I will start with OBEDIENCE! There is a saying obedience brings blessing, exact obedience bring miracles, obedience from a willing heart changes you.
Oh man I say that this week. I have always been obedient but never 100% exact obedient. Nobody can be but you can try. Well I sorta got comfortable with just being obedient. This week however I learned the importance of exact obedience with a willing heart!! I had a great talk with my Mission President about this and took the challenge to covenant with the Lord to be EXACTLY OBEDIENT. I know it will be impossible but the trick is trying with your heart and be willing to. I prayed my heart out every night for repentance and to be an instrument in the hands of God!!! I knew miracles would come but I did not do it for miracles. I tried because I love the Lord and want to do what He wants.
So many miracles came from it though. It only got better too. Some of my favorite ones were direct answers to my prayers!! The first is Michael. We had 3 apt in his area but they all fell through. I knew though that we were in that area for a reason! We sat in the car contemplating where to go. Michael came to mind. A potential that took our number and said he would call. Well we showed up, he was home, we taught a lesson on the restoration and set him on date for the 31 of March. It was a lot more spiritual than that but you get the just of it. It was amazing though to think that the Lord had that planned for us. He knew that I would listen to the spirit and do what it needed us to do. What a blessing!!
Another great one was Janna Spina. She is a less active member who came to church last week but missed this week. She has two girls that are not members. 13 and 9. Both want to get baptized and come to church with Mom. We are seeing them tonight and will set them on date!! Anyways on Sunday I was really sad that they did not come to church. We were just about to finish our night and the last apt canceled and we had no idea what to do so late at night. 8:30. This time it took a few minutes to get that answer from the spirit but it said to me See Janna. I was so against it. It was so late. She is a single sister with no male... But we had to go. So we showed up and lo and behold there was a male in the home and they were so excited to see us. They told us that they got in their car this morning to come to church and it started to rain. It was a bad storm. The town got flooded from it and her street turned into a river. So they were unable to make it. Such a bummer. But they said a prayer in the car that the elders would come see them this week. When we got to the home they said that was quick. Haha we were an answer to their prayer!! It was so fun. Her boyfriend is not a member but asked for a blessing. The part I love most about it is not that we taught them but that we knew that the Lord sent us there by His Spirit!! I testify that if we listen we will be lead. The best feeling in the world is knowing that you were there because the Lord needed you there.
My mission scripture is Alma 29: 9-10 It talks about being an instrument in the hands of the Lord and the joy that it brings. Well that could sum up this whole email. It was amazing. These are only a few of the great things that happened this week!!
One of the best blessing was all the rain. It cooled us off as we went out and knocked doors. On one of the rainy days we got invited in only to find out it was a JW. I hate arguing on the mission so I just sat and listened. Never have I seen any one on the mission silence a JW with bashing or scriptures, it is just not the Lord’s way.
As we listen and learned from her I kindly said. “Yes, we believe all of that.” (It was just about God and who he is) I said. “What more can you offer me than what I already have? We claim to have the Priesthood of God on the earth. We claim to be lead by living prophets and apostles, We have temples where family's can be sealed for all time and eternity. We preform saving ordinances for the living and the dead. What more can you give me than I don’t already have?” SILENCE!! hahah I was loving it. She did not dare open her mouth. She had nothing to offer. No offence. I am the only one with an offer on the table. With the silence we bore our witness that we know that this is all true and that it was restored to the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith. What she said to that was, “Oh is Joseph Smith in the Bible?” “No but the pattern of revealing the gospel to prophets is.” I did not want to start to argue so we thanked her and left after that. But I got her. She can’t offer anything. This is the true church. This is the best offer in the world. We are so blessed!!!
As I said in the beginning, I have grown the most I have ever grown this week on my mission. It has come from being willing to learn, grow, and change. I have studied the Book of Mormon in a deeper way and listened to the Mission President in a deeper way. We had our Mission Leadership Conference. That is where all the revelation came. We spoke of simple principle but with the deepest meaning. It is one we hear every week or every training. OBEDIENCE. This time we looked at it coming from the heart. Or how to get it from our Mind to our Heart. Peter when asked, “Lovest these things more than me?” Replied with, “Yeah Lord Thou knowest that I love thee.” Yet the Lord asked it three times. By the third time it came from Peters Heart!!! The meeting we had was one of the best I have ever been to and is so hard to put into words. Just hear my testimony that I know we need to love the Lord and show him through what we do!! We need to do things his way to show him that!! We have our agency to choose what to do and when it comes from the heart it is powerful!!
The BEST part of the week was today!! I am a bit late at emailing today because we were at the temple. It was the best session I have ever been too!! Elder & Sister Richins gave us a conference talk given by Elder Holland in 1997 that spoke on making convents and preparing for the mission. Boy it was an interesting talk. I read it three times and learned a new thing every time!! The best was how it prepared us to come to the temple ready and alert!! It was not hard waking up at 4 am to catch the train to go!! We had all the elders over and getting all of us up was a struggle at 4 am but we were all so excited to go and learn!! I have never learned so many cool doctrines before!! Each covenant made was so powerful and meaningful!!
I have been reading from the past Presidents of the church. When reading about Lorenzo Snow he spoke of the day Wilford Woodruff died. President Snow was the president of the quorum of the twelve so he knew he was next in line. That night he went to the temple and said that he spoke face to face with God. It blew my mind!! So I asked my mission president in an interview after our temple trip and he spoke of how people can become exalted in earth or in heaven. It does not matter. You only have to be ready for it. Being exalted is having all your covenants sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise. What allows them to be sealed is your worthiness and willingness to follow those covenants. There was a lot more that went into it but it was very very cool. President shared with me a quote from President Hinkely that said Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have LITERALLY walked in every temple on this earth!! Boy HOW COOL IS THAT!!! I love going to the temple. There is just so much in this church that Christ has for us!! I know it has all of it.
I am out of time but could go on for ages. I love this church and learning about it. I hope you do too!! What a great week. Love you all bye!!
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