Goood morning everyone! This has been an absolutely wonderful week! The Lord has blessed us richly with great experiences that will guide us all our lives! I love this oppurtunity to serve. It has now been over a year since I left home. Truly my heart aches. Two weeks ago when I began writing home I was just hit with tears. Why does the time have to go so fast? You can never fully understand how amazing it is to become so close with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I just will never be able to explain the gratitude I have to have served this time.
I can't say the past year has been easy, but I am the man I am because of it. There have been so many times I didn’t know if I could make it. I remember back in February when I was taken to the hospital for dehydration, I struggled with odd headaches for months following. A few months later when I wrecked my bike in a ditch, a nerve became pinched in my neck. Ya, it still pops and can at time be very painful, but you know what? I have been comforted and guided every step. I know that God assigns the very angels of Heaven to be with us and carry us through. I have a firm and everlasting hope that they live and love us!
I will always remember these days as the days when I came to understand their supreme love for each of us. Christ lives and HE LOVES US ALL and knows us personally. The time here has been too wonderful and so life changing. I wish it would slow down, it's hard to take it all in.
The past week has been filled with neat experiences. At the beginning of the week we met with a companionship that had been struggling a bit to get along. We gave one of the Elders a priesthood blessing. I will never forget that blessing as long I live. In the blessing he was told that in the premortal existence he had chosen to be this Elders companion, and he had chosen to change his life, to finally push away pride and be the first one to befriend him. As I gave him a blessing I felt the power of God and the tender knowledge of a pre-earth life, where we were so close to God. God knows us! He truly does and I will never be able to deny that. That same night I went tracting with that missionary. As we were knocking doors in a neighborhood I kept getting this prompting that we should go to a specific complex in their area! As we kept walking that prompting wouldn’t leave. We took a moment and prayed and we both felt strongly we should go. As we drove there another distinct prompting kept coming in my mind to go to building 27. It was amazing. The first door we knock on we found an amazing Chinese man looking for the gospel. That touched our hearts simply forever! I will never forget that day.
There was one more experience that meant the most to me from the past week. Often we compare God's love for us, to the spiritual and temporal blessings we receive. I have often fallen into that trap. We lose faith, we lose hope, and we get all misdirected when things go wrong, wondering what we did to deserve it? Why would God do this to me? The past week I had allowed that thought to enter my mind. Why won't these headaches go away? Why me and why now? The next day we went to a special missionary meeting to talk about certain areas in the mission and how we find people. For the first thirty minutes our mission president went off about enduring trials and understanding blessings. Most were confused, but for me, it was literally revelation from heaven from an inspired man. President Larkin read Hebrews 11. But I want to focus on just a few scriptures. 8 - By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 - By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 - For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and make is God. Abraham left his precious place, where he could have lived forever comfortably, to his land of promise, seeking for Zion. Instead though he spent his life dwelling in tents, where he was never able to see his promises fulfilled! They were realized later after he was gone! Abraham lived by faith, he never gave up, he never asked why! He went forward in faith, seeking zion! It's easy often to assume that the successful and learned are blessed because of that righteousness!!! All that God seeks from us is to be full of charity and faith. That’s truly all that matters. I have come to love that section of scripture where we can learn so much from the faithful before us, who had faith unwavering and were purified of all ungodliness, being full of charity!!
I love this time here. I love you all! Mormon.org is just storming Seattle! The campaign is changing everything! We are praying and seeking to baptize three more souls this month. We pray that God will lead us to them! I love you all have a great week!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment