Hello again!!!
Poor babies :( and Harry too, can't forget that kid haha! It's even worse because you're out of town haha, but it's okay because Dad's there. And the babies are looking so cute!! They are growing fast too! How's everyone doing at home? As for what's happening out here it's going well. This week it snowed a lot so tracting was interesting.
However things are going well. The man we have on date is doing well, in fact he said he wanted his father in law to baptize him on Sunday so now the new date is April 24th! That's the Sunday before transfers so it'll be a nice way to finish out if McCloud gets transferred. Oh yeah and since the MTC has now extended the missionary stay an extra week, all of our dates coming home and this transfer were extended by another week. This Sunday was fantastic because 3 of our investigators including one who dropped us came to church! We got to teach them and they came during fast and testimony meeting which is the best time to have people come to church!
Well for this week we have been studying a lot out of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 11 is one that I've focused on because i have been working on increasing my faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that we cannot please God without faith. So think about our church duties and responsibilities. We do it out of duty, which is okay, but are we also exercising faith while doing it? During tracting I tend to get in a habit of thinking, "Well, it's time for 3 hrs of people shutting me out, calling me names, and bashing with me."
I'm too slow to remember that I should be more faithful, that I need to believe and trust that God is in charge of His work and that these minor things won't even matter once we find The One. I'm sure THAT is what pleases God more, not just doing things because we have to. We do it because we believe in Him, because we love Him and want to do His will. I know it sounds generic and I suck at explaining things but I hope you can get the gist of it all, haha!!
As for priesthood responsibilities, the word that comes to mind is worthiness. You know keeping covenants, going to the temple, magnifying their callings and stuff like that. I can't tell you just how sad it is to see priesthood holders who don't live up to their potential, don't take their family to church, don't lead their family in prayer. They settle for less, they don't progress so they keep their family from being blessed not just now but for eternity. Priesthood holders who understand God's plan and really do love their family would step up and take their place. It's a pattern I see a lot so if I had any insight or advice for your talk to the priesthood leadership Mom, it's just to stay worthy. It's a choice, if we are willing to do the little things and stay worthy everything else falls into place. It just does, it's miraculous!!
And I would also like you to share this with the family... I love everyone!!!!!!! If I could do something over at home I would spend more time with the family. We are always caught up in work, school, sports, friends but we seem to put our family on the back burner. We expect our family relationships to always be solid when the time comes and we need them the most. Unfortunately, it won't. If we fail to fortify our families, if we fail to support one another, if we fail to love one another and spend that time nurturing our relationships it is destined to fall apart. In Alma 55 the Nephites are trying to figure out how to get their brethren out of the Lamanite fortress. The Nephites decide to give the Lamanites wine to make them drunk. Slowly but surely they did it. When the drunk Lamanites fell asleep the Nephites threw weapons over to the prisoners and armed them. Then when the guards woke up they found a whole bunch of Nephites armed and ready inside their fortress and it was too late to stop them.
Are we slacking in our family relationships? If we are then we are like the guards who fell asleep. I’m not trying to say that the Nephites are bad at all but Satan will throw everything he can into our home to wreck it from the inside when we aren’t paying attention. He will use stuff as simple as fighting, jealousy, laziness, to things more serious like church inactivity, internet, pornography, you name it. By the time we realize it our home has been taken over and we can do nothing about it. So please do all you can to keep the family and the home a strong and fortified place where the spirit can be. Pray daily, read daily, take time out of our busy schedules to make family a priority. If we do, we are promised a family foundation that can't be moved! I know you're thinking how weird. Houston is single and he's preaching about family, it's funny how much I think about my family and my future family even way out here on the mission. I'm sure Hema and Helam and Hevynn all thought the same thing knowing they would have their own families some day. Anyways I love you all and I pray for you guys all the time!!!
Ofa Lahi Atu
No comments:
Post a Comment