Week 8....Howdy

Hey!

   This week has been another good week. We are still trying to go out and find people. We were able to talk with some more people this week that seem interested in learning more. We followed up this week with Alex. Now Alex is a great guy, and he loves talking about God. We went back and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He seemed to like the things that we talked about, and he likes the thought of being able to live with our families for ever. And what was cool, is we gave him a reading assignment last time, and we had him read Alma 32. And when we came back to check on him he had read it and he liked it. Now the great thing about Alex is he feels the spirit. He says he feels good, and when we talk he feels peace. Well if we go to Galations 5, we read in there what the fruits of the spirit are. And in there it talks about those things that he has been feeling. He have been explaining to him that feeling he has is the spirit. And that the spirit is testifying to him about the truthfulness of the message. We are praying that he will be feel spirit as he reads the Book of Mormon. When we go back we will be making sure that he knows how to pray. We kinda assumed that he did, but we want him to pray with us. We will also be able to teach him about family history!! :)

  

     Were really trying to get more into family history. More people are interested in talking about family history. And when we do family history, we can feel the spirit as we learn about our ancestors. I had the chance on Monday to go over to a members house, and they taught us more about family history. It is so cool because on Family Search, we can see pictures of our ancestors and sometimes there are stories. I found out this last week that my great great great Grandpa, met Joeseph Smith, and hear him talking with another man one day. Also that ancestor of mine his brother worked along with Brigham Young, and they would occasionally stay at Brigham Young's house. When they came over to meet with the saints going to Salt lake, they stopped and they went to see the place where Joseph Smith was killed. He talked about how it was a sad time, but the saints kept moving forward. He helped lead people over to the Salt Lake. That night I could absolutely feel the spirit when I was learning more about my family history. And what was cool, is on Thursday after our planning session for the week, we decided we wanted to go to the library to learn more about family history. With in 30 secs of walking in, someone came up to us and started talking with us. He told us about he liked our church and it made sense to him. He struggled with somethings though, and we promised him that as we do our family history we can receive help with the things that we struggle with. We have been told by apostles that as we do family history we can eliminate the influence of the adversary in our lives. That is something that we all need. After this we sat down and we talked to him about how to do family history and we helped get him started. He said he wanted to come to church, and it just so happens that he lives on the street of where we meet for church. Again it just goes to show that our Heavenly Father is constantly putting people in our path that are ready for this gospel. We just have to go about finding them. Sometimes it is nice when they approach us and talk to us about it and want to learn more. But sometimes we have to go out of our comfort zone and go the extra mile to find those who are ready. Pleas pray to have missionary experiences and I promise you that you will have them. You will be able to bring happiness into someone Else's life.

 I always loved hearing the quote that says, " sometimes the lord answers prayers through others." We can be that answered prayer for someone as we strive to look for serving opportunities. We don't need to go straight to someone and start preaching about the gospel, but as we go about and try to have activities where we can invite others to come and participate is a great way that we can bring others closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So look for those opportunities and you will be blessed. The Lord is hastening his work, and he is going through the members for finding. John 10, and the end of John are great chapters to read. If you have some free time try to read them. If you have some experiences, I would love to hear about them, because they will come as we do what we need to and we are constantly looking for others who are ready for this wonderful gospel.

 
  Transfers are coming up, so we will see what happens, it is crazy how fast time flys, days may sometimes seem long, but the weeks fly by. This week we went to a baptism for a guy named Marcus. He is 18 years old, and was baptized last Saturday. It was a great experience to see him have the chance to do that. The spirit was so strong, and we had a great turn out there. Alot of his family came and we got to welcome them and introduce our selves. On Sunday he was conferred a member of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost, he told us afterwards that he loved the feeling that came when he did it. He is a great guys and he will be a great member of this church. And whats also cool is he loves to golf, so one of these P-days we may be getting to go golf with him.

I will keep extending the same challenge just becasue I know that it can bless your lives so much, learn more about family history, go to the temple as much as you can, and read and ponder the things you read in your scriptures. You will see miracles in you life! :)

Well I hope Y'all have a great week!

  Elder Christensen