Wow
this week went by super fast! I felt like it was just yesterday I was
emailing everyone! Great to hear that everyone is safe
This
week was definitely a roller coaster and a half. The first thing that I
wanted to share is that for anyone looking for a great read in the bible, I
recommend Ecclesiastes. The writer really shows the beauty of the
transitoriness of this world. That everything is temporary, but with the
knowledge of the plan of salvation, we know that everything from this world
will be left behind, but our relationships, loved ones, etc will move with us
onto the next life. I'm eternally grateful for the plan of salvation and
the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus christ in my life!
This
week also we dropped our investigator David, the semi-crazy guy from last
week! WE taught him for 2 hours and finished our discussion of the plan
of salvation, the validity of the Book of Mormon, etc with 2 Nephi 33:10-11:
10 And
now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth,
hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in
these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye
will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ,
and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they
should do good.
11 And
if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you,
with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last
day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know
that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my
weakness.
What
a powerful ending as I looked him in the eye and told him, with the support of
my two companions at the time, in essence, "Well David, we will see you at
the Judgement Bar then, and I and my companions and millions will testify to
you of the truthfulness of God's word. " He felt the Spirit as the
words, not my words but the words of the Spirit, came from my mouth. He
told us he wants to be remembered as the man who told us that we believe in a
false book and prophet and mock the bible. As we left the cafe, my
companions elder day and olson both said "Yeah, we will remember him
at the last day." It was slightly funny, but I came away from that
cafe that day knowing that we were servants of God, that we spoke the words of
Christ, and that the Lord protects and testifies through his servatns.
What an extremely powerful experience! I know it sounds like we were
rude, but we only spoke the things taht the Spirit gave us. We told each
other and ourselves not to argue or fight, and thats all he wanted to do and
tried to prove every concept taht we believed in was wrong. We spoke as
ones having authority! It was a great spiritual experience, and we walked
home singing Called to Serve loud and proud.
This
week we also had an awesome miracle of a man coming to the church and ringing
our doorbell. We answered the door to a wonderful: "I want to know
about the Latter Day Saint Church." We were in the middle of weekly
planning, but you better believe we dropped everything to teach this man.
Taught for 30 minutes before having to go back and finish. What a great
miracle from God! He was supposed to come to church on Sunday but didn't
make it for some reason. We don't have his number so we are praying that
he will come again.
Well
this week was amazing, it all goes faster and faster and snowballs until we
come to the end of our time. One of my companions once gave me this
reason for time going faster as we get older, longer, etc: "Well if
you think about it, when you were 5, the reason why it seemed like a year was
so long was because it was 1/5 of your life. Now your 21 and its only
1/21 of your life. As you get older eventually its 1/60 or 1/80 of your
life." Some profound words, but true, as we get older, or longer
into something, the time we spend in it becomes shorter because of its
percentage, on the whole. Remember that as we go about our time here.
Our time here on Earth is precious and needs to be spent wisely. This
time is a time for men to prepare to meet God. I pray that each one of us
is doing all we can to prepare to meet God. Reading the scriptures, regular
church attendance and sacrament, temple attendance is all fine and dandy.
But also, spending time with your family (or husband/wife), practicing skills
like music or art, increasing our learning, understanding, wisdom. All of
this is extremely important to returning to the presence of our Heavenly
Father. Remember this: Therein Lies wisdom brethren (and sisters).
I
love all of you. May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ fall upon all of
you this week!
With
much love,
Elder
Yamagata
https://plus.google.com/u/0/117955201172198470717/posts/V6wakqq6sWZ?cfem=1&pid=6124062414698383154&oid=117955201172198470717
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