Our investigators are doing really well. We're weeding out the ones that are really prepared NOW to receive the Restored Gospel.
One of those is Briee! We taught her all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and focused on the 'pray to know' part of the lesson. She is doing so good with that. She said that she feels the spirit and she really understands and likes everything we share with her. She is just so sincere it's almost weird. Haha just kidding. She is just really prepared. She's even been to church twice now and is praying to know when she should be baptized. And the missionaries finally came! They also taught her the restoration so pretty soon she can teach us the Restoration. haha.
Jeanne is another that is super prepared. She's only been learning for about a month, but is getting baptized on the 28th. When the missionaries invited her to be baptized on the 28th she said she felt honored and so grateful that someone would invite her to do that. Sometimes as missionaries or member missionaries, we feel that we are pushing people and being awkward by inviting them to do things, but really you just never know when someone has been prepared. They have been waiting for someone to invite them, and when a person does, the Holy Ghost can confirm that it is right. The Holy Ghost cannot confirm that it it right if we never give them a chance!
Tim is doing really well. His Stake President and Bishop came over and told him they think he is ready to prepare to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and his Endowments! In March he will have been a member for a year. So that's what he is working on. He is still struggling with his health but hopefully it will improve enough for him to be out and about a little more. He's been having to have the sacrament brought to him recently because he isn't feeling so great in the mornings. So hopefully that will improve!
Richard on the other hand isn't as prepared right now....We knew this week's lesson would be a way to know if he is ready or not. We were following up yesterday with his Book of Mormon reading and he was telling us how it follows the bible and he hasn't found anything he disagrees with. But then he started talking about his Catholic beliefs and how the Catholic church was the original church...We knew it was time to teach the Great Apostasy and Restoration. The Spirit was definitely there and helped us to know what to say. We tried to do it tactfully so it wasn't like us saying, 'actually when we're talking about churches being started without Christ's Authority we're talking about the Catholic church' haha. But he just didn't want to understand it. He said that he wants to have better proof he can back himself up with so before next week when we call he is going to go to a Seminary and talk to people so he can find out where he can show us that his church is the original church and has the authority. Over and over again we emphasized the point that he should ask God for truth and confirmation, and that no man can give us truth. So we'll see how it turns out. Even if he decides to not investigate the church further, it's okay because we did our best to invite him come closer to Christ by helping him to learn correct information for himself. Sometimes people aren't ready and they take more time and more good contacts with the church before they really understand. But we hope that he will depend on our Heavenly Father to answer his prayers!
We have been enjoying serving in the Beehive House. It's been pretty busy (haha get it, busy like bees in the Beehive House haha) but we've met some really great people. It's such a neat place to serve because not only did Brigham Young live there, but Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith also did, and Joseph F. Smith received the revelation of D&C 138 there. I read the section the other day and it was so cool! It takes the famous chapters in Peter about the Spirit World and expounds them. That's what I love about Modern revelation, things are unfolded and we don't have a big mystery hanging over us. Also, it's cool because we can receive our own personal revelation and be taught more things like the scriptures tell us: "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." As Joseph F. Smith was troubled by the passing of family members, he sought to understand more about what happens after we die. We too can seek answers to our questions, and God's mysteries can and will be revealed as we trust Him. That's just another fraction of my testimony of how I know this church has been restored. Of course God hasn't left us alone. We had to be in a period of darkness for a while because of the bad choices of those that persecuted Christ's church. This scripture in Amos prophesied an Apostasy: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:" We had to have that time so the world could be prepared for the Gospel again, but God has always had the same pattern of calling a Prophet to establish His truths. Why would this time be any different? It's so cool to me that we have the same organization that existed in the Primitive church. We can receive personal revelation, and a Prophet can receive revelation for the church. And it's so neat that the Beehive House was worthy for a Prophet to receive revelation! That just means the statement about only a home can be a sacred as a Temple is true.
Anyway, we had some other great lessons, and tours this week also. It's so rewarding to talk to someone who is so closed and has no desire to talk to you but after you try to open your mouth anyway and get to know them, they leave much happier and the spirit has uplifted them! Oftentimes the first sister to contact someone will find that they don't really want to be talked to. But after a good conversation, another set of sisters will come along and talk to the person again, and with every contact they become more friendly and by the time they leave, they have had a great experience. So we can never think to ourselves, 'someone has probably already talked to them,' or 'someone else can talk to them better than I can' because we never know if something we say will be something that specific person needs to hear!
In District Meeting this week, we focused on Revelation through the Book of Mormon. We discussed how important the Book of Mormon is in conversion and why. We watched Elder Holland's Testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's one of my favorite videos! Here's the link so you can watch it:
click here
Well that's about it! Hope you have a great week.
Love,
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