Sorry guys, Apparently LDSMail is trying to update things and so the
browser I am now using doesnt support alot of the important features.
So, if this doesnt get to you, I am sorry.
So First off, investigators. We picked up a few that I dont think I
have mentioned before. We have a new kid named Latrelle. His dad is LA
but wants to get back into the swing of things. We set up a time to
meet and the dad told us that he doesnt want to waste our time since
he is hard to catch. He told us that Latrelle just wants to be
baptized, he has had all the discussions before and just needs to go
through the motions to prepare for baptism. It is something that
Latrelle wants, we asked, and so we are working towards Feb. 4th! We
now have another kid, he's 9 and is super open and wants to learn
about the church. He understands just about everything we throw at him
and he is bringing his family back into activity by working towards
baptism. Now for the funny stuff that went down...
We had a lesson with the Daley family. They are a family of 5 that
just showed up to church one day and said that they wanted to get
baptized. They have family a few generations back that were LDS and
dont understand why they ever fell away from the church. So they are
taking the lessons. Well, we go in to teach a lesson with the family
that is fellowshipping them. We get through most of the Restoration
and we bring up Baptism. We start to commit them and this is how the
conversation went...
Us: "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by
someone holding the proper priesthood authority?"
Daley Dad: "Well, I have a question first. I have had an issue with
this with some of the other churches that I have looked into. Does
your church have a stance on when dinosaurs roamed the Earth?"
... ... ... WHAT?! LOL. It was hilarious! But, of course we have to
respect the question and answer it as best we can.
Next, we had a lesson with a less active lady and her 6 year old
daughter. We sit down and get to know them a little better. We start
into the lesson and it is going well. She is asking questions and is
totally involved. Then the fellowship starts to answer a quesiton on
prophets. It all goes down hill from here... So, MLK day was this past
Monday, right? Well the fellowship trys to explain prophets to the
little girl by using MLK as an example. He then goes on to testify how
he knows that Martin Luther King was a prophet. Oh, it gets worse. The
less active lady then asks about the Catholic church and how they see
the Pope. Our fellowship obviously felt good preaching about MLK so he
decides to take this next question as well. "Well you see, the Pope is
the mouth of God. He speaks the things that God is telling him so that
the people in the world today can follow God's commandments. I only
know this because I kind of like the Catholic church."
YOU CANT SAY THAT!! BLASPHEMY!! GET OUT OF HERE! AHHHHH!!!!!
We ended the lesson as quickly as possible and needless to say we will
NEVER use him as a fellowship again... for ANYONE. It was horrible.
BUT, Elder Carroll and I have never laughed so hard before! Oh my heck
that guy was a crack-job.
So now for the spiritual messagy stuff.
All this week there seems to be a theme to my life. Obedience. I got
Dad's letter to me and he talks a WHOLE lot about obedience. I listen
to a talk that was on the iPod you guys sent me by John Bytheway on
the 13th Article of Faith. What is the first part I listen to? He is
talking about obedience. I listened to another talk and they mention
the 12th Article of Faith, "We believe in being subject to kings,
presidents, rulers, and magistrates, IN OBEYING, honoring and
sustaining the law." Next was a talk by Dallin H. Oaks "Good, Better,
Best." I started to listen to that during my personal study hour one
day and I realized that listening to this talk was "Good" but there
are "Better" things I could be doing so I can become the "Best"
missionary I can be. I just dont get it... What was I doing wrong?? I
dont believe I was doing anything seriously wrong. There were/are a
few things I still need to work on to be completely obedient to the
mission rules and I realized that though we have seen much success
recently, we could still be seeing even greater blessings. If none of
that was enough to make me realize that obedience is key to everything
we do, I was listening to another talk this morning. From this past
priesthood session I learned alot and was reminded of the things that
hit me the first time I listened to Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands talk. He
said (and I am paraphrasing here), "In order to play in this game we
must live a higher moral standard than the rest of the team. We cannot
dribble out of bounds! There are always bounds in which we must stay
and they are there for a reason... We must be repentant. We cannot be
hypocrites! We cannot tell others the rules of the game if we are not
following the rules ourselves. Every one of us can be forgiven through
the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am asking you to be active and clean
in the church. Some of you may need to get active and get clean. Do so
immediately! The powers of Satan are real! We need tens of thousands
more missionaries upon this Earth. Unbind your tongues and get quick
to the work!" There are rules that have been spoken to us in order to
keep us on the straight and narrow. We need to abide by these rules so
as to not jeopardize the salvation of our own souls. "Diligence brings
forth the fruits of our Savior!" There is no greater blessing than the
guidance and counsel we have been given by our church leaders and by
the Christ himself.
I have seen the fruits of obedience come forth in this area where I am
serving. In just 2 weeks we went from having 1 lesson a week to having
a minimum of 11. We have 5 people working towards a baptismal date. If
all goes well we will have had nearly 12 people baptized by mid
February. What a miracle that is! I wish I had the time to bring my
thoughts into a more organized letter, So i might have to do so in a
written letter home.
Please follow the standards the Lord has given us. Read the Sermon on
the Mount in 3 Nephi. This was the original law in which Moses was
given to share with his people. They rejected it because they saw it
as too daunting a law. They did not understand the exponential amount
of blessings that would come from it if they would simply obey.
I love all of you and I pray for you often. I know that as we obey the
commandments of the Lord, He will bless is in abundance. There is no
doubt in my mind. I have seen it work in my life and I ask all of you
to put forth the effort, show your faith to Him, and act as a disciple
of Christ who has been truly converted. "Be converted. Do not just do
things a converted person does." In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
~Elder Daniel Peterson
No comments:
Post a Comment