Wednesday, August 14, 2013
August 13, 2013
Dear family and friends,
This week I've been reading in 3 Nephi with a lot of my investigators.
particularly 11 and onwards, and I read for one of the first times the sermon on the mount as it is contained in the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible, and I found the be attitudes to have particular significance for me this past week.
These past couple of weeks my companion and I were having a lot of trouble with finding success with harvesting. Sometimes it was that no one was opening their doors, sometimes it was that those who did weren't interesting in praying with us. When those weren't a problem though we found that, being Spanish missionaries, Spanish people just weren't what we were finding.
our harvesting was still good however, on the good days we were able to provide a lot of references to other language missionaries, but I have to admit that I was a bit discouraged by it, and I started to feel like it was affecting how my days were going.
Than last week while accounting with my district leader on a particularly bad day of harvesting, my district leader asked me what I thought was a peculiar question,and that was whether I was enjoying doing harvesting? I said a little, but I did realize than that a lot of the fire I had had when I came out had been extinguished.
This led him to ask us to do a little bit of introspecting, on what it was that we could do to the factors of the work that we controlled to better our harvesting, follow-up and therefore new investigator numbers.
We came to decide among other things that though we had felt that the areas we had been harvesting were to some degree inspired, we had placed a type of harvesting zone out of our plans, and that was trailer parks. So for the next day we planned to harvest there at a trailer park, and pleaded with the Lord that he would give us people that we could teach.
That was 3 days ago I think, and at that point, we were getting about 2.5 harvest blessings a day, and maybe .5 of those were Spanish. Since then we've had about 8 per day, with about 6 of those being Spanish.
This is one of the most drastic miracles I have seen in my mission so far and I credit it to three factors;
1. The tender mercies of the Lord to his servants
2. We did as the savior did, and instead of ignoring the humble, we've acknowledged them as the inheritors of the world (those who will receive the gospel as shown in the scriptures) those who a lot of time have hard times.
3. That in that time of drought of blessings, we had been humbled, and we had come to acknowledge that the Lord alone could provide us with success in our purpose in his work,
and through Him alone could these people receive his gospel.
Love,
Elder Low.
PS: Spanish is great.sort of, I'm no professional.
This week I've been reading in 3 Nephi with a lot of my investigators.
particularly 11 and onwards, and I read for one of the first times the sermon on the mount as it is contained in the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible, and I found the be attitudes to have particular significance for me this past week.
These past couple of weeks my companion and I were having a lot of trouble with finding success with harvesting. Sometimes it was that no one was opening their doors, sometimes it was that those who did weren't interesting in praying with us. When those weren't a problem though we found that, being Spanish missionaries, Spanish people just weren't what we were finding.
our harvesting was still good however, on the good days we were able to provide a lot of references to other language missionaries, but I have to admit that I was a bit discouraged by it, and I started to feel like it was affecting how my days were going.
Than last week while accounting with my district leader on a particularly bad day of harvesting, my district leader asked me what I thought was a peculiar question,and that was whether I was enjoying doing harvesting? I said a little, but I did realize than that a lot of the fire I had had when I came out had been extinguished.
This led him to ask us to do a little bit of introspecting, on what it was that we could do to the factors of the work that we controlled to better our harvesting, follow-up and therefore new investigator numbers.
We came to decide among other things that though we had felt that the areas we had been harvesting were to some degree inspired, we had placed a type of harvesting zone out of our plans, and that was trailer parks. So for the next day we planned to harvest there at a trailer park, and pleaded with the Lord that he would give us people that we could teach.
That was 3 days ago I think, and at that point, we were getting about 2.5 harvest blessings a day, and maybe .5 of those were Spanish. Since then we've had about 8 per day, with about 6 of those being Spanish.
This is one of the most drastic miracles I have seen in my mission so far and I credit it to three factors;
1. The tender mercies of the Lord to his servants
2. We did as the savior did, and instead of ignoring the humble, we've acknowledged them as the inheritors of the world (those who will receive the gospel as shown in the scriptures) those who a lot of time have hard times.
3. That in that time of drought of blessings, we had been humbled, and we had come to acknowledge that the Lord alone could provide us with success in our purpose in his work,
and through Him alone could these people receive his gospel.
Love,
Elder Low.
PS: Spanish is great.sort of, I'm no professional.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
August 5, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
I like Miami quite a bit actually. It felt a little hot when I first got here, but now mostly I just think it's too cold inside with all the AC. The clothes are working well, except I stained one shirt while I was opening a coconut, so I'm still trying to get the stains out of that one.
This week I have been reading in Heleman and Ether, specifically about Samuel the Lamanite and the brother of Jared, and I was really hit hard by the faith of the brother of Jared, that it was so great that the Lord could no longer hide his hand from him.
Faith is a strange and wonderful power. By faith the earths and heavens were built, and how it is important in the conversion process of any individual is still something I'm struggling to understand.
In our area there are quite a few people who just won't keep commitments. What makes this even sadder is that a lot of these people do believe to some extent or another that the church is true, and for the longest time I just could not understand what they could do, or what we could do to help them keep their commitments.
Though today it still stands as a somewhat unanswered question, one of our recent converts has given me one of the answers I've been looking for.
This man, a 60 year old new member broke his leg 2 weeks ago in a scooter accident, and two days later when we heard about it and were able to come down to see him, expecting him to be bed ridden, found him sitting up with the big smile on his face that he always has already telling us how he had planned to walk to church. Of course we didn't let him, we came and picked him up that week,
But the next week before we even had the chance to go down and pick him up, we found him pulling up to the church door on a mini bike with his walker thrown over the front.
How he got on to the bike I will never know, but that day I came to understand a bit better what Nephi said, for I know that the Lord gives no commandment save he prepares a way.
Week after week I get when following up with commitments, or even giving commitments, I hear reason after reason of why they couldn't or they can't, and I must admit that at times I have thought that the excuse was valid: had Nephi said I know not how to build a ship, that would have been a valid concern, had Samuel said they will kill me if I get on top of that wall, that would have been a valid concern, had the brother of Jared said I have not the knowledge as to how to light these ships, that would have been a valid concern. But the Lord does not ask if you will be able to, but will you.
I've realized that the removal of obstacles in a person’s conversion is not nearly as important as instilling them with the faith that if they trust in the Lord, that all things are possible.
Love you guys.
Elder Low.
I like Miami quite a bit actually. It felt a little hot when I first got here, but now mostly I just think it's too cold inside with all the AC. The clothes are working well, except I stained one shirt while I was opening a coconut, so I'm still trying to get the stains out of that one.
This week I have been reading in Heleman and Ether, specifically about Samuel the Lamanite and the brother of Jared, and I was really hit hard by the faith of the brother of Jared, that it was so great that the Lord could no longer hide his hand from him.
Faith is a strange and wonderful power. By faith the earths and heavens were built, and how it is important in the conversion process of any individual is still something I'm struggling to understand.
In our area there are quite a few people who just won't keep commitments. What makes this even sadder is that a lot of these people do believe to some extent or another that the church is true, and for the longest time I just could not understand what they could do, or what we could do to help them keep their commitments.
Though today it still stands as a somewhat unanswered question, one of our recent converts has given me one of the answers I've been looking for.
This man, a 60 year old new member broke his leg 2 weeks ago in a scooter accident, and two days later when we heard about it and were able to come down to see him, expecting him to be bed ridden, found him sitting up with the big smile on his face that he always has already telling us how he had planned to walk to church. Of course we didn't let him, we came and picked him up that week,
But the next week before we even had the chance to go down and pick him up, we found him pulling up to the church door on a mini bike with his walker thrown over the front.
How he got on to the bike I will never know, but that day I came to understand a bit better what Nephi said, for I know that the Lord gives no commandment save he prepares a way.
Week after week I get when following up with commitments, or even giving commitments, I hear reason after reason of why they couldn't or they can't, and I must admit that at times I have thought that the excuse was valid: had Nephi said I know not how to build a ship, that would have been a valid concern, had Samuel said they will kill me if I get on top of that wall, that would have been a valid concern, had the brother of Jared said I have not the knowledge as to how to light these ships, that would have been a valid concern. But the Lord does not ask if you will be able to, but will you.
I've realized that the removal of obstacles in a person’s conversion is not nearly as important as instilling them with the faith that if they trust in the Lord, that all things are possible.
Love you guys.
Elder Low.
July 29, 2013
Hey people of Canada,
I can’t find any raingear down here even though it rains all of the time. I love my companion and I my Spanish, well mi espanol es no bien, pero llega a ser mejor dia por dia. Entonces esta bien.
The members are really good (maybe too good) about feeding us, so there is no chance I'll starve, and the money with the mission card is fine. I mean it's not like I'm buying turkey dinner, but it's all good. My supply of cash is a little low because I bought a side bag to conform with new mission rules, but that's okay too.
My apartment has spiders and cockroaches and all that jazz, but you get used to it really fast, other than that it's actually a really good apartment.
I saw a mouse in the morning a while ago and then named him john, when we killed him, I had a day of mourning, which basically entailed me eating breakfast all day.....get it? morning? breakfast?
(((((((((((: (Editor’s note, you can see that Dallin still has the same corny sense of humor). But life is good.
