The days really start to blend together once you get like 3 weeks in so I can't even remember what happened this week... Luckily I got my journal with my super awesome missionary stories at my side. Haha Spanish is coming pretty quickly and I feel confident giving lessons in all Spanish so now we just have to see how it goes when I get there. My "investigator" Gabriel is from Chile and says we have awesome accents and are super good for how long we've been here. Oh, Gabriel. I am going to miss that dude so much! He's definitely one of my best buds! He's the funniest dude that I have ever met in my whole life. Last friday we had study cycle and so we went outside to study. Gabriel showed up 15 minutes later and we talked for like two hours. He told us about his super-fear of spiders and how he'll make his wife come kill the spiders because he can't get out of the bathroom unless it's moved out of the way. Hahaha and all about Chile and how there are big Tarantulas there. He got surrounded one day by them and ran home crying to his mom. He also says that he sees them when they aren't really there so whenever he goes home to Chile, he calls his mom ahead of time and makes her clean the house really well so that there aren't any arañas in the house. This guy is a full grown adult. Hahahaha I really wish I could take that guy with me because we have some fun times together. I also wish I could take my teachers with me, Hermanos Rasmussen and Pemberton. They help me grow so much. They definitely help me feel the Spirit way more strongly than I ever have in my life. In class with Hermano Rasmussen, we have some of the most awesome experiences because he's so determined to help us have those life changing experiences in the MTC. When he was in the MTC, he said he didn't have any crazy Spiritual experiences so he wants to help us have those kinds of experiences in the MTC. It's working!!!! I learned the other night that when asking commitment questions, we can't just wait til the end and then bust out some 'Will You' questions. We need to share the invitations when the Spirit is most strongly because it isn't just us asking at that moment. It's the Lord witnessing to them that he also expects it of them. So we tried it out on our TRC investigator Alan who is "Catholic". The lesson went super well! We still have a little smoothing out to do but overall we are improving super well.
At the conference, on Sunday, the speaker was the Online Proselyting director for the church at his talk was great. When we have as many non-member friends on facebook as we do, and not share the gospel with them... It just doesn't make sense. People deserve your happiness. Don't be selfish with salvation. Sometimes we are scared of what people will think of us but the other night Elder Cameron (texas guy) told us about the captain on his soccer team who was a real drinker in high school. He would drink before soccer games and on weekends. He would tease Elder Cameron for being Mormon. And he was the last person you would expect to ever change his ways. He was baptized 2 weeks before we left on our mission... All Elder Cameron did was set an example and the one who joined the church was someone who was least likely to ever be baptized. Now they will be playing soccer with eachother at BYU when they get back from missions. Now think of someone that you would never expect to join the church or even change the way they are at all. They want the Gospel. They just don't know where to find it and don't know what it feels like. So be the good shepherd and bring people back to the fold, because your friends deserve happiness and it isn't your choice to keep it from them. When you don't ask them to be baptized, you are condemning them to a life of darkness. Please, share the gospel. People deserve friends better than you if you are unwilling to give them the greatest gift in the world: Eternal Life. I promise that as we share the gospel, people will see that it is true. It brings good and happiness. This is the most happy that I've ever been in my life and it's only because I'm sharing eternal life.
Last story. My grammy isn't doing so well. She has been struggling with strokes and I've been getting letters from Elizabeth about how she's been doing. My grammy says she doesn't know how much longer she will be around so she's going to live with my parents to spend time with my family. It's tough, definitely, but I realized something as I wrote Elizabeth back about my grammy and shared this is testimony meeting on Sunday. My grammy isn't supposed to go yet. I know it because I don't need her help on my mission yet. I feel that, even though she's doing poorly, she won't pass away until I really need her help on the other side. So I'm comforted. I know that she will be with me whether in this world or in the next. She's always going to look out for me and I only know that through the Gospel and the teachings of the Plan of Salvation that I will never have to say goodbye to her. That is what we can share with others. There isn't anyone I know who doesn't want to be with some member of their family forever. So share what you know and I promise that the Lord will not only bless you for it, but the lives of all those that you touch. There is joy to those who save the one. I know it, I live it, I love it!
Ciao,
Elder Philpot
P.S. I get my travel plans on Friday!
Pics:
Me and Ganzo
Ganzo
Me and the big world map
Playing my soul on the Harmonica
We´re in the real world!
Lauuundryyy!
No comments:
Post a Comment