Elder Erb - Missionary - Boston, Massachusetts Mission

Saturday, August 24, 2013

April 24, 2013

Hola family and friends,

So nothing much has happened here. You know except for a bomb going off and harming people in the Boston Race! Luckily none of the missionaries got hurt even though there were many of them down there at the time, including our Mission President and some of his family. You might be asking, "Well how did this affect you all the way down in Connecticut?" We, along with the rest of the mission were assigned to stay inside and not do anything. This was sad because we love doing missionary work, but we took advantage of the situation and decided that there is strength in numbers so we camped out at our zone leaders’ house for the day. During our down time, I managed to read through the book of Alma, Heleman, and most of 3 Nephi. I never realized how many hours there are in a day.

I let transfers sneak up on me again. I am not leaving, my companion is. In his place I am going to be training a brand new missionary. After I got over a couple of mixed feelings of astonishment, nervousness, and fright, I decided that I should let my father, or trainer, know that he was soon to be a grandfather. I realized after being away from my trainer and with other missionaries that I was a very hard missionary to train. It is similar to the feeling most people get when they have been away at college or on their own for a year and then realize how much their parents have done for them. It is very fitting how we relate to one another in the church and on the mission by names that are found in the family.

Oh yeah! That reminds me, I'm officially old now that I'm 20. I would like to thank everyone that remembered my birthday. I say this because I almost forgot it myself and would have if the Sisters in our district didn't surprise me with a cake the day before the 12th. For all those that were worried if the letters and packages got to me by the 12^th, I will put your minds at ease by telling you that they did get to me, on the 13th. It was actually really funny, because I didn't get any letters or anything the 12th, and then got 5 letters and 3 packages on the 13th.

I thank you all for your prayers and thoughts toward me. I am sorry that I do not have more to talk about this time. I love you all and want you to know that this transfer I have learned more than anything else that putting your faith in the Lord will never let you down.

Elder Erb

April 8, 2013

Note: for those who want to send Elder Erb a letter for his Birthday (April 12th), his current mailing address is:

Elder Charles Jace Erb

63 Charter Oaks St. #A

Manchester Connecticut 06040

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Hello family and friends,

What an amazing Conference! People have been telling me how much different Conference is on your mission but I did not understand how much different till I experienced it for myself over the past two days. Not only has this conference affected me in my own spiritual growth and development, but has also helped those that we teach.

An example of this is with a less active member we have been visiting recently named Sister L.... We have been going on walks with Sister L... in the morning to help here keep her mind off of smoking. During these walks we talk about principles of Christ's Gospel. When talking with her she told us that it had been hard on her recently because she has been having troubles in her family with her children. Unfortunately for us we could not help her to know what she should do because we know little on the subject and had no member with us. We told her to watch General Conference. After the first two sessions of Conference, we received a call from Sister L.... She said that those two sessions of conference were exactly what she needed to hear and were an answer to her prayers. She explained to us that through many of the talks concerning families she felt comforted and confirmation from the Spirit of the Lord.

During this week leading up to conference we had several other miracles happen. One of which was the Baptism of V... M... from my first area right before the first session of Conference. Another has to do with a woman named E.... E... was a name given to us from that list that I spoke about last week of people we were assigned to get info on. We had stopped by this house several times before. Each time not finding E..., but instead one of her family members telling us she was not home. Finally after about the fourth or fifth visit they took compassion on us and told us to call her and gave us E...'s number. When we went to see her she was thrilled to meet us and wanted to know about the gospel. She explained that her family had become inactive a long time ago and she was not quite sure why. She asked if she could come to church with us and we told her that we had Conference. I then could somehow tell that she was confused and explained what Conference was. After we had explained it is where our Prophet and Apostles speak to the public and members of the church she said OK and we began to move on. It was then that I somehow got the feeling that she did not know what a Prophet was. I now look back and I do not know how I felt this, for she did not show any signs of confusion in what we said. I asked E... if she knew and she said no. Because of this she became excited that there was someone like a modern day Moses. She agreed to watch the last session of General Conference gladly and full of excitement. It was not till later that we found out that she is not a member.

I have learned how the Lord can prepare people no matter the situation that they may be in. As long as we are ready and prepared ourselves, the Lord will put these people in our paths so that we may help them find Him. I hope that in the same way Conference has answered my prayers that it has answered yours.

