Hello Everyone!
I hope that everyone is doing great today, and that this week has been good! I had a pretty good week! We worked hard, and now that I am on bike, I felt it more haha. No Air Conditioning, which stinks, but that just means I have to bike faster to get some air flow. I will tell you though, I am out of shape, and my new companion has been asking to be on bike since he first started his mission, he is one transfer behind me. Elder Silvester is his name, and he is a huge biker, way good at it, unlike me. But I am trying to go as fast as I can. It is funny because on Tuesday, we had to go and get a bunch of biking junk for my companion and I, because we needed things like lights, and what not. It was fun, I needed to take my bike in and get it worked on, and so I went to this place called Orange Cycle, and this mechanic there told me that he knows that I am a missionary and that I would need it right away, and so he told me that he would come in early the next morning (wednesday) and work on it. So I took my bike in that morning, and as I was waiting for it to get fixed, I got a call and I talked with the mechanic for a while, and he told me that he cut down the price that it normally would cost to tune it up, and all he asked for in return was "one of those books you have." He asked for a Book of Mormon! It was so cool! He spoke Spanish, and so I brought him a Spanish copy, and put a Mormon.org card inside with my Facebook name, and my number. It was so cool! It taught me a lesson, that being that our Heavenly Father has prepared people for me personally to talk to, that uniquely I will be the person to get though and truly touch people's hearts. This man has talked with missionaries before, and well, it didn't work out, but now he is ready to accept the message. It was super duper cool! That story of the Arabian Horses that Sister Poulson talked about, it is true, we must be obedient, and strictly obedient, because if we are not, then we will never receive the blessings we have been promised, and we will never know we are missing them.
Elder Silvester and I were talking about President Bowen earlier, and the fact that he has not given us any extra rules for the mission. Some mission presidents add rules where they see fit, but for us, President Bowen stated, "the more disobedient you are, the more rules I have to put into place, therefore, keep to the white handbook, keep to your obedience that way we are all happy, you will be free as you do so." For me it is cool to think about the fact that we are more free as we obey the commandments and keep the rules. It is so true. To mark my page in my White Handbook, I have a quote from Elder Packer, that states the following, "Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. Just think of giving Him the one thing, the one gift that He would never take. Obedience - that which God will never take by force - he will accept when freely given. And he will return to you freedom that you can hardly dream of - the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousand fold more that we offer him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience." I absolutely love this quote, it carries me. I want to be obedient, I choose to be obedient, there never will be a "good reason to be disobedient" because there isn't any. They do not exist. I love my Heavenly Father, so I choose to be obedient to His hand and his rules, so that I can have that which is He has promised me. Being obedient is the only way to have the constant companionship of the Spirit as well.
This week was a good week, we worked super hard, and we found seven new investigators, and we taught fourteen lessons. Normally we have a higher amount of lessons, but because we did not have time on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, we got started a little late this week. But I had two very spiritual moments for me personally this week, okay there were a lot, but I will not mention them all. On Wednesday we went to visit Denisse and Maria, two of our investigators, who are progressing very slowly. We had planned to teach about the Plan of Salvation again, but I felt inspired to teach about the Book of Mormon again. Now food for thought, since I have been in this area and have been teaching these two people, we have taught about the Book of Mormon about 8 different times. So now 9 out of 13 times we have taught about the BOM. So that is a lot right? I realized this as we were teaching and I asked Denisse to think about this, and why it is. I told her, that literally almost every time we come over, I have felt like I needed to talk about the BOM. I told her, that I was inspired by the Spirit to continue to teach her about it. This past time, I think she focused more, and actually understood more. I have been trying for a super long time to figure out what I could say or what principle I can teach in a better way to help her understand the truth about Joseph Smith. I realized this week, that the Spirit is guiding me to teach, and one of these times, she will feel the Spirit strong enough to not be able to deny the truth anymore. I am excited for this week, because as Elder Silvester and I were finishing up a companion study, he was praying, and I just had this thought in my head. After the prayer, I elaborated on my thought, and realized that I now know what to tell her. I am super excited.
The other experience I had this week that I wish to share, was on Saturday night, we had about 30 minutes left in the day, and we were about 20 minutes from home, so we were wandering around it seemed like, but we were walking around contacting people on this street called Lemon Street. I was walking to my bike, and I saw an area on the street that I personally had not yet knocked on, and so we went over there. We knocked on one door, and this man named Humberto came to the door, and we introduced ourselves, and I said to this man, that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and this man's countenance changed just a bit, and I explained that we have a message that is special and different than all others in the world. I then expounded on who God truly is, and how He has given us families. I simply asked him if there would be another time for us to come back, and he told us, "yes, when can you?!" (in Spanish FYI) and we set up an appointment with him for this Tuesday, and then we actually just continued teaching about the Restoration. It was just a really good contact we had, and we asked to have a word of prayer with him afterwards, and he agreed. After the prayer this man started to tear up, and thanked us for coming over. It was really cool! very humbling! The Spirit touched this man, and now I truly feel as though we have found the next convert in our area. I am certain that he will be baptized. ' I have been studying this week a lot about the scriptures, but also just about the Spirit and prayer. I read in 3 Nephi chapter 17 verses 14-18, and it talks about when Christ prayed with the Nephites. His prayer was so powerful, and full of Faith that it could not be recorded. I am striving to grow in my Faith now, so that truly I may be able to pray to my Heavenly Father and receive according to my Faith. Well, the mission is going fantastic for me! I have learned so much, and now I truly have a chance to learn Spanish because I am the Senior companion now.
Thanks for all of your support! I love you all!
Your favorite missionary in So. Cal!
Elder Weston Scott
.jpg) |
| With Silvester |
No comments:
Post a Comment