Monday, October 1, 2012

Fantastic

Hello everyone, This week was Fantastic!!! Our new Mission President arrived and we got to meet him Monday night just Elder Anderson and I went over and talked for awhile about the mission. His plans and Ideas and some recent experiences it was great. The week went on a we continued to see Miracles with B. She is staying strong regardless of the rough life she has been thrown into right now. Living the Gospel really does make life easier, well not easier but you are more able to bear it. We were outside teaching her because there was no man home and we had a wonderful lesson. We ask some questions then literally sat in silence for 3 minutes with out saying anything. Then we asked her what her next step was. What she felt it was. She said that she felt she needed to share what she was learning with others. Then we talked about the responsibility of members and that you need to testify and share and help everyone. We then asked her if she would follow Christs example and be baptized by someone with the proper authority. She paused, thought and then said yes I can do that now. She has been taught for more than a year and she keeps coming to a wall and won't go farther. Well Miracles happen. She has literally changed in a matter of days. When I met her about 3 months ago she straight up told me. "there is no way I can believe that there is a prophet on the earth today" well She asked what she needed to do to be baptized so we read the interview questions. When asked if she believed that Joseph Smith restored Christs church and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today. She said that at first she really had trouble with that but that now she really felt that it was true and that God has sent us a prophet. Don't ever give on a people. God con change them. We can't do it. We can help influence them but we can't change them.
   More miracles happened. A the guy we are teaching who is basically an indentured servant who can't get a Sunday off to go to church called us up Saturday and said hey Elders I'm off today and tomorrow come over here and teach me and get me to church on Sunday I want to go so bad, Please can you get me to church. Turns out the place he works is remodeling and was closed Sunday so he was able to come to church and He loved it!!!!! He is now looking for a new job and asked the members in Priesthood meeting to help him out so he can come every Sunday. The only reason he is not baptized is because he couldn't be active in his current way of living he has been begging us for months to help him so he can be baptized. He is one step closer now! He was even fasting with us yesterday.

 We meet with the Stake Presidency each Thursday for the Stake Presidency meeting and give them a report on the Zone. Its interesting how humble these men are. Here we are two 21 year old missionaries and they are asking us what to do and for help. We spoke about some investigators in our zone and the numbers from the past six months that we had on plot graphs and you really can see a huge difference in the past few months everything is shooting up. After some discussion we were about to leave and I just was not going to let this moment slide by without inviting them to do something. As missionaries we invite all people to do things, to make and keep commitments to help grow their faith in Christ. So I told them "as missionaries, as you know it is our job to invite people to do things" they all kinda groaned jokingly because they knew that they now had to do something hahahaha (you know how high priest are!!!, haha grandpa lake that joke was for you) We invited them to find someone to be taught in their homes by the time we meet next. We committed them and there were a couple of faithless complaints. As in " i don't know anyone to invite" We promised them that if they prayed they would be led. The Stake President who is such a wonderful man said "its all a matter of faith" and then he recommitted his counselors to do it. 

Friday we were able to go to the Temple with President Harding for a Zone leader council it was fantastic!!! Private session with just us and a couple people getting their own endowments. We met before hand in a room and discussed some things. We heard from the Temple President and then President Harding. We had a wonderful experience it was a so needed Spiritual lift. President Harding is really trying to help us understand our calling and authority as missionaries. He has challenged us to bless each person we meet with that authority and we really have seen miracles come from it. By chance Elder Anderson and I had had some experiences doing that the week before and now that we are getting encouraged to do it we know why and have jumped right on board. 

Good luck on the hunts!!! Everything is going great here I'm loving it. I expect pictures and stories

Go BYU

Life Is good!
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