Break ups... :(

My last P.Day with Elder White. Sad day. We are finally breaking up after 4.5 months of 24/7 interaction. Talk about marriage. He is being transferred to Lawton with Elder Salmon....so jealous. But all is well in Zion, I am staying in Stillwater and my new companion is Elder Reese. He's a baller from San Clemente, California. We know each other pretty well so I am really excited to be with him. I always thought the hardest part about being a missionary would be bad companions. I have yet to have a companion I didn't love. I have been so blessed. I have come to find out that the hardest part of a mission is having alot of sisters in your zone, aka the relief society zone....(that was a joke, don't take it too seriously) haha :)

Anyways, the past three transfers have been so legit. Stillwater has been an amazing place. We have seen so many miracles. The mission is such a sacred experience. It's amazing how much you can learn when you are strictly focused on others for 2 years. Serving a mission has been the best decision of my life up to this point. It was hard to make at first because of all I "left behind", but I have learned that what I left behind that truly matters will still be there when I return. Sometimes we leave the good, for the best. Sacrifice really isn't sacrifice at all, it is an eternal investment. Only as we invest in eternity can we truly learn to be happy and truly learn how to love.

Well I am beginning to scratch the surface of a very deep principle. Love. I feel it for these people. I feel it for the people I serve. I think that God allows us to feel true love when we are involved in His work and His glory, when we are serving others. As we look outside of ourselves we begin to recognize the way God sees His children and once we develop that perspective, it's impossible to not love. I think its truly humbling to know that a Perfect Being who has no obligations to us, still loves us perfectly and is able to use our mistakes to create something better if we are humble.

This week we witnessed that humility as one of our dear friends Bob Prince was baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Its miraculous to see the physical change that takes place on someone who actually "receives the Holy Ghost" and then bears testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement. He doesn't know everything about the "Church" and he doesn't know everything about God. He realized and still realizes that the people within the church are imperfect, but he decided to act on a particle of faith because he felt the Spirit testify of the truthfulness of the "Gospel of Jesus Christ" as it was restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He happens to be one of the coolest guys ever too. haha :)

But yeah, don't have tons of time, but I can't believe we are in the Holiday seasons!! Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas...mmm girl. I can hear myself getting fatter. Nom nom.

Take care and be happy. :)

Love,

Elder Cutler

p.s this is bob.... #beardGangOrDie

the classic bro pic....walking away into the distance.

we tried to make it work. kinda didnt

jamie murray baptized bob. 

 

The Diaz family!!! Coolest fam ever!!!

outta your mind...

Thuggin in Stilly...

The subject is about a rap that was made about us this past week. It was such a funny rap. This kid in the singles ward wrote it about me and Elder White. I will try and send the video some other time of him rappin it. Classic.

I will start with one of the funnier moments of my mission. We went over to our ward mission leaders house last night. Their next door neighbor is a member and a non-member is living with her. We are teaching him. We went over to teach them in our ward mission leaders home. Well when we got to the door, the member walked out with a shirt on and what looked to be white gym shorts. She had just woken up was still pretty groggy. As I was walking over elder white whispers as he is laughing, "dude, those definitely aren't shorts"  Well we all walk over to the ward mission leaders house and begin the lesson and 5 minutes into the lesson we hear a loud "OH CRAP, I completely forgot to put any pants on"....it literally was the funniest moment ever. Apparently, she had just woken up. I couldn't stop laughing. So classic.

This week was amazing. I can't believe my time with E. White is coming to an end. We have had some very sacred spiritual experiences together that I will never forget. I have grown to love him like a brother. This week was busy like usual. We taught a bunch of lessons and I went on my last exchange with my "dad" in the mission. He's an assistant and so he came up and we had one last exchange together this friday before he goes home. Crazy to think that when i first met him, he hadn't even been out a year.

We had some really cool experiences with a couple of people this week. Gail is finally set to be baptized this Saturday if she can stay smoke free. Bob Prince is also being baptized this Saturday. That was a miracle in and of itself. He was found by a member in our ward hitch-hiking. This member took us over afterwards and we talked to him. He said that he had been taught by missionaries for a LONG time in Idaho when he was younger and that he would never believe in the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith. He didn't want to meet at first, but we finally convinced him to just sit down and talk so we could get to know him. The rest is history. God has done amazing things with him. He is definitely one of our good friends out here now. We love Bob.

