The First Week

Hello all,
Well it's officially my 6th day in the mission and it is an amazing experience. Let me begin by telling you all that Utah is quite an interesting place to be proselyting in. Usually when you tract or do random approaches you always state something along the lines of "Hey, we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have a message about Jesus Christ we'd like to share." Needless to say... everyone here either knows the missionaries, hates the missionaries, or just doesn't care. Utah has an interesting stigma about it for sure in that most people say they are members of the church, but some are definitely not active. It's a truly new experience that the MTC could never really help, despite what I learned. I LOVE THE MISSION. Let me share with you about my new companion named Elder Bennett. He is from Southern California, the Riverside area, and he is a stud. What's funny is that he has only been out for about 3 months so he literally just got off training himself. He's cool but we are definitely still learning together. I feel as if we truly work together, especially when we teach. Since I'm new, I don't talk nearly as much as I used to because I mean I feel like I barely know what to do or say but the Spirit always kicks in and I just start speaking. I've been learning how to listen more instead of just spitting out information that I know to be true. The testimony is the most powerful tool to get people to feel the spirit and really become interested in what you are teaching. I still am the same old enthusiastic Dane but I'm much better at listening. I LOVE IT. Let me share a experience that we had this week. Well, Elder Bennett and I were riding our bikes down the street right before we were about to head in when we saw a hispanic guy with his wife. He was working on his car like he does almost everyday, so we decided to stop. We starting getting to know him, found out his name was Junior (Jose) and we got into the conversation of his 3 year old son Michael. Apparently, his wife Brooke is a less active member who doesn't really go to church because she got offended at one point. That's usually the story with most LDS members in this area. Anyway, Michael is anemic (spelling?) and he had to get a lot of blood tests and they were saying how concerned we were. We told them about Alma 36:3 and how if you put trust in the Lord he will help you in all your trials and afflictions and problems. They agreed and out of nowhere Brooke, his wife, asked if they all could have a priesthood blessing. Elder Bennett and I were concerned about giving a blessing to Michael, but we prayed about it and I felt strongly that it would be alright. We gave him a blessing and he was scared the whole time. He is super shy around new people but when the prayer ended he stopped crying almost immediately. Then I gave Brooke and Junior a blessing of comfort and they invited us to come back to teach them a lesson. Junior is not a member and we felt so good about being worthy to use our Priesthood. It's a blessing to not only invite others to come unto Christ, but to help those in the area who ask. I love service, and helping people, and just being real with them. However, there are so many people that just slam doors in your face and it's not discouraging but just sad that people are rejecting the truth. The gospel is truly the only way we can get back to our loving Heavenly Father, and it's because of his Son Jesus Christ through his example and baptism and people don't let themselves know. I get it's all about agency but it's always hard to accept sometimes. I'm learning so much.
 It feels really weird to be the new guy, with all the missionaries who are veterans, but I am learning quickly and I can feel the fire in my soul when I wake up. I know this work is what I need to be doing and I love doing it. Reading the scriptures everyday has made me learn SO much, especially about the Temple. AH. I love the temple. We get to go every transfer which is a true blessing. However, the only complaint I have about this area... is that they feed us dinner EVERY NIGHT. It's a blessing, but I am gonna get fat! Naw, I'm okay for now. I just need to not over eat but some members just place food infront of your face and expect you to eat the house to nothing. It's scary.... however, I've accepted that it's bound to happen a little. I heard that I'm only here for 5 weeks so Australia here I come!!! On a sort of side note, I already had the chance to invite someone to be baptized name Alexandria Hunt! She is 14 and is a fire cracker. She's a stud who struggles with depression but I know that through her choice to be baptized that she will be blessed with comfort, especially through the Holy Ghost. It was awesome. I witnessed a baptism on Saturday the 13th. It was so cool. I had to speak on the restoration and bore my testimony about it. Also, we aren't over just 1 ward... we are over the ENTIRE STAKE OF 5 wards!! It's crazy!! Sundays are the craziest days ever. We banged out 5 ward councils yesterday. It was cool to have all the members want to get involved. Catch the wave, every member a missionary!

