First off, General Conference was great! It's soo much better on the mission. You really come into the conference wanting to know what these Prophets and Apostles have to say to the entire world. We spend a lot of time as missionaries testifying of these men....I think I've really developed a profound love, respect, and appreciation for having the blessing of having ordained and inspired servants of God on the Earth. How lucky and privileged we are! We got to watch all of the 5 sessions from the comfort of the air conditioned chapel....what a good 10 hours it was.
Earlier in the week, we had a district meeting in Jaboatão (Ja-bow-a-tao). It was really weird.....there's about 10 elders in this district....after we had walked in, and the District Leader, Elder King, who I've known since the MTC starting talking and asking for my opinion and ideas in how they can make better contacts, teach more effectively, obtain referrals from members, etc. I had to take a step back and realize that I was just about the oldest missionary in the room! It's weird! I feel that there are a lot more eyes looking at me and my example now that there have been in the past. Putting leadership responsibilities aside, your mission takes on a new meaning when you realize that you don't have to fight to change the current norms, trends, and habits of the other missionaries....it's different when you realize that they are already watching you to know what they should do. It's a bit humbling. I still kind of feel like a "greenie", but I also realize how much I've learned and developed as an emissary of the Lord. The Lord expects that I now help other missionaries to learn what He was so generous to have taught me.
Roberto and his family. They will be baptized in a few weeks!
Well we had some fun this week tracting....we ran into a street with nothing but old people.....old Catholic people. They're great folks and all, but even if I showed them the Gold Plates they wouldn't want to leave the "mother church". After spending quite a bit of time working with them, another man who in the middle of our lesson asked to us to wait for him to go buy cigarettes and beer, and a lady who called me an Idol worshipper because I have a picture of Christ on my planner, we saw our Ward Mission Leader running out of nowhere to come and deliver an amazing referral to us! A couple named Christiane and Lawrence. They are from Rio de Janeiro, and have been living in Pernambuco for a about 7 months....they have been pretty unsatisfied with some of the other churches that they've been too, and are really looking for the true doctrine of Christ, not just a cool pastor or a pretty building. They drove past the chapel, wrote down the name of the church, googled it, found the church's official website (there's quite a few "other" not so good websites that come up when you google the church.....luckily they found the right one, found the number of the Clerk's office, and called about 10 times....when no one picked up, they were about to give up, but on their last try, our WML was walking by (we still don't know what he was doing in the church at 2PM on a Wednesday afternoon), answered the phone, wrote down their address, and gave it to us! We taught them the next day! It was an awesome lesson.
Cristiane asked us as at the end of the lesson "how is it that more people don't know about this?"....her question struck me....I wanted to respond by asking her what she thought I was doing with these 2 years of my life, but I got thinking again.....how many of my friends back at home, with whom I've had countless conversations about the church, don't even know about the restoration! How many of them have no idea that the fullness of the Gospel that Christ left here on the earth was eventually lost and then completely restored through the prophet Joseph Smith? How many of them know we have a living Prophet of God or 12 Apostles? That was something that cut me deep....maybe it will be a wake up call to some of you guys too.
This couple is going to be fun to work with....unfortunately, I think that they live in another ward's boundaries, but we will for sure stay in the loop!
Our Bishop's brother's family that we taught. It was a real cool lesson...looking at this picture, you'd think that Brazilians don't know how to smile very well.
The work goes on! Every new day has to be better than the last. That's what we're here for after all isn't it? To learn and to grow! General Conference is a great time to look at ourselves and determine what we want to change about ourselves so that the next time we hear the words of God's living Prophet, we are a whole lot better prepared to be instructed from on high and then apply those teachings so that we can one day become like our Heavenly Father. We are here for a purpose! The Father has a plan for us! Let's do our part!
Until next time,
-Elder McKinley
No comments:
Post a Comment