This week in the Book of Mormon I read in Enos which was a book that I had pretty much ignored before my mission, but now have really come to admire Enos. Enos was just a regular guy before he took his pinnacle hunting trip, he hunted and probably preformed regular social activities. To what degree he practiced his religion is not recorded; in fact the only thing we really know about Enos is that his father was a prophet and had taught him about Jesus Christ, and that through Christ all might receive a remission of their sins. We know not to what degree he believed in his religion in his past, but we do know that he had sinned in the past, as he spends all day and all night crying unto the Lord for a forgiveness of his sins, and that this event changed his life.
Enos was taught the word of God probably since he was a child, yet it was only as a man that he came to understand them, and came to understand them to such a degree that he too like his father becomes a prophet of God. This is incredibly interesting to me, and reminds me of the words the Lord said to Samuel, "For man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart." How oft the father of Enos must have cried to the Lord that he might understand, and how oft many people must have thought that Enos never would.
And yet when no one was looking, and possibly when no one was expecting it, he changed into a prophet of the almighty.
I can only imagine the surprise and joy in the eyes of his father when he say his son return, no longer the man he was.
God prepares and helps in his own time and in his own ways, and this often means when we're not even looking. But he does help, and he does prepare, our calling is to trust in him, and keep doing what we are able to.
Though in the end Enos repented out of the sight of his father, can we imagine what would have occurred if his father had given up on his and not preached the words that would one day ring in his mind and eventually bring to pass his conversion because he felt like he couldn't see the results?
This week we've had the opportunity to teach a fairly new investigator, he's tons of problems in the past, it seems when we weren't even looking he has changed.
This particular investigator reminds me incredibly of Enos, his father was a member of the church, yet for a long time he has been away from those teachings that his father cherished.
but in Gods own time, and in his own way he has brought his back to the knowledge of the truth,
and I am fully sure that this man has the potential to be one of the saints of God, that as he is wrought on and feels the power of the Lord's majesty, this man who before many may thought would never change, very well may have the chance to walk in through the gates of the temple of the almighty."
Elder Low
I can’t find any raingear down here even though it rains all of the time. I love my companion and I my Spanish, well mi espanol es no bien, pero llega a ser mejor dia por dia. Entonces esta bien.
The members are really good (maybe too good) about feeding us, so there is no chance I'll starve, and the money with the mission card is fine. I mean it's not like I'm buying turkey dinner, but it's all good. My supply of cash is a little low because I bought a side bag to conform with new mission rules, but that's okay too.
My apartment has spiders and cockroaches and all that jazz, but you get used to it really fast, other than that it's actually a really good apartment.
I saw a mouse in the morning a while ago and then named him john, when we killed him, I had a day of mourning, which basically entailed me eating breakfast all day.....get it? morning? breakfast?
(((((((((((: (Editor’s note, you can see that Dallin still has the same corny sense of humor). But life is good.
This week in the Book of Mormon I read in Enos which was a book that I had pretty much ignored before my mission, but now have really come to admire Enos. Enos was just a regular guy before he took his pinnacle hunting trip, he hunted and probably preformed regular social activities. To what degree he practiced his religion is not recorded; in fact the only thing we really know about Enos is that his father was a prophet and had taught him about Jesus Christ, and that through Christ all might receive a remission of their sins. We know not to what degree he believed in his religion in his past, but we do know that he had sinned in the past, as he spends all day and all night crying unto the Lord for a forgiveness of his sins, and that this event changed his life.
Enos was taught the word of God probably since he was a child, yet it was only as a man that he came to understand them, and came to understand them to such a degree that he too like his father becomes a prophet of God. This is incredibly interesting to me, and reminds me of the words the Lord said to Samuel, "For man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart." How oft the father of Enos must have cried to the Lord that he might understand, and how oft many people must have thought that Enos never would.
And yet when no one was looking, and possibly when no one was expecting it, he changed into a prophet of the almighty.
I can only imagine the surprise and joy in the eyes of his father when he say his son return, no longer the man he was.
God prepares and helps in his own time and in his own ways, and this often means when we're not even looking. But he does help, and he does prepare, our calling is to trust in him, and keep doing what we are able to.
Though in the end Enos repented out of the sight of his father, can we imagine what would have occurred if his father had given up on his and not preached the words that would one day ring in his mind and eventually bring to pass his conversion because he felt like he couldn't see the results?
This week we've had the opportunity to teach a fairly new investigator, he's tons of problems in the past, it seems when we weren't even looking he has changed.
This particular investigator reminds me incredibly of Enos, his father was a member of the church, yet for a long time he has been away from those teachings that his father cherished.
but in Gods own time, and in his own way he has brought his back to the knowledge of the truth,
and I am fully sure that this man has the potential to be one of the saints of God, that as he is wrought on and feels the power of the Lord's majesty, this man who before many may thought would never change, very well may have the chance to walk in through the gates of the temple of the almighty."
Elder Low
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