Okay, quick note: That package was DA BOMB!! I totally loved it! And the pictures... AGGHHHHHH!! Holy cow that made me so grateful. Seriously. And then the past few emails from David and Jd. Holy smokes I love those guys. Someone send me blakes mailing address so I can keep in touch with him. I keep having these day dreams where we all meet up after our missions (matt too) and we act like the sons of Mosiah- rejoicing because they are still my brethren in the Lord bc they give themselves to much fasting and prayer... You know the one. Haha I can't wait to see all of them. It seems like they're really doing well and I can't wait to hear where Blake goes.
And Jairus to Brazil! YEEEAAAAAAAAAA. That's so awesome.
All right, let's get down to business.
This Tuesday I went to the temple with my zone... I got so giddy to write in my journal after it. I learned FOUR new things! Haha I put that in all caps because it sounds so lame but they hit me so hard. I was so motivated after that I felt like screaming "Who wants Eternal Life to the whole state of Georgia?!"
Haha anyway, let me tell you about this week with a scripture that really caught my attention the other day during personal study. Mosiah 18:26 - I read it the first time through and the words, "knowledge of God" stuck out to me. I was like, "waaaaitttt a minute. I wanna know how to have that knowledge." So, I read it again. (You might want to pull out your scriptures right now)
-Through your Labor (Consecrating ALL) = Grace of God
*Since the Grace of God literally can transform you into becoming that son or daughter of God that Heavenly Father wants you to become, as I talked abt with Brad Wilcox's talk... SO! Giving your all qualifies you for the transforming agent to become more and more like Christ; which = waxing stronger in the Spirit
-Waxing (wax on; wax off...) stronger in the Spirit = Knowledge of God, and
-The Knowledge of God = Power and Authority from God.
Because I'm not sure if that made sense or not, let me try to illustrate it with a story.
So I was giving it "my all." Completely trying to devote every thought, action, word I said to the Lord and our "success" that we had planned for wasn't happening. We were meeting with an investigator who we've had multiple lessons with and introduced her to the Word of Wisdom and then Law of Chastity the next day; both of which are huge concerns because shes in her 60's and has been smoking cigarettes since she was 14 and has been living with her boyfriend for 24 years (they never got married but had two kids). On Friday we were discussing everything and then she started crying.
"I hate him. I don't like where I'm at. I'm on way too many perscriptions (shes bipolar as well) and sometimes feel like I want to go to sleep and never wake up... I also don't know how he has enough guts to sleep by me at night. I just want to kill him." (gulp) Because of lack of time; it turns out he cheated on her and left her for another man for a year. She didn't have a job so was living in a homeless shelter. He came back to her a year later and wanted to get back together, so she said yes to get out of the shelter. She hates her life now, has had thoughts of suicide, murder, and a few other things.
Now, how am I, a nineteen year old guy who just graduated high school, whos never smoked a cigarette in my life and don't know how difficult it is to quit, whos gone on abt a total of 5 dates in all of high school, and who just entered the mission field supposed to respond to that??
Well, The Book of Mormon is true; that's how. I've been giving it literally everthing I have (so much so that I fall asleep almost every time we stop moving. I even fell asleep during my haircut last week! She was trying to hold my head still bc it kept bobbing up and down... haha), which have qualified me for these steps described in Mosiah 18.
I have an INCREDIBLE miracle that happened just this weekend that I can't wait to share, buuutttt I'll share it next week. Haha I'm out of time. Stay tune
I love you all. The Celestial Room is kind of empty without you. However, the picutres of Ashely and Brittany married in the temple, Dustin on his mission, and a few pics of Matt and I assure me that one day, we will all be able to return to our Heavenly Father and live in a state of never-ending happiness. I love you. I love my mission. And I love my Savior who made all of this possible
Elder Welch
No comments:
Post a Comment