HI!
Things in Heidelberg are going good! Unlike Eric though I'm putting on my winter coat and not getting sun burnt at the beach. It’s about time to wave goodbye to the sun here for a while ha. ahh stupid winter. I've decided the only good thing about winter would be snowboarding. I can't currently snowboard though, which means there’s no good thing about winter. Therefore no reason to have winter! We should skip it. Just kidding that’s selfish some people like winter for some reason. Plus that would be contrary to God's plan. So there must be winter. Other then the weather getting really cold all the sudden things are good!
Aunt Moana said Danny met Elder Loynes! Well I guess it'd be Brother Loynes now ha sad. That’s way cool though, I was gonna tell them to have Danny find him there but I guess it worked out anyway! Pretty funny how things like that happen.
So the week was cool though! Monday we went to the Family Home evening thing they have with the young single adults at the church each Sunday. A member named GianLuca invited one of his friends a few weeks ago and said she was gonna be there again that time. Well we aren't actually sure if they were friends before he invited her or not. It may have been that he was on the tram on the way to the church and just invited her to come with and she did! GianLuca is awesome like that. And she's awesome like that just to come! We scheduled an appointment for later in the week with them though, which was also awesome. The appointment was Saturday night right before the stake conference adult session. We met them there and there were already a bunch of people there getting ready for conference. So we walked around looking for a room and the only empty one was the baptismal font room! Coincidence? Nope. Ha it was cool though.
We set up chairs in a semi circle thing in front of the font and had the lesson. It was us two Elders, GianLuca, Bianca, Franzi(another one of his friends) and a member from the Darmstadt ward. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and opened to read a part of 1 Nephi 6 and as we said what we wanted to read GianLuca started laughing and looked at Bianca. Then he pulled out his phone, went to a text and showed it to us. Basically Bianca had a question earlier in the week and read in that chapter and got an answer and was so excited she texted GianLuca and told him about it! So we just talked about that experience for her and continued. The spirit was way strong the whole time it was really cool. They are all pretty young but their desire to strengthen their faith in God is so strong! I learned and continually learning from all these people! It was pretty awesome though, then after our lesson they went and enjoyed stake conference!
Tuesday was pretty cool too. We had lots of plans to end the night and to stay busy and for some reason things weren't working out. All out appointments and plans just didn't work. So our backup plan was to go visit some members. We went by and were able to talk to them and share a lesson with them. The wife isn't a member but she sat in the whole time. It was really cool though the spirit was really strong and everyone was feeling it. There was just like this presence in the room. Hard to explain but way cool. We hadn't planned an actually lesson out with them since we had lots of other plans before them. But as I said the opening prayer I thought of something to do and after as I began that Elder White had scriptures and stuff that went perfectly with it. As we left he said he got the same impression during the prayer. It was a really cool experience and then we understood why everything earlier hadn't worked, we were supposed to visit that family that night.
We had that happen a few times this last week where all our first plans didn't work but everything led perfect to our back up plans. At first it was always kind of frustrating then at the end of the day you'd look back and realize how perfect it all went. It’s pretty amazing how God guides us in his work. It is such a blessing to be able to experience this guidance. People think going on a mission is like a '2 year sacrifice' and something we 'have' to do. I've experienced such the opposite. Serving a mission is such a blessing. Its almost like we're tricking God (...which would be bad...and also not possible. but that’s not the point). We come to do his work and serve but we're really getting all the joy.
Like stuff back home when you agree to do something that to other person seems like you are making the sacrifice. But then you know you actually get lots from doing that. Like working a job for a few hours and getting paid a ton. You walk away feeling like you just got the better end and they got the short end of the stick. I don’t know if I'm explaining this very well ha. But that’s what I feel like sometimes. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I've talked to a lot of Elders who have had to 'sacrifice' way more then I did to serve a mission. You can see their glow and joy. They have no regrets about it. I'm not trying to make you all jealous ha I'm just saying. It’s a very humbling, amazing experience God allows us to have. How amazing it is also depends on what we put in to it.
I think president Monson said in conference you get what you pay for. You put a lot in you get a lot back. It even says that in the scriptures. I can't remember right now exactly where but I know I read it in the Book of Mormon....maybe Doctrine and Covenants, it’s in there though! In all aspects of life though not just mission. Church each Sunday for example, you prepare yourself for it, go with the right mindset, you get lots out because you put a lot in! Or you go each Sunday because we are supposed to go, and you come back as if it wouldn't have changed anything if you hadn't of gone. We've all had Sundays where we have experienced both. But why have the later one! What’s the point of that. Obviously it’s a commandment from God. We're supposed to do it no matter what. Then why not do it willingly, joyfully, and get lots out of it. The gospel is so simple. Willingly acting is so much better. As we obey our faith is strengthened, our will to obey is then strengthened, and it keeps going. The Gospel is real. Faith is real. The blessings are real. Try it and see! I hope you've all been working on being 'of God'. Continue to do that as you continue to press forward in the Gospel. I love you! Be happy and have a good week!
Elder Puriri
No comments:
Post a Comment