Well, that's about all I got for now.
Mom to answer your question. I have gained like 3lbs but all will be well. Still got my six pack WHAT UP. Other than that, I'm glad to hear about everything. I love you all and I think about you daily. Anyway here is a quote about a quality I am working on this week: Love "Love is the celestial respiration of the air of Paradise" -Victor Hugo Les Miserables. I love that quote. Love is literally the breath of air the life we are striving for. LOVE EVERYONE, especially those that are hardest to love because chances are they need it the most.


LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Especially you mom, I hope you got my letter to you.

Well, until next week


OH! My address is
8060 South 615 East
Sandy, Utah 84070 <--- I'm pretty sure.


With Love,

He's arrived in SLC!

A letter from his current mission president:


Dear Brother Sargeant,

What a pleasure it was to welcome your son, Elder Dane Roger Sargeant, to the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission while he waits for his visa to clear so he can report to the Australia Melbourne Mission.

After prayerful consideration, he has been assigned one of our best missionaries, Elder Jonathan Bennett, to be his trainer and missionary companion.  Upon his arrival at the mission, he had pictures taken, ate breakfast, received instruction, met his trainer and went to work.

You are welcome to email your son each week but other mail and packages should be sent to the mission, addressed to your son at the address listed above [updated address is listed to the right!].  You might be interested to know that the mission has a blog at – utahslcsouthmission.blogspot.com – which we update frequently.  We hope you will find the pictures and information contained there interesting and informative.

Elder Sargeant arrived happy and in good spirits.  We are so impressed by his enthusiasm to be here and begin working in the field. We look forward to getting to know him better as he serves in our mission.  We will be happy to have him here as long as is necessary. We have attached some pictures of arrival day that you may enjoy.

May the Lord’s choicest blessings be yours.

Sincerely,


Bruce E. Miller
Mission President

April 10th

G´day Mates!

Well, unfortunately, I am not leaving for Australia as soon as I had hoped. That is okay because.... I GOT REASSIGNED TO THE SALT LAKE CITY SOUTH MISSION!! WOO!! I am so incredibly pumped for this opportunity. I basically get the chance to serve two missions in one. Score. Anyway....

 

This week has been amazing. There have been so many experiences I don´t even know where to begin. I guess I´ll start with telling you about conference. General Conference was so inspiring! Every single message was towards the Family, it´s importance, how to be a better spouse, and most importantly how it all centers on Christ. It´s amazing to me how attentive I was at conference. I learned that if you go in with questions in your mind and heart that you will have them answered no matter what. My role as a future husband and father has never been more strengthened in my life and I look forward to that time, but until then I will continue to be humble and continue learning as I ponder, study, pray, and listen for those promptings.

 

As for my investigators, Elder Reese and I have had some great progress with them! One of our investigators Mark has committed to be Baptized! We thanked Heavenly Father endlessly after he said yes because it was such a hard realization for Mark of what he needed to do in his life. Unfortunately.... we are leaving to go to our respective missions so we have to leave them behind for other missionaries who will be just as amazing. Jorge brought his wife to our lesson so we taught her as well! We taught them about the importance of prayer and how the only way to know if these things are true is not to believe the words we speak, but to pray with real intent not for what he wanted to have done, but that he would follow the answer he received. It's been an amazing experience here at the MTC in all honesty. I love the ups and the downs and I cannot wait to go out to the field. Even if it is Salt Lake City Utah I'll take it for now, to grow and learn.

 

Anyway, let me explain that there is no way that a person cannot gain weight here.... there is so much food and so much sitting. We exercise for about 45 minutes every other day and then nothing on weekends. I have probably gained 2-3 lbs since being here, maybe less, it just feels like more. Then again, I'm always go on about that kind of stuff. It's so weird thinking that I leave in about 2 hours to begin my life for the next two years minus two weeks. I cannot wait for the blessings, challenges, and growth that will come from this experience and that already has. For all those who are planning on serving a mission, PREPARE NOW, and get yourself ready. It's not that coming into the MTC without much experience is a bad thing but you're progress will be exponential. I promise you, if you study and pray daily and read Preach My Gospel, (Perfect Marriage Guide), <---- Such a true statement by the way, and you'll be ready to hit the ground running. I cannot say I've had any extremely amazing experiences to tell you about, but I will say that each day presents more and more reasons for me to be here. The days are so jam-packed with stuff that I cannot even write in my journal that much. Getting up at 6:30 in the morning is always something that is hard but the routine becomes just that, a routine. Now that I do think of it, there was one experience that I had that changed me perspective and made me realize the importance of humility.

