I want you all to know that I know that Christ lives. I know that he leads and guides this church through a living prophet. I know that through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end we can receive eternal life. God loves each and every one of us and hears our prayers. I know that the church is true. Because I know that the Book of Mormon is true.
This was
a great week. I don't have too much time so sorry about the quality of this
letter.
MONDAY!
We did pday stuff - giving rides and helping out and buying food and writing
home. Then just as we were getting ready to go home someone in the office asked
us to run an errand. So we drove all the way up north to the tip of the mission
to deliver some medication to an elder who needed it. It took a long time but
it was cool to be in the right place at the right time to help out. Monday
night we taught a lesson about prayer which was pretty good. It was a little
awkward because the person we wanted to teach wasn’t home so we just taught her
daughter and friend. Monday was a good day. It is a totally different look of a
pday, but pretty much the same ole thing.
TUESDAY!
We did a lot of good things Tuesday. We did some service moving rocks in the
morning. This time I didn't mess up my fingers or my hands so that was nice.
Slowly but surely I am reaching a level of basic human proficiency. Maybe in two
more years I will have mastered pincer gripping cheerios. Then we took the
other elders in the district to lunch and we just chose a random place and we
walked in and the owner was a less active member who we had planned on visiting
that day because no one knew who she was! Crazy huh? She gave us a good deal
and some good chicken wings. Later in the day we were visiting some former
investigators which was cool. Most said that we could come back, now the
trouble is just finding them again. This city has no schedule so it's like
impossible to find anyone especially if they don't answer their phones. But
still. It was good. We also talked to a few people on the street which rocked.
Most all of them set up return appointments with us and the English elders went
back and had great lessons with at least 2 of them. Now we just have to find the
Hispanics and we are set. We didn't have a dinner on Tuesday so we bought stuff
to make cookies and made some for our neighbors. A few friends who are going to
UNLV all live there. They are all studying kinesiology, its two men and two
women and its crazy. They are only two years older than me but their life is so
different. And all of them are super fit. They asked us a lot of good questions
and we planted a few of those seeds for later. Hopefully we'll be able to follow
up and they'll want to learn more about the gospel.
WEDNESDAY!
We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Martha. She's an older woman
whose husband just died. We talked with her about the importance of church and
reading the Book of Mormon and prayer and she came to church and bore her
testimony during Relief Society which was pretty cool. Hopefully she just takes
the next few steps to committing to be baptized. She's satisfied with her life
so it's hard to help her to make steps to improve her life and relationship
with Heavenly Father. When you love people you want to make promises with them.
We are gonna keep working with her and help her to see that church is not just
a social thing; it’s the way we connect with God. Then we went to teach a recent
convert and we worked out a plan on how she can do missionary work with her neighbors.
Her husband then gave us a lesson on Mexican history and government. MAYBE best
part of the week: a baptismal interview. I got to meet with a candidate for
baptism and it was an incredible experience; a sacred and powerful chance to
help someone prepare to make a covenant with our Father in Heaven. Oh it was so
cool, she was so prepared. We talked a lot about repentance and prayer. I wish
could describe how awesome it is. It made me really excited to be able to serve
in this new way. Then a little later we had a lesson with an investigator about
the Book of Mormon. I love helping people to read it and come to know that it
is true and all that that means. It’s like I was inviting others to come unto Christ
or something. :) It's true or it’s a fraud - black or white.
THURSDAY!
Great, great day. We had our zone training meeting [ZTM] about the doctrine of
Christ which was a great learning experience on how to apply an eternal perspective
in every lesson. Y’all can read my notes on it in 2 years. We went to two
lessons that fell through and then we had a really sweet visit with a sister
who can’t come to church because she has to take care of her two bedridden
daughters. Then later we did a little street contacting which I love. It’s
tough and usually pretty ineffective but it’s fun and feels good. Then later we
taught a lesson to a mother and daughter using the principles we learned in
ZTM. They both are now set for baptism 22JUN2013. It was a powerful lesson
about the importance of faith, repentance baptism and confirmation.
FRIDAY! Friday gotta plan out on Friday, gettin ready for the next week.... We visited a member in the morning which was super cool. He's the 1st counselor in the branch presidency at 29 and he's super cool. He's trying now to get into the Special Forces. He was just outside working on flipping a Camero he bought. He's pretty good with cars. Then we visited a few other people. Then we came home to plan. After we went to try to visit a referral but we drove so far up Las Vegas Blvd that we got scared and turned around. It’s crazy weird over there. So. Much. Pornography. A little later we visited an investigator we passed off to the English elders and it was cool to see his change of countenance. He talked for like 20 minutes about how much he loves the church. It all started bc of a lesson with him where we helped him to commit to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He did, and it changed his life.
SATURDAY!
It was a kinda slower day but still good. In the morning we went to a baptism
for the woman I interviewed. It was a sweet, sweet service and the branch
really came out to support. She bore her testimony after and that was awesome.
I also got to see Sister Despain and Burrup which was cool. They're good
missionaries. Then we visited a few members and when we tried to visit our branch
prez, he practically pushed us in the car and drove us to In-n-Out to buy us
hamburgers. We told him we just ate lunch and that dinner was in 2 hours but he
took us anyway. Great guy. Super funny, super spiritual. Then we tried visiting
other people. We stopped by an investigator's house just as she and friends
walked out of the house in their bikinis. We left. We went to the ward party
and ate and talked with members. Then we went to do a few more visits. EJ
shared a bomb spiritual thought.
SUNDAY!
Great day. Church was good. I got to talk to my favorite family in the world.
Then after Brother Lopez shared his testimony with us for a long time. It was
incredibly powerful. He's working on wiritng it all down and when he does, I'll
send it home. He's so cool.
That's the week!
That's the week!
Having all these district leader responsibilities is cool. But it’s weird to have people looking up to me. It's a lot of pressure.
I love you all so much!
Sam
No comments:
Post a Comment