Working on the Bishops

Jun 24, 2013

So this last week was mostly a blur for me. I'm trying to remember the majority of the things that happened, and there's only a few noteworthy things.

J. is getting baptized this Saturday at 1 pm. I would say that you guys should come, but that's kind of a no-no. Ha ha. We're really trying to push people to come to her baptism because she came to Gigi's baptism and it was PACKED that night. There's only one problem. G.'s was a sunday night and G. had come to church for 3 months. J.'s been at church for 3 weeks and she's getting baptized on a Saturday afternoon. It's a lot harder to fill a room at that time and day. When people heard in sacrament that J.'s getting baptized the guy behind be literally asked,"so who is this woman?" gahh... ha ha. It'll be good I'm sure of it.

Teaching N. went fine. I don't think she sees the need for a savior. I wish we had left Alma 42, but we left 3 nephi 11 instead. Going from believing in reincarnation to resurrection will only be made possible if she's the need for a Redeemer of the world. At least she still believes in a God. ;)

C. went to the temple with us on Thursday night. It was absolutely great! We were able to answer some questions on why the priesthood is necessary (again. Seems to be a thing with investigators for some reason. I'm not sure why. jk) Brother F. put things into perspective for everyone that night. He told the story of a Seventy who went on a mission tour somewhere in Africa. He asked how many baptisms they had had. the answer was around a 1000 in a year. He then asked how many of those were not Christians before their conversion. 3. He then told the missionaries that God still works through other religions and tells them to do what they're doing for a reason. If it had not been for the missionaries from other churches for centuries coming over to Africa and teaching the people they would have had only 3 baptisms for an entire year. Instead, God has plans for his children and provides a way that as many people as possible can be brought back to his fold. Again, we do not claim a trump card on having all truth, but we do know that God has told us, with a  sure promise, that if He has a will on a certain subject, He will reveal His secret to His servants the prophets. God will continue to inspire all the people around the world, he just provides clearer communication to those who purify themselves enough to have the blessing of the power of the priesthood, not just merely the authority of it. President Monson is such a man that has done just that.

Taught Abraham 3 to GR. on Saturday. gahhhh... We had no idea what was in there before we gave him that reading assignment. That chapter expanded and stretched my mind like taffy on a puller. Dang. It was good though. We had a seminary teacher that had already taught that chapter last year come with us, and he kept pulling out video after video and more references. I hope one day to be able to teach like that. I have a hard time just focusing on only one principle in half a verse and teaching about that for 20 minutes like seminary teachers do.

So we had a special meeting with our ward mission leaders this last week trying to train them on how the ward mission process SHOULD be run. The west linn mission leader was gung ho with it, and when we met with our bishop he was rather pleased with it. The only problem is that the bishop has to be the running force of all of it and that bishop has back issues. So bad that he wasn't in church on sunday because of the pain. He's considering back surgery. Pray for him please. He could use the help. His name is Bishop G. We haven't been able to talk to the bishop in the other ward about it yet.

One thing that we're starting up is a combined two ward saturday morning family sports time. We thought it could be something to get people to actually get outside themselves and meet other people. We thought it'd be great for our investigators and less actives. They need the friends in the church for sure.

Not really much else to report. We hope to teach a new family tonight. We've been trying for 4 1/2 months now and this is the first time we've ever had an appointment for. Fortunately, they actually have the desire to know already and they just happen to know a couple families in the ward. Their son just happened to be with us on splits when we contacted them the last time. Coincidence? again... there's no such thing. Everything we have comes from God, even the little things.

I love you guys. I hope all is going well. I have some questions though. First off are we related to a Gregory Lloyd from back in Civil war times? If so, then we might be related to a family in the west Linn ward. Also, are we related to a Mary Whitehead and Jospeh Chadwick from about 1847. If so, I'm related to a potential investigator in the willamette ward that comes to church nearly every week.

Read a really good talk and studied how it applied to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we teach it. "A Disciples Journey" by Bruce C Hafen. You can find it onSpeeches.byu.edu it's fantastic. Some parts I found a no brainer, but others were super insightful. Check it out if you have 20 minutes. I've also been learning about Consecration. particularly learning about how consecrating our lives in total surrender to the Master's will, which includes doing the things that would otherwise be sins of omission. Consecration is the only totally surrender that is also complete victory. The hard part is applying all of it. Fortunately God gave us time so we can focus on one thing at a time and practice till we get better at some things till we can add on other parts. In this the scripture Ether 12:27 really stands out to my mind. My weaknesses are definitely being made known to me. Now I've got to DO something about it. dang... ha ha :)