(Josh's email from Monday April 6th)
Hey everyone! This week was a wonderful week! I so very much
enjoyed being able to hear from our beloved Prophet and the apostles! There was
so much great council that came over this last weekend. That is one thing that
I just love about General Conference is the fact that as we go in
prepared with questions and we are prayerful about them, we will receive
answers. General conference is just so inspired! And it builds my testimony so
much of how Christ church truly is on the earth again, and he is at the helm
leading us through his prophets and apostles.
We had some other amazing experiences this week! We
taught one of our investigators named Anca, and we retaught the restoration to
her. And as we began to teach about the restoration, and we recited the first
vision, she had an a ha moment where the spirit testified to her about
prophets. It was amazing we were teaching her out in this park, and after the
first vision we were just quiet. And after a few moments of silence, she said
oh my goodness. Until this point I hadn't even entertained the thought about
prophets. But what if there are prophets on the earth! That would be amazing!
And she just kept talking about how amazing it would be. And in follow up to
her excitement we invited her to come listen to general conference.
Now
unfortunately some things came up and she wasn't able to make it to
conference. But she will go back and watch some of them, and then we will be
meeting with her again this week. But some thing else she said really stuck out
to me. She said in the past she met with different people to learn more about
theology and to increase her knowledge of different religions. But she
said after the lesson that is would now be different. It was more a spiritual
thing for her now.
We also tried to meet with Julie and Madison
and we talked with them last night. And Julie said that her and Madison still
want to be baptized May 2nd and they are planning on it. So we talked with them
about the expectations and the things that would need to happen in order to
have her be ready to be baptized. So that was great and we will meet with her
this week also. But a cool miracle with their family happened this week.
So
Julies Husband in the past has not been very open to the missionaries. And so during
the times we have gone over there the past few months we have been able to talk
with him more and more. And then on Friday when we talked with him he asked if
we could go running together the next morning around 6:00 am. We said that we
would love to, and then after he said " Once we are done running maybe we
can sit at a picnic table and you can share a thought or message with me that
can help me" Oh my goodness I was so excited when he said this! Over the
past few months the lord has continued to soften his heart and prepare him to
listen to the restored gospel.
And so that next morning we went and ran with
him, and we felt prompted after to show him the Because he lives video. And at
first he said he really liked that. But after talking with Julie last night we
found out after seeing it and talking about it that he went home and showed
Julie the video and started talking about it! We see the Lord is continuing to
open doors to help others experience the joy that God wants them to feel. We
will hopefully begin to teach the whole family.
One more miracle I wanted to share real quick happened when
I was on exchanges this week. So I went to the memorial springs ward, and while
we were there they had planned to drop by a few of the members in that ward.
And while we were biking from place to place, we biked past a man who was
getting something out of his car. And we passed by him and I had the thought
come in to my mind that we needed to turn around and talk to this man
specifically. And so I called a head to the missionary in front of me and said
lets turn around.
We went up to him and I started talking to him about the
because he lives video, and then he stopped me and he told me that he use to be
a member of the church like 20 years ago. I was very shocked. He said that he
was baptized shortly after high school and use to go teaching with all the
missionaries, but then when college came and the time for marriage he became
"too busy" to continue. But he still fully believes that it is true.
And he then asked me where the closest church building was at and we gave him
the address for it. We had a really good discussion with him.
So that ward will
pull his membership record in, and then he also said we could come back and
talk with his family. So it may be a great opportunity for those missionaries
to go back and teach the whole family and elevate there vision to the temple
where they can receive the blessing of being able to be sealed for all time and
eternity.
It just was a blessing to that the spirit prompted me to turn around,
and I was so happy that I recognized it and then went and acted upon it! I have
said it so many time but truly how great of a blessing is it that we are able
to help others come closer to Christ! It is a wonderful blessing!
Well I hope y'all have a great week!
Elder Joshua V. Christensen
Also just so you know I found out that I will be getting
transferred this week. So I will head to my new area tomorrow.
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