An update from the Mission president...

We received an email from Matt's Mission President.  We thought we would share

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We are very excited to welcome your son, Elder Segon into the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh mission!  After some flight delays he arrived safely on Tuesday morning and we enjoyed getting to know him and having training together throughout the day.  His trainer, Elder Cook joined him at the church and they were soon off to their area to get to work!

Thank you for helping him to prepare for this most important calling to serve as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ to help and invite people to come unto their Savior.  We look forward to serving together with him here in the PPM.

You can follow our mission blog at ppmmemories.blogspot.com



Blessings to you and your family,

President and Sister Johnson

So ready to leave....

So everyone,

I have pretty much memorized all the lessons and have gotten our "Investigators" to commit to baptism.  Last night I bore my testimony to him about prayer and that situation of grandpa Joe and Joe and iIstarted like tearing up but I didn't want to start crying because he wouldn't understand me, so i just really worked on not crying and he was feeling the spirit for sure!!!!!  He was like, "Wow!  Thanks alot! That's a very cool story!"

Oh yea!!!!!  I've been made Zone Leader.  The districts report to me every week and I report to our branch president.   I have to let all the younger guys and our district see my example and let them know I love them and stuff.  I have to organize sacrament and priesthood... I enjoy it (except the meetings.... )  So my district leader took all my advice on how to stay focused and they are all the goals we have.  They all pertain to staying focused. so that's been better.

Elder Furniss always acts like I'm a king, haha and does stupid stuff!  It's so funny!  He doesn't do it to my companion but my companion doesn't laugh like I do! Elder Furniss asked if he could be assistant zone leader and I said "to,,,, assistant to the zone leader, yes".   And he said, "I'll take it!"  So now he pretends like he has authority and says, "Hey, I'm assistant to zone leader so blah blah blah...."    So funny!  I love him!

This Sunday we got to dedicate the Provo City Center Temple doing the hosanna shout and everything..... that same exact day about 2000 years ago Christ, the savior, came into Jerusalem on a little donkey, people putting their jackets or blankets on the ground for the donkey to walk on because it was carrying Christ (a baby donkey is white from what I've heard).  And as Christ and the donkey walked by people waved palm leaves and shouted hosanna. on that same exact day we were about to set a building apart to the lord shouting hosanna hosanna hosanna to God and the lamb, while waving our white handkerchiefs.  Very, very cool!

So I got the guys to join choir, and its so cool!  They were glad they did!  We sang Lead Kindly Light and it was beautiful!  This Sunday, Easter, one of the twelve Apostles will be talking to the MTC and I can't wait to hear!  We are also singing  Jesus Once of Humble Birth.  Super powerful!  Our director is so funny and cool!  I'm going to get a picture with him this next week.

So I leave out to Pittsburgh on Monday at 3am and arrive there at 4 pm.   It's going to be a long day with opportunity to spread the word of God.

Last week our district had a super spiritual day.  We all cried at least once.  It was crazy!  I said the l closing prayer that night and like as I was saying it I was like in a different world like.... it felt like I was listening to a really cool prayer, but I was the one saying it! It was weird!  It was definitely the Holy Ghost speaking!

I started reading the book,  Our Heritage!  It's so cool!!!!!!!

"whenever important advances are being made by the church, it seems that the adversary of all righteousness mounts a concerted effort to stop the growth of the kingdom of God. but dedicated saints of God overcome the problems and grow stronger, as did the Colesville saints, who welded themselves into a strong and united branch." ---- read this book!!!!!!!! Cool facts!

 That's a paragraph I read today that I thought was super cool!

Last week I was struggling so hard to like understand everything for about 3 days and I was praying my heart out! So hard! So often! But as I did so, I was able to overcome the discouragement and able to teach eloquently and fluently and powerfully! Prayer works! God sees our efforts and will not let us fail (1 Nephi 3:7).

Last night I had the zone elders give me a blessing because I've been sick ever since I got here and I'm sick of being sick. So the young districts DL anointed the oil and Elder Furniss sealed it!  It was a good blessing! I love the Younger districts DL.  His grandma had passed away like a few days before he came here and he still came!  Her funeral was like 2 or 3 days ago, so we made sure to keep his spirits high!  He is so cool.  He shared during priesthood meeting ( I gave the lesson) about how even though his grandma is gone he still came here because it's what the Lord has asked of him.  And he got all emotional!  He's so cool!  I love that guy!

