Monday, October 17, 2011

Transcription: 17 October 2011


Hello Everybody,

This is Elder Record. This update is for the week of Monday the 10th through Sunday the 16th. Today is going to be so exciting, even though it isn't part of that week. I am still going to say it anyway. We are going to go to the Canada Game Center for P-day. I'm pretty sure it's an Olympic sports center, like rec center. It's kind of cool because now that is starting to snow and starting to get colder outside, you can go there and it costs like six bucks to get in. They have indoor soccer fields and indoor basketball courts. They have a pool, which we won't be using (haha). I don't know if they have racquetball, but I know they have squash. They've got a track and exercise equipment and everything. So all four of us missionaries are going to be going there today, and I'm pretty excited! (haha) I've never been there, but it looks really fun. It will be cool.

This week as been kind of busy. We weren't able to do as much as the other weeks, as for finding and things like that, mostly because we have been following up a lot with our potential investigators and seeing if they really are interested in the gospel. We did exchanges this week, and I was in our area with Elder Hartman. I was running the area while Elder Johnson was in the other Elders' area. We were able to do a little tracting on this one street – it's Basswood road in Porter Creek. We were knocking on the doors and got to this one door. The person answered the door, and I told her about how we have a prophet on the earth today just like Christ had when He set up His church, and we had that same organization. She's like, “how do you know that?” I told her that through prayer and things like that. I then started talking to her about the Book of Mormon, and that it's convincing evidence of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. She didn't have too much time, but she's very bold in her speech and she had a lot of bold questions, but at the same time, I had answers. It was awesome. It was very quick and brief, and she said, “yeah, come back tomorrow anytime before three,” because it was like three o'clock and all her kids were coming home from school, so she had to run back inside and be busy with that. Before going back the other day, Elder Johnson asked me since one of our lessons fell through if I thought we should bring a member to that lesson because we were planning on having a member to our previous lesson. So he was wondering if we should have her come to visit the person we met. I said, “yes.” I felt like she was very … I don't know, I just thought she should be there. So we took the member with us to visit her at the time we said we would come back. So we go back and knock on the door, she answers the door, well actually first she didn't answer the door. I prayed that she would be there and that we would be able to talk with her and trusted that Heavenly Father would provide the way. Anyway, we went there and knocked on the door – no answer. We knocked on the door again – no answer. So I started writing a note saying sorrow we missed you lah de dah de dah, and just that we would come back. I was going to leave our number on the card and leave that note with her. Elder Johnson was like, “you know what, just try one more time.” So we knocked one more time (haha) and almost immediately she opened the door. So we started talking about the Book of Mormon and how it answered those questions that she had and how it's convincing evidence of the truthfulness of the Gospel, and that it is another witness of Jesus Christ. It clarifies a lot of confusion in the Bible and how it goes hand in hand, side by side with the Bible in testifying of Christ. She was very impressed, and the member with us, she bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon. It went sooo well, I mean it was a fantastic lesson, and we even had a prayer – all on the doorstep. It took about five minutes (haha) which was crazy, I mean it went by so quickly, but it was so powerful. We were able to, I felt, speak with the Spirit, because if I was using my own brain, I would not have thought that fast. So we are going to see where that goes and follow up with her again, but I just love that experience because I kind of saw how my faith grew from that. I saw those little miracles that happen through prayer and trusting in the Lord. It works! You just have to trust Him and do your best to follow through and He will provide the way.

We were also able to visit with that referral we got from Church headquarters in Salt Lake that I talked about to Lorielle and her question. That was neat. That whole entire trailer park is kind of new, but doesn't exist on any of the maps. So we went there and we were like, “holy cow” there is this huge trailer park with these nice houses that we need to tract out (haha). We are excited to see where that goes.

On Saturdays we started volunteering at the museum, the MacBride Museum. That's kind of fun (haha). We kind of get the insider access to the museum, so we get to see everything, but at the same time we get to help out and be a part of the community. We are good hard workers. Elder Johnson and I pride ourselves on how hard a workers we are and how efficient we are (haha) because we are. We are very quick and very efficient and we get the job done. It's fun and feels good to work hard. We love going to the museum.

As for other things that have happened this week, we just taught lessons and helped this one lady out with her family history. Yeah, just basically your average week (haha) as a missionary. It's so hard to just sit down and think of what happened, that's why journals are so important because everything turns into one day. Every day that passes turns into one day, so it's hard to distinguish one week from the other, just because you're working so fast and so hard. You're growing so fast too. I wouldn't ask for anything else. I mean a mission is exactly what I need and want right now, because I'm growing so much. I know that the Church is true and my testimony has grown so much. I already knew that our Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers, but now I know even more that He does answer our prayers. If we trust in Him and ask for those things that are good that we should ask for, He will answer those prayers, and He has been. It's amazing to see. As a missionary you rely so much on the Lord – you cannot do this all by yourself. It's so overwhelming that you have to rely on the Lord. I've heard it said in a couple of different places that every night when you pray that you give an accounting to the Lord of your day. When you pray in the morning, you pray like (because it does) everything depends on the Lord, but when you get up from your prayer and you start going through the day, you act like everything depends on you. You do your best, you work your hardest, you do your best to get everything done that needs to be done. Then when you go to your prayer, you rely on the Lord to take care of what you weren't able to do, and He does. He puts people in your paths and prepares the way. It's amazing! (haha) I haven't seen this happen before that your prayers are answered so quickly and your guided and directed by the Lord and see His hand in the work that you don't see anywhere else. I know that He loves us and that He wants us to be happy, and that He's given us the commandments and the Gospel and all these things to help us become happy and become more like Him. I am thankful for the good examples of people that I've seen to help me kind of learn this. I'm thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord on a mission, and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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