Hey everybody!
Sorry for the super short email last week. Driving all day, and we only made it back in time to quickly grab groceries before p-day was over. I feel really bad for missionaries that train in the Louisiana areas...that is a long day.
Elder Larcom, my new companion is a great guy. Hailing from Logan, Utah, he just graduated, which threw me for a loop, realizing that I had graduated a year ago. I've been on my mission for a whole school year. Weird. Anyways, he is great, ready to learn and work.
He had a great opportunity to study this week, too. On other words, my yearly stomach bug hit really early this year (I am hopeful that this is the only one. I'd rather not make it a biannual occurrence) so he got to study on Friday while I slept and recovered.
We are teaching some sweet people. S__, who was a Bible referral from a couple of weeks ago, has been reading a little from the Book of Mormon, and we got to visit with her again on Friday (for those keeping score, yes, I had to wake up and fight down nausea for that appointment, but it was the time that worked for her). We have someone else in our area, P__, who has close friends who are members in Colorado. She has been visiting them for the past couple of months, but should be back in town this next week, so we are excited to meet and work with her. It sounds like she has already learned a lot from them!
Other than that, we are trying to help the Bishop with some visits to those that haven't been to church in a long time. One such visit was pretty cool. We showed up, met the guy, got invited in...it turns out he had been going to the Spanish branch, so it wasn't that he was inactive, he just wasn't sure when our services were. But while we talked to him, he shared his conversion story, it was very powerful. He talked about how he felt the stirrings of the spirit as he served people, but that when he went looking for that spirit in different churches he didn't find it until a friend brought him to our church. Then, when the missionaries were teaching him, he eventually really came to the point where he wanted to know if it was true, and when he prayed he received the spirit so strongly that he knew his prayer was answered. It was cool hearing about how he had been prepared, and how the members and missionaries helped him find the truth. I know all of us may know people who are being prepared in that same way, and are maybe "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it".
Anyways, the Lord truly gives us assignments, oft times, for our own benefit. I think that is what training is for me, because it kind of "compels" me to be humble and has helped me see my own nothingness, which thing I had never before supposed. In other words, I know I have a lot of things to get better at, as a missionary and a trainer. I have had to spend some time on my knees acknowledging and asking for help with my shortcomings, but I am grateful that the Lord is giving me an opportunity to grow. Luckily He sent a good missionary to me, so Elder Larcom can succeed in spite of an imperfect trainer in the field.
Well, the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, the Church is true, and Jesus is the Christ. I know these things, and I love them! A big concern here is that people don't want to accept anything except for the Bible. I don't know why anyone would not want the message of truth and hope contained in the Book of Mormon, though. Truly we have some great things to offer the world!
Checking in, and out,
Elder DeFord
No comments:
Post a Comment