Our Zone Leader, Elder Bastian, went home. He finished his two years of service. Many missionaries I serve with right now will be going home in the following transfers, it's kinda wack. Before I know it, I'll be a veteran. Last Monday morning we spent saying our goodbyes and having food.
Monday night we began preparations to make jalapeno mac n cheese, which includes decorating the apartment with electric fans to gust out the spicy fumes of fried pepper. The preparation takes a large portion of our precious dinner time, until we found out the peppers we bought had spoiled and we would need to put all the fans away. I was happy how prepared we were, even when disaster didn't strike. Hotdogs and plain mac n cheese sufficed.
Our friend Nichols took us to an old lady's house, they're friends, she's not a member but she likes to give missionaries tons of food, we went to her son's house afterwards and gave him a priesthood blessing, he's recovering from surgery. We're hoping the missionaries in their area will make successful contact.
We had another opportunity to bless a sick child in our ward, he's the son of the girlfriend of one of our primary investigators. It was my first time sealing the anointing, and I didn't find out until later, but the child's appetite returned almost immediately and hadn't thrown up since that day. I was pretty excited.
We had been visiting for odds and ends this week, and made a couple trips to our family history center in an attempt to help a recent convert family get temple names. We didn't have any ready by our temple date, but we still took the family to the temple and it was great to be back. I definitely took for granted the blessing of temples back in Utah, and the saddest part is I didn't fully realize the importance of, and knowledge I received from, the temple until I began my serious study out here.
We spent a day with our new zone leader, the other one was in Fresno for the day, so we did work in the YSA area and also did 2 shifts at our "mall presentation", I think I've mentioned it before. We put on our salesman faces and handout pictures of Jesus and Scripture in an attempt to interest the mall-goers. It's pretty degrading, but it's nice to have variety in the degrading tasks of being a missionary.
I spend a lot of time in the Book of Mormon, and am now more comprehensive in the timeline and lineage, however that doesn't help too much in teaching about feeling the Spirit. The Spirit is the most effective way to come closer to Christ, by seeking the Spirit every day we learn more about Him and the blessings from Heavenly Father's plan. Being entitled to the Spirit at all times, I become very aware when the Spirit is absent. Luckily, that feeling isn't too familiar. I am grateful for the examples I had in my ward back home. We have a strong bond and although I was just a youth, I felt like a member, a part of something bigger than myself. I didn't always take responsibility as a member of our "family", and I regret that. The best way we, as active members, can invite others closer to Christ is to simply invite all our friends to our homes. Church is becoming family and home oriented for that reason. We must be firm in our faith and make sure others are very aware that our home is one centered on Christ AND family unity. I miss my family everyday, but just how my home before had pictures of Christ & my family, so does my desk.
Thank you for your individual emails, if any of you ever have questions or simply want to talk personally, I'm only an hour behind!
I love and pray for you all.
Elder Gneiting
Our friend Nichols took us to an old lady's house, they're friends, she's not a member but she likes to give missionaries tons of food, we went to her son's house afterwards and gave him a priesthood blessing, he's recovering from surgery. We're hoping the missionaries in their area will make successful contact.
We had another opportunity to bless a sick child in our ward, he's the son of the girlfriend of one of our primary investigators. It was my first time sealing the anointing, and I didn't find out until later, but the child's appetite returned almost immediately and hadn't thrown up since that day. I was pretty excited.
We had been visiting for odds and ends this week, and made a couple trips to our family history center in an attempt to help a recent convert family get temple names. We didn't have any ready by our temple date, but we still took the family to the temple and it was great to be back. I definitely took for granted the blessing of temples back in Utah, and the saddest part is I didn't fully realize the importance of, and knowledge I received from, the temple until I began my serious study out here.
We spent a day with our new zone leader, the other one was in Fresno for the day, so we did work in the YSA area and also did 2 shifts at our "mall presentation", I think I've mentioned it before. We put on our salesman faces and handout pictures of Jesus and Scripture in an attempt to interest the mall-goers. It's pretty degrading, but it's nice to have variety in the degrading tasks of being a missionary.
I spend a lot of time in the Book of Mormon, and am now more comprehensive in the timeline and lineage, however that doesn't help too much in teaching about feeling the Spirit. The Spirit is the most effective way to come closer to Christ, by seeking the Spirit every day we learn more about Him and the blessings from Heavenly Father's plan. Being entitled to the Spirit at all times, I become very aware when the Spirit is absent. Luckily, that feeling isn't too familiar. I am grateful for the examples I had in my ward back home. We have a strong bond and although I was just a youth, I felt like a member, a part of something bigger than myself. I didn't always take responsibility as a member of our "family", and I regret that. The best way we, as active members, can invite others closer to Christ is to simply invite all our friends to our homes. Church is becoming family and home oriented for that reason. We must be firm in our faith and make sure others are very aware that our home is one centered on Christ AND family unity. I miss my family everyday, but just how my home before had pictures of Christ & my family, so does my desk.
Thank you for your individual emails, if any of you ever have questions or simply want to talk personally, I'm only an hour behind!
I love and pray for you all.
Elder Gneiting
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