Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Overview of my week:

It was another slow week for big miracles, but there were plenty of small ones along the way for anyone with an eye out to catch.

 Monday we taught an Family Home Evening lesson with a Priest age young man in our Ward, we assigned him the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson in Preach My Gospel to study the week before and asked him to help teach it at Family Home Evening. It went really well. The hope was that it would help him prepare for a mission and see that sharing the gospel is really quite simple. I think it worked.

Tuesday we had a long gospel conversation with man who was very confused about the identity and nature of Christ. We just testified of truth, I don't know how much we were able to help him, but it was certainly a testimony to me that a correct understanding of the true nature and divinity of Christ can be an unfathomable blessing to us and bring such an amazing peace to our lives. The missionaries before had given the man a copy of the Book of Mormon in a language convenient for his study, so we simply encouraged him to revisit it in order to gain a better understanding of who Christ is.

Wednesday was our District Meeting, some wonderful trainings were offered by Elder G and Elder G as well as Elder M, and our Zone Leaders, Elder S and Elder C. Baptisms and inviting everyone were certainly the focus of the day. It really was well timed to remind me of some things that I need to keep working on and areas that I can improve.

Thursday we got the oil changed in our car and did a lot of street contacting. We had dinner at members houses just about every night this week, it’s such an awesome blessing to have the support and encouragement of the ward, we are constantly seeking for ways to get members more excited about giving referrals or helping them build up the courage to invite their Friends. It’s so hard because I feel like a hypocrite because I was never good about giving the missionaries referrals when I was at home.
Friday was Good Friday. We taught the R’s son who is getting ready to be baptized but we are trying to involve his nonmember grandfather whose wife is a member. We talked to his family and they said that it would be alright for us to invite him to hear the discussion at their sons’ baptism.

Saturday was pretty much all finding; it was a really hard go. Not much happened, disappointing, but not discouraging.
Sunday, Easter Sunday, Church was amazing. Powerful testimonies were borne and the Bishopric shared a wonderful Fifth Sunday message from the Worldwide Leadership Training DVD. It was really good. After church we did some finding and had a few unpleasant things yelled at us, which was weird, that doesn't seem to happen to me all that often, and on Easter Sunday of all things. We had dinner that night with one of our Ward Missionaries. After dinner we went to visit a less active member who we missed seeing at church... again. We shared Ether 12, and left him 2 chapters to read out of the Book of Mormon. He had a strong testimony in the past, and has shared some amazing experiences that he has had in association with his baptism, he has just fallen out of the habit of working on his testimony and his faith has suffered because of it. But as we have been going over the past couple of weeks we have seen a marked improvement not only in his faith and testimony but also in in his demeanor. The gospel really does bless lives. We're hoping to be able to get him out to conference this week.

Happy early Birthday to Me! Yeah, I found a watch. Yeah, it was expensive. But I'm not allergic to it, it feels like a marshmallow on my wrist, it has a 2 year warranty, it looks super cool, it’s CRAZY waterproof, and now you don't need to get me a birthday present! :D  Plus, it came with a pair of free sunglasses! How could I say no?
Also, I found out that a Wal-Mart card purchased in the states doesn't work in Canada. Grams sent it to me. So I'll probably be mailing that home soon. So you take my reckless spending out of that instead of my hide. ;)

I got my Easter package in time. Mailing it to Point Roberts didn't seem to be any slower than just sending packages to the Mission Home. Elder W hasn't got his Easter package yet so I've just been force feeding him my Easter candy in hopes that if he develops diabetes we'll get some extra money each month for health food. I don't know if it'll work but I figured it was worth a shot. Don't share my plan with Sister W, I don't think she would approve. :D 
I've been eating a lot of boiled eggs and drinking some nasty chocolate shake mix stuff that some other Elder bought and left in the apartment. It looks really expensive but it tastes like sand. There is a Wal-Mart just outside our area but we got standing permission from the Zone Leaders to go there on P-Day to buy groceries so we can actually get food without having to sell our internal organs on a street corner first. There was a 3 for $8 deal on chips yesterday so we got some of those. There was also a 5 for $2 deal on bagels so we got a bunch load of them as well. There have been weeks where we have dinner appointment just about every night, and if you are a really clever Missionary you can complement the cook enough that she'll send home leftovers and you're set for lunch the next day. But Elder W and I must not be that talented because we have only got leftovers once or twice. I think I'm going to have to bust out those thank you cards that you sent with me. To my shame I haven't used hardly any of them yet. :/ But as the Gospel teaches us this true principal: it is never too late to repent and do better. :)

Love,
Elder Thomson

No comments:

Post a Comment