I am extremely humbled by the experience
of Porter and his example. Little kids who are without guile, like he is, they
see what they see and they say it how it is. There is no covering up or beating
around the bush with him. He gets the point out Innocent and pure and there is
no judgment or hypocrisy. He boldly declares what he knows to be right. That's
the way we all should be. Be not afraid. So thank you Porter for you example.
You keep on softening those hearts and being that wonderful missionary that you
are :) Be as a little child. Those words are so true.
I am happy to hear of Jessica and her joining together in matrimony between her and Cody. That must have been an important day in her life, and so it deserves all of the congratulations suited for the occasion.
I am happy to hear of Jessica and her joining together in matrimony between her and Cody. That must have been an important day in her life, and so it deserves all of the congratulations suited for the occasion.
Wow so you saw Brock this week?! That is
awesome! How is he doing? How are the marines treating him? Sheesh it feels
like it’s been an Eon since I have seen him. I really do miss him, but it’s
weird because I see a few similarities between him and Elder Johnson. It’s been
pretty cool. Like sometimes I look at Elder Johnson and it feels like dejavue.
But then my mind reflects to Brock and I'm like no wonder, that is something
that Brock would do. So it’s been pretty fun serving with him. I hope that we
get another transfer together. It is midway through this transfer and it seems
like it has flown by! I don't even know where the time is going. I feel like
some days I should just sit in my apartment so that way the time will go
slower, but no matter what I do the time will go by in equal proportions so why
not work it to death :) Also I will get no better by just sitting there. So
that would make it void and I wouldn't be able to accomplish much.
This week has been way hard trying to get the goals down and working effectively. Like I have done more planning this week and visiting less active members than I have done in a while. Also I have made more phone calls this week to members to try to get to know them than I ever have done. It has helped me to learn and grow and to be able to step outside of the box. Like for example I used to spend all of my time just going out and trying to find new investigators, but that will only get me so far. If I go out looking for new investigators then I will be able to find what I am looking for. I have discovered that if I look for a member present and do my best then we will have a member present. Also if I put in the work to have someone go to church then eventually someone will come to church. But if we find for a baptism, go out looking for someone who is ready to be baptized, not just taught, then miracles will happen. Granted it hasn't happened yet, but we have been able to experience the fruits of steady constant effort towards achieving goals. Like this week we had a possible four say that they would be able to make it to church with us. Now none of them came, but that right there was testimony enough for me to know that we had the potential to get four to church. The Lord was just giving us a little taste of victory that way so we could want it more. Now why is that, when before this week rarely anyone has said that they will come to church? The fact of the matter is that we focused on getting people to church and so therefore the Lord will grant unto us the righteous desires of our hearts, but that isn't without us first putting forth the needed effort. We distributed an adequate amount of time specifically to invite people and to explain why coming to church is so important. A few people weren't even investigators and we talked to them for about 10 minutes as to why they should attend church with us. But that correlated into our investigators realizing the importance of church attendance. Now only imagine if we could do that for baptism. (which is what we are starting to understand :)) so that was pretty intense and I'm still trying to understand the doctrine and importance of setting goals. Weekly planning is the bane of my existence, but President re-emphasized that it will be the difference between success and not success. So I have tried to sit down and plan things out. Which has been extremely hard for me. I was never the one to go by a time schedule or even neatly organized, so this is making me learn and grow. We have actually been working pretty close with this 16 year old and she is the furthest progressing investigator that Elder Johnson has ever been able to teach, so we are extremely happy about that. She is set for baptism in September, the reason it being so far away is that she works on the weekends and so she has a hard time getting off for church. Hopefully she said that this upcoming Sunday she will be able to come. Just have to keep on hoping and having faith.
Oh yeah by the way, covering both areas has been fun! We actually bought a bike odometer to see how far we travel in a day’s time. We average about 17 miles a day and spend over two hours of the day on a bike. So that has been amazing. Other than my bum getting sore, I am loving life with how much activity is offers :) Also yes I did receive Grandmas and Grandpas package that they sent in the mail. So tell them thanks for me!
Love you all!
Elder Dallas Taylor
This week has been way hard trying to get the goals down and working effectively. Like I have done more planning this week and visiting less active members than I have done in a while. Also I have made more phone calls this week to members to try to get to know them than I ever have done. It has helped me to learn and grow and to be able to step outside of the box. Like for example I used to spend all of my time just going out and trying to find new investigators, but that will only get me so far. If I go out looking for new investigators then I will be able to find what I am looking for. I have discovered that if I look for a member present and do my best then we will have a member present. Also if I put in the work to have someone go to church then eventually someone will come to church. But if we find for a baptism, go out looking for someone who is ready to be baptized, not just taught, then miracles will happen. Granted it hasn't happened yet, but we have been able to experience the fruits of steady constant effort towards achieving goals. Like this week we had a possible four say that they would be able to make it to church with us. Now none of them came, but that right there was testimony enough for me to know that we had the potential to get four to church. The Lord was just giving us a little taste of victory that way so we could want it more. Now why is that, when before this week rarely anyone has said that they will come to church? The fact of the matter is that we focused on getting people to church and so therefore the Lord will grant unto us the righteous desires of our hearts, but that isn't without us first putting forth the needed effort. We distributed an adequate amount of time specifically to invite people and to explain why coming to church is so important. A few people weren't even investigators and we talked to them for about 10 minutes as to why they should attend church with us. But that correlated into our investigators realizing the importance of church attendance. Now only imagine if we could do that for baptism. (which is what we are starting to understand :)) so that was pretty intense and I'm still trying to understand the doctrine and importance of setting goals. Weekly planning is the bane of my existence, but President re-emphasized that it will be the difference between success and not success. So I have tried to sit down and plan things out. Which has been extremely hard for me. I was never the one to go by a time schedule or even neatly organized, so this is making me learn and grow. We have actually been working pretty close with this 16 year old and she is the furthest progressing investigator that Elder Johnson has ever been able to teach, so we are extremely happy about that. She is set for baptism in September, the reason it being so far away is that she works on the weekends and so she has a hard time getting off for church. Hopefully she said that this upcoming Sunday she will be able to come. Just have to keep on hoping and having faith.
Oh yeah by the way, covering both areas has been fun! We actually bought a bike odometer to see how far we travel in a day’s time. We average about 17 miles a day and spend over two hours of the day on a bike. So that has been amazing. Other than my bum getting sore, I am loving life with how much activity is offers :) Also yes I did receive Grandmas and Grandpas package that they sent in the mail. So tell them thanks for me!
Love you all!
Elder Dallas Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment