Herro everyone!
So this week has been filled with lots of disappointing moments, but more importantly, its been filled with blessings! It almost seems though that the blessing come at the end of the week...ugh hahaha Also, the week was filled with lots of rain clouds. I hate the rain now haha Especially when you have to work in it.
I want to share a funny experience I had a couple days ago. We were walking by this man, of which I decided to talk to. He claimed that he was agnostic and didn't really have a belief. When I why, he answered, "Because I have lots of splinters in my butt." I decided to give him a little bit of his poison back by saying, "Well sir, would you like a pair of tweezers, called the Book of Mormon, that will sort out those splinters?!" He just laughed and declined my offer hahahaha I like to be cheeky with people who give me sarcasm. Probably not the best thing to do, but it makes things more interesting.
One of the biggest blessings we received this week happened last night. Even though the daughter of the less active I spoke of didn't come to church, she came to see a baptism that occurred last night at the chapel. One of the member's children got baptised so it was a perfect opportunity for her to see someone around her age get baptised. She really enjoyed it! I asked her if she was excited for her baptism on the 19th and she gave me a big smile and said yes! So cool. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation this past Saturday well and she understood everything pretty well. She even took notes haha She is doing very well and is on track to getting baptised soon!
The other big blessing we got this week also happened at church. Even though we didn't have any investigators at church, we had 5 less-actives come!!! Three new people that we have been working with the past couple weeks decided to come to church, so that was awesome!! I absolutely love working with less-active members! Being able to see the spirit enter back into their lives is priceless :)
So my spiritual thought for this week comes from the Book of Mormon. I love the scripture in Alma 30:44. The last part is my favorite, it says, "...The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote that there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." The lesson in our Gospel Principles class talked about this. It talked about if there is a God and how we can know for ourselves. I know that there is a God and that He is our loving Heavenly Father. There is no way that this earth and all things that are on it were created by some spectacular explosion, but only if it were by the hand of God. Every is just too precise. Even down to the molecular level of any cell you look at, everything runs in complete order. The only way we will find out is this is true is not by our own reasoning, but through prayer. If we ask our Heavenly Father if he is there, he will make Himself know unto us by the Holy Spirit. We will feel warm inside, we will feel peace and joy, we will calm. I know that anyone who does this with an open heart will get an answer. This gospel is true. Its so beautiful. I love it. Please study it everyone.
I love you all and hope that you will follow your heart in everything that you do. Don't go along with the crowd, be a minority! Its fun haha
-Elder Jaquish
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
6 months has gone by quick
Dang, I didnt even realise until a couple days ago that I have been on my mission for 6 months!! Crazy huh? It really has flown by. Just to let everyone know, I will be staying in Wolverhampton for at least another transfer!!! But this tranfers will be 5 weeks instead of 6 weeks, why I do not know haha
Anyways....Good morning!! The past week and a half has had a mixture of emotions. Lots of them happy! Some upsetting. And some just plain hilarious!
I'll start off with the happy! We taught the less-actives oldest daughter the Restoration this past week, which went well! I remembered I had brought out with me the piece of paper that the missionaries who taught me wrote down all of the restoration including the nature of the Godhead, the purpose of a prophet, what the Book of Mormon is, the First Vision and how to pray to know its true. She was able to understand everything and accpeted to pray about it all!! She is really liking church and lovesss primary, so thats awesome! This past Monday we had a Family Home Evening with them at the Rowley's house. We talked about the Sermon on the Mount and stuff, so that was really fun as well!
Hmmmm...okay the sad part of the week, which actually turns out to end happily! We had lost contact with the investigators we have been working with this past week since they flogged their appointments, didnt come to church, or answer out phone calls. But yesterday we were blessed by seeing her! We stopped by her flat to see if she was in and she was leaving as we were locking up our bikes! She told us that she had lost her phone and has been really busy with family and university. We were able to set up an appointment with her this Saturday before she had to get going, so hopefully we will be able to see whats up with her then! Truly a blessing from God.
So time for the funny part of the week! Elder Smith and I were riding our bikes home for lunch a couple days ago. On our way, we saw this older black lady walking on the sidewalk. Elder Smith started to talk to her about the message we share about Jesus Christ and also a modern-day prophet. She started going off on him about how we worship on Sunday when the sabbath-day of the old testament is on saturday. She started accusing him of breaking the commandments and how were are falsely worshipping on the wrong day. She was like pointing her finger at him and all! He tried to nicely tell her how the Sabbath is now on a Sunday because of the higher law that Christ instituted, but she kept on telling him off! I just looked at him and gave him a big smile. He gave me a look like who the heck does this lady think she is?!?! hahahahahahahaha She tried to give us some Seventh-day Adventist stuff as well. We finally were able to end the conversation nicely and ride away. Its crazy how many Seventh-day Adventists are around this area. Most of them are of carribean or african decent.
Anywayss...time for a spiritual thought!
My favorite chapter from the Book of Mormon this week is Alma 37. At the end of the chapter, Alma gave a really cool comparison between the Liahona and following the words of Christ. Starting in verses 38-39, he states that it was prepared to show Lehi's family the course they should go by. According to their faith, the spindles on the Liahona would show them where they should go to get to the promise land (Salvation). In verse 41, we are told that by these small means of just having faith that this compass would lead them to America, great things were able to be brought to pass. For example we now have the Book of Mormon, or the words of Christ! Seems pretty easy eh? Well it is just as easy for us to "give heed to the words of Christ" as it was for Lehi's family to follow the Liahona. We are given counsel in verse 46 to not stray away from the path of righteousness because it can be hard sometimes. We should not take the path to inactivity because its easier. We are promised that if we stay faithful, we will live forever with God. Now to me thats a good enough promise! I encourage all of you to read Alma 37: 38-47 because its awesome! haha
Love you all and good luck with the rest of the week!! Talk to yall on Monday!
-Elder Jaquish
Anyways....Good morning!! The past week and a half has had a mixture of emotions. Lots of them happy! Some upsetting. And some just plain hilarious!
I'll start off with the happy! We taught the less-actives oldest daughter the Restoration this past week, which went well! I remembered I had brought out with me the piece of paper that the missionaries who taught me wrote down all of the restoration including the nature of the Godhead, the purpose of a prophet, what the Book of Mormon is, the First Vision and how to pray to know its true. She was able to understand everything and accpeted to pray about it all!! She is really liking church and lovesss primary, so thats awesome! This past Monday we had a Family Home Evening with them at the Rowley's house. We talked about the Sermon on the Mount and stuff, so that was really fun as well!
Hmmmm...okay the sad part of the week, which actually turns out to end happily! We had lost contact with the investigators we have been working with this past week since they flogged their appointments, didnt come to church, or answer out phone calls. But yesterday we were blessed by seeing her! We stopped by her flat to see if she was in and she was leaving as we were locking up our bikes! She told us that she had lost her phone and has been really busy with family and university. We were able to set up an appointment with her this Saturday before she had to get going, so hopefully we will be able to see whats up with her then! Truly a blessing from God.
So time for the funny part of the week! Elder Smith and I were riding our bikes home for lunch a couple days ago. On our way, we saw this older black lady walking on the sidewalk. Elder Smith started to talk to her about the message we share about Jesus Christ and also a modern-day prophet. She started going off on him about how we worship on Sunday when the sabbath-day of the old testament is on saturday. She started accusing him of breaking the commandments and how were are falsely worshipping on the wrong day. She was like pointing her finger at him and all! He tried to nicely tell her how the Sabbath is now on a Sunday because of the higher law that Christ instituted, but she kept on telling him off! I just looked at him and gave him a big smile. He gave me a look like who the heck does this lady think she is?!?! hahahahahahahaha She tried to give us some Seventh-day Adventist stuff as well. We finally were able to end the conversation nicely and ride away. Its crazy how many Seventh-day Adventists are around this area. Most of them are of carribean or african decent.
Anywayss...time for a spiritual thought!
