Hey!
It amazes me.
People are so different. Everyone has a different story. People are built by these different experiences. When teaching investigators, it is always different. Certain things click with some people, certain things are hard for some people.
It is amazing to see how God works. He works on such an individual basis. He works based on the needs of the individual, yet at the end, they all arrive at the same place. They all receive their answer in different ways, but the answer itself is always the same. That God lives. He micro-manages so perfectly that it appears to be on a macro-scale.
This unifies everyone. These different people are unified, brought into the path of God. As they strive to be fully converted they become more like God. They all arrive at the same place. They all are heading towards perfection. Heading towards truth, heading towards God.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately because of one of our investigators. He will be getting baptized next week! He is a very humble man. He is uneducated by the worlds standards, he can't really speak Thai or read well. He had some very hard problems to deal with. But because of the kind of man he is, all of these obstacles were very easily overcome.
His testimony is simple. He knows it is true because he feels God's love for him. So he will do everything he can to be able to be baptized. At first, He didn't understand the doctrine at all. That does not matter. He was willing to sacrifice everything in order to be obedient. Now his sins will be washed away. It will be an amazing day. The atonement really is infinite.
So how can someone like this gain a testimony? He can't even read. I've decided it comes down to two things. All it comes down to is a desire and humility. Once we have those two things (and maintain those two things), all we have to do is hear the word of God. After that, we WILL gain exhalation if we maintain a desire and a humble heart.
This week was Zone Conference. We had a General Authority come visit, his name is Elder Pratt. He spoke this last conference. He is actually in the South-East Asia mission presidency, so that is always fun.
His words were very interesting. He talked about the prophecy of Daniel, about the stone being cut out of the mountain without hands. (very complicated prophecy, you can look it up if you want, but it is quite confusing) Basically this stone is the gospel, and it has been established by God, and it will fill the whole Earth.
He emphasized on the importance of prayer. Particularly on the importance of kneeling when praying. It was quite a wake-up call.
He also focused on the importance of memorization, which is something I have been slacking on. I have been waiting for the new edition of the Book of Mormon to start memorizing things, but turns out it won't be out until next November... so that is something I will start doing.
Things are changing here in this mission. It has to change. The status-quo is not good enough, and we will improve. Hard, effective work by the missionaries and the members is the only way.
That's it.
Love,
Elder Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment