Spiritual Orbits

March 15, 2021

Hello people of earth! 

It has been another week in Topeka, Kansas aka the city with a huge dog food factory and world's largest wren statue. This week has been good. We found a new person named Amber, and we are excited to get into contact with her and teach her a lesson. 

Mama Margaret is good. We've helped her with yard work. We also saw our friend John T at the bowling alley today; that was fun! 

Not a whole lot new happened this week, but I'm doing good and enjoying the rain here in Topeka. 

Spiritual thought: 

A few weeks ago I shared part of a quote by President Henry B. Eyring that goes as follows, "In the hardest trials, as long as you have the power to pray, you can ask a loving God: “Please let me serve, this day. It doesn’t matter to me how few things I may be able to do. Just let me know what I can do. I will obey this day. I know that I can, with Thy help.” 

I want to elaborate more on this and more on the idea of "this day". I like that the talk emphasizes THIS DAY, not someday. We can ask God what we can do and control this day of our lives and not procrastinate. Sheri Dew spoke to my mission this past October. She talked about the concepts of spiritual orbits. If we believe in Christ and have a desire to serve, you have a spiritual orbit. 

The Holy Spirit will help you figure out what we need to accomplish each day. When we humbly ask in faith what we can accomplish, the Lord will testify to our hearts and minds what we should do. At the end of the day when we lay down to rest, if we did what could do, the Lord will speak peace unto our minds. 

Some days we will come up a bit short which is bound to happen (if they didn't happen, there would be something wrong!)  We all fall short; we all fail, but by the grace of God, the Savior will pay our difference. And we can try and strive a little harder each day. 

One key element to finding out our spiritual orbits is to serve and love one another and have Christ-like compassion and love. In Mosiah 5:13 it says, "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?"

As we shift our thoughts, intents, and hearts to Heavenly Father and as we serve God and our fellow man, we will know what we can accomplish and what is within our reach. Our spiritual orbits are unique to each of us individually. I do not know what your obligation is to the poor financially, poor in spirit, or poor in heart. But I know that God knows and He will direct us to find out what each of us can accomplish within your reach of our spiritual orbits.

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Hedrick

You do not need to wander or wonder

 

3-8-21

Hello everyone, 

Things are exciting here in Topeka!  We had a zone conference and a special social media training from our social media leaders.  We found a new person. We call her Mama M, and she is amazing. We love her; she is such a fun light in our lives. Topeka for the most part is still the same - the smell of dog food. 

We do community service at a place called Catholic Charities - that's a fun place.  It's so amazing to see those in need get helped and supported.  People in less fortunate circumstances are some of the most grateful people I've ever seen. Also, I have my friends Peggy and Eileen. They are sister in laws - they are older ladies, but they are so funny and amazing as the volunteer with us at Catholic Charities. 

Our teaching pool is only Mama M kind of at the moment - it's complicated. Then we have John, Dan, and a lot more potential. We just have a really hard time getting in contact with these people, but we are trying. Hopefully, next week people will be more available. I'm praying.

Spiritual thought: 

Our prophet Russell M. Nelson (who I absolutely love) said the following in his "Let God Prevail" talk this past October, "The Savior will heal your broken heart. The heavens will open as you seek to know how to move forward. You do not need to wander or wonder."

What a prophetic blessing - the Savior can heal your broken heart, aka all your sorrows, pains, and afflictions. The heavens will open, aka help on the other side and revelation for our own lives. Then He tells us we don't need to wander or wonder. This quote could be read for almost any circumstance - a couple that experience a miscarriage, a victim of sexual abuse or physical abuse, a person suffering from depression, a person born with a birth defect, a person that lost a love one, the list can go on and on. 

When we are told the Savior can heal our broken heart, that is because of the Atoning Sacrifice He made for us.  It was out of love for His Father and out of love for us. In Matthew 26:39, it says this about His Atonement for the sins and sorrows of mankind, “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." 

We have to be like Christ and accept our Fathers will; we have to be submissive and meek and lowly of heart to allow the Savior’s Atonement to fix our hearts. Elder Holland once said, "If the bitter cup does not pass, drink it and be strong, trusting in happier days ahead." We have to have faith and trust that our trials and pains will make us grow and that the Savior's Atonement is for all, and it can heal us in time. Then the heavens will open, and we will receive promptings from the Holy Spirit on what we need to do, what action we need to take in our lives. 

Then, when the storm is calmed, the winds have stopped, and our trials are over, we need not wander or wonder. Genesis 2: 18 reads, "...It is not good that the man should be alone…" . Nobody should be alone to wander or wonder in past mistakes that have been repented of, or past traumatic experiences that they were victims of, or people that had a spouse cheat on them, or a loss of a love one, or a someone who had a friend that took their own life, the list goes on and on. We do not need to ask ourselves what could have been done? Where did I go wrong?

Unless we are at fault - then these are valid questions, but they should not torment us and discourage us. If we are at fault, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help you fix what you have broken. If we were blameless and the victim, find peace in Christ and his love for you; talk with people you trust and love. You don't need to wander or wonder on your own.

Love you all, 

Elder Hedrick

Try, try, try

 

3-1-21

Hi everyone, 

It has been another week here in Kaw Valley! Not a lot happened. My companion and I were invited to a zoom church. They spoke in tongues there, so that was an unique thing. I'd never seen it before, but it was very interesting. We were invited by Mrs. Margaret, this sweet friend of ours that lives here in Kansas. 

Weather has been beautiful 65° and sunny. I feel blessed! The fact that we live by a dog food factory and the smell blows over is kinda gross though - lol. But one of the other Elders thinks it smells like French fries. Yeah no, it is dog food and makes me wanna vomit. 

One wack thing that happened this week was the prank the sister missionaries played on us. Sister Montoya and Hermana Gleed both tricked us Elders so good! So they claim that one of them is getting an emergency transfer (meaning moved to a new assignment rather suddenly). They moved her suitcases down and had us write farewell notes. We were majorly tricked, but now they just unleashed a prank war… so stay tuned. 

Here's my spiritual thought for you today: 

I feel like I fail a lot here on the mission and that I am less than the perfect mission. But I honestly try, and when I don't try my hardest, I have to remember I can repent and change and try a little harder the next day. A talk given by President Eyring in October 2018 called, "Try Try Try" moved me this week. In the quote I'm about to reference President Eyring is referring to his wife. The quote goes as follows: 

"Now she can speak only a few words a day. She is visited by people she loved for the Lord. Every night and morning I sing hymns with her and we pray. I have to be voice in the prayers and in the songs. Sometimes I can see her mouthing the words of the hymns. She prefers children’s songs. The sentiment she seems to like best is summarized in the song “I’m Trying to Be like Jesus.”

The other day, after singing the words of the chorus: “Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do,” she said softly, but clearly, “Try, try, try.” I think that she will find, when she sees Him, that our Savior has put His name into her heart and that she has become like Him. He is carrying her through her troubles now, as He will carry you through yours."

I often feel like I have nothing to give and that I make mistakes and I just suck. But it's important to remember that I'm not Jesus, I'm trying to be like Jesus. Each day we can try, and when we account to the Lord and we fall short, if you try, He'll make up the rest. But if you didn't try, you can ask for forgiveness and a redo, and you'll lovingly receive one. The Lord did 100% of the work - his grace makes it possible, without him there'd be no point. But now we are asked to try, try, try for Him and try to become like Him. 

It's important to pray to Heavenly Father and ask, "Lord, what can I do on this day to serve thee and others within my reach?" I promise as you do that and follow the spiritual prompting you receive, you will become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. I fail at this, and it's something I'm trying to improve on as well, so if you feel like oh boy, Elder Hedrick seems preachy today, remember, we are all beggars and need forgiveness - Mosiah 4:19. 

In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says the following, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." So that's the commandment - be perfect… is anyone else getting nervous lol. Elder Holland gave a talk, and he read this scripture and added the word "eventually" to the end.  Perfection is pending and comes in the next life; all we are asked to do is try, try, try. 

Love you all, 

Elder Hedrick

Just a bump on the road of eternal life

2-22-21

 Hello everyone,

 

Well, it's been a week. Transfers happened on Friday - they got bumped back from Wednesday because of the weather. Kansas just hit record subzero temperatures since 1983. The temperatures dropped to -30° with wind, snow, and humidity.  But now it's a warm 41°, so the short sleeves and flip flops are coming out lol. But yeah transfers kinda stink. Well, more like they’re bittersweet.

 

My pal Elder Forbush left, and he was an amazing district leader and friend. I wasn't companions with him, but we lived in the same house. Also, we had a wonderful sister leave the district. Like I've said before, goodbyes make my throat hurt. I’m still with my companion though,  and he's amazing!  But the sweet part is that Sister Montoya, a good old friend from Manhattan, came to Kaw Valley and joined the district so it is fun getting to see her again. 

