Chapter 10: The Belief Window
- Amber Prior
- May 29
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 28
May 26, 2025
Weeks in the mission: 14 Companion: Elder Winter Area: Corona Ward: Del Rey
“Sometimes the Lord lets us go 400 yards down the wrong path so that we can know that we are on the right one." – Jeffrey R. Holland
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Hello everyone from around the globe! This is Elder Prior writing his 10th chapter of his mission. So much has happened these past 2 weeks. I've learned lots, had many adventures, and gained valuable experience.
The challenge with writing an email is deciding how much one wants to include, because no matter how much one writes, one will never be able to fully capture the essence of the memories and experiences.
I'll include many things, but I want to focus on one very important thing I learned that will change the course of not only my mission, but for the rest of my life. I will put it in the spiritual thought so you know where to look for it.
Also, I am so happy because this is the first email that I am writing with an actual keyboard! It's so fast. Typing on the phone with my two thumbs was tedious. Elder Winter, my trainer, told me that I could have it, because he said he wrote like 2 emails his whole mission 😂
Oh yeah, I hit 3 months this week! It has been 3 months since I've been set apart as a missionary. Everyone is right. It has gone by very quickly. I know I still have 21 months left, but if you think about it, I have 1/7 of my mission complete. Doing 6 more of these sounds easy.
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🙏 Prayer request 🙏
I've decided to add a prayer request list on my emails. I do this because I know the power of prayer. So for any of those who are reading, I ask that you might include these people in your prayers:
Otis. He is 26 and works night shifts at a factory every day. He is an amazing guy, and now he comes to english class and sports night every week. His concern is that he isn't sure if this is the one and true church, so we're praying that the Spirit will touch his heart through reading the Book of Mormon so that he can gain a powerful witness that the church is indeed true.
Lorena. She is a young mother of a few kids, and is very sweet. She has genuine interest in the Book of Mormon, but she's moving to Italy on June 10. We're praying that she'll develop a desire to read in the Book of Mormon and find out for herself what awaits her.
Arturo. He is our friend that came to church once, with a rough past. We had one lesson with him and learned more about the crimes he's committed in the past. He expressed a sincere desire to change. He said he had a court case in a few days. Since then, we haven't been able to contact him at all. We think he's in jail, so we're praying that he will find comfort and a path toward the light.
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📅 Daily Events 📅
🔸️Monday Big day today. A lot happened. It was a good day! Let's see what I can recall. DCM was today. We all bore powerful witnesses of the Book of Mormon and set some great goals. The work we did today was pretty good, too. We found this one guy named Greg, and he had a lot of questions in his heart. I hope he'll take our invitation to read from the Book of Mormon. It will change his life forever.
🔸️Tuesday A wonderful day! Today was P-day because it was a temple day. We went to the Redlands temple for an endowment session. We also got lunch at a really nice BBQ place called Badlands.
🔸️Wednesday My first zone conference! We had numerous trainings, testimonies, and progress reports. There I finally met the elders that I have heard so much about from the elders in my apartment. President Hendrickson announced some crazy changes. P-day is now on Wednesday. Same day as transfers. And a bunch of other things that took many of us by surprise. I was oblivious to it all, because I haven't been in the mission long enough to "feel" these changes.
🔸️Thursday Today we met this guy who had a love for Jesus Christ while we were biking along the street. We talked for a bit and then he started to bash us. Not much was coming from it, no matter what we told him. So we ended it on good terms and left.President Hendrickson had the whole mission get on a Zoom call at 9:30 and said we didn't want to miss this. We were all wondering what was going to happen. He announced that right after zone conference, he got a message from Elder Quentin L. Cook saying that he felt inspired to tell all the mission presidents in California that it's important to have P-day on Monday. So it's funny that President Hendrickson received news RIGHT after he had announced the change. Anyway, P-day is still on Monday.
🔸️Friday Today was good. There was a guy named Daniel we had a lesson with who was pretty funny. He kept calling himself the Alpha male and wanted a woman to marry. He saw our ads on Facebook and signed up to have the sister missionaries come over, but he got us instead. He is cool though, and very successful. He's 53 but looks like 31.Right now I'm on exchanges with Elder Barringer in his English area for 24 hours. It's gonna be real fun tomorrow!
🔸️Saturday I've officially hit 3 months as a missionary! Today was indeed, great. We talked to many people. Elder Barringer is a great missionary. He's bold, but not overbearing. He's nice and upbeat. Easy to work with and always willing to collaborate.There was this salesman guy we approached at a park today. He was cool and a very deep thinker. We had a huge 40-minute discussion. It was a large test of my biblical knowledge, that's for sure. Nothing came from it in the end, because he was biased from the start. The last thing he asked us is if we believe that every baby we have, we save one planet....What?Even so, it was worth it because we were able to clear up some false beliefs and pre-judgments he had about us. I hope that the door of truth opens up for him.
🔸️Sunday Today was just great! Here's what happened. Two of our friends came to church: Otis and Carlos! They even started talking to each other and became friends! That was awesome to see.I went on a tiny split with Elder Pitcher because Elder Bonham was throwing up. Elder Pitcher is an incredible missionary. I want to teach and connect with people like he does.We had a Sunday dinner with the Piquet family. They had a visitor there and we were able to do some talking. She told me a lot about the worldwide travel/service company she worked for, since we got on the topic of travel and what I did over in Spain. Perhaps I'll reach out to her after my mission if I ever want to travel.
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☀️ Spiritual thought ☀️
Do you want to know why I titled this email "The Belief Window?" It is because it is a model that allows one to see any errors in their way of thinking, or any beliefs they hold that are incorrect. In other words, it is a way for one to become extremely self-aware.
I learned this from one of the many talks that was sent to me by Elder Bonham. It is titled "The Belief Window" and the man who spoke was named Hyrum Smith. No, not Joseph Smith's brother. I don't know a lot about him, other than he also gave the talk called "Why 1820" if any of you are familiar with that.
I'm not sure I even want to attempt to explain in more detail what his talk entails. I don't think I will. But I will say that it has changed the course of not only my mission, but for the rest of my life. For the better. I want you all to hear it.
So I'll simply say this: go find the talk, grab a paper and pencil, sit down at a desk, and follow the instruction of Hyrum Smith. I promise you it'll illuminate so many solutions to the problems you may be facing.
If the talk is not out there, let me know and I'll see if I can send it over Gmail or something.
Love you all, have a great week!
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