-spencer a. nielson
Hey Everyone,
I looked at my watch this morning and saw that it was the first of the month... and I got thrown off a bit by the fact that June is already over! Who knew?! I'm super excited for this month, as this week should start it off fabulously!
We heard today that our new mission president - who I haven't actually met yet - is letting us stay out until 10pm on the 4th in order to watch some fireworks, so that should be super exciting! I'm probably going to be super tired the next day, but such is the way things go.
Anyway, so this week absolutely flew by. It seems like just yesterday I was emailing y'all, so we're going to treat it like that and touch on the highlights. For one, one of our super solid investigators came to church yesterday. He said that he enjoyed Sacrament meeting, and he is developing a friendship with a super awesome member in our ward. It's great to see his willingness to change, and hopefully he'll stay interested.
Another cool thing that happened this week was that I got to have two exchanges! The first one was from Thursday to Friday, and it was with an elder serving on the other side of Ponca city. It was pretty interesting to have two missionaries working together when both have been out for about a month... but that's how it played out. We had quite a few miracles on that day, not the least of which was the multitude of times people gave us water. It was super impressive how nice the people are to us, and I was incredibly grateful for the water as the temperature got over 110 degrees at one point in the day.
On the next exchange, from Friday to Saturday, one of the zone leaders came out with my companion and I and he taught us so much! One of the key things I gained experience and confidence in was the power of the Book of Mormon! It was incredible to see the differences that carrying it in your hands makes, as people are then able to ask you about it and it makes it so much less awkward to talk about it. Also, we met quite a few solid potential families that day and I was able to go on splits! So the difference between splits and exchanges real fast - splits are when there's 4 missionaries/members working in an area and they split up, while exchanges are where you switch companions for about 24 hours. Anyway, during the exchange - as we had an extra missionary - we also had a 17 year old member of about 3 months come out teaching with us. So, we decided for most of the evening to go on splits. I went with the 17 year old, and my companion and the zone leader went off teaching. It was definitely a cool experience - and one that built our faith a ton - to have a missionary of about a month and a member of about 3 go out talking to people about the gospel. Anyway, that day we ended up placing around 20 copies of the Book of Mormon, which was a ton!
But, one of the coolest experiences that day was when a couple that we're teaching committed to a baptismal date of August 10th! It was super cool to be able to see the excitement in their faces as they decided together to work towards that day as when they would be baptized. They've come to church the last 4 weeks, and they have been learning a ton from that and meeting the members of the ward. It's been super cool to see how they've changed from when we started teaching them to now, as they have started reading from the Book of Mormon and also as they've attended church as a family. It's been neat to see their faith grow and how inviting and friendly the members have been to them.
Anyway, that's about all the cool experiences from this week, so now I get to talk about what I've been learning during the awesome time that we have to study!
This week I've really been emphasizing the teachings of Alma, as I've read about 30 chapters of Alma - from chapter 7 to chapter 35. There's so much great material in those chapters, that I'm not quite sure what to pick out. I'm not sure if anyone used the links I included in the last email, so I'm gonna leave those out this time to save a bit of my time while here. So, the following is a list of scriptures that really stuck out to me this week and the thoughts I have related to them.
- Alma 7:11-16 -> This is a super cool scripture that talks about Christ and how he really can help us in everything we do and we use it a ton with pretty much everyone we meet.
- Alma 10:23 -> This is an interesting scripture, as it points out that a few righteous are able to make a huge difference among the people
- Alma 17:11 -> This has been a super good motivational scripture for me, as I've been able to recognize that their afflictions they faced were a lot worse than anything I have to deal with while trying to spread the gospel to my brothers and sisters here
- Alma 19:31-32 -> People have their agency to listen to Christ's gospel, but those who do become converted unto the Lord and are blessed
- Alma 20:4 -> This scripture has motivated me and helped teach me that of myself I really can't do or teach much of anything, but in the strength of the Lord I can do all things
- Alma 21:10 -> People have one of two reactions to the word of God - anger or a recognition that it is true
- Alma 23:7 -> a Question I asked myself in relation to this is: "What weapons do you still use to fight against God?"
- Alma 25:9 -> The scriptures show the fulfilling of the prophecies contained therein
- Alma 27:25-26 -> Stories of conversion bring much joy to those that hear and listen to them, and that's the reason for testimony meetings
- Alma 30:44 -> One of my favorite scriptures about how there truly is a God
- Alma 31:32-36 -> The prayer of faith will lead to an abundance of the spirit
- Alma 32:40-43 -> This is an attitude that I've been working to develop as a missionary, to see people how they can become
Alright, so that's about the extent of my thoughts for this week, and I hope you all enjoy them!
Love,
Elder Nielson
No comments:
Post a Comment