The Gospel Offers Us Change

Tortillas for the week: 30 

This week has been crazy! Elder Chavez and I both have been sick with a stomach bug in a bad way, but we just kept working. So much to do in such a short amount of time. Anyway during my studies I have learned in addition to giving my time, means and abilities to be a true successful missionary I have to give my heart and will to the Lord. I need to accept and submit to His will. I cannot be stubborn and fight against His will. I can’t just do good things while my heart is desiring to do what I want to do. My heart aches knowing so many times I have fought against the Lord’s will or I did something good but with a hardness of heart. I’m so grateful for what this gospel offers us: CHANGE! I testify of change, I have seen change in so many people’s lives and I have seen it in my own life. I am so grateful for the Savior and I gives thanks to the Father for providing a Savior for us to change through His Atonement. The Savior extends a hand of unending grace. It is through His grace that I am trying hard every day to be a faithful representative of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m doing my best. I have a lot of weaknesses and there is a lot to learn but I am serving with all my heart and strength. I am trying to give all that I have to give to the Lord and to lose myself in His work.

We taught 2 lessons this that really stick out in my mind, one was with a family and the other was with a single man who has a set baptismal date. The first lesson I want to share is with the family; we have been teaching their 15 year old son and we needed to get his parents’ permission for his baptism. That morning Elder Chavez asks me, so what are we going to teach this family? I asked have you ever had the experience in going to visit a family to explain why their son wants to be baptized and to teach them what we believe? He said no. So we made a plan to explain about the church and following in the Lord’s footsteps. We show up to the house with a member and we start to teach by sharing the articles of faith so we can provide them a basic understanding of what the church believes. They could see that their son knows that this church is true. As we were teaching we focused on the priesthood, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and that Jesus Christ lives and is the resurrected Lord. As we were discussing article of faith number 8, they ask, what is the Book of Mormon? We explain in greater detail and then the Dad ask us, “Do you guys use the Book of Mormon more than the Bible?” I said, “Hermano we do use the Book of Mormon more because it contains the evidence that this is the only true church and it is the fruit of the prophet Joseph Smith. We use it more to gain a better understanding of the gospel of Jesucristo.” We shared with them that there is no other book that will draw them nearer to God than Book of Mormon and then we testified of the Book of Mormon. They said ok, we understand it is to clarify the doctrine of the Bible since there is only one true doctrine. It was amazing to see their hearts open up to the spirit to receive and recognize truth. As we ended we bore witness of the divinity of the Savior. It was a great lesson as the spirit touched each of us. 

The second lesson we taught was to a man named Bryan. Another amazing lesson because of a way he answered a question. We found out that he has smoking problems. We asked him why do you want to stop, he gave the normal casca; but then he said, “I don’t want to even image my son or daughter with a beer or a cigarro in his or her hand. I couldn’t tell them not to do that because that is what I am doing.” As he said that I had tears come to my eyes because I saw that this man was looking to his future, he wants to repent, he want to be better and to become the son our Heavenly Father wants him to be. It was truly a humbling experience. This showed me that I must look to the future also, to make choices that my own children will be proud of. 

What I love about Mom is that she would cut the crust off my sandwiches for me when I was little and what I love about Dad is the hours he would spend with me working on my pinewood derby car.

con much amor, ducks forever,

Elder Mcilmoil

June 1, 2015

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 9:50-51 

“By His words and His example, Christ has shown us how to draw closer to Him.” President Henry B. Eyring

“He invites us to be close to Him”President Henry B. Eyring

“God is a God of truth and He doesn’t change.” Elder Dallin H. Oaks 

“If you don’t raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?” Elder L. Tom Perry