"Was it when two missionaries came to your door... ?"

Monday, April 29, 2013

 

Fastest week of my life.

 

I know I say that almost every week, but it's true, it just keeps going faster...

 

This week was really good :)  My Boy Z, who was still pretty confused last week, has got into the swing of things and is starting to love being a missionary already, which makes me happy :) 

 

It's also been a good week in the sub-world of Lonas' Personal Studies.  While I ALWAYS love my personal studies, I've also been frustrated for a couple weeks, because I feel like I kept finding more questions (normal) but without ever finding my answers (NOT normal) But I feel like I've been coming out of that silly phase which is very very relieving. 

 

Hey Guess what?

 

(What Lonas?)

 

Welllllllllllllllll, last night we were knocky knocking, and we knock on this door, and this lady opens up! Ta-Da!

 

(don't worry, not the end of the story)

 

And so I ask her what the best part of her day was.  She paused for a second as she thought about it, so I helped her out- "was it when 2 missionaries came to your door to teach you how to come closer to Jesus!?!" 

 

Hahaha :) 

And so she said, "Hahaha :)" And then she asked me "sooo what do I do now, invite you in, to teach me and my family?"

 

"...Yep!"

"...Okay!"

 

So we go in and do just that!  We had her look up Mormon.org, and she watched some pretty sweet profiles, and really liked it.  She, Crystal, has been making a lot of changes in her life, and is looking for a way to start over.  She really wants to be baptized, and is way gung ho about it.  She also invited her dad, and her sister to be baptized with her haha :)

 

The Catch: She's leaving for 30 days on May 1st, so we'll have to teach and baptize her after that, which is highly unfortunate.  However, she is coming on a Church Tour tonight at 8 oclock, I'm pretty excited :)

 

 

Missionary life is a charmed life I think.  Don't get me wrong, as anyone who is on or has been on a mission will tell you, its filled with stress, hard work, and frequent disappointment and rejection.  But you really can't expect anything less when you put yourself out there as much as we do.  That being said, we also experience miracles on a daily, if not hourly basis.  Just crazy stuff happens all the time, and every day is its own adventure.  Remind me one day to tell you about how I got my Miracle Shell

 

-ooh, which reminds me, I started collecting shells. Its hard because there aren't very many.  But I found a sweet one on the sidewalk the other day, and some lady gave me little thing of shells and some sand after she couldnt sell them at her garage sale.  I have them in a little glass container on my desk, and stuck a picture of the San Diego temple in it. It's way cute.

 

My Book of Mormon reading has taken me up to Alma 18. I read the first half of Alma 18 this morning, that is.  Ammon's pretty sweet.  I had a lot of very different thoughts when reading 17 than I had in the past, really been enjoying it.  But I was thinking about a couple things in ch. 18 this morning.  It's interesting that the servants and King Lamoni are so amazed at Ammon's power.  And also his faithfulness. 

So, we learn from Helaman 4 that those who boast in their own strength are left to their own strength. (which is nothing) and therefore all power that "we" have, is really the power we receive from Christ, it being Grace we receive from the Atonement.  Hence, Phil 4:13 and Alma 26:12, yes?  Well, Our ability to use this power is predicated upon our obedience, (or the word Mormon uses in This chapter is Faithfulness) 

 

So what's interesting is that the servants/Lamoni are astounded at why someone who has so much power would be so faithful, not realizing that it isn't an inverse correlation or whatever, but it's causal.  (If causal is a word. I don't remember. I don't get an extra hour of language study every day like Spanish elders.  But you get the point.)

 

So really the problem that they have is that they misunderstand the doctrine, and the reason why they misunderstand the doctrine is because they dont understand the nature Of God, which is why it makes perfect sense that thats the first thing Ammon teaches them.  I'm down to like 30 seconds before the computer boots me, so I can't write the rest of my thoughts or anything, but I'd recommend reading the story if it's been awhile, it's awesome :)

 

Love Lonas :)