My brothers and sisters,
It's been a very fun week and a very challenging week at the same time. We are still in the process of strengthening the ward and going out with Elders to visit their neighbors and give them opportunities to bare their testimonies, and it's overall been a satisfying process, since we are seeing the Elders enjoy the process too, and at the same time we have been patient. It's a day by day thing, but it will bring great fruits. As we teach our investigators and the references of the members, we are helping all people to come unto Christ.
Before I talk more about the work, I would just like to talk about everything else that has been going on. In the same week, we saw people falling down from the sky, kittens in a box as we were tying tamales, seven puppies running around in a house we visited at the house of a man who lives in a distant village who knows all the capitals in the world. We gave a priesthood blessing to a guy who got really burnt and torn in a motorcycle accident with the bishop, and his mother cried and thanked us. My companion Elder Marino and I are together for a transfer more, and we are the tightest companionship in the whole mission. He's not too pleased to be in the area, but we're both cool with being together so that is awesome. In the mean time I'm cracking jokes and saying dorky things and commentaries about the things we see on the street to help him cheer up, such as the donkies, or the people falling from the sky, or whatever. And we are taking good care of our zone, helping them keep the "animo" in their work.
So yes, we have been going out a lot with members. As we've been doing this, I am realizing the way that the Savior taught people, including his own apostles. What we call "training" in the mission life is exactly what the Savior did so that His apostles would learn, so that they would have all the success and the wonderful spiritual experiences after His resurrection. And as He did so, as He taught his "companions," he taught others and served them and blessed them. He taught others by living His life the way He knew he should, focusing on His mission, and invited others to follow Him and learn from Him (2 Ne 31:10; see also Matthew 11:28-30). Giving members the chance to accompany us and teach and testify with us has been our way to follow Christ's example in His leadership.
The missionary work in that way isn't just the way we teach, but is the way we live. And after all, when we read the Scriptures, whether we are reading about the Savior or His prophets and His missionaries, we are looking for Gospel principles in the lives they carry, and not just in their words.
Brothers and sisters, I would invite you all to read the Scriptures as though you were accompanying the Savior himself, or as though you are accompanying the prophets and the missionaries. Will you allow the time you use to read the Scriptures to be time you use to follow the Savior? Will you allow that time to affect the way you live your life, to live it as though someone else could study it and learn how to follow the Savior too? And if you are a member of the Church, I would ask, will you go out with the missionaries so that you can learn from them, and help them in the Savior's work?
I hope that as we pray, read the Scriptures, and go to work, that we can remember these things, and seek to follow the Savior in all things. Do not do these things without a determined personal objective, and without a prayer. I promise you all that if you do these things, you will learn more about the Savior, and you will come to know Him, you will be blessed by Him, and you will be truly happy. I know that this is His church, and that He lives. He is my Savior, and my King, and my Guide. I love Him more than I ever loved Him before. I still make mistakes, I'm still an almost-20-year-old (March 10th, woo!!!), I am still a goofball, but I cannot talk about the missionary work and the Savior's mission without reverence. He truly has changed me. He can change you too. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Have a wonderful week!
Your friend,
Elder Dredge
No comments:
Post a Comment