1/9/17

This week has been really good! We work hard all week and sometimes don't have many numbers to show for it, but I know that what really counts are the "check marks in heaven" I say this all the time when I'm living the principle in chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel "You will do many things that are not described in the key indicators, such as street contacting or personal and companion study. These important activities contribute to one or more of the key indicators." There are so many things that you can do as a missionary that don't pay off immediately, but are so essential for long term success. There's a talk by President Eyring called "The Law of Increasing Returns" In this talk he teaches about early harvest crops and late harvest crops. He says that we tend to spend all of our time on early crops and forget to work on late crops because they take so long to bear fruit. Something that I know is that visiting a member does not equal reporting a new investigator, but also you can not work with members without developing their trust and building friendships. Weekly planning does not equal reporting member present lessons, but if you weekly plan with a sincere heart and real intent Heavenly Father will give you many ideas of what to do and where to go in the coming week. At the beginning of my mission I wanted to get everything out of the way so I could just go out and work! I hated 12 week, and lunch, and district meeting, and anything else that wasn't being out there tracting and contacting. I've realized over the course of my mission that, when used effectively, these things aren't in the way of missionary work they are the way to do missionary work.

So... nothing is happening in our companionship this transfer. Shocking. They are transferring Elder Bowen (sad) and moving the Assistants to YSA. Actually shocking!  Our new district leader is Elder Cheever. Also the real kicker: ELDER CENTER IS COMING TO THE ZONE!!! I can not escape! This makes 7 transfers in the same zone as Elder Center, 6 of which are in the same ward. I'm confident that if there were Elders in my ward right now he would be in my ward again. It's worse the longer I'm on my mission too because he will straight up harass me about how much time I have left. 

We'll see how this goes. 

This week in ward council we had a really good conversation about how we can help the youth of the church have strong testimonies. The conversation was based on the thoughts expressed in Mosiah26. We were talking about how we could avoid this situation:

 1 Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.

 2 They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.

 3 And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.

 4 And they would not be baptized; neither would they join the church. And they were a separate people as to their faith, and remained so ever after, even in their carnal and sinful state; for they would not call upon the Lord their God.

The whole conversation made me think of how blessed of an opportunity you have if you grow up in the church. A lot of times people are like "how lucky you are to be a convert!" or "converts are so much better and have such stronger testimonies!" I don't like these kinds of thoughts because when I was hanging out outside the church I made a lot of terrible mistakes. Anyone who is doing their BEST to understand and live the gospel of Jesus Christ will not make a terrible mistake. You make plenty of mistakes either way because that's the point of living in this earth life, but you don't need to make or be smothered by mistakes that are huge and seem insurmountable. However, if you don't even know about something you can neither understand nor live it, so there is nothing stopping you from making mistakes. Of course, since our Heavenly Father is " a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also" (Alma42:15) we are judged based on what we did with what we know. The atonement allows that to be possible. I'm just so thankful that the Savior was willing to suffer for everything that I have done that I didn't know I shouldn't do. 

If you were born in the church you are so blessed! You know! Even if you don't actually know or understand any part of Heavenly Father's great plan of salvation and you still make terrible mistakes, you were still taught to pray from the time you were a little kid. I was thinking last night that even when I find myself having a hard or rebellious heart I still know God is there, and I still pray to him. I've been literally FUNDAMENTALLY changed by the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I used to not even know. I didn't even believe that God was real and now I cannot deny it. Even when I'm frustrated or angry I still can not deny that God is real. 

I know that God lives. I know that He is my Heavenly Father, and that I can speak with him whenever I want to. I know that even though He is not literally in the room with me, in fact He is so very physically far away, He hears MY prayers as I'm saying, or thinking, or feeling them in my heart. Then He actually answers them, many times immediately, and always in a time frame that I can actually see and understand if I'm paying attention. I know that He keeps his promises. I don't know about a lot of stuff like I can't understand how the resurrection will work. However, I know that if I'm ever confused or lost I can ask Heavenly Father and He will tell me what is right and what is true. He will help me return to live with Him. 

Here's a reading assignment: 

Read Moses chapter 6 focusing on the doctrine of Christ and the plan of salvation. 

Quotes: 

"How did you make these?" -Elder Bowen

"He blended pork and celery." -Elder Nattress

"I need ramen noodles to function" -Elder Rubon

"You look like you've got a pair of tonsils that have been around awhile.... has there been any talk of getting them removed? No? Well I wouldn't recommend it it's very painful and hard to recover from." -Elder Finlayson literally every time. 

>Elder Finlayson I think someone cut off my leg

>Has anyone ever suggested getting your tonsils removed? I wouldn't recommend it.

"I'll hug you when you give me cookies." -Sister Johnston 

"This is Murphy the smurf." -Sister McAllister

"In the Marshal Islands they eat dog!" -Sister McAllister

"People eat dog, but I don't. That's why I like Murfy." -Elder Rubon

"Is it ok to play footsies with your companion under the table or no?" -Elder Bowen

"Well if there's a table cloth....." -Sister McAllister

Elder Bowen took us to a member's house and she taught us how to have table manners for district meeting.

"Oh! So hard! In China we don't have fork!" -Elder Xu

"So you get called on Friday if you're doubling out?"-me

"Yeah so we'll call you on Friday." -Elder Everett 

"The zone leaders call the district leaders and then Elder Bowen calls you." -Elder Nattress 

"For the rest of your mission. Only Elder Bowen."-Elder Everett 

"So district, make sure you're in by 9:00" -Elder Bowen

"I'll be in my apartment by 9:00 sure. No one will know where they're going..." -Elder Everett

"It hurts so bad when I laugh cause I ate so much chocolate." -Sister Call

"I wish I had lettuce." -me 

"Then you could make lemonade." -Sister Call

"We have to eat these deviled eggs tonight." -Sister Call

"you're not supposed to eat before bed." -me 

"It's like a fruit!" -Sister Call

I saw Sister Baker this week. It was pretty crazy. 

"How long after you got home did you spend being a huge pile?" -me 

"How long have I been home?" -Sister Baker 

Anyway Love Y'all. 

Press Esc or click anywhere to return to Mail.