of the rooms and it was a very good experience! We got to the chapel and the spirit hit all of us SO STRONG! We had Brandon (the young man) talk about the sacrament. We had Suzy sit on the front row so she could see all of the trays and such. As he was talking, her little one starts crying. Out of nowhere she picks the baby up, pulls up her shirt, and, as she says it, "plugs her baby in"... The look on Brandon's face was PRICELESS!!!! However, he regained his composure and went on. We talked to his parents about it a couple days later and they were laughing as well. It's an inside joke between us and the family now... She loved the tour nonetheless. 

This next week we have Mission Leadership Council (formerly Zone Leader Council, since Sisters come now)... I'm supposed to give a 15 min presentation, but I don't know what to talk about... I will be praying for revelation on what to say. Wish me luck!

We have a new missionary come to our mission tonight! He is a spanish speaker, and since he knows the language well enough, the MTC sends him out early so they can house another missionary. We are having dinner with President Riggs at the mission home tonight with this new missionary. 

Well, I'm gonna go play some basketball...

Love ya!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Well... Another great week in Washington DC! 

With this transfer coming to a close, it has been very hectic week. There are 21 new missionaries coming in. 12 of them are sisters. There are only 8 going home, and one of them is a sister. We are having to open up 6 new areas! That means furnishing apartments, new phones, cars, and supplies... We have been working extra hard to get as much done as we can early, so we don't have to stay up till 2:30 each night this week. Plus transfers is a day early... One less day to work. Working with President on transfers is incredible. The amount of prayer and revelation that goes into that is incredible. Mission Presidents are SO in-tune with the spirit! Such a blessing to be able to witness the Spirit work through him. We also got an email from SLC saying that there will now be Sister Trainer Leaders... Aka Sister AP's... So that was an interesting thing to keep in mind as we worked on transfers.

Wednesday we went to the Temple with the missionaries who are going home and President and Sister Riggs. The DC Temple is AWESOME! It was a beautiful day too! After we went to Olive Garden. YUM! 

Thursday was Return and Report. It is a meeting for the missionaries who have been in the mission for 4 weeks. Their trainers come as well. I gave a presentation about the importance of Companionship Study. I used the scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about being "one" when going into a spiritual battle. It went really well! The new missionaries are very excited about the work and have been working very hard!

In my personal study the other morning I was reading in Jacob ch. 5:70 "And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his ^aservant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other^bservants; and they were ^cfew."

There is a cross reference for the word "servant" that takes us to Doctrine and Covenants that tells us that the "servant" is Joseph Smith, and the "other servants" are young men (men and women!). Aka... MISSIONARIES! Pretty cool huh? I reread the chapter and it made so much more sense! 

Anyways... LOVE YA!

Elder Michael Litchfield

It's always such a blessing to be able to hear the modern day Prophets and Apostles speak to us. Especially when non-members watch it as well! It is such a powerful tool to use to allow people to feel the spirit! Now I just have to wait 6 more months to use it again! Personally, my favorite talk was Elder Richard G. Scott's talk, but all of them were very inspired. 

This last Tuesday I went on an exchange with a zone leader that is serving in Woodbridge. Remember that was my first zone that I served in for 6 months? His area wasn't the area's I served in though. While we were knocking on doors, we saw a bunch of guys playing basketball on a street-ball court. Remember when I was in Woodbridge this time last year? ;) haha! I walked over and tried to talk to them. They wouldn't give my companion and I the time of day. So we asked them if we could play them two-on-two. They all laughed at us. We insisted and they agreed. All 25 of their group surrounded the court. My companion and I rolled up our white shirt sleeves, and tightened our dress shoes. They thought we were goobers, and gave us the ball first. My companion checked the ball and right off the bat passed it to me on the 3 point line. I pulled up........ SWISH! The crowd of guys shouted "LUCKY!" They play where if you make it, you get the ball again. So my companion checked the ball, passed it to me on the 3 point line. I pulled up again...... SWISH! haha it was hilarious! The guy guarding me didn't look so cocky anymore. He guarded me real close after that. As we played the crowed went from making fun of us, to making fun of the two guys we were playing! We beat them 11-3. We were very respectful as we played, but wanted to earn their respect. Two bigger guys came from the crowd and challenged us. More people were coming to watch. I was getting a little bit nervous, and my companion was too. We were in the most ghetto part of Woodbridge... We played the two new guys and beat them 11-5. As we played, these two HUGE guys kept shouting "IF YOU LOSE, THE MORMONS ARE GONNA BAPTIZE YOU!" I couldn't help but laugh... After the second game, 2 more guys came and challenged us. I had seen them playing on the other side of the court when I got there. They were really good. It was a close game, but they beat us 11-8. They played well. We were pretty dang tired at this point, but succeeded in what we were trying to accomplish. We earned their respect. As we left the court, we had 3 return appointments, a commitment to come to church  and tons of cell phone numbers. It was a fun day!

Thursday we had Zone Leader Council. I gave my presentation to the Zone Leaders about love. I felt inspired to share it so that the  ZL's will lead with love. It is something that our mission was lacking. We also watched an AMAZING video on Grace. it was by Brad Wilcox. EVERYONE should watch it.

Friday we had a crazy busy day! We had appointments lined up all day, and to my surprise, they all went through! That night we had a first lesson with a lady who we had met on the street. She researched the church on Google, and got all sorts of information that was false or skewed. She is still willing to learn more after the crazy lesson. Her 14 year old son, however, is amazing. He was skimming through the Book of Mormon while we were talking and all of a sudden said "I know that this book is from God, no man could write such a book back in the 1800s" hahaha! It was amazing! The both are going to read the Book of Mormon while they are on their trip. They get back in a couple weeks.

Well, transfers are coming up! That means CRAZINESS and no sleep. I'm going to DC Today. The weather is AMAZING!

Love you all!!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Video with Michael in it!

http://armiesofhelaman3.blogspot.com/2013/03/washington-dc-south-mission_16.html#comment-form

Another great week in DC South! We have our new mission boundaries map. The mission looks so weird! But I'll get used to it after a while. The Richmond mission is getting  a new mission president right when the changes happen (July 1, 2013). That is going to be a stressful time for that guy! 

I gave my talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday. We were able to get a lot of less-active and part-member families to come, many non-member friends of families in the ward, and 2 of our investigators as well. They PACKED the program. So by the time it was my turn to give my talk (I was the concluding speaker), I had a bout 5 min. So I basically bore my testimony about the Resurrection and the Atonement. Now I have a talk that I can give down the road if I get called to speak about anything to do with the Atonement haha.

This last week was one of the funniest weeks of my life. Wednesday we were asked to read the Book of Mormon with the Young Women in the ward. They were reading the Book of Mormon in 2 days. When we got there, there wasn't another Adult Male in the home. So we waited for the lady's husband to get back from his errand. Now, My companion probably holds the world record for smallest bladder. He literally has to pee every 30 min, and when he has to pee... It's an emergency haha. So he had to pee, but since there was no male, he had to wait. He tells me this is very painful haha. So the Young Women come outside to read with us. I can tell Elder Norris is in pain, and i feel bad for saying this... But it made me chuckle. A couple minutes later the husband gets home and we all go inside to finish reading. Elder Norris runs straight for the bathroom and shuts the door. I walk inside and stand with my back to the bathroom, but facing the front door. All of the young women and the adult females were walking in. The last 3 Young Women were walking in with the owner of the house (all 4 female). At this point I notice that Elder Norris is peeing REALLY loud. I also noticed that the women were looking behind me with a bewildered look on their face. I turned around and saw Elder Norris peeing... the door was WIDE open. I ran over and shut the door. He had no idea it had come open. The women didn't say anything about it after, which was nice of them. We were laughing so hard when we left though!


We have church that starts at 3 and ends at 6, so we don't have time to eat dinner. We have to get straight to work. Last night we thought it would be a good idea to go tracting, since people will most likely be home due to Easter. As Elder Norris and I walked up to a door, we talked about how he hates dogs. He doesn't just hate them, he is scared of them (mainly big dogs though). As we knocked on this door, two loud deep barks came from the other side. Elder Norris took a couple steps back. A couple seconds later the door opened. A HUGE pit bull came running out, right for Elder Norris! I thought for sure he was going to get bitten. Elder Norris was able to use his foot to keep the dog back. After 30 seconds of the small attack, we got the dog back into the door. He was very scared at this point and quickly walked away and was breathing really heavy. I was still standing at the door trying to talk to the lady (it didn't help that she spoke little English). Out of nowhere, the dog comes running out the door, RIGHT PAST ME, and straight for Elder Norris for round two of the fight. At this point I was dying laughing. I knew the dog wasn't going to bight him. He was extremely scared at this point, and looked as if he was going to kick the dog in the face. We got the dog back inside, and shut the door. I was laughing so hard. He was too. Anytime we see a dog, they always go for him and not me. It's hilarious. We laughed for the rest of the night about it!

We are still laughing about both experiences!

I'm having a good time over here. Lots of laughs and miracles.

LOVE YA!

Elder Michael Litchfield

Well, this last week was Zone Conference week. Tuesday through Friday. Elder Norris and I talked about inviting people to be baptized at all 4 of them. It went well! While recording key indicators this morning, we noticed that the invite percentage accross the mission went up significantly! YES! We also had a companionship that put 15 people on date this last week! CRAZY! In our presentation we talked about persistence. I used the story that my Dad had encountered on his vacation of a man who got baptized because of the persistence of the missionaries. We don't really know if a person will say yes to a baptismal date unless we ask them. DON'T HESITATE! It's in Preach My Gospel! 

We had Zone Leader Council a while ago and it really seemed to put a fire under the Zone Leaders! They are motivating their zones like crazy! At Zone Leader Council (ZLC) I discussed Ezekiel 34:1-12. It seems to have worked!

We did have a couple of cool miracles this week! One of which is a testimony to me that Gods work cannot be frustrated. I was on an exchange in our area with a Zone Leader. We had 3 set appointments that all lived on the same street! All 3 of them weren't home. As we were walking away, I saw a guy walking on the sidewalk about 40 yards away. My companion and I quickly walked over to him. He told us that he was going on a walk. We asked if we could join him. He told us we could! It was a 2 mile walk! We were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration! He has had a string of really bad luck lately, and is searching for more in life. He had received a Book of Mormon about 20 years ago and still had it! He told us he felt like our encounter wasn't by chance. SWEET! After we left him, we drove to another appointment, got lost, found our way again, and then he wasn't home. As we were walking up the street back to our truck, we saw a lady walking on the sidewalk. We went over to her and she told us that she was looking for her 12 year old son who was walking their dog. We walked with her and looked for him. Turns out he had gotten home right after she had left, but we were able to talk to her about the Plan of Salvation! She has LDS friends and wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon! We are seeing her in a couple weeks when she is back from vacation. Isn't God's timing incredible!? Both of them are coming to church for Easter to hear Elder Norris and Myself speak. Oh ya... i am speaking in Church on Easter. 

We went over to a guy's house named Leroy, who's struggled with his testimony. He got baptized a while ago. We talked to him a lot about the Grace of Jesus Christ, and why he got baptized.... He felt the spirit and agreed to go back to church. It is so crucial to remember the times that you feel the SPIRIT! Otherwise your sensitivity becomes dull. I have such a strong testimony of God's love for us. He is ALWAYS there for us whenever we need him. 

Last miracle... A couple weeks ago we were walking into Panda Express when a guy drove by and called us over. He asked what church we went to. We told him and he said he wanted to come! He gave us his phone number and we gave him ours. 2 weeks later he calls us up on a Friday and says he is coming Sunday. So Sunday we sat with him at Sacrament meeting. HE LOVED IT! He told us he is bringing his family next Sunday for Easter. He is from Afghanistan too! I felt bad though... Elder Norris and I have been up so late dealing with Zone Conferences and disobedient missionaries, that we hadn't gotten much sleep. I had THE HARDEST time on my mission on Sunday staying awake. It didn't help that Elder Norris was sick. He fell asleep too. Luckily, Mike (the guy from Afgan.) didn't notice. PHEW! We both felt awful about it afterward! any tips on how to stay awake during sacrament meeting? (gosh that is such a bad question to ask haha!)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Michael Litchfield