Stay Strong

     This week was one of the hardest and most rewarding weeks of my entire mission. When President called and let me know about Jason, I was defintely discouraged. To be honest there was a moment that I felt it was unfair. When we got back to the house the other 2 companions got out of the car and Elder Hardy asked me to wait for a minute. He really just helped me out by letting me know how grateful he was for me and how much happiness he has had being my companion so that was a huge blessing to hear that. I was sitting in the car thinking about what I was going to do for the whole next week, either falter or finish, and the words of one of my favorite hymns came into my mind. "And although all hell shall endeavor to shake, I'll never no never, no never forsake." I looked at Elder Hardy and told him that this week we were going to work harder than we had ever done before, and that's just what we did.

     The Lord did not waste our efforts. We now have a family of 7 that we tracted into that is progressing in a big way and is coming to church this week. P still doesn't have permission from husband but she told us that no matter what he says, she will never leave this church. We found a super old grandma that we teach everyday now that is being baptized on the 22nd and one of our gators Y has comitted for baptism and we're setting a date for him tomorrow afternoon. Probably one of the weeks when I have seen the Lord's hand in my life more than any other.

       Elder Carlson from the quorum of the 70 came for our Mission Conference and he is a 4 star general so you can imagine the spiritual smackdown he gave to us all. It was awesome. He asked us all to prepare talks before we came on being a consecrated missionary before we came and he would call on two people at random to speak to everyone. When he called my name I was honestly pretty excited because my talk had two main points. The first one was from Kung Fu Panda on how Po was consecrated because he realized his own potential and the second point was stolen from Uncle Kent, "The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing" I talked about how we just need to keep Christ's work as the main thing and don't waste our time doing anything else so it was pretty fun. I thought I'd be nervous but I think after giving all the talks I have I've sort of use to it so it was nice not to be scared out of your mind for once. But yeah things are going well and don't worry about me. All Elder Hardy and I do is work work work. Yes I am exhausted and yes I absolutely love it. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission, it is that it is always easier to do the hard thing while on the Lord's errand, than to do the easy thing while your not. Toodles.

 

                     Muaj Zoo Vwj

P.S. Shoutout to my big bro J Dub for his birthday. Sorry I don't have any special presents for you but I will ask one of the Hmong Shamans if they can send you one of their Spirit Swords... Yes they really do have those.

P.P.S. My prayers go out to the Goff family. Stay strong.

The Thought Entered My Mind

  Nyob zoo.

  To bad to hear about Jason. I will be praying for him with everything I've got. He is such a gentle giant. I remember him, jared, and me would always have such an awesome time up in Sunvalley. We would stay up some nights for hours talking sports, life, and whatever else. I was always impressed with how much we all changed each time we would see each other again. Literally he is a foot taller every time. But even more than that he became someone I knew would always have my back and I will always count on him for an awesome laugh.

    This week we had many amazing experiences that proved to me the work is still true. One morning I was really struggling to think of what to share with one of our investigators who we have been teaching for some time and seemed to hit sort of a roadblock. I got down to pray and before I started I just asked that Heavanly Father would tell me what to pray for. The thought entered into my mind to pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon is true, which was kind of confusing because I feel that I have gained a witness quite a few times that it is true. But if there's one thing I learned on my mission, it is that the you don't ignore a prompting from the Lord. I asked God if the Book was true and I didn't have some immediate revelation that the book was true but just a feeling to be patient. So we went to church that day and in the last talk, a return missionary began to speak on the importance of the Book of Mormon. He then read Moroni 10:3-5 and I felt the Spirit so strong. I immediately felt that the thing to teach our investigator was obedience. Simply teach her that through obedience to the promptings of the Spirit and the commandments, the Lord will bless us. I had gained a personal testimony that day that through simple obedience, the Lord will give us what we need. As we taught her, we told her that obedience is not a game show, you cannot pick and choose and hope to win a prize. The guidelines the Lord has set for us is black and white, if we do what's right, we receive blessings, if we do what's wrong, we will eventually fall on our face.

     It was such a Spirit filled lesson and you could see the understanding begin to grow and also the guilt of her disobedience begin to weigh heavy until at the end she said, "Elders, to be honest, I don't even know how I'll sleep at night now." I almost laughed when she said that but we then explained that through the Atonement and continued righteous living, she would be forgiven of each of her mistakes. A feeling of peace entered the room and she said I know the both of you are right. We told her that the Spirit of God was confirming to her that what we taught was true. It was a great reminder to me of how important it is to listen to the Spirit and be obedient to our answers we receive.

      I know that through obedience to the commandments of God, each of us, no matter what we've done or who we've been in the past, will one day go back to live with our Father in Heavan. Good luck everyone. God Bless