 

Early in the week, we had a district lesson taught to a guy named James. He was from Texas so he had a southern accent and he was baptized in another church. Long story short, we all got a little cocky and thought that we were well on our way to his personal desire to learn more about the Gospel, which ended up not being particularly true. We sort of offended him a bit and we all felt terrible. The worst part was that this experience led to another experience where my companion and I had the opportunity to teach a man named Alan. It started out nicely with getting to know eachother, but once the discussion began I found myself unable to articulate any words that I wanted to say. I have never had an experience where the words just would not come to my mind or mouth, and I knew that it was because I was thinking I had all the answers for his questions. Turns out humility comes in a variety of ways and this was a BIG one for me. I hated the feeling. My companion saved the day and we got him to take a copy of the Book of Mormon to read for himself, and committed him to read two chapters that night and pray about it. I came out discouraged knowing that I was not being the humble and receptive representative of Jesus Christ that I was suppose to always be. I remembered later that I had prayed for opportunities to learn, grow, and become more humble and that's exactly what I received. I truly am grateful for the experience because I learned it in the MTC, and not when I was actually out in the area I was assigned. The MTC provides essential opportunities to learn and for that I am so happy. It's exactly what I needed.

 

By the way, thank you all for the emails. I LOVED getting them all. Sister Wilson, if you get this, I want to thank you so much for your letter to me. I don't have your address so I could not write back but I want you to know that it was the first hand written letter I received and it meant the world to me. "Be Obedient" is my new moto, all because of you. Thank you for all your prays and all of your words of encouragment and advice as I soon depart, 2 hours 21 minutes, into the real world.

 

One quote I wanted to share with you from a Tuesday Devotional was from a man named Craig T. Riverwood, (I think), of the Quorum of the 70. He said "Love is the celestial respiration of the air of Paradise" from Victor Hugo in Le Miserables. Never has a quote made more sense to me. Love is the very essence of Heaven, and that's why we all cherish the love we have and give to those we know. I hope that everyone takes a moment to ask themselves if they could be more loving and kind to those they see daily. Smile, wave, say hello, do something to uplift someone else and I promise you your day will be that much brighter.

 

 

Keep emailing and writing! I love reading all the letters! Sam, my adopted brother, is serving a mission in Taiwan and he even emailed me. LOVE YOU BRO!

 

Chase, Papa Gish, Mama Gish and Gage---> I hope you know I think of you often and miss spending time with you. I'm thankful for the mail received from you Papa Gish, and I hope you know I sure do Love you!!

On a side note.... My Bracket for March Madness WON!! WOO!!! I don't know what I get, or if I even get anything (which I don't really care if I do), but I'm so stoked to be able to say I called it.

 

 

Mom, I love you. I hope you got my letter I sent. Also, if you ever happen to see a belt that you might happen to want to send me, my other belt is kind of falling apart. I have another one that I got for Christmas but I need another.

 

 

Thanks for all you do, I'll keep you posted on my life next week! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

Love,

Elder Sargeant

Letter #1

This is from April 4th a few days after he had arrived at the Provo MTC:


Elder Sargeant here, and let me just begin by saying that I LOVE THE MTC. From the moment I got dropped off until six days later I have yet to not enjoy a day here. I'll begin by talking about my companion. His name is Elder Reese from Morgan, Utah. He is such a blessing for me here! I learn so much from him because he is incredibly different than me. I would even go as far as saying we are the complete opposites in every way. Elder Reese is quiet and too reserved sometimes and really lacks confidence in himself. It's a blessing for me because it keeps me humble knowing that I was placed with him for a reason. He builds my weaknesses to strengths and I try my best to do the same for him. Moving on, my district is amazing. We have four Elders, myself included, and four sisters. I always heard from a good friend named Nick Nadeau that "sisters are blisters" when it comes to the MTC and the field, but I have to disagree. No... I don't say that because I find them super cute or anything, though a few of them are, I say that because they have the ability to teach us as males things we could never comprehend. Their example and testimonies are truly humbling to hear and witness. We have all bonded really really well, and what is even more amazing is that we all can sing! There is nothing better to bring the spirit to our personal studies, companionship studies, and lessons like singing a hymn. Music has a unique ability to bring everyone closer together, and now I understand more clearly why hymns are so important. Also, I GOT CALLED AS DISTRICT LEADER!!! At first I was a little taken back, but then I felt like it was something I needed, and it turns out I was right. It was been such an amazing growing experience having to look out for all those in my district, (group of Elders and Sisters that are all mostly going to the same Mission/Country,) because I am always listening to those promptings if anything is wrong or needs to be said. There is something about the Spirit here that makes all your weaknesses come out but not in a way that is embarassing. We all have weaknesses and because of our loving Savior we have the ability to truly grow. I don't mean to be sappy but it's such a blessing to be able to grow and tune myself to be a loving, caring, and humble servant for our Lord Jesus Christ. I LOVE BEING DISTRICT LEADER!
Okay, this may seem a bit disappointing but... I am not going to Australia right away. We are getting reassigned to somewhere (we hear this week) and we leave APRIL 8th! ONLY A WEEK AND A HALF IN THE MTC?!?!? That was something that took us all by suprise, and we fasted that we could get our visas but it's just how these things work. Maybe someone else is being prepared for our message in another area before we go. Or Australia is just too full. Anyway, I love it here. I love my companion, I love the happiness and joy that comes from feeling the spirit everyday. I love the purpose of why I am here, and that it is not for myself anymore mom. What you said to be before I left, in my old BYU dorm, to be humble... I have learned how to do just that here. Thank your for that because I needed it more than I thought. I cannot learn what I need to learn if I am unable to be teachable, and luckily we have amazing teachers here. ONE OF MY TEACHERS IS FROM VOCAL POINT!!! His name is Landon Peay,(pronounced Pay), and he is a spiritual stud. Actually, his facial expressions remind me a lot of Sam Gish, my adopted brother who is serving in Taiwan. Miss you Elder Gish. Now let me tell you about my investigators. They are named Jorge Delgado from Orem Utah, and Mark Dilova. Mark is slowly but surely progressing and there are few things as sweet as seeing someone come unto our glorious message of Hope, love, progression, and of Jesus Christ. The spirit is so strong in our time together and I love meeting with him. We struggled last time we met with him, my companion and I, because we were rushed I felt. That is okay though, all is well.
Jorge is a stud, but incredibly... incredibly depressed. His son died of cancer when he was fourteen years old, and his faith in God has almost completely dwindled. He went into a deep depression and almost committed suicide twice, but he kept going because his son said to live on to find his purpose. He is SO prepared for us and we got through to him. We had our first lesson with him yesterday, April 2, and it was sublime the feeling of the spirit that flowed through Elder Reese and I. We testified to him that he will see is son again, that we can be forgiven of his sins not matter how large or small, that the guilt and shame we feel can be completely erased because of our loving Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement. At the end of our lesson, we got through to Jorge by saying a prayer with him. He said he felt this feeling, "it's like... I no empty anymore" (He's from Mexico so his english is a bit... premature.) We explained to him that that warm feeling is our loving Father in Heaven tesitfying that our message is true through the Holy Ghost. We committed him to say a prayer for himself tonight to know that these things are true, and that Heavenly Father really is there. It was an AMAZING EXPERIENCE.
Well, my time is coming to an end. If you wish to send me emails you can through this addressdane.sargeant@MyLDSMail.net! I can email friends which is AMAZING!!!

GO TO DEARELDER.com and put this info in, or send me a hand written letter! I promise I will send letters back.
Elder Dane Roger Sargeant
MTC Mailbox # 49
AST-MEL 0409
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Well, I love and miss you all so much but this is where I am meant to be. There is no doubt in my mind that what we as missionaries are teaching is true. People need to hear the message we have to improve their lives, and I know that the Lord is preparing people in Australia for me and my companions. This experience has changed my perspective so much, how it's not about me changing and becoming better, but that I am serving for those that I need to teach. I am a representative of the Church, but more importantly of Jesus Christ and his message. It's the truth.
Talk to you in a week,
Elder Sargeant

We're Up and Running!

Hello and Welcome!

This blog will be managed by me, Elder Sargeant's sister. It took me a little while to set this up so as a result, I will post Elder Sargeant's most recent letters (plural! Woo woo!) separately for your enjoyment. He is doing well very and we are so proud!