Something that I have been thinking about a lot lately is perspective and remembrance. As missionaries, I will be the first to admit that we don't live a normal life as it relates to schedule. We teach all day. We don't have jobs, we don't go to school and we don't have social lives...we are weird. BUT, the principles we are learning and teaching are eternal. The question is, how do we take what we learn everyday and apply it. How do we take the habits we form and change our natures forever? I see so many returned missionaries out here that have just gone back to regular life. In essence, they have forgotten. I have come to the conclusion that the key to spiritual growth and personal revelation is remembrance. Remembering the Lord will always keep us humble. All of us have had multiple spiritual experiences. These experiences when remembered can propel us through the difficult times. We must remember them!! We must remember "how merciful the Lord hath been to the children of men, even down from the time of Adam..." If there is one thing I will take away from my mission its this: The reason people are not happy, or fall away from the gospel or turn their backs on God is because they don't take control of these three things.

1. Take control of your prayers. 

2. Take control of your scripture study EVERY DAY.

3. Take control of your sacrament observance. 

Those three things will help us to ALWAYS rememeber Him and keep His commandments. It always is the simple things. We cannot be"slothful because of the easiness of the way" in other words, all we have to do is "look to God, and live". If only we weren't so slow to remember.

Welll yall take care. I love all you fools. Remember to have fun!! Be happy and do the right thing. Its the same thing anyways.

love yall

Elder Dallin Cutler  

mormons in hell...

We met this one guy this week. He was a baptist minister and we sat down and talked with him and taught him about the Restoration and how we believe in Christ. He told us we worship a different Christ and that we were the only people who would go to hell and that all others are saved. We laughed pretty hard because he was pretty sincere about it. Nice guy though for real. I sincerely love Oklahoma. Good times.

This week was pretty legit. We had some amazing miracles happen and Clifton was baptized and confirmed this past weekend. I have been in Stillwater for about 3 transfers and we are finally getting around in the community. It takes awhile but the network is growing. People are beginning to open up to us and realize that we aren't here to recruit. Stillwater has some of the best people around, not to mention...OSU...#cowboys...We are teaching just a bunch of families and people about Christ and His gospel. We are developing friendships with alot of the local pastors and preachers here in Stillwater as well. Our goal in Stillwater has been to bring Faith in Christ together.

We had a really cool experience with a Baptist Pastor last monday night. He is one of a kind guy. Humble, loving and God fearing man, someone I definitely look up to. We found him a couple of weeks ago and found out missionaries had been talking with him for 7 years. We sat down again this week and talked about the plan of salvation and about Christ's atonement and redeeming grace. We taught about conditional and unconditional grace. The Spirit was so strong, and we invited him to be baptized. After 7 years of investigating the church something clicked because he is now praying about it. He understood. Truth has an amazing ability to open up the mind so the Spirit can edify and teach us all.

The second cool experience was with a family we came in contact with a couple of weeks ago. The way we found this family was a miracle in itself. The Diaz family has found a special place in our hearts. They have 4 little kids and the have got to be some of the coolest kids I have ever met. We sat down and introduced the Book of Mormon last week and this week we have been teaching them about it and reading with the kids. The kids are ages 7, 8, 9, and 11. Three little girls and one boy. They all have read from the Book of Mormon each night and pray when we come over with them. Truly there is nothing more humbling and spiritual then hearing a little child pray out loud for the first time to their Father in Heaven.

Cliftons baptism was amazing. We were talking about it with him after and we all said that we would have never guessed after about 4 weeks that this guy would be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was truly miraculous. We are shooting for the temple for baptism before the transfer ends. He was definitely prepared by God. I feel the spirit so strong when I am around him. At his young age, he gets it. He understands obedience. That is hard to come by these days....especially at his age. There is a different light about him today then there was the first time we met him. He has changed.

There is so much good going on in the world. God is in control of it all and is smiling down upon us in love as we choose to obey Him and stand as His witness. There is no greater opportunity than to serve the One who loves us infinitely, perfectly and unconditionally. He lives and so does His Son Jesus Christ. I know it.

Take care of yourselves and be happy and smile. :) Here are some crazy pics

Elder Dallin Cutler

swag swag swag swag....ponca city.

clifton the man himselfff

it must've been a fat joke.

i've been with this fool for about 4.5 months 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. we literally know just about everything about each other. bros for life

dad, i know you appreciate this. we stopped and talked to this family and ended up holding like all their animals hahaha

we had a jam sesh last night with our investigator...we sang some soul music. so fun

elder lloyd!! been out two transfers. he is a solid missionary. from grace idaho!! #skinnygang

One year out.

Seems like just yesterday I entered the MTC. I can't believe how fast time goes when you're having fun being busy. I can't imagine what it will be like when I get home and have a family of my own. Makes me sick to my stomach to realize how short life really is, but makes me so happy to know that this life is just one dimension of an eternal "different dimensional" plan that our Heavenly Father is in charge of; so amazing. 

Anyways, I hit my year mark on September 5. I have learned a lot of things out here but a few i have come to love. 

1. God lives. He is very involved with our personal lives and knows the emotions we feel and the thoughts we think. He loves us infinitely and does everything because of His love for us.

2. Jesus Christ lives, and because of His Atonement He has the power to change us, if we let Him. His love is incomprehensible to us mortals. 

3. The Holy Ghost is a very real personage and is the means by which our Father in Heaven communicates with us. If we listen and seek Him, we will accomplish all God requires. 

4. Obedience is key to everlasting happiness, peace, knowledge and spirituality. Obedience sets us free.

I know these things to be true. I feel them so deeply. I know that the cause we are engaged in, in mortality is so much bigger than our puny one dimensional perspectives. We are involved in a multi-dimensional plan and we must trust that God loves us and knows what He is doing, when we master that, we will be happy, but that is a process and so is happiness. It comes line upon line. I also know that wherever we are in life, its only a chapter of something bigger. We must learn the lessons of these chapters and apply them to the rest of our books. In other words, we must change our natures, not just our behaviors. The Holy Ghost, if we let it happen, will penetrate our hearts and allow these lessons and principles sink deep within our hearts so they become embedded within us. We must change.

Well I will attach a few pictures so yall can see how phat I'm getting....sikeeee, we just started P90X...and I have been doing Yoga X every morning. Get. On. My. Level.... ;) Life is going great, never been better. Clifton is getting baptized this Saturday and Gail will be getting baptized next Saturday and then we have a couple more coming up. God is working miracles in Oklahoma. We broke the Oklahoma City Mission record ever for the number of baptisms in one month this August. In Oklahoma City mission history, we have never seen so many people willing to do the Lords will and accept the message of the restoration and its only the beginning. General authroites have visited and said that Oklahoma will be exploding within the next months and years, that it will become the "bread basket" for missionary work. The people out here are so Christ centered and genuine so it only makes sense.

I love yall, keep it real out there and just be happy. There is so much to be grateful for.

Love, Elder Cutler 

ps...the bottles are trophies, they're obviously not ours...haha

close up ;)

with the Bros night before transfers

again with the ponca city missioanries night before trainers meeting

on our way to ponca city one night for exchanges....#roadtripssss

the most dope picture of the mish. Preaching in the prison over the phone in the glass...yo

How to love...

Love is the best. Everyone wants to feel loved. Everyone wants to feel like they belong. I feel so much love for the people in Oklahoma. Some of the craziest people I have ever met, but by far the kindest and most loving people I have ever met. So genuine. I love it out here, I really can't imagine living anywhere else again, but then again, I am not down for the humidity, heat and mosquitoes and bed bugs. I had no idea bed bugs were real until I came to Oklahoma.

This past week was busy. We had transfers on wednesday so we were down in the city all day and then we did a 24 hour exchange in enid with those elders because they had baptismal interviews. We got home Friday evening and had a ward party for all of our investigators and ward members. Saturday morning we had to travel down to Edmond to meet the assistants and give them some stuff and also get my allergy meds from the Orgills, so of course we had breakfast with them. ;) Then we came back and we were home the rest of the weekend. So much traveling, I am sick of being in a truck. With all the traveling we do, and as little time that is spent in our area, its amazing how much the grace of God makes up for it. We have two baptisms set for next week with Gail and Clifton. Two HUGE miracles, (love those two) and then about 4 more within the end of the month. Its amazing to see how the Lord can direct us to people who want to follow Christ more exactly, and who want to build stronger faith in the Lord. The more time I spend on my mission, the more I realize how much we depend on God in all we do. Each night when I pray and account, I realize how weak of a missionary I am and how many mistakes I make during a day. The beauty of the Gospel is that an Atonement was made to strengthen our weaknesses and heal our sinful natures.

I have come to realize how central the Atonement of Jesus Christ is to all living intelligences that God has ever created. Anything else is just an appendage of the Atonement. The truth that Christ descended, set an example, suffered, died, rose again, and then ascended as a glorified resurrected being means more to our life than we can mortally comprehend. As we come to understand the cleansing, empowering, consoling and exalting powers of the Atonement, our desire to "do god continually" will shoot up dramatically. I have come to gain a testimony of this truth: The Restored Gospel not only was the means by which Christ restored His church, but much more importantly, it was the means by which He was able to restore sacred and pertinent truths about His atoning sacrifice and the means by which we can now learn more about the atonement at an accelerated rate than ever before. The ONLY thing we are doing when we invite others to read the Book of Mormon and to learn about the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, is inviting them to learn more than they could have ever imagined about what the Atonement of Jesus Christ means for their lives specifically. In other words, when we invite others to learn about Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon etc..., we are ONLY showing our love for them and offering them a greater opportunity to feel, deeper than ever, of the Saviors infinite love for them. Why wouldn't we want to do that? 

Yall are great, I love all your emails and letters. I miss all of you so much!! Keep on doing good. Keep on doing the little things. I can't tell you how many people i have seen get lost because they get distracted and stop reading the scriptures, praying and going to church. It's too easy...

Take care.

Elder Dallin Cutler

Fixin' to tell yall' bout the deal.

Classic Oklahoma talk, let me tell ya. Life is so good. God is so good to us all. Trials are the greatest, when the foundation of Faith in Christ is embedded in our hearts. This past transfer was the hardest of my mission. Constantly getting dropped, doors slammed, and just trouble with a lot of people who just want to be annoying to missionaries, but, I feel like i have learned the most on my mission during this trial. I have come to appreciate the simplicity of the Gospel. Fasting, prayer and humility with an eye single to the glory of God will qualify anyone for the work that God has for that person. It will allow us to exercise faith unto repentance so that we can keep covenants and receive and be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost.

But as for the good news, me and Elder White get ANOTHER transfer together!! We were pumped!!! That makes about 4.5 months together 24/7. We aren't complaining, its been a bro night in a spiritual way the whole time ;). He has been in Stillwater for 3 transfers and I have been in Stillwater for 2 and we get another one now. We are excited. We have probably one of the youngest zones in the mission. Everyone in our zone is training a new missionary except one companionship. We have a total of about 24-26 missionaries in our zone. Young blood is the best. So much faith and excitement. We are excited to learn from these new missionaries. Stillwater is blowing up!! School is starting so everyone and their moms are here in Stillwater. It just so happens that our institute of religion is SURROUNDED by sororities. Nice try nick. Stillwater is one crazy place. Gotta love it. :)

So one cool experience that we got to have this week was to teach one of our investigators in a jail cell. It was pretty legit to see that the Spirit can be anywhere. Probably the first time in the history of Oklahoma Mission that we had a member present lesson in a jail with an inmate. First for everything right? 

Last story is about a guy named Clifton. He is one of our good friends out here. We met him at the beginning of last transfer and have been teaching him ever since. He is such a cool guy. Total and complete change about him and you can physically see the change in his life. He has done some really difficult things in his life recently to change it and it has really strengthened me to see him doing it because he has relied completely on faith and prayer. It has been a miracle to get to know him and to see how he is affecting our lives and the lives of so many other people. He is planning on getting baptized within the next weeks.

Well i would send pictures, but my camera is out of batteries and batteries cost alot of money, and I am a broke missionary. Stay classy and remember who you are and where you came from. Children of God. WOW! If we only knew....my prayer is that God will continue to teach us patiently so that we will begin to remember what that truly means. :)

Love,

Elder Cutler

Single Eye's

Going to the temple this week was much needed. Revelation is so real. It happens and God will reveal what we need to know in order to continue to repent and grow. It will be very uncomfortable to change when He does reveal it though because there is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone.

Well this week I was humbled again. I have been such a terrible missionary. My attitude has been wrong. My vision has been eschewed. I was doing things for the wrong reasons, and God loved me enough to show me my weaknesses. It hurt when I first recognized it, but I am so glad it happened. It all clicked. What does it mean to keep an eye single glory to God? If we can all master that mindset, our problems will seem trivial compared to the glory that awaits us.

The Lord taught me I needed to work harder and to get over myself again and get to work for His glory and His alone. These people are important. They are His children and they have the ability to choose. However, that doesn't give me an excuse to not work hard. The past two weeks have been really really rough as it relates to missionary work. I learned what it means to struggle in the Spirit and to wrestle with the Lord. It is a struggle to overcome your natural man tendencies to doubt, to have a short term perspective and to be selfish, "but the Spirit indeed is willing". We all know that God lives and that He will never leave us "comfortless" but how do we "KNOW" it? It is a constant battle and struggle to keep our faith high and to remember the promises God has made us if we endure well. That has been on my mind. Faith in Christ will literally solve any problem that we experience in this lifetime, but ONLY if we rememeber the promises that He has made to us if we have faith in Him. That is why it is so important to do the little things and read our scriptures to bring us to "a remembrance" constantly.

This week was great though. Hard but great. We are teaching two Muslims who just moved from Iran. They have become our best friends haha it is so hard to communicate with them. They are reading a Farsi Book of Mormon and they showed up at church. Legit. We also had so many miracles happen at Church and beforehand. The Lord always provides. There are so many people out there who are ready to turn to God. I truly love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know He died and rose from the grave 3 days later so that we could all LIVE. What greater promise is there? What else matters? Always remember...

I love yall. Be happy and do what God wants, there's no reason to not to :)

Elder Dallin Cutler

p.s this picture is with Elder Roundy and Elder Prewitt. I went on an exchange up in Blackwell, Oklahoma. Good times. 

service opportunity in blackwell with e roundy my man

blackwell exchange 

some girls in blackwell made us a cake while we were there for #TheFlood

applesauce and water. my diet.