Things here have only continued to be greater….
Elder Schmidt and I have only continued to be closer. He's
been senior companion this entire time and we will switch on Sunday. He's a
really fun loving guy with a dedication to the work that I admire. I see his
capacity to love grow more and more every day. Even when we teach a Bible
basher ;) ha ha!
He's [the Bible basher]
freaking smart. He doesn't believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but he quotes
him all the time. He also thinks the Atonement was made up by men because of the
Nicene Creed of like 1524 or something like that. (I vaguely remember that from
my one quarter in European history.) We went over time on that lesson but for a
good reason. The first half was me and Elder Schmidt just being blown to pieces
by all these different things that I've never heard of before. … He kept on
changing topics every 5 sentences so it was hard to go anywhere. Then I
remembered what Bro. Bennett used to teach us in Priest Quorum: if you get in
one of those situations when they're switching it up, address the topic in one
or two sentences and bring it right back on course, and also, if you're with a
bible basher, bear your testimony and they can't tell you that you're
experiences are wrong. It was beautiful. I bore my testimony of the Savior and
the Priesthood being God's authority on this earth and also the reality of
modern revelation. At the end of my testimony he told us that he knew what we were
saying wasn't a lie, or at least we weren't lying to him because he could see
it in his eyes. We finally convinced him though to pray to know that the things
we spoke were true for himself, because we don't want him to just trust us.
That's the last thing we want. But he said he'd do it. We talked to him for an
hour, and we were only supposed to be there for 40 minutes, but it's okay, he
asked us to stay and it only went a few minutes into lunch. We'll teach him
again on Monday. With that experience alone I saw Elder Schmidt's capacity for
love double. ... I feel that same love. It's that the Savior has for our
investigator and as his representatives here at the MTC we are better able to
feel that love for our investigators.
To be honest, Elder Schmidt and I have been having a ton of
Success with all our investigators. There have been a few that we we’re worried
about, but then on our return visits we'd always pray for the Spirit as we were
planning so we would know exactly what to teach. I've never felt the Spirit
help me teach the same thing in so many different ways. It's beautiful. Oh and
btw, teaching old people is our favorite thing ever!!!!! They are always
fantastic to teach.
It's really hard to see some of our fellow district elders
struggle. They always ask us what we did to have success committing someone to
baptism or to pray, but we tell them "it's not a jigsaw puzzle. For every companionship
you're going to teach her in a different way. Just apply what we've learned about
preparation, and then teach by the Spirit. The Spirit will make up for the differences
in teaching styles."
I love you guys. I really do. There's so much more I want to
share with you, but I leave this with you. God loves each and every one of you
with a love that is perfect. That always sounded fake to me, but I've felt the
perfectness of His love for me. He knows every pain of my life past future and
present, and he loves all the more because of it. It's just like a father or
brother.
gotta go
Elder Lloyd
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