Soooo, first of all happy birthday old man! 45!! haahaha, I bet that scares you a bit? How is the mid life crisis? Love you Dad.
This week has been busy, but really good for both work and zone leader stuff. Right now I have 4 companions, Elders Smith, Johnson, Whitehead and Musser... All 4 of which are going home this Thursday. You would think that having 4 elders who are about to go home would not be good for getting work done, however, we have all been working like crazy. So right now our area, Teaoraereke 2nd, is doing so well, but, after Thursday things will slow down as its back down to 2 zone leaders.
By the way I have some exciting news, Elder Graham (MTC companion) will be Zone Leader with me! Originally he was meant to be training a greeny on an outer island but he got injured in the MTC. And I was meant to be with Elder Grant (from Perth) but Elder Grant went out to Banaba (first time elders have been there) a couple of weeks ago, and they are stuck there until end of July... if the boat comes. So yeah, Elder Graham and I will be learning to be Zone Leaders together.
We had 4 baptisms this week! Nei Tereaua, Nei Kaaua, Nei Beni and Nei Tyty. Really good baptism and really got to know them all pretty well. But out of the 4 of them, Nei Tereaua was just something else, she is straight up gold. She was so excited for her baptism, she would take notes in our lessons, has some really good questions for the Book of Mormon all the time, her testimony is beautiful and really has found joy and peace in Christs gospel. She just got married this Wednesday as well and her husband (Konorio) is a story in its self. Konorio back in the day was in the branch presidency but his old wife cheated on him and after that he fell pretty hard into drinking and smoking. but then he met Tereaua, they stayed together, Tereaua started taking lessons and he gave up drinking and smoking and is now active again! And I can already see them going to the temple. No doubt.
So yeah, work here in Teaoraereke is pretty ridiculous, so many people are just golden... We have 27 investigators right now! Will tell you more about them through out the weeks. Its sad that zone leaders work here so investigators don't get full attention all the time but will have to learn how to prioritise.
And for your new friend at church... I have learnt a lot about prayer, priesthood blessings, fasting and things that involve asking favours from Heavenly Father. Blessings really do come from these things, praying for those that are in need of comfort, fasting for help in our problems, priesthood blessings for people that are sick. And if its done with faith in Jesus Christ, I know first sure all these forms of asking can be answered straight away, through the comfort of the Holy Ghost. However people will miss these feelings if they expect their physical answers in the manner they expect.
I feel like we need to remember that Heavenly Father's will is whats best. And we need to remember the example that we should follow, Our Savoir, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the perfect example of doing the Fathers will. I'm not saying that we should stop asking Heavenly Father for things in prayer. Even Jesus Christ, when in the garden of Gethsemane, asked the Father if there was another way for him not go through what he went through, but still faithful to his Father in Heaven and said, not my will but thine will be done.
So the true pattern of prayer, does include asking for blessings, however, it also includes seeking for the will of the Father. This might seem harsh, but in the end its whats going to bring us true peace of heart. Wish I was better at using a language to express my thoughts but hopeful it makes sense.
So yeah, also, I'm really sorry and it really sucks but, since not having a camera for so long I don't have that desire to take photos anymore if I see some thing cool. I'm sure i will relearn but for now I'm just grabbing everyone else photos.
So thats about it love y'all
Love Elder Berends
No comments:
Post a Comment