Refine your Choices in Faith
Hi Everyone!
How are you all doing? I hope you all had a wonderful week. This week, we actually had a good amount of lessons. It helps when it's not the week before 4th of July and people cancel appointments. :)
Tuesday we went to the nursing home and played Bingo again with the residents. (weekly service) We then had dinner with a family that was actually my second dinner in the area. We had a great discussion about service and how the people in this area are more than happy to help anyone no matter what faith they belong to. It's incredible to see things come together. There was a house that burned down before I got here and they said that with just a couple hours, there were so many people that were there to help from different families and different faiths!Tuesday after dinner we were able to meet with Candice. She is an investigator we have been working with who has loved to hear the discussions from us. She accepted to be baptized once she receives answer to her prayers. She has been doing very well reading the scriptures and praying! She came to church on Sunday, and the funny thing is that the one lesson we don't invite to come to church and we give her a different invitation, she comes to church! The Lord has a sense of humor.
Wednesday was a rather... different day than usual. We were on exchanges for the day. I was with Elder Thompson for the first half of the day then in the evening, I was with Elder Stewart who is my district leader and was also my district leader in Parker as well!!! We had a lesson that evening with the couple that has been investigating for nearly 9 years. I really admire how far they have come. In the lesson, we discussed the atonement a lot and how much it can do for us. I love teaching with Elder Stewart, we have been together for so long now and we get along so well. The spirit was so incredibly strong in that lesson. I believe we all walked away with tears in our eyes. The interesting part is the fact we focused on a lot was the fact that our Heavenly Father loves us individually. That simple fact is the one that brought the spirit is so strong. they are very close to baptism, the husband just needs to overcome a smoking addiction.
Thursday all of our appointments cancelled except one, even dinner! We had 5 lessons scheduled and were only able to go to 1 of them, but hey, things happen and the one lesson we did have was with a less active family. We go over weekly and read from the Book of Mormon and discuss it with them.
Friday we had Zone Training which was very motivational. We discussed our purpose as missionaries:
"Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end."
It was a great reminder from someone who is very new to the mission who taught this lesson. After Zone Training we went to Subway for lunch and then pushed the residents around Wal-Mart for service. That was fun. Then of course we had our weekly gospel study with some elderly people in the ward that night. We had an incredible discussion as we read in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon which I would recommend you all read. There is so much we can learn from the Brother of Jared and his experiences.
Saturday, we helped Alex, the one armed man who is building a demolition derby car. We helped him for a little while and our visits usually consist of a gospel discussion at some point, sometimes we share a video with him. He has just recently mentioned that he wants to be able to feel the spirit again in his home so he asked that we teach the discussions in his home. His brother and his mother just moved back in with his as well. Our visits of just hanging out with him have since payed off and hopefully we can get him to all 3 hours of church and help him come closer to Christ. He is an incredible man. He lost his arm in a saw mill accident and showed up to work 4 days later. That really tells you all you need to know about him. He is very strong and is the reason many of his friends in the area are still going.
Sunday we had an early dinner with an incredible family. Very crazy and like to laugh and joke around a lot. It was fun though because it reminded me of home. :) (Love you family) That evening we went to visit some people and the person we went to visit is a Catholic but has some relatives who are members of the church. He let us in willingly and we had an incredible discussion about the similarities of our beliefs. Turns out a lot of his opinions are exactly what we believe! Crazy! He's a very nice guy and knows the Bible very well.
Anyway, that was our week. Busy, but great!
Well my fingers are getting a little tired of typing so I may let you guys go. Haha, maybe not. People usually like to hear a spiritual thought.
This weeks message is one that has been on my mind a lot this week and impacted what I study in personal study.
The topic: Teaching as the Savior Taught.
The first step is obviously to make sure you prepare however, we can turn to him in prayer in our preparation as well. Preparation comes though prayer but we also have to put in the work and study what we are going to be teaching but ask for his guidance in the process.
Next, we must learn to act on what we are taught as well as what we teach. My favorite teacher in High School was one who had done all the worksheets herself before she gave them to us. Leading by example is very important. You can't teach one thing and live your life a different way.
My favorite part of this is to uplift and love others. There's one very important thing I have learned on my mission so far i'd like to share and that is this: As a missionary, you can't become a 'missionary' for 18/24 months. You can't become someone you're not for the time then go home back to the person you were. I would argue that your mission was almost pointless if that happens. Yes you may have taught a lot of people, but you didn't choose to allow the mission to change you. The gospel and our time here on earth is all about progression. We need to keep our personalities and allow the mission to REFINE us; we need to allow our lives and experiences to help us become who our Savior wants us to become. Being refined or changing is not easy, but it is necessaryRefinement is very important in our time here on earth, however, we must CHOOSE to allow the Savior to Refine us, to sand down the rough edges. It is still the same block of wood or metal, but it is being turned into a wonderful creation. While we are in this process, the best way to help this process is to help and LOVE others. Sometimes as missionaries we are prompted to be very bold with people but loving. You must not leave out the loving part, they must know that you care about them.
I love this gospel so much and I love helping anyone and everyone I can to CHOOSE come closer to Christ. I can't make the decision for them, however I can invite and help them to make the choice.
I invite all of you today to make a choice. You may not be able to make a huge step closer to Christ, but I invite you to find what that step is and take it. Today. Take a step closer to Christ today whatever that may mean for you. I love you all so much and hope that these weekly e-mails are helping someone out there.
Love you all, have a wonderful week!
The Book of Ether:
Refiner's Fire:
Your Next Step: