Hope For a Broken Vessel and Good Things to Come
This week was great, we had many lessons and a few very powerful ones. We were teaching a couple who has been investigating the church for over 9 years and they have a difficult time with a few point of the church. We asked them the baptismal interview questions without telling them that's what they were and we recognized how powerful their testimonies were. They know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and they know it is the true church on the earth today. I have a very strong feeling they will be baptized here in a few weeks. Our plan for them is to help them better understand the blessings that come from following the Word of Wisdom. Elder Liptrott and I both bore our testimonies and the spirit there was VERY strong and we both walked away edified.
We have a few other investigators we are working with, one who is very interested. Her husband is a less-active and we finished teaching her the Plan of Salvation this past week and she understood and it just made sense to her. She got it and felt the truth that was being taught to her.
We had a lesson with the excommunicated member and he told us that he is reading his scriptures regularly and he is starting to pray again, but he doesn't know if he can come back to church. He told us that he may be able to come to church 3 times then be baptized, but he said, "But, i probably won't ever come to church again after that." He just wants to be baptized into the church again. Not good. He recognized this was not the right attitude on his own and asked for help to change his attitude so that he may be able to see it in the right light. I would just ask for your prayers for him. He is super nice and I hope he does get baptized into the church again for the right reasons before he passes away.
We were doing service as well earlier this week helping a woman paint a house they are trying to rent. We met a recent convert (not a coincidence, this was planned :P) who has been going through some depression, she has been homeless before and is trying to get back on her feet. She was baptized sometime last year and has not been to church much. We are helping her to get back on her feet and back to church.
Oh yeah, and we may be moving into this house that we helped paint which would be incredible because the house we are living in is well... not the best. It's VERY small and i'll... stop there. Hope full it all works out.
Here are 2 Pano's of our view from the hike I got from Elder Liptrott:
Spiritual Thought:
My spiritual thought this week is about hope for a broken vessel, hope for someone who may be lost, as well as looking forward to good things to come. I got these thoughts from two videos that I watched on lds.org. The first one is a new Mormon Message that just came out titled, "Like a Broken Vessel" by Jeffrey R. Holland's talk from 2013. This video talks about people who have gone through some sort of mental illness and states a few facts. Watch this video, it is super powerful and I promise can benefit you as they discuss hope. The main part of the thought however, I want to focus on the second video titled, "Good Things To Come" also by Elder Holland. He tells a story of a man who is married and has 2 children who are taking a road trip and they got out 34 miles and the car broke down. He walked to the nearest town and a nice citizen gave him a ride back to his car with some water for his radiator. He went out again and they got out 34 miles and the car broke down again, humbly the man walked back to the town again. He was trying to make a 2000+ road trip with his family.
Elder Holland describes how he was driving by that same spot where his car broke down twice and had some things go through his mind that he wished he could have told himself:
"Don't you quit. You keep walking, you keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come 'till heaven, but for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."
This I leave with you all. Know that God is there, know that he is God and he knows you better than you know yourself. Trust God. Don't you quit. All storms come to an end; remember that. We will be blessed as we come closer to Christ.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Let me know if you have any questions.
A Broken Vessel:
Good Things to Come: https://www.mormonchannel.org/blog/post/good-things-to-come