Hello there!
Hope all of you are doing well as summer comes closer to an end. We're looking outside and seeing the perfect wall of green leaves start its shift to fall. We'll send good pics when the transition period is over.
This week has been pretty good, starting with Zone Conference. The theme for this transfer has been to study repentance like how last transfer was faith, so the main message for zone conference was about Repentance, its power, and its importance. President Wright talked about how through repentance, we come to know who we truly are, or in other words we see small glimpses of our divine potential. It is a joyful process that we often take for granted. When we see something we can improve on, we change through Jesus Christ and through repentance. It's a no brainer for us. For some others, it isn't so obvious that is the way to joy in this life.
The Assistants also gave a cool devotional about having a vision for our area, then setting goals to work towards that, then making plans to execute our goals. The Vision-Goal-Plan format is a super neat way to look at whatever it is we are working towards, and I will definitely try to apply it for my life, even after the mission and with non-church-related things.
The work has been moving pretty good in Ohio since last I messaged. We were able to reach out to a few returning members that haven't been contacted for a while now and were able to get to know them. One couple we will be visiting next week and helping them out with some weeding. We also were able to reach out to a couple referrals who responded to church ads. If your ward/area has ads on social media, I highly recommend sharing them. They reach out to a lot more people than you'd think, and they give people searching for truth a chance to find us.
One time on my mission, I met a returning member who's faith in the church was waning. As I listened to his story, the spirit pointed out to me the point at which he started to fall away. In a moment of trial, he decided to step back to things that were comfortable and familiar to try and catch his breath. That was when doubt started to creep in.
In Helaman 5:12, Helaman exhorts his sons to "remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
When the winds and trials of life come suddenly and knock us off balance, that is not the time to take two steps back and regain our footing. That is the time to grab hold to the iron rod for dear life and pull ourselves two steps forward. It takes effort to pull and press against the storm, but our foundation is sure, so we cannot fail.
I hope you all have a great rest of your week! Until then, let your light shine for those around you!
Sincerely,
Elder Brown
Comments