I'm definitely learning how to teach with the spirit and its cool because after a lesson our investigators will give a review on this site and they say they feel the spirit when Elder Segon shared that experience of this and that. its cool to actually know that by bearing testimony to people that they actually do feel the spirit.  Our teachers can also watch us giving the lesson through a camera and she always says good job. so its cool!

For the pictures the old guy is Dennis.  He loved us and wanted to take a picture with us so we were like yea sure!!! haha!!!  Sweet old man!

The group with the temple- That's my whole zone

The one of me taking a selfy is Barbra.... she never stops talking.  We would be in there for and hour and 10 minutes when we were only supposed to be there for 45 mins.  She would just talk and talk and talk! She was nice though!

Hey all of you send me Dear Elder emails!  I love them! And thanks to all of those who have been sending them!

I'm still balling it up during gym time!

Love Elder Segon!

MTC Day 8

GUYS!

The MTC is so great!  The first few days were confusing being called, and calling others, Elder so and so. But now its weird to hear Matt. Its really weird to call Caleb "Elder Clement."  We see each other everyday.

I've learned sooooo so much. The spirit here is so strong that you can feel the consequence to each action, whether it be good and inviting, or bad and drawing it away (the spirit)! It's crazy how impactful it is. 

My district is a group of all elders. which is rare. This happens only, like, every year, and I'm in that group..... probably for the better. We are all super smart and spiritual and its super cool. Four of us are Pittburghs and 4 Detriot... and no, Elder Clement is not in my mission.

Our zone is cool too! A zone is a few districts combined. The other district that has been here before us are so dumb.  Haha. But i love them.  The four of us that are going to Pittsburgh are:  Elder Vu (elder fool), Elder Furness (FURBALL is what i call him), Elder Holdaway (my companion) and me. Elder Furness and Vu are so funny! Elder Vu reminds me so much of Daniel Dahlin.  Just his little remarks he makes. And Furness.... there is no way to describe him... he is something out of movies. The things he says are so dumb that you have no other option than to just break out laughing!

Oh btw the food is horrible. I just read in my journal the first day the food is bomb.... but that's not the case. it sucks!

So on our first lesson we taught Ensley about love from our father in heaven and prayer.  We taught it so well.  It was like i had the gift of tongues.  I remember after the lesson I was like... what did i just say? haha that was day 2

 

Day three- before we taught Ensley (which BTW is just my teacher doing role play but its still going off the spirit because its a real person that's her best friend).  We all goofed around so the spirit was not there so the lesson didn't go as well.  But I asked her to be baptized and she said yes.  Then I said... "oh you will???" (which is not the correct thing to do) Then she totally backed out of it. so dumb of me but its ok.

We have this teacher, Brother Cena, and he's Italian.  He's so like. slick and suave/  It's intimidating. But me and him think exactly alike! So that's good! He's a great teacher!  I always learn so much from him! He was describing the spirit and he said its the same feeling you feel when your mother walks into the room... that made me miss mom real bad.

Everyday we have exercise so I go and play basketball and I am probably the best player at the MTC. Haha!  It's so funny to see everyone's reaction because I'll just pull up from like 5 ft beyond the 3 and totally swoosh it, like, everytime. I don't know why, but I am making every 3 pointer I shoot while I'm here.  Haha. I feel like Steph Curry.

Saturday was a day of laughter. I litterally laughed for like 3 hours straight... It was so funny.  Elder Furness asked the Italian man if he knew his leathers really well because he was Italian and he said  "let's not get distracted" and walked away.  Soooo funny! So that's been a joke in the zone!  In fact, everything he says is the zone joke!

That same day we ran up stairs and down and then Elder Furness was like, "I see stars" and held onto Elder Vu and Elder Vu pinched Elder Furness' shirt and lifted it off him.... so funny!  Haha even our teacher was like crying.

Sunday was kinda lame here. Oh, but we go on temple walks and I saw Kaity Kelly at the temple! It was funny. 

So they zone leaders came in and asked why everyone for there reasons for being here and my response was ( I had thought about this the day before because we had a lesson about stress and everyone said they were stressed but I wasn't so I was wondering why I wasn't so)....

"well there is nothing for me at home.  I mean I don't know what to do when I get home. I have ideas but I don't know if its right for me.  Coming on a mission is the ONLY thing IN MY LIFE that has every felt right. Its the Only thing that has EVER felt right.  It's the only thing in my life I know is right." and when I said this I was feeling the spirit so strong, but it was like a different spirit. When I said this I was using hand motions like pounding on my desk and i just really emphasized it.  It was cool.

