HELLO PEOPLE!
I didn't have the chance to send out a weekly email last week but I just wanted to start by giving a special shout out to my special mom. She is the bomb! I am so grateful every day to have a mother that pushed me to be independent and follow God because that makes all of the difference out here. I love you Jeni B Gochnour. Thanks for everything.
Other than that A LOT has happened since the last time I emailed all of you so I don't even know where to start. The good news is that we are doing awesome and this is truly the Lord's work.
The big thing that happened last week was Elder Homer came and visited. It was amazing to be in the presence of a general authority and learn from him and his wonderful spirit. I had the chance to be interviewed by him and I asked him a question, and I will never forget how he responded. At the end of the interview I asked him, "How do you define success, Elder Homer" His response was simple, but profound, "Success is becoming the person that God intended you to be." He didn't expound, he didn't clarify, just simply left it at that. Success is becoming the person that God sent you here to be.
I think that simple phrase describes my mission so well. You try so hard to be successful by teaching repentance and baptizing converts. As a missionary that is what we are called to do. Numbers represent those converts and are important in how we measure the success we have had in accomplishing our purpose. But all in all, success is becoming who God intended us to be. Over my mission I have learned that every person, area, situation is different. Sometimes you work so hard and have not much success. Sometimes you work not as hard and it seems that everyone wants to learn. But that success is temporal and will change with a new transfer, a new area, a new companion.
Permanent success is heeding to the promptings of the spirit and becoming and doing the things that God asks of us. We are sent here for a purpose and sometimes we let grades, money, numbers and everything define us, and cloud that purpose with mists of discontent and confusion. Please remember that God is the one light of truth and he had a purpose for sending both me and you here. Find out what he intends you to be and then do it!
I think that simple phrase describes my mission so well. You try so hard to be successful by teaching repentance and baptizing converts. As a missionary that is what we are called to do. Numbers represent those converts and are important in how we measure the success we have had in accomplishing our purpose. But all in all, success is becoming who God intended us to be. Over my mission I have learned that every person, area, situation is different. Sometimes you work so hard and have not much success. Sometimes you work not as hard and it seems that everyone wants to learn. But that success is temporal and will change with a new transfer, a new area, a new companion.
Permanent success is heeding to the promptings of the spirit and becoming and doing the things that God asks of us. We are sent here for a purpose and sometimes we let grades, money, numbers and everything define us, and cloud that purpose with mists of discontent and confusion. Please remember that God is the one light of truth and he had a purpose for sending both me and you here. Find out what he intends you to be and then do it!
Anyway sorry for the rant. I have no time to email and then I just spend it all ranting over some random topic haha. The work in our area is doing pretty well. We had a disappointment thing week when our investigator named Sokona was unable to get baptized. We planned for him to have the chance to receive an ordinance of salvation this past Sunday, but when we taught him the law of tithing this week he was simply unable to accept. I was heartbroken. The hard thing is that I actually feel for him. He is an older man who has a wife, kids and grandkids that he has to provide for. If only he could truly understand in his heart the blessings that we receive from following the commandments. It was disappointing, but from that disappointment I also learned of the love that I have for him and these people. I think that if I didn't really care about him it would have been easy to forget about it and just move on to a new investigator, and forget about this loving old man. But that is not what God wants us to do - he sent us to LOVE one another.
In terms of our area we have a family that lives across the river and we have to take a ferry over every week to teach them. They were able to come to church and we had an awesome lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love teaching them because it means so much to them and I think they can understand why it means so much to us! Other investigators are doing good, just keep on keeping on!
A funny experience of the past week or two: We planned to have a ward clean up activity at the church in order to get the front of our building looking nice and clean! The members worked really hard and made some amazing food and then as soon as we were getting ready to start cleaning up, it started drizzling! Well the clean-up was not happening with grey clouds above, and a tiny bit of rain. They just decided to stay inside and eat the food, and postpone the cleaning till next time! We should have more clean up activities like that back home.
Sorry that wasn't even that funny I think my perception of funny has just changed over the past few years so forgive me if my jokes are horrible.
Anyway the moral of the email is that the gospel can change lives and Jesus is the Christ. What a joy it is to be a laborer in His vineyard. May I end with a quote from Elder Holland, out of the Come Follow Me book, (which I love and it is inspired and you all better be doing it)
"My beloved brothers and sisters, what happened in this story at 9:00 or noon or 3:00 is swept up in the grandeur of the universally generous payment at the end of the day. The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours—real or imagined—fall away in the abundance of the final reward. Don’t dwell on old issues or grievances—not toward yourself nor your neighbor nor even, I might add, toward this true and living Church. The majesty of your life, of your neighbor’s life, and of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be made manifest at the last day, even if such majesty is not always recognized by everyone in the early going. So don’t hyperventilate about something that happened at 9:00 in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6:00 in the evening—whatever your labor arrangements have been through the day."
"My beloved brothers and sisters, what happened in this story at 9:00 or noon or 3:00 is swept up in the grandeur of the universally generous payment at the end of the day. The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours—real or imagined—fall away in the abundance of the final reward. Don’t dwell on old issues or grievances—not toward yourself nor your neighbor nor even, I might add, toward this true and living Church. The majesty of your life, of your neighbor’s life, and of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be made manifest at the last day, even if such majesty is not always recognized by everyone in the early going. So don’t hyperventilate about something that happened at 9:00 in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6:00 in the evening—whatever your labor arrangements have been through the day."
I love you all! Keep on laboring in the vineyard and remember the reward waiting for us at the end.
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