 

Eli, Alex, and Julee are all off date for baptism. Sad day, but it's ok; they are still all amazing. But we got 4 referrals from other missionaries that we honestly should have gotten a long time ago. All the people these missionaries were working with lived in our area, but they didn't want to pass them to us because they were in their teaching pool.  Some of them had been taught for 5 months. Kinda messed up lol. But hey we have them now, and we're so excited to work with them! 

 

But Kaw Valley is good. Like is said - a lot of throat hurting goodbyes and happy reunions. 

 

Here is my spiritual thought: 

 

At church the bishop referred to the book series "Ramona and Beezus", and it hit with a flash of the past. It made me remember the funny times reading those stories with my Mom. It made me think of all the annoying stuff Katie would do and all the arguments we had - that I now laugh at because it was over the stupidest stuff! 

 

The story of Ramona and Beezus is they are two sisters who have a love / hate relationship. Basically, Beezus is learning how to deal with a little, annoying sibling. 

One story that came to mind was the girls’ mother buys a ton of apples. And Beezus, the older sister, at one point was in charge of watching her little sister Ramona. Long story short, Ramona gets hold of all the apples and takes a bite out of each one. Ramona's reasoning was that the first bite of the apple tasted the best. Beezus, the older sister, is so mad she has steam coming out of her ears. She tells her mom, and to her surprise her mom wasn't mad. 

 

The girls’ mother made apple sauce with all the apples and had the girls help her. And that was that. This little story reminded me that we all make mistakes that seem huge at the moment and aren't fixable. But at the end of the day, they’re so small. Christ’s Atonement is there for us when we get mad at people that take bites of all the apples. His Atonement is there when we take bites out of all the apples. In the end, we all make small mistakes that seem bigger in the moment, but in reality they are just a bump on the road of eternal life. 

 

In 1 Corinthians 13:11, it says "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Talking about this story brought so many childhood / childish memories - times I was mad at Katie or Alex for x, y or z. But when you get older, you really have to pick your battles wisely and follow the example of Jesus Christ. I also love this story because it reminds me of the innocence and goofiness of kids. No wonder why Christ loves little children so deeply. 

 

Love you all, 

 

Elder Hedrick

We don't have to walk alone

 

2-15-21

Hello beautiful people, 

Transfers have come and gone. I have now been in Kaw Valley for 6 weeks. I am staying here with my current companion Elder Unsell (I'm happy and content about that). My district leader who lives with me is leaving. I'm so sad - Elder Forbush is gonna be a district leader and a trainer whitewashing into an area. (District leader- responsible for a group of missionaries, trainer- training a brand new missionary, whitewashing- two people going into an area together with no prior knowledge.) But yeah, that is exciting.  Also, I have a friend being made an STL (which is a leadership position for sisters).  She's gonna do great! 

Another Note: we made contact with people that we've been out of contact with (that were on date for baptism so we seriously needed to be in contact with them). So yeah, that was a huge blessing. But our way of contacting was door knocking grey dots (please read my past emails for an explanation of grey dots). So Elder Unsell and I were out knocking in 10° weather, and then Elder Hooper and I were on exchanges and went out knocking in 2° but it felt like -16° because of the humidity and wind. But yeah, changes are coming.

Spiritual thought: 

A lot of this is references and quotes from a BYU devotional called "It Is Not Good That . . . Man Should Be Alone” by Kevin J Worthen. In reading it, I learned a lot. 

"Very little that is positive is solitary. When was the last time you laughed uproariously? The last time you felt indescribable joy? The last time you sensed profound meaning and purpose? The last time you felt enormously proud of an accomplishment? Even without knowing the particulars of these high points of your life, I know their form: all of them took place around other people." - Dr. Martin Seligman

These questions were heart opening and soul searching questions for me. I think often we can tend to think we have to do everything at once and be perfect NOW. In the words of Russell.M Nelson, "Perfection is pending." 

We don't have to do anything alone, nor should we. Heavenly Father wouldn't have given us friends and families if that were the case. Now sometimes we lose dear loved ones or friends, and that is all about God's timing. It's like a chapter book where you laugh with some characters then cry with other characters. Then at some points you turn a page and a character leaves. (There's a lot of that in the mission). But sometimes characters can come back, and sometimes they don't. 

But the point is we don't have to walk alone. A perfect man already did that. He walked up a hill carrying a cross and kept walking up the hill to accomplish his Father’s will because he loves you and me. To think that you need to walk alone or are unworthy of love is completely disregarding wounds and pains of loneliness that the very Son of God closed himself in a private garden then on a public hill.

 I am afraid I'm guilty of feeling unworthy and at times I disregard the love and gift of the Atonement. I'm terribly mistaken at times. None of us should walk alone. Even when it feels like we are alone, we are not. Heaven's angels are always near on both sides of the veil, and the Holy Spirit is always lovingly nearby. 

Love you all, 

Elder Hedrick

He calleth them all by their names

February 8, 2021 

Hello everyone,

How is everyone? I hope you are doing great. Alex and Julee are on date for baptism on February 20th, and Eli had his date bumped back to March 20th so yeah, they all have work, but they're all willing to work and I'm super excited for them. So yeah, please, please, keep them in your prayers!!!

Superbowl Sunday was a tad bit slow - fast Sunday (so no food or drink until 6pm). Then we couldn't contact people because of the superbowl. But it's cool; the four Elders I live with are funny. This one member gave us these huge cinnamon rolls- they were huge like as big as my head, crazy stuff. Kaw Valley is currently covered in a white blanket of snow; it's 7° and feels like -7° because of the humidity. This Californian is freezing! But I'm doing good. 

Here's the spiritual thought: 

In the talk, Am I a Child of God? by Elder Brian K. Taylor of the Seventy in the April 2019 General Conference, he says the following, 

"Moses learned of his divine heritage talking with the Lord face-to-face. Following that experience, ‘Satan came tempting’ with subtle yet vicious intent to distort Moses’s identity, “saying: Moses, son of man, worship me. And … Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God.”

Here's my question, why would Satan tell Moses he is a son of man when the Lord just told him he was a son of God? Because he knows Moses is a man and could fall to fear and doubt, Satan knows you and knows your weakness. Please never forget you are a son or daughter of loving Heavenly parents, made in their image. 

Psalms 147: 4 says the following, "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." 

 

So if God knows the names of every star, why wouldn't he know your name? Why wouldn't He love you? He made you and you are special to him. Always remember your faith and your identity of being a child of God will touch the lives around you. 

 

Love you all! 

 

Elder Hedrick

Angels on our left and our right to bear us up

February 1, 2021

Hello everyone, 

It has been another week in Kaw Valley. It's snowed, rained and been foggy recently. It gets down to about 24 degrees at night plus the bone chilling humidity of the Kansas oatmeal air. So things are moving here in Kaw Valley. We finally got over 20 lessons this week, and we found a new person and got him on date for baptism. His name is Elisha, and he is planning on being baptized on the 20th of February. He has a long road ahead of him, but we’ll help him all we can. So please pray for him!  Alex and Julie are doing good. They are a younger couple we're teaching. They are amazing. We invited them to be baptized on the 20th of February, and they both said yes! So 3 baptisms are planned as of now for February 20th! Also, Tamera is doing good. She is such a sweetheart! Please pray for her and her anxiety, she's very stressed out with work and Covid and everything going on in the world. 

We had a zone conference in Wichita, and Elder Rassen from the quorum of the 70 was there, (a high-ranking church authority). And he gave a lot of good advice about raising our vision as a mission. Zone conference was nice because I got to see some old friends from Manhattan and the Salina area. The Elders I live with are fun, my companion is funny, he breaks everything by accident, but we still love him. My district leader is sarcastic like me and is just a wise old owl (even though he's been out as long as me, and he is so smart!) Elder Hooper hates physical contact so I try to hug him as much as I can. 

Well, here is my spiritual thought: Angels 

In the book of Mormon, Jacob 7:5 says the following, "And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken."

So basically Sherem is this bad guy that is speaking bad about Christ and trying to destroy Jacob's testimony and his faith. And Jacob has great faith. He heard the voice of the Lord and has literally seen angels. I love when he says, "For I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me." 

I now ask you, who are your ministering angels? Because I know for a fact that angles are real and can witness them in my own life. Heaven is close, and Heavenly fathers Angels are even closer. I also believe our friends and family on the other side of the veil are ministering to us. President Joseph F. Smith said the following:

“I believe we move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. … We are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors … who have preceded us into the spirit world. We cannot forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we cannot break. … If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, … how much more certain it is … to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond … can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. … We live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; … their love for us and their desire for our well-being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves.”

Please remember you're not alone. Christ and Heavenly Father are with you. His spirit is with you. Angels are here now and today and forever to bear you up. I have seen angels in my life from both sides of the veil; they are real, and they cheer us on. I have never felt closer to my family that has passed in any other time than now. President Eyring said the following, "The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word." I testify that the Savior always keeps his words and that his Angels are here on our left and right hands and here to bear us up! 

Love you all, 

Elder Hedrick