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Happy Monday Everyone,
Funny how Mondays have become one
of my favorite days of the week since being a missionary and the
weekends aren't as significant as they used to be except to keep doing
the Lord's work just like every other day of the week. That makes every
day exciting though, to be in the service of my Heavenly Father and my
Savior who is His Son Jesus Christ. So this week has many blessings and
miracles throughout it. Tuesday, we met with C. again (one of our
investigators). We had a wonderful lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
C. was raised Catholic and she had some questions and comments on
the baptism of infants so we read with her Moroni 8 about how little
children need no baptism for they are pure and are alive through Jesus
Christ. She said that made sense since children don't develop deeper
cognitive thinking until between the ages of 7-9 years old. She used to
be a college professor. We also went over the authority necessary to
perform a baptism by reading through 3 Nephi 11, when Jesus Christ gave
the power and authority to teach repentance and perform baptisms to his
servant Nephi. Jesus Christ also went over the performance of how the
baptism should be done by immersion so that there "would be no more
disputations concerning the manner of baptism". We invited C. to
pray about a date to be baptized and to continue reading and praying
about the Book of Mormon and coming to church. She is a wonderful woman
and she wants the missionaries to teach her two sons who live in other
parts of the country so they can learn too.
After our lesson with
C. we taught 3 less active people. Sister B. was feeling down
when we arrived at her apartment and seemed to feel comforted as we
were there teaching and discussing with her. I love to see that change
in the countenance of people we see and teach. To cheer and lift the
head and hands that hang down is one of the most wonderful parts of this
missionary service to see people become happier, I love it.
Next we
taught Jo. and Ja., who are brother and sister and have both been
baptized. Jo. has been thinking about a mission, so we told him that
he needs to get active first if he wants to make that kind of
commitment. We told him he has to do the basics first - read scriptures,
pray, and come to church, ha, his reply "I thought you said the
basics"... "those are the basics"-missionaries. He didn't come to church
yesterday and we tried calling him yesterday but we are going to call
him today again. We are going to try and do all we can to help him get
to where he needs to be to serve a mission. Of course, most of that effort
has to come from him but we sure do all we can to encourage him. A
mission would be so good for him and completley change his life if he is
serious about it. We showed him the video clip on mormonchannel.org
of The Value of a Full Time Mission and it really struck him and was
asking us questions about missionary service and life.
We went from
appointment to appointment Tuesday. It was wonderful, we didn't have to
knock too many doors but got to be in the homes of people teaching them
the majority of the day. Wednesday evening was a neat experience. We had
something planned that had fallen through at the last minute and we had
planned on staying in Lake Placid the rest of the evening but my
companion and I were like lets go to Saranac Lake (which we totally
hadn't planned on or for) and when we got there, we tried someone who
had previously been taught by the sisters, R. We sat outside and
started teaching the Plan of Salvation and it totally was making sense
to him. A friend of his named J came by and started talking to us
while we were teaching R and he was confrontational but R
was totally standing up for the principles of the plan of salvation we
were teaching him. He was like "It is true! We did exist before we were
born to this earth! God does have a plan!" Ha, it was awesome to see him
stand up like that in defense of the lesson. He has so much potential
but catching him home is like trying to catch a frog with butter on your
hands. We keep trying to reach him though, he is only 20 or so years
old. We feel that he was the reason we had to be in Saranac at that time
so we were able to catch him home.
Thursday, was President and Sister
Wirthlin's first zone conference in this zone. This was their first
round of zone conferences as mission president. They spoke of the
doctrine of Christ and how we need to be able to understand the doctrine
of Christ for ourselves in order to teach others about the restored
gospel. It's funny because the "gospel" is the "doctrine of Christ";
faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving
the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ encompasses much more than
avoiding, overcoming, and being cleansed from sin and the bad influences
in our lives; it also essentially entails doing good, being good, and
becoming better. Repenting of our sins and seeking forgiveness are
spiritually necessary, and we must always do so. But remission of sin is
not the only or even the ultimate purpose of the gospel.
“To have our hearts changed by the Holy Spirit such
that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually'
(Mosiah 5:2), as did King Benjamin's people, is the covenant
responsibility we have accepted. This mighty change is not simply the
result of working harder or developing greater individual discipline.
Rather, it is the consequence of a fundamental change in our desires,
our motives, and our natures made possible through the Atonement of
Christ the Lord. Our spiritual purpose is to overcome both sin and the
desire to sin, both the taint and the tyranny of sin.”‘Clean Hands and a
Pure Heart,’Elder David Bednar, Ensign, Nov. 2007
The Doctrine of Christ or the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
what changes lives, not the church itself but the doctrine that it
teaches. If people only understood that for themselves, the gospel of
Jesus Christ, then people would stop being offended and unforgiving and
get back to church. It is all about having faith, repentance, and
enduring to the end after the covenants of baptism have been made. That
requires saying "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings" or "I'm sorry for being
bitter" or "I forgive you for whatever the cause may have been." It is
saying to yourself "I will not tolerate that kind of behavior within
myself ever again" and seeking earnestly to replace the bad with the good
and press forward finding joy in the journey of enduring to the end. It
doesn't always have to be "grin and bear it" as you cleanch your teeth, but this journey of enduring is meant to be enjoyed and to bring
others joy, no matter what hardships befall each of us. It is giving all
your burdens to Christ, because we will break our backs if we try to
carry our load on our own... trust me. No one can or should have to go
throughout this life without the help of a loving Heavenly Father. I can
promise each of you that you are not alone, Heavenly Father cares and
invites us to come unto His Son Jesus Christ, He is the Savior of the
world for a reason. The greatest gift we have ever been given is the
Atonement of Jesus Christ and if we don't use it and apply it to our
lives how ungrateful we must be to have this tremendous gift before us
and let it gather dust as we struggle throughout the course of our
lives. It doesn't have to be that way, if we accept the gift that has
been given and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ more fully each day and
improve today so that it is better than yesterday. Remember that before
ye seek for riches to seek FIRST the KINGDOM of God.
Saturday was amazing. So we were supposed to travel
quite a ways with some members to meet someone for a lesson. Well that
fell through, and we stopped by this lady named J who is 77 (today!
it's her birthday). She doesn't look like it though. I thought she was in
her late 50's or early 60's. She invited us into her home and as we were
getting to know her and talking with her she mentioned how many loved
ones she has lost, some within this year. She was married twice and both
lost to death. So of course, we taught her the plan of salvation! It was
amazing, the spirit was with us as we taught and testified and the plan
of happiness. She said that she would pray and think really deeply
about the things we went over with her. We are ordering her a large
print Book of Mormon, otherwise we would have given her one then. We left
her with a pamphlet and an invitation to pray to know that what we have
taught is true and we will follow up with her sometime this week. She
also has amazing potential. There have been several times this week
where we had planned on certain things that end up falling through but
then we are placed in a place where we come in contact with other
wonderful people. Heavenly Father knows where He wants His servants to
be at a specific point in time, it is amazing. Heavenly Father is
amazing! I hope each of your weeks are blessed and full of miracles.
-Sister Gifford
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