September 9, 2013 update

 

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had an amazing week. 

So it rained a few times here in Sheboygan this week. It doesn't smell as good as rain in Utah, its more muggy but the lightning that comes with it is pretty sweet.  It's started to cool down to a tolerable temperature during the day.  This week for our exercise time in the mornings we have gone down to the beach and gone on runs or tossed a frisbee around. The sunrise is always amazing of the water.  This week we had two different meetings in Oshkosh about an hour and a half drive from Sheboygan. The first was just a meeting with our Zone to do some training, and the second was a training meeting for everyone who is being trained or training.  So I got to see all the people that were in my district from the MTC. That was really great to see everyone, it's so hard to believe that it has been 6 weeks out in the field.  We got to have a lesson from President Cutler and Sister Cutler, the mission president and his wife, about the gospel of Christ.  And the role that it had in the premortal life.  It was pretty deep and mind boggling. But basically he taught how we had faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and the Atonement and that it could get us back to the presence of the Father.  We repented because we made the right choice to choose the Fathers Plan and we strived to follow Jesus Christ and be more like him.  We weren't baptized but we had the faith that baptism could redeem us from sin.  And we constantly felt the Holy Ghost as we learned about the teachings of The Father and Jesus Christ. It was amazing and will be really helpful as we teach investigators about faith.  But those two days of training took a lot of our time this week, so we didn't get to get out and teach as much.  Many of our investigators weren't home when we would stop by.  We did have an amazing lesson about Faith and scripture study with our Investigator T, we taught about Enos and his experience and the faith that he had to receive a knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel.  That was a really powerful lesson. We brought a member with us who is a professor at a local college.  He is amazing, just a super friendly guy who can really relate to people. He was able to tell him how we just need a little faith and we can grow as Christ builds our faith. 

One thing we were challenged to do by the mission president was to invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon for 10 minuets every day and look for the change that comes in the lives of the people.  So we did that with T and H during the week and they were able to feel the spirit.  T described it as someone is watching over him like there is something that he needs to learn when he reads. It is amazing the change we have seen in his life in the past weeks and especially the past few days as he has been reading. 

I want to challenge you all to take this challenge. Read out of the Book of Mormon for at least 10 minutes everyday.  When you begin pray for inspiration, guidance, and understanding of the Atonement.  Look for peace that comes to your life and the spirit that you feel when you read and throughout the day.  I promise that if you pray with faith and read diligently, God will bless you with answers to your questions and guide you by the power of the Holy Ghost.  You will feel peace and His infinite love when everything else seems to just fall apart. I know that as I have read everyday and prayed for understanding that I have been blessed with spiritual promptings and guidance to help myself and the people I am teaching.  Jacob 1:2 teaches us that he only wrote what he considered to be most precious, including (V 4) sacred preaching, great revelation, and prophesying.  This record is meant for us today to guide and direct us and to give us comfort and peace.  1 Nephi 1:12 simply states " And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord."  I know that to be true.  God blesses us with the spirit when we read the inspired words of the prophet.

I Love You All!!!

Have an Amazing week! Look for the little miracles that God has Blessed you with!

Jesus Christ lives and loves us and when we strive to follow Him we Follow the will of the Father and we are blessed with the Holy Ghost.

- Elder Jackson Moroni Ward