Austin: 7/14/2014

Hello from Peru!

 

So I haven`t read any of your letters because I`m short on time. I`m gunna try to read them after I write.

 

This week, really had three interesting parts. The first was Friday morning. We had interviews with President Erickson. Usually my interviews with him are...interesting. he`s an interesting guy. A lot of times, I leave feeling energized, but also a little confused. Like the last interview I had, he told me how he wanted me to work in my area. Where he wanted me to focus the work. It was good, but I left feeling...just like I did before. I love my president, but sometimes I feel like that. But this friday, I didn`t feel like that at all. I got in and he asked me how my investigators are doing. I told him that the family we had, La Familia Mesias, is really good, but they heard about tithing and got really scared. They are in debt and they don`t think they can pay tithing without dying. We taught them tithing, but they didn`t listen. So I told president that. So then, he told me how to teach them. When Elder Oaks and his wife came, Sister Oaks shared a story with Pres. Erickson from her mission. She taught a really poor family, and when she taught tithing, she taught it really simply, without putting a lot of enphasis on it, because she didn`t want to offend them or scare them off. Later she told her dad about that and he told her "you go back and teach them tithing how it should be taught. You cannot rob them of the blessings of tithing by not teaching them it right" Then president started to tell me that. Really how important tithing is and that we can`t be afraid to teach it, with power. He told me to teach about sacrifice. He told me to teach the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, the young rich man (I think it`s called that), the story of Abraham, and stuff like that. That really, we need to sacrifice EVERYTHING so that the Lord can bless us eternally. But he doesn`t ask us to sell everything, he just asks for ten percent and that ten percent is an essencial key for eternal life. He told me I needed to teach it like that, so I did. When I went to the lesson, later that day, I taught the wife of the family, the husband wasn`t home. When we started teaching, it was like before, she didn`t accept anything that we said. But then, I just gave myself up. Everything thought that I had, I rejected. Everything idea that I had, I rejected. But when i had a feeling, I taught it. Because the feelings come from the spirit. I don`t know what I taught. Because it just came from the spirit. It was so powerful and when I finished, she asked herself "how am I going to convince my husband now...?" It was so powerful. She felt the spirit and the importance of tithing, and so did I. My testimony grew sooooo much. I already knew that God blesses us when we obey and tithing is a commandment. I have felt the blessings of tithing for years of my life. But I have never felt it like that. I knew that I was on a mission because I have paid tithing for years. I was already prepared to leave when I was 18 because I had paid tithing for years. It was so powerful, and I was so strengthened. 

 

The other big moment this week was last night. I went to teach a less active with our bishop. I`ve been teaching this family since my first week and the husband has NEVER gone to church. He`s an ex bishop, but now he is completely inactive. The bishop told us that he would go with us to visit them. They knew that we were coming, but they weren`t home. But close by, lives a new member, that already doesn`t go to church, so we visited him. We got in, and I taught a bit about obedience, and the blessings we get (Mosiah 2:41). It was good up to there, and then the bishop started to teach, about the faith. About how if we aren`t being blessed, it`s because we don`t have the faith to act so we can be blessed. It was so simple what he taught, but so powerful. He said "if you say, I don`t have time, you`ve already lost. Everything has it`s time" If you want time for the Lord, you WILL find it. You just have to do it. It was a powerful little lesson. I never know how much of a little powerhouse my bishop is. (he`s really a LITTLE powerhouse, he`s probably 5 feet tall). And then after the lesson, as we were heading back, I asked him, how he wants us to work better with the members. And he gave me some really good ideas, that if we apply them, will help us a lot. In about an hour and a half with him, we strengthened our relationship a lot, and he taught me a lot. Right now, I just have a burning desire in my heart to work with the members, because I felt the importance of it again and also the power the members bring. Now, I just have to do it.

 

Those really are the most important moments of my week. I`m so grateful the Lord always blesses us with what we need and when we needed it. I have needed a boost for awhile, and this weekend, I got it. I`m know this is an eternal work and we all, members and missionaries, need to work in it so edify the kingdom of God.

 

Love

Elder Schouten