My favorite chapter from the Book of Mormon this week is Alma 37. At the end of the chapter, Alma gave a really cool comparison between the Liahona and following the words of Christ. Starting in verses 38-39, he states that it was prepared to show Lehi's family the course they should go by. According to their faith, the spindles on the Liahona would show them where they should go to get to the promise land (Salvation). In verse 41, we are told that by these small means of just having faith that this compass would lead them to America, great things were able to be brought to pass. For example we now have the Book of Mormon, or the words of Christ! Seems pretty easy eh? Well it is just as easy for us to "give heed to the words of Christ" as it was for Lehi's family to follow the Liahona. We are given counsel in verse 46 to not stray away from the path of righteousness because it can be hard sometimes. We should not take the path to inactivity because its easier. We are promised that if we stay faithful, we will live forever with God. Now to me thats a good enough promise! I encourage all of you to read Alma 37: 38-47 because its awesome! haha
Love you all and good luck with the rest of the week!! Talk to yall on Monday!
-Elder Jaquish
There must needs be an opposition in all things...
That scripture is soooo true. This week was amazing! But of course when Satan sees that the work is progressing, he has to poo on it all.
So I will just get the bad news out of the way to start off with...On wednesday night, we went and saw the less-active and her daughters. We had an awesome lesson with them. She told us about when she met the missionaries, how she came to gain a testimony of the gospel, and how she made the decision to start coming back to church. The spirit was definitely there! Then her oldest came down and we started talking to her about baptism and the Book of Mormon. The lesson ended well with smiles and laughter. We left the house to get our bikes for the travel home and they were gone. Some chavs broke the bike lock and stole our bikes....stupid gay boys. We went looking in the woods to see if they may have just thrown them there, but nope...they are gone. We did find the bike lock though with our helmets tied to it haha Oh, well. I laugh just knowing that Satan is not happy with progression in the work!! And honestly, I'm not that mad because the blessings that we received this week totally beats the opposition.
We had this really good lesson with another less-active member on Wednesday. We brought along Bro. Cope, who was bishop at the time of her activity in the church. He pretty much took over the lesson and comforted all her feelings. He straight up told her that she needs to come back to church and that what is in the past is in the past, it doesnt matter right now. Both Anita and Bro. Cope started crying, the spirit was that intense. I love it!
Elder Smith and I had a really special experience this week dealing with a primary school. One of the members of the church works at a local school and teaches level 6, so 10-12 yr olds; they are learning about all different kinds of religions. We got to go into the school for an hour and pretty much just have a question and answer session with the kids in her class. It was soooo cool!! The kids asked a lot of good question. All of them were pretty answerable so no worries there. We were able to answer questions and teach a little bit without them really knowing. Now I call that a win! haha
The best part of this week happened on Saturday. We had another visit with the less-active and her daughters. We were able to go through the intro of the Book of Mormon with her and teach her about prayer and the Holy Ghost. We talked a bit more about baptism as well. And guess what?....She accepted a baptismal date of March 19th!!!!! Yeahhhhhh! I know that she will be pretty solid and will get baptised on this day. We just have to teach her everything and have fun with her a t the same time! And its a bonus too because her mom is really solid about coming back to church!
Now you can see why I'm not too mad about my bike, even though it was a sick bike and was wayy expensive haha Anywayss, spiritual message for this week comes from the New Testament. I was reading in Acts 5 the other day and it really testified to me about missionary work. Peter and John were thrown in jail again because of the miracles and preaching they were doing in Jerusalem. An angel came and freed them from the jail and told them to go teach in the temple. When the council authorities found out, they went and bound up Peter and John again and took them to trial. They testified of their work and the divinity of the Saviour. They pretty much shut the council up and made them realise that they had nothing dirty on them to keep them in jail. This officer, I dont remember his name, spoke up in favour of the apostles in verses 38-39 and pretty much said that if God isnt backing up the apostles, then the church will fall. That is so true. I know that the Lord is backing up this work to bring others into the gospel. I have seen many times on my mission already that this is true. It gives me comfort and courage to go out and do the work! I know that this chrurch is true. I also know that by trying to be a part of this work that yall can strengthen your testimonies as well.
Love you all,
-Elder Jaquish
p.s. Happy Valentines day everyone!!
So I will just get the bad news out of the way to start off with...On wednesday night, we went and saw the less-active and her daughters. We had an awesome lesson with them. She told us about when she met the missionaries, how she came to gain a testimony of the gospel, and how she made the decision to start coming back to church. The spirit was definitely there! Then her oldest came down and we started talking to her about baptism and the Book of Mormon. The lesson ended well with smiles and laughter. We left the house to get our bikes for the travel home and they were gone. Some chavs broke the bike lock and stole our bikes....stupid gay boys. We went looking in the woods to see if they may have just thrown them there, but nope...they are gone. We did find the bike lock though with our helmets tied to it haha Oh, well. I laugh just knowing that Satan is not happy with progression in the work!! And honestly, I'm not that mad because the blessings that we received this week totally beats the opposition.
We had this really good lesson with another less-active member on Wednesday. We brought along Bro. Cope, who was bishop at the time of her activity in the church. He pretty much took over the lesson and comforted all her feelings. He straight up told her that she needs to come back to church and that what is in the past is in the past, it doesnt matter right now. Both Anita and Bro. Cope started crying, the spirit was that intense. I love it!
Elder Smith and I had a really special experience this week dealing with a primary school. One of the members of the church works at a local school and teaches level 6, so 10-12 yr olds; they are learning about all different kinds of religions. We got to go into the school for an hour and pretty much just have a question and answer session with the kids in her class. It was soooo cool!! The kids asked a lot of good question. All of them were pretty answerable so no worries there. We were able to answer questions and teach a little bit without them really knowing. Now I call that a win! haha
The best part of this week happened on Saturday. We had another visit with the less-active and her daughters. We were able to go through the intro of the Book of Mormon with her and teach her about prayer and the Holy Ghost. We talked a bit more about baptism as well. And guess what?....She accepted a baptismal date of March 19th!!!!! Yeahhhhhh! I know that she will be pretty solid and will get baptised on this day. We just have to teach her everything and have fun with her a t the same time! And its a bonus too because her mom is really solid about coming back to church!
Now you can see why I'm not too mad about my bike, even though it was a sick bike and was wayy expensive haha Anywayss, spiritual message for this week comes from the New Testament. I was reading in Acts 5 the other day and it really testified to me about missionary work. Peter and John were thrown in jail again because of the miracles and preaching they were doing in Jerusalem. An angel came and freed them from the jail and told them to go teach in the temple. When the council authorities found out, they went and bound up Peter and John again and took them to trial. They testified of their work and the divinity of the Saviour. They pretty much shut the council up and made them realise that they had nothing dirty on them to keep them in jail. This officer, I dont remember his name, spoke up in favour of the apostles in verses 38-39 and pretty much said that if God isnt backing up the apostles, then the church will fall. That is so true. I know that the Lord is backing up this work to bring others into the gospel. I have seen many times on my mission already that this is true. It gives me comfort and courage to go out and do the work! I know that this chrurch is true. I also know that by trying to be a part of this work that yall can strengthen your testimonies as well.
Love you all,
-Elder Jaquish
p.s. Happy Valentines day everyone!!
Obedience and some good ole elbow grease...
Good afternoon everyone!
Oh goodness, this week has been sooooo blessed! Its unbelieveable how many blessings my companion and I have received this week. I can tell you right now that these blessings have been a product of obedience and lots of hard work coupled with the mercy of the Lord.
This week we decided to just purely work hard, account to the Lord every night and be praying always. The first blessing came on Wednesday when we had an awesome day of finding! We went tracting and knocked on this guys door who just started going to church for about 4 years. He got married to a Roman Catholic and started going to church there. He loves God and loves talking about it with people. We went back on friday and taught him the Restoration which went really well! He accepted everything we taught and agreed to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! On the same day that we found Wayne, we talked to this guy on the street and found out that when he was at his mates house over Christmas, the missionaries came over and they ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. We went by on friday morning and taught him a bit by reading the intro to the BOM and he seemed pretty interested, so thats good! The greatest blessing of all this week came on Friday evening when we got a call from the Elder's Quorum President in our ward. He told us that he got into contact finally with this less-active they have been trying to find for a few weeks; she has two daughters. He told us that they should be coming to church this Sunday and guess what....they did!!!! The best part about this all is that her oldest daughter is 9 years old and isnt baptised! So if all goes well, we will have the opportunity to help a less-active come back to church and baptise her daughter! Ahhhhh! So amazing the ways of the Lord. Another blessing is that we taught the investigators from last week again this week. We taught them the Ten Commandments, the Law of Chastity and the Sabbath-Day. They accepted everything we taught and committed to living these commandments. Also, they came to church and had a great time!
Like I said earlier, these blessings weren't brought to pass just because we did what we were supposed to. Yes, that was a contributing factor, but we gained these blessings because we prayed sincerely every day. Every few transfers in the mission, we receive something called Action Points to help us do the work. One of my favorite action points that we have now is found in 1 Nephi 8:8-10. Its "Seek His tender mercies" by praying mightily in prayer and supplication. Thats exactly what I did. I also received some help from a talk I read in the 2008 November Ensign by Elder Bednar about praying always. He talks about 3 principles to praying that we should follow: 1) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in our doings. A scripture to go along with that is Alma 37:36-37. Principle 2) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we express heartfelt gratitude. 3) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart. I can testify that these principles are true and i you put them to the test you will see the blessings!!!!
I hope you all try this principle out this week so you can receive a testimony on it as well! Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Be excited for next weeks email!
-Elder Jaquish
Oh goodness, this week has been sooooo blessed! Its unbelieveable how many blessings my companion and I have received this week. I can tell you right now that these blessings have been a product of obedience and lots of hard work coupled with the mercy of the Lord.
This week we decided to just purely work hard, account to the Lord every night and be praying always. The first blessing came on Wednesday when we had an awesome day of finding! We went tracting and knocked on this guys door who just started going to church for about 4 years. He got married to a Roman Catholic and started going to church there. He loves God and loves talking about it with people. We went back on friday and taught him the Restoration which went really well! He accepted everything we taught and agreed to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! On the same day that we found Wayne, we talked to this guy on the street and found out that when he was at his mates house over Christmas, the missionaries came over and they ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. We went by on friday morning and taught him a bit by reading the intro to the BOM and he seemed pretty interested, so thats good! The greatest blessing of all this week came on Friday evening when we got a call from the Elder's Quorum President in our ward. He told us that he got into contact finally with this less-active they have been trying to find for a few weeks; she has two daughters. He told us that they should be coming to church this Sunday and guess what....they did!!!! The best part about this all is that her oldest daughter is 9 years old and isnt baptised! So if all goes well, we will have the opportunity to help a less-active come back to church and baptise her daughter! Ahhhhh! So amazing the ways of the Lord. Another blessing is that we taught the investigators from last week again this week. We taught them the Ten Commandments, the Law of Chastity and the Sabbath-Day. They accepted everything we taught and committed to living these commandments. Also, they came to church and had a great time!
Like I said earlier, these blessings weren't brought to pass just because we did what we were supposed to. Yes, that was a contributing factor, but we gained these blessings because we prayed sincerely every day. Every few transfers in the mission, we receive something called Action Points to help us do the work. One of my favorite action points that we have now is found in 1 Nephi 8:8-10. Its "Seek His tender mercies" by praying mightily in prayer and supplication. Thats exactly what I did. I also received some help from a talk I read in the 2008 November Ensign by Elder Bednar about praying always. He talks about 3 principles to praying that we should follow: 1) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in our doings. A scripture to go along with that is Alma 37:36-37. Principle 2) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we express heartfelt gratitude. 3) Prayer becomes more meaningful as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart. I can testify that these principles are true and i you put them to the test you will see the blessings!!!!
I hope you all try this principle out this week so you can receive a testimony on it as well! Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Be excited for next weeks email!
-Elder Jaquish
Interesting Week!!
Hey everyone!
So this week has been an intersting one. The district and zone leaders had training on tuesday, and since im companions with the district leader, I had to go on exchange with the other district leader's companion...so I was in Burton-on-trent from monday evening until wednesday morning. Then we had district meeting and interviews with the mission president on wednesday so that was fun. Then for the rest of the day of wednesday, I was on exchange again, but this time I was back in my own area. The exchange was fun. We were able to teach this less-active lady with her investigator partner. We taught them the importance of daily individual and family prayer using Enos 1:4 and they committed to praying daily! Finally on thursday, I was back with Elder Smith in our area after pretty much being away from him for 2.5 days. Funny side comment: I always laugh when people compare missionary companionships as an old married couple because we are with each other all the time and always have these silly little arguments...sad thing is that its true. It felt weird not being with my companion for that long. I guess the saying that the mission will prepare you for married life is true hahahahaha Hmmm....
Anywaysss, so we had a unique teaching experience with a member. We had planned to teach an investigator the Gospel of Jesus Christ using 2 Nephi 31 on thursday using a member to back us up with testimony, but boy did that not happen. The member we took out with us, Bro. Ball, is kinda weird and always tells unneccessary stories during the lesson, I think just to get attention. If we had another choice, we would have gotten a different member to come with us, but nobody else could. So anyways, we only had 30 minutes to teach so we told Bro. Ball that we would jump right into the lesson when we got to her house. We went into her home and just had the small conversation to catch up on her life since the last time we were there. Well, Bro. Ball decided to extend the conversation and talk about his phobias in comparison to her phobias. They talked about how they dont like spiders. Then Bro. Ball asked if she liked snakes, explaining how he has a pet king snake at home. He then talked about how he fed the snake a few days ago and that he fed it dead mice. Then he told us how the mice were already dead and how he had to thaw them out before feeding them to the snake. I dont know about any of yall, but this is not the way that I like to invite the spirit in the home before teaching...hahaha Needless to say, we didnt get to teach the lesson.
Luckily enough, the lesson that we had with Her on saturday made up for all of what happened on thursday. We brought Bro. Russell with us this time to teach. We still followed the same lesson plan and taught the gospel using the Book of Mormon. Oh boy was it a good lesson! Lousie asked a lot of good questions, which we were able to answer and she accepted everything we taught! And even better yet, she read 2 Nephi 31 prior to the lesson and said she really liked the chapter. We tried again to commit her to a specific baptismal date, but she still isnt ready. Bro. Russell told a couple stories about when he was investigating the church and how he had some of the same emotions as she is having. He bore his testimony to her when the spirit was there and I know that is really made Louise think about baptism. We are pretty much done teaching her the lessons, now we just have to teach her the commandments and she will have been taught everything! I dont think it will be too long before she and Megan receive a baptismal date. I will let everyone know how things go this week.
Time for a spiritual thought :) So I read this talk by Elder Andersen from a General Conference Ensign entitled "You Know Enough." I want to talk about a quote from his talk, "As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have enourmous spiritual reservoirs of light and truth available to us. Fear adn faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time. In our days of difficulties, we choose the road of faith. Jesus said, "Be not afraid, only believe." When I read this quote, it made me think of all the members of the church who want to share the gospel with their friends and loved ones. It made me refelect on when I was going through these same feelings. We shouldnt feel like we are inadequate in our spiritual strength or that we need to be all knowing when we share the gospel with others (D&C 50: 24). We know that if we choose faith over fear, we can accomplish all things. My challenge to everyone this week is to share a truth of the gospel to anyone, or even better with someone that is close to you. If you have this desire and pray for the strenth to do it, you will receive help from ministring angels. I testify this to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I hope everyone has a wondeful week full of recognised blessings! I want to leave just one more quote with you from Elder Wirthlin: "The secret is simple: put your trust in the Lord, do your best, then leave the rest to HIm."
