I hope you all had a fantastic week! :)
My week was pretty great, we had a ton of awesome things happen and it was super awesome!
So to start with, I got to go on two exchanges this week! Man. I love exchanges. The Elders I get to serve around are incredible. The first one I got to go on exchanges with - my district leader Elder Glad - is going home at the end of this transfer - a mere 3 weeks away. So, it was neat to be able to get his perspective on ways to do things and to get his advice. We also got to visit with a couple people and he taught me a lot about having faith that people will be at their appointments. After we do everything we can it's entirely up to them, and that's something I've really been struggling to not stress over. But, such is life.
Then on Friday I got to work with a zone leader - Elder Cutler - who's absolutely incredible. For the first part of the day we were walking, so we stayed pretty close to the house, but we still met a ton of people. It really showed me the impact of talking to everyone! For that day, we ended up with 5 new investigators, which was more than we've had in the last 2 weeks combined. So, that was pretty sweet. We also got to visit with quite a few people that had kind of fallen off the radar because they are so busy, and that was awesome.
In the time between those two exchanges, we visited many many many less actives - I think we actually got to meet with about 20 of them... It was intense. We've really been focusing a ton on meeting the members on our rosters, and finding out why so many of them don't come to church. I've learned that a lot of it is the habit - once you get into the habit of not coming something else will always fill that time. For example, one lady we ran into always does her grocery shopping Sunday mornings at about 10. It's interesting to see what things become priorities when church falls out of the picture. So, get to church! It's important ;)
We've ran into quite a few people this week who question the point of going to church when so many people go and then are totally different right when they leave the building. What I've learned from that is the main reason we go - to partake of the Sacrament as administered by the Priesthood Authority of God - should really be the only reason. Yes the fellowship and the classes and activities are nice, but the sacrament is the focus. The reason we go to church then - the sacrament - is really why people who don't always do the right thing should go to church. The Savior has told us how the whole need no physician, and there's a saying throughout the church how it isn't a sanctuary for perfect people but a hospital for sinners. So, go to church :)
Anyway, on a slightly lighter note we had breakfast with the Bishop on Saturday, and he tried out his new double waffle maker... guess what that means?!?!? WAFFLE EATING CONTEST!!!!! He ended up making probably about 15 waffles... and I ate 5 of them. Yeah... I won ;) The other food was also super tasty - the eggs, sausage, bacon, and rolls which I also had my fair share of. So, yeah, breakfast was awesome! It made for a really interesting day biking, but it was still a pretty good day :)
I think that pretty much covers this week... So, some things I've been learning!
I haven't done much just straight up reading this week, so sadly there's no list of scriptures... for those of you who like that :P
I've studied a couple topics this week, and they're pretty awesome :) I'll tell ya the topic and what I learned and see if you can't get something cool out of it as well :)
Topic 1: The Example of Ammon & The Sons of Mosiah
This week I've really been trying to learn all I can from Alma 17-26, so I studied those for a while. One of the biggest things I've been working on applying from their example is the importance of patience in afflictions. That applies to fasting and prayer, and just afflictions in general. There are multiple references throughout those chapters where they are told to be patient in their afflictions, and one way they did that is by fasting and prayer. It really is so key.
Topic 2: The Importance of the Priesthood
I've been reading some talks from this past conference in preparation for the one in a couple weeks, and some of them hit me really hard so I spent a little more time in them. Check out:
"These Things I know" - President Packer
"It's a Miracle" - Elder Andersen
"The Power of the Priesthood in the Boy" - Elder Callistar
"Your Sacred Duty to Minister" - President Beck
They're all pretty awesome talks, and I think the biggest theme I saw in them is potential. It's so important to strive your best to live up to your potential, and the best way to do that is by living the Gospel and keeping your covenants. If you truly want to be the best you that you can be, it's so key to let Heavenly Father do the molding.
Bonus Topic: Standing in the Light
Another cool topic that was addressed a lot in this last conference was Standing in Holy Places. My version of that is a little broader and is a combination of Elder Holland's talk - "Lord, I Believe" and Elder Hales - "Stand Strong in Holy Places". They're both really awesome talks, and there are a couple other talks that refer to light and ways to build it. For example, President Uchtdorf talked about light in "The Hope of God's Light", and Elder Porter's talk "Beautiful Mornings" also falls into this topic. So yeah, Light's awesome so keep what you have and seek more :)
That's all the preaching I got for this week ;)
Love,
Elder Nielson
No comments:
Post a Comment