Good morning everybody! Summer seems to have arrived in England! As
such, I will need to buy some short-sleeved shirts. I will do that
today. I hope everyone is doing wonderful. Things are good here.
As far as the work goes, it has been a wonderful week! It has had it's challenges, but then again... so does every week!
Our investigator is still wonderful. We'll be teaching him tomorrow and he
should be coming to church on Sunday. He is still good for July 6th.
We have been able to commit our other investigator to another baptismal date. It's August 3rd, quite far away. Even if it's far away, for various reasons we know it's right. She continues to learn and grow. She loves knowledge and is curious. What a wonderful attribute that is! It is clear to me that as her testimony grows, her countenance changes. It is an amazing blessing to see that change in her.
We had an interesting experience yesterday with other investigator. We had planned to teach her Tithing and Fasting. Unfortunately, on our way to the appointment, we realized that I had forgotten to bring the Tithing and Fasting pamphlets. Unsure what to do, we just said a prayer and handed it over to the Holy Ghost. We knew that we couldn't do it on our own. We went in there, still not knowing what we would share. We had planned previously to extend a new baptismal date, but we also weren't sure if we were going to do that anymore. We got in there and they were playing monopoly so we waited a few minutes for them to finish up. We began the lesson and it was quite awkward. The only thing I could really compare it to is that video on the District where they have to do the emergency exchange and have no clue what they are doing. What happenned next, however, was amazing. Everything was calm. All of those contentious feelings were driven away in an instant. Were we still in the dark? Absolutely. Did we have a clue what we were going to teach? Nope. But we knew the Spirit was there. We knew that as long as we allowed the Spirit to speak through us, we could work miracles. For whatever reason, right after the opening prayer, my mind was drawn to that story in Preach My Gospel where they read 3 Nephi 11 and the guy decides then and there he wanted to be baptized, so we read 3 Nephi 11. Very slowly. We stopped every few verses and tried to put it in as simple terms as possible (because she has a really hard time understanding.) She understood just enough. When we finished, we weren't quite sure where to go. For reasons completely unbeknownst to me, I suggested we make her a baptismal calender. She agreed to this and agreed to work towards July 6th as a baptism date. The spirit was incredibly strong. I am so grateful that I could literally lose myself and allow the Holy Ghost to speak through me in a way that I could never have done on my own.
Elder Aichele and I have set a goal to "endure to the end" with our weekly goals. We want our weekly goals to actually matter, to be something we talk about and work towards daily. We found that the most efficient way to do this was taking a suggestion offered by a friend of mine serving his mission elsewhere. He suggested that we set key indicator goals BEFORE planning anything. This requires that we look back on our weekly objectives. It also requires us to be far more in tune with the spirit. It has been wonderful.
My biggest focus for this transfer is going to be to teach with simplicity. By the end of the transfer, I want to be able to teach and testify about every principle in the lessons in one minute or less. I'm going to have to be diligent about this- because following through on study plans is not something that comes easily to me. But I know I can do it! My other goal for the transfer is to be fearless. To boldly invite everyone I meet to come unto Christ. To have no reservations about inviting people to repent and be baptized. To put complete trust in my Savior. I know that as I do that, miracles will occur. Faith thins the veil, that is plainly taught in Ether 12.
I love this gospel and I love this marvelous work and wonder that I witness every day!
Love you all so much! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment