This
morning I was studying a talk by Hugh B. Brown called ‘the Profile of the Prophet.’
The restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to me, is really the only thing
that makes sense. Again, like it is almost every day, I find myself pondering
about how perfect God's plan is. We are his children, he loves us, he wants us
to be happy. All he asks is for us to be humble enough to want to feel his
love. That's really the key that I've learned on my mission, if someone wants
to know, they will; whether it’s a testimony of Joseph Smith, or the Divinity
of Jesus Christ, or the reality of God. I
dunno. I think it’s awesome. That's all kinda of word vomit but last thing to
puke up is something I think about during almost every street contact. Once we
have a proper understanding of God and his character (or we are at least on the
right path) everything else falls into place. Read the ‘Lectures on Faith’ for
a little more info I guess. aannnnnyyyway.
It’s been
a SICK WEEK!
One last
thing, compliments and offers to help go a long way.
MONDAY!
As I said, Ryebread [Elder Reiley] left us. He has been missed quite a bit. But
that night we taught 3 back to back lessons. What a blessing. I think if I were
to read back to my emails from 6 months ago there wouldn't be too much
teaching, but now, I get to teach multiple lessons and people daily. It rocks.
It’s something that I've taken for granted a little bit. I love every second of
the work but I am here to teach, not just to try to find. I'm telling y’all.
Prayer has played such a big role in our success this transfer. By begging for
the miracles and doing everything I can to make them happen, they do. I definitely
don’t have room to receive them. A mission (if you do it right) is a great
place because miracles become something more than you read about in the scriptures;
they become part of real life. The best part (other than helping bring others
to Christ) was the member we brought with us. He had never been out with the
missionaries before and he did so awesome. He is a shy guy but once we got to
teaching he testified with power. It was so, so awesome. We dropped him off and
he was beaming and ready to come out another time. It got me even more pumped.
He was worried about what to say and we just told him to say what he felt, and
he felt like testifying. It was so good. He felt the Spirit and he was happy.
So we were happy.
Pause. So....
please go out with the missionaries. Please make it a daily goal to share the
gospel with someone, somehow.
TUESDAY!
We helped out with the transfers in the morning. My district got moved around.
Elder Smith (who I think is so awesome) is now in a different district. I now
have Elder Andrews and Elder Beyer and Elder Borden and Elder Hilliard. I don't
know much about them yet because things are so busy and DM [district meeting] isn’t
till next week, but they all seem cool. I know Elder Andrews from before, but
that's about it. Elder Gunnell and I got to spend part of the day together. We
had a district leader training meeting that was really awesome. Elder Fischer
and Clawson gave the training and I look up to them so much. But being with Elder Gunnell, that was cool; reminiscent of like 9 months ago when our companions
went to the same meeting. Whacko huh? That night we contacted 3 referrals/potential
investigators and got 3 return appointments. It was incredible. We had a lesson
with Amelia and Leo and Gissel. It was cool because Gissel is so excited to get
baptized. Her friend from high school is so surprised, but repentance is real and
Gissel is changing her life.
WEDNESDAY!
We had a lesson in the morning with just Gissel and her friend. It was cool
because she is now set to be baptized on August 17th! So pretty soon! We talked
about repentance a lot. She said she's excited but she feels like it’s a
deadline. We asked what she meant and it was super cool. She said, “Well I want
to do this and I want to do it right. I feel hypocritical but I want to smoke
and drink a few more times before I get baptized. I feel bad saying that but it’s
true.” We talked about it with her. We were careful not to tell her what to do
but just to see how she felt and what she wanted to do. At the end of the
lesson she said something like, “I know it’s going to be hard, but I can do
this. It’s what God wants me to do. If I’m going to live it after, I should
probably start now.” Boom. Dad - it was kinda like that lesson you taught to
the priests. That was like the beginning of her covenant making. Later we had a
cool lesson with a mother who was struggling with her son. We talked about
prayer and the Book of Mormon with her. She seemed to like it but hopefully she
will act upon the things we invited her to do.
THURSDAY!
This was like maybe one of the hardest days of the mission. ummmm, not really.
But it was hard. I think we had 6 appointments and 6 members. All cancelled but
2 investigators and 1 member. We taught 2 new investigators about the Book of Mormon
and they loved it. They asked so many questions and said that this is what they
want in their life. How’d they get interested? The good example of the family
of one of their friends and then the family just invited them to hear the gospel.
They did because they wanted to have a family with as much happiness as the
members. Good stuff. They are awesome. The investigators are so sincere.
After that we taught Andres (the 9 year old) about the Sabbath day. The member’s
daughter was playing in the dog food and Andres turned and said to me, “Classic,
classic.” It was so funny.
FRIDAY!
We taught another lesson to the couple we started teaching the day before. It
was bomb. We testified of the power of the Book of Mormon and they both wanted
it in their life really bad. They had another huge bunch of great questions. One
was about the purpose of the Book of Mormon. He said, “I hear everyone connect
Joseph Smith and the BofM. Is the purpose of the book to prove Joseph Smith was
a prophet? Does it talk about him in the book?” It was a cool question. I’d
never thought of it before. It started a really good discussion. I love
discussions. Las charlas. We taught Gissel a sick lesson about the PoS [Plan of
Salvation]. Such good quotes from her. Here’s one – “getting to the celestial
kingdom seems hard, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I know I can do it.” That
was cool. The other one was “this means I need to get ready to go to the
temple.” Another sick comment. That night we taught Martha the PoS which went
really well. She’s become so much more open since a few months ago. The elders
before, in this area, planted some really good seeds. That night we didn't
teach a lesson to Amelia and Leo so much as we just helped them cook dinner.
That was pretty cool. I love their family so much.
SATURDAY!
We taught Percy which was bomb. He's the guy from Peru. It was a good lesson on
the restoration. When people are open, it is so, so powerful. We did our
studies on Saturday again because we had lessons on Friday. We taught a cool
lesson to Amelia and Leo that night about the Atonement.
SUNDAY!
It kind of hit me as I was writing my journal entry. I have less than 11 months.
That's no time at all. The Lord is hastening his work and it feels like he's doing
the same with my mission. I've got to catch up. No time to lose!! Church was
interesting. All the youth bore their testimonies. It’s a branch so it’s not
that many but they all took like 10 minutes so we didn’t get out of sacrament
meeting till like 10:50. Sunday night we were scrambling to find anyone to come
out with us when we got a phone call from a priest in the ward (one of the highlights
of my mission). He says, “Elder Anderson. I'm at home right now and I got to
thinking, it would be way better if we members called you missionaries than if
you called us. It’s our job to come help you, not your job to try to find
people to help.” It was sick to hear him say that. That's the attitude I want
to develop. Well that I’m working to develop; not what is not a bad choice, or
even a good choice, but what the Lord would have me do. That's the kind of
disciple I am trying to become- in one word, consecrated. It’s a process though.
When we asked why he had that revelation (I think that's what it was) he
started to quote D & C section 4 and I felt the Spirit so, so strong. He
did too. It was an incredible experience.
The
church is true.
Each of
us are children of God with divine potential
and I
love you all so much.
That's
all for now folks!
Love,
Sam
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