This week flew by fast, we were able to continue on in another week of working. Tomorrow which is Tuesday here, we will have a latter day Apostle of the Lord coming to visit us. David A. Bednar will coming tomorrow!!!
We will be seeing him as a whole mission and also with a little twist
with that, the Hamilton mission elders and sisters will be joining us in
this conference. Just last week we had one of the seventy come a visit
us and now we have an Apostle coming down to see all of us...everyone is
getting excited. Elder Bednar gave us all some assignments to do before
his visit. He has an understanding of the spirit that I never heard of.
He understands the role of spirit in the Lords work, in ourselves and
how it is the key in everything we do. He is the reason why I have been
having this urge, wanting to understand the spirit a lot and how we as
missionaries can better teach and describe the spirit in a way that it
is not our words but the words of Heavenly Father reaching out to his
children. We are all very excited about tomorrow and what is to come!!!
For
P-day we were able to get together as a district to meet up and play
some basketball. Loving the Panmure area that my companion and I are
able to work in. All the kids in the neighborhood are getting to know
who we are and what church we are representing. We were able to get a
line of teenage kids from one end of the street to the other all lined
up to have a race from one bus stop to another which would be a 100
meter dash. It felt like we were in the Olympics, well for me it did, my
companion was on the side counting down and telling us when we can go,
he did a great of shouting the word "GO!". It was a great way of
connecting with the kids and to see that the rest of the neighborhoods
kids sitting and watching as well, laughing with us, not at us...I hope.
We were able to have a great week because we got my companions bike
working. We are back in action on the bikes again. We were beyond ready,
our hearts were beating hard because of the hills and the nice sun
shining on us, we knew it was a going to be a beautiful day to be able
to go out and serve others.
This week was a lesson the come from two scriptures, Ether 12:27
"weaknesses" and Helaman 14:30-31 "good restored back into us". These
two scriptures were the highlight of our companionship this week. Elder
Fitzsimmons and I were able to rethink about the week and how it was a
eye opener for both of us. Even though we both thought that we were all
good, not needing anything else, boy were we wrong, the Lord was able
show both of us our weaknesses. Just as the scripture in Ether says, as
long as we are humble enough, we can let the spirit inside of us to work
in making those little adjustments. We saw a big difference when we
were both humble enough from learning from our mistakes, thats the
reason why we all have weaknesses. It is something not to be ashamed of
but to look at it as an opportunity to improve and that was something we
caught onto. We were able to see the miracles that happened. It comes
from understanding the spirit and that we are literally sons and
daughter of a loving Heavenly Father. We are all his spirit children, he
has a mission for all of us to return back to him. On Sunday,
Elder Fitzsimmons and I felt the spirit work in both of us as we were
"seeking" the spirit by faith. We didn't wait for the spirit to show us
the miracles but we went out seeking for those spiritual moments that
would help our testimonies of the gospel grow. We were lead to one of
our part member families and caught up with the whole family. The mom is
a member but hasn't been to church in years but we were able to teach
her 22 year old son named Con. He used to take lessons from past
missionaries but back then didn't have a desire to give up some of the
things that were holding him back. Just listening to Con to see where
his understanding of the gospel was, the spirit directed us into
teaching him how to recognize the spirit for himself. We able to use the
wind as an analogy, we can't see the wind but we can feel it so that is
similar with the spirit. When we do things according to the Lord, we
have the spirit manifest to us the truth. When we are not trying and are
doing things against Heavenly Fathers direction then we tend to loose
the influence in our life. We did a pro and con list with Con on why he
should continue what he is doing and why he shouldn't continue what is
doing. He was able to see the big picture from the list and saw there
were more con's than pro's. That got him to really think and ponder
about what he has been doing. We left him with a commitment to continue
to test the gospel principles we teach and to apply it in his life. He
gladly accepted us to keep coming over.
After
leaving Con's house we road our bikes down the neighborhood and felt the
impression to go down the street that we did-not have in our plans to
go down. It was an experience like Nephi had when he had no clue why he
was to go where he was to go to find Laban but he trusted in the spirit
to direct him where to go. Then he found Laban laying down on the
ground. That experience was just what happened to my companion and I, we
had no idea why we needed to go down this street but we followed the
impression and went down. We applied our brakes softly, and noticed a
man leaning against his car. We went up, introduced ourselves, and found
out that he was related to some people that are members of the church
and would see missionaries in Tonga as well. FuFu is his name. He has
five boys, no girls besides his partner. FuFu expressed that he had a
weakness and that he just couldn't overcome. Something that would always
pop up in his head and continually come and go. We shared with him that
when we build our house on the foundation of Jesus Christ then we can
see our families unified more. He also didn't understand the spirit but
being able to study about the spirit my companion and I were able to
teach him by the spirit. He didn't realize some of the things until we
explained it to him. He also happily accepted our invitation to learn
more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and to try it out with his
family.
This week was all about understanding
the spirit and how it is a big part of conversion. It was a fun week,
interesting, life changing and always full of joy! We were able to have
some great family nights with some of the members, playing games as well
as doing service. The members are loving us and trust us more and more
as we go and see them! Love this area and the people. Hope you all have a
very uplifting week! Words of advice, just follow and trust in those
promptings. They are there for a reason.
Tell we meet again. Elder Thorpe
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