Week 14

This week has been more of a struggle than other weeks. Maybe it's because I am stressed about transfers or something. I have found it difficult to be selfless. I knew that I would have to be selfless like Christ to be a good missionary, but as I am only a few months in I am finding it daunting to keep this up for 20 and a half more months! It's hard to believe that Christ did this his whole life perfectly. What a stud... I am excited to see my new companion Elder Judkins. Word on the street is that he is a very good missionary. I thought my trainer was very obedient, but he is telling me that this new guy is even more so. Oh boy. I've heard nothing but awesome stuff. One thing that really helped me this week was a letter that my good friend Alex Stout wrote me. I read it as I was looking to read a pick me up, to get me stoked for missionary work. He said that 99% obedience brings many blessings but 100% obedience brings miracles. This stood out to me as I was struggling to be selfless continually. He shared Matthew 10:39 which says, "he that finder his life shall lose it:and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it". This helped me realize that giving 70% of myself or 80% isn't going to do me much good. Yeah it will bring blessings, but why not give him everything I have? I tell people all the time, "you can't put a crumb on the throne of God without  receiving a whole loaf of bread back." How can I ask them to go put everything on the line and be baptized and rely on Christ if I am not willing to give all of myself for his work. It is a big task, and it's not easy, but as I lean on him more I have seen the increase in blessings. Get ready to hear about some miracles soon.

I may have forgotten to let you all know, but we had a baptism 2 weeks ago... elder Norton and I baptized the car. He said he had only heard of baptizing a car being a myth so he wanted to turn it into legend and make history. Since we came back from splits, and another elder was logged into the GPS system who is going home in a few weeks, we took it to triple digits on the freeway. Baptism. We drive a racecar. It may look like a corolla, but wait until you look under the hood. 😉

Met with lots of people this week. We normally have about 20 lessons a week. We have 30ish investigators, which is a lot. We had a good lesson with the Kuipo family. They're from Cameroon. It's hard explaining the difference between the trinity and the godhead because Christ was so perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. He is often referred to as our God in the scriptures. Brother Kuipo asks "was he the son of God or was he God himself?" It is hard for him to accept that the godhead is 3 personages who are perfectly one in purpose. I think it's hard for me or anyone for that matter to comprehend what perfect really means. There was a good talk this Sunday about how God is perfect because he has a perfect knowledge and understanding of the gospel. When Christ said "be perfect" he knew we couldn't be perfect as the Father was perfect because we do not have a good enough comprehension of the gospel. We must be perfect according to our knowledge of the gospel and our understanding of it. We must also seek to gain more understanding. One of my challenges is to get our investigator Donna Head to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She is so ready  but doesn't see it. She loves the bible but is hard for her to accept the Book of Mormon. She reads what we tell her to, takes notes, and draws parallels to the bible! She just doesn't recognize the spirit telling her it's true, or hasn't had that experience yet. I'm trying to figure out how I can get her stoked and feasting on the words of Christ which are in the Book of mormon!!

                                                           

Love you all. Please send me updates!! I'm out of the loop, so send pictures and emails. Don't be a stranger!