"Sometimes we feel discouraged because we are not “more” of
something--more spiritual, respected, intelligent, healthy, rich,
friendly, or capable. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with wanting
to improve. God created us to grow and progress. But remember, our
weaknesses can help us to be humble and turn us to Christ, who will
“make weak things become strong.” Satan, on the other hand, uses our
weaknesses to the point that we are discouraged from even trying.
I learned in my life that we don’t need to be “more” of anything to
start to become the person God intended us to become.
God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work
with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and
trust in the Lord.
Gideon saw himself as a poor farmer, the least of his father’s house.
But God saw him as a mighty man of valor.
When Samuel chose Saul to be king, Saul tried to talk him out of it.
Saul was from one of the smallest tribes of the house of Israel. How
could he be king? But God saw him as “a choice young man.”
Even the great prophet Moses felt so overwhelmed and discouraged at
one point that he wanted to give up and die. But God did not give up
on Moses.
My dear brothers and sisters, if we look at ourselves only through our
mortal eyes, we may not see ourselves as good enough. But our Heavenly
Father sees us as who we truly are and who we can become. He sees us
as His sons and daughters, as beings of eternal light with everlasting
potential and with a divine destiny."
(Dieter F. Uchtdorf, It Works Wonderully!, Ensign Nov. 2015, p. 22-23)
Start where you are. We don't have to become some impossible Saint for
the Atonement to start working for us. As we work to become better
from where we are right here and right now the Lord with strengthen
us- and then we will become so much more than we ever imagined we
could be!
1/18
More service on a preparation day! I love doing it, but my companions
seem to always be against it. There is nothing in the handbook against
it, and I feel like it is a sacrifice for a greater cause... Or
something like that haha. We moved a ton of wood for an investigator,
big logs and small chips. Good workout, as well as a good way to help
her realize that we are good people!
Ronan!!!!!! Went on an exchange to Ronan again, which is awesome! That
place reminds me a lot of Ennis- more people than Drummond and
Seeley Lake, but more spread out. I love it!
1/19
Ronan Exchange- not as eventful as last time.... No broken down cars
or moving semis or anything like that. I just learned the importance
of planning haha. We ended up visiting a lot of active members and
asking for referrals, which is always! Keep giving those to the
missionaries- it means a lot!
1/20
World wide missionary broadcast: "Teach Repentance, Baptize converts"-
that was pretty cool. Got to hear from a few apostles and members of
the missionary board. Learned about how to work with less active
members and recent converts, and about how the best way to teach is by
inviting the spirit into the room, but it is the choice of the
investigators or members being taught to accept that spirit and let it
envelope them! Besides that the day was pretty uneventful, Elder Mika
is on a prayer high, praying at every and any opportunity possible.
It's good, just a lot different than what I am used to haha. We taught
a lesson to an active-ish family in the ward, and it was interesting
to see someone who had a testimony of the church, but for some reason
had no motivation to act on it. Everyone has different weaknesses than
each other, so it was really cool to help them grow closer to Christ,
or at least we hope.
Link to boradcast videos:
https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng
1/21
Weekly planning! I hate it. Didn't take near as long as last well but
it still takes what feels like years to finish! I know it is super
important..... But there has to be some way to make it interesting! We
had a pretty cool plan of salvation lesson with S H, connecting
every point with a string of scriptures that we studied and brought to
the lesson. Good lesson!
1/22
Meeting with Bishop- out of the frying pan and into the fire. We went
over to meet and talk with him about less actives in the ward, and he
gave us a few names to visit. One of which was the Js. Sister J
is a very nice lady. She is working hard to get back to the temple and
start doing family history. Brother J, however, is not quite as
nice..... He is the author of a few pieces of literature that are
particularly against the church. He has a very strong "testimony"
against the church, and yet for some reason he hasn't left the church
yet. I don't know...
1/23
We went to Drummond to teach the few people we have there, which isn't
many. We did a lot of finding, and a lot of looking for less actives
and such things. At lunch, I was invited to sit down and play a
musical number for the family, so I played a few things I had
memorized. I guess the sister plays the violin very well, and she
recognized the Prelude in C that I played, so she grabbed her violin
and began to play Avè Maria with it! It felt fantastic to be able to
play with someone again!
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6I2gm4Sutow" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
While visiting a less active member, we started a conversation about
his dogs. They were big hound dogs- and I mean BIG. We talked with him
about it for a while. And it turns out he hunts lions with them.
LIONS. I don't.... I can't.... What?! Montana.... I don't understand
you.
1/24
Church- full of last minute preparation! So it turns out that the
Drummond branch likes to have a musical number every Sunday. They have
plenty of musical talent in the branch, so that is understandable!
However, I guess we decided to come on the one Sunday when they didn't
have anyone scheduled..... So the sister I played the number with on
her violin volunteered us (voluntold?) to play in church. So I show up
to church, and to my surprise I am on the program.... Huh?! Well...
Good opportunity I suppose! And then after sacrament meeting, we got
assigned to teach a Gospel Principles class... For the first time in
almost 8 years in that branch. Fun? I guess.... We ran into a guy
while tracting at the motel who was a less active member, who
supposedly had been hitchhiking for almost 7 years! He had a
disagreement in his family so he just left! We talked with him about
eternal families, and he seemed to like that... But he was only a year
older than me! He likes the life he lives, but I can't even imagine
it!
After that we had a few interesting lessons- lessons that definitely
did not go the way we wanted them to.
First, we went and taught D W about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Good lesson! However, and don't ask me how it got to it, we ended up
talking about his belief in God, and it turns out he has a partial
belief in the Greek gods. Wait..... What?! Yep. He fully believed for
most of his life that Zeus was the ultimate ruler of the universe.
Some thing about Hollywood played a roll in that, but man almighty
what?!
And then, back in Clinton, we had a lesson with a 21 year old marine
reserve. We walked into his house and he was playing Korn on his
computer... And then Avenged Sevenfold, and then Metallica, and then
Slipknot, and it just kept going! It was super weird to hear the music
I used to listen to. I can definitely see why it is not recommended
for scripture study now haha. I think the Lord was trying to tell me
something there.....
That's all for the week... Sorry it's super jumbled haha
I found this gem..... If you don't get it you don't belong to my family haha
I was looking through my family tree and I found this stud in late
300B.C.- I can see the resemblance, can you?
When the snow gets so thick the road is gone... As well as anything
100ft away from you
No comments:
Post a Comment