August 11th, 2014 - Service Rocks!

Hey Everyone!

This week has been pretty entertaining, with a good sprinkling of service along with all our other missionary efforts. There have been some cool miracles, and lots of entertaining events, with some particularly enjoyable studies. First from my studies this week, I spent quite a bit of time in Preach my Gospel Chapters 1 and 9 - our purpose and finding people. The section in Chapter 1 titled "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" struck me this week, and a particular quote made me think quite a bit. It says:

"Individuals and families begin to follow Christ as they exercise faith in Himand repent of their sins. They receive a remission of sins through baptismand by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost from one who has authority fromGod to perform these ordinances. They then endure to the end, or, in otherwords, they continue throughout their lives in exercising faith in Jesus Christ,repenting, and renewing the covenants they have made. These are not juststeps that they experience once in their lives; rather, when repeatedthroughout life these principles become an increasingly rewarding pattern ofliving. In fact, it is the only way of living that will bring peace ofconscience and enable Heavenly Father’s children to return to live inHis presence."

As I was thinking about that paragraph and studying other things, I found a chapter in Moses particularly enjoyable - it's chapter 6, particularly verses 26-68 where Enoch is called to preach to the people of his day. Verse 58 reminded me of this quote from preach my gospel as it is through these steps, outlined in Moses 6:58 and the quote, that we're able to utilize Christ's atonement in our lives.

Anyway, that was one thing that I focused a lot of study time on this week, though I also had some things in the rest of my studies I wanted to share:

• Alma 16:13-15
• Alma 18:39
• Alma 19:14
• Alma 27:7-11
• Alma 34:33-34
• D&C 33:8-10
• D&C 33:15-16
• D&C 35:5-6
• Plus this article in this month's Ensign that was related to my studies:ARTICLE!

Alright, that's all I got for studies this week, so a couple quick miracles! First, last Monday we were able to visit with Ricky and it was an awesome experience. When we got there we weren't entirely sure what to do, but we felt like we should read from the Book of Mormon with him in 2 Nephi 31, sadly Jessica had to leave before we really got started with that, but the spirit was super strong as we were reading and Ricky was super committed by the time we left to do what he needs to in order to follow the example of Christ - reading the scriptures, praying, and coming to church in order to strengthen his faith, change, and prepare to be baptized.
Another cool miracle was on tuesday when we got to visit with Chris. We talked about all sorts of stuff, but eventually we got around to watching the Daily Bread Mormon Messages (check them out here), and it turned out to be a pretty spiritual experience.
The other highlights of the week were service related, when we got to help a member work on his building (the same one we've helped a couple times before), and he's actually making progress! It's slow, but steady, which is good. Then we had a day of service on Saturday, helping three families with various projects - building a fence, fixing up a shed, moving tool boxes, loading a u-haul truck, and just having a blast before getting to go to the stake general priesthood meeting on Saturday night. It was a pretty fun week, but that's about all I got.
Have a fantastic week! Love y'all!
'Til Next Time,

Elder Jordan Nielson