This week was another pretty good week! We had a lot of really good lesson's with some members and we have been really trying to prepare them to go and teach and it has been really great! They are really excited about it! Odellia is so ready and excited to share the gospel! It has actually been really cool to work with her and to see her excitement about the gospel grow! I've really enjoyed that! The church is true!
We had some disappointments this week though. We had to drop Terry and Victoria because they just wouldn't come to church. That was really hard... Also Alfred still hasn't had his surgery and so he can't get baptized because he can't really leave his house because of his sickness. So that has been really hard as well. To be honest it has been a little bit troubling. I have wanted nothing more than to just go out with a bang and now we don't have any baptismal possibilities before I go home. I have been pretty upset about it! I've even voiced my opinion in my prayers a couple times! Only to be chastened a little and to realize something that I really should've learned a long time ago. That is that sometimes it isn't all about me. Maybe Heavenly Father has a different plan for Alfred and some other missionary needs to be blessed with the opportunity to baptize him. And as far as Terry goes, I learned that as hard as it is for me, it's probably a lot harder for Him to see His children not progress. His children that He has done absolutely everything for and provided every opportunity for and they still won't come. This week I got to see in a very small sense the way God sees and the way He feels. And through all this I came to realize that maybe i should think about that a little bit more. That these are His children. And He loves them too. To say I have been spoiled over the last couple years probably wouldn't be the best way to put I have sure been blessed. The Lord has taken care of me so much and if this is the way it's got to all go down at the end then so be it I guess. I am so grateful for the lesson I am learning right now. We are going to keep working and this area will continue to progress and grow. I know that. This is the Lord's work and He is hastening it. I am so grateful that I have been able to experience that over the last couple of years. I love the Lord. He has been so good to me. I love His work! I just gotta keep running and then turn the page. I'm also always going to remember that the Lord knows best. I love you all! Have a great week!
With Love,
Elder Smith
ps I loved this thought and thought I would share it!
"I had done everything I had been taught to do. We had prayed and received a strong impression to select this doctor. We had fasted and prayed and felt certain that our infant son would be healed through faith and through the power of the priesthood. Yet the Lord had not intervened. Our faith it seems had been no more than vain hope. I began to question everything I had ever believed. As I walked, I felt betrayed and angry. I was overcome with pain.
I am not proud of the conversation I had with Heavenly Father as I walked and wept that morning. After a time, I got hold of myself emotionally. I remember the words of a children’s Primary song coming into my mind. “Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer?” Because you clearly haven’t been listening to mine or maybe you just don’t really care about me and my son. (“A Child’s Prayer,” Children’s Songbook, 12.)
In that moment, a tender mercy came. In my mind and heart, I felt these words: “Kevin, he is my son too.” The clarity of the prompting was unmistakable. I realized in that moment that I had not understood the purpose of prayer at all. I had assumed that, just because I had a righteous cause, I could use the priesthood and fasting and prayer to change the will of God."
-Kevin W Pearson
As you can see I'm starting to take the diet very seriously. Also you gotta love the sign!
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