well cant really report as strong as last week sadly. the spiritual high drained me but that is OK and not really much of an excuse for not having a higher output.
Definitely I have become way too complacent and comfortable with the mission. Automatically last week I assumed that 'hey, I must be changed a lot like the Lord wants me to be.' When in reality I was struck down pretty hard at just how much more there is and that I have barely scratched the surface.
We had a District meeting this past Tuesday on humility, how many are called but few are chosen, and also decisions in the 'critical moments.' Needless to say I was called upon to give the humility talk because my pride had slowly gotten bigger, yikes! I am talking about the pride that is "well, we could knock doors right now or we could see if so-and-so is home instead" or the pride that keeps my mouth closed because I am not humble enough to open it. Quite frankly its kind of disturbing how much greater of an experience a mission can be if I will humble myself to dust and trust God.
Well defined by Elder Thurgood, was a talk about the 'critical moments' in our lives, especially as a missionary. The critical moment of decision comes when you are faced with a decision that requires choice between 2 obviously different choices and carrying one out. Bad example "I'll hit the snooze just one more time" good example "well, let's knock this street since this appointment just canceled." Sadly I could be doing much better! However I am grateful how intensely this has been brought to my attention.
We had the sweet opportunity to speak in sacrament yesterday which always gets me excited. Not to boast of myself but to boast of my God. Essentially I came up with 3 questions, who are the righteous? what qualifies them to be called the righteous? and what are their characteristics? Ultimately it came down to one topic...yep you guessed it, hearing the voice of the Lord. We find the voice of the Lord in many ways but I listed 3 specifically. 1- His servants (prophets, apostles, etc...) 2- The scriptures (if you want to talk to God, get on your knees. If you want God to talk to you, open the scriptures) 3- The Gift of the Holy Ghost (we all have the divine gift of a God for assistance!). However the commandments must be kept to qualify us as well.
We had some awesome new investigators at Church yesterday. In Gospel Principles, he introduced himself and said he was thinking about joining the ward. Little does he know exactly how much of an eternal impact that has... The family's work schedule is by far the biggest obstacle but we are way stoked. They are close. The wife has been attending for a while and the response to "Do you feel this is true?" was "Yes" followed by one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard. Ultimately she says she is working towards her baptism which gets any missionary a little giddy. Glorious.
We tried to teach an Atheist for the 2nd time this week but he keeps kicking against the pricks so there isn't much to do. All of his friends have tried to save him with, quite frankly, false doctrine so one kind of understands the confusion he has. Kind of taught myself a powerful principle during the lesson though which is 'if God exists then there is 1 truth, 1 religion for all human kind.' We pulled out a Joseph Smith card out of context that fit quite well. He said what keeps him motivated is his family and love and not any religion would do that for him, to which our reply was 'that is our religion.' Glory
We met a less active in the ward going through some really tough struggles but a really nice guy none the less that knows the Gospel is restored. One of his concerns was 'they give us too much work and expect too much out of us.' Even myself, may draw this conclusion but what must be understood is that we are all in training to become perfect leaders! If that's what you want, you've got to learn first. I forgot how the saying goes, something like how we are not about believing or doing but becoming. Fantastic
Well Felipe is on a business trip in Brazil right now for 2 weeks sadly. We said bye to him on Wednesday. Transfers are in a week so who knows what is going to happen. Vanessa is staying but not much 2 missionaries can do about it for obvious reasons. (we have a home teaching lesson tomorrow though).
Thank you for your letter and email
love you
elder mark metcalf
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