Monday we got an investigator, Dennisand.  He is awesome! He really is an awesome guy! He's so open to the gospel and his prayers are so powerful.  We also taught this guy, Lorenzo, which was just my Italian teacher, but I didn't know what Elder Holdaway was talking about when we were planning and he said he was going to take the lead and that he had this. During the lesson he choked and like threw me our notes and was like I don't know.  Take it away Elder Segon.  So then I took the lead and kind of finsished the lesson. Elder Holdaway was so pissed! Haha. He is my senior companion, but I'mm the one that really takes the lead with everything I feel like. But hes getting so much better! We now have it so we are teaching 50/50.

Tuesday a member of the 70 came and talked to us (It was cool.)  Dennis really enjoyed the plan of salvation!!!  Oh the elders from the other district in my zone tried to squirt me with water guns because I threw one of their stupid ties away that they were having all us wear. So as they were shooting me I saw a full water bottle and grabbed it and booom!!!! I dumped it all on them! It was great then they ran away.  That night Elder Vu asked "Elder Furness,  why don't you have any toenails?" and Elder Furness replied "vietnam" it was soooooo funny!!!!!!!!!!

I'm learning so much! I've memorized Doctorine and Covenants, section four, lessons, scripture references, my missionary purpose and just so much! It is crazy to see how much one week at the MTC will do to you! We went to the temple today and I learned something crazy! I don't like the Provo Temple.  It is ugly. I love the Sacramento Temple.

This gospel is true!  There is no way it can't be! My testimony has grown so much!!!!! There is no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father and Christ came to Joseph and told him to establish the gospel of Christ back on earth and to bring the fullness of the gospel back! I have felt the spirit so much while on my mission. I didn't know it was going to be this amazing!

Oh! one sister in my zone called me hot and I was like, "What!  I'm a missionary! You're a missionary! No!"  And she was like laughing and said "I was joking."  And I said no joking! It is hard to try to spread the gospel when you're as cute as I am. Just kidding!  But that actually happened!  I was a little confused!

Our branch presidency is so nice! The president always hugs you when he sees you and hugs you to say goodbye.

So the Provo city center temple is being dedicated on Sunday and we get to be a part of that so that will be a new experience!

So some of the people we teach are real and some are not but we don't know so we have to take it seriously!

 Matt and Gypsy just before we left home.

 Elder Furness

 Elder Segon

 Elder Furness

 Elder Vu

 Elder Clement

 

Provo Temple

Sacramento temple

Good friends giving last minute advice...

So grateful for the Dahlin family and their support, friendship and love!  Matt was able to spend some time with them before we dropped him to the MTC.

Not even week one...

So let me go in chronological order.

When I was set apart, most people usually say they don't feel a difference, but I definitely felt this shield, this bubble, this spirit that had just come over me and it doesn't go away. It's so cool!

So Sunday we went to my aunts ward which was super small. So nobody really shared their testimony and there was 5 minutes or so until someone would get up, then it would be another 5 before the next person would. So during the meeting I knew that being a missionary I should share my testimony as often as I can, and I knew that by me going up there and sharing my testimony to my family for the last time, and being an example to them and to the whole congregation was what I should do. My heart was pounding for like 15 minutes before I finally got up. So I got up and shared that I was Elder Segon and that I was going to Pittsburgh and that I was reporting on Wednesday. Then I continued with my simple quick testimony. And as I was closing I could see the people's faces in the meeting and they were all smiling at me. So after I shared my testimony, my brother in law went and shared his testimony and expressed his love for me, then my mom went up there and cried. I couldn't really understand her but I felt her love. Then after sacrament a bunch of people came up to me to shake my hand and told me I was going to be a good missionary so that was cool.

I got super sick today and asked my brother in law and dad to give me a blessing. And during the blessing my dad had stopped talking and was quiet for about a minute. I thought he was just collecting his thoughts. He then continued to bless me for my mission. Then when the blessing was over I had gotten up and looked at my dad and he was shedding a few tears. (I have never seen my dad cry before. Not even when his mother passed away.) Then he looked at me and said, "man you made me cry" then he gave me a hug. It was super cool because I don't see my dad show emotion like that.

After that I went to the doctors because I thought my lymphnode was going to explode!!!! But the doctor just said I have a virus and that I'll be good in a few days. So I went and got a slurpee from seven eleven and am home writing this. I'll probably just be staying in the motel tomorow reading the Book of Mormon.

So even though I'm not in the field or in the MTC there are definitely special blessing as a missionary as long as you are looking for them.

I have tomorrow to read the rest of the book of Mormon.... I'm at Alma CH 60.... 

Miss you guys! Especially gypsy!

Love,

Elder Segon

On our way to the MTC....