Elder Erb

Feb 25, 2013

Mon, Feb 25, 2013

Hello people in the real world,

     This week has been all over the place. To start off with we were not even in our area for half of the week. My companion left for exchanges on Tuesday. Then we met up at some other elder's house and camped out with them for Zone Conference and District Meeting. We didn't get home until Thursday night. We then had the amazing opportunity of having a mini-missionary for the weekend. For those that might not know what a mini-missionary is they are a youth that has set aside some time to go out with the missionaries for a certain number of days and basically be a missionary. It was an awesome experience. He had a very humble spirit about him that gave him a lot of power as a missionary. There is so much power in humility, I have noticed that as we grow older we need to learn that in a temporal sense we need to become more self reliant, but in a spiritual sense we grow as we become more dependent on the Lord and the knowledge he is willing to offer us. Although our mini-missionary may think that he did all the learning, I believe that I may have done just as much learning if not more from this experience.
     Despite the little time in our area this week we managed to see enough miracles to cover the space of a month. We met two people this week that told us that they have a strong interest in hearing the discussions with the intention of being baptized. Both of them are very thirsty for knowledge and are tired from the trials of the world and they have a faith about them that the words we bring them will give them happiness in their lives. We met with V... again, and although we postponed her baptism she feels that she knows that she must get baptized and she understands why. I feel that she knows everything see needs to know in order to become a member but we both agree that there is more that she can do as she prepares herself for the reset date that has been set. During our exchanges we had the great opportunity to meet with G... again. She is a perfect testament of the ability the spirit has to teach to ones understanding and heart. For a quick recap of who G... is she is a woman from Uganda that is very interested in what we have to say and believes all of our words. As we teach G... I begin to feel as Ammon did, teaching King Lamoni. Despite the fact that there is a huge language barrier between us, she responds to us with insightful questions that invoke truth. At the end of our lesson I sometimes get worried that she may not understand what I have said, but then I am comforted when she says "I understand the things you have said and I believe all of your words." Even though she cannot understand the English Book of Mormon at all the Lord is still teaching G... through his spirit.
     I was not sure if I had mentioned this in a previous letter, A..., our recent Taiwanese convert, had the opportunity of going to the temple to participate in Baptisms for the dead for some of her ancestors. I am glad that she had the opportunity to give to those that have not had the chance to receive the gospel in their mortal existence the chance to accept this essential ordinance of salvation. I am glad that our God is a just God that gives all people the chance to accept Christ's atoning sacrifice and invites us all to be His friends.
     This week I have begun to see how there are other things that can keep people from the gospel than just a lack of knowledge. We have taught many other people this week, who I will not name, who have told us that they know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that they know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's Church reestablished. But despite this there are fears in the hearts of man that keep them from having faith in what they know to be true. This is proof that it is faith that brings about change and not knowledge alone.
     Thank you for reading about my experiences and being so supportive of the mission for the Lord that I am on. Although I am not the best at things pertaining to writing I hope that these things can help you in your lives somehow. And with that I would like to reveal the secret to all effective missionary work. The secret is Love. When you lose yourself to the Lord that is when you will find yourself.

Elder Erb

Jan 8, 2013

Dear family and friends,

     In terms of numbers, this week has not been very successful at all. But we must have done something right because we got 4 investigators to come to fast and testimony meeting this Sunday. Aside from this, two nonmembers showed up at church one of which bore his testimony. Big things are happening in our ward and we are working really pushing member missionary work. Missionary work is starting to make drastic changes since last General Conference and the new missionaries haven't even made it out here yet.
     So I met a couple of new people this week that I would like to talk about now. One of which was probably the funniest and strangest member visit I have ever been too. The member’s name is A... and as of last Tuesday he is 91 years old. He has been unable to come to church because he can't really move very far now but he is still brought the sacrament and has an amazing testimony and spirit about him. Now to explain why the visit was strange I have to start from the beginning. Something about A.... that is important to know is that he is practically deaf, so with this in mind we just walked into his house without knocking or anything and walked over to him. He then turned off his TV and greeted us. For him to hear us at all we have to yell at him as loud as we can. A.... talked about his life and the topic came up that he was a ward mission leader at one point in time. He explained that he loved the missionaries and how he really enjoys it when we stop by because he doesn't really leave his house ever. While we were there, his son and daughter-in law stopped by for a visit and we were able to share the scriptures better because they could talk louder than Elder Jones or I could. I am glad I got to meet A.... Alexander and I hope to drop by to see him another day.
     This week a lot of people did not have work or school so we made a huge effort to hunt down less active families and tract. In our tracting experience Elder Jones and I learned that there are some things that one should not say while tracting that I have taken some time to write down for anyone who is to be a missionary or is hoping to remember the good old days. I hope you like them. :D

Things Not To Do While Tracting:

Knock Knock
Elders: Hi, we are missionaries with the Mormon church wondering if you would like to know more about what Mormons believe.
Person: Sorry, I'm (insert other religion here).
Elders: We're sorry too.

Knock Knock
Elders: Hi, we were going around asking people about their relationship with God. How do you think God plays a role in your everyday life?
Person: Sorry, I'm atheist.
Elders: We can fix that.

Knock Knock
Elders: Hello. Are you hungry?
Person: Ya, why?
Elders: Here feast upon the words of Christ.(give Book of Mormon here)

Knock Knock
Elders: Hi there! Would you mind taking this card so you could go on our site to learn more about us?
Person: Yes.
Elders: You would?! Well here you go!
Person: No, I said "yes I would mind."

Knock Knock
Elders: Hi, we are going around sharing a message about God's love for all of us, and how we should love one another and come to know our neighbor.
Person: Guys.... I'm in your ward!
Elders: Ha! Good one, like we haven't heard that before.

Knock Knock
Elders: .....
Person: .....
Elders: .....
Person: Can I help you?
Elders: What do we do? We've never gotten this far before!

Knock Knock
Elders: Beautiful day isn't it? You know what could make it better?
Person: No, what?
Elders: YOUR BAPTISM!!!

Thank you and I hope that none of these door approaches will be you on your mission. :D

Elder Erb