-Elder Jaquish
So this week has been an intersting one. The district and zone leaders had training on tuesday, and since im companions with the district leader, I had to go on exchange with the other district leader's companion...so I was in Burton-on-trent from monday evening until wednesday morning. Then we had district meeting and interviews with the mission president on wednesday so that was fun. Then for the rest of the day of wednesday, I was on exchange again, but this time I was back in my own area. The exchange was fun. We were able to teach this less-active lady with her investigator partner. We taught them the importance of daily individual and family prayer using Enos 1:4 and they committed to praying daily! Finally on thursday, I was back with Elder Smith in our area after pretty much being away from him for 2.5 days. Funny side comment: I always laugh when people compare missionary companionships as an old married couple because we are with each other all the time and always have these silly little arguments...sad thing is that its true. It felt weird not being with my companion for that long. I guess the saying that the mission will prepare you for married life is true hahahahaha Hmmm....
Anywaysss, so we had a unique teaching experience with a member. We had planned to teach an investigator the Gospel of Jesus Christ using 2 Nephi 31 on thursday using a member to back us up with testimony, but boy did that not happen. The member we took out with us, Bro. Ball, is kinda weird and always tells unneccessary stories during the lesson, I think just to get attention. If we had another choice, we would have gotten a different member to come with us, but nobody else could. So anyways, we only had 30 minutes to teach so we told Bro. Ball that we would jump right into the lesson when we got to her house. We went into her home and just had the small conversation to catch up on her life since the last time we were there. Well, Bro. Ball decided to extend the conversation and talk about his phobias in comparison to her phobias. They talked about how they dont like spiders. Then Bro. Ball asked if she liked snakes, explaining how he has a pet king snake at home. He then talked about how he fed the snake a few days ago and that he fed it dead mice. Then he told us how the mice were already dead and how he had to thaw them out before feeding them to the snake. I dont know about any of yall, but this is not the way that I like to invite the spirit in the home before teaching...hahaha Needless to say, we didnt get to teach the lesson.
Luckily enough, the lesson that we had with Her on saturday made up for all of what happened on thursday. We brought Bro. Russell with us this time to teach. We still followed the same lesson plan and taught the gospel using the Book of Mormon. Oh boy was it a good lesson! Lousie asked a lot of good questions, which we were able to answer and she accepted everything we taught! And even better yet, she read 2 Nephi 31 prior to the lesson and said she really liked the chapter. We tried again to commit her to a specific baptismal date, but she still isnt ready. Bro. Russell told a couple stories about when he was investigating the church and how he had some of the same emotions as she is having. He bore his testimony to her when the spirit was there and I know that is really made Louise think about baptism. We are pretty much done teaching her the lessons, now we just have to teach her the commandments and she will have been taught everything! I dont think it will be too long before she and Megan receive a baptismal date. I will let everyone know how things go this week.
Time for a spiritual thought :) So I read this talk by Elder Andersen from a General Conference Ensign entitled "You Know Enough." I want to talk about a quote from his talk, "As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have enourmous spiritual reservoirs of light and truth available to us. Fear adn faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time. In our days of difficulties, we choose the road of faith. Jesus said, "Be not afraid, only believe." When I read this quote, it made me think of all the members of the church who want to share the gospel with their friends and loved ones. It made me refelect on when I was going through these same feelings. We shouldnt feel like we are inadequate in our spiritual strength or that we need to be all knowing when we share the gospel with others (D&C 50: 24). We know that if we choose faith over fear, we can accomplish all things. My challenge to everyone this week is to share a truth of the gospel to anyone, or even better with someone that is close to you. If you have this desire and pray for the strenth to do it, you will receive help from ministring angels. I testify this to be true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I hope everyone has a wondeful week full of recognised blessings! I want to leave just one more quote with you from Elder Wirthlin: "The secret is simple: put your trust in the Lord, do your best, then leave the rest to HIm."
-Elder Jaquish