Hey Everyone!
This week has been pretty intense, with some sweet miracles, a good zone conference, and a couple interesting experiences! But... I'm going to start with some cool scriptures that I've come across/heard this week since that's of course the most interesting part (nobody's told me otherwise as of yet!), and clearly what you all except when you read this letter each week.
Anyway, this week I've listened to a couple lectures by Truman G. Madsen from his series Jesus of Nazareth, that were pretty interesting. The lectures I got to listen to this week were "Ascent and Transfiguration" and "The Passover and the Sacrament", which were both super cool to learn about since he talked a ton about the background that went into both of those significant events. After talking about the transfiguration of Christ, he connected it with another story in Matthew 17/Mark 9 where Christ heals the boy "which hath a dumb spirit", and pointed out that Christ must have been fasting on the Mount of Transfiguration since that's where he had just come from when he stated "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." It was something that never really had occurred to me before, but really emphasized the point that fasting is truly powerful and by it we can become closer to God and more receptive to his will for us. Something cool I learned about the Sacrament from his lecture was related to the JST for Matthew 26:26 which says: "Jesus took bread, and brake it, and blessed it, and gave to his disciples, and said Take, eat; this is in remembrance of my body which I give a ransom for you." It reminded me of a scripture in Alma 34:11-15 which talks about how Christ was able to even be a ransom for us since the law of Justice typically requires the consequence fall upon the doer.
Aside from those super cool lectures, I've been reading in the Book of Mormon and found some cool scriptures as I've read:
- 4 Nephi 1:15-16
- Mormon 2:13-14
- Mormon 3:12
- Mormon 6: 17-22
- Mormon 7:1-10
- Mormon 9... All of it is awesome, but if you don't have time, make sure to check out verses 11-17 and 27
- Ether 2:14,23
This week, as I mentioned previously we had a good zone conference on Wednesday where we pretty much focused the entire time on working with members and developing relationships with people. It was pretty intense at times, and President Walkenhorst gave us a paper that basically has a checklist of things we should constantly make sure we're doing to continually have a strong relationship with the ward in which was have been assigned to live in and serve for a time. He pretty much took Preach my Gospel chapter 13 and broke it down into specific things to make sure we're doing, so go check out Preach my Gospel chapter 13 for basically what our zone conference was about. At one point he also spent a bit of time talking about the Doctrine of Christ, specifically focused on Faith which was pretty cool. He pointed out how most people focus on the Faith talked about in Mormon 7:5-7, namely that Christ is the Son of God, he lives, etc. But sometimes we don't recognize or understand fully the type of faith talked about in our purpose which is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." He told us that in order to have "Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement" we have to believe and hope that he can truly change us first, and also that with his help the people we are striving to invite and help come unto him can also be changed.
So... I hope that y'all enjoyed that "discourse", so now I'll move on to the less cool things and talk about the "lame" experiences I've been having lately since nothing can really compare to the feelings that come as we're spiritually fed. Anyway, an interesting thing happened last Monday sometime between 5 and 8pm... So last Monday after P-day ended we put our bikes on the car's bike rack, but since we didn't have much time before we would be heading out to dinner the other Elders (Crosby and Hoopes) dropped us off at a less active's house who we got to visit and they headed off to see Sister Harper (who is getting baptized on the 12th of July). After we finished visiting with them we drove out to dinner - which was out in Dickson and then drove back into town and they dropped us off where we were going to see people next and when Elder Lyman pulled his bike off the bike rack and put it on the ground it just kept going down... and he realized his back tire was gone?!? So... we spent the rest of the night retracing our steps to try and find it with no luck. So, that was a pretty interesting night... not really a good thing, but an interesting one nonetheless!
Well... I don't have as much time I'd like so y'all don't get to hear about the other interesting experience this week - clearing out some overgrowth with a few members on Saturday morning since I want to spend a couple minutes mentioning some miracles that we got to experience this week! One cool miracle was on Saturday night we got to go out with Oscar and were able to visit with a less active and one of his friends was there and we were able to have a sweet discussion answering some of her questions. Another cool miracle for this week was on Tuesday when we got to briefly visit with Ricky and Jessica. He had just started a new job the day before and was able to quit the two jobs he had previously been working that had kept him working Sundays (and most other times), so that was awesome to find out! We were able to visit with them for a little bit before Jessica went to work, so that was pretty sweet.
Anyway, I best be off! Love y'all! Have a fantastic week!
'Til Next Time,
Elder Jordan Nielson
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