Week 56

AREA: Central Tucson 
COMPANION: Elder Esplin

 

 Friends and Family,

Monday: Today we went on a hike with the district which was pretty fun and after we did that Roy brought us to lunch to Costa Vida which is pretty much Cafe Rio. Rest of the day we spend running around doing things for pday. Had a lesson with Bryan which went well. 

Tuesday: Exchanged today which was fun. I was with Elder Wilson in our area for the day. Elder Wilson is from Samoa and has been out for a little bit longer than I have. Taught the Plan of Salvation to Michael and his daughter Madiana. Lesson went great! Went over to a less actives and talked about the word of wisdom. He had a pretty rough week last week:/ hopefully things get better soon.

Wednesday: Zone meeting today, went pretty good. Had another lesson with Michael and his daughter. Taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and once again he loved it! She loves it as well. He has already recognized the blessings of the gospel. 

Thursday: Went to the Family History center today with Melissa a recent convert. Had a blast helping her find family names. For those of you that havent done family history should try it, its actually alot of fun. Its like solving a puzzle, except the work travels over into the next life. While at the Family History center a woman walked in asking about what time church started. The family history center is far away from our area and when we looked up her address she was in our area! Couldn't believe it! She invited us over to her house to teach her and her 4 kids! Never been to a mormon church and wanted to learn more about us. After all that we had a great lesson with Payge and Payton making prayer rocks:) Had a lesson with Michael and Madiana again and it went awesome! they both accepted a baptism date for the 29th of October. 

Friday: Pretty good planning day. Spent a majority of the day planning. Gave a guy a blessing at the hospital which went well. Had a correlation meeting with Brother Washburn.

Saturday: Temple trip day! it went great! Thanks to my awesome grandma I was able to do work for my own ancestors and so was elder Esplin. I was able to proxy baptize my companion again! super cool! After the temple we had dinner and while walking out to the car a person came up to us and said that she was meeting with the missionaries in mesa and was going to get baptized and didnt end up doing it. On the spot she committed to prepare to baptized on the 29th of October as well. We then went to a lesson with Dawn and her 4 kids Angela, Ryley, Kimberly, and Cody. We taught the restoration and it was super fun. I always use the analogy of how Christ gospel when he was on the earth was like a perfect vase and after his death and his apostles death the vase "shattered". Priesthood was gone, there wasn't a prophet leading and guiding the people, etc. The people wanted to follow Christ so they took bits and pieces of the "vase" that shattered and did what they could. Without authority though it wasn't quiet like it was, which was perfect. With the restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith, the "vase" or gospel was restored to its original beauty. We bought accouple vases at the dollar store and actually broke the vase for the lesson and had a non broken one for the restored gospel section. IT WAS SO COOL! We set baptismal dates for the 29th with all of them:) 

Sunday:  Awesome day again! Church was fantastic! Dawn, Kimberly, and Cody came to church. They said they all had a great experience and said they really wanted to come back. After church a man came in and noticed our flag was not at half mast, the young men forgot that you're supposed to do that. So we fixed it and then ended up talking with him about the gospel. Had some interesting conversation, didn't go very far, but it was cool. Taught another awesome lesson tonight! The woman that came up to us and said she wanted to get baptized we had a lesson with and her husband. We ended up talking about their situation and what the plan is. Set two more baptismal dates! We currently have 9 baptism dates all for the 29th of October! Can't believe how blessed we are to have such an amazing pool of investigators who were prepared. 

I Love this gospel so much! I know the gospel has been restored, and that just like it was prophesied that, "a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;"(2 Tim. . Now with a great apostasy, Gods authority is not on the earth and there isn't a prophet leading the people through Gods word. Without authority we could not do as we are instructed to do in John 3:5 "be born of water and of the spirit". Only through Gods priesthood we can properly perform those ordinances. Just like how I can't go and give someone a ticket for speeding. I don't have the authority to do so even though my intentions are good, we need to leave it to those who have authority(Hebrews 5:4). 

We are all on this earth to learn and grow so we can return to live with God again. It's through baptism by water and the spirit(The Gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts 8: 14-17) we can be prepared to receive the blessings God has in store for us. 

Now if you're not aware that the gospel has been restored, it was prophesied that the second coming of Christ would not happen,"until the times of restitution(def.restoration) of all things"(Acts 4:19-20)

I know this Gospel was restored through a prophet named Joseph Smith. I know that the priesthood has been restored, and that this is Christs church once again on the earth today. I love this gospel and I love the blessings that come from striving my best to live it. Not everyday is the happiest or the easiest. But through the gospel of Jesus Christ, my days can be easier. I know this to be true because I have prayed about it(James 1:5), seen the blessings of the gospel in my life and those around me, and that it has all the great fruits that Christ church had while he was physically on the earth.(Heb.13:8) 

Love you all! I hope you have a great week!! Thanks for everything you do :) 

Love,

Elder Smith