This week we had zone conference down in Birmingham. It was great to see lots of my good buddies from the mission. One kinda bummer of a story was that a while back Elder Maness did something to hurt his foot. I guess it had started acting up again and he was told that he had to go home and get surgery. At Zone Conference he was wearing a boot, and told me he was probably flying home in about 2 weeks. Then at lunch, President Sainsbury just walks up to him and says, "Elder Maness, your flight leaves at 8:30 AM on Saturday." Well it was Thursday, so that's pretty quick. Anyway, he had to leave. He's one if my favorite dudes so that was pretty sad. He said he would be back in about 6 weeks. But then today, Monday, he calls us and is like, "Well, my doctor here at home just said I need to to physical therapy a few times a week until October. He wondered why I was even sent home in the first place. So I'm basically just chillin' here playing 2k until my foot gets better." Haha Elder Maness is a funny dude, but that just sucks he had to be sent home for something that could have been fixed out here. But hey, he came out on the mission 6 weeks before me, so maybe we can fly home together now.
Zone Conference was really good, and we talked a lot about finding. That's something that we have been struggling with here in Attalla, but Zone Conference helped us with some ideas we can implement to see if we can find the elect. I know they're out there, we just gotta find them.
There is an older lady named Hazel that we met and taught this week. She's really nice, just a little bit clueless haha. She claims to have read the whole Book of Mormon before, but doesn't remember any of it. She also just agrees with everything that we say. For example, she says she knows that the First Vision happened, and that the Book of Mormon is true, but when we invited her to church she said no. We'll see where things go from here. There are lots of people like her that I have met on my mission. President gave a couple of suggestions to help people's comprehension, so we'll try them out on her.
This week in church both Elder Vanderhoff and I were asked to speak in church, and I was asked to talk about the Holy Ghost. I want to share with y'all just a part of my talk as my testimony this week:
"The power or influence of the Holy Ghost is the power by which men or women gain testimonies of gospel truths.
Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, stated that "no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."
Peter, when asked by the Savior, "Whom say ye that I am?" responded, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The scripture continues, "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Both Peter and Paul had testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ that they received not of men, but by the divine power of the Holy Ghost. They knew, as Moroni later taught, that "by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
I know this principle to be true. I have received numerous divine witnesses of true gospel principles - that Jesus is the Christ, that His power to forgive is real, and that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God."
I'm so thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and for his testifying power to each of us who seek a divine witness.
It was also great to be able to watch the Face to Face event with Elder Cook last night. I thought it was a wonderful event. Church history is something that there is a lot of anti material about, because there's a lot of weird stuff that most people don't understand (like seer stones, polygamy, freemasonry, and stuff like that.) Not gonna say that I understand it all, but the Face to Face definitely cleared some things up, and I'm sure the new "Saints" book will as well. I mostly just love listening to an Apostle testify of the Savior. That's their main purpose, to be a special witness of Christ, and it's always powerful to hear them do that.
One more story: we met a lady named Cathy. I'm not sure if it was this week or last week, but we met her tracting and talked to her on her porch for like 30 minutes. She said she was Baptist, but had some very different feelings than most Baptists I've met. She told us that she didn't believe that what the pastor said was final, but that each person should look things up for themselves. (In the South, most of the time when people discover things "for themselves" like we ask them to do, that means that they go to their pastor and get a bunch of anti about us.) Cathy also told us that there were Baptists, and there were Pure Baptists. When I asked her what that was, she said, "Well, they just kind of have their own set of rules, but most people don't really follow them." I thought that was so odd. So much confusion within one denomination. Anyway, we talked to Cathy about the Savior's Church, the Apostasy, and the Restoration, and she seemed to at least understand and believe in the first two principles. She told us she would be out of town for about 2 weeks or so, but that we could stop by after that. She has our number and a pamphlet, and we will hopefully see her in about a week.
Daniel came to church, is continuing to read the Book of Mormon and basically anything he can find on the Gospel Library app. It's still tough to meet with him because of his work/sleep schedule, but he is so awesome when we do. We are hopeful that we can set a baptismal date with him this week.
Well, it was a good week. We are looking forward to moving apartments around Halloween time, so that we can be closer to members, and closer to where we do most of our work. We bike approximately 15 miles per day just to get to where most of the people are, so we are looking forward to the move. Hopefully I stay one more transfer so it can become a reality.
Love y'all! I know that this is the Lord's work, and with his help we will find the elect. Thank you so much for the prayers. Keep 'em coming.
Love,
Elder Beach
#RollTide
#2-0
Sometimes you just gotta swing. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment