Difficult Week And Dare To Be Mormon

It's Raining-Again!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Tortillas for the week 45, a lot of rain and a pair of shoes which are still wet after 3.5 days and going on to 4 days! This week was a rough one, a week of the cost of Discipleship as Elder Holland would say and a lot of just plain weeping. But hey that’s ok because every day is a new day. A new slate is before me by partaking of the sacrament yesterday. So our two baptisms fell through and I don’t know why. On the day the baptism interviews were to take place, I couldn’t shake the feeling I had that something wasn’t right. I just knew something was wrong and something was wrong they didn’t get baptized. But hey that’s ok because there is always a new day. I am seeing what Elder Holland said would happen in the life of missionaries, he said, "Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way. The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators." It is beyond true the Atonement has carried me so much this week. Because of Him I drop to my knees to pray and express everything to my Father in Heaven. Because of Him I read the Book Of Mormon to learn that He took upon Him my pain, my sins, my suffering, my afflictions, He took upon Him your sins, sorrow, pains and sadness. I know that one day Christ will wipe away ALL of our TEARS. He is already wiping some of mine away.

Rabbit Ears And Missionaries

I am truly learning that many people DO NOT know WHO JESUS CHRIST is. One night we were teaching a young man, Luis, and we asked him what do you know about Jesus Christ? He said not much. So I said when I say Jesus Christ, what are the first words that come to your mind? And he said ¿Quien es? Which is who is that? Who is Jesus Christ? After he said those words we shared with him that our message will bring you to a knowledge who Jesus Christ is and you will come to know Him for yourself. The past week and a half as I start my personal study, I have prayed that I may come to know who Christ is and that I may know Him better than I do right now so and I CAN explain who CHRIST is and to help the people to come to know who CHRIST IS.

Chillin' With The ZL'S, Elder Turner And Elder Gates

I gave a talk yesterday about missionary work; it was very interesting because I went on a different course than what I had prepared. I focused on preaching the gospel through our actions, that through our actions we show people who we are and what we stand for and that we must walk the walk before we can talk the talk. I also shared that there is only one language of the gospel; that being the Language of the SPIRIT. Then I started talking in English, I truly felt prompted to speak in English. I said in English it doesn’t matter what language I am speaking because the spirit can touch all your hearts. The spirit is the one that testifies not our native languages. We are just the vessels to teach the message of our Heavenly Father and His Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ. As I ended my talk I shared part of my testimony in English and Spanish. I said I know that Heavenly Father lives and answers our prayers. I know that Jesus is the living Christ, the Savior of the world, and there is a plan for each of us. I stopped for a minute and tears came to my eyes, and said “I'm a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it." For some reason at that moment it just hit me that I am a Mormon. I know it. I live it and I LOVE it. I can tell you that my testimony is truly being rebuilt one piece at a time; I get pieces when I need them and other pieces come when Heavenly Father knows I need them.

Downtown San Antonio Huista

I also taught Sunday School and the lesson I gave was “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” I shared the Mormon Message that President Monson shared from his experience he had in the Navy, “DARE TO STAND ALONE”  

After watching the video we talked about the quote President Monson shared:

Dare to be a Mormon;
Dare to stand alone.
Dare to have a purpose firm;
Dare to make it known.
I challenge all of you to do the same thing, Dare to be a Mormon, Dare to have a purpose firm, and DARE TO MAKE IT KNOWN. Choose ye this day who ye will serve by being a Mormon and to stand for what you believe, be the Mormon Christ wants you to be and please don’t say some day I will dare to be a Mormon and make it known. President Eyring says this about someday, “There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is ‘not this day.’ ‘Someday I will repent.’ ‘Someday I will forgive him.’ ‘Someday I will speak to my friend about the Church.’ ‘Someday I will start to pay tithing.’ ‘Someday I will return to the temple.’ ‘Someday …’ The thought ‘Someday I will’ can be a thief of the opportunities of time and the blessings of eternity” Do not be that person, commit to read the scriptures every day, choose to serve Heavenly Father each day and dare to be a Mormon, do not be ashamed about being a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The greatest joy I have in life is being a Mormon, a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fear no man only fear God and choose this day whom ye will serve. God or the devil. I pray that we all choose God and serve Him forever.

Time For The Daily Rain

What I love about Mom is that she always tells me what I need to hear. What I love about Dad is that he gave me my name John.

Ducks Forever, with love

Elder Mcilmoil
May 19, 2014

Loving Some Dinner

Scripture of the week: 3 Nephi 5:13

“Come what may and LOVE it.” Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin 

“You were born to lead as men and women willing ‘to stand as witnesses of God at all timesand in all things, and in all places,’ because that’s what a true leader does” Sheri Dew 

“A morning prayer and an early search in the scriptures to know what we should do for the Lord can set the course of a day. We can know which task, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us.” President Henry B. Eyring 

Slide: Guatemalan Style

Yep Your Going To Get Slivers