The beginning of your email scared me.. I thought you didn't get my
email again. I'm glad you liked it. I hope this one can live up to the
hype!
We experienced some major miracles this week, so buckle up.
We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, that's where multiple Zones gather
together and President is there. President spoke first about the
Atonement and obedience. It was awesome! He talked about how we all
have agency but we were given agency in order to do the will of God
not to decide what is right. That's already set. He also made these
booklets for everyone in the mission that has something about the
Atonement to study everyday of the month leading to Easter. I'm stoked
for it! He also gave us a clarification of some mission rules...
Basically he established some mission rules because missionaries took
advantage of his principle based obedience. So you should be getting a
package with my iPod in it soon! I will be sending it in the next
couple of weeks. (Side note... I got my St. Party's Day package! Thank
you Mom:)) But if you could send me some cd's for when we're cruising
in he van, that would be awesome. I wouldn't be apposed to some Lower
Lights on CD!
Back to Zone Conference. After President spoke each of the Assistants
spoke and basically trained the rest of the mission on what we talked
about at that MLC last week. They did a good job. Just before lunch we
had a discussion on a talk by Tad R. Callister of the Seventy called,
"What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" You should read it, he
lays down how our church matches absolutely perfectly with the church
that Christ set up. It's pretty sweet! As I've read the Bible more
thoroughly I've realized that more and more.
After lunch we had our separate Zone Breakout sessions. We had a
couple of trainings that were required and then me and Elder Crookston
talked for the last 20 minutes or so. It was basically Elder
Crookston's final moments of wisdom for the mission so he chose what
we spoke on. There is a deeply rooted problem in our mission that
seems to drag a lot of missionaries down and that is serving for
leadership. It's really too bad, people mark their success by the
leadership positions they hold. And it gets to a point where they are
no longer serving To please The Lord or hasten the work but they are
serving to look good so the Assistants will make them leaders. It's no
good... And it has led to another problem where people who aren't like
that don't want leadership at all so if they become one they don't do
a very good job. It's really too bad... We just talked with everyone
about serving where The Lord will have you serve. I focused a lot on
the two great commandments and Elder a Crookston just laid it down
because he was pretty passionate about the whole thing haha. It went
well and we had some good feedback.
Miracle time! The biggest one goes first. We have been helping Rod
reroof his patio because it leaked during the big rainstorm we had a
couple of weeks ago. On Wednesday when we were up there helping him
(serving alongside investigators is this best because you develop a
stronger relationship) he gave us some pretty good news. He found out
that he is anemic. Let me explain. We taught Rod the Word of Wisdom a
week or so ago and he told us he would quit drinking when it was
natural... Basically when he felt like it. So we decided to just
continue to keep him in our prayers. It ends up his Doctor told him he
needs to stop drinking, and love healthier. His Doctor prescribed him
the Word of Wisdom!! Prayers answered! And it ends up he is a whole
lot easier to teach when he is sober so we are excite, he's
progressing a thousand times faster.
Carol canceled her lesson last night but she is doing awesome. We had
this really awesome lesson where we just laid down the doctrine of
baptism because she said after a precious lesson, "Well I've already
been baptized." She was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church.
We had a bunch of different scripture references like Matthew 3,
Romans, John 3, etc.. It helped her (and me) more fully understand the
reason, the covenant, and the necessity of baptism by proper authority
and proper mode. At the end of the lesson she understood and accepted
the doctrine but told us she still needs an answer on the authority
part. She believes that, by her definition, Joseph Smith is a prophet
but she doesn't quite understood or accept the idea of one true church
because she said she has found Christ is many religions. (Even
Muslim.) So we are still praying for her but she has come a long way
this week!
Aurora is doing better in school and her overall behavior. I don't
know if I told you but her Mom won't let her get baptized because she
has bad grades.... Parenting at its finest! We are hoping that she
will be baptized in mid April and it's looking pretty good for around
then.
This week we didn't have the best numbers but me and Elder West talked
about it and we really feel like The Lord is pleased with us. I know I
told you we had some potentials we hoped one turn into something and
we had some great steps in the right step with a few of them this
week!
1. Devin & Eyeme (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it but that's
how it sounds... Eye me.)-They were a referral from some members and
when we went by a couple of weeks ago he said he wasn't interested in
a message but he needed help moving a TV... So we helped! We ended up
talking to his wife (who is from the Philippines and is super
Catholic) and at first she was pretty closed off but eventually asked
us about how the leadership in out church is chosen which led to us
teaching the Restoration. In the end she wanted a children's story BoM
to better understand the story. We dropped it off a few days later and
just talked to Devin, he was a lot nicer! Well we stopped by this week
to follow up and Devin said that they are just super busy right now
and invited us back on April 16th! Haha it's a ways off but we will
see what happens. We will keep them in our prayers.
2.Jean- Some members asked if she wanted a blessing a couple weeks ago
when she went in for surgery and she declined... But she accepted some
service so a couple weeks ago we went and helped her out. When we left
I left a Book of Mormon on "accident" and she noticed as we left. She
asked if it was for her and we said of course! We went back to follow
up and she still hadn't read but she gave us some tangelos and we are
going back on Saturday hopefully to pigeon proof her roof. And she
said she would read this time!
3. Rachel- She is from India. The Sisters who were in this area about
a year ago talked with her but it never really went anywhere. We
stopped by a couple of weeks ago and taught her the Restoration. She
said that she would love to come to church but had family coming to
town. We went by on Friday and she was a little busy but she invited
us back this coming Friday and said she would come to church. We are
super excited for her!
Those are my adventures this week!
Love you all, have a good week! We will get transfer news this
Saturday so I will let you know what is going on!
P.s.- E. Crookston's companion is going home this week so I'm going to
end up killing him after all! This week will be his last so we will
make it good.
Sent from my iPad
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| A member couple that go out with the missionaries sent this to their parents Sunday